Stress!

I know the world goes on with little care for what is going on in my life and how stressed I am but I can't help feeling like I have been and will be stressed forever!

I am trying to breathe deeply but the little things are getting to me, probably because all the little things add up to a huge feeling of being overwhelmed.

I am ready to be done with moving. All I am thinking about these days is what we have to do today as far as paperwork or phone calls or emails to make sure everything goes perfect and we get closed on our new house on time. It seems like so many things could go wrong and a few things already have. I cannot wait until this is over and we are settled once and for all out here!

Right now we are still waiting on the underwriting decision to make sure we actually are approved for our loan. I'm not worried about being denied, but what I am worried about is the time frame. We close on February 14th and they just got our information yesterday and if it takes several days to review and then they come back saying some information is missing and we get any documents or whatever they need and send it back, it can take several more days to review. Going back and forth more than once means we can't close on time which can't happen or we will literally be homeless.

We are also trying to get everything finished up on our home back in Nebraska so that we can close on that house on time. Our new loan won't go through unless we close on our old house first. The list has been never ending on things we have to fix on our old house for Todd's company to buy it from us. We are so sick of that house and though I may have a few feelings of nostalgia seeing it one last time, mostly I just want to rid myself of it. It has been such a burden! Part of the reason is because after having 'owned' it for 5+ years, we are getting nothing out of it and actually are losing a little bit. It makes me sick to my stomach to think about since we have dumped so much money into that house and have nothing to show for it. We are convinced that won't happen to us with our new house. At least we are hoping!

We are going to Nebraska again this weekend to finish up the house stuff, but more importantly, to see our little baby! It has been two weeks and I miss him so much that it hurts! I have gotten really emotional the last few weeks without him, more so than the last time I didn't see him. It sucks not having a daycare here yet and not being settled. Otherwise, he would be here with us. We only get to see him for little more than a day but we are so excited! We are also going to bring some stuff back with us that the movers can't move so we don't have to worry about it later. We won't get back home tonight until about 3 am so we will be exhausted tomorrow but we will get through it.

The good news is, this crazy stress should be short lived. We close on our new house in just over two weeks and once our stuff is delivered to our new house, I am hoping we will be mostly settled and unpacked within another week after that. So all in all, about 4 more weeks of stress, with it tapering off towards three weeks from now. I am ready for a mental break.

Oh yeah, one more thing to add stress. I am studying for my series 53 test right now for my job. I have to pass the test on February 7th or I will have to take it again within a month. I have been trying to study for it but have been so busy and stressed that I haven't been doing a good job. I hope I pass the test. I would hate to have to tell my boss that I failed.

Here's to less stressful days!

28 years ago today.....

My mom got the best gift ever......ME!!!! Haha! :)

No, really though. I was actually a surprise for my parents and am their youngest. I was born at 7:10 pm 28 years ago....and it was also a Saturday (which makes sense since there is 7 days in a week and 7 goes into 28 4 times - although not sure how you account for leap years in there).

My mom actually had to wait for the doctor to get to the hospital to have me because he was at a Nebraska football game. And on that note - there is a Nebraska game today, and after last weeks lost, they better win and give me a good birthday present with a victory! Go Huskers!

It has been a good morning so far. The hubs brought me breakfast home and flowers and a card (how sweet). I am just going to hang out today and not do much because I want to relax.

Oh, and I decided I am 27 and holding. Though I turn 28 today, I refuse to get older or feel older. I want to be young forever - but who doesn't??

Happy Birthday to me! Hehe.

My brothers wedding in pictures

My brother got married on our 6th anniversary. It was a great weekend. Here are a few pics.



Rehearsal




My brother - the groom




Ryan again on the wedding day




Me and Todd before the wedding



My mom and Julie



Me and Julie



Todd and two ushers



Aaron and Jen



In the limo



On a pretty bridge



The cute couple



The wedding party



More wedding party



Xander posing



Me and Todd at the reception



Xander dancing - he danced all night!



The Macho Man dance



More dancing



The end!

A dose of thankfulness (we are lucky)

I was sitting at my desk yesterday at work thinking about my job and how lucky I am to have it. It is so easy to complain about your job and why it is so bad. But I was thinking about how many people there are right now without a job, or with a worse job than mine! Not just worse in pay, but worse duties too. I am lucky and I need to remember how blessed I am to have a job that pays well and also is something that I really enjoy doing. In the past, I have had a lot of jobs that I really didn't enjoy doing. But even then, I was still blessed to have a job!

I admit, my attitude in the past was crap about my jobs and I realize it now (hindsight is 20/20). It is hard to be happy and positive when you don't enjoy your job even a little bit. It is hard to see through the frustration to be happy that you even have a job.

I also have to admit that I am very lucky and blessed in other areas of life also. We have an adorable, healthy son who brings joy to our every day! We have a roof over our heads and our house is in good shape and not falling apart. We have two cars that run well (for now - haha). We both have steady jobs that pay the bills. We have our health (for the most part) and our legs to let us walk. We have our brains to help us think. Sorry if this is getting cheesy but it is so true and we all need a reminder that we have so much to be grateful for!

Having my son makes me so happy and thankful that it was easy to conceive him (a surprise actually) and the pregnancy and birth went pretty well. I actually read quite a few blogs about fertility and can't even imagine the heartbreak that comes along with trying to conceive and with miscarriages when you want to have a baby so bad. I almost take it for granted that we have our son and that he is healthy, but I never should!

I am also blessed with an awesome husband and an awesome family. I actually enjoy get togethers with both sides of our family because we all get along so well.

I am encouraging everyone else to think about what you are thankful for and why you are blessed. It should be easy!

My week so far

Glad it is Thursday night, which means tomorrow is Friday! I am ready for this week to be over even though it was a short one. I have said it before and I will say it again - I don't love my job. But on that note, I am excited because there are two new jobs that opened up at my company that I am very interested in. Also, it's a small promotion but it's not like it would be a long shot or way out of my league to get either of those jobs so I would say I have a decent chance. Even though I have only worked at the company for four months, I have industry knowledge and my 7 and 63 which might help me get a different job. I am already starting to feel a little happier at the thought of getting another job within the company and actually somewhat enjoying my job each day, or at least not dreading it as much as the one I have now.

I was watching the olympics tonight and I picked Xander up to take him up to bed and he pointed at the tv. It was Jeremy Abbott ice skating and I said 'say night-night to Jeremy'. :) I am such a dork, but Xander did his little wave that he does when he say bye or good night and it was so cute!

This is not really part of my week but more part of my life in general. I have type 1 diabetes and most days I don't think much about it but every once in a while I hate it or it makes me mad, sad or frustrated. I went to give myself my 24 hour insulin tonight and when I injected myself, it left a huge bubble under my skin as it sometimes (actually rarely) does. It is so gross! It just looks like a bubble under my skin about the size of a quarter. It goes away eventually once the insulin makes its way into my body further but how yucky is that?! Sorry, just had to share.

We decided to be smart about our tax return money and a potential bonus Todd will get this year. We decided to take a chunk of the money and improve some small things in our house. We have already put cabinet pulls on all of the cabinets and knobs on all of the drawers in the kitchen. Todd replaced one of the two bathroom faucets - they need replacing very badly. He also picked out and installed a new kitchen faucet on Wednesday - I am so proud of him that he was able to figure it out in a few hours! That was also something that needed replacing badly. We also found new door knobs that work. We are replacing the ones we have from a shiny gold finish to all matted silver finish. He has already switched a few out and we had to buy a few different brands to find one that would fit. I am so excited even though those things seem like small changes - they make a nice visual impact.

Anyway, this weekend we are going to go out and do more shopping for household things. Oh, I forgot to mention that I also found curtains for the living room this week. I even managed to find some on clearance that work well with our living room! The funny thing is, we have lived in this house four years and have never even put curtains up in the living room. How sad is that? Anyway, we are going to get a set of vertical blinds to go over our back patio door, possibly get a second bathroom faucet, a light fixture for our bathroom (silver to replace gold) and we might get a new light fixture for the ceiling in our living room. We are also thinking about getting a headboard and footboard for our bed but haven't decided on that yet.

I am so, so excited to make our house a little nicer! Now if only we had money to replace the carpet!

I think this weekend we are also going to get together with the family for my sister-in-laws birthday. I love getting together with family so that should be fun. Family is so special to me. Sorry to sound cheesy but it is so true!

A very homemade Christmas

I am so impressed by my sister in law Jen's craftiness. She made all homemade gifts for Xander this year and I couldn't be more thrilled with each of them! Some people would think - ugh, homemade gifts are so boring. Not true! The things she made are so awesome and I am very thankful for each of them!

Here are the pictures of the things she made.

Curious George blanket
I realize this isn't as hard to make as some things- she just sewed down the edges of fleece fabric. But it was still such a kind thought because we like Curious George stuff for Xander since he loves his stuffed George so much. Plus it was homemade and a better deal than buying a blanket pre-made. I just love it and Xander is already sleeping with it at night!




Adorable little brown shoes
These are similar to Robeez but with the benefit of not being so expensive! I guess in my case they were free but she has told me they don't cost much to make either - just time!

Homemade letter book

This is seriously one of the greatest gifts I have ever received. It is a beautiful book and has the letters a-z with something representing each letter on each page. This had to have been so time consuming! It is something I know we will treasure forever!

This adorable long sleeved shirt with a sewn on fabric tie

Jen's son Sam was wearing one of these on Christmas and I thought it was so cute and then we opened Xander's gifts and there was one for Xander! So cute!

How fun are these gifts? I am so thankful for each and every one! What fun gifts to get!

Cousins

Last week for Thanksgiving, we went to my mom's house in Lincoln where we had the whole family together. My mom wanted a picture of her 4 grandchildren for her Christmas card so we took a few. Here are a few of the ones that turned out ok. None of them are great, but that is what happens when you have 4 little kids, all under 2 1/2. Enjoy!