When you're on the bottom, you can only go up!

Apparently we are still on the downhill slope.  3 more things happened:
-Andy's indoor team collapsed, which is the one thing he looks forward to (well besides seeing us, but I am not home Tuesdays anyway). It was cool to play one of his favorite things with friends. I feel really bad for him, especially since i am able to stay in an activity.
-Sawyer pulled on my pearls while he was sleepy last night (normally he doesnt do anything to them) and busted them.  It is my favorite necklace and i wear it every day. They cost to get fixed.
-The lady that was going to pay me to take her daughter's senior pictures flaked this morning.  Though my friend who hooked us up warned me she was kind of flaky, it was still disappointing because I was looking forward to it.

But....
-My bottom teeth are straight! They have been crooked since they grew in, but my bottom braces worked :) Now I hope those top ones kick into gear soon.

Hopefully we are at the bottom of the hill, and can only go up from here.

Worst day ever!

Here is the series of events leading to the ultimate worst day:

-My shower takes longer than normal causing me to have a late start
-Sawyer keeps pulling the knob off the toilet bottom which is really gross inside and he tries to eat it
-After removing the knob all together, he still goes over to poke at the grossness that i dont think anyone has ever cleaned (keep note meanwhile i am trying to get ready for work quickly)
-Sawyer does not want to change his diaper and clothes.  I am sweating and it takes like 10 minutes to get an outfit on.  He is angry. I am late.
-There are no cold cokes or anything for me to take to work to eat.  I take a warm one to throw in the fridge at work so i have something to "eat" at lunch time.
-The traffic was backed up a mile behind where it normally was (i usually avoid it by taking a different stoplight) and i was stuck in one spot for like 5 minutes
-I get to work (late) and even though they were closed for easter, there are more returns to process than I've ever had to do
-The person I work with that nobody likes was rude
But the worst part...
-Andy had a meeting with the financial lady and when she ran the real "numbers" finally, we made too much for down payment assistance.  Andy gave her our actual W2 numbers for last year, and they needed our current salary as the company sees it apparently. How much over did we make? $600 a year.  Yes, a mere $600.  Funny thing is, my "salary" is not actually a salary, but just what would be my pay if you take my hourly and make 40 hrs a week.  Since Sawyer goes with my mom on wednesdays, i only work like 38 hours a week, but unofficially.  I also go home early some days just because we are slow or I have things to do. Therefore, at&t would send them my salary, but i really make a lot less.  For example, last year I made at least $5,000 less than my salary said I made. That definitely would cover the $600. Plus she said they would take into account that I am union which means I get raises 3 times a year and they would factor that in so it would be extra hard to wiggle our way in.  So yeah, we would either need to come up with $5,250 for a down payment by June, or we dont get the house.  Since we have bills, that is not going to be doable.  So yeah, our house is going away 99% sure. If we do find that much, our house payment would be $100 lower and our interest rate would go down a percent though....not that it matters, because i think our only hope now is in scratch tickets. I wish they counted the take home pay, because i just realized how much is going out of my checks each time into taxes, benefits, 401k, united way donations, union dues, etc. So yeah, wish us luck on our scratch bingo tomorrow.  We are turning in our winning tickets to buy some more.
-We got home and I was pretty much crying all night and to make it worse, sawyer was being a butt head again and whining when he didnt get his way.
*I dont think i am ever saying "well, it can't get any worse" again!*

Easter/Birthday Weekend

Andy turned 30 on Friday.  I am super upset that we didn't get to throw him the huge party he has wanted for the big day for the past year+ because our funds were too short to even go out to dinner until a couple days ago.  We did, however, eat a delicious frozen pizza (best i've had), and go out to half price apps and drinks at Applebees that night with my parents and Destiny. I love him!

Saturday morning we drove down in the awesome sunny weather to Portland for my last game of the season.  65 degrees= way too hot when you are used to 40 and you are running around.  We were all dead tired and we were short people so there were no subs...plus we had to play 11 vs 11 instead of the usual 15.  We pretty much tied them, though they had a girl that wasn't on their team play that did most of the work so I think we were the better team.

My awesome yellow socks in the middle

Me and my socks tackling a girl from behind 

We left straight after the game to get back for a dinner for Andy's birthday with friends.  We asked a couple people and Jordan asked a few people for us and we ended up having a lot of fun :)

Jake and Tyrell are hiding behind Andy lol

Sunday was Easter!  We went to Andy's dad's house to have dinner with them, Davey and Moraima, and Jan's grandson.  We then went to my parents house to see my 2 sets of remaining grandparents (weird way to phrase that), my aunt Barb and family, and Destiny and her dad.  It was a nice day, but Sawyer has been weird this weekend and doesn't want to sleep so he was really whiny. We all dressed the same though so it was cute :) We need a girl next time around to match me lol.

Shirt change

10 months!

The Bean is 10 months old now.  It feels like time went so fast, yet I feel like we've had him around forever at the same time.

He is learning new things- he can cruise and pick up small food with his 2 fingers now.  He calls me mama or mom and says baba when he sees a baby in a book (or mirror).  He also randomly makes the mamama bababa or dadada sounds.  He waves but not when we are trying to show him off to people.  His hair is getting TOO long.  He still wont look at people that are holding him, and he wants to be everywhere but the place he is at the second.  Luckily, he still sleeps whenever he is in a car.

People have been asking us lately "when will you have #2?".  Plans changed.  Originally i was all set on wanting them 2 years apart so they could go to school together, etc. and get prego this summer. HAH.  I decided he can be 3 for the next one for the following reasons:

-I saw a few  2 year olds.  Not all 2 year olds are potty trained (though me, my brother, and my babysitter's kids all get trained by 2 so i am hopeful he will be) and i will NEVER purposely have 2 in diapers at the same time. (Note, purposely).  Also, 2 year olds are annoying. Dont get offended if you have one, they just are. They dont know any better.  They can't talk well so Beany wouldnt be much help with the baby.

-I do not want to get pregnant again this soon. It was like the worst thing ever for me and i had an easy pregnancy compared to others and i'm afraid it will be worse next time.  I always gagged easily which let to throwing up at bad times while eating.  You can't see the baby so i was constantly worried he was in trouble and i wouldnt know he died.  He pushed on things that were uncomfortable.  I had to get up to use the bathroom 3 times a night.  I couldnt breathe. My feet and legs were swollen, and my whole body blew up because you cant do normal exercising and a proper "diet" is hard when most food makes me sick.  I am finally getting back to normal and i just dont want to go through all of that again!

-I like playing rugby and you can't play sports when you're pregnant (too much risk getting hit in the tummy!)

-Too expensive.  They say babies cost $1,000 a month, and i thought it was a joke.  When you add everything up (babysitter, insurance, food, diapers, clothes, hospital) it is no lie!  I am so lucky we have a cheap friend babysitter because real daycares are over $1,000 in themselves...and we are lucky I pay like nothing for insurance. We do not have another baby in our budget, and i dont know what we would have done if he was a girl and we didnt get all of Cooper's old clothes! With the new car, house, braces, and the bills we have now, we will have to wait a couple years to be able to afford baby.

-I like our little family like it is :)

So there you have it :)  Anyone that asks, it will probably be awhile.  I am not worried about them "not bonding" becasue one of my best friends was really close to her sister 3 years younger growing up, and another is really close to her sister 5 years younger.  I dont think it will be more than 3, but don't expect another one too soon :)

Fun Weekend

We started our weekend by picking out some stuff for what will hopefully be our future house.

The big floor is the kitchen, the lighter is bathroom, cabinets for kitchen/bathroom,  left gray on top is kitchen counter, right gray is bathroom, the carpet is the second on the right of the top row.  It is really hard to tell though what they really look like!

I went back to work for 2 hours afterwards, and since I love the people that work Fridays, it was actually really fun!

On Saturday, Sawyer decided he would start crawling on his knees, despite Andy and I both never doing so ourselves as babies.  I guess he doesn't want to be like his parents :(

We stopped at the mall to get things at Target.  I had $8 in coupons, which conveniently was the same price that Old Navy had their mini sweaters on sale for one day only (usually $25).

Then, we went to Kent to go see Jenna and Galaxia's new place. Sawyer kept pulling on her tail.

Next, Jenna treated us to sushi at Kent Station!

Sawyer watched the conveyor belt most of the time.

We went back to Puyallup and I took pictures of the Berners

We went to their house afterwards for dinner and ate the best homemade hamburger I've had in a looong time.  They all ate theirs with beets, eggs, and pineapple on theirs.  I didnt, but I didn't judge. ;)  They even bought us a cute little can of mayo because they don't eat it and thought we might. Then came "not your mama's banana pudding" or something like that.  It was goooooood.

Sunday is book club day!  We drove to Vancouver to talk about Andy's book, Othello by Shakespeare.  We celebrate that month's birthdays too, and since Andy turns 30 this Friday (EEK!) he got to blow out the candles.  There were so many that my phone camera made it look like the cake is on fire!

It was a Venice theme- there is fruit and cheese

Fire!

Getting the ball rolling

We picked the cabinets today.  We were supposed to pick out everything by tomorrow, but since the place was booked today, we have to go in on Friday and they said it was fine as long as we had the cabinets picked by tomorrow.  If you ask me, it still looks like they are a long ways out from ONE day being important to cabinet picking.  Here is what the house still looks like (the pic I took a few days ago), but it now has a "SOLD" sign on it.  It made Andy excited.  Our backyard is pretty small (big enough to BBQ though lol), but we are right by the neighborhood park that has a big field and a basketball court and big toy.

Here are the cabinets we picked.  They are quite a bit darker in person but you get the idea. Our set up should look like that too with the same microwave and stove...

Here is a random picture I took of across the street from the neighborhood.  It is funny because one side of the road (Spanaway) is completely a bunch of new houses, and the other side of the road (Puyallup/Frederickson) is just farms.

Don't turn around!

This is what happened when I turned around yesterday.  I thought it was really funny.  I have no idea how he got biter biscuit on his nose like that, but it happened in about a half a second.  If you want to see a hilarious messy baby, check out little Everett on Tyrell's blog. This is probably as close to funny as Sawyer's going to get though, the face he is making made me LOL.

Not the best day

This is a negative post, but we've had a rough day!

First of all, Andy does not enjoy his job lately.  A guy has been on vacation all week, and for some reason, they gave ALL of his stops to Andy today, on a day that school starts at 1pm in Lacey (and he drives from Auburn).  He called his mgr and asked about it and he basically said that not to sound like a threat because Andy is his favorite driver, but if the stuff doesnt get delivered, he is going to find someone that can. .

We were both stressed because we were supposed to go to the house place and sign the papers today.  With Andy getting Sawyer at 4, there is no way he could have driven to Lacey to turn in the paper due today and get back to the house place to finish everything by 6.  We decided we would have to bring it tomorrow since we will be in Lacey for my game.

Then, we find out that there is a $500 fee for the house and we dont have $500.  This was probably the worst thing yet because due to my braces and stuff (down payment), we have like no money now. As in, i have to bust out the credit card for Sawyer's formula.  There is no way we would get $500 by the 14th (last date to pick colors).  The lady said we could sign and pick the colors, then we have a month to get the money. If we don't by then, they can sell it to someone else.  I think we are going to do that tomorrow.  I really hope we can come up with that money.  We are going to try to sell our sounders tickets and our flooring and see if we can get it.  We definitely don't have it in our budget. I would just hate to go through all that and not be able to get the house because of this money! I wish i could take off my braces and get the money back.

Meanwhile we were both starving all day, and I am so angry because I am spending an arm and a leg for something painful that wont let me eat because i can't chew due to the bumps restricting me from closing my mouth.

All in all, a bad situation.  Here is to hoping things turn around!

9 month appointment

Sawyer went to the doctor for his 9 month appointment today.  I didn't get to go for the first time since I had practice :( He hasn't been since he was 6 months old so we were curious to see how he was doing.

He is 20 lbs and 29.5 inches which puts him at 80% for height (previously 90) and 30% for weight (previously 50).  That is pretty skinny, especially for being so tall, but she said she was not worried because he jumped so much from last time, and he eats 8oz bottles and literally anything we put in front of him. (I hope he keeps that non-picky status, he has never refused to eat anything.)

He has had a rash that we thought might be some weird diaper rash, but i guess it was some sort of fungus? (Good call mom!) We got a prescription for it so he should improve soon!

She said his teeth are coming in well and he is doing well otherwise.

*******************

On another note, I am a little sad because we sold our Sounders tickets for the game this saturday because I was supposed to have a game, but it got cancelled because of our lack of numbers.  For some reason, nobody could make it :(  We are still going to play 7 on 7 (normally it is 15 on 15) but there wont be a ref or anything which is sad.  We also had the hardest practice ever today.  We had to run a lot, and do a lot of stuff that took all your energy, then run zig-zag all the way down the field (yikes), then sprint down and jog back 7 times!  It was so hard, especially with my big bruised shin that hurts when I walk.  I am glad to get in shape though.  I can't do hard exercise unless someone is pushing me/other people doing the same thing pushing me, so i really need it!

If anyone knows anyone that would like to play rugby and is free tues/thurs nights for practice and Saturdays for games, let me know.  (If you have to miss a practice here or there they wont kill you but you do need to be there for the most part)  I would not like any more games cancelled due to numbers!  They dont need to know anything about it because it is pretty easy to learn and they teach you.  There is also a position for every size person.  The smaller/speedier people play backs and run and pass the ball more often, and the larger people play forwards and scrum, ruck, tackle more, and crash.  Of course everyone has to run, pass, and tackle at some point.  It is loads of fun and not as scary as it looks!

Homeowners

Welp, it looks like we're homeowners.  We go on Friday to sign the papers, and then can pick out the colors of the cabinets, floors, and countertop.  We have to pick by the 14th or they decide for us- good thing we decided today haha :)  They even let us walk around the wooden house that is just framed. They said it will probably be done around June.

Like I mentioned before, it is quite small- about the size of our duplex now.  We just thought that since it would cost about the same to actually OWN it and not have the yelling neighbor, and be able to paint, and be putting money into our own stuff, it was worth it.

It is a cute little neighborhood on the street which is the border of Fredrickson and Spanaway, on the Spanaway side (yeah, we live in the hood now-gonna go buy a bullet proof vest).  They are building a ton of new houses on our side of the street, and the other side is completely horse farms.  It is actually kind of cute and we have a view of the mountain.  It is a gated neighborhood with sidewalks and a little park thing with a big toy and basketball hoop.  They are still building it but from the houses i saw, i got a peek and they looked like there are a lot of kids for Sawyer to play with :)  We are excited to find new starter homes.  It seems like a lot of the newer houses have like 5 bedrooms and cost at least $250,000 which is not in our budget yet.

The downsides is that it is like 15 minutes away from the places we are used to, and are going to have to start going to the Spanaway stores (I have an attachment to Puyallup) and our driveway, being the smallest house style, is only one car wide so we will be moving around cars.  It is also in the Bethel school district, which might be fine for elementary, but not sure I want Sawyer going there for long so depending on how long we live there, we might have to use my parent's address so we can go to the Puyallup school district.

Things I like is that the kitchen is big, there is a harry potter closet, and the bathroom upstairs is bigger.  We have the plan with the bathroom going to the hallway and the master bedroom, but that is better than now because our bedroom now doesnt lead to a bathroom.

I feel so grown up and accomplished.  Married, baby, new car, own house... I am pretty excited :)

Here is the plan:

Funny baby

Babies are funny.

First of all, we get so excited when they do the smallest things.  My mom noticed the other day that when he pulls on the music playing elephant that he makes him dance around.  She sent the elephant home so i could try and we got super excited.  We got excited when he bounes his arm bye-bye.  I just noticed that he boogies when he hears music in general (probably my fault for dancing him all the time) and it just makes us so happy.  It is funny to think if we got that excited when someone else bounces a stuffed toy around.

Second, they dont know anything.  He shoots straight up the stairs even though he gets most of the way up and almost falls backwards. He will also pull himself off the edge of anything.  You'd think there would be some instincts there! He also does the stick-thumb-out-and-push-anything-that-looks-like-a-button thing on the giant scab/bruise on my leg.  How rude!

Third, they are exhausting.  Here was my night last night (pretty typical): We get home from the babysitter, "Yes, he is asleep, i can eat"  As soon as i sit down i see his little eyes peeking out of his carseat and he's going "oooh ooh".  Pull him out and set him by his toys. Scoot scoot.  He is up the stairs.  I put him in front of his other toys.  Pull up onto the tv and bookshelf and pulls off books.  I put him in his bouncer so i can eat.  Wahh!  He doesnt like the jumeroo at the moment.  Put him back in front of toys.  Scoot scoot.  He is in the coffee table (on the shelf below the table part) pulling at all our albums and papers.  Put him on my lap and he grabs at my food.  Put him on the floor and he is standing pulling at everything on the coffee table and knocks over my juice all over everything (phone, photo album, floor).  Put him back on the floor and he pulls at any cord he can find.  Why do they ignore toys, but play with anything that isnt theirs? Put him by toys again and he is up smacking at the TV.  I heard you arent supposed to look at the TV too close, but that seems like the safest place for now.  I am surprised there is time to eat!   Whenever I am on the computer he crawls up me gonig "mommmm mama" and hits all the keyboard keys!

Babies are so funny, it is weird to think that they are little people because they certainly don't act like them!

Home again

We finally made it back. Again.  I feel like we haven't stopped moving for the past few weeks.  We left Friday after work to go stay with my brother in Pullman.  We woke up nice and early on Saturday and headed to Spokane for Fool's Fest.  Erik and Destiny kept Sawyer all day so we didnt have to worry about him getting cold.

It was FREEZING there.  It actually snowed a little.  Then the sun came out and it was nice and warm.  Then it got windy and started to hail and we were so cold we had to huddle like penguins.  It was fun though.  BUT, I have never been so tired in my life!  Running, tackling, rucking, scrumming (is that a word?) each half was 30 minutes and there were 3 games planned.  We lost the first against Eastern WA University, we won the second against Gonzaga, and by the 3rd game, we were ti-red.  We had to "whore" 3 girls from another team because ours were all tired/sick/injured.  My friend Megan broke her wrist in the second game!  The 3rd ref was not very good and was allowing a lot of dangerous stuff, plus we were tired, so when our best player got tackled too high and got her leg twisted really bad, they just called the game before it was even halftime.  We were all tired and cold anyway so there was no complaints.  It was really fun though, it wasnt a tournament so it was all fun and everyone was allowed to start at least one game (I played the whole time through all 3 games).  I think I learned a lot though and got to know the team a lot better.

That's me trying to catch it against a Gonzaga girl

That's a scrum, and you can't see me because i'm in the middle

That is giant hail on the ground!  It hurt so bad getting pelted! Oh and my giant XL shirt

At Erik's- Get this thing off me mommy!

I took this at a rest area waiting for Andy

Another rest area picture

2 New Homes

I have a new home at work.  After like a year of talking about it, they finally cut the inventory room door in half (like a stable door :-/) and moved my computer to the desk in the tiny, loud, cold, inventory room.  Once i moved in and opened up the door, it wasnt so bad.  I liked being part of the action in the backroom tables, but I still can be a part of them when i open my door :)  Here is a picture of my desk.  I am kind of excited to have my own because i have a lot of extra space and can put up pictures and stuff. Plus I get double monitors which will help a lot :)

We also are looking at another home.  They are building small, fairly cheap, new houses over between Fredrickson and Spanaway that we qualified for a loan.  It is about the same size as our duplex, but we would own it for about $100 more a month.  We are really considering buying one of these because they are just getting built now so we would get to pick the colors and stuff like that, plus it is a good time to buy right now, and since you have to have your job for a long time to qualify for a loan, we want to get one before Andy gets a teaching job since his years would start over.  It has 3 small (smaller than ours now) bedrooms so we would still have a spare or room for #2 if we ever decide to have that one in a while.  Just something we might do soon.  We are going to talk about it this next week and will keep the update!