Little Christmas Miracles

I think this past Christmas has been my favorite, by far.  It was our first Christmas in our new house and we got to enjoy decorating the exterior of our home.  My family came and stayed the weekend with us.  This made everything so much easier because it cut out traveling back and forth between Columbus and Eaton.  Since we weren't traveling, we got to see everyone.

On Christmas Eve I felt our baby move for the first time.  I was almost 17 weeks on Saturday.  I nearly cried.  I also received some clothes and swaddling blankets for our little bundle of joy...hopefully we'll be able to find out the sex next month!

On Christmas Day we went to my husband's family gathering at his grandmother's house.  We were in for quite a surprise.  For the first time after being together for two years and being married for one, I finally met my father in law and my brother and sister in law.

This was definitely a Christmas to remember.  Being around all of our family makes me feel like the richest person in the world.

12 down only 28 to go!

Wow, I haven't posted anything since October 18th and the time has flown by.  Nothing too exciting has been going on and that's probably due to the fact that my evenings are spent either sleeping or getting sick.  I have had several milestones in the past month and a half though:

1.)  On October 22 my husband and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary.  We didn't actually go do anything though because he just started a new job as a maintenance technician and was on call all weekend to deal with emergency maintenance issues.

2.)  November 20th was my 25th birthday!  However, not only did my mom, dad, and husband forget, so did I until at about 10:00 AM when my mom's cell phone calendar reminder went off to remind her it was my birthday.  I guess it's a sign that people just stop caring about birthdays at 25.

3.)  November 21st I completed my 12th week of my pregnancy so I am currently working on my 13th week which is awesome because all of the crappy symptoms have pretty much gone away.  Now the fun stuff starts in the 2nd trimester during which I can actually function like a normal human being again.  We get to find out the sex of the baby, start picking out names, putting a nursery together, and buying things...YAY!!  Speaking of baby things, my grandmother found the Fischer Price baby monitor she used when I was born...25 years ago...and it still works.  She also still has my baby finger nail clippers and I'm sure a plethura of other things as well.

What great things have been happening in your life lately?

We're Expanding!!

Sooooo, pretty much I was feeling pretty sick on October 7th and this pattern continued through the weekend.  On October 9th I decided I should probably take a test since I was very late.  Literally within 30 seconds a big fat positive was staring me in the face...the control window had not even popped up yet.  I almost passed out and Aaron was elated...we were expecting our first baby!

Luckily I only had to deal with the morning sickness from October 7th through October 12th...now I'm just extremely exhausted.  I don't feel like doing anything.

All in all, the reality of everything hasn't set it.  All I have is a positive test to go off of since I don't have my first appointment until November 4th.  Hopefully after that first appointment everything will start to seem more real.  It feels like the next 34 weeks are going to take forever but I have a feeling things will start to speed up before long :)

TGIF

This week has been long...rough...and tiring.  The past three weeks have been what we call 'Rush' here at work. It includes the week before the quarter starts and the first two weeks of class and is filled with long lines, constantly ringing phones, and a ton of students who for one reason or another are angry.  I've also worked over time at least two to three times a week for the past three weeks.  Yesterday was the worst.  It was the first direct deposit run for the remaining amounts of excess financial aid.  In the midst of trying to move the money to the bank and everything that goes along with it, my phone never stopped ringing.  It was full of students yelling because we weren't sending their money out fast enough.  We follow the same exact time frame for every quarter, no exceptions.  Autumn is a little different though because classes start on a Wednesday rather than a Monday which makes it seem like we're 9 days into the quarter rather than 7 which apparently makes a big difference.  I love numbers so I'm going to throw a few at you:
# of direct deposit refunds sent yesterday:  8,826
Amount of money sent via ACH yesterday:  $14,641,971.18
# of Stop Payments placed on initial refund checks:  40 in 2 days
# of checks returned for bad addresses:  100 in 3 days

On a much brighter note:  Aaron's cousin, Steve, is getting married tomorrow!  I love October weddings!!  On top of working over time the past week we've had to schedule in hair appointments, purchasing an outfit for myself (any excuse to shop), pick up Aaron's tux, rehearsal dinner tonight, purchasing a wedding gift (haven't don't yet), and Aaron has to write his speech for the wedding which he'll probably do after  a few shots of Jager...he's the best man.  While we're on the tuxedo issue:  Men's Warehouse apparently determines the size of your shirt based solely on the size of your neck.  So according to them a 16 inch neck warrants a L/XL shirt.  My husband is 5'6'' and 157 lbs.  Please tell me how he's going to fill out a L/XL shirt?  The lady's response:  your vest will cover it.  That's funny because they aren't wearing vests.

My remedy for stress and being cranky:  watch Jenna Marbles or some GloZell.  This week I watched White Girls at the Club.  I can semi relate because I was in a sorority and this does tend to happen...its funny because its true.

Sweet Dreams...

Lately it seems I've been having dreams, strange dreams in vivid color.  Last night I dreamt my brother and I entered a physical challenge type deal and if we placed high enough in the competition we got to meet Barack Obama.  We won and got to meet the president but my brother had to leave early for his surgery.  That part makes sense.  He met with a specialist yesterday and the doctor told him that he would need to reposition his nose and that he now has a deviated septum.  Also there are apparently some nodule type things in your sinus cavity which the doctor will be removing for my brother.

After meeting the president last night I dreamt that a friend of mine from high school came to visit me and we got to catch up and I got to hold her new baby.  We haven’t spoken since October 8, 2005 which was her wedding and also two days before I ended my relationship with her younger brother.  There were no hard feelings or anger surrounding the situation and when she sees my mother she often asks how I’m doing.  We just haven’t spoken in many, many years.

I dreamt my husband cheated on me with a stripper.  If you knew us then you would know there’s no way that would happen.

I had a dream that there was a giant fuzzy caterpillar in the doorway and it was bright pink and black.  Aren't dreams usually in black and white?  I'm not sure because I rarely ever dream.

I had a dream that there was an infestation of spiders...kind of like the movie Arachnophobia.  They were brown and yellow and HUGE.  They also had a claw at the end of each leg which they would use to dig in to their victims and it did not feel good.  Once attached itself to my foot.

Also the night after Aaron and I finished paining our dining room and living room, I dreamt that I woke up the next morning and all of the paint was oozing and running down the walls.

Having all of these dreams so close together is bizarre for me.  I rarely dream and when I do, I often wake up but don’t remember the details.  I haven’t been taking melatonin anymore because I haven’t had any problems falling asleep so I’m not sure what’s causing all of these dreams.

Never a Dull Moment

My husband, Aaron, and I try to live our lives as simply and stress free as possible.  Sometimes that just doesn't always work.  We recently bought a house which was a headache in and of itself.  We moved ourselves in and became homeowners.  Life was good, it was calm once again.  Then we decide to throw a monkey wrench in our otherwise happy life:  we adopt a dog from the animal shelter, our 'beloved' beagle named Roy.  We should have known it was going to be a fiasco; they didn't have the correct picture of the dog posted, it was listed as a female rather than a male, he definitely is NOT 1.5 years old, he's still too much of a puppy; AND the vet at the shelter put him on a do not adopt list until he had recovered from his kennel cough.  Somehow this did not deter us what so ever.  I should make the point:  we do LOVE our dog…he’s just a hot mess.

Cue Saturday morning:  Aaron wakes up to the smell of poo and hot breath in his face at around, oh 6:30 AM.  He does not wake from his weekend slumber until around 9:00 AM.  He stumbles down stairs and discovers that Mr. Roy pooed on the floor and shredded it to pieces and apparently ingested some of it causing a stain and poo crumbles to be spread throughout our white living room carpet.  He continues his Saturday morning mayhem by eating the cat's food and waking the neighbors with his sonic boom of a bark.  Aaron was incredibly pleased...welcome to my everyday!

Fast forward to Sunday evening:  Aaron and I make a late night run to Taco Bell.  As we start the car to back out of our drive way we see our cat, Riley, drag something brown onto our front porch.  Upon further inspection we find that he has caught and killed an adult squirrel and is feeding on it like a vampire.  What remains is the lower half, a head, and the middle portion of skin...no arms, no innards.  He was so proud.

Wake up on Monday morning:  Roy has a fat face from eating some sort of bug/being stung by a bug and looks like nothing short of a cartoon.  I also get a call from my mom Monday morning and guess who else has a fat face?  Apparently my brother, who is currently enrolled at a NCAA Division I school, got punched in the face by a football player at his school which broke his nose.  My brother is a pretty peaceful person who tends to diffuse bad situations which was what he was doing while escorting a football player out of an event (non violent affair) when another football player socked him square in the face and broke his nose.

Which brings me to this point:  At what point are athletes held accountable for their actions?  It seems like more and more athletes, more specifically football players, are getting more and more out of hand.  We have OSU and that debacle, the University of Miami whose boosters are practically funding a prostitution ring for their players, LSU players sending four people to the hospital and that’s just in college.  Move our focus to the NFL:  Chris Henry dies after a confrontation with his girl friend, Cederic Benson does 20 days in Texas, another player acting like a fool, fighting with his girlfriend, in a local bar; Brady Quinn getting into an altercation shorting after joining the NFL, Michael Vick (enough said)...and the list goes on and on and on.  At what point is it enough and when do they grow up?

Side Note:  Happy 24^th birthday to my wonderful husband!

Introductions...

I'm pretty new to this whole 'blogging' thing...Twitter and Facebook just don't allow me enough space to share my thoughts.  I'm verbose and opinionated and those outlets try to limit what I have to say, so here I am.  There are several things about which I may blog.  I have included a brief description of each below...some create more interesting topics and situations than others.

My family:  I married my husband, Aaron, on October 22, 2010.  We have two dogs, Rosco and Roy, and a cat named Riley.  We just purchased our very first home on June 23, 2011.  We are also very close with our families.

My job:  I work as an Accountant in a student finance office for a community college.  I have a ton of interactions with students every day and each one is new and interesting in its own way.

Personal endeavors:  I embarked on a weight loss journey beginning on June 28, 2011.  I started out at 182 lbs and am down to about 166 lbs.  This may seem a little immaterial in the grand scheme of things but I'm 5'3'', 24 years old, and I want plan on having kids some day and I know that if I don't get to a healthy place in life right now, I probably never will.  I also aspire to get my MBA and CPA license.  We'll see how that goes!

Thanks for stopping by.  I invite you to read about some of the ridiculous happenings in my life and hopefully you will be able to relate it in some way to your life.