Long overdue updates!

Well, it's only been like 8 or 9 months since I really posted last. While I'm sure that I could have made time to post, we have been quite busy! I'm sure most of you have been keeping up with all our news, but for those who haven't...here's what we've been doing over the past few months!

In February, we bought a house! We originally thought it'd be a little later in the year that we made our purchase, but we started looking early because we wanted to see what kind of things we were wanting in a house and what we could get for our money in the area, etc and we just happened to find the perfect house and the perfect time and got a great deal on it! We put in our offer in December and it took a couple months to get everything done and we had a few hiccups along the way, but we closed like beginning of February on it. Since we didn't have to be out of our rental house until the end of June, we took some time before moving in to do some work around the house. We pulled up the majority of the baseboards and then we did some painting. We wanted to be sure to paint all the rooms where we'd have a lot of furniture in because it's way easier when that's not in the way! Then we had to get new baseboards and cut them and paint them...then nail them down and caulk and touch em up. We spent a lot of hours here working, but it was worth it. I love sitting in our living room with our newly painted walls and new, pretty baseboards! :) Since we were just moving across town, we tried to bring a car load of stuff everytime we came to the house to work so when moving day arrived it'd be alot quicker to move everything...I still felt like we had a ton of stuff to move! We had 6 or 7 guys from church show up and help us and everything was moved in about 5 hours. We're so thankful for their help. We've been here about a month and a half now and still have boxes around and nothing on the walls...but there's kind of been a reason for that, which I'll touch on later. Anyways, we've got the most important rooms settled for the most part and are working slowly at getting all the extra things put away. We still have 2 rooms to paint and put baseboards down in, but we're hoping Ben can get those done this summer! I'll do a post hopefully later this week with more pictures of the house but for now, here's the front of it!

In other news, work has been going well for both of us. Ben is really liking what he's doing and has gotten to work on some cool projects that have had him traveling to Boston and Cinncinnati. Over the next few months he's going to be doing some training where he'll be gone for a week at a time for 4 different weeks, kinda stinks, but atleast it'll be over with by the beginning of August and he can check it off his list. Work has been going well for me also. The kids I watch are still adorable and I love em to pieces...most of the time! Matthew is 3 now and is a great big brother to Amelia, I think he's enjoying her so much more now that she's more like a "person" and can interact with him instead of a tiny baby that just sleeps, eats and cries! She is 8 months old now and is walking on furniture and behind rolly things already. She's getting braver and braver every day trying to take a few steps between things..it won't be long and I'll really have my hands full! Only a month left with them as full time and then I'll just work a day or two a week this summer. It'll be nice to have some time off but I'm sure I'll miss them!

We're still really liking it here in St Joe/Stevensville. We are loving the church we go to and are enjoying getting more involved there and getting to know everyone. I'm looking forward to the summer and getting to spend more time with everyone! We're still getting to know people in the community very slowly and are finding that married couples our age are a small minority of the population here, so it's been difficult to get to know anyone our age, but we've made some good friends that are just slightly older than us! :)

I guess the only other real exciting thing that is going on is that we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our first baby, due November 8th!! That's right...I'm pregnant! We are so excited and November already seems so far away. Everything has been going well so far and I seem to be feeling better week by week. We're almost out of the first trimester already. I think time has actually gone by kind of fast so far. Hopefully that will keep up! Anyways, that's why our house is still not unpacked...I've had NO energy at all. I'm so not the type to leave stuff in boxes and things not put on the wall, but this baby is draining me already! I'm hoping I get this "new energy" everyone keeps telling me about very soon so I can get some work done around the house! But we can't wait to introduce you all to Baby Alexander in 6 months or so! We'll be sure to keep everyone updated as things go! :)

Well, I better get a few things done before it's time for bed. Hope this finds you all doing well and that you have a great night!

Fun Giveaway!

So I know it's been months since I've posted...and I'm going to be posting updates on Ben and I VERY soon...but first...I wanted to tell you about a giveaway a girl name Shannon is doing of her super cute stuff! We used to go to church with her at McKnight and I can't wait to purchase some of her items! She's doing a giveaway and it ends tonight at midnight so hurry and enter! Here's the link!

http://shannonsknits.wordpress.com/2011/10/01/the-weekly-thread-my-etsy-versary/#comments

Good luck!

New Car!

Well, I guess I'm due for an update since we have something new at our house! We did in fact buy a car this week!
Last week, when Ben's truck had some issues, we started tossing around the idea of looking into a new car. We've known for a while that we were eventually going to be getting something to replace his truck because it's 16 years old, has 170,000 miles on it and we keep having to fix things! Plus, as we get further into the future, we'll want something a little more family friendly with good storage space. We hadn't really planned on getting something so soon, but after that happened with his truck last week, we decided we'd check into insurance and see how much that would go up for the type of SUV we were looking for, and we decided that we'd look around online at dealerships and see if there was anything we'd want to go drive to kind of figure out what we liked.
So last Friday, we went to a dealership right down the road here because we  had seen advertised a 2008 Saturn Vue that looked really nice. So we went and test drove it, along with a few other things. Ben loved it! He was like ready to buy it right then! lol, but I had several others that I wanted to test drive first, and plus, it was our first day to look. Saturday we decided to go down to South Bend to go to some dealerships and drive all the different ones we wanted to test out. It was a long, hot day out on the car lots, but we got a lot of good test drives in and were able to narrow our choices down to 3 different ones. After a couple days of thinking about it and deciding, we decided to go back to this dealership here in town and drive the Vue again. I hadn't actually driven it the first time we went, and so I wanted to drive it and see what I thought and I wanted to look at it again to see what I thought about the trunk space...I was kind of hoping for something a little bit bigger. But after driving it and comparing size and prices to others, we decided to make them an offer! So we did, and they met us at a really good deal...so we are now the owners of a 2008 Vue! We never thought we'd buy one so quick into starting to look, but we really liked this one and it was one really good deal!
Here it is!

far away from home

Last week, I went down to Kentucky for the week...I was gone from Monday morning to Sunday evening. I went to Louisville to spend time with my Grandma. Monday she was discharged from the nursing home, so I picked her up and took her back to her apartment. Right around the time she got sick and went to the hospital, she was in the process of moving to an apartment upstairs from her old one due to some water problems, so when we got back to her apartment, it was full of boxes and things that needed to be put away, hung on the wall, etc. So while I was there to make sure she was doing okay on her own at home and all, I also was able to help her go through boxes and get her apartment organized. We had a really good time visiting and she managed to send a whole carload of things home with  me! On Friday, my parents came for the weekend so it was super nice to see them. Saturday, all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins came over and we had a big get together to help hang pictures, move furniture, and everything else I hadn't gotten done during the week. It was so nice to get to see and visit with them, because alot of them I hadn't really seen since our wedding, and even then, I didn't really get to visit with them then. It was really a great visit, and I'm so glad that I got to go.
Of course, being gone for 7 days had its downfalls....I think that that's the longest I've been away from Ben in over 2 years! It was hard being away for so long! I also missed my kitties! Anyways, being gone, allowed Ben plenty of time to work on his thesis (which is finally almost done!), so that was good.
This week, I've just been catching up on things around here. We FINALLY got some prints of our wedding pictures, lol, so I picked those up, along with some frames. We'll get those hung up this weekend. I also have been sewing some. My Grandma gave me her sewing machine she doesn't use anymore and so I've been working on that and seeing if I'll be able to make something! It's been fun! I  picked up some cute little patterns from the store the other day in case I get really good at it! haha.
Other than that, we've just been chilling! Ben had some trouble with his truck earlier this week, but that all worked out okay. Last night we got together with some couples that we met at a church we visited a couple weeks ago. Ben got together with them last week, but this was my first time getting together with all of them. The couples are so, so sweet and I'm really looking forward to getting to know them! Between the 2 couples they have 5 kids, with 1 on the way, so it's definitely a busy time, but there's never a dull moment!
Well, I better run. I have some errands to run and tonight Ben and I have a little shopping to do!
Have a great weekend!

Appliances!

So I've been supposed to post pictures of our new appliances for a while now, and I kept forgetting...today I finally remembered to take some pictures so I thought I'd share them with you!

We love them all so far!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Slacker

Well, I guess I'm already slacking and well overdue for an update! So what's been up with us?

We've just been settling in here. We still like our house but seem to be finding something every day that needs work or something. We've also been discovering lots of disgusting bugs...like slugs in the basement and these nasty centipede things with a million legs...like this
.
We had a GREAT 4th of July! On that Saturday Ben's brother Jake and his girlfriend were in Michigan City, IN, about 45 minutes from us, visiting her family so we drove down that morning and had breakfast with them and hung out on the beach with them down there. Then, our friends Sasha and Jonathan came up to visit from St Louis! So we met them here at our house for lunch on Saturday. We went down and had pizza at this super awesome pizza place on the beach and then we walked down to the beach and hung out for a while. That afternoon we relaxed and played alot of Canasta! For dinner that night we cooked indian food and Sasha taught me how to make Samosas! That was fun! On Sunday we went downtown to Antiques on the Bluff, which was pretty much a big garage sale with lots of antiques and few other things. We came back and relaxed that afternoon and went to a nearby town, Baroda, for an awesome fireworks display. Monday we got up and went down to Warren Dunes State Park where there are these huge sand dunes. We only climbed one...one was enough of a work out. Then there's a really nice beach there so we hung out, the guys swam and we had a picnic lunch! They had to head back to St Louis after that and Ben and I came back and took a nap. That night we went to downtown and watched fireworks from the beach..that was pretty cool! The fireworks here are awesome...unlike any I've seen before!
Let's see...what else? Last weekend was our first full weekend here by ourselves, Friday night we had a date night and went to dinner, walked on Tuscornia Beach and out on the pier, had ice cream at this really awesome place here and then rented a movie! It was nice! Sunday we went to a new church here...it was nice and we're really looking forward to finding our church home here!
Earlier this week, we finally invested in a window air conditioning unit...it was just so hot and muggy in this house without air conditioning! Of course, we put it in and yesterday was absolutely gorgeous and 70 degrees and sunny...todays a little warmer but still in the 70s. Oh well, it's supposed to be hot this weekend and next week. Yesterday I walked down towards the beach and spent the afternoon on the bluff overlooking the beach reading a new book. It was awesome! It's so nice being able to walk to the beach anytime I want to! Today the cats and I have been enjoying the nice day out on the porch.
Ben is still loving his job. As for my job situation, I did accept the position I had previously written about that will start full time after Thanksgiving, but I'll be starting part time for 2 days a week in September. I'm so excited about being a nanny for this family...they are so sweet and their son is great, and I'm sure their daughter will be too! I may also be doing some temporary nannying for another great family I interview with. Due to the increase in committment from my previous family, I won't be able to help this other family out for a couple months. They're having trouble finding someone, so I told them I could help out for a few weeks if they needed me to, so I may be starting that in a couple weeks if they don't find anyone first.
Next week I'm going down to Kentucky for a few days. My Grandma was sick a couple weeks ago and has been recovering in nursing home to get her strength back...so I'm going to go down and stay with her for a few days once she goes home. My parents will be going down that next weekend so I'll get to see them a little bit too!
I guess not much else has been going on...oh, the cats are getting along great now. They play together all the time...sometimes so much so that it's annoying! They always seem to think that our bedroom is a playground at 7am! I feel like I'm vacuuming everyday to get up all the little grey furballs all over our rug!
Well thats all for now...hope you all are having a great week!

Interviews

So today I had my first interview for a nanny position!
I was so nervous going into it just because while I've babysat and done some summer nannying before, I've never done like "official" nanny work! But, as soon as I got there and met the mom and dad and their 2 year old son, I immeadiately relaxed! They were so laid back and SO nice! Their son took up to me right away and we spend lots of time playing with Thomas the Tank Engine trains, reading books, making towers and me pushing him around in the grocery cart. I had a blast.
So this position wouldn't actually start until right after Thanksgiving because the mom is currently pregnant with their 2nd child and then she'll be off work for a couple of months, but I'd probably start helping her out before she goes back to work. She's a teacher so I'd have paid time off over Christmas and spring break! And then I'd have the summer off with the exception of helping her out every once in a while!
Now I just have a decision to make, but I'm SO excited about this possibility, I really feel like we'd be a good fit for each other!
Thanks for all the good lucks!