Aunt Shaunna

Cohen is here! Finally!

I'm a proud new aunt of an adorable baby boy. Cohen Martin Dorris was born on Saturday, November 29th at 10:19 AM. He weighed 6 pounds and 15 ounces and he's wonderful.

It was a long night. Daniel and Kimberly checked in around 11:00 PM Friday night. Chris and I went up there around 2:00 AM thinking it couldn't be that long until he was born, right? Well, lo and behold, 8 hours and several waiting room naps later my Mom called us from the delivery room and we got to hear one of Cohen's first cries on speaker phone.

Everyone is doing well (except for a slight case of jaundice). They're all expected to be home by lunch time tomorrow if everything goes ok tonight under the lamp.

Yay!!!

Yes, family meetings really do exist.

Whilst House was on TV last night, my Dad sat in his recliner and scribbled away on a little notepad. Yes, he was preparing for our "Family Meeting" we were having after dinner. All 6 of us. That live in the house. All 6. He was literally jotting away for the entire 1 hour show. At one point I asked if he was writing a novel.

I texted my OMG, BFF Kelli that we were preparing ourselves for a family meeting. She responded with "Those really exist?!" Well, I suppose if you've ever been a Dorris, are now a Dorris, or married to a former Dorris, then they really do exist and I don't believe they've ever been a good thing.

You can pretty much guess, if you know anything about anything that's gone on with my family in the past several months, what topics were discussed in the meeting. And then there were some old school points which brought me straight back to being 16 years old. Really? I have to keep my room clean? I mean, I know this is your house, but does me having clothes on my floor really bug you that much? Will I get a raise in my allowance if I dust and vacuum every week? J/K. I never got an allowance. (I did, however, get money for good grades. If that were still the case, I'd be getting $0 right now.)

Since I was brought back to that teenager scenario of being "talked to" for not being tidy, I was also brought back to that same feeling I got way back then...rebellion. Dad tells you to pick up your clothes, you want to leave the house for 3 days. Dad tells you to unload the dishwasher, you stop eating at home. No one likes being told what to do. Power struggle?

I suppose I automatically gave up my adult-ness(?) when I moved back in with Mom and Dad, but I had at least hoped to save the tiny bit of dignity I had left.

I'll say one last thing...

When I was unemployed, I did all of the cleaning and laundry for me and Chris. I had the time. I wasn't doing anything else. There are 2 people in the house right now that are home all day, every day, not doing anything. So why are we still splitting everything evenly? I work 40 hours a week and go to school 2 days a week. Doesn't this seem a little off? Just sayin...

Oh, and I'm just going to give myself a pat on the back real quick. I found homes for and delivered 7 out of the 8 cats we needed to give away. Awesome? Oh yes, that's me.

Homes Sweet Home

My friends, the Gordon's, have recently begun their house hunt. David mentioned to me a couple of websites to look through that have foreclosures listed as well as plain ole houses for sale. After looking through what tremendous deals we could get right now, Chris and I are trying to figure out how we can manage to scoop up one of these 3 bedroom/2 bathroom homes that are at incredible prices.

We found one that we absolutely love, it's in the perfect location, and it has a pool! All this for $109,000.

Now, all we have to do is figure out a way to scrape together enough money for a down payment, which according to some loans might only need to be $5,000.

We really have no idea how we'd be able to do this, but you know we're racking our brains to figure something out. I don't know anything about the real estate market so I'm not sure how long we're going to have these options of good starter homes for these really good prices.

So yeah. Dangit.

Fading in the grass.

I'm not even going to mention Obama for fear I'll be chastized for my Republican (sorta) ways. I'll just say this.... Socially, I'm Liberal. Financially, I'm Republican.

Anyway, stress in the Dorris household has come to an all time high. Wedding, people, animals, work, school. It's all coming together and making me freak the eff out. My face has even broken out. Dang pizza face.

I'm canceling anything I had planned tonight and tomorrow and I'm studying my butt off. I found a website that I've been teaching myself algebra from because my actual, real person teacher sucks a big one. And lucky me gets to do this alllllllll again next quarter with more math! Yay!

I saw on the show Private Practice that a firefighter wears a bra and panties under his clothes. It's his "thing" that releases stress for him. Since I already wear a bra and panties every day, I need to find a my "thing" that will release this stress. I'm trying to steer clear of food because usually that does it for me. I know you're not surprised, says the girl that's literally gained 50 pounds in the last 2 years.

Lord.