Marcia, my co-teacher for confirmation had a dining room set to give away and offered it to Tim and I. I have been wanting a new table and chairs for a while now since all we had was a small table (even with the leaf in) and 4 chairs. Whenever we had company over we’d either not even sit at the table, or crowd around. Our new table is bigger without leaves than our old one with it’s leaf. And our new table has 2 leaves that go with it! I am super excited about it. The table is gorgeous, and the chairs will be after some loving. I need to reupholster the seats and paint the mesh backs that have gotten a little discolored. They’re still better than our old ones that were falling apart, and I came across some fabric that I like when shopping for fabric for the glider I reupholstered. So I’ll have some fun shopping for the fabric.

There is also a matching tall hutch that goes with the table and chairs, but Tim and I don’t have any place to put it in our dining room/den/kitchen area. And we don’t have storage to put it in until we’re in a house where we can use it. I’m bummed that we couldn’t take it, and I think Marcia’s husband was bummed too. He was looking around to see where it could go.

I am very excited to see God continue to bless us in ways that we forget about. I started wanting a new table and chairs about a year and a half ago when we had family over for the holidays for the first time. While showing my side of the family around town we went into a thrift store that had a really nice dining room set, but we didn’t have the money for it. A few months later I went back in to see if it was still around, and it wasn’t, so I soon gave up on the idea of getting a new table of chairs.

Next Monday will be our first time to use the dining set with company when my Dad and Grandparents come up to visit after my cousin’s wedding. I’m excited that we’ll already get to use it! If you click on the picture you can see the set better. The table has a really pretty diamond pattern in the wood.

It looks like I have a very likely chance of working every day this week. That hasn’t happened in a long time! Sunday night Tim and I stayed up until around 2 with me playing my new video game he got me for my birthday. After staying up ’til 12 I figured I wouldn’t take a job on Monday, so it didn’t really matter how much longer I would stay up since I could sleep in the next morning. To my surprise there were a few different options to sub on Monday. I passed one up that I actually enjoy ’cause I was just so tired when I heard the notice, and someone else quickly snagged it anyways. Then later on in the morning another position came up and I laid there thinking about it, giving someone else a chance to take it. Then I figured I’d get up, take a shower, see how I was functioning so far, and if it was still available, I’d go to work on only 5.5 hours of sleep. It was still available, and I was feeling guilty about passing up a day to work, so I had a full day of subbing in a music class, seeing 10 different classes for 30 minute increments. That is actually an easier way to sub I think because if you get a rough class, you know that they’re not there for long.

Then today I had a half day of subbing in the afternoon. I was really looking forward to today because I knew I could sleep in, which was absolutely wonderful. I think I got about 10 hours of sleep last night and Tim and I got to get up and around together this morning and do our devotions together. It was very delightful. And my afternoon was great. It was for the class of a teacher I’ve been subbing for frequently and still have 2 more days lined up to sub in there, so I have gotten to know the students pretty well.

About an hour ago I got a notice of a Kindergarten teacher needing a sub. I actually haven’t subbed at this school yet this year, so hopefully I don’t go on auto-pilot and end up at a different school. I am really looking forward to getting to teach Kindergarten, I just love that age! And Thursday I don’t know what I’m doing except for subbing for different teachers while they have meetings, so that should be interesting. I don’t have anything lined up for Friday, but there is usually quite a few positions that pop up for Fridays.

Now I need to go to sleep and get some good rest for a full day tomorrow. Hopefully Baby Schmoyer will start settling down soon. He/She has been moving around (on my bladder) this whole time while typing. I had the fun of that while trying to go to sleep Sunday night. Hopefully we wont have a replay of that.

Yesterday was my 26th birthday! And Baby Schmoyer turned 25 weeks yesterday! While I was reading one of my many baby books I realized that it has taken Baby 25 weeks to reach 1 and 1/2 pounds, and in the next 15 weeks he/she will gain another 6-7 pounds, maybe 8? That is just crazy to think about!

I worked all day at the highschool yesterday, which I prefer elementary, but with it being my birthday and me building relationships with staff and students the first half of the school year working at the highschool every day, I was at the perfect school for my birthday. After work Tim gave me my presents, I got “Free Yourself to Love” by Jackie Kendall, which I have been wanting for a little while now. And I also got an xbox game that has a few different arcade games in a bundle and a month of free xbox live. Today Tim and I will have to try it out.

To celebrate we went down to Saint Cloud, and Tim let me go to Toys R Us (looking at baby stuff) and to the mall. The mall there has one of the cutest baby shops, and I found a diaper bag that I really really like. It has tons of differnt pocket compartments and looks really stylish too. I would love to have it, except I’m not sure I could bring myself to pay $70 for a diaper bag.

The one we are registered for at Target is a nice bag and only $35, it’s just more on the bland side. We’ll see what I do, I have been saving up my blow money, which I’m thinking I’ll end up blowing on unnecessary baby things that we don’t necessarily need, but I just want. This bag is just so cute and has all sorts of compartments, which I love! If you check out the JJCole website you can see all the different designs of it, this was the one we saw in the store, and I think I still like it best, although it wont match our carseat and stroller…which I would like, but again, not necessary.

Baby Schmoyer’s car seat came today! Thank you Vicky sooo much for getting Baby the car seat. I just think it’s adorable, and it is very soft and cushy. It also came with a matching infant head support. Tim and I came home from a 6 mile bike ride and when we got home Tim spotted the box by the door. I couldn’t wait to see it, so I brought it in and opened it right away! I love the color and design. The lime green (or lemon grass) color just makes me so happy to look at it, and reality is settling in a little more. Now we have the car seat to be able to bring Baby home from the hospital when the day comes 16 weeks from now! This was a great early birthday present to get one of my most wanted baby items (and probably the most needed item) this week.

I have been wanting a treadmill for about a year now since we canceled our gym memberships to get out of debt. I figured right now would be the best time to find a good deal since it’s finally starting to get nice outside again and this is when people are more likely to get rid of their treadmill. I was able to find someone selling a treadmill with everything I was looking for and in my price range! I wanted an incline, up to 10mph, programs, calorie and mile counter, and the one I ended up with even has a heart rate monitor! All of this for a brand with good reviews online and sold to me for only $100. The owner had originally paid $1,100 for it, nothing wrong with the treadmill, just hadn’t been used in a while and they wanted their space back in the house. We were both thanking each other over and over for helping each other out! I found the treadmill on craigslist, and was pretty nervous about getting it ’cause this was my first purchase using craigslist, but it worked out great! We were able to borrow a truck from a youth’s family and go pick up the treadmill Friday night. We also brought another youth with us to help with the heavy lifting, since I’m not supposed to be doing any of that with Baby inside. So we had a good evening getting my treadmill and investing some good time in to one of the youth. We were able to get the treadmill because Tim hadn’t taken any money as profit from his online ministry, and we finally paid ourselves this week with getting fitness equipment for me for in the winter, and a new bike for Tim this summer.

We were blessed to find this treadmill and to get such a great deal on Tim’s bike, and in perfect timing. The day we went in to purchase Tim’s bike, his old one that he had for almost 16 years finally bit the dust. Luckily it held up for him as he rode it to and from work, and then it gave out after getting home. It was pretty foreign to spend so much money this week, but I think it’s important to invest in our health. With Tim’s records on bikes we’ll have this bike for a really long time, and my treadmill will over and beyond save us on what paying a monthly membership at a gym would cost, plus with Baby Schmoyer coming, it would be pretty hard to get up and go to the gym to work out, and we like to go together, which wouldn’t happen because one of us would have to stay home and watch Baby. I even had my first work out on it yesterday ’cause the temp outside got cold again.

I haven’t been working much lately, and I’m doing okay with that now. Last weekend I was really worn out, and Baby Schmoyer was really hyper on Monday, moving on and off for an hour straight in the morning, and still moving quite a bit throughout the day. Tuesday I decided not to work ’cause I wanted to rest, and I think Baby needed it too because he or she did not move too much. Today we both had some energy back, but I didn’t get a job. I am lined up to sub for one teacher twice a week for the next 2 weeks and mainly only half days. I figured I would take them because it’s better than chancing a job and not getting one, and it’ll be a good rest if I’m able to get full days the rest of the weeks. I’m leaving my work up to God ’cause He knows better than I do when I need to rest and when I can handle the work.

With less work comes less money, which was starting to worry me, but I kept on wanting to buy something from our baby registries every day. (I haven’t though.) I just want to have everything ready, but God helped me realize I really do need to be patient, and now I’m better. Tim and I have 3 months of expenses saved up, which Dave Ramsey recommends saving 3-6 months of expenses. We still need to save up the rest of my deductible that we’ll be paying when Baby Schmoyer gets here, and we would like to put money in savings for a car when Tim’s finally goes. I’m sure we have at least 2 more years on it, but ya never know.

So now even though I love looking at everything on our baby registries, I am doing better with refraining from wanting to buy something. Also, this week someone has bought us things from our Target registry and Babies R Us registry! That helps put me at ease and makes me excited. Tonight my co-teacher for confirmation offered us a free dining room table and 6 chairs that go with it that we’ll be getting soon. I’ve been wanting a new table and chairs for over a year now, but we haven’t had the money to get one. I am so excited! Also, I am wanting a treadmill for the next winter because when Baby Schmoyer is here it’ll be hard to get to the gym to work out, plus that costs money. So I’ve been looking on craigslist for a treadmill in good condition and for $150 or less, ’cause that’s what I have saved up in my blow money. I have found a treadmill that hopefully we’ll be able to pick up on Friday. We have to drive an hour down and an hour back to get it, but it’s only $100 and in good condition, and has everything I’m looking for on a nice treadmill, which has been hard to find for this price.

Last week I was stressed and worried about our finances, and this week God has totally been showing faithful and putting me at ease with our situation, showing us that we will be okay. God is so good!

Happy Easter! The youth put on their yearly fundraiser of doing an Easter Breakfast to raise money for the big summer event. This year is CHIC, a week long youth camp in Tennessee for the Covenant churches all over the U.S. And Tim and I got to participate in the 2nd two services for part of the worship experience. Our church participated in doing Cardboard Testimonies. Watch this video if you haven’t heard of it.

It was really touching seeing everyone’s testimonies, and Pastor Rol had me choked up with his each service, which made it hard to stand and the front and hold back tears. I noticed a lot of wet eyes in the congregation. It was nice to see the testimonies touch people. Tim and I did ours together. Our before was: 2 apathetic pastors kids, and our after was: serving in full-time ministry. Pastor Rol’s before was: almost died, and after was: was delivered. It was such a scary time when Pastor Rol was in the hospital not too long ago, but it’s been neat to hear how God has used that experience to change the way he does ministry. I hope everyone had a great Easter Sunday. We enjoyed the afternoon and evening with Tim’s brothers Dan and David and their families. It’s nice to have family near by to spend each holiday with.

I went to the library this morning to check out some more birthing books. I had to of been standing there for about 5 minutes when I all of a sudden got so worn out. I finished looking at books while I sat on the floor. Luckily I’m not embarassed by that ’cause I would do that if I was tired before I was pregnant. I’m still pretty fatigued being home for 30 minutes afterwards, which scared me, so I started looking things up online and contemplating if I should move my monthly checkup back to this week. I have my checkups on Mondays, and would normally go in this Monday, except our doctor wont be there the next 2, so I’m scheduled for the 27th. I did find a website that said that about this time in the pregnancy fatigue will start back up. Hopefully that’s the case, but if I have a rough weekend I think I’ll try getting in later this week. Tim took this picture of me last Sunday. I was excited to fit into this shirt, and finally had something to wear with the really cute and fun jewelry my brother, Jon, got me for Christmas!

For the amount of time I spend in Walmart, I am surprised that yesterday was the first time I went and looked at their baby section. Not sure if that was a mistake or not, but now we are registered not only at Target and Babies R US, but also Wal-Mart now. Here’s my reasoning:

Target registry: I have most of our registered items on Target’s. I did this registry at our local store, so most of the items are found in store and don’t have to be ordered online. There are only a few that are online only, which I tried to keep down as much as possible.

Babies R Us registry: This is where the items are that match the nursery bedding set we bought. They also have my favorite stroller and carseat. I want a jogger to be able to go on walks and jogging as much as possible before we get snow after Baby Schmoyer is born, and wanted one that is equipped for an infant carseat so we don’t have to buy a travel system and then a jogger on top of it. Trying to be money wise with that. I was impressed with how cushioned the carseat it, and just think it’s way cute! There’s also some bigger items and cute items that I liked from there. I couldn’t figure out how to add gift cards to this registry, maybe I’ll get it one day.

Walmart registry: I was surprised to find that Wal-Mart has items that Babies R Us has and Target doesn’t, or has some of the same items as Target did, but online only. I figured Wal-Mart would be better because you can opt for free shipping by doing site-to-store. The shipping can become pretty pricy. I was also able to register for books, which was very exciting!

I didn’t work yesterday ’cause I wasn’t feeling well, and didn’t get a job today because my job notice thing signed it’s self out during the night, and I missed any notices there may have been. So since I haven’t had anything to keep me off of kicking Baby Schmoyer, I’ve been entertaining myself with baby stuff. Yesterday I was so excited to see that our Walmart has the Fisher-Price Rainforest gym on clearance for $49.99! I didn’t realize how cute it is ’til I saw it in person! At Babies R Us it costs $69.99. Pretty good deal for $20 off! I’m tempted to go buy it since there’s only 2 left, and I’ve been saving up my blow money for baby stuff….but I’m trying to be patient to see what all we get as gifts…it’s so hard! We still have 4 months until Baby Schmoyer arrives. The main items I want though are the stroller and carseat from Babies R US, and a pack n’ play/bassinet combo and a crib.

We just received a phone call from 1-305-836-7371. I normally don’t answer calls that show up “Out of Area” because 9 out of 10 times it is nothing that has to do with us. When I answered this call it was a recording saying that we were called about our credit card acount, “Press 1 to speak to a representative, Press 2 to …” So I pressed one and less than a minute later someone answered the phone saying they were with Visa/Mastercard. I asked who they were trying to get ahold of and the lady said, “The primary card holder on your account.” Then I started to ask, “And what is the name on that…” And I was hung up on! I so wish the lady would’ve stayed on the phone, I would’ve loved to talk to her about the scam they were trying to pull because Tim and I don’t own any credit cards and we have the papers to prove that our accounts were paid off and closed. We have gotten calls from people looking for a name of someone that we don’t know, so my first goal was to make sure they know that they have the wrong number, but apparently they weren’t interested in that. I am assuming that they were trying to pull a scam like the ones Dateline showed a week or two ago. These scam artists use scare tactics to get people to wire money to someone’s personal account and that’s how they make their living. I tried calling the number back and it came up as a disconnected number. Total scam. Too bad the lady was more scared of me asking her for the name of the person they were looking for and didn’t bother to go any further. I think I could’ve had some fun with that!

I looked up online to see what other people have experienced with this phone number. It appears that they have many different facades that they try to play to scam people over on. And one person’s note I saw said that they got a call from the number and the only thing the person that called did was cuss them out! Terrible. I emailed our local FBI about this info to see if they can do anything. I’m not sure who is the best to contact to put an end to these scam artists.