My Poor Neglected Blog

I'm baaaccckkkk!! Well, for now at least. I have really missed my fun little creative outlet but it has been a rough few weeks. To recap, we sold out house very quickly and had to find a new one and be moved into said new house inside of 6 weeks. Yikes! As if that wasn't scary enough, we were blessed with a record sales month at that same time, so my poor husband was a bit distracted and exhausted. Oh, and I was about 7 months pregnant and chasing a busy toddler. But God blessed us with a great home and made it all come together. Now, we are (relatively) settled and anxiously awaiting the arrival of sweet little Allison any day. (Note my optimism as I say "any day"...in reality, she won't likely show for at least another couple weeks but a mama can hope!) Anyway, I am excited to begin posting again more regularly even though it will likely be erratic for a while.

Life As Of Late

Whoever noted that when it rains, it pours, was very wise. Man oh man, has it seemed to pour lately! There is way too much going on to go into details but here is a recap of my past 2.5 half weeks in a nutshell:

• We got a contract on our house! After 5 years of being on and off the market, we were elated. The only downside is that they wanted us out in 45 days. Yikes!
• Since we had no place lined up to move into, the search for a new home was fast and feverish. I looked at nearly 20 houses in less than 3 days, plus we sifted through at least 100 homes online.
• We put a contract on a house! It is new and still under construction so we requested to make some decisions re: final colors and such. It is a beautiful home and just down the road from our business, which is great.
• I immediately began lining out details for the move, including updating our financials with our bank and signing paperwork to get our mortgage in place. I have also been selling off furniture that won't be needed in the new house and buying/preparing to buy things we will need immediately like a refrigerator and window coverings.
• We had a record sales month in April for the store - yea! Hopefully I will remember what my husband looks like when I see him again. He has been working 12-13 hour days 6 days a week and has had to work many Sundays too. Craziness.
• In the middle of this, I found out about some health issues a family member is having which are potentially serious. Hopefully they are nothing but we are still awaiting test results. There are many prayers going up in the meantime.
• My nearly 13 year-old dog has stopped eating regularly. I don't know why. My vet doesn't seem concerned so I'm trying to ride this one out too.
• Insert 2-3 instances of randomness/requests from our buyers/their realtor each week and I'm feeling like I might snap.

Anyway, if I have seemed a little stressed lately, that is my world. Oh, and I'm nearly 27 weeks pregnant - yea! That has become totally back burner and I can't believe I'm almost to 3rd trimester already. Hopefully the pouring will slow to a minor drizzle soon. Even in the midst of this insanity, we recognize how incredibly blessed we are. I look around me and see people sick with terminal illness or struggling with recent the loss of loved ones. My problems of today are fleeting and, in the grand scheme of things, are minor. I have full faith that the Lord will carry us through this time and that everything will work out as He intends, even if that plan isn't the same as ours.

Baby Bump at 18/19 weeks

Almost halfway there. And definitely wearing this shirt for the last time for a few months!

Little Mr or Little Miss?

Next week should be an exciting week for our house - we will find out the sex of Bean 2.0! As many of you know, we did not find out the sex with our first child so this is a whole new experience. The anticipation is building...will this baby be another boy or a girl? We shall see!

The comments and assumptions of society re: gender have been a bit surprising to me. One, that we automatically want a girl. (Honestly, we would love to have a daughter so that we could experience parenting both sexes but I know many parents who prefer one sex over the other or simply have no preference at all.) Two, if you have a boy, at least he can be close to A. Huh? My husband and his sister, who is one year older than him, were very close growing up. Likewise, I know many sets of siblings who are close in age but not close at all, even if both are the same sex. I tend to think that closeness is dictated by personality versus gender. Three, if you have a girl, she will be super-girly and decked out in pink all the time. Honestly, I hope not. I can't imagine encouraging a daughter that she is a "princess" and should only wear pink. But again, I tend to think that kids are who they are. Just today, I watched A run around outside wearing his bike helmet like it was a fashion statement. I would never encourage that one but hey, safety first, right??