It's a Baby!

The news is out and we're excited to be expecting a baby this October! I've been intending to blog about this for a while, but our ultrasound appointment this past week was finally motivation for me to write out our baby story thus far. There is nothing too graphic in here, but if talk of periods and pregnancy tests weirds you out, feel free to stop reading now.

We found out really early in the pregnancy, which means it's kind of dragged on for a while now. I don't mean that it's not been fun, but I had to wait until 10 weeks to get my first ultra sound, and that was 6 weeks after finding out I was pregnant. That was a long 6 weeks in many ways!

The day we found out was kind of a strange one. It was President's Day and Kory and I both had the day off. He was supposed to be in Guatemala, but their trip got pushed back a week, so we got to spend Valentine's Day and a 3 day weekend together. I had an early morning orthodontist appointment and our plan was to go hiking right after that appointment.

We had been trying to get pregnant for a few months now and I had noticed a pattern with holidays. I got my period on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and MLK Day. I just had it in my head that I would start on Valentine's Day also, but I was secretly hoping I could find out I was pregnant that day instead. Friday morning I got up early before work and took a pregnancy test, which was the last one I had. It quickly came back negative so I threw it away and got ready for work. 

Sunday night, Kory and I were at Wal-mart and I decided to pick up some pregnancy tests for the next month since I'd used my last one. It was weird for me to have not started by now since I run on a pretty regular schedule. Monday morning, I woke up thinking I should take another test just so I could quit thinking about it. I decided to read the instructions while I waited for the results since I hadn't done that in a while. It said to wait 3 minutes, which seemed like forever. I grabbed the test and looked at it, expecting a negative result, but just wanting to know for sure so we could enjoy the rest of our day off together. It was positive. The best way to describe my feelings is to say I was shocked. Not like, OH NO! But more like...Wait. What?! For real?! I actually remember looking in the mirror and my mouth hanging open and just trying to let it sink in. I remember praying and thanking God and then realizing I needed to get Kory awake or we were going to be late to my dentist appointment.

About this time I remembered taking a test on Friday. I thought you were supposed to wait 1 minute for results but I had just read to wait 3 instead. I headed back into the bathroom and pulled the first test out of the trash can. It showed two lines, though the second was very faint. It was positive also! I was just not patient enough. I had a positive test 3 days earlier, but had no idea. I feel certain this sort of thing happens in some movie...but I can't remember what movie it is. Have you seen it? Can you help me out?

We had gone back and forth about this hike. It was raining and pretty cold. Kory left for Guatemala the next day and wasn't totally packed. Our house was going on the market soon and we needed to get a few more things in order. I went to wake Kory up and told him, "I think we should hike today." He said, "Ok." I said, "I think we should hike because it's only going to get harder for me to do that in the next 9 months." He sat up in bed and had the same shocked look on his face. We had a few short moments of hugs, kisses, smiles and then I told him he needed to get up and get ready so we could make it to my appointment. We rushed around packing for the hike and got out the door to the dentist.

After my dentist appointment, we headed out of town to the North Umpqua River and went hiking on a trail we hadn't ever hiked before.

About 45 minutes into our hike, we got a call from a realtor wanting to show our house. I was really confused because it wasn't even on the market yet! There was, however, a sign in our yard and I guess that is all it takes. Our realtor encouraged us to let them show the house, even though it wasn't on the market. The problem was that our house was a mess!

We had left in such a hurry that morning that the house was not show ready AT ALL! I had just taken a load of clothes out of the dryer and thrown them on the un-made bed. Kory had been packing and had things strewn around the whole house. Most of all, there were two pregnancy tests sitting out on the counter! We couldn't let them see our house this way. We rushed off the trail, headed back into town and cleaned the house faster than we ever have before.

After cleaning the house, we went to lunch with one of my best friends, Abby, and drove around looking at some houses that were for sale. We spent the evening at home talking about the baby and getting Kory packed to leave for Guatemala the next day. I was pretty bummed that Kory had to leave right after we found out, but their trip delay was absolutely an answer to my prayers. I had prayed so many times that Kory wouldn't be out of the country when I found out I was pregnant. I knew I wouldn't want to tell him over the phone and it would be SO hard to keep it totally to myself for almost two weeks.

We promised each other that we would wait until Kory got home to tell our parents before we told anyone else. It's really hard to keep such a fun secret to yourself! This is getting pretty lengthy, so my next blog will detail the next six weeks of my pregnancy.

March 14 in 2014

1. Eat {more} vegetables.

I did ok this month, but not great. I did try a new vegetable: parsnips. Our friend gave us some from his mom's garden and we used them in smoothies. I intended to roast them also, but I forgot and they were kind of rotten by the time I remembered.

I did have a significant victory in learning to like broccoli! We had it roasted twice and I had it in my yakisoba noodles several times. I feel like I can say with certainty that this vegetable moved out of the dislike category!

2. Learn to drive a stick shift (again).

Check! This happened in March! I would still like to get a little more practice, but I feel confident that I can do this now. There were a few stalling out moments, but it was when someone got behind me and I got so nervous with them waiting on me. To be fair, I was in parking lots the entire time (it was several that join together and I got up to second gear, so it was still good experience), and next time I hope to get some actual street practice. 

3. Read books.

I'm still working on The Signature of All Things. It's been very slow going for me, but not because it's bad writing. I really enjoy it and just need to take more time to read it, preferably NOT when I'm in bed and about to fall asleep.

4. Print and make albums with the pictures I take in the year.

Nothing happened here in March.

5. (Continue to) memorize the book of James.

I am not feeling good about this goal. I feel like I should have picked this goal or #10, but probably not both. I'm just not able to do them both well.

6. Crochet a blanket for Kory

Kory has now decided he doesn't want this blanket. It is understandable as we have quite a few already, and he feels like it would be too much work for me, considering he might not use it a lot.

So it looks like maybe I can turn my crocheting efforts towards baby items at this point.

7. Can 3 foods.

I have been looking through my canning cookbooks I got for Christmas to get some ideas. My current thoughts on what I might can include green beans, tomatoes, and possibly pickles.

8. Do puzzles.

We are getting SO close to finishing this giant! It's continuing to be pretty difficult at this point with so many of the pieces looking the same, but I have no doubt that April will be the month we finally finish this puzzle.

9. Make my blog prettier. 

Nothing this month, but I did get a comment last month with a great idea so I need to check out that website and see what I can do to spruce things up around here. 

10. Read through the entire Bible.

I'm still going, but it's a struggle. One of the main reasons is that I am so tired these days and reading puts me to sleep very quickly. I've tried reading while blow drying my hair, on my lunch break, right when I get home after work...so far, nothing is working really well. I'm giving myself grace and will continue reading when I can.

11. Eat more whole foods and, therefore, less processed foods. 

Hmm...I didn't do a lot of cooking in March. I have been SO exhausted in the evenings after work and Kory has been great about picking up the slack. I'm looking forward to the 2nd trimester energy boost I keep hearing about!

12. Get my braces off.

My most recent appointment brought good and bad news. It looks like I could get my braces off earlier than expected, but it means I have to wear rubber bands again. My new goal is to have my braces off before the baby arrives, so I'm still feeling positive about that happening.

13. Brush up on my Spanish.

I think I only worked on my Spanish one day this past month. I'm not too upset about that because I feel like it was a productive month anyway. Plus, I was really tired, and have lowered my expectations for myself a bit since discovering how worn out I am most days. 

14. Move out of our house.

Well, this is the 2nd biggest news in our lives these days. It's a long story, but we are keeping the house. We took it off the market in March and will continue living here. We do not plan to fix the foundation, but we do plan to do some repairs on the gutters/drainage situation and hopefully fix some of the seasonal settling we're experiencing.

We have a letter from a certified engineer stating that the home is structurally sound and all the damage was done in the first 10 years the home was built, which means it's not getting worse every year, like we originally thought. Finding out we were pregnant was a big part of making this decision. We started listing the things we wanted in a house...quiet neighborhood, big back yard, etc. It didn't take long to realize we already have that house! It's refreshing to not have to think about packing, selling, moving and buying a new house while I'm pregnant. I'm excited to be staying here as I really do love this house.

To someone on the outside, it might seem like we just went in circles for a year. To us, God did incredible work on our hearts and taught us trust and faith in very real and significant ways. The ways God grew us over the past year mean that this was not wasted time. Thanks again for your prayers and support as we dealt with this house situation. We feel like God led us to this house 2 years ago, and we're grateful He's allowing us to keep it now.

This goal will now transition to one I set last year and never really achieved because we found out about the foundation damage: Make our house feel like a home.

February 14 in 2014

1. Eat {more} vegetables.

This month was a huge success in the vegetable department! I have heard over and over that roasting vegetables is the way to go, but I finally had a conversation (via FB) with Alisa from Family Meal Blog that motivated me to actually try it. At her encouragement, I roasted cauliflower with olive oil, kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, and a tiny bit of sugar. I decided to roast some zucchini also because I knew I liked zucchini and if the cauliflower turned out gross, I'd have something to fall back on.

Well, of course, Alisa was right (we all should trust this gal when it comes to food!) and I LOVED the cauliflower and zucchini both. I roasted them at 400 for about 10-12 minutes, until the edges started browning. I actually had the vegetables as my meal that night because I was so focused on that project that I didn't really plan anything else. I did balance it out with some chips and dip though, so don't worry about me getting too healthy over here.

I also tried making Sweet Potato Fries for the first time this month. I put way too much oil on them, so even though I put some corn starch on as Alisa suggested, they were still way too soggy. I also didn't do a great job chopping them to be the same size, so the smaller ones got a little burned, but the thick and chunky ones were quite tasty. I definitely want to try these again!

2. Learn to drive a stick (again).

Not yet. Hopefully soon.

3. Read books.

I'm reading a really big book this month (500 pages) so it's kind of slow going for me. I'm really enjoying it, and it's not a difficult read at all. I just find myself falling asleep so easily when I read that I don't get very far before dozing off.

4. Print and make albums with the pictures I take in the year.

Nothing this month.

5. (Continue to) memorize the book of James.

You know what they say about the best of intentions... I had such a hard time keeping up on my daily Bible reading and that I got nothing accomplished here. The real solution is for me to watch less Netflix, so we'll see if I can make that happen in March.

6. Crochet a blanket for Kory

Nothing yet. 

7. Can 3 foods.

Still waiting for summer...though I'm getting more concerned that I might not have a garden (since I don't know where we'll be living), so I might have to can something from a local farmer's market if that is the case.

8. Do puzzles.

I'm still chipping away at this bad boy. It's going much slower now because SO many pieces look just alike. I wasn't feeling too great about my progress but then I looked at how much I had accomplished in January compared to now, and I'm feeling a little better about how it's coming together. I spent a lot of time working on it when Kory was gone to Guatemala for almost two full weeks.

January:

February:

9. Make my blog prettier. 

I don't really know what I want my blog to look like, which is part of my problem. I did get tired of it being so plain and white, so I added a cute background and updated a few font colors. I am not visually gifted at all, so I will probably need some outside help to get the blog to look really amazing, but the goal was "prettier", so I think I have accomplished that for now, at least.

10. Read through the entire Bible.

I didn't do so well in February. I feel like I spent the whole month playing catch up. About half-way through the month, I realized that it was real work to get through my reading each day and I wasn't really enjoying it at all. Job was quite a chore for me in January, and Exodus was proving to be the same in February. Rather than follow the "rules" of this plan perfectly, I jumped ahead many months to give myself some New Testament reading. My goal is to read the whole Bible in a year's time, so it doesn't really matter to me anymore if I do it in order, as long as I'm reading every day (well, 6 of 7 days a week) and have finished the whole thing come December 31, 2014. 

11. Eat more whole foods and, therefore, less processed foods. 

I had an epiphany recently that the best way to reach this goal was simply to cook from scratch. Duh! I know that might not be surprising to you at all, but it was a light bulb moment for me to realize that there were many things I didn't even know how to make from scratch, because I just always bought them in a can. This was the month to begin the learning. First up, I decided to make beans, as in good old pinto beans. I was going to do them in the crock pot, but then I got too impatient and just made them on the stove. I made a bean and cheese burrito with them and it was really good...homemade beans, hand-grated cheese, now I just need to learn how to make tortillas myself!


This has become one of my go-to foods lately: a Chipotle-inspired burrito bowl topped with Yumm! Sauce.

My favorite version includes chicken, rice/quinoa, black beans, tomatoes, cilantro, cheese, avocados and Yumm! sauce. It's definitely a good way for me to get some more vegetables in my diet and eat healthy, whole foods. 

12. Get my braces off.

Another month and another good appointment at the orthodontist. He doesn't plan to have me wear rubber bands anymore (thank goodness!) and he said things are looking good to get them off in the not-too-distant-future. The only other excitement in this area is that they got a new mint green color for bands and I'm really digging it!

13. Brush up on my Spanish.

I'm up to Level 5 on DuoLingo. I have no idea how many levels there are, but since I'm still practicing sentences like, "I read books", I have a feeling there are a LOT of levels to go.

14. Move out of our house.

Well, February was kind of a frustrating month in this department. We had a lock box with the front door key for realtors and a sign up in our yard for weeks, but the house still wasn't for sale officially. We had to wait weeks for the engineer to write us a letter ensuring the house's structural integrity.

Finally, right at the end of the month the house went on the market. We had a great initial response with 7 house showings in 6 days. No offers made yet, but at least people are looking. We'll take that as a win for this month!

2013 in Review

I really love all the end of the year reviews that happen in late December/early January. It's fun to remember how much has happened in just 365 days. Here are some of our 2013 highlights:

January

I'd had my braces on for just over a month and then started the new year by getting my wisdom teeth removed and another tooth pulled. On a related note, I dropped down to my college weight at this point as I spent the month of January eating almost no solids :)

February

We spent 10 days in Texas and New Mexico. Since we didn't get to be with family for the holidays, this was our belated trip to see them and also to attend our 5 year college reunion at Lubbock Christian University. Most importantly, we got to hang out with our niece, Lucy, for only the 2nd time in her life.

March

We discovered our home had major foundation problems in the month of March, and that radically changed the rest of the year for us. This news came exactly one year after we purchased our house.

April

Easter was a big weekend for us. Kory preached at all 4 services at Redeemer's Fellowship and I cooked my first Easter Feaster, which is sure to become a Mereness holiday tradition, complete with breaking our 40 day soda fast for the 40 Days of Water.

May

We celebrated 2 years of marriage with a weekend at Seven Feathers Hotel and Casino. The weekend included swimming, sleeping in/naps, The Office on Netflix, and ice cream. Perfection!

June

We participated in the Run for Ohm 5k for the first time. Our times weren't particularly note-worthy, but we did finish before the 10k winners came in, and called that a win.

July

We flew to Angel Fire, NM to spend an extended weekend with Kory's family to celebrate a 60th birthday, 80th birthday, and 60th wedding anniversary. After only seeing Lucy once in the first 18 months of her life, it was awesome to see her again, just 5 months later.

August

After talking about it for 2 years, we finally climbed South Sister with our best friends, Abby and Jeremy. We camped, hiked, and spent the weekend on Oregon's 3rd tallest mountain.

September

After over a year of planning and preparing, Kory helped put together a Parenting Conference this Fall. His parents flew up and taught at the conference and we enjoyed a wonderful extended weekend together.

October

We hosted a Halloween party and ended up with about 45 people at our house at some point in the evening. Kory was dressed as Zombie Steve Jobs and I was a green M&M.

November

I graduated from Launching Your Leadership, which is a leadership training program through the State of Oregon. I spent most of the Fall driving back and forth to Salem for this program.

December

As anyone who is Facebook friends with me knows, we just flew back to Texas to surprise family on Christmas morning. A detailed post about this trip will soon follow, but I'll leave you with a picture of the newest additions to the Mereness family, Molly and Jude.

House Update

Quick recap for those of you who don't know: In March 2012, we bought our first home. In March 2013, we found out the home has significant foundation damage which wasn't disclosed during the selling process. 

We have spent the past 8 months trying to figure out what we can do to remedy this situation. Two foundation repair companies gave us bids to fix our home: $55,000. Yes, I am sad to report I did not accidentally put too many zeroes in that figure. Fifty-five thousand dollars, on top of the 28.5 year mortgage we still owe on. Plus, we have recently found out that these types of repairs will most likely not work on our specific problem. We could hypothetically pay $55k and then have our foundation crumble anyway...and we would be responsible for the full cost of additional repairs. 

We have met with multiple lawyers who have all told us that we have no legal options...or rather, that we can sue if we would like, but we probably won't win. So yeah, no good option there. 

Our latest effort was to contact our mortgage company and see if they could help us. Their best advice was to file this with our home insurance (though a lawyer previously advised us not to file a claim with our homeowners insurance). Additionally, they offered to help us apply for a short sale on the house or to assist us through the foreclosure process. 

I am still trying to contact local contractors to get a bid for them to do the work. 6 months later, we have not received a single bid, so it really feels like this door is closing. It is so tough to distinguish when you are trying to force something that isn't meant to happen and when you need to just be persistent and keep on keeping on. For now, I press on. 

Yes, we can continue to live in the house (as many people have suggested) but there are a few problems with that: 1) The house is getting significantly worse. Cracks are opening up and parts of the house are separating in very obvious ways. The longer we put off a solution, the more severe the problem is becoming. 2) Every payment we make into this house is potentially money down the drain if we can't sell the home and recover the money we have put into it. 3) The weight of this problem is something that we cannot continue to live with for years. The burden is sometimes physically heavy and I don't think it is healthy for us to operate in this stress level long-term. 

We have a couple more people to call to seek their professional advice regarding this situation. It seems we always have one more person to call, so at least we keep finding more options to pursue. They all keep coming back negative, but I will choose to be grateful that we aren't at the end of our rope...yet. 

There is definitely good that has come from this situation: Kory and I have been drawn closer to each other than ever and have been reminded of what is truly important in life (not a house!). My prayer life has improved exponentially, and not only in regards to the house. I have been able to share my faith with others because of this specific trial. Still, would I chose to go through it again for these benefits? Nope. I sure wouldn't. And that just makes me grateful that God is in control and I am not. 

We would certainly appreciate your prayers. We are also open to any advice or ideas you might have for us: there is nothing we won't at least consider at this point. 

Blogging and Blabbering

I get annoyed when bloggers begin by apologizing for their super long absence from blogging. Mainly because that assumes there is an obligation to post regularly and I don't like feeling obligated. Do I enjoy reading blogs by people who post several times a week? You bet! Do I feel guilty for not blogging that often? No way Jose. I am finally to a point in my life where I accept that I cannot be all things at all times and my hobbies, interests, and anything I put effort into must be cycled into seasons of my life if I wish to remain happy and balanced (which I do). 

So this summer, I worked hard in my garden and got a lot of delicious vegetables out of my own backyard. Earlier this year, I was crocheting like nobody's business and making lots of cute projects. For a few weeks this year, I was reading almost every single night and flying through several novels. I began 2013 with 13 goals. I was working diligently on as well as blogging about my progress. Then, life happened. 

To be honest, this house situation we are in pretty much turned my world upside down for a couple months. It changed my perspective as well as my priorities, and I don't think I will ever be the same for having gone through (still going through it actually) this trial.

Tonight, I was reading a blog from a dear friend and realized that I never talk to her but I feel like we are really close because I read her blog regularly. I remembered why I began blogging in the first place: to stay connected to those whom I don't see very often. 

I have to remind myself that I didn't start blogging to make money or show off my incredible photography skills or even to write creatively. I started to connect with people, and so I will continue to write, even when I feel like other blogs are prettier (they are!) or more professional (they are!) or have way more followers than me (they do!). I have to daily, actively fight against this perfectionist attitude that tells me I shouldn't even try if I can't be the very best. In this case, "the best" is pretty subjective...especially because when it comes to being me, I really am the best! :)