The Craigslist Caper

So, here we are at 29 weeks and 5 days.  Hard to believe I'm only about 10 weeks out!  Maybe 12.  Maybe 8.  But you know...  Generally, we'll just say 10. 

The baby has been quite active the last 3 days or so, starting on Friday evening.  And what an evening it was!  Jeremy got shifted to day shift (only a more Hila-friendly one that has him leaving at about 7 in the morning) mid-week last week.  And he actually has weekends again!  Woohoo!  So last Friday, while Jeremy was at work, I decided to scour craigslist for used baby items.  Because you see the countdown I just stated.  10 weeks is going to fly.  Specifically on our list of things to find was a stroller and an infant car seat.  My in-laws are going to get us a car seat as well, but since our hope is to have our kids relatively close together, and because so many of my friends have said they just prefer the infant car seat and base -- especially for the first little while, because it's so easy to just carry the car seat with you -- Jeremy and I decided we'd look for an infant car seat and then ask his parents for the kind that converts up.  This way, when we (hopefully) have another baby while this one is still in toddler years, we won't have to buy any car seats right away.  That's the plan at any rate.  We have no idea how our child will grow, and all these things are based on weight and height.  So anyway, I saw a little travel system (this means stroller and car seat, where the car seat can sit on the stroller and you stroll Baby in the car seat).  So I emailed the poster, asking if they knew when the car seat had been manufactured (these things have expiration dates...  something I learned recently).  But I checked all day and never heard back :(.  I told Jeremy about it and even showed it to him.  He said, "Well, you are dealing with craigslist, and there are a lot of weirdos on there."  So I chalked it up to an "oh well... we'll keep looking."  And we got ready for our date night!

Jeremy and I went to see Seven Brides for Seven Brothers with Lea and some of the other ladies I used to work with at the library.  Lea's son Xavier was in the play and this is his last high school play.  It was really good!  We had so much fun!  I checked my phone at intermission and had a phone call from a phone number (and area code) I didn't recognize.  They left a message.  I tried to listen to it, but I didn't have any reception in the auditorium, so I couldn't.  We went back to watching the play.  Afterwards, Lea and I got our requisite picture with Xavier.

 

Then we headed over to a restaurant that is open late so we could enjoy a nice meal :).  All of us in the group who went to see the play.  Before going inside, I decided to listen to the message.  And the message just said, "The baby stroller you wanted it sitting outside your door."  Ummm.  What!?!  I looked at Jeremy and said, "I just got the weirdest voicemail ever."  And I told him.  His response:  "If we get home and there's a stroller in front of our door, I'm buying a shotgun."  Haha...  Because seriously...  I had not given out a phone number or address to anyone regarding any baby items.  I only contacted -- via email -- the craigslist person and asked about manufacturing date!  I was baffled.  And I didn't have a clue where that area code was from!  So we went in restaurant and shared the story.  One of the ladies in the group had a smartphone and looked up the area code and said it was from Minnesota.  Minnesota!?!  So I could only think of a couple at church who moved here several years ago from Minnesota.  And then I started thinking, "Well...  They would know my phone number and address.  And they would recognize my email address, because I worked with Karen in Primary until January, and her husband has been the Ward Clerk, so I've emailed him recently to order Primary stuff and request rosters..."  And, truthfully, thinking it could be them, I actually heaved a huge sigh of relief!  Well, first of all, because there was no crazy stalking us through craigslist.  And secondly, because now I would know the history of those items!  I knew the house they came from -- I've been in it!  So we finished up dinner and I checked my phone (by this point it was about 11:30 at night), and had a bunch of text messages from yet a different number!  Saying they had wanted it to be a surprise and hoped we'd gotten the items -- and called me by name.  Aaahh!  I couldn't respond at that point, because it was so late.  But figured we'd go home and look up the phone numbers for these people we were thinking it was.  Well, we did...  And it wasn't the number!  So then I was baffled again.  Who did we know that has lived in Minnesota who would give us baby stuff?  So Jeremy said, "Look up the new number."  We did.  And thank goodness for google (haha... well, maybe).  It totally pegged the phone number owner!  And it was the couple we were thinking of!  So funny.  Oh, because, yes... There were baby items waiting for us when we got home!  And I have to say... I am so thankful to know the history of these items.  What a blessing!  And then, to top it off, they wanted to give them to us as a gift.  Which, we didn't really want.  (They had wanted it to be anonymous, but we were a little freaked out, and Karen told her husband it was creepy not to try to ease our minds... haha.).  Karen actually told me she had wanted to offer these things to me all along, but was worried she would offend me by offering me used baby things.  So they just decided to list it.  And then, when it was I who responded to their ad...  She said she saw it as a sign.  haha!  So we are going to make them dinner as payment.  We feel really badly they won't let us pay what they were asking (because it was already a good deal -- and now an even better one, since I know where it's from!), but we don't want to refuse a gift and kindness they were trying to offer.  So that's what we're going to do:  cook them dinner.  So here are the baby items we got from them (and below that is the baby papasan chair I got at a thrift store for $3.50!  It vibrates and sings and I just washed it up nicely :).

And now I call that our Craigslist caper!  Anyway, it was a late night for Jeremy and I.  And we didn't get to sleep in as much as we had hoped to on Saturday...  But that's okay.  We got up and got ready for Benjamin's 7th birthday party!  They have limited parking where they live, so Jeremy and I picked up my mom as well as Desiree and Emily. And we headed over.  We just had pizza, ice cream, and cake and hung out.  Watched him open his presents.  Then we headed out a little after 3 so we could take my mom home and then take the girls home and then go to Wal-Mart.  By the end of the day, I was tired, so our date night ended up being on Friday rather than Saturday :).

Oh yeah, and there's a picture of Emily and Uncle Jeremy.  She was too short to see the cake during "Happy Birthday." 

So, it was a great (and full!) first weekend of no work for Jeremy ;).