A Real Giveaway!

My friend Erin over at A Real Housewife is giving away another free gift card from CSN! Check it out here to enter to win. Good luck!

Photo Friday

Recap of My Photo Friday Quest

As a learn-as-you-go approach, I have decided to take a picture each week and use Photoshop in some new way each time to enhance that week's photo. My hope is to force myself to learn a little each week about the camera, about the Photoshop software, and at the same time keep up with my blogger goal of documenting my current journey through life. Hopefully this does not completely bore any of you, but if you are anything like me (a little curious) and have some suggestions or questions each Friday, please feel free to help me with this experiment, I would love some fellow photo geeks!

I just started this last week, to take a look at my first Friday photo post, click here.

This week I made a huge leap with my photoshopping skills, and how do I know? I could recreate exactly what I did to the photo again if I had to. I would say that is some darn good progress, eh? Anyhow, here's the before shot (a random tree in our backyard- gotta love the winteresque look of it all):

 

And here's the photo after several attempts at adjustments (I got a little carried away if you can't tell):

Thoughts? Suggestions? Which one is your favorite? Anyone want to share your photoshop skills via transformed images- leave a link!

Much Ado

My to-do list these days has grown to several pages long. The last time I felt this overwhelmed was while planning our wedding nearly 6 years ago (hard to believe huh?), and of course looking back now I loved the chaos of it all. I am sure this case of madness is no different, so taking this list and crossing off one item at a time is the only way to deal.

My fear is that I have left something off of this list or have completely forgotten something very important to the overall well being of our child and will be suddenly caught off guard when the baby arrives and we do not have everything we need to function properly. I have to remind myself that nearly all of the things on my list were not on my mother's list or my grandmothers' list- and therefore are completely unnecessary. Phew! Still, don't we like to have all of the available comforts at our fingertips?

Here is a little glimpse into my baby related list (yes I have several other active lists too) in no particular order with a few let's-not-embarrass-myself-too-much items that have been left off:

Take maternity pictures- hoping to do this in February.
Fill in baby book/ pregnancy journal where possible.
Finish reading pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, and baby books (currently reading about 7 books!)
Curtains for Nursery
Art for Nursery
Crib & Mattress
Clock for Nursery
DIY Mobile? (More on this later)
Animal Decals for Nursery
Hostess gifts
Keep up with thank you notes for shower gifts
Maternity outfits for showers and upcoming weddings
Pediatrician
Cord blood banking
Take home outfit for Mason
Birth announcements
Birth plan
Nursing Bras
Write a will
Babymoon?
Call insurance company with due date
Finalize Maternity Leave with HR
Third (and final) ultrasound
Buy remaining items off of registries
Pack hospital bag
Install car seat
Keep cars gased up and towels on hand at all times (you never know where it will happen)
Take newborn pictures- obviously can't do until Mason arrives, but planning it is key.
Register at hospital
Birthing Class
Register at BabysRus and Amazon
Gestational Diabetes Test
Schedule Baby Showers
Paint Nursery
Dresser for Nursery
Glider for Nursery
Bedding for Nursery
Bassinet for master bedroom

I am a little hesitant to ask, but have I left anything off?

Poised For a Comeback

This week while Chris was away on his men's ski trip in New Mexico, I ventured to the nail salon to treat myself to a mani/pedi. Let's face it, my feet and hands needed it and I was rewarding myself for being a good wife- not bitter at all about not getting to ski. ;o) So it turns out that one of the Asian women (sorry that this is not politically correct but I honestly have no idea if they are Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, or Korean) is also pregnant. They asked me how far along I am- roughly 29 weeks, due in April- and then proceeded to speak to each other in their foreign language. Seriously, I could go on forever about how mad that makes me every time I go into one of these places.

"You are in America! Speak English and stop talking about me!" 

When they finally stopped giggling to each other, the lady turns back to me and says, "Well you sure are big for being 7 months pregnant." I had no response. My blood was boiling and every thought that popped into my head was not appropriate at all, especially since they had not even started on my nails yet. I did not want to chance leaving the salon with their version of spitting-in-your-food-revenge, whatever that might look like for a salon. I wanted so badly to tell them that there is a good chance I will be having an 8 lb. baby (runs in the family on both sides) and not some 4 lb. Asian baby- but I held back. A couple days later while perusing my favorite blogs I came across The Pregnant Chicken's pregnancy comebacks and I couldn't stop laughing. I wish I would have read this before my nail salon visit. Here's a shortened repost of her comebacks:

"Are you sure you're not having twins?! You're so big!"
■ Shhh, it's actually a litter of puppies but don't tell anyone yet.
■ Did you say "twins" or "violins"? Oh, okay I guess both sounded kind of stupid.

"Is the nursery ready?"
■ No, the baby isn't going to be staying with us.
■ Yep, the sock drawer is all ready to go!
■ Sort of, we're just waiting for the electric fencing to be installed.

"You must have wanted a girl/boy instead"
■ Actually, I was hoping for a kitten that could burp glitter.
■ I'll just trade it for something else in the hospital.

"You're just hormonal."
■ Shall I tell your family that those were your final words?
■ I was simply hormonal, your Honor. I didn't mean to stab him in the neck with a pencil.
■ I think you mean "ormornal". The "h" is silent when you're speaking in moron.

"How are you going to handle another one?!"
■ We're selling the oldest one on eBay.
■ Oh, it will be fine. I drink a little.
■ I just won't pick this one up when it cries. I figure that will free up a lot of my time.

How ya feeling? (with a head tilt).
■ I don't know, I'm still a little drunk.
■ Strangely violent today.
■ It's funny that you should ask that (then abruptly walk away).

"You should NOT be drinking caffeine." (or doing, eating, touching, etc. something else that's none of their damn business).
■ Oh my gosh, Th...ank YOU! Are you SURE? I had NO idea. My doctor said it was fine, thank god you are here to save me from-what is it exactly the caffeine will do?
■ The Voices say I can have caffeine.
■ You should not be wearing those jeans (etc.)
■ This is the best I can do since kicking the methamphetamine habit.
■ It's not caffeine. It's doctor prescribed laxative tea because this pregnancy is making me so constipated I have hemorrhoids. Oh, sorry, was that too much information?

"Feeling fat yet?"
■ Whoa, I was just going to ask you the same thing. How weird is that?!

“You still haven’t had that baby yet?”
■ I'm trying to hold it in so I can finish a novel I'm working on.
■ Oh, I had it, I just left it in the car today.
■ I had it yesterday but I'm trying to shoplift this basketball so could you bugger off?

"You better sleep now because once that baby gets here..."
■ Why!? Don't they sleep?! Next you'll tell me they poop too.
■ (lower your voice then say) Actually, I don't sleep now. I just sneak into your bedroom and watch you sleep.
■ Sleep is for ugly people.

"Was this an accident?"
■ Were you?
■ Yes! I tripped and fell on a pile of sperm.

"You're so small!"
■ A really heavy person said that to me yesterday too. I guess it's all relative.
■ I had my internal organs removed so I wouldn't have to buy bigger pants.

"You're huge!"
■ I know!! It's like I'm growing a whole baby or something!
■ Holy crap, you too!

"How many more babies are you going to have?"
■ Somewhere between one and 47.
■ It depends on how many we sell.
■ We plan to keep going until we have an ugly one.

"You're not going to find out the sex? But don't you want to know? It would... drive me crazy!"
■ Well, that's a short drive anyway, isn't it?
■ It wouldn't matter anyway because we're naming it Thermos the Third whether it's a boy OR a girl.
■ I'm kind of hoping it's neither and it's just gas.

‎"Should you be eating that?"
■ Well, seeing as you're already eating your foot, I figured I may as well eat this.
■ No, I should be eating lots of it.
■ Why, because you think it's as dangerous as asking me that question?



For other great pregnancy related articles from The Pregnant Chicken click on the link below:

Thank You

A friend of mine shared this video with me and I couldn't keep it to myself. My grandfather taught me at a very young age what he and many others fought for and are still fighting for today. I am very grateful for the men and women that serve in the armed forces, and even though it may seem like a random day to be expressing my gratitude, it is never too late to let them know we appreciate them. I love the idea of this new campaign. If you want to read up on it some more, visit the website: http://www.gratitudecampaign.org/

Photo Friday

If you recall, for my birthday back in November my wonderful husband bought me the Canon Rebel T1i. As if the camera was not enough of a huge improvement over my older camera, for Christmas I was gifted Photoshop Elements 9.0. Talk about photography overload!

I have spent hours experimenting with the different camera settings and the newly installed Photoshop program on our laptop at home, but I have to admit, it is very daunting (did I mention I have NEVER used Photoshop before in my life?!?!).

So as a learn-as-you-go approach, I have decided to take a picture each week and use Photoshop in some new way each time to enhance that week's photo. My hope is to force myself to learn a little each week about the camera, about the Photoshop software, and at the same time keep up with my blogger goal of documenting my current journey through life. Hopefully this does not completely bore any of you, but if you are anything like me (a little curious) and have some suggestions or questions each Friday, please feel free to help me with this experiment, I would love some fellow photo geeks!

This weeks photo- just experimenting with the camera settings:

And the photo after some small adjustments via Photoshop (baby steps people, baby steps):

Anybody want to join in my Friday photo quest? 

28 Week Update

How far along? 28 weeks (Third Trimester!)- 12 left to full term.

Baby's size? Clocking in at about 15 inches long and 2.5 lbs.

Weight Gain?  16 lbs. Yowzers! The doctor said not to worry, everyone goes through a growth period where baby and/or mom gain a lot of weight (i.e. 7 lbs in a 4 week period), but that still shocked me. I guess that was the equivalent of me gaining a few extra pounds over Christmas, New Years, and our birthdays. Let's hope that is all it was and not a trend I am going to follow for the next 12 weeks. On a positive note, my blood pressure was 88 over 58, a lot lower than my already low blood pressure at any of my previous visits. At 28 weeks this is a good sign that I am not preeclampsic (at least not yet). Both my mom and sister have suffered from this (also commonly called toxemia) during their pregnancies. I have sort of accepted the fact that I will also get it, but would be surprisingly relieved if I do not get it.

Sleep? Lots of back pain these days, which tends to keep me up, but every night is different. Still loving my pillow, not sure I would be sleeping at all without it.

Foods I am loving? Oranges, bananas, pickles, and cheddar popcorn (you know, the white kind, yum!).

Foods I am hating? Still not a fan of chicken, but avoiding it got pretty old, so I have learned to tolerate it- for Mason's sake.

Movement? Baby is a lot more crowded these days, so movement is more like rolling jabs and less hard punches, but when he gets moving I can feel him from head to toe and all those curves in between.

Symptoms? Same 'ole symptoms as before with some extra back pain thrown in there. This could just be my poor posture catching up with me, who knows. Also, I have a hard time breathing sometimes, not really out-of-breath breathing like from walking, but if I am sitting on the couch I have to stand up to catch my breath, probably only a problem for us short bodied (or short torsoed) women.

What I miss? My body. Mason's current home is no longer my sanctuary.

What I will miss? Maternity pants. Hello... no zippers or buttons? And why is this only acceptable if we are pregnant?

What I'm looking forward to? Getting some more "To Do" items crossed off of our list (more on this at a later date): finding a pediatrician, researching cord blood banking (something we are considering but also something our doctor says is a state mandate- that all patients be aware and educated on the topic- news to me), adding final touches to the nursery, and of course spending some time just trying to take everything in! - Something I am not good at and really need to learn to appreciate now.

Best Moments this week: Attending our birthing class which was way more educational and exciting than I would have guessed (even if the reality of it was a little jarring), toured the new labor and delivery floor at the hospital where we will finally meet Mason in less than 3 months, and finding out I DON'T have gestational diabetes!

Weekly Wisdom: Tying the laces on your tennis shoes is a privilege ladies and not to be taken for granted. And the couch is way more comfortable to sleep on while pregnant than the bed. Waking up next to my hubby is way more important to me than some extra zzzzz's, although he did offer to plop an air mattress down on the floor next to me if it would make me sleep better- Love. Him.

The bump:

Next appointment: In 3 weeks, on Monday, February 7th.

Mason's Nursery- Step Four

If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Something Mason might ponder while he's sleeping, perhaps? Haha, just kidding. Here is Mason's new forest wall. We are also planning to add some animals from the same vinyl material to the room (elephant, giraffe, etc.) at a later date, but here is what the new accent wall looked like before (notice the old lights on the ceiling):

After the paint (wall and lights)

The trees and birds before the installation

(by the way- this was surprisingly easy!)

The finished wall !!

What do you guys think? We decided to stick with the same basic template from the suggested layout with a few minor tweaks, but we had complete free rein on where each tree trunk, limb, and bird was placed on the wall. Remember what the rest of the nursery is going to look like? If not take a glance back here for a refresher. Next steps on the nursery agenda include some curtains, some art, some animals, and of course still waiting on the crib (which we decided to register for) and the bedding (still no estimated date of arrival but I am super anxious so see the finished product). Stay tuned!

How cute, More loot!

Here's a look at some of the really great items we have received recently for our little man, anybody else as excited as I am about them?!?!? Haha, doubt it, but thanks for letting me share. ;o)

Party at My Crib (from Mimi) and My Daddy is a Hunk (from Mom)

Nike onesies from Aunt Wendy and Uncle Greg

Diaper Wreath from cousin Katie

King of the Crib (from Dad)

Diaper bag (from Grandma)

Why is baby stuff so stinkin' cute?

Mason's Nursery- Step Three

Finally, the paint is dry (after having a little difficulty mastering our stripe), the light has been re-installed (after trying to remember how to put it back the way it was before I uninstalled it- oops), the letters have been hung (after realizing that a few were incorrectly made to be hung upside down and then having one break after accidentally dropping it), and the furniture that we have so far has been moved into the room. All of that got us to this point, which still looks unfinished without a crib, artwork, miscellaneous details, and our focal wall, but still feels like great progress!

Same stripe with letters hung



Lights reinstalled

On the wall shown above we are going to install tree decals, like the ones shown below (only different colors to match our theme).

Best part about them, they are removable! So once our little man grows out of his current theme we can switch up his room decor without repainting the room, which was a huge selling point for me. The trees have already arrived and are patiently waiting to be installed. Hopefully we can get those up in the next day or so. Stay tuned, I will post a picture of the finished wall as soon as we have the trees (oh yeah and birds) installed!

What IF. . .

Okay so I got to thinking, since I had such a block when it came to designing a boy's nursery, that maybe it would have been much easier to design a little girl's nursery.

So what if Baby C was a she?

I am not about to plan out an original, one of a kind nursery for a girl, hello I have better things to do, so instead I pulled together some inspirational images via the web that spoke to me. My conclusion is a definite YES! A girl's nursery would have been much easier to design! Enjoy...

Anyone else with me on this? Girls' rooms are fabulous, even my toned down version of girly and frilly is still super cute. Mason, don't worry, mommy and daddy love you very much, this was just hypothetical!

(P.S. My absolute favorite is the last one! If we do happen to have a girl someday, I will be coming back to that image- which is weird because I never thought I would have pink in my house- EVER!)

Mason's Nursery- Step Two

The crib bedding (which I briefly showed here) was my inspiration for this room. I found these great fabrics on Etsy and chose a woman who worked with me on every detail to create our bedding- a gift from my parents for baby Mason.  Here's a more detailed view of the fabrics in the order they will be used for the bedding, which is currently in production (click on the image to enlarge):

Trying my best to stay true to myself and not make Mason's room too themey and keeping it mostly temporary (since I hear most 2-3 year olds acquire their own idea of what their room needs to look like: i.e. Thomas the Train, Dora, Cars, or Princesses), I decided to frame the room with subtle smokey blue walls. I knew we could get away with a dark color since this room is large and in charge (15' by 16') and our furniture is white. The long walls needed to be broken up so I planned a stripe on the crib wall and vinyl decals for the opposite wall behind the glider and ottoman (more on this at a later date) which will be lit by our accent track light (thank you previous home owners). Beyond that, I plan to tie in the white, espresso, light blue and teal accents throughout the room.

Here is how the room looked before we began (wow I just noticed the gold door knob... I forgot all about those- we have come a long way):

We removed the track light from the ceiling, which was circa 1990 (who knew a white light would yellow in a matter of 20 years... wow 20 years- crazy- maybe that is why I feel so comfortable in this house, it is almost as old as I am). I made the decision to first paint the light, if all went well we would reuse it, no need to waste money if paint could do the trick. If, however, my paint job was unsuccessful I had scouted out a replacement light at Lowe's for $35. The new tracks have much smaller lights these days, so sticking with the original 1990 model was actually desired at this point to give more light to that wall once the dark paint takes over the room. We painted the ceiling an off-white when we first moved in the house over a year ago, so painting the light white would have worked but may not have looked as nice as a deep brown, so I went with that. Here's how the light painting went down:

Once the track light was painted, and I still had all of the paint supplies out, I started another paint project with the same brown paint. I found these letters at Hobby Lobby 50% Off, and even though they were gold, they were the only letters nearly big enough for what I was wanting. I knew paint would be an easy fix. 

The color I chose for the room (although not very accurately shown below) is: Behr's Distance, also almost identical to Sherwin William's Distance, hmm, Home Depot is that legal? The true wall color is closer to the SW color below, gotta love computer screen distortions.

Behr

Sherwin Williams

Once the room was prepped, taped, and all was removed from the walls, I was exiled from the room. Paint fumes are a big no no for preggers (unless you buy the special paint, which I did not). Here's a during shot of Chris and both of our families painting (yes both- there were a lot of helpers who showed up to spruce up Mason's room- little guy is already receiving so much love!):

Mimi

Grandma



Aunt Stacy and Uncle Reid



My Brief Appearance



We are waiting for the final coat to dry, then we will reinstall the track light and hang up the letters. Steps to follow will include adding furniture to the room: Dresser, bookshelf, and glider already purchased. Waiting on the crib, the bedding, the curtains, and the vinyl decals. (Note: It could be mid- February before these final items are added to the room, but I will update as they arrive). Stay tuned!

Mason, is that you?

As a member of thebump.com I receive a bunch of emails, all about baby, pregnancy, and parenting each week. This week I received one about their special Baby Morpher software, which intrigued me. It was actually listed on their website as a planning tool, hmmm, in case you want to plan what your child will look like based on your future potential baby daddy?!?! Okay, I am going to leave that one alone.

Anyways, I couldn't help myself. I proceeded by uploading a picture of yours truly and Chris. Yep definitely going to be a good looking kid based on these pictures, ha.   ;o) 

Clicked on this button:



And voila!

I probably could have kept doing this all day, haha, but I didn't. It was humorous, that's for sure. Let me know if you try it out, if you want, just click on the link below:



Don't Be Dooped

Okay all you bloggers, tweeters, and facebook junkies. This video really shines some light on a danger I had not even thought of before. Even the Mythbusters guy has been dooped and is warning the rest of us to beware.  (After a short advertisement, the video is only 3:11 minutes long).

Mason's Nursery- Step One

Mason's nursery is underway, but my blogging is a little behind, so please have a little patience as we slowly but surely reveal the room.

I have to start by saying that I can plan the heck out of anything. In fact, time is often my worst enemy. The longer I have to plan for something the bigger and uglier the bruises on my head are from banging my head against the wall. This nursery has been no exception for me.

I have encountered a few personal problems along the way:

Problem 1: I have absolutely no clue what a boy would want his room to look like and Chris has no opinion on what any room should look like.
Conclusion: Boys do not care what their rooms look like.
Solution: Create a fun kids room that I think looks nice and is not too frilly.

Problem 2: First time mom and dad here picking a needle out of a baby furniture haystack with a million and one reviews about why each item is or is not okay for our child.
Conclusion: There is never just one right choice OR there is never a perfect choice.
Solution: Narrow it down to a few manageable options that meet your safety standards and general taste in furniture, then just pick one and don't look back!

Problem 3: Anyone that has planned a wedding knows how super gitty you are in the beginning, trying to nail down every minute detail. Then right before the wedding you get super anxious and switch into superhuman mode again. I have fallen into the dreaded middle area, the calm before the storm. These days I can be found sitting on the couch with my feet propped up while my husband cooks, cleans, and shuffles me around to get things done. I call this my out of body experience. It is almost like I am sitting by watching myself and have no control over it. Totally not like me at all and yet part of me feels absolutely no guilt for doing so. Is that you Mason making mommy feel lazy?
Conclusion: I need a jump start pronto!
Solution: I made a list (something I can never totally slack on) and told Chris these are the things that need to be done soon- HELP! Sure enough one by one we have started to chip away at them (with Chris leading the way of course). At the top of that list is the nursery and the registry. Thank goodness my sister drug me along with her over the Christmas break and made me register. Chris got off easy on this one, but he did subsequently review the registry with me.

So once my nursery vision was done described to Chris with a lot of or's and if... then's and maybe's, that is all Chris needed to get the ball rolling. He is a man of action... no more debating what to do. And so the nursery was born (okay poor choice of words here, but kinda funny, right?). Here is what the vision looks like in a very raw form (I noticed the colors on my computer screen look slightly off, the teal has a green tint to it, the blue is a little off, and the dark color is actually brown not black, but you get the idea. Oh yeah, and the bedding shown in the crib is not ours nor is the chair shown, but close):

Step two to follow will detail our paint and wall ideas. Stay tuned!