Confessions of a Blogaholic

So, I'm pretty stressed. I'm on vacation, and I should be enjoying my time, but I am just stressed out. There is too much going on. Each day is turning into a whirlwind and I'm not accomplishing anything. Here's what's going on...

Stink
Yes, we are still working on Stink. He looks sooooo much better, but for every step we take forward, we end up taking 2 steps back. The dermatologist is planning a skin biopsy for him on Friday, Jan 8th, so we'll see if his skin isn't the root of all his problems. He isn't reacting well to the steroids (we'll find out soon if his reaction is due to a bladder infection instead of the steroids, though), and if the biopsy comes back negative for all the stuff they're testing AND he can't stay on steroids for his itching, we are pretty much out of luck.

LUCKILY, my mom has let us leave Stink at her house the last week and, hopefully, until next Friday. It's still almost just as worrisome and stressful as it is taking care of him here full-time, though, because I keep going over there to coddle him like a baby.

Houses
We got approved for $150k for a house!!!! That's awesome news!!! The not-so-awesome news is that we now have to find a house and get into contract on it so we can close by April 2. We've had to alter our expectations for a home--we aren't going to get the kind of home we'd like to have if we keep holding out for a 1/2 acre. I'm worried about all the money that goes along with home buying. We have a nice chunk saved up, but with the down payment, closing costs (fingers crossed we can get seller to pay), inspection costs, moving costs, and our lease buy-out, 2010 is looking like an insanely expensive year.

Taxes
Has anyone else taken a preliminary look at their taxes this year? Let's just say that we (Nathan and I, at least) got completely screwed by this wonderful "stimulus" money on each paycheck (remember that extra $15 a week we'd all receive?). I never changed my number of dependents because we've always gotten a few thousand back, so I assumed it would work out fine, but it didn't. I'm pretty pissed because I'd rather them NOT give me that extra money on my paychecks and me NOT end up paying in this year. We got royally screwed by our taxes this year. Blows.

All that being said, we need to close on a house before we file our taxes so what we owe can come out of our $8,000 tax credit.

Baby Rylee
Every day, I get more and more stressed about being so close to Rylee's arrival. I'm freaking about the number of appointments I'll be having in the next 4 months, and I'm freaking about the fact that someone decided Nathan and I were good enough to be someone's PARENTS!!!

Stressing
I'm stressing about stressing (ironically) because I don't want to screw up my pregnancy and all that good stuff.

Deep breaths, calm thoughts, studying pictures of the beach, closing eyes, counting backward from 10, drinking a chocolate milkshake....Soothing thoughts, warm showers, scented candles, this too shall pass. I can do this. I can do all of this. I can handle it because it wouldn't be happening if I couldn't.