What’ll ya have?

We found out on July 6 that the mini-me inside of me is actually a mini-D inside of me!  We’re having a little boy!  I am excited to meet him and learn more about his personality. 
 
Since The Mr. has been traveling, he hasn’t gotten to “experience” as much of the pregnancy.  Fact of the matter is that nothing has really been different over the last few months.  I get tired earlier, hungry faster, and drink a ton of water.  Otherwise, it’s life as usual here at the house.   

Over the last week, I have started feeling him move more.  It’s pretty cool to feel him squirm in there. 

I’ve also started to show more and pack on a couple of extra pounds.  While The Mr. was home last weekend, he got to feel him move.  I was very excited about him being able to feel him, too. 

 
Check it out – there’s a little bump there!  I’ve been working hard for 22 week to get a little something to show for it!

As far as the rest of the pregnancy goes, I feel like I should do a run down of the FAQ’s I get pretty often.

I feel great.  I have actually felt pretty great all along.  I have had a couple of days of just extreme tiredness – especially in the first trimester.  I have also had a few episodes of incredible headaches with only Tylenol to help me cope.  I still can’t exactly figure out what the trigger for them is – but chugging water, rubbing my shoulders, and sitting in a dark place don’t help.  The headache just has to pass on it’s own free will. 

The only times I thought I was going to toss my cookies were if I took my vitamin on an empty stomach or if I got too hungry.  That and the shear exhaustion from jet lag on the way back from Malaysia.  I was pretty sure that Monday was going to result in some lost lunch.  I also caught a little stomach bug and was green for a few days….but I don’t think I can blame that one on the boy. 

My skin is a zit factory.  There’s no controlling it.  I give up.  Welcome to the teen years.

Still running.  I am not exercising quite as often – but I am still exercising.  I think if I made it more of a priority, I could still exercise as often as I was.  I just remind myself that I  have a lot of things I’d like to do around the house before the little one arrives and I am only one person.  I can still do 5 milers – but only about one a week now instead of multiple times a week.  That’s fine by me.  I just want to be in shape and have a little bit of endurance for when the laboring time comes.  For some reason in my head, I think that it’ll help.  I’m probably really just fooling myself.

I can’t say I’ve had any true cravings.  There are times when things just sound good…but if I don’t have it, I don’t feel like I’m going to wither and die or anything.  Sometimes things just sound good.  I’ve been trying not to feed the sweet tooth as much as it’s asking to be fed.  That’s really my biggest food complaint.  Pre-pregnancy, I could keep this sweet tooth in check.  Now it’s tough! 

I am going to try to keep checking in and documenting all of this for the future…  I can’t let life get in the way of stepping back and reflecting!

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2 Years & Still Laughing

We still laugh every day.
We kiss goodnight, every night.
We love each other like we said "I Do" yesterday.

Happy Anniversary, Old Man.
:)

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Mental "To Do" List

There are a lot of things floating around in my head that I need to get done. I keep making lists and checking them twice - but then I decide that I'm still not sure what I want to do this weekend. I'm going to make myself an virtual list - and let's see how much stuff I get done over the weekend.

Friday

1. Errands: Target, AC Moore, bank, Sherwin Williams, grocery store
2. Pull up linoleum in the morning room to prep for new flooring.
3. Gym? {this is highly dependent on whether or not the guy giving us a quote on hardwoods comes tonight or tomorrow}
4. Do something outside. Anything.
5. Clean the house.

Saturday

1. Go on a picnic with The Mr. {perfect weather}
2. Get the last pictures for our "name frame"
3. Order said pictures.
4. Spread mulch?
5. Laundry.
6. Iron clothes {because I won't have time on Sunday}

Sunday

1. Tape master bath for painting.
2. Paint master bath
3. KKPsi meeting?

That's probably all I'll get done on Sunday. haha.

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want some carrots?

No, really. Want some?

The Mr. pulled these out of the garden this afternoon.

Earlier in the summer we had some trouble with bad soil and the bed not draining. I didn't think the carrots were going to do anything - so I just started to ignore them.

One day I dug up a carrot and it was really, really tiny. At that point I just knew the carrots were done for and we'd dig up the puny little things at the end of the season.

I am still shocked at the size and amount of carrots that came out of the garden!

Now the real question is - what should I do with them?? Suggest your recipes, please!

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Weekend Recap

Let's see how I did this weekend... green is "complete".

Friday

• go to the gym for weights & cardio
  
• remove stickers on Taurus back window
• wash & vacuum cars
• deadhead flowers
  
• finish Heidi's cards
• eat dinner with our neighbors

Saturday

• cut cardstock for favor card order
• print first layer of favor cards
• finish painting the "Welcome" sign
• research recycled papers for Beth's invites and save the dates
• work on art for 1/2 bath
  
• organize user manuals & paperwork upstairs
• watch football :)
  

Sunday

• put away miscellaneous items in the morning room corner
• clean windows
• dust all fan blades
• wipe down fridge
• finish inventory of the pantry
• start inventory of the freezer
• eat dinner with Beth and Bryan
  

Monday

• print the second layer for favor card order
• relax & finish the things that weren't finished.

Not too shabby. By Monday I had run out of steam and also remembered that I needed to go to the grocery store. Plus there were a few recipes I wanted to try and I also went to the gym in the afternoon - so no time for cleaning. Ha Ha!

Now let me show you The Mr.'s weekend project:

First he rewired the two light fixtures in the foyer so they are on the same switch (yeah - don't ask why they weren't before...we can't figure it out). Then ran the wire from the light closest to the door to a junction box.

Jumpered off the wire in the aforementioned junction box and ran it onto the porch. Added some junction boxes and jumpered more wire. (He also battled with the siding...that was ridiculous!)

And at the end of the weekend - we have two ceiling fans on our front porch. A little slice of southern heaven!

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Meet Al

The Mr. and I have been talking about replacing one or both of our cars for about a year now. We kept saying that we needed to start looking around. Finally, we had a scare that the Taurus's transmission may need to be replaced. That was our speculation when we had transmission fluid all over the driveway on Sunday afternoon - and the engine was shifting terribly.

That Sunday evening back in June we started shopping for a new car. We found some we liked and we were going to look at them. We also took the Taurus to the shop to see just how bad it was...

When I got the fated call from the garage working on the Taurus my stomach sunk. And then the man on the other end said "We just need to replace some high pressure hosing. It's about $250."

Sweet! So we didn't need a new car immediately after all! ...but we were still looking.

We waited for Cash for Clunkers - but then didn't qualify. Who thought a 12 year old Maxima and 10 year old Taurus would NOT be considered a "clunker"? Oh well.

Then the Maxima needed new tires. So came the breaking point - pay $300 for new tires on a car that needs to be replaced? Or replace the car that needs to be replaced?

We replaced the car that needed to be replaced. We fondly call him "Al". Short for "Al-tima". :)

You can see the Taurus sneaking into the pictures too. It doesn't want to be left out!

We traded in the old Maxima and got $1200 for it. As we drove out of the lot, we weren't heartbroken to be leaving that car behind. As a matter of fact, I think we were laughing because the joke was truly on them.

Why was the joke on them? Let's look at what was wrong with the Maxima:

1. The power steering pump needed to be replaced.
2. It leaked oil. It always leaked oil and we kept trying to "fix" it, but it just sprung another leak.
3. Sometimes the AC fan would stop working if you braked too hard - so you had to kick it.
4. In order to kick the AC fan, we had to remove the glove box. We put the glove box back in - but not correctly, so it's kind of jacked.
5. The clock never worked
6. You couldn't tell what radio station you were on because the display was messed up.
7. The paint was kind of messed up
8. The "Nissan" emblem fell off the radiator grating. LOL

The Maxima was old and tired. Now we have a younger, more spry little brother of the Maxima (although not so little anymore...they're the same size).

I really enjoy my new car. :)

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Powder Room Makeover

We have a powder room (or 1/2 bath) in our foyer. It's the only bathroom that we have on the first floor of the house - so we wanted it to not only be a nice room since our guests see it, but I also needed some storage for a sponge and some extra TP. Because there's nothing worse than (a) having a dirty sink that you notice seconds before guests arrive and no "emergency sponge"! and (b) having your guest run out of TP...

The Mr. got excited about the reno, so he pulled the sink out before I could get pictures. I went ahead and pull the old mirror out so it didn't get accidentally broken when the sink came out, and I took the shelf down too. So the before pictures are of the naked bathroom with our sample wall color on the walls.


Before:

After:
I decided to start the "after" pictures with the faucet. This is the Kingsley from Moen in brushed nickel. We got the matching towel and paper holder as well. I'm pleased with the product (Moen installation instructions left a lot to be desired though.)

The vanity is the Archer by Kohler.

Light fixture: Lowe's. Mirror: Garden Ridge. Wall Color: SW Respite (SW 6514)

Another vanity shot.

And finally, with the left side of the bathroom all spruced up, there was no way I could put the old shelf back over the toilet. It didn't even match! So I fixed that problem. With three coats of SW Tricorn Black (SW 6258), it looked as good as new!

I apologize for the blurry picture...I'm not sure what happened. It was quite difficult getting good pictures in such a small little bathroom.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think!!

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Happy Birthday, America!

Okay, I know this is incredibly late...but bear with me. It's for posterity's sake, right?

The weekend of the fourth, The Mr.'s sister came to visit. We decided to head downtown and find the Mice on Main. We printed off the clues, grabbed their little dogs, and headed out. We also had an ulterior motive - visit the Saturday Market downtown. Yuuuum!

We made a few pit stops along the way. The boys would often hang out with "the girls" (aka The Mr.'s sisters pups). There's a little doggie bistro that we stopped in which was pretty cute. It was weird being able to take the dogs inside with us.

They are pretty cute dogs. And don't "yip, yip, yip!" Which is key because if they constantly yip'ed they may not have survived the weekend. Not gonna lie - I'm not a fan of what I fondly call "yip yip" dogs.

We also had to make a stop by Mast General Store. The Mr. loves this place and he likes to sneak in whenever we go downtown. I don't mind so I waited outside with his sister while the boys went in to shop around.

Next stop - the park. I've always found the park to be so pretty and I jump at any chance to be able to go down there. If I were to do a Trash the Dress session - this is where it would be, hands down.

So since I like the park so much, we wanted to take them there and show them the bridge. When you stand still on the bridge you can feel it moving as people continue to walk by. It's a crazy feeling but the view from the bridge is well worth it.



After our adventure downtown, we headed home to relax and get ready for the cookout. Our friends T&J came down for the cookout and brought homemade "cheese pie" (aka mac and cheese baked in the oven) and homemade apple pie. Oh, it was so good!

The boys also decided that they wanted to light off some fireworks so they headed out in the afternoon to pick some up. Buying fireworks the day of is the second best idea to buying them the day after (they are so cheap then!). But if you buy them the day after then you obviously can't set them off on July 4th. So we went with the second best option.

I decided to try out my not-so-elite camera skills to get some pictures of the fireworks. The ones that came out the best were the ones I took on the "sports" setting. I thought I'd share some of these with you.




The last few pictures have a story behind them. The fireworks stand the boys bought their fireworks at threw in "one free firework of their choice". So our friend, M, chose "The Tank". The whole evening he talked about how it was going to be the best one out of all of them. So we had to save it for last. And we did save it for last. "The Tank" had little wheels on it - so we thought it would roll down the street after we lit it off.

...instead it just fell over on the side. And was a pretty big disappointment. It was funny though. :)

And I'll leave you with a cute picture of me and The Mr.

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Our house...

...in the middle of our street!

One year ago today, we closed on this beauty. The keys were handed over and The Mr. and I headed off to grab the U-Haul and start unloading into our new abode! It was quite an emotional time for both of us. We were still excited to be married AND be new homeowners, nervous and slightly stressed about the sale of the house in Charleston, sad because my grandmother was passing away, but all still looking towards many happy and fruitful years ahead.

So I have decided to re-cap what we have accomplished over the past year in our new house:

• Installed 7 ceiling fans
• Replaced the light fixtures in the breakfast nook & dining room
• Replace the foyer & hall light fixtures
  {side note: everything in the house is/was brass. It was a "few bucks" to upgrade to brushed nickel and we didn't care for their options. So we used our HD wedding gift cards and bought us some nice ones!}
• Mounted two TV's on the wall
• Epoxy'd the garage floor {because we knew our cars leaked oil}
• Organized "man-land" {aka the garage}
• Stained and finished our kitchen table and 4 chairs
• Stained and finished two plant stands
  
• Framed art and hung it around the house
• Had surround sound installed in the family room
• Hung blinds for all the windows
• Hung curtains in the front bedroom and master bedroom
• Had a patio installed
• Had retaining walls installed in the front yard
• Completed front yard landscaping (3 trees, lots of shrubs, flowers, and fillers later)
• Recovered the dining room chairs
  

I think that's everything...I'm sure I'm missing something or other. I wish I had a picture that went with everything. I should probably work on that one...

So with all of that done, what's next? Some paint and hardwood flooring are the next things on our list. I'll keep you posted!

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365 days later.

One year ago today he slipped that ring on my finger and promised to be love me and honor me.

{and obey me...} :)

...in front of all of our family and friends.

We are so happy and thankful for everyone's love and support over the last year.

One year down...and a life time to go.

...and everyday is a party when it's a day that I am with him!

He loves me. Chicken dance and all.

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...My Husband Rocks...

source

That is a picture of the two turbines in El Paso that he helped get up and running. He works in Automation and Controls - so he has to make all the devices and computers talk to each other. I've tried to learn a little bit about it - but its over my head.

The El Paso Times printed an article about the job. Of course the contractor (him and his coworkers) was not mentioned but contractors never are. All the sweat, none of the glory. ha!

I'm sure the people of El Paso who are now receiving power from these turbines don't care who worked on the job - but I'm awfully proud of my husband. He worked a lot of long hours to meet the deadlines that his parent company set forth. The deadlines were very unrealistic and resulted in the team he was on working 100 hour work weeks back in February and March and then spending 4 very.long.weeks. in El Paso making these things work.

But they did it. They met the deadline and Mr.'s parent company got the $1 million bonus for having the system online early. ...too bad we don't get to see any of that cool one million.

So if you know anyone who lives in El Paso or if you live in El Paso, my hubby hooked you up with some power!

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