Week 11

Life has been a little crazy over the last day or so, and I don't really want to get into it but I am glad that J and I are going to be making a few changes in our life. With a baby on the way we know that life is going to be completely different. And we might at well start making small changes now and part of that includes weeding out people who are not conductive to our family lifestyle. And with that, I am going to do a weekly pregnancy survey. I am excited to note all the changes that are going on. So here we go!

Survey Time:

How far along?: 11 weeks. How big is baby?: 2.5 inches long, .5oz. About the size of a large plum. 

Weight gain?: At my appointment 2 lbs. gained. Now, probably at least a pound or so more. Darn cake!Stretch marks?: None! Hopefully it will stay that way!Maternity clothes?: Not yet. But I do have to wear my belly band with 1 pair of pants. Sleep?: I sleep like a rock. Getting up once a night to pee. And nap time is 3:30pm. =)

Best moment this week?: Napping with my puppies. I think I sleep better with them on the couch. Food cravings?: I see things and then I HAVE to have them. Nothing constant though.  

Gender?: Don't know yet, but I am thinking boy. Movement?: Not yet. I can't wait though!Belly button?: Still there and looking normal!What I miss?: Drinking. I would love a glass of Lambic! I am pretty sure that's on the no-no list though. 

Labor signs?: Not yet and hopefully not for a long while! What I'm looking forward to?: Actually showing. I can see my baby bump but it could easily be mistaken for chubby. Milestone?: Next week will be be the end of the 1st trimester. 

Cable TV.

I am beginning to HATE T.V. 

From March to early September I did not pay for cable (or more accurately Dish). When I moved up here in September we did not have cable. We used Hulu.com and T.V channels like USANetwork.com and CBS.com. I loved this. We hardly watched TV because it's not like you can just sit on the couch and watch whatever is on. There are much less options. And I think that was a good thing! The only downside to not having regular TV was not being able to watch football. And that is pretty important in our house. On to the reason of why we even have cable TV anymore.

We have Dish TV. We are in a contract with Dish. We had been on "Dish Pause" while J was in basic and A school. Dish Pause is only 6 months long. September was month 6. We still have about another 6 months until our contract is up. *sigh* So I call up Dish and reinstate our service. And it's $100 buckeroos to just get a new dish installed. *double sigh* There are about 100 other things that I would love to spend $100 on. And then I get my bill today. $189 bucks. SERIOUSLY? I feel like we are being screwed! For TV that we can get for free! Granted the $89 is for a month and a half in service and $10 in taxed (that's a whole bunch of crap-ola to me!) but our regularly monthly charges will be about $60 a month! $60 DOLLARS! For TV we were previously getting for free! 


I love my husband. I really do. And I know he loves having cable. But I am pretty sure that we will be having a serious discussion about our TV watching habits come March. Because we will have a brand spankin new baby come April (uh...Mini panic attack! I am SOOOO not ready for baby!) and I am pretty sure that I can buy baby some lovely cloth diapers with those $60 we are wasting. PLUS, we spend entirely too much time watching TV anyway. 


How do you do it? Do you pay for cable? Is your bill much cheaper than ours? Do you watch online? Anyone know how to get live football online?
I am all about saving money and spending our (okay his) hard earned money on things that are important to US and TV is not all that important to me. 


Love,
L

Thursday 5

Here are the five words of the week:

Giddy

Jubilant

Ecstatic

Thankful

Giggly

Here's my 5! 

1. J and I got to see our lovely little swimmer! It makes this pregnancy feel so much more real. 
2. My AMAZING friend Amanda just found out she is preggers too and I think I may be happier for her than I am for myself. I am so excited to go thru this with her!
3. We have started our own little "Family Dinner Night" with some of the guys from J's shop. Not only are they super nice but they eat all of my food like it was the best thing they've had all week! These boys know how to make me feel good about my cooking skillz!
4. Today I went to lunch with an amazing Navy girl that I've met. She is so much fun! But on the down side, she is being based down in Southern California. While I now have a friend down there I get to visit, I wish she was staying here! I haven't met very many nice ladies here, but she is AWESOME!
5. Frisbee golf is fun! Well....I don't actually frisbee golf. But I go with my husband and "the guys" a few times a week and get my walk on with the puppies! It makes me happy to get outdoors and do something besides blog stalk and watch tv. 

Those are my top 5 thing's I am thankful for on the beautiful fall Thursday. I am beginning to see God's small blessings on my life a little better than I was last week. How is God blessing your life?

Love,

L

I'm in LOVE

This morning we got to see our little swimmer today! It was the first time we have seen him (or her) and it was so incredibly amazing. I have not felt pregnant until today. Seeing his little heart beat and legs kick was amazing. And he was just chillin' in there. It looked like he was kickin' back in a hammock. I'm in love!

While I know that there is a 50/50 chance that we will be having a girl, my MoLaw predicted (when I was like 17 BTW!) that J would be having boys and his older brother would be having girls. Lo and behold J's brother has two beautiful little girls. And I am pretty sure that we will be having boys. And that is fine with me. And if he ends up being a she then that is perfect too. A healthy baby is all we are praying for. But for now, I will be calling him a he. That is until we come up with a better nickname for him!

I am going to go back and stare at the little picture we have of him. So amazing. He actually looks like a baby!!!!

In Love,
L

Slacking

Do you ever have those days (weeks, months?) where you feel like you are slacking in so many areas of your life? This is where I am right now. And I think that talking about it is the 1st step in admitting a problem fixing the areas that need help.

My faith life has been seriously lacking. I am barely cracking open my bible and we have not been to church in FOREVER. Not even watching on line. How lazy are we? Yup, well aware.

Being home all day leaves me bored and boring. Even when there are a few things that I could be doing. I don't know if it is a pregnancy thing or the vacation mentality that I have going on, but it needs to stop. I need to get out of my pj's and pull on my big girl pants. Literally =)

Now on to my game plan:
1) Get dressed everyday. Before 12. Time to get back into real life where real people wear real clothes.
2) Crack open that bible lady! Pray! There are so many worries that I have right now and worrying is getting me nowhere. What I need is prayer. And why has that been the last thing on my mind? Oh right, because I seem to have forgotten that God not only needs to be the center of my marriage, but He needs to be the center of my life. I also got a recommendation on a nearby church. J and I have plans to attend this Sunday!
3) Make a goal everyday. Whether it is making dinner or lunch for my husband, going to the store to get those paper towels that we have been out of for days (oops!), or taking the dogs for a walk. I need to do something daily or I really will go crazy.

So there is my game plan. Now I just need to stick to it. And in effort to get a jump start on my game plan, my biggest prayer right now is that I find a job. And my prayer is that God places me exactly where I need to be. Where He wants me. He knows the needs of our family and He knows my heart. I pray that I have the motivation to start the job finding process and find the perfect place for me.

Any one have any advice on where to start?

Thanks for listening thru my whining.

Love,
Linz

P.S. I am so excited that I will finally get to see our baby-no-name! Tomorrow is our first ultrasound. I am thinking that it will finally feel real when I hear our babies heartbeat. I will be 10 weeks (I think!) on Saturday.

Oh Life...

Hardest part about moving 9+ hours away from home

1) It's lonely. Yeah, J's friends are nice, but what girl really wants to spend all her time with a bunch

of Navy boys? Can't y'all find some nice girlfriends for me to hang out with?

2) I miss my MoLaw's cooking. Uh, yum. And my Aunties. 

3) Husband's on duty. Oh joy. One more day to spend by myself. Did I say I was lonely?

4) Moving stinks. Can't I just wave my magic wand and have everything put away?

5) No cable means no football games. 

6) No Sunday football get togethers with family. 

7) Have I mentioned how good the food is at home? 

8) I can make it to Wal-Mart, the commissary, and the hospital. And that ends the list of places 

I know and know how to get to. 

9) Frisbee golf is not really fun if you have no idea how to throw a frisbee in the direction of the goal. 

10) My fantasy football team sucks. Which has nothing to do with moving or home, but

it does not make me a happy camper. 

I am happy that I am with my husband but man! I need a distraction! Sitting at home doing nothing but reading and watching Veronica Mar's is not good for my soul. Gonna do some home cooking to get myself out of this funk and onto a happier attitude!

Here's to a happier tomorrow!

Love, L

Bad Blogger

I have been a bad blogger. But in my defense, I have been moving. Friday my husband flew in, packed the house Saturday, drove up to Portland and stayed with friends, continued the drive on Sunday, unpacked the U-Haul Sunday as well, and then spent today unpacking boxes and putting our home together. WHEW!

And Washington is starting to feel like home. It sure helps having all of our stuff in the house and setting it up. And while we may still have tons of boxes left but at least we have all of our pictures up! We also have our oil burner going and it not only feels like home but smells like it too.

And now it will be mostly my job to unpack the rest of the boxes. Ugh...But it will feel so nice to be done! We are already thinking of things we would like to buy. And I am excited to maybe be finding these pieces at garage sells. Some night stands, a table for behind our couch, a desk or other table, also some frames, and decorations. I will not be finding these things all at once, but now I can be on the look out to find some cute pieces that I can refinish and make pretty again. EXCITED!

Well now I am off to sleep because I am SUPER tired these days.
Blessings,
L

Catch Up

It's been a few days since I have been on here and I have a lot to catch up on!!


Today I've been crossing things off the to do list and packing up my room. I am glad to say that my to do list is significantly shorter and will be almost completely crossed off tomorrow. And my room is mostly packed. My trunk is packed to the brim with clothes and shoes and I am proud to say that the back seat is still completely empty just waiting to be filled with odds and ends. And a dog or two. 


Yesterday was my last day of work. Very sad. My sister-in-law and her store sent me BEAUTIFUL flowers for my last day. I love that girl and her whole store. It was my (work) home away from home. The lovely folks at my store got me balloons, a Starbucks Tea, and some sparkling cider to take home with me. Yum! It was rough leaving. I will so miss working there. I hope that I can find something similar in my new home. 


After I got home, there was a bit of bad news waiting for me. A refund check from the government. And while some would be jumping up and down with an extra refund I am not. Here is a little background on our "tax adventures" this year. I, being the lovely wife that I am, did our taxed on an online website this year. And I submitted said taxed mid February. This was my first mistake. I vow, from now on, to only submit our taxes in March and never in February again. Not five days after I submitted our taxed we received TWO more W-2's for my husband. How did we forget two places that he worked at in 2009? Ugh. So now I had to amend our taxes. LAME. And J leaves for basic the second week in March. Awesome. That was a little stressful. But I got it done. And I sent in the part of my original refund that I now owed them. Everything was sent in and received by the IRS by April 1st. GREAT! Only I received another refund check from the IRS in the middle of June for the exact amount that I sent them. Uh? What? 
Yup...Apparently they don't want my money? So I call the IRS help line and a very nice lady gives me instructions on how to send in a cashiers check to them again. Tells me what to put on the check so they hold it until my amended return is processed and I will be good to go. And she also tells me that the IRS may charge me late fees because my payment was not received before April 15th.  SAY WHAT?! Right...Charging me penalties because YOU sent my payment back to me. I'm not trying to evade the IRS. I'm trying to pay them! 
Fast forward to last night. I get another check in the mail. Only this one has interest that I've "earned" on my money. Uh great. So I give the IRS another jingle and talk to another super nice lady. Who knew that nice people worked there? Everyone I've talked to is SUPER nice and can't believe what is going on. This particular lady tells me, "I swear that we do actually take tax payments!" And then she proceeds to tell me that she sees that the IRS received my amended return and my payment twice. And that they cannot find my amended return anymore. Um...The IRS lost my return. Seriously? Did their dog eat it? What? And now I need to send in another amended return, with original signatures (preferably in blue, so they know it's not a copy) along with the check that was sent to me. Great. More work for me, just to pay the IRS money that they continue to send back to me. 
The only things that I can say about this whole experience are at least the people you talk to on the help line are super awesome. They are real people who want to help you. And I now know that you should never submit returns before March. And you should keep copies and maybe even a second set of originals just in case the IRS loses your paperwork. 


Lesson learned, FOR SURE! 


And now tomorrow, I just have to take the dogs to the vet to get their final check up, heart worm test, and copies of their records. Then it's back home to pack up what's left, pack a bag so I can go visit my mom overnight, and the relax...Because being unemployed is much more work than actually going to work so far!


Night Night!
Love, 
L