Weekend Fun and Motherly Worries

This weekend was a lot of fun! On Friday, Travis and I had a date night. We stayed close to home, but first went to Babies R Us to see if they had any changing tables that we liked. We haven't really fallen in love with any of the changing tables out there, but we are still looking. Any advice, comments on what you love about your changing table, or suggestions on things not to get...would be awesome! After a little shopping, we went and bought Tiger Woods 2008 Pro Golf game for the Wii. Travis was sooo excited about getting this game. Plus, he wanted to make Winkle Danny jealous. :) After that, we went to Rico's...the best Mexican restaurant I have been to in a loooong time. We had dinner and then went home to play some golf. Not to brag...but I beat my husband!! I'm a pregnant lady, whose tummy is protuding a lot more than usual and I out drove my husband on every hole! I was so proud. But, he did beat me a few times!

Saturday we slept in (YAY) and then started our morning with a little golf. Okay okay...I'm addicted! I love the game!! :) Anyway, after a game of golf, we got to work. Travis did the yard work (mowed, trimmed, mulched, picked up our doggies' waste, etc) and then worked some on his lumber rack for the garage (I love my man in a toolbelt)! While he was outside doing all of his work, I was inside doing mine. I cleaned out my closet and got the bathroom and bedroom organized. Then we headed to Home Depot. We want to tile and paint the master bathroom floor so we went to pick out the tile and the paint for the walls. We picked out the tile and had to get the guys who worked there to bring down another pallet of tile. While we were waiting, Travis spotted a very cool design that he wants to do with the tiles. So, naturally, we spent more money! :) I love Home Depot...but our bank account does not. Anyway, the design is really hard to describe without pictures, so I will just take a picture when it is all done and post it. It is going to look really really cool!

Sunday, we went to church and had a great class and worship service. Afterwards, we had our class and Travis' parents over for a bbq. It was a blast! Our preacher, Bob, is also our class teacher and he was able to join us with his wife Teri. They are soo much fun! We had hamburgers and hotdogs and lots of other goodies on the side. After we ate, some of the boys played....you guessed it...golf! Bob (the preacher) got into too! He was so fun to watch and seemed to have a really good time. Here are a few pics...

This morning, when we let the dogs out of their kennels to go potty and eat, we noticed that Cooper's left eye was swollen. When I first noticed it, he wasn't opening it at all. Within about 10 minutes he could open it, but we could tell it wasn't comfortable. So, I took him in to the vet. There were no visible scratches on his eye and nothing stuck under either of his eye lids. So, the doc just gave us some drops for him and we are supposed to go back on Monday, April 7th to get him checked out again. Now, here is the funny part...Cooper was scheduled to get fixed tomorrow. Because the doctor wants to see him again in a week, he suggested that we just postpone the surgery and check the eye at the same time. Travis and I think that Cooper knew and wanted to stop us from getting him fixed! haha What a smart dog! This is the second time we have had to reschedule his surgery. I will get him fixed...eventually!

Interest Only Mortgage Payments - Helpful or Harmful?!

I read an article today about interest only mortgage payments. The title of the article was "Interest-only mortgages can help young professionals." What?!
When I think of young professionals, I think of people just out of college or people who have just started to establish themselves in an industry. Usually, these types of people already have a lot of debt from student loans, credit cards, cars, etc. Now, we are all taught that making the minimum payments on anything is a bad thing! You aren't paying off anything, just maintaining a level of debt with a really good payment record. If you are only adding more purchases and additional loans, that doesn't help you at all! As a Christian, I believe that we are to be good stewards of God's gift (money). We aren't supposed to owe anything and if we do, pay it back as soon as possible. Travis and I are in the process of paying all of our debt off and we plan to be debt-free by the end of 2009. What a great feeling! But how would that be possible if we only pay the minimum payments.
On the other hand, the article mentioned that this allowed for the individual to control how much of the actual loan amount to pay off every month. This could be positive, in that it allows the person to pay off as much of the principle as they want, with one payment. There isn't anyone taking another percentage of the interest from the additional payment. However, in the article is says that it "does not mean that they will be beating the interest rates but they will feel a "little more in control" as they know they can "do it whenever they want". " Again...what?! I would love to have faith that everyone out there is better at saving than me! But, how realistic is that? Unless the person is set up to receive a huge bonus at the end of the year that they planned on putting completely toward the mortgage, I don't see how this would be helpful.
Being an owner of two houses right now, this just doesn't seem like an option I would go for.
There are so many great mortgage options out there that help first time buyers and financially strapped individuals to achieve ownership of a home without putting their credit scores in danger.
Mortgages

Nesting and House Projects

Alright, it is official (I think it is a little early, but) I am in my nesting stage! It is crazy! All of a sudden I want all the house projects taken care of and furniture bought for each room. My wonderful husband has taken this swift kick to the buttocks very well (he is the one in charge of most of the labor these days). He has gotten so excited about each project and I'm soo glad!

On Tuesday evening we went to the Room Store to "scope out" some furniture we might be interested in. Yup...we walked out of there buying a bedroom set and an over-stuffed chair (for those middle-of-the-night feedings) and ottoman. They were delivered today!

Tonight we went to Home Depot (Travis' 2nd home) to look at and get some ideas on tile and paint for the master bathroom. That is right...we came home with enough tile to do a really cool pattern on the floor and some really neat paint! Travis is going to be really busy when I go spend a week in Arlington! He is so excited about getting started on the bathroom. I am very thankful to have a husband who has a passion for house projects and doesn't complain about "one more thing to do". He is soooo good to me!

After the master bathroom we want to redo the kitchen. I think that is going to have to wait for awhile. We have spent our home improvement budget for the next few months! We definitely want the kitchen painted by the time Jayden comes, but the counter tops, sink and appliances will have to wait until after the new addition. Oh yea, and...living room furniture.

We have the paint for the office, so we will probably get that done before she comes, but that is as far as I can hope to get with the home projects before Jayden graces us with her presence.

We will be sure and keep you updated on the progress as we make some! :) For now, we are content to be spending our first night with our new bedroom furniture! Yay!

1st Anniversary!

I have a lot to write about on here, but I will use the next few calm days to catch up on the news.

As most of you know, Travis and I just celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary! Our anniversary was on St. Patrick's Day! Travis had to work, but we made plans to have a special dinner together. When he came home from work, he rang the front door bell and surprised me with flowers and chocolates! Okay...the flowers are a BIG deal! Travis does not do flowers. He got me a single rose for my 16th birthday, then 9 years later, he got me a bouquet of flowers for my 25th birthday and now (2 years later) he got flowers for our 1st anniversary. Needless to say that when I get flowers from my hubby...it makes me really really happy!! :)

Anyway, dinner got put on hold because Travis wasn't feeling very well when he came home. We spent the night together just enjoying each other's company. It was actually a great way to just remember how much we mean to each other and just exactly why we decided to spend forever together.

So much has happened this year. We got married, remodeled a home, moved to Kingwood, started new jobs and got pregnant! We are so excited to see what year #2 has in store!

Back On Track!

The nursery is done (okay, not the furniture, but the walls)! WooHoo!! I love it! I am so excited about bringing Jayden home to her room. We added a little flare to the room. Two walls are brown and two are pink. Our theme is Winnie the Pooh, but we are including all the characters. The only one we don't have in there right now is Eeyore, but that is only because the Hufalump has apparently taken over his spot. We are working on getting him involved! :) Here are some pictures of the nursery (I am not including all the little pictures, but I will include a link to them on here soon):

http://picasaweb.google.com/janakay.mcham/JaydenSNursery (to see all the other little walls pictures)

Two Steps Forward...

Okay, so this is the first post that I am putting up here... since I am horrible about keeping up with my own blog, and most of you have given up on it (or didn't know it existed in the first place) I have decided to put up periodic posts on here.

Well, this one seemed like a very appropriate one to begin with.

So you know the saying that a picture says a thousand words... well let's see what this sequence of pictures has to say.

So yes, the pink and blue room is now a pink and brown room! All within 48 hours. So now the thousand words...

This all started when we decided to go to Baby's R Us and register for the new arrival. We roamed the store with one of those really cool scanner guns that allowed me to entertain myself by shooting every bar code in sight... well at least those that my wife approved. That was enough to keep me busy for tha majority of the three hours we spent roaming around that place.

So after bottles, nipples, blankies, bath toys, pumps, pampers and all that jazz we finally make it to the fun stuff... strollers! I'm a big fan of this stuff cause it's functional, in fact they even have strollers made by Jeep!

Well as we were picking out all our stuff we had picked out plenty of Winnie the Pooh, and pink things for my little girl... but when we got to the strollers I was surprised when Jana had fallen in love with a stroller that was pink and brown! For someone who is not a big fan of pink, she sure loved this stroller. We also found the same pattern for the bouncy chair. So we have now managed a vertiable schmorgasboard (sp?) of colors for this poor child of ours.

It was when we passed the bedding in the back of the store and Jana once again fell in love with a pattern of... you guessed it, pink and brown. It was here that I said to her "You know I love it too but I don't think it will go with the pink and blue in the room... maybe we should rethink our paint job..."

The look on her face said it all, and off we went to Home Depot.

The new coat went on really fast, and we've yet to see if it needs another coat, but I think we are both really pleased with the decsion... Jana's office will get the left over blue so it's not going to waste, but for those who are interested our nursery colors are officially and PERMANENTLY pink and brown.

It just goes to show you... Jayden hasn't even left the womb, and already has her daddy wrapped around her finger. I am in trouble!

Making Progress!

Ali and Travis rocked last night! As soon as Travis got home they got to work on the nursery. Every wall is painted and the pink walls are the only ones that need a second coat. The nursery should be finished tonight! I actually really like the way it all looks together. The pink, I will have to get used to, but it doesn't look bad!! Yay! I love the way the room looks and feels now.

So, they had a little fun while they worked! :)

I think we have decided to use the green paint (that we had originally planned to use in the nursery) in the office. Now I'm on a home improvement kick!! Yay!

Nursery Decisions!

So...God was up in Heaven thinking, "Travis and Jana Kay have been married for a year now and still have not had a major disagreement. Let's stir things up. I know...let's give them a girl!"

I am sooo excited about having a little girl!! The more I think about it the more excited I get about dressing her up and playing with her. So, the other day Travis and I went to Home Depot to pick out the colors for the nursery. I'm not into the girlie colors like pink and purple. Travis, however, likes them! So, after I had a complete break down in the middle of Home Deopt, we came to a compromise. We picked a couple of colors that we both liked for the nursery, and neither one of them were pink. I was happy. Then, the more we thought about it, Travis kept going back to the pink. So...I revisited the idea of pink in the nursery. Okay okay...I finally opened my stubborn head and considered pink for the first time! Another compromise was found. We are doing two walls in blue and two walls in pink. I think it is going to look awesome! We begin painting tonight so I will post pictures in a couple of days.

We have a guest for a whole week! My friend Ali is here for her spring break and we are gong to have fun! She is going to help Travis paint the nursery since I can't be around the paint. She is so awesome! She helped us install the bamboo floors in our house in Austin too. Wow...we just put her to work! :) I'll be sure and post plenty of pictures of them in action.

We had a good weekend at the Zoo and I will post pictures of that later. For now...I'm going to play!

House Pictures

Yay for clean houses! :) My wonderful husband has allowed me to get someone to clean the house twice a month. I'm going to be completely honest! I hate to clean. One of the reasons that my wonderful husband has allowed this is because I work from home. He is so sweet. But, I have a confession...

I was totally against getting someone else to clean my house when we first got married! I was going to be the perfect house-wife. I was going to take care of the house and clean all the time. I finally gave in to the fact that I just don't like cleaning enough to stay that disciplined. So, today...I have a clean house! Thank you hubby!!!
So, now that I have a clean house...here are the pictures of upstairs that I have been promising my sister and many others. All the walls are beige, and we will be painting the nursery soon! So, I will definitely have more pictures in the next couple of months. As you walk up the stairs, this is the view. On the left you have the tiny hall way to the two guest rooms, directly in front of you is the office, the bathroom to the right of that and then the master bedroom.

Baby Clothes!

My cousin Mary Ann sent Jayden a gift! It is sooo cute! Travis spent about 5 minutes just staring at it and playing with the snaps!












I am so excited to get my little one all dressed up! :) We are just over 21 weeks!

Weekend in Galveston!

This weekend was great! Friday night, Travis and I headed to Galveston (Bermuda Beach) to hang out with some of his friends at a beach house. I, of course, forgot the camera so I don't have any pictures of us hanging out. :( Sorry!

The dogs had a blast! We got up in the morning and took a walk down the beach after breakfast. We walked quite a ways and by the time we turned around to go back to the house Cooper was so tired! He tried so hard to keep up with the other dogs, but the poor thing just couldn't keep up the pace. He was so cute! After we got back we went upstairs and got our sun screen (yes, we forgot to put it on first thing...and yes I'm burnt!) and Cooper crashed! He slept most of the day (until about 3:00pm) and I mean...pretty much dead to the world! He wouldn't move for anyone and if someone sat next to him, he would just roll over as if he expected them to rub his belly while he slept! Then, at about 3:00 pm he popped his little head up and was full of energy again! It was amazing! Nikki, however, never stopped!

We stayed at the beach until after dinner Saturday night and then headed home. We haven't been to our church in about 4 weeks, so we were really looking forward to seeing everyone and worshiping with our church family. When we got home Saturday night Travis gave my anniversary present to me. I know it is way early, but because of logistics and stuff, he wanted to go ahead and give it to me. He bought me a FISHING POLE (and himself one)!!!!! I LOVE MY HUSBAND!!!! Okay, I know that I am probably one of the few women who would accept this as an appropriate gift, but you know what....it means that he knows me! It means that he wants to share in my favorite activities even though he has never officially been fishing before in his life! (He had a couple of experiences that don't really qualify...dropping a line on a bamboo stick and just waiting for a fish to set itself doesn't count...sorry...) And, he did stick with the 1st year paper present by getting our fishing licenses too. So, here they are:

When we got to church on Sunday, we were surprised to see our cousin Jill was there! She had little Nicholas with her and Uncle Danny passed him off to Travis! What was he thinking?! Although, I can't really complain...watching Travis play with babies and to see his love for them is really encouraging and just precious. After church we went to lunch with Aunt Norma and Jill. It was good to visit with them! Then I found out that my other cousins, Mary Ann and Dana are coming down with Grandma Mary for Spring Break! I'm so excited! I am probably going to take a couple of days off so that I can spend some time with them. It is such a treat to be able to see this side of the family as much as I have lately. We usually see each other once a year, if that much!

So, when Travis and I got home from lunch we went to Home Depot to pick up some lumber for Travis to do some work in the garage. As he was working in the garage (my manly man):

I was elevating my feet and relaxing...because of the new and wonderful (can you sense my sarcasm) developement in my feet...swelling!! Yes...major swelling of the feet is not comfortable. So instead of laying down inside and being a bum, I made a nice little set up in the back of Travis' truck and encouraged my husband while being a bum. Here I am:

I had to have my coffee because it wasn't the warmest of days, but not cold enough for a blanket. It was fun! :)

When Travis was done for the day, we went for dinner. We found this great mexican restaurant called Rico's. It was sooo good! Everything we had was delicious and they had such fast service! We are definitely going back.

Finally, we got our first gift for Jayden. Everyone knows that I am a Superman fanatic. But, not everyone knows that I am also a Jack "The Pumpkin King" (from The Nightmare Before Christmas) fanatic. Travis has started to spread this fact around, so one of the women he works with brought us this (her daughter had it before and she wanted to pass it on to fellow fans):

I think it is adorable!! :) I know, I'm wierd!

Countdown To Baby