One more Smith in the world...

Our little cousin Alexander was born this morning around 6, I think. He's teeny weeny, but we went to visit him (and his parents, of course) tonight and he looks really healthy! Just miniature. He's super cute!

So far.

Sorry I don't post much anymore. I know not that many people read this (Hi, Pappaw!) and those that do follow my blogs tend to gravitate toward the cooking one (speaking of which...here it is.)

I have been thinking about posting for a while, to say something along the lines of "there is literally nothing happening in our lives, so I have nothing to say." But I guess that's not entirely true. There's just nothing interesting going on. My friends who blog all write about their kids, or decorating their new homes, or wedding planning. Well, I'm past the wedding planning, and the other two are so far off on the horizon it doesn't often feel worth mentioning. But maybe I'll have a little to say today.

Brandon is still working the same job, but I am working to encourage him to actively look for other work- you know, he hast that actuarial science degree he's not using, and he says he really doesn't feel up to studying for the exams working where he does now. He is convinced that if he had a 9-5 desk job, he'd suddenly have all this energy and drive and I don't know what else. So that's what we're working on. It's hard to encourage without nagging, though. I don't want to sound annoying or ungrateful to him for all the hard work he does already. I asked him what I could do to make life easier for him, I guess, so that he would be more inclined to actually look for that 9-5 desk job he thinks he needs. His answer was basically that I "do my chores." I interpret that as trying to keep our home looking better and running more smoothly. It's not a wreck now- the fact that our pets are in cages reduces a lot of whatever housecleaning we needed to do on a daily basis at my parents'. But still, when I get home from work, I leave my shoes in the living room. There's usually clutter on the dining room table (since we never use it for dining.) And there are always dishes in the sink. Since I only work part time, I really should try harder, and that is my plan. Maybe if Brandon comes home to a sparkling apartment at the end of the day, he will think "wow, suddenly I feel like getting on the computer and looking for a job, instead of playing chess." We will have to wait and see.

As for the house business, our plan (made at the beginning of the summer) was to start looking for houses in September. That is probably not going to happen, though. We wanted to try to finish paying off last year's medical bills (isn't that a sad statement?) get together a small downpayment and take advantage of the insanely low prices of housing right now. Since there's still several hundred to go on the final bill, it doesn't look like that's going to happen. But we'll get there. It's hard being patient. A few days ago I went on ReMax's website and poked around on there. I found a really nice house off of Beulah Church, with all my requirements- yard, finished basement, more than one bathroom. It really looks great. And if we even had a small downpayment to put on it, according to the little calculator on the site, our mortgage payments would be almost $200 less than what we're paying in rent right now. Seeing info like that is really encouraging, but we're not quite ready yet. With Brandon's promotion and raise, we are able to pay our bills each month without panic and fear, but we really don't have much extra money at the end of each week, so we'd be in a lot of trouble if we found ourselves with a new bill to pay or a repair that costs more than $40, for instance. Maybe around Christmastime we will be ready to look. Or the first of the year. If we aren't in a house by next summer, though, I might just go bananas. Obviously "patience" needs to be at the top of my prayer request list.

And finally, speaking of prayer requests, I have one for anyone who might be reading this. Today we were supposed to have a baby shower for my "cousin-in-law" (that would be Brandon's cousin's wife.) Her baby boy is due October 5. I got a text message about an hour ago saying that the shower had been canceled and that Siena was in the hospital. She is apparently having some complications and will probably have the baby early- but they are giving her steroids so that his lungs will hopefully be stronger when he does make his grand entrance. If you could pray for the baby and his parents, everyone would really appreciate it. We want him to be as healthy as possible when he is born (and hopefully the doctors will be able to hold that off as long as possible, without him getting an infection.)

So I guess that's it for now. It will probably be a long time before I post again. I'll try to come back and write if I have anything to say, though.