Thank Heaven for Little Girls (from Gigi), performed by Maurice Chevalier

I think May should be “National Girls Celebration Month.” Meredith, Catie, Mom and I got together at Huske’s Hardware to celebrate Mother’s Day early in the month. Although Mother’s Day is supposed to be for current momma’s, Meredith and Catie were sweet enough to get me some future momma-to-be gifts. It was really sweet to celebrate mom and talk about the excitement of all the things that surround a new baby.

The following weekend I went home to visit with the parents and tackle some LBG errands. Although there wasn’t much going on at the house we did have some very special friends stop by. Kacie, Kyle and Ms. Anna-Redding decided to stop by and allow mom and dad to get some practice in. Bob and Debbie certainly had a great time playing with Anna-Redding, and Dawby and Bennett were able to see a bit of what it’s like to be around a baby.

Just a little over a week later, on May 17, was mom and dad’s 31 year anniversary. We headed to Maggiano’s and made this a double celebration because not only was it their anniversary, but we found out we are having a baby GIRL! Right after the appointment, but prior to dinner, Mom, Caite and I set out for a little baby clothes shopping. I have to say, I’m most excited about being able to monogram bloomers and buy smocked dresses! In addition to purchasing baby clothes Jeffery and I are feverishly searching for the perfect name for our sweet baby girl. Jeffery has dubbed our beach vacation “Baby Think Tank” and we are determined not to leave the beach without a name for Baby Hunter.

All in all I feel that we’ve done a great job this month of celebrating girls. Jeffery even picked out a few baby girl outfits himself! I can’t wait for all the excitement to come leading up to our new addition.

“Baby, now that I found you I can’t let you go, I’ll build my world around you” – Alison Krauss

Everyone always tells you how excited, overjoyed, nervous, etc they are when their having a baby. They tell you how expensive baby’s are, or how your life will never be the same, but no one tells you about the millions of baby items you have to pick out. That’s where Jeffery and I are now (well, more so me). I visited my co-worker Marina and her new baby today and, in addition to her sweet baby Sophia, it amazed me at all the baby items that were in their living room!

Over the past few weeks I have begun looking for child care, furniture, and bedding. Although that doesn’t sound like much when there are thousands of options out there it becomes a daunting task. The good thing is, is there are some great stores in the Raleigh area, and although they are a bit pricey, it’s a great way to get some ideas about baby items and not be overwhelmed.

Strollers seem to be one of the big items in the baby stores. So far I’ve looked at the Uppababy and Peg Perego.  And who knew they come with so many options?!  Bassinets, car seats, stroller seats that face in, wheels made for sidewalks, trails and even sand, and lets not get started on the attachments!

I’ve also looked over some chairs for the baby’s room (a gift that Luther and Carol have offered to get for us). I’ve been pretty set on having an ottoman, but given the lack of space in the baby’s room, and Jeffery’s love of a recliner, I think we may be combining the two with a gliding recliner.  Although this is not the fabric we would get this is the chair I've been eyeing thus far...

Thankfully Mike and Mandy have offered their crib for us to use and I’m now on the search for a dresser that can also be used as a changing table. I read in my Baby Bargains book to look at Ikea. They actually have some options for furniture and other baby items, and wouldn’t you know it, I found something that just might work!

Without knowing the baby's sex it’s hard to look for some things. I’ve been checking out some options for bedding and come up with a couple cute ideas.  I'm sure I'll be tackling this area of baby merchandise more after I know whether it's a boy or a girl.  Thankfully I have a great interior decorator/baby gooroo (Meredith) working on some ideas for me.

Also on the list of things to decide are of course… BABY NAMES! I’m dead set on coming up with a family name and some of the ones we’ve found are: Aurty, Carmie, Harper, Ripley, Dawson, Carter, Stewart, Case, Pearce, Lindsay, and of course Jeffery Jr. is still on the table. The good thing is I’m about 17 weeks currently and we will know the sex the baby on May 17, so in a month from now I’ll have a bit more direction on what I want for the nursery and names.

Until the next sonogram picture looks like you'll just be settling for another picture of my tummy for now:

Baby on Board

Wow! Wow! Wow! Where do I begin? As always, when I take a hiatus from blogging there is always a good reason, but I can’t believe I’ve been MIA for almost 6 months. Of course fall in admissions is a crazy time of year, then came the holidays, then Jeffery’s birthday in Gatlinburg and THEN… we found out in late January we were pregnant! Jeffery told me I was not allowed to do any social networking for a while (until I calmed down), so you may have also noticed me being on facebook a bit less also.

We decided to keep it a secret at least until our first doctor’s appointment, which was at 8 weeks. Then of course we had to tell our parents before telling friends and the rest of the world. At this point I’m 13 weeks along, so by Saturday I’ll be in my 2nd trimester. If you’re doing your math we should have a baby here by late September or early October. My co-workers have already started doing weird tricks with me. One of them showed me the "fetal heartbeat" in the middle of my collarbone, and another one dangled a pencil on a string on my arm. She said because the pencil moved in a circle the baby will be a girl (apparently her voo do has never been wrong)! So at this point I've stopped thinking of boy names and am soley working on girls names. We really want to use a family name and right now my favorite is Carmie Elizabeth, but Jeffery's jury is still out on that one. We'll see though, we've joined Ancestory.com and have a lot of names to look through!

As we’ve been sharing the news I’ve come to realize how lucky I am. I’ve already commissioned Meredith to help me find daycares and decorate the nursery; Mom’s co-workers have been kind enough to let me borrow bags of maternity clothes; Kitch has been giving me lots of advice on saving money; Mike and Mandy have offered us baby clothes, their old crib and dresser, and mothers have already committed to days, nights and weeks of helping with a crying baby.

Of course if the baby is anything like Bennett I might actually be in good shape.  Not only did she bring on the closest thing I've ever had to a nervous breakdown, but she barked constantly for a month when we put her down for the night, ate everything, and clearly she is still getting into mischief!  Mom said if I can handle Bennett, then a baby shouldn't be a problem.  Of course, at the current time my biggest problem is finding clothes that fit.  I feel like I blew up over night and my mom has already asked to touch my belly!  Honestly, I think the fat that's already there is just poking out more, so there really is nothing to touch, or feel.  Plus, if people want to touch everything that gets bigger, I'm going to be very violated over the next six months!

So in conclusion, the last several months have been very, very busy and exciting.  However, it's my goal from now until baby is born to keep up a monthly blog (we'll see how it goes).

"Trouble...trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble" Trouble - Ray Lamontagne

Most of us are very aware of the old saying, “you learn something new every day.” I really wish that person was wrong. On Tuesday night I learned that garbage disposals do not eat potato skins! Who knew that?! Seriously, I thought disposals could chew up just about anything.

When black dirty water started coming up out of the sink I called Jeffery over to inspect, and while he was plunging I called Bob on the phone. Thankfully, I have a fix it yourself manual so after reading over it and a little direction from Dad we were able to unclog the pipe. Little did we realize not only did we have potato peels in the sink, but 1/8 teaspoon was in there too! Even Bennett tried to get in on some of the excitement by inspecting the dirty water.

Moral of the story, although the garbage disposal looks like it can handle just about anything, it can’t! Sure it’s easy for parents to tell us not to touch wall sockets or eat things off the ground when we are young, but nobody thinks to mention about potato peels in garbage disposals. Way to go mom and dad.

"I love my dog as much as I love you. But you may fade, my dog will always come through" Cat Stevens, I Love My Dog

Most people, when trying to decide what to do with a Saturday morning, would probably not choose to wake up at 7:00 am to help out at a dog agility competition. Trust me, I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it either, but when Bennett’s obedience teacher said she needed help with a competition at her house guess who signed up to volunteer. ME!

I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I guess maybe people walking around with their dogs, tote bags thrown over shoulders filled with water bottles, treats, etc. Boy was I wrong! There were folks setting up tents at 7:30 and rolling carpets out for their precious pooches to lie on (heaven forbid they sit on the grass). Truth be told, if I could roll out a carpet for Bennett to sit on whenever she was outside I probably would.

I took our new NCSU office camera with me so that I could begin to learn what all the fancy buttons did. As I walked around and snapped pictures I began chit-chatting (hard to believe, I know) with people. One woman had been competing for about 20 years and her granddaughter had been showing dogs in agility for 7 years! Did I mention the granddaughter was only 14?! Another lady was telling me about her dogs when I noticed a picture of a dog on her shirt. She explained that was a picture of her smooth coated collie that’s been doing agility for several years. That’s right; she made a shirt with a picture of her dog on the front!

As I walked around with my super huge new camera I started to feel a bit like a celebrity. I actually had one lady come up and request I snap a few pictures with she and her dog. I didn’t mind, of course and began having more fun taking pictures of dogs and their owners. It was fun getting action shots of the dogs jumping over hurdles, but snapping moments of the relationship between person and pooch allowed me to capture something really special :)

 

It was a fun (and random) event for a Saturday and it made me feel good to see there are other people crazier about their dogs than me!

All the little chicks with their crimson lips go "Cleveland rocks!", "Cleveland rocks!" ~The Drew Cary Show

What do you do when a girlfriend’s having a relationship crisis 600 miles away? You call up another girlfriend, buy plane tickets and catch a flight to Cleveland!

We arrived in Cleveland last Friday afternoon. Beth picked us up and presented us with the options of a Backstreet Boys concert or an Indian’s baseball game. As tempting as a concert was, we opted to watch a sport we all knew little about for a chance to eat junk food and talk girl talk.

After the game Beth took us to one of the hot-spots in downtown Cleveland. We very quickly learned that “a restaurant is only as good as its patio” in this city. Beth explained that it’s so cold for so much of the year that everyone spends as much time as possible outside during the summer. We ate at a Mexican restaurant for dinner and for dessert went to a place call Chocolate Bar. Kacie and I decided to split a S’mores plate. We had our own mini “campfire” and everything!

 

The next day Beth took us to a place called Melt that specialized in grilled cheese! They also had a wide selection of creamed sodas, root beers and other fun flavored bottled drinks. However, the most awesome addition… a leg lamp! Who knew A Christmas Story was filmed in Cleveland?

Next on the agenda: naps, walking the dogs and off to the movies. Kacie’s birthday had been earlier in the week and Beth picked up a bottle of wine for her. Unfortunately, we wouldn’t have enough free time in our packed schedule to share it, so what do three brilliant women in a time crunch do? Pack it in a large purse with plastic cups and take it to the movies. 

After watching Eat Pray Love we headed to a section of Cleveland called “little Italy.” After watching a movie where 1/3 of it revolves around food Italian was the perfect idea! The patio here was awesome. Red Christmas lights were strung up outside and on the balcony of the restaurant there where two guys playing piano and saxophone. During dinner the owner came and talked with us, and after a little wooing with our charming southern accents he ordered tiramisu with fresh strawberries for us. YUM!

 

After dinner we went home to pack. Our girl’s weekend in Cleveland was coming to an end and although Kacie and I were excited about getting back to babies and Bennetts we sure were going to miss Beth and Cleveland.

“Hey good lookin’. What ya’ got cooking? How’s about cooking something up with me?” ~Hank Williams

Any young southern wife will tell you, its tough living up to the expectations many husbands have when it comes to food. By the time a young man gets married, typically, he has known little home cooking other than what his mother or grandmother have prepared for him. Thankfully, I have a wonderful mother-in-law who will very willingly share some of her most delicious recipes and then let me call her for help before, during, and after the process.

I have to admit, trying to recreate one of Jeffery’s favorite dishes that Carol has made for years is an intimidating task. What if it’s horrible? Even worse, what if it’s horrible, but your husband tells you it’s good and you share it with others?!

Thankfully, I don’t have to worry about any of that. Thanks to Carol’s instructions I now know I can make one mean chocolate pound cake with cream cheese icing!

I started early this afternoon as the cake takes an hour and a half to bake. We did have a minor setback; the cake expands (as Carol said it would) and because I didn’t have a pan to catch any of the overflow, batter ended up all over the bottom of my oven. Burnt of course! After the volcano like incident Jeffery gave me a bit of help on the icing, made simply of cream cheese, margarine, vanilla and powdered sugar (yum!!!).

After letting the cake cool it was time to work on the frosting. I of course ended up eating about as much as I actually put on the cake, but who could blame me?  Although the icing was a bit runny it tasted amazing! (Not to worry, Carol gave me some advice to make it thicker for next time.) Even Bennett was able to give us some feedback on the icing.

Once it was all put together Jeffery and I both agreed it was DELICIOUS! Mom mentioned a “sad spot” that sometimes appears in pound cakes, but I couldn’t see a thing sad about it. The only thing sad about this situation is what the scale at Weight Watchers is going to tell me next week!