It's a.......

BOY! John is ecstatic, and Jenna is so happy to be getting a baby brother. Let the planning begin!

Back in the Saddle

Wow, I can't believe I have let this blog sit for almost a year. I logged on earlier and read through the few posts I have and really enjoyed remembering them. I guess thats why people blog after all (lol). I remember feeling like I didn't have anything worth writing about, but SO MUCH has happened this past year. Let us recap:



April- We closed on our house, thankfully it went off without a hitch.



May- We moved into our house after working on it nonstop for about two weeks.



June-July Turned 28. Worst Summer of my life, without a doubt. Went to my yearly check-up only to discover that I had an ectopic pregnancy. I didn't even know I was pregnant. Thankfully avoided surgery and losing my tube, but the treatment and recovery was horrible. My mother was hospitalized again with another infection and spent 6 weeks in a nursing home.



August- Cleared to try again for a baby, my mom has recovered. Finally getting back to normal.



September- Conceived our little miracle on the first try. I was very nervous, to say the least. We were very afraid of another ectopic.



October- Saw our little peanut on U/S, tucked nicely in my uterus, with a very strong heartbeat.



November-Not much to report. Holidays, football, and family get togethers.



December- My first born turns four. She is growing so fast and turning into such a young lady. She is also very excited to be a big sister. We almost get our first White Christmas, it turned the ground white, just not enough to measure.



Here we are in January. Of course the most exciting thing about this month hasn't happened just yet, but it will tomorrow. We will find out if Jenna gets a brother or sister. I am so glad that she doesn't want one over the other. She just wants a baby to love. I will of course post again as soon as we know, I can't wait!

What a month!

Wow! This has been a month. To re-cap, we started out on the 8th getting approved for a mortgage(praise God!), but that same day my mom ended up having emergency surgery to remove an infection in her leg. It was a VERY emotional day. She ended up being hospitalized for 5 days before coming home on IV meds for the next 4 weeks. During all of this we went through making an offer on the first house we looked at, then finding out someone we knew had put in an offer on the same house(being hugely dissappointed) and then(2 days later) hearing that they changed their minds and resended the offer. Then there was the waiting, waiting on Fannie Mae (owns the house) to either accept or counter our offer, after 4 days they did counter, and we accepted but we had to wait 3 more days for them to basically say ok. We waited on them to actually sign the contract (another 3 days), and now we have to wait on the apprasial to find out if they will give us the loan(apparantly USDA is alittle picky). All while taking care of my mom, being a mom and a wife. It's all very stressful, but I'm getting through it. I just hope April is a little calmer, at least just a little.

We really love the house, as does Jenna. She already knows her way around the house, and even which room is going to be hers. By the way, she wants purple walls and purple carpet, she is such my child. I'm just praying everything continues to go smoothly, I don't know how I'm going to explain it to her if something happens and we don't get the house. But, as I continue to believe and say, "If it's meant to be, it will work out."

That was quick

It took us a total of 10 days from mortgage approval to contract date to find a house. I have to say I'm impressed and feel very blessed that this could be easy. Don't get me wrong it wasn't with some ups and downs, specifically word of another offer on the house, but everything seems to be working out nicely. Now, to survive the next 60 days until closing and the actual closing. Then I can really relax.

Why, hello there

Wow, it's been awhile since I posted anything. I guess I felt like I never really had anything to write about. But thats all about to change. No, I'm not pregnant, but, we are about to embark on a house hunt. John got his mortgage approval Tuesday and we are so excited to find a house. We have never done anything like this, and have no idea what we're getting ourselves into, but I think we're up for it. We know to expect ups and downs (we've already experienced a down one day in) and I'm sure we'll learn alot. That's what I plan on sharing here. The looking, the excitment, the disappointment and the processes we will go through to get a home of our own.



Onto house #1



We looked at this one last night in a spur of the moment kind of thing. It's in Mt. Olive, which is exactly where we want to be. It's a 3br 2ba with full basement, 2 car garage, fenced in backyard all on a corner lot. Yeah, I know, amazing right??

(picture courtesy of Realtysouth.com)

John and I fell in love with it. It is everything we wanted in a house. It is a foreclosure and has a few issues inside, but it's all cosmetic. The only other worry with it is some moisture on one wall in the basement. We plan on going back Friday after all the rain to look at it again. With all this being said, we also had our first "downer" as well. We got a huge wakeup call talking to our agent about all the initial costs, not even counting closing. I guess we thought we would just find us a house and move right in, who knew it didn't work that way?! It turns out we need a little dough for the appraisal, inspections, and earnest money, which is money you pay with the offer to let them know you're a serious buyer(something we learned about last night). We have a little saved up, but not enough, so we just have to wait a little longer until we have the funds. But we learned alot and next time we'll be much more prepared.

Even though I'm in love with the house, it is only the first one, there will be more. There is still a chance it can work itself out, but I'm putting my faith in God and only he knows what will happen. If it's meant to be, he will find a way.

Well, I did it.

I got the H1N1 vaccine. I have been going back and forth on it since it was released. I was unsure about getting it because it was developed so quickly. How, after being made so fast, could it be good, safe, and work effectively?

It came down to the fact that I work in a diagnostic center where I see 75 or so patients a day with various medical problems and illnesses. Many of these patients come in with flu-like symptoms and come to us to get tested. I am also a mother to an almost 3 year old, and a wife. I had to protect my family, I would feel horrible if I brought something that home with me. It also helped that it was free and provided to me by my employer.

Hopefully this was the right choice for me, and I hope everyone else stays healthy regardless of whether or not you decide to get it.

Halloween recap

I love Halloween. Especially now since I have a child. She is finally old enough to comprehend what's going on and enjoy it. She loved to go to all the Halloween stores and make the ghosts and goblins scream and moan. She thought it was the coolest thing. I'll never forget one time when we went to party city and there was a clown animatronic that took his head off, and Jenna thought it was Ronald McDonald!!

Halloween Eve Jenna helped me carve a Pumpkin. She loved getting her hands down in there and getting all the seeds out. But, she was also very ready to clean them afterwards. We went with our family theme, "pirates" and I carved a pirate ship.

Jenna was a Snow Princess this year. It worked out great because of how cool it was outside. I have to give props to the husband for the costume though. I was so indecisive about her costume. We went to three stores and nothing seems good to me. So, we went to Target and John walked in, saw it, and said that would be her costume, and I loved it.

Halloween night was our big annual "grown up" party. Jenna stayed with John's parents, but she was completely OK with that seeing as they took her to J. Alexanders and then Boo at the Zoo. We did take her to do a little Trick-or-Treating that afternoon, so we didn't miss out on that. We dropped her off with Nini and Papa and began our prepping for the night.

I love dressing up for Halloween and so does John. Although, John's costumes are always very interesting. Last year he was Hunter S. Thompson from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and this year he was John McClain from Die Hard. I was a Warrior Princess (according to the packaging).

It was a fun night. A lot of people came and we all had a great time. I cooked tons of food for the party and we had plenty of drink choices. There was a lot of Beer Pong played as well as Guitar Hero, but I'll spare you the other details of the night. Just know that our living room was still occupied by a few the next morning.