Sunday, February 19, 2012

Back on the Market

You might remember that we had our house up for sale last year for a LONG time.  And it didn't sell, despite the 30+ times that people came to see it.  (Translation:  despite the 30+ times I had to spend 2-3 hours cleaning it, fixing it up, buying/cutting flowers for vases to put on the tables, packing up my baby during what always ended up being her naptime, and for several months my dog too, and leaving my house for an hour or two with nowhere to go.) 

Yeah, I don't really like having my house on the market.  I once heard a friend describe it as "being forced to live in a museum, where you're not allowed to touch anything."  That's a pretty good description. 

Well, we're back on the market again.  We put the house back up last week, and within 24 hours, we had three showings scheduled - 2 for Saturday and one more Monday (tomorrow).  I guess I should be excited about that, but my past disappointments with this experience have conditioned me to not actually believe that showings lead to offers, much less sales.  It just seems ridiculous to have had more than 30 showings in the past, and NO OFFERS.  We're really hoping that we'll have a better experience this time, especially now that we've lowered the price again. 

Okay, time to change the subject.

In other news, my belly is still getting bigger, and we're getting close to finding out if this is a boy or a girl...hooray!  (James is still pretty sure it's a girl...)  I don't really care which it is, but I want to know so that I can start making some plans and choosing things.  (Hear that?  I'm talking as if I have money to go buy stuff...ha, ha, ha!) 

Belle still doesn't understand that she's going to be a big sister, even though I've talked to her about how there's a baby in mommy's belly.  Any time I mention it, she pulls up her shirt to show me her belly button and then hands me a baby doll.  I guess the whole connection between "belly" and "baby" isn't intuitive.  I can't really blame her, since it seems strange to me sometimes, too.  I guess she'll figure it out when Peanut makes an appearance during the summer. 

Sunday, February 12, 2012

16 Week Reveal

Here are some pictures of my 16 week belly, for those of you who haven't seen me in awhile.  I look HUGE already, even though I've only gained about 2 pounds.  Maybe Peanut will be a big baby, like their new cousin Josey!































Friday, February 10, 2012

Scrapbook

This post will not have anything to do with scrapbooking.  I just figured that I'd spill out whatever came into my head, and it will probably seem like a scrapbook of ideas when I'm done.  So what's been going on lately?  Hmmm...

Belle News
The Belle has been hilarious, as usual.  She got some kind of weird rash underneath the toes of her right foot, so we've been having to put two different ointments on it five times a day.  Then we have to make her wear socks to keep the ointment on, rather than rubbing it all off on the floor.  Unfortunately, one of her favorite activities is pulling off her socks and shoes.  Oh, well.  At least it's on there for a few seconds each time.  She must believe in art therapy, too, because I keep finding crayon drawings all over the house.  I'll need to go around and clean those up this weekend, since we're putting the house back on the market this Wednesday. 

House
So speaking of the house, if you'd like to buy it, let me know.  We still have to sell it, and it's a good price!  (Like, it will drain all of our savings to sell it to you at this price good.) 

Peanut
Peanut is doing well, too.  We had an obgyn appointment this week, and we got to take a quick sonogram look.  At first, Peanut was kicking like crazy, but when we tried to see his/her gender, suddenly he/she got very shy and squatted down with the umbilical cord between his/her legs.  For the record, James thinks that while Peanut was kicking, he saw that it was a girl, so he's pretty sure that's the case.  I guess time will tell, since we have a full ultrasound on February 28, where we're supposed to be able to tell the gender.  Hopefully Peanut won't be feeling shy then! 

James
Belle definitely got a fair share of her hilarious personality from her daddy.  As I type, he's watching Magpul rifle instructional videos in our living room and doing drills with his assault rifle.  I'm sitting in the far corner of the room, so that he doesn't accidentally point the gun at me, despite the fact that there is no ammo in the vicinity.  I keep hearing Chris Costa yell out "BUST 'EM!!"  Nice.

Work
Things have been extremely busy for me this past 6 weeks, since I've been writing the grant report for the seminary's Lilly SPE grant.  It's a lot of work, and I have to pull together a ton of information that is lodged in the brains of a lot of different people.  I'm probably 80% done, though, and I am really looking forward to handing this puppy off to someone else for final editing.  Hopefully it's not terrible, because at this point, I am too close to it to be able to tell.  You know, like when you have a baby that's ugly, but you can't tell because it's yours?  Hopefully this baby's not too ugly.

Me
I feel creaky, achy, and huge...and still pretty sick, but much better thanks to the prayers and the medicine.  And I'm only 16 weeks along...but my belly is already huge.  Maybe later I'll feel brave enough to actually have James take a picture, but I'm not sure.  I guess we'll see.  Poor Belle will soon not be able to sit on my lap, because it is already disappearing at an alarming rate.  I haven't gained much weight, though.  I guess being sick sort of balances out the expanding belly. 

Okay, I'm going to eat something and go to bed.  Goodnight.