Baby shower!

Vicki (the MIL) and I went shopping at Target yesterday. She bought Alton's car seat for us for my shower gift. I need to work on my invite list for the shower. She also bought the cutest little invitations for the shower. I am excited! She also told me that the same place that catered our wedding is going to cater she shower. I LOVE Lisa's Bon Apetit's almond chicken salad sandwiches. Sooo good!

She is inviting 17 people, and then I have a few people to invite too.

Alton is kicking more everyday. It is getting closer and a little bit scary now!

Prayer & Exercise

Home group went well last night. We discussed Pastor Chris's sermon on prayer. We decided how you pray is important and that the most important part is to give glory to God first and to pray for His will.

I signed up for a pre-natal yoga class that starts next week. I haven't been exercising as much as I wanted to be, and even plain old walking the dog was giving me round ligament pain and Braxton Hicks contractions.

Travis was very excited that I signed up for it and had absolutely no problem whatsoever with the cost. It was only $42 for the 6 week class. I hope to meet other first time almost mommies as well as get into better shape.

At the recommendation of several people from my pregnancy board, I ordered the Shiva Rea Pre-natal yoga video. According to several sources women who do yoga labor and deliver much more easily. I certainly hope so.

Inspired by Maggie's post yesterday, I decided to make out a dinner menu for the next week and then made an accompanying shopping list. I made chicken tortilla soup last night which I then packed for Travis's lunch today. Tonight, we are having tacos (I remembered to buy tortillas) and tomorrow I am going to make turkey florentine meatballs with mashed potatoes. Yummy!

Time to go fold laundry. :( I wish I could just wave a magic wand and have it done for me.

Productivity

I admit that I have not been as productive of late. I have decided that I am going to start writing things down and having a schedule for house cleaning and marketing. Things have much more of a tendency to get done whene I write them down.
So far today I have baked a cake for our home group tonight, done the dishes, walked the dogs, and rebooted the laundry. If I could just get the magic elves to fold the laundry I would so be in business. Also, a personal note of confession; I LOVE the smell of fresh cleaned laundry.

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Yesterday, a few of the women from my weekly Bible study took me out for lunch. We went to Mimi's. I love Mimi's.

Pictures!

Saturday, Travis and I went to a very nice married couples breakfast at our church. They had yummy breakfast burritos, fruit, and chocolate. One of the couples from our home group, Dave and Roxanne were part of the married people's panel. It was fun and informative and I think our decision to go will bless our marriage.

After we got home from that and a quick trip to Costco, my dad came over with the crib that he and Kristina bought us for my birthday.

Travis and Dad were able to set it up without too many problems despite the fact that Jack and Lucy both were anxious to "help" and had to sniff every part before it was used in the assembly process.

Travis was not as excited about the crib as I was. When I asked him why, he said, "It represents something very expensive." I reminded him that while it was an expensive crib, it had been a gift from my family. "Not the crib is expensive, what will live in the crib is expensive." I think that the responsibility of providing for a family is a big one, and it must be weighing heavily on his mind. I have to remember to be nicer to him.

The crib is not the first piece of furniture we have bought, a few weeks ago, we were able to find really cute boy furniture at Costco.

This is the bookshelf we bought him:

John and Maggie were kind enough to buy it for us at their local Costco. Johnny and Kristina drive down with me to go an pick it up.

Here is the dresser:

Neither Lucy or Jack seem excited about the changes going on in their sitting room. The queen sized bed he sleeps on at night is still in there for now, but it will be moved into the garage as soon as I can get a rocking glider.

Lucy has been acting out too. I think she senses my pregnancy and she has been upending our trash cans when we are gone and eating the kleenexes that are in them. She even shredded an unattended box of new Kleenex.

Oh by the way, the thing to the right of the dresser is the hamper that matches the sports bedding we got for Alton's crib.

One Pound Menace

Yesterday was my birthday. For Christmas, Travis had bought me a Burke Williams pregnancy massage gift certificate. I decided it was the perfect day to use it.
Pregnancy massages come with a whirlpool bath. The nice bath lady filled the tub with bubbles and orange blossom oil. It smelled heavenly and I hopped in and used the iced cucumbers she gave me. After a little bit, the bubbles went down, so I decided to turn the jets on and enjoy the (not overly so) warm water. I turned them on and lay back down. After a couple of minutes I felt bubbles tickling my nose. I opened my eyes and the bubbles were about to overflow the tub! The jets had reinvigorated the bubbles! So I turned them off and noticed that the nice bath lady had brought me a glass of lemonade and a bowl of chilled, cut fruit. I ate the 'nanas and oranges and when I was about to start on the apples, she came into tell me that it was time for my massage.
I regretfully got out of the tub and put on the enormous Burke Williams robe. I walked out to the treatment waiting area and the massage therapists were waiting lined up in a row like little soldiers. :) "Jennifer?"
"yes."
"Hi, I'm Brandie, follow me."
We went upstairs past all of the weird Bamboo sculptures and went inside on the massage "cells". They are so small! The room was nicely warm and of course the harp music was present. I got on the table and started to hug the pregnancy mound. Brandie started the massage and I started to relax.
Sproing! One eye flickered open. Are you kidding me? Sproing! Alton decided our bath had been invigorating and he was going to do some bladder gymnastics!
"Brandie? I need to go to the bathroom! My son had decided my bladder is a spring board."
She left so I could put my robe back and and then escorted me down the hall to the toilet.
"Does this happen all the time?
"Usually at least once during pregnancy massages."
I went quickly and then we returned to the cell. She started again and was about 1/2 way through when Alton decided to hop up and down on my bladder again.
"When it is time to switch to the other side, I need to go to the bathroom again."
"No problem."
Brandie was really nice and massaged me for an extra ten minutes because of the bladder gymnastic interruptions.
After my massages, I decided to go into the Quiet Room and have a nap. They have a row of Lazy Boy recliners with blankets, a fruit bowl and of course of bowl of chilled cucumbers for the eyes. I took a pair of cucumbers and picked a recliner, put my feet up, placed my chilled cucumbers and fell asleep. I took the best nap. My eyes after all of my cucumber applications looked awesome. No puffiness at all!
I went back into the spa and had a luxurious shower. They have those nice showers that have the footwide shower heads. Of course they have the best toiletries as well.
After paying for my massage, I went downstairs to Panera and got a caramel brownie. Then I went across the street to my favorite pedicure place and got a mani/pedi. My toes look pretty again!
Travis got home a little before seven. He intended to be home before 6, but he ended up having to work late.
We went to J. Trani's in San Pedro for dinner. We had the bruschetta for an appetizer. Oh garlic and tomatoey goodness! They were out of halibut. :( So I had the jumbo shrimp and flank steak skewers with mashed potatoes. Travis had their chicken Saltimboca, which was really good. We finished dinner off with a brownie and ice cream dessert that was covered in fudge. Sooooo good!
It was a wonderful birthday. Oh yeah, Travis got me this: http://vtbear.stores.yahoo.net/bearfootandpregnant.html I think it is sooo cute! It had the cutest note from him with it: Dear Sweetheart, Happy birthday! I love you so much and I can't wait to be parents with you. Love, Trav

Bad Baby!

So ever since I conceived, I have had to go the bathroom at least three times when we go to church. It is only an hour and half long, but still, three times, everytime we go, and at least once during the sermon.
Because of this, we purposedly sit on the end of an aisle so that I can make it to the bathroom without annoying our fellow church goers.
Today though, my girlfriend Maggie, her husband John, and their daughter Hannah were visiting. We made it to church later than usual and there we no aisle seats left. I went directly to the restroom, and then again during the meet and greet time. Our pastor was giving a sermon that I was actually enjoying and I had just been congratulating myself on making it through the sermon when it happened;
KICK! Alton kicked me HARD directly in the bladder.
Travis had his arm around me and felt me jump.
"Are you okay sweetheart?"
"Alton just kicked me in the bladder incredibly hard!"
"I'll see you in a few minutes sweetie."
He let me by and I waded past the other people in our aisle. Bad baby! I have to give him credit though, it was a well timed kick for keeping mommy humble.

Flood!

The bathroom in our master bedroom flooded into our walk-in closet and all over the carpet in the bedroom yesterday afternoon. :( We had to call water damage people in to clean up the damage. There are currently 10 industrial strength (they really are) de-humidifiers plugged in and operating in the closet, bedroom, and bathroom.
The guys who installed the dehumidifiers didn't balance the electrical load properly, so about half an hour after they left, we were in the dark! Thankfully we had our supply of party lite candles to keep us illuminated until they return to fix the boo boo.
Did you know, that once you are accustomed to sleeping on a California King bed, there is no comfortably going back to a queen with a 6'2" husband, two medium sized dogs, and a pregnancy sized mound of pillows? (Or the Great Wall as Travis calls it.) I ended up sleeping on the couch in the living room because there just was not enough room in there!
On the bright side of all of this, Vicki decided to recarpet the master bedroom when all of this over. Now, if we could just talk her into new paint for this room and the baby's room!