Week 3

Week 3 = much better! (but eventful, so this is a kind of long post)

The sermon Sunday was about anxiety and worry...and not doing them. He had some really good quotes, two of them I found particularly applicable were "worry is just down payment on a problem you may never have" and "Worry does not rid tomorrow of it's sorrow, it robs today of it's strength" (that one might be paraphrased a bit)....and of course there were the Bible verses about not being anxious about anything...and God clothing the lilies and the sparrows, how much more does he love you? ...Yeah, a pretty convicting sermon after last week. The one really helpful bit was about how worship is sort of the antidote to worry - when worship goes up, worry comes down. So I tried it...dusting off old praise and worship songs I barely remembered from high school. It seemed to be helping.

Then Jason called!

It was the first positive-sounding call I've gotten from him! ...and it turned out all my worrying really was for nothing because he actually had a pretty good week and even got a compliment from his Training Instructor! Hooray!!! I immediately felt about 40 lbs lighter and lost the desire to curl up on the couch with a soft blanket and giant blizzard, so Lucy and I went for a happy walk.

He asked for prayer because week 3 was supposed to be hell week (although I couldn't imagine it being worse than the first 2 weeks)! I asked for prayer too because I was headed to WV with Lucy to have another open house and try (desperately) to get a renter or buyer before August.

Wednesday:
We headed North. It was a pretty good trip - only about 15 minutes of serious crying (on Lucy's part, not mine) out of the 4 hr drive. We went straight to postnet, printed flyers, went downtown, walked all over trying to find places to put them up (me carrying Lucy since she wasn't interested in a stroller after all that driving), then headed for walmart to pick up some dinner stuff and the storage units to get the air mattress, some bedding, and the microwave out.

Bugs!
By the time we got to the storage units I was pretty exhausted and Lucy was getting hungry and ready to move around on her own. The first unit we opened had the air mattress right there - Hooray. Covered in spiderwebs and at least 2 dozen tiny baby (black) spiders - Yuck!. Too small to tell if they're black widows....I get the air mattress (because the prospect of sleeping on just the floor all week is really unappealing) but decide against the bedding - what if that's full of spiders too? On to the second storage unit for the microwave (which is also right in front)...but as I try to get it I am attacked by wasps. I ran away. I did not scream...although by this time Lucy was. Apparently the wasps had built a nest in the track of our door so when I moved it they got very upset. Eventually I got the microwave, got the door shut and locked and we headed home (no stings, thankfully). Home was nice - but it smelled like an empty house. I killed a few small spiders trying to make homes in the corners...and about 5 large ants in the kitchen...every time I went in there! I must have killed almost 50 by the end of the week. We even had ant traps...and I had swept, mopped, and cloroxed everything before we left. What's the deal? THEN I brought in our 2 open house signs from last time to update the dates on them. A couple of giant (over an inch long) earwigs crawled out of the insides and headed for Lucy. I scooped her up and whacked at them with my shoe. She laughed hysterically. Finally it was bedtime. I decided to brave the air mattress after examining it VERY carefully for baby spiders and finding none.

Thursday: Fumes
Among other things that day, I rented a carpet shampoo-er from Lowes and did the carpets...while holding Lucy who was terrified of the noise unless she was in my arms. That was a workout. When I was done Lucy and I left the house for several hours so it could air out. Apparently it wasn't long enough. We came back at bedtime and it was still pretty strong but what were we going to do? I got Lucy ready for bed and started feeding her. After we had been in the house about 45 minutes she stopped eating and  became very lethargic, unresponsive, limp, and a little twitchy (like when she's dreaming, but her eyes were wide open and would follow my hand in front of her face...barely)...very scary. After a few minutes I decided it had to be the fumes and took her outside. She revived in a little bit and spit up all over me (rare for her these days). I was kind of freaking out. What were we going to do if we couldn't stay in the house? We had 0 money, no internet, and no phone numbers...and it was after 8:30 by that point. Mom and Dad called and when they heard about Lucy they insisted we go to a hotel for 2 nights - on them. I threw together our stuff, packed up the pack-n-play and loaded Lucy in the car. We tried the Holiday Inn: no room. The Hampton Inn: no room. The Quality Inn: no room. The Fairfield Inn: no room. It's a small town and I was starting to have an inkling of how Mary must have felt in Bethleham... (and poor Lu was being a trooper, being dragged in and out of carseat and hotel after hotel.) Finally we tried the Super 8 motel. There were 3 rooms available and none of them were smoking, hooray! by that time it was well after 9 so I got Lucy down and crashed myself.

Friday:
A room opened up at the Fairfield for tonight. We checked in at 3 (MUCH nicer room) I took a shower, let Lucy play in the bathtub and got ready for our first open house. No one came. We did have one person call but the rent was too expensive and she couldn't afford it. Jason got paid which was Super exciting. We went back to the hotel and I looked forward to a good night's sleep...Lucy had other plans and woke up (apparently starving) 6 times between 8:30pm and 7:00am. *sigh* so much for the awesome comfy bed!

Saturday:
2nd open house. Fumes were pretty much gone so we shouldn't have any more trouble sleeping there. Lucy and I wait and wait and wait...no one comes. Pretty depressing....BUT...

 Jason calls!!! Yay!!! Another good week for him. Thank you God!!! (better than mine, actually from the sound of it). We discuss renting the house for less than the mortgage because having to pay $50-$60/month is better than having to pay $800/month. If no one comes or calls I'll call the lady from yesterday back and see if she'd be interested in a lower price.

Conclusion:
The diet pretty much went out the window. I've been living off of cheerios, bananas, lean cuisine, and peanut butter cookies. Oops. I missed Jason more this week than I've ever missed him. I mean, I always miss him when he's not around, but for the most part, I'm pretty good at handling life alone with Lucy. This week life would have been infinitely easier with another pair of hands (particularly a pair of hands that didn't mind bugs) and a shoulder to lean on...and another body so I didn't have to get Lu in and out of her carseat at every 5 min. stop. I thought I was doing terriblly at the whole independent military wife thing, until I realized that I handled it all. I didn't cry (although I wanted to) I didn't scream (although I came close)...and I wasn't graceful about everything (but really, who cares?). We did it. We made it through the week without falling apart. Jason is doing well and I am sooo proud of him. ....and I soooooo appreciate him and soooo miss him.

We'll see how week 4 goes...and if I am successful with the house.