Trying to Blog Again...

I keep telling myself that a blog is a great way for family to keep in touch, and a great place to journal about cool/funny/exciting things that happen in our family. So I created a family blog. I wanted it to have some kind of cool name but I could never think of anything I really liked... I made 2 posts on it, and then I didn't post anything for two years. I'm going to pretend like it's because I was so busy...

I mean, up until December 2011 I was in school, and from Sept-Dec 2011 I was doing my student teaching, which is a lot like having a full-time job where you don't get paid and you have no idea what you're doing most of the time. You just hope it turns out well, or at least that you don't ruin the classroom for the "real" teacher... After that, we were pushing hard to get Neil's CPA license finished up (done!) and I was pretty sick with baby #3 for a bit. Sometime in about June or so, we started looking for an office space for the tax practice, and realized it was time for us to move too. After some frustration in looking at decent houses in terrible areas, we finally increased our price limit and found a house that someone built for me a while ago. No, seriously! It's the perfect house for me. 5 bedrooms PLUS a good sized storage room and craft room, a laundry chute, and the best part for my kids - a good backyard that came with a nice big wooden playset (swings/slide/sandbox/monkey bars). We were really lucky that they had nice neutral paint and carpets everywhere, and everything was in great shape too, so all we had to do was organize our stuff and call it good! We are down to only 1 room that isn't organized at all - the craft room. And honestly, with a baby coming REALLY soon, it's not like I'm doing much crafting anyways!

A week ago, Neil came out of the shower and said I might want to wait until he can look at the water heater because he showered COLD. He didn't have time to look at it before taking Ben to school and heading in to work, so I looked in on it. It was leaking (I mean, it's 22 years old...) so I texted my dad to confirm that it was probably dead or dying. He called me back right away and helped me figure out where the pilot light was and get it re-lit. I did my errands and got a nice warm shower when I got home. When Neil got home I showed him the water heater, which was still leaking a lot (and unfortunately getting under the walls a little bit). We decided it would be best to shut off the water to the heater (and the gas). We had already called to get a few bids in for replacing it, the cheapest being $1000 because of the code work we needed to do for it. Luckily we know people who know stuff, like Neil's dad, who suggested we check and see if the water heater would be covered with our home warranty - which it is! :D So the plumber came last Thursday and looked at it, told me how to drain it out so it would stop leaking into the wall, and said they would get it ordered and call us in the next day or two to set up an appointment to come back and install it. They are apparently super busy all the time because they handle all of Farmer's Insurance's home warranty plumbing needs, but the tech did write "Emergency Service" on our sheet. However, it's Monday, and I STILL don't have hot water. That means I drive to Neil's parents to shower and I make a pile of dishes to wash later. Saturday morning we got out the pressure canner pot to boil water and spent about 1.5 hours washing the dishes that had piled up over the week. Not really looking forward to doing that again... At least I can wash clothes in cold water. I've always washed darks in cold and whites in hot, but I don't think it will hurt to wash the whites in cold for a week or two - so at least we can still have clean clothes! I also called the plumbers this morning and left a message that I REALLY needed hot water because I haven't had any for a week and I'm about to have a baby. As far as I know, they haven't called yet...

My next doctor's appointment is on Wednesday. That will be my 40 week appointment, and hopefully I can get an induction set up as a backup plan. Apparently it's my mom's fault - she was always about a week past her due date before she delivered... The nice thing about scheduling an induction is that you know exactly when you'll have the baby. The night before, you can do whatever you think you might want to do before having a newborn (like sleep!) and you can make sure the house is totally clean. I keep telling myself I need to keep it all cleaned up, but it's a little more awkward without having hot water to wash dishes or run a dishwasher. I'm settling for semi-clean for now... :) My intent is to give another update on Weds after my appointment, but I AM extremely pregnant and prone to forget things...