Landscaping!

We have landscaping! Yay!

The front door still isn't painted - it will be black.

The Two-Week Plan...

Doc Marcus announced I am finally on the two-week plan ~~ doc appointments every other week. Then - after 2 more appointments - I'll be making a trip to see him once a week! Should be fun! No exciting news to tell except that everything is going VERY well - we are both VERY healthy and Marcus didn't seem too worried about anything - including my weight! I was SURE I was going to get a scolding this time. Thank Goodness! I probably would have just drowned the office in tears :)

What's going on with Parker:

By now, Parker weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama - here is a picture of one in case you had never heard of it - which I never had!) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. Mommy is gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, he'll gain a third to half of his birth weight during the next 7 weeks as he fattens up for survival outside the womb. He now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). His skin is becoming soft and smooth as he plumps up in preparation for birth.

What's going on with mommy:

To accommodate you and your baby's growing needs, your blood volume has increased 40 to 50 percent since you got pregnant. With your uterus pushing up near your diaphragm and crowding your stomach, the consequences may be shortness of breath (this explains why I can't even talk on the phone without getting winded!) and heartburn (UM HELLO - THIS IS AWFUL! IF I DON'T CONSUME AT LEAST 3 TUMS BEFORE BED, I AM UP ALL NIGHT!). To help relieve your discomfort, try sleeping propped up with pillows and eating smaller meals more often (THIS LATTER ONE IS NOT AN OPTION..).You may have lower-back pain (HELLO - i asked my doc about this and he just said that Parker is probably sitting on my tail bone and there isn't anything I can do about it.... lovely) as your pregnancy advances. If you do, let your caregiver know right away, particularly if you haven't had back pain before, since it can be a sign of preterm labor. Assuming it's not preterm labor that's ailing you, you can probably blame your growing uterus and hormonal changes for your aching back. Your expanding uterus shifts your center of gravity and stretches out and weakens your abdominal muscles, changing your posture and putting a strain on your back. Hormonal changes in pregnancy loosen your joints and the ligaments that attach your pelvic bones to your spine. This can make you feel less stable and cause pain when you walk, stand, sit for long periods (does sitting in my office chair for 9 hours a day count?), roll over in bed, get out of a low chair or the tub, bend, or lift things.

A month and a day from today....

A month and a day from today.... life as I know it will completely change. My husband and I will be home owners for the very first time and I cannot even explain how excited we are about this! Chris and I have never really "owned" anything... ever! And for us to begin our new life together in this amazing house we will call "our home" just absolutely makes me feel like the most blessed person in the world. God has truly given us more than we deserve. Much more. -- That is probably the biggest understatement of the century --

And THEN - (somewhere around) a month and a day from the day we become proud new home owners - our life will change yet again in the most amazing way! I can't even begin to explain how blessed we feel to have had experienced such an amazing and healthy pregnancy. Despite the 40 lbs I've somehow managed to pack on in the past 7 months, I have loved everything about this experience. And we do not take this for granted. We thank God every day - multiple times a day - for this precious miracle He has provided for us.

When Chris and I were still laying in bed this morning (after hitting the snooze button about 20 times) Chris' hand lay on my belly and I just couldn't help but feel so amazingly blessed for what God has created in my body. Parker was literally doing flips inside of me - and for Chris and I to both be able to feel that is probably one of the most amazing feelings I can't even describe. Besides feeling so incredibly blessed, I feel guilty for being able to create such a wonderful creation when so many people I know in my life are not able to. I don't understand why God chose us to be parents - but He did - and I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that this little man inside of me has the absolute best life possible.

~

Last weekend we spent the weekend with my mom in Tennessee - we had an amazing time finding the perfect fabric for Parker's glider chair (Chris was a trooper, by the way!). We spent the rest of our time helping my mom de-clutter her house hoping it will help it to sell soon so she can move to Florida with my dad! Oh - and mom did probably the worst thing possible... she found and purchased.......... GIRL SCOUT TAGALONG ICE CREAM. Let's just say that the entire carton was GONE in the 48 hours we were there.

Our sweet little family :) Me, Parker, Buddie, Chris and Jack!

Me and my sweet dog, K.C. He turns 13 this year! I can still remember the day I got him on my 13th birthday and I stayed up with him in the bathroom all night long because he was so scared being away from his mommy for the first time. (Quick story: I had sent some of these pictures out to family earlier this week and the caption I had for this photo was "I love this picture cause you can't even tell I'm pregnant! Well my lovely sister, Whitney, just had to ruin this picture by saying - "Oh I can definitely still tell you're pregnant - especially in your face..." Thanks Whit... You can always count on family to be honest... Hmph...

Precious K.C.

Mobiles.....

I just realized today that I had not yet picked out a mobile for Parker's crib! Here are some of my favorites from BRU. Also - here is a picture of the bedding so you can see what would look good with it. There is a mobile from Beyond Bedding web site that "goes" with our bedding -

but I'm not sure if it's my favorite. I'd love your comments and thoughts! Let me know what you think!

This is the mobile that actually "goes" with our bedding - but it's not really my favorite. It didn't come with our bedding set - but it is priced at about the same exact prices of all the other mobiles from BRU. I just don't know if I like the "umbrella" look to the mobile.

Kenneth Brown Handsome Puppy Mobile

Kids Line Pop Star Mobile

Banana Fish Baby Noah Mobile - This is another "Umbrella-type" mobile... but I thought the litte giraffes were cute!

Danny Gokey!

I am SUCH a huge Danny Gokey fan! American Idol has definitely been more difficult to watch so far this season - since we don't have cable or TiVo anymore to record all our favorite shows! And I have yet to actually watch an entire episode thanks to my evening naps that normally fall around 8:30 or 9:00! HOWEVER - I have some how managed to follow Danny Gokey and HE IS AMAZING.

He is a church worship leader who lost his wife 4 months before he auditioned for American Idol. He has a great story and the fact that he made it into the top 12 and will forever be able to share his story with the world is absolutely incredible.

Do I have any other Gokey fan readers out there?!?! I can hardly wait until next month when the top 12 start competing so we can hear his awesome voice and story more!

More Blessings!

I get this frantic call from my sweet grandma (Nano) on Monday morning and she is at the SALES EVENT of the year apparently and just HAD to tell me about this incredible crib she found for SUCH AN AMAZING price - AND she had a coupon to use on top of all of it!

I could barely hear her or make out her words as she was talking SO fast and she sounded out of breath - like she was running! I finally got the drift that she had found the most beautiful crib she had ever seen and that it was marked down nearly $400 from it's original price and that she just had to get it for us! I asked her to give me a few minutes so that I could call Chris and talk to him about it. Well - I call my sweet husband and he just happens to be about 5 minutes from where the JC Penney Outlet store is in south Atlanta! So random! He was with a co-worker and they were going to check out a cell site down there, but thankfully his co-worker just had a baby a few months ago and understood the importance of this phone call! Ha ha! I explained the situation to Chris and he and his co-worker drove over to the outlet store so Chris could see this amazing crib!

And - it actually was very pretty! Chris sent me a pix message to my phone so I could see it and we both really liked it! Chris said that Nano and Poppy were both just BEAMING at how proud and happy they were to be able to buy this amazing crib for us! And I just absolutely love the fact that they were so happy and thrilled to be able to do this for us! I guess it's the joy of being a grand parent and great grand parent that I don't yet fully understand.

I just can't say how blessed we are for all of this! I truly - 100% believe that this was all God's work and that He was definitely having some fun with us! Right about the time I had totally given all my "worldly preferences" up to God and was just allowing him to give us what we needed for our nursery - he decided to step it up just a bit and find a way to give us a crib that pretty much matches our exact "worldly preferences". And He also found a way to allow my sweet grandparents (who I consider myself very blessed to still have here with me and a part of my life - and soon to be Parker's life!) -- a way to make them feel so good about being able to find this wonderful piece of furniture for our little boy's room!

Here's a picture of the crib :) It's being stored at Whit and Doug's basement for now - thanks for the free storage sis!

Until next time - I'll be continually thankful for all our blessings - HHH

Buddie had to come down to the basement to check it out, too! You can see him looking underneath to make sure no one is messing with his soon to be brother's crib! He's such a little guardian :)

Welcome to Week 30!

Conversation between Chris and I on the couch yesterday afternoon...



~

I look up at Chris.


"Do you think you are really ready for all this?"



He looks at me and waits a few seconds before answering...


"Um... not 100%."

~

SO - that is the overall consensus of our feelings now that we are into our 30th week of pregnancy and we start our count down of only 9 weeks and 6 days to go! YIKES!

Parker's been moving ALL around lots and lots and I am really getting used to his sleeping habits. He is always wide awake in the morning - before I even get out of bed. He stays pretty awake for about 3-4 hours then takes an hour or two long nap. He then is awake from about 1 or 2 o'clock until 4 o'clock. They he takes a really nice long nap until I begin to eat dinner around 7 or 8 then he stays VERY awake and VERY active until bed time - around 10 or 11 o'clock. He hasn't woken me up much during the night - except for when he rolls over in his sleep and puts all his precious 3 lbs on my bladder! I am very much looking forward to having all that room available for my bladder again! These bathroom trips every 30 minutes during the day and every 2 hours at night are getting old!

Here is what he looks like inside of me... I love thinking of his sweet little body curled up just like this inside me. It's very comforting and I pray every day that he's comfy in there! Cause it sure looks cramped to me!





Here is what else my email update had to tell me last night!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your baby's about 15.7 inches long now, and he weighs almost 3 pounds (like a head of cabbage). A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds him, but that volume will decrease as he gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. His eyesight continues to develop, though it's not very keen; even after he's born, he'll keep his eyes closed for a good part of the day. When he does open them, he'll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means he can only make out objects a few inches from his face. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.)

Also - this was our "fun fact" of the week! All I can say is - THANK GOODNESS!

"Research shows that pregnant women experience forgetfulness 15 percent more than nonpregnant women. Memory returns after delivery."

Valentine's Day!

Chris and I had such a great Valentine's Weekend! As soon as I got home from work on Friday, I laid down with Jack and Buddie and watched some news (since it's like the only clear station we get these days! Yay for budgeting and not paying for cable anymore! It's actually been really OK not having it - but I'll save all my thoughts on that for another blog post!) And as the news anchors were talking about all the unsafe peanut butter products, I started REALLY craving peanut butter cookies! So, after I was sure our peanut butter we had was safe, I proceeded to make the best tasting batch of peanut butter cookies ever! I topped each one off with a piece of Hersey bar and I am pretty sure I ate about 1/4 of the cookie dough, too! Mmm! After the cookies were done, we headed over to Amy (Chris' sister) and Jeffrey's house to hang out. We brought the movie Fireproof and I would say the over all consensus was that we all liked it. It had a great message and it's honestly a nice relief to actually watch a good movie and not see all the yucky trash that seems to sneak into every popular movie these days! If anyone hasn't seen it - I highly recommend it! However, Kirk Cameron may be one of the worst actors ever. So - you are forewarned.

Saturday we woke up pretty early and went out for our romantic morning breakfast date together at.... of course... Smyrna's very own Ken's Corner Grill! We stuffed ourselves with scrambled eggs with cheese, grits, toast, biscuits and gravy, sausage and a waffle! We felt our heart attacks coming about 2 years sooner as we walked out, but it was SO worth it!

After breakfast we took the long 35 mile haul to see the house and we were super excited to see our corian counter tops in and the trim inside already painted. Very exciting! The counter tops look a little funny in these pictures because they have a really thick layer of dust on top of them, but we really love how they turned out! We also LOVE our sink! I never thought we could get so excited about a sink but I guess that is what home ownership does to ya! The laminate flooring was also in the bathrooms and laundry room and also all the door knobs were on all the doors.

~

Before I went to work on Saturday night, I took a little nap while Chris made a delish dinner! I have such a great hubby. I woke up to some awesome filet mignon, potatoes, veggies, garlic bread and salad. Thanks Chris!

~

Saturday night, I volunteered to come into work and help the hostesses out for a few hours during our crazy rushed night. It ended up not being as crazy busy as we thought, but it was definitely a rush. So - being 30 weeks pregnant and standing on my feet for 4 and a half hours is NOT okay and I will not be doing that again. By the time I got home around 11, my feet and knees were so swollen, I was a little scared that I may have cramps/contractions later that night, but I ended up having a very restful night. However, I didn't make it up to get to church on Sunday morning. Chris went without me to help with the KidMo service, but it took me until about 11:30 to even get myself out of bed . Lesson learned. No more over doing it!

~

Other than Saturday night, we had a great weekend together! Our second Valentine's Day as a married couple was incredible and I couldn't ask for a more understanding and wonderful husband. I know how truly blessed I am and I thank God for Chris every day.

Here are the pix from the house on Saturday...

THE FOYER.

WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH ALL THIS COUNTER SPACE!

MASTER BEDROOM.

VIEW OUTSIDE OF THE MASTER BEDROOM INTO BACK YARD.

LAMINATE FLOORING IN BATHROOMS.

MARBLE COUNTER TOPS IN MASTER BATH.

OUR KITCHEN SINK! YAY!

CLOSER LOOK AT THE CORIAN....

MOMMY AND PARKER IN PARKER'S ROOM :)

Spend The Night Par-tay!

Last night, I met up with Christina for dinner at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants where we had a blast just catching up and chatting about life :) I think we sat in there for close to 2 hours! After dinner, and being so full of chips and queso that we could hardly walk, I realized that Christina was a RITAS ITALIAN ICE VIRGIN!!!!!!!!! This is a VERY sad thing considering she lives about 2 BLOCKS from the place! So, I immediately go into survival mode and take her straight there! After we each tried about 30 flavors of custard and italian ice, she settled for Mango and Cherry I.I. mixed together and I got some Mango I.I. and Vanilla custard mixed together... YUMMY! Baby Parker was TOTALLY loving it and he proceeded to kick me for about 3 hours afterwards! Thanks bud!

After totally stuffing ourselves, we went back to her house so I could say hello to her sweet dog, Jaida who I haven't seen in a few weeks! She was SO excited to see me and after I asked her if she wanted to go see Jack and Buddie she went NUTS!!!!! So, she looked at her mommy with her sweet precious eyes and asked if she could come over to visit Jack and Buddie and her mommy was totally for it! So, she ran out to my car and hopped in and we headed straight home to see Jaida's precious boyfriends :)

We had a fun night full of adventure with our little guy's spend the night party! They played for awhile then when it was bed time, Jack and Buddie snuggled under the covers with mom, dad and Parker and Jaida sprawled out on the pillow on the floor next to Chris. She only woke up a few times forgetting where she was and whining just a bit, but I think Chris was able to coax her back to sleep :)

Thanks for letting her come to stay last night C! XOXO-HHH

Working In Rage....

So - the past 3 days - I have been sitting at my desk and doing NOTHING else except answering the phone that rings once every 65 seconds (I've been timing them!) and saying the following...

"Ruth's Chris Sandy Springs, This is Hillary, How may I help you?"
pause....
"I'm so sorry, but we are all booked up for Valentine's Day, but we do have availability on Friday or Sunday if you'd like to come in then."
pause....
"Yes, I'm very sorry, but we have been booked up for several weeks."
pause...
"I'm so sorry but we are not taking a wait list in case of cancellations."
pause...
"I'm very sorry. Have a great day, good bye."
CLICK!

OKAY PEOPLE - WHEN DID IT BECOME MY PROBLEM THAT YOU WAITED WAAAAAY TOO LONG TO MAKE A RESERVATIONS FOR VALENTINES. DUH!

Valentine's just happens to fall on a Saturday this year and if it took you THIS long to figure this out then this is your problem and not mine. I am very sorry that it's your anniversary. I am very sorry that your wife asked you to do this a month ago and you still have not. I am very sorry that your wife will probably kill you. I am very sorry that you are lazy and don't know how to pick up a phone 30 days ago to make reservations at a restaurant.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY........ IT IS NOT MY PROBLEM!

Thanks to all the "special" people out there that haven't made reservations yet, my job performance has gone to all but 1 per cent in the past week because all I am doing is answering the phone and saying the same exact SAME thing OVER and OVER again - and people keep getting mad at me because it's my problem of course. I sure am glad I have a college degree to help me get through these really trying times in the work place...

Yes yes - I do have to end this post by saying I am thankful for my job. I am. Very. I really am.

I also have to mention that as I was writing this post - I was interrupted a total of 12 times by the phone - and just as I was about to publish this one - I saw my camera sitting next to me in my purse... and the phone started to ring again. THREE times in a row. So I just thought I would give you all a little taste of what my days consist of - at least 8 hours straight - every day this week. ENJOY! These calls were actually pretty tame and there wasn't much begging. The begging normally comes once within every 5-6 calls. Oh - and I DID NOT hang up on the last caller on hold... they had hung up before I got to them. Just wanted to clarify that.

BUDGET, SCHMUDGET!

Okay - so if ANY of your are thinking of buying a house ANY time soon - then be PREPARED to CHANGE the way you live your life!

Chris and I have slowly been learning how to BUDGET our money. We are not perfect at it yet, but we are getting there and the progress we have made in the past 6 months is pretty incredible. And by now - especially after finishing an entire nursery for $240 - I would call myself one smart little piggy!

It's pretty neat actually because it has made us realize exactly HOW much we used to spend on S T U P I D stuff that doesn't matter! Chris nor I can even remember the last time we purchased clothing for ourselves - HENCE - Chris is walking around with holey jeans and underwear and I am recycling what I wear about every 7-10 days since my wardrobe is VERY small. I don't know WHAT I would have done without being able to borrow both my sisters' maternity clothes OR without my mom and my mother-in-law who have so sweetly bought me some maternity clothes... I guess I'd be wearing jeans and tee shirts every day! I'm sure my bosses would love that!

Anyway - the POINT of this whole blog is that my budgeting mind has FAR exceeded itself - MUCH FARTHER than I ever even thought possible. We have everything we NEED for our nursery - and we have spent a total of $240.00. Now - this INCLUDES - a CRIB, a changing table, a glider, ALL the bedding, and ALL the wall decorations. And this is TRULY only $240 because nothing was purchased new by someone else and given to us!

Crib - IT'S FREE! - Chris Testani's sister, Katie, read my blog a month or so ago about the crib we were looking for on Craigslist and she offered to GIVE me a crib that was GIVEN to her when she had her second child, Elizabeth! I honestly have NO idea what it looks like except that it's natural wood color and not exactly what I was looking for. BUT - Chris and I decided that it just DOESN'T make sense to SPEND money on a crib when we are being offered one for free! I am sure that Parker could SERIOUSLY care less about what his crib looks like! And I also have to mention that I have family members that have offered to give us a chunk of change to go towards a crib... but I just can't accept it when I know I can get one at no cost to us or anyone else! Now THIS ladies and gentlemen - is a budgeting mind 'fo 'sho! :)

Changing Table -RECYCLED dresser - It's a Target dresser that I bought when I was in college YEARS ago and it has been living in my sister's house for about 3 years. Why spend $200 on a new changing table people when I have a PERFECTLY good dresser that can be used as a changing table!?!?!?

Glider - $60 on Craigslist - I have been REALLY wanting a REALLY nice glider from Babies R Us - and well they started at about $400 and went up to about $600 for the kind we wanted. We really wanted the big, all upholstered, comfy chairs that look really fancy and blah blah blah blah blah. WELL - we found a perfectly good, used white wooden one on craigslist yesterday for $60 cash. I guess I do need to mention that the cushions need to be re-covered, but my mom is doing this for us at no cost to us - and at very little cost to her! But you know what the main function of a glider is? TO GLIDE/ROCK YOUR BABY TO SLEEP! And guess what?!? This $60 glider is going to do the SAME exact thing that the $600 glider does at Babies R Us! I was chatting with my sister Ashley last night about the deal we found! And she was telling me how we could get a perfectly new one for $100 at JC Penney or something. I didn't really understand where she was coming from because $100 AND $60 IS A HUGE DIFFERENCE IN MONEY TO ME! $40 is a HUGE chunk of change that I am GLAD to still have in my pocket. She didn't understand me as she kept saying that $60 is ALMOST $100. Whatever people. To me - $60 and $100 is a MASSIVE difference in cost!!!! And - just to justify myself even more - the brand of glider we got SELLS BRAND NEW at Babies R Us for about $250 with the ottoman. Uh Hem.... Yes .... I am VERY proud of our $60 treasure find!

This is something like what we really wanted....

And this is what we got! For more than $200 less!

Crib mattress - FREE! - My sister's husband, Doug, had a friend from work last year that gave him a crib mattress for free! Some people may find this gross (like my sister) however I find this as an INCREDIBLY AMAZING DEAL! New mattresses start at over $100 and why in the WORLD would we go purchase a mattress - or have a family member purchase a mattress for us - when we have a PERFECTLY GOOD ONE to use at NO COST to us or anyone else!

Bedding, wall decor, window coverings, diaper stacker - $180 - Now - this may look to you like I actually splurged on something but the bedding is pretty much the thing that brings the baby room together! And I honesty could not find anything on Craigslist that caught my eye. HOWEVER - I must say - that I went with the bedding that wasn't necessarily my favorite - but I did buy it because it was 60% off and about $300 cheaper than any other bedding we saw and liked. My bedding included the sheet sets, a blanket, the bumper, a decorative pillow, a diaper stacker, a toy hanging thing for the wall and TWO valances for the window. (Since his room only has one window, we can use the other valance to help decorate something else for free!)

Wall decor - FREE! - Thanks to Heidi's blog give-away a few months ago that I so eagerly signed up for and WON - I am getting a super cute - personally designed by Heidi wall decor thing to hang in Parker's nursery! I also have two white shelves that I had bought in the Clearance section of Homegoods YEARS ago in college that will look great in Park's room - as well as three thick white wooden picture frames that I bought in college that will be super for Park's room.

NOW - if you are even still reading this CRAZY long post - you are nuts because this was a really long post - but I just HAD to brag on myself because being THRIFTY is not easy - and it's not necessarily FUN... but I'm doing it and I feel REALLY good about it!

YAY ME! I also should probably mention that my father-in-law is probably the most thrifty guy I know - and I think he would be proud of me! I've come a long way, right Jim?! (I don't even think he reads this, but if by some chance he does - I'll take a nice pat on the back next time I see ya!)

More house updates!

Only 7-ish weeks til we CLOSE and we're calling this beautiful home OURS!

And even more scary - only 10-ish more weeks til PARKER ARRIVES! SCARY!



Here are some updated photos!



This is our house on the right and our neighbors house on the left.

Our foyer.

Downstairs.

Staircase! My favorite part!

Our home! I think the only thing left to do to the outside is touch up some paint and paint the front door! Oh yeah - and then that whole grass/shrub/tree thing, too :)

After we saw the house Sunday afternoon, we headed over to Whit and Doug's to babysit for sweet Kayley for a few hours while W and D played tennis. Chris was watching basketball and was holding Kayley and explaining everything that was going on with her. She seemed VERY interested :) I thought this picture was too cute to pass up! I love looking at these photos of Chris with Kayley - look at her sweet hand resting on his huge hands! Before we know it, it will be sweet little Parker's hands holding his daddys :) I love it!

Kaci's Shower!

Kaci had a HUGE shower last Saturday and she got SO much great stuff! All of my gifts had to start with the letter "R" so I got her a Dr. Suess book for when Emma Grace is ready to READ, a miracle blanket for when she's ROWDY, some hangers for when she's getting READY and a travel size box of baby wipes for when she REEKS! The most creative gift was going to get a prize and I was SURE I was going to win until our other sweet friend, Rachael, had the letter "s" and she brought a diaper cake tower with a diaper full of YOU KNOW WHAT starts with S in it! Ha ha! It was very funny and super creative!

Here is a picture of all us preggers ladies at the shower! The second photo is from January - we've all made some progress!!

Rachael due in July, Me due in April, Kim due in April and Kaci due in March!