We have a kitchen!

So the kitchen is put together finally. Working stove, dishwasher and fridge. Only have our glassware, mixer, and bread machine to dig out and then I think the whole kitchen is unpacked. Right now we are on the hunt for a wood burning stove. I think we may have found one but they said they would not hold it for us until tomorrow so I have to call when we leave in the morning and see if they still have it, it's on the way out to my parents house where we are going tomorrow already.
So this weekend will be as follows, Friday going to my parents house to get more of our stuff and borrow a ladder. Saturday cleaning out the gutters before all the rain gets here for the year, this is Oregon after all. Sunday my birth grandparents are coming over to see the house for the first time, and take a look at everything, plus my birth grandpa was a contractor and said he can give us a hand with our bathroom remodel when we start it.
So we have a lot going on, oh and we still have to finish painting Ross's room before he gets home from Idaho this next week. We will get there and we have all the time in the world to put everything together.
Oh and the kitchen is put together but I'm STILL scrubbing the faces of the doors and everything. Plus once we get the house all put together then we will be packing up one section at a time and sanding it down to paint it. Oh it never ends it never ends.

Making our house a home

So last Saturday we moved into our new house. We love our house even with all it's little problems, and yes we keep finding more little problems as we go along. But really we don't mind it's ours, we don't have to ask to do anything to it, we can get a pet when ever we want and not have to pay a deposit or something like that. We painted the kids rooms, Peyton purple and Ross orange.
So far with moving in we have fixed the hot and cold water knobs for the washer, that was a bigger project then we thought when we started it. Because of the age of our house we had to get a special adapter for our water lines. So ended up having to cut the drywall and the water lines to put the adapters on so we could put new knobs on. Good so that's all working fine now, go to hook up the washer and the lines leak, okay fine not a big deal just needs some new O rings. Well after starting a load of cloth diapers I hear the washer stop so I go down to unload it to hang the diapers up to dry. Well after opening the washer I see that it's still full of water :( The washer does not work, it wont spin or agitate or anything but fill with water and make a buzzing noise that smells like something is burning. So I pull out all the wet diapers ring them out and take them to the laundry mat to finish them up. Get on Craigslist and find another washer in town install and bam! we are back in business.

So on to the next project, fixing the upstairs toilet that wont stop running. This was one pretty easy and we did not run into any drama with it, thank goodness. We still have to fix the downstairs toilet since it just runs as well but that project can wait for a little bit.

We are now back upstairs again working on a few more things. I went to load the dishwasher the other morning and when I pulled out the lower drawer the upper one fell down inside the dishwasher, oops. So I called my mom and asked for the extra one that she had in her garage if we could have it. She said yes, because she loves me so much, and Pat is now installing that one. It turned into a little bit more of a project then we thought but we are learning to expect that with our house. We also got to see what the old kitchen floor looked like, so glad they put new flooring down yuck. And our floor under the dishwasher has some water damage from a leak under the kitchen sink so that has been added to our repair list as well. It's not something that needs to be done right away so it can wait just a little bit before we go tearing up the kitchen floor.

I will fill you all in tomorrow or in a few days about our stove adventure we went on yesterday. But right now I need to get back to unpacking and putting some more things away to make this house a home.

I'm a big kid now

So we are buying our first house. We "should" be signing papers any day now. But we are not holding our breath since we have been thinking that for almost three weeks now. But it will happen in due time, we just hate the waiting game. Plus it does not help living with my parents and really wanting to be in our own place.

So during this time I have been reading reading reading like crazy on ways to save money in our new house. So far I have been making un-paper towels. I have been upcycling flannel sheets that I have been buying at the thrift store for less then a $1 each. I have also been making family cloth out of them as well, for pee only for our family only. We will have TP for guest and others to use :) Anything that I can make that we can reuse over and over will help us save money in the long run.

I also have been planning a nice garden at our new home. I have it in my head what I want to do where. I have started buying some herb plants that I will plant off our back deck in a pot to help cut down on having to buy herbs at the store whether they be fresh or dried. I also plan on planting some raspberries, blueberries and strawberries as well. Last weekend Pat and I took the kids and went blackberry picking and I made a batch of blackberry jam. I hope to make a few more batches this year, but with the weather being so mild the berries are taking longer to turn. Which weather wise is fine by me I hate the heat :) But as for produce I wish it would warm up just a little so we could get the some good berries and veggies going. I hope that the price of everything does not go up to much because of the weather.   

So once we get all settled into our new home I will keep updating on how we are saving money as a family. The grocery shopping will be a challenge since we are limited to where we shop if we don't want to drive over an hour to get to. But really with the area we are going to be living in it's all worth it.

Wow Long time no post :)

So it's been a while since I posted and I thought I would update what has been going on in my life right now.
Pat and I are buying a house! We found a house a few weeks ago in Columbia City that we just fell in love with that was just a little over our price range but we can make it work. We have been waiting for them to de-winterize the house and turn the water back on so we can do our home inspection. They finally got that done on Monday so Thursday is the inspection. I can't wait. I hope nothing to major comes up and everything checks out just fine
So since we are moving into our own home I have been trying to come up with ways that we can save money. I thought I would try and start blogging about ways that I'm saving money in hopes to help others save some money as well.

 One thing I did was start making my own laundry soap. I used the Duggar's family recipe found here. I did add a little lavender and tea tree oil to mine for some sent. I have read that whites don't come out very white and can start looking a little dingy with this but have also read that people just add some oxy boost and it fixes that problem (just add to your whites load).
 One batch will make 10 gal of laundry soap. I don't think I will need to make/buy any for a while :)
 So that's my tip for today on saving money. Making your own laundry soap. It's super easy, and comes out to cost about .02 a load to wash. :)

Time to let it all out

So I have vented about this and that every here and there. Vented to other people. But I just need to get it all out in one place.
We are no longer moving to Spokane. We took a four day trip up there to look at apartments and get a feel for the area. Two days after we got back we found out the move is off. Pat could very well be laid off at work any time. They have talked about lay offs and he only has one person that would be let go before he would.

Pat is trying to get some equipment in place for if a lay off does happen so that he can do side jobs and bring in some extra money. Yes he would be able to get unemployment, but it wont be as much as he is making now. But in order to make money we would need to spend money, money we don't have.

We are going to have to trade our truck in, we have not gotten any offers on it at all in the last month that we have had it up for sale. I keep dropping the price on it as low as I can. Plus still sitting on the trailer as well. Pat's car is on it's last leg as well. So we will trade in the car and the truck for a newer car for Pat.

I just feel like we keep hitting walls all over the place. I would love a door to open up, or heck even a window.

Changes, once again

So our move to Spokane fell through. We had already moved back in with my parents to sell our truck and trailer for the move and had everything ready to go. We had take a four day trip to Spokane to look at apartments and see where we wanted to live. Two days after we got back if when we found out it's not going to happen. I was crushed. I had been looking forward to the move since we found out. Both Pat and I felt that this is where God wanted us to go. But God apparently has other plans for us. So we are moving forward with the selling of the truck and trailer. We have sold all our quads as well. Once everything is sold and taken care of we are hopping to be able to buy a house.
So this is where we are at right now. I have 38 days as of today until I'm full term and little Jordan can safely make her way into this world. So right now I'm just taking the time to get ready for her. 

So here it is

So we are moving. Pat's job is moving him to Spokane WA. We will most likely be moving in June of this year after the baby is born. This is a big change for our family but we have complete faith in God that He is guiding us on His path. This is going to be a good thing for our family. I'm not looking forward to moving away from all our friends and family, but I am looking forward to the next chapter in our lives. I will write more about details as we know them. But for right now we know that we are going to Spokane WA in June.

God is good.

So there is a lot going on in our little family, most of which I can't talk about just yet. But wanted to update something on here. We are hopping to know more tomorrow. Pat and I both feel that God is guiding this 100%. We have full trust and faith in Him on this possible change in our family. He is laying out the path He wants us to follow and we are walking down that path holding His hand. So I hope this is enough of a small update for right now. Like I said I hope to add more to this by some time tomorrow but we will see.

Knowledge is power, but when is to much going to do more harm then good?

Knowledge is power most of the time. But I have heard about people who look up medical information online and end up going way over board and freaking themselves out for no reason. We this past weekend I ended up at labor and delivery for an infection. I was treated and sent home with instructions on what to do at home to take care of myself. While I was there I had to give a urine sample and was told that they would call if they found something but did not feel I need to wait the hour for the results.
Well today I get a call from the doctor that I saw this weekend. My urine sample came back with GBS+. Now for those of you that don't know what that is, it's Group B strep, or Group B Streptococcus (GBS). Most pregnant women will get tested between 35 and 37 weeks of pregnancy. This is done by a swab of your girl parts and the other end :) a urine sample is not common practice of testing for GBS. I feel very lucky that I was tested and they found this. After doing some reading online today, and being told by the doctor that I'm now at an even higher risk of passing this on to my baby girl I'm a little freaked out. I have seen first had what can go wrong with GBS in an infant during birth. I used to care for a little girl who contracted GBS from her mother during birth and developed red meningitis, she will never be able to care for herself. She is severely  mentally retarded and physically handicapped.
After doing more reading online today I found out this is more common then Downs Syndrome, Spinal bifida, and the number one cause of life threatening infections in newborns since 1960. I feel that most doctors and midwifes blow this off, they will tell the mom that they are GBS+ and will need antibiotics during labor and birth and leave it at that. When really there is so much more to it then that. Please if you are readying this and are pregnant or know someone who is pregnant show them this information, not to freak them out that something WILL go wrong, but so they have the information to make the best choice for them and their baby. Knowledge is power, and in this case more knowledge the better since most health care professionals don't seem to give that much information about this.

http://www.groupbstrepinternational.org/info_main.html
http://www.childbirth.org/articles/GBS.html
http://www.givingbirthnaturally.com/group-b-streptococcus.htmlThese are just a couple of the web sites that I have gathered some information about GBS on, there are lots more out there.