It has been quite a while since my last post. I definitely have gone through a lot of changes, losses and gains since then.
In late March/early April of 2019 my whole world changed. One morning at work I discovered I was pregnant and I was thrilled and anxious all at the same time. Excited because it meant that I would soon have a sweet little baby of my own and yet anxious because my boyfriend, Kolton, and I were still living with his mom and had not planned to have children yet. Kolton was nervous as well when I told him but by September we were trying to live on our own on the next street over from his mom. The house was a SERIOUS fixer upper that we seriously should never have attempted to live in. The landlord expected us to renovate (she called it "repairs") her entire house AND pay $400 a month to live there. We managed to get the living room, first bedroom, second bedroom and the bathroom usable before the end of October. I cooked on a little portable stove and we had a mini fridge and, eventually, a regular size fridge we kept in the garage. On October 29th our dog, Reese, had puppies and we planned to keep 3 out of the litter of 8. After selling 5 of them we lost one dog when she was hit on the road. Then we lost another from either parvo or from eating something. The last one was the only one we still have to this day.
On December 23, 2019 I gave birth to my darling son, Aaron Ray. I couldn't believe how long his legs were! And he was so skinny! But he was healthy and so cute and we immediately fell in love with our little dark haired, dark eyed baby. We stayed 3 days at the hospital and came home Christmas Day. The following day was his first appointment and they checked his blood only to find his blood sugar and jaundice were at dangerous levels so we were sent back to the hospital where we stayed for a week. And then almost another week. Finally his levels evened out and stayed normal so we were allowed to go home and I was so relieved...although by that time the stress of everything and lack of sleep dried my milk supply up so Aaron had to be bottle fed from then on.
2020... well... not much good can be said about that year other than having my baby home. Covid shut down businesses and put us out of work which in turn put us behind on all our bills. We were evicted in spite of all the money and work we put in that house. In December we celebrated an entire year with our baby boy in spite of the chill and quite a few people managed to make it to our little lumberjack/buffalo plaid party.
2021... In January we took over the lease of a couple in Miamisburg, Ohio and lived there until June. It was not fancy and had plenty wrong but it was a solid place to live in and I made quite a bit of money doing Shipt shopping. In June we had to leave as the regular rent would be too much for us to afford so we were forced to move back in with Kolton's family. It was only supposed to be temporary.
2022...Remained with Kolton's family the entire year with not much changing throughout the year. I miscarried on Mother's Day and really had a hard time coming to terms with it. Kolton's relationship with his stepdad took a downhill turn towards the end of the year and I started putting things into motion to get us out. However, in November, while getting my labs done to test for different health things I realized I was late for my monthly...so I asked to get a pregnancy test. The results were exactly what I suspected. I had another little one on the way! We have done our best to keep our excitement low until we got to the third trimester due to my loss earlier in the year.
2023 began like any other year. My dad helped locate a mobile home near my family in Indiana so we started packing and getting ready to move. Easter weekend.... Thursday night Kim had Aaron open his Easter gifts a day early and we got videos of his fun reactions. The next day my brother was supposed to come and we were going to load our belongings into a trailer. At around 12:30/1pm Kolton went into his mom's room to get something and discovered his mother had passed away in her sleep. After alerting 911 dispatchers and waiting until they arrived, I loaded Aaron up in the car and took him to the park down the road so he wouldn't be distressed by everything...though it was already too late and all he could ask was, "Mimi dead?" It was heart wrenching! Somehow we made it through that day and the next day my brother came and we loaded the trailer he brought as well as his truck. Aaron and I went down to my parents' house that night. The week following was spent unloading the trailer and truck and unpacking things in our new home. Most of the week was a blur so some of the timing of things I cannot remember but that weekend I returned to Lima to join Kolton as we said our goodbyes to Kim. It was so surreal seeing her and not having her there being the one to comfort everyone and make plans for a celebration of life. Instead we celebrated HER life after the viewing and managed to get through everything. Kolton had to remain in Lima for about two or three weeks to work for a while before he finally joined us here in our new house.
Our first months here have been EXTREMELY rocky between the loss of Kim still heavy on our hearts and the fact now neither of us were working. We were given a lot of help from family to pay rent and I was able to do a little Shipt/Instacart shopping to keep food on the table and our other bills paid. Finally, at the beginning of this month, Kolton finally found a good paying job doing work he enjoys. Now we are slowly climbing out of the deep canyon of bills. Although we are far from being caught up and we still have a looming cloud over our head of the possibility that the bank may take back our car. We are believing together that we will get out of this okay and doing our best with what we have right now. I am still looking for a part time work from home job but mostly I have been unpacking, cleaning the house and everything I was raised to do for our home. I can't handle Instacart shopping now as the baby weighs an enormous 3 pounds already and my muscles don't allow for a lot of walking and brisk movement so I am staying home trying to keep the wild little three year old out of trouble while still putting things together here. It has NOT been easy!
I am due August 30th but the OB says I may be induced earlier than that due to the baby's fast growing size. I'm getting more excited but definitely still have items needed! OH! And my mom did a wonderful gender reveal the weekend after Mother's Day this year with tannerite and colored smoke. IT'S A BOY! I was hoping for a girl but I'm still happy for another boy to be added to the nest. Also I'm a little relieved I can have the two little ones share a room.
And now, dear reader, the time has come for me to begin the nightly routine of preparing supper so I must close this long update. I do hope you enjoyed it and it didn't bore you too much.
Until Next Time,
