Renting a House - Good "Trial Period" for Home Ownership

I just bought my husband a parks pass for his birthday. I had no idea what to get him - the guy that basically buys anything he wants as soon as he wants it. Well, that isn't entirely fair, but he does tend to buy things quite easily and then he wants me to "surprise" him on his birthday by getting him something he wants, but that he hasn't directly told me he wants anytime recently. How impossible is that? I can barely remember what it is I was supposed to pick up at the store for dinner that evening even with it written on the list in my hand, let alone remember some thing he mentioned months ago that he would be interested in having, but didn't actually already buy by the time his birthday comes around. I think I did OK this time. We'll see. It is going to arrive a couple weeks late.

So on to the main topic of this post: renting a house. Our heat didn't work since Sunday, but we got it fixed yesterday. A spider web had busted the ignitor. I guess that is a common problem. Seems like they could make spider-proof furnaces, but maybe not. When I'm bored, I'll look into that problem and see if I can't get myself a patent. Anyways, with the heat in full working order, I tried to make some pumpkin muffins for my husband's birthday and to have around when his brother and girlfriend come by tonight. The oven wouldn't heat up past 165 F. Now I have some gross gooey muffins sitting on my counter. Ugh. At least I have the toaster oven in case I really need to bake or broil anything. I'm going to make our landlord eat one as punishment. Just kidding. :) I like our landlord.

So after the fun with the oven, I had an appointment this morning to take my car into the Ford dealership to get a free battery check and my front license plate installed. I've been driving around illegally with only the back plate on my car - shhhh! Don't tell! I went out to the car, had my little guy all nice and cozy in his car seat, and then it wouldn't start. I think it is the battery. Ha! We'll see. My husband is going to pick one up at Costco tonight and see if replacing it fixes the problem. It hasn't been starting very well ever since we had it shipped out here. I guess I was a little slow in getting it to the shop, huh?

After I noticed that my car wouldn't start, I tried to open the garage door and the chain would move, the light would turn on, but the door didn't budge. The bolt holding the chain to the door had come loose. Handy-woman that I am, I was able to fix that myself. This renting a house thing is a good way to let us know all that can go wrong when you own one yourself, right? :)

I tried feeding my little guy some butternut squash today. He ate the first few bites just fine and then he started making this face, shaking his head "no", and refusing to open his mouth. I think it tasted just fine, but it was cold. Perhaps next time I should heat it up. I CAN'T have him not like squash like his dad. I'll be ruined. The doc says to just try it again because he is probably just not used to it. It is rather ORANGE. Maybe he just isn't into orange things.

Baby + Moving + Traveling + Sleep-deprivation = Unhappiness

Yeah, so I can't wait to get moved into our final destination home next week. I am so very sick and tired of moving from place to place, getting baby onto some semblance of a sleep schedule just to pick up and move again. Don't get me wrong, I loved visiting with everyone we got to see over the course of the last few months, but it can get pretty harry when you don't have a permanent home to come back to and you have a 6-month-old in tow. We ended up going to the urgent care today because the little one just wouldn't get happy. No doubt nothing was wrong except that he has crazy parents - one that didn't do well with the time-zone change from China (doesn't speed jet-lag recovery to have baby wake-up to feed right around the time you'd normally be having lunch) and the other who fully dreaded the return to the single-room hotel for another week and a half. The good ol' Doc said just to stick it out - grin and bear it - basically: "what'd you think would happen when you move across country and throw in a trip to Europe in there?"

In the meantime, anyone have tips on how to sleep in one room when one of your roommates likes to cry a lot? Perhaps some of you have had experiences like this while in college when there was a particularly harsh break-up occurring with one of your roommates? My son's break-up is with his cousins and his aunt, whom he got to meet for the first time last week. He enjoyed his time with them immensily, besides a high fever that knocked him out for a couple of days. For the majority of the visit, he would sit there calmly and watch his cousin color or play hunting on the computer, or giggle and smile when all three cousins came to greet him in the morning, or pat him on the head as a greeting when they came home from school. He was on his best behavior when we all went out hiking in the mountains and he got to see the changing leaves from his mommy's shoulders. His cousins seemed to like him, too, as one said that I could go home the next day, but not the baby, because he was "just too cute". Ha!

This mommy needs to get to bed now since I have another night and early morning to tackle with my little one. I would like to do it with a few minutes of sleep under my belt, perhaps accummulating into hours, if I'm lucky. :)