Energy

Well, there's a lot going on in the Brogden house. The last several weekends we have had stuff to do or have been out of town, but this weekend I plan on working on Baby Brogden stuff ALL WEEKEND! and not only that but my partner in crime is back from Africa. (yes my parents went to Africa for 2+ weeks!) It is now time for the nursery decorating to get serious. I am talking two sewing machines going strong on finishing those bumper pads! I am so anxious to get those done so that we can start working on wall decor and registering and all the other exciting things there are to do! So I am looking forward to that on Saturday, as well as, visiting a few friends, new and old, who have recently had babies or are in the hospital with their little ones.

Another thing going on with us is we are having some renovations made to our house.  Neil says it is to prepare to take care of me in the hot summer so that I don't complain about being too hot when I get a little bigger, but how can you not be hot when it is 103 degrees outside in JUNE! Anyway, we now have solar panels and are in waiting for a new air conditioner with a little more power (Argh, Argh!--if you ever watched Home Improvement.) and some kind of contraption that allows you to control your thermostat from your iPhone.  Well after all of the plans are now in the works I am pretty sure we are going to have the power/ ventilation system that rivals some sort of High Tech museum of the future. Neil has become OBSESSED with checking on how much energy we are saving with these stupid solar panels.  He daily checks to see how much energy we made while we were at work.  Yes, I said MADE because even on a day when it is 100+ degrees outside, he turns the air condition to 80 so that we won't waste energy while we are away!!!!! So suddenly now it is some sort of energy-making game we are playing against the power company, because if we make more energy than we use, we get a credit on our bill. I swear his goal is to try not to have to pay anything for our energy bill and he hasn't yet become too crazy about the lights being turned off and on, but the precious air conditioner is where the battle lines have been drawn!   A few days ago I came home to him smiling very smugly at the kitchen bar where he was reading the mail. As soon as I got in the door, he gushed to me that we have our first bill since the panels were installed (2 weeks of the month we had the panels and 2 we did not) and we have lowered our bill by half of what it was for the same month last year. Oh Happy Day!  "Well," I told him, "that would be great if I didn't know that your goal for next month was to get a credit on the bill." This wouldn't bother me at all, except that I am 6 months pregnant and I am HOT! but he assures me that when the new, heavy duty air conditioner (the Arctic 4000 model) gets installed I will never be hot again….I will let you know how that saga plays out. Meanwhile, despite my complaining about my husband (funny thing is that he is JUST like his Dad, who he says keeps his parent's house too hot) I think it is kind of cute that he wants to play this little game and that he lets me spend money on things I don't need at all and spoils me constantly, but that he wants to be frugal in this one area.  I think it is endearing and it makes me happy to be married to him.  I think that is saying a lot considering a very dear friend warned me that in the coming months of my pregnancy, I may begin to wonder how I could have married the man I did, and question his intelligence and my own sanity for choosing him due to some hormonal fog.  I can't wait for the changes that will happen over the next 4 months of our lives and I can't wait to share it.