The Hot Dogs: Getting Ready for Michael with a Side of Drama

We'll start today's post with the drama of trying to leave Birmingham for Orlando. Oh my goodness...this is going to be long even though I'm giving you all the short version...

Let's go back to Saturday, June 7th. My mom flew into Nashville for my second baby shower of that weekend. We left at 7:00 on Sunday morning to go back to Birmingham. After I pulled out of the driveway of my in-laws' home, Gary, my father-in-law, called my cell phone to tell me that I had left all of my vitamins. We turned around to get them only to learn that my reverse lights on my Jetta are on when I'm in drive, which has been a previous problem that the dealership told me they'd fixed on May 27th. Mom and I knew we were going to have a busy Monday getting the nursery ready, getting me to my doctor's appointment, and now trying to get my reverse lights fixed AGAIN (which anyone who has ever dealt with the VW dealership in Vestavia Hills, AL knows that any car issue, big or little, can take up a good half of your day).

When we got to my townhouse, we put Murphy inside and turned right around to go to church. After church we ran a few errands and ate lunch at Newk's, which was delicious! When we got back to the townhouse, I turned the air down to 78. We were only there for about 30 minutes before turning around and leaving for a Birmingham Barons baseball game with my LifeWalk group from church, so I decided to leave the air turned down since it was BLAZING hot outside, and I was 29 weeks pregnant. We had a good time at the game, but we were looking forward to being in the air conditioned rooms of my home. When we got home, we realized that the temperature had not changed since before we had left. At this point it was 83 degrees, and mom and I realized that the A/C was broken. AWESOME. I called Kenneth and did all the things he and my father suggested, and nothing was working. So, mom and I turned the ceiling fans on high and decided to go ahead and get busy with organizing all the shower gifts and washing all of Michael's new clothes. We got two loads of his laundry done and got all the gifts organized upstairs in the nursery closet before deciding to call it a night. Well, I should actually say that my mom got two loads of laundry done and got all the gifts organized upstairs in the nursery closet...I was pretty useless after two baby showers, a three hour drive, and sitting at a baseball game in 98+ degree weather. I think I just laid on the floor or the couch (depending on which room were in) and kind of told her where to put things. When we got in bed that night, the thermostat read 85 degrees.

We woke up early on Monday to call the A/C company and to also call the VW dealership. The A/C company wasn't going to be able to come on Monday, but the lady who I spoke with felt awfully sorry for me being 29 weeks pregnant in a home with no air conditioning in the middle of a massive heat wave. She squeezed us in for Tuesday...that was the best she could do. I then called VW and spoke with the service rep who I dealt with on May 27th. He told to bring my car on in, so I was encouraged. I had two thoughts, which turned out to be dreams:

1.) since this is the second time I'm bringing my car in for this problem, I'll be the first customer served;
2.) we'll get there by 8:00 and be done in time for my doctor's appointment at 10:15.

Neither one of those things happened. Mom and I sat there until 9:45, and they hadn't looked at my car yet. So we went to the doctor (which went very well...everything looks great!) and came back to VW afterwards to hopefully get the problem fixed. Our plan was to drop my car off and walk across the street to eat lunch at Subway. We pulled in, and the service rep met us outside saying his mechanic guys were on lunch so we should just drive to Subway and come back after we were done. So we did. We came back after lunch and waited for another hour before finding out that they were going to have to order a part and it wouldn't be in until Thursday. Lovely. Especially since we were planning on leaving Tuesday for Florida as long as the A/C at my townhouse was fixed. I told him that I would be leaving the next day for Florida and wouldn't be back until the beginning of August, so I'd be in touch then. My reverse lights are still on when I'm in drive, and they will be until at least August. So, if you are behind me at a light or a drive-thru and notice my reverse lights, don't worry. My car will magically go forward when the light changes or the line moves. I know I have freaked quite a few people out, and I'm sure I've confused quite a few as well.

The rest of Monday we tried to stay out of the townhouse. We ran lots of errands getting all kinds of odds and ends for Michael's room. We got shelves, baskets, storage bins, and we returned some items that I received two (or three or four) of. When we finally went home to work on my organizing, the thermostat said 87 degrees. We worked for a couple hours, and then decided to eat out since we didn't want to heat ANYTHING up in the kitchen. We went to Dale's Southern Grill...so good! We went back home and put together a shelf we bought at Target, did a little more organizing, and called it a night. The thermostat still read 87 degrees.

We woke up early on Tuesday to call the A/C company, and we were told we'd receive a phone call around 10:30 where someone would tell us they were on their way. Well, the phone call came an hour early! The A/C guy got there at 10:00 and had the problem fixed by 11:00...thank you Mainline Air Conditioning! Mom and I then hustled to clean the house and pack, and we were on the road for Florida by 12:30.

Whewwww...it was a long two days!

For those of you who have hung in there and read this to the end, you will now be rewarded with pictures! Congratulations for making it to the end of this looooooong post!

The Hazards, good family friends of the Hamburgs, gave us our Graco stroller system. Here is Gary putting it together.