Just thinking about stuff

Here it is, Saturday night, and Emilie has hiccups. She usually gets them in the evening and it's funny to feel her little twitches. It's crazy to think that it's just a matter of hours until I'll be holding her in my arms, bewitched by her beauty and amazed that she will be mine. In less than 24 hours I'll be checking into the hospital (unless somehow I go into labor on my own), and then the process will start which will culminate in what I know will be another life-altering experience for my little family. After she is born, none of our lives will ever be the same again, and we'll wonder how on earth we ever got by without her. I can't wait! I don't fear the pains of labor, because I know they'll be temporary, and I'll be able to have an epidural, so that will help a lot too. I am just in awe to think that the time has finally come! Since we've gone the full 9 months, this pregnancy has really seemed to last a long time, although the weeks and months have gone by quite quickly, which I'm thankful for. According to some of the ultrasounds that we've had in the past, they could already see hair on Emilie's head (a very Hatch trait), and her hair will likely be pretty dark. Thanks to her parents, she will have blue eyes, and it looked like she'll have Jarom's toes, but I can't wait to see what it looks like all put together! Isaac has SOOO much of Jarom in him, and I hope that Emilie has a little bit more of me in her. :)

Amidst all the hubbub of getting things ready to have a baby, things are coming along with both the sale of our house and getting the building process going with the new house. We had the house inspection today. Jarom stayed home to watch that and add any perspective he had on any potential problems, and I took Isaac out to get a few last minute shopping things done. The inspection seemed to go really well with only a few little things that Jarom will need to finish before closing, but luckily the inspector wasn't one of those ultra nit-picky kinds of guys who looks for any little thing wrong. The buyer's husband was there too and Jarom was able to meet him, which is good since he will be our landlord for three months. He and his wife are leaving on vacation next week and will be gone until a few days before closing, so one would assume that they aren't too worried about the inspection or appraisal at this point and likely won't be looking for excuses to pull out at the last minute (or at least we hope that's the case). They seem to really look forward to owning the home and plan on keeping it for many, many years for an investment. I hope that it is as good to them as it has been to us. As much as I look forward to having a new house, I'm really going to miss this house. It was our first house and we've had many wonderful memories here, made such good friends, and truly felt at home for the first time in our marriage.

With things moving along with the sale, we finally made it in to the design center yesterday to start making decisions with the new house. I was hoping we'd be able to get in earlier in the week, but I guess they only have one designer now (since the new housing market has slowed down so much), and she just never got around to calling us. Finally, yesterday, they called and said that there was someone there who could help us at least pick out the structural upgrades so that they could submit the plans to the city and start getting the paper work done. Jarom was able to take off from work a little early and we went down there (which is right here in Draper, very nice!) and started taking a look at some of the options available to us. We've had the price list for a while, but it was neat to see what some of the things actually look like. They've made a few changes to the floorplan since it was initially introduced. The spec home they are building down the street from our lot has been their guinea pig and it was while they were working on that one that they decided to make some changes, which I think will be very nice, like adding a linen closet upstairs and increasing the size of the laundry room. The kids' bedroom closets are now a little bit smaller, but still plenty big, especially for a child's bedroom. They've also changed the layout for the basement too by adding a mechanical room, changing the orientation for the family room, and changing the number of bedrooms downstairs from two to one, but that will still give us 5 bedrooms which is plenty. I think the layout changes are smart and will make the basement more usable when we get around to finishing it.

I'm glad they were able to squeeze us in yesterday, because otherwise, it would be a week or longer before we'd be able to go back (with us having the baby and all). I didn't want to wait too long because we need to get going on the whole process so our house will be done before the end of August when we will need to be out of this house. We'll go back in the next few weeks and start picking out colors and more of the cosmetic things for the interior, but those kinds of decisions can wait for a little while. I'm excited about some of the features of our new house and I think it's going to be a very nice place for us to raise our family.

Well that's enough pondering for one night. It's time to get ready for bed. I'm staying home from church tomorrow so I can rest and get a few more things done, then we'll head to Jarom's parents' house for dinner, drop off Isaac for a little slumber party with grandma and grandpa, and start our little adventure at the hopsital. The next blog entry will have lots of pictures and me gushing over my beautiful little baby girl, and I can't wait!