When we arrived at the house she was waiting for us in the driveway. Needless to say she wasn’t in the best of moods. We came ready with another copy of the mutual release form for her to sign and we also video taped the entire thing… Here, wanna see?

She basically blitzed the walk though and didn’t seem to care much about the condition of the house, not that it was left in poor condition anyway. We always deep clean all the places we vacate.

She did sign our mutual release form which outlines the early termination of the lease, the agreement that all financial obligations have been met and that we are both legally released from the prior contract. Yay!

Her husbands signature isn’t on the forms as he wasn’t present… His is the only signature on the lease so that could be a potential issue but we are just pleased to have some sort of documentation that proves we didn’t make up the whole being let out of the lease thing.

Basically we are super happy to have this chapter of our lives now closed!

Lets, see… Over the weekend N worked on hooking up this free electric dryer we got off Freecycle. I guess we needed to get the vent hose for it and he had to change out the plug for it since it didn’t fit our outlet or something. We are resourceful and try to make due with what we are able to get… The free dryer was a good score and we got a working washer for $40 at a yard sale so we are making strides in the right direction I think.

Apparently the newer plug he put on the dryer still doesn’t fit our outlet so I am hanging clothes out to dry (which is fine by me) but he is still working on getting the proper plug installed on the dryer.

For his belated birthday/ mothers day we went to a local farm and bought some garden goodies. Things like potted herbs, tomatoes, zucchini, egg plant, collard greens and other stuff we’ll grow and eat. We only spent $20.00! He is working on getting a vegetable garden going now, he made some good progress on it this morning too.

We are hoping to grow as much as we can ourselves to cut down on the grocery costs and save more money. Oh, and we stopped by the Hostess/ Wonder Bread outlet store over the weekend and got 7 loaves of bread and 2 packs of buns for $8.00. Those are in the freezer now and will also help to cut the grocery bill and save money.

On the baby front: In 33 short days I’ll be staying at The Farm, preparing for Tater’s birth. Time is still flying and there are only 45 days until my due date (but we are open to Tater coming either before or after said due date if she feels ready). Things are still going great with the pregnancy and I am feeling good. Totally beginning to slow down energy wise and am having trouble breathing thanks to the cramping of my lungs but it is all good!

We are getting more and more excited and still have so much to do before she comes! We have been showered with many helpful things thanks to many of you and this has left us feeling so much more calm and prepared for Taters arrival. We’ve just about got everything we’ll need for her first week of life now and are focusing our attentions on gathering the medical supplies for the birth kit, then we’ve got to get busy gathering stuff like the cloth diapers and clothes she’ll need in the weeks following her birth.

Slowly but surely we are pulling it all together and before we know it we’ll be parents and it will all just fall right in to place. Exciting! Hopefully everyone had a good mothers day. I am off to read all your blogs now and find out how your weekends went!

The post The Renters and the Slumlords: The drama comes to a close (and other updates). appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

I got my dreaded Glucola drink for the next appointment in two weeks. They are doing my blood glucose test and will also be running my blood work to check for any antibodies that may have been developed during pregnancy. I hate having blood drawn, remember how I passed out at our first prenatal appointment? I hope there is no repeat of that incident at the next appointment!

I am now on 2 week visits as opposed to once a month visits which means the fun with our useless OBGYN is about to get even better! She’ll be out of the area for the next appointment though, thankfully I’ll get to deal with another doc instead. But she’ll be back for the following visit…

The frequency of theses visits it just a bit overkill for me. I mean seeing her once a month is already pointless and now we will get to see her every two weeks for a while… We are firing her right before my once a week visits begin since we’ll be down in Tennessee with The Farm midwives watching over me at that point (only 13 weeks to go till we are at The Farm waiting for Tater to come!).

N and I are revisiting whether or not we’ll consent to the RhoGam shot. They usually administer it at 28 weeks but since my blood/ glucose test hasn’t been run yet I’ll be due for the shot at 29 weeks if we opt for it. We are going back and fourth weighing the issues, it is quite a hard decision and finding the complete information on the pros and cons has been difficult.

When we asked our useless OBGYN to explain the reasoning behind giving the shot during pregnancy as opposed to just having it after delivery her response was “we give it to everyone that is rh negative as a precaution”… That was the end of the discussion. Helpful huh?

I am leaning towards not having it while pregnant, all the information I’ve found makes it seem like it is an unnecessary intervention done “just in case” but it actually carries more risk than benefit in my eyes. When I deliver I’ll totally get the shot if Tater’s blood is Rh positive I am just not convinced of the safety and necessity of getting the shot while she is still inside me…

We met with the slumlord “slumstress” this morning to turn over a rent check and to take the next step in officially getting out of our lease. Nothing is officially signed yet as her signature is invalid since it’s not on the original lease. Her husband has to sign the release, then we will and it will be done. So we are still waiting to seal the deal on that one.

We’ve made good progress on packing and cleaning. I’ve done tons of budget figuring and basically we’ve spent our income tax return on buying this new house. We haven’t stretched ourselves too thin but we also wont have any extra money for things like Tater’s nursery furniture or our Nissan repair. We are still saving for our out of pocket costs to birth at The Farm. Once the birth is done and paid for we’ll just shift our saving focus to the other stuff.

Eventually we’ll save enough to pay for all the stuff we need, it is just going to take tons of time. It would be nice to have it all immediately, you know instant gratification and all but that is not the way life goes.

So don’t ask me about photos of Tater’s nursery okay? It wont be set up or complete until about 6 months after she arrives. She’ll be sleeping in our room at first anyway.

Well I think that is it for the latest news… I am tired/ fatigued and have been over the last few days. I think it is because Tater is having a growth spurt so I am off to nap some. Happy friday the 13th everyone, have a great weekend!

The post 25th week prenatal appointment updates and brain dump. appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

At the bank we got the really old and really slow teller lady who was oozing of germs. We explained our situation to her and asked to have the 2 stop payments processed, then we were planning to have a cashier’s check cut in place on the 2 stop payments. Easy enough right?

Well for starters the old teller lady was hacking up a lung the entire time we were trying to tell her what we needed which didn’t help her hear or understand what we were wanting.

I was sitting right across from her trying to hold my breath while she coughed and sneezed her germs all over us.

We explained it all about 6 times before she got a grasp of what we needed so that meant more coughs and sneezes for us to enjoy!

N was getting pretty annoyed and on edge about it all too. The whole time she was handling our documents her nose was running and she was casually wiping it with her sleeve and breathing/ coughing on her pen (that she later passed to us for use).

Normally I am not a germ freak and I have a pretty strong immune system but I am freaking pregnant folks! And I refused the flu shot (which I do every year) and any other shots that expose myself and baby to unnecessary things. So I am not loving this germ ridden encounter with really old, slow and very sick teller lady!

N wanted to ask for someone else to assist us. He also wanted to tell them to send the poor sick woman home already, she needed to rest and recuperate… She probably would have been offended though but what are you supposed to do? When I was a retail worker I remember a few times where customers spoke up for me and I appreciated it… N bit his tongue though and let her keep helping/ germ assaulting us.

I only ever get sick once a year, max and I don’t take pills or get shots to prevent illness. I sometimes have allergies or headaches but full on flu or other sicknesses skip me somehow (knock on wood). Still, your immune system is weakened by pregnancy and being sick while pregnant can be a pretty uncomfortable thing since you aren’t allowed to take anything. I haven’t been sick yet and want to keep it that way!

Anyway, I got assaulted big time with germs at the bank yesterday, now I am chugging OJ! Thought I would share that with you.

Today we’ve been pouring over legal documents and I think my eyes are going to bleed. We are on round 3 of the lease/ purchase agreement for the new house. I just typed up 2 different mutual release documents to get out of our lease, one of which will be signed and executed Friday when we meet with and pay the slumlords.

We are also reading up on tax and home buyers intensives in addition to researching IRA funded home purchase rules, mortgage options and Indiana closing cost info. Fun stuff huh?

But hey, we got our house and we are so outta this shit hole! Now that bank teller better not have gotten me sick…

The post Um, hi! Can you spray your germs somewhere else, please? [*warning* graphic snot pic ;-)] appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.