Those of you who saw our TLC show, kids by the dozen, may remember that we had our ultrasound technician, Susan, put the results of the baby's sex in an envelope, which we then opened at our Anniversary party. This time, Christi did the same thing, only without a specific time set to open it and reveal what we're having. We just wanted to have the option.
Lately though, the temptation has been clawing at Christi something fierce. Her moods and cravings have been mixed, which has driven her crazy. Usually she has a pretty good idea based on those symptoms, but this time, she simply has no idea. The fun part for me is, I have hidden the envelope and she keeps asking if we should just go ahead and open it. I offer to give it to her, but she's not quite ready to reveal the secret. She asks me about twice a day now, and everytime she changes her mind. I'm kind of enjoying holding the cards on this one, but sooner or later, the temptation will be too great and she'll beg me for it.
Till then, I'm gonna enjoy watching her squirm a bit.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
The ordeal is over....mostly.
So it's been a little more than two months since we've posted. But we've got a really good excuse this time. Really. I'm sure some of you have seen that I posted a bit on Christi's facebook about the ordeal with the place we live in right now. For those of you that have not, here's the rundown:
We had been having a leak that was apparently from our bathtub and was soaking into our closet and peeling the linoleum up in the bathroom. The landlord made a claim against their homeowners insurance and the fun began. It started with the handyman coming by to check it out and pronounce that it would need a real plumber to fix (I could have made that assessment). Then the plumbers come by and determine that it's going to require removing the tub and breaking out the foundation around the drain to fix. Okay...so far so good. Then the insurance adjuster shows up and takes photos and a recorded statement from me and then pronounces to the landlord that "This won't be covered because there are too many people using the tub and that constitutes excessive use" (paraphrasing). The next day, the landlord calls and says that the insurance will indeed cover it and they want us out of the house ASAP so they can get started. This is a Wednesday and the very next day is Chad and Dalton's graduation ceremony. We're contacted by a company to arrange for our hotel stay. We had indicated that we might like to stay in Temecula to be close to Christi's dad, the easier to take the kids there for fun, but at the adjuster's advice we requested a room close to the house. Unfortunately, the only available place with 3 rooms and a suite type room is in Temecula, due to a big soccer tournament and the balloon and wine festival, so we end up there anyway (this would factor into our difficulties later). We're due to check in on Thursday, but we spend the whole day packing and getting things ready to go to the graduation. This is now more difficult due to the fact that Wednesday afternoon, a contractor has dropped off 3 large industrial drying fans and 2 dehumidifiers to begin the drying process for this whole repair situation. We were tripping over those all day Thursday as well as having to keep the kids from messing with this stuff. As it turns out, the drywall about 18 inches up all the way around the bathroom and our closet had to be removed and replaced.
Back to Thursday, we were running around like the proverbial chicken with the head cut off, about 90 minutes before we needed to be at the ceremony, and a tech shows up to test the walls for asbestos. We thought this would be an in and out deal, but it took him about 35 minutes. Meanwhile Christi is needing to shower and do all that girly stuff to get ready, so we were really pushed to the limit to get out to the graduation. We did make it, obviously, but our stress buttons had already been pushed. The graduation went well, by the way, which did ease things up for the moment. By the time we got home from the ceremony it was waaay too late to even think of packing everyone up and hustling over to the hotel for the night, so we had the boys check in for us and we left on Friday.
By the way, we did indeed have asbestos in the drywall backing, which necessitated a special crew to do the removal and drying process.
So for the next 3 weeks, we're living in 2 different hotels, having to eat more fast food than we'd like because we couldn't cook, having to herd the kids around all the while trying to be quiet and not disturb other guests. Also going back and forth to do laundry and let workers in and move furniture, because a second leak has sprung wetting the carpet in the living room, which prompted the landlord to decide to replace almost all the carpet with tile. They suggested that if we wanted the kitchen done too, we could move the furniture and appliances so they could do that. We had to send the boys over to do this for us, since I had to work, so the stuff didn't get moved as...efficiently....as it could have which became a whole other issue. All this compounded with difficulties that we were having with the adjuster which I won't go into in any detail as there may be a claim or some other further action pending at this point. It should suffice to say that Christi's stress levels were at the maximum. I was feeling it too, but let's face it, I don't have the kids on my hands 24/7 like she does...I at least had some escape at work. Oh yeah...I'm not 30 plus weeks pregnant and all....But my Babydoll...she is amazing in her capacity to cope.
I mentioned before that we stayed in a second hotel...that was a whole fresh level of hell to deal with. The booking company relocated us at our request once something close to home was available, since the hotel in Temecula was adding so much extra driving expense for us. In retrospect, we should have stayed put. In the first one, the manager and staff had some understanding of the situation, in the second hotel, we were on the premises for 10 minutes when the manager there approached me and began listing rules that the kids would have to follow and treating me as though I couldn't handle my own kids. I swallowed my resentment of this and we finished moving in, but it was quickly apparent that despite the fact that it was a brand new hotel, that it was built with very little quality. There was virtually no soundproofing in the place. I could hear the guy across the hall having phone conversations through 2 closed doors. Imagine how difficult keeping quiet was going to be with all the kids moving around. We work hard at it, but let's face it, whether you have 15 kids or 1 kid, they get rambunctious in unfamiliar places and here we were in a hotel where you could hear a mouse fart from down the hall.
After the whole hotel mess, we were then left with getting back into our house, the tile was installed by the landlord's handymen and they left a big mess of grout residue and tile cutting dust all over, razorblades lying around the house, we had to get all the furniture back into place, all the clothes back into the closet, we lost 3 pieces of furniture due to water damage which because of our deductible, won't get replaced. I wound up taking a total of 5 vacation days just to get our house in order, and although it was a huge pain in the...neck, we used the uprooting of the house as an excuse to do some spring cleaning/cleanout. We have gotten some good stuff done, but various things that were done or not done by the parties involved made the whole thing a horrible experience. We're still working through some of the after-effects of this whole thing, and now we're having to get back in the swing of everyday life. I'm sure that Christi will discuss more of this in various forums as she gets back online, but her computer access is limited since the home unit is kinda messed up. She has been using Chad's laptop from time to time, but eventually we'll have to get back to using the slow-as-molasses desktop we have.
Stay tuned for more updates and pretty soon, part 4 of "our story".
We had been having a leak that was apparently from our bathtub and was soaking into our closet and peeling the linoleum up in the bathroom. The landlord made a claim against their homeowners insurance and the fun began. It started with the handyman coming by to check it out and pronounce that it would need a real plumber to fix (I could have made that assessment). Then the plumbers come by and determine that it's going to require removing the tub and breaking out the foundation around the drain to fix. Okay...so far so good. Then the insurance adjuster shows up and takes photos and a recorded statement from me and then pronounces to the landlord that "This won't be covered because there are too many people using the tub and that constitutes excessive use" (paraphrasing). The next day, the landlord calls and says that the insurance will indeed cover it and they want us out of the house ASAP so they can get started. This is a Wednesday and the very next day is Chad and Dalton's graduation ceremony. We're contacted by a company to arrange for our hotel stay. We had indicated that we might like to stay in Temecula to be close to Christi's dad, the easier to take the kids there for fun, but at the adjuster's advice we requested a room close to the house. Unfortunately, the only available place with 3 rooms and a suite type room is in Temecula, due to a big soccer tournament and the balloon and wine festival, so we end up there anyway (this would factor into our difficulties later). We're due to check in on Thursday, but we spend the whole day packing and getting things ready to go to the graduation. This is now more difficult due to the fact that Wednesday afternoon, a contractor has dropped off 3 large industrial drying fans and 2 dehumidifiers to begin the drying process for this whole repair situation. We were tripping over those all day Thursday as well as having to keep the kids from messing with this stuff. As it turns out, the drywall about 18 inches up all the way around the bathroom and our closet had to be removed and replaced.
Back to Thursday, we were running around like the proverbial chicken with the head cut off, about 90 minutes before we needed to be at the ceremony, and a tech shows up to test the walls for asbestos. We thought this would be an in and out deal, but it took him about 35 minutes. Meanwhile Christi is needing to shower and do all that girly stuff to get ready, so we were really pushed to the limit to get out to the graduation. We did make it, obviously, but our stress buttons had already been pushed. The graduation went well, by the way, which did ease things up for the moment. By the time we got home from the ceremony it was waaay too late to even think of packing everyone up and hustling over to the hotel for the night, so we had the boys check in for us and we left on Friday.
By the way, we did indeed have asbestos in the drywall backing, which necessitated a special crew to do the removal and drying process.
So for the next 3 weeks, we're living in 2 different hotels, having to eat more fast food than we'd like because we couldn't cook, having to herd the kids around all the while trying to be quiet and not disturb other guests. Also going back and forth to do laundry and let workers in and move furniture, because a second leak has sprung wetting the carpet in the living room, which prompted the landlord to decide to replace almost all the carpet with tile. They suggested that if we wanted the kitchen done too, we could move the furniture and appliances so they could do that. We had to send the boys over to do this for us, since I had to work, so the stuff didn't get moved as...efficiently....as it could have which became a whole other issue. All this compounded with difficulties that we were having with the adjuster which I won't go into in any detail as there may be a claim or some other further action pending at this point. It should suffice to say that Christi's stress levels were at the maximum. I was feeling it too, but let's face it, I don't have the kids on my hands 24/7 like she does...I at least had some escape at work. Oh yeah...I'm not 30 plus weeks pregnant and all....But my Babydoll...she is amazing in her capacity to cope.
I mentioned before that we stayed in a second hotel...that was a whole fresh level of hell to deal with. The booking company relocated us at our request once something close to home was available, since the hotel in Temecula was adding so much extra driving expense for us. In retrospect, we should have stayed put. In the first one, the manager and staff had some understanding of the situation, in the second hotel, we were on the premises for 10 minutes when the manager there approached me and began listing rules that the kids would have to follow and treating me as though I couldn't handle my own kids. I swallowed my resentment of this and we finished moving in, but it was quickly apparent that despite the fact that it was a brand new hotel, that it was built with very little quality. There was virtually no soundproofing in the place. I could hear the guy across the hall having phone conversations through 2 closed doors. Imagine how difficult keeping quiet was going to be with all the kids moving around. We work hard at it, but let's face it, whether you have 15 kids or 1 kid, they get rambunctious in unfamiliar places and here we were in a hotel where you could hear a mouse fart from down the hall.
After the whole hotel mess, we were then left with getting back into our house, the tile was installed by the landlord's handymen and they left a big mess of grout residue and tile cutting dust all over, razorblades lying around the house, we had to get all the furniture back into place, all the clothes back into the closet, we lost 3 pieces of furniture due to water damage which because of our deductible, won't get replaced. I wound up taking a total of 5 vacation days just to get our house in order, and although it was a huge pain in the...neck, we used the uprooting of the house as an excuse to do some spring cleaning/cleanout. We have gotten some good stuff done, but various things that were done or not done by the parties involved made the whole thing a horrible experience. We're still working through some of the after-effects of this whole thing, and now we're having to get back in the swing of everyday life. I'm sure that Christi will discuss more of this in various forums as she gets back online, but her computer access is limited since the home unit is kinda messed up. She has been using Chad's laptop from time to time, but eventually we'll have to get back to using the slow-as-molasses desktop we have.
Stay tuned for more updates and pretty soon, part 4 of "our story".
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Ultrasound update.
The ultrasound went well, the baby was in a really lousy position so it was difficult to get a good picture. The U/S dated the baby at 23w 5 days and approximately 1lb 5oz. The actual age is 22w 1day. We had the tech put a photo of the sex in an envelope, like we did for the TV show, and as yet we haven't peeked. We have been sorely tempted though. I wasn't able to be there, but it was a huge relief for Christi to be able to see a healthy baby. She had been worried, what with her age and the simple odds of having 16 healthy babies, she had been imagining all sorts of problems. But all is well, the heartbeat was a healthy 146 and all is looking good. Check out the below pics:
And, as always, our ultrasound tech, Susan, told Christi, "see you next year!"
She probably will...
And, as always, our ultrasound tech, Susan, told Christi, "see you next year!" She probably will...
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
The Story of us. Part 3
True to my word, I called her on Sunday and we set up a meeting/date at the home of her friend Dana’s mother. As I recall, we had some dinner and then spent the rest of the evening talking about life, love, marriage and everything in-between. I’m pretty sure I fell in love with her right there in Shirley’s living room (and I wrote about it in a journal that I was trying to keep at the time. I even used the M-word in that journal entry). That same night, I met Chad. He was her 5-month old son and I fell in love with him too.
Over the next five weeks, Christi and I saw each other several times in a variety of settings, at friend’s houses, parties, and I even helped her move into her first apartment. It was during one of the days that I was helping her move that I first met her dad. That was a pretty chilly reception to say the least. Her dad is a former Army soldier with the 101st airborne who held a somewhat dim view of Marines. This of course, was not helped by the fact that Chad’s biological father was a Marine who had totally abandoned her and had never made any effort to contact her since finding out she was pregnant. Her dad helped me load her stuff into the truck, but other than the introductions, we hardly spoke a word.
Christi and I hadn’t spent as much time together over these weeks as we would have liked, so in late July we decided to spend a whole weekend together. Christi and I had discussed taking some sort of a trip away from the area, and had decided we would go into Northern California to see the famous redwood trees and enjoy one of the national parks. We left her apartment on August 2nd and almost immediately, stopped for drinks at a local restaurant. Having had one for the road (yes we know it was not wise, but we were young and stupid) we then headed north on the 15 freeway in the direction of highway 395 and the Kings Canyon/Sequoia national park. Somewhere along the way, we passed a sign that noted the mileage to Las Vegas which is along the same freeway. Christi looks over at me, and I think, only half-jokingly says “We could just go to Vegas and get married. This was followed by a strange but not uncomfortable silence as some gear inside me seemed to fall into place. I’m not sure that I really knew what I was doing as I exited the freeway and we found ourselves in the drive thru at a Del Taco restaurant, I just felt as though I was being directed by something bigger than myself. There, in the drive thru, I knelt outside the open passenger door and said
“Christi Sanders, will you marry me?”
You could have heard a pin drop, or at least in my head all the other sounds had fallen away, as I waited for an answer. It was really only a few seconds, but it seemed like forever when she answered “yes, Dave Cason, I will marry you.” I kissed her, and without any further fanfare, we got back on the freeway and headed for Las Vegas. Did we have a plan? Hell no! But we were surely headed on a strange and wondrous journey.
We had no idea…
Over the next five weeks, Christi and I saw each other several times in a variety of settings, at friend’s houses, parties, and I even helped her move into her first apartment. It was during one of the days that I was helping her move that I first met her dad. That was a pretty chilly reception to say the least. Her dad is a former Army soldier with the 101st airborne who held a somewhat dim view of Marines. This of course, was not helped by the fact that Chad’s biological father was a Marine who had totally abandoned her and had never made any effort to contact her since finding out she was pregnant. Her dad helped me load her stuff into the truck, but other than the introductions, we hardly spoke a word.
Christi and I hadn’t spent as much time together over these weeks as we would have liked, so in late July we decided to spend a whole weekend together. Christi and I had discussed taking some sort of a trip away from the area, and had decided we would go into Northern California to see the famous redwood trees and enjoy one of the national parks. We left her apartment on August 2nd and almost immediately, stopped for drinks at a local restaurant. Having had one for the road (yes we know it was not wise, but we were young and stupid) we then headed north on the 15 freeway in the direction of highway 395 and the Kings Canyon/Sequoia national park. Somewhere along the way, we passed a sign that noted the mileage to Las Vegas which is along the same freeway. Christi looks over at me, and I think, only half-jokingly says “We could just go to Vegas and get married. This was followed by a strange but not uncomfortable silence as some gear inside me seemed to fall into place. I’m not sure that I really knew what I was doing as I exited the freeway and we found ourselves in the drive thru at a Del Taco restaurant, I just felt as though I was being directed by something bigger than myself. There, in the drive thru, I knelt outside the open passenger door and said
“Christi Sanders, will you marry me?”
You could have heard a pin drop, or at least in my head all the other sounds had fallen away, as I waited for an answer. It was really only a few seconds, but it seemed like forever when she answered “yes, Dave Cason, I will marry you.” I kissed her, and without any further fanfare, we got back on the freeway and headed for Las Vegas. Did we have a plan? Hell no! But we were surely headed on a strange and wondrous journey.
We had no idea…
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Our answer to the Eco-nuts!!
I came across this article linked at a news site that I peruse sometimes. Once I read the article, I almost jumped out of my chair because Christi and I have been saying many of the same things in response to stupid statements about how we're destroying the earth with our procreation. Although we're not Catholic, this writer sums it up just about as well as I've ever heard it. Just as she says:
"Moms of many already know that the work of caring for seven children is not the same as caring for one child times seven. In some ways, it’s easier. In the same way, many large families actually have a small-er carbon footprint than a typical family with one or two kids. A household of nine is not like a household of three times three. It just doesn’t work that way."
Christi and I have said much the same thing regarding our bunch. It's not as though our 5 under 5 is the same as having quints. That would truly make for a different dynamic, but it is a rare circumstance. As I'm sure all large families do, we have something of a system. We might be hard pressed to write a book about it, but it's a system none the less and a pretty efficient one.
Who knew it was a "Green" system too?
"Moms of many already know that the work of caring for seven children is not the same as caring for one child times seven. In some ways, it’s easier. In the same way, many large families actually have a small-er carbon footprint than a typical family with one or two kids. A household of nine is not like a household of three times three. It just doesn’t work that way."
Christi and I have said much the same thing regarding our bunch. It's not as though our 5 under 5 is the same as having quints. That would truly make for a different dynamic, but it is a rare circumstance. As I'm sure all large families do, we have something of a system. We might be hard pressed to write a book about it, but it's a system none the less and a pretty efficient one.
Who knew it was a "Green" system too?
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The Story of us, part 2
Fast forward to a similar evening in late June, I was returning from a game of racquetball with my roommate when I passed a young woman with a beautiful head of brown hair standing with her back to me in the doorway of a fellow Marine’s room. Being the complete goof that I am, I blurted out, “There’s someone I don’t know, HIGH FIVE!”. The woman turned around and gave me the high five, and I saw that she was as beautiful from the front as she was the back. She smiled at me and then, out of the blue, she mentioned that she and her friends were going to the enlisted club and maybe it would be cool if I came along, saying “the more, the merrier!” I went back to my room after mumbling that maybe I would be there later, trying to play it cool, but not really believing that this attractive woman actually wanted me there. I mean, seriously I thought she was making the offer just to be nice. Once in the room, my roommate looked at me and was amazed that I didn’t see the opportunity before me. He nearly threw me into the shower and told me to get my butt out to that E-club and see where things would lead. So I went, now beginning to feel as though maybe some mysterious force was guiding me to the club.
I really had no clue what I was doing, but I went anyway. I hadn’t yet recognized her as Mark’s ex-girlfriend Christi. The whole scene happened so fast, my brain hadn’t caught up. Once I was at the club, I tried to get close to her, but the guy she was “supposed to be with” had her pretty well corralled and was trying to get her to dance. As I have since learned, this is no easy task. I danced with her friend Dana once or twice (under duress, because I don’t really dance either) and then thankfully a group of us tired of the dance club atmosphere and decided to move the party elsewhere. Somehow we all wound up at a small bar in downtown Oceanside, CA which was called the Sandbar (I think). Things there were much quieter as it was smaller pub type place that was luckily, not very busy at that particular time. It was here in this slower atmosphere that I had time to think about it and realized just who she was. I didn’t wish to be embarrassed, so I never mentioned that I hadn’t immediately recognized her. I didn’t know that she still didn’t recognize me.
We all had a few beers and then some of the guys and I began singing these rather bawdy rugby songs that we all knew. Christi had begun to warm up to me by that point and I was able to make her laugh a little bit. Her laugh was warm and just a bit throaty and when she found something extra funny, it would end with just a tiny snort, for which she would immediately apologize (she had no need, everyone thought it was cute and I still find it adorable). She was refreshingly unaware of how cute she was in her black and white polka dot pants as she bustled around talking to people in our group. She had finally gotten more comfortable and watching her move around spreading her infectiously fun personality, I was completely smitten. Luckily for me, her date had begun to give up as she had stayed pretty cool with him. He was just not her type.
I was really hoping to find out that I was “her type”.
By the end of the night, when I walked her to Dana’s car, I was feeling brave enough to try for her number (and I’ve never been brave in that way) which she gave me on the promise that I not call until Sunday so that her dad wouldn’t know where she’d been on Friday.
I still have the card that she gave me with her number on it.
To be continued
I really had no clue what I was doing, but I went anyway. I hadn’t yet recognized her as Mark’s ex-girlfriend Christi. The whole scene happened so fast, my brain hadn’t caught up. Once I was at the club, I tried to get close to her, but the guy she was “supposed to be with” had her pretty well corralled and was trying to get her to dance. As I have since learned, this is no easy task. I danced with her friend Dana once or twice (under duress, because I don’t really dance either) and then thankfully a group of us tired of the dance club atmosphere and decided to move the party elsewhere. Somehow we all wound up at a small bar in downtown Oceanside, CA which was called the Sandbar (I think). Things there were much quieter as it was smaller pub type place that was luckily, not very busy at that particular time. It was here in this slower atmosphere that I had time to think about it and realized just who she was. I didn’t wish to be embarrassed, so I never mentioned that I hadn’t immediately recognized her. I didn’t know that she still didn’t recognize me.
We all had a few beers and then some of the guys and I began singing these rather bawdy rugby songs that we all knew. Christi had begun to warm up to me by that point and I was able to make her laugh a little bit. Her laugh was warm and just a bit throaty and when she found something extra funny, it would end with just a tiny snort, for which she would immediately apologize (she had no need, everyone thought it was cute and I still find it adorable). She was refreshingly unaware of how cute she was in her black and white polka dot pants as she bustled around talking to people in our group. She had finally gotten more comfortable and watching her move around spreading her infectiously fun personality, I was completely smitten. Luckily for me, her date had begun to give up as she had stayed pretty cool with him. He was just not her type.
I was really hoping to find out that I was “her type”.
By the end of the night, when I walked her to Dana’s car, I was feeling brave enough to try for her number (and I’ve never been brave in that way) which she gave me on the promise that I not call until Sunday so that her dad wouldn’t know where she’d been on Friday.
I still have the card that she gave me with her number on it.
To be continued
Saturday, April 10, 2010
The story of us
-->
I'm bringing back something I started several years back, but never really finished. For those of you that have ever asked, "How did you guys meet, anyway?" Welcome to:
THE STORY OF US
It was May 1991, I don’t remember exactly what day, but it was still a just a little bit cool in the evenings here in Southern California . I was stationed at Camp Pendleton San Diego
One evening, after late chow, one of my co-workers came by my room and mentioned that he was going out to meet his girlfriend near the local mall and he needed a wingman, since she was bringing along her sister. I wasn’t sure at first, but my roommate urged me to go, saying that it would be just what I needed to get out for the evening.
When we arrived at Carlos Murphy’s, the only one at the table was Mark’s girlfriend Christi, her sister having stepped out to “powder her nose” as they used to call it. I was immediately struck by her beautiful brown eyes and the smile that was in them. Introductions were made and we sat on the stools that surrounded the corner table. Within moments, we were joined by Christi’s sister, Tammy. Tammy was pleasant enough and the conversation bounced easily around the table. Much to the detriment of the overall plan, Tammy was not at all attracted to me and although we got along well, nothing seemed to be developing. I was however, chatting quite handily with Christi, who was funny and bright and clearly, way out of Mark’s league in terms of personality, (and mine too, if the truth be told). Mark was a nice guy, but not the sort you would expect to be with a fun person like Christi. We attempted to go to a nearby movie theater (where I moonlighted as an usher) but were too late to get into the latest show. Tammy took this opportunity to excuse herself, saying she had a class in the morning and homework to finish (college) and she got in her car and drove away, leaving Christi, (and me) to catch a ride with Mark. As the ride back to the barracks went on, it was more and more obvious that Christi and I were getting along a bit too swimmingly for Mark’s taste as he was increasingly hurried about getting me back and dropping me off. When we did reach the barracks parking lot, Christi said goodbye with a warm smile and waved as they left. I sauntered up the barracks stairs feeling oddly happy despite the fact that my tour as wingman had crashed and burned and I hadn’t even secured Tammy’s phone number. I didn’t care. I felt strangely satisfied even though I had gotten nowhere with my intended date.
To be continued...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
