Change is good (?)

What is this a picture of, you ask? It's our house, which is now on the market. Yep, we're movin'!

S-C-A-R-Y! Also exciting. Austin, here we come! It's been in the works for just over a month, actually, but yesterday Jay gave his notice at work and today our house is on the market. We're not wasting any time. :) The realtor said she wanted to get it listed before the weekend. This time of year is when so many people move, and we're on the tail end of it so she wanted to hurry. I am very disappointed in the price she wants us to ask because we have put soooooooooo much into this house. New wood floors, new tile, new carpet, ALL fresh paint, new appliances, new sinks/fixtures, new A/C condensing unit, new roof, wood patio awning, new wall to turn dining room into an office, the list goes on. I had hoped that we'd make a pretty good profit on it, but it turns out that by the time we pay for closing and the realtor fee, we'll be lucky to even end up ahead of what we initially paid for it. Anyway, we'll see how that turns out. We're listing it a little higher than she recommended, hoping that any offer we get will be more like what she had in mind. It makes me sad to sell it though, since we finally got it the way we wanted it just before Jenna was born. She won't ever get to enjoy the frogs I painted on her walls. :(

But, I digress...we can't do much about that. The tradeoff is we'll be close to family and lots of parks/trails/hills. Jenna will be able to see Grandma & Grandpa anytime she wants, and since we'll already be close to my family, we'll have to go out of town half as much to see his.

This started when my smart, talented husband got a job offer that he's really excited about and after much stress (which is probably why I'm sick now), debate, and contemplation, we decided to go for it. A big factor was that we didn't know what I was going to do. But by the grace of God, it looks like I'm going to be able to keep my job and work remotely. At least, for the time being. Seriously--could this be working out any better? It was meant to be. God wants us in Austin.

We still don't know where we'll live, how long the house will take to sell, or whether I will 100% be able to work from there, but right now all is looking good. He starts his job August 21, so we don't have a lot of time to waste! I am anxious to find a house there, but for a while we may have to get an apartment (gah). Housing is more expensive, so it's scary to think we'll have to depend on my unstable income for a mortgage. We don't want to buy a house before ours sells here. So sell, house, sell!

On another note, my mom is coming tomorrow to babysit for us while we go to Def Leppard. WOO-HOO! I'm such a dork, I'm a lifelong DL fan and I see them every chance I get. :)

Life Experiences

I took this from Emmakirsten's site. Just thought it was fun.

Highlight the ones you've done...

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said 'I love you' and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby's diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an "expert"
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music.
87. Eaten shark
88. Had a one-night stand
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Created and named your own constellation of stars
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone's heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146: Dyed your hair
147: Been a DJ
148: Shaved your head
149: Caused a car accident
150: Saved someone's life (but not really--someone else would have if I didn't!)

3-month pictures

I know a lot of people have professional pictures of their kids taken every 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, and 24 months. I'm not sure when after that, and I'm not sure if we'll do it that often. But I figured if she's 3 months old, we should get started! So, today she had her first portrait session! I am a little disappointed in the pictures overall, but only because she wouldn't smile--not because of the place (Portrait Innovations). I was actually very impressed with them and we'll definitely go back for the next session. We all (the photographer, Jay, and myself) were trying to get her to smile, but she just wouldn't! I think she was a little confused as to what was going on.

They gave us a CD with all the proofs on it, which is where these pics came from. We didn't have to buy all the poses to get the digitals. I don't know what's standard, but I thought that was a good bonus!

I like how this one is done, but her shirt's a little too big.

We tried our best to keep the drool & spit-up off her, but you can see a little drool that made it onto her outfit. :)

They put these hands & feet pictures together with a picture of her face on an 8x10 sheet, like a collage. I think they cut out more of her fat rolls in the print than I did here, though. :)

And of course, we had to do the obligatory family picture. :)

I'm hoping that next time we get her picture taken like this, she'll smile more and I hope she doesn't have a big scratch next to her nose because her negligent parents didn't clip her fingernails often enough!!!!

We're heading to a shower 2+ hours away (despite the current torrential downpour), and we're praying she is not fussy tonight like she usually is in the evening...

3 months!

My baby girl is 3 months old already! It actually seems like it has been much longer than that, but at the same time, when she was born, 3 months seemed like an eternity. I never thought she'd be this old. Sadly, she is outgrowing her 3-6 months clothes and I've got some 6-9 month outfits she's starting to wear. Yikes! I put one of my favorite 3-6 month outfits on her this morning and it was too tight, so I had to add it to the pile of outgrowns. I don't think they're supposed to outgrow 3-6 month clothes before they hit 3 months! :( I can't help but think that if I was still breastfeeding, she wouldn't be this big. But, I'll never know. I'm just hoping she plateaus soon and slows down just a little.

Yesterday when I picked her up from daycare, I felt like such a horrible mother. She had scratched her face pretty good, and the lady said "you might want to trim her nails--they're really long." Then the same lady said "You might want to bring her some bigger diapers. Hers are pretty tight." So last night I trimmed her nails and this morning I brought a bag of bigger diapers and took the smaller ones back. Oops. We do trim her nails--I just didn't realize we'd have to do it so often!

Jenna girl, we've made it through the first 3 months. We'll learn together and it will only get better from here.

Bumbo

I'm blogging all over the place lately! It's funny--I was just talking about how we should try a bumbo seat, and then yesterday when I got home from the gym, our friend was there with one. His son had outgrown it so he thought we might like it. So far she seems to really like it!

I also love that outfit she has on. I was anxious for her to grow into it, but now I can't believe she has already grown into it! She's actually not going to fit in the bumbo seat much longer either. We have to kind of shove her thighs in it, and sometimes it's hard to get her out. :) She doesn't seem to mind though. I was curious about her weight, so last night I weighed myself holding her, and then just myself. The difference was 17.5 pounds!!! Surely she can't be that big.

Yesterday she sat in it on the counter (I know--it's supposed to be for the floor only, but we break lots of rules) and watched me cook. It was much easier than making dinner with one hand!

Fat & happy

Not me, her! I wore my first pair of pre-pregnancy pants today! They were still tighter than they were before, but this is my first evidence that Weight Watchers is working. I've been a crazy point-counter and I've been regular about going to the gym, and it's starting to pay off. I only have a few pounds before I'm at my pre-pregnancy weight, but then I've got at least 10 more I want to shed.

Jenna has been smiling so much. Sometimes she'll smile at nothing. She's got just enough spit up and just enough of the double chin in this picture to make her look fat & happy...she's just chillin' in her exersaucer. :)

I still don't know what I'd do without the swing. She loves it, and she apparently sleeps in a swing at daycare. I'm very thankful that she's sleeping there at all because she is more pleasant in the evenings. Yesterday we had her home all day and she was a nightmare yesterday evening. She cried for about 3 hours because she was soooooooo tired, but she fought it too hard. BUT...she slept from 10:30 pm to 6:30 am!!!!!!!! I slept for about 6 hours straight...I haven't done that since about my first trimester!

Her newest thing she likes to do (besides put stuff in her mouth) is try to sit up. When I lean her back, she'll use her stomach muscles to sit all the way up & fall forward. She does it in my lap or when we sit her up on the couch or in one of her seats. I tried capturing her doing that on on the couch, but she just looked kind of annoyed.

I probably need to get one of those round seats that allows them to sit straight up--I think she'd like staying up without falling forward or backward.

I wanna hold her

It's only 1:45. All I want to do is pick up Jenna and hold her. I have lots of work to do, but I know she is so close...I wish I could just go by and hold her and hug her for a while, then come back. But then I'd have to leave her again and I don't want to do that. We made it a week though! I'm so excited to get her this afternoon and know that we have all weekend together. And surely Monday morning will be depressing again. I wish I could strap her in the baby bjorn and wear her all day. Maybe she would sleep while I sat at my desk. Wow, I'm a dreamer.

The lady who watches her most often in the afternoon has huge boobs. I hope Jenna doesn't get used to cuddling against those because she sure doesn't get that cushioning from me! I can meniton her boobs matter-of-factly because she sure doesn't hesitate to show them off. I don't know how I feel about that. I just don't think that someone who watches babies all day should be showing off her boobs like that. Doesn't seem like a very good role model for young girls there who are old enough to notice that. So I guess I won't really be bothered by it until Jenna is old enough to observe that. And by that time, that lady probably won't still be there, and probably neither will we.

Um, maybe not.

So, shortly after I posted about how Jenna doesn't realize what's going on or recognize me when I pick her up, I went to pick her up. Guess what? She smiled at me! She stared at me as if she knew who I was, then she smiled. I guess she's always making a liar out of me, but that's OK.

Has it only been 3 days?

I'm dying to pick her up! She's been in daycare for over 7 hours now, but I am in "hurry up and wait" mode at work. Damn slow network. Yesterday was easier to drop her off than today for some reason, but all 3 days, I'm jittery by this time. All I can think is she's been in there too long! I just want to pick her up and kiss her chubby cheeks. I asked Jay to drop her off tomorrow. It's the taking her and leaving her with the caretaker and leaving part that gets to me the most. I'm OK at work until I start thinking about what she's doing.

I've been keeping busy, which helps, but then I'll think about her sitting in the daycare and I wonder if she's angry that I left her there. Is she wondering where I am? Does she think I've abandoned her? Does she think I don't love her? AAAACCKKKK!! I know she does not really think these things--it's my paranoid mind that makes this stuff up. Probably in her mind she is thinking "Swing-swing-swing-swing. I like to swing. I feel hunger. Feed me. Good, here comes a bottle. How long before they change my diaper? I wonder how long I can stare at these other babies until they look away. Here comes this lady who takes care of me at home. She's taking me with her." Then the next morning it starts over. Truthfully I'm not even sure she recognizes me yet. It's actually better that she's not old enough to comprehend this yet. That means she's not old enough to care that I'm leaving her in the morning, or to wonder where I am or where Dad is all day. Once she is old enough to care, she'll be used to it. That's comforting to me to a degree, but doesn't make me feel any less guilty. It also doesn't make me miss her any less!

We made it!

Well, mom decided this is her blog so she's going to take it back. She let me write for a while, but there are things she feels that I don't understand, so she said I don't have to do it anymore. Back to you, mom!

Our first day of daycare was a success. Jenna made it through, and even more shocking was that so did I! Jay & I dropped her off at 8:15 and I picked her up at 3:15. I was lucky to get to leave work early. Then I logged in from the couch while Jenna took a little nap next to me. I will probably do that a lot this week and maybe next week because it's so hard for me not to think about her there! Jenna was fine--they put her in the swing, fed her, changed her diaper, and probably held her some. My plan was to visit her at lunch, but I decided it would be way too hard. Not for her--for me! She wouldn't really know the difference, but didn't want to cry again like I did this morning. I tried to prepare myself for this mentally so it wouldn't be so hard, but I had a pit in my stomach and I just felt like a horrible mom leaving her there. I cried before we left the house, at the daycare, after we left the daycare, and at work. Then I came home for lunch and cried more because I was looking at her stuff but she wasn't there. I even cried on the way home when I drove past the daycare place and knew that she was there. I kept telling myself she's just at daycare. She's not in the hospital, she's alive and well, and probably happier there than she would be sitting at home with me. When I left work, I was giddy. I was so excited to get her! I couldn't wait to pick her up and hug her. She obviously didn't acknowlege that she knew who I was, but she let me hug her a lot and she was being very sweet.

I am so glad we got through this first day. I don't really know that tomorrow will be any easier, but at least I know more what to expect and I can kind of think about what they're doing with her all day. When I get to the point that I don't cry anymore when I drop her off, life will be good! Now I'm going to quit blogging and get some baby girl lovin'!

Drooling

Everyone knows that I spit up a lot, but lately I have also been drooling a lot. Why do I do that? My mouth always seems to have spit falling out of it. Mom is always wiping it with a burp cloth, so as long as someone's always wiping my face, I guess I don't need to stop. Mom looked up drooling online and found that it's a symptom of teething, but I'm too young for that!

My really long weekend

I am happy to be home so I can swing in my favorite swing, but I had a good week visiting family! Mom took lots of pictures. First we went to Austin to see Grandma & Grampa. I got a new toy that I love to sit in! Mom and Dad decided it was convenient to take with us when we go places because it folds flat. Sometimes I play with the blocks and colored balls, and sometimes I even try to suck on them!

Mom and Dad got to go out a few times while Grandma & Grampa kept me. Mom even put on lipstick! She hasn't done that much since I was born.

I got fussy with them, but I was pretty good overall. I smiled at them a lot and they loved it!

When we left Austin, we went to the lake to see Nana and Papa. They hadn't seen me in a long time and I was so different! I also got to see my cousins and aunts and uncles from Dad's side of the family. I'm not old enough to play with them yet, but lots of people held me and it made me very happy.

Papa loves to fix everything and build, so I got to sleep in my pack & play in a brand new bathroom that he built in the room we slept in! Mom can't sleep very well with me in the same room, so it was like I had my very own room! I also had my very first swim. The water was cold, but it didn't bother me.

I know a couple of people who could use a tan, and I don't mean me! After I swam in the lake, I got to go on my first boat ride. The problem is, Mom and Dad made me wear this really annoying life jacket because they could get a ticket if I wasn't wearing it. Those boat patrol people go crazy on July 4th! I didn't like that life jacket at all because it squished my face, and I couldn't get my fists in my mouth! I sure love sucking on my fists. Once I sucked on my pacifier long enough on the boat though, I fell asleep.

Speaking of sleep, I did more of that in the past few days than I have ever done! Mom and Dad were so excited because I slept from about 11 last night until 5 this morning! They are really hoping I keep that up. I also slept in people's arms a lot, and in this lounge chair by the water.

I was so good all week! Mom & Dad were very happy about that. The funny thing is that I have been crying most of the time since we got home! I waited until we were alone so no one else would think I was fussy. :) I also have a new favorite game. I like to wait until Dad hands me to Mom or until Mom picks me up without a burp cloth, and I throw up all over her. HeeHee. I did that about 5 times a day for the past 4 days or so. I'm trying to make it easier for her to leave me in daycare, but it's just not working. I'm excited to go meet all my new friends in 4 days though.