Ah, the days are getting longer and my mood is rising.  I am feeling better and have more energy to a certain degree.  The house is mostly back in order and I am back to being able to cook meals like I used to.  Now, I'm just waiting for spring thaw.  I keep randomly wanting to do things like go camping or roast marshmallows over our firepit in the back yard, but alas those things must wait until spring and summer.  When spring finally does arrive, we plan to paint Nathan's room and the guest room.  Originally we were going to go for the whole house minus the bathrooms, but at this point I am questioning whether I want to tackle the kitchen and living room.  That is a big job with lots of obstacles and complications, and I will be 7 months pregnant to top it off.  So, I'm thinking we will settle for Nathan's room and the guest room.  We aren't going to be living here for long, so I think having the bedrooms custom colors will be enough to satisfy my aggravation at having had white walls in the past 4 places I've lived and being able to do nothing about it.  Later on in the year we will have to get a separate bed or bunk bed for Nathan when the new little one takes over the crib.  I am hoping to find a bunk bed that comes apart and can be made into two single beds, like I had when I was growing up. 

We are building a toy box for Nathan so that he can actually put all of his toys away when he is done playing with them.  Right now, they are scattered all over his bedroom floor, and that very much bothers me.  Anyway, we are making it out of pine and it is coming along nicely.  We will probably stain it in the summer so that it is closer to the color of the rest of the furniture in his bedroom, but I am not sure.  I've toyed with the idea of painting it as well, but we shall have to see.  I am thinking about sketching some pictures to put up on Nathan's bedroom wall...perhaps Winnie-the-Pooh as we have been reading that to him and he seems to enjoy it.  Maybe nature scenes or sailboats.  I was never one for decorating the super cute baby room or whatever like some people do, but I would like to put something up because his walls are mostly bare and that seems boring to me.  I am also thinking of collecting some family photos to be framed and put along our hallway.  I have two up already of my mom and of my sister, my mom and myself when we were younger.  I was holding off because we were planning to paint the main area this year, but now that it looks unlikely that that will happen, I am going to go ahead and start decorating the walls.  The people who owned this house before us had nails up all over the place and we sort of just took them over for some of our photos rather than putting new ones in.  But, I don't like where they are situated so I am going to take some of them out and fill the holes and put new ones where we want them to be.

So far, I love owning our own home.  It is so nice to be able to make your own decisions regarding your property instead of having to think of what a landlord might say.  Of course it is also a lot more responsibility, which is scary in ways.  Mostly, it's nice to know that it is an investment part of which we hope to get back when we sell the property as opposed to just saying "bye bye" to rent money every month that is twice as expensive and you know you will never see again.  I will be sad to go back to renting after this, since we don't plan to buy at any of Mike's next duty stations until we settle down in one spot for good.  I hate renting!  It's odd to think of settling in one spot, though.  We are so used to moving around every couple years that it's almost a habit and you start to feel like "OK, it's time to move on to the next place" after a certain period of time.  It has its aspects of adventure and new experiences, I guess.  It can be stressful and annoying, but it's weird to me to think of trying to find a spot where we will be happy for the rest of our lives.  Where would that spot be?  Would it be back in Pennsylvania?  Would it be out west in the mountains that I always long for so much when I am back in PA?  How do you choose a house and property that you plan to keep for the rest of your life?  I suppose we will probably end up back in Pennsylvania, though.  In the end, what matters most is family, and since most of our family is back in PA, it would make sense to go back.