Happy New Year - still unpacking

Ava was with daddy on Monday. Grammy M came out on Tuesday and Wednesday to help watch Ava while I went to work. I don't have any vacation time accrued yet and I am just starting to figure out who the baby sitters in the area might be... Grammy also continued to help me with unpacking after Ava went to sleep. So, Ava had the chance to spend some of New Years Eve day with Grammy M - who of course spoiled her. I felt bad because we got about 6 inches of snow in the morning and Grammy had to drive home in a bit of a storm. She works as a waitress and New Years Eve is a good night for her to work. My friend Dave's brother is a local weather man and we took him on his word when he said the snow was going to stop around noon - and it did. So, she made it home safely.

After grammy left we made a special Ava dinner with apple juice cocktails and shrimp - she loves shrimp. The main course was cheesy rice, peas and chicken. For dessert we topped off the evening with ice cream cake - which our realtor left in the freezer when I bought the house. She also left a bottle of campaign for me, but drinking it by myself did not seem right - so I am going to save it for another time. Ava was asleep as usual at midnight and since I can not sleep, I was fighting with hanging curtain rods and curtains while watching a movie I had already seen several times. It seemed like a better option than fixing the door jam that Topi ate earlier in the week or unpacking the bathroom closet stuff. Oh, I have cable and Internet :). I had no idea how much I like watching TV and using my computer until I went for over a month without it in my home... Talk about feeling insulated.

Ava and I had a quiet New Years Eve morning - we made special eggs and toast and we squeezed oranges for juice. She loves cantaloupe and grapes, so those were our early morning snack - for a twist we dipped them in yogurt. Kurt's mom, sister, brother-in-law and their kids came to my house for the day. It was very nice to see all of them. Ava has a new cousin - Lexi (12/15/08) and is close in age to Lexi's sister Emily, so being with them is a lot of fun for all of us. Anthony helped me with a lot of little repairs around the house - we are going to tackle to Topi door eating project in the spring. Yeah for Anthony!!! Fortunately my new house does not need a lot of work and the few things that it did need he was able to take care of. My hero. He even showed me (and made me show him) how to use the snow blower - we have already had three occasions where I needed to use it and the snow blower had always been Kurt's domain. We had a great day! Grammy B stayed the night and watched Ava on Friday while I went to work. She took Ava to M to visit great grandma and then to daddy's for the weekend.

I am finding that I need to keep myself busy when Ava is not here. Last night, I was very productive unpacking the stuff in my bedroom. If you don't look closely at the closets or the basement, I actually looked unpacked. Mom helped with the basement on Christmas day so it looks a lot better than it could have.

Well - I should get outside because I have some snow in the driveway right now that I am going to try to snow blow... We will see how it goes. I have to run out and return some items and then run some errands that are easier with out Ava along. From this point on Ava will be with me during the week and with daddy every other weekend. I think I am ready to be a single mom... I am definitely learning how to ask for help and I am very grateful I have friends that are willing to be here for me. Hopefully now that things are settling down and I have Internet and a telephone again - I will be able to stay in better touch.