Where do I begin?

Dear blog,

I am sorry that I abandoned you! It's been a busy year with lots of changes. To get caught up we probably need to go back many months ago.

Up until last July of 2013, I was work 2.5 days a week. That was keeping me busy enough and happy. But the practice decided to bring on a new doctor and thus I got bumped to working 1 or 2 Saturdays a MONTH. With the house being finished and me not working much, Bart and I decided we should start looking for a new house or a lot to buy and think about having a second baby. 

We looked off and on and off and on for a lot to buy but couldn't find one that we could afford and liked. By December of 2013, we found out that we were pregnant and expecting a baby in the summer. We still had a nagging feeling that we needed to change....something. So Bart started spiffing up his resume and looking for job opportunities. This wasn't intense job searching though, if he saw an email announcing an opening, or if someone mentioned something he'd look into it.

Christmas 2013 with Uncle Carter, Bria and Brecky

By the end of January we again actively started looking for houses to buy. Once or twice a week we'd go looks at houses that I'd seen on the MLS or that our agent had sent. A house came up that was in a good neighborhood but it had NO photos...and you know what that means...that it's ugly and out of date. We were the first people to look at it on a cold snowy night and it was old and dated, just as I thought. Bad kitchen, awful bathrooms, mismatched carpet and the owners had dogs. Dog hair, dog pee and dog smell. Even with all the negatives we liked the "bones" of the house and the potential it had. The location was great for us- close to I-15, the rec. center, shopping, grocery stores and schools.

We decided to put in a "low ball" offer and see what happened. The sellers countered but I wasn't quite ready, so we let the contract lapse. 2 weeks later I was still thinking about the house so we went back and looked at it again with my parents this time. We put in another offer, negotiated and went under contract right in time for us to go to St. Maarten. We had been looking at houses with our realtor so often that Dutch knew our realtor by name and even the sight of his car!

The view from our room

St. Maarten is a French and Dutch island in the Caribbean. It has lovely blue water, the perfect breeze and great snorkeling. It is "3rd" world though. There were part of town and people that were scary and it had lots of garbage, litter and bad smells. I would chose to go back to St. Thomas over St. Maarten but I next time I hope to go to Turks and Caicos or Barbados... Hint hint mom.

We had to go to the famous Maho beach and watch the planes land and take off.  It really was fun!

We followed this happy turtle for at least 30 minutes

Side note: I would not recommend running through JFK airport and customs, 24 weeks pregnant. We barely made it on our connecting flight and then I was having contractions/stomach pain and hot flashes the entire flight home. Next time I will plan ahead and ask for a cart to come get me.

Phew, I remember why I stopped blogging.  It takes a long time.  Instagram and Facebook are way faster.  Hopefully I'll get another post done soon.