Discomfort

So I'm going to try to not post what I've already said, but...pregnancy brain...

House update:

We're 3 weeks away! YAY! We're coming up on the final preparations and I can't even explain how much I can't wait for all this to be done. It's so stressful. I can't imagine trying to do this in a place where we didn't already live! It'd be impossible. We've been on the phone with realtors almost everyday trying to pin down where the sellers are with the work orders. The hard part is that they don't want to use the same companies as we've gotten quotes from so they've been busy getting their own quotes, which I really do understand. They want to make sure they're getting the best deal for their money. The issue has been just making sure that they're using an accredited contractor and mold clean-up company and not just some cousin's, brother-in-law's, best friend. We just want to make sure it's done right so we don't have to do it again down the road! But looks like they're taking the proper measures and we're finally moving along. The next stresses include our appraisal to pass for the FHA loan, and then packing packing packing. We have so much stuff, I just look around and I don't even know where to start. Once we get some boxes and just get going I'm sure it'll go pretty fast.

Baby update:

As I said, all this house stuff has made me a basket case, which I'm sure pregnancy hormones are helping along. Sleep is pretty hard to come by, and when it actually happens I wake up SO sore. I wake up every time I have to roll over. And in addition to that my hips and lower back/abdomen are killing me the next morning. I kinda stagger to the couch and die until Alysha's done with breakfast and then she gets to watch tv while I take a warm shower and try to loosen up. 7 weeks left! ;) Despite the stress, I've been SO much better at keeping my blood pressure down this time. Fortunately. This time, last time, I was put on bed rest for a week while we did tests to see if I had pre-eclampsia. (I didn't). I would not be able to handle bed rest this time!
We're pretty anxious for this house stuff to be over so we can concentrate on baby stuffs. Loren and I were talking last night and it hasn't even become real yet because with Alysha by this point baby stuff had completely taken over our lives. It's all we thought about and spent all our time getting stuff and making sure everything was ready for her arrival. This time we've been SO busy with tax stuff, house stuff, and running after AlyRae, that we haven't even started to get baby stuff ready. It's just going to have to wait. So baby girl stay in there til after March 4th, k! Then we'll have plenty of time to buy a new car seat, set up the crib, wash baby clothes, and prepare for you to join our family. :)
We are also trying to cement a name. Right now we're fairly sure that her first name with be Evelyn. (Evy) We've been coming back to it for the entire pregnancy. But a middle name is a little difficult this time. When we decided on Alysha, Renae came instantly. Loren likes Evelyn Jane. I like Evelyn Claire. I guess we'll give it some more time :). As I said 7 weeks left!

Finally Some Good News

So today we finally got the sellers signed forms back! They've agreed to fix the roof :). Loren got to go up and look at it today with a mold specialist. He said it basically looks like whoever redid the roof 9 years ago just covered up the damage with another layer instead of ripping it out and replacing it. Just laziness. And maybe a little bit of the previous owners lack of desire to pay for the work it would be. Anyway it's good news for us because it appears to have been a slow problem over the past 10 years and it's so much better than it could have been. Either way we're happy to know that they're going to take us seriously and fix the problem so we aren't faced with having to walk away from this house that we are excited to be moving into. :)

Also had a DR appointment this week and was very happy to discover that my blood pressure is still perfectly normal. This is the time in my last pregnancy that it started going really high and I had to pass tests and stuff, but not so far! I also passed my glucose test with flying colors which is really amazing with the amount of chocolate that I eat. :) This baby has a serious sweet tooth. :)

A Home?

It's been a wild few weeks. I'm a little anxious to see what my blood pressure's going to look like at my DR appointment tomorrow morning...

After looking at about 30 more houses we put another offer in on a 5 bedroom house off Woodruff. And after a bit of negotiations our offer was accepted. I still feel like we're paying a bit more than the house is worth...but what do I know about houses? :). So then we had our inspection. It was REALLY well. There wasn't anything that was considered to be a major problem, or anything that Loren doesn't feel comfortable fixing himself. The sellers have not been to careful so there were a bunch of fire hazards, but once all their stuff gets out of there those issues will be eliminated! We were congratulating ourselves until he got to the attic. The roof was redone about 9 years ago so we figured all was well. But not so. Probably when they redid the roof, someone stepped through it! Because of the snow we couldn't tell how they fixed that situation, but they did a sloppy, lazy job of it however it was done. Because of it, the fan from the bathroom has been emptying all the moisture into the roof and it was really weak and yucky. So now we've put in that they need to get it fixed before we continue on. We didn't know if they maybe didn't know about it? Or maybe they didn't know it was so bad? Or maybe they're just really dishonest people, either way, hopefully they can see the light and accept to fix it or we'll have to walk away. Again. Their realtor seemed to think it wouldn't be that big of a deal for them to fix it, so hopefully he's right. I worry about the snow issue and this is not a very great time of year to be redoing a roof. We're supposed to hear back by tomorrow.

Then it's been kinda haunting me that I needed to check our car seat and see when it expires. Lo and behold I was stupid when buying it secondhand, and it expired while we were using it with Alysha. So now we're faced with the dilemma of buying a new one, buying another secondhand one, or possibly using this one for a month until we can afford a new one. Luckily we still have about 2 months until the baby decides to make an appearance (hopefully).

Despite these issues we've been having, I'm still so happy with the decision I made to quit my job. I'm so much happier being with Alysha everyday. And she's better behaved too. Or maybe it's just that I'm not as tired by bedtime so I have more patience for her acting up! :) We also haven't eaten out NEARLY as much with me staying home. And amazingly the house it a bit cleaner :) Mission accomplished.

January Blues

Well we lost that house too. Just by a couple of hours! It was a pretty sad way to start out the new year. But we moved on and saw about 35 more houses that week. I'm exhausted! All that house hunting got me pretty cranky by the end of the week. But we might have found another one. It's a well taken care of 5 bedroom house. We love it, but we need them to come down in price about 5 grand. So we'll see if they're willing. :)

Now to take down my Christmas tree......

Flipper

Well we went house hunting again today. And we might have struck gold! After seeing a couple houses that we weren't quite thrilled with, we found another house that had been flipped. The man finished about a month ago and so we'd be the first in there since the remodel and it's beautiful! 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and in a perfect location. :) We are hoping to put an offer down on Monday or Tuesday, so stay tuned!

Christmas Festivites

These few weeks we've stayed SO busy! Between my doctor appointment, Alysha's doctor appointment, Loren getting the flu twice, Alysha and me both getting the flu while Loren was out of town, and all of us having head colds, it's a miracle we're alive! :)
2 weeks ago I made the decision to quit my job. I'd been talking about it since before Thanksgiving and the moment finally presented itself. I felt bad at first. I didn't want to see myself as a quitter. After all I'd only been at this job since August, but I really felt like it was the right thing to do. And now I'm even more confident that it's definitely the right thing to do! I love being home with Alysha again where I can teach her what I want her to know and not have all the outside influences teaching her naughty behaviors. And I feel like I can take better care of our house, our nutrition (or lack of...), and myself much better when I work in the home. I feel like I'm a happier wife for Loren and a better mommy to our babies. So now on to January, where I learn how to clean again! ;)
We made the decision a few months ago to stay home for Christmas this year. And I was really looking forward to making our own traditions and just enjoying it the 3 of us! We went Christmas shopping a few weeks ago, drove around and saw Christmas light displays, decorated a Gingerbread Train, and baked cookies for Santa. We did spend Christmas Eve with some friends. Eating pizza, opening jammies, and watching Arthur Christmas. Alysha is having SO much fun with other kids now! I love being able to go over to houses and she can just play without TOO much supervision. Preparations for Christmas were really fun too. She helped me decorate the tree while Loren was out of town for a week, she helped with the baking, and she handed me tape while I wrapped. :). She also LOVED all the Christmas songs and movies that we get to enjoy just this time of year. Christmas morning was pretty smooth...She didn't get a lot of good sleep the night before so she was a bit grouchy. Once all the presents were opened up we put her back down for a nap. And then the rest of the day was fairly pleasant. :) She's really fun to watch with her new baby doll from our secret santa and with her Little People house. Loren did a great job of shopping for me too. He got me some new clothes that I can wear with my rapidly expanding belly. I love that he always tries to make sure I'm comfortable. He's really considerate while I'm just hormonally imbalanced.
It turned out to be a blessing that we hadn't planned to go anywhere this year because Saturday morning our car wouldn't start. A pulley that we'd been putting off getting fixed for months finally bit the dust and the car couldn't hold a charge so we weren't going anywhere. We planned on just settling into our house until Wednesday after the holidays were over, but a friend of our called to check on plans for Christmas Eve, and Loren told her about our van and asked if they wouldn't mind picking us up for dinner instead of us driving over there, and she mentioned that her brother was a mechanic and he was working that day and gave us his number. So lucky us, he had the van fixed by Monday afternoon for much less that it would have cost us other places. What a Christmas miracle! We're discovering the hardships of having only 1 car, but it's still cheaper than having a car payment on a 2nd car each month. :) Loren and I both agree that we'd rather wait until we can pay for a car outright, rather than having to take out a loan.
Speaking of loans, our house search starts again next week. We would really like to move out of the apartment before the baby comes and we're starting to run out of time! 13 weeks and counting!! :D

Welp

Well we lost the house. The bank accepted a different offer, so we are back in the search again. Which I'm a little bit mixed about. I felt pretty sad when we first found out, but now I'm ok. As I think I said before, I didn't feel comfortable with the area of town that the house was in. And it didn't have a garage, or grass...And this kinda gives us another chance to step back and look at where we're at again. We're comfortable here, but we'd like to move for sure. This gives Loren another chance to apply in Utah again and see what we might be able to get.
In other news Aly is growing great. She's expanding her vocabulary like a crazy person. She talks constantly and she's started repeating the words of songs in the car, which is super cute. But it's making me a little bit more aware of what I'm watching on tv while she's awake, or the music I'm blasting in the car. (She loves Tonight, Tonight by Hot Chelle Rae btw) She's also taken to playing with her doll a lot more too. It's fantastic! I'm so glad she's getting more into creative play and not just getting into my stuff anymore. She's going to be a good big sister. And I'm so excited for Christmas. She'll love it! She loves Santa. But she'll love him even more when she see what he brings her this year. :)
The baby girl is also growing fabulously! She moves around just as much as her sister does. I'm very excited for her to get here in just 16 short weeks!