Our last weekend

The last weekend (28-29 March) was rather unusual. Two major events took place. Event #1 made us rejoice over the fact that we were not poor students anymore who have no decent health insurance. Event #2 started a new phase of our life.

Event #1

About 5 years ago Andrew became a proud father of his first kidney stone. At that time we went to the ER as we had no clue what was going on + that's what you do when the pain is so intense that you are crying. Anyhow...the ER doctor upon discharging us predicted more stones in the future. That time it took us only a year to pay off that trip to the ER.

This Saturday that MD's forecast came true. It was a lovely day, warm and sunny, one of those that makes you so giddy after a long cold winter (I thought a lyrical intro to the story would be appropriate). We were out and about looking into improving our housing situation when Andrew noticed that something in his body was out of whack. In fact he was experiencing some pain. We hurried home so he could rest and get better. However, that out of whack sensation turned into excruciating pain. At that point we decided it was time to use our magic plastic card that prevents bankruptcy (in the majority of cases at least) when you choose to seek medical help. After figuring out what to do with Erin ( the Dyer family rocks!) our landlord AKA friend AKA realtor took Andrew to the ER where my dear husband was overjoyed to find no waiting line.

By the time I got to the hospital Andrew received his drugsies (Quoting Andrew :Demerol, mmmm! Good stuff!). We were discharged in about 4 hours with the kidney stone diagnoses and percocet prescription. We went home and life went on (the bill for the visit was processed).

Sunday came-the dang stone did not. It quieted down, stopped moving and pretended it was not there...till about 5 that day (it waited for dinner). The stone decided it had enough rest and continued its journey into the bladder. By midnight that day we were getting ready to return to the ER. However, what do we do with Erin? Drag her out of bed? Blessed be pregnant women suffering from insomnia for I know one of them. Irina, my good friend from back home volunteered to hang out at our place to make sure Pook was safe and sound. Her husband was volunteered to drive us to the same ER (Thanks Travis!).

This time poor Andrew had to wait for an hour before he was admitted. He was in so much pain that everyone in the waiting room had the same expression on their faces: "Poor dude!". They all kept looking at him ( that is except the guy who was in a not better shape, very pale, pucky and it looked like with a fractured bone in his leg). I am not kidding or exaggerating. Eventually Andrew was taken through the magic door that separated him from the lovely Finding Nemo themed room (ironically enough the same one he was in just a day earlier) where more Demerol was waiting for him. Another four hours and a CAT scan later we were on the way home. The ER doctor pronounced Andrew to be a "stone factory". They'll need to be blasted or something, 'cause passing them all the natural way is masochism.

The stone has left Andrew's bladder and the bill is in the mail. But all joking aside I am very grateful to have decent health insurance and Andrew not in pain. All is well again in the Mortensen household!

Event #2

We bought a lovely town house in a perfect location for a close to perfect price (free would be the perfect price) with a great reselling potential. If you want more details on what makes it that attractive contact me, Andrew or Erin in person (you'll need a translator to get the info from the latter).

At the start of the year a possibility of becoming home owners was distant and not alluring. That was until the stimulus came our way. Free money to buy a house? Hmmm. We thought we'll look into that. We were rather disappointed to personally visit over a dozen properties in our price range. There is no point of buying a dump! You can't resell a dump! So the idea of painting walls and doing yard work began flapping its wings in an attempt to take off and not be seen for about half a decade. Than an additional money was waved in front of us in case we buy something newly constructed. Hmmmm... There is no way we can afford a newly built single family home. Should we look at townhouses? So we did and found out that there are only two complexes along the Wasatch front that would suite our needs. One of them turned out to be in an excellent location, with excellent elementary school (sadly, good ones are not that common in Utah). We researched the place, then went and looked at it on Saturday. We liked what we saw and decided to make an offer. Our realtor was starting to wonder whether he would get to prepare an offer in the ER (he drove us there). We joke about it now, but on Saturday that was a possibility:). I imagine that would be one of the few instances in the real estate history when someone tried to purchase a house from an ER, hehe.

Anyhow, the place is almost ours. We just need to close the deal and move.

PS: Hey! If we ebay the leftover percocet we can buy a fridge. Buahaha!

House hunting

So...Today was the day we found a great town house. The price was right, location acceptable, elementary school great! The incentives to buy were great $8000 from the builder, $8000 for the first time home buying and $6000 for the new construction! Tuh-duh! Did we make an offer? Nay! The only and huge problem with the place was the high voltage power lines passing above the house and a huge buzzing station they were coming from right behind the fence. That was not in the add! Very sad....Otherwise the place was perfect and we would be moving in about a month :(.

PS: Oh, yeah...We are not taking Erin with us when we will continue the house hunt. She did not last for more than 15 minutes.

Rock climbing

Today was the day! We took Erin rock climbing at the Quarry (our rock climbing gym). It happened very spontaneously and I did not think to grab a camera, so no pictures. She was all over the wall, trying to get higher...until we began putting a harness on our little monkey. She wanted absolutely nothing to do with it! She screamed, kicked and tried to bite. Now thinking about it, I wonder what those people around us thought. I bet something like : "Look at those idiots, forcing their almost infant child to climb, when she obviously isn't interested!"
Despite all her efforts Erin was harnessed. Bwahaha! Andrew tried to dangle and swing her on the rope to get her interested, but alas. She refused to have anything to do with the harness, aka the climbing safety equipment. We took it off and she just ran around, pulled on ropes, played with the drinking fountain and looked cute. Though, she did try going up few walls with our help. Climbing is in her future. We'll keep bringing her with us when Andrew goes to scale the walls and eventually she'll dig the harness, ropes and all other thingies having to do with the climbing.
Sorry Erin, there is no escape!

Two-piece pajamas and the first bloody nose

My baby is all grown. She is wearing two-piece PJs (sniff-sniff...). That means we are starting potty training in a month or two. We'll wait till we move and unpack. We are still looking for a house...

We've seen some lovely dumps in our price range. Kinda disappointing. My main though: "People! You can be poor, but you don't have to live like pigs. Clean your homes!" Anyhow, we are going to look at some townhouses and few promising houses outside Orem /Provo. Wish us luck! I am sure, though, we'll find something suitable before the end of the year.

Back to Erin. Kiddo got her first bloody nose today. No, she did not get into a brawl at the playground (She is not like her Mama. I did just that once back in the olden days. I like to think that I emerged out of that fight triumphant, however, the boy I tried to knock socks off thought exactly the same about himself). Erin was so excited to be at the play ground again and ran up the stairs to her favorite slide. She tripped and face planted! Tears, a scratch on the nose and a tiny drop of blood from it were the result. But...all is well. She was back on the play ground in no time.

It's so funny and cute! This week in stores and in the park while socializing with other kids Erin would point at me and say "Mommy!" She introduces me to her piers! Adorable.

Erin came to me the other day bringing her mittens requesting help in putting them on. Fine by me! You want to wear mittens in March at home so be it. However, she did find a practical application to wearing them at home. She spent good 5 minutes ravaging through the freezer. For some reason she is fascinated with it. I don't know, maybe it was her plan all along-get the mittens on and go through the freezer content in comfort.

Erin makes life 100% more fun and happy! We are so blessed to have her for our baby.

Our sweet little girl is an artist! She doodles in books, on pieces of paper, mama's arms, cabinet doors, floor tile. She took it for a habit to empty the paper tray in the printer when we are not looking,' cause according to her "One piece of paper is not enough to express yourself". So, a solution was found and it seems to work--the closet doors!
Easily cleaned with a Magic Eraser and spare the rest of the house.

I practice let the kiddo learn from experience philosophy. If it won't hurt her she can try and see what happens. Today Erin insisted on taking her bath with her pink blankey that she drags everywhere. Haha! That did not work too well. It got wet and she could not even lift it. That made her very confuse and MAD! She did not even want to finish her bath. I guess she will leave it in the room the next time.

We had a couple friends come over and play with us the other day. Anna is a month younger than Erin, so they usually get in the same trouble together. I was talking to Anna's Mom in the kitchen when I thought I heard the toilet lid fall. A very suspicious sound in our house. I rushed to investigate and for second felt relief when I saw no lights in the bathroom. However, my relief was short-lived as I heard splashing coming out of the darkness. I turned the lights on dreading the yucky mess I might find...There they were- two little toddlers standing over the toilet. Anna had her hands in it splashing around and Erin was just watching. The only reason she was not helping out, was her favorite ball in her hands. You have to hold on to your favorite possessions when two other girls are running around, for it will be gone in a splash! Splash! Get it? Badum tssssss! Fortunately, the fun had just began and the floor was still dry. We cleaned up the hooligans and life went on!

Pigtails

I managed to make two little pigtails on Erin's head while she was watching TV. She even sorta left them alone after she discovered them. Isn't she cute!!!!


Oh, yeah! She was also wearing shoes and did not care they both were lefties, hehe...

Well, not much has been happening lately...but than again too much to tell about in a blog post. I'll just mention that we began our quest as first-time home buyers.

Erin continues to grow and explore the world. She is my little climbing monkey, he he. We

opened "go to the park" season and LOVE it!

Photo #1 was taken 19 Feb and Photo #2 today, March 4

Erin goes on all slides and gets to play with anyone who comes her way. She is super-duper friendly! As soon as a new person appears on the horizon she starts waving and yelling "Hi!" until the person acknowledges her presence (though I have to say those 6-7 old boys are quite rude. she can follow them for a minute or so waving and being friendly, but they keep ignoring my hard worker.)

I am trying to make Erin like bows and pigtails, but she is being stubborn. As soon as she realizes, that I did something to her hair she won't rest until it's out ( I wish it worked the same way with the food in her hair). She thinks it's cute, or at least she wants to see it in the mirror and seems to be satisfied with her looks afterwards. However, her curiosity overpowers her and she itches to get the bow out to take a closer look.

This week she has been exclusively using measuring spoons as eating utensils. I tried to swap them with regular spoons and forks, but she would not have it. I gave up. Amazingly enough, most of the food makes it into her mouth.

I want to know who do you think Erin looks like:

Sveta OR Andrew

If you want to let me know, feel free to leave a comment below.

Me thinketh, I'll be signing out for now as it is almost 2:30 and I should probably eat lunch.