The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

Well, it's been several months since my last post, and if you recall I was planning on really getting going with this blog. I had a lot of ideas for posts with themed days and everything!! So much for that, aye?!!

What actually ended up happening is this... My husband and I both got second jobs for a few months to try and knock out the last of our credit card debt...and that really kept us rather busy!! Then we found out in November that a little munchkin was on the way...so I quit the second job right before Thanksgiving and ended up spending most of December on the couch dealing with morning sickness!! By the time the morning sickness was mostly gone I had to deal with a lot of nasty sinus issues, besides trying to get the apartment into a tip-top organized state so as to make our move a lot easier.

Yes, we moved!! From a 714 square foot apartment into a 1604 square foot house that seems quite huge!! Though I never really saw myself as being a suburban wife and mother, I guess I will be now, as we are planning on this being the house that our children are raised in!! Fortunately, our little suburb is still fairly close to stores so I can either drive with a minimum of gas, or if I can talk my husband into it we may be able to get a Christiana-type bicycle for hauling kiddoes and groceries around!! The suburb we are in is never gonna get too big...and we have a pond right behind our back yard!!

One really nice thing about the move is that it's a LOT easier to be organized since we have more cabinets and space to organize it in (no more propping the bed up on concrete blocks to create space under it for plastic storage tubs)!! The tub of Christmas stuff and the tree went into our little attic space and the shelves that were in our apartment storage room are now in the garage to hold the few tubs of things that we need to be able to get to more readily and for any bulk grocery purchases. We also have room for a small chest freezer so I can buy things on sale and freeze them...but we'll have to wait on that for a while.

In our kitchen, everything has a space and we'll even have empty cabinets for a while...which I'm sure will eventually get used for bigger pots and pans (when I start cooking for more than two people) and for art paper and other crafty stuff for kiddoes to do at the kitchen table!! We decided to put our bookshelves in a corner of our bedroom with a comfy seat to make a reading nook...which looks pretty awesome, if I do say so myself!!

We will fix one of the bedrooms up as a nursery very soon (once the last of our stuff gets unpacked out of there) and the other bedroom is going to be our guest bedroom/crafting room. I will work on my sewing projects in there whenever company is not staying with us. Pictures of everything will be forthcoming!!

Now that I've gotten everyone up to speed on what's been going on in my absence from blogging, I can get back to regular blogging on all sorts of interesting topics such as homemade household cleaners, freebies and giveaways to make your $$ stretch, organizing projects, and other ways to simplify and organize your life...as well as passing on some favorite links to other blogs and websites!!

It's been a LONG time!!!

So...it was the beginning of September the last time I blogged here...eesh!! A LOT has happened since then!! Let's see if I can summarize things into topics.

Babies-- Josh and Kym just had their sixth baby (a little boy named Eli) on March 2nd, Steve and Syrena are expecting their first baby (a boy) in April, and David and Danielle are expecting their third baby (a boy) in May. In our Sunday School class between October and November there were five babies born...a little boy to the Brewers, a little girl to the Pitts, a little boy to the Carpenters, and one of each to the Treats!! WOW!! Kevin and Bethany welcomed their little boy into the world in December...and I know there were several other babies born to my MWF friends in recent months as well!! So is that all the baby news? Well, not quite!! Baby St. Clair is set to make his/her appearance on July 19th!! Yep, Brack's gonna be a daddy!!

Houses--Well, I know Todd and Leah moved houses several months ago, Kevin and Bethany moved into a house from their apartment in December, and Katy~* and Marks moved into a new house in February...but we have also moved!! After spending almost 2 1/2 years of married life in apartments, we moved on Valentine's Day into our new home!! It's sure been a lot of fun moving from 714 square feet to 1604 square feet!! We are almost settled in (except for the baby room...which we are currently using as an unpacking room) and pictures will be forthcoming!!

Work--Brack and I both picked up second jobs for a while from around the end of September. I worked at Panera several mornings a week and on the weekends until the day before Thanksgiving. Brack worked at Walmart several nights a week and on the weekends until the day before Christmas Eve. We really were working hard on getting the credit cards paid off before adding a mortgage to our budget...and it sure paid off!! The last card is very close to paid off now...so it was worth the extra work and tiredness for a while!! Now we are back to just one job each and are really enjoying having our weekends and evenings free again!!

Holidays & Guests--We spent Thanksgiving with my family and it was nice (though I was in the middle of dealing with morning sickness). Christmas was spent in Lubbock with the whole St. Clair bunch and was a lot of fun. After New Years we were able to go out to eat at a Romanian restaurant with Steve and Syrena and visit with them some and then go to a family get-together with all of my mom's extended family that evening...which though I was starting to have a bad time of it with my sinuses was still pretty nice. John and Dayana stayed over for the night after the get-together (with little Luke), so I was glad to spend a little time with them as well. My sister Susanna spent a week with us since the move and was a BIG help with getting the last odds and ends moved, the apartment cleaned out, and the garage painted!! I loved having her around...she's so sweet!! We had our first non-family guests last weekend when David and Danielle came with their kiddoes for a short visit. We had a great time and I'm really enjoying the fact that the extra space will make it so much easier to have people over!!

Random factoids-- After homeschooling his whole life, my little brother Andrew is now going to a Christian school!! He seems to like it and is already playing football and basketball!! He sure has grown up fast!! My little sis Rebekah isn't so little anymore, I guess!! She is engaged to be married!! They are planning for a June wedding soon after she finishes her high school work. I can't believe my littlest baby sis is actually ready for such a big step...I still think of her as my little "Monkey"!!

Well, I think that pretty much brings us up to date on everything!! I will try to be more consistent from here on out with this blog...should be easier once we have internet at home again...which is supposed to happen early next week!!