Egg-Sauce-Ted

This whole bearing a child thing has me eggsauceted most nights, and in bed by 9:30 guaranteed. I wake up most mornings earlier than pre-baby, but really, at the end of the day I'm absolutely wilted.

So we've gotten into a new rhythm- and I see my hubby, family and friends less than before (because I just can't hang!) and most of our evenings are spent with my feet up on the table watching a movie. This weekend it was New Moon (yay!!) on Friday and Boondock Saints 2 on Sunday. I loved the original BS movie - (though I need to rewatch it because I don't remember it almost at all). BS2 was so funny - well, lots of people may not get it but it certainly fit the hubby and my sense of humor. It had us simply rockus with laughter. Quite a good surprise.

New Moon was a smidge disappointing the second time around having just read the books for the 4th time- but I understand its purpose and constraints, so I still will enjoy it repeatedly. :)

Adventures in Craigslist

I've looked online at craigslist for years but have never officially bought or sold anything. Something about going to someone else's house alone sets off my self-defense common-sense radar. But desperate times and seemingly perfect furniture finds call for desperate measures so off we (yes I took the husband with me) ventured into the unknown - and by that I mean fifteen minutes away in a uber-suburban safe-looking neighborhood in the middle of the day to examine and potentially purchase our find.


We had been on the hunt for a tall-ish dresser we could double as a changing table since a) mcNugget's room is tiny and b) we're both tallish persons who needed more than the 30" changing tables we saw in stores. Oh, and the hubby really wanted something to "match" the rest of the funiture in the room - meaning that painted wood was out. The only thing furniture stores had to offer in our budget were tv stands with cabinet doors and interior shelves or poorly made wobbly drawers. We just weren't willing to spend $400+ on new furniture that would inevitably get dinged up!


So we found a mid-century furniture dealer who has a pile of good stuff in his garage - including a perfectly sized, nicely colored, never re-done, pristine condition dresser. We loved it, it was in super condition and it was only $150. That's $100 less than the other newer furniture items we found! It was really well constructed and it had tall legs that lifted it off the floor so that we had a) extra space to store things b) gave it more of an airy look and c) we could modify its height if we needed to. Here's the goods after we brought it home:




Isn't she a beaut? I'm just uber stoked about the 4 main pieces of furniture in mcNugget's room being hand-me downs (the crib, the glider, the night stand and the dresser). The bookshelves were built a few years ago with love from the husband for me. Its just turning out so well - I'm going to enjoy spending so much time in this room!

Yes, We're Crazy: The Before

Okay, so I'm posting these in reverse order - but just so you can be officially wowed once this is done, here's the before on our bathroom. It has served its purpose for us for 4+ years, and now its getting a makeover. Fair thee well grey tub and toilet and sink!

Gliding in Comfort AND Style

There are a few words in the English language that can get my attention anytime, anywhere. One of them is chocolate. Another is free. As in FREE glider WITH ottoman. My impossibly wonderful neighbor offered up their free glider that has just been sitting in their basement to us, and I shall be thankful evermore for it. I've always wanted a glider (even years before I got knocked up) and now I have one. Its not even McNugget's glider - no, this puppy is all for me.

So anywho, she mentioned it did need a recovering - which was fine by me since I <3 those types of projects. Here's the before scene. Not as awful as you may expect for a few years in a basement and having supported two kids.


Here's the after transformation and I love it. The lime green, cream and multiple brown colors work fabulously with our room. It only took me about 3 hours for me to finish the whole thing - and its SO COMFY! Plus its reused furniture which goes with my green feelings and it saved me about $400, so I'm on cloud nine about this whole thing.

Yes, We're Crazy.

There is nothing like baking a bun in the oven to get you to do crazy things. Like tackling 2 full bathroom remodels in 3 months. We didn't do it solely for aesthetic purposes - and we certainly shouldn't be spending thousands of dollars right now if we can avoid it - but the bathroom was old and slightly moldy and I couldn't fathom bathing my little one in there. Really the main pain point was the peeling paint in the tub (they had painted over the salmon tub with a dull grey) and I just imagined over and over the babe picking the peeled paint and eating it.

With my current situation baking, I can't be at home for the demo work - which is a solo undertaking by my wonderful, amazing, superman of a husband - so he sent me photos from Day 1 demo. Feel free to ooh and ahh or eek and eww at your preference.

The treasure of the uncovering was this scrawled date that reads 1955. We're trusting that its accurate - goodness knows the wallpaper looks like its 55 years old. I'll just cross my fingers that this bathroom redo can hold up for the next 55 years!

Funny Fooding

A hilarious dessert at a mexican restaurant this weekend. Yay for humor and fatty foods!

How Much Is That Kitty In The Window?

Here's Shady enjoying open windows for the second day in a row. The quick changes in weather are giving me whiplash, but I love the sun.

Moving Things About

The dust truly never settles in our house. This weekend we got inspired to move things about again. The reason was that we had to figure out how to fit our entire office downstairs because of we are turning the space into a nursery.

I felt we had three options: 1) use extra space in our living room, 2) rearrange furniture to use space in our dining room or 3) use the pass-through between the kitchen and dining room. The benefits of moving the office downstairs are that I can actually use my computer more now than sitting upstairs by myself. The downside is that we'll have to be a lot more careful about organizing all the junk that our office collects!

So all that being said, we've decided to go with option 1) - rearrange the living room. This room now needs to act as a foyer, office, play area for mcNugget & tv room. Our space is long and large, but with a defined walk through.



I did not want to interrupt the flow of the walkway from the front door to the dining room archway. I also didn't want to walk in front of people while they were watching TV- and I really love having a defined foyer. So we got rid of our oversized love seat, and repurposed the sofa-table to a desk. We're still looking for an on-sale sofa that will fit our narrow (but long) space, and we're planning on hanging the TV from the wall. We're also looking for a new chair - probably the Poang with a footstool from Ikea.

Here's the cosy nook that's now our tv area:

And the view from the dining room:

Here's the view from our front door:

Currently, we have our desk on the wall near the front door. I don't love it there b/c it could quickly become a crap collection space - but we'll have to move it around. Trotter seems to like it well enough though:

I have to say, I do like this piece as a desk though. Isn't it pretty?

But, for all that prettiness - we still have half a room to fill up!! (please ignore the plywood and insulation that's being stored there now.) I'm sure it will get used as a play area for mcNugget, and we may move the desk to the wall where my painting is so that you have something to draw your eye when you walk in the room... but what do we do with half a room? Where was all this space hiding before? Its certainly a good problem to have, but I wish it was just done!

Happy Birthday Trotter!!

Dear Trotter-No-Pants,

I can't believe you're 3 years old already. Where did the time go? It feels like just yesterday we were looking around for a new baby to add to our pet menagerie - and we just happened to stumble upon you- the sweetest potcake ever - through my mom's rescue.

And now you're always at our side, underfoot, in our lap, in our bed, or standing on the arm of our chair. You're always getting yourself in some sort of trouble, but we love you more than I ever expected we could. You make us fall in love with you everyday through comic relief and adorableness. We've spoiled you rotten because of your cuteness factor; you're my snuggle buddy and your daddy's little man. We'd be hardpressed to ever get another dog that wasn't a potcake because of how much we love you in all your craziness.

I do hope that you'll like the next addition to our little family - at least you'll gain some much needed weight on those skinny bones of yours from all the food mcNugget will be dropping for you. That's my birthday wish for you - that even though our attention may be otherwise entertained, that we'll still remember to make you'll still feel like our little man, and let you know how truly blessed we are to have you.

No Fear!

An unusually calm eating occurance at our house... I'm going to buy Shady a No Fear! t-shirt.

Showering Ourselves With Style

After a few gentle reminders from family & friends, I'm finally updating the world on our downstairs bathroom redo. Its beautiful and lovely and not-100% finished, but it still looks just how I wanted - it looks like a newer hotel bathroom to me, only on the smaller side. What do you think?

The things left to do are 1) put in a replacement window 2) finish the trim around the door 3) fix the floor tile (some of it came loose in the cold weather).

The beautiful shower floor:

A snapshot of the wall details in the shower:

Pillow Talk

Super Geeked: Rita's Custard

I know its only Monday, but the best thing about this week has got to be Rita's vanilla soft serve custard. Its delicious, and I haven't had it since last summer since they're not around during the winter! I'm going to TRY and not go overboard this year... last year it was almost a daily stop for me.

Yikes - A New Way to do Body Shots

So I think I'm handling my 'situation' reasonably well - and 99% of the time I'm super excited about the whole thing. I try to not complain about the lack of sleep (I'm even thinking how good it is to get practice waking up in the middle of the night!) and I try to participate in chores around the house- not babying myself too much. I'm even putting on a brave face about not fitting in my clothes and taking my latest body issues in stride; well MOST of them anyway...

This week I've had a handful of people telling me how I've 'popped' overnight and they can 'really tell I'm pregnant'. I guess I hid the first 21 weeks well. This week I've noticed my ab muscles have begun to stretch and move apart. No biggy, right? Wrong. It has left me with a GIANT belly button. For some reason, I wasn't expecting that. Especially the overnight change from a belly button that looked like a verticle line to this built-in shot glass in my stomach. I know I've heard of people's inny's turning flat or even popping out, but I just didn't write myself a mental post it on that one. It just surprised me, that's all... I wasn't planning on wearing any teeney Britney Spears school-girl outfits anytime soon.

Super Geeked: Crib Update

I just had my virgin experience with Overstock.com - and I'm super excited about it. Birds are chirping, the sky is blue... I just bought McNugget's crib mattress!



Okay, so I never thought I'd get geeked about buying a crib mattress - but I am. I was really hoping for a top-rated mattress that was: cost-effective, earth-friendly, easy to clean, and easy to change the sheets on. The first natural one I found in our price range was a little too thick for our crib (and when I delved further it also didn't get top ratings). I was starting to get a bit worried when the answer didn't jump out at me at my first few casual online shopping trips and trusted blog articles.


Then I discovered the Sealy Soybean Foam Core Crib Mattress. The first thing I checked is that it fit our crib. Then I read the reviews - it got 5 stars at Walmart and 4 at Amazon for its ease of cleaning and changing. It's made from hypoallergenic & renewable soybean materials, and is a lightweight foam product. Bonus? Its made in the USA. Overstock had the lowest price (under $150), free shipping, and a good return policy. So yeah, I'm pretty geeked about it. Another thing crossed off in the McNugget preparations! Now if we could find a mattress that good for me and the husband...

Come Hang Out At My Crib

Nurserying has officially begun- we've got a crib! I almost cried (again) about the idea of putting a little mcNugget in there. It just looks so wonderful and perfect.

I wish our office...err... nursery wasn't so small so I could take better photos, but here's the gist of it. Next on the list? Painting!

McNugget's 50 Yard Line

We're at 20 weeks with the McNugget! I can't believe we're half way there... yikes! & yay! at the same time! So for all those in baby-waiting, here's a photo of me and my belly at Month 5, where I am noticeably larger than at month 4. Mind you I'm standing funny in both photos so the belly actually looks bigger than in real life- I've only gained about 11 lbs to date, fortunately most of that is in the belly region.

¡Ay, Caramba! That Was Good!

As I sit here wolfing down the last of my leftovers from yesterday's dinner, I thought "I should have blogged about this!" So unfortunately its too late for photos of the meal, but I think its still worth sharing.

A few nights ago I read the words "Chicken Enchiladas" somewhere and decided I had to have them. Fast forward to my emergency Sunday evening supermarket scramble where I performed a quick cell phone Google for easy Chicken Enchiladas recipes, and 6 ingredients later I had all the makings of my meal. (Here's the recipe from AllRecipes.com)

The meal? Delicious and everything I had hoped for. It made a total of 8 enchiladas in under 1 hour (the recipe says it makes 6), and 2 was sufficient for each serving. I grilled the chicken on my George Foreman- but you could make it ahead to save time. I only used half the amount of cheese - (1 cup looked like enough... and it was). I think the only possible change would be to serve it on shredded lettuce to give it more veggie power.

1/6 package of Chicken - $8.62/6 = $1.44
Cream Cheese - $1.47
Salsa - $1.69
1/2 package Cheese - $2.50 / 2 = $1.25
Beans - $0.59
Tortillas - $1.85
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Total cost for 4 servings = $6.60
Total cost per serving = $1.65

Pretty good, huh? No more Mexican eat outs for me! This was superb!!