lizzie in progress

Fabulous January

2012-02-12T15:22:00.000-05:00

Let's pretend like I posted this in a timely matter and not like it took me two weeks to write. Blah blah blah, baby excuse. I plan on using that excuse for the next 18 years? My water bill is late? Back off, I have children. I think it will work.

Anyway, on to some events that made January rockin' with fabulousity.

Holiday free is the way to be.

You guys, I am not even going to lie-- I was so over the holidays this year. Normally I am bursting at the seams with tidings of joy, but this year... eh. I think between the onset of visitors from the baby, and then Thanksgiving and Christmas and ahhhhhh! I was just happy for our schedule (and bank account) to chill out for a little.

Keurig

Confession: I was so anti-Keurig for the longest time. I kind of had this mind set that Keurig owners were kind of impatient because honestly, you can't wait an extra minute or two for a cup of coffee to brew? Jeebus. However, now that I am breast feeding, I need to lay off the ~~crack~~ caffeine, so it was becoming difficult for JEGs and I to use the same coffee pot. I would have to brew a pot of decaf and then he would have to brew a pot of regular. It was getting ridiculous. So we scouted out some after-Christmas sales and used up the last Macy's gift cards from our wedding and got ourselves a Keurig B60. It is amazeballs. Seriously, I love it. Coffee in an instant! GIVE IT TO ME NOOOOOOWWWWWWWW! And I love all the little variety packs! Chocolate Raspberry truffle one day, donut shot decaf the next. Best purchase ever.

However, we ran into the problem of where to hold all those little pods. We didn't have the counter space for the carousels. While we were visiting a friend's house, we saw they had the pod drawer and we were sold. It sits comfortable under the coffee machine and doesn't take up any additional counter space!

Walk Off the Earth- Somebody That I Used to Know

I don't know about where you live, but the airways of Philadelphia have been brimming with Somebody That I Used to Know by Goyte. I am slightly obsessed with this song; I am constantly humming it to myself and when I am in the car I find myself scanning the stations hoping that each commercial break will be followed by the the simple plucking of a guitar. One day JEGs linked me up to this great cover by a band called Walk off the Earth. These guys are so. freakin. AWESOME. In their version they have five people playing one guitar and singing along. Consider me double obsessed-- I especially love the guy on the far right with the beard and the skull cap. If you have a couple extra minutes, check out Walk off the Earth's other stuff, including their cover of LMFAO Party Rock Anthem.

Cora is UNO

Our dear friend's daughter, Cora, turned a year old this month. She had an UNO themed birthday party complete with UNO card bunting and a custom made t-shirt. Isn't she adorbs? I love her little Red- inspired ponytails.

January, OUT.

Always & Forever,
ME

Hunter: Four Months

2012-02-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

We regressed a little in our sleeping habits. We had you on a solid schedule of going to sleep at 7:30- 8:00 pm and sleeping till 6am. Now you wake up around 10:30 pm-- just as I am drifting off to sleep.

The epic nap from 9:30 am- noon has gone the way of the dodo bird. Now you sleep in 20 minute increments-- which means I have become really good at getting a shower, dressed, hair done and make up on in 19 minutes.

You have really taken an interest in your toys. You'll reach out and grab them and shake them around for 15 seconds. Then you drop it and look around helpless until someone picks it up for you. Your new favorite toy is Frank the Elephant.

Something else you have really taken to is screaming. You aren't angry or frustrated; you just learned that your volume can go up. And you think it is hysterical. Daddy and I don't find it as funny.

You have really developed a laugh this month and you laugh a lot around you Dad. He is totally your buddy.

The drool keeps coming like a faucet. We change just as many bibs as we do diapers.

We are getting a little better with tummy time. Daddy discovered that you might not realize you can look up, so he propped you in the Bumbo seat and dangled a toy above you. Ever since, you have gotten sooo much better with tummy time.

You got to meet your cousin Alexi last week. She was all about you. You couldn't really be bothered.

But you did try to hold her hand, which was the most precious thing in the world.

I finally packed up the last of your 3 month clothes and got out all your 6 months outfits. Seriously dude stop growing, because it's making me super sentimental and I may have choked back a couple tears as I folded the onesie with the puppy paws printed on it.

Always & Forever,

Telling Victoria's Secret

2012-01-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

Anyone who knows me, knows that I curl my hair pretty much every day. I rarely wear my hear straight.

That being said, I am always looking for new ways to style my hair. One day I was putzing around Pintrest and I stumbled upon a tutorial on how to achieve beachy waves a la Marisa Miller

Source

I was intrigued so while the monster was napping, I gave it a go:

A couple things to note:

*About half way through the bottom row I realized I was essentially crimping my hair. How long Hunter's naps are going to last is really any one's guess right now, so I busted out my crimper and used that for the lower levels. Yes. I still own a crimper. And it is bright pink. Don't hate.

*It does indeed give you an IN. SANE amount of volume. It may not look like a lot of volume in my pictures, but keep in mind that my hair is uber thin.

*I don't love the way it looked in the back. I don't know if that is because my hair is layered, or if because I couldn't really reach the ends to finish it off, but it just looked like a crappy rat tail.

Regardless, I felt sexified. I decided to test my new look by packing up the monster and going to the mall. I walked into Vicky's to ~~return a sweatshirt~~ see if anyone confused me with Marisa. I strutted my sexxy ass waiting for someone to ask for my autograph or at least roll out the red carpet.

Surprisingly, the paparazzi was not called and I returned my item and left. They must have been star-struck, because clearly Marisa and I were separated at birth, don't you agree?

Always & Forever,
~~Marisa~~ ME

Testing out technology

2012-01-17T21:01:00.001-05:00

You guys, I hate technology. I am basically like your 60-year-old mother who doesn't understand what texting is (LOVE YOU MOM!)However, right now I am doing something completely out of character; I am blogging from an iPad. And I am kind of loving it.My friend Connie stopped by with her ~~boyfriends~~ new iPad and let me take it for a spin. I think I might be saving up for now.Any of you use an iPad or something of the like? Do you like it? I am really curious for your feedback.Always & Forever, ME

Spiffing Up the Nursh.

2012-01-16T11:33:00.001-05:00

Last weekend I added a couple new things to the baby's room.

First up is this great little pillow that JEGs' Aunt Marlene made for us. I love love love the bright colors and the geometric shapes. I also love that the print has owls without smacking your in the face and screaming "THESE ARE OWLS ON THIS PILLOWWWWWW". We can all agree that fabrics can totally say that, right?

My friend Hilary was at Joann's Fabric a couple weeks ago and spotted this little stuffed owl on sale for $8. I was all, 'dude, grab that.' I think he is so adorable, and where he is perched on the window sill is right in Hunter's eye sight when I am burping him. Hunter has taken to screaming while getting burped, so this little guy has become a welcomed distraction.

The wall over the crib was screaming for some art, so I made this little number in Photoshop, and framed it.

I don't know why the paint color keeps photographing pink. It's really not.

Fun fact about me: I collect picture frames. Every time I go to a yard sale, I leave with gobs of frames that I only paid $1 for and feel victorious. I have no real need for these frames at the time, I just purchase. The result is us having 20 million frames stuffed in a closet that drives JEGs bonkers. I finally put one of them to good use though! I ran three lines of beading wire across the frame and now have a place to display Hunter's monthly photos.

Some touches to make that corner a little cozier:

I seriously think this is going to be the room where I am constantly changing the decor. Let's be honest, in less then 6 months, it went from walk-in closet to nursery-- it seems to be my M.O.

Have you guys added something small to freshen up a room lately?

Always & Forever,
ME

A Very Uki Christmas

2012-01-11T17:53:00.001-05:00

JEGs' family is Ukrainian Orthodox, which means they celebrate Christmas on January 7th. Every year, his family hosts Christmas dinner at their house and it always means a spread of yummy food like Momma G's sweet corn, holubsti (cabbage stuffed with rice and meat), ham, paska (raisin bread), kapusta (split pea and sauerkraut soup)

...and the star of the show is MomMom's homemade pierogies. So. Freaking. GOOD.

It's always a casual affair served buffet style and grab-a-chair-where-ever-you-can kind of deal.

It's also a time to spend with family we don't get to see very often, like our nephews Wyatt and Wesley.

JEGs plays Santa to Wyatt

Wesley waits patiently for his gift

LEGOs are totally smile worthy

I love this picture of my father-in-law with Hunter. So sweet.

Hunter was gifted some very sweet gifts from JEGs' cousin Heather and Aunt Marlene, including some adorable t-shirts, a book, the coolest elephant-popping-ball-toy ever and a pillow for the nursery.

JEGs and Wesley inspect the book together.

The best part of getting gifts is opening them right away and playing with them

Hunter hanging out with his MomMom

JEGs received a late gift from "Santa" as well. It was the Perplexus Epic ball that contains a maze in a sphere that you flip and turn to move a marble around to the end. To say it is aggravating but addicting would be an understatement...

Wyatt and his dad give the Perplexus a go..

..but sometimes the box is just as fun to play with.

Every year, my in-laws pick out the most perfect Christmas tree. So perfect, I always think it's fake

JEGs' Uncle Jimmy comes up from Naples, Florida once a year for Christmas. We've started a tradition of traveling across the bridge the day after to the Jughandle Inn for the most delicious wings I have ever had.

The anticipation of yummy wings is almost too much for JEGs to bear...

JEGs and I with Uncle Jimmy

We don't even bother with the menu; a pitcher of Miller Lt (a Sprite for me since I am breast feeding) and 20 of your hot wings (or in my case, a mere 10 will do). All conversation is to be done before the wings arrive. Once they are placed in front of us, we get down to business. The only conversation afterwards is about how delicious they are and worth the trip.

Nommy nom noms.

I think it is the perfect way to round out the holiday season.

How about you? Any belated holiday traditions?

Always & Forever,
ME

Hunter: Three Months

2012-01-09T09:21:00.000-05:00

Our Huntface Killah turned 3 months old on New Years. Dude, you're like a quarter of a year old already. Stop it.

Anyway, this past month you...

discovered your hands. They immediately went in your mouth and haven't come out since.

learned how to grab things. One morning you were sitting in your bouncy chair staring intently at the doo-dads hanging down. The next thing I knew you were batting at it. Finally, you opened up your hand and grabbed onto that thing like it was trying escape. I got all up in your face and started congratulating you. You gave me a look like "NBD Mom. "

Your 3:30 am feedings slowly diminished and about half way through the second week of this month, you were sleeping soundly through the night. Now, we put you to bed at 9pm and you sleep straight until 6 or 7am. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank. YOU.

I don't know if you have an aversion to saliva in your mouth, but you drool like it's your job-- we go through almost as many bibs as we do diapers in one day.

Speaking of diapers, this month we started cloth diapering you. We started out part time until we got the hang of it, and now you go full time.

You started to enjoy baths a little more. And by "enjoy" I mean you don't scream so loudly that the neighbors pop over to make sure everything is ok...

This is your new favorite toy. You are so enthralled by it and if we try to take it away, you scream. I will now be gifting this toy to every person I know who has a baby.

This month you also met your G.G. (Mommy's Grandmom) and your Big PopPop (Daddy's Grandpop)

Four Generations

This month you started cooing. It started with the adorable 'ahh-goo' followed quickly by high-pitched squealing. Even though it makes my ears bleed, it's kind of adorable.

No doctor's appointment this month to check your weight, but we are guessing you are around 14- 15 pounds. You have pretty much outgrown all of your 3 month clothes and are in 3-6 month shirts and sleepers and all 6 month pants. Every once in a while I'll try to sneak in an old outfit that I love, only to realize you can't straighten your legs all the way. Buck up kid... fashion isn't comfortable.

Happy Three Months Bubbers!!

Always & Forever,
ME

My Son Takes a Mean Picture

2012-01-04T11:31:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago we had the amazing Kelly Miller come to our house and snap a couple photos of the monster. I could. not. be any happier with how these came out. Kelly was so easy to work with, and I loved that she just took natural pictures and didn't try to dress up my child like an Anne Geddes poster.

Anyway, enough yapping. Here are some of my favorites

This is my absolute favorite:

Always & Forever,
ME

Fabulous 2011

2012-01-02T13:25:00.000-05:00

I started this memorable year, not remembering how the night ended.
Last New Years we spent the night in Lancaster at a bar called Annie Baileys and I got shitfaced off the best cosmos I've ever had. We crashed at our friend Mandy and Evan's house, where I apparently showed my lady bits to Mandy.

Keeping it classy like always.

However, that night we did meet a wonderful chick named Kaitlin and she and our friend Mike have been dating ever since!

We also found the house we eventually bought and our dear friends Bonnie and Andy gave birth to their daughter Cora Claire!

February was a quiet month filled with packing and giving up coffee for Lent.

At the end of March, we kicked of Weddingpalooza with my friend Traci getting married in a cozy ceremony and a reception filled with awesome food.

April was a pretty busy month; we said farewell to Falconhead and hello to Falconhead Cottage .

We also ripped up the carpet in the living room on Easter, and made a walk-in closet out of a small third bedroom.

In May we began preparing for our housewarming party by painting our living room. Two days later we found out I was five months pregnant.

I also proved that at five months pregnant, I could still rock a wedding dress.

June rolled around and I quietly celebrated my 30th birthday and JEGs and his friend Mike replaced the subfloor while I attended multiple wedding showers. We also created a Big Azz To Do list.

In July JEGs and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary, my friend Meg got married and we finally replaced the carpet in the living room. We also welcomed this little bundle of fur into our lives

August was filled with marital bliss as my friend Jamie got married and a week later our friend Mandy tied the knot as well. JEGs and I scratched off another thing from our To Do list and created a closet out of a nook in our bedroom. Mother Nature also let Philly know that she rules supreme by shaking the Earth and throwing a hurricane our way. I also participated in a photography shoot for a calendar with pregnant bellies

September I was really freakin pregnant and totally over it. Ten days before my due date, we hustled out to Chester County for one last wedding, and it was so worth it. We also added an office nook to the kitchen.

Ten hours into the month of October, I became a mother.

November came and I went back to work. We spent Thanksgiving at my brother and sister-in-laws house where I had many people to hand my babe off to so I could spend some time with my nieces and nephew

As this year came to a close, I half-ass my way through Christmas, painted the bathroom and my best friend surprised me with an engagement announcement!

To say that this has been an exciting year would be an understatement-- this has easily been the most insane year of my life. I am excited for 2012 and I have a lot planned: hopefully with a good tax return, JEGs and I can tackle a couple bigger projects on the house, and I feel good things are on the horizon.

Wishing you all a wonderful and healthy new year!

Always & Forever,
ME

I hate Montego Bay Blue

2011-12-27T08:00:00.004-05:00

The blue in our bathroom was making me twitch.

I saw that it was a similar color blue as our guest room, so I figured that the previous owners had some paint leftover from their nursery and wanted to freshen up the bathroom to sell the house. I understood that-- you guys knows I am all about working with what ya got.

Then I found two cans of paint in the basement; one was labeled "Buzz Blaster Blue" (the guest room) and the other Montego Bay Blue. This means the previous owners CHOSE that God awful color twice.

Dear Lord, please grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, change the things I can and the knowledge to know the difference.

Pretty sure the good Lord was saying 'Please grab a paint brush Liz, you can change this'.

Now JEGs had put the kibosh on me painting anything after month eight of the pregnancy rolled around-- he even used his super serious voice that made me realize he would have been pretty pissed if I had. As much as it killed me (and my nesting) I packed away my paintbrushes for a while.

Once the baby was born and I was mobile, I was granted permission to return to my normal paint-every-surface-possible activities.

...aaaaaand she's back!

Three coats of primer later, and I had a semi-white wall with the blue color still bleeding through.

My impatient ass decided to forge ahead anyway. I was tired and we needed the paint to dry so we could shower (ewwwww). In order to cut costs, I used Glidden's Navajo Sand leftover from the baby's room.

I'm gonna put it out there- I am not a fan of Glidden. When we moved, we bought a five gallon bucket of Valspar primer to cover the paint in the apartment. We had some leftover so we used to it in the living room and it did work- two coats of primer and one coat of paint and you would never know that room used to be red. But in this room, three coats of primer and two coats of paint, and I can still see the blue bleeding through in some spots. I have decided that when it comes time to paint the kitchen, I am going to hire someone-- THAT'S how frustrated I am after painting this room.

I digress.. here is the lovely after photo:

The towel bar was replaced for two reasons: 1. it had actually broken in half, and 2. we have the extra wide bath sheets and two would not fit on that dinky little bar. So we replaced it with individual hooks from Target.

The previous owners had left a shower curtain rod that I really liked. However, it was brushed nickel and I was slowly replacing all the fixtures with oil-rubbed bronze. I searched around for a similar rod in ORB to no avail. So I did what any DIYer would do: I spray painted it.

It amazes me how well this color matched the shower curtain we already had...

I am planning on DIYing some art for over the toilet, but haven't quite settled on anything just yet.

Even after all the frustration, I am so happy I took the time to paint this room. It feels so much more relaxing and less twitch-evoking. I also feel like the lighter, more neutral color helps to shine a spotlight on my favorite feature of this bathroom-- the black and white checked floor.

The best part is this quick update only cost us a little over ten dollars for the hooks. Isn't amazing what a little bit of paint can do? Maybe next time I get trapped in the bathroom, I will be a little calmer ;)

Always & Forever,
ME

Check your mail box...

2011-12-23T08:00:00.001-05:00

From our family to yours, have a safe and happy holiday season!

Always & Forever,

Falconhead at Christmas

2011-12-21T13:36:00.000-05:00

I was INSANELY excited about decorating our first house for Christmas. In. SANELY. I was pinning stuff left and right on Pintrest and ripping pages from BHG.

However, with the baby, I didn't really have a lot of time to DIY all the stuff I wanted to. Next year, maybe. So this year was more of a work-with-what-you've-got kind of year. I also had all these new surfaces like a banister and an actual mantle to decorate. Color me stumped.

On the banister I used the lighted garland that I have had for years. By itself it look kind of plain, so I added some berry garland that I snagged for 60% off at Michael's.

When it came to the mantle, I was so excited to have a real one and not a LACK shelf like we had in the apartment. I went with my usual metallic and shiny look. Honestly, what other time of the year can I get away with having so much shiny stuff in one spot?

mental note.. must find a way to "loose" that Snoopy stocking for next year...

I rocked my gorgeous mercury glass candle holders, along with my DIY glitter candles from last year. The tiny Cinderella pumpkins from Halloween were still in good shape, so I added them in for kicks and giggles.

You know I love to mix my metallics, so this year I added in two golden reindeer that I snagged at our local thrift store back in June for fifty cents each. I love them. JEGs calls them the 'Ark of the Covenant Deer'.

I think they flow nicely with the candle sticks.

Again, the garland on it's own looked a little bare, so I added in some garland from Michael's but this had red balls to tie into the garland on the stairs as well as gold balls to add extra sparkle.

I didn't want the metallics to look too sterile, so I added in some over-sized pine cones.

I had planned to DIY some ornaments this year, but like I said, I just never quite found the time so our tree rocked our usual red and gold balls from years before with a few additions

First off, the train is a gift to Hunter from JEGs' father (PopPop). Let me tell you, that kid loves that train. Anytime he gets fussy, we turn it on and he will watch it loop the tree over and over again. It's always a great way to get him to lift his head up during tummy time. Win all around.

Last year I snagged a bunch of ornaments from Crate and Barrel during their After Christmas Sale. My personal favorite is this white owl-- little did I know at the time that owls would be the 'in' thing for decor or that I would be decorating a nursery with owls in just a few months!

I also grabbed four of these clear balls with an etched detail. They are probably a new favorite of mine.

and of course, we have something to commemorate Hunter's first Christmas-- a footprint in an oval frame. This set was gifted to us from my friend JD.

I had grabbed some greenery at Michael's with the intention of using it on the mantle, but I never quite got it to look the way I wanted it to. Instead, I put it in an IKEA planter with some leftover pine cones and sat it on the hearth.

I also took an old vase and did a Sabrina Soto look and mixed gold and red ornaments together for our end table.

I'm not gonna lie to you guys, I ran out of steam for the coffee table. I threw the pine cones I've had for about three years in a bowl and called it a day. In all honesty, I think these bad boys are getting thrown out on January 8th.

We use our coffee table too much to put anything nice on it. Twenty seconds after this shoot, those magazines went back to their home on my bedside table and the bowl of pine cones were shoved out of the way.

Want to check out my previous Christmas decor? Here is our apartment from 2009 and 2010!

Psstt... Check back later today, I'll snap some pictures of our outside as well!

Always & Forever,
ME

Baby Bling

2011-12-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

For those who don't know, a "push present" is a gift a baby daddy gives a woman after birthing a baby-- something shiny and pretty to show he appreciated that you just pushed a watermelon out. I know push presents are pretty popular, but I was not about to demand a diamond necklace or a new Coach bag. I'm not that fancy.

Who am I kidding? Yeah, I am that fancy, but I try to be sensible too. JEGs asked if I wanted a push present, and I was all "meh, you don't have to... but this is pretty, isn't it?"

He got the hint. So smart :)

For birthing the monster, JEGs gave me this beautiful sterling silver hand stamped disc with the monster's name from the Etsy store Candace Kane (please God, tell me that her name is really Candy Kane...)

The crystal in the middle is a funny story. I really wanted to have Hunter's birthstone, however I wasn't totally sure if I was having him in September or October. JEGs talked to Candace about it and she said she would include both charms at no extra charge. Which ever we didn't use we could still keep.

I wasn't super thrilled about rocking October's pink tourmaline for my boy and JEGs mentioned that to Candace. She informed him that October has two birthstones: the tourmaline and opal. She sent us a sapphire and an opal, but the opal was more of a bead and I didn't like the way it was laying so we stuck with the sapphire. Consider it blue for boy.

Regardless, I love my necklace. It sits perfectly just under my collarbone and I can still wear other necklaces with out it taking over. It makes me happy. And a happy wife is a happy life... right JEGs?

Always & Forever,
ME

Santa Baby

2011-12-16T09:55:00.000-05:00

Around late November I realized something:

I had a kid to take to see Santa Claus. Hot damn.

This is one of those things that you dream about someday doing with your kids. It's like a "Someday Bucket List" Someday I'll take him to Sesame Place. Someday I'll teach him to ride a bike. Someday I'll take him to see Santa.

Well my friends, that day had come.

Last Friday, JEGs and I got him all decked out in his Sunday best and took the little monster to the King of Prussia Mall to see the big guy himself.

Gotta stay hydrated.. I've got a long list.

Santa? NBD...

Seriously Mom, get the camera out of my face.

We waited in line and I was all sorts of excited. I kept looking to the front trying to figure out what was taking so long. Didn't they know Hunter was here to see Santa? Clearly we should have been moved straight to the front of the line.

When it was finally our turn, the monster calmly sat on Santa's lap. We tried to get him to smile for the camera by tickling him, and making faces, but he was just looking at us like we were crazy. So we just took what we could get

Which I think is still pretty damn cute.

What did he ask Santa for? A gorgeous new Coach purse... which is totally not for me. Absolutely not.

Always & Forever,
ME

Wedding Crashing: Home Spun

2011-12-12T08:00:00.002-05:00

Well friends, we have run the gamut of weddings this season; on September 17, 2011 JEGs and I attended the wedding of Tim and Lisa.

The ceremony was outdoors at Hibernia Park in a tucked away picnic area. It was quiet and so peaceful.

Decor for the ceremony was minimal; a small trellis with bright autumnal leaves served as an alter, and the congregation of 75 people were invited to be seated on picnic benches and chairs, although many opted to stand.

The bridal party walked down the aisle to instrumental versions of Smashing Pumpkins "Today is the Greatest Day" and "Something" by either the Beatles or Elvis (the guy who was in charge of the music and I were having a disagreement on who sang the song). I know right now you are thinking.."Whaaaaa?" but I promise you, it worked.

The ceremony was officiated by Tim's brother-in-law, and was very touching and personal.

The bride wore a tea-length satin gown with a flattering ruched bodice. At her waist was a pink sash offset by a beautiful brooch for just the right amount of sparkle. Her bridesmaids looked coordinated in pink tea-length dresses in different styles. They carried bouquets of soft yellow roses interspersed with mums, astramaris and greenery.

The gentlemen wore simple black suits and mint green ties, with the groom being distinguished by a pink tie.

The small and intimate reception was held at the Bistro On 10 in Honey Brooke, PA. Place cards were printed on brown card stock with a heart shape punch out and hung from a board by ribbon with the bride's pink and green color scheme.

The table next to the escort cards featured photos of family members on their wedding day as well as favors of drink coaster with the word LOVE etched on glass. There was also a guest book that had photos of Tim and Lisa through the years.

I loved the cake's swirls and ribbon decoration.

Seriously, this cake topper. Lisa, you are so lucky my last name does not begin with a 'K', otherwise that would have some how "mysteriously" made it's way into my purse ;)

The room in which the reception was held is the dining room of a restaurant. Tables were put together in casual groupings, each with a mason jar of flowers and accented with raffia.

The whole event was so sweet and just a lovely way to spend a Saturday afternoon. There was great food to eat (god bless Lisa for springing for the mashed potato bar), great friends and just over all really well pulled together-- I even got my ten-days-till-due-date-self on the dance floor for a couple jams.

Best wishes and many happy years to Tim and Lisa!!

Always & Forever,

Color My World: Diamonds and Rubies

2011-12-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

To me, there is not more classic then a fabulous red lip.

But I am a red head with very thin lips. I look like an ass with red lipstick. So I do the next best thing: sassy red nails.

I have been wearing a lot of neutrals and browns recently, and I was looking for something to really pop. Now, I have my favorite holiday color in Dazzling, but I wanted something less deck-the-halls and something more va-va-voom.

Enter stage left, Sally Hansen's Diamonds and Rubies.

This stuff is diva in a bottle. Or waitress. I'm not sure. But I do have the sudden urge to call people "dollface" and ask them if they want more coffee.

Always & Forever,
ME

Lookie lookie, We Got a Nookie!

2011-12-07T08:00:00.008-05:00

I don't think I can say it enough: when we bought this house we knew we were going to have to be creative. At only 1200 sq ft and little storage, we had some work ahead of us. Some projects are bigger (like another bathroom) but there are a lot of smaller projects for us to knock out in the mean time.

One thing that seriously irked me was with as big as our kitchen was, there was only one wall of storage space.

There was plenty of area in the kitchen that could be utilized for storage, specifically a little nook located just inside the kitchen entryway.

Wasted space make Lizzie ANGRY. Grrrrr.

When we looked at the house, the previous owners had a wire rack there with a microwave. I wanted something a little more permanent and useful. We discovered there was extra cabinetry in the basement from where the dishwasher was installed. I had the idea of installing that above a counter top for an office area, or more kitchen storage. JEGs and I tossed around some ideas, drew up some diagrams and patted ourselves on the back for coming up with the best idea ever.

While at IKEA one day, we scored a desktop in the 'As Is' section that fit our measurements perfectly for $1.99. One dollar. Ninety-nine cents. This project was on like Donkey Kong.

We get started on the project. JEGs grabs his stud finder and starts looking for studs so we can attach the desk and hang the cabinetry. However, our stud finder ain't findin' no studs. So JEGs decided to take a chunk out of the wall.

And this is what we found:

Not only are there no studs in the wall between the kitchen and the living room, this is also where all the piping to the upstairs bathroom is located. Awesome.

To add insult to injury, we realized the drywall on the other wall was placed directly over top of the original plaster and lathing walls. So no studs there either.

Dear Former Owners Who "gutted and renovated the entire house",

You Suck. A Lot.

Love,

Lizzie and JEGs.

At this point, there are cuss words flying from JEGs' mouth that would make an Osbourne blush.

We realized that in order to hang the cabinets our only viable option was to completely tear down the drywall, plaster and lathing, and rebuild the wall (with studs). With the clock ticking on Operation: Baby Drop, we decided that it was too big of a project to handle at this time.

But that wasn't going to stop us from putting up a desk. Oh no no. This is where JEGs came up with another great idea: He made his own stud-- and I don't mean the baby (ba dum cheeee).

He had some wood leftover from the shelving he made during the hurricane, and cut a piece with a notch in it for the pipes.

We also had some drywall left over from demoing the baby's closet, so JEGs made a little patch to cover up his "studly" masterpiece. (ok, ok, I am done with the bad puns).

A little patching and paint (compliments of the previous owners), it was good as new.

Then he got to work on the actual desk.

Like I said, we snagged a desktop for uber cheap, but that's all it was was a desktop. No desk bottom with it-- that we had to build on our own. JEGs had sketched out some ideas and measurements before hand (as seen in the picture below) so we headed out to Lowes to get supplies. We grabbed two 1x3 pine planks and cut them to the size he needed at the store. When we got home, JEGs got to work on building the frame. We insured the sides were 90 degrees by using a clamp.

JEGs set the frame out on the table top to ensure everything was cut correctly and then when we felt confident that we hadn't made a wonky frame, he glued all the joints and used countersunk screws to hold it together.

You might have noticed in the above picture that the frame is a little short on the lower right hand corner. No we didn't screw up our measurements, we left space for a leg. We kept a separate piece of wood to be used as a leg and used hanger bolts to connect the leg to the corner brace.

Because he counter sunk the nails, there were four screw holes exposed (that's what she said). To cover them, JEGs glued in wood plugs and sanded them down to be flush.

Finally, the desk top was secured to the frame using 90 degree brackets and screws. Then we were able to screw the frame to the wall using cabinet screws.

Once the desk was installed, we had to tackle what we wanted to do above. I mentioned that we found extra cabinet doors in the basement, but they were not big enough for the area. We looked at our options from IKEA, Home Depot and Lowes, but we just were not loving anything. Plus, with the lack of studs in the wall, hanging cabinets would be a nightmare.

The JEGs remembered we had two IKEA LACK shelves from the apartment that used to reside over the buffet. We brought them downstairs and they fit in the space perfectly!

At first I was hesitant to have open shelving (aka, no place to hide my junk) but I think I love the look of it. It really keeps the area feeling airy, and it forces me to stay organized.

We are going to stain the wood to match the cabinets in the rest of the kitchen, and I am currently trying to convince JEGs that the shelves would look so much better painted white. We also need a better chair, because that stool hurts my booty. But for now, I have a place to pay bills, write thank you notes and check e-mail. It seriously has become my favorite area in the house.

So what do you think? Did we make good use of an otherwise wasted space?

Always & Forever,

Fabulous October and November

2011-12-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

Ever look back at a month and think 'where the hell did it go?' Yeah. That's what I just did with November AND October. I feel like the calendar jumped from September 30th to December. Just like that.

I know exactly where the months went-- the got lost in the haze of feedings, diaper changes and doctor appointments.

So here are some fabulous happenings of the past two months...

Hunter
Giving birth was pretty much the most fabulous thing ever. Hands down.

Phillies Graham Slam Ice Cream

Alright, so our boys choked this post season, but good lord this ice cream is banging!! It is graham flavored ice cream with scoops of chocolate marshmallow cups and a graham swirl. I am seriously salivating just thinking about it. I am not even ashamed to say I could probably finish an entire container by myself. In one night. Not pregnant. That's right, I'm a fat kid.

Sleepsack Swaddle

Confession: I suck at swaddling. I just can't get the hands and the feet to stay inside the blanket and it's never pulled tight enough. My saving grace was when the hospital sent us home with a HALO sleepsack swaddle. I LOVE it. It is a wearable blanket (or baby-in-a-bag as I call it) with and extra piece of fabric that wraps around the baby and stays together with Velcro. The swaddle part is removable, so you can continue to use the blanket when the baby doesn't want to be swaddled anymore. This thing is genius.

Friends and Family
I cannot explain to you how thankful I am for all the support and love we have found through our friends and family the past couple of months. My friend Hilary cooked and froze nearly a half dozen meals for us and also supplied us with gift cards to restaurants for the days we didn't want to (or couldn't find the time to) thaw out a meal and cook it. She also refuses to stop buying clothes for the little guy. My bestie Connie stopped by with a couple home cooked meals as well.

Our next door neighbor, Amy, is a mother to a seven-year-old and has been such a fantastic support person. We have done the panic call to her with questions of "why is he doing this?? is this normal???" If I can't have my mother next door to me, I am sure glad I have Amy. I also have to give a shout out to our neighbor Jenny. The day we came home from the hospital, she was on our door step with pulled chicken sandwiches, salad, Reese's cups and beer for JEGs. We never even thought about what we would do about eats when we got home, so it was so helpful to have it taken care of.

I have to give a lot of thanks to our friends Bonnie and Andy. Within the first week of being home, Bonnie came over to help me navigate the world of breast feeding. Her tips and tricks were exactly what I needed to confidently continue. In the same vein, I am so thankful to have my sisters-in-law Angie and Bryn who I know I can call with any question regarding toys, breast feeding or general child care.

Most of all, both of our parents have been an unending source for help, free baby-sitting and Harry's Hotdogs. Now that I have a child of my own, I can finally appreciate the love my parents have for me. I seriously cannot thank you enough for everything you have ever done for us.

Alright Blurtember, move aside because December is here and that means twinkling lights, holidays songs and peppermint lattes! Tis the season!

Always & Forever,
ME

Hunter: Two Months

2011-12-02T16:48:00.001-05:00

Dude, you have become a meatball. At today's doctor appointment you weighed in at 11lbs 15 oz and 23 1/2 inches long. You are in the 50% for your weight and 75% for height. Surprise, surprise, you are gonna be tall.

You are solidly in your 3 month clothes. Anything that is 0-3 months is either in the pile for the next child, or on it's way out.

On November 2nd, you gave me a real smile-- not just one of those I-am-peeing-or-farting-smiles. This was an honest to God, Mommy-did-something-silly-smile. And for the record, I was singing "Where is Thumbkin". You find that hilarious and it calms you down during diaper changes.

You have also started cooing. I can tell when you are concentrating really hard on making a sound, and when you do, you get a look of surprise on your face.

Tummy time is not your favorite thing. Neither is bath time. Basically, the swing is where it's at.

You cry real tears now, and it breaks my heart every time. I am pretty sure I am going to be giving into every whim by the time you are able to point to the candy at the Giant checkout aisle. You want a Snickers? Sure, as long as you don't whip out the tears.

Your farts are proof that not everything a baby does is cute. Seriously dude, you can clear a room with that stank.

Mommy had to go back to work this month, so you had your first experience with daycare. Every day you hang out with Miss Susan and you seem to like her. Every other week you and Daddy spend the evenings together while Mommy works. It's been a bit of a learning curve for your old man, but he is making out ok.

On Thanksgiving you got to meet Pop's side of the family. You were passed around to new people and you handled it like a champ. I am so happy you are a social baby.

You are the cutest baby on Earth. Easily. I love spending time with you and I miss the hell out of you when I am at work. There are some days where I wish I could just tote you to work with me, but I am thinking helicopters can't support a car seat. At least not yet.

Always & Forever,

Mommy

Hunter has a Wife

2011-11-29T21:22:00.000-05:00

I am so excited to announce that our friends Rob and Cara gave birth to ~~my future daughter-in-law~~ a little girl on November 28.

At 11:58, Jenna Mae was born weighing in at 7 lbs 13 oz.

Congrats Rob and Cara-- JEGs and I are so happy for you! And welcome to the world little Jenna Mae :)

Locked Down

2011-11-14T19:42:00.000-05:00

So this morning started off like every other morning: feeding the monster and going back to bed until 8 am. I got up, had my breakfast and checked on him-- still passed out. So I decided to use this quiet time to take a quick shower. Not wanting the noise of the shower to wake the baby, I closed the door to the bathroom.

Now I need to explain a recent house project of mine: We we a mix of original door knobs and replacement door knobs on our second floor. Some are 90 years old and tarnished while some are a sparkling brass. I hate both. So as we paint each room, I have been removing the hardware and spraying them oil rubbed bronze. They look quite nice.

The most recent room we painted was the bathroom ( I promise to share soon, it's not quite ready for it's close up yet ;) and I had repainted the knob. Unfortunately, in the painting process I lost a little pin that makes the latch move when you turn the knob.

...are you seeing where I am going with this?

I get out of the shower and go to open the door.

and it won't open.

(Mom.. look away)

FUUUUUUUUUUUCK.

I am locked in the bathroom.

For some reason, I brought my phone into the bathroom with me (something I almost never do) and thank GOD I did. I called JEGs to explain my situation to him. He suggested trying to put something in the whole where the pin went to get the latch to open. I broke a Q-tip in half and jammed it in, but it didn't work. Next was take the door off the hinges. I got all the pins out of the hinges, but I wasn't strong enough to actually pull the door off. Then he says to call our next-door neighbor Amy and see if she can come over and let me out, but I pointed out the front door is locked.

JEGs sighs and says "... I'm on my way home."

I was doing really well finding the humor in the situation until the I heard something over the baby monitor (which I also brought into the bathroom... I really don't usually have that many electronic with me, swears).

Hunter crying.

SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT.

Now I am a mother desperate to soothe her crying baby and I go at the door like motha effin' HULK himself. I started pulling at every corner I could. I yanked the towel bar off. I may or may not have kicked the door. I calm myself down and think that JEGs is only 30 minutes away and Hunter will be ok for that time.

Then JEGs calls to tell me he is at a stand still on a highway. FML.

I decided to try my Q-tip contraption again to no avail. Finally, I just started twisting the knob and jiggling it, till I saw the latch move a little. I got it to move enough so I could jam another Q-tip in and pushed it open.

As I yanked the door open, I forgot that I had taken it off the hinges.

TIMBBBBEEERRRR

The door came crashing down on me.

I caught it before I completely smashed my head into the tub, propped it up against the wall and ran to my screaming child.

Looking back, I am so glad I randomly brought my phone into the bathroom with me. If I hadn't, I probably would have had to yell out the bathroom window for help...and that just would have been embarrassing.

New house rule: Never close the bathroom door if you are home alone. That, and always keep a screw driver in the bathroom- just in case of an emergency.

Always & Forever,
ME

Hunter: One Month

2011-11-04T09:20:00.002-04:00

After much debate, I decided to document the monster's monthly photo with his monkey on our rocking chair (which, according to my brother Tim, is not nearly 40-years-old. Denial much?)

Congrats dude, you made it to a month old. We are pretty stoked about that. We may or may not have patted ourselves on the back for keeping you alive this long.

This past month you have probably gotten your picture taken no less then 4,000 times and most of them are living on Mommy and Daddy's cell phones.

We had a little trouble the first week with the breastfeeding, but we hit our stride during week two. Now you attack that ish like a gremlin. We have even established a pretty solid schedule of eating every two hours.

Right out of the gate you were a champion sleeper. If we put you to bed around 10 pm, you wake up between 3 and 4 for a feeding and then snooze on till at least 7:30 am. It is kind of awesome. [Edit: of course the past two nights you have decided that 5:30 is more of an appropriate time to get up. Mommy does not appreciate that at all. Check yourself dude]

You successfully transitioned from the bassinet to the crib. You slept perfectly fine the whole night. Mommy, on the other hand, was a mess. She kept grabbing the monitor and thinking "Why can't I hear him breath? Is he OK? Does he need me? Why isn't he upset that I am not within arms reach????"

You totally smile at us. I know people say it's just gas, or you are peeing yourself, but we know it's cause you like us.

At your one-month check up you clocked in at a whopping 9lbs 5oz and you are still a lanky 22 1/4 inches tall. You have already outgrown all your newborn clothes and are easily fitting into 3 month clothes.

You have somehow acquired the nickname "Bubbers". Ok, I confess, it was me- I started calling you Bubbers. And I am sorry.

You got to meet all your first cousins, and they were very excited to meet you

You have completely charmed us, little man. We love everything about you.

Always & Forever,
Mommy

Halloween on the Quick

2011-10-31T15:56:00.002-04:00

Besides Christmas, I am not really one for decorating for the holidays. For Halloween I usually crave a jack-o-lantern and call it a day. With the monster being born at the beginning of the month, I really did not have time to do anything until... well, the day of Halloween.

I meandered out to Michael's, where I knew [what was left of] their decor would be on super super markdown. I grabbed two paper mache skull head for ninety-nine cents each. They were brown, so when I got home I hit them with some white spray paint. They looked a little too perfect, so I glossed over them with a little gray spray paint that I had sitting around. I added my faux pumpkin from last year.

Because I love me some old-skool webbing, I decked the porch with cobwebs that came in at $1.40 for the bag. My big splurge was the 100 spiders for $4. I didn't love the price, but what are cobwebs without spiders?

Since I didn't have time to carve pumpkins, I improvised. I have a collection of mason jars that are 20+ strong, so I decided to put them to good use. I have seen other bloggers decoupage the jars and use them as jack-o-lanterns luminaries (like here). Since I used my mason jars for a variety of events, I didn't want to do anything super permanent. So I cut out scary faces from construction paper and taped them to the jars.

Here they are illuminated:

Not the most long-lasting idea ever, but they will only be out for 24 hours. I'm not concerned about their longevity.

For $7.40 and a couple items laying around the house, I did a quick dress up of our house before the trick-or-treaters started rolling in.

I know you are wondering if we dressed up Hunter. Of course we did. He was a cozy little owl (did you expect anything less?)

Happy Halloween!

Always & Forever,

Apples and Chops

2011-10-26T08:00:00.000-04:00

I have been on an apple kick ever since week 38 of my pregnancy.
Let's blame it on the season. That, and my insane consumption of pumpkin- flavored baked goods.

(Hell, if I can't blame the pregnancy on any of these cravings, I'm gonna find something else to blame it on.)

Anyway, I had to come up with dinner the other night and I was tired of eating chicken. I remembered we had pork chops in the freezer. I saw the bushel of apples I had just picked up at the super market the other day and after a quick search via the Almighty Google, I found this great recipe. This comes JEGs approved, too.

Caramel Apple Pork Chops

4 Pork chops
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoon brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoon butter
2 tart apples- peeled, cored and sliced
2 tablespoons pecans (optional. I opted out because I just didn't have them at the house. Maybe next time.)

1. Preheat oven to 175 F. Place a medium dish in the oven to warm.

2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brush chops lightly with oil and place in hot pan. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes, turning occasionally or until done. Transfer to the warm dish, and keep warm in the preheated oven.

3. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, salt and pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add butter to skillet, and stir in brown sugar mixture and apples. Cover and cook until apples are just tender. Remove apples with a slotted spoon and arrange on top of chops. Keep warm in the preheated oven.

4. Continue cooking sauce uncovered in skillet, until thickened slightly. Spoon sauce over apples and chops. If you are wild and crazy and did the pecans, go ahead and sprinkle them over top.

5. Forget about conversation during dinner. You'll be too busy shoveling food into your gullet.

Always & Forever,
ME

The Nursery Reveal

2011-10-24T15:34:00.000-04:00

Now that the monster is offically here, I guess I can show you the nursery.

If you remember, in June I shared my original moodboard:

Here is the final product:

I ditched the IKEA curtains, and instead settled on these green curtains from Target that provided more shade from the sun and matched the green in the bumper perfectly. The wall next to the window is art-less at this time because I am still trying to figure out what I want to go above the crib.

I stuck with my idea of a vinyl wall art and snagged this tree for under $70, after asking the artist to not send the bird or the grass. Instead of my original idea of teal, I went with an ice blue that coordinated with the bumper. I am a little sad because I thought the green leaves I ordered were a softer, sage green, and not the neon green I got. Whomp whomp.

To save some money (and not over fill our house with furniture), we reused the dresser that was in our bedroom as a dresser/changing table. I replaced the original flower-laden handles with oil-rubbed bronze knob from the clearance section in Lowe's.

My favorite part of the room is the rocker next to the window.

This rocker was a gift to my mother from my father when my brother Tim was born in December 1973. I grew up listening to my mothers soft lullabies as the rocker creaked back and forth. I have been using it to nurse Hunter (hence the burp cloth on the arm), and I love having this bonding time in something that has been in my family for almost 40 years.

During our daylight nursing sessions, I have a great view of our backyard where I can watch the squirrels. And they are merry.

I wanted to do an owl theme without going completely over board. I didn't get the bedding in the mood board because it was hella expensive, and wasn't going to use any of it ( note: for those of you who do not have children, blankets and padded bumper are big no-no's for babies). Instead I opted for a statement piece in this owl lamp

I removed the black shade it came with and replaced it with a simple white shade. It was a little plain, so I dug out some ribbon from my endless supply, and trimmed the edges of the shade to sass it up a bit.

I had four RIBBA frames leftover from this project and used them above the dresser.

The upper left is some DIY art I did with the monster's name. Next to that is our first ultrasound picture that I plan to replace with either a family portrait or maybe his silhouette. Below the ultrasound picture is a card my bestie Connie made with her Cricut and gave to me at my baby shower. Finally, we have a onesie that I was brought home from the now defunct Frankford-Torresdale Hospital.

The closet is filled with clothes, toys, diapers and other things our very generous friends and family gifted us. I am so happy with the overhaul we did on this closet in July (more on that project here).

There are things that I would like to do down the line, like add crown molding, have a really fantastic ceiling fixture and perhaps a new rug, but since we had so many other projects going on around the house, we needed to do this on the cheap:

Here is the cost breakdown:
Paint: Free with gift cards
Crib and Rocker: gifted from my parents
Bedding: gifted
Dresser: Free (reused from another room)
Knobs: $5.64 (6 @ $.94 each)
Lighting: $34.99 for owl lamp and $14 for new shade
Art work: $19.96 for 4 RIBBA Frames; $70 for vinyl decal
Curtains: $18.99 for two panels
Rug: $15
Pillows: Free (reused from other rooms)
Diaper Caddy: $1.99 from IKEA As-Is Section

Total: $180.57

Adding in the cost of the closet overhaul and molding along the floorboards, we are looking at about $300 to change this room from a walk-in closet to a nursery for our perfect little monster.

Always & Forever,
ME

Motherhood

2011-10-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

... is kind of the most amazing thing EVAR.

Always & Forever,
ME

Fear of Commitment

2011-10-12T08:00:00.000-04:00

Confession time: I have a fear of commitment. If you walk around our house, you will notice we don't really have anything hanging from the walls. The only art hanging has been placed on a pre-existing nail.

I knew I wanted a collage above the couch, ala YHL's hallway o' pictures.

I went out and purchased a buttload of frames from IKEA and added in a couple of frames I had sitting around

I filled the frames with pictures and mementos of years past and placed them in a measured out the space I wanted to use on our kitchen floor

I even made little templates to hang up and check the space

...and then I just sat there and stared.

...and stared some more...

my walls can talk-- and they are extra sassy

I was so afraid to commit to this. What if I messed up? What if it didn't look right? THE PRESSURE WAS TOO MUCH.

So the frames and templates stayed stacked in our kitchen for weeks (not even kidding) until one Saturday evening, I bucked up and grabbed the hammer and nails.

I added a lot of things that I had been keeping over the years. The red parking pass was from our first vacation to Ocean City, MD. Below that are sauce packets from Taco Bell (an inside joke between us) and a picture of JEGs' grandfather looking devilishly handsome. The middle of the set up is one of our favorite pictures from our wedding and a sonogram of the little monster (which we hope to replace with a family picture).

Subway art is super hot right now, so I created a smaller version with locations and dates that held special meaning to us

I even included our contract renewal- another joke we had from our first year of dating

There are a couple of pictures I really like as well as the keys to Falconhead-- our first place together.

I see this as the bare bones of a project that will take years to flesh out. As our family grows and we collect things that are special to us, I would like to fill in the spaces and even expand on the sides.

But for now, it's a baby step to help in my fear of commitment.

Always & Forever,
ME

Be Our Guest

2011-10-10T08:00:00.005-04:00

My very enthusiastic mother ~~just made us nine pies~~ has offered to come stay with us this week to help get me settled now that JEGs has headed back to work.

Now I know you guys have noticed the mess the guest room has been while viewing my weekly bump pictures. Don't act like you didn't slide your eyes to the left and think "what hell exploded in there?!?!"

Our crap, that's what.

Between our lack of storage space (which includes our pain in the ass to access attic, seen here) and turning our walk in closet into a nursery, this room became our dumping ground. I would "organize" it every two or three weeks and it would just go back to being a mess. Some ~~days~~ weeks it was so bad we would just shut the door and pretend it didn't exist.

However, I could not ask my 60some-year-old mother to shack up on the couch. I needed to give her a proper room with privacy, a place to stash her clothes and.. well, I guess a bed of some sort to sleep on would be nice too. So we sucked it up and got to business. It took us the better part of a month, but I think it can pass as acceptable staying accommodations

We cheated a little on the "bed" part of the room. We didn't have the cheddar to spring for a new box spring and mattress (and I am NOT about to get something off Craigslist) so we busted out the aeromattress that I slept on during the hurricane. It's pretty comfortable and a double, so my mom doesn't have to squeeze onto something the size of a pool float.

I wanted a place for my mom to be able to put her glasses at the end of a long day, so I snagged a small table from our patio and set it up next to the bed. She has a touch lamp next to the bed so she doesn't have to do that annoying stumble-through-a-dark-and-unknown-room after she has turned off the overhead light.

She's also expressed a desire to have her own photo album from our wedding, so I included a copy of our proof book with stickies, so she can mark what pictures she wants in the album. Or she can just toss it on the floor and has plenty of room for her own book of leisure. What she does off the clock is none of my business.

We originally had two bookshelves in this room, but with the addition of the office nook in the kitchen, we were able to pair down to one. I also paired down my book collection, and found a nice corner to place the book shelf. So Momma, if you forgot your own book, feel free to borrow one of ours; JEGs recommends the Eric Clapton Biography. Me? I say Confessions of a Shopaholic.

During DresserGate 2011, my hope chest got shuffled out of our bedroom and into the guest room. It is currently housing all our linens, but it also have a small television, if my mom wants to peruse the Channels of ABC, CBS, or NBC. Sorry, no pay-per-view in this hotel.

As much as I hate that the room is still Buzz Blaster Blue, I didn't want to settle on a color. Our bigger plan for this room is to make it into a man-cave/playroom for JEGs and the Monster. Instead of the aerobed, we hope to score a pullout couch-- something that JEGs can comfortably sit on and play XBOX, but we can still host a guest or two if needed.

I am really psyched that we spent very little money to transform this room. Everything in here was something we already owned except for two things: The IKEA LERBERG shelving for our DVDs (2 @ $5.99 each) and we did spring for a new ceiling fan

The fan/light combo in this room was big and dark and a clearence issue for anyone over 5'9, so we took it down and replaced it with the Harbor Breeze Cheshire II fan. It's much slimmer and makes the room look so much bigger.

...and if anyone else wants to come and help with the baby after my mom leaves, I won't turn you away. I'm just sayin'...

Always & Forever,
ME

A Formal Introduction

2011-10-06T14:38:00.001-04:00

Say hello to Hunter Fillmore

Our little monster arrived at 10:16 am on Saturday, October 1, 2011. He weighted 6lbs 14 oz and is 21 inches long.

Friday afternoon I had my weekly appointment. I went in a little bitter because I had been wishing hoping praying that I wouldn't make it to the appointment. I got more craptastic news when I was told I hasn't dilated anymore. My OB wanted me to try to make it through the weekend on my own, but scheduled for me to be induced on October 4. In the meantime, she had me head over to the hospital for a Non-Stress Test to make sure the little guy was ok in there. He passed with flying colors. I, on the other hand, had blood pressure that was through the roof and they wouldn't let me leave until it had come down.

After an hour or so of observation, the nurse came in and said "Change of plans. Since you are here, your are over due and your blood pressure is so high, we are just going to induce you tonight. No point in waiting". So I called JEGs to tell him the news, and waddled over to a delivery room to get changed. This was about 3:00pm.

The plan was to give me Cervidil to soften my cervix for 12 hours and then I would get Pitocin to start the actual labor. I got the Cervidil around 9:30pm (by a male doctor who had the hands of a construction worker.. ouch!), but it had to be taken out around 2 am because I was getting very strong contractions. I was still hooked up to a machine that would take my blood pressure every 15 minutes, so between the cuff going off and the contractions, I wasn't getting a lot of sleep. I was given Benedryl to help me sleep and something for the pain of the contractions.

Around 5:00 am I felt something dripping on my leg. I woke up JEGs, who was sleeping on a cot next to me, and said I thought my water broke. The nurse tested it, and said she didn't think it was. I asked to go to the bathroom, and as I stood up, there was suddenly a puddle of water on the floor under my feet. THAT was my water breaking. My cervix was checked, but she said I was still not dilated very much, and it was posterior. An hour later the contractions were were really strong and a solid 5 minutes apart. I was given more medication for the pain, but it wasn't helping at all.

Around 9:00 am, I felt like I had to do some business in the bathroom, so I asked the nurse for help getting up. She said before I went, she wanted to check my dilation. At this point I was fully dilated and the feeling of having to use the bathroom was actually the baby heading down the canal.

I asked about an epidural, but I was told there wasn't even enough time for a local anesthetic. Before I knew it, a nurse grabbed one leg, JEGs grabbed the other, there was a spotlight on my vag and I was told to start pushing. Twenty-five minutes later, the little monster was born.

My blood pressure continued to be super high after the birth so I was given magnesium sulfate and a catheter. Let's talk about how that was THE MOST miserable 24 hours of my life. The magnesium sulfate makes you very groggy and hot, and I couldn't get out of bed because of the catheter, so I basically felt like I had the flu. I was so useless; I couldn't breast feed, I couldn't change him, even just holding him took all the energy I had. JEGs was such a superstar though. He took care of all of the feedings, changings, and rocking him to sleep. I didn't think it was possible, but I have fallen even more in love with him.

I didn't get my drugs, and I didn't get my September baby, but let's be honest-- nothing about this pregnancy was well planned. This little man is the epitome of life happening while you are making other plans.

But you know what, I wouldn't give up this little monster for anything. I love him so much.

Always & Forever,

ME (and Hunter)

Fabulous September

2011-10-03T14:44:00.000-04:00

Pumpkin Food

I know spicy food is said to trigger labor, but do you think pumpkin-flavored stuff has the same effect? I hope so with the amount of pumpkin I have consumed over the past couple of days.

Alexi comes home
I mentioned in a previous post, that my cousin Kerith gave birth to a daughter at 30 weeks. At the time, I asked for thoughts and prayers for my cousin and little Alexi. I am so very happy to announce that at 10 weeks old she and Momma are doing great-- in fact Alexi has even come home from the hospital. She still has some obstacles to overcome, but she has proven herself to be a strong little girl!

Fall television

I love it when shows start again in the fall-- it's like revisiting old friends. I missed the crew and Glendale Community College. It's nice to see that Ted Mosby still believes in love. Of course we can't forget the 5-time Emmy Award winning Dunphy/Prichett family. I also love the possibility of picking up new shows. This season I am continuing to enjoy the late-season replacement Happy Endings, and I've also become interested in the late-night soap that is Revenge. The first two episodes have me intrigued...

Yoga pants.

Like these from Old Navy.
..the only way I got through this last month of pregnancy.

Alright September, you gots to get movin'. October is here, and that's my favorite month!

Always & Forever,
ME

Watch Me Grow!

2011-10-01T22:42:00.003-04:00

Click on the link below each picture to check out the montly post!

Wedding Crashing: Effortlessly Chic and Modern

2011-09-30T07:20:00.000-04:00

Wedding-palooza continued on August 20, 2011 with our dear friends Mandy and Evan's wedding in Lancaster, PA.

The ceremony was held in a beautiful church with a ceiling to die for.

I have to say, this church is nudging it's way to the top of my favorite ceremony venues. It didn't feel like you were in a church-- there wasn't the usual gilded figures or tall stain glass windows. It was very simple, modern and chic with a slight rustic flair.

The ceremony included beautiful music and a lovely sermon from the priest-- there may or may not have been the dropping of a ring too (but I'll never tell ;)

The bride looked amazing (as always) in a strapless mermaid gown that ruffled at the bottom and gathered at the hip with big bold flowers. Her hair was pulled back in a loose chignon and accessorized with a classic fingertip length veil. She looked, exactly how I thought she would--effortlessly chic and modern.

source

The gentlemen wore three piece, gray suits with a slight herringbone pattern and gray ties.

source

The ladies went with a simple black cocktail dress in varying styles and carried beautiful bouquets of white roses, daisies and hydrangeas

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The reception was held at the Eden Resort and Suites in Lancaster, PA. Since it was over an hour drive for us, we decided to stay the night. As we checked in, I opened the curtains to our room and immediately found the reception

The reception was held in a ballroom like I have never seen: it had a two-story high ceiling and it felt as though you were in a outdoor courtyard, even though you were inside. The sun shone through skylights on the ceiling and at night, hanging twinkle lights made it feels as if you were dancing under the stars. Instead of the usual wooden dance floor, there was a stone patio facade.

I cannot continue without mentioning the invitations. As soon as we received them in the mail, I fell in love. First off, they were letterpress. I die. Plus, you all know I love a good monogram, so add that it with some modern typography, and I am lusting.

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The monogram was echoed in their escort cards with their last initial. I loved the pictures of the cow for steak and chicken for the marsala. I'm not 100%, but I believe the balloon is a child's plate.

The centerpieces continued the easy, breezy outdoor feel with hydrangeas and daisies in simple vases.

Their cake had alternating tiers of off kilter, swiss-dotted squares, accented with a black ribbon.

The cake topper were the same blooms from the bouquets and centerpieces, but the monogram on the top layer is what I really loved.

The bride and groom shared their first dance to Ingrid Michaelson's "The Way I Am", and we sat down to eat a wonderful meal of chicken marsala or steak.

As the sun went down, the party really started-- the boys got on the dance floor.

Yes, that is my husband doing the chicken dance.

..and it ain't a party till the ties are around the head.

Congrats to the happy couple. We had so much fun, and wish you many many years of love and happiness!

Always & Forever,

Pregnancy: Week 40

2011-09-27T15:53:00.000-04:00

It's here folks-- due date. Yesterday I had a couple Braxton Hicks ("practice contractions") and I have a lot of pressure on my pelvis, but otherwise, I don't think I am going to be birthing this baby today.

But, in honor of my official due date, let's look back on the past 20 weeks of bumpage:

..and the grand finale (along with the rarely-seen full frontal):

Yes, my t-shirt says "Pirates arrrrrrrr cool". Because they... arrrr.

Pregnancy By the Numbers:
Weight Gained: 26 pounds
Inches Added: 44 to waist
Clothing Purchased: 1 pair of shoes
2 maternity shirts (apparently pre-pregnancy I had a thing for loose and/or empire tops)
2 dresses
5 pairs of pants
Daily trips to the bathroom: 12-15, which is a lot for a girl who's mother referred to her as 'the camel'.
Gallons of lemonade drank: probably like 100
Items dropped and left for someone else to pick up: innumerable.

My belly button held on for dear life, but as you can see in the above picture, it has started to pop. I had this mental image of a bunch of little men holding onto ropes, trying to keep it in and finally one of the ropes snapped. Thanks for trying guys-- you did what you could, and I appreciate it.

I love the shocked looks I was getting from people when they would ask when I was due and I got to answer "Tuesday". I'm thinking about running to Target just so someone will ask me when I'm due so I can say "today". hehe.

When I had my Braxton Hicks yesterday I went into OMG-what-if-I-go-into-labor-and-the-house-isn't-clean mode. I still needed to empty the dishwasher, the bedroom needs to be dusted, the checkbook needed to be balanced, and there weren't fresh towels in the bathroom! So I zipped around like a mad woman trying to have the house clean, and guess what? I'm still pregnant. I'm telling you-- pregnancy strips the sanity from you.

Winston knows something is up. He's been following me around every day as if to say "I know something is going to happen and I want to make sure you are ok". He's my buddy :)

A strange thing has happened this week: our calendar is completely empty. We have no plans of dinner with friends or anything of that nature. No parties or day trips over the weekend. Nothing. Just spending the last couple of days as "just the two of us".

When we were first told the due date of September 27th, it seemed so far away (even though we only have 4 months to go!). Now that it is here, I have all these emotions running through me; excitement, fear, love, joy. All of them are so strong, and yet there is still this disconnect that within the next week I will be bringing home a baby. A little human being that I am responsible for. That I get to keep-- no more handing it back to the mother when it makes noises I don't understand. I have to figure out what those noises mean now.

My next doctors appointment is on Friday. If I haven't given birth by then, we will start talking about inducing. So this time next week, I will have a baby. It's been a strange and yet incredible journey, and I thank you all for your support. It has really warmed my heart to read your kind words. <3

Always & Forever,
ME

Still Pregnant...

2011-09-26T00:30:00.001-04:00

Wow. You guys, I have gotten a crap load of e-mails asking if I have given birth to our monster.

Sadly, I have not. But I swear you all will be at least in the top 30 to know.

JEGs and I rallied over the past weeks and got a lot of projects around the house done. However, the weather has been craptastic and not optimal for picture-taking. And you guys deserve good pictures. Because I like you. A lot. Aww.. group hug.

Anyway, the bobble-headed weather girl on my local station has promised me some peaks of sunshine on Monday, so I am going to run around like a mad woman and take pictures for you.

Or maybe I'll go into labor. Either or would work for me.

A&F,
ME

Pregnancy: Weeks 38 & 39

2011-09-22T22:05:00.000-04:00

My Stats:

Who cares. I look and feel like I swallowed a watermelon. Whole.

The Monster's Stats:

About 7 pounds and roughly 21 inches.

All organs are developed, including his lungs (which are the last to form). He doesn't have a whole lot of room to move around in there. I keep telling him that if he doesn't have enough room, he can just come out. There is plenty of room out here for him to bend and stretch.

Energy Level/Sleep:

The baby dreams have started...

I had two baby dreams the other night: the first one was I was having contractions. I woke up and thought it was real and almost woke up JEGs to tell him. Thank goodness I didn't ;)

The second one, I was with my mom at the Goodwill Store donating some stuff. I had the baby with me, and I looked down and said "You know, they must be right about forgetting about the pain of labor, because I really don't remember even giving birth to him" Then my mom looked at me and said "That's because this is just a dream, Liz." ...Oh.

Cravings:

I am still on an apple kick, but I'm going to throw in a side of pumpkin as well. Actually, who am I kidding? I just love pumpkin flavored things!

Pregnancy Fun and Other Bitching:

I am on in full on waddle mode. Forget walking. Also, I've started having some pain in my sciatica, so every once in a while I have to stop and wait for the searing pain in my ass to stop.

Monday started my first week of maternity leave, so that means I don't have to get showered or dressed (as you can see from the paint stained pants and grubby t-shirt in this weeks photo). I spent my first day of leave laying on the couch with a rockin' cold. I've started feeling better through out the week and I am feeling really accomplished on the amount of working I have been getting done around the house.

Everything looks good at the weekly appointments. Last week the doctor reported I was 1 cm dilated and about 70% effaced. The little monster is in the birthing position and getting lower. At today's appointment I was about the same. I have been promised that if we don't have any more progression by next week, they will induce me. I hope to not get to that point, but I really, really don't want to meander into Week 41.

The bags are packed-- let the waiting game begin. We are so excited to meet the little guy!

Always & Forever,
ME

I Gots the Whole World, On My Belly

2011-09-20T09:39:00.000-04:00

Recently, JEGs and I partook in a mini maternity shoot with a local photographer Sarah Shulte. Sarah is a pretty popular wedding photographer in the area, but she has been working on a special project recently. She collected 12 women with pregnant bellies to volunteer to having their baby carriers painted up (by her very talented hubs, John) and photographed for a 2012 calendar. All proceeds from the calendar go to Little Smiles; an organization that provides hospital-bound kids with entertainment via toys, games, celebrity appearances, etc.

I thought it sounded like such a fantastic idea, so I contact Sarah and on a beautiful August afternoon, JEGs and I mugged it up for the camera

this is probably one of my favorites

Sarah picked me to be the month of April, so in honor of Earth Day, my belly was transformed into a globe

Sarah was so fantastic to work with! Her and her husband John made us feel so at ease and they were so much fun to talk to! An added bonus: their adorable daughter June. I might steal her, she was so cute.

Always & Forever,
ME

For more information about donating to Little Smiles, click here. The calendar is still in production, but once it goes on sale, I will post information on how to order it.

Wedding Crashing: Tropical Bliss

2011-09-16T13:14:00.002-04:00

In August 2009, my dear friend and former roomie's boyfriend took a secret flight down to Myrtle Beach while she was on vacation, waited on the balcony of her hotel room, and when she walked out he was waiting there on one knee with a very sparkly diamond ring.

..way to show up every other dude in the world, Phil. Right now they are all going "thanks a lot, buddy". ;)

Two years later, they made good on that engagement and got married at The Merion , located in Cinnaminson, NJ.

First, we need to talk about the color scheme she chose. In the two years of wedding planning, I think she may have changed it 29349283492378 times. She started off with watermelon pink and green and branched off from there. She finally landed on a tropical theme of teal satin bridesmaids dresses and a bouquet of purple and fushia flowers-- a.k.a stunning.

yes, I totally stole this picture off her Facebook page.

I died when I saw this color combo-- so summer and I loved the way the purples popped off the teal. Those flowers were ah. may. zing.

Speaking of amazing, Jamie made a stunning bride in a traditional satin A-line dress with a sweetheart neckline with gorgeous embellishments. Her veil was epic-- long and sweeping and she accented her beautifully curled hair with a small tiara-like headband.

It was a simple and beautiful ceremony where the bride and groom wrote their own vows. Phil talked about the first time he met Jamie and bought her a drink with money from a winning lotto ticket. He continued by saying he never realized how much he won with that ticket. Admit it-- that's smooth.

We need to talk about the food--specifically the cocktail hour. I would have taken pictures, but I was too busy stuffing my face. There was an entire room filled with different food stations- mashed and baked potatoes, Philly cheese steaks and burger sliders, a pasta station, pizza, an Asian station, and not to mention the usual cheese, fruit and veggie station. Word on the street there were some passed appetizers too, but I was too busy shoveling cheese steaks and fries down my gullet. What? It's what the baby wanted. Swears.

Jamie did a crap-ton of DIY things for the wedding including her tropical and elegant centerpieces of floating candles and orchids in cylindrical vases

She also DIYed her own invites AND menus (aka, she has way more patience then I will ever have). Are you kidding me with the perfectly placed jewels after each course?

I had a slight crush on her wedding cake. The Precious Moments figurine and dots were so cute :)

See this chick below? That my bestie Connie. And that's an umbrella from the DJ. This picture was taken moments after she produced this umbrella from under her dress. Not the skirt part-- oh no. The top part.

Apparently that was not the only thing Ms. Klepto Connie had taken that night. Other things included a sombrero, keys from the maitre d and other DJ goodies. Our friend Erin tried to return as many things as possible, citing that Connie was "making bad choices".

All and all it was a fantastic night, and I wish the lovebirds many years of marital bliss

Always & Forever,

Amerbutt

Pregnancy: Weeks 36 & 37

2011-09-07T21:40:00.000-04:00

My Stats:
Holding steady at twenty-six pounds gained.
Waist measures at 44 inches. I think I can officially shop in the Big and Tall section of department stores.

Little Monster's Stats:
Our little dude weights roughly 6.5 pounds and measures from crown to rump 14 inches and his total length is about 21 inches.
This week we are completely full term, so he can be born at any moment. All his organs are developed.
In the weeks to come, there will be less amniotic fluid around him as he grows. Where is the fluid going? My body is absorbing it-- which makes me feel like a member of the X-Men.
Finally, we have reached the final melon on the Fruit-O-Meter: watermelon!

Energy Level/Sleep:
I may be thinking about drugging myself with Tylenol PM. It's getting to that point. In addition to being generally uncomfortable, I have been having nightmares. Like, tornadoes-ripping-through-my-house kind of nightmares.

Cravings:
Apples. Apple juice. Apple Pie. Apple Cinnamon Muffins-- which is strange because I don't really like cooked apples. At all. But I want them, and I have a feeling I will be doing a lot of baking this weekend.

Other stuff:
We are pretty much set. The nursery is just about finish (I hope to show you all soon) and we are really plugging away at our to do list. All the clothes are washed and put away and the crib is set up. We finished up our birthing classes (and managed not to get kicked out) as well as a Newborn Care class.

I have to note that JEGs gets extra husband points this week: he painted my toe nails for me. Love him. To death.

This weekend I packed a bag for the hospital. I consulted three different lists from different sources and packed the following items:

For Me:
Nightgown for labor
Nursing Pajamas
Yoga pants and nursing top
Nursing bra
Three pairs of underoos
pack of "sanitary napkins" (tee hee)
Slipper socks
Headband
All mini toiletries

For the Monster:
Two receiving blankets
Two onsesies- a newborn size and a 3 month size
Two outfits to come home in- one with long sleeves and one with short sleeves (it will be the end of September)
Sleeper with mittens
Two extra pairs of mittens
Knitted hat.

After consulting with some experienced moms this is what my list looks like:

For Me:
~~Nightgown for labor~~
~~Nursing Pajamas~~
Yoga pants and nursing top
Nursing bra
Nursing pads
Three pairs of underoos
pack of "sanitary napkins" (tee hee)
~~Slipper socks~~ (switched out for flip flops)
Headband
All mini toiletries
Boppy
My own pillow
Phone charger
baby book
Insurance card
chapstick

For the Monster:
~~Two receiving blankets~~
~~Two onsesies- a newborn size and a 3 month size~~
~~Two outfits to come home in- one with long sleeves and one with short sleeves (it will be the end of September)~~ Now only have one outfit to take him home in.
~~Sleeper with mittens~~
~~Two extra pairs of mittens~~
~~Knitted hat.~~

..as you see things changed a little.

So dude... anytime you want to show up, I am down.

Always & Forever,
ME

You Can Catch Me Vlogging

2011-09-03T18:14:00.000-04:00

I grabbed this from Shannanigans blog and found it kind of interesting. Right now in the blogosphere it's all the rage to post a video reciting some words to show your accent. I've been left alone all day and need someone to talk to, so who better to talk to then my camera?

Some things to note:
*it's hot in my house, hence why I keep touching my face. I'm trying not to wipe the sweat dripping from me.
*I have ADD and tend to go off on tangents.
*This is not the best angle for me, but let's be honest- I'm nine months pregnant, there really is no good angle right now.
*If you hear any yelling in the background, it's because my next-door neighbors are hosting a Beer Olympics and by the sounds of it, it's getting cut throat.

Without further ado... my first vlog.:

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

And answer these questions:
•What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
•What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
•What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
•What do you call gym shoes?
•What do you say to address a group of people?
•What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
•What do you call your grandparents?
•What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
•What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
•What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

Any other bloggers want to participate?

Always & Forever,
ME

Goodnight, Irene.

2011-08-31T10:45:00.000-04:00

Apparently the apocalypse is headed for the East Coast.

Last Tuesday there was an earthquake in Virginia that Philadelphia could feel. This weekend, we got hit by Hurricane Irene.

What did we do to piss off Mother Nature?

I was concerned about three things during this hurricane: A. loosing electricity B. the winds knocking down this huge tree in front of our a house and C. Our basement is prone to flooding and we had A LOT of boxes on the floor that have been there since we moved in. Clearly these boxes were so important to us that we hadn't touched them in four months, but regardless, they needed to be saved.

On Saturday morning (the day the storm was slated to hit us), JEGs ran to Lowes and bought wood to build shelving.

While everyone we knew was hunkering down in their houses with a movie and some alcohol, my husband was building the shelving on our front porch in the wind and the rain. I have to admit, he did a good job.

We had planned to organize and make it look nice, but it took him till nearly 10 pm to finish. We quickly Jenga'd the boxes on the shelves and I am glad we did. About a half hour later we checked on the basement to find this:

After a quick shower, we sat on the couch and started flipping between the news channels to get the latest updates. Anyone in the Philadelphia area catch Adam Joseph on ABC? Poor guy looked like he was about to have a meltdown. He started the broadcast out with a full suit on. Quickly the jacket came off. Then the tie was loosened and the sleeves were rolled up. Finally the tie came off. JEGs and I kept flipping back to see if he would be completely naked at any point. Chill out dude. You are broadcasting the weather, not creating it.

Around 11:00 they started talking about tornadoes for Norristown. Not our county, but our specific town.

Fun Lizzie Fact: I am terrified of tornadoes. I have never lived through one and I am scared to death of them. When they started broadcasting tornado warnings I put on shoes, grabbed a cat carrier and sat next to Winston ready to grab him at the first siren. I'm not even kidding, I was shaking. To make matters worse, they kept popping up over and over again. Seriously with this crap? Are they trying to make me go into labor?

JEGs did a quick interwebs search and found streaming audio of our local police and fire radio to see if there was any mention of tornadoes. We decided that with the threat of the twisters (and the potential crashing of the tree into our master bedroom) it might be safer to sleep in the living room. JEGs blew up the air mattress and by midnight I passed out from sheer exhaustion.

God bless JEGs; that man stayed up till nearly 4 am keeping an eye on the tornado warnings, sump pump and electricity. He tried to snuggle next to me on the air mattress, but being as pregnant as I am, it wasn't comfortable so he relocated to the couch.

The next morning I woke up to electricity, the tree still standing, and minimal water in the basement. We celebrated with a breakfast of blueberry pancakes.

Our general area really made out ok. There were a few branches in the streets, but no serious flooding. We were really blessed.

We have officially made it through two natural disasters in our home. What's next? Locusts? I hope not, because the cicadas in our neighborhood are annoying enough.

Always & Forever,
ME

A Place to Hang Our Hats... and Everything Else.

2011-08-26T08:00:00.002-04:00

One thing I knew when we first looked at this house was that creativity was going to be key for storage. Even though we had a full basement and attic, we had very little usable closet space.

We knew eventually we would have to do something with the closet in the master bedroom. We figured that our walk-in closet would hold us for a couple years until we could afford to knock out the existing closet and built ourselves something that Trish Surh would be proud of.

When we decided to use the walk-in as a nursery, it was obvious something needed to be done with our closet, and fast. Since we didn't have the budget to do the full-on closet demo that we dreamed of (along with the rest of our big ass To Do list), we decided to find a NEW temporary solution.

After moving the longer dresser out of our room and into the baby's room, we have a little nook for us to use

(Please pardon the first five or so pictures-- they were taken with JEGs camera phone at night).

We jutted out to Lowes and snagged two bars to hang our clothes from: one higher for JEGs (since he is so much taller) and a midget one for me. To maximize the space, we also grabbed a white-washed board from IKEA's As-Is section to use as a shelf.

We wanted to conceal our clothes from the rest of the room, so we decided to hang some light and airy curtains, ala YoungHouseLove.

Our first idea was to use tension rods to hold up the curtains, but we ran into two problems: 1. we couldn't find a tension rod long enough, and 2. the placement of the rod would have made the hangers poke into the curtain. And I just couldn't have that. Then JEGs came up with the brilliant idea of using a curtain rod we already had. I confess I was hesitant about the idea, but after some visualization, he convinced me.

On the left side of the closet he secured the bracket just outside of the nook

Since the right side of the nook came out farther, he attached the bracket some same distance from the back wall and swiveled the hook 90 degrees. We had to remove the finial, but I don't think anyone will notice.

When the brackets were secure, we tested out the rod and curtains

We transferred all our clothes in and I hemmed the curtains and TA DA!

All of JEGs' clothes have room to hang, and he has plenty of space for his watches, cologne and shoes on the shelf

My wardrobe is happily hanging about hip level and I can comfortably see everything.

I wanted to do a better storage for shoes, but this is good enough for now. One day, when we completely renovate the closet and do fancy shelving, we will find a better way to store my shoe collection.

We are really really happy with the way it turned out, especially for such a "this will do for now" kind of project.

For all you number crunchers out there, here is the budget breakdown:
(numbers are approx. because I lost the receipt. Dammit).

Clothing rods: $8 each-- however one was returned and scuffed up so we were able to get it for half off.
Brackets for rods: $7 for a two back (x2 rods is $14)
Shelf: $6 from IKEA's As-Is section
Brackets for shelf: $3 each (x 2 is $6)
Box of screws: $10
Curtain rod: Free (already owned)
Curtains: $15 (IKEA's Vivan)

Total Cost: $63.

Not too shabby considering the fact it A. got all of our clothes in one room and B. cleared up some space in the ~~storage~~ guest room. The box of screws was a big expenditure- especially since we only used about 5 or 6 of them, but they are made to go through brick, and when we do fully renovate the closet, we are going to need them. So it's like an investment.

One more thing checked off our TODO list. Boo. yah.

Always & Forever,
ME

Pregnancy: Weeks 34 & 35

2011-08-24T08:00:00.000-04:00

That's the guest room on the left. I should really do a post tracking it's progress of messiness.

My Stats:
Twenty-six pounds gained. My dream of only putting on 20-25 has been crushed.
Waist is about 43 inches. ::stink eye::

Little Monster's Stats:
Our little guy should weigh about 5-6 pounds and measures a total of 20 inches.
Pretty much all of his organs are developed, now he is just putting on weight.

Pregnancy Fun Facts:
Blah blah blah hormones. Blah blah charlie horses. Farting. Pimples. Big scary nipples. Are you sick of listening to me bitch? I know I am.

Things I Miss:
Bending over. My fabulous shoe collection. My wedding rings. Not grunting. Breakfast sandwiches with sausage. WINE. Cuddling with my husband.

Energy Levels/Sleep:
My sleep really varies from night to night. If I can find a comfortable position then I am good. to. go. If not, then expect a night full of flipping over (which includes synchronized movements of two pillows) and charlie horses. JEGs is loving it. Really he is. There has been talk of setting up an air mattress in the guest room, but I'm afraid to ask if it is for me or him...

Other Stuff:
You guys, I am so freakin' pregnant. Like, really pregnant. 35 weeks in and 35 days to go.

I only have three more weeks left at work; my last day is September 16th. I am hoping this little guy will wait until at least the 23rd to show up so I can enjoy that first week of maternity leave by having quiet time, sleeping in, and just getting things ready. Basically, I want one more week of selfish-Lizzie-time. Sue me.

I've had a lot of people ask how I am doing at work. For those that don't know my job involves me climbing in and out of a helicopter. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be, but the last week or so has been getting a little harder. I just keep reminding myself that I am in the home stretch.

We had the first of our two birthing classes about a week ago. We may or may not have gotten scolded for giggling too much, but you know what? If you are going to make me suck on a Lifesaver to show dilation and pronounce centimeter "sonnameter", then I am gonna giggle. A lot. Because JEGs and I are 13.

PS.. other Momma's out there... did you pack a tennis ball in a sock in your hospital bag? Apparently it's vital to bring along and we cannot figure out why. Can someone please shed some light on this?

Always & Forever,
ME

Update: Baby's Room

2011-08-12T13:51:00.000-04:00

Hey guys! Just popping in to give you all an update on what's been going on around the halls of Falconhead Cottage.

Now that the carpet is finally installed, we've set our sights on other projects. Most recently, I engaged in what I referred to as DresserGate Twenty Eleven; I moved the tall dresser out of the baby's room into the master bedroom, and moved the long dresser out of our room and into the baby's room. It took some finagling, but I was able to snuggle the taller dresser next to the radiator in our room. And by the grace of God, I was some how able to fit the contents of both dressers into one:

I gave him the upper drawers because I'm a good wifey :)

I took the mirror off of the longer dresser and moved it into the baby's room for him to use. It is also going to act as our changing table.

Pardon the mess. We had our second shower this past weekend, and it looks like Babies R Us threw up in that room. I have some organizing to do.

JEGs also installed some quarter round along the baseboards to fix that horrendous gap between the floor and wall that was totally skeeving me out:

Before

After

We were also gifted the Jenny Lind crib I have been dreaming about ever since I saw the first ultrasound. I. Love. It.

Finally, I added our TO Do list from Operation: Baby Drop with links to the finished projects. You know, because I know you all are dying to know.

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!!!

Always & Forever,
ME

Pregnancy: Weeks 32 & 33

2011-08-10T08:00:00.007-04:00

Once upon a time I could button this jacket...

My Stats:
*Twenty-four pounds gained. I would say a good 20 of it is from cake.
*Waist measures... let's just say I "lost" my tape measure. Yeah, yeah. I... lost it.

Little Monster's Stats:
*Our little guy weights about 4.5 pounds and his total length is nearly 19.5 inches.
*He is now keeping his eyes open when he is awake
*Neurons and synapses are developing in huge numbers allowing him to master things like sucking and swallowing while breathing.
*..and for TMI of the week: his testicles are descending from his abdomen into his scrotum. Awww.
*This week we have become a honeydew on the Fruit-O-Meter

Pregnancy Fun Facts:

Last week karma decided it would be a fun joke to give me third trimester morning sickness. I spent every morning sitting next to the toilet, cursing the good fortune of my (unknown) first trimester. By the end of the week I was feeling better, but I was still getting what I call "yucky burps". Basically, the baby is running out room in there and is starting to press on my organs-- including my stomach. There have been times when I have 'burped' up the last thing I ate. It seems to happen mostly at night, riiiight before I am about to fall asleep. It's really... awesome.

Energy Level/Sleep

The baby has made it very clear he only likes it when I lay on my left side. Aye- aye capt'n. If that's what you want, that is what I shall do.

Let's talk about his energy levels for a second: good lord child-- are you trying to escape through my bellybutton?? That is not an exit! He doesn't really kick anymore, but he does push on my sides. A lot.

Cravings:

At this very moment, I would sell my mother for a roast beef sandwich and a root beer. (Sorry Mommacita). Recently I have been wanting a lot of peanut butter- in milkshake form is bonus points.

Other Stuff:

I ditched the wedding bands weeks ago for a plain ring I had laying around. However that won't fit anymore either so I have been commando on the ring finger. Earlier in the week I had a woman in a doctors waiting room inform me that "the Lord looks down upon unwed mothers". I posted this on my Facebook wall, and my favorite of the 25 comments I received was from my friend Mike's sister Beth: " You should have told her it was your 4th- all to different Daddys. Then asked 'You think the big guy's okay with that?' ". My actual response to the woman was "Well thank goodness I waited five months after the wedding to get pregnant". Really, the nerve of some people. But I do believe I might invest in a cheapy ring from Kohls.. just to be on the safe side.

My mother hosted a second baby shower for us this past weekend and again, friends and family were so generous. We have been so blessed, and we are so thankful for all the gifts we received. Now I just need to organize it all.

Our good friends, Cara and Rob, recently found out they are having a little girl in December. Clearly this means that their precious angel has to marry our little monster. We've already started to draw up the paperwork. Here is Cara and I introducing the ~~bride and groom~~ wee ones to each other:

Finally, I think we are getting closer to a name. Maybe :)

Always & Forever,

Wedding Crashing: Casually Simple

2011-08-08T20:14:00.000-04:00

On July 23, 2011 my dear friend Megan got married.

I met Meg back in 2003 when she was just 17. We worked together at Applebee's for years and we were killer on Sunday night expo together. The two things I love most about her are: you know exactly how she feels about things, and she is not full of pomp and circumstance-- this girl likes to keep it simple and her lovely wedding reflected that perfectly.

The wedding was held at a beautiful, 200-year-old meeting house in Southampton, PA.

I won't even lie to you, I was contemplating how to steal this chandelier. It would look gorgeous in our boudoir. But JEGs put the kibosh on it. Something about being too big to smuggle out. Whatever.

It was insanely hot the day of the wedding-- I think the mercury hit between 98- 100 degrees. Since the meeting house was two hundred years old, they didn't have modern conveniences like electricity for air conditioning. But Meg was on top of that. As soon as you walked in, you were handed a fan to keep yourself cool-- complete with adorable sayings:

When Meg entered, I gasped. She looked amazing in a dress with a satin wrap bodice and a skirt of pleated net over silk organza. At her waist was a crystal and pearl embellished belt that folded twice in the back and had more crystals at the tapered ends.

She carried a bouquet of sunflowers wrapped in yellow ribbon. She opted to go with out a veil, and instead her naturally curly hair was swept casually into a side bun and accessorized with white silk flowers.

Her shoes (which I didn't get a picture of until later in the night) were glittery and blue.

I'm not even going to lie, I was pretty proud and impressed with her for getting shoes this fabulous. She is usually very understated, and these were pretty... kung pow!

God bless them, they kept that ceremony short-- fifteen minutes we were in and out. They had a few readings, a sand ceremony, Kevin- do you? (he did) Meg- do you? (she did too) , kiss the bride and be on your way.

The reception was held at the nearby Maggio's Restaurant. As we entered we found our place cards propped up on wine corks that Meg had collected from her part-time gig as a bartender (..and maybe a few bottles she partook in as well ;)

The centerpieces were mason jar filled with sunflowers and river rocks with and adorn with a yellow ribbon

Can we talk about her cake for a second? First off, it was adorable with a cake topper of a bride and groom on a motorcycle.

The most important part? The taste. Holy mother of pearl, it was like everything that was good in one cake. First off it was yellow cake (my fav) with chocolate chips. Then it had a strawberry jam filling between the layers. But wait.. there is more! The icing was-- wait for it---- peanut butter flavored. It was basically a pregnant woman's dream.

I had such a blast at the wedding, I even got my booty out on the dance floor-- proving that at seven and a half months pregnant, I am still gettin' my Cupid Shuffle on.

LOVE my AppleBitches

Meg, I wish you and Kevin nothing but happiness in the years to come. Love you so much girl!

Always & Forever,

Fabulous July

2011-08-06T08:48:00.000-04:00

How I Met Your Mother

Robin, did I ever tell you I was vomit-free since '93?

This show is Legon---wait for it------- DARY. How did I go six years without watching?? Barney Stintson is by far the BEST character on TV. JEGs and I would catch this on syndication every once in a while and thought it seemed pretty funny. Once we moved into the house, we cut our cable down the basic channels and realized something: basic cable sucks. So we decided to hunt down the first six seasons of this show and marathon watched it. I have never laughed so hard at a TV show as I have with this one. Seriously, the writers of this show are doing a fantastic job, not only keep with the continuity of the show, but keep the characters fresh. We are all caught up and are itching to start the seventh season.

Lemonade

I have always loved anything that was lemon-flavored; it's one of my favorite tastes. With the pregnancy (and summer) in full swing, I am always A. Thirsty B. Craving sugar and C. Craving sour. DING DING-- we have a winner in lemonade. We always have a ~~half drank~~ gallon of Turkey Hill Lemonade in the fridge. I'll mix it with other beverages too! Iced Tea, a little in my water, any my new favorite, with Trop 50's Pomegranate Blueberry juice. Ommm nom nom.

adidas Zeitfrei sandals

Here is the thing about pregnancy: your feet always hurt. ALWAYS. I had gotten in the habit of as soon as I came home from work off came my shoes and on went my slippers. However, I ran into two problems: my slippers made my feet hot (and I am like a human oven as it is right now) and after a while, I had worn then down so far, they didn't have any padding left. Then one day I noticed JEGs had a pair of adidas flip flops with padding on the soles. I slipped my feet in and it was like heaven and I never wanted to take them off. Apparently, JEGs felt the same way about these shoes and was quite annoyed when I would put up a fight if he wanted to wear his own shoes. Whatevs man. So I broke down and bought my own pair. And I loves them.

Winston

I know you haven't been formally introduced yet, but this little guy has brought a lot of fun and love into our life this past month. And that's pretty fabulous.

Alrighty July, August is officially here, and it is jam packed with weddings, showers and renovations! We gotta get to gettin!!

Always & Forever,

The Carpet Does Not Match the Drapes

2011-08-03T08:00:00.005-04:00

...because don't have drapes. But we have CARPET!

In April we ripped out the old carpet.
In June, we replaced the subfloor.

It took us three months, but we finally have carpeting. Oh happy day.

JEGs mentioned in the subfloor post that he had decided to rip up the grey slate tile in the entry way to replace the flooring underneath. I was totally down with that because I had a deep hatred for that tile.

One week while I was on night shift, JEGs got to work on replacing the tile. We picked out a lighter and brighter Topaz Ice by Marazzi at our local Home Depot, with the Bone grout.

The very first thing he did was dry fit the tiles on the wonder board WITH the spacers in place. This gave an actual measurement for how to cut the board so that everything fit and lined up. Once he was happy with the layout, and knew where to cut, he went ahead and trimmed the board to fit. He centered it with the doorway, and tucked under the threshold just a bit to make it cleaner. Once he was happy with the position, he screwed it down with drywall screws to the subfloor.

Next up was mixing the mortar. Anyone who has messed with this goop knows that this can be a pain in the arse. Adding JUST enough water so that the "mud" isn't too runny, but isn't too dry is a trial and error type of thing. Mike Holmes makes it look so easy.

Once its mixed, it is time to spread it out over the wonder board. Starting in the center, he worked his way out and forward, using 3/16" spacers to keep the grout lines nice and even. It's good to check your progress with a level as you go to make sure things are lined up.

Once satisfied with the tile positions, it was time to let them set. The tiles had to set overnight before they could be grouted.

Since I am super preggers, JEGs decided that instead of making me walk around to the back door when I got home at midnight, he would build me a bridge out of material leftover from the subfloor replacement-- a "temporary wife bridge" as he called it. So thoughtful <3

The next day the mortar had set up enough to start grouting, so JEGs mixed it up and spread it around with a grout float. He also used some left over and spread it in where the tile meets the threshold to make it look seamless. I should note that he could have used caulk, but he had left over grout so he thought, why not? If it cracks or chips out, he can caulk it later.

About a week or so later, the carpet guys from Lowe's came out and installed the carpet.

I know what you are thinking; Lowe's carpeting? Home Depot tile? We don't discriminate. Well, we do a little. Shhh, we secretly love Lowe's way more, but don't tell the HD.

Anyway, let me tell you-- these guys did work. In a little over an hour they showed up, installed the tack strips, put down the carpet padding, installed the carpet AND ran the vacuum. LOVE THEM.

When it was all finished, I took the opportunity to do something I haven't done in this house: lie down on the living room floor.

..and I may or may not have attempted a carpet angel.

So let's take a trip down memory lane and gander at the progress this room has made.

Before (with previous owner's furnishings):

After:

Before:

After:

One more view:

Clearly we have a lot more to do (maybe some art on the walls?) but the transformation with fresh paint and carpet alone has made me so happy.

So, what do you think?

Always & Forever,

Year One

2011-08-01T08:00:00.000-04:00

For our first anniversary, JEGs and I decided to keep it low-key and local. On Saturday, we checked out the Elmwood Park Zoo- that is literally two minutes from our house.

Ahhh, what can I say about the zoo? Well, the animals were breathing, so that's a plus, right? Although, by the amount of vultures that were hanging around, I can't say the would be for very long...

Of all the animals in the zoo, I was quite smitten with the prairie dogs, and can you blame me? Look at that punam!

..and you know I couldn't help but snap a photos of the owls. One of them was giving me the stink eye because I woke him up when I accidentally hit the glass. Oops. Sorry dude.

Now imagine this in my best Crocodile Hunter voice: Krickey! It's the elusive 4 wheel drive Ford F-150! He nearly went extinct during the Cash for Clunkers era. It's a real treat to see one of these in it's natural habitat!

After putzing around the zoo for a couple of hours, we headed back to the house and treated ourselves to some filet mignon at our favorite little bistro: our house. We marinated steaks and JEGs grilled them in our backyard along with baked potatoes and corn on the cob. Ommm nom nom.

We did the traditional freezing of the wedding cake, and we had been looking forward to ~~getting room in our freeze~~r enjoying our delish cake three sixty-five later. It got a little smashed up over the past year...

Confession time: I couldn't even tell you what flavor our cake was. We picked out the flavor in January 2010, and I didn't get to eat any on our wedding day (other then the chunk that was smashed in my face). I was delightfully surprised to find it was vanilla pound cake with a raspberry creme filling. Good pick!

Word to the wise: cake that has been frozen for a year is not that good. It was edible, but the icing had a extra taste of freezer burn.

It was a quiet, but lovely day. Most importantly, I got to spend it with my best friend.

One year down... forever to go <3

Always & Forever,
ME

Pregnancy: Weeks 30 & 31

2011-07-28T11:25:00.001-04:00

My Stats:
Still holding strong to at 20 lbs gained!
Waist measures about 42 inches.

Little Monster's Stats:
He weights a little over 3.5 lbs and his total length is roughly 18 inches.
Even though his lungs are immature, they are beginning to function. In fact, most of his organs are completely formed at this point.
All five of his senses are working. I hope that doesn't mean he can smell Momma's "Dammit Baby's". If so, sorry dude.

Pregnancy Fun Facts:
Have I talked about the "pregnancy glow" yet? Basically your body begins to produce more oils in your face and it gives it a waxy sheen. This translates into more pimples then a 13-year-old tuba player. I carrying around little packs of tissues to wipe the oil off my face, but it doesn't seem to help. Foundation? Forget it. Hell, at this point it's a victory if I have mascara on.

My feet and hands started swelling weeks ago, but with the insanely hot weather we have been having lately, they have gotten worse. I can't make a fist with my hands, and pretty much all of my shoes don't fit me. Hooray for flip flops!

Energy Level/ Sleep:
All of last week was super hot (three days of 100+ temps) so I was really feeling it. Our house does not have central air conditioning, so only three of our rooms were usable. I was also on three straight weeks of day shift, so that is three weeks of waking up at 4 am. This week, I have been able to sleep in until 7:30 so I think that (combined with the cooler temps) has really helped keep my energy up.

Sleep hasn't been horrible. The little guy likes to move around a lot when I first lay down, but after a while he settles in. Like I said last week, I've gotten really good at ignoring his movements and kicks. I have noticed, however, that when I lay down I have a shortness of breath. I've read that this is normal, due to the pressure of my expanding belly.

Cravings:
Cake. Which is weird because I'm not a cake-person. Right now though, I cannot get enough of it.

Other Stuff:
I have "dropped" in the past week. If you compare Week 30 to Week 31, it is pretty clear that this guy took a nosedive to new territory

This makes me nervous because I am SO NOT READY for this little dude to be born yet. I am not sure what is the correlation between dropping and the time you actually give birth, but I hope it translates into another 8 weeks, at least.

In similar news, my cousin Kerith was due with her first baby on September 29 (two days after me). On July 26th, she gave birth to a 4 pound 5 oz baby girl, Alexi Ola at 30 weeks and 4 days. As of right now, Mom is doing well, and Baby Alexi is fighting hard. I am asking you to please keep my cousin and her daughter in your thoughts and prayers.

Always & Forever,

Technical Difficulties.

2011-07-26T11:49:00.000-04:00

You guys, Blogger is kind of being bitch-face right now.

Everytime I try to write a post it either will not save it, post it, or let me upload pictures. I don't know what the hell is going on.

I do have stuff to talk about, swears! I don't know if you've looked at a calendar, but our one year anniversary just passed, my friend Meg got married, we've crossed some stuff off our ToDo list, we've got someone we would like you to meet (no, I didn't have the baby yet ;), and wait for it..... we have carpet. Paise the Lord, we have carpet.

While I figure this stuff out, I would like to direct your attention elsewhere. A couple weeks ago we had dinner with my blogging buddy and her hubs, Mr. & Mrs. Shannanigans. Head over to her blog, and check out how adorable her wee babe Gabbers is.

In the meantime, I'm going to be like that dad in the A Christmas Story battling the furnace; lots of clunking and cussing.

Always & Forever,
ME

[Sub]Floored

2011-07-20T07:50:00.002-04:00

Houston, we finally have a new subfloor.
This is where you can picture me doing a little happy dance and singing "Boo-ya, booya. Boo-ya, booya".

I know you guys have been loosing sleep over our floorless situation since we ripped out our carpet in April.

JEGs was able to secure the help of his friend Mike for the job. I was shooed out of the house one Saturday to attend girly things like wedding showers so the men could get to work without me and the little monster in harms way.

The very first thing they did was to install a 4x4.......alkjasdfnelnwn....

Hey everyone. This is JEGs. I wrestled the computer away from LB because its much easier if I just type it out. Ill try not to go into too much boring detail. This was a huge job, but not really all that difficult. I would have never attempted it without Mike though. He was the mastermind behind the entire project.

First things first. In previous pictures of our house, you might have noticed there was tile in front of the front door. Laid out 3'x4', and was the same tile as we have in our kitchen. Unfortunately, it had to be busted up. I didn't want to work around it, and wanted to replace as much old floor as I could. Also...LB secretly wanted different tile, so it worked out. Stay tune to a future post showing the new tile and carpet!

The next major step... Our landing at the bottom of our steps was not supported in the basement. There SHOULD have been a post there due to the method they used to build the structure of the floor. You could watch from the basement as someone jumped upstairs and see things moving. So we installed a 4x4 post at just the right spot to support it all. We weren't looking to raise the floor, just to support it and keep any future settling to a minimum. Simple enough job, just cut the 4x4 to length, and jam it in. We used a nail gun and shot a handful of nails top and bottom for good measure.

INSTANT payoff from this. The entire upstairs felt quieter and more sturdy. Couldn't believe the difference that it made.

In the same general area, there were some joists that were installed using an old method, that really isn't that great. This was part of the reason for the post. The joists were, from years of settling and walking on them, starting to pull away from their original anchor points. And back in the early 20's when the house was built, I'm SURE the carpenter said "Eh...two nails ought to be plenty.". No...they weren't. So to keep things from getting worse, we installed some 90 degree angle brackets on both sides of the joist. We used about 10 nails per bracket. They wont be moving any time soon. We would have used joist hangers, but there wasn't enough room for them unfortunately.

Once we were satisfied that things were reinforced, it was time to start cutting into the floor and ripping it up. Point of no return here folks...

This is Mike (FYI). Right now, we're just snapping some chalk lines as a guide to make our first cuts across the floor. We didn't take every single piece of the old flooring up as you will see. We left a perimeter of old flooring, only because we couldn't get under the walls or into the kitchen.

Using a circular saw, and the appropriate safety gear as always :), the first cut is made across the boards. The saw blade is set just deep enough to cut through the floor boards but NOT into the joists below. Replacing the joists was not something we were interested in doing.

Here's Mike hitting a couple of nails. This old school hardwood. So its got crazy amounts of nails in the tongue and groove. Hitting them is inevitable.

We made three cuts across the floor. One shown above, one in the center of the room, and one at the opposite side by the front door. Once the cuts were made, it was time. It all starts with one board. Once you have a starting point, you just go crazy. It doesn't come up easy, and being nice to it only takes longer. It helps to be riding a caffeine buzz!!

Before long, you are left with a gaping hole, and 100s of nails to pull out. Mike is demonstrating his spider monkey skills here.

The next two pictures show the blocking we installed. The subfloor that we put down is tongue and groove 3/4" OSB. OSB isn't plywood. Instead of neat layers of thin wood bonded together, its pieces and slices of wood randomly bonded together. It is good stuff. It comes in 4'x8' sheets. So the blocking is there to give us something to nail the wood down at the seams. Anywhere there was a seam or edge to the sub floor we needed blocking. We made a LOT of pieces for various sections of the floor. Having a nail gun here REALLY saves a ton of time and energy. 1000x easier than doing it by hand.

Here's our trash pile after 2/3 of the floor was torn up. Gross fact...LB might have mentioned that the previous owners' dog was using the living room as its bathroom. When we were busting up the floor...we could smell dog pee. Yeah.. Ripping this up was the right move.

Here we are measuring and cutting the flooring for install.

And the first piece in place... Nothing really fancy here.

Once we got a couple of pieces cut and laid in place, we secured them to the joists using Liquid Nails subfloor adhesive, subfloor nails and the nail gun. Again...MUCH easier job with the nail gun. We could have screwed them down. However that is more work, more expensive, and overkill. The adhesive sets up really fast, and bonds the subfloor to the joists.

LB came home from her wedding showers and was there to supervise when we started to slow down...

We worked our way across the floor, and finished busting up what was left of the old wood that we were using to stand on. You can kind of see in this picture how support under the landing was necessary. The post is right where the double joist meets up with the framing for the staircase.

And finally, the main portion of the floor was finished.

All that was left was a small section right at the kitchen entrance. We had to be careful here, because we couldn't go under the kitchen floor. SO we had to get as close as we could, leaving enough old floor to nail into the blocks so everything would remain sturdy. You can see the frame we built to support the remaining old flooring, as well as giving us something to nail the new piece of sub floor to.

That's pretty much it from the subfloor install. It totally transformed the room. Squeaks were gone, bounce was gone, SMELL WAS GONE.

That's it from me for now! I know this was long..so congrats to anyone that stuck it out! Here's LB...

Ok, Lizzie again. Anyone who finished this totally gets a cookie-- and not just some crappy dollar store cookie, I'm talking Milano's baby.

*Edit*

We figured out the cost of all supplies for this project:

Items we got for free courtesy of Waterbury Construction (where Mike works)

Sub-floor adhesive, nail gun nails, and the use of a nail gun.

Items we bought specifically to do the subfloor job:

OSB Flooring - $72.00 (6 sheets @ $12 each)

4x4x8 post - $6.00

2x10x8 - $28.00 (4 @ $7 each)

2x4x8 - $12.00 (4 @ $3 each)

Joist brackets - $13 (14 @ $.93 each)

Simspon nails for the brackets - $5

A full box of nail coils for the nail gun - $45 (We only used one coil from this box, and there are a dozen coils. We'll use them for other projects to get our money out of them)

Renting the Home Depot truck (to get the flooring and other wood home) - $25

Total Cost: $206

A fresh smelling room? Now that is priceless.

Next up: Tile and carpet!

Always & Forever,

JEGs-- with a side of ME :)

Our Wedding

2011-07-17T16:52:00.001-04:00

This page highlights the details of our wedding. If you want the complete rundown of our day, check out the rehearsal, getting ready, the ceremony and the reception.

On July 17, 2010 I became Mrs. JEGs.

My Not-So-DIYed Hoodie

Right from the start, I knew that I wanted to carry my two favorite "summer" flowers: tiger lilies and hydrengeas. From there, I came up with my bold color scheme of orange and blue. My fantastic florist, Cindy from Infinitely Yours did a fantastic job of giving me exactly what I wanted

my bouquet

bridesmaids bouquet

In order to compliment the orange and really make it pop, I dressed my ladies in a neutral navy blue

JEGs and his boys dressed in simple black suits and matching navy ties. The groom wore stripes.

My dress was an A-line silhouette with lace over lay and embellishment that gathered at the hip. I had the satin and tulle cut from the train to emphasize the beauty of the lace (and to take out some of the weight!) I also had cap sleeves added for the ceremony.

My shoes not only accented my color scheme, but were my 'something blue'!

Our ceremony was held in the gardens of Normandy Farm in Blue Bell, PA

DIY hydrangea pomanders

He is whispering "you go girl".

Instead of a unity candle, we opted for a sand ceremony, blending the sand from two beaches with special meaning in our relationship.

It was a simple ceremony with two readings and traditional vows. And then it was official. We were man and wife.

My 'Must Have' shot

One of my favorite shots. We were walking back from the above shoot, and JEGs was holding my hand and my shoes.

We paid tribute to our family members by showcasing photos of their wedding day

DIY Escort Cards

The florist continued to build on my vision by creating floral arrangements in vintage bowls my mother and I scouted out in yard sales and thrift stores.

The cake was absolute perfection

For the reception, I ditched the sleeves of my dress and veil and opted for my DIY hair flower

Our first dance was to Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight and Chad from Pulse Entertainment kept the party going through the entire night.

The flower girl teaching the ring bearer how to break dance.

My mom pulled my co-worker Chris out on the dance floor

Gorgeous dress: check. Champagne: check. My favorite ladies: triple check.

As a special surprise, we asked the DJ to play a couple of song from when Momma G was in a rock band in the 70s. We supplied him with a CD and he was happy to oblige. Uncle Jimmy was even happier to hear himself crooning Locomotive Breath from 35 years earlier.

Add caption

It was the most amazing, and most perfect day of my life. Best of all, when it was all over, JEGs was my husband, and I was his wife.

Just Married Parasol

all photos compliments of Artistic Imagery

Summer Shore Traditions

2011-07-15T12:28:00.000-04:00

At least once a summer JEGs and I try to spend a weekend down my parent's shore house (which I crashed here). In honor of our 'almost' anniversary, we went last weekend.

One tradition we have is we take a quick drive to the lighthouse, Barnegat Light-- or 'Old Barney', as I fondly refer to him.

The lighthouse wasn't opened when we got there- and honestly, I don't know if I could have huffed and puffed up the 217 steps right now- but we did not pass up a chance to stroll down the promenade

The rocks are... what? Happy? Sad? Indifferent? How very existential..

The yearly picture of us at the lighthouse

Commemorating the first of many trips for baby to Old Barney.

One thing that is never lacking at the lighthouse is fishermen. They are usually settled every 10 ft or so.

There was a rock jetty that JEGs was brave enough to venture out onto.

Not even kidding, we watched that crane hunt for food for a good 10- 15 minutes. We are like kittens with string-- easily amused.

No JEGs is an island...

Another tradition we have every time we go to the lighthouse, is to stop at a gift shop called Andy's at the Light

This is the kind of store that has sea shore memorabilia like t-shirts, pictures, games, and figurines

..and you can't forget the sea shell with the Lord's Prayer painted on it. That is vital.

However, JEGs and I don't mess with any of that. We enter the store with one purchase in mind:

glass bottled soda

It usually of a cream or black cherry variety.

Cheers to us.

There is one final tradition my family has had since I was a child. On one certain route to and from the coast, we pass two vegetable markets right next to each other.

The Green Top Market:

...and The Red Top Market

I am not even kidding when I say they are directly next to each other. Whenever we pass we honk and clap for the market with more cars in the parking lot-- because clearly they are winning in this epic market war.

Something funny that I just thought of; I have never once stopped and gotten produce at either of these markets. I think I prefer to be impartial.

Do you have any traditions for the summer?? Have some been with your family as long as you can remember, or something you have just started within the past year?

Always & Forever,

Pregnancy: Weeks 28 & 29

2011-07-13T17:17:00.001-04:00

My Stats:
* That scale reads an extra 20 lbs. I give it the stink eye out of habit.
* Waistline is 40.5 inches

The Monster's Stats
*He is gaining more energy, thus moving around a lot more. I think he is preparing for the Olympics in there.
* He is now strong enough to grasp a finger. So I totally picture him grabbing the umbilical cord ala 'Look Who's Talking' and saying "Hey Ma. How about some more OJ down here?"
* He recognizes my voice now (Mental Note: REALLY need to stop cussing so much).
*According to the Fruit-O-Meter, we are now the size of a squash. But between you and me, that looks like a pumpkin.

Pregnancy Fun Facts:
Prenatal vitamins make your nails grow like weeds. I have to clip my talons nearly twice a week. I have just about given up on nail polish.

As my belly expands, I have noticed that stretch marks I had previously (from puberty) have gotten deeper. I haven't noticed any new one yet, so that's a good thing!

Energy Level/ Sleep:
The past couple weeks have been more comfortable. The night sweats have gone away, and the little guy has started to calm down when I lay down-- either that or I have gotten really good at just ignoring him. Mother of the year award? I think so.

Cravings:
Food. In general. Who are we kidding? That extra 20 lbs didn't come from me eating plain lettuce.

Mood Swings:
I think I have evened out. You might want to ask JEGs to be sure though. In the super market the other day he went to pick up the lettuce and I said "the bag specifically says 'Just Lettuce'" to help him out. Well, he heard that as " I specifically said 'just lettuce'". So I guess my bitchasaurus rears it's ugly head more often then I am aware of. Oops.

Other Stuff:
I don't feel the little guy kicking as much, but I do feel him moving and pushing. It's fun/cool/creepy to watch my stomach move as he pushes on it. I'm also starting to learn where certain body parts are located-- like I can tell if is head is wedge up in my ribs.

I have dubbed JEGs the 'baby whisperer'. Every time I tell him to come over and feel the baby move, he little guy stops as soon as JEGs' hand is on my stomach. Daddy's boy. Pfft. Whatever.

I passed my glucose test! Hooray for diabetes-free!

I was watching A Baby Story the other day and as the mom gave birth I started to cry. This overwhelming feeling of excitement and love came over me. As much as I am still a little scared to go through this, the idea of meeting my son as started to become a reality. I hope he likes me :)

Always & Forever,
ME

Progression: Baby's Room

2011-07-12T08:00:00.002-04:00

After listing the 298347928734 things we needed to do for Operation: Baby Drop, I am happy to say we have been quickly crossing things off the list. Most importantly, a lot of those tasks for the little monster's room have been completed.

First off, the room has been painted.

I originally wanted to go with Valspar's Cincinnatian Hotel Hannford, however we had a bunch of gift cards to Home Depot, so I went with a similar shade from Glidden called Navajo Sand and I love it. It is neutral, with a hint of grey for a more masculine feel. I think the teals and oranges I intend to pair it with (shown in my mood board) will really pop against it.

I realized that Frog Tape is much more powerful then I thought. It ripped the paint off of my freshly coated trim, and I am not too happy about it.

I guess I'll be adding "repaint trim" to my TODO list.

The closet was a huge accomplishment for us. If you'll remember, the previous owners had painted the interior of the closet the same dark blue as the rest of the room. The only form of storage was some busted up pieces of wood acting as shelves.

At first, I thought it would be primed and painted, but then we realized how rough a shape the walls were in. When JEGs attempted to removed some of the boards acting as supports for the shelves, the original plaster came crumbling down.

So JEGs did what every boy secretly dreams of doing: he went at it with a hammer, flat bar and (my personal favorite) his fists.

No, he wasn't just blowing off some pent up steam (ok, maybe it helped) he discovered that by punching the plaster, it helped to loosen it up. The lathing would bounce and then flexed back into place, causing the plaster to crack and loosen up and making it easier to dig the flat bar behind it.

Something to note, JEGs decided to keep the lathing. In a house this old, the studs are not always straight and level The lathing adds another level of surface to screw the drywall to. He figured he was removing 1/2" of plaster, so adding 1/2" of drywall would put things back the way they were in relation to the trim. Also the lathing was in good shape so we saw no reason to bust it up. If there were missing slats, or we found mold or water damage, he would have ripped it out. However, as it stood, it was a nice level surface to screw the drywall to, and kept the inner dimensions of the closet the same. We did get lucky in that most plaster doesn't come down that easy either- sometimes you have to just break out the lathing and plaster together.

Also, to side on the error of caution, I was out of the house while this demolition was going on, and JEGs made sure the room was well ventilated and he also wore a particle mask. He also had a tarp on the floor to collect the plaster that fell as an easier way to clean up.

After he had gone all Mike Tyson on the plaster, he re drywalled and primed the interior.

Once we had a nice secure drywall, we returned to our old friend Closet Maid to create functional storage for the bambino's things:

We will store his toys and books on the first two shelves so the little guy can access them with ease.

The next shelf was hung a little higher for his hang-able wardrobe

...and the top two shelves can store things that we won't need to access often such as extra sheets or off season clothing.

So let's review the list for this room, shall we?

~~paint~~
decorate
add furniture
get my dresser out of there and into the master bedroom
fix the gap between the baseboards and floor.
~~remove all the crumbling plaster in the closet and replace it with drywall~~
~~install Closet Maid (so help me jeebus, Closet Maid if you leave another ad in my comment section, I will be contacting you about giving me free stuff)~~
repaint trim

Not bad, if I do say so myself. We feel super accomplished now that the major things are done, and now we can start focusing on the smaller things.

On to the next project!

Always & Forever,

The Incredible Shrinking Wardrobe

2011-07-05T08:00:00.000-04:00

About three quarters of my regular summer wardrobe no longer fits me.

..and to be completely honest, there are probably a few more shirts and dresses that I probably won't fit me, but I refuse to accept. Denial, party of one please.

Just look at all those pretty hangers, just hanging there with no clothing to keep them warm.

My shoes, you ask? I don't want to talk about it. I live my life in flip flops now.

Le sigh....

Pregnancy: Weeks 26 & 27

2011-06-29T08:00:00.001-04:00

My Stats:
*Weight gained: 17 lbs
*Waistline is about 39 inches.

The Monster's Stats:
*Our little Goliath weighs roughly 2 lbs
*No longer are we measuring from crown to rump. Oh no no, we are a big boy now and we get measured from head to toe-- which is about 15 inches. They grow up so fast. He'll be driving before we know it.
*He is starting to have distinct sleeping cycles-- which if this is any indication of what he'll be like when he is birthed, he likes the night life, baby. He has also started to open his eyes. I wonder if seeing the same thing over and over again is boring; "Oooo, amniotic fluid.. again. Woot wooot". I wish I could at least give him a magazine to flip through.

Pregnancy Fun Facts:
Move over second trimester, the third tri (or as I like to call it, three squared) is here to stay-- at least till baby comes out.

Concentrating is kind of hard. I'll start telling a story and then I'll loose my train of...
:::blank stare:::
Uhh, what was I saying?

I am in hardcore nesting mode. I want to paint and organize everything in my house (which is good considering all the work that needs to be done).

Energy Levels/Sleep:
Last week I had a problem with night sweats. I had the AC blasting, a fan blowing on me, and my lightest PJ's on and I kept waking up dripping sweat. The little guy also keeps me awake with kicking, but I think I have figured out around 1:30 am he chills the eff out and goes to sleep. I have to say, I do have a lot of energy for as little sleep as I have been getting.

Cravings:
Chocolate milk-- I cannot get enough of it. Especially Wawa's delicious bottles of happiness that only cost $1.15. It doesn't help there is a Wawa less then a mile from my office. That I have to pass on the way home. The midnight crew may or may not know me by name.

Mood Swings:
Finally made it through a week without bursting into tears. Booyaaaah.

Other Stuff:
Your self image is a verrrry tricky thing when you are pregnant. One day I love rocking my bump in anything I wear, and the next day I feel like an amorphous blob. I don't feel fat, I just don't feel... cute.

I was having a discussion with a friend of mine, who is also pregnant, about the weight gain. Although I am obviously supposed to be gaining weight, as someone who has struggled with their weight for a good portion of their life, sometimes it is a little hard to step on that scale and see a number that you promised yourself you would never go back to. I mean I am a rational person who knows that this comes a long with pregnancy, but there is still that tiny voice in the back that goes "AHHHHHHHH!!" every time I step on a scale.

I promise you guys that I'm not saying this to fish for compliments-- I'm not looking for the "OMG you look sooooo cute" to boost my ego-- I'm just trying to talk about the stuff that I am experiencing that I haven't read on other blogs. Maybe the cheese stands alone, maybe there are other women out there going "yeah, I totally get you". I don't know. This is just me.

Anyway, I think we have our list of names narrowed down to four, and I have my very clear front runner. My father wants us to name him Ebenezer. Sorry Daddy-O, that ain't happening. ;)

Always & Forever,
ME