Moving Update!

For those of you who may not know, our lease is up at the end of November and we have been looking at new places online. Thankfully there seems to be a lot of homes for rent in the area that we want (we're moving to cut Jesse's work commute in half), and most of them are three bedroom townhouses which would be really great!

Zillow.com is where we've been looking - check it out!

However, in a previous post (found here) I mentioned that the OBGYN that I was seeing for this pregnancy was really not cutting it and after a lot of other Tampa mama's recommendations, I switched to The Women's Group. I've only been to one of their locations once but it blew me away how different it was. Not only was it much cleaner and beautifully decorated, but the nurses have all been super helpful, they have a 24 hour nurse line specifically for us preggo ladies and the doctors are amazing. The downside? Having to pay almost $1500 upfront for labs, visits and delivery costs for the clinic itself.

SO long story short, due to this huge amount of money we hadn't had any time to budget or save for, we're pretty low on funds. We talked a bit about what to do and also talked with our current place and are now staying until the end of December. Hopefully with Jesse picking up some overtime, we should be able to gather enough to begin moving mid to late December.

Trying to see the glass half full - at least I have another month before I need to start packing now! Haha :)

In other news, Wednesday is the big day! I have my glucose test, we have the anatomy scan and we will be finding out the baby's gender! Words cannot express how thankful I feel every day - even when my ligaments are sore or my back hurts, I feel those little kicks and am just completely overwhelmed with love. Pregnancy truly is such a blessing!!

TTFN <3

Phase Two

So I caught some type of horrible bug at the state fair this past weekend... I'm still a mouth breather, surrounded by used tissues and this morning I needed to sit down halfway through cooking eggs. So, here's a post I had saved up ;)

Just after my mom moved into her new place, the kitchen/ dining area was the place I was most anxious to work on.... it was the messiest of messes.

In no particular order, here are the first 'improvements' we made:

A new large sized clock. Still don't know what to do with this nook area. My only thought is that we'd have to nail or screw something into place as it is well within munchkin reach...

One weekend my mother took Andrew for a sleepover and hubby and I painted until the wee hours of the morning so Andrew could have his room looking familiar again... we also converted his crib to a toddler bed and he got SO excited about it. He still loves flinging himself up there when it's time to sleep.

Got new curtains for the porch door (it came with the long blinds but Andrew broke a bunch of those at the last place so we had them taken down). After picking out a print we liked we were excited to see how well it went with the painting hung nearby!

This is from Christmas time... finally got the table moved into it's proper place. We hung our sconces and a random painting I had laying around. Hoping to put up a few paintings of wine bottle and vineyard scenes in the dining area.

Kitchen slowly coming together... p.s. Lime Chips go perfectly with my White Chicken Chili from my recipes page ;-P

Our bedroom was the hardest thing to tackle. We don't allow the little guy in our room often so we were hardly ever in there to make any progress. It ended up being finished the day before my in-laws arrived, whew!

Closet... it looks much, much worse now. Back to the drawing board for this one.

Almost there, kitchen.

We got a second Laiva Bookcase to match our original one. They are only $25 at IKEA and have worked great for us! The TV stand is from one of Jesse's fellow students at USF and the TV we got through Jesse's work on a payment plan. The guy practically had a heart attack when I agreed he could splurge on the 4k 55 inch "masterpiece" haha! Thank goodness for Black Friday deals too!

Those cords still bug me though...

Starting to get furniture arranged...

We put up these "bookshelves" (Bekvam Spice Rack - $3.99 each) in Andrew's room. He has since pulled them all out of the wall. Twice. SO off to go find drywall anchors... we plan to try to hunt down a cute little armchair to put here since we have a bookworm on our hands.

After perusing at Target and saying aloud "Who has $80 for a couch cover?!?" I turned around and went to Tuesday Morning where I found one. last. one. It unfortunately is for a loveseat so the side seams are a little wonky but hey. This was a $60 couch that I hope to replace this Spring and the cover cost $18. Worth it.

You may remember my "I promise this isn't blood" post explaining WHY we needed a cover... if not, here ya go.

I love this view. We lucked out. After being denied from our 1st choice we dashed around collecting brochures and this place had a first floor, wood panelled, conservation view, 2 bedroom available the very day we wanted it, $50 off per month and Jesse's work is a preferred employer. Score.

Photo wall in the entry way. We had the center one already so I printed off some photos online through Target... cost less than $2 and each frame cost under $5 at IKEA. Stuck them on with velcro strips and plan to update them every so often.

Pre-new TV and bookcase.....

Daddy and munchkin enjoying the new rug! (found here)

Phase One of our new place

We officially moved on November 23rd, but were able to get the keys on the 18th. We did the walkthrough and signatures and all that, and I snapped these pictures. It seemed really kind of small when it was so empty, and it was a mirrored layout of the model so it really threw me off at first. BUT now with our things in, it looks huge again.

And then we moved stuff in (my mother moved in with us for a few weeks until her new place was ready) and were totally overwhelmed. It felt like we were living in a hotel every day, hunting through boxes for things, organizing everyday to try to carve out a bit more space.... it was rough for all of us.

BUT I got a jumpstart on Andrew's closet organization...

The patio hasn't really changed. Planning on hunting down some wicker furniture, and maybe some sort of play area for Andrew (like a rubberized playmat and.... something. Any suggestions?)

I also was able to get Andrew's bath finished...

(Everything is from Target)

And we have an awesome playground just across the parking lot from our unit. 

Will post the next phase soon! TTFN <3

College and Grad School

So, I dropped out of college in Spring Semester 2012. I was an officer for a student organization called "Attitudes" (a dance org) and was choreographing and dancing in the end of year performance, but I was working a ton, we were planning a move to Florida and I've never particularly liked going to classroom classes, I prefer online. I spoke to my department head about trying to make it work from a different state, but it really seemed unlikely.

SO, I have been looking into online classes at Ashford University and SNHU and they both have European History classes which is what I want to do. I am hoping to apply early in 2015 and maybe start in the fall of that year doing one class a semester, and then hopefully once Jesse graduates I can move to full-time.

Jesse just had his first week of grad classes and even though it's great he only has to go 2 days a week, we can already tell it's gonna mix things up quite a bit.

I am so, so proud of him. He has been talking a bit with one of his professors about a research opportunity, is doing a pretty good job so far keeping up with things/ finding time for readings and such between work and family stuff. And he also just nabbed an ideal shadowing opportunity he needed for class. Psychology is what he is passionate about and it shows. He is going to thrive in this atmosphere, surrounded by great professors, academic opportunities and surrounded by others passionate about the same things. So happy for him :)

Anyhoo, this is why I've been MIA this past month. It's been a struggle finding last minute finances for things he needs, getting everything together, etc. Also I feel like I am being so lazy! It's like I'm in a standstill waiting to move to a new place. We're hoping to leave mid November and I'm so ready to change things up. For one, I don't feel comfortable in our current surroundings. Our porch is disgusting, there has been crap floating in the pools here and they has to install cameras at the local park due to car break-ins and criminals running from the cops. No joke. So, I'm not about to head out to any near-by locations with my little guy so he and I are both stir crazy and I just can't stop daydreaming about all that extra space for him to run around in. 

We are taking a big road trip in less than 3 weeks now though so hopefully that will help :)

Well that's all my blabbing for today, I'll post more fun stuff next haha

TTFN <3