Home Improvements and Other Things

My dad came to visit last week to help out with some things around the house. He used to work in construction so he has an enormous collection of tools. Jordan also took a day off work to help out, which was awesome because I ended up not being much help.

My dad replaced a faucet in the downstairs bathroom. It ended up taking him over 4 hours to do.

We installed a chair rail in the nursery. It looks nice and will look even better once we get the room painted.



When we moved into our house it was covered in wainscoting and excessive trim. We ripped a lot of it out because the owners did a bad job installing it. After we removed the wainscoting in the staircase we were left with gaps between the stairs and the wall. All we needed was to install quarter round and it would be fixed. However, we didn't have a nail gun or the saw needed to complete the task ourselves. My dad and Jordan were able to get it finished in a few hours. It looks SO much better. No longer will I feel embarrassed of my staircase!!!

We also celebrated my dad's birthday.


Jordan and I have been talking a lot about the upcoming baby and how we can prepare for it. I have more of a mindset of getting things ready around the house. He is more financially focused. I've been able to work around the house and fulfill my nesting instinct. In an effort to fulfill his craving to save money we've been able to make some cutbacks:

Cancel our premium cable: $40/month
Cancel our gym membership: $35/month
Payed off student loans: $55/month
Cancel un-needed option on our gas bill: $7/month
Total savings: $1,644/year!!!

Now, I'll admit that I have a bit of a shopping habit. I spend a mostly on craft things and things for the house. So, in effort to try and bank even more money before the baby, I'm proud to announce

FEBRUARY SPENDING FREEZE!!!!

Rules:
1) Absolutely no money on crafts. I have to use what I have and finish projects I've started
2) No extras for the house. My trips to Home Goods will have to stop. The clearance "must haves" will have to stay on the shelves.
---Exception: I can buy things for the nursery
3) No new clothes!!!
---Exception: I can buy secondhand. I wonder if Goodwill has a maternity section...
4) I can only spend money on needed items: food, toiletries, dog food, etc.

This is really going to be a HUGE challenge for me. We'll see how I do. I'm interested in how our bank account will reflect my progress.

Being Pregnant Isn't Always Fun

I've had a rough couple weeks. I need to vent. So, a list of reasons I don't like being pregnant right now.



I have to pee ALL the time.


If I go too long without eating I get strong waves of nausea and get very light headed. I have to eat right then or else I'll throw up or have to sit down so I don't pass out. This leads to poor food choices since I usually grab the 1st thing I see and shove it in my face. This is also why I have granola bars stashed everywhere: my night stand, kitchen island and various cupboards, in baskets under the coffee table, the car, drawers at work. I also have at least 2-3 in my purse at all times.


Heartburn. Also why I have Tums stashed away with the granola bars.


I haven't had a full night of sleep in months. Why?

• I can't get comfortable
• I get up to pee
• My back aches from laying down too long
• Jordan snores
• Our dogs snore
  
• I have very very strange dreams that wake me up, sometimes in a panic.
  
• I get too hot or too cold
• Jordan gets up to let the dogs out

My nipples leak milk at inappropriate times. I often have cotton squares stuffed in my bra. It's not enough to leak through my bra but the wetness is weird and uncomfortable.


On some days I would give anything for a whole bottle of wine or a 6-pack of beer.


I am EXHAUSTED. People say that your 2nd trimester is awesome and that you'll have so much energy. That is true for 1-2 days out of 2-3 weeks. This makes looking presentable and getting out of the house for errands a daunting task. Not to mention that hauling around those granola bars gets heavy.


I feel like I've been kicked in the crotch.


Maternity jeans never stay where they're supposed to. I'm constantly pulling mine up. Sometimes I pretend I'm a gangsta and just let them sag. Fuck it.


My lower back, feet, and hips are in a constant state of ache.


I can't wear cute undies. They're all in a box in my closet. Since my hips are the only place getting bigger (besides my belly) I was forced to buy bigger panties. I'm not going to shell out $75 for 15 pairs at VS that I'm only going to need for a few months. Hanes it is. And they're big. I had to buy them so big so that they didn't leave welts on my hips. I had to buy them so big for my hips that they're saggy over my ass. I'm embarrassed of them. I don't feel sexy in them. I did break down and buy a few pairs of sexy VS ones to wear when I'm feeling froggy.


Sometimes I don't poop for 4-5 days.


My temper is short. I make snide comments to strangers under my breath, loud enough for them to barely hear, when they bump into me. I called a waiter an asshole at the mall because he was smoking closer than 15ft. to the door I was walking into. The sign was clearly posted.


I'm super aware of my personal space when out in public. Especially when driving. Want to zoom up and tail-gate me when I'm already driving over the limit? I'll go under the limit just to piss you off more. Then I will break-check your ass. Then I will flip you off.


My feet are starting to swell and I can no longer see them when I look down.




Don't get me wrong. I love being pregnant most of the time. I love my baby. Feeling her move around makes it worth it. But sometimes all the bad things catch up with you.

21 Weeks

We completed our registries and it was rough. We registered at Babies R Us and Buy Buy Baby. For those of you that do not know of Buy Buy Baby (BBB) it is a sister store of Bed Bath and Beyond. It is amazing and I love it way more than Babies R Us (BRU)

There's a brand new BBB that just opened near us and it is so clean and organized. I feel like their staff is more knowledgeable and the overall registry experience was nicer there. They gave us a nicer goody bag and bottled water. They have better coupons too. The only thing that sucks about BBB is that there aren't any stores where my side of the family lives. We had to put more things on the BRU list due to the fact that it has more locations.

We did one day at BRU (4 hours) and one day at BBB (2 hours). I was so proud of myself for getting through them in one setting each. It did get to the point where we were just scanning stuff at the end. Good thing I was able to go online and clean it up a bit.

This is Pineapple Man. Jordan saw him at the baby store and he had to bring him home. It's a pineapple that splits up into 4 sections. Inside is a pineapple seed that you can pull out on a string and then it vibrates back into place.

While out doing out BBB registry we also went to Ikea and the mall. I was SO EXHAUSTED by the end of that day that I couldn't walk to the car and had Jordan pick me up by the door. What a guy! I normally avoid the mall at all costs but I really wanted to look for some maternity clothes. We went to H&M, the Gap and Macy's.

H&M had really cute stuff, but it was all winter stuff and I have enough winter stuff. The Gap didn't have a maternity selection at their store. Macy's maternity section was a poorly put together branch of Motherhood Maternity. All the clothes looked to be for older people with no social life. I'm talking huge ugly sweaters and horrible flower prints. So I left feeling deflated and pissed off.



We've bought almost everything for the nursery. We just have to clear furniture out of that room and paint it.

Here are 2 owl plushies that will go up on a shelf until she's old enough to play with them.

A lamp that goes with the set.

There's also the painting that was in my last post. We got wall decals that match and I'll be ordering a growth chart and window valances that are a part of the set as well. Since this is a set for a toddler or little girl, the sheets that come with the set are too big. I'll be cutting them up to make a dust ruffle for the crib.

Not much has changed since my last post. I've been having growing pains that past few days so I think another growth spurt is on the way. Jordan finally felt the baby kick on January 18th before bed. It was really a neat experience.

Here I am at about 8-9 weeks.

This is me at 20 weeks.

What a difference! And all my friends and family that have been pregnant before say that I'm still small and have a long way to go. AWESOME! I feel better every day and have fully embraced my pregnant self. I love my bump!

In non baby news:
We FINALLY finished the downstairs bathroom. I had painted it in the past 2 different times and just didn't like it. So it's been left unfinished until this past weekend. We bought some art for the walls and some storage furniture for the room. We painted it and put some knick knacks in it. I love being in there and looking at new room. Hopefully the nursery comes out just as good...or better.

Things Are About to Change

I've thought a lot about my blog. I started it a while ago and let it fall to the wayside. I keep thinking that I need to get around to picking it back up again. I've decided to try....again....to keep up with it.

In my pregnancy I've been wanting to write things down and have them documented for me to look back on as a reference for later. I have yet to write down anywhere, including my "pregnancy journal" book that I have, some of the milestones I've experienced. I keep telling myself that I'll remember back to the exact date I had a positive pregnancy test, felt the baby's 1st movement, and how I'm feeling throughout this time. So I guess that picking it up half way through my pregnancy is a good place to start. So here goes:


How far along I am: 20 weeks

How I'm feeling: Good, except that I'm starting to get hungry ALL the time. I can't seem to eat enough. I have a snack, feel satisfied or full, then am starving 20-30 mins. later. And thirsty...SO thirsty.

How I feel about my body: Pretty good. So far no weight gain. My hips have gotten bigger and I have stretch marks up my thighs and hips. It's getting harder to bend over or forward to get things.

How the baby is doing: It's going to be a girl. We had our 20 week ultrasound on Friday and everything looked great. I've been feeling her bump around a lot in my stomach. I have felt her on the outside at least twice a day for the past 2 days. Mostly in the morning and evening. But today she kicked my hand when I was standing in line at the store. I keep having Jordan put his hands on my belly to try to feel, but he always gets there too late and she's done kicking.

How is Jordan doing? GREAT! He's getting more and more excited. He's very eager to feel the baby. He's so accommodating and attentive to my needs and goes out of his way to help around the house. He's also very understanding with my mood swings and has learned not to take things personally.

Cravings: Root beer floats and fruit. Right now I'm on a cherry kick. Last week it was clementines. Before that raw apples. And I HATE raw apples.

What I've done to prepare: We've gone to baby stores to get an idea of what we want as far as furniture, bedding, and other necessities. It's so overwhelming though! Last weekend we went and I made a list in the store of things we loved so that I could look them up online and check the ratings. Most of the things we like got great ratings so I'm happy.

The hardest thing is picking out bedding and decor that we both like. Jordan wants pink. I don't want to be consumed by pink. I like owls and whimsical woodland animals and I want something that she can grow into. I think I've found a set that I like that has pink, but also other colors.

This is an art piece from the set I like. All the other pieces sort of center around/look like this.

We've cleaned out the guest room all except for the bed, some night stands, and a dresser. Jordan's cousin gave us all her daughter's old clothes. Her daughter is almost 2. We came home with 5 trash bags full of clothing, accessories, and shoes. It took me 4 full loads of laundry to wash it all and the closet is full with just the 0-6 month clothing. All the larger sizes we are going to box up for later. The only drawback is that her daughter was born in February and our daughter will be born in May. Most of the 0-3mo clothing is long sleeve and most the cute dresses are 6mo. Our daughter will be 6mo in Nov/Dec. so my plan is to put her in the dresses and put pants on underneath.

Some of the cloths we got. This is just the "hang-up" stuff from 0-6 months. There's more in the drawers.

I've also started making some scrapbook pages for her album. I figured that it would be easier to get the pages done now so that all I have to do later is add pictures. So far I'm happy with how they're turning out. I've been crocheting a baby blanket too. I'll post pictures as soon as I get more done.

Garden

I've always wanted a garden. When we moved in our house there were 2 garden boxes in the back yard. They aren't huge, but not small either. The larger box is about 8x8 and the smaller box 7x3. Since I've never had a garden before, we chose to just keep these instead of making it bigger. My biggest fear was that we'd dig up 1/2 the yard, plant a garden, and nothing would grow. So I dug up all the grass, rented a tiller, bought some garden soil (since it was mostly clay) and went at it.

In the larger box we planted:
6 tomato plants (Celebrity, Roma, Beefsteak, Early Girl, and 2 cherry)
Green and yellow bell peppers
2 jalapenos
Zucchini
Pickling Cucumbers

In the smaller box we planted:
4 Basil
2 Thyme
2 Parsley
2 Cilantro
4 Chives
3 Rosemary
4 Arugula
2 Strawberry

When we got done planting, I though, gee, we could have planted more. Little did I know that our plants would EXPLODE!!! and now our space is too small. It used to be easy to weed, but now I can't even see the ground around our plants. We should have gone for the bigger space...but there's always next year.

We've gotten a few strawberries (the birds have gotten more than us), I've been cutting herbs for recipes, and we have little tomato and peppers growing. I go out there every day to check progress and pull a few weeds.

Here are some pictures:

Herb Garden


Veggies (tomatoes in the back, zucchini front right, cucumbers front left, peppers in the middle)

My Dog Won't Stop Vomiting

We've had Fiona for about 5-6 weeks now. We love her. She's so cute and funny and always learning new things. In her quest to discover everything, she's taking up eating things in the yard (leaves, sticks, mulch, grass, mud, etc.) Because of this she barfs all over the house. Sometimes she just coughs up barf and swallows it back down before it hits the floor, sometimes she projectiles all over everything. She's barfed in the bed twice now, in the middle of the night, mid-sleep. I've talked to the vet about this and have even had her in for the vet to look at. His thoughts...training training, training. So now we have to take her out on a leash EVERY time she goes out and snap the leash when she gets into something naughty...which is all the time :( I feel bad for her, but I'll be glad when she doesn't barf all over.

50 Things

For Valentines day I told my husband that I wanted a list of 25 things he wanted to experience with me during our marriage. I made a list of 25 things too. My list was done before Valentine's day. Jordan gave me his list yesterday.

My list:

1. Take a ride in a hot air balloon
2. Get married in Vegas
3. Have his children
   
4. Take 365 photos together in 365 days
5. Ride an elephant
6. Be debt free
7. Take a photo in every photo booth we visit
8. Rent a convertible for a day-road trip somewhere fun
9. Stay in bed all weekend leaving only to potty and get foods
10. Go skydiving
11. Ice skating in Central Park
12. Scuba dive
13. Go horseback riding on the beach
14. Live to see our grandkids
15. Join a ______ of the month club...wine, chocolate, etc.
    
16. Take dance lessons
17. Swim with dolphins
18. Take a tropical island get-away
19. See a Broadway show on Broadway
20. Have a super fancy date night-include limo
21. Always chase our dream
22. Get matching tattoos
23. Take a horse-drawn carriage ride
24. Go whale watching
25. Never fall out of love

Here is Jordan's list:

1. Take a world cruise
2. Hike the Grand Canyon
   
3. Visit each continent-minus Antarctica
4. Coast to coast road trip
5. Learn to ballroom and Salsa dance
6. Go skydiving
7. Retire in comfort
8. Try Tantric
9. Pay off house/debts
10. Go snowboarding
11. Visit Wisconsin Dells
12. Raise children into responsible, successful adults
13. Space vacation
14. Fly in fighter jet...as passenger
15. Host family dinner for every holiday
16. Spoil grandkids
17. Have a house in the county with a pond
18. White water rafting
19. Alaskan cruise
20. Dine a 5 star 5 diamond restaurant
21. Go to renaissance fair and dress in character
22. Own jet skies
23. Take up horseback riding as hobby
24. Go paint-balling
    
25. Attend Lollapalooza