4th of July

In Massachusetts, stinks! None of the towns around us are having parades or fireworks! What's the point of even calling it a holiday if you're not going to do those things? Old Sturbridge Village is having a celebration, but you have to pay to get in and you have to pretend you're back in 1834 or something. Another year we might have to give it a try....especially if these towns don't get back into the groove of things. Man! I haven't even seen any sparklers for sale. We're going to CT today anyway to go to a cookout. Next year, maybe we'll have one here. That would be a lot of fun, I bet. These past two years, the summer and our lives seem to run away with our plans. We were going to have an open house at some point this summer, but with most of July booked already, I'm not sure when we would do it. I guess people will just have to come over as they have time...

We saw the doctor again yesterday. Everything still looks good and the baby (hopefully we'll have a name sometime soon) has a strong heart beat and is squirming all around. I don't notice him kicking so much these days, but i can feel and see him sliding around in there. Next time I go, they'll test me for diabetes and anemia. (just routine) i won't be able to eat for three hours before I go! I'm gonna be hungry by the time i get out of that appointment!

As exciting as it is to be pregnant, I'll be glad to see October finally get here. Mostly so we can see the baby, but also, it's a bit of a pain in the neck sometimes to be pregnant. It's hard to move, and it keeps me from doing everything I want to do. It's frustrating. For instance, I would love to find some kind of a parade or festival to go to today, but honestly, after about 10 or 20 minutes I'd be ready to sit down somewhere and take a break. I"m a big ole lump. I'd like to feel like myself again. Some of that I know is just from me not sleeping. This week it seems to have gotten better in that department, but the rest of it is just that I'm pregnant I guess.

Better late than never!

Wow, I guess it has been awhile since I blogged! Believe it or not, I found out about better news than even getting our house in February, and needless to say, it has been distracting me! :) Turns out I didn't have the flu! I've almost been afraid to talk about it, in case it was just a dream, but I"m pretty sure it's really happening :) Baby is due in October!! woohoo! He's turning into quite a kicker too:) This afternoon Brian could see my belly moving from across the room. I love to watch him kick!
I've been through several sets of maternity clothes already. I now pretty much only wear dresses and stretch pants, though I have to confess this weekend even my stretch pants felt a little uncomfortable. :) People keep telling me that i'm going to have a big baby. I think that is code for them telling me I'm turning into a blimp and maybe I should lay off the ice cream!
I never ever can sleep. Last night was the worst yet i think. I slept for maybe an hour. I think I just get too excited daydreaming about the baby, especially when he really decides to start kicking away. I also can't get comfortable, and we've been having way too many thunderstorms at night for my liking. I'm burnt out from them, much like I am after one or two snowstorms in the winter. One of them almost broke our computer last night, but thankfully Brian figured out how to fix it again. That's all for now I guess. Keep us in your prayers :) (and come visit us too!)

Our House!

We bought a house! We bought a house! We bought a house! Oh my goodness, it's shocking still!...and we didn't buy just any house, we bought an awesome house :)! Now that we have a place for people to stay over, we hope to have a lot of company! Start making plans ! Of course, give us a month or two to get some furniture! We went for the inspection yesterday, and there were no major issues and hardly any small issues. It's in about as good condition as a house can be in :) Now I am no longer disappointed that we did not get that other house back in October. This one is sooo much better! It has everything we wanted and then some. It was built in 2006 by some local guy who was doing it for investment purposes. That's just about the time that the market started to slide, so he's been unable to sell it. We got a major bargain! The house is gorgeous! He's an artist and put in a lot of extra details in the meantime. It has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a living room, a sitting room area, a dining room, a nice big kitchen, a deck, a nice yard, a two car garage....! You should see the master bathroom! It has one of the biggest tubs I've seen in it. I didn't know this until yesterday when the inspector guy turned it on, but it bubbles like a hot tub! We also found out yesterday that the lighting and heating systems can be hooked up to our computer so we can have the lights/heat turn on at specified times, even when we're not there. Big guns can probably explain that a little more. We can't wait to move!
We saw it last weekend with our realtor and decided instantly to put in an offer. Our realtor warned us that another couple had sent word that they were going to put in an offer, so she tried to dissuade us a bit and warned us several times not to get our hopes up. She really didn't think we would be able to get it, given our budget. Thankfully, that couple didn't have their ducks in a row and came back saying that they would need another week or two before they could make an offer. In the meantime, we've been going back and forth in negotiations with the seller, and by Wednesday evening we had a deal. Talk about fast! We knew we had to try for the house! In addition to getting the price down to something we could afford, the seller agreed to pay our closing costs and agreed to give us some of the furniture he had been using for staging as well as the window treatments and all the appliances! Also, the interest rates have dropped significantly since we began our search. It almost seems to good to be true! Needless to say, it's been a sleepless week for the two of us. In the beginning we couldn't sleep because of nerves, then because of excitement, and now we each keep daydreaming of how we'll decorate it! :)

ok, ok

Here's the news my mom has been not-so-subtly hinting at. We found another house to buy! I'll blog more about it later! We're going to do the home inspection tomorrow. I can't wait to move in!

Happy New Year!

Wow! It's been 2 and a half months since I last posted. That's pretty bad. I'll try to do better this year. Not necessarily as a part of new year's, but good timing nonetheless, Bigguns and I are starting our own biggest loser competition. We both realized in December that we needed to lose about 25-30 pounds each in order to be healthier and more fit. Bigguns is doing his strict south beach diet. I'm doing a modified south beach diet. (that means if i want to eat something that isn't too unhealthy, but just isn't allowed on that diet, that I'm going to eat it). I have found that the south beach diet works, but once you go off it, you put the weight back on. Plus, the whole time i'm on it, i dream about what I can't eat. No thank you! I"m going to do it my tried and true way of eating healthy, balanced meals with controlled portions and plenty of exercise. Our weigh-ins are going to be on Wednesday mornings. The person who loses the highest percentage of their weight by May wins. I'm quite confident I'll win. I'm very determined. :)
We got a Nintendo Wii for Christmas. (actually I got it for bigguns, but I use it quite a bit) That makes for a nice supplement to our workouts. It's really fun, though at the moment, I have bowling shoulder, so I guess I need to take it easy. I really work up a sweat when I box. I was undefeated until this afternoon. I just couldn't locate any anger to workout this afternoon when I was playing. Normally I shock myself at my ferociousness. I wouldn't want to meet myself in a boxing ring!
In other news, we're taking up cross-country skiing. We picked up skiis while we were in maine. We're planning on trying them out this weekend since we've had more snow this week. I always feel claustrophobic in the winter because I can't get outside and enjoy the fresh air. I finally reached my limit and decided that we either need to move to a warmer climate or we need to suck it up and find something enjoyable to do outside. Here's to skiiing!

Updates!

Well, I guess this weekend's events are blog-worthy! We found a house!! woohoo! It's not officially a done deal yet, but we put in an offer and it was verbally accepted by the owner. The owner was literally on the brink of foreclosure (She had to have a deal by today!) so we have to have her bank sign off on the deal first. SHe had another buyer a few weeks back who was going to purchase it at our price, so they think the bank will accept our deal too and that it is just a formality. THe other buyers had to back out for some reason. Keep your fingers crossed for us! It is what they call a short-sale, so if everything works out, we'll be closing on it in 30 days!! That's crazy!
I felt a little guilty about getting such a good deal on a house because in order for that to happen someone else is in a really bad situation. But I do feel good that we might be saving the owner from foreclosure which would ruin her credit for quite a while. So now, it seems like a really good deal for everyone involved.
We didn't know when we made the offer that they were in such a time crunch. I'm glad we didn't decide to think about it for a week or so which is what we have been doing when we see something we like THen we would have lost out on this. Maybe it's meant to be!
THe house has the perfect combination of everything we've been looking for: a big kitchen, a master bathroom, atleast 3 bedrooms, a walkout basement that either can be or is finished off (this one is finished off), a big yard, a nice neighborhood, a garage, and a cheap price! It also has some extra decorative features that we like: a big bay window in the living room, some crown molding, some built in shelving....it's really exciting. I hope this works out:)
Last week I meant to blog about something shocking, but I never got to it. I agreed with George Bush on something! THere was some article, and I was going to pull a big guns and try to link to it, but I"m not feeling that ambitious right now.

Here it is!

My new post! I know it's been a while. I've been procrastinating since we got back from our honeymoon :) This morning I took a yoga class at the gym Big Guns and I joined a few weeks ago. Man, it was soo what I needed! Just to take some time out for myself. It's so easy to get going on autopilot and only half pay attention to yourself. With my job, I spend a lot of time taking care of other people, but I am rarely 'selfish' enough to take the same care myself. It almost made me get tearful. I feel very refreshed now. I'm going to try to take the class twice a week.
In other news, Big Guns and I think we have found a house we're going to put an offer on. House-hunting is almost as fun as wedding dress shopping, but it definitely takes a lot of patience. I suppose it makes sense that it takes so long because we're going to have to live in it longer than a couple of hours. THe house we're considering now was built by an older couple. THey lived in the basement while they built the rest of the house, piece by piece. I love the story behind it, but also the house is also is great condition, like new, with a huge yard. Keep your fingers crossed for us. I'll try to post more often now.