Thoughts...

...Why is it I can only ever have one part of my house clean at a time? Sometimes it's the kitchen and it stays gloriously clean for several days! Sometimes it's the living room. But no matter what I do, it is ever only one area at a time and the rest of the house is a disaster! It's just something funny I've noticed lately. Someday, I'll get back to a full clean  house. Maybe? Ever??

...Baby must have gone through a growth spurt this week. I have felt more FULLER than I ever have, like I just ate a huge buffet. I could be starving, but I'll still feel too full to eat. And it only gets worse from here :) I am also feeling his kicks a LOT more pronounced than they were even last week. I guess I can enjoy that!

...Cleaning out one section of a room really makes a huge difference! I finally cleaned the disaster corner in the living room where everything gets shoved ,and suddenly, the living room just opened up more. It was amazing. I actually vacuumed (don't judge!) and I felt the floor was clean enough to finally get myself to fold some laundry. Again, don't judge.

...I keep dreaming about cloth diapers. Like, crazy nightmare dreams! I just can't wait to get my diapers and see them in person and know that they are real and more importantly, start using them!!!! I can't wait!!

...Scott is taking his Multi-Engine Stage 1 Check today. I can't believe how fast his instructor is getting him through Multi-Engine! I am very pleased.

I will now share with you a couple photos from late:

23 Weeks

1. She LOVES dresses. 2. New bike for her birthday! 3. She's just so darn cute!

Part 2: "Operation House: Overhaul"

As some of you may know, our house is small. I've seen apartments bigger than our house. We have one bedroom, a room just big enough for washer and dryer, and a storage room that technically can't be called a bedroom but we put Hailey back there anyway because that is the only space to put her. To give you a better idea of the smallness of our home, we have one inside door. And that is the bathroom.

Over the years, we have definitely filled our space. We had a baby, and with baby comes junk. We've been married here for 4 years, and with that time, comes junk. And sometimes it's not even junk - sometimes it's stuff you actually do need.

Many, many times, we have come upon opportunities to move. Once was to another home outside our ward, but we felt it was not time to leave our ward yet. We still don't think it is time to leave our ward yet. So we looked at another home for rent in our ward.

And I LOVED it and I so so badly wanted to move into it. It was just around the corner from our house, it was in the ward, it had THREE actual, real, legit, not-closet-sized bedrooms! Rooms that fit beds! And other stuff! There was space, and lots of it, and it was TOTALLY, easily within our price range.

So why didn't we take it?

I think this time, the Lord gave us a choice. He didn't say we had to do one way or the other. This time, it was up to us if we wanted to move or not.

So after weighing the options, even though we could afford the house, we wouldn't be able to start paying off our debts. Was it worth the extra space, or could we make do for just one more year where we are to save the money and get out of debt??

We made our decision. We decided not to move. We decided it was worth more to us to save our money, and pay the debts. And I told Scott that if we stayed, he'd have to majorly help me overhaul our house to make it work for 2 kids. So we're staying, and we are commencing "Operation House: Overhaul" to be completed before the baby comes in June/July!

The first step was to buy shelves and set them up in the laundry room. We will move our food storage off the built in shelves in the storage room and onto the plastic shelves, creating a TON of space to move things off the floor and onto the shelves. This will then allow us to set up a toddler bed in the storage room, with the crib. Oh, it's been done before. Trust me. The people here before us, when we looked through the house, they had it like that. So yes, it is possible.

I also plan to completely de-junk the storage room and get rid of everything we don't absolutely need at the house. Thank goodness for helpful parents who have offered up their storage rooms for things we don't need to store here.

Once the storage room is done, I will start in the kitchen and work my way through the house. I will empty out and re-organize each cupboard and cabinet, making sure the things inside are only what we need and get rid of or pack up what we don't ever use. After 4 years of living here, I can tell you there are quite a few things I haven't ever touched that I unpacked after the honeymoon.

I'm debating on moving furniture around, only to give the place a feeling of change, but that isn't a necessity. My goal is to basically go about as if we were moving, but re-moving into our home again. We are going to make our home brand new and start over. We can make the space work. I know we can, and I know others have, too.

My poor landlady, I don't think she expected us to stay this long, especially into 2 kids!

But we feel good about our decision, and while sometimes I'll pass that other house and dream of days when we could have had a bigger space, I know we can make do with what we have here. I love this stage in our lives. And hopefully, so soon, Scott will get his commercial license this summer, and we will be on our way looking for jobs.

And of course, things never go according to plan, but we feel good that we at least have a plan, and we feel the Lord approves, and that's good, and we just kind of go from there!

Also, here is a picture of Phase 1: The Gateway. This shelf alone represents so much more that we can do now in our storage room.

Happy Sunday! 

Part 1: Tax Return

Sometimes I think of all these things that I would like to share on my Facebook status, but then do you ever stop and think that it might sound a little boastful and prideful, some things you want to put? And you don't mean it that way, but I guess some people would take it that way. Anyway, then I remember that I have a blog and that I really haven't been taking advantage of it like I ought to. So listen to me while I update you on our life!

Tax returns came in. We have been SO SO blessed to have the size of tax returns that we do (I won't go into detail). Each year of our marriage, and even me before I got married, we have been blessed with just the amount we needed for whatever we needed at that time.

In college, it was just enough to pay for rent and stay up in Logan over the summer. And what an amazing summer that was.

Our 2nd year married, we gave our tax return to my dad to help with his diner. We never once regretted it.

This year, we had a couple loans that we so desperately wanted to pay off and just be rid of. One was a car loan - Sally the Sentra is now paid off!!! She is OURS and we should get the title in the mail in the next few days. The second loan was a signature loan that we had to take out to finish Scott's instrument rating last summer, and which we hated from day one. I am so relieved to say that is paid off and out of the way. We never have to think of that blasted loan again.

How amazing it feels to be free of some debt. It's definitely not all debt, but we are that much closer to being free. What remains now is Hailey's hospital bill (what do you expect when you have a crappy insurance plan with a $10,000 out of pocket and a NICU stay that met and exceeded that criteria alone??), one auto loan, and student loans. We feel so blessed to only have students loans and one car to pay on. Granted, our student loans are probably more than what 2 or 3 normal students combined would pay for their education, but that's ok! We know this is the course we need to take.

Next , we will snowball. We take the payments that previously went toward Sally and the signature loan and we apply them to our next lowest balance. Once that is paid off, we take that total and attack the next one. And the next and the next. Getting debt free IS possible, even if it takes a few years. Also, I know we will have plenty more bills to come, especially with a baby coming in July, but I trust, and we will be taken care of.

Now you can see why I can't quite post this stuff on Facebook! It would most certainly come off as boastful and prideful, but I only wanted to share with you our gratitude and how if you put your hands in the Lord's and continue to pay your tithing, you WILL be blessed.