BIIIIGGGGG UPDATE!!

It has been far too long. It's crazy has fast life goes and how
quickly it can slip away and not be recorded!! Derek and I are going
through some of the most monumental stages of life currently and I
have barely blogged a word about it! I would feel extremely guilty,
but in all honesty, I haven't had the time. Maybe after I finish this
post, all of this will be more understandable. Let's see...where to
start...

Firstly, I am 20 weeks pregnant today. So that means that I'm halfway
there! Yeah! The pregnancy has started taking a turn for the better
and I rarely get sick/nauseated at night. This is a HUGE relief to me
considering everyone says that the sickness will pass around 12-13
weeks and I was still puking at 16 weeks. I finally have a little
belly! People at work still continue to tease me about lying that I'm
pregnant or that I'm not eating enough since I am barely even showing.
I think this is mostly because it is my first pregnant, so my body has
never had to stretch before. Additionally, I think I am carrying the
baby inside mostly which has caused me to start having heartburn as
well as some shortness of breath if I walk uphill for long periods of
time or decide to do a random sprint. Now, I'm not some fatty who sits
all day. I do have to say that in the ER I am not really able to just
chill, I still do a LOT of walking. haha, just had to make that
distinction.

I got into a car accident (I was rear-ended) at 16 weeks, which was SO
not awesome. It caused me to miss more work, have bad headaches, and
need to go to physical therapy. Not to mention the fact that I feared
for my sweet baby's life, had to go to the ER, and cried a lot.
Luckily, I did get an ultrasound out of it :) My OBGYN tried to tell
the sex of the baby then, but the umbillical cord was perfectly
covering the spot! I was a little disappointed, but happy everything
was ok. The problem with it all, is the headache of dealing with the
after effects. My car needs to get repaired, our bike rack was
totalled, I'm hurt, and the insurance company doesn't want to pay for
my needed treatment. So, I got a lawyer. Now I have to get all these
documents for the lawyer AND both he and my OBGYN do not want me to
settle until after the baby is born in case there are any long term
effects that happened to my baby. **sigh**

I FINALLY felt the baby move this past week. I know that sounds really
sad, but I didn't want to lie and say I felt something when I didn't,
so I waited until I was absolutely sure. It's a REALLY faint little
kick/flutter. I'm getting REALLY excited though! Oh, and I should also
say that...WE ARE HAVING A BOY!!!! We technically weren't supposed to
find out until this Tuesday, but let's just say that working in a
hospital has its advantages :) I have bought some things for the baby,
including super cute outfits, bouncer, and washtub. But as for a crib
and furniture, nope. This is a little bit nerve racking considering
our next piece of news...


So Derek and I almost bought a house last fall. I was so excited to
get that house, it was my "dream" house. But then, it fell though.
Derek and I did some long hard soul searching and decided that if we
wanted to be "smart," we would wait to buy a house, get completely out
of debt, save 20% down for a house, and THEN buy a house. We
calculated that if we stuck to our budget, we could have that saved in
about...3 years. We were stoked and commited to our decision. But then
we decided to buy a bed with matching bedframe so that we wouldn't
have to sleep in the bed my grandfather slept in, bought a dresser
because the one we bought from walmart for me fell apart, then my dog
decided to try to die on us and have a few thousand dollar surgery,
etc etc and the list goes on. So, needless to say, my husband and I
realized that acheiving our "get out of debt" goal had not been going
as plan...as in we weren't even really going in the right direction.
haha. Well, Derek started getting these ideas about how maybe it would
be better for us to buy a house, instead of wasting our money on rent
for years and years. We looked into what it would cost to cancel our
contract at the apartment complex we were staying at and realized that
it would be a small fortune.
We forgot about the idea for a couple months, and then one day Derek
and I realized that both of our families were out of town and we had
the entire weekend to ourselves. So we did some errands and then the
bright idea popped into our head to go to this neighborhood with new
houses for sale that we had fantasized about going and seeing many,
many times. Derek and I went and toured 5 different houses, but only 2
of them were in our price range. There was one that we both liked, but
it was too expensive...Luckily, the very last one we saw, which was in
our price range, we REALLY liked! Derek and I ended up finding out
that we could build it, which we liked the idea of so that we could
save money...WELL, to make a LONG story short, we were ABOUT to put an
offer in to build the house, when we found out that the house that we
really liked went down in price by $10,000!!! So we decided to go
through and look at it again.

It all happened extremely fast. We went and looked at the house,
realized that we loved it, and 2 days later we put in an offer. Two
days after that we received an answer saying that the builder accepted
our offer. That was on the 15th of June. We closed on our house 21
days later. Now that I look back there are a few things I have to say
when buying a house.
1) You better be ready to have every aspect of your life analyzed
and investigated. You will lose all privacy when it comes to your
financial life. Derek and I had to write letters explaining why our
drivers licenses did not match our current residence (mine was my
parents because I wanted to keep a stable address on my license).
Derek had to get receipts showing that deposits into our account were
reimbursement from business trips he had taken etc. etc. We had to
give social security numbers, household information, what we intended
to use the property for etc. I was about to ask them if they wanted a
blood sample too!!!

2) If you think you have enough money saved, make sure you have an
additional $5,000 to spend. The following story will help explain.
Derek and I are young newlyweds who really don't know a ton about
buying houses or what new houses come with. Needless to say, we did
not notice that our house did not come with blinds until the day we
moved in. We assumed the refrigerator on display in the house was
included (which we found out it wasn't a week before close. We also
thought a garage door opener woulld be installed before we closed. All
of these assumptions were wrong. We also noticed the first time that
we went to use the bathroom that there were no toilet paper holders or
towel racks in any of the bathrooms. ALSO, because we live in an HOA,
our grass has to look perfect. Therefore, a lawn mower was a must.
SOOOOO...one refrigerator, a house full of blinds, a garage door
opener, and bathroom necessities, and a lawn mower later, we are
beyond broke. hahaha. But no worries, luckily Derek and I will be able
to get everything paid off soon (as long as circumstances allow. Which
we are learning can change any minute).

Anyway, Derek and I are loving every minute of our new house, as is
Baxter. Baxter LOVES our yard, both front and back. Although he has
already been gracious enough to dig a few huge holes that we have
tried to fix with sand (ay ay ay). I love my new kitchen and just
being able to say that we have a place called home. Derek and I have
been married 3 years and have moved 7 times already. We were talking
about it last night and we feel like we're just staying at the house
for a few months and then moving again. Because that's really all
we've ever known our entire married existence.

But trust me, we aren't leaving this house!!! We have already had a family over to eat, both of our own families, and I'm sure there will be more people to come. Cheri and Laurel came over the other night and we played phase 10. Derek won...DANG IT!!




Here are some pictures, I'll add captions later!!