i'm there

well- it's finally gotten to the point that i can no longer see what i'm doing- down "there".
yes i mean- ie: taking care of business, mowing the lawn, clipping the hedges- whatever you call it. i can no longer do it without either:
A. contorting my body in some sort of weird shape & literally holding alex over to one side while i "work" or
B. using a mirror

i think i'm going to use a mirror from now on. the problem? i always forget to bring my mirror in with me- argh. i did a pretty good job last night by "touch" alone. nothing dirty people- purely professional, but i don't think i can always be so lucky.

the legs aren't so easy either- i can still bend over & get the job done, but i don't know how that's going to happen in another 2-3 months.
there may actually be confusion over wether i'm a male or female when i go to the hospital to deliver. those poor nurses.

v-day

hmmm- i'm 24 weeks today which = viability day. this pleases me! no, i don't want her coming out now or anytime soon, but it's nice to know that if she did she'd have a fighting chance.

in other news- this weekend = work, work, work!
1. we primed & painted the wall & closet in the master and primed the wall & closet in the nursery.
2. we bought the hardwood flooring & the husband & his dad started putting that in the master last night.
3. the appliances come in today so the husband will go to the house & wait for those. while he waits, he'll paint the nursery. good husband. his dad will also come over tonight to help finish the floor in the master.
4. i "decorated" as best i could without any furniture (that will be moved this coming weekend)
5. i finished all the inserts for the cupboards- go me.
6. i went grocery shopping (it's been a month- literally)
7. i went to Target & got much needed "crap" (for the house)
8. the families came over on Mon & we grilled & fed them all. it was lovely.
9. i scored some lovely garments from ON (go me! i got there at 6:30 a.m. geeze.)
10. we balked at the amount of money we had to spend- it's scary.

so all in all it was a good weekend. i was tired & my feet hurt & we spent more money that i would have liked- but nothing unexpected. we did have a snafu while priming the nursery- the husband neglected to get all the wallpaper paint off the walls so i had to scrape of the gooping primer & scrub the walls. blast! what a waste of an hour. but still- it could have been worse.

hopefully everything is done by this weekend (excluding the nursery floors) because we're going to be moving all of our crap in- finally. fortunately i won't have to do much manual labor, but still. meh!
i promise to get pictures up at some point- i've been tired & lazy...with good reason!
and that's that.

house pictures

here are a few "before" pics- ie: cleaning & such

me sweeping...

the husband pulling up the capets...

and more...

me cleaning the kitchen...

the master- all un-carpeted...

wood stove. please notice the dryer sheets- lol.

the kitchen airing out...

the hallway...complete with the antique phone that they left us. yay!

a look from the slider...

one of our nests (outside-der)- complete with babies!!! 3 of them!

look at his little, fuzzy head ::squee::

cessna...not helping. ha.

the living room...you can see my lilacs ::stoked::

the antique spinning wheel that they left us ::swoon:: it's above the door.

and that's all for now. i haven't been back since tues but the husband goes daily to check on it. it's soooo perfect! and thanks to my uber cleaning skills, it no longer smells like dirty cig. smoke- sweeeet.

i forgot to take pics of the bathroom & downstairs & outside but in my defense, i was pretty busy.

ummmm- much to the husband's dismay there were no wood floors under the carpets in the b-rooms so him & his dad are going to install those this weekend. we'll also be getting the appliances & taking down the 3 walls of wallpaper in the bedrooms. then we'll paint & pretty much be done!

there's more but it's not all that interesting to type about- heh.

ok- more pics later!

23 weeks.....and closing day!

well today = 23 weeks & closing day on our new house! ::squee::

23 weeks- wow! that seems so far- but i still have about 20 weeks to go!

ok- you'll have to excuse all the boxes because we're MOVING! finally!

bare belly always = looks more pregnant in my book.

and here are the somewhat odd looking frontal shots. you can clearly see my rather crooked LN....the husband never fails to point it out- "that weird line" he likes to call it. lovely.

anyway- so yes. we close this morning at 9:30 and then it's off to clean, clean, CLEAN! these people were smokers so i'm going to be doing a lot of airing out & cleaning with vinegar- yum. i'm usually not all gung-ho on cleaning but i'm pretty excited. i mean, i'd be more excited if someone wanted to do it all for me, but still. yeah.

ok- i need to go "do" things i suppose- yay!

22 weeks 3 days

my Birkies always make me laugh. i love my weiners.

sisterhood award!

i'm so happy! duke'sgirl nominated me so i feel very special!!! :)

Here are the guidelines for this award:
1) Put the logo on your blog or post.
2) Nominate about 10 blogs with great attitude and/or gratitude. Be sure to link to your nominees in your post.
3) Let your nominees know they have received the award by leaving them a comment on their blog.
4) Be sure to link this post to the person who nominated you for the award.

i nominate:

Leigh
pmarie
trinny
mrs.goodson
nikki &
lari

they are all positive regardless of the circumstances & i enjoy keeping up with each & every one of them!

stuff

ok- a couple things that i've purchased/recieved:

the most adorable little moccasins!!!!

this fab little doxie onsie (and the seller threw in a free pair of pants too!)

lilacs- thanks to my mother in law's green thumb- God i love these. lilacs are my all time favorite flower/smell. mmmm!


some green roses from my mother for "mother to be" present. i'm not usually a flower girl, but i love them because she was soooo excited to give them to me :)

and that's all for now- my house smells like lilacs & roses- GOSH!!!

i woke her up..

...on purpose because i wanted to feel her move. i'm an evil mother to be.
i won't lie- i jiggled my tummy a bit, drank some ice cold water & ate about 5 choc chip cookies and now she's up. she's been too quiet this morning so i just needed to reassure myself. aweful!

in other news: this weekend was lovely. saturday: i gave my Coach coupon to a very thankful husband/father at the mall. he was buying his wife a purse- lucky wife!

then i stopped at Banana Republic & found the most beautiful dress for $84.99 (down from $150!) it looked great on me & would have been a lovely shower dress- but i'm not paying $85 for a dress. sorry.

so then i went to Motherhood & purchased a pair of capris & shorts & a 38 E bra- dear GOD! all these? $101.00 (the extra $1 was for the march of dimes- yay!) i felt better about spending that much on 3 needed items rather than $85 on 1 un-needed item.

then i babysat from 6-12ish for some church friends. they didn't know i was ku so they were very excited for me- this also led to a conversation i had to have about periods & such with their 3 daughters (5, 9 & 10) they "knew" about periods, but were a tad confused about everything. i did my best but i ended up telling them to ask their mother. lol.

sunday was nice- we took my MIL out to breakfast & her & i got a carnation at the restaraunt- that was sweet. then we hung out with her & FIL (and i stole about half of the lilacs she had in her yard) for awhile & headed to my parent's.

i spent over an hour cleaning (my family is beyond messy) and then we ate & visited & such (my mother got me green roses). my mother then left to get my brother & niece (my brother needs to grow up & not make my mother do things- but that's a diff rant) and i had some words with my younger siblings about how rude, lazy & ungrateful they are. of course my 14 year old brother got pissy with me because:
1. he's 14 - duh
2. he's got Aspbergers & gets VERY angry VERY quickly among other things
3. he knows i'm right & he's taking advantage of my parents
4. etc etc etc

my 12 year old sister also wasn't pleased- but come on, she's a 12 year old moody teenager, what did i expect? and my 10 year old sister was a little more passive about it- she's got Autism (higher functioning but not Aspbergers like my brother) so she either gets reeeeally mad or doesn't care what i say) also my 29 year old brother has Downs Syndrome but is also higher functioning- so he has the ability to do his chores & listen to my parents, but he was also giving my dad a hard time. so he got an earful from me as well. the only one who didn't feel my wrath was my 18 year old brother who just moved back hom & has been really helpful to my parents- my 23 year old brother needs his ass kicked but i didn't have the energy & plus, i love my niece too much to risk him not letting me see her. ARGH! people!

all in all i think i got my point across- seriously, i can't believe my parents let them get away with the crap they do. we were NOT raised like that- this i just further proof that my parents are really freaking tired.

after my mom got back & i tattled on everyone (LOL) i played with my niece for awhile & then we left. all in all it was a wonderful day.

so yes- now i spend the next 8 days looking forward to CLOSING (19th) and the then my next U/S & Appt on the 21st ::squee: then we'll be moving in to the new place over the long Memorial Day Weekend. can. not. WAIT!

Level II Ultrasound

so i had my Level II U/S today & per the high risk OB i have nothing to worry about (outside of the normal 1 in 10,000 risk)

he explained that each "soft" marker is normal & that everything else looks fine- and even the "soft" markers aren't not fine- they're just there. you know?

basically, because my NT Scan results were so great he didn't even feel the need to halve my risk- but he said even if he did- or even if he brought it up to 70%, that my risks are still well below anything i'd need to worry about.

so, no need to suggest an Amnio & i have no need to worry (outside of the normal mother stuff) so i'm pleased! hmmm- yay!

ok- here's another 20 week belly pic (side view)

i'm 21 weeks today & it still looks pretty much the same (maybe tad bigger) so that's that.

oh- and i finally bought some baby'ish things on Etsy today- not clothes exactely, but it's a start!

the weekend in review

#1. i practiced major self control & DID NOT buy this adorable Coach Hampton bag & wallet:



you're probably wondering how i resisted...and i really can't tell you. i had my 25% of coupon in one hand & the bag/wallet in the other & i just....didn't buy it.

the husband said "i don't know why you need it but, go for it"
the clerk said "oooh, that's one of my favs! perfecto for spring & summer!!!"
the fellow shopper said "oh yes dear- there is PLENTY of room in that for it to double as a baby bag!"

....and yet i couldn't allow myself to purchase it. maybe because (with the coupon) it would have cost exactely what our stroller is going to (that i have yet to buy) or maybe it's because i realized that i really don't need this purse (want, not need) or maybe alot of different things. who knows- all i know is that i don't have it but i still really want it.
i'm going to give my coupon to one of my husband's lady co-workers & forget about it. ::sob::


#2. i got my first stranger comment this weekend- yay!
Kay's clerk "when are you due?!"
me "sept 15th"
Kay's clerk "how exciting! i only asked because i could totally tell it's all baby bump- no question about it!"
me ::squee::

#3 i feel Alex kick & see her move more & more. i also tried to get the husband to feel (she was kicking HARD) but he didn't seem to get it. plus he was preoccupied with the NHL Play Offs. loser.

#4 we have purchased our mother's their mother's day gifts: a Swarovski figurine for the mother in law (this is a yearly thing) and a diamond Journey pendant & ring for my mother (thank you Kay's clerk)
they should both be pleased- i, however, am not pleased that one of the emeralds i my e-ring is so loose that it could fall out just by looking at it. looks like i'll be making a stop at Barmakian's this weekend with my warranty in hand. for real.


#5 is it bad that i have no interest in looking at baby clothes?! i went to a bunch of stores this weekend (inlcuding the always adorable babyGap) & i looked for about 5 min & then had to leave because i was bored. at this rate my child will be naked. poor thing.


aaaand i think that's it. my Level II u/s is tomorrow so we'll see what my stats are afterwards- otherwise, nothing new. still waiting on a closing date for the house (should have one this week) and then we can start "planning" things (ie: furniture & such)

and such & such :)