Week 22 & My Idiotic Mistakes

Man, oh, man...week 22 has been ridiculous!

The one highlight has been that I've finally "popped."  We were at church on Sunday and one of our friends was SUPER excited because she could finally see that I was pregnant!  I'm still not showing a whole lot and it usually depends on my shirt of choice, but baby girl is starting to make her presence known.  Personally, I blame it on all the food we were served during last week's Leadership Academy for the Kansas Association of Realtors.  There's only 13 of us from across the state that were chosen to participate this year--and this time around, only 9 of us could be there.  And you just don't put food in front of people without them eating all of it!  Well, at least if they're pregnant!  Randomly enough, like I said, there's 13 of us in the class.  10 of us are women.  By the time we graduate the Academy in October, four of the female Realtors will have given birth during the course of our Academy.  I'm still convinced something was slipped in our water back during our first session in January...

But back to this past week...Aside from starting to pop and noticing eyes on my stomach, I feel like I've done nothing more than correct mistakes all week long.

I can see a little more bulge!

Starting to 'poke' out a bit more!

And if you catch me at just the right angle, you can definitely tell something's going on!

Idiot Mistake #1: I was out of business cards, so I finally ordered new ones.  Within a few days, they arrived at my office and upon opening the box, I realized I ordered the wrong freakin' cards!  Since it was TOTALLY my fault, I knew better than to even try negotiating a refund from the company.  So, now I patiently await the arrival of new cards while figuring out a use for the 1000 business cards that were printed on awful, awful paper.  Maybe they'll become mini to-do lists?!

Idiot Mistake #2: I managed to forget groceries for the week.  We'd made a Sam's run on Friday to stock up on lunch stuff for J-Money...then come breakfast-time on Monday morning, I realized we didn't do our usual Sunday evening grocery run.  Upside?  We have so much stuff in our freezer that we've been able to pull together some (very) random, but edible, meals!

Idiot Mistake #3: The icing on the cake came this weekend when I went to paint the baby's room.  I had picked up the paint on Friday evening, opened it Saturday morning and threw some on the wall.  Right away, something looked off...I grabbed the paint swatch out of the kitchen and sure enough, I had Sherwin Williams mix up the wrong color.  Seriously?!  And because it was ME who made the mistake and it was a tinted color, I couldn't return the paint.  Being the paint-snob that I am, it wasn't cheap stuff, either...Grrrr...Instead of pouting the day away, I put my big girl pants on, ran to the store and came back with the right color in hand, only to be greeted by...

Idiot Mistake #4:  When I came home, I let the dog out of her crate and started putting away the old paint and getting the new paint poured into the tray.  Minutes later, I realize that the dog managed to walk across up-turned paint lid (that I left on the drop cloth), tracking blue paw prints across the wood floors and new area rug!  Could things become any more ridiculous and preventable?!  I was SO ready to take off my big girls pants and finally throw myself a self-inflicted pity party...but if I did that, I'd never get the room done!  The rest of the painting continued with several more hiccups, but it was eventually done and here's a sneak peak of the final wall color!

From K-State purple to this!  It's not quite as green in person, but more of a turquoise...almost a dead-on match to our living room.  Guess I didn't think too far out of the box on this one!

On a positive note, I do feel like we're making progress with several other projects.

In a couple of weeks, the work in the bathroom will commence.  We're talking new flooring, hanging of beadboard, a new light fixture and if I ever get the stuff ordered, we'll install new decorative towel bars, etc.  Needless to say, because I can't even paint a room right now without causing major headaches, we're having one of my contractor buddies tackle the project.  Plus, it will be nice to let someone else do the work!  The hutch for the baby's room is on a waitlist to be refinished--hopefully, it will be done in the next 5 weeks or so.  And our crazy, icky rocker is also on a waitlist to be re-upholstered.  That waitlist is several months long, so I'm glad I finally got around to calling the gal before I ended up having to rock the baby to sleep in the icky thing!  It's not easy for me to live in a house with unfinished "tasks," but the upside to it all is that once baby girl gets here, everything should be done and looking NICE!

Week 21 & Planning the Nursery

Week 21.  I don't even know what to say.  Obviously, I'm over half-way through my pregnancy and I really can't seem to figure out where the time went.  Then, I stop and think about having this "condition" since February...February...and then I start to realize maybe it hasn't gone so fast!  At least, the first 14 weeks didn't go fast.  But with feeling decent the past 7 weeks, time has flown by!

For the curious, here are some updated pics...

This is my belly at week 20--the next morning, we had our sonogram and learned that we will be welcoming a daughter into this world!

She (still seems weird referring to the baby as something other than "it") weighed in at around 13 oz and appeared to have longer-than-average legs and bigger-than-normal feet.  Didn't surprise any of us in the sonogram room!

Even though I was still "hiding" the baby, my (internal) growth is right on track.  My weight is up a total of 5 lbs since getting pregnant and so far, my doctor doesn't seem concerned...my guess is that the weight will soon be here!

Speaking of which, here are my week 21 pics.  Baby's definitely been eating well enough to hit a growth spurt!  

Now for the fun part...planning the nursery!

Once we learned we're having a girl, my creative juices kicked in gear and I started finding pieces to work with.  Everyone asks, "What color are you painting the nursery?"  Well, folks, I hate to disappoint ya but it won't be pink.  Nor will it be purple.  We're painting it blue :-)  Yes, our daughter will come home to a blue bedroom!   But that's what happens when your mom is far from a traditionalist and your father listens to Jay-Z on his record player...you will never have a chance to live a "normal" life!

So, what do I have in mind?  Here's a little sneak-peak of what I've found for the nursery.  Definitely not the most typical baby decor, but what did ya expect?!  I had to laugh when J-Money asked why I bought a clock for the nursery--as he pointed out, the baby won't be able to tell time.  And while he's right, this mama can't stand to be in a room without a clock, so a time-teller automatically became a necessity!

Slowly but surely, things will start to come together.  The wall color has been determined (after going through various shades of hideousness); I picked out the color for the hutch and need to get it up to my paint lady; and now that we have the rug rolled out, I can start looking at upholstery for the rocker.  Ever since we cleared out the guest bedroom and started moving in baby furniture, Mitzi stopped showing any interest in the room.  However, once we unrolled the new rug for the room, she laid down and made herself a spot...and then, eventually jumped up into the nasty rocker for a brief nap.  Seems our household is finally starting to adjust to the thought of bringing home baby!

Sonogram Says...It's a Girl!

 On Friday, we went in for our very first--and only--sonogram!

 

I was surprised how well I slept Thursday night--I was convinced that I wouldn't sleep a wink!

 

Even though I woke up bright eyed and perky tailed (ha!), I still thought it was wise to drink a cup of coffee and sip on some orange juice before we headed to our appointment...

 

And I'm glad I did!

 

The baby was moving around like crazy and within moments of pressing the wand on my stomach, the gender was revealed--we're having a GIRL!

 

As soon as the words, "It's a girl" came out, Justin's head fell into his hands.  At first, I thought he was disappointed and when I took a closer look at him, he was not only holding his head but he was also shaking his head.  What was that about?! 

 

All we truly wanted to hear during the sonogram was that everything looked okay and was developing as it should be...for us, the gender reveal was secondary.  Praise be to God that all the organs are working just like they should be and they kept saying, "It looks like the baby is healthy."  Last time anything was "checked" was 2 months ago and they just ran blood tests.  We had been on pins and needles waiting to hear about the baby's development...and we finally heard what we were hoping to hear!

 

Our Little Alien Baby...
20 weeks
13 oz.
Longer than avg. legs
Bigger than avg. feet
Still due on Halloween!

 

But back to Justin...

 

Once we left the appointment, I asked him how he felt about having a daughter.  And he started doing his little whimpering thing where he struggles to get words out (NOT what you expect out of a giant man, but it is what it is).  Lo and behold, he was freaked out.  His exact words were, "I'm going to have to protect her and someday, I won't be there to do that.  I thought maybe we would have a son first so that he could look after his sister when I'm gone."  Ahhhhh.....And then he started in on how much work it would be to raise a girl (not that I needed the reminder!)...so, to lighten the mood, I kindly reminded him that it would be okay and the best part was that he gets to live with TWO of me :-)  lol...I'm pretty sure that made him want to run for the hills!

 

But here we are, on Father's Day, and just one day away from Justin's birthday.  He now knows that in about 4 months, he'll be welcoming a daughter into the world and from now on, he'll be celebrating her birthday and doing things together on future Father's Days.  When I really stop to think about it, I can see how things became so real, so quickly for him!

 

And in just about 4 months, we'll get to see our baby girl again.  During the sonogram, they asked if we wanted to do a 3-D sonogram at a later date--we smiled and politely said, "No."  One, we're cheap--I can think of other productive ways to spend that kind of money!  Two, it will be such a surprise to see what she really looks like...or if she still looks like an alien!  And finally, we will have all the time in the world to look at her--that's something that an expensive sonogram will never beat!

Weeks 18-19 + A Road Trip, Wedding and Picking Paint Colors

I had the best intentions, but I didn't get a week 18 picture...oooops!  Last week ended up being just a 3-day work week and it made for some CRAZY days with work ending anywhere from 9:00-10:00 at night.  We had so much other stuff going on that it totally slipped my mind! 

 

But this week, I made sure to get a week 19 picture.  It's crazy to think in just one week, we'll find out whether we're having a son or a daughter!  My "beer gut" continues to grow but it still looks like just that--and not like there's a kid growing there.  As Justin says, it'd be nice if I looked pregnant when we go in for the gender sonogram, but we'll see if that happens!

 

Still looking normal from the front...

And just getting thicker and thicker from the side!  If I don't push my tops in, my waist just looks like one big rectangle!

 

One of last week's highlights was making a roadtrip up to Omaha.  One of my most favorite people from my days at Creighton was getting married and we were going to make a long weekend out of his wedding celebration.  Last time I was up there was 3 years ago and it wasn't to play, so I was really looking forward to the trip!

 

We left bright and early on Friday morning so we could get to the famed Henry Doorly Zoo when the doors opened...glad we did because that place was already PACKED!  It had been 10 or 11 years since I had last been there and I barely recognized the place.  Justin's never been IN Omaha, so for him, the zoo was quite experience!  How did I know he was excited?  At each and every exhibit he had to take pictures (and then show them to me)...here's a quick shot of him checking his phone to make sure the picture turned out okay!

 

See the size of his hand compared to a gorilla's?!  And to think--I'm supposed to birth his child?!  You best believe this mama will be asking for an epidural!

 

Once we got done at the zoo, we decided to find somewhere to eat.  In Omaha, this is no easy task--rumor has it that they have the highest number of restaurants per capita, so deciding on ONE place can be difficult!  Since the Creighton campus wasn't too far from the zoo, I decided to take Justin on a vehicular tour so that he could see where I spent my first two years of college.  I could have easily parked the car and wandered around on foot for several hours but before too long, Justin was getting whiny and irritable--SOMEBODY needed food!

 

Then, it dawned on me--Cali Taco!  Being just a few blocks from campus, it was a frequent place for us Creighton kids to go...good food AND it's cheap.  We pulled up to the intersection and once Justin saw the word "taco," he refused to go in.  He was in the mood for something "hearty" and "a taco just wasn't going to cut it." 

 

 

Being the nice wife I am, I ignored him :-)  I made him go in and once he saw everyone else's fried "California" taco, his attitude started to change...then his food came...and then he saw the clip from when it was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.  Now, he can't wait to go back!  To say he loved the food (and left full) is an understatement :-)

 

 

The next day, we were up bright and early for a 10:30 am wedding on campus.  Yes, a morning wedding.  First morning wedding that I'd ever been to!  The couple got married at St. John's Cathedral and had other weddings to contend with that day, so they took what they could get.

 

The church is a gorgeous building and sits right in the middle of campus...this picture is EXACTLY how I remember it.  Lit up and glowing at night!

 

 

But this is what it looks like during the day.  Absolutely gorgeous.  Guess that's one of the perks of attending a Jesuit (Catholic) university--they sure know how to build a pretty church PLUS you get to walk past it every day!

 

And the inside...it literally just takes your breath away! 

 

 

After the ceremony, we headed downtown for a brunch reception at the Magnolia Hotel.  In my opinion, this place is the epitome of a "hotel reception".  The exterior facade was gorgeous...

The hallway where they set-up the brunch buffet was stunning...

And the courtyard dining area was breathtaking.  But there was one small glitch--it started to rain as the ceremony ended so all the tables and décor were moved indoors.  It didn't matter--as they say, rain on your wedding day is good luck!

 

 

Later that evening, all of us met up in the Old Market for sushi and drinks.  Well, most of us, at least!  Even though the bartender offered me the alcohol menu and one of the guys from the wedding party tried to get me to take shots (apparently, neither one had a clue there's a baby brewing in me), I sipped on a Shirley Temple and let everyone else enjoy their adult beverage! 

 

Finally, it was time to head home.  In the world of real estate, it's guaranteed that all h-e-double-hockey sticks will break loose when you leave town and the guarantee held up while we were on the road.  We had a super hearty breakfast on Sunday morning, then hit the road back home.

Needless to say, I certainly wasn't looking forward to coming home to everything...between Monday & Tuesday, I clocked 28 hours of work--then another 12 hours on Wednesday.  It wasn't my idea of "welcome home," but as a result, I sold my 18th home in 11 months and I booked myself a massage!  Guess I can live with that :-)  The one thing I was really looking forward to doing when we got back was meeting with the architect regarding the paint scheme for our house.

Several weeks ago, I gave him a general paint color that we liked for the body, then told him to have fun.  He did just that!  He presented us with 4 color schemes, plus a stack of colors we could pull from if we didn't like what he came up with.  Are you kidding?!  I loved what he put together and of the 4, these were our two favorite palettes...very similar, but with different levels of saturation.

Justin and I both REALLY liked the color scheme below...the color on the right would be the house body, the second color in from the right would be the trim and the three colors on the left would be accent colors.  I wasn't so crazy about the boldness of the bright green accent color, so...

I pulled the green accent color from the stack with less saturation and this is how the grouping looks!  I never, ever, would have put purple and green together BUT I think the architect is on to something :-)  Next up is buying a few samples of paint, slapping it on the backside of the house and seeing what it looks like in real life!

If anything, it will look more "bungalow-ish" than our existing (and failing) khaki and white colors that came with the house!  The beige worked well when it was time for the last owner to list the house, but it's just not me (ie exciting) or historically accurate for our home's style.  I seriously cannot wait until it's time for the painters to get working on our house!!!

 

 

In just a few weeks, it will be time to paint the nursery...I've been so preoccupied with the house that I haven't even thought about wall colors for the baby's room!  I have a color scheme in mind if Lil' Britney Griner is a girl...and one in mind if L.B.G. is a boy...but I certainly haven't committed to anything.  My guess is that once we know if L.B.G. is a girl or boy, I'll be in the mood to figure things out!  Most importantly, though, I'm just glad that someone else will be painting the outside of our house while we only have to paint four bedroom walls :-)