Monday, October 12, 2009

What Should I Write?

I feel like the only blog content I've been posting lately has been my weekly grocery buys. Blech. That gets old after a while. I mean, I love to read the blogs that have new posts every day or two!!! I have done that in the past, I guess I'm just going through a really long bloggy-blah or something.

Some things that are going on around here lately that I've thought about posting but just haven't gotten around to it:

Adding on to the house. We haven't started, we don't have holes or stacks of lumber in our yard, but we do have some ideas on paper and are seriously moving in that direction. I'm eager to get things really rolling (blueprints, estimates, permits, and eventually the actual "doing") so hopefully alot of the initial and major banging and clanging can be done BEFORE Georgie-Porgy arrives and would be sleeping in the bedroom that will be very adjacent to the construction. My ideal goal is to have whatever we do completely finished and moved into by the end of 2010. I think that's reasonable, don't you?

In the budget/finance department, we're hoping to refinance very soon. Right now we are in a 5 year ARM that ends next fall, I think. That could be bad, depending on where rates are at the time. Right now we have a pretty decent rate, but hopefully we'll get something a percent or two lower, and have it locked in for the whole life. Daniel wants to figure up how much the addition is going to cost before we refinance so we know what kind of $$ we have or don't have to work with. We have a very nice nest egg hidden away for the addition which we are hoping will cover quite a bit of it, but probably not all of it, depending on prices and how frou-frou we do things (and we are not frou-frou people by any means!).

I have volunteered to be the coordinator for a ministry our church has. "We" (our pastor and youth pastor) are working with a local, inner-city, high-school football team that is just a couple blocks from church. They have a chapel service with them on Thursdays, and then on Friday before their games we provide them with a good, filling meal. I volunteered to coordinate the meal part :) If you know me at all, you know 2 things: I love making good food, and I love organizing and planning. Oh, and a 3rd thing would be that fixing and planning food for large crowds doesn't intimidate me one bit (it does alot of people, I'm learning!). The meals need to serve 40 people and I'm pretty excited :) This past Friday was the first time I'd helped with it at all (some other ladies had come up with the meal, I was just helping) and it was pretty amazing to see the guys' reaction to getting good food. They're the kind of people who probably don't get more than Twinkies and sodas for meals on a daily basis. In talking with our pastor, he's shared with me some of the impact that this ministry has had on these kids' lives, it's almost like they've done a 180. It is so amazing what sharing God's love can do!! I'm excited to be a part of the ministry these guys' hearts (and stomachs!).

This coming Friday morning we get to see our little baby again :) We're both so excited. It will be the 20-week ultrasound, and Baby George is going to be a lot bigger than the last time we saw him (or her)!! This would normally be the ultrasound where we would find out if it's a boy or girl, but we've decided that we're not going to purposely find out, but let it be a surprise. BUT we've also decided that if by chance we would find out (if it's glaringly obvious on the ultrasound, or somebody that knows what they're looking at lets it slip), it's not going to be the end of our world - we'd probably just look at each other, grin, and say "cool!!" Haha! My guess is that neither of us will know what to look for on the ultrasound, so we're probably pretty safe there :P
It's hard to imagine that I'm almost 1/2 way through this pregnancy! It seems like things are going so easy right now, and I'm so thankful! All the "how are you feeling" questions are starting to get redundant, but I guess I've probably asked people that very thing my fair share of times, too :P I am feeling very good!! Sleeping has become interesting - some nights I'm super comfortable, other nights I just cannot get comfortable or go to sleep, even though I'm tired as all get out. It seems to go in a 2 "bad" nights, 1 really good night cycle. I need to go to the chiropractor and get some kinks worked out, and see if he has any suggestions. One thing that wakes me up alot is my hips. I don't know if I need to put a pillow between my knees, if it's the weight gain (and I haven't gained that much, either), or just something to live with for another 4 1/2 months, but till the end of the night both of my hips are pretty sore from sleeping on my sides. Getting a new mattress has crossed my mind lately, too, wondering if that might make a difference. Ours is getting a couple lumps in it, and has definite sunken spots where we sleep the most, even though we rotated it the other week (we can't flip it because it's a pillow-top).

As you can see, if I really sit down to blog, content will come out of my finger-tips :) I think this is a good blog-start for the week, so I should get on to a good start in all the other areas of everyday life :) Dishes need done, laundry needs washed and hung out pretty soon if it's going to dry today (it's cool and cloudy), and I need to make bread.

7 comments:

Sally said... [Reply to comment]

Sounds like things are honky-dory! A few questions from the ignorant over here, what is ARM, adjustable rate mortgage? Also, what are fru-fru people? I guess I'm not up on the newest English or something.

I think the football team thing sounds exciting! That would be fun to do. I'm glad you can coordinate it. Keep us posted. Will you be doing all the cooking yourself? You'll have to let us know how you pull it off!

Miriam said... [Reply to comment]

Sally - I put up a link for a definition for frou-frou (I had it spelled wrong) in the blog. Basically, "frilly".

ARM is adjustable rate mortgage. Ours is currently locked in at the rate it was when we got the loan, but after 5 years it changes to whatever it is then.

For the football team, I hope to do some of the baking ahead of time (rolls/breads and desserts that are so much better homemade instead of store-bought!), and the rest of the meal I would get a couple people to help me assemble and cook/bake on the day of. We use the church kitchen which is huge.

Ann said... [Reply to comment]

I am so glad to hear you are able to help with the TJ outreach. I know those guys will enjoy the thought and effort you put into the meals. You are definitely a great person to fill that role.

Jenn said... [Reply to comment]

Hey Miriam!! Glad the pregnancy is going well!! I never knew the gender of my babies before I had them, but somehow, I instinctively knew. Also, the whole pillow between the knees thing really worked for me! I hope that you can get your sleep sorted out. I hate being tired and not being able to sleep!

Just a little hint ... as a parent of an elite athlete (my son is an ice hockey player), if there are a few hours between gametime and mealtime, don't forget to add some carbs, like pasta in there. My son happens to be a lighter eater before playing so he likes to have some fruit to go along with his meal! I don't know if this will help you at all. Just wanted to share! If you want to know any more, please don't hesitate to ask, I have lots of info.(I'll be quiet now .... lol)

Miriam said... [Reply to comment]

Jenn, Carbs are one thing they requested to be a big part of each meal! So plenty of pasta or potatoes, and bread are on the menus :)

Bethany said... [Reply to comment]

Hey Miriam! I feel you on the sleeping thing. I have a lot of trouble with my hips too. When I was preg. with Sam, we bought a topper for our mattress which helped some but honestly it didn't get really any better until he was born! :( I guess that is not the news you wanted to hear, but that's just me, hopefully it will go away soon for ya! Sounds great about the TJ meals...I'll be praying it all goes well!

Alyssa said... [Reply to comment]

I highly recommend body pillows. Walmart had them when I was pregnant for $5. It was a HUGE help.