This baby may have a house!

So great news (hopefully!) We put in our offer yesterday for the house (almost $30k under the asking), and they quickly counter offered ($4k under the asking). We then countered this morning with $19k under the asking and then we said we would meet them halfway, but that would be our final offer bcs we did not want to go higher than $14k under the asking. And the good news is that they accepted!! I left work early today (feeling very tired) so Ann called with the good news when Geoff was in the shower :)

We went down to Ann's office at 6pm to sign the revised paper work and then Ann was going to drop off the paperwork to have the seller sign them tonight. Then on to the home inspection, P&S, mortgage details, and then we should be able to move in by the end of August!! Perfect timing really, I will be 22 weeks pregnant then and I really wanted to be in someplace by September so we would have Sept., Oct., Nov. to settle in and get ready for the baby. I really want to have everything "done" by the beginning of December so I can just relax, enjoy what sleep I can, and just take it easy before the baby arrives.

Geoff's parents offered to take us out to dinner tonight to celebrate - I think we are going to the Border Cafe in Burlington :) I have to go pack my lunch for the morning bcs it may be a late night for me.

The Big 1-5-0!

Okay, so I stepped on the scale today to see 150 for the first time in my entire life! I am having kind of a hard time with it to tell you the truth. They say that you can gain 3-5 pounds in the first trimester and I have gained 8! I weighed 142 pounds (which is 7 pounds over my ideal) when I got pregnant and today I am at 13 weeks and 3 days - and 8 pounds heavier. Geez - I know I have not been exercising enough but this is kind of crazy. I have been eating well, having dessert here or there and just trying to listen to my body. Well I have to run to Whole Foods and then I want to get some exercise in to curb this enthusiasm with weight gain!

Also, today we are going to see the Hillside Ave. property with Mum and Dad and most likely put in an offer for it. Funny how the top 2 out of the 3 houses we have loved (and wanted to put an offer in for) have been on that street.

Great day at the lake

I really had a great day at the lake(s) today. I woke up at 5am (hungry) got some toast and OJ, and then went back to bed till 8:30am. I had breakfast #2 and then did a few things and headed to my parents around 10:30 and got there at 11:00am. Besides Dad, Meghan, Cade, Colleen, Ricky, the boys and Erin, Kevin and Holli were also there. Nana & Pappy were there and then my my mom came up a few minutes later with a dozen Kane's donuts (which I had half of one :)

Karen & Scott were also up with their kids and I got a tour of their renovated house. It really looks great. I also went into the cottage for the first time since it was finished and it really looks great. No more scary cottage any more.

So my day was really relaxing, hung out on the beach talked with everyone, pushed Cade on the swing, painted her nails, read her her princess book a few times and then had dinner with everyone. I had stopped by the Yum Yum shop on the way so I got gingerbread cookies for the kids and an apple pie and a blueberry pie for the adults. I had a small slice of each for dessert with ice cream and it was really good.

I then left around 7pm and got back to Wolfeboro at 7:30pm. I went for a long swim (the water was a few degreees warmer than yesterday); showered and then watched Michael Jackson "best of" videos for a bit while my hair dried. For the record he passed away on Thursday so all the radios are playing his music (I forgot how many I liked) and then online videos (Iforgot how talented a dancer/performent he was). It is now 9:30 pm and I am going to read and then head to bed :)

At the lake(s)

So I missed a post yesterday bcs I was running around trying to get out of Belmont to get to Wolfeboro. I had a few conference calls and then headed up around 2pm. I then checked email when I got up here to make up the time. It was a quiet day at work so it was a good day to be disconnected.

I got to the lake around 4:30pm, went for walk, wakeboarding for Dad, and then for a long swim with Mum. I am now heading to my parents now to see Meghan, Cade and the family - I will write another post tonight when I get back :)

Quicky

So I am getting tired and need to be quick - today was really nice the sun came out (finally!) around lunch and I got a manicure and had a pretty light day with meetings.

Odd day for Hollywood - Michael Jackson and Farrah Fosett died - I am so amazed by the number of Facebook entries about MJ.

Geoff and I went to an open house tonight and then drove by a few other houses to check them out. He has an appt. with Ann tomorrow to see a very promising house, but it is a bit high in our price range. I am working remotely tomorrow and then heading to the lake after my 1-2pm conference call :) I am going to stay in Wolfeboro and then visit the family during the day. I am really excited to see Meghan and Cade and just hang out with them all! I am also happy that I can stay in Wolfeboro with a bigger (and more confortable bed) bcs sleep is quite important to me these days. I get tired quite early and start yawning at 3pm every day.

Well off to bed! :)

How sweet and refreshing

Geoff has been so incredibly sweet today. I have to admit I started off the day crying again (getting dressed in the morning is killer and I was also upset about life in general). We did not talk the entire car ride to Alewife other than me saying thanks (twice) for a ride. I just did not feel like talking. Then today we chatted a few times and were just happy. Geoff left a really sweet VM at work saying how he just wanted me to be happy and would drive me to the lake this weekend or even cancel his plans with Kurt just to make sure I saw my family. Also his Mum has been really sweet and said I could stay at their place at the lake and even borrow a car to get to my parents during the day if need be. She also picked up my dry cleaning today which was really generous and unexpected bcs I had more than a few items there.

Tonight Geoff is cooking pizza and made a very delicious coffee cake for dessert. I had a small taste of the cake when I got home from work and it is definitly his best :) I am lyingin bed now waiting for dinner bcs I got really tired after work - Lily is laying on my legs and is super happy. I am also really happy bcs I just just get enough cuddles with her these days.

Also, good news, I think Jon & Christina may be getting the house that they really wanted :) I am sure they will be even happier once everything is finalized and they can start moving into their home and starting their family there :)

Trying to stay positive

So I am feeling much better now, after kind of a crappy afternoon.

So I met with my HR person today to talk about time off and paid leave and they have a pretty "lean" (I am trying not to say crappy here) policy that gives a new mom 2 weeks off (paid full) and then about 4 weeks of at 60% pay (minus deductions like health insurance, FSA, etc.).

After that meeting I stayed at work late punching the numbers in and figured out my 2010 paycheck amount at 100%, 60%, and 20% and then dropped those numbers into my budget when I got home. Geoff cooked me an amazing dinner tonight as well which was really sweet bcs at first I had said I did not want dinner bcs I was kind of upset and just wanted to work on the excel file to make our finances work.

In the end it looked like once the baby was in day care that we would be running a $1k deficit each month. That kind of did not make sense bcs day care would cost $2.5k/month and Geoff would be bringing in $3k/month. So we played with the numbers again and assuming that Jon and Christina would pay Geoff $1k per month to watch their baby then we can afford to have Geoff stay home and be daddy-daycare for the two babies :) We have not really talked to Jon & Christina about this but I hope they will be game. Geoff is way more dependable than a Nanny and would be cheaper as well.

Well I am going to go and read the books I just got in the mail from Amazon.com - I got Baby Bargains (which will come in handy looking at our new budget ;); Perfect Hormone Balence for Pregnancy by Dr. Greene; and Happy Baby, Healthy Mom which is a pregancy journal by Dr. Greene as well :)

Trying times

So Geoff became officially unemployed today as he heard the news at work this morning that they will not be paying people for the next 2 weeks while they figure out what to do with the company. I feel really bad for him bcs that is incredibly difficult, especially how much effort he has put into the company and wants it to work.

Today was kind of a tough day in general. Besides the fact that I was relatively happy with my weight this morning (145) I ended up crying when trying to get dressed. It is just so hard to find clothes to wear in this rainy weather that fit me and do not look like maternity clothes. I really do not have a belly big enough to justify full-on maternity clothes, but none of my regular clothes (especially my spring and summer clothes when I am usually a bit lighter) fit comfortably. We also do not have the extra money for me to be spending on clothes so that adds to the stress and constraints. I did buy a few items (white jeans, black pants and black bella band) at A Pea in the Pod on Newbury last week, but I cannot make a habit of that. I got all the items on sale (significantly on sale for that matter) but they are still out of our budget.

So on that theme - money - ugh. Geoff and I have been quite stressed about it for a while now. He has not really had an income for almost a year now. His parents have been so extremely generous in letting us stay in Belmont, but I feel like we are well overdue in moving forward in our lives. Things could be a million times worse, and I understand that, but it does not make things that much easier when you feel like a burden on family and that your life has been effectively stuck in the same place for bout a year. Granted Geoff has made strides by getting the position at EdNets, but we have not see any tangible results of his efforts to date.

Geoff has been working on reconciling our recipts and expenses from last June till now. He stopped doing his half in June and I stopped doing my half in October. The lesson of the story is that it is easier to do it month by month (like we used to) and not let it pile up. I think the receipts are telling a depressing story about how our expenses are not aligning with our income. I am willing to make sacrifices in my life (i.e. shop at Whole Foods less) but I have to work on finding those things that will make me sacrifice my health to do so.

Well it is 9pm so I must head off to bed to make sure my Tuesday is managable :)

House hunting

Today we have about 3 open houses to attend to - I am kind of excited about one of the houses, but it is in east Lexington and (event though it says "close to the T" in the description) I think it could be a pain to actually get to the T - without riding three miles on your bike. Lily is sitting in my lap right now and I just had to type my first sentence with just my right hand. I then freed my left hand from her head and front paws, in order to type but she is now half sitting and half laying on my left hand so it is a bit in mobile. I have never met a cat that requires so many cuddles ;)

Last night was Geoff's Mums B-day dinner and it was a lot of fun - we did an open source dinner of sorts (the new pot-luck ;) and all contributed a bit.

I need to get some exercise in today, I have not done so for exactly a week. I am still trying to find a female pre-natal trainer at a Boston Sport Club though. The (pre-natal certified) trainers that they have available at the Government Center or Downtown Crossing club are all men. Kind of annoying - it is bad enough that I have to go to a co-ed gym, but I really do not want a male trainor on top of that, especially in regards to a subject he has absolultly no idea or understanding of.

This week should be anouther busy one at work - I am already booked every hour until Friday at 2pm. I am going to be working remotely on Friday this week, instead of Monday, bcs of a meeting I need to attend tomorrow. I only have 2 more days working remotely left on my calendar - I am going to miss it - that is for sure! It was such a help to have that one day to catch up on my emails and get things into a manageble position. I think I may just start blocking out days that I am not available for meetings. I just cannot get anything done if I am booked devery hour with meetings. My inbox just fills up and I just get behind. One solution would be to go in early and stay late, but I am just not up for doing that at this stage of my life. I really want my job to stay 8:30-5:00pm and not infringe upon the few hours of free time I have each day.

Well I am going to download a few podacats (from Pea in the Pod that I started to download yesterday) and then re-download the Pregtastic podcast from last week (the hormone one that I did not 100% finish before it somehow got deleted from my files). With podcasts in hand I will then hit the treadmill for a walk and some streching :)

ps - for the record, I weigh 148 pounds today. I was around 142 from March through April and then in late May I went up to 145 and since then I have creeped up to 148. My Dr. thinks I am doing just fine with my weight, but I kind of feel fat and not like myself, I am just not used to being this weight (or if I came close I would get in shape and feel better in a few weeks.) I just hope my face does not get fat and bloated... I am okay with a big belly but I do not want a fat face. Also, while I am putting in requests I would prefer for my butt and thighs not to spread too much - they are big enough as they are :)

The first post - thank you Dr. Greene

I was listening to a Pregtastic podcast last week and they had Dr. Greene on (a reproductive endocrinologist). I was really excited to hear this week's episode with him because I had read one of his books on how to get your hormones perfectly balanced to aid in conception. This week has was talking about all the changes your body (specially hormones) go through during pregnancy. Well one of his tips to a healthy and happy pregnancy is journeling beacuse it helps to reduce stress and it also gives you a record of your pregnancy. Well thank you Dr. Greene - I now have a baby blog! :) This is of course my first post and I am still sorting out in my mind who I want to share this with. I imagine some of my family members would get a kick out this, and that Geoff would too. My main goal is to help reduce any pregancy anxiety I may have and have an electronic record for myself and the baby. I am 12 weeks now and we pretty much announced it to everyone we know last week - thanks to Facebook ;) It is exciting to be able to share the news, but still kind of scary (in case anything goes wrong we have a very long list to notify).

This week was funny beacuse more and more people were asking about my potential pregnancy at work. On Wednesday I have a quick presentation on the Communication Program Restructuring I am co-leading and many of the management team members were more interested in my belly than my powerpoint ;) A few other people had been asking around at work as well. I was kind of hoping and not really planning on telling people at work for another month or so, but I guess I have not been as good at strategically dressing as I thought ;) Funny, Kim mentioned it as well, she emailed me on Facebook bcs she said it looked like I popped over night - my pants certainly do not fit me any more, and there is a def. bump. When we saw Ann (our real estate agent on Wed. night) the first thing she said to me was "Wow you are really showing!" I guess this is the beginning of the public phase of pregnancy when people start looking at your belly then they do your face ;) Everyone has been so wonderful about it all though - it is really great. Geoff's family wrote many emails to us after he announced and I had over 30 comments on my Facebook page (and a few thumbs up to boot ;) Geoff and I were having a half-serious competition and he only got 20-odd comments to his baby announcement post ;)

This weekend (actually today :) is Mum's b-day so we went to see Up in Burlington and then are cooking dinner for her tonight. Meghan, Cade and my Dad flew in from Myrtle Beach last night and she will be here until August. I phoned the house this morning to say hi and it was quite noisy in the background with all the kids :)

Well we need to drop by Whole Foods to get stuff for dinner tonight, and then I need to get in the shower and prep the appetizers (which I am in charge of). I have to say that I love the fact that I get the eaisest items for the dinner menu - I think people realize cooking is not really my thing.

Photos of Geoff in the waiting room after our first ultrasound:

This one always make me tear up :)