Milestones...

Phew.. I've finally made it to this entry. Thought I wasn't going to be able to pen down what happened for the rest of 2008... haha.

We moved in to our new home at the end of August, after months of effort to get the place ready (and we didn't even do that much- i.e. no major renovation involved). We got the built-in wardrobes done, the lights installed, and the furniture delivered (after a lot of shopping around of course). We had some drama with regards to painting our ceiling; looking back now we can laugh about it, but it sure wasn't funny then. The installation of the lights involved some hacking, and the resulting paintwork over the patched areas was rather unsightly- no matter how many times we tried to fix it. And so we decided to paint the entire ceiling. On our own. Suffice to say, it was a BAD idea.. and in the end, we had to pay the professionals to do it anyway. Cheh.

September 20th was a big day for us- we found out that I was 7 weeks' pregnant! No wonder I was feeling like crap for weeks; I thought it was just the work stress getting to me. We were both stunned to see the little sac on the ultrasound, and we were just blown away by the miracle of life. Praise God for His wonderful gift!

I'm in my 32nd week now; and our little sweetheart is due to arrive in early May. We thank God that the pregnancy has been going relatively well. I didn't really have any morning sickness in the first trimester (save for nausea when I ate too much, but I guess that's normal :p). Of course, there are aches, pains, heartburn, breathlessness etc etc but overall it hasn't been too bad. At the moment the shooting pain up my nerve in the lower back has been causing me some grief; but I hope it's nothing too serious. Hmm..

There were times earlier on where I got worried when people commented that my baby bump was so small, and I didn't seem to be gaining much weight... but now it looks like I have to watch my weight! My gynae made me take a glucose test to check for pregnancy diabetes, since my recent weight gain was a bit too much- but fortunately things were ok and I'm fine. I blame the weight gain on all the goodies I consumed over the Christmas and Chinese New Year period! :p

It has been amazing seeing our baby grow over the past few months. We saw him (yes it's a boy!) bouncing about like a jumping shrimp earlier on, waving his hands, stretching his legs and rolling about as he got bigger. I remember one time we saw him open his mouth (a yawn maybe?) followed by some lip-smacking afterwards. Even my gynae was amused, heh.

I can't quite recall if I ever felt the 'quickening' feeling mentioned in the books.. but the kicks have been unmistakeable! He's quite the active little dear- kicking and moving about ever so often. One of the funniest things I'm experiencing now is his tendency to kick me on whichever side I'm sleeping. If I sleep on my right, he would kick me there to get my attention. Feeling bad that I was squashing him, I would turn to lie on my back for a while and try a bit later to sleep on the left instead. And guess what- he would then proceed to kick me on my left! Basically I think he's trying to protest that I am depriving him of his space- there's no pleasing this little guy! :p

8 weeks more to go; we're praying that everything will continue to go smoothly... would value your prayers too! :)

House tales...

We've made a bit more progress fitting up our new place. Hubby efficiently took the lead in the curtain-hunting (thanks to Madame AAL's recommendation); and we decided to seal the deal by paying a deposit last weekend. One more thing done- hurrah!

This weekend, we picked out all the lights for the house, received a quotation for those, and now we're just waiting for a proper quotation for the installation fees (there's some hacking to be done to re-align some lighting points), so I think the lights are pretty much sorted already. Yippee! :D

We're also slowly trying to clear up our current place a little bit, and start throwing things out, but our progress has been slow. We're so busy on weekends- church activities, doing stuff for the new place, and also planning for our England trip; so it's been a tad stressful.

Just the other day I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the serious need to clean our current place (it was REALLY messy, dirty and dusty), but I simply had no time nor energy (plus I had to rush off for music practice). When I got home from church, I was so grateful and pleased to find that hubby had vacuumed and mopped the floor! That simple gesture of love really helped to ease my anxiety (hubby knows I worry and stress out quite often)...

He's such a dear, isn't he?

First glimpse of our new home

Hurrah- we've finally gotten the keys to our new place!! We made an appointment to pick up the keys a few days ago; we both took half a day off work, since we didn't want to wait another 10 days for the next available weekend appointment. Heh.

This is the first property purchase for the both of us, so we didn't (and still don't) really know what to expect. Overall, we're quite pleased with the results; it's not perfect, but we've heard from others that the quality really is quite commendable. Hopefully, things turn out ok, and we're hoping and praying that the issues we've raised with regards to our unit can be satisfactorily addressed.

I really love the grounds; it's quite resort-like! And the pool is simply gorgeous :)

The Plasma TV is the noticeboard- cool eh? :)

We're really excited about our new home. Of course, there is SO MUCH to do, and we spent most of this weekend sorting a couple of things out. We did the first round of cleaning, had the built-in wardrobe people over to carry out the on-site measurement, made some progress in our hunt for lights, gave the curtains / blinds a bit more thought, etc. Phew.

Tiring and stressful though it may be, we really thank God for the privilege of being able to own a place of our own. Praise God- He has been exceedingly gracious to us indeed!

Shopping for furniture

The past few weeks have been CRAZY- both on weekdays (with what else, work of course :p) and on weekends (furniture shopping)!

We heard that the CF to our new place is ready; so we started to hunt around for furniture. Thanks to hubby, who drew such lovely floor plans- complete with cute drawings to indicate where the sofa set, dining table, etc could go; plus all the accompanying dimensions *grin*; we decided to take a risk and ended up buying a few items ahead of actually seeing the house! The discounts on offer seemed really good, so hopefully everything turns out ok.

So far, we've bought the following:
- Sofa set
- Coffee table
- TV cabinet
- End coffee table
- Dining table + 6 chairs

I have to say that shopping for furniture is incredibly tiring, not to mention, stressful on the bank account!! :(

We spent most of today shopping for a bed, so we've been flopping ourselves on one mattress after the next; trying to figure out which one to buy (they all turn into one big blur after a while :p). Think we've pretty much settled on Dunlopillo, although we haven't actually paid for it yet.

What next? There's still built-in wardrobes, lights, etc etc. Aaarggghh!!

I have to give credit to dear hubby for doing so much for our new home. He has been working tirelessly on almost every item- drawing up layout plans, figuring out the internal compartment designs for the built-in wardrobes, researching the different kinds of mattresses, washing machines, cooker hood + hob + oven sets, working on the administrative side of things (calling people, placing orders, etc). Even as I sit here blogging, hubby is surfing the web for a suitable flat screen TV, hehe...

I'm so blessed to be married to this man! :)

p/s: If any of you have any tips / contacts that you can share with us (especially for built-in wardrobes), do let us know- thanks so much!

House-hunting done at last!

Those of you who know us probably know that we have been searching for a home to make our own for the longest time now. The search began even before we got married, and it has been a really challenging, time-consuming, and often frustrating quest.

After more than a year of searching, we’ve finally decided on a place! We just want to thank God and give Him all the glory for guiding and leading us as we did our research, prayed and pondered on this major financial decision.

It’s not a 100% perfect purchase, nor the proverbial dream house, but we've got to remind ourselves to be realistic and start somewhere (we're no millionaires!). God has been exceedingly gracious to us- and we will continue to commit this to Him and to trust Him with this. More importantly, it’s about the home, and not the house, isn’t it?

The place will be ready sometime in the 2nd quarter of next year; the next big thing to do would be to go furniture hunting! :D

Gosh, we’ve never felt so grown-up (or so broke)!!