full

I feel so lovely and full after this long weekend. Not just full, as in "I ate too much"... though I am certainly that type of full too! But full, as in full of contentment and love and all that sappy stuff. It was so great to see my family, and have a house filled with conversation, crazy playing puppies, and laughter.

My parents brought their camera tripod with them, and my mom snapped some shots of Trav, the pup and I for Christmas card use... and just to have. I am using two for Christmas cards (which I don't want to break out yet), but here are some of the outtakes (they were all a bit bright, but I was able to color adjust for the cards, I didn't bother with these):



She also snapped some of just Trav & I, while she was at it:





Thanksgiving dinner was great. We had so much food! Trav actually did a lot of the cooking, with my mom as sous chef... so I got to relax and just handle one or two things. Afterward we observed one of my family traditions and watched Miracle on 34th St. Every year that would be the first Christmas movie we watched... and we would do it after Thanksgiving, so as to respect the turkey. ;-) It was always that movie, since MoTFS starts with the Thanksgiving day parade, and ends with Christmas... so it seemed fitting. We also watched much football, of course.

Friday we had breakfast and relaxed for a bit before my parents got on the road. Then Trav, Ethan, and I went food shopping to stock the boy up for the rest of the semester. He went home with a lot of food! I rode into the city with him again, then came home to relax. Trav harassed the puppy:


Saturday we cleaned up some more from Thanksgiving, then used the extra space we finally had to set up the nursery furniture! We're leaving the futon in there, but it will be upright unless someone is coming over and needs to use it.

The changing table:
The crib:
A close-up of the pattern on both:

They were actually pretty easy to put together, and now its really starting to look like a babies room in there!!

After that we both wrapped the Christmas presents we had accumulated so far... we both had gifts for each other that we wanted wrapped, and I also wrapped stuff for my parents and for Ro. It makes Christmas seem right around the corner to see wrapped presents sitting in my closet!

Sunday (today) we were pretty lazy... watched more football, and Monk episodes (there was an all-day marathon since the series is ending on Friday), played with the puppy and just relaxed. It was the perfect end to the weekend. Now I have to get ready to go back to work... but hopefully this nice, full feeling will carry on for a while!

you might have noticed

...that things look a tiny bit different around here. I did some updating yesterday. Went from two columns to three, rearranged things a bit, changed the background, and updated the banner. I'm pleased with it, and it helped me kill time on an otherwise slow day. Hopefully you like it too and that it makes finding things a bit easier.

Otherwise not much to report. Still just prepping away for the holidays... Trav brought up the big dining room table last night, vacuumed and dusted, I made the guest bed and cleaned the last of the "stuff" from the guest bedroom/nursery, and sorted some more "stuff" in the office. Its really pretty much there. Tonight we're going to prep the appetizer veggies and clean the kitchen. And then I think we are ready.

And tomorrow... well a big old

I hope its full of delicious food, loving family, and thoughts turned to all that you have to be thankful for. We have so much this year.

Enjoy your holiday, and enjoy your weekend.

this that and the other thing

Weekly Review
(And guess where that picture was taken! More of office, at the bottom.)

How far along? 27 weeks!

Total weight gain/loss: Not sure... but I'm sure there will be a gain when I go back next week, especially after Thursday!

Maternity clothes? Oh yes.

Stretch marks? Nothing new, nothing on the belly.

Sleep: Okay, lots and lots of crazy dreams.

Best moment this week: It will be showing off my belly to my fam... and hopefully letting them feel her move.

Movement: Great big movements, ones that move my whole belly.

Food cravings: Not too much right now. Just the normal stuff.

Actual Gender: GIRL! :-)

Labor Signs: Nope.

Belly Button in or out? Innie... barely!

What I miss: I would love to be able to drink this awesome apple wine with Thanksgiving dinner... but I'll have some yummy sparkling grape juice instead. :-)

What I am looking forward to: My baby shower on the 12th.

Weekly Wisdom: I got nothing.

Milestones: 3rd Trimester!!!!!!!!!!


Also... I present the office!:

Before:


And NOW:



What do you think? We're very happy with how it turned out!

check, check, check

Furniture is moved back into the office, and we actually picked up a new (smaller) desk to replace the large L shaped one we had. We purged as we put stuff back in, and managed to throw away 3 extra large trash bags full of old papers, junky knick-knacks, etc that we no longer needed. Because of all that, and because Trav finally got rid of the nasty beat-up recliner chair that had been in the office (left by the previous owners!), we have so much more room in there now. Its great.

We have our nursery/guest bedroom back now too... which is also great. Washed the sheets last night, will do the comforter tonight, plus vacumming (etc) and the room should be ready for my parents.

We also did our Thanksgiving shopping, so food-wise, we are ready. We have pepperoni, cheese and crackers, shrimp, and some veggies for earlier in the day snacking. For dinner we have a big turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole, corn, crescent rolls, and cranberry sauce. My mom is bringing desserts... maybe pumpkin pie and monkey bread? We have sparkling grape juice and wine for toasting. For breakfast the next morning we have eggs, bacon, scraple, and cinnamon rolls. Maybe I'll get Trav to pick up some fruit too.
We are going to be stuffed!

The next few nights will be busy as we sort the last of the items back into the office, clean the house, and bring the big table up from the basement... but I'm feeling relaxed about it and confident that it will get done. Even if the table has to be brought up on Thanksgiving day, my parents aren't going to care.

Trav is going to ask my dad to help him hang our diploma's in the office. Finally they will be on the walls!! Probably the only things going on our beautiful new walls. ;-) If we get the chance, we'll pick up blinds sometime this week too (we're looking at maybe the white faux wood kind)... so Trav can get changed in that room again without feeling like a perve. But he can work around that for the time being.

As for the other weekend activities... my movie night on Friday was great. Very fun, very relaxing, and I got home early enough to not be completely wiped by it. Saturday at Lehigh was fine... though I didn't get to see many people, which was disappointing. But I did pick up a cute Lehigh onsie and baby hoodie for our little girl to wear when we head up next year! :-) Mama got a new hoodie too. Lol.

All in all, good stuff to report!

No pictures of the room at the moment... I ran out of time to snap them this weekend! But hopefully I can get some tonight, and can share tomorrow.

For now, I'm back to work since we are very busy with an event today.

ahhh, that's better

Last night went so much smoother. The second coat always goes on nicer anyway, but we also figured out a better process, so we were done at 8:30 instead of 10. It helped that there were better spirits/moods in play, and no frustrated breakdowns.

So! Besides a little touch up on the trim, painting is DONE!! I'm very excited*. Pictures after the weekend I think... I want to get them once the drop clothes are off the floor, and furniture is back in place. I'm liking the color, but can't wait to see it dry and in sun. I think the game plan is touching up tonight (either Trav will do, or we'll both do when I get home), then letting dry and air out tomorrow, then Sunday moving furniture around, vacumming, etc to get the room back in place. Or something like that. And we can also move furniture, empty the guest bedroom of stuff during the evenings next week.

As for tonight, I have my movie night with two of my friends from work. And tomorrow morning we are heading up to Lehigh! We also need to go shopping Sunday for our Thanksgiving fare, because if we get a frozen turkey, then it will need to straight into the fridge to start thawing for Thursday. It will be a full, busy weekend... but definitely fun, and I'm looking forward to seeing people and getting this room finished up!

OH! And this morning Trav and I went back to his favorite daycare to tour it again together, and I really like it too. Plus, our friend's Brian & Stacey have their two kids at this same place, the younger of which is in the baby room. So our babies would get to play together. I think we found our place! Another checkmark!

Well, on that note... its back to work for me.




*this does NOT negate what I said yesterday... still want that kick in the shins next time! Lol.

the next time...

The next time I come on here saying, "oh yay, we're going to redo a room... its going to be fun... we'll do it all leisurely and nothing will go wrong!", KICK ME! Hard. In the shin.

The first coat of paint on the walls is done. We are so close (one more coat, then some touching up, then moving everything back in the room). But holy hell... I HATE PAINTING.

So yeah, next time people, talk some sense into me!

new coats, awesome husband

I got two new coats today, since my old ones were no longer closing over the belly... and I still have 3 of the coldest months left!

(Sorry for the crappy cell phone shots:)

(This will be my "nice day out, not too cold" coat.)

(This will be my "holy crap its cold and snowy" coat! ;-) Its also my first puffer coat ever.)

I'm excited to start wearing them right away!

On another note, when I got home last night Trav was finishing up the second coat of trim paint! Yay for my awesome husband.
So all the trim (plus closet) is complete and tonight we will start the walls. I'm hoping that between the two of us, we'll be able to finish the first coat tonight, second coat tomorrow night, then Friday night can be a let everything finish drying night (its also my movie night with friends, and probably our recover from sore arms night!)... and this weekend we can start moving furniture back. ::crosses fingers:: We'll see how that goes.
After that it will just be a matter of straightening up and putting away and cleaning. Maybe we could even set up the crib and changer (it would be very helpful to get them out of the dining room).

Well, I have plenty of work to get done, so I better get back to it.

last week in the 2nd tri

* First I wanted to note that I just got a call from my brother, who WILL be joining us for Thanksgiving!! I cannot wait to see him! We'll be having 5 adults and two crazy dogs... should be entertaining! :-) *


Weekly Review

How far along? 26 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: +10 lb total

Maternity clothes? Oh yeah... I put on some pre-maternity pants this past weekend to paint in, couldn't even get the zipper halfway up. My more average lengthed shirts are starting to be too short now too.

Stretch marks? None on the belly.

Sleep: Good... I've actually gotten better about night wakings to pee, normally only 1 now, and I sleep soundly the rest of the time. (Of course I say that, but had the worst night of sleep ever last night. Ugh.)

Best moment this week: Getting to hear the heartbeat at the docs this morning. Plus, getting it on the recorder so Trav can put it in a build-a-bear for me! :-)

Movement: Yup, bopping/rolling/kicking away in there.

Food cravings: Avocado rolls still... plus anything creamy and full of carbs, but that's nothing new!

Actual Gender: GIRL! :-)

Labor Signs: Nope, but have started with the Braxton-Hicks.

Belly Button in or out? Innie, but barely!

What I miss: Normal feeling ribs, all the sushi I can eat.

What I am looking forward to: Finding out if I passed the glucose test (did this morning), so I hopefully don't have to do the 3 hr version! Plus, 3rd trimester!

Weekly Wisdom: Hang in thru the bad parts, because the good parts are amazing and so worth it!

Milestones: Last week in the 2nd Tri! I can't believe how fast its going.

::points up at ticker::

Do you see that? Do you? Double digits. Time until this little girl arrives is now in the double digits. Holy crap. Holy. Crap.

Not to mention that I will be 26 weeks tomorrow, which means my last week in the 2nd trimester. Wow. The time is flying by.


So Thursday went well, really well. Its always a little weird when this event is over, since there is such a build up to it... and then, its just done! But it went great, and we were all happy.
I was told that I looked nice, that pregnancy suited me, by a few people... which was very nice to hear. I was wearing a dress I got just for the occasion:


Friday I got to sleep in some, and visited another daycare before heading to work. The daycare was okay, but we looked at a few things and ended up eliminating it.
Trav headed to Ro & Pat's on Friday night (though Ro wasn't there, she was at the apartment) to help Pat pack up a moving truck which is going to his parents' place for storage.

Saturday the crib and dresser were delivered... they're resting in our dining room at teh moment... huge boxes, taking up lots of room! Bah. Oh well, they should be out of there soon. In that regard, Saturday we did coat #1 of primer in the office. I always forget how crappy that first coat of primer is... it never goes on easily or smoothly, but we got it on. Sunday we did the second coat, which was so so much easier.


We also ran out to the store and picked up our actual paint. Trav is home today so he'll be workin in the room some more (probably painting the ceiling - just a fresh coat of ceiling paint, and maybe doing the closet in the trim color), and he's also going to visit another daycare.

Yesterday was so nice out (sunny, mild, lovely around 70*) that we decided to grill for dinner. We ended up getting to enjoy a beautiful sunset as well.

All in all, a great weekend.
Plus, Trav and I talked, and we're going to have my dad take some pictures of the three (3.5?) of us when they come down for Thanksgiving. Hopefully our furry one will cooperate and we'll get a good picture for a Christmas card. Trav is also going to take some maternity type pictures of me sometime in the next few weeks. Hopefully they'll turn out well and we'll have some great shots to remember this time by. Wish him luck! :-)

I also started working on my Christmas list/shopping. So I'm feeling okay about that.

The rest of this week should be good. I have my glucose test tomorrow. Trav has off again, so he'll drive me... then he'll work in the room some more. Friday I have a date with my friends Andrew and Lo to watch Nazi! Zombies! And Saturday is Lehigh/Lafayette, which hopefully means getting to see a bunch of our friends.

Hopefully during the course of the week we can get the room actually painted up, and then cleaned up... and Sunday or early next week we can start moving things back into the office. I can't wait to see the finished product!

Well, for the moment its time to get back to work. Ciao!

So far, so good on sticking to our "complete the office or bust" schedule. We're right on track and things are going well.

Today is our BIG EVENT at work. We're busy, but not worried or frantic or anything like that. The weather is pretty disgusting, but c'est la vie. The action really gets going around 3:30. Wish me/us luck.

I look cute today, so I'm going to try to get a picture. ;-)

Back to work... something more substantial later, thought maybe not until Monday.
xoxo

upcoming (and photos)

First the pictures.
From two weekends ago:

From this past weekend:

Noticing a trend here? :-)

Daisy's new treat (birthday present):

Its more then a little ridiculous!

As for all that stuff I was worried about yesterday... well, I'm still a little overwhelmed, but feeling better because we have a game plan!! It involves some work everyday, but not too much in any one day... plus we built in "catch up" days.

Last night: personal - got to watch my belly move! the baby was bouncing around in there so much that my belly was actually jerking and moving... it was crazy!
office - finished scraping/wiping off loose crud from office walls, plus a little sanding

It got a little dusty in there, but we did good work. (Don't worry, I wore a mask.)

Today/Tonight: office - non-noxious corner caulking
personal - email E about Thanksgiving, coming up or no can do due to finals/shortness of break

Tomorrow: office - Trav finishes noxious patching, I check from time to time to be sure Trav hasn't passed out from fumes

Thursday: work - all last minute prep for big event, BIG EVENT from 6 - 9:30ish
office - sanding (for Trav... I will be at big event!)

Friday: work - come in late after sleeping in (hallelujah!), review big event and make any notes of "things to remember" for next year, address all work that got pushed aside because of big event
office - more patching if needed, wiping down walls to remove all sanding dust

Saturday: office - Trav over to help Pat with moving stuff, I'm at home to take delivery of crib/changer (yay!) and will work on finishing up any sanding/patching/wiping, start priming when Trav returns
personal - think about Thanksgiving, review my day of plan and grocery list, what should my parents bring/mom make?

Sunday: office - finish priming, paint the ceiling
personal - call mom to "talk turkey", call Laura (Quad's mom) to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Monday/Tuesday (16 & 17): office - Trav has off... will buy paint, finish priming (if needed), start painting
work - other random work event (Monday)
personal - appt with midwives for 1 hr. glucose test... ugh (Tuesday)

Rest of week: office - finish painting (walls and trim), touch up as needed
personal - work on list of Christmas gifts for people, get together with Andrew and Lo for Nazi Zombie movie night! (Friday)

Saturday (21st): personal - Lehigh/Lafayette weekend... head up to Lehigh in a.m. for alumni meeting, hang out for a little
office - back home to start moving everything back from guest bedroom/nursery to office

Sunday (22nd): office - continue to move things back into office, arranging and sorting as we go
personal - talk to mom to finalize last minute Thanksgiving details

Monday - Wednesday: office - finish moving last stuff from guest bedroom/nursery to office, make up guest bedroom for my parents, put together crib/changer?

Thursday: THANKSGIVING!!! eat too much food and watch football. :-)

Black Friday: start Christmas shopping!


I'm feeling better already, just having a plan!

busy times ahead

I laid down in bed last night and had a momentary panic attack about everything coming up and needing to get done in the next few weeks.

• After sickness and injury sidelining our office work, we really want to try and get it done in the next few weekends so that we can empty out the guest bedroom/nursery and my parents will have a place to sleep for Thanksgiving night (two weeks from Thursday in case it slipped your mind... yipes!). Plus, our crib and changer are being delivered this weekend and we have to get the office done before we'll have a place to set them up!
  Here's the colors I'm loving for walls and trim (trim color will probably be inside of closet color too)... opinions?
  
  

• Thursday is our biggest work event of the year. I can't believe that its that time already, and work this week is going to be crazy with last minute preparations.
  Already today I've been running around preparing flyers and updating documents, and getting other various items sorted out so that we can prepare the materials that will be handed out to the event guests. I'm breathing and typing now while I take a moment to eat.
  
  
• Haven't even started figuring out Christmas presents for everyone. And often my shopping is mostly done by the end of November. So I'm a bit behind and that makes me nervous. Just over 6 weeks to go... which seems long, but with everything else, will fly by.

When I type it into bullet points, it doesn't seem like too much... but the amount of work involved in each is a little overwhelming.

But, despite my little moment of panic, I'm feeling pretty good. Especially since my ribs are finally healing up. They are still sore... but so so much better then before. I have iced them today, but haven't had to take any Tylenol yet, which is good.

Plus, we had a nice weekend. Friday I was working, but Trav had off. He and Daisy had fun together... and he successfully checked out two daycares. We already crossed one off our list since it was more expensive then the other, and Trav didn't like it as much. He's checking out another tomorrow, and two more on the 16th. That night we headed out for sushi at our favorite place, the Pearl.

Saturday we relaxed in the morning (started watching 7 Pounds), then headed to Ro & Pat's in the afternoon to help them move. They sold their house (close next week), and wanted to get a jump on moving their stuff to their apartment. They have movers for the big furniture, but we were there to help with some of the smaller furniture and a lot of boxes. Well, Trav helped with the moving part... I helped by baby wrangling! I was happy with my job, especially since GG was just waking up when we got there and in a very snuggly mood. We ended the night with some pizza at their apartment, then headed home to our pup and the rest of our movie. We enjoyed the movie... I don't think the ending was as surprising as they had hoped... we pretty much knew from the beginning exactly how the movie was going to play out (honestly I think the brother part was the only thing that I didn't "know" from the start), but we enjoyed it anyway.

Sunday Trav did some patching in the office (unfortunately the fumes from spackle/caulk stuff we are using are so noxious, I really can't help), and we did some more relaxing. I made up for my lack of work in the office by running out twice to pick up some necessities from the grocery store and to grab us some Chinese for lunch. The pup was loving the mild weather with lots of sun, and spent as much time outdoors as possible. She also spent some time napping with her daddy, which she loved... and which I got some cute pictures of (will share tomorrow when I get a chance to download them!).

Another nice thing is that the Septa strike is over! Thank goodness. Which means a much easier time getting home for me, plus no sore back from standing in line forever.

Well, time for me to get back to the grind... but hopefully everyone had a great weekend! Back tomorrow with pictures.

A New Day celebrates

Enough of all that other stuff... lets talk celebratory news!

Today, Daisy is a year old! :-) Don't worry... we aren't going to make her wear a hat, or bake a doggie birthday cake... but Trav has the day off, and he is going to take Daisy to the Pe.t.Co and Pet.smart to pick out a birthday treat. Lol.

Also, as of tomorrow, I've been blogging for 7 years! I can't even believe that. Seven years.

This blog has turned into more then just the time-killer, experiment that it was initially... its my place to record, my place to vent, my place to lay out my life and seek imput. Its also my guarentee that I'll never forget. I'm so glad I grabbed up my little corner of the internet when I did. I'm so glad I'm still here.

Today I am still sore, but feeling damn good otherwise. My wonderful husband is using part of his day off to check out daycares (so hopefully we'll have our place booked at one by the end of the month). And my sympathetic boss is (and has been for the past few days) letting me leave 45 minutes early so that I don't have to arrive home 2 hours past the end of work because of Sep.ta strike stuff.

Plus, it's Friday... and how can that not make you glad? :-)

the good, the bad, the ugly

I've been hesitant to write this post, but frankly feel that I would be better off to just get it off my chest. I'm going to start with one of those annoying blanket statements...
Pregnancy is hard. So much harder then I thought it would be.

Now let me backpedal!
I am so thankful to be pregnant. So grateful every. single. day. for the little girl growing big and strong inside of me. Every pregnancy is a miracle (seriously, its mind boggling how one little sperm and one little egg create 7.5lbs of life!), but I feel especially blessed because of our experience with our first pregnancy. We want a baby so much, and losing our first was so hard for both of us. I cried for months. Little things hurt me. And seeing those two lines in June, then the heartbeat in July, well it was a balm. It didn't make all the hurt go away, and it didn't take away the pain of losing our first (who will always be our first), but it did give us a new chance, a new start. And because of that, it felt like twice the blessing.

But here's the thing: I really wanted to be one of those women who glowed with pregnancy. Who wore it with ease and grace. Most of the time, I'm not. I certainly have my days (today is actually pretty damn good) where I walk around with a smile on my face and I'm sure people look at my blooming belly and think that I'm such a lovely vision of womanhood. To them I say, "HA!" I spent the weeks up to 19 feeling nauseous, not being able to eat well, and having spells of lightheadedness because of that (the only glow there, was a cold sweat as I tried not to puke on people). I had three spotting scares in the first trimester, and spent week 22 horribly sick... not to mention the scare with her amniotic fluid. Week 23 and now 24 I'm dealing with the pulled muscle that resulted from that sickness, and to top it off, expanding ribs that push on that muscle leaving me sore, aching, and frankly, very uncomfortable most of the day.

Yesterday I left the office to go for a walk around the block, a chance to get some fresh air and stretch a bit. While I was out, I called Trav, under the guise of wanting to talk to him about daycare stuff, but really because I just needed to hear his voice and be comforted. I was having a Bad Day. I was in pain, and that pain was making me feel lightheaded and slightly nauseated. I am so grateful for Trav in all this... he listens to me complain, comforts me when he can, and treats me with little things (letting me get extra sleep, giving in to my food cravings, etc). He's involved... going to as many of my appointments with me as he can, going to visit daycares this friday on his day off, and generally trying to make sure that I'm well taken care of.
I warned him last night that it already feels like my intestines are in my ribcage, and that our little girl has no more 'up' to take advantage of... which leaves 'out', so I'm probably going to have a huge monster belly by the end of this pregnancy (see picture evidence below).


Being the amazing guy he is, he didn't gulp too audibly at that. Lol.

Part of me feels horrible for complaining at all... especially since it feels like that's all I've been doing lately. It feels like a slight against my daughter, kicking away in my belly. There are women out there that would kill to be pregnant, and I was one of those women 6 months ago. But I would be doing no one any favors by pretending that just because this is what I wanted, what I still want more then words could ever express, that it is all fun and cheer... that it isn't ridiculously hard. If I had to be pregnant for another 10 months to get Gwen in the end, then I would. But Lord Almighty on High, I am so glad that I don't. I'm so glad that I'm more then halfway there.

Because pregnancy is hard people. There, I said it. Pregnancy can suck.
But as Ro told me, "In the end you get your baby, and that's the good part."

Halloween weekend (updated)

We had a lazy Halloween weekend. We rested, watched scary movies, and handed out candy to the trick-or-treaters who braved the damp Halloween night.

UPDATED: Wow, total pregnancy brain moment... I completely forgot that I had a hair appointment on Saturday, so was up by my parents. It was nice to see them, and since it had been a few weeks, they hadn't seen my belly since it popped. My mom was adorable, and was like, I have to touch it!! Lol. It was great to see them.

Sunday we headed to Ro & Pat's for dinner... and got to watch GG have her first (little) piece of pumpkin pie.




She wasn't sure about it at first, but ended up enjoying it. :-)

Today I'm at work, with tons to do, wishing I could be in my PJs to do it all. My side/ribs have been feeling better, but today I'm very uncomfortable. I keep having to shift around to try and find a position that feels okay. It could be worse though.

Well, off to get lots done. Welcome to November!