Okay..so I'm irritated!

So we never thought owning a house would be easy, and we knew that we would come upon problems, but we never imagined we would have to go through so much crap in 2 1/2 months. We are starting to second guess ourselves and our choice to buy a house. Steven and I are firm believers in having "emergency money" as we call it.. it is just money we have saved up and we only use it for things that come up that we weren't expecting and that is expensive. Well we have been lucky through out the years and not needed to use much of it until now. In the past 2 1/2 months we have gone through $8,000.00 .. and I wish I could say it was for some fun vacations or a new car or something really exciting. The truth of the matter is.. it was for expenses in our new house. We had an inspector come inspect the house before we bought it and he informed us that there were very few problems, most of what we could fix ourselves. Never once were we told that any of the main things in the house weren't working. So lucky us..find out the hard way. We found out about a month ago that our wiring for the whole house was done extremely bad (the worst the electrician has EVER seen..might I add)..the electrician said that our house would burn down in the next few years if we don't get that fixed. Well our first thought was.. Hey! We have a home warranty and we were NOT aware of this problem when we got the house, so the home warranty will cover it. Ha ha.. RIGHT! Home warranty is a big waste of money! They wouldn't cover it because it was a pre-existing problem! Lucky us, we got to use our hard earned money on stupid electrical work that should have been done properly the first time. We also had some plumbing issues that caused some good drama as well as the ceiling leaking in the basement. And now as we come upon this month we come to find out that one of our windows is leaking and of course it isn't simple like a little cocking.. nope.. it is leaking through the whole window. And now as it is getting hotter.. (don't forget that I am almost 34 weeks pregnant and any temperature above 50 is HOT) our central air doesn't work. Now we were okay with this because our wonderful inspector told us that if the central air doesn't work that the home warranty would definitely cover that. WRONG! Guess again! We get to pull that money out of who knows where to fix the central air because it was once again.. pre-existing! So now as we speak, I am sitting in a blistering hot house with no cool air flowing anywhere and I get to use my hard earned money on central air..which wouldn't be a big deal, but our inspector decided to screw us royally and tell us that it would be covered. We keep thinking that each problem has to be the last one, and weeks go by with more problems. It has got to stop or we might just end up on the street because we have no more money! Now we dont get to use that money for anything we wanted to use it for like a new driveway, new windows, a garage door opener, or I know.. money to spend on the baby!
Don't think that I am a big complainer or ungrateful, because I try to stay positive and know that things happen for a reason, but I have about hit the mark of explosion. I do know that we are two lucky people and have two wonderful families that absolutely love us and would help and support us in any way we asked. We do live in an awesome house in a nice neighborhood, and we both have jobs that help us pay for not only the crappy things, but the fun things as well. I just hope that we are about to the end of the huge expenses in the house because we have a baby coming and I want to give this baby everything he deserves! So hopefully the big problems will end so I can concentrate on things that are important to me!

32 weeks

Wowsers! Have I reached 40 weeks yet?!
Well nothing too exciting or crazy has been happening in our life lately (I'm not complaining!).. but it doesn't leave me much to blog about. I need to be more like some of my other fellow bloggers who do a much better job of blogging about whatever, whenever! But anyway.. I am almost 33 weeks and quite excited to be chugging along! We went to the doctor this week and she said that our lil one is not so little..he is 5 lbs, a week ahead of schedule. Of course that doesn't mean that I will have him a week early, but I can sure hope he continues to grow big so he will come early!! I am so excited that he has finally hit 5 lbs! Yay! As for me.. I am doing good.. people just this week have started saying that I am finally getting big, not sure if that is a compliment or an insult, but I take it as a compliment. The past few months I have been hearing that I am not big at all, so that is a change for me! I have gained 23 lbs, so that isn't bad at all.. I hope to keep the weight gain lower, but either way I will be happy as long as the baby is healthy! I continue to eat Golden Grahams every single morning, and they are still delicious! I really really crave watermelon, weird as that sounds, I can't get enough of it! I seriously have to force myself not to eat the whole watermelon in one sitting. I also really enjoy cold things like slurpees, icee's, playdough ice cream..stuff like that! And a new craving that I come upon is anything BBQ.. yummy! It is getting harder for me to put shoes on or shave my legs, so who knows what I will do in a month when I really can't put my own shoes on!
This summer has been great so far, besides the fact that the weather hasn't been nice! But I try not to complain because the hotter it seems to get, the less sleep I get. And we came to find out this week that our central air is not working.. it is dead! Guess it is the oldest central air machine thingy that the guy has ever seen! Lucky us! So now we are trying to get our warranty to cover it, but they seem to have other ideas! Anyway.. Steven has got the chance to go golfing a few times already and we have gone to the movies a few times. We figured we better go do some of that stuff cause it will be a little harder when the baby comes.
Tomorrow we are headed down to Zions with my side of the family. We are extremely excited since this is our only vacation of the year. So hopefully I will bring back some cool pictures to share!
And that is about it in our life right now.. hope all is well!

Graduation

Well it is official, I have FINALLY graduated college! Wow that was such a long, exhausting, not fun road.. and hopefully one day I can say it was well worth it. This semester was pretty hard for me because I was dealing with morning sickness as well as 15 credit hours, and working full time. It was hard for me to find motivation to do homework especially when I felt so sick. Luckily the sickness went away about a month into the semester and my motivation slowly came back to where I could actually concentrate on school.
I decided to go to my graduation and walk, usually I am not into this and I don't like when all eyes are on me, but I had some family remind me that I probably would regret it if I didn't, so I went and they were right. I was very glad I went! I spent the morning with my parents and sister as we ate at the graduation luncheon and just sat and talked. After the luncheon was the graduation. The graduation was nice and short (1 hr and 10 mins) and then I got to see my family and see how proud they were of me. I was so amazed at all the love and support I had just at the graduation, let alone the people that weren't able to come. I really do have the two most amazing families! After a bunch of pictures we got the chance to go eat at the delicious Maddox, and boy was it DELICIOUS!
To end my exciting day Steven and I had the chance to go to the first home Jazz playoff game and it was a blast.
I am so excited to finally be done with school. I wish there were job opportunities right now so I could jump into the career that I want, but I am going to just patiently wait and hope that I can get into a teaching job in the next few years.
Thank you to all my family and friends who helped and supported me throughout my long college career!

26 weeks!

Week 25

So as of today I have reached the 26 week mark! Yay!! I get more and more excited each week because I know I am one step closer to seeing my lil stud! These past 26 weeks have seriously flown by and I can thank school a lot for keeping me busy! But the 26 weeks have been good, and my lil man has been moving around like a crazy mad man! I first felt him move at week 16, which I hear is really early for that. Week 17 Steven got to feel him move, and the past 4 weeks or so I have been watching him move my belly around like jello. It has been fun to see how big and strong he is getting.
My morning sickness finally went away around week 17 and now I am just enjoying the fact that I am not sick and I am not so big that it is too hard to move. Everyone that I see always comments that I am not "big" at all. I have finally decided that not being big is a good thing! So I am glad I am not big especially for being 6 months pregnant.
I crave a lot of food.. it is nothing like a crazy crave where I have to have it, but there are some things that I want to eat over other things as well as some things I could eat all day everyday.. here are some examples.. Golden Graham Cereal.. YUMMY! I eat them for breakfast every morning.. I think I have had that cereal every day since about week 10, no joke.. I am afraid I will be very sick of them when I am not pregnant anymore. I also really enjoy BBQ Chips.. especially when I see someone else eating chips! I love anything cold like shakes, ice cream, icee's etc.. and they are ALWAYS delicious! For some reason I love Tootsie Rolls even more now then I used to! I also enjoy yogurt and fruit! Oh how I wish watermelon was in season cause I really think I would just eat watermelon all day everyday. Oh and you cant forget my obsession with Smores Poptarts!
I haven't been having any problems sleeping. I always slept on my side before I was pregnant, so I haven't had to switch how I sleep, which is good! I think everything else is going well!
We have an appointment on Wednesday which we are always excited about! Our 3D Ultrasound was fun about a month ago and they confirmed that we are having a boy! He was facing down so the Dr. was having a hard time getting a picture of his face, but we finally got a side view! He is a little stud if I may say so myself!
Anyway, there is my little update!

22 weeks.. Baby Rounds cute little face!

22 weeks.. Baby Rounds flexing his muscle.. he is very strong!

Our house!

I have to apologize for being such a slacker.. I can't even use the no internet excuse because we have had internet ever since we moved in. So I will just say sorry I am a slacker and I will also apologize for all the pictures I am about to put up! These are pictures of the moving day as well as fix it projects we have done the past few weeks.

What terrible weather we had.. it not only rained, but it snowed! Every other day during that week was warm and sunny..that's our luck!

The guys talking about the future of the backyard.

Some of the family that came to help.


Travis, Steven, and my Dad putting up our new big tv!

Steven, my Mom, and my Dad putting up the baby's crib. Yes, it is up already!


This is our backyard with the ugly bush in the middle of the lawn and one of many apple tree's..say goodbye!

The new and improved backyard without the bush and tree.

My Dad trying to cut down the bush.. that was a mess, but it is finally gone!

Steven and his Dad fixing our fence so our dog Jimmy can be in the backyard.

Our wood from the apple tree all piled up. It sure seemed like a lot more wood then that!!

Steven quickly learning how to be a fix it man!

Steven smelling the cherry wood.. ohh that smelt sooooooo good! Can't wait for some cherries!

The wait is over.. well almost!

Today was the big day Steven and I have been waiting for in three months. Today was the day we FINALLY signed our papers to close on the house! I think buying this house put me through more stress then all my years of school combined! It seemed like everything was going wrong, and no one was willing to help us, and the mortgage lady didn't seem to have any rush on our papers.. but finally we have made it to the end, well the end of paper signing at least! It looks like we will happily be moving into the new house on Saturday! I honestly thought this day might never happen, but I think it just might! We are getting some big strong guys in the family to come help us move..and as nice as it will be for me to just sit back and watch, I feel bad that I am not helping much, so hopefully the guys will know how helpful they are being. Steven and I took the day off on Monday to start unpacking everything and maybe we can stop living in boxes like we have been the past 2 months.
I think once the move is over I will be able to finally concentrate on more important things like getting through this semester, and getting ready for the baby. I finally ordered graduation announcements.. I wasn't going to because it costs an arm and leg for even a few, but I got convinced otherwise. Now I think I am glad I did because it will be once in a lifetime thing. I have been trying to push the whole graduation thing out of my mind because I don't want to get too anxious about it, but boy am I ready to be done! I have been going forever it seems! I didn't take a break last summer and the past 4 semesters I have been taking 15 plus credit hrs (2 semesters of 19 cr hrs).. so I am completely ready to be done.
The baby is doing really well.. we had an appointment a few weeks ago and the dr said he looks good.. very healthy! He was about 3 oz bigger then normal at our 20 wk appt, so that is good. I feel him move all the time and it gives me tons of comfort because I know he is doing good in there. I think the first few months are so stressful because you don't feel the baby move and the risk of a miscarriage is higher, so yay for getting this far! I finally stopped being sick and it is so much nicer! I now enjoy food except for a few things like processed chicken and frozen pizza's can still be a little hard as well. But everything else usually sounds good! I have not one but two breakfasts, lunch, then I will get home from work and eat again, then I will have dinner, then I will have a snack (usually an apple) in bed! Boy.. this whole pregnancy thing is starting to cost a pretty penny, but it will all be worth it!
I think everything else is doing good! Hopefully the next time we blog will be in our new house! Yay!!

Tax return

We got our tax return back a few weeks ago. Alyssa and I were pleasantly surprised at the amount we got back. We're moving into our new house in the next week or two and the return will go towards part of our down payment, fence, and applicances we need to get settled in. A lot of people wonder how we're so lucky to get a large tax return in comparison to theirs. Initially I really wasn't sure how it all worked out. I thought we were just getting really lucky year after year. The more I think about it the more I realize we're really not as lucky as it looks on paper.

Here's how I break it down.

1- Since neither of us are in a career job yet we esentially work for peanuts. Our combined income is about even with a lot of people's individual incomes so obviously that puts us in the lowest tax bracket.

2- I calculated that 29% of our GROSS income went to college tuition. That would be about 36% of our NET income. Not including books and other crap. This is the main reason for our bigger return. So while I'm at work today for 9-10 hours I may as well give $30 to Weber State.

3- We also pay 10% of our income to tithing. That counts as a contribution to charity and results in a tax break.

Alyssa will be graduating from school in a few weeks so we won't pay as much in tuition in 2010. However we will be having a baby and buy a house this year so that may compensate for the lower amount going towards school.
I really try not to dwell on taxes too much because it's enough to give me an ulcer. The government takes money from everybody and then spends it with no regard to popular vote. Deficits are astronomical and I find myself asking where these people are throwing all this money. Maybe we can ask the CEOs at the bank bailouts? I suppose that's a debate for another time.