Big Decisions!

Well over the last few weeks I have thought more and more about my options, as far as school goes, and have decided to not take any time off of school. I initially was going to take a semester off in the fall to enjoy my maternity leave and enjoy the time I had off with our baby girl. Well after much going back and forth, I decided to continue going - only half time - in the fall. I am now registered for fall classes and have applied for financial aid for the 2011-2012 school year. I got an estimate as to what I am eligible for and I have an eligibility for the first time ever for a GRANT! Which is money that is given to me to go to school and I never have to pay it back. I could also, for the first time ever, file as an INDEPENDENT. I have been independent of my parents for the last 3 years but have had to file as a dependent because I didn't fall under 1 of 7 categories. But thanks to this little girl cooking in Mamma's tummy - no more "official" dependency status :) 

The reason I decided to continue going is because for the first month of the class, baby won't be here yet and I can get a good start on the class then. After she is here, the classes are mostly online so I will be able to do most of the work from home. The only portion I have to do in class is 1 hour, twice a week - which will be my only obligation (outside of feeding every 2 hours, changing diapers, loving, and bonding with my new baby girl) because I will be on maternity leave through the semester. Once I weighed the options, it seemed like a no brainer. Now we can just hope that grant comes through and Mamma can get some free money  :) I'm actually more excited and motivated than ever. 

This isn't the only decision Clint and I have been weighing our options on. The other one is our Wedding. We have started looking into a destination wedding! We are so excited about the idea we are almost positive this is what we are going to decide. It will save us a tremendous amount of money and there are a lot of places that offer packages that include WAY more than we could afford here. If this is what we infinitely decide on, we are going to plan it for January 2013 (which is our anniversary now, and also the anniversary of when we found out we were having this little bundle of joy). We obviously want our families to be there, so the deciding factor for us is making sure everyone we love and would want to be there would be okay with the burden of paying their way. But oh my gosh! If this all works out and falls through it would be the wedding of my dreams. 

Baby Update: I am 20 weeks on Wednesday, which is half way. It is crazy to think that in 20 weeks we will have our baby girl here. I have been feeling her kick around like crazy! Every day now I can expect to feel her kicking me and I love it! I can't imagine ever getting sick of that feeling. We have our 20 week anatomical ultrasound on Friday and we are very excited to see her in more detail - and to see how much she has grown in the last two weeks! I started reading a book called : Brain Rules for Baby by Dr. John Medina and I am loving it - would recommend it for anyone who is planning to have a baby, is pregnant, or has a child 1-5 years old. It's so interesting and really has a lot of data and research behind all of his findings. 

I'll post pictures Friday of our latest ultrasound :) XoXo