At 16 weeks my belly is starting to get a bit large and once comfortable pants are decidedly uncomfortable.  I finally broke down and purchased a couple pairs of maternity jeans and must admit they look great … at least they would look great if they were made for the under 5′ 9″ crowd.  Apparently, petite women don’t have babies at least as far as the fashion world is concerned.  Anyway, I took the jeans to be hemmed but then there was this ice storm and other things happened and over a week later I have yet to actually wear my purchase. 

If you are like most women you will understand that my wardrobe does not contain a single size of anything.  It contains instead a wide variety of sizes intended to accommodate diets, un-diets and the phases of the moon.  Because of this, I didn’t get desperate all at once.  Instead my choices narrowed over time until finally only a lone pair of slightly stretchy pants remained.  It was the thought of choosing between hubby’s gray sweats or wearing brown corduroy for the 4th day in a row that led to this epiphany.

One pair of Hane’s boxer briefs plus one pair of past their prime jeans and voila!  Twenty minutes later - maternity pants on the cheap.  They won’t win any contests but they’re comfortable and should last until I’m back to my normal size(s) again.

I’m sure your wondering why someone who can obviously sew when necessary took her jeans to be hemmed in the first place.  …. Yeah, me too.

A few days ago Brother gave me gave me this:

It’s a post-it note with those precious words that make every mother’s heart melt…which was obviously the effect he was going for because a few minutes later he appeared with this:

It’s a post-it note invitation which (loosely translated)reads  “You are invited to Brother’s birthday party tomorrow.”  He handed one out to every warm body present and made a few extra for absent family members.  It was easy to see how serious he was. Fortunately, Brother’s concept of “tomorrow” precisely correlates with Annie’s - It’s always a day away.

Skip ahead to this morning - Sister’s away at a sleep-over and won’t return until around 11.  When she does The Cousins will come too.  Perfect setup for an impromptu party if ever there was.  A quick trip to the store and we had everything we needed for our “Happy Snow Day Party.” (Happy Snow Day because unlike Happy Birthdays there are no presents.)

My two little helpers washed grapes and celery, made Kool-aid, blew up balloons and vigilantly monitored the state of the cake.

After the festivities, Papa appeared with a grand scheme for more fun.

I’m not certain who enjoyed the day more… the kids or the grandpa.

What crazy fun do YOU have when it’s cold out?

So, we made it through Christmas … that sounds terrible doesn’t it?  As if Christmas were something to be endured like poor service or squeaky shoes.  Actually, our Christmas turned out quite well, despite our jobless state.  I suppose it helped that we purchased all our gifts early this last year so when the axe did come down we were already past the point of no return on spending.  It also helped that Daddy was home 24/7 for many days and that he had nothing better to do than play dinosaurs and such.

After Christmas or during or sometime thereabouts we moved out of our house.  We haven’t actually moved everything yet… just some things … the clutter-y things.  We cleaned the house from top to bottom, took out excess furniture and most of our personal things.  It looked very House Beautiful the day we left.  And we had to leave because there was simply no way to maintain that level of loveliness for more than 5 minutes with four people as random as we.  Hopefully, our efforts will not be in vain and prospective home owners will be so charmed they will immediately offer our asking price … an offer we will graciously accept.   Hopefully.

So we’re not in our house but we’re not in a new house either.  We’re in that wonderful in between spot called Limbo.  In our lives Limbo looks remarkably like Grandma’s house.  More specifically it looks like a tan metal building behind Grandma’s house.  It’s a blessing really that such a place even exists.  It’s warm, carpeted, contains its own private bath and office and is easily as big as the apartment we rented when we moved away the first time.  Oh, and it’s free.  That last perk is really hard to top.

On the house search front - you will remember from a previous post that we’ve looked at approximately 14 billion homes.  (I kind of have this love/hate relationship going with realtor.com)  Aaaanyway, we found a house!  Then we lost a house.  Then we found another house!  Then we made an offer and waited for a counter offer … and waited and waited and that’s where we are now.

Only one more thing of note… to be honest probably the only thing of note in this entire post.  We’ve visited the midwife and heard a heartbeat and if I lie very, very still I can just barely feel the faintest of flutters.

So what’s been happening with you?