21 Weeks Along

So today I decided that I was tired of the clothes that I packed, which isn't all of the maternity clothes that I have with me. So I went through the large box of maternity clothes that I have living in my trunk and pulled out a bunch more clothes. This outfit I'm wearing I picked out because I thought that it made me look more pregnant than some of the other clothes that I've been wearing recently. I think I look more pregnant looking down at my belly right now than how I look in this picture which was taken about 20 minutes ago.

Update on the House

It turns out that the sales lady who said that we would probably be able to move in the 3rd week of August was mistaken. It is now the 3rd week in August and we are not moving in to the new house. In fact it is still unfinished, we stop by the house after church on Sundays to check on the progress.

We have a walk through on September 2nd to make sure there isn't anything that the builders might have overlooked that needs to be fixed/finished and then once those items are done we will get the keys which will be September 9th, which is 3 weeks from tomorrow. We're excited to finally have a house and we've got all the essentials lined up: water, gas, electric, internet, trash. We have the movers scheduled to bring us all our stuff on September 12th (Andrew has every other Friday off and that is his off Friday). It's the 12th and not the 10th because I didn't want to be alone with the movers.

My New Hair Cut

So today I decided that it was too hot and I needed to get the hair off of my neck so I found a place that was close to Macy's ('cause I needed new bras) and went for it. Below are pictures of my new hair cut. Andrew said that this is the shortest he's ever seen it. Which now that I think about it, I agree.

I think for fun I will do another post about all the crazy things that I've done to my hair, that I have pictures of. :) But for now here are today's pictures.



So this is a profile view of my growing belly. This is 19 weeks & 2 days.



And this is an "artistic" front view. Andrew was having fun with the camera.


This is the last time I got my hair cut. It is was done in early April.



This is how my hair looked before I got it cut today. (This picture was taken at Andrew's family reunion at Dash Point State Park).

Pictures of our Unfinished House

We went down to Sahuarita, the town we're going to live in, and took pictures of our house. We should be getting a call on Monday or Tuesday letting us know what the official date we can take possession of the house will be. Right now we only know it will probably be the 3rd week in August.

The first group of pictures are the front of the house.





This next group of pictures are of the back of the house. The backyard is actually quite large and there is only one house that can actually see into it and it's not completed yet. The rest of the houses around us are 1 story houses and we are at a slightly higher elevation than them. Plus the concrete fences are at least 5' tall.




This is bedroom #2 which will be the baby's room.


This is looking from the living room into the hallway. The main door at the end goes to the garage. The little door to the right is the pantry in the kitchen.

This is the kitchen with an island and to the right is the dining area.

This is the "library" it isn't called a den because there aren't any doors enclosing it. This is directly off the living room. To the left is the front door and to the right is the hallway then the kitchen. I'm excited because both of our desks will fit in this office area.

This is the entrance to bedroom #1. You can tell it's the master suite because it has a fancy door way. Our window opens up to the backyard.

This is the living room. The sliding glass door opens to a large covered patio in the back yard. You can see the arch way to the "library" on the right and just out of the picture on the left is the entrance to the master bedroom. Directly behind me is the kitchen.

This is bedroom #3. This will be the craft/guest room. I really like the bay windows. We will have to put some external screens or something on these windows because they face due west.


There's still quite a bit of stuff to be done but most of it is cosmetic: tile, carpet, lighting, doorknobs, installing the blinds, plumbing for the sinks, installing toilets, installing the kitchen appliances except for the refrigerator, and grading the ground outside. I'm pretty sure that the final paint color is on the walls, though they will need to touch it up. So all in all I'm pretty sure it will be done by the 3rd week in August if not sooner.

Crazy Whirlwind Month

So it's been a while since I last posted anything. A lot has happened in the last month and a half.

The Gardners had a family reunion the 2nd - 5th of July in Federal Way, WA. Megan and I organized it and as Andrew predicted only a few things went according to the plan. It was still a lot of fun. We saw a Tacoma Rainier's game on the 3rd (they lost, way to be like the Mariners) and there was a pretty awesome fireworks show after the game. We got some pretty awesome family pictures. The one problem I have is I look fat not pregnant, but I guess that's life.

Andrew and I both quit our jobs and packed up our car and drove to Tucson, Arizona (the movers took the rest of our stuff). We are officially homeless though Tim and Megan are being awesome and letting us stay with them until we find a house. Actually we've found a house but it's not done being built so it will be at least until the 3rd week in August that we can move in. That is actually just a little bit longer than the average 30 days that it takes to close escrow.

We looked at quite a few houses before we decided on buying a new build. One of the houses that the Realtor showed us, though he didn't realize it when he agreed to show us the house, had 5 bullet holes on the roadside wall of the house. We discovered the holes because one of them went all the way through the dishwasher into the island in the kitchen. One of them was so big you could see daylight through it. There were other older houses that we looked at that weren't quite as bad but they all required more work that we anticipated.

Andrew has come to the conclusion that older houses down here are not as nice as older houses up in the North West. In fact anything that was build before the 90's falls into the category of not so nice.

Andrew started his new job today. That's where he is right now. I'm sure he'll like it. I'm still contemplating getting a job, Andrew thinks that I could do some contract work. I'm not sure about it though.

So we left the rainy North West to move to the sunny South West just in time for the monsoon season. So instead of the typical hot and dry days we were expecting, we are experiencing less hot but more humid days. I now understand why they said we moved during the worst time of the year. Not because it is hotter but because it feels hotter. We could have gotten this weather back in Seattle. :)

So I am now 16 weeks along and I'm feeling better. I was experiencing a lot of nausea thankfully no "morning sickness". I'm still really tired but I have a feeling that that's not going to fully go away. I am starting to look more pregnant but I think that has something to do with all the maternity clothes I've been wearing.