The Spirit of Growth

I am such a procrastinator. I've had things I've been wanting to write about for quite some time but I slack. And once again, I missed Wishful Wednesday. I fail at blogging :( Ok, journey of self-pity over, what's been up?

First, fall has hit! Woo hoo!! It's is finally cool in NC. Now of course, the minute I hit "publish post" and this becomes official, the temperature will suddenly increase back to the sweltering 90 degrees it was this weekend. Hopefully not. For real though. I'm starting to get to that "private summers" stage in the pregnancy where I am always Hot (well hotter than usual, because I'm naturally always warm). With the arrival of that good ol' fall feelin, I've been in a more fall-y mood. I have been wanting to just bake. So the other night... I baked! I made muffins with two of my favorite fall ingredients - apples and cinammon! Mmm. They were delicious too. I only made 6 because we only had one apple and it was 11pm and I wasn't about to make a WalMart run. Mr. P. certainly enjoyed them (I left him a note and told him he must take the biggest ones, have one for breakfast and one for lunch because I loved him that much. Aren't I sweet? bahaha).
We have decided to resume our house hunting in full force. We've been doing great at budgeting. In all honesty, our salary isn't anything to write home about, something I was prepared for marrying an enlisted Marine, however, with a little attention not only can we survive but we can thrive (yeah, how cheesy was that?! I'm in a good mood, let me be). Seriously though, we haven't really cut out all that much (ok so I can't buy expensive makeup and bags the way I enjoyed in college) but just paying attention and being conscientious of what you're spending money on makes a big difference. Oh, and turning out the lights when you're not in a room (now who sounds like a mom?) I am very proud of how responsible with finances I have become, especially anyone who knew my spending habits before marriage could tell you I was anything but frugal. That being said, Mr. P assures me that if we continue this budgeting deal, we really can afford our very own house. Something I really, really desire especially with Little Miss Buttons on the way. I want to paint and have a dog and a yard and a swing set and... all the other fun stuff home owners get. Of course, this is all dependent of finding the house, I refuse to settle. Our rental is great now, I just wish it had a bit more space and we could do what we want with it. But it's in a great area and it's livable, so if we don't find our dream home (in our price range) right now, it won't be the end of the world. Wish us luck on our hunt though, we sure could use it!

And the last bit of exciting news I have for the day is...

I GOT A JOB!

A great follow up to the budgeting discussion above, we will soon be pulling in extra money because I will finally be working again. (Maybe only for a few months before time off but working now is better than working never, right?) A few weeks ago, I attended a "career fair" on base for Child Development Center positions, which is the same job I had back in MD before the move. They called literally not even an hour ago and let me know that I was selected for the position and I start with paperwork/training on Mon, Tue and Wed and go from there. It is a flex position, which means I will be working "not set" hours, but at home I was flex as well and after being there a while I was pretty set with my hours, so hopefully it will follow a similar pattern. I'm making about a dollar less an hour than I was at home, but NC is also cheaper than MD so that's not such a big deal either. I'm just really happy to finally contribute. I was starting to feel kind of like a bump on a log. Even though I do volunteer and do things during the day, not bringing in any extra money when we could use it had me feeling a bit guilty and well... useless. Not a feeling I'm very fond of, so I'm really really stoked to be a contributing member of the P family. Hahaha.

And last but certainly not least... baby girl is doing fantastically as far as making mommy grow. I had my doctor's appointment on Wednesday - 25 weeks. I have gained about 20 lbs (EEK!!!) during the whole pregnancy which they say is good (I'd hate too see what too much looks like, I feel like a cow) and my belly is measuring at a perfect 25cm. Her heart sounded great and she was a brat as usual, kicking at the doppler and moving away so we had to keep hunting her down to listen. She's so awesome :)

I still don't think it looks that large in person...

Mr. P loves "his" belly