Holy cow do we have some fun updates to tell you all
about!!!
The last 2 weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions for
us. 2 weeks ago, Scott was really
stressed out about lots of things, but particularly because of the crazy rain
we’ve been getting! He was ready to
start working in the cellar so we could work on our water hookup, but with all
the rain we had anywhere from 8”-12” of standing water (plus lots of mud too)
in the dug out cellar. Thanks so some wonderful friends and neighbors, they
were able to get Scott out of his bad mood!
I try to do everything for him that I can, but sometimes he needs
someone else to talk to too. (I don’t
blame him… that’s why I have so many wonderful friends that I lean on too!)
Just a side note – and please don’t mention this to Scott
that I posted it. It’s not a bad thing
and I’d have no problems telling him myself, but it’s more of a heads up for
everyone! When military/veteran holidays
come up – Veterans Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July… - these are really hard days for Scott. Most of the time he will stay bottled up, in
a bad mood, and all to himself. For
Scott, he’s best left alone and he’ll come out if it. The worst thing anyone can do is to pry (I’ve
learned the hard way!). If these
holidays come up and he is being anti-social, don’t take it personal. Scott has been through and experienced a
lot. Most of the time he
compartmentalizes things, but these holidays in particular can be difficult. This is mainly a heads up for you if/when you
are around Scott or around any other Veteran too!!
Ok, back to our crazy 2 weeks!!
First off, the electrician originally came out on May 15 to
hook up our electric. I had a doctor appointment
that day, so after it was over, I drove home and he wasn’t there! I called and found out he needed a few PVC
pieces to hook to the box that we didn’t have and he didn’t have on his
truck. Because we used a 3” PVC conduit
instead of the more standard 2”, they didn’t have any at the store. The reason we used a 3” is because we were
running a larger wire (a 350 wire) plus the ground and the neutral all the way,
300’, to the house. The 2” may have
worked but it would have been VERY tight, so we opted for the 3” to make life
easier for us! Anyhow, I made a trip up
to Cody to the electric store to buy the pieces we needed so we wouldn’t have
to pay the markup on them. They were
supposed to come the next Tuesday (the 19th) but didn’t show
up. I got a phone call that we were definitely
scheduled for Tuesday the 26th.
That proved to be the lucky day!!!
The electrician showed up at ~2pm and even with the wind/rain, he
successfully hooked us up at the pole PLUS he rewired part of the breaker box
too. If this doesn’t make sense I
apologize, but I’m not an electrician.
Basically, where the spots were in the breaker box for the wires to hook
up, Scott hooked them up as the instructions on the breaker box said to. However, the electrician said that the
neutral and ground needed to be on separate sides and not at all connected by
any metal. Well, the way the breaker box
was made had those two on the same metal bar (in their separate holes, but
still connected on the same metal bar).
Even though the electrician said that it wouldn’t hurt anything, we
still wanted it to be up to code. So he
actually fixed it and instructed Scott on all kinds of things to do with the
breaker box, codes for wiring the house, and even gave him some of these
plastic things (no idea what they are for, but Scott does so that’s what
counts!). Anyhow – after all that, he
had us completely hooked up!!
Are you ready to possibly laugh out loud?? After 13 months and 2 days with NO permanent
electricity (only a single extension cord that went 300’ to the house and we
had that from November-May), as soon as we were completed hooked to the pole
for our permanent electricity, the electrician came into the house to test it
and read the voltage/amperage, and he had a reading of NOTHING! He said, That’s weird! That’s never happened before! So he went back out to check the pole. I hopped on my phone and the first thing at
the top of my Facebook page was a post in the Clark group that everyone’s power
was out!!! GO FIGURE!!! The second we get power, there is an area
wide outage!! We had to laugh and shake our heads!! We still can’t believe that happened!
However on the plus side, just an hour later, the power came
back on and that gave Scott time to finish wiring in a few outlets, so it
worked out perfectly!
Another huge piece of news! I think in my last post I wrote
about going to purchase all our appliances!
We bought them all at Lowes, but it would take a full week before they
would be ready for us to pick up at the store.
Normally I would have them delivered; however, MT has no sales tax while
WY has a 4.5% sales tax. On $2800, that
saved us $126! Even with the gas to go
up there and back, it still saved us money.
Here’s the interesting part…. If you purchase something in MT but have
it delivered to WY (a sales tax state), they must charge sales tax! But if you purchase in MT and you bring it
back yourself, no sales tax! (Unless it’s a vehicle or something that has to be
registered…. That’s a different story).
All our appliances were in on Friday the 22cd, but we were getting some
serious rain and didn’t want to worry about driving in the rain, unloading in
the rain, but most importantly, trying to get in and out of our driveway when
it’s a muddy mess! Finally on Monday the
25th (the day before our electric was hooked up) we had a break in
the rain! Our neighbors have a 10’
flatbed trailer they let us borrow and believe it or not we actually pulled it
with my car!!! It did amazing with the
trailer! Plus our neighbor boy Brian
came along with us too – mostly to give him a reason to get out of the house,
but he was a huge help. We got up there,
verified our purchases, loaded everything up (which perfectly fit on the
trailer!), and made our way back home!
The car pulled everything easily!
We had a refrigerator, upright freezer, stove/range, and dishwasher.
As soon as we pulled in the driveway and Scott had backed
the trailer up to the door, Brian’s dad pulled in too! Perfect timing! He, Brian and Scott unloaded everything while
I herded cats. Tuffy, as usual, was
being ornery, so I put him on his collar/leash and tied him to the couch! The others
were good and stayed away. Brian stayed
and helped unpack everything and get it into place. We were very lucky because everything arrived
dent free with no issues (that we know of so far).
It feels so weird, but a nice weird, to have appliances in
the kitchen! Now we still don’t have our water hooked up, so we can’t use the
dishwasher quite yet, BUT now that we have electricity, we are using our
refrigerator, freezer and stove!!!! It’s
so hard to explain to you how excited we are, but it’s been so wonderful! Everything was running Tuesday night, and
Wednesday I had to go to town with Scott to get some blood work done, so after
I picked him up from work, we celebrated by going grocery shopping for cold and
frozen food!!! Scott’s never enjoyed
grocery shopping, but he was excited then!!
Because we got home late and Scott still had to wire up the
outlet for the stove (bought the 220, 4 prong outlet that day too), I didn’t
make anything elaborate. Our first meal
cooked on the stove/oven was a Digiorno’s frozen pizza!! But boy was it delicious! Since then we’ve had scrambled eggs, sausage
links, French toast all on the stove, and tonight I made Scott a batch of sweet
cornbread with cut up pieces of hot dogs in it and cheese on top!! He loved it! (I can’t have hotdogs since I’m
pregnant so that was all for him!) And
for dessert – BROWNIES!!! Oh, to be able
to eat normal, non-canned food again is the most amazing feeling. I think in the last 2 days I’ve eaten half of
a giant watermelon all myself!
We still have lots to wire up in the house that Scott will
be working on tomorrow. He’ll be wiring
up basic light sockets in the mudroom, kitchen, and bathroom along with their
corresponding switches. We do not have
the money at this time to purchase our light fixtures (they can be very
expensive when you have to buy a whole house of them!), so we are starting with
just ‘garage/shop’ style basic light bulb sockets. Scott will also be wiring up the outlets in
the living room and eventually we will get to the loft, but probably not for
quite a while because of all our boxes stacked up there.
He also has just a few last tiles to cut for the shower then
it’s ready to be grouted!! I think he’s
planning/hoping to finish that this weekend too.
On the baby front – earlier this week I had to take my
glucose test where I have to fast for 12 hours, then I have to drink a 10oz
bottle of sugar water (mine tasted like lemon-lime and was actually very tasty
to me!), then after 1 hour they take my blood.
Well, my blood sugar level came back at 141. My doctor said that they want it to be around
120 and anything over 120 has to get tested again doing the 3 hour test (same
thing as before, but you get blood drawn 4 times instead of just once). I did some research online, and it says that
most doctors say the cutoff is actually 140 (meaning I was just barely high) so
I’m not too worried. The big number to
look out for is any reading over 200!
The good thing is that now that we have a working
refrigerator/freezer/stove, if I have to stick to a special diet, it will be
much easier now that we can have meat and veggies at our meals!
I go back in this next week for the 3 hour test and also for
a regular doctor appointment too – I’ll keep you all posted what they say and
how my results go for the next test!
Fingers crossed the hospital has WIFI so I can watch this current season
of The Bachelorette (my guilty pleasure)!
Remember, we still don’t have TV channels… we can only watch DVDs and
VHS tapes right now.
Otherwise, everything seems to be going well with Blaine and
I! My appetite has shot through the roof
just this last week. It’s going to be
really hard to not gain much weight these next 11 weeks, but I’m still trying
my hardest. I’ve been eating a lot of
watermelon this past week and after we go to Costco this weekend and stock up
on veggies, we’ll be eating lots of those too!
I don’t feel like my baby bump has grown any more in the last month, but
I’m feeling more and more pregnant each day.
She’s pushing so much on my bladder that when I have to pee, and my
bladder is really full, it’s actually painful until I go to the bathroom.
We have to say THANK YOU to all of our wonderful friends and
family!! You all have been such a blessing
to us, you really don’t realize just how thankful we are for you! These last few weeks, we’ve received so many
surprise packages in the mail with so many wonderful gifts for Blaine! All of which are necessities like an infant
car seat, clothing from 0-12 months, cups/plates/bowls/spoons, pacifiers,
bottles, bath soap and washrags, plus so much more! It’s hard to understand, I’m sure, but with
all the stress that’s been on Scott and I to get our house basics in place for
Blaine’s arrival, we were really unsure how we were going to get anything baby
related for Blaine. The weight that has
been lifted from our shoulders, all because of your overwhelming support and generosity,
will never be forgotten! Saying thank you just doesn’t seem enough!
For every card and gift that has been received, I am keeping
track of everything in Blaine’s baby journal!
This is something my mom did in my baby book and I really want Blaine to
be able to look back and see just how much love and support she is
receiving from all our friends and
family!
Thank you all so very much!!
I am WAY behind on adding pictures, but I’ll be in town 2
days this coming week for appointments so I hope to get them all uploaded (and
hopefully the library’s wifi isn’t slow!) for you all to see our progress!
Stay tuned!!
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