Eli Baby Dress

Once the morning sickness subsided a little bit, I got right down to serious knitting.

Until we know the gender, I am using yarn I have. Unfortunately that means most things look a bit girly since most of the yarn was bought for me.

It probably doesn’t help that I took girly colored yarn and made a girly dress, but I found this cute little dress and had to make it!

Its called Eli Baby Dress by Leyla Alieva. I used Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable in the color Petunia. 

At least I think the color was Petunia, I had already made a ball out of it a few years ago and threw away the information, not a smart idea.

Back with button, you could also make I-cord ties

Third Time's the Charm

After the car events of Friday, I was ready to relax and do things around the house all Saturday.

You see my energy level is not what it was before I got pregnant. The morning sickness is lessening each day, so I think I can run around town all day, but when I get home, I'm out like a light.

There I was happily knitting away on the couch still in my pjs Saturday morning, when my mom calls to tell me about a car she found for us. At first I listened but didn’t jump up to get dressed, she has sent us numerous cars the past week or two and they were either out of our budget or I didn’t like the safety ratings.

Sure enough this one was in our budget and was actually the car I had wanted. It looked just like the one we went to see Friday, but had a few less miles, was 2 years newer, and was a little more expensive, but still in our budget.

So I told Vince to get dressed we are going to see it.

We get dresses…. We make the 1.5 hour drive… We get to the dealer… He walked us around in the heat a bit… We wait inside so he can find the car…. 20 minutes later we are informed the car sold earlier that morning.

We have the most wonderful luck.

Well since we had met my parents and my mom was driving she decided to just check out the other dealers. I told her I had done my research and no one else had what I wanted… Oh but there was that one I didn’t think I would like and we could look at it since we drove all the way up here.

I didn’t mind the maroon exterior but I didn’t really like the interior color, it had dark interior and I was scared that would be like getting into a furnace in the summer. Still I hadn’t actually test driven a Murano (which is what I really wanted) since the last time I looked for a car 6 years ago.

We drove over found the car and asked to test drive it. We got in and the first thing everyone noticed was that it wasn’t as hot as we thought, and it had been sitting in the sun all day. As I drove I weighed the dark interior to the rest of the features. It had everything I wanted and was half the miles of the other cars we had been looking at. I park in the garage anyway so the most it will be out in the sun is errands and church etc.

After some negotiation and a check with cute little puppies on it we drove away in my “new” car.

My mom always told me to never say never, and sure enough I loved the car I thought I’d never like. 

Goodbye Old Car, Hello New ... Search

I was very proud of myself this last friday.

We sold my car and I didn’t cry!

Well I cried thinking about it before hand, but when they made us an offer and handed us a check, it was pretty easy to hand them the keys.

The plan was to sell my car and then drive to Tupelo to look at a car I found that I liked, and if I liked it get it.

Step one worked great. Seeing as the car needed tons of money and work, we weren’t expecting much. So we were pleasantly surprised by the offer.

Step two is where the plan went awry…

 I called that morning to see that the car I wanted was still there and they assured me it was. So after selling my car we drove the hour drive to see the car. We get there and are told another couple was looking at the car and might make an offer but if we would wait a couple minutes to see whether they wanted it.

They wanted it, but then we were told to wait a few more minutes, the other couple was on the phone with the bank for a very long time and it didn’t look like the deal would go through.

After waiting about an hour we were told that the dealer still didn’t think the deal would go through and if we wanted to grab food or go shopping and call back in 30 minutes they’d let us know what’s going on.

We ate… thankfully it was Five Guys and the morning sickness is gone enough that I ate and enjoyed my first hamburger in months.

We called and after a few confusing calls, the bad news was the couple bought the car we wanted. But good news they have another of the same model.

That’s only good news for the dealer because the other car is $10,000 more than the car we wanted!

Luckily we did some maternity shopping while we were there so it wasn’t totally a loss.

Now I am doubly proud of myself, I didn’t cry when I sold my car and I didn’t cry when the car I wanted sold and I wasted and hour and a half at a car dealer.

Searching for the Right Car

We have been on a quest for a car ever since we got back from Florida. It hasn’t been easy for me for a few reasons.

First, I loved my car! It had its issues but I loved it, and it went and betrayed me. How could it die on me when I foresaw many happy years ahead of us? However, the rational, logical side of me says this is a good thing since we now have a baby coming. Its so high putting a car seat in it is hard and the back hatch doesn’t stay up, so you need to people to load groceries.

Second, between my wants and our budget it’s hard to find a car I want. After feeling disappointed by my options I even considered fixing my car, all of its issues, but the rational side of me won that battle. Its stupid to spend over $6000 to fix a car that is only valued at around $3000, but isn’t my love for the car worth that extra $3000?! Everyone assured me it wasn’t. So I expanded my search to older cars, and luckily I can get a car I want in my budget if it’s older with more miles.

Third, the pregnancy has made me an emotional wreck so the simple task of buying a new car has left me in tears over sentimental things as well as trivial things!

But my biggest issue is how do I know if I'm getting a good car? I check the safety ratings of the model, the reliability of that model year, and they are great, but what if a particular car is a weird fluke? I hope that since I'm looking at cars over 5 years old (the one I'm leaning toward is 8 years old) this would weed out those cars with flukes.

Then I wonder if I'm getting a good deal. Well the Internet tells me what the cars in my area are going for and this is within range.

But what about trade-in for my car?!? Are they giving me a good deal?

Should I ever try to trade in my car? I know it has issues.

Why couldn’t it have just been Vince’s car that died? I love my car and he has no strong attachment to his. But alas it’s my car and I am forced to part with a beloved friend.

This is the car that drove me to college, the car that parked in the garage of my first house for the first time, and drove us to our wedding. It has small tears and scratches from DIY projects and moved furniture. It still has dog hair from dogs that are no longer with me, and scratches in the leathers from where they sat. It’s the car that brought Isis, both ferrets and numerous baby chicks home, and the one Cleo saw from the side of the highway and ran to.  

I don’t do well with change. My only comfort is it won’t take long for the car to be covered with dog hair and scratches, and it will bring our first child home.  

Isis' ride home

Cleo on the way home after a stop at the store to get her a harness and some much needed food. 

Ole Miss/ Father's Day Socks

Thanks to morning sickness I wasn’t able to finish the Father’s Day socks I was making for my father-in-law. Thankfully we had more exciting news for him and he was perfectly happy to hear about his first grandchild so he didn’t even realize he didn’t get a physical gift.

I did however finish the socks in time for him to wear them while he recovered from his knee surgery.

Since he is a big Ole Miss fan, Vince wanted me to make his dad Ole Miss socks like the ones I had made him. I would have done this but I was very disappointed in the yarn I used for those socks, it bleeds every time I wash them or they get sweaty.

Vince's Ole Miss socks

So I got some yarn Stroll Sock Yarn in colors Sapphire Heather and Firecracker Heather.

I also like that these socks are a bit subtler since I don’t think his dad would have worn more funky socks.  

Summer Break and Exciting News

I took a summer break from writing, knitting, and redoing the house.

A couple days after getting back from Florida (the day I unpacked our bags) Vince found out we had to go to Atlanta for a Latin Conference. After two trips back to back, I was exhausted and needed a break.

There is also a second reason I took such a long break. The day after we get back from Florida we found out we were expecting! By the time I recovered from the traveling the morning sickness kicked in. I was not prepared for all-day-long morning sickness. It was bad enough that I wasn’t even able to knit!

 

Baby at 8 weeks

I’m now at 11 weeks and while I still have bad days here and there, for the past week or so I have been able to start knitting much more and trying to catch up on the cleaning from all the weeks I was sick. 

I now have a set date to finish household project and a lot of knitting to do before baby gets here in February 2016. Since he or she will be a winter baby I get to knit lots of warm outfits.

My dad and grandfather got to find out about the baby on Father's Day. as an only child and grandchild this will be their first grand-baby and great grand-baby.