You Say It’s Your Birthday- It’s My Birthday Too

This weekend I celebrated my birthday- I won’t say which one because now that they are past 30, who cares? I really wanted to make tacos at home for dinner last night so that is what we had. Rob went out and got the groceries and then helped cook it up which was really nice. We watched Dan in Real Life while we ate dinner and both really enjoyed that. I didn’t know the story but rather just rented it because Steve Carrell was in it and he makes me laugh. It was kind of a chick-flick but one that guys can enjoy still too. I didn’t have a birthday cake but we shared a piece of lemon raspberry cheesecake that we picked up in Des Moines the day before when we went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. I cleaned the house a little and did some laundry but mostly it was just a relaxing day.

Saturday was a bit more exciting because we drove to Des Moines to do a little shopping and go out to lunch. We went to Babies R Us first and picked up the crib mattress, mattress pad and some receiving blankets for the little guy. Then we went to Motherhood Maternity so I could pick up some new clothes for my birthday present from my husband. So far I have bought maternity clothes at JC Penney, Target, Old Navy and Motherhood and I have to say that I like Motherhood’s stuff the best. They definitely have the best selection, the prices are good and things just seem to fit better. Here’s what I got:

Denim Skirt:



Shirt:



Capris (I got two pairs- one white and one stone):



I also got a black dress that is my favorite item but I can’t find a picture of it on their website. It’s short with short sleeves and it looks like a shirtdress with the collar on it but then it doesn’t have all the buttons down the front- which is always the worst part of a shirtdress. We then went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and hit a few more stores before we headed back home. There was a store at one of the malls in Des Moines that specialized in retro/vintage home furnishings that was a lot of fun. We did not end up buying anything there but it made me realize we have picked up some awesome pieces at yard sales. We’ll definitely have to try and keep going to those this summer too for more good finds.

I’ve been meaning to do a post on the Bunco group I joined because I am having a blast with that. I really miss the poker nights we used to have in California with all my friends and this is turning out to be a good substitute. It’s a group of 12 ladies and we get together once a month to play. The game couldn’t be easier which is nice since I had no idea how to play. There’s plenty of snacks and drinks to be had so we all have a great time hanging out. I have even won the prize for most Buncos both times that we’ve played so that’s always nice. Might have something to do with the fact that I am always the sober one…

Potpourri (Like on Jeopardy)

There are so many things to share since I've been sick and haven't posted anything for so long! I am doing much better now and have been back at work all week, like a regular person. I ended up working one and a half days last week but we really should call it what it was- I was just there taking up space. I would not say I was productive, just a warm body in a seat. There is still some coughing and nose-blowing going on but I am feeling pretty good now.

For my first story, I need to go back almost 2 weeks to Friday, March 14th. Rob and I love to eat at little mom-and-pop, hole-in-the-wall kinds of places so some friends of ours took us to one in Conrad, IA that was called That Place. Seriously, it was. It actually wasn't quite in town, it was out in the country and it was the saddest looking concrete block building. Definitely not an attractive place but the parking lot was completely full and people were parking out along the road so that was a good sign. We went inside and discovered that you really needed reservations to eat here on a Friday night. We wouldn't be able to get a table for 2 hours! No one was in the bar so we ended up sitting in there and eating our dinner there which was fine. The food was really good but I thought I would die laughing when they brought out the salad. Here it is:



It was a bowl of iceberg lettuce with cheese and fritos on top! What in the world?! I have never seen fritos on a salad before but it actually tasted pretty good. Not very healthy, but pretty good. I ordered one of the specials for the night, the chicken kebabs, and their prize-winning peanut butter and chocolate ice cream pie. Again, not a very healthy meal but it tasted great. I'm sure we'll go back but we'll make sure we have reservations next time.

Last week I was sick so it was pretty uneventful- this past weekend was too. Rob worked around the house on Saturday while I rested and watched tv. For Easter Sunday, I was feeling a little better but then Rob had a fever that day (he's good now). I did manage to cook us an Easter meal of sloppy joes, tater tots and peas. There's a good first-Easter-in-our-house memory for the rest of our lives! My sister and her family sent us some beautiful tulips for Easter which was such a wonderful surprise and really cheered me up.



I thought I had the perfect due date with June 26th (good weather, no birthday close to Christmas, etc) but I have uncovered a problem with it. Everyone goes on tour during the summer and I'm going to miss out on two concerts (so far) I really want to see. Grr!! The first one I found out about was Jack Johnson. I would just love to see him because I am such a big fan. I enjoy mellow music and his is my favorite. Then today I just saw that George Michael is going on tour this summer. I don't know if I really love, or even know, any of his newer stuff but how fun would it be to see George Michael? I'm sure it's quite a show. Hopefully I will get another chance to see Jack and maybe even George in the next couple of years.

Speaking of baby stuff, I get many requests for a photo of me to see how my baby bump is doing. I only have one week left in my second trimester so it's starting to get kind of big. I had Rob take a quick picture of me this morning and it is not the best picture I've ever taken but I'm going to share it anyhow. I feel I need to explain the goofy look on my face first thought- the battery died right when the camera was going off and I wasn't sure that it was even taking the picture. You can also see the four new picture frames that Rob hung in our living room. We have a picture of the Blossom Trail to represent the Central Valley where we're from, one of the beach where we got married and one of a bridge and corn field in northeastern Iowa. There's still one frame without a picture because we're trying to decide what the last photo of the set should be. Anyhow, here it is!

Sicko

Sorry for the lack of posts lately but I have a nasty cold/infection in my chest and head, now along with a fever- particularly not a good thing for a pregnant lady. It kind of started up last Thursday and has continued to get worse and worse. I went to the doctor today and got some antibiotics so hopefully I am on the mend now. I don't want to gross anyone out too bad with stories about it but just wanted you all to know it will probably a few more days before there's anything new to share. Hope you are all doing much, much better than me!

Some Sad News

They just finished replacing all our Coke product vending machines with ones that only dispense Pepsi products here at work. Boo! If PepsiCo didn't own Taco Bell, there would be absolutely no reason for them to exist.

A Weekend Full of Projects

Last Friday I came home from work to discover that our garage door would not open. I just parked the car in the driveway and decided I would look into it before I went out to pick Rob up in about an hour. I checked out the garage and noticed something had fallen in front of one of the sensors. I figured that was the issue so I picked it up and put it back and left to get Rob. When we returned home, I was surprised to find it still would not open! Rob checked it out and discovered that one of the springs had broken and that was why it was not opening. This was also why the thing got knocked over and blocked the sensor so I was on the right track- I just didn’t go far enough. We got up Saturday morning and went to the gym and a fundraiser pancake breakfast for the Kiwanis Club then headed over to Lowes to pick up some new springs for the garage door. We briefly entertained the idea of a whole new garage door since ours could use a replacement but decided spending $30 to fix the springs sounded a lot better than $300+ for a new garage door. I ran around and took care of some errands and then cleaned the house while Rob fixed the door. I had planned on making us dinner but was too tired after all my chores and running around- it is amazing how worn out I get now after doing things like that. We decided to order a pizza and watch Michael Clayton since we had both worked pretty hard all day. We both thought the movie was very good- excellent acting and a great story. I would definitely recommend it.

Sunday was more work but it was some fun-work too. I did a bunch of laundry and a little more cleaning but the exciting part was that we put the crib together! Well, Rob did most of it while I helped him by sorting the screws, nuts, bolts and other pieces that came in the box and fetched things he needed to complete the task. It was fairly easy and even pretty funny- for some reason the first page of instructions was only in French! The rest of the pages had the English translation as well but that first page was only in French. Luckily, we both have had French classes so we managed. The crib is pretty much just how I thought it would except it's kind of low to the ground. That's probably good for the first time he decides to climb out of his crib and falls on his butt- not so far to go.





Obviously, we still need to get a mattress for the crib and the twin bed. I have all the crib bedding but I still need to get some for the twin bed. We are waiting for springtime when all the yard sales start to see if we can pick up a glider and changing table for the room. I know we saw a ton of those things last year at yard sales and I think we can find them this year too and save a few dollars there. Here's what his room looks like so far though.

Special Delivery

They’re here! The crib was delivered by the wonderful folks at UPS yesterday and we picked up the crib bedding on Tuesday. I haven’t mentioned it yet but there was some disagreement in our house about the crib- it turned out Rob wasn’t really too in love with it. It was on backorder all the time and then when I finally saw it was available, I just went ahead and ordered it without really knowing how he felt. It’s from Target so I just figured if it got here and he did not like it or want it, we could just take it to our local store and return it and start over. Thankfully, now that it’s here he seems to be okay with it and we’re going to keep it after all. Yay! We had agreed on the crib bedding when I ordered it and are very pleased with it. I was a little surprised when I picked it up because what I thought was orange in the bedding actually turned out to be yellow. No problem though- I like the yellow better. Is it just me or don’t those apples look like they are an orangey color?



Anyhow, now we need to figure out how to accessorize the room because there are no matching curtains, lamps, rugs, wall art, etc. to go with the bedding. Rob is going to paint a set of four pictures, one with each of the objects in the bedding (apple, leaf, tree and bird). There is no way I could do that but I’m sure he’ll do a great job with it. We also need to get a crib mattress so that we can get the crib and bedding all put together and finished. There’s still a lot we need to buy actually! I try to just focus on one or two things at a time though so I don’t get too overwhelmed. These kids need a lot of stuff and cost a lot of money! I think that statement qualifies for an “Understatement of the Year” award :o) We are planning on putting the crib together this weekend so I will be sure to put up some pictures of it once it is all done.

Nesting, Nesting- 1…2…3

The nesting phase has begun! Since we moved into the house, we’ve had a difficult time deciding where furniture should go. We’ve also been buying some furniture and had to find places for that to go. Everything has been moved around quite a bit and now that we are finally satisfied with it, I am feeling the need to decorate. Until the past weekend, we had absolutely nothing on any of our walls. It is a little barren looking and I would very much like to have it looked finished. On Friday I bought a bunch of matching black frames and Rob hung them in our hallway over the weekend. This will be our family photo display area. I have some pictures printed and put in the frames but there is still some work to be done. I also bought a bunch of silver frames with white matting for our artsy photos that will be hung in the entry, kitchen and living room. Some are photos that I have taken but others were ones I found online. Since we needed so much art, I had to get creative and find a cheaper way to do it than just go out and buy framed prints for all these spaces. I’ve used Walgreens for all the printing because you can get large size prints (up to 20” by 30”) for super-cheap and they look pretty good. I think I found all the frames and matting I needed at either Michaels or Wal-Mart. Now I just can’t wait for our Ikea trip at the end of the month to pick up the rest of the stuff I would like to get for the house so we can finish off our bedroom and the living room areas!

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!