weekend visit with Auntie Amanda and Matt

This weekend was pretty laid back, but had a good visit with my sister, her fiance, and their dog, Petunia. They live in Greenwood, IN so only about an hour or so. It is so nice to have family that close. If only we lived closer to everyone so the visits with Natalie would be much more frequent. However, it is also nice to have the ability to Skype with my parents nightly since they are 4 hours away.

I know it is hard for them not to be able to physically see and hold their first grandchild, and it's also hard for me to be so far away from them now as well. Granted, I've always been close to my family, but now that I have a daughter, it's much harder to be away from them. I think I will always remember the day that my whole family left after Natalie was born. I just broke down and could not stop crying! Natalie was born on a Thursday and everyone left that Sunday. My parents had left around noon that day, but my sister and her fiance stayed a little bit longer. Bobby's parents had come over to our house later in the afternoon after they had checked out of their hotel and my sister and the neighbors were all over at the same time. When my sister had decided it was time for them to leave as well, I just lost it. I had gone into the bathroom and just cried. I could not come out of the bathroom because I was such a mess and when Bobby had come in to make sure I was okay, I just asked for my sister to come in and I just remember hugging her for awhile. Of course I made her cry too! I'm sure the hormones had taken over some too, but I just knew my family were all going to be so far away and it would be a while until I saw them all again. Luckily, I have seen them (maybe not all at the same time) but every couple of weeks since Natalie was born, which has been so nice!

Bobby and I have been talking more often lately about moving because our house is getting smaller with the new addition and all her "stuff!" Plus, when we have people stay at our house we have nowhere for them to stay since the "guest room" is now the "nursery." Our house has very little storage, which is very annoying because I feel like our house is just so cluttered with "stuff." Thinking of when Natalie gets older, I would love to have a "play room" where all her toys can stay. I have always looked online at houses and have emailed them to Bobby, but it hasn't been until recently that Bobby has really showed some interest in even possibly going to look at some houses.

It is such a hard decision though because I don't know that I really want to stay in Terre Haute another 5-10 years. Initially when I moved to Terre Haute, I bought my house with the intention of only staying 5 years and next spring will already be 5 years that I have been here! Thinking of staying here another 5-10 years does not seem like a horrible idea due to the fact that we both have good jobs here and have made good friends, but at the same time, Natalie will grow up without her grandparents or other family nearby! I know as she gets older and involved with school activities, my parents will definitely want to be there to go to her games or other activities and I want them to be able to do that too, but it won't happen often if we are 4 hours away from them. Bobby and I have always said that we don't really see ourselves back in the South Bend area, but at the same token, now that we have a family, I have kind of changed my mind on that. I wouldn't mind living in the South Bend area if we both (mainly Bobby) could find a great job like he has in Terre Haute. Since I lived in Indy for 5 years before coming to Terre Haute, I would love to live there again, but again only if we (mostly Bobby) could find a great job there. Indy would still be 2.5 hours from our family, but at least Indy is "on the way" to things rather than Terre Haute that you only go through if you are on your way to St. Louis or possibly going to Evansville from South Bend/Indy. I just don't know which way to lean toward...it's a very scary decision for me because of the unknown and picking up and leaving now that I'm an adult and have more responsibilities is harder than I thought. Bobby has been saying he wants 5 years of experience in networking and right now we are only in year 1, so I don't know. I feel a strong urge to move, just don't know where! I know some people say to pray about it and God will tell you which direction to go, but I have a hard time with the "hearing God speak to me" part. I have always strongly felt that things always happen for a reason, so maybe some things will happen that will just fall into place, we will see.

If we do decide to stay in Terre Haute and buy a house here (I guess even if we don't and move to Indy/South Bend) we have lots of decisions about selling our house and looking for another: Do we sell our house first? What if our house sells but we haven't found another yet? What if we find the house we love and want to move into, but our house is still not sold? If we are going to sell our house soon, should we replace the flooring (carpet needs replaced by us or whoever buys it) and if we replace the flooring should we do laminate/wood like we want or just do cheap carpet so it just looks nice? Should we replace the 3 windows that need replaced (we replaced most of the windows in our house about 2-3 years ago)? How much money should we really pour into a place that we only want to live in for only a year or less?  Then adding moving out of the area into the mix, it just makes my head spin in a million different directions. Being an adult is hard sometimes(or most times)!

Back to this weekend. Friday night, Amanda and Matt came down, so this was Petunia's (their dog) first time to meet baby Natalie (or any baby for that matter). She did really well, probably better than I expected. She was very loving and curious with Natalie. She definitely had an obsession with wanting to lick Natalie's hands or her ear. Petunia also has an obsession with our cat, Annabelle. I don't think Annabelle made it past our bedroom (back of our house) until Sunday, but Annabelle definitely holds her own against Petunia, who is a miniature Sharpei (but there isn't much miniature to her!)  That night, Amanda and Matt (who had to sleep in the living room) only got about 1-2 hours of sleep at a time due to Petunia constantly wanting to check out our room (door was closed) since the cat and our dog, Rusty were in there. Plus, anytime I got up with Natalie (about every 3 hours) Petunia wanted to check everything out. I think they got a little more sleep Saturday after the newness of Petunia being in a different place wore off.

Petunia, "the protector"

On Saturday, we didn't do a whole lot during the day. We all went to lunch at Penn Station and then split off into 2 cars. Amanda and I went to Stein Mart to look for summer dresses/clothes for Amanda and Matt's honeymooon (Caribbean cruise). Matt stayed home with Petunia and Bobby took Natalie to Lowe's with him to get a part for our bathroom sink and a mower blade. Bobby said he really enjoyed taking Natalie to the store with just him because he got to spend some daddy/daughter time that he doesn't get often since he's been working so much lately. That night, we left Natalie with Amanda and Matt (I teased Amanda that it was her test to see if she could watch Natalie this summer) so Bobby and I could go out to eat to meet Adam and Todd's (the 2 guys he works LOTS of hours with) wives. Natalie was still alive when we got back, so I guess Amanda passed the test...haha (just teasing Amanda)! :) So, Amanda will be babysitting Amanda end of May to beginning of August Tuesdays through Thursdays while I work some. It will be so nice not to have to put Natalie in daycare right away, she'll be in good hands with Amanda!

I had met Adam and Todd before, plus I hear them quite often on Skype when Bobby has to work late/weekend hours from home. It was nice to finally meet their wives, although the guys reverted back to "work" talk most of the conversation at Moggers. I follow Adam's wife's (Miranda) blog, so it was nice to finally meet her as well. After dinner, Bobby invited Adam and Miranda back to our house to play games since they were from out of town and were staying in a hotel. And, let's face it, there isn't much to do in Terre Haute, especially after 9p when the mall is closed and you don't want to go to a bar. I had not really cleaned our house so we did a quick pick-up around the house (thanks Amanda!) to make our home somewhat presentable to new guests! We had a good time just talking and watching TLC, then played the game, "Things" which was fun (Eric and Rebekah, our neighbors joined us too). That game is always entertaining and great for people that don't know each other to help break the ice some.

Sunday I had good intentions of going to church for the first time since Natalie was born (last weekend I watched the live stream of service online), but since Natalie kept me up every 2 hours, I was completely exhausted for the 10am service. Then, I intended to go to the 6pm service, but Natalie and I had fallen asleep from 4:30 to 6p, so that didn't happen either. Let's hope we can get back into the routine of things around here and hopefully make it next weekend!

Tonight we went to small group for the first time since Natalie was born and she did well until the very end when she needed her diaper changed and was hungry. I changed her and tried to give her a room temperature bottle, but if you'd read a previous post on here you know she definitely prefers a warm bottle! So, she fussed until we just decided to leave since it was just the social time of small group, but she was fine once Bobby put her in the carseat and she fell asleep until we got home.

Tomorrow will definitely be an adventure for me because I am going to attempt Zumba for the first time since I found out I was pregnant with Natalie back in May 2010! I can't wait, but at the same time I know I'm going to be so lost with the dance routine and sore the following day or days:)