The new ebay stuff's here! The new ebay stuff's here!

Yesterday, I was so excited to come home and find that my punch bowl had arrived! Brandon beat me home and had it all set up on the island for me to find when I came in to the kitchen. It's sooo pretty! Can you believe that I got this baby for less than $30, including shipping?

Today when I got home from work, I ran into my new jeans... literally! Brandon beat me home again today (which, by the way, almost NEVER happens) and had them hanging inside the laundry room door for me to find when I got home. I know... he's a keeper. :) Anyways, they fit great! Can't wait to get them hemmed so I can start wearing them. :)

I wonder if the mail fairy will bring me something fun tomorrow... best not get too greedy. :)

Our baby boy's room

Decorating is one of my favorite things in the world, so I'm very excited about putting our baby boy's room together. We've picked out his crib and have also purchased a dresser and night stand that we intend to paint an espresso color to match the crib. And, in keeping with our "frugal philosophy", the dresser and nightstands were purchased for just $60 on craigslist- and they're in GREAT condition. I found a mirror to hang over the dresser for a great price at Kirklands, which wound up being the perfect size for the dresser.









My Mom (Grandmama) bought the rocking chair for us that we'd picked out, so we're almost set on his furniture. Thanks so much, Mom, for our awesome rocking chair! :)

We've also picked out the fabrics that our baby boy's bedding will be made of. Both fabrics match the rocking chair very nicely, so everything really seems to be coming together!

One of my friends told me about a custom baby bedding website - it has some of the CUTEST bedding on it, as well as quite a large selections of fabrics. I found a bedding design on there that I really love and hope to copy. Luckily, I have a Mom that can make ANYTHING by just looking at a picture, and she's going to make our bedding for us! Here's the bedding style that we intend to copy... can't wait to see what it looks like with our fabrics!

I'll be sure to post pictures of his room as we make progress. As you've seen from the pictures, we have the unpainted furniture and mirror, rocking chair and full size bed in the room, but really haven't started turning it into a nursery quite yet. We'll hit it hard once summer gets here and we have some time on our hands. Hopefully I'll be able to help out with all the sanding and painting of the furniture - I'm excited to get started!

Speaking of getting started, my belly seems to be starting quite a growth spurt.

My students seem to have a different remark for my belly every day. Things like, "Mrs. Ritter, your stomach is getting soooo big!" or "You're huge!", and numerous other statements that a woman longs to hear. :) I really don't remember being very interested when my teachers were having babies. I was certainly happy for them, but didn't really talk to them about it. My students seem genuinely excited about our baby, though, which is very special to me. I've had some of these kids for three years now, watching them grow from tiny sixth graders to awkward 7th graders and on to young adult 8th graders. I feel like a Mom to them in a way. In fact, I don't ever call them "my students" the way I did earlier in this paragraph. I call them my kids. So I really can't help but smile at all of the belly rubs and funny comments... even when they include the word "huge".

Ebay is AWESOME!

I know, I know... I'm way behind the times. But did you guys know that ebay is AWESOME?!! Let me explain... I recently decided that I need a punch bowl. Those of you that know me will understand this random desire. So, I sat down on the couch and began my internet research thing, found what I wanted for the price I wanted, at Target. So I proceed to order it online, since it's not available in their stores. I was appalled when I got to the end of my checkout and found that the shipping on the punch bowl nearly DOUBLED the original cost of the thing! So after that huge disappointment, I set out on a search to find this punch bowl for less. After many an hour of searching elsewhere, I found nothing better. Upon expressing my frustration to Brandon, he suggested I try ebay. Now, I don't really know why I've always been worried about purchasing from ebay or amazon. It's silly, really... but nonetheless, I was worried to. I reluctantly followed my husband's advice, though, and sure enough, there's the punch bowl I'd been looking for, for half the price of the Target website! Needless to say, I'm waiting for my punch bowl to show up on my doorstep. And I got it for a steal! :)

My next story about ebay should be prefaced with this: I am a cheapskate. I do NOT like to spend a lot of money on things (in case you hadn't figured it out already). I was raised by, perhaps, the two most frugal people on the planet and wholeheartedly agree with the "frugal philosophy". I do not understand how or why people spend a fortune on impulse. Do a little research - find the best deal out there! Or, how about waiting a week or two - or a couple of months - for the item to go on sale? It's so rewarding when it does (and it almost always does)! If it doesn't go on sale for a reasonable price, then don't buy it. This is the way my husband and I live our lives. Being that both of us are teachers, this "frugal philosophy" comes in quite handy for us.

Now having established that I am a cheapskate, I need to let you in on something that completely contradicts that statement; I am a jeans snob. I admit it... I'm guilty! I spend lots of money on jeans! One of my best friends introduced me to the world of designer jeans, and I will never (unless necessary, of course) go back. What's so great about designer jeans you ask? They actually FIT! EVERYWHERE. ALL THE TIME. I have become quite accustomed to my awesome fitting blue jeans and have been seriously frustrated with a search for properly fitting maternity jeans. Because of my frugal nature, I simply have had the hardest time justifying spending much money on maternity clothes. Yes, even for jeans... until I found ebay! I bought a pair of Citizens maternity jeans on Sunday for such a ridiculously low price on ebay- I can't wait for them to get here! I'll finally be able to walk around in awesome fitting jeans again... and feel super proud of my super duper frugal designer jeans expenditure! Ebay is AWESOME!!!!

I've finally given in to all of your demands to start a blog!! I know that I absolutely love keeping up with my friends and families' blogs, so I suppose it's time to return the favor.

Here's a glimpse into the last six months of our lives together:
After a grueling 9 months on the market, we finally sold our wonderful home in Forney in order to get closer to work. We absolutely adored the house we'd built there, but after nearly three years, the long commute had finally taken it's toll on us. We'd been searching for months for a new home and had found nothing close to what we'd had in Forney. We found a home in Rowlett in an absolutely fabulous location and neighborhood that we loved but the neighborhood was, unfortunately, out of our price range. Our realtor pushed us to make an offer anyway and we were amazed when the builder accepted - with no changes - the ridiculously low offer we made! So, there went the building process all over again... but it was totally worth it. We're loving our new home and our SHORT drive to work every day! It's like a gift every time I get in the car and have a short 10-12 minute drive to work as opposed to the 40-45 minute commute -ONE WAY- that we used to face from Forney each day. Now, a mere five minutes from our house, are all of the shopping and conveniences you could ask for. Like I said, we're loving it here and are so thankful that God blessed us with the sale of our previous home, and the financial means to build again. Thank you, Lord!

Our New Home

Shortly after spending Christmas in our new home, we found out that we are expecting our first baby. We couldn't be more excited! Recently armed with the knowledge that we are having a boy, we made a trip to the library where we checked out numerous baby name books. We quickly came home and confidently began our name search in earnest, bouncing names off of each other right and left, each of us making a list of our favorite names (at least those not veto-ed by the other). Alas, after hours of searching and crossing name after name off each of our lists, baby boy Ritter is...... still nameless. We have managed to narrow the search down to just four names, but love all of them so much that we can't seem to choose just one! We may have to resort to a poll on our blog at some point and have you guys help us make the final decision but, for now, we are continuing to sleep on it. For the time being, we're simply calling him "our baby boy". Here are some sonogram pictures of our baby boy - the first is an attempt by the sonographer to get a profile shot. He was so busy turning over and rolling around that she had a hard time getting this picture! He actually had his legs up over his head as she took it. The second picture is taken from underneath his legs and his "mark of manliness" is in plain sight between them. :)

Profile of our baby boy

Can you make out the boy??

Our baby boy is one of the biggest reasons I've decided to jump into the blogging world. I figured now's the time to figure out how all of this stuff works so that when he finally arrives, we'll know exactly how to post all of those adorable pictures we'll be taking of him. And, prior to his arrival, we can share equally fascinating photos of his nursery and my ever-expanding belly. I suppose a picture or two of my amazing husband would be in order as well! Here's the handsome devil himself.

Brandon with our precious nephew, Sam

More to come...