Saturday, September 13, 2014

Quick Stop in Dallas and back to Unalaska

Early the morning I was to leave Amarillo, I received a text from Sarah letting me know that she was in the hospital in Dallas with contractions 4 minutes apart.  Their baby is not due till October so this was a worry. Thankfully, I was heading that way and would be in Dallas to help if needed. I caught my flight and Sarah was out of the hospital by the time I arrived, with orders to "take it easy."  Not so simple when you have a 6 year old and a 3 year old at home!

Elle just home from school

 Beck and Beau
Miles and Beck

Although she was not feeling 100% during my short visit, she seemed to be doing okay and I accompanied her to her regular OB appointment, during which her doctor stated everything seemed good and she was not sure why Sarah had been having contractions.


Meanwhile, we also met with the property manager and walked through the house that we bought in Dallas a few months ago, which is currently rented. I will tell you that I am already not a fan of being a landlord.  We have had one issue after another, not with the tenants, who have been fine, but with problems and repairs and $$$$$$.  The house has a pool in the backyard, which was never something I was dying to have but it came with the house so we thought, okay, why not?!  However we have had way too many problems with it and I am regretting being a pool owner, too!   Anyway, our property manager was nice enough and the house looked like it was being decently taken care of.

 Elle loves her doggie
It was great fun to see Elle and Beck again and to have time with them, if only for a couple of days.  Elle loves first grade and I got to help her with her homework a few times, which she whipped right through. She is an excellent reader already and knew lots of math facts.  Beck is a busy boy who  adores his sister and repeatedly calls out, "Elle! Elle!" so he can tell her something or show her something. He's a cutie! We took the kids out to eat and play one lunch time and ran into several of Sarah's friends and their kids.  In talking with one mom, we figured out that her uncle was one of my ex's and my good friends when we were all teenagers and young adults--small world from Abilene to Dallas, TX.

Off to school and work

 Sarah and Beck.  Mama still had 6 weeks to go at this point

Sarah, Miles and I went out to dinner to have a late celebration for both their birthdays.  It was good to have a chance to sit and chat about life and plans.  I wasn't really sure what to do--if she was going to have continued problems with her pregnancy, I thought I should stay and help out, especially if she was put on bed rest, but everything seemed to be all right by the time my flight was scheduled so I decided to go on home and hope for the best.
Practicing her roller skating

Approaching Seattle

I left DFW on the 5th of September, overnighted in Seattle, and headed home on the 6th.  There were only 13 people on my flight home to Unalaska, all of our bags made it, and we didn't stop anywhere for fuel.  Yippee!  The weather was decent and I didn't have to get all queasy and nervous about whether we'd have problems coming in.  Rich was there to meet me and Ajax seemed somewhat pleased to have me home; either that or he just liked lying on my suitcase.


I got home on a Saturday so I had the weekend to re-adjust after two months out!  Back to work on Monday and it was good to catch up with my coworkers and get to the job at hand--our radio pledge drive coming up in early October.  

We are having lots of high winds and rain today so I took a shower, put on some clean PJ pants and a hoodie, and have been working away at catching up the blog and a lot of other tasks at home--definitely not going out!  Sarah has been in the hospital again with more pre-term labor and is now back at home pretty much on bed rest so I am feeling like I should have stayed.  Her mother in law is there to help, so that's good, but I still feel guilty that I am not around.  Hopefully baby will stay put for a few more weeks!  


4 comments:

Suzassippi said...

Can't anything ever be easy anymore? Hold on, breathe deeply, and ask for help. That's my new mantra.

And, about that pool stuff...yes, Rand and I can come take care of it...we will only need a mere $150,000 per year retainer and then we are right on it. See, our needs are simple.

Gigi said...

Let me draw up a contract and send it your way...!

Unknown said...

You're right that it's not easy becoming a landlord. You're fortunate to partner with a skillful manager that is able to help you with these problems. Sometimes, things just break down for the strangest reasons, and it's a lot tougher to have them fixed when you're miles away. I hope they got to fix up and at least minimize those issues by now! And good luck to Sarah and her upcoming baby!

Marvin Scott @ Crown Strata

Gigi said...

Thanks, Marvin! Things seem calm with the house at the moment. And we have baby news to report...working on the next post!