Lots to Look Forward To

I'm really looking forward to this week, for several reasons.

-First off, Jeff started his "off work" week today, so he'll be home with us all day for the next week. Hooray!

-Tomorrow I have a prenatal appointment. I always love going to my prenatals - I get to hear the baby's heartbeat, talk about any concerns or fun stuff going on, see how much too much weight I've gained (okay, so that part isn't always fun...), and basically see that everything is going well with the baby.

-Then, on Thursday Jeff and I celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary. With wanting to save money, we celebrate special occasions with a special homemade meal, usually eaten after the kids are in bed. This saves us from having to arrange for a sitter and spend a whole bunch of money on a restaurant dinner. We're planning some yummy stuff. I'll be doing a variation of Pork Chops with Apples and Stuffing (This is a delicious recipe I got from Michelle. I'll be doing it in the crockpot, and using homemade apple pie filling!), and a slightly chocolaty version of the Anniversary Pie I made for our anniversary last year. We did the shopping for this meal today, and now I'm excited because it's gonna be so good!

-Then of course, on Friday we'll be closing on the house. I think this is the thing I'm most looking forward to. We'll have a house! We won't be moving in right away; we have the apartment through November and have to pay a whole lotta money to get out of the lease earlier. So we'll take some time to fix stuff up in the house - we'll take down the wall paneling in the living room and the peeling wallpaper in the hallway, and we'll paint the walls a nice color. We'll pull up the carpet in the dining room and refloor the kitchen and dining room with stone-style laminate flooring. We'll probably do a bug bomb or two to get rid of any unwelcome visitors (the home has been empty for a while). And then we'll take our time moving stuff from the apartment to the house, organizing as we go. I love that there won't be one big whirlwind day or weekend of moving, ending up with a big mess of boxes all over the place. I like that I'll have time to unpack and put things away without having to live in the mess at the same time.

-Lastly, I'm looking forward to Sunday, because we have a Linger Longer after church. I love our ward Linger Longers! This week it's going to be a potato bar. We signed up to bring a topping, something to put on the baked potatoes. We're bringing some homemade chili, yummy. I can't wait to see what kinds of toppings everyone else brings. The members of our ward are always so great about bringing delicious foods to the Linger Longers. :-)


So yeah, I've got a lot to look forward to this week. It'll be a good week.