"Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it's how we behave while we're waiting." - Joyce Meyer
January 6 - February 16, 2015
For some reason, January and February were months that especially tested our patience. We got home from Christmas break only to notice there was water trapped behind paint on our bathroom wall/ceiling. We notified our the owner and manager, but it wasn't a huge deal... at least not yet. Then, within the next week, water started leaking onto the floor of our bedroom closet. This exact thing had happened last winter but the problem was supposedly fixed. Obviously it wasn't.
While water was leaking into our closet, the paint bubble in the bathroom was getting larger and water started to drip from the ceiling. To make this less detailed, I'm just going to do a bulletted list of everything that happened. I don't really enjoy talking about it, but I'm hoping this post will help me to appreciate the apartments/homes we will live in in the future.
- Manager and owner ripped out carpet in our closet, gave us a vacuum, and told us to keep a fan on the area (some of the bedroom carpet was still wet).
- Manager cut out a section of the wall and ceiling in the bathroom.
- Plumber came (over a week after this all started) and found that the upstairs apartment's tub drain was leaking onto our ceiling. He said that there was nothing holding the two pipes together! So once it got bumped, it just started leaking more and more on our bathroom ceiling.
- Plumber also found and fixed a crack in the roof drain pipe (this pipe also runs down into the same area as the tub drain).
- Drywall people came about a week later to patch up the wall and ceiling in our bathroom. They came back two or three more times in the next couple weeks to finish the drywall and to repaint our bathroom.
One reason this whole ordeal was so inconvenient was because I couldn't get to anything in my closet without putting on shoes (so my feet wouldn't get wet) and stepping over the ripped up carpet. We also had to relocate our belongings multiple times. Our apartment just felt chaotic while our bathroom and closet belongings were spread throughout the rest of our little apartment. The most frustrating thing was the owner. I was trying to be patient, but nothing would get done unless I constantly called or texted the owner. I felt like I was pulling teeth just to get our apartment fixed!!!
Here are some pictures of the crime scene:
After the plumber came, the owner wanted the dead space behind the shower to dry out, so we spent a week showering without any covering over the wall and ceiling.
The water got about halfway to our bed, and most of the wood strips were ruined (they started to turn the baseboards orange).
This is where all the water came in (both from the tub drain and the roof drain).
This is when the drywall people were prepping to paint our bathroom.
It felt good to have everything finally fixed. And it was really nice to have a newly painted bathroom! The carpet hasn't been replaced yet, but it's finally dry.
Then, February 4th, we got to go to our first doctor's appointment!!! I was about 17 weeks and we got to have an ultrasound! The doctor measured the femur and the heartbeat and concluded that the baby seemed very healthy! That was the best news ever. :) The doctor asked us if we would like to know the gender (as long as the baby cooperated). We said, of course! The doctor tried and tried, but our baby thought it was much more fun to sit on its feet. The feet were in the exact position to where it was impossible to tell the gender! Silly baby! We were a little bummed, but still so glad that the baby was healthy.
After the ultrasound a nurse took us to another room so she could take my blood. Now if you don't know me, I have a VERY hard time with blood. I always have, and I'm pretty sure I always will (I'm hoping I get better). I told the nurse that I'm not good with blood and she reassured me it would be quick. I turned my head to look at the wall while the nurse got my arm and the vials ready. The nurse started to talk to me and Jordan about the baby and life (trying to get my mind off the blood). It worked at first, but then I noticed she was changing the vials multiple times. After I counted four vials, I started to feel light-headed. Yes, I know that I am a wimp! Just stay with me. I told the nurse I was starting to lose it, and she told me she was almost done. I closed my eyes and tried not to think about it....
When the nurse finished, she asked if I was okay and if I wanted to lay down. I told her I was fine and that laying down would be nice. I stood up slowly, the nurse holding one arm and Jordan holding the other, and opened my eyes. The only problem was that I couldn't see! I was seriously blind! I was so embarrassed! I didn't say anything and I just stumbled my way to the table and laid down. Within a few minutes my vision came back (thank goodness!). The nurse got me some apple juice and at that point I really felt like a wimp. Jordan just held my hand the whole time and smiled. He's always good at calming me down. And that was the end of our doctor's appointment: me laying on a table, white as a ghost, drinking some apple juice.
A few days after our appointment, Jordan took me out for a fun date. We wen't to Babies-R-Us and looked at all the cute little clothes...
Since we still didn't know our baby's gender, we checked out the boys and girls sections. We also walked down every aisle in the store, trying to get an idea of all the things we would need to get in order to take care of our baby. There are a lot of little things you don't initially think about! So it was good to just walk around for fun and take it all in.
Toys-R-Us is right next door.... so we thought, why not? Man, Jordan and I had so much fun! We would see toys that reminded us of our childhood and tell each other little tidbits of things we did when we were little. It was exciting hearing new stories about Jordan when he was a kid.
I'm a little embarrassed about how many pictures we took with toys, so I'm only posting two. Jordan and I got WAY too excited when we saw the Star Wars aisle....
Come on, how cute is this?!?!?
I hope our kids get their "fun-ness" from Jordan.
After Toys-R-Us we went to eat at In-N-Out. Jordan knows how to make this girl happy! Looking at baby stuff and eating at In-N-Out made all my dreams come true! It was a perfect date. :)
The week after that was Valentine's Day. We knew that we were going to Jordan's parent's on Valentine's Day, so we celebrated ours the day before. For Jordan, we played this game I made up on index cards where we do nice/funny things for each other. It was awesome. I got a back rub out of it, and we both got some good laughs out of it. Jordan got me fruity candy (which I was craving because I wasn't really into chocolate at the time -crazy, I know) and he got this super cute decoration for our apartment. It has the lyrics to our song on it! The same song Jordan played for me when he proposed, and the same song we danced our first dance to at our wedding!
So we drove up to Jordan's parent's place on Valentine's and found out that both of Jordan's sister would also be there! Jordan's parents were so nice and took us all out to Texas Roadhouse that evening. The next day, Lana and Marcus drove up to hang out with us and Jordan's family. We had a lot of fun playing games and just hanging out.
Of course we played lots of ping pong:
There were times when Jordan and Marcus looked like they were playing in the Olympics. It was both funny and impressive.
On Monday, Jordan drove Lana and Marcus around town to show them places Jordan went to growing up. Jordan lived in Pleasant View (where his parents currently live) from his birth until he was 7 years old. Then they moved to Florida, Virginia, and then back to Pleasant View. The first place we stopped by was the trout farm. Jordan and his family have a lot of memories at this trout farm. It was fun telling Lana and Marcus some of those stories.
At the trout farm, Spencer wanted to see how close he could get to those black swans.
We also drove by Jordan's old house and elementary school. Then we hiked to Big Rock. It's a random rock formation on the side of the mountain. I didn't make it all the way to Big Rock. My blood pressure has been much lower since I've been pregnant, and I was having a hard time! I felt like such a wimp, again! This pregnancy has been super easy, but there have been a few short moments where the pregnancy has just kicked my butt!
Anyway, Jordan, Marcus, and Spencer made it to Big Rock while Lana and I watched.
You can barely see them on top of Big Rock, but I wanted to get a picture of the whole thing.
Now you can see them! Jordan on the left, Spencer in the middle, and Marcus on the right.
We had a blast with family and friends over the weekend. It was really nice to get out of the apartment (after all the chaos) and to keep our minds busy (we were still anxious to find out more about how our baby was doing and if the baby would be a boy or girl). It was the ideal break that came at the right time.
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