Back From Break

Had to go back to work today, but since I worked on a syllabus for most of my classes before I left, I was actually more prepared for class than I thought I'd be. I did enjoy my break a lot, and I'm looking forward to more days off this part of the year (Spring Break, Easter Break, random days off here and there), but it wasn't so bad going back to school. Got to snuggle with my nephew though, so it wasn't all bad. He's pretty laid back, except when he gets hungry or needs a change but that's every baby. He's pretty cool around new people and everything, very serious though, you really have to coax a smile out of him. It's super adorable when he does smile though, so totally worth the extra effort.

3 Generations :)

The first family picture since 2008. Mom likes that both her grandkids are in this picture, even if one is in his "handy carrying case" ;)

As tradition in my family (which I've come to find out, it really is just my family that does this), we also do a goofy picture.

Andy is listening to my belly with a cup, which is an reference to an old picture my parents have from when they were pregnant with me--one of my uncles is doing the same thing to my mom's belly. We also played Euchre for the first time in many years as a family, which was my dad's Christmas present. It's a four player game, but Jackie was eager to learn and sat by and was awesome as we explained rules to her.

1-1-11

Andy wanted lunch with his sisters for Christmas and that's just what my sister gave him. We went out to Glory Days (so Sarah could show off our nephew) with Andy, Jackie, me, Sarah, and the baby. It was pretty nice to hang out, eat, and catch up. I haven't seen Andy and Jackie since our wedding more than two years ago, and I hadn't met the baby until they came out! I quite like having the baby around so I can practice a bit ;)

Another first today, Mom's first tattoo! It's been almost a year of coaxing (since February or March when Sarah and I got ours) but she finally said that "when Andy comes visit, I'll think about it" when a summer trip didn't happen, she switched to"when Andy comes to visit, I'll get one." We held her to it and made it our Christmas present to her from the three of us (we thought she might back out if she paid for it herself). She also talked Sarah into getting a similar one (Sarah's is a bit bigger and more intricate) at the same time. Had I not been pregnant, I would have gotten one too. I never thought we'd be spending family time at a tattoo parlor ever, but there we were!

This time last year...

This time last year:

-I got a countertop dishwasher for Christmas and was crazy excited. Still have it and it still works!

-Dan and I took our vacation right after Christmas up to Philadelphia where we had an awesome time visiting various museums and eating cheesesteaks.

-There was still tons of snow on the ground from the storm in mid-December. We hadn't had Snomageddon yet.

-Dan and I were both working two jobs. Each of us only had one we actually liked.

-The promise of the new year was as exciting as it always is, but not for any particular reason.

This year:

-I'm 5 months pregnant and will officially be 20 weeks (halfway!) in a few days.

-Dan's still job hunting but gets more hours at the job he actually likes.

-I love my new Big Girl Job, working with kids of all ages keeps me on my toes! Plus I got paid for this whole week off after Christmas!

-Instead of new appliances, we're looking at getting a house--something that seemed so far away last year. We'll have a house before the baby comes and that makes me so happy!

-Sadly we did not manage to take a vacation this year, due to finances and then the baby news (we're now saving for the baby). I'm hoping we can take a babymoon before May but I have a feeling we'll have a lot tied up in the house once we get one.

The promise of the new year this time is exciting because we'll be moving into our first house, having our first baby, and that's all within the first five months of the year! Because school will be off, I'll have all summer to play with the baby before I have to go back to work, so much better than maternity leave anywhere else ;)

The picture above is me meeting my nephew Jimmy for the first time ever! He's such a sweetie and totally laid back about whoever's holding him. Andy and Jackie are out here for a visit (their Christmas present from my parents) but I'm totally only visiting with them to snuggle with the baby! More pictures of their visit to come since today Sarah is taking the four of us out to lunch (her present to Andy) and all the girls (and probably Jimmy) are going for pedicures before my mom gets HER FIRST TATTOO later tonight! It's going to be a rocking New Year's Day and I won't even have to drink ;)

House Hunting

This is the house we are in love with! It's the one Dan had already seen and I wanted to see in person (pictures on the internet are simply not enough for a purchase of this magnitude). I love it! It's been well maintained, unlike some of the others we saw, and it's actually able to be moved into! There is work that needs to be done, but it's all stuff that can wait until the spring and it's also stuff we can take our time with and do in stages. It's also mostly pretty easy stuff that we can do ourselves or bribe family members to help with (beer works well as a bribe). We're going over to the realtor's tomorrow morning to talk contracts, as of today there wasn't another offer on the house. Our realtor wasn't overly, unrealistically optimistic about us getting the house. She said things that made sense (it's an estate sale, they'll want to settle ASAP, it's the holidays and there aren't many people looking at houses this week, etc.) and I'm really hoping and praying that this is our house because we could be living in it as soon as January--well before the baby comes!

Because it's an estate sale (which means the owner died and family members are the ones selling it) there's still a lot of furniture in the house. Some things had sticky notes with names on them, so I figure kids and grandkids will be coming to pick those up, but we mentioned to our realtor that if they wanted to leave anything we would be fine with that! Since we're coming from an apartment and first time buyers, we don't have that much furniture and anything we don't have to buy right away would be awesome. The realtor said that the seller would probably really like that because it's one less thing they'd have to do or pay for before settling the house. I'm hoping the couch stays at least (we still have my parents old futon) and maybe some dishes so we can have more than 2 guests over at a time ;)

What a day!

It feels like I only manage to muster up a picture/post every other day, but yesterday was a lot of sitting around doing nothing except laundry. Today was much better! We got to see our baby again today AND go house-hunting! We found out that we are having a BOY! I'm only slightly disappointed about not buying girly things, but we went to Babies R Us after the appointment to buy HIM something and there are tons of fun boy clothes too! I really am happy with a boy because now all our subsequent children will have a big brother to look out for them :)

I had to drink a bunch of water before the appointment so my bladder would be full, they have you do that if you're under 24/25 weeks pregnant because of the size of the baby. The tech was nice though and let me go halfway through the exam to see if the baby would turn around more. She was pretty sure he was a boy before I went, but the placenta was in the way and it was difficult to tell, after I went it was pretty dang clear! Not as clear as some of the pictures I've seen online, but he's definitely not a girl! Baby's weight is 12oz (average weight for 19 weeks is 8.5oz, he's even big for 20 weeks which is 10oz), heart was beating at 125bpm (which is good), we could see all his bones and hands and feet and everything looked good. She said as big as the baby is now, she's guessing the due date to actually be May 18th instead of the 23rd, but I think he's just a big baby. He starts "bulking up" this week anyway, adding layers of fat to help keep him warm after he's born, although I don't think that has much to do with length. Again, I think he's just going to be a big baby. Dan was 10 pounds when he was born and 22 inches! If my due date changes, that makes me 20 weeks instead of 19, which makes me halfway through! I'll stick with 19 though, I made a chart to put on my board at school and I don't feel like re-doing it. Although, the new due date could get on maternity leave sooner, hmm...

House hunting was fun, I like our realtor. She's known Dan's family for years through St. Jane's and that's awesome. She gave us a huge stack of listings to look through and we have more houses to look at tomorrow morning. The houses in our price range aren't going to be huge, top-of-the-line houses, but there are definitely some nice places in good shape that we can afford. There are some scary places too! One of the ones we're looking at tomorrow Dan has already seen, we're going so I can see it in person too. It's less than a 1/4 mile from where we're living now, which would make moving pretty easy!

Today has been pretty amazing. Life is so good right now :)

Belated Present

I've been working on this scarf for my mom since summer time. Theo and I went on a yarn crawl and I bought the yarn from the store we went to. It's a wool blend and it's knit in a tube, so when it's finished, I will block it to lay it flat and that way it will have essentially two layers. I'm using a size 6 circular needle, which is why it's taking so long to knit. Technically, I'm stopping two stripes sooner than the pattern calls for, but I want to make sure that I finish and give it to my mom while we're still in the throws of winter so she can wear it and enjoy it longer. Initially, I didn't know if I would have enough yarn left over to make the fringe that the pattern calls for, but since I'm stopping early, I'll be able to have plenty of leftover yarn and am looking forward to my first dabble in fringe.