Welp, It's Done! (ish)

We moved!  Yep, that's right, we did it.  It could be the hormones raging through my VERY pregnant body, but I definitely feel a giant mix of emotions.  Definitely sadness mixed with frustration and nostalgia about leaving our house.  It definitely wasn't ideal.  We walked through with the realtor today and seeing Greyson's room all empty was really hard.  But, I also feel relief.  That mortgage was such a point of stress in our marriage, finances, and just every day life.  It was always in the back of our heads.  I'm glad to finally be free of it.  (Although, there was a slight pit in my stomach today when we saw the listing price written on the contract, of about $130k LESS that what we got it for.  Ouch).  I also feel excitement and anticipation.  With this new house comes a blank slate.  A new beginning.  Fun new projects (even though its a rental) and the opportunity to freely dream about what the future may hold.  Who knows?  We aren't tied down to that other mortgage anymore, so really, the sky's the limit.

I also feel an immense gratitude.  So grateful that this worked so quickly.  That we were blessed with a new rental that fit our physical and budgetary needs the same weekend we decided to do this.  Grateful that everything is IN our new house and I haven't gone into labor yet.  And SO incredibly grateful for the help Dan's mom gave us last week.  She was here for 8 days packing, lifting, unpacking, more lifting, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning...  She was awesome and there is absolutely NO way I could have taken care of all (or any) of that myself.  And, it just so happened that Dan worked like 300 hours (well almost) last week, so her being here was truly priceless.  THANK YOU MARI!!!

On another note, I had my 37 week (!!!) appointment yesterday and everything looks awesome.  This was about the time I started feeling really bad with Greyson (swelling beyond recognition, seeing spots, having constant contractions, etc) but I am still feeling awesome.  Blood pressure looks great, and no swelling!  Woo hoo!  Also, she was feeling around on my belly and I asked her if she could tell if he felt big.  She said that he felt really good and if we make it to delivery date she would expect him to be in the 7lb range!  Now, I realize that they can't tell much just by feel, but it was so encouraging to hear that!  (In case you don't know, Greyson was 9lbs 4oz).  Yesterday marked exactly 2 weeks until said delivery date, so we will definitely have our sweet Sawyer on (or before) the 11th.  And aside from the boxes piled all over our house, last minute laundry to be done, and a few projects I'm hoping to complete, I am ready!  Photos to come soon, I still have to locate all my memory cards...  :)

Really? 2 Months?? What is wrong with me?!

Lots of people stop posting on their blogs or "take a break" when life gets slow.  Like, nothing's going on so there's not much to post about.  On the contrary, I seem to "take a break" when life gets nuts!!  My oh my, we've been busy.  I (again) don't have a ton of time this morning to post, but I just wanted to give a quick list of the major highlights.  I will (TRY) to post pictures soon.  I've been formulating many posts in my head, why can't you all be mind readers?!  Ok, the quick list:

-At the beginning of September, we took yet ANOTHER trip to the ER.  Greyson fell into a toy box at a friend's house and needed three stitches in his forehead!

-Right after that, Greyson and I spent 8 days in California visiting my family.  He had a blast playing at Aunt Mimi's house, visiting the zoo, petting baby sheep and goats at the barns, playing with Gra-mama and Papa, and just being loved on.  I had a great time too, it was so nice to be back home!  I also had a couple photo shoots that week, so that was fun too.

-After getting back, Dan and I had several long conversations about our current financial situation.  Based on a number of factors, we decided to put our house up for short sale and move into a rental.  All-in-all it will save us about $700 a month, and return to us a priceless amount of peace of mind.  Its sad, but the right thing to do for our family.  We will definitely miss our home of 4 1/2 years, but I'm excited to get settled in a new place.  We actually move this week!

-I started a new "branch" of my photography business, which has kept me pretty busy!  I opened an etsy shop, and I'm selling digital copies of customized invitations, birth announcements, holiday cards, etc.  The url to my shop is http://www.etsy.com/shop/erindezago.  And, actually, I've been averaging one new order per day, so that has monopolized my computer time!

-I will be 36 weeks pregnant tomorrow.  WOW.  I feel gigantic, exhausted, in pain, and just plain ready to meet this sweet little boy!  Each day, I can feel him wiggling around inside of me and I am just so ready to hold him in my arms!  It was so strange last week, because I was packing everything in their bedroom.  I had been ambitious and hung things on the wall, gotten the crib ready, put his name up, etc.  Then I took it all down.  That was kind of sad.  But, I am ready to put it all back up again and get this show on the road!  We have my c-section scheduled for 39 1/2 weeks and we are hoping he follows in his brother's footsteps and decides to cook at least until then.  I thing Greyson was 6 days LATE, so hopefully we won't be facing any early labor this time around either.

-Dan's Dad just spent 3 days with us after a conference he had in Phoenix.  It was a great visit, and he got some quality time with Greyson, which was awesome.  The boy had so much fun with Papa.  Dan's mom is coming tomorrow for a week to help with the move.  I am so thankful to have her help because I have pretty much reached my limit of what I can do.  Moving is a lot of work!

Hopefully that brings us up-to-date (sort of).  I will try and get some pictures up soon, but with our house upside-down right now, its hard to get anything done!