All is Quiet

The house is currently quiet.
While her job might not know it at this point my wife is done working for the next four months.  She was supposed to work today and tomorrow but she just physically cannot do it, and probably mentally as well.  She is tired, she is weighed down.  She has this big baby inside her currently waiting to come out and be welcomed into the world and into our lives and this is just 8 days away.

Eight days until everything changes.
Eight days left to enjoy the quiet, the calm.  There is a storm a'brewin' and that storm is another member of the grrouch household.

This past weekend everyone in my family (except myself) was sick.  Both the wife and son slept the entire weekend away save for a few moments to turn the TV on or have a light snack before falling back to sleep.  This weekend was supposed to be about getting the house back into order but, as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men.

Last week we had laminate put into the bedrooms.  This all happened while I was working my week of inventory and even though we knew it was happening it still felt as though it all happened out of nowhere and was a big surprise.  Life is happening fast and furious and that is how it just kind of snuck up on us. (Snuck is not a word according to the red underline on my page, but I'm leaving it there.)  So, after working a horrendously long day of inventory I got to come home and spend until about 11 pm moving stuff and making sure that the workers had room to put the laminate down.

The chaos is slowly lifting.  All of the 3 bedrooms are currently livable.  The living room and garage, not so much.  Hell, we still have our X-mas tree up which is something I'll have to rectify tomorrow on my day off.  There is still a lot of stuff that has to be sorted through to find out what we are keeping and what we are getting rid of.  I've already thrown away 3 garbage bags worth of stuff while no one was looking and there is more to come.

People are scavengers, at least in our neighborhood.  While putting out the garbage this past week I set out an old TV/Monitor which doesn't work and two electric heaters to go with the numerous trash bags.  Ten minutes later I went outside to put another bag in the garbage and the aforementioned objects were missing.  It was late.  It was dark.  The stuff wasn't outside for long but it was gone just as quick.  I guess that's good because it's less crap the garbage man has to deal with, but I am curious if I am going to see that broken TV back outside in front of someones house next trash day to clue me off to who is going through my garbage.

By the end of the night I added a window blind (in a box) and a bed frame, both of those were not there when the trash-man came.

I have five more working days until my two week vacation, to spend time with the baby, is here.  I need a vacation.  I'm killing myself at work and home life is chaotic with everything that has been and is about to happen.  A screaming baby is just what I need to reset my inner work clock and go back refreshed but slightly disheveled due to lack of sleep (so I'm told).

I did a major refresh on my cover letter and resume and put in for a new position just yesterday.  The posting comes down at the end of the week and I expect to hear back and hopefully have an interview set up during my vacation.  Maybe I'll be able to come back to work after my vacation just to inform my current store that I'm movin'on'up.  Who knows, stranger things have happened.

Other than my clanking on the keyboard the only sound in the house is coming from the snoring dog in my lap which is soon to be replaced by snoring baby.  I have a feeling that there is going to be a lot of jealousy in this house for a while and managing it is going to be less than fun.
The dog has his place, in bed, between my wife and I but usually on my side or between my legs.  He is going to have to adjust to having this other small beast taking up some of his favorite spots, like my lap.  He is going to have to be more gentile and he is going to have to not jump or get defensive when this other small beast grabs him randomly and tugs or smacks him.  I don't feel that will be an issue because he has the 9 year old who has been a typical abusive boy over the years to him - but that jealousy that someone, something, else is getting attention he feels he deserves.

Which leads to the biggest area of jealousy that will occur and that is with our nine year old.  He has been the one an the only for nine years now.  All the attention, all of the everything has been showered his way.  He is used to it and now he is going to have to share it, he is going to have to take a back seat for a little while because, lets face it, no matter how much people say that they will make sure he still gets his attention the first while is all going to be focused on this new pooping crying creature in the house.

The nine year old is used to more than his fair share of attention, I'd dare say that he has gotten too much over the years and aspects of his development are behind the curve because of it.  I've never seen a nine year old who has issues functioning (it could be my limited exposure to the world of children though) when other people are not giving him attention.  He doesn't like to play by himself, he always wants someone playing with him or at least watching him.  He doesn't even like watching TV by himself, he always wants someone else there. To me it is strange but I am adapting and have been over the past couple of years.  I am trying to steer him to becoming more independent even though I'm probably going to bitch about it in a few years when he wants nothing to do with us and just wants to be out with his friends all the time.  So, let's see how we can bridge that gap from him getting, wanting, craving, needing all the attention to him sharing it with his new baby brother.  Life is going to become infinitely more interesting.

So all is quiet but complete and utter chaos is just around the corner.  I can smell it and I am looking forward to my life changing.