Life-in-General Update

Has been quite some time since I've posted, primarily due to the house purchase described in the prior post. Have I mentioned too that we're having a baby? As the time gets closer, our ability to procrastinate is seriously dwindling. At some point we'll need to pick a name, I'll have to pack my hospital bag, and the car seat will need to be installed. In the meantime, I'm another year older and my belly has expanded to the size of a watermelon complimented by a lovely pregnancy rash known as PUPPS. There will be no more bare belly pictures posted from here on out. I know - tragic.

K "surprised" me with breakfast in bed comprised of Sprinkles cupcakes and a glass of milk for my birthday last week. This has become an annual tradition - one that I truly love. Usually he only buys a couple days' supply; however, this year he splurged for 10. I have been eating a cupcake for breakfast every morning for the past week. It is delightful...

That afternoon at the office my coworkers threw a surprise baby shower that I was completely thrown off guard by. The usual "you have a package downstairs waiting for you" excuse was put aside and exchanged for, "there's no trick this time - we have cake downstairs for your birthday." Lo and behold, when I opened the door to the boardroom everyone was standing there, including K!!, yelling, "SURPRISE!!" My face turned the color of the red shirt I was wearing that day and then we all partook in cake, punch, and a baby word scramble. They even got us our car seat! The last big item on our registry that we needed. How appreciative I am to work with such great people!!

As far as the pregnancy goes, I'm becoming more and more uncomfortable mostly due to the aforementioned PUPPS in addition to carpal tunnel that flares up at night. There will be times when I wake up and the tops of my hands ache like crazy. At my 36 week appointment on Monday my doctor reported that my cervix has softened, but there is no official dilation as of yet. I've been getting Braxton Hicks at night too - right when I lay down to go to sleep. My stomach gets as hard as a rock. This is the latest belly shot taken by Mom who was in town yesterday helping wash clothes, buy last minute registry necessities, and continue working on the nursery. I couldn't have done it without her. We were extremely productive and it was a lot more fun having her as a partner to keep me focused and on track.


And lastly, these are the latest nursery shots. Bird mobile has officially been hung, but otherwise have yet to decorate the walls. Will hang the quilt that matches the bedding above the rocking chair, baby's name above crib, and am still searching for the perfect diaper organizer to hang above the changing table. More to come...

Home Sweet Home

It is with both great excitement and great apprehension that I come to announce that K and I have purchased a new home! Excitement over the fact that we'll have BIG CLOSETS (his and hers!!), a laundry room, and ability to park in the garage!!!!!! Apprehension over the stress related to moving and remodeling with a brand new baby. Although - I liken this experience to K's decision to tear our only full bathroom down to the studs the week before our wedding. No, we could not take a shower the night we got home from our honeymoon - but if we can make it through that surely we can make it through this.

We weren't really looking for a new home, although it's been on our wish list for a while. We knew we'd have to move sooner or later, and had pretty much settled on the latter of the 2 options. There are very few houses that come up for sale in our neighborhood, and when they do, a) they've either been redone to the 9's and are ridiculously expensive, or b) they're only 1,800 sf and haven't been remodeled since their origination in the 50's or 60's and are STILL ridiculously expensive. In the back of our mind I think we both realized that while we'd hate to leave the area, really the only way to get more for our money would be to move to the burbs up north.

Well. During one of my many internet breaks at work on Tuesday, I went to realtor.com and entered in my regular search for our zip code - 4+ bedrooms, 2,000 sf minimum, 2 car garage, and max price range. To my surprise, I came across a new listing that had been posted 22 minutes prior. It's in our same neighborhood, maybe 1/2 a mile away, and is nearly twice the size as our current home. So I sent the link to K and we spontaneously decided to go look at it that night...

We were impressed not with the house itself as it is a dump that needs to be completely gutted, but with the potential end product. I don't really have a vision for any type of interior design whatsoever, but felt good about what it "might" look like should we add our dream touches and completely redo the layout.

Enter Eddie - a friend of a friend who happens to be an architect and has his own design firm. I called him the following morning to discuss the potential and he encouraged us to place an offer to hold the house should we be truly serious about buying. So we did. And we won. There were 11 showings the day the seller accepted our offer, and there is a full cash offer that's been formally submitted as a back-up should ours fall through. Here's where K and I praise God for His timing and provision and the way things have all seemed to fall into place thus far.

Many pending items remain - financing, design, etc. We plan to stay in our current home until the new one is move-in ready, then hope to rent it out. In theory we could fix up the new home and live in it while we tear down and rebuild on our current lot like we've always planned, but we'll probably save something like that for when baby #2 comes around to maintain our track record of embarking on insanely stressful situations in the midst of big life changes.

Here are a few pictures of our new diamond in the rough....

For the Expectant (or Existing) Mama

So even though I'm not technically a mom quite yet, I have made some amazing finds over the past few months through random internet research that I'd like to share with other expectant or existing Moms. As if there aren't 30,000 other blogs or websites that outline similar opinions, these are MY personal favorites. Take them for what it's worth.

1) Baby Bargains - a must-have book that will save your life when it comes to registering and researching baby gear.


Let's face it. There are thousands of options out there when it comes strollers, high chairs, cribs, bedding, etc. This book is written by a couple who has compiled tons of reviews and displayed their results with honesty and a sense of humor. Is entertaining to read - not like a text book - and ranks products with an A through F based on price, functionality, quality, etc. Got mine from walmart.com shipped straight to the house for around $12. Love it.

2) Petunia Pickle Bottom outlet - Offers 30-50% off way cute and stylish PPB diaper bags - items are either discontinued or certified seconds. They only have sales semi-annually and you have to pre-register to receive notification of when the sales will be. Came home yesterday to this on my front door step. Can't wait to use it! For what it's worth I also hear that JuJuBe Packabes are amazingly practical as well.


3) Baby Steals and Kid Steals - Offer 1 deal a day beginning at 10:00 am CST. If you don't get there fast then whatever is for sale that morning will likely be gone. They mostly offer higher end boutique type products, but at half price. Got my Hooter Hider from here, and have also seen BabyLegs, BuggyBaggs, Aden + Anais blankets, etc. Again - GET THERE FAST.

4) The Little Elephant Company - Brought me great relief!!! I've been struggling for months to find a way to hang the quilt that came with our bedding on the wall in baby's room. Of course there's sewing a ribbon, or loops then threading through a rod, etc. - but let's face it. I do not know how to sew, plus I wasn't excited about putting holes in the quilt itself. Solution: quilt clips!!! I'm thinking 3 of these to hang baby's quilt (will go along with the safari theme - think sun rising in the Lion King) and 1 of these to hold the ribbon that all of baby's clips are attached to. Another idea for bows (credit goes to Em for this one) - clip them to the ribbons of a memory board and hang on wall as decor.


5) Posies Accessories - My newest fave thanks to Leah. She tells me these are the BEST stretchy headbands out there - they stay on and don't dig into baby's head. Today they're having 45% off everything AND if you use the coupon code THANKS it will save you another hunk of change.

Other money-saving faves:

-Check retailmenot.com for coupon codes every time you order something online. Really I just go to google and type "coupon code (insert store name you're buying from)." Retailmenot typically has the most accurate info. Have gotten free shipping from Land of Nod, Lands End, aforementioned coupon code for Posies, etc. from here. Never hurts to look!
-Woot.com - Similar to Baby and Kid Steals, they have 1 deal a day beginning at midnight CST. Also always check Kids Woot and Wine Woot.
-Dealnews.com - Daily specials and discounts from random stores all across the board. They tell you where to find bargains on everything from computers to mp3 players to health and beauty products to home goods to kids' toys. Worth checking once a day or especially around Black Friday / holiday weekends to get a good idea of sales that are going on.

Happy Shopping!!!!!!!!!