As B’s due date gets closer and closer (we’ll be 31 weeks tomorrow!), we knew we needed to get his nursery in order. Thanks to Pinterest, I’ve had all kinds of ideas as to how I thought we should decorate the room!
We picked out the bedding for B from Pottery Barn Kids, so we wanted something that would look good with the Alligator Madras print.
In looking through boy nursery designs, I came across a pin that linked back to a nursery on Polyvore. I loved the batten board, as well as the navy blue on the wall – as it matched the bedding so well.
Because B’s room only has a small window, the navy blue wouldn’t work – it’d be too dark, so we looked at two different color options from Sherwin Williams: Celestial Blue and Secure Blue.
Celestial (left) and Secure Blue (right)
After looking at the two colors for a couple days, we opted to proceed with Secure Blue – as it would contrast nicely with the white batten board we had in mind.
We called Chris Schmitt of Blue Square Construction, a referral by my good friend Rachel. Chris gave us a quote after a quick visit, and we scheduled the work for this week.
On Monday, Chris came out to work his magic. I snapped a few ‘before’ photos to capture the makeover:
By Monday evening, all of the batten board had been placed on the walls and we’d set Wednesday as the paint day. So yesterday, Chris and Seth came back to paint the room, and we could not be any happier with how it turned out! We decided to put everything back in the room, and Josh finished the last of the IKEA storage we picked out for the room (he’s so very glad to be finished with putting things together from that store!).
We LOVE how things are coming together:
The two things left to work on include wall art, as well as finding a glider that will fit in the room! 🙂
We’re getting closer to having the entire room finished, but we’re a lot closer than we were thanks to Blue Square Construction. If you’re in the Atlanta area, I’d highly recommend these guys if you need stuff done around the house (we’re already talking about other projects we’d like their help with!). And if you give them a call, tell them I sent you! 😉
[#48 of #52]
Hi there, me again!
October came and went quickly, and here we are in November. It’s hard to believe that 2012 is so close to being over! It’s been a fantastic year, and while I’m sad to see it end, I am very excited about what 2013 will bring. The biggest of excitement all is the pending arrival of our little bundle of joy.
Since we announced that we were expecting, and found out that we were having a boy, the outpouring of love from our friends and family has been wonderful. Our little dude is a lucky guy!
I’ve had two showers thrown by two groups of wonderful ladies. 🙂
Last month, there was a lunch get-together with some of my ADPi sisters that were also advisors for the Beta Sigma chapter. It’d been awhile since I’d seen them all, since I’m not down near campus as often as I used to be. It was wonderful to have the chance to catch up, and they showered our little dude with some great items that are going to be incredibly helpful once he arrives.
My former Beta Sigma advisor crew
This weekend, my girls threw a sports themed shower for baby B. His daddy is quite the sports fan, and as I mentioned in my last baby post, I have a feeling I’ll have even more sports to watch as the years come. The guestbook was a football that everyone was asked to sign – so cute!
The guestbook
In addition to the sports theme, there was a delicious brunch spread with fruits, veggies, a breakfast casserole, and of course a cake/cupcakes! 😉
Part of the spread!
The precious cake and cupcakes
Games were played by the crowd that included “Name that Athlete” where photos of baby athletes were shown, and you had to guess who it was (I won with 4 correct answers of the 6!).
The answer board for the game
3 of the 6 athletes – Can you guess correctly?
The next game involved making a diaper for two guests out of toilet paper (can’t post photos of this, or my mother may would kill me).
The last game was “Name that baby food.” I decided not to participate in this one, it was way more fun to watch. 😉
The baby food sampled…
Lovely reaction to the “lasagna”
Baby B got some fantastic goodies, we really are blessed and thankful for our loved ones!
It wouldn’t be a baby shower or a get-together with these ladies with out group photos galore. 😉 Here are just a few that are my favorites.
Group photo!
The amazing hostesses!
Me and all of my “moms” 🙂
With my mother-in-law and mother
With my sister-in-law
Now that we’ve got some of the goodies needed to prepare for B’s arrival, we just need to get his room in order! We’ve met with a contractor and are working towards setting a timeline to get the work done. We’ll be adding batten board to the room, and painting it white, with a section of blue above (once we determine the paint color). I’ll try to take before and after pictures so you can see the change!
Here’s to hoping November goes a little slower, but is just as great as the past 10 months of the year!
[#47 of #52]
Finally getting back to trip re-caps – I’m really behind!
On our second day in Vegas, we opted to sleep in. With work has busy as it’s been, we really wanted to enjoy our vacation. Since we didn’t have any real plans for the trip, we decided to be lazy.
After we woke up, we ordered room service breakfast because we wanted to stay in our PJ’s. 🙂 When the food arrived, it was placed on our lovely table in the kitchen.
Our plated breakfast
I picked the waffles and berries, while Josh opted for the breakfast burrito.
Delicious!
Josh really enjoyed his breakfast too!
Being 15 weeks pregnant, breakfast had become important for making it through the day without getting super cranky. I’d made it out of the first trimester, and luckily hadn’t been sick at all – just tired (another reason for choosing to be lazy on our trip).
Once we finished breakfast, we got ready and decided to walk the strip.
It was hot. The kind of hot that’s smothering, that makes you wonder why on earth you went outside to begin with. Since Josh had never seen the strip or walked around the casinos, I thought it was important that we do that while we were there. The nice thing about walking through the casinos was that they were air conditioned. We really only had to go out into the sun if we wanted to or if there was no easily found connecting route to the next casino. The only negative of walking through the casinos was the smell. I’ve never really liked the smell of cigarette smoke, but being pregnant makes the smell 10 times worse. It burns my nostrils and I have to find fresh air quickly! While most casinos have pretty good ventilation systems, they’ve been smoked in for years and the smell lingers, so I didn’t mind going out in the heat for a minute to escape the smoky air!
We made our way down to the Venetian and the Palazzo before giving up on the walking and the heat. We walked back to our hotel to cool off and rest before our evening outing. I picked up a turkey panini from the snack bar in Vdara on the way back up to the room, all the walking made me hungry! All the walking in the heat made us tired, so we took a nap. It’s rare that we take naps, so having the opportunity to do so was quite nice!
Upon waking up we got ready to go over to MGM Grand to watch David Copperfield. Since we’d walked around all afternoon (and because it was still hot outside), we took a cab.
David Copperfield
The show was entertaining, but I’m a skeptic by nature. I’m still convinced that some of the people called onto the stage were part of the show, and not actual crowd participants. The last illusion involved multiple people from the crowd. They bounced around 10-15 beach balls and if you had a ball in your hands at the end of the show, you were asked to come up on stage (on the condition that you were 18+ and that you spoke English well). A lady 2-3 seats from us caught a ball, but gave it to someone else once she got further down. I was so disappointed, because I really wanted to be part of the group that he made “disappear” form the stage at the end of the show. I couldn’t figure out how he did most of the illusions, which drove me crazy, but again, it was entertaining and made for a fun evening.
Since we hadn’t eaten dinner, we walked out of the theater and over to The Grand Wok & Sushi. Josh wanted sushi, and while I can’t eat it for now, I obliged since it was his birthday trip…I had the chicken lo mein, which was pretty darn good. We were pretty full from dinner, so dessert was skipped (this time…), and we made our way back to the room for the evening to relax!
[#46 of #52]
Yesterday afternoon, we had a crowd of family and friends gather so that we can share the next phase of our big news – the gender of our little one. 🙂
We found out a couple weeks ago (because I’m a control freak and just had to know!), and managed to keep it a secret until yesterday. Instead of telling our families over the phone, we wanted to share the news in person (because watching their reactions is way more fun that just hearing it on the other end of the phone). And having such wonderful friends who are excited and were interested too, a party was the best way we could think to share the news with everyone at once. Throw in the fact that technology is awesome, we were able to record and live stream (thanks to the USTREAM Broadcast For Friends app) the gender reveal for friends and family that couldn’t be there in person.
We had everyone dress in either blue or pink, then had board on the wall for them to post their guess.
Guesses captured!
After hanging out a bit, and waiting until 3 pm due to some significant Atlanta traffic issues (thanks I-285 and I-75!), we went outside and took ‘team blue’ and ‘team pink’ photos before getting to the exciting part!
Team Pink!
Team Blue!
We got our families in position and had them open the box to reveal the appropriate colored balloons:
Preparing to find out…
All the while, we were recording and streaming to capture the moment as it happened. If you’re interested in watching, you can do so here.
But if you’d rather just read to find out, we’re having a boy!
It’s a boy!
Now that it’s public knowledge, I can start pinning things on Pinterest that I’ve been saving in email drafts for weeks now! Woo hoo!
We are so thankful for everyone that was able to make it, we love you and know that our little man will have some fabulous people in his life!
Josh and I are very excited and can’t wait to meet him in January! I see even more sports in my future than I live with now…
[#45 of #52]
Instead of doing something for our anniversary this year (since we’d just gone on our big trip to Australia), we opted go take a trip for Josh’s 30th birthday. We booked the trip back in March when I saw a great deal on Jetsetter for the Vdara hotel. I’m a huge fan of Jetsetter, though we’re usually not in a position to go to all of the places up for grabs – it is my favorite part of the day (especially during the work week) when the daily email comes into my inbox. So many beautiful locations – it’s nice to take a 5 minute mental vacation scrolling through their photos. [If you’re not a Jetsetter member, you can sign up for free using my referral link.]
The last time I went to Vegas, it was with some of my girlfriends. It was our first time there, we were ready to get crazy, and we did.
August 2008. Case in point. Ha!
Needless to say that in May when we found out we were expecting a little one, my plans for another crazy trip changed a little.
So at the end of July, we packed up and were off to Las Vegas, NV for a long weekend. We left on Thursday, July 26th and arrived in Vegas around noon. We thought it was hot in Atlanta, but oh my, it was so much hotter there. And for everyone that says, “At least it’s a dry heat”, it’s STILL hot. 🙂 Anytime you see triple digits in the weather forecast, you know it’s going to be ugly.
We checked into the hotel, where we’d booked a City Corner Suite. The view was quite nice!
View of the Strip from the living area
View from the bedroom
Because I was burnt out on vacation planning, the only thing we’d done for this trip ahead of time was book our hotel and airfare. We dropped our stuff and decided to walk to the Half Off ticket booth we’d seen not too far from the hotel.
The second we stepped outside, the thick heat surrounded us. After walking one block, all I wanted to do was turn around and go back to the hotel – but we pressed on. On top of being really hot, Josh and I were both tired and hungry, which doesn’t make a great combination. We finally made it to get tickets, where we opted to go see Kà that night, and got tickets to see David Copperfield on Friday night. Then, we had to walk back. We hadn’t seen anything that we really wanted to eat on the way to get tickets, the hungry started to eat as us. We picked a Mexican grill to sit down, cool off, and grab a bite to eat before heading back to the hotel. We weren’t fans of the food, and our waitress was awful, so we were a little bummed at the selection we made.
After lunch, we went back to the hotel to take a nap before we needed to get ready for Kà. Right after my alarm went off, and moments before Josh stepped into the shower to get ready, we received a phone call from the front desk. Apparently, there was a leak coming from our room so they needed us to change rooms and upgraded us to a Panoramic Suite. Since we hadn’t unpacked yet, it was fairly easy to get everything together to move to the new room rather quickly.
We quickly got ready for the show and rather than walking to the MGM Grand from our hotel, we decided to grab a cab. There was no way I was interested in walking that far, in heels, in that kind of heat!
Sign we saw from taxi
We picked up our tickets from Will Call and walked around before heading into the auditorium. The surrounding set was spectacular and the blazing flames from the area below the stage had us anxious for the show to start!
Sign before heading into the auditorium
This was my second Cirque show, and Josh’s first. It was entertaining and we left amazed at the theatrics, costumes, and choreography. I’d give it 5 out of 5 stars! If you’re in Vegas, it’s worth checking out.
After the show, since it wasn’t as hot outside, we opted to walk back to the hotel. I love the Strip at night with all the lights on bright – so much nicer than during the day!
Taken from walkway bridge
Since we had to walk through the Bellagio to get to Vdara, we stopped for gelato at the Jean Philippe Patisserie, which is home to the World’s Largest Chocolate fountain.
Look at all of that chocolate!
Info about the fountain
If there’s one thing I’ve craved during this pregnancy it’s been ice cream/frozen yogurt/gelato! I opted for the Mint Chocolate, which was far superior to the Cookies and Creme that Josh enjoyed.
When we got back to our room, it was great to see the lights of Vegas from our panoramic view.
View from room at night
Since we’d been up for awhile, and the heat zapped our energy earlier in the day, we called it a night pretty early to prepare for our Friday in Vegas!
[#44 of #52]
Well, hello there!
Pardon my absence, it’s been a crazy month or so since I last posted. But since I logged in and saw that people had signed up for email notifications when a new blog was posted, I realized that I should get back on the horse! (You can sign up for email notifications when a new blog is posted as well, see the top of the right hand column over there –>.)
Since there’s been a lot going on, I figured I’d touch on it – but know that I plan on posting more detailed posts ASAP regarding the items listed below (with pictures too). 🙂
First off, at the end of July, Josh and I took a little trip out to Las Vegas to celebrate his 30th birthday! It was hot, but we had a lot of fun. It was just nice getting away for a long weekend.
Then, a week later, Josh informs me that he received tickets to the PGA Championship at Kiawah for the following week. Talk about an unplanned trip, but I was certainly on board with going, seeing that we got engaged on Seabrook and love the Seabrook/Kiawah area!
And most recently, we just got back from San Francisco for a long weekend/babymoon. Josh was asked to speak at a social media conference since he’s a rockstar at that in the quick service restaurant arena. When I looked at the calendar, it just so happened that the Braves were playing the Giants *in* San Francisco that weekend, so I booked a plane ticket to meet him out there. I think I’m still getting over the time adjustment!
I think we’re going to take this weekend to relax, and boy am I looking forward to it.
Next weekend we’re having the big reveal as to whether we’re having a girl or boy to our family – which is going to be quite exciting. Lots of fun stuff going on!
All for now!
[#43 of #52]
To be honest, it feels really weird to be writing this post. I’ve been thinking for weeks about how I was going to put it out into the world, and have had a major case of writer’s block, so I’m just going to come right out and say it.
I’m pregnant. Josh and I are expecting a baby in January 2013!
I’ll walk you through the past couple of months, as there’s a lot of time to cover the news.
On Sunday, May 13th (Mother’s Day), I woke up to an empty bed, since Josh was back home playing in a golf tournament. I felt like being lazy, so I was – I feel less guilty about doing so when Josh isn’t home. 😉 I’d planned to take a pregnancy test on the 14th, since I was already a few days late. But seeing I’d gone through that a few times since we started trying, I was expecting a negative result.
It wasn’t until I randomly got a Happy Mother’s Day text from my cousin, April. It was clearly an accident that she added me to her mass text group, but it got me thinking. I’d felt a bit off the past couple of days, so I decided to test on Sunday. That way, I’d have the day to be disappointed and prevent myself from starting off the work week on a sour note, like I’d done a couple times before.
I took the steps outlined on the directions, which by this point, I’d read multiple times before…
And then I waited.
Within seconds, it was positive.
My first thought, “Holy. Shit.”
Don’t get me wrong, I was excited. Really excited, but shocked that the test was positive. I started crying and shaking, and knew I couldn’t wait until Josh got home to tell him the news. So I called him.
Seeing that I was crying and barely audible as I spoke, I’m pretty sure I freaked him out when he answered the phone.
I broke the news, and his first response was, “Are you serious??” And I’m pretty sure he threw in a “That’s awesome!” We agreed not to tell our mom’s until we could figure out a way to tell them.
After I talked to him, I went and got a second test from the store – I wanted to be sure. I went with a digital test, it also read: “Pregnant”. Things got real after that!
A week later, we had previously made plans to go down to my hometown for my friend Christina’s bridal shower (well, I was going, Josh was going to play golf with my brother and dad). After the shower, Josh and I had planned to tell my parents the news.
We took a picture of the test results, printed it out, and put it in a picture frame.
Picture we framed to share the news with our moms
I wrapped it up with lots of tissue paper and put a card in the bag with it. I’d like to say that I did a fantastic job keeping the fact that we had even started trying from my mom – she had NO clue, so she was quite surprised, as you can see here:
We told Josh’s mom in the same fashion over Memorial Day Weekend. I’d seen her earlier in the day, and had been feeling a little ‘blah’ that day, and all I wanted to do was sleep, so I skipped going to the Georgia Aquarium with Josh, his mom, his brother, and his brother’s now fiance.
As you can see, her response was that she was a little suspicious to begin with…
Since we’ve shared the news with our mom’s we have had two appointments to see our little one. Seeing the heartbeat in the first appointment, and hearing it in the second, were pretty amazing experiences!
Our baby at 13w4d
We’ve slowly told a few people up until this weekend (mostly immediate family) and we had a cookout last night to share the news with some people as well.
Now that it’s live on Facebook, I can finally post this blog post. We’re so overwhelmed by the excitement of our news, and look forward to this new chapter in our life! Our little one is going to have a great group of family and friends surrounding him/her as he/she grows up!
14 weeks down, and 26 more weeks to go to fully knock off #14 from the Life List!!
And on another note, per the request of some followers, I’ve created an email list so you can sign up to receive new posts via email. The sign-up box is at the top of the right column over there (—->), would love to have you sign-up! 🙂
[#42 of #52]
…I’d be rich!”
On Monday night I made the drive to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater to check out the bands of The Last Summer on Earth tour, which consisted of 90’s bands Cracker, Big Head Todd & the Monsters, Blues Traveler, and Barenaked Ladies (BNL).
For those of you that don’t know me that well, BNL has always had a special place in my heart as one of my favorite bands. My first concert was in high school and it was to go see BNL. Counting this concert, I’ve seen them 4 times. I’ll say that their older stuff is by far the best compared to their newer albums – but there are a few gems in the newer ones.
I tagged along with some of my former Beta Sigma advisor friends, and we had great seats for the show. Considering they were $21 each, we were pretty happy!
Ready for the music!
The view from our seats
We got there a little late, so we missed Cracker (I had to look them up to remember the one song I knew by them – “Low”). We took our seats and waited for Big Head Todd & the Monsters to come on (I also had to look them up). They were alright, but to be honest, I really only went to see BNL. Blues Traveler followed, and they were definitely entertaining. It was pretty cool to see John Popper play the harmonica in person – so talented!
Blues Traveler on stage
And then it was time to see BNL. The last time I saw them was in 2006 – when the band was whole. Knowing that Steven Page left BNL in 2009, I was really worried about how well they would be on stage. I haven’t really liked their albums post Page’s departure, they’re alright, but they’re not the same – so I stick to the older stuff.
They came out and performed a song I wasn’t as familiar with, but then followed with The Old Apartment, a favorite. For the most part they played the “good stuff” and I’ve included the set list below (with links to YouTube if you want to listen along).
Barenaked Ladies on stage
I fully prepared to state that if “I Had a Million Dollars…” I’d bring Steven Page back, but BNL as a foursome didn’t disappoint. The crowd was very much into the show and I left feeling quite happy – especially after Ed Robertson’s “Barenaked Rap”. It was a good time, even if it meant getting home at midnight (wow does that make me sound old or what?). Hopefully it won’t be another six years before I see them again!
Set list from BNL’s time on stage at The Last Summer on Earth tour:
Every Subway Car
The Old Apartment
It’s All Been Done
Boomerang
Ordinary
Blame It On Me (Acoustic)
You Run Away
Falling For The First Time
Too Little Too Late
Pinch Me
Big Bang Theory Theme
One Week [This is the song that introduced me to BNL!]
If I Had a $1,000,000 [This song inspired the post title]
Barenaked Rap [Very similar, if not exact to the one we experienced]
Encore:
Tonight is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel
[#41 of #52]
In one of my last posts, I shared with you one of my favorite photos from our trip to Australia. My friend, Jeff, suggested that I write a post sharing my favorite photos from the trip.
I shared a few on the blog through all the individual posts, but I thought it was a great idea to focus specifically on the favorites – thanks Jeff!
I took over 3200 photos on our trip, and narrowed it down to 800 that I went through and edited. The thought of narrowing it down to 5 favorite photos, or even 10, seemed a little daunting. So I went with my top 15 favorites. 🙂
And here they are, in chronological order – because ranking them would be even harder than selecting them!!
December 21, 2011 – Cleland Wildlife Park:
Josh feeding his first kangaroo
Such a sweet face!
Potential Christmas card photo? 🙂
December 23, 2011 – Great Ocean Road
An amazing view of the Twelve Apostles
December 24, 2011 – Golfing with Roos in Anglesea
Josh posing with the bunker kangaroo
An amazing sunset in Kilcunda!
December 26, 2011 – Australian War Memorial
A view of the Australian War Memorial
December 28, 2011 – Exploring Sydney
I just love the combination of the sun and clouds over the beautiful Sydney Opera House!
I just loved the curves and shadows in this photo, taken inside the Orchestra Hall in the Sydney Opera House
The stage setup in the Orchestra Hall at the Sydney Opera House
The sun peeking over the top of the Opera House
December 29, 2011 – Cruising the Sydney Harbour
Taken from our Captain Cook day-tour cruise boat.
The photo we had printed onto a canvas for our hallway
December 31, 2011 – New Year’s Eve
Fireworks leading up to midnight’s show
Happy New Year!!!
Going through these photos again was a lot of fun, I always enjoy re-living our trips! This post challenge also inspired me to make a photo book before Kodak Gallery shut down and moved everything over to Shutterfly. I should be receiving the photo book this week in the mail – and I’m very excited! It took 60 pages to pull the entire trip together in one book, and I could have easily included more pages!
So these are my favorite photos from our trip. Do you ever pick favorites from your travels? And if so, and you have them online, please share – I’d love to see them!
[#40 of #52]
On Father’s Day weekend, several of my girls and I threw a shower for our beautiful bride-to-be friend, Mary Frances, who we lovingly refer to as MFP.
Since MFP lives out of state while completing her dermatology residency, we don’t get to see her all that often (which sucks). I know that I am looking forward for the next two years to pass so we can have her back in Georgia (with Tony!).
MFP was my Maid of Honor in our wedding, and I’ll be standing by her side as her Matron of Honor for her wedding. I can’t wait to see her walk down that aisle!
Me and MFP!
The theme of her shower was “A Bridal Shower and Sweet Treats”. For the gift portion of the festivities, we did an “A-B-C” gift theme, where every guest was assigned a different letter and asked to bring gifts that started with their letter.
Hannah took the lead on decorations and had some creative ideas with colorful poms and a clothesline where we had pictures of MFP and Tony, as well as pics of us with her. Each guest was asked to write a message for MFP and hang it on the clothesline.
The clothesline early in the afternoon – it was full by the end of the day!
The bridesmaids all brought goodies for the party crew to enjoy, and enjoy we did!
Sweet Treats!
Special thanks to my mom for bringing the Petit Fours and Flower Cookies from Wilson’s Bakery – they were delicious!!
More sweet treats!
I got a wild hair and decided I was going to bake and decorate the cake for the shower. For those of you that know me, I’m ambitious, but it doesn’t always work out! Monica was surprised that I was going to take this on, but thanks to her advice and recipes for butter-cream frosting, the cake turned out alright! The cake was a pinspiration I’d found on Pinterest (link) – man, that site is awesome!
My cake contribution – surprisingly, the flowers were pretty easy to do!
While the frosting wasn’t as smooth as I would have liked, considering I had no air conditioning the Saturday night before the shower and was panicking about getting it fixed before the guests arrived at 2 pm on Sunday, I was happy the cake was even made! Thankfully, Shumate saved the day and we had A/C by 10 am on Sunday! 😉
We played a couple candy themed games, to carry out the “sweet” theme – Larissa did a great job putting those together!
Candy ‘Match’ game
After the games, it was time to run through the alphabet. I found it a lot of fun to see the creative things people came up with for their letter assignment!
H – Hanger, from Etsy Shop: Sunbird Way*
P – Cookie Pans
S – Salad Spinner!
W – Wine glasses, wine, whisks (and more!)
All in all, it was a great afternoon. It was fantastic to get together with everyone and to see MFP again. I’m very much looking forward to September for further celebration! It’s going to be a good one!! 🙂
MFP with her bridesmaids!
Me and MFP!
* Check out Sunbird Way here!
[#39 of #52]
