Our New Life

Ok, I doubt there is anyone reading this any more but I thought I would update it anyway.
Last week Wednesday (1/9/08) Jasmine Joy was born after 29 hours of labor. It was a hard and long labor but it was done the way we had wanted, with no drugs. She weighed 8 lb 10.5 oz and was 21 inches long. She has long brown hair and long fingers & toes.
We are still getting use to the idea and practice of being parents. For now Jason is staying home with me. He has taken 2 weeks off work and after that wants to work from home a few days a week. This has been great as I still should not lift heavy things. (I have a few stiches that need to heal.)

Update on my life

OK, so it has been almost a month since the last time I wrote anything here. I'm doing fine, work is work. This past paycheck I had 19.4 hours of over time. Not a happy camper. I think the stress is getting to me. My stomach has been giving me problems for a couple of weeks now. Hopefully once things slow down at work my stomach will start acting normal again.

Oh, there has been some interesting things happening in our lives this past week. First off, this week it has snowed everyday and the temps have not been my favorite. On Thursday when Jason & I got home from work, we walked into a house that was 50 degrees, and no we don't lower our temp that much during the day. Our furnace was out, and had been most of the day. The temp outside was somewhere around 20 degrees. Somehow we got the temp in the house to get up to 60 by the time we went to bed. It was the same when we got up (and the furnace was working somewhat at this point.)

I call a heating and plumbing place and they said it would be about 1-3 pm before they would be able to show up, so Jason & I went to work. At 12 pm we started on our way home with a stop at the bank to paid our mortgage. Then it was 30 minutes and we were home. This time when we walked into the house it was at the right temp (68). The heating guy showed up at 1:15 (very good timing if you ask me, I had just finished my lunch). He didn't find much wrong but said that he could replace a part that was sticking and he took off a mesh that was on the intake (he said there was a really good chance it had frozen over and there was no fresh air for the furnace to work.) The furnace has been working well ever since, that is not to say that is the end of my story.

The next thing that went wrong was this morning (Sunday). We woke up (at 7:30 am) to reading -.4 degrees for the outside temp. As I turned the faucet in the kitchen I came up with a drop of water, nothing more nothing less. I looked under the sink and I found a mound of ice by one of the pipes. Our kitchen pipes had frozen over night. I was not too happy about this. Since on Thursday we had no heat, we had brought in the space heaters from the garage. We now have them pointing at the pipes with the doors open. By lunch one of the three pipes were working again, the one that had the pile of ice by it. Now it is almost 9 pm and we still have no water, and we have way too many dishes that need to be washed. It is also going to get cold tonight (oh, by the way it never got over 10 degrees today) and tomorrows high is 0 degrees and the wind makes it fell ever so colder.

So that was my weekend, and I still need to do my "homework" for my writer group for tomorrow. And no I don't care who wins the super bowl, that is why I'm on the computer instead of watching TV.

New Year- few days later

Ok, so the new year has started. I have already worked my first Saturday of tax season. I'm not looking forward to this season, but I will get through it.

Back to our trip. It was ok. around 30 hours during that time we were in the car, if not more. I'm glad we came home when we did (which was Sunday 12-31-06). When we got home it was sometime around 6 pm. We took our stuff inside and started to get something to eat. As I was looking around the kitchen, I was not happy to see the cats had spilled their food all over the food. As I was about to pick up their dishes off the flood, the thing I thought was one of their toys actually registered in my mind. There was a dead mouse mixed in with the food that was spread all over my kitchen floor. The cats had killed it but had not eaten it. I guess that was a good thing, but gross. I went over the TV room, where Jason was already watching TV, and told him there was a dead mouse in the kitchen. All he did was to tell me to get it out of the house. Oh well. That was the most interesting thing that happened to us over our break.

Hopefully Jason & I will be getting a membership to a local gym. I think it would be good for me, a way to distress. I also hope to write more often. My writer's group is starting something new. We are going to try to do a group writing project. I think this will be good for me and those in the group. Hopefully we will be able to blend, or at least have fun doing this.

ok, so where have I been?

That's a good question. I really don't know. Work mostly. I really don't have a life. Anyways, I thought I would update this because I have updated my other blog. There are about 4 more days until Jason & I drive out east for the family run-a-round. We will be spending 2.5 days with my brother, 2.5 days with his mom and family, and 2 days with his dad. Then it will be back home (12 hour drive).
I know Christmas is time to be with family and such, but sometimes I wish we did not have to do so much with them. I would rather spend time with people over a long weekend without having to run around and do the same thing with the next group of people.
Have a good week :)

Bah, another month has gone by

Ok, so I have not been so good about keeping this up. Tax session is now over, but there are a few things still that are stressful. Starting next week, I will be working on an audit mostly by myself. I'm so happy that I have been given this opportunity, but it is also a little unnerving. One of the CPA's will be joining me mid-way though it (she is busy with something else until then) and we only have amount a month to finish it. Last year they did not finish it. So hopefully this year we will.

This past weekend we planted our garden. We have peas, beans, tomatoes, peppers, onions, carrots, and squash. Jason has been having a lot of fun taking pictures of our flowers that we planted last fall. He also got me to started on starting seeds inside instead of buying the plants later on. Lets hope they grow well for us.

Now that it is nice out, all Jason wants to do is take pictures. It's not as bad this year, because now I have a camera to take pictures when he does. He bought a new one, so I really have the old camera, but that's ok, it's still nice.

Ok, so its been a month

Wow, its been a month since the last time I posted anything. Sorry. I was posting on Saturdays but the last few weeks I have not had to go to work on Saturday. That is a good thing for my mental health:) It's not a good thing for trying to save money for fixing our bathroom.
Our up stairs bathroom had a flood last weekend. We have since fixed that problem, but it got us to remember that we had wanted to remodle that room. Think of a space 4 feet by 6 feet and put a tub, tolet and sink in it and you will get close to what we are dealing with here. It is so small. When we were looking at the house to buy it we thought that we could knock down the wall and make it bigger. The space beside it is just a landing area. Now Jason wants to fix it. I love the idea but we have no money for it. We also have no equity in the house. grrr. I guess we will have to see what we can do about this. I did find somewhere that remodling of bathrooms have a high % of return on them, so in the end hopfully what the house is worth will go up.

On to other items that have to deal with money and what Jason & I have been talking about. Hopfully soon we will have a new website up for Jason's photos. We are also trying to make it so that we can sell items off there and else where. The thing is that it takes money to get started on it and we don't know if we will be able to recop the money we sink into it, very soon.

My writers group is going well. I have been having about 7 people a meeting show up. I jsut don't know what to do after April 17th. (That is the last day that I have scheduled items to talk about in the meeting.) I'm scared to try to get people to change.

Ok, I think that is all that is going on right now. I hope everyone is well.

Just to say Hi

Ok, it's been about 2 weeks since the last time I updated this, sorry. I have been busy (read working). I have given out my short story to two people in hopes that at least one of them will get back to me about it soon. I really don't know what to think out it (the story). I liked it when it was around 17 pages long, but that is too long. I have shortened it down to ten pages. I don't know. I will find out what they think soon enough.
Jason & I are getting bookcases on Monday. We found a place that had soild wood bookcases for only $50 each, and they look good. So we bought 4. We have 2 right now, but they are both over flowing. Hopefully this way we can get rid of the boxes of books we have sitting around the house.
Last night I called my brother's house to talk to his daughter (her birthday was the day before). She is 5 now. It was hard to understand what she was saying. But she loved being able to talk on the phone. I also talked to my sister-in-law. I told her we had bought some bookcases and she reminded me that they were going to pay for bookcases for us because they had not getten us anything for our wedding (about 1.5 years ago). She had told me that at the time but I had forgotten. So we will be getting a check in the mail to pay us back for the bookcases. I love when money comes in when you are not expecting it.
Ok, I think that is a good enough update. I hope everyone it doing well. Later