2nd Trimester list

I refreshed my memory by looking at my list from my 1st trimester. Here's what's new this past trimester:

1. Started it out with a crazy love for Gushers. Haven't had them since the beginning, but I was at a pack or 2 a day. :)
2. I have eaten more Kraft mac and cheese this trimester then in the past 5 years. Gotta love that cheesy-deliciousness!
3. I am still (KNOCK ON WOOD!) sleeping really well. I have occasional bouts of being restless in the middle of the night, but overall, I have NO complaints. I usually fall asleep on my right side and then wake up feeling guilty and turn to my left. My book says that either is ok! I bought an awesomely soft body pillow and am in LOVE.
4. I had more "morning sickness" this past few weeks to a month then in the beginning, even one bout of throwing up (in the middle of the night!).
5. I gag when I brush my teeth. (Sorry for the details!)
6. I have had quite a bit more energy which means less naps during the week, but I sitll love a good weekend nap (as I did before pregnancy!)
7. Boy oh boy am I irritable! I have had so many bouts of extreme irritation. More than before pregnancy, that's for sure. It comes from frustration, Tytan being naughty, noises, not being able to fix things, annoying neighbors, whatever. It just comes.
8. I still SQUEEEEEZE into my pre-prego jeans because I don't have any maternity jeans (darn being tall!). I have a bella band and the rubberband itself is pretty helpful.
9. I haven't had a lot of back pain, but my legs and feet get sore.
10. Still stressed about my water consumption.
11. When I hear about a certain food, I WANT it. For example, Ryan and I were in Apple Valley and we rolled the windows down. I smelled what I thought was chinese and immediately wanted that. We stopped at a garage sale and I saw Subway which made me want THAT. Luckily I made it home without any other cravings. It's bad.
12. Baby kicks A LOT! It's sooo much fun that I can't help but smile when I feel the little bugger move. I feel like the first movements were pretty early, but they were DEFINITELY movements. It also felt early when Ryan could start feeling him, but sure enough! Ryan is very impatient though. If he puts his hand on my belly he has about a 5-second patience level and then he scolds the baby for not moving. It's quite funny and I think it goes to show that baby will be a mama's boy. :)
13. We are constantly on the lookout for kids/babies that we think ours will look like. Yesterday at the zoo for example. Personally I look at the way people dress babies and kids and then check with Ryan for his opinion on that kid's "style". hah.
14. My belly button has popped out a little.
15. Another favorite: thick and creamy yogurt. This is strange to me given the gagging while brushing my teeth, but I just love it.

Random list, but I'm sure I'll think of more now that I his to publish this post. What a crazy and exciting time!

Neighbor dogs

Ugh.

Here's Tytan on the look out. Both places we have lived have had "ledges". Ledges that are hardly enough to fit a 95-lb dog, but Tytan somehow does it. If you can't tell, the following picture is of him perched up on this ledge looking out the window at the neighbor's Saint Bernard. The Saint Bernard who barks AND barks AND barks whenever he sees anyone and then continues for 15 minutes after they've left. LOVE THAT. Again...ugh.



If this was the only dog, it would be more tolerable, but no...there are two. I would choose the Saint Bernard anytime over the other option: a hyperactive, bipolar "mutt" who is clearly part pit bull. I'm thinking a nice 10-foot fence would be helpful? Geesh!

Day at Como

Brenda, Corey, Anna, and Ryan made a spontaneous trip up here today to see our new place and to take the kiddos to Como Zoo. It was PACKED! I was hoping that with the State Fair being right down the street, that maybe the zoo wouldn't be busy, but it definately was! Once we actually found a parking spot it turned out to be a GREAT day.

Here's some pics...obviously!





I loved the giraffes. Did you know that they never sit?! What a horrible thing! These guys and the gorillas stole the show for me.


Brenda and Anna--Brenda looking very "Kate Goslin-ish", no?


Bad picture of us, but at least it's a picture!




So, it was a fun way to spend a Sunday. It's such a nice zoo, and since it's "free", you really can't go wrong. I can't wait to be able to go back in a year with a 9 month old baby--wow! :)

Look what I got!

So, after seeing some super cute baby things on newborn photography sites, I found my way to Etsy. There, I narrowed it down to two hats that I wanted to choose from to get for baby.


Adorable Crocheted Hat with Ears by Karenisa


Sage Green Earflap Hat by IrishHooksandYarn

So, obviously it was a tough decision! Both are super adorable and I'm so excited to have them for newborn pics. Which did I choose??? Well, I did what anyone would have done in my situation...I got both. :)

Send Happy Thoughts

My best friend from High School, who I don't talk to enough anymore, had twin boys this past week. I know this from her mom's facebook, and have an update to share in order to get some happy thoughts sent her way. :)



This is Collin and Kyle. I'm not sure which is which. Cutey-patooties, huh?

Collin went to the hospital shortly after going home (I think) because he wasn't breathing. He's currently still in the hospital on a machine to help him breathe. Grandma said he's gaining weight and becoming more alert. THey're watching Kyle closely since it was an infection that made Collin stop breathing.

So, prayers and happy thoughts for this little family and these little guys please. :)

why cant i send pics from my phone???

testing with my phone

August

I vote August as my least favorite month of this summer. Ugh. I have done more cleaning in the past week then in the past year. Not only am I cleaning our new place, but we obviously had to clean our old place (to get our deposit moved), AND, one of the homes I supervise is moving to a new location which means overseeing the cleaning and moving of yet another house (this one with 4 highly active residents all in one day!). Yuck.

So, Friday, I crashed. :) I got home, Ryan was at work, and I let myself become overwhelmed by self-pity. It was a pity party complete with freshly baked (from the package!) cinnamon cookies. Here's why:

1. I had to go back and reclean certain items at our old place which was the last thing I wanted to do AND it really, really frustrated me (especially since I know they were cleaned well because my MOM did it! ugh).

2. The new carpet will be in this Wednesday. So, that means that everything we've unpacked (and I had to get somewhat settled in the past week, ya know?) has to be moved on to the following floors: laundry room, bathroom, kitchen, or man cave. NOT Wednesday, but Tuesday, which means a night of no furniture or anything in the living room that has no carpet. Joy. Then, I might actually be able to find our toaster, our plates, our silverware, and our utensils.

3. #3 needs to be taken with a grain of salt because I DO REALIZE HOW INCREDIBLY LUCKY WE ARE to live rent-free. However, I did not want to move to this new house. Wait, I did want to move HERE, but only because I didn't have any choice but to move out of the other place. It is a great house, but I was also living in at the other place because of the 4 residents that I have known for 7 years (and some staff I have known that long too). My role there was comfortable--I knew where to park, who to ask to move their car, knew who was making noises upstairs, etc. etc. HERE--the staff and residents are great, but they're not mine. :( It's uncomfortable being "the new girl"--I really never had to experience that at our last house (FRB) becasue I was always one of the longest term people. Here I don't know staff names. I don't know sounds. I don't know the residents. I don't know where to park. I don't know whose job it is to take the garbage out. I don't know whose getting the mail. I don't know if Tytan's barking is driving people crazy....and they don't know me. So, I'm trying. This type of living situation always makes me worry about what other people think--something I'm very good at doing. Over-analyzing and worrying that people are upset or questioning the way I'm doing things. The move has made me want to move ON and out. We're grateful for the financial situation this allows us, but we definitely have a goal to move out as soon as possible (a year?!).

So, I was able to go to bed and wake up with a better perspective yesterday, but it's still there.

Sorry for the rant--I'll blog about the rest of the weekend later with no complaining. :)

Sugary orange pop

I quick glanced at my Twitter updates to the left and realized I never updated on my appt on Friday.

1. The sugary orange drink was not bad. It was cold and very, very sweet. Luckily, I like sweet stuff.
2. An hour (the wait after drinking it) ticks by VERY slowly when you have a timer with you literally counting down the seconds.
3. The doctor won't be moving our due date to the 15th (what baby was measuring at at the last ultrasound).
4. She only let's people go 1 week and 2 days over their EDD. That means that the latest I would be induced would be December 1st. Ryan's birthday is December 3rd, and let's not be crazy and even JOKE about me being in labor for that long people!
5. I'm measuring right on at between 25-26 weeks.
6. I don't even glance at the scale. Puh-lease. Just tell me if there is a problem, please. :)
7. I didn't not pass out, get hot, sweat, turn pale, need to be leaned back, or feel like I was going to throw up when they took my blood. That's a first.
8. You would not believe the sense of pride I had after that. I was bragging to Ryan about how amazing I did and I told him to just see what bragging rights I would have once I push a baby out after being so excited about surviving a blood draw! :)
9. I do not have gestational diabetes. Huge relief.
10. Next appt: the shot for having a negative blood type. Another fun appt to look forward to!

Ticker

Check it out!
Only 99 days to go!
Craziness!

Moved

Well, god bless america, we are moved. I use the word "moved" loosely since OUR stuff is indeed in this NEW place, but that doesn't mean it has to be unpacked....right?

My mom came up Friday to help me clean which was amazingly helpful. She left Saturday morning and Ryan had 3 guys from work come help us move which was also amazing. They work at a furniture distribution company, so they were fabulous movers. I told them I was keeping track of errors like they do at their work, but I haven't found anything broken. Way to go boys! I wish I would have taken pictures yesterday of the packing job they did. We loaded up 3 trucks, a trailed u-haul, and a 10-foot trailer. Boy, was it a sight to see! I tried to take a picture, but it was SOOO humid out that my camera fogged up right away and it wouldn't work.

So, this is what I faced this morning (keeping in mind that, again, we are not getting new carpet for another approx 2 weeks which means that we can't unpack in any of the rooms other than the bathroom, laundry room, and kitchen. cool.).

Exhibit A:



I went to the grocery store today and was pleasantly surprised to find it very Woodbury-ish. OK, OK, Ryan and I are slightly intimidated by living in Brooklyn Park (aka Crooklyn Park or another one, right Christy?). Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore! So, what I've realized is that if we stay North of 85th Avenue, we are golden. We will enter our neighborhood from 610 and never enter anything that resembles "the hood". So, that said, my grocery store experience was wonderful as was the lovely drive-thru Caribou I encountered. :)

Here's where I'm at as of right now:



Things are looking up....



...just don't look over on this side of the kitchen. haha. :)



A couple more things:
1. The dog is beside himself. He just does NOT understand what is going on and WHY all of our things are in this place. He has been literally under our feet the entire past 24 hours and given the fact that boxes and stuff are also underfoot, it hasn't been "cute". OK, so he's kind of cute. :) He hasn't been left here alone yet, so I'm super curious/anxious to see how he will do tomorrow on his own.
2. We met the neighbors. Kids names are Hixton and Madden. I had to write them here so I'd remember. THese kids reputably peek in windows, so it's a good reminder to keep the blinds closed tight, huh?

WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD? :)

Weekend update

I really should be posting pictures of the chaos that we are living in right now! Geesh! That said, we do have a lot more progress. It was a productive weekend.

First of all-- Friday night we went to Hammond to see "The Johnny Holm Band". Nick made us go for 2 reasons....1 was to see if the band would be good for next year's RF days....and 2 was to meet his new girlfriend. I voted yes to both. :) It started DOWNPOURING while we were under the tent though, so first we were stuck (not wanting to run through the downpour) and then we decided to go for it and ended up soaked.

Saturday we packed up all of our boxes in the truck and made our first trip to the new house. We unloaded everything we had packed so we could reuse the boxes (not to mention that I NEEDED to see some visible progress after all this stinking packing!). We decided whose room would be whose, and alas, Baby has a room (I should mention that I have a name in MY head for this baby and Ryan and I are in agreement. We refer to the room as "_________'s room", and I need to be careful so I don't slip up on our secret.). BUT anyway, baby has a room. :) It's a light brown which I think will be fine since there are so many colors in his bedding. So exciting to actually have HIS room to put HIS stuff. Here's a positive AND a negative: 1) we're getting ALL new flooring at the new house. Carpet throughout, plus new laminate to replace the linoleum in the kitchen. Very excited about that; however, 2) It won't happen until 3 weeks after we move in. :( SOOOO, we'll move and then we'll have to be moving everything around afterwards anyway. Boo.

We took a packing break last night and went to dinner at Famous Daves and then out to a movie. Saw "The Ugly Truth". Pretty funny, especially certain parts. Not the best movie I've ever seen, but I laughed pretty hard (AND I love that Irish accent! yum!).

Today has been nothing more than packing and cleaning some more. Ok, ok, I did sneak in a 2 hour nap. :) I think I deserve it.

We really do have almost everything packed up and sitting in our living room right now. Nothing is really left in our cupboards. I can not wait to actually be moved!!!!!

Big Dumby

The shoe is attacking him. Prior to this he had been attacking the shoe, but then it got SOMEHOW stuck by a tiny thread of the shoe to his ID tag around his neck. It was stuck. Haha. What a dorky dog. That's what he gets for eating my shoes. :)

Bedding peek

Here's a peek at the bedding I chose from good ole' Target (pronounced tar-jay). :) I bought the sheets already so I could have the official color scheme.

150

That's how many diapers baby has when he is between 8-14 lbs.

My direct co-workers did a bet about whether I was having a boy or a girl. 3 of them lost and had to pay up in diapers. Good deal, huh?

Now, the question for you mamas out there is: is 150 enough? I swear the baby will come out as a 10-pounder. That's only 4 more pounds to go! What do you think???

Progress

Well, I feel like it was a pretty productive weekend...maybe not AS productive as it could have been, but not bad!

Friday I did some packing and cleaning.

Saturday-- Ryan and I still had 1/2 the garage filled up with a couch and entertainment center that we sold at the garage sale and needed to deliver. So, we loaded those up along with all the stuff we had to drop off at goodwill and got that all done. Nice.

Best thing Saturday??? We got a carseat and stroller!!! So exciting! At Christy's suggestion, we had been looking for a Chicco carseat since they are super easy to get in and out and have really good ratings. We had been watching craigslist and Ebay, but I hadn't been convinced that I wanted someone else's carseat. BUT we saw a really good deal on the pair (+ 2 bases!!!!) and they were located in Apple Valley so we figured it was worth going to look at. We must have found the ad RIGHT after they posted it, because we were the first to respond (phew!). Contacted them that night, heard back in the morning, and by noon we were in front of their amazingly beautiful townhome on the lake in Apple Valley. (I started feeling better and better about a used carseat when we pulled up in front of this house!) Then, we met the husband and wife (who their baby girl there too) and their house was amazing, they were obviously very well-to-do and had taken incredibly good care of their things. They showed us how everything worked, had only used it for a year, and she had taken off any fabric and washed them in baby detergent before selling it. It was in perfect condition and they were perfect, so we figured it was a good deal! :) SOLD!

Here they are...




Ryan gave me a lesson on putting it all together, and I am super stoked to have it! It feels good to have another thing crossed off the list.

Saturday afternoon, after dropping the rest of the stuff off, we went to Kari and TY's for a couple's night. We all laughed about how much times have changed since we've gotten older...we were all falling asleep watching TV at about 8:00. :) We grilled out though and had DQ for dessert and a good time was had by all. Got to see Baby Tegan again too!

This morning we went to IHOP for a late breakfast and dropped off the couch. Back home where Ryan mowed and I pulled some weeds and then did some more packing in the house. Looking around the house I don't FEEL like things are prepared for moving by any means, but at least we have a few empty cupboards and drawers that are all packedup and cleaned out...

Here's baby's loot to move:

Can't wait to actually have his real bedroom to put it all away in!

Why do I have a feeling that these next 2 weeks are going to be gone before I know it? Boo to moving!