Update

I'm 1 cm dilated! 4 weeks to go!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

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House Overhaul

I hadn't realized how much pregnancy was going to affect my daily life. I just cannot do what I once could each day. Quite possibly I won't be able to again! I hear that I'll be catching up on sleep for life! :) So what gives? I can't live with the dirtiness! I can't not cook! I can't ignore my errands and my commitments! Is there a solution? Well...probably not a fix all one...but there is something that will help. Simplify. I've talked about simplifying before here. We had a simplifyfest around here when I had that big garage sale a while back. Unfortunately we've gained more stuff since then. Why!? How!? I don't know! lol. I think we are magnets for stuff. But the stuff is causing me problems. We have stuff that we think we need that we don't. And I need to be honest and go ahead and give it up. I sometimes don't even want to cook in my kitchen because I have no room to do so. So, this weekend is house overhaul. This is something I should probably do yearly. Since Abigail is coming before the start of next year, I figured I should go ahead and do it before she comes this time!

Some points to help me this week:

1. Things get put away, rather than making a home on top of tables and counters. This helps with dusting and cleaning and greatly simplifies those tasks making them quicker and easier to do. (GREAT) This also means things like catch all baskets and desk organizers...they get the boot.

2.Honesty. Do you really need the huge calender up on the wall in the office Daniel? No. You have a blackberry now. No need for the unsightliness any longer. Linds, do you need the basket on the front table...No. You have drawers to put things in. We just need to be honest.

3. Necessities? Maybe not. Example: the dogs only stay in their crates when we aren't home now. They roam and sleep where they want...so do we need the unbelievably huge mega crate set up in the office for Val? Maybe not. Can we tweak things so that we can leave the dogs alone in the house while we go out? Maybe so.

4. Extras. Why do I have a box of spiral notebooks sitting on the floor? I don't know. Because we don't use spiral notebooks for like....anything... Why does Daniel have a basket of about 6 different pocket knives in the office that he never uses? Yeah. They can go to the garage at least. Why do we have that printer on top of the filing cabinet that we never use? No clue.

5. Storage. Sell the stuff if you haven't used it. It's not worth it. One goal this weekend is to organize our two storage buildings so we can actually walk in them. Same with Abby's closet and the guest closet.

6.Better trash cans. We have dogs that just love trash cans. They love to pull paper out and it irks me to no end. Why am I fighting them to stop? Let's just get some trash cans with lids and move on. Or put the trash cans out of their reach. All the better when we have a toddler running around.

7. Doggie or Kitty sofa patrol. 2 words. Scotch Guard. And also, aluminum foil can often do the trick while your not at home! If not, try the mats with spikes on them. That's not comfortable to lay on. Just make sure they have some place to call their own.

8. Cosmetics and cleaning products. We need a serious overhaul on cosmetics. I have a ton of things I no longer use due to the fact that I've tried to switch to the more natural items. Same goes for cleaning supplies. It can be donated to charity though!

One last big clean out before baby comes! ;)

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My new bag of flour...

I think you were at least involved...if not totally guilty...

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The Baby Shower

Let me just start this post by saying my baby shower was absolutely beautiful! All my sisters in law gave me the shower and they did an amazing job. Every little detail, every little morsel....just....lovely. They always do such beautiful parties! A huge thanks to them from Abigail and I.

Secondly, another huge thanks to Caroline for these pictures! They are all her work....and thank goodness she was there...no one else took any pictures!

Onto the photos:

The girls did a pink and yellow theme for Miss A...

Buttons on the silverware. LOVE IT!!

Love the lemons in the daisies!! And the cakeball bouquets! They had a bunch of my favorite foods made...

It was just lovely!

Yummy sugar cookies on sticks as treats to take home!

Miss A got lots of stuff. I mean a ton. This child is not lacking in any department at this point in time. Here, I'm pointing out the "bum ruffles." I just love em! As one guest pointed out...I think Mrs. Rodriguez? "You can only get away with ruffles in that spot when you're a baby!"

I opened sooo many presents. Everyone was so generous! I thought we would never get to the end of the pile!

She got all kinds of clothes. Here's a darling little sweater from Daniel's aunt and cousins for next fall!

CALLIE went shopping for her cousin Abby and found her some cute dresses!! I love these! Too cute for words!

Sometimes the presents were just so big and monstrous that I could hardly get inside them!!! I was baffled at the amount of presents people gave her!

She got lots of warm jammies to wear this winter!

It appears that I'm having a talk with this little bunny...but I think I was saying, "This is her first stuffed animal!"

At the end, my Mom pulled out a big old basket full of goodies. It took me a second, but I suddenly recognized some items.....everything in it was mine when I was a baby. Mom had saved it all in the cedar chest, right down to the little gown I took my picture in at the hospital and some old antique slips and shoes. Here, as you can note for yourself, the PINK POCKEY makes a return to the world after 18 or so years!!! Please refer here to be informed about the pink pockey.

Half my family went in on the big travel system stroller/carseat combo we asked for. The also gave us 4 of the bum genius cloth diapers we registered for. They were so so generous! We installed the carseat in the car the other day. It's so funny to open the door and see it sitting there. Just waiting!

Credit

As I looked through all the photos, I have to say, I see how worn out I look! I don't even look like myself. My face must be holding at least 5 lbs of extra weight and I have big ole circles under my eyes. I pledge to take it easy from now on! I know I'll lose the weight if I'm diligent and I eat right. Something we've really been trying hard to do lately. But it still is a little bit of a shock to take a good look at yourself in a photo looking totally exhausted and blimp-like. :) All for a good cause though right? 5 weeks! :)

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oh swine flu. can you just go away...please?

I asked nicely. I'm so over this hype about the swine flu. Not that I'm not concerned about it...I'm just over the hype that has surrounded it. You have to admit...it is a little baffling that around 36,000 people die each year in the US from the seasonal flu....and we don't hear much hype about that. Maybe that's because we've had the flu vaccination for a while and we know more about that flu. I read tonight that Doctors are concerned about H1N1 because of the way it is hitting us. It's come faster in the season, and it seems to be hitting certain populations harder...kids and pregnant women for example...than the normal flu does.

Sigh. What's a pregnant lady to do!? It's very confusing. I was telling Stacey the other day...I have to be careful these days what I say "no" to. Am I saying "no" because I don't believe in something...or am I saying "no" because I don't like to be told what to do!? A lot of times I'm just being a firecracker and not wanting to be bullied into doing something. I admit. That's just not a good enough reason to make a big decision anymore though. ;)

My doctors are very concerned with the fact that I keep refusing the shot. They tell me they are most interested in me getting it because pregnant women have a harder time fighting the flu off because their respiratory systems are not as "up to par" I guess you would say, as they normally would be, making it difficult to fight off the flu and taking us to a higher risk of secondary infections like pneumonia. Plus, they tell me, if I get the shot, I begin making immunities against the swine flu, and in turn, Abigail gets the immunities. Now that was a convincing one. They had me listening when they brought that up. That's a very important issue for me because we're having a baby in the middle of flu season and everyone is going to want to put their hands all over her no matter what. And people just DO NOT wash their hands and take proper precautions! It's GROSS!!! Ughghghghghhh. I admit..I am a germaphobe. But I'd rather be a germaphobe than sick! And I reeeeaaalllly don't want her getting sick. The thing is they apparently are seeing a difference in the way H1N1 affects pregnant women versus the regular flu. That brings the hype into perspective I guess then.

So I try to just look at the facts. Both the regular flu shot and the H1n1 shot have not be tested on pregnant women to see the effects on the fetus. That doesn't sound promising at all...But have they been giving pregnant women the regular flu shot for years? Yep. No major issues there thus far with babies who incurred it in the womb. And the H1N1 vaccination is essentially just an added strain of virus. Literally it is made the same as the seasonal vaccine, it's just a different dead viral strain that they used. Could have probably been combined with the seasonal vaccine if preparations had of been made in time (now that would have caused a STINK!) Plus, there is the option of the mercury free shot (which I believe they prefer -if not mandate- to be given to pregnant women.) I believe this is also referred to as the single-vial dose. May want to check me on that. I could have my facts mixed up, but I know the single-vial dose is the one that I felt would be more favorable for a concerned pregnant woman to get. There is also an adjuvant free vaccine. [Adjuvant free meaning it doesn't contain extra ingredients to boost immune response. Some would say the extra ingredients are questionable.] I think they may not have adjuvant free vaccine in the US yet. (Excuse my confusion...like I said, so many things to consider here...I may be getting it all confused this late in the evening.) So, people make the argument that it's the long term effects that worry. Yeah. I get that thought process too. The long term effects of cell phone usage concern me as well. So does the long term effects of pumping gas and inhaling the fumes. So does the use of teflon on pans, chemicals in skin care products and pesticides on edibles. I'm also concerned about the long term effects of dust bunnies on my sanity. :)

Lots and lots of things have not been well studied for their long term effects. Many things you chose to do everyday could be adversely affecting your long term health.

Yet, you do them without a thought.

Could I make it 5 more weeks without the shot? Sure. I can do it I think. I've successfully avoided the swine flu so far...even when I came in direct contact with someone who was infected. There's much to be said about not putting your hands on your face...ever. And not doing a lot of handshaking and hugging with everyone temporarily! I keep my hands clean. It's working thus far. But what about Abby? She doesn't have the luxury! Poor thing is going to get passed around like crazy for the first few weeks of her life during the height of flu season. Can you hear my groans??? To a germaphobe that's an awful thought that makes the upper lip twinge! OH why can't the flu just leave before she gets here! Then I wouldn't mind passing her around!!!

The question comes into mind though, will she be fine because she'll be breastfeeding? From what I've heard and seen myself, normal, healthy babies do just fine in the cold and flu season if they are nursing exclusively because they get natural antibodies from mom. So if I held out and did not get the shot, could I rest assured that once she was here, she would be fine because she would be getting natural immunity from me? I probably won't ever get a good answer to that question because any diversion I try to bring up with the doctors just leads back to the suggestion that I get the vaccine. My doctors have specifically said however, that the vaccine gives antibodies to the baby if given to a pregnant woman...and therefore helps protect him or her after birth. So I assume the answer to my question is no...they baby is not completely safe just from nursing. And if natural immunities were all it took, there could be no argument for why I should get the shot for Abigail's sake. No one has made that argument to me though. They seem to be concerned with my respiratory abilities at this time. And sometimes, I see their point. I can hardly catch my breath just in talking normally. It hurts to yawn too big...not enough space there in the lung area. So I can see where it would be uber-difficult to effectively fight off a respiratory illness right now.

Oh it's just confusing. There's good points on both sides. I'm not one to hop on any sort of a bandwagon. I don't make decisions about anything (especially health related) without much thought and research. But I can't find a clear winner with this bear of a decision. Nothing jumps out to me as more important or less risky. It all sounds like a risk. To get it and to not get it. I don't like risk. At all. I've very cautionary. There doesn't seem to be a cautious option here though.

So, as of now, I have to stick with what Daniel thinks we should do, and that is that I do not get the vaccine. I am steady praying about it all. I totally trust that God is taking care of me and of Abigail...and Daniel too. But I am wholeheartedly in support of protecting ourselves as well. I'm not that person who says, "We don't need seat belts! We have God on our side!" That's just not using the ole smarts God gave you there! So my concern to take the safest approach remains. Guess we'll see how it goes as we get closer and closer to...well....spring I suppose.

Wash your hands! Cough into your sleeve! Stay HOME if you're sick! Take care of yourself okey dokey?

Talk to you later! I have lots to share about the baby shower! (Caroline! I'm going to email you about the pictures tomorrow! I'm a little slow!)

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More Frugal Tips from Me to You!

Here's 10 more of my personal frugal measures, divulged.

1. Free Entertainment. Pretty much any entertainment can be attained for free. WHAT? Yeah. I'm serious. Free or nearly free. Here's how. Movies? Try the library for free rentals. Our city has 4 libraries and between the 4 of them, we've seen quite a few of the newer movies out and almost all of the oldies but goodies. Plus, you can rent up to 50 items at a time. So you don't have to feel bad about grabbing 3 or 4 at a time for one weekend movie fest! Magazine subscriptions? The library has almost any magazine you can think of for free each month! Not to mention all the books there for your free reading pleasure. Before going online to purchase anything entertainment wise, check the library to see if you can use it for free! And the library gives you on more thing free - some peace and quiet...which I'm sure you know cannot be measured! One of our favorite free entertainment things to do is to head straight for Barnes and Noble, grab a stack of books and magazines and park it in a comfy chair for some reading time. Going out? Going out is free! You don't have to spend to go out! Before we go places sometimes, we will eat at home. Then we don't feel obligated to buy something. We can just enjoy the company!

2. Swap nights. Once a week we have a movie night with our couple friends. The neat thing about this is that we get to enjoy a home cooked meal and movie...for free every two weeks! Now I have to admit our friends have taken the brunt of the load lately when I've been unprepared or unable to host and we've enjoyed quite a few free meals and movies with them!! We love them for their generosity! We do it so that whoever cooks hosts at their house and the other couple brings the movie. Most times, we just bring a movie from our home collections but when we've run out of those, we just hit up the Red Box for a $1 rental or a library rental! We return it on the way home or the very next morning! We plan this usually for Monday nights which is wonderful because every other Monday, you don't have to cook! It's a great way to share time together and shave off a meal from your dinner menu every 2 weeks! A "swap" night though could be anything. It could be a game night or a night out. You can make it however you like it and as frugal as you'd like it.

3. Restaurant.com. We admit. We like to eat out. It's just something we like to do. But we got smart about it. We heard about Restaurant.com through Young House Love. I had no idea there was such a thing until them but I hooked onto the idea when I saw the potential. They sell restaurant gift cards for cheaper than the value! Huh? Yeah. Seriously. And recently they had a sale for 90% off! I bought 3 gift cards to a local restaurant for $25 each for only $3 total. Wowie! There is a small catch, you have to spend at least $30 at your meal. So you will shell out a little for food and a tip, but we got smarter still! We just order more food than needed to total $30, and then we take it home for lunch the next day! You can only use one gift certificate per visit usually and there are some stipulations about tipping (I believe they automatically charge 15% on ours) but it's well worth it if you have that hankering to eat out! It does save us there. Once you sign up, you receive emails about their sales. I just saw one the other day for 80% off certificates!

4. Prepackaged goods. Though we give in sometimes to prepackaged goodies, we've realized that buying anything pre-made and prepackaged is almost always more expensive than making it from scratch. That goes for groceries, cleaning supplies, even that candy bar at the gas station. We've tried to think ahead more about things. If we know we're going on a little road trip...we pack water and snacks in my bag before we even set out. You can find a recipe for ANYTHING online, so no need to try to argue that you can't make Reese cups and Snickers.

5. No Water Bottles. We stopped buying cases of water bottles. I commend anyone for drinking more water, but it's a total waste to buy the cases of water when you can just buy 5 gallon jugs and fill up your own canteens. Even more frugal - don't have your water delivered. Pick it up yourself. Because I used to end my morning work shift dropping the kids off at school a mere 2 minutes away from our water supplier, I would pop in and fill our 2 5 gallon jugs myself at the store. It cost me a mere $6, for 10 gallons of water. Once I stopped working and staying at home more, the trip up to the supplier was not happening as frequently and I was literally going way out of my way to pick it up. Plus, I couldn't lift the jugs anymore since I became with child! :) So we now have it delivered, but we get more jugs at a time so we don't get banged up by the delivery charge. Either way, you're most likely saving. But to get really frugal - fill your own jugs at the store and at home! ;)

6. The coin jar. Oh the famous coin jar! Daniel and I have a coin jar that we toss loose change into whenever we have it or in my case find it lying around. That coin jar has provided us with many an extra! Whenever we have a real hankering for something...something we know we don't need but we just reaaaallly want...we go for the coin jar. We are not ashamed to pull up at dairy queen with a wad of quarters as payment! Not at all. It's a nice way to feel like you're getting the extras and fun stuff...without really reaching your hands into your bank account. It's fun to have the goal of filling it too!

7. Sell it. I'm famous for filling up the DAV bags and booting stuff out of this house with a vengeance. However, a few months ago I realized that I might be giving away too much sometimes. Before I donate anything, I take a good look at it to make sure it couldn't be sold. For example, I have a shoe rack right now that I despise but I have yet to just take the time to unscrew it from the closet in the guest room. I want to throw that hunk of iron onto the street so bad...but I'm not going to. First, I'll post it on craigslist. Even if I only post it for $5....that's $5! $5 for my coin jar perhaps!!!?? If no one buys it...then it's perfectly ok to move on and freecycle it or donate it. Looking back...I'm sure I've missed out on some sales because I was too quick to pitch my stuff.

8. Heating and cooling costs. Learned this one from Doris. This one might not be suitable for everyone but if you're a young childless couple like Daniel and I...there's no reason why it won't. Take a good look at the inside of your house. Do you really use your guest room? Do you ever really go in that 3rd bathroom? Is the layout odd? Do you notice that some rooms just remain colder than the others? Take advantage friends. For the first 2 years of our marriage we kept 2 of the back bedroom doors in our house closed, with the vents covered. If someone was coming to stay in our guest room, we would open it back up and warm it or cool it as needed. There was no point in keeping those rooms heated or cooled for the two of us. And it helped a little. Now we do keep the 2 rooms open (1 is Abigail's nursery and the guest room is really the only place I have to work on my crafty stuff.) But we still don't give in to Dominion Power and Virginia Natural Gas so easily! I've told you before that we run our buckstove in the den as heat. We use a Vornado fan to pull the air through the kitchen and into our front room if the heat isn't distributing evenly enough. At night, if the fire is still big and hot, we will leave our bedroom door open to get the heat. If perchance it's out and we don't light another one for the night, then we just close our bedroom door and heat our room up with a DeLonghi heater! I also have an extreme love for our electric blanket! Neither of these gets left on through the night but it's lovely to turn them on while you're getting ready for bed and have it nice and toasty when you finally turn in. We also have a small heater in the bathroom too. We also just bundle up a little more and layer our clothes. Remember that this method can cause problems if your house gets too cold or too hot. In the dead of winter we have to leave the thermostat on a low setting so the house will not get down to a too cold temp. But overall, heating and cooling the rooms we really use...and not all of them, makes a big difference.

9. If you don't use it, lose it. We don't have cable. I don't even understand what a DVR is. Is it the same as a tivo? Really...just don't even know. During the day, I don't even sit down to watch tv until 2 or 3 pm. I'm usually just too busy with house things or errands. By this time, there are main stream shows starting to come on our few tv stations such as Dr. Oz and the Doctors. So if I want to sit down and take a load off, there are things to watch. And in the evening when Daniel comes home, we still have plenty to watch since we have the main channels (where the shows come on anyways....) But to be truthful about it...we probably spend only 3-4 hours total watching tv. That's if we're here and not doing other things at all. Some days, we watch only 30minutes to an hour. I'd say I contribute to 1 hour more than D each day. Daniel only really watches about 2-3 hours...if he makes it that long without falling asleep in the evening. So there would be absolutely no justification in my mind to have cable. If you need to be more frugal in your budget but you just can't seem to find an area to cut, you need to assess how much you actually utilize each item you pay for. If you have a house phone but you work until 6 at night and your cell phone is your main line for the better part of the day...then you could probably stand to lose the house phone line. Sit down and really record (honestly) the amount of time you use each extra item you use. Right down to your car!! Daniel and I have discussed the idea of having 1 car. We determined that it would not be a good idea with children being that Daniel works all over the place and that we wouldn't want to be car-less in an emergency situation. But we were able to refine gas usage. I do try to stay on a schedule with filling the car up with gas. I use my car less than ever now a days and I see a big difference. At some point or another we owned a 4-wheeler, jet-skis and twice we've owned 3 vehicles at 1 time. Each of those items came with separate costs and extra fees for titling and taxes. The jet-skis were great fun, except when you filled them with gas and had to deal with the inevitable problems that come with them. Eventually any of those types of "toys" as we call them will lead you down a lovely brick road to the mechanics shop or parts store! That's the nature of them. We booted each one of those items as soon as we realized that their worth was not truthfully worth it.

10. Shop the House. One of my personal favorite things to do is rearrange items. I call this "shopping the house." Sometimes, when a room just isn't flowing for me, I sit down and make a list of what I wish I had in there to make it work. Maybe a rug or a side table? Maybe another lamp or candle? Then, I shop the house for the item. I shop my storage sheds for items I can revamp and fix up. I consider everything, including changing an item totally, as in, painting it or using it's parts. Today in fact I was irritated with the den coffee table and it's constant moving around on the slick floor. So I sat down and stared around the room wondering what I could do to change it. A rug. Fine. I went shopping right then and found a rug in the hall that will help to curb the sliding. It may not stay there. It's not exactly what I want for the space, but it does help solve the problem for now. I still make a wishlist with items I really want to get and I work on that slowly too, but when you need that quick shopping fix...this is a much more frugal choice than heading up to TJs for some new goodies. I also shop the house for wishlist money. There are times where I suddenly realize that an item I have or a piece of furniture is not being utilized or is not what I truly want in our home. So...I sell them! And I hold the money in a separate bank account to put towards things I really want. Like my sofa! One day! One day...

There are lots and lots and lots of things you can do to dig up extra cash from your budget. You just have to try. I know that feeling of staring at your budget and thinking...there is no where else for money to be cut!! There is no where to get extra money, I feel so stuck! There is no where for me to make extra, if only I had talent - then I could sell my homemade goods!! There is a way. You just have to let go sometimes of what you think is important to you. Do that...and I promise you'll find what is more important to you. Do more research. Don't be afraid to try everything!! I've tried all kinds of new things in the last few years and I'm well on my way to trying more. Whatever idea I see that I think can save us money or make us a little extra...I'm trying it. If it doesn't work...that's ok! At least I made sure! I have big hopes and dreams of how I could make extra money to benefit our family, but even if my harebrained ideas did work out...I wouldn't stop being frugal. Not in a heartbeat!

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Keeping up Appearances in a November Nor'easter!

Well today is just a wretched weather day! It has been raining heavily non-stop since yesterday and we are experiencing the effects! The constant weather forecast on tv tells me that we won't be seeing a let up until tomorrow. :/High winds and coastal flooding abound.

I know a teeny bit about coastal flooding! My laundry room (it's outdoors and has concrete floors and is not level to the rest of our house) is flooding a bit which prompted me to unplug my washer when I noticed water going under it. I half think I need to empty out my small chest freezer too and unplug it and the dryer just so I don't have to keep running out in the typhoon to check on it. I am a little worried about it rising high enough onto these appliances to cause an electrical problem. I think I'll do that in a moment.

So today is just becoming a sweats and chill day! And a baking day. I made bread and I think since I'm having Laura, Timmy and John over in a few hours I'll get them to help me make homemade dog treats. The dogs, btw, are terribly bored! They've been housebound for a few days and that doesn't make them the best companions. Every time I move they think something exciting is happening and they should come with!!

I've spent most of the morning doing some researching of baby products and alternative food purchases. Huh? I'm researching which baby products are allowed/best/safest to use with cloth diapers and on newborns and I'm investigating some different food purchases such as buying Rapadura sugar and coconut oil online. I'm trying to get away from refined sugar and white flour. Now, that's hard! Both are in basically everything it seems! That's why I'm looking for good alternatives. I think I've found a few replacements that I'll buy next month. I'll be sure to tell ya all about it. I've got to get us eating healthier if it's the last thing I do!!! Currently I want to lose 40lbs. after this babe is born. We'll see how that plays out! We've been better the last month about eating healthier...but we can do even better than that I think with a few simple changes. And it is going to be paramount that I have healthy alternatives here to eat. I'll be nursing exclusively and I hope to pump milk as well so I have to stay on top of my nutrition game!!

I'm trying to get a running list of "must haves" that we will need to purchase before Abby arrives to have here for our first few weeks home. Guys...6 weeks. Oh my! Frankly her items and her necessities have been dominating my thoughts for the last few days. I just really don't want to have to go out at all for anything if I can help it. Especially when Daniel goes back to work. I'd like to be able to have everything we need here so we don't get into that situation too early!

It's that feeling of wanting to have everything "just so."

There's also a small amount of perfectionism thrown in there as well.

So what's with my post title? Do you know that show on PBS called "Keeping Up Appearances" with Mrs. Hyacinth Bucket pronounced "Bouquet!!!"?? It's a British Sitcom. I just love that show! She tries so hard to impress everyone and tends to be "snoot snoot" about it and that ads to the hilarity. And the husband...ahhh well you just need to watch it. Anyway long story short - I think of Keeping up Appearances on days like today when my dogs stink from the rain, there are paw prints EVERYWHERE, the couches are doused in dog hair (don't you worry Daniel is bringing the carpet cleaner home shortly to clean them and scotchguard them!!!) the laundry is piled high and the actual laundry basket is not even in sight, the laundry room is flooding, the dishes need to be done, there are dust bunnies coming out of the woodwork and Val and Allie have decided that my guest bed is the best possible place to be in a time of Coastal flood warnings!!! Luckily, I planned ahead and had a blanket down for them. Hyacinth Bucket would be ashamed to set foot in this house right now!!!

I have an enormous amount of creative projects that I need to complete 1. before this weekend, 2. before the end of the month, and 3. before Abby arrives and I feel huge pressure about that. Yet all I want to do is to sit in the den, roasting like a chestnut by the fire and let the messes continue to pile high!! I may just do that!

Here is the first 10 minutes of the first episode of Keeping Up Appearances on youtube.

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I won!

OH my goodness! I entered Katie's Imperfectly Beautiful giveaway and I won! I'm so thrilled! I looove all of Amanda's creations! I am actually already fretting over which canvas sign to pick! I'm so tempted to go the Christmas route.... but then I'll have to put it away after Christmas!! No fun there! :( I've got to pick wisely you see... lol Oh this is fun either way though!!!

A special thanks to both of these ladies!

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Thrifty finds with Mom

Well Hi there! Because things went so well this month at Costco and because I only have 1 more small trip to make to Walmart for a few items I felt comfortable going out for some thrifty finds last night! So who did I call? Mom of course.

Mom is now a full on thrifter. She previously snubbed it if you remember but she's totally an addict now. Loves it. She wants to keep going even when my feet say it's time to be done! :)

She explained it like this: "It's like going to garage sales...without having to find the sales...and you get to go any day of the week!! It's great!!" Yesssss!

Anyway. I picked her up around 5:30 because Daniel said it was "going to be a late one!" We went to the big DAV, the CHKD a few blocks down from it and we stopped at Dollar Tree for some necessities. In all 3 spots, I spent $20 total so nothing I got was overpriced. And part of that was napkins, paper towels and pans from the dollar tree! So that gets deducted from my dry goods budget! So I spent probably around $16 or $17. That won't dent us in too bad! :)

So here we go. I grouped the items so I'd have less pictures to load!

I found this mirror for $3 that I want to use on my mantle for my Christmas decorations. Our mantle area is very dark (we really need to install lights but...eh..) and this should help to reflect some light back into the room!

I got these 2 platters, one for $2 one for $.58! These are being used for Christmas presents for some peoples. No, they won't be chalkboards! I also got that shelf for $4 for Abigail's room. I used to see tons of shelves I liked for her room and I just kept saying, "I'll get one later when we get closer to that point." And then suddenly, it's like I can't find a shelf I like at all. I frankly was about to tell D we were just going to have to make one but then I saw this one. It's all wood. I don't suppose you can buy the wood and hardware needed to make the shelf for $4 so at Mom's suggestion, I went ahead and got it.

I had been on the hunt for a few small baskets. I'm sure you'll see these turn up in different ways soon.

And finally we stopped at Dollar Tree for a few items. I grabbed my napkins and paper towels and twizzlers...uhh..necessity right???(I had been CRAVING some twizzlers. The Pull and Peel kind!!!) And then I found these platters I wanted for my Christmas mantle. I'll show you how they get used. And then I spied that cute hand towel. I guess it's kind of flimsy, but it's so cute! I love the little topiary! So I grabbed it!

At the CHKD we went to they have this darling bench - like a front door bench with a shoe cubby under the seat...that Mom and I both want so bad. I don't know which one of us planned to keep it if we got it but it's been stuck at $29 for a while and we just can't hack that. Considering it needs a paint job and sprucing up. But I'm going to stalk that little thing until the price drops! I don't know why but anything more than $7 at a thrift store just feels like too much! I guess I'm being snooty about it but, that's how I feel.

Well. I have to get myself rolling because we meet with the pediatrician this afternoon!

Hope you have a good day wherever you are!

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Finishing up projects...

Morning! Wasn't it a nice day yesterday? Well...it was here. We got outside while we could and enjoyed! Over the weekend Daniel and I got a LOT done! We had quite a few projects to tackle but we got right to them and finished them up quickly!



Most of my light fixtures are ugly brass or opaque globes. I'm slowly changing them out. I've been scouring craigslist for a cheap chandelier for the dining room lately. I've spotted a few...but the thought of driving to Virginia Beach or the Southside right now just pains me. (BTW didn't get those chairs which was just as well!) And, it is a bigger endeavor to hang a chandelier. One I don't feel like tackling right now. So, we just took the fixtures outside and gave them a painting! 2 are black now and I went ahead and had D do Abby's white because I can't find the chandelier for in there either. One day!

Daniel got all of Abby's furniture painted white! I love the crisp white wicker!!! And let me just say....for those ladies who are serious about re-painting furniture...you've got to get one of these spray guns. It hooks up to the air compressor! It just gives the best even layer!! If you can, you must get one! This one is Daniel's brothers but we get to use it luckily!

After all the furniture had been set up in Abby's room last night I went in and put away her loose clothes! I just felt like a mama bird feathering her nest for a moment!

Those black sconces I got a Micheal's for 50% off? I changed them over to white. Well, ivory I guess. I think I like it better. The beauty of little things like this is that if you dislike them later...they can always go back to black! For now, it's good! I like!

And I leave you with this startling heap! This is the headboard for our room that I am 1/2 done with. Can't show ya what I'm doing to it but I will tell ya, it involves some sewing. My Mom has agreed to help me next week with that part...which is fun! I have never seen my Mom sew. She used to sew my Halloween costumes every year! She has one of those old timey Singer machines. You know? The big black iron thing? Pretty nifty. So I'm excited to show her my idea and for her to show me how it's done! Hopefully you'll like it once you see it all finished!
Oh, and ignore my garden. I have begged Daniel to rake up the old vegetation but he says it's "composting in." .....hmm ok. All I know is it's ugly! I'm not going to tell you why I can't do it myself. Organic gardeners around the world would be appalled! It has something to do with a back pack sprayer though...just in case that helps you figure it out. ::Sigh::

That reminds me...I recently learned that the garden at the White House can never be considered organic because of a certain fertilizer that Clinton had put down on the property when he was president. How nice! There ya go.

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craigslist hopeful

I've been preying on these little beauties for a little while on craigslist. I gave in and emailed the person to see if I could go see them next week. I want to put them in the den if they are sturdy enough. I love wicker. It's just not too often affordable! Hopefully if I go see them, they'll be nice and not ragged! We'll see!

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My top 13 pregnancy surprises

Today we're at 33 weeks! Can you believe only 7 weeks to go!!!??? I'm just amazed at how fast this last half flew by!

So in honor of today being 33 weeks I thought I'd share the top 13 things that surprised me during this pregnancy.

1. I'm much more of a space cadet than I expected to be!!! Literally....I'm out there all the time...losing train of thought, forgetting what people have said, forgetting what day of the week it is...and forgetting everything in between. I tried to microwave something in the pantry recently. I bump into walls and furniture constantly. Hormones are to blame I guess!

2. Every pregnant woman looks different. Despite the fact that I am completely on schedule measurably, I still notice that I look smaller or bigger than other pregnant women. I knew everyone looks different in my mind, but it took actually lining up next to other pregnant women of the same week range for me to see how different each woman carries her baby. You can't really make a comparison with belly size!

3. How much I'd stop caring about certain things. As of right now, I am only comfortable wearing Daniel's clothes!!! Ok, ok, I do wear my maternity jeans when I go out in public...IF i don't have any of Daniel's wind suit pants available!!! But I never thought I'd be comfortable going out in public in Daniel's clothes in the first place! I had heard other women explain that they had to wear their husband's clothes at the ends of their pregnancies and I always thought...shesssh, not me! Now...I couldn't care any less. I am not concerned with how I look at all to other people. Whatever is comfortable at the time is what I'm wearing! And I feel like I have the personal right to look large, frumpy and washed out! It surprised me that I'd be ok with that!

4.How much my mood can swing. Sometimes I'm really happy and bubbly, busy and excited. Sometimes I just burst into tears at the thought that I'm home alone or that I didn't get enough done that day! Sometimes I cannot for the life of me figure out why someone is being so idiotic and I have the overwhelming urge to actually ask them why they are so dumb (ps. to that guy who ran the red light yesterday!) On the flip, sometimes I have these huge bursts of compassion and I just want to go out and volunteer or make someone a gift or something. Sometimes I have no desire to move and I literally don't notice what time it is until 2pm. Sometimes I get up, shower and get dressed and made up just to be around the house! Every one in a while I step back and notice these things and I just feel like a mental patient. It's just not me!! I honestly have to get with myself and have a talking to sometimes to get it together. It's silly really how it can swing so far back and forth from one day to the next. But, I guess we can blame that on the hormones too.

5. How my goal list would change. Several times my goal list has changed since I've been pregnant. It went from, read all you can to get all the info you can and make it your priority to learn everything there is to know about babies before this baby arrives; to then - get this house in order before this baby arrives...take any measures necessary! And now my goal each day...big pause... is to shower and do my hair. I try to attempt one "thing" a day. The other day it was Costco. Today it's to clean up the laundry room a bit. But if all I get done is my shower and hair...that'd be all I could ask for! Funny how it's come to that!

6. How much I don't care about my dogs. Ok. No. I'll rephrase. I really care about them. I do! But I am just unphased by their begging, pleading and general "I want to try to walk all over you" attitude! Normally I would feel sorry for them! I'd let them on the bed because I felt sorry for them. Now....if they make any effort towards the bed I'm calling em' down! I do not care any more about their feelings. (The silly part? They never had feelings anyway...haha I know.) My dogs are my best buddies all day long and I really love them, but I've had to make changes for them around here to suit a new baby and I've had no problem making them!

7.How much my Mom saves my life. My Mom has always been helpful. She's always given us a call to ask us if we want food she has fixed and stuff. But it has been surprising to me just how often she has done that during this pregnancy. At least once a week my Mom is driving food over here to us when I'm just too tired to do anything in the kitchen. Many, many people have done sweet things to help us out this pregnancy and we haven't forgotten that at all! Oh no! But it was the most surprising thing for me to see my Mom run out at 7pm just to bring some food over for us! (My Mom cannot see well in the dark at night to drive nor does she even like coming out that late!) She's even gone so far as to run out on a special trip for me just to pick up my craving food quite a few times. That surprised me!

8. That an 18-20 inch long baby lives in my stomach. In fluid. In a little ball. That's just a crazy thought when you think about it! A miracle! But surprising!

9. That Daniel might be more nervous than I am. I can't picture Daniel like that! But...it has been noted a few times throughout this pregnancy. He is nervous for me, and he says so! That is surprising! Normally, Daniel is like "OH HUN! YOU'RE FINE! YOU GOT THIS HUN!!!" You know that voice of his right? Now, I have to wonder what it will be like when he actually sees me in the pain of labor. He gets more concerned every day, especially as we learn more about what it will truly be like in our lamaze classes. That is something I didn't expect from ole strong Daniel.

10. How much privacy I want once we get to the hospital. Ok, I sort of expected this. But I never really went over the whole thing in my mind. I literally have made OCD specific directions for Stacey and my Mom (my first responders and phone tree peeps) about how I want things to go in the hospital. From people coming into our room to updates for the rest of our family, I have made this detailed plan on how I'd like things to go. I never thought I'd be so controlling about it! But I have been! I admit. I think I've done this because of how unsure I am about labor. It must be my way of getting some control over a situation that I have no control over...but honestly, once I took a look at my lists for Mom, Stacey and one for Daniel - in case he has to finish packing for us quickly-I was shocked at how detailed and most likely overwhelming I had been! Sorry guys! :)

11. How much you love your baby before you know him or her. It is funny how much of a connection I already feel with Abigail. And Daniel too. I guess it's not surprising really...but it has surpassed what I thought I'd be feeling for her. It's much greater!

12. Seeing your baby for the first time and/or finding out the gender. That was the best surprise to see that little baby nugget on the first ultrasound! And to wait and wait and then actually hear confirmation of the gender was just too exciting for words!! It's a great surprise!

13. When other people respond negatively to my pregnancy. If nothing else was listed here, I'd have to say that it's people's reactions, comments and tid bits that surprised me the most. Whether they mean to or not, some people manage to come off as rude, lacking in the brain department or just plain irritating. That's just something I think every pregnant woman has encountered at least once and you just have to smile and move on. Luckily there were very few of those types of surprises for me.

I'm sure after the birth, I'll have another whole list of things that surprised me. I'll be surprised at the pain, surprised at the exhaustion, surprised at what my body could do....the list goes on. For now, these are things I can't wait to see Stacey and Casey encounter so I can join in with the head nodding and tell them "YEP! I remember that." Well, minus number 13! And maybe number 4...cuz those just aren't fun. :)

Today, I'm going back to Fly Lady. As I said earlier my goals for the day seem to just be to emerge from the bed or couch and shower lately...so, to stay at least a little bit on track I'm switching myself back over to the Fly Lady system. That will give me 1 priority thing to do a day and it will rotate through so that all the rooms get a little love eventually!

For now, I'm off to eat some breakfast and get to my task!

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