Our New Toilet

The top photo is our new toilet, and the bottom is the old one.

Andrew and I have a new toilet! Haha, it's funny what's all exciting when you're a home owner. Really, though, it's quite the improvement. The last toilet ran all the time, used gallons of water to flush, and was really (really) gross. I don't think the last owners were fans of cleaning their toilets, to be honest.

We removed the last toilet, and the last floor, and the last baseboards, and the last sink & cabinet. We also removed the toilet paper holder because it was crazy-crooked.

Since then, we've gotten the new floors in; we put in the new, thicker baseboards; and, today, my dad installed our new toilet. It's so exciting! Once we get the piece we need, we'll put in the sink, add the mirror and towel ring, hang a few photos, and call it good!

Baby Shower!

Jean and Colleen threw me a baby shower today! It was for all our work friends. I was excited to go, but I had even more fun than I expected. Everyone was so funny and so generous. They spoiled me and the baby! ;-)

They held it at Jean's house, which is so beautiful. The food was great, and the conversation was hilarious. I really had a great time. I'll post pictures soon!

New Floors!

The flooring is offically done in the dining room, kitchen and living room! Once we get our bathroom pipes moved on Tuesday, we'll finish the flooring in there, too. It looks so much nicer in here, and it feels great to be rid of all the stinky (literally) blue carpet.

It's Something Out of Alien... or Spaceballs

My poor stomach. It started as a good thing. At 4am this morning, I woke up to a (most likely) foot stretching out sideways in my abdomen. The little guy really got his stretch on! I wasn't able to go back to sleep, so I laid there feeling the baby move and stretch. He's getting so strong (and long)! I'm not sure if it could have caused my stomach distress or not, but he was pretty active today, and my stomach's been quite sour.

I went to the doctor's on Wednesday where I saw Dr. Oster. She felt my tummy and said she'd estimate the baby at 3.5 pounds. She said I'm measuring a week and a half large (which is down from 2 weeks large at my last few appointments). I take that to be good news... hopefully, I'll be able to deliver this mega-baby!

I also signed Andrew and me up for an infant care class to learn how to bathe and diaper the baby (It's three hours long! Hopefully, we'll learn a lot). Andrew's mom, Colleen, got us a book that our house inspector recommended called The Happiest Baby on the Block. I like it a lot, and I think I'm learning a lot from it. Is it enough to figure out what the hell we're doing when the baby gets here? Probably not, but I like to hope so!

Tomorrow, I reach the 33 week mark. Seven more weeks to go! I'm starting to get very excited. I find myself wondering what he'll look like, and I'm excited to finally hold the baby that's been in my belly all these months. Soon!

You're Protesting What?

I'm amazed at how many parents are protesting the broadcast from President Obama to our schools. On the radio, people were calling in and saying there should be permission slips to parents so they can opt their children out.

In our public school system when I was growing up, we frequently had speakers. I remember listening to Miss America in 5th or 6th grade talk against drugs, and I remember hearing the fire chief discuss fire safety. Speakers were in and out all the time, and they never caused a commotion.

President Obama is speaking to our kids about staying in school and the importance of a good education. How is this topic controversial?

I read an article today where they interviewed a man who said it scares him that there's a direct communication line between the President of the United States and students. Why is that scary?

It's true that I'm politically quite liberal. Still, when I was in school, I would have been thrilled to have the chance to hear any president speak, whether I agreed with him politically or not. As it stands, however, the president is not speaking on controversial issues that have partisan divisions. He's simply speaking about the importance of an education. Isn't it an incredible opportunity for our students?

I brought the subject up to some of my coworkers today. I told them how weird it seemed that so many people are up in arms over this stay-in-school broadcast. The drug rep who provided lunch said she didn't approve of the move because the President was going to have celebrities on the broadcast who are pro-UNICEF. I didn't argue with her, really, but all I could think was, "Who can be against UNICEF? Do you not want to prove food and health care to poor children around the world?" Instead, I said, "There's no speaker that everyone will agree with, but I think it's a wonderful opportunity for students to get to hear directly from our nation's leader."

It's so bizarre what some people take issue with.

Welcome, Henry!

Henry is here! I'm a few days late on the post, as he was born on August 26. He's the son of Amanda, one of my most favorite cousins, so he'll be our boy's second cousin. They'll be so close in age! I can't wait to meet him. As long as everything goes as planned, I'll be able to meet the little fella in Omaha in October when I'm there for Julie's wedding! :)

Check out those chubby cheeks! I'm thinking it's a family trait because my cousin Missy's little baby boy has the cutest set of cheeks on him, too.

Tearing out the Flooring

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Ah, fun with home ownership. My parents want to get Andrew and I new flooring as our housewarming gift. Unfortuantely, as it works, before the new stuff comes in, the old stuff must come out.

The kitchen and bathroom floors were raised about two inches higher than the rest of the downstairs flooring. We knew, of course, that this meant previous owners had failed to remove the layers of old flooring before adding on their new choices. So it came down to Andrew and me to remove the layers (and layers) of Pergo, linoleum and sub-flooring.

OK, so Andrew did most of the work. I scrubbed down the kitchen appliances as they were moved, though, and that was pretty much the nastiest task ever.

At this point, half the kitchen is down to its subfloor, and the other half has one more layer of linoleum left. Thankfully, it doesn't appear to be glued down. Point one for us. On the other hand, it's held down by approximately 2.3 million staples. It appears someone had a little too much fun with their staple gun...

Baby Shower

I had so much fun on Sunday at the baby shower. My mom and I arrived at Tre Jolie just before two. Aminta and Julie were setting up, and it looked stunning. There were bunches of balloons behind my seat, gifts lining the window, and baby bottles full of M & Ms at every place setting.

They organized a few games (Price is Right, Baby Style! and How Much Ribbon Does it Take to Circumnavigate Becky's Belly?), and every time someone won, I won, too!

There were so many gifts, from a baby monitor to diaper bags, from a baby swing to teething rings. I had such a good time, and I'm starting to feel a little more ready for Baby to arrive.

Moving In

Here is the "before" picture of our front door and living room wall:

Here is the after photo:

We're moved into the new townhome! There's still about half a dozen boxes to unpack, but it's definitely starting to feel like home.

Andrew and I went to work right away! We moved in on the evening of Wednesday, July 15 with the help of our parents and family friend, Taylor. The following day, my mom was off work and stayed at our place for the afternoon. She waited for the cable guy and cleaned the carpeting in our bedroom.

That weekend, Andrew taped and primered over the hot pink wall in the bedroom. Let me just say, that's no exaggeration. The wall was hot pink. Then, he helped me tape the rest of the walls (he taped high, and I taped low), and my mom and I painted all the walls a bright yellow. I thought it would contrast nicely with our dark furniture and navy headboard. We traded the fabric drapes for some white mini-blinds, and my dad replaced all the outlets and switch covers in the room. That Sunday, we moved the furniture in. Rather, the three of them moved all the bedroom furniture in while I worked on unpacking boxes.

Next, we moved on to the living room! Andrew removed all the old window coverings that I didn't like. They were straw and over-sized and very dirty. He then primed and painted the purple wall. I had so much fun picking the color for the living room and finally settled on a color called "witch's hazel," which is a very earthy green. It looks nice against the stone fireplace and the new white outlets. I then painted the door with a fresh coat of paint, which did wonders because the door was so dirty and had purple squares painted on it. My mom took me out and bought me some new drapery that's a little darker than cream and looks pleasant against the walls.

Our next project is the main bathroom. I've stripped the wallpaper border from the room (thanks to my coworker Tonette who told me I could just use hot water to remove it!). Andrew pulled up the floor. Well, the first layer, anyway. There's still another layer to go! I think we're going to wait on that until it's time to replace the floor. Our parents are both wonderful... my mom and dad are treating us to a new floor throughout the first floor of our townhome, and Andrew's parents just bought us a new washer and dryer (to be delivered August 15).

We're definitely working hard. I have a constant "to do" list in my mind that Andrew thinks has a lot to do with my nesting instincts. They might be strong, but I'm waiting to do the nursery until I can't stand it anymore! I think that's going to be the most fun room to do (after the bathroom maybe ;-) ).

I might add, we're very grateful for the first-time homebuyer's grant. It's allowing us to do a lot of work in our new place :)

Andrew Feels a Kick

Andrew made me a snack of apple slices and peanut butter. Soon after I started eating, our little boy started going nuts in my tummy. I started to feel all sorts of kicks. Andrew put his hand on me to try to feel them, and at first missed out. After a little lull, I started to feel the kicks again, only this time hard enough to make me jump. Andrew came over and put both hands on my stomach just in time to feel a whole series of sharp kicks! It was so exciting. He looked up at me, giggling, and said, "What have we done?" (sarcastically, of course). I love that he felt it, too... that someone else gets to feel the little thumps our baby boy makes.