Down to 1 car?

Are we crazy? I'm not sure. Loren and I have reviewed our budget and looked at our life and decided that we should go down to 1 vehicle. We ended up putting both our vehicles up for sale this past weekend. My little white car was starting to have issues and getting up there in miles. We knew that we had to get rid of it while we could get some money for it. And for Loren's truck, a two seater isn't going to work well with a baby seat.

What is amazing though, is that we put the car up for $3000, which was probably $800 over blue book, and it sold within 24 hours of posting it on Craigslist for cash. Crazy, huh? We paid $3000 for the car 2 years ago, and sold it for the same amount. That usually doesn't happen. So now we are down to only Loren's truck. I will drive the truck to work for this next month and Loren will ride the bus. We were planning on him riding the bus anyways $62 a month and having the stop only 3-4 miles away from our house is a great deal. He spends more in gas each month just driving to work.

After all is said and done, buying a different rig and going down to one car for the next year will allow us to save an extra $4,000+ (payments, gas, insurance) and will go very far when we purchase the 2nd vehicle. It will allow us to be able to pick the vehicle we want and need for our growing family.

I'm very excited to see if we can do this. It will be hard at times, but I know we can get through it. Both of us will have to make sacrifices for me to be able to stay home with the baby, but we both know this is what needs to happen.

We've never looked for a car that we wanted. When Loren bought his truck, he knew exactly what he was looking for, and when I bought the jeep, I knew exactly what I was looking for. When we got the car, it kind of fell into our laps. Are there any suggestions on what kind of cars to look at once we sell the truck?

33 Weeks Dr. Appointment

Yesterday I had our 33 weeks Dr. Appointment. Everything is going great. I haven't gained any weight in the past month, but my belly is right on track and measuring at 33 cm. It was funny to see the Dr. try to get the heartbeat of the baby, when the baby wouldn't stay still. We were in and out in 15 min. I just love my doctor and the practice. It is always so fast. I get there and check in, go and leave my sample, and by then the nurse is waiting for me outside the bathroom ready to weigh me and take me back to the room. I sit for maybe 1-2 min before the doctor is in. These appointments are quick and easy, and whats even better is that they are downtown close to Loren's work so he can be to each one.

What to get?

So this is a call to all the parents out there that read this blog. Loren and I have started looking at infant carseats/travel systems/strollers. I'm not sure what we need. I thought it would be nice to have a infant carseat that hooks into a stroller, but how often will I actually put the baby in the carseat and then in the stroller? If I'm taking the baby to a store, wouldn't I put the carseat right into the shopping cart? If I'm taking the baby on a walk, wouldn't I put the baby straight into the stroller? If the stroller breaks, the next stroller wouldn't hook up to the same carseat. Do I look at spending top dollar on getting a nice travel system? Or do I get a good reliable infant carseat and then get less expensive stroller (maybe even craigslist?). Loren and I go on at least a walk a day and what I'm ready online, is that most strollers don't last more than 1 child. What would be best for our money? Are there any good carseats or strollers out there that are highly recommended?

Loren

Yesterday Loren didn't have to work and I was very jealous, but instead of sitting around and doing nothing, he worked his butt off. He painted the closet doors and bedroom door for the babies room. He took the dog for a walk. He detailed his truck, even to the point were he took the seats out and shampooed them and the floors (we are getting ready to put both vehicles up for sale). He even went into work to rearrange and clean his desk and to do some other stuff. He cooked dinner and then helped me caulk the bathroom floor (me and the baby couldn't get behind the toilet).

My husband is an amazing man. I'm so privileged to have him in my life. I'm so grateful that he has the same goals in life that I do. He wants to provide for his family. He wants me to stay at home and raise our children. He works hard for the things we have and never takes for granted the time we have together.

This March, Loren and I will have been married for 2 years. The best 2 years of my life. I can't believe how quickly it has gone. Many people say that the first year of marriage is the hardest. If this is true, Loren and I are set for a wonderful life together. Our first year of marriage was wonderful. We have yet to have a fight, or even a heated argument. This was including me not working and us having 3 car payments (the budget was a little tight).

Our life so far has gone perfectly. We were married March 2008, bought our first house March 2009, and are now expecting our first child in March 2010. I think March must be a lucky month for us. I was very excited to start my life with Loren. I was excited to buy a house with Loren, and now I'm excited to start this new adventure of having a family with him.

Loren, I love you! Always have, and always will.

Worst sleep ever

I guess pregnancy does bring on the worst sleep ever. Last night while watching my Sunday night show, I couldn't stay awake. As soon as I laid down in bed, I was wide awake. Once I did finally fall asleep the dog kept running in and out of the dog door every hour, making a loud swishing noise, waking me up. Then the hubby's snoring wouldn't allow me to go back to bed. He usually isn't too bad. I can usually just elbow him and tell him to roll over to his side, but he was already on his side. Let's just say that today has been a hard day at work to stay awake.

Weekend Projects

Last weekend Loren and I got busy painting the babies room. He had primed the walls and ceiling and had also painted the ceiling, but I had to get all the fabric for the quilt, bumper, and curtains before we choose a color for the walls.

After finding the fabric we picked the color and spent the weekend painting. We even painted all the trim from a yucky creamy dirty color to a crisp clean white. It always feels so good to have one project out of your hair.

This weekend we didn't have much to do, so we decided to go out and get the crib and dresser we had been waiting to get when it went on sale. I'm glad that we went out this weekend. The first store only had the dresser and informed us that the crib was being discontinued. We quickly drove across town and went to the other store. They were out of the crib also, but they were nice enough to call the other store in Nampa. Luckily, they had one left. After dropping off the dresser at home, we headed out to Nampa to get the crib.

We brought the crib home and were too excited to wait until tomorrow to put it together. So our Saturday night consisted of us putting the crib together with the help of the animals of course. Then today we finished up the dresser.

I'm very excited to have them all put together and ready. Now on to all the sewing.

29 weeks

I thought I would post a picture of 29 weeks before we hit 30 weeks tomorrow. I can't believe we only have 10 weeks left. Don't look too hard, because you will see the pantyhose line on my belly from Church and I can't edit it off.

A look back at 2009 and a look forward at 2010

So many things happened in 2009, maybe jotting them down will help me remember all of them.

January on the 1st we began looking to purchase a house. We put two offers on two houses and waited, our 2nd offer on the better house got accepted.

February We wanted to close by the end of February, but ran into many issues with it being a bank owned house.

March Celebrated Loren turning 28 on the 4th and on the 17th closed on the house and got the keys two days later. Moved in by the end of March and cleaned the rental property we were recently occupying.

April got our first dog, Bowser.

May planted our first garden and worked on little things on the house.

July on the 10th (my 27th birthday) found out we were expecting our first baby.

August my mom, Susan, and Marquel came to Boise to visit, and we announced the baby.

September reaped the rewards of the garden and couldn't keep it under control.

November had our first Thanksgiving in our house, and had to have our furnace replaced.

December traveled back to Kansas for Christmas. It had been 5 years since I've been in Kansas for a Holiday.

As for the rest of the months, I don't remember anything that stood out. This past year has gone so fast, and I didn't get as much done as I wish I could have. We did complete several projects around the house (pulling out bushes, trees, weeds, adding a fence for the garden, replacing 2 toilets, painting a bathroom, updating light fixtures, cleaning and staining the fence, and installing a dog door). I also finished my sister's quilt, the baby's stocking, a baby's quilt, curtains for the kitchen, and several scrapbooking pages. I also reupholstered the kitchen chairs. After writing all that, I did do quite a bit especially working full time, being pregnant and sick, and having a demanding calling at church.

Some things we know/hope that will happen this year in no particular order are:

1. Quiting my job in February to stay at home.

2. Having a healthy baby sometime in March (lets hope it is at the beginning).

3. Finally painting the outside of our house.

4. Painting and decorating the babies room (I'm very excited about this, especially since I went and bought all the fabric last night).

5. Hopefully we get to go camping this year, especially since we didn't make it at all last year.

6. Attending a Bentz family reunion in Kansas in June.

I can't wait for this new year!

Kansas

Life has been so busy around here for the Turnbows. We left on December 23rd to travel to Wichita. The flight was delayed out of Boise, and the ticket agent proposed that we take out the morning flight the next day. I told her no, and that she needed to find a different route. She then found a route from Boise, Denver, Dallas, and then Wichita. But would be an all day travel. She went ahead and put us on those flights, but kept us on our original flights. There we were sitting at the gate waiting the for the 2 hour late plane. As the plane arrives, the lady comes to us and says that the flights out of Denver to Wichita are delayed also. We are able to keep our original flights, but we will have to run when we get to Denver.

We got first class seats on this flight (of course we bought them because we needed refundable tickets, the baby and all). We arrived in Denver at 1:45pm and our next flight was suppose to leave at 2:00pm. Guess where that plane was? Yep, all the way across the terminal. So everyone in terminal B, got to see the fat pregnant woman run. We got there just in time to see that they hadn't loaded yet and to take a bathroom break. We ended up getting into Wichita a few hours late, but I'm glad it was on the 23rd instead of the 24th.

Christmas eve was the day my family was going to celebrate Christmas. My sister only had her boys on this day and we wanted to make sure everyone was going to be there. It was a wonderful dinner filled with ham, funeral potatoes, sweet potato casserole (2 kinds), zucchini casserole, brussel sprouts, corn, green beans, rolls, pies, and anything else you could think of. We stuffed ourselves and then decided to open presents, but before that we got to hear some music from Marquel on her violin, Parker on a trumpet, and John on his trumpet. It was very nice to hear people in our family play, because non of the sisters were very talented in the music department.Marquel playing her violin.

Parker playing the trumpet.

John playing the trumpet.

We ended up pretty good for Christmas presents. Loren and I both got a shirt and small nick nacks. We also got some money to spend on the baby (car seat/stroller). The baby ended up getting many things. A mobile for the crib, a stuffed monkey, and clothes. It ended up being a very good Christmas. Not only did we come away with the new stuff, my sisters handed me down 3 suitcases (about 100lbs) of baby clothes, toys, and even a breast pump. I don't think I'll have to buy any clothes for this baby, boy or girl.

Mom got a pack of cigarettes and thought it was that,

but in fact was a necklace within the package. Tanner trying to video Susan.

I'm so grateful for the generosity of my family and the love they show me every day. I know it is hard with me living 3 states away, but I love them with all my heart. It was wonderful to spend the Christmas season with them this year. It has been 5 years since I've been back for a Christmas. The traveling was hard being prego, and the blizzard while we were there wasn't pleasant, but I wouldn't have traded this Christmas season for anything.

John loading up the cars during the blizzard.