Doing Our Part

There’s a lot of concern about the economy now but we are doing our part to keep it going. We bought a few things for baby this weekend including his stroller and car seat. The plan was to go to Babies R Us and get the Graco Quattro Tour stroller/car seat combo in the Deco pattern. But when we got there, there was one couple looking it all over and some clerks were trying to find one in the back for another couple to purchase. I asked one of the sales clerks if they were selling a lot in that pattern and she said, “A ton.” That was it for me- I can’t stand having the same thing as everyone else. I just like my stuff to be a little different. I still wanted the same brand so we ended up getting the same brand and style stroller and car seat but in the “French Roast” fabric. There may be even more of those out there but whatever. It will also transition better if we have a girl later so I think it worked out for the best and I am very happy with our purchases.



We also picked up a Born Free bottle gift set. There was a story on the news recently about how when you heat up most bottles, a chemical (Bisphenol-A) is released that can be bad for baby. The Born Free brand doesn’t have that in them but they can be hard to find. We also picked up a diaper bag set that matches the stroller and car seat and some bibs.

All the baby purchases were made during a pretty long shopping trip to Des Moines on Saturday morning. We woke up really early and decided to just get ready and go get some breakfast and do our shopping. We also bought some curtains for the kitchen. The kitchen is on the front of the house and there are two big windows that have been uncovered the entire time we’ve lived there. It’s nice to feel like we have a little privacy now and that the whole neighborhood doesn’t know what we are having for dinner each night. On Sunday we did a lot of chores and cleaning up around the house- I had both sets of washers and dryers going almost all day. We also watched the Oscars in the evening though I missed out on the last few because I could not stay awake. I don't think I've seen any of the movies yet since hardly any of them are on DVD. I will catch up though as soon as they are out because there are quite a few I would really like to see.

Just Cribs- No MTV

I have had the hardest time finding a crib I like. I really like modern furniture and am definitely not into the foofy or overly done. I had just decided that finding a reasonably-priced modern crib is impossible and that I'd have to settle for something that was just okay. Lucky for me, DwellStudio launched a line of baby items at Target, including the wonderful and amazing (sorry to get all Tom Cruise on you but it is!) Soho Crib. By the time I figured all of this out, the walnut and white crib has been out of stock with no promise of having more anytime soon. You can still get the pink one but what good does that do me? Finally, this afternoon it was available again- YAY!!!! I ordered it right away and hopefully it will be arriving early next month.



The bedding that is shown in the picture is okay but I wasn't in love with it. I have the same issues I did with the crib- I wanted something modern and not too foofy or baby-ish and definitely no cars, animals or sports on it. I recently discovered that WalMart has a line of modern baby stuff under the brand name of "Baby Mod" and it is all super-cute. I am not usually a Wal-Mart shopper at all and I was shocked to find such cute stuff there. I picked out the Orchard Park set for our little guy's room:



Those of you who know me really well will be shocked to see that the bedding has birds on it. I hate birds and generally try to stay far away. I decided that the bedding was cute despite this and that I should not impress my prejudices and dislikes on my child. Maybe he'll like birds- who knows? I'm just relieved to have these purchases made and know that we're on our way to getting the nursery put together.

The Daytona 500, A Giant Mouse and A Whole Lot of Sun

Oh, how I miss Florida already! The highs were in the 70s and 80s while we were there and then we came home to where the high was 1 degree yesterday. When I got to work yesterday morning, it was -10 and -33 with the wind chill- Yikes!! We are getting close to spring now so this miserable weather should be letting up soon. As for our trip, I think I will break it down by days so here we go...

Wednesday
We spent the day traveling- from Des Moines to St. Louis to Miami to Orlando. When you use your reward miles for free flights, you often get a less-than-desirable route but hey, it's free. It all went remarkably well until we got to Miami and there was no crew to fly the plane. They got there eventually and we were about an hour and a half late getting into Orlando. We got on board the Disney Magical Express bus and went straight to the Saratoga Springs Resort at Disney World. I would highly, highly recommend the Magical Express if anyone is planning a trip there- they pick up your luggage and deliver it to your room and it all went perfectly. And, best of all, it's totally free.

Thursday
Rob and I decided to spend 2 days visiting the Disney World parks and after much consideration, decided to spend the day at Epcot and the Magic Kingdom. I got in the mood with a Mickey waffle for breakfast while Rob colored and ate his breakfast.




I got a phone call from my very pregnant sister telling me that they were headed to the hospital right after lunch- Yay!! It was a little hard to focus on amusement park stuff after that but I managed. We rode pretty much all the rides I could go on- the ones without the expectant mommy warnings. I think we had the most fun on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin where Rob totally kicked my butt with a score of 136,400 to 18,200.



Since it was Valentine's Day too, I made reservations for dinner at my favorite Disney World restaurant, 'Ohanas. We got a fantastic table that was right by the windows overlooking the lake and that was really nice. They serve a ton of wonderful food that is Hawaiian and served family style. We started with salad and Hawaiian bread, then had potstickers and chicken wings for appetizers. Next they brought out broccoli and scalloped potatoes (the best ever) for our side dishes. Then the servers come around with skewers of meat (pork, turkey, beef and shrimp) that they cut for you. It was all delicious and it was all-you-can-eat so we were stuffed but they time they bought around the bread pudding dessert. We managed to power through it somehow though, maybe because it was so delicious! Here's Rob, eating himself into a food-coma.



Friday
I got a phone call about 3:30 in the morning that my sister had the baby and all was going very well. Such wonderful news- and now I'm going back to sleep. We decided to go to the Disney Hollywood Studios (formerly known as the Disney-MGM Studios) and Animal Kingdom parks for the day. These two parks really didn't have much a pregnant lady could go on so it was kind of a short day. We had tickets to see La Nouba that night and it was outstanding. Rob is still talking about it and how the acrobats could do all the tricks they did. For those of you who saw me just about 2 weeks ago and thought I didn't look very pregnant, well, things are changing pretty rapidly there. Here we are out in front of the theater after the show.



Saturday
We picked up our rental car that morning and drove around a bit to pick up some food and stuff for the race on Sunday. Man is the traffic bad in Orlando! We also lounged at the pool of our resort and watched the Nationwide Series race on tv. We ventured over to a Chevy's for dinner and it was just nice to be out and about. This was our lazy day and that's about all I have to report for Saturday.

Sunday (Race Day)


We ate some cereal in our hotel room and headed out at 8:45 a.m. Daytona Beach was only about 65 miles from Orlando but I wanted to be sure we had plenty of time before the race started at 1:30. Oops- we started driving and Rob looked at the paper and said, "The race doesn't start until 3:30!!" Until then, we really didn't know because we couldn't find it on the tickets or anywhere else. We were just guessing that it started around 1:00 and we were totally off. They should put the start time on the tickets!! But we decided that we'd keep driving and it was a good thing we did. We got caught in stop and go traffic when we were still 30 miles away! We got to the parking lot we were aiming for around noon and, holy cow, there were a ton of people everywhere. We walked around, got some lunch, hung out and the pre-race program started around 2:30. When the race started, it was amazing. There is no way to explain what it's like to see a car going 190 miles an hour- you just have to experience it for yourself. On the first time around, no one is up to speed yet but by the time they come around for the next lap, it is really something to see. We had a great time though I was a little concerned Denny Hamlin (hate him) or Kyle Busch (really don't like him) was going to win. I was very happy to see Ryan Newman win it- good for him. We picked up a few souvenirs for people and one t-shirt for us since it was the 50th race and the first one with the Car of Tomorrow. It may be worth a few dollars someday. I think there's a little race fan growing inside me- the baby was extremely active throughout the race which was pretty fun too. We got home that night at about 11:00 and were exhausted.





Monday
The original plan was to drive over to the Kennedy Space Center but we were both just wiped out and the weather was rainy and not the best for going out and doing stuff. We decided to stick close to the hotel and we had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe and then saw National Treasures 2 at Downtown Disney. We picked up some dinner from the grocery store and returned our rental car after that. Another pretty slow day which was ideal after so much people and activity the day before.

Tuesday
Time to go home. The Magical Express picked us up in front of our hotel that morning at 8:00 and took us to the airport. You can even check your luggage at the hotel and get your boarding passes there so we got to skip straight through to security when we got to the airport. I made a critical miscalculation on the bus and helped Rob out with the crossword puzzle- reading on vehicles always makes me sick and it only takes about 2 minutes for that to happen. That haunted me the rest of the day as we flew from Orlando to Dallas to Des Moines and on the car ride home. I was so glad to see my house that night.

It was such a wonderful trip and I'm so glad we went. We needed one more vacation for just the two of us because things are going to start getting crazy from here, I think. I will try to get the rest of the photos on our Flickr account sometime this weekend. Time for me to go to sleep now though!

We're Back!

I have sooo much to share about all our activities from our trip to Florida but first I had to put up a picture of my adorable new niece, Olivia. She was born on Valentine’s Day so she is one week old today. She sounds like a pretty easygoing and mellow baby and here’s hoping that we have the same good fortune! I just can’t wait until I get to see her for myself!!

Olivia, 2 days old



I will try to get some of my pictures and stories up from our trip later tonight when I get home. I do have to put up a disclaimer though that we are planning on going to the gym tonight and then Lost is on so I make no promises and it could be another day or two before I get to it.

Weekend Update

This weekend was pretty slow for us which was just fine since we’d been in California for almost a week and this was our first weekend home again. And it was the only weekend we had at home before we leave for Florida on Wednesday for another week. I tried to get a lot of our laundry done and cook a little so we could enjoy some food from home before having to eat out again for a week. I do enjoy going out to dinner, lunch and breakfast once a week or so but when you have to do all three, every day for a week, it kind of sucks the fun out of it and I start to miss food from home. I have to say that going to California is good because we get some of our moms' cooking and eating at the places we miss. Anyhow, Rob worked on Saturday, I went to the gym and we watched a lot of Daytona stuff on tv to get ready for the trip next weekend. I need to make a run to Target before we go but I think we’re all set. I picked up some maternity capris, shorts and a shirt from Old Navy and Motherhood Maternity while we were in California and I can not wait to wear them. It is 4 degrees right now (-14 with the wind chill), it snowed last night and it’s supposed to snow more this afternoon and evening. The weather is looking good for traveling on Wednesday so I am very pleased about that.

My purchases:




I actually got this one in blue, not pink like is shown here:



Our plans for Florida mainly center on our trip to the Daytona 500 on Sunday- the tickets were Rob’s Christmas present and the reason for the trip. We will be staying at one of the Disney resorts for the week and will go to Disney World for probably two days but maybe three. We are planning on going to the Kennedy Space Center one day and just taking it easy at the resort another day. I have reservations for us for dinner at 'OHanas (my favorite Disney World restaurant) on Valentines Day which will be so much nicer than our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple- we spent that one packing all my stuff from my apartment into our moving truck last year. We had a nice dinner with Rob’s family but honestly, it was kind of a crappy day besides that. Finally, we have tickets to see a Cirque du Soleil performance while we are there too. I am so excited to have a little vacation to relax and have some fun with the hubby while it is still just the two of us and before our life gets turned upside down!

Two Seats, Please!

Finally, here is the blog posting about the concert that I promised two weeks ago. Rob didn’t get around to writing it so I’m going to share the story. We excitedly arrived to the Martina McBride concert and got to our seats about 5-10 minutes before the concert was to start. Everyone in our row was already there and every single one of them would qualify for the “overweight” category. The smallest one had to weigh 100 pounds more than me and probably 50-60 pounds more than Rob. Most unfortunately, the two that were on either side of our empty seats would qualify for the “morbidly obese” category. We see this as we are walking up and stand to the side trying to discuss which one of us will sit by which one of them. The worst part is that the seats are just one big line of folding chairs (our seats were on the floor level) so these people are oozing into our seats and are not contained by armrests or anything like that. We make our seat choices and sit down and it is miserable. I could not sit all the way back in my seat because there just wasn’t enough room. I ended up sitting kind of sideways in my seat which I paid for over the next 24 hours with an achy lower back. We put up with this for the first two opening acts and then we were done with it. Thankfully, Rob knew someone working there who was able to get us different seats where we had more room. The new seats were farther from the stage so it wasn’t a great solution but it was an improvement. The thing that was most irritating to me is that we were the little people who actually fit in our seats and we were the ones that had to move and were inconvenienced. I’m so tired of having to deal with this problem at theaters, sporting events, on airplanes and everywhere else I go. Those people should be forced to buy two seats if they can’t fit into one because I’m tired of sharing a quarter to half of my seat with them. Maybe I should charge them for it- my seat was $60 so since you are in a quarter of it, you need to give me $15! I know it’s not a practical solution but I sure wish I could find a way to do it. I know I sound very unsympathetic to the plight of the heavy/overweight person but I understand better than they think. It's been almost 2 years since I lost 65 pounds and I know very well that dieting is not fun at all. But life is so much better when you are at a healthy weight. Anyhow, other than that, it was a great concert. Really, it was. Martina was wonderful and the opening acts, Jack Ingram and Lady Antebellum were also really good.

“It’s so cold!”

We must have heard that statement from at least 5 different family members or friends while we were out in California for the past few days and they just don’t know what cold is. Here is all our family out at dinner one night- don't we look like we're freezing?? If you are still looking at green grass in your yard, it’s not cold. This trip was the first time I’ve seen that since November! I can understand though- I used to think it was “cold” when I went outside and the temperature was in the 40s. Our perspective has changed quite a bit though now and we totally enjoyed the weather while we were in California, even when it dipped all the way down into the 40s at night. We returned to Iowa to find that it had snowed more while we were gone. It was also pretty icy on Monday, so I hear, but all of that seems to be gone by now. Just in case you want to hear about actual cold weather, it is 18 degrees here right now with a 30% chance of snow and our high for the day is 30 degrees. Tomorrow looks about the same and then it looks like it will get colder for the weekend. Yikes. Only 6 days until we leave for Florida!

We had a great time visiting with friends and family while we were in California. We even spent some time in Carmel last Friday and Saturday celebrating our 1 year wedding anniversary and that was really awesome. That’s kind of a lame word I suppose, but it’s the best one I can think of to describe that “Wow-I’ve-been-married-for-a-whole-year” feeling that I have. It’s so wonderful! We stayed at the same hotel where we stayed when we got married and we also went to the same restaurant where we all ate for the wedding. I would like to highly, highly recommend both places- Tradewinds Inn and Little Napoli. I have been to the Monterey Peninsula soooo many times in my life and can tell you that these are two of the best places there. We walked down to the beach and took some pictures right in the same spot that we had our ceremony last year and stuck our hands in the ocean. I’m trying to have a better appreciation for the ocean now that I live far away from it. It’s so amazing and I don’t think I ever realized that enough or enjoyed it enough when it was close- the same goes for the mountains. The weather was actually very nice while we were there- we hit it just right because it had been raining and started again once we left.



On Sunday, I attended a baby shower for my sister who is due with my niece in only 11 more days! I got to see a lot of people there that I haven’t seen in a while which was great. Nanette also drove up to the area to attend and brought yummy treats with her.




Nanette and I hung out for the rest of the day while Rob spent some time with his friends and watched the Super Bowl with the boys. The rest of the time was just spent with friends and family, mostly doing a lot of eating. Yay for In-N-Out Burger and George’s Shish Kebab and Mexican Food from California!! We put about 700 miles on the car by the time we returned it Wednesday morning but we got to see everyone and eat everything and do everything that we had set out to do in our time there.

One of the best parts was being able to share the latest baby news in person with everyone- the news that we are having a boy! We felt pretty strongly that it was a boy and the ultrasound confirmed it last Thursday. It wasn’t that we preferred a boy because either was fine (really, it was!) but we just really, really thought it would be a boy. We got pictures and a DVD from the ultrasound to take with us and share with everyone. I packed an empty duffle bag in my suitcase and we came back with it full of stuff- some new things for me but I think this little guy has a wardrobe almost as big as mine already. It was so wonderful to see everyone and I can't wait for the next trip. I'll leave off with a picture of Uncle Rob reading a book with our niece. It's just too cute not to share. He's going to be such a great dad!

Happy 1 Year Anniversary to Us

We are headed out the door right now for California to celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary and visit friends and family. I promise to have lots of stories to share when we get back, including the one about the concert that we still need to share!