March GBOMB

Good

Springtime. YAAASSS. The later sunshine and 70+ degree days are the bee's knees. Sitting outside in beautiful weather, in my own yard, has been so awesome. 

Housewarming. Having people in my home and not feeling embarrassed or apologetic was so nice. It was nice to have space. Looking around my home and seeing everyone's generous contributions toward making it what it is, is so cool. Everyone's enthusiasm and kindness in seeing our home was so heartwarming. What a fun time of life. I wish I had gotten photos, but people started arriving right as I was done setting up. 


Home formation. I am really happy with how far our home has come in just three weeks. It's wild to look back at my March in Review and know we went from living in one home to being pretty well settled in a new home. Crazy how fast life changes. 













Cost savings. My fertility medication was getting shipped through Optum Specialty Pharmacy for $119. They stopped doing fertility meds at the end of February, and I was a little stressed about finding an alternative. I happened upon a Reddit thread with pricing for common fertility meds and the pharmacies listed. I called one in Texas called SandsRx, and they overnight ship Pregnyl for $99. My doctor called it in, and the whole experience was so easy and painless. I'm so grateful to have found them. 

New (to me) phone. I found an iPhone 13 mini on KSL with 89% battery health and 4x the storage of my iPhone 12 mini. Just for reference, I went to bed the other night with my phone at 82%. I put it on battery saver AND airplane mode. I woke up, and it was at 50%. Ridiculous. I'm so tired of charging it constantly. Here on the last day of March I am restoring my iCloud backup to the new phone. I'm excited for it. 

Bad

Illness. On March 2 Matthew started to not feel well. In the morning of March 3, I woke up not feeling great. I sneezed all day long. By March 5 we still weren't feeling well--stuffy nose, etc. Getting sick during the moving process just feels like cruel and unusual punishment. By Sunday, March 8 I felt even worse just with the move and not getting much sleep. We got a little better for a minute. Then AJ started coughing on Sunday, March 15. He had to stay home on Tuesday and Wednesday due to a fever. By Tuesday I was coughing up stuff. He had a fever, wasn't sleeping well--lots of nightmares and crying. The cough lingered, and AJ was throwing up mucus into the next week. As of 3/25, I'm 8 days into coughing. I finally felt somewhat better by 3/26. But that's a good chunk of the month feeling subpar. 

Kids during moving. WHY? Honestly? Who brings their children to load a moving truck? SO MANY KIDS were in my house "helping" us move out. Dragging my things on the ground outside and in the dirty moving truck. In the way of anyone walking in or out. Noisy. Making a much bigger mess than there already would be. I do not understand WHY you'd bring young children to someone's home during a move. It makes zero sense and honestly feels a little bit rude. I probably would've rather had less help than have all the kids who came. My son was chaos enough. I didn't need more chaos on moving day. I hate to sound ungrateful, but honestly the whole thing was a debacle. 

Daylight savings time. Losing an hour of sleep after going to bed at 1am the night of the move was the absolute worst timing. I struggled so badly with sleepiness that whole week. And AJ also was extremely tired, especially the days he didn't nap. 

Saying too much. I'm not somebody who shares secrets or betrays trust. But I have gotten into many situations where I shared too much on accident. Like, saying less would've been fine. I feel like I've gotten better but then every so often I say too much, and it gets me into trouble and hurts people I care about. It sends me into a spiral where I question who I am and if I am a bad person. Probably sounds ridiculous to anyone outside of my brain, but it's a genuine struggle. I've got more to say on this below. 

Money. Costs of moving are just hard, ya know? To add insult to injury with our new mortgage: Our cell phone bill was triple the normal amount because of the annual fee I forgot about. Our electric company is demanding a $300 deposit to be split across two bills. Our annual Amazon Prime membership happens in March, and they raised the price. A medical bill from October showed up in March. Plus we owed taxes this year. Why does this happen? 

Facebook Marketplace. The stupidity is REAL on Marketplace, you guys. Let's list some actual examples, shall we? 

  • People asking me where I'm located when my cross streets are listed in the description. 
  • Saying I live too far after I give my address, even though my cross streets and a map are listed in the description. 
  • Asking if there are defects, which are candidly described in the listing, which I asked if you read through. 
  • Asking for photos of my actual item, when several photos are in the listing. 
  • Asking, "Is it clean?" Really? If you want something new and clean, go buy it on Amazon (P.S. this is a rolling shelf cart that's easy to wipe off, not a microwave. I'd obviously not sell a crusty microwave to somebody.) 
  • Asking, "Is it just the bench, or are there weights?" When the TITLE of the listing says, "Weight bench and weights," AND the description says, "I have all the plates for it!" 
  • Asking me, "Is this available?" when the description says, "If it's listed, it's available." 
  • Asking me, "What is the depth?" when the measurements are in an image AND in the Amazon link I provided. 
  • Asking me, "How much weight does it hold?" when the Amazon link has that information. 
  • Asking, "How big are these blankets and do you have at least 12?" when the image shows the measurements, and my listing title literally says "6 blankets." 
  • Sending me a photo from the gas station near my home, when you never even said you were coming to pick it up and never asked for an address (so weird?!).
  • Sending me a series of thumbs up replies, rather than replying to any questions. 
  • Saying you wanted to pick up before a certain time, and if I couldn't do that, you didn't want the item. (What on earth? Are Facebook marketplace sellers at your beck and call? Go to the store.)
The amount of stupidity just doesn't cease to amaze me, and I honestly don't know that $20 is worth dealing with these people. The amount of ghosting that happens, too. Like, what a waste of my time. 

The listing said 6. The link said 6. The image said 6. Come on. 

No mention of departure or arrival time, no request for my address? 


On My Brain

AJ adjusting. We've had some very hard moments with AJ. He says he doesn't want to go to his new daycare and says he doesn't like it. But the reports we get from daycare are positive; he has a good time and is happy. Daycare drop offs have been hard for Matthew. Evenings after pickup have been full of long meltdowns. Just lots of big feelings. We try to support him, but he gets very mean. It's a lot.

Home quirks. Just learning our home. It runs cold and is a little drafty. The hard floors hurt our feet (yes we have and use slippers and are getting more rugs). The closet cubbies are hard to access with the closet doors on (honestly hate the closet setup). Our master shower is freezing, and so is the basement. We have ants! Some windows don't have screens. The stairs are staticky and still have their dogs' hair, no matter how many times I sweep it. The sellers loved putting sticky things on the wall. But we love to watch movies in our basement. We love our big kitchen, of course. A gas range! The light dimmers in the master bathroom and kitchen are so nice for the night and morning. I love having a pantry. 

Miles and commute. The move didn't add a lot of TIME to my drives. But it adds a lot of miles. It used to take me about 6 minutes and 2 miles to get to my gym. Now it takes me 12 minutes and 5.5 miles. That's going from 48 minutes and 16 miles to 96 minutes and 44 miles in a four workout week. My commute went from 8 minutes and 3.8 miles to 12-15 minutes and 9.2 miles. Again, four extra minutes isn't a huge deal, but the miles on my old car feel like a big deal. Things like this make me wonder if we made the right choice in moving. Probably sounds silly as I know people spend substantial amounts of time traveling to and from work. 

Change. It's just been an adjustment, with lots of moments wondering if I made the right choice. This limits us financially in a big way. I thought we couldn't afford things before, but now we really cannot. Is it better that we own a home but can't put AJ in sports or pre-school? I don't know, honestly. Now we live on "the west side" of the valley, and I'm not used to it and don't love it. I miss Sandy. It's just a lot of adjusting. 

Imposter syndrome. Can one have imposter syndrome in regard to their home? It somehow feels like we don't fit there. We came from a condo and then from a very small, old, cramped home. I'm having a hard time articulating, but it feels like maybe others see a version of me and this house that isn't reality. 

2026 Goals. It's the end of the first quarter. My goal really was to rest, slow down, and feel. I didn't factor in the home purchase to that equation. I've not really slowed down for a minute. But I can feel it coming as my home finally comes together. 

Intent versus impact. As I've gotten older I've come to understand that impact matters more than intent. But it is really hard when my intent was good, not malicious, and then it has a bad impact. I've been spiraling a little bit about something that happened. I had ChatGPT walk me through intent and impact. It was helpful. ChatGPT said, "You are responsible for: Bringing up a sensitive situation (even vaguely), Not anticipating how quickly it might spread or be interpreted. You are NOT responsible for: What someone else guessed, What they chose to do with that guess, Pre-existing dynamics." And it said, "A good response is: Owning your small piece without exaggerating it, Caring about their feelings, Clarifying the truth if needed." I've definitely done all that. I just have to make peace with an unintentional mistake and hope the injured parties choose understanding and forgiveness sooner than later. 

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