Put Together

Today was another "around the house" day. Not due to snow (although we did get 4 or 5 inches last night) really, but John had school work to do, and I decided I'd take yet another step in prepping the baby's room. The closet. I did some consolidating of boxes and rearranging to allow some floor space and top shelf space. I figure this kid won't have that many things that need to be hung, but I wanted to make sure we had storage room in that room just for baby stuff. All this consolidating also gave me a chance to inventory all the books I've gotten from Scholastic over the past year, so that was nice.

After that, I picked up downstairs and did some light dusting while John decided he'd put the crib and changing table together. We're quite a long way from any finished products, but we're moving along in a timely fashion.

Here's what the crib and changing table look like. They aren't necessarily in their permanent spot...but I just wanted to share.

Step One

The plan for today was to go and register at Babies R Us for the tot, but low and behold...here comes Johnny Snowstorm dumping lots of heavy wet snow ALL day long. Last night when we watched the news, they said they thought it'd be more rain and we'd only see maybe 1-3 inches, but there was a possibility of seeing more depending on which way the front moved. Well, I guess it moved the way that pushed more snow on us because this mornings forecast they said we'd see anywhere from 8-14 inches. I'm not sure how much is out there now, but I'd say 8 or more is a pretty safe guess.

With that being the case, we decided to scrap the idea of trying to battle the highway just to get to Babies R Us. Instead, we decided to embrace the idea of being stuck inside and do some work on the baby's room. Our crib and changing table showed up yesterday (thankfully instead of today or another crappy weather day) so we moved the boxes for them upstairs into the den which will be the baby's room. This is what our den looked like before.


This is what it looks like now.


Step one was to move the couch out of there. We tried doing this over a year ago and didn't have much success, so just left it alone. That was not an option today. If the movers were able to get it in there, there had to be a way of getting it out. So we basically moved the desk to where the couch was and vice versa, did a little analyzing and PUSHED. It did end up ripping the molding on the inside of the door frame off (oops) but we were able to fix it with no real problems. Then we had to get it from upstairs to downstairs, and then through another door and into the basement. I'm not real sure what knowledge we obtained between getting it through the first door and the second door, but we managed to get it through the door to the basement MUCH easier and without any damage. It slid right through, and both door frames are the same size. Maybe it was the lack of a wall next to the door we had to get it through, I don't know. But I was thankful it went down easily.

Now, we can put the crib and changing table together whenever we feel like it without having to worry about messing with the couch. I'm alright to leave the desk in there until John is done with his master's classes (which will be shortly before the baby gets here) and then we can just put it in the basement (well, by we I mean him and my neighbor's husband). We were originally going to put it in our room, but it won't be of any help to him when he's working on his classes when he's adjusting to his shifts and staying up late. Plus it'll just clutter our room and make me crazy. Everything else is just details and rearranging at this point. My house just got smaller and with that, I'm ready to move!!!

And incase you were wondering, it's 4:45pm and our snow total is currently 12.5" If you don't believe me, here's my car as John is cleaning it off. I know I asked for a lot of snow this year...but we've had enough already!

My Pretty Flowers

I forgot to share the pretty flowers my husband brought me home Tuesday before our doctor's appointment. Aren't they pretty? They're just grocery store flowers, but I like them. And he listened too! I just said last weekend when we were at the grocery, "You should get me some pretty white/pink tipped roses sometime," as I elbowed him in the ribs. He's pretty great :)

Meet Baby Nakel

Yay! We got to see baby Nakel today...and what an active little baby this child is!! Our appointment was at 3, they called us back by 3:15, and we didn't leave until 4. I thought that I might pee my pants while we were waiting since they give you the "have a full bladder rule." Five minutes into the ultrasound, the tech said, "My God your bladder is full! Go ahead and empty it so that baby has some room to roll around." Best news ever!! I happily ran to the bathroom.

The next half hour or so after that, all this kid did was flip flop around like it was in a Cirque show. The tech even commented how much he/she moved and how elusive they were being. I thought for sure we'd never know, but finally we did get to see (and I'm sorry, but I can't tell you). Even if he/she would never have cooperated, it's a healthy, on track baby which is all I wanted to know. Here are the only 3 pictures I like. I just can't believe that this kid is inside of me! Weird!

This one was my tech's favorite. She was trying to figure out the sex and here's my kid, legs crossed, trying to get its feet in it's mouth. She said, "This child does not want to tell you anything! What a stinker!"


All the other pictures they gave me are 3D, and since it's still so early for baby, I'm not super fond of these since all the baby is is skin and bones, so it looks weird. But regardless, it's our baby!




Hope you enjoy them as much as we did live! John even said, "Do you have any more cool doctor appointments, or is this it?" I told him this was probably pretty much it until delivery day. I'm glad he really liked it :)

24 Hour Countdown

We are 24 hours away from seeing our baby!! I have an ultrasound scheduled for 3pm and I'm officially counting down now. The last time I saw him or her, it was a blob, so I'm excited to actually see a baby. I'm a little nervous though because other than feeling like I have a rock in my gut and no period, I'd never know I was pregnant. I'm always afraid that something is wrong because of that. I'm sure that everything is probably fine, but it's just weird/hard to assume or know that everything is going the way it's supposed to, sight unseen. So...here's to counting down!!

More Snow?

We're supposed to get more snow tonight into tomorrow. Just when everything we have is starting to melt away (although it got stupidly cold a few days ago, so the melting has stopped), I can't really think of more. It says we're only in the 2-5 inch range, so hopefully we'll be one the 2" side of it.

Video Chat

I love being able to video chat with my sister and the kids. We don't do it nearly enough, but when we do, it's the highlight of my day. My sister text me yesterday and said that Max wanted to know when I was coming home again and that he missed me (melts my heart) so she asked if I could Skype later that night. Stupid web cam I had from my old laptop wasn't compatible with my new one, so we went and got a new one today. I'm looking very forward to seeing my little buddies tonight!!

The Smallest Accomplishment

Call me stupid or crazy, but I am very proud of myself this week for the smallest accomplishment. I have a very bad habit of creating a pile of clothes on the side of my bed from the clothes I take off right before bed. I don't pick them up the next day either. So I made the conscious decision that I was going to keep it picked up this week...and I did!! I'm so proud of myself. Now, if I can just keep that momentum up forever I'll be set :)

Damn Candy

I wish I was allergic to candy...that way, I wouldn't buy it. I bought a bag of Kit Kat's, Snickers mini's, and Nestle Crunch hearts (all the day after Valentine's Day) because I told John I'd get us some. Why I couldn't get just one bag is beyond me. Even John said, "Why'd you get 3 different kinds?" I blame the baby ;) I don't think it would be so bad if I could eat just one piece of one kind, but instead, I end up eating 2 Snickers, 2 Kit Kats, and 2 or 3 of the hearts. UGH! Damn candy. I do workout every day, and eat well for breakfast, lunch, and dinner...does that make it ok?

The Newest Addition

The newest addition to our home gym collection arrived today! A rowing machine! I loving having such a wide variety of exercise equipment in the basement because on rainy, cold, windy, snowy, etc. days where I don't feed like going to the gym, I can just go downstairs and workout. And on days when I don't feel like working out in general, a lot of times I'll tell myself, "Just go down and walk for 10 or 20 minutes," and that'll turn into a 45+ minute workout. So it's a good motivator. Plus I can do 10 minutes on each piece of equipment we have, and that's 40 minutes right there without getting bored. Yay!

Thawing

It's in the 30s today and with that, everything is finally starting to thaw and melt. I actually thought it was raining this morning when I woke up. I heard all the dripping and just figured it was rain, but sure enough, it's just the millions of icicles melting away. The only downfall of this thaw, is that tomorrow it's only supposed to be 20, which means all this water, will then refreeze. Thankfully it's supposed to be back in the 30s Wednesday. Our driveway has been a solid sheet of ice for weeks, a good inch or more, so having it melt will be great. We've had lots of snow this year, and I think I'm finally ready for spring.

Washed Away

I washed away most of my spray tan today...it was a sad day. I could've probably gotten a few more days out of it, but my skin desperately needed to be exfoliated. It was nice to be so tan for a week. Now, it's back to my pasty reality.

A Few Pictures

Here are a few pictures from our anniversary night.

Our friends Steve and Mary.


Mary and Me


And at the end of the night, I realized that John and I hadn't had our picture taken, so we took one ourselves. This first one, you can tell how tired John is. I told him he looked high, and we should do another one.


This one...yeah, not so great either. Mr. too wide eyed!


And this one, better than the other two...but still, not super. I guess that's what I get for forgetting to have someone take it at the beginning of the night.

Delicious Dinner

We had such a great night last night! Our dinner was delicious and being about to enjoy it with our friends was really great. We ate at a steakhouse called David Burke Prime which was in Foxwoods. I had a 3 course meal which was a salad, 6oz filet mignon with 2 jumbo shrimp (which I didn't eat, I HATE shrimp), and a piece of chocolate mousse cake for dessert. John had a 10oz dry aged steak, salad, and helped me eat my cake.

After dinner we all hit the casino for some slot action. My friend Mary doubled her money almost instantly playing The Amazing Race, and John was able to play on $35 for the rest of the night. Me...I was a loser, go figure. Our friends had to leave at 10 to get back to RI to relieve their sitter who was watching their daughter, and we didn't stay up too much longer after that. I think we were back in our room by midnight. We had such a nice night though and were really happy we were able to go out and enjoy ourselves.

Today we got up around 8, went and used the gym at the hotel, showered and then headed back toward home. We stopped at Denny's for brunch (classy, huh?) and are now back relaxing. John is working on his classes for his master's degree, and I am writing this, thinking about taking a nap. The bed was comfortable at the hotel, but neither of us slept that well. The more I think about it, I think a nap might be in order.

4 Years

I can't believe that I've been married for 4 years! I'm not quite sure where the time has gone, but it has gone by fast. We have plans to go to MGM and Foxwoods Casino over in Connecticut tonight. We're having dinner with some friends of ours who live in Rhode Island at one of the restaurants there in the casino, and then we're staying at MGM. We did something similar last year, only at Mohegan Sun and without meeting friends. I'm really looking forward to it and am sure we'll have a great time!

Adjusting

Can I just say that I have an incredible husband? We exchanged anniversary presents today and much to my surprise, he got me a new laptop!! Mine old one is 6 years old and has been running super slow for the past year and sounding like a jet engine about to take off. I had said that I wanted a new laptop for Christmas but didn't get one, and honestly didn't expect one. In my world, that's a big purchase (no matter what the price) so when it was my anniversary gift, I was honestly shocked. 5 gold stars for my hubby!!

So now, it's time to start adjusting to this new one and figuring out how to transfer things over to it, and what it will and won't do. It's frustrating as ever because I am SO used to my old one, and I even said I hated this new one (which I don't, but just hate getting used to it). I want to know as soon as I open things just how they work and be familiar with them, but I know that that just can't be the case here. I don't think it'll take me that long to figure it all out, but I know I won't learn as fast as I want to.

Tan

With our anniversary being in two days, I decided that in order to prepare for this occasion I needed a tan. So I made an appointment to have my face, chest, and arms spray tanned and it's so nice to see my face with some color!! It does look a little questionable right now since the spray they spray you with is tinted so they can see where they put it, but then you have to wait 6 hours to take a shower, and it'll also darken throughout the night. So hopefully after I shower and wake up tomorrow, I'll look like I just got back from vacation, and by Wednesday, I'll look anniversary appropriate! I figured I'd go all out since I never look nice for anything these days. Plus, it's nice to feel good about myself for a change...and yes, a tan does that for me. Too bad the rest of my body is white white white! Oh well, it's what you see that counts, right?

I had my monthly doctor's appointment today and all was well, minus my weight. She said it was a pound or two more than she'd like which makes me realize I HAVE been overindulging too often on things, so I need to scale it back. I knew it before I even asked, but that is exactly why I asked, and she was honest. But gaining 7 or 8lbs overall in 17 weeks I don't think is awful...but then again, I'm not the doctor. I had planned on running through Dunkin Donuts for breakfast afterwards, but instead went home and had some scrambled egg whites (and I had had a Fiber One bar before heading to the docs...so don't think egg whites was all I had).

On an even better and more exciting note...in 2 weeks we get to find out if this baby is a boy or a girl!!! She was going to make me wait 3, but was kind enough to compromise at 2. Too bad you all will have to wait until late April early May to find out. Yes, I am that mean (according to my mom, m-i-l, and sister). I don't see what's so mean about it. Nothing is going to change what it already is, so what's the big deal if I don't tell? I'm sure it'll be a boy because I know my sister and mom, and even me, kinda hope it's a girl, and because of that, it'll be a boy. But no matter what it is, we'll all love it just the same. I just get to know sooner ;) The perks of being the parent!!

It Always Figures

Every time I decide to go somewhere, in my car, it decides to start snowing and/or freeze rain. I wanted to go to Babies R Us today just to get out of the house, but of course by the time I showered and got dressed and walked out the door, it started to snow. So rather than just say, "Screw it," and come back inside, I decided I would nix the trip to Babies R Us and just go to another grocery store in town in my continued search of Almond Joy coffee creamer. Melissa introduced it to me on Monday when we had dinner, and I'd been searching for it ever since.

Thankfully the first store I went to today (consequently the 5th store total that I've been to) had it. And of course, by the time I went in, found what I needed and left, it started to snow a bit harder. With that, I decided I would just go home, and I'm glad I did because that is when the freezing rain began. I made it home with no problems, thankfully, but man, what a nasty night it's turning out to be.

It's changing from snow to rain, to freezing rain, back to snow, etc. It even thundered a few times which was weird. Hopefully John won't have any issues getting to work, and hopefully tomorrow won't be a messy day. I think I'm officially over winter.

sNOwmageddon

Isn't it crafty how I made the "NO" in snowmageddon capitalized? That's not a mistake my friends. No, no, no. It's because the GIANT storm we were supposed to get that was supposed to bury and kill us...did NOT do any of that. We did get snow, only about 6", and some sleet and freezing rain, but that was it. The highway authority had advised that people stay off the road and to not go anywhere if it wasn't necessary. So with that, all the state offices closed, along with many other local businesses (even the YMCA which NEVER closes...giving my neighbor a much deserved snow day). By 4pm, the roads were cleared, Melissa and I had the driveway shoveled, and it was not snowmageddon. I will admit, I'm a little glad we didn't get dumped on, but on the other hand, I kinda wanted to see it. I did take some pictures for your enjoyment, although I don't think they're that exciting.






I spend my day today running around looking for a crock pot carrier which, 5 stores later, I found out apparently don't exist anymore unless you want to get one off of Ebay. John is taking meatballs into work tonight since they do a pot luck on Friday's when they work the overnight shift, and rather than him having to carry it, I thought he could just put it in the carrier. Just kidding. Thankfully we have an old soft lunchbox of his that it fits in, so he'll be carrying it in there instead.

I also got his anniversary present finally. He reminded me yesterday that he'd dropped hints about what I could get him, which clearly I missed (I blame it on baby brain), so with that reminder I decided I better get it while it was fresh in my brain (and since our anniversary is Wednesday). So I ended up getting him a new watch. Nothing super spectacular. He likes the Casio G-shock watches and the one he has from a few years ago has gone to the crapper, so that's what I decided on. I was a little annoyed though because the mall closest to my house SUCKS. There is only a Sears, JCPenny, Bon Ton, and Dick's as the anchor stores and none of them had what I wanted. Thankfully, Walmart did.

Calm Before the Storm

It is the calm before the storm right now. Round 1 came today, giving us maybe 3 inches. It has stopped for now, and we are now anxiously awaiting round 2 that is supposed to begin anywhere between midnight and 2a.m., dumping anywhere between 12-18 inches or more on us here in Saratoga, not to mention a possibility of ice...depending on whether or not it makes it this far north. We are as ready as we can be, but time will only tell if we really are. I'm not sure where we'll put it when we go to shovel out. John has to work tomorrow night, so shoveling is inevitable for us both. I'll let him do the majority of it, but I'll definitely have to help. Stay tuned for pictures tomorrow!