Our New Furniture!

Its here!!! Our fabulous new bedroom furniture! Now we just have to sell our house and get one with a bigger master bedroom. J/K :) Its a little crowded, but its very do-able. We're so excited to finally have furniture... ...and an awesome mattress! Now need to finally get some curtains and decorate the room. The mattress came in on Sat. We were going to just sleep on the futon for a few days till the furniture came in, but we couldn't do it. We just laid it on the floor and slept on just that for a few days till the furniture came in on Tues (yesterday). I'm now waking up in comfort every morning. I've had no back pain for 4 days! What a wonderful feeling. :)

Its amazing how fast the dresser filled up! We had a little trouble fitting things, but I think we just weren't used to having dressers to put things in...

I wanted to get a good picture of Abi hugging her Teddy. This one isn't great, but its OK. My little babe who has always been the one to refuse any kind of snuggling is suddenly becoming a snugly baby!! And I love it!! I don't even really know how she figured it out, but one day I went in to get her up from her nap, and she rapped her arms around my neck, put her cheek against mine and said, "Aweeee...!" Oh, how I love it!! And she loves to hug her Teddies too - or as she says, "Teh-gees." She says Huggies too - "Uhh-gees." :) Oh, she loves to play with the cell phones too. For a couple months every time the phone rings and I pick it up she wants to talk and goes crazy till I let her say hello. Well, a couple days ago she was playing with Kris' phone and picked it up and put it to her ear all by herself. She's getting so big and figuring things out on her own! How does it happen? How do they grow up so fast?

On the other hand... We've had so much trouble getting Abi to nap well. I spent a week working hard to get her on a schedule and it seemed to work, but it didn't last even a week. Now I'm trying again. Its so frustrating. I've been reading "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby" and getting some good tips. I feel like we've tried everything over the last year. After doing some reading, It seems that she's been overtired and overstimulated most of her life despite how hard I've tried to keep that from being the case. Who knows... I have new resolve to just keep working at it. What else is there to do in such a case? Its been so frustrating, but the worst part is when it gets stressful. And that it has been. And stress isn't good for happy marriages. :) I'm so grateful that Kris is so understanding and helpful. I love you, Husband - with all my heart! Every day I'm reminded how blessed I am that you wanted to marry me. :)

Updates:

Seems like there's always so much going on and I don't have time to update my blog. So I thought I might just throw out a punch of thoughts and leave it at that... ...for now...

- We've been having so much trouble with Abi's naps since she was born. Seems that letting her scream it out has finally done the trick. She still doesn't always sleep great, but usually so much better.

-We got a really wonderful tax return this year! What a blessing - now we're trying to decide what the priorities are to use it for.

-We've been wanting to have a hole put in the wall between the living room and dining room - kinda like a pass through window. So we decided to get an estimated done. ...$2895... WHAT!!??? Can you be serious???? We're talking a 4x5 foot window people! We're not talking paving the driveway in gold!

-We ordered bedroom furniture and we're sooooo excited. It should be in sometime next week. Tomorrow we're going to look for a mattress...

-We're in the middle of trying to refinance our house to bring our mortgage payments down a bit. The appraiser came on Monday and we're just praying that she gives good numbers. The house has to appraise for at least 223,000 in order for us to be able to re-fi.

-I dug up all the old bushes from the front of the house a couple weeks ago. The plan is to totally re-landscape the front this year. We'll see how that goes. Hopefully I can get at least one side done. I have grand ideas for what I want it to look like.

-I'd welcome any suggestions on how to get rid of moles. Our entire back yard has been completely destroyed by them!

-I can't wait to go to Florida in June! I miss my family soooo much.

-Abi is crawling all over the house now like a little crazy person and getting into everything that she can find. She cruses too - so cute :) She loves to go outside on nice days - she points to the window and says, "side?"

-I'm trying to prep to run a 5K this summer. I'm terrible at running and so far I can only run 1/2 mile at a time. Ugh - I didn't think that it would be so hard! But I really want to do it and I still want to lose another 10 lbs and I think that running will help.

-I have about 15 craft projects that I've been in the middle of for about 2 years. I want to work on all of them and get them finished up so I can start new things but I just can't seem to find any time.

-I need a maid. My house is dirty and I struggle to keep up - only because Abi no longer sits still while I work... Hmmm - I wonder if I can strap mops to her knees so she can clean on the go?!

I'm pretty sure that there is a lot more still on my mind, but I don't know what it is at the moment and I really must go to bed and get some sleep so that I can get back to all this tomorrow!

So excited!

I'm soooo excited!! After almost 4 years of marriage - sleeping in a bed with craters in the middle and putting our clothes in little cubical thingy-bobs... WE ORDERED BEDROOM FURNITURE LAST NIGHT!!! Woohoo!! I can't for it to come in. Now we can finally get our bedroom looking cozy. :) It wasn't that big a priority for us because... well - who sees the bedroom anyway? And there are always so many other things that seem to be more important. But we've been saving for a long time and finally had enough money. Plus with our beautiful tax return we're going to get a new mattress!! I can't wait to be sleeping more comfortably! We were both starting to get more and more uncomfortable on that old mattress. Wow - I feel so blessed...! This picture isn't the best as it doesn't show the dressers, but it was the best I could find. I went on the website of the furniture store that we bought it from and they didn't even have a picture up yet because its so new - so I just hunted the Internet for a while before I found this.

9 months pics (3-2-09)

So I decided with Abi's 9 month pictures to actually put a little more effort in... I happy with them. I'm already wondering how on earth I'll do the next couple months pics though! She doesn't hold still anymore!!!

8 month pics - late...

OOPS! I was just thinking about the fact that I need to do Abi's 9 month pics and realized that I never posted the 8 months ones! So, alas - here they are :) She was 9 months already yesterday... I'll try to get tho those pictures tomorrow. I can't believe I've already been able to carry her on the outside for as long as I did on the inside! She's growing up just WAY too fast.

Abi helped me do a little shopping today. And by helped, I mean she continuously pulled at every tag she could find non stop. Pulling piles of clothes off onto the floor faster than I could pick them up. Then the ones we were keeping she kept throwing on the floor and saying "uhh- uhh!!!" She's so stinkin cute - we can't imagine our lives without her anymore! So, anyway, had to go out and buy all new clothes for the first time... What a blessing - we had all the clothes we need up to size 9 months just from my baby-showers! But she's gettin big and needs 12month stuff now and we didn't have any. Can someone please tell me why baby clothes cost so much???? Its like 15$ per outfit - and there is hardly anything to them!

Yesterday -

I had SUCH a bad day... We'll get to that later...

When I got home, I was so frustrated and just wanted to have a good cry, but I knew that wouldn't work. I walked in the door and up the stairs and there was Abi in her jumpy seat. She started screaming and jumping around like crazy - she was so happy to see me! It didn't take long for that to turn to desperate attempts to try to get me to pick her up... But my husband and the love of my life comes first. Why is it that being with him and having him near makes everything 100% better? I picked Abi up and took her into my room while I changed my clothes. Then we went into the living room to play for a little while. I sad down on the couch - something that Abi usually hates as she's rather we be standing up carrying her around - but not this time... She grabbed my face with both her slimy little paws and pulled my face to hers and kissed me over and over and over with wide open mouthed wet wet kisses!!! She's never done that before - my heart melted. And this time I cried - because it was all better now...

So- about my day... there is this thing about nursing. Co-workers have to work together or things get dangerous... If everyone doesn't work just as hard and do their part to the best of their ability, then things can go very very wrong and the one person who is trying feels 10x's the stress and pressure. That, and - no matter how much they do, it will never be possible to make all the patients happy and give them the care they need and deserve! On my floor at the hospital there are a couple people that don't pull there weight - its a huge frustration to everyone! I was working with both of them yesterday. Hence I was WAY over stressed, dangerous things happened. I spent much of the day trying to clean up were they left huge blunders. That left angry patients. One of them screamed and cussed me out - I yelled back... At least I had his respect after that. One of the above mentioned individuals did something they new was VERY wrong - because they were afraid of being turned in they spent the next couple hours trying to find a reason to turn me in instead so they wouldn't get in trouble. Ended up with the nurse manager involved - thankfully she knew it was all bogus. Why has it all been let get to this point? Then the 2nd patient started getting upset and yelling... What was I to do? You can't put out 1000 fires all at the same time. Prioritizing always makes those lower on the list angry...

And that was my day in a nutshell. There were plenty of other little things, but there is no point in belaboring the issue. I went in to work today for a little while just to have a chance to talk to my boss. I feel better about that. But somehow I don't expect things to change - this has been going on for a very long time. I love my boss and I don't think its her fault and think that HER boss has her hands tied. I wish that I understood the politics. I don't.

I'm 30...

...and I'm OK with it. :)
I thought I'd be much more upset with turning 30 than I am. I'm not - I'm fine with it. I'm so blessed by God and all that He's done in my life and the position that I'm at. I have a husband who loves me and is more wonderful both to and for me than I ever hoped. I love you Honey - forever and always... more than I can say! I have a beautiful daughter that I adore watching learn and grow. She, without knowing it, makes me realized new things about myself every day. I am blessed with friends to share my life with in good times and bad. We have a house - and one much nicer than I ever dreamed of throughout my life. Two good cars sit in our driveway and I don't have to wonder if they're going to break down. We have a church that we love and are blessed to be able to serve along side people that we love and respect. I serve a God who loves me and works daily to make me more like Himself. I could go on and on, but at the risk of starting to sound silly and boring anyone who reads this... I'll stop. I'm so happy!!!

Beauty Queen Wave :)

Kris has been working for several days at teaching Abi how to wave. :) Until today she would only do it for him, but today she waved for me too. Its so funny and cute... I think she also kinda knows who "Dah dah" is too. For the last few days she stops what ever she's doing at some point throughout the morning, starts to wave and asks, "Dah dah?" How cute is that?

I've never disliked winter so much!

Somehow this is the end result of a very long sleepless day... How this could be comfortable, I do not know! You know, the parenting class that we took made everything sound so simple - "If you do it like we say, your child will sleep through the night and nap on schedule!" I'm struggling not to be frustrated lately. Abi sleeps well at night for the most part, though every once in a while (and for no apparent reason) she'll go through periods of waking up multiple times a night. The last few nights have been better, and I'm so grateful! At least I'm getting to sleep without getting up every couple hours! We had a few rough weeks before this! Anyway -naps are a battle every day. If this were a war I would surrender - after all I loose the battle almost every single day! We started out good today, but after her morning nap she woke up miserable and was for most of the day. I have no idea why, and she wouldn't take a nap this afternoon. I only wish I had some small clue of how to fix the problem! It seems like if even one small thing messes up her routine then I'm screwed for the next 3 days. That means - no shopping, no projects, no ever leaving the house... I can't do it! I'll go insane!!

I've never struggled so much with winter before. I think that it just might be because I've never been home all winter before - I've always worked and I think that makes it go by quicker. I feel like a shut in lately. Its been to cold to take Abi out and even if it wasn't it messes with her schedule. Even when I'm home I don't get much opportunity to do anything - babies take a lot of time and attention. All I'm saying is that it makes for a very LONG winter!

I long for Spring!

And I need a vacation...

Just a couple of little pictures...

This is the face that greets me every morning and after every nap... ...it melts my heart. :) Even when we have a bad day, I can't be sad when I see this!
Its very hard to take a "self portrait" with a heavy camera while holding a baby that never holds still! :) But - I liked the picture anyway. Next time I will use a tripod and camera remote!

I finally got all the Christmas decorations down yesterday. A job that I always do on New Years day, but Mercy, Colin, Cheryl and Ryan were here. Then Abi got sick. Then I had to work.... Alas the job is done, and yet the tree still sits in my living room. There is one thing that we did not think out thoroughly before buying a fake tree... storage! Raised ranch houses don't have much storage. We have an attic, but it has a broken pull down ladder and no flooring! I think that tomorrow we will attempt to do something makeshift just to get the tree up there and get it out of our way. Hopefully by next year we will be able to replace the attic door/pull-down-ladder and put in a little flooring (which will also require putting down thicker insulation prior to nailing down flooring). We really need the storage space!

I look forward so much to the holidays, but this week I am really enjoying getting back to a sense of "normalcy." Whatever that is of course!