Water Woes, But God is Bigger!

On Saturday, I stumbled while walking through our dining room. I turned around and saw that two long sections of hardwood planks had buckled and were sticking up above the floor. Alex checked for water under the house. All dry. The air conditioner in the attic wasn't leaking through the ceiling. So, I called the local company that installed the floor for my parents three and a half years ago. The owner of the business came over after work today and literally uncovered the problem in 2 minutes. Our dishwasher has been leaking. A lot. For a loooong time. A hose was installed improperly or something like that. The sub-floor in the kitchen, dining room and possibly the laundry room needs to be replaced. Mold is everywhere. Even the drywall in the dining room is damp on one wall. Everything down to the support beams under our house will need to be replaced. Tile floor that was installed just a year ago in the kitchen needs to be removed. Beautiful hardwood floors are ruined. I can't imagine what this is going to cost, but the flooring guy is running an estimate for us. Since our insurance agency was closed for the day by the time we discovered the chaos, I got online and filed a claim with the insurance company. Now we're praying that they will cover the damage because otherwise we'd need a loan to cover what I'm estimating to be $10,000 or more in repairs. Our homeowner's insurance is with the same company as our auto insurance. They were excellent to deal with when I had my car accident in October, so I'm hoping that this experience will be positive as well.

Honestly, I was more concerned about cooking dinner and feeding my hungry belly (I'm ALWAYS hungry now!!! Sheesh!) than being upset about mold in our house and having to stay somewhere else while repairs were being done. God will provide. He was faithful to see that this happened before the baby arrived so that it will be a distant memory by the time we bring home our precious bundle. Please pray for us that we will have favor with the insurance company and that whoever ends up making the repairs will do an excellent job so that there are no complications down the road.

The Man Cave Makeover Continues

We got a great start to the nursery this week during our stay-cation and now I'm in full-on decorator mode. I can't wait to see everything come together! Here's a sneak-peek at what we started:


This morning, I got up bright and early to hit a couple yard sales close to my house. I snagged a changing pad and three covers, a waterproof crib liner thingy, sleep sacks/gowns, and two onesies for $31. Buying all gender-neutral yellows, white and greens is kinda boring, but at the same time it's still really fun to finally shop for my own baby! Eeeek! I found a pink gown that I loved, so I had to get it, and to even things out I got a cute boy one with a puppy on it, because we LOVE puppies around here!


Speaking of puppies, I saw the cutest boxer pup yesterday that I wanted to take home with me so that Layla could have a buddy. He was tied up on his front porch and looked lonely. Poor thing! If dogs weren't so expensive to feed, vaccinate, etc, etc, I would find Layla a playmate pronto.

I hope you're having a great weekend! I'm going to try and make the most of what precious little time we have left before returning to work on Monday. *Sigh* No more mid-day naps for me....

The Man Cave Makeover Begins

Alex and I are on a one-week stay-cation this week, so we decided it was a great time to start turning his old office (now a storage room) into the nursery. We picked out paint yesterday and then lost the motivation to actually put it on the wall once we got home. The primer and main color are now finished and we'll start painting some stripes tomorrow. Hopefully the painting will be done tomorrow or the next day! I can't wait to see my vision come together, although I'm a little nervous that it might not turn out the way it looks in my head. We've started shopping for a crib, found one we liked and then discovered that the color we want has been discontinued. The crib search continues! We did find a neutral shag area rug for the room though, so it's coming together little by little. I'll post pictures of the nursery once the painting is finished!

How Do I Say This?

God is just so GOOD! That's all there is to it. I've thought of a million different ways to write this post, but I think straight-forward is just gonna have to do instead of something fancy and creative. I'm pregnant! We found out April 16th at just 3 weeks and 5 days along. Now I'm 11 weeks and had my first official pre-natal visit today. My doctor normally doesn't do ultrasounds until 20 weeks, but I think he wanted to let Alex see the baby for himself so that it seemed real, so he scheduled an earlier u/s for us. Here's the first peek at baby Godin!!!!!:


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The heartbeat was 167 beats/minute, which is on the high end (wives' tales say that girls have faster heartbeats, but we'll see!). It was such a dream come true to look at our precious baby up on that screen. We saw the heartbeat for a split second and then got to hear it. What an amazing sound!!! It was music to my ears!

I'm due on Christmas Day, which might seem like a bummer to some, but it is such confirmation that things happened in God's timing. About 5 years ago, while we were still dating, Alex and I picked out a boy and girl name. Our girl name, Natalie, means, "born on Christmas Day". I don't want to jump to conclusions that we're having a girl, but how cool would that be?! I'll be super excited with either a boy or a girl. If baby G is a boy, we want to name him Nathan. Middle names are still up in the air because Alex has always hated the idea of middle names (loooong story), but I'm determined to convince him to give our baby a middle name or else I'll sneak one onto the birth certificate! ;)

So far, I've been nauseous all day long, but have still been able to eat everything except onions and sharp cheddar cheese, and breakfast. Apparently the baby doesn't agree that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Even though I've been really tired during the day, I usually get a second wind once I get home in the evening. I told my boss my news a few weeks ago and am going to tell my co-workers tomorrow with the ultrasound pictures. I wonder if they've already figured it out? Thank goodness babydoll-style shirts are in style since they hide a lot!

Alex and I have both enjoyed keeping track of the baby's development with babycenter.com's email updates, but I've really enjoyed reading Praying Through Your Pregnancy by Jennifer Polimino and Carolyn Warren. Each chapter covers one week of the baby's development and shows you different ways to pray over your baby. For example, when hands and feet are forming, you pray for them to grow properly, but also that your child would grow to use their hands and feet to serve others and live out the Gospel. It even includes chapters on how to pray while you're waiting to conceive.

For so long it seemed like we would never get pregnant, but now I'm so thankful that things worked out the way they have. It seems cliche, but it's so true that God's timing is perfect and His plans are perfect. Waiting is so hard, but without the waiting, I might not have learned things about the Lord that He wanted me to see. My eyes were opened to have compassion towards couples struggling with infertility. I don't want to take the next 7 months for granted because I've waited a lifetime for them.

I'm A Basket Case

A dear friend recently arranged for a lady from our church to teach a basket weaving class for 9 eager women and girls. I didn't know that people still made their own baskets until last summer when my college roommate received a gorgeous hand woven basket from her future husband's grandmother as a wedding shower gift. I was instantly intrigued to say the least.

The class lasted 5 hours, plus an extra hour at the end to stay and talk, as we women love to do! Here's how the project progressed:






I think it's safe to say that we all left the class addicted to basket weaving. It's very therapeutic! Now I just have to find the perfect spot in the house for my basket...