Less than a month to go

With less than a month to go until Melodie is here, Ryan and I have been getting ready for our baby to come. We've started doing laundry for Melodie, and getting boxes opened from great gifts that we've received. While we're not setting up a room for her, until we move, we're trying to get everything as ready as we can. It's an unusual pot of emotions that both of us are processing through. We're both excited, nervous, scared and one of us is MORE than ready to have regular dreams instead of crazy weird ones! It's going to be an interesting month, and I can't wait to meet our little one.

What a week!?

The above picture is from New Year's Eve last year when I had a terrible ear infection, but I thought that it might be an appropriate representation of what this past week has been like.

I started back at work last week Thursday, and while things are going well, it has been really really busy. I come home everyday exhausted, and wake up even more tired than the previous night. Tonight is the first night in a week where I have nothing to do, but sit at home and catch up on blogs that have been neglected for sometime.

After getting an accepted offer on the house that Ryan and I were looking at, we're getting excited to move out of our EXTREMELY loud apartment building. I'm actually convinced that the people who live above us are sumo w'restlers, and the people below us are in a rock band that only plays bass from 4:30PM - 3:00AM EVERY DAY! I CAN'T WAIT TO GET OUT OF HERE!

Melodie is due in a month, and we're getting excited and nervous for her to come. I can't believe that we're so close to meeting her, and at the same time, it doesn't seem real that we're going to be responsible for a little person in just a few weeks. She has already been an incredible blessing, I can only wait to see what she's like.

Well, the apartment looks as though it's in disarray (since I'm no longer sitting at home on my bum all day), and the people upstairs are driving me nuts, so I think it might be a good idea to start cleaning before I get super stressed. Hopefully Ryan will get out of work early and we'll actually get to spend some time together before the weekend is over.

The day Heaven opened...

Fifteen years ago, on Easter, my Grandma passed away. It wasn't sudden, or shocking. She had smoked since her teenage years, and finally it had caught up with her, way to early. About three months prior to her passing away she had been diagnosed with cancer. Over those three months my family dealt with the realization that she wasn't going to recover from it, and decided to let her die at her house with the care of Hospice. I remember driving with my dad from our house over to my grandparent's house the Friday before she passed away, and my dad telling me that Grandma only had a couple of days left. I thought about it, and decided that I hoped she could hang on until Sunday morning, which was Easter. I told my dad that I hoped she passed away on Easter "because that's the day Heaven opened". At the time, I processed through the events like any ten year old would. People celebrate the anniversary of their birth, company's celebrate their significant start dates and years, why wouldn't Heaven be having a party to rejoice in it's opening? Afterall, Jesus ascended into Heaven on the third day, taking with him the righteous dead and bringing them into everlasting life with the Father. I thought that it'd be neat if my Grandma got to join in on that celebratory anniversary and be able to say with all of those who had gone before that she too had entered into everlasting life, on the day (or anniversary of the day) that the gates of Heaven were opened. Granted, I've had more years to process through my ten-year-old theology. I understand now that we don't know the exact date of Christ's resurrection from the dead. In fact, my Grandma died on April 19th, not March 22nd. But we celebrate Easter to remind us of the joyous fact that Christ DID die, and that he DID rise again, and that we, who know Christ as our Savior and accept his death for us on a cross so that we may come to live forever with the Father. Perhaps there isn't a celebration in Heaven commemorating this event in history, and all of the saints before us aren't walking around with party hats and streamers and giving random people hugs and yelling "Happy Resurrection!", as they would on New Year's, to everyone they see. But I know that there is an undending celebration in Heaven going on, and that one day, because of what Christ has done, I too will join in it. Years ago, my Dad and I were talking on the phone and he recounted a sermon he had heard regarding Good Friday, where the preacher had declared, "Friday's here, but Sunday's a comin'!". In other words, life my look bleak now, but the promise that things will completely turn around is just days away". On Easter, it's nice to know that Friday WAS here, but Sunday HAS come. No matter what happens today, tomorrow or a week from now...Sunday has come. And if my life on this earth ends today, tomorrow or a week from now, I know that I know that I know that I know that I too will join with the saints in Heaven celebrating Easter Sunday.

Back to work

I'm headed back to work for the first time since Thanksgiving! (save a few days in there where I gave it a good college try). I'm a bit nervous, but excited at the same time. I have been really blessed with how great Abbott has been with my leave, and it'll be nice to be able to be productive before Melodie comes. However, I'm really nervous. I'm not quite sure how everything will go, and I'm just hoping that the days aren't too long and I still remember how to do my job! :) March madness indeed does start tomorrow. Wish me luck.

We got the house...and I'm exhausted!

Our offer got accepted last weekend, so we're set to move out of our apartment in a couple of months and we're ready to make our new house our home. It's been really fun going through the whole process of buying a home, but it has been exhausting! I'm really thankful that we got things taken care of before I head back to work this week, and for the most part, things have gone quick smoothly.

This weekend was also a blast. I went back home this past weekend for a baby shower (yes, I did leave BEFORE we found out about the house, but Ryan filled me in when he got the news). The shower was on Sunday, and it was fantastic. Two of my cousins also shared the shower with me, so that it was a Wedding-Baby-Baby shower. Melodie ended up making out like a bandit! The Jeep is still full of stuff that needs to be unloaded and Ryan has already made four trips.

After Ryan left for work, I hit the hay and slept for a good three hours (between housing calls, and the short-term disability people releasing me to work). I'm looking forward to getting back to work, but I think that I'm going to be taking quite a few more naps over the next few weeks until Melodie comes. It has been a blessing being home, and being able to spend as much time with Ryan as we've been able to lately, but it has also been a blessing to work for Abbott and I'm looking forward to getting back to things.

Future Young House?

So Ryan and I put an offer in on this house this morning. We should hear back by midnight tomorrow! Here are a few pictures of the house:

This is taken from the upstairs, the doorway that is kind of visible leads into the master bedroom, we'd plan on using this room as a nursery.
This is the shower in the master bathroom, interesting round shower isn't it?
Here's another pic from the master bath
This is a picture taken from the doorway of the "nursery" looking into the master bedroom
This is another view of master bedroom
This is the living room, the two windows directly ahead are actually matching stained glass windows, but the picture didn't turn out the way that I had expected it to.

Here's a look from the living room into the dining room
The newly remodeled kitchen, it still needs appliances, but the garbage disposal was included. :)
The main floor bathroom
Here's one of the two bedrooms on the main floor. The owners of the home completely sanded and then refinished the floors throughout the main floor. They look way better than any of the other houses that we visited.
Finally, here's a picture of the front of the house. Hopefully it'll be ours soon. :) Melodie started kicking me a lot when we went to go put an offer on it. I think that she's excited about her nursery. :)

Back to work!

I had an appointment today with my OB, and the good news (beyond Melodie being right on schedule and healthy) is that after next week I'm no longer at risk for pre-term labor, and I can return to work! I'm actually really excited about it, and can't wait to get back and be productive for awhile. It'll sure be a shock to my system next Thursday when I get up to WORK for the first time in months, but it'll be nice to feel productive, and not have to worry about short-term disability running out before Ms. Melodie comes. What a blessing.

In other news, Ryan and I have seemingly had quite a week. We went looking at houses yesterday and Monday and have fallen in love with one in particular. After being told by a mortage lender that there was no possible way that we could make an offer on a house until I was back at work, Ryan and I thought that the house was out of reach and wasn't going to happen. I decided to call another place and was pleasantly pleased to hear that mortage lender number one was crazy and that there was NO problem with me being on maternity/medical leave. We got pre-approved, and are now looking to return to the house to check it out again. I can't wait to see it, and then hopefully make an offer. Ryan and are both nervous and excited, but it should be fun. We'll see how things go.

Exhausted

Yesterday I got up and went to a Marquette Alumni soccer game. I didn't play, of course, but had a great time seeing past and present players/teammates and even found out that another alum is due on the same day as I am. I had to leave after the first game (it was an all day tournament that MU hosts every year - giving alumni a chance to play some real competition, which is always fun), and caught up with my in-laws at George Webb's for breakfast. Most of the family was there, including my new niece Madeline who gave me a well neede baby fix. Ryan's Uncle Phil and a couple of cousins were there as well, and we had a good time catching up and chatting. Apparently Ryan's Grandma and her sons would go to a particular George Webb's every Saturday morning for breakfast, and the tradition has continued well after she's passed away. One family member has the responsibility of making "Grandma-isms" throughout the breakfast, in honor of her memory, and it's always a good time. After breakfast, Ryan and I had a good time blobbing on the couch and taking a mini-nap. He headed off to work, and I went over to a friend's house to celebrate her new engagement with some friends. I got home around midnight, and realized how tiring the day had been. It definately wasn't a good night to loose an hour of sleep for either Ryan or me, but we did make it out of bed for church and the new-comers lunch today. It was nice to meet people, and to be as welcomed as everyone has made us feel. This church really has been a blessing, and I'm glad that we both felt comfortable there the first time we went.
This afternoon I ended up taking a four hour nap and I feel much better. Now I'm getting ready for another busy week.

For you mom