Yard Work + Puppies

We don't have a huge backyard, but thanks to my insistence that the hubs fertilize (speaking of which, it's almost time for Summer Guard to go down!), it needs mowed once or twice a week.  While he was mowing this afternoon, I decided to bring the dogs outside with me to throw out the recycling.

Since the lawn mower wasn't scaring the bejeezus out of the pups, I decided to stay out there for a little while.

That's when I saw the funniest thing...

Re-Pete was following the lawn mower around the yard!

Not only was he following the mower, but he would occasionally stop and rub his head all over the fresh-cut grass.  He does this all of the time, especially when the lawn clippings aren't cut and bagged.

This is behavior that he has exhibited since we bought our house two years ago.  When the lawn needs mowed, you can see where he has pushed himself around in full circles in the grass. 

It must be fun, though, because it seems to be catching...

 

Now two of my dogs smell like grass clippings!  Perhaps I can bottle it up as a new dog cologne.  "Eau de lawn."  It'll catch on, right?

24 Weeks!

How Far Along: 24 weeks!
Size of baby: According to the What to Expect app on my phone, 8.5 inches long and weighing in at a whopping 1.5 pounds!

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  I'm still ignoring the scale, but have a doctor's appointment later this week...

Maternity Clothes: I still L-O-V-E my maternity shorts!  I've been running around and sweating today, though, so the panel has been rolled down while at home.

Sex: It's a boy!
Movement:  I'm finally noticing the occasional kick while at work!  He kicks when I lounge on the sofa, when I go to bed, and whenever I wake up in the middle of the night.

Sleep: I have no trouble getting to sleep at night, but waking up is difficult.  All I want to do is stay in bed!  I am surprised, however, that I'm not waking up to pee every single night.  I almost wish I would, though, because I feel like I'm going to wet the bed some mornings!

What I miss:  Laying on my stomach.  I needed to get something out from under the bed today and I nearly dislocated my shoulder trying to get it.

Cravings: Candy.  I bought the hubs a big box of Rainbow Nerds last week and ended up eating most of them, which is surprising, because they're not very good.

Symptoms: I'm one hot mama... and by 'hot' I mean sweaty.  

Both of our registries are complete and baby shower invitations will be going out soon!  It is insane to think that our baby is due in 112 days.  When did we get so close to double digits?  It's baffling!

Our little man also has clothes!  The hubs and I woke up bright and early yesterday and hit up a couple of really good yard sales.  They both had really clean clothes (a lot of yard sales have stained baby clothes) at really reasonable prices.  We spent $20 at the first one, but $5 of that was a bathtub.  We only spent $5 at the second one and probably got just as many little outfits.  They were serious about moving clothes at that one, as we bought sleepers for as little as a dime!  A few more yard sales like those two and we'll be set for clothes.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy 3rd Anniversary to my very best friend...

I love you!

23 Weeks!

How Far Along: 23 weeks!

Size of baby: According to the What to Expect app on my phone, 8 inches long and weighing in at a whopping 1.2 pounds!

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  I've been avoiding the scale. Last time I stepped on it, though, I was back at my February 1st weight.

Maternity Clothes: I still L-O-V-E my maternity shorts!  I also have a bunch of summer dresses that I'm going to start wearing.

Sex: It's a boy!

Movement:  I love feeling our little guy move around.  I don't notice him moving a whole lot while I'm at work, but when I lounge around afterward, he starts dancing!

 

Sleep: I have no trouble getting to sleep at night, but waking up is difficult.  All I want to do is stay in bed!

What I miss:  Sleeping through the night.  I guess that's over for a while, though, right?

Cravings: I'm not craving anything in particular, but I don't refuse food.  haha!  I eat a lot of cereal.

Symptoms: I'm one hot mama... and by 'hot' I mean sweaty.  

I created our first baby registry this evening!  I know, I'm so on the ball.  Since we're planning on using cloth diapers, a friend encouraged me to create a baby registry on Amazon.  I must say, it was really simple to set up and add things to.  I spent way too much time browsing around looking for things to add to it.

I've also started going to yard sales looking for baby stuff.  I can't believe how expensive such tiny clothes can be!  I didn't have tons of luck finding baby boy stuff (it was mostly 12m+), but I did get a couple of pairs of overalls and a sleeper.

"I'm a Redneck Woman..."

That seems to be my theme song this week.

As you know, last weekend our garage door bit the dust.  You also read that I've lost yet another broom to the torturous powers of my husband.

I also managed to seriously clog up our kitchen sink by using the garbage disposal just a little too much.  Of course, it doesn't help that our house is 92 years old.

Since the hubs was working on the nursery, garage door, and murdering my broom handle, my sink got pushed to the bottom of the list.

But we were still making dirty dishes.

After a sad attempt to make chicken parmesan, I took a pan outside and rinsed it with a garden hose.  Yes, I felt a little silly, but it was better than having the pan stink up my kitchen.

A couple of days later, we ran out of clean cups and plates.  Not a fan of paper plates, I had to think of a solution.  I didn't want to carry my beautiful Fiesta dishes up to the bathroom or down to the basement, but they needed to be cleaned.  So, being the resourceful gal that I am, I filled a bucket with dish soap and hot water and headed to the back yard.

Yes, I confess that I washed my dishes on my back porch and rinsed them with the garden hose.  It was like camping, but with air conditioning... and a really comfy bed.

Once the dishes were washed and dried, they went back into the cabinets.

I later told a friend about my redneck dishwasher.  She was kind enough to point out that I'm pregnant, but was I barefoot?

I was wearing flip flops, but do they really count as shoes?

What's Up With Brooms?

If you remember last month, my husband destroyed my broom with some vigorous, garage-cleaning use.  I went to Target and bought another one.  Things were going well.

Or so I thought.

Yes, that's right, he's done it again, though this time he destroyed the handle to my broom.

Last weekend he painted the nursery and wanted a handle for the roller so he wouldn't be climbing up and down the step ladder a million and fourteen times.  The only handle we had came from my new broom.  I gladly let him use it because he was painted our son's nursery a gorgeous shade of blue and I wasn't.

Just before he finished painting, I heard an "uh-oh" and immediately knew what had happened.  Too much pressure and a plastic broom handle do not mix well.  The handle is broken and this is all that is left of my pretty broom...

RIP Broomy

DIY -- Garage Doors

Saturday afternoon our garage door died.  No, not the garage door opener, the garage door.  A cable malfunctioned and it began to lift unevenly, which resulted in one of the panels cracking in half.

Here's a close-up of the crack that extended half-way across our two-car garage.

You know what that meant?  We had to buy a new garage door.  They aren't the cheapest thing at the store and, more than likely, you have to have them delivered.  Yes, we have a new pickup truck, but we still couldn't haul a 16-foot garage door home in the bed, so we had it delivered this afternoon.

The rain that fell all day let up and my husband was able to tackle a large portion of the project this afternoon.

And who do you suppose was his doting assistant?

The woman who is five months pregnant with his son.

Me.

Check us out!  This is while we were taking out the old door.  I am excellent at holding things up and following verbal cues.

The weather was great for being outside all evening.  The only drawback was that I'd had an incredibly hectic day at work and wanted nothing more than to lounge on the couch.

Fortunately, once we got the old door and hardware down, there was a bit of downtime -- for me.  I kept the hubs entertained with my witty banter and thrilling conversational skills.

My hard-working man!  Sorry for the blurry photo -- taken with my Android.

I was really able to utilize my skill of holding things steady while he worked.  I'm contemplating adding that to my list of special skills on my resume.

The first panel is in place!

When I told the gals at work what we planned to do this evening, they gave me funny looks and reminded me that I'm growing a person in my uterus (like I'd forget!).  Here's what I have to say about that...

Pregnancy does not make me handicapped.  I am still an able-bodied person and I know my limitations.  If you want to offer me help, awesome.  If I ask for help, realize that I'm not being lazy.  Our garage door wasn't going to replace itself and I don't want to park in the driveway forever. 

View from my seat on the driveway.  Isn't my husband handsome?

All right, moving off of my soap box...

Our new garage door is a serious improvement over the last one.  This one does not have windows.  Our old one had cracked windows that were painted over on the front and duct taped on the back (see first photo).  Taking that particular panel down was a bit of a hazard, as the door-cracking incident cracked the windows further.

The panels are almost up!

Putting up a garage door is a strange process.  The panels are installed before the track hardware they move in.  It seemed a bit backward to me.  As I blog this, the hubs is still in the garage installing the tracks.  I've instructed him to call if he requires first aid or needs me to dial 911.

It feels really good to be able to do a lot of these home improvement projects ourselves.  First of all, it saves us a boat load of money since we aren't hiring an overpriced "professional" to do the job.  Second, we got to spend the evening together working on our home instead of watching television or something mundane.

Here's the garage in spring 2009 just before we purchased our home.  The top panel is the one that cracked and the second panel from the top is the one made of glass.

And here it is today!  At the time this photo was taken, we had been working on the garage for more than three hours.  There's still a bit of work to be done (including a huge clean-up tomorrow evening), but it's definitely coming along.  Doing home improvement projects yourself definitely makes you feel good about yourself and your home.

Swagbucks

I use Swagbucks every single day.  I do a few searches and earn Swagbucks.  Once I earn enough, I cash them in.  They have tons of different things you can cash them in for, but I always cash mine in for $5 Amazon gift cards.  I've earned $60 in Amazon gift cards over the last several months.

However, I'm trying to step up my Swagbucks game.  You see, I'm saving up for something special, something baby-related.

Oh, yeah!  I am saving up to buy cloth diapers.  Specifically, I'm saving up for BumGenius 4.0 (with snaps!) cloth diapers.  Buying a new set of cloth diapers can seem overwhelming, but they will more than pay for themselves with the money you'll save over buying disposable diapers, not to mention all of the landfill space you'll be saving!

So where do you fit in?  How can you help?

Easy.

Sign up for Swagbucks!

Just click on the word "Swagbucks" anywhere in this blog post (each hyperlink contains my referral link) to sign up.  Each time you earn Swagbucks through an Internet search, I, too, will receive Swagbucks.  It's that easy.

There are plenty of other ways to earn Swagbucks through the main site.  There are daily polls, surveys, and opportunities to earn increased bucks on Mega Swagbucks Friday.

So there you have it.  Sign up.  Search.  Earn.  Help a mama put diapers on her baby.

You'll be earning your own Amazon gift cards before you know it!

22 Weeks

How Far Along: 22 weeks!
Size of baby: According to the What to Expect app on my phone, 8 inches long and weighing in at a whopping 1 pound!

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  I've been avoiding the scale.

Maternity Clothes: I bought a pair of maternity shorts!  They.  Are.  Amazing.  Seriously.  I found them at Macy's and they stop a couple of inches above my knee (not quite Bermudas).  They have changed my life.

Sex: It's a boy!
Movement:  Our little guy moves so much now!  It's such a great feeling.  I'm starting to notice that he is more active at certain times of the day.  He also starts dancing each time I eat watermelon, no matter what time of day.

Sleep: I have no trouble getting to sleep at night, but waking up is difficult.  All I want to do is stay in bed!

What I miss:  Sleeping on my stomach!

Cravings: When will I start to crave weird foods?

Symptoms: I'm still hot and sweaty, but I'm guessing that isn't going to stop any time soon.  

We've finally started doing some real work on the nursery!  This weekend we got quite a bit done.  The hubs put up a new shelf in the walk-in closet, so now we have a place to hang up the things we've started to buy for him.  He also painted the walls a beautiful shade of aqua yesterday, which is a HUGE improvement over the peach that was on the wall.

The biggest news of all, though, is that this week we bought our crib!  The hubs put it together this morning and it's gorgeous!  We still haven't purchased a mattress, but it really helps make it feel like a nursery seeing it in there.

Invasion!

Two weeks ago, the areas of town where I live and work were invaded.

Seriously.

I got out of my car at work and walked through a sea of dead carcasses.

There were hundreds of cicadas covering the parking lot.

Throughout the day, the dull roar of their call could be heard inside of our noisy building.  It was even worse if you were brave enough to walk under the trees.

Someone told me they were 13 Year Cicadas, which emerge from the ground every 13 years in order to breed before they die.  

Fortunately, I only had to deal with the nuisance at work.... until the other day.  You can now see them flying around our neighborhood, covering our cars and sidewalks.  One bounced off of my forehead as I walked from the garage to the house one day after work.

Fortunately, they are neither poisonous nor do they bite, but they are irritating all the same.  I am ready for peace and quiet!

21 Weeks!

How Far Along: 21 weeks!
Size of baby: According to the What to Expect app on my phone, 7 inches
Total Weight Gain/Loss:  Thanks to my Memorial Day weekend food-fest, my weight was up a few pounds from my last appointment, bringing me to my February 1st weight.

Maternity Clothes: The selection of maternity clothes here stinks, so I'm rocking bigger shirts and praying they stay long enough for a while.

Sex: It's a boy!
Movement:  Our little guy's movements are getting stronger and I love feeling him wiggle around.

Sleep: I use my body pillow every night, which means that when I want to flip to the other side, I wake up.  It's rather irritating, but it's better than sleeping without it.

What I miss:  Clothes that fit.  Sleeping on my stomach. 

Cravings: When will I start to crave weird foods?

Symptoms: I am SO hot and sweaty!  It's ridiculous.  I've been sweating in places I didn't know that I could sweat.  A skinny little nurse at my OB appointment tried to tell me that she was hot, too.  I gave her a look that said I wanted to run her down with my car.

Check it out, I finally took another picture!  Yes, I am in scrubs.  I'd just gotten home from work, hence the tired expression and messy French braids.

I can't believe I'm already 21 weeks along!  We've finally started doing some serious work on the nursery.  The closet has been undergoing a face lift and we're buying paint this weekend.  Before we know it we'll have everything ready for our little guy!