$100/week gluten free grocery shopping
<><><><><>
8 Tips for Listing Items on eBay
<><><><><>
<><><><><>
<><><><><>
<><><><><>
<><><><><>
$100/week gluten free grocery shopping
<><><><><>
8 Tips for Listing Items on eBay
<><><><><>
<><><><><>
<><><><><>
<><><><><>
<><><><><>
The last two days have been…different, to say the least!
Yesterday, we officially found out that our financing on the house fell through in the last stage of underwriting. In our price bracket (mid 200s) it’s hard to get approved, especially when my income is largely based on self employment– bad news if it looks like, on paper, that I left my entire clientele in Dallas! There are a couple other factors, but we’ve made the decision to stop hacking away at this for the immediate future and spend the next 6 months letting residency and other things settle in.
There are some huge blessings to this, and I’m so happy that they are easy to see (aka, I’m not having to force myself to “think on the bright side”). First of all, our moving timeline was starting to seriously stress me out. Moving into a house in May, after having had a baby 3 weeks prior? Crazy, mostly because there were a few significant changes (mostly painting) I wanted to make to the house before we moved in. Also, every weekend of May (other than one) is booked: the first weekend, we are chaperoning the high school’s Spring Formal at Pismo Beach, the second weekend is the school’s auction, at which Jesse is speaking and the fourth weekend is Anthony’s baptism (provided he’s OUT). Also, the first weekend of June is graduation, at which Jesse is, once again, speaking (notice a pattern?).
Secondly, the thought of 90% of our savings disappearing, right as I’m about to have a baby, is a bit alarming. In just the past 2 weeks, it was really starting to stress me out. What if (God forbid, obviously, but it’s unknown) Anthony has special needs and I’m unable to work? We shouldn’t have any medical bills to worry about, even if things do go awry, but my income is a HUGE part of this equation, and the boys will always come first. Having at least a few more weeks to “wait and see” will be nice. And, I’m not gonna lie, having all that money back in our savings account is a NICE feeling.
Lastly, Jesse can probably take the summer off, instead of working 20-30 hrs. a week doing random jobs for extra pay, like we were discussing. Home ownership takes a lot of extra funds– we were “prepared” on paper, but no one’s ever really prepared to all of a sudden buy $1,000 worth of extra necessities, such as a lawn mower, ceiling fans, even minor things such as shelves in the garage so that things don’t just lay around on the floor (one shelving unit is $70!). Again, they are all expenses we will gladly pay when the time is right, but I gotta admit, not having to worry about $ and instead having Jesse at home for the 3 months after having a baby? Not many people get that blessing.
So, we are going to take our down payment funds, lock them away somewhere, and start looking around for somewhere nice to rent for the next 6+ months. In the past, we’d toyed with the idea of renting a semi-furnished beach house in Morro Bay or Shell Beach, since we won’t have to go to work for the summer. And, come to find, Jesse and I are becoming beach people. Not in the “surfer” way, but in the “evening stroll at sunset” sort of way. And, yes, I’m completely aware that I just sounded like I am 26 going on 55.
It’s just a thought though. More than likely, we’ll rent somewhere close nearby 🙂
Anyways, that was yesterday. Since we needed a bit of a break and had cabin fever, we went to SLO for my chiropractor appt., went out to dinner, put G to bed, and then finally went on a much needed movie date 🙂
TODAY commenced a little earlier than I would’ve liked. You see, I woke up at 4am with contractions. Blah blah blah, nothing new, nothing new, that’s been going on for nearly 4 weeks now (I know, seriously, shoot me). But then these started getting harder, closer together, and kinda sorta miserable. Somewhere, I could hear that Celine Dion song, “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now”. I was like, “Yay! I’m in labor”, immediately followed by, “Oh CRAP I’M IN LABOR AND THIS REALLY HURTS.”
I dealt with things on my own until around 8am, when I heard G squawking away on the baby monitor. I woke Jesse up, told him the situation, and then spent a wonderful 1/2 hr. in the hottest shower I could stand. Really miserable 2 minute contractions continued, so Jesse made me a little makeshift bed on the living room couch. I watched the family slowly wake up– my mom making her coffee, Jesse cooking steel cut oats for G, Janelle and her teenage ninja turtle friends stumble out from their sleepover in the family room…at one point, G saw that I was in pain and came over to give me “snuggles and lovies”. He is the sweetest boy, I tell you!
And then? At 10am, I fell asleep. At 10:30, I woke up, no contractions. 11am, no contractions.
I had texted my doula at around 9am, mainly because we had a prenatal massage appt. scheduled for today, but also because I wanted to give her the heads up. She made the choice to drive up and see how I was doing, and she arrived a little after 11. We talked and relaxed for about 45 minutes, and then we decided to take a walk. The walking started contractions again, but still 10-12 minutes apart. Discouraging, but also mildly better than when this happened with G. At least they were semi-predictable, instead of all over the map– with G, it was every 27 minutes, then every 5, then every 12, then every 45…craziness.
So, Kelly’s advice was to do 4 things for the remainder of the day– sleep, eat, walk, sleep. She went to hang out at a family friend’s house a few minutes away, just to make sure I didn’t feel “pressured” to have more contractions (bless her, this is actually exactly what I needed! Even though I couldn’t do anything about it, I felt guilty). Just a few minutes ago, she told me she was going to go home but would be right next to her phone. I’ve had contractions start again every time I get up and walk, but they stop when I relax.
So….that’s all I’ve been doing all day! Eating yummy foods (my mom made cinnamon rolls, Jesse made me mac n cheese!), sleeping as much as possible, walking in the beautiful neighborhood clothed in spring (my fav season, definitely). Now that G’s asleep, Jesse and I have plans to go out to eat at our favorite Mexican food place, then maybe walk around Target, who knows?
Long and short, I guess Anthony is waiting for now. Le sigh.
But for now, I get to enjoy the 70 degree sunshine!
Yesterday, I celebrated my 26th birthday!
How I chose to spend it really is a sign of the times, I must say. I wanted super low-key– just a family dinner out to eat somewhere. No party, no huge activities to get exhausted over planning or doing.
And then, Pregnancy Meltdown #53 happened on Thursday night!
One of the things that I pathetically sobbed to Jesse about was how many things there were “unfinished” in our back 2 rooms (our bedroom and office/living area). Since we’ve been staying at my parents’ house and originally weren’t too sure how long we’d be here, we sorta didn’t finish a few projects that we always “said” we would.
In the midst of this sobbing meltdown, Jesse kindly offered that on my birthday, he would like to give me the gift of being my “handyman” for a day (or two?). The big project on the table was re-painting a few walls that were pretty beaten up after Janelle took down all of her teenage paraphernalia (the back room used to be hers before we showed up!). A bit more room-re-arranging got thrown in there in order to accommodate my “baby corner”, along with cleaning the carpets and helping me re-finish a new dresser for “the boys” (love that I get to say that now!).
So, the day officially went like this: I got to sleep in until an ungodly hour of the morning– 10:45am!!! Present #1, much appreciated 🙂
Jesse made me Belgian waffles and coffee once I stumbled out to the kitchen 🙂 Again, what a guy.
I checked my email and found that I had received an online Starbucks giftcard from Courtney. Yay, more coffee!!
At around noon, when G went down for his nap, Jesse and I got started cleaning up our room to prepare for painting.
At 1pm, Jesse started painting. Meanwhile, Tess arrived to hang out. Get this– she offered to take me out for a pedicure. Instead, I asked if she would please please please help me organize a closet that’s been bugging the BEGEEZUS out of me. Again, sign of the times, right? Pedicure vs. organizing, and I picked the latter…
But she was was such a big help. By 3pm, the walls in our room were freshly painted and our open closet/shelving area in our “living room” was all pretty and organized!
Not only did we get everything rearranged and organized, but we also pulled out all the newborn boxes and set them in G’s room for sorting. Ahhh….I can already feel those pregnancy stress hormones subsiding…(NOT. But it was nice, nonetheless).
Jesse and I then put G down for Nap #2 at around 4pm and started power-sanding the back surface of the main door in our room. The door looked…how shall I put this…like crazy children tried to claw their way out using only their teeth and fingernails. In reality, the door was all scratched and gouged because my mom had a tough time getting all of Janelle’s sparkly stickers off of it.
After power-sanding, we did our first coat of “tinted chalkboard paint”. It’s gonna be so awesome having a “chalkboard door”…can’t wait!
While this was going on, my mom and dad picked up my new dresser for the boys from the school’s thrift store. We didn’t have time to get to it until today, however (Jesse actually came home between church and the Super Bowl and power-sanded the whole thing!).
At 5:30pm, right as we were getting ready to head out the door to make our dinner reservations, I got my first call from Jenny since she had baby Micah. We’d been texting back and forth, but I still hadn’t heard the details concerning the birth. I talked with her the whole way to the restaurant and a little whilst sitting outside the front entrance.
The place we had decided on was AJ Spurs, an old-fashioned steakhouse not a mile away from where I grew up. We used to celebrate every birthday here when I was a kid, so it definitely had lots of “nostalgia-factor” points going for it.
One thing about AJ Spurs– you never leave without being 110% stuffed. They bring so much soup, salad, salsa and tequila beans beforehand, that by the time you get your HUGE plate of food, you are already begging for mercy. And then there’s the included dessert– rootbeer floats, sundaes or a dessert liqueur.
My family gave me some very fun gifts, including a giftcard from my in-laws, a pair of earrings and the promise of being my “servant, slave or bitch for 4 hours” from Brooke, and a few “post-pregnancy” clothes from my Mom, along with this awesome antique 18 drawer apothecary chest that my Dad ordered from Amazon:
All in all, it was a perfect day for this time in my life. Nothing too exciting or stressful, LOTS of food, and tons of help organizing and preparing for baby Anthony. I am so blessed to have close friends and family who will go out of their way to do something that may not seem fun to them but means the world to me 🙂
This morning, Jesse and I decided to drive an hour to Santa Maria to visit the OCA church there. Originally, our friend Heather had asked us to wait until she and Miro could visit with us (their old church in Georgia was also OCA), but this was a good weekend, all things considered.
In some ways, I really wish we hadn’t. I sorta fell in love.
Why? For starters, they have a brand new temple and parish hall, right next door to one another. They’re gorgeous– absolutely gorgeous. The main building was just completed a few months ago, so they don’t have iconography like St. Seraphim did (although they do have someone in mind).
Reason #2? The sermon was fantastic– at least, the part of it I got to hear. Gregory and I had to go “hang out” in the small bookstore room off the back (but it’s a room nonetheless!) where another loud kid and his father were hanging out. My favorite was a quote that the priest read from St. John Chrystostom: “Feed the poor, or feed the fires of Hell.”
Reason #3? This one was HUGE. Especially if you know me. The choir was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Flawless. Gorgeous. I had to stop myself from crying at least a dozen times. There were only 7-8 of them, but boy. It sounded like a host of angels. Jesse and I both agreed that it was the best Orthodox choir we’ve ever heard, by a LONG shot. And we are capital “P” Picky. I don’t think there was a less than perfectly in-tune note, the entire service!
I really liked that the music was so familiar. After being away from St. Seraphim’s for 2 months, hearing the Greek tones and chants instead, it was wonderful to sing stuff we are used to. Then again, it was also different. It was like they took every hymn of St. Seraphim’s and spiced it up. If I used a pejorative description, I would say that their music was like the AP version of what St. Seraphim’s does. Their Apostle’s Creed was OUT OF THIS WORLD gorgeous– I must must must get the sheet music and send it to Nick, my old choir director in Dallas.
The choir has practices every other week on Saturday nights. I sorta signed up to go this next Saturday…I couldn’t help myself. I miss singing in a real choir sooo much. I have to say though, I’m very intimidated. The first question that they asked was whether I sing soprano or alto– I explained that I’ve sung both, even switching to tenor when I’ve been needed. The choir director said that they are really really in need of altos — 3 out of the 4 female singers are sopranos. “Having another alto will really balance things out”. Wow. It sounded like perfection to me already!
In my opinion, the thing that makes this choir so good is the strong male presence. They had one tenor in particular who was amazingly talented. The choir director said that their awesome baritone was missing this week. Um, it gets better? I thought. And baritone? It’s unusual for a small church choir to have 3 male parts!
Reason #4: Very very friendly, once again. G got at least 4 pieces of fellowship bread from all the old ladies who just couldn’t get enough of him. It was announced that we were to be the first to partake of the after service meal, and we were chatted up by everyone the entire coffee hour. It was so good to talk with so many who knew and loved Archbishop Dmitri.
There are some major downsides to this parish, which is why I kinda wish we didn’t know about it. It’s an hour away– we were really enjoying our 20 minute commute to the Greek church in SLO. There also aren’t many young kids or families, at least not from what I saw (which is probably why they had the $ to buy a new church and parish hall!). Then again, it wasn’t as if the church seemed stagnant and “dying off”-like. Also, it’s OCA…and while political issues have calmed down some, we’re not the hugest fans ever…
Ah. Whatever will we do? I really wish the choir had been terrible. Then again, I really am thankful that they weren’t…