What can I say?

Hahahahaha, has it really been four MONTHS? Wow. Actually, I honestly was always aware of how long it'd been. I kept wanting to update, but there always seemed to be something else new right around the corner and I just kept waiting so that I could do it all at once. I have to just accept though that there will probably always be something else coming so that's no reason to put life on hold. (Or blogging, I suppose.)

So what's new, you ask? Well, lots. I'm actually quite overwhelmed by where to start. Let's see...

That dream house of ours? Not so much. And thank GOD. I mean, at the time we loved it and were so excited and grateful, but looking back, it would've been a disaster. How do I know this for sure? Because just as we decided we had to walk away from that one, we stumbled upon something a million times more amazing. This house is twice the size (at 2300 sq ft, it's probably much more house than we need right now), it hardly needs any work besides cosmetic (biggest issues are a new roof and boiler, which are already contracted out and rolled into the mortgage), it's totally our style (built in the 40's and feels it). I'll update with more info on it later... I don't really want this to be another crazy long post. I'll give kind of an overview of recent life and then delve into everything more later.

Anyway after a very long, drawn out, frustrating few months dealing with the FHA people and a lazy, often-hard-to-reach mortgage broker, we finally closed this past Monday. I was really starting to believe it'd never happen after all the surprise hoops that appeared at every turn, but as of 8pm Monday night, the keys were in our hand and we were officially homeowners. (That idea is going to take a while to sink in, I think.)

There's so much to do, we're not really sure how to start. It's quite daunting. I know I said it's mostly cosmetic work to be done, but it's a lot of cosmetic work. It doesn't help that John's working all the time right now (I'd said 80 hours a week recently) AND just up and decided to go back to school this summer--classes started Monday as well--and that the house is a good 45 minutes from where we live now... finding time to get there has already proved to be a challenge. Add to that the fact that it's the start of summer and the route to our house just happens to be everyone else's beach commute, sitting in traffic really cuts into the time we do have to go. But we'll figure it out, I guess. Not knowing how to work on our house beats the alternative of not having one.

On the subject of John and school... I don't remember if I talked about it before--I think the whole situation came up more recently than my last post--but it all happened in a bit of a whirlwind. I knew he was desperate for direction in life. Turned out he had pretty lofty aspirations but never mentioned them because he didn't think it'd ever be possible for us. We just decided to go for it, that we'd figure it out. I'd rather struggle for a few years (because honestly, we're pretty used to struggle and have become pretty scrappy during our time together AND people have had to deal with much harder things in life) and come out better for it in the end (not to mention have a husband who feels fulfilled and doesn't have to work himself to the bone constantly). So as of Monday, John is now an active engineering student. We know it'll always have to be part time, figure it into life however we can, but we made a plan and we're doing it. (There are even current rumblings of ME going back to school too, but more on that later.)

Kids... Gem has turned into quite a handful. Terrible Two's definitely hit early in our house. She's got such an attitude and can throw a fit like a champ. (It's funny, she says "no" very politely in normal situations, but only ever says "no, thank you" when she's angry or agitated... "No, fank you, Mommy! No, fank you!") It's hard most days, but the flip side of it is how fun it is to see how she's turned into a real little person overnight. She uses sentences, we have conversations, she's becoming very independent in a lot of daily tasks, she's so interested in discovering and learning everything she can. She blows my mind in a new way every day.

And now for the other one. It's a little BROTHER! We found out at the end of March. We were both really shocked. Everyone was so sure we were going to have another girl, but he was undoubtedly a boy. It definitely took a bit to mentally and emotionally adjust my outlook, I'm not going to lie. I really wanted a girl. I just wanted Gemma to have the experience of growing up with a sister. I loved the childhood I had with Matt, but I always felt like I missed out on a lot and I was hopeful she could have it. That said, I've now connected with this little fella currently kicking and flipping around inside of my belly and I can't imagine any different future. He's going to be Levi, although Gemma calls him "Wifi". It's pretty darned cute. Actually in just an hour's time, he'll be due in exactly three months. Coming up fast. There's so much to do.

Well, that covers all the big stuff for now. It's been a few weeks of running hard and I'm fighing to keep my eyes open so I'm gonna go. Hopefully I can start organizing my thoughts better and come back with details and pictures and all that jazz. I'd like to keep an account of the progress of the house and at least the tail end of this pregnancy.

Here's to hoping.