BBQ

The BBQ was fun, it was nice to see all the people that I haven't seen in a long time. Unfortunately, most of the people I invited had conflicts, but our mutual friends were there. We probably had 15 or so people over, it felt nice to use our deck and patio set. We were unsure if we should lock the cats in the basement or trust that people would read the 'Please keep our kitties inside, keep door shut' signs. We left them upstairs and people were very respectful and made an effort to keep the door closed.

I made the phyllo pizza with mozzerella and cherry tomatoes from the latest issue of Bon Appetit. It was quite a hit, not a single piece left by the time that M went to grab a slice. I don't relish working with phyllo so I grabbed the package that said 'extra thick' slices and it went remarkably smoothly. The recipe is fairly easy, which is not my typical impression after attempting to make something from that mag. It was so easy that I don't need the recipe to make it again.

We have more chips in our cupboard than a vending machine right now, I have never had this many bags in my house ever. We have tons of ground beef left over, I'm planning on making spaghetti sauce and freezing it into meal size portions so that after the craziness of life with the baby sets in, we can just pull a container out and have instant dinner.

Nesting or Cleaning?

People ask me if I'm nesting, honestly I don't think I am. I'm catching up on all the things I've neglected because of school. Today was a banner day....we have the BBQ coming up this weekend and there was lots to be done, especially with everything still sitting in our bedroom from when the flooring was laid.

My accomplishments for the day:
5 loads of laundry mostly due to destruction of 'the mound' on M's side of the room
Swept steps
Reorganized my closet
Rearranged dining room for party
Put out some of the plates/utensils for the party
Added some things to the hospital bag pile
Studied
Ran to the library to donate books
Put away pillows and extra blankets
Put pictures in office that are going up on the walls
Stored empty picture frames

Accomplishments earlier this week:
Placed all the books back on the book shelf, now located in the office instead of our bedroom!
Moved printer back to office
Partially organized desk

Post Grad School/Pre Baby BBQ

M and I are hosting a BBQ at our house this weekend. I have sequestered myself away from most of my friends for the last year to finish up the hell that was/is/forever shall be called grad school and would like to see them before Baby Y makes her debut. As a result, I convinced M that we needed to host a BBQ, some of friends haven't even seen the new house yet.

At the time I planned the BBQ, I was thinking that most of my studying for the boards would be done, and in reality it probably is. I have done just about 4000 test questions and read about 4 review books in addition to listening to review cds (over and over and over). I apparently didn't recall the feeling I had before NCLEX when I was planning a day of frivolity; that I could never amass all of this knowledge before the test and that there was always more studying that could or should be done. But alas, the party will go on and it will be a nice forced study break. I'm on information over load right now and can't think about fixed S2s or DRSP risk anymore. I wake up asking myself questions about the appropriate time to screen a DM1 vs a DM2 for microalbuminuria (5 years vs at dx) and I'm really looking forward to the test being done.

Anyway, I got sidetracked there. Tomorrow I will need to spend most of the day cleaning and reorganizing the rooms upstairs to make it moderately eye appealing for our party guests. I have most of the supplies but forgot a few things (ice, hotdog buns, relish). We asked people to bring their beverage of choice and a dish to share, we're supplying the meat and then I'm making a Mediterranean pizza I found in the latest edition of Bon Apetit (made with phyllo dough to test my patience).

I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone and being able to enjoy our deck, patio set, and back yard. And no studying for an entire day!

No More Plywood!

Our contractor done us good...he laid all of the flooring in one day and we are ever so grateful! Here are the before and afters for the baby's room....
































Here are the before and afters for the office.

Incidentally, contractor #1 did end up calling us back after he dropped off the long awaited quote and we didn't call back. He wanted to know if someone had undercut him and M told him that wasn't the issue, the problem we had was the huge delay in getting the quote. If I'm not mistaken, it took us less than a month to talk to #2, sign the contract, order the wood, and have it installed. It took the same time frame to get the quote from #1.

We are also using #2 to replace our basement door and look at some siding issues on the back of the house. We're just waiting for our door to come in. I'm much less enthusiastic about that and so glad the flooring was done first. I swiffered the walls today in the baby's room and the office, next up is the hallway. Then I'll clean off the baseboards (we're talking loads of sawdust people), and then finally clean the floor and we can start to reorganize and move things back in.

Lip Gloss/Stick/Tube Things

I have a small obsession with these lip gloss/tubes/hint of color/is it lipstick or lip gloss things....I have now tried a bounty of them and thought I would give you my opinion in case you too, spend way too much money on these little buggers and want the low down so you can cut to the chase. It's getting to be a 'perfect pair of jeans' situation over here....



L'Oreal-I tried to go to their site to find the exact name of the product but there site is not really to show off their products...it's more corporate-y. On that note, did you know that they own Maybelline, Lancome, Giorgio Armani, Kiehl's, and Shu Umera? Anyway, you get what you pay for with their version. It was probably $5-6 dollars and the most sticky concoction ever. Careful on a windy day with this stuff, it is like a venus fly trap to your hair. And really watch out if you have shedding cats. It's not pretty



Lancome Juicy Tubes-I got this duty free while crossing the border from Canada back to the US so I got somewhat of a deal on it. Definitely less sticky than L'Oreal but still has some stick factor. It has a nice tint to it, not too splotchy and not too nonexistent either. Sometimes I feel like things say they are 'tinted' and not so much.

Nars Lip Gloss-I was a huge fan of the potted lip gloss but that whole idea is just so unhygenic....why would you want to stick your finger (into a very sticky substance I might add) and then put it on your lips. I would prefer the help of a lip wand thank you very much. I still have some of the potted lip gloss but the sticker with the shade listed on it has long worn off so I found myself at Sephora this weekend looking for the closest thing...I tried one and unfortunately here is where I disagree with the term tint. I can't recall which color I got off the top of my head, but it's very glossy with little color. The good news about this one is that it is not very sticky at all. Just wish it didn't look clear.

Clinique Lip Gloss-I was drawn to this one because the color looked so dark in the tube but I was assured by the sign that it looked great on any lip tone. Call me a sucker. This one goes on rather splotchy, you have to really smack your lips together to get the color to even out and by the time you're done doing that, the richness of the color seems to have dissapated. The bonus? It's the most non sticky one of the bunch! Price wise it was the second cheapest. Perhaps I will revisit my local Sephora and try another color.....I try to have a rule that I have to wait to buy new lipstick until one has been used up, this rationale doesn't always work....

Les Fleurs

A few weekends ago we finally made time to get our hanging plants and shade plants for the side of the house. The bottom picks are on the side of the house where the sun don't shine...so M wanted to create various beds with shade plants. This is the attempt at the first bed, we are entertaining the idea of doing some edging at some point but we'll probably save that until all of the beds are planted, with our luck Home Depot will discontinue whatever we start with. M could tell you the names of all the plants, but aside from knowin that there is a fern or two in there I'm clueless. Enjoy the pics.

Flooring in a Fortnight

It ain't pretty......but this is the last time you'll have to see it. Tomorrow (finally) the flooring is being installed. This is the sad state of affairs on the second floor of the Y residence post carpet removal. The two spare bedrooms have been carpet (and stuff) free for the past two months (we didn't think it would take this long to get going with a contractor but I'm sure you knew that from my previous posts) but M left the hallway carpet down till today. Not pleasant on the tootsies!

I'll most certainly post the after pics, after these eye sores I'm sure they will be the apple of your eye. Yellow is the baby's room and red is the office.

Surprised Indeed

Today I was thrown a surprise birthday shower at work....I knew it would be coming at some point but I had no clue it was today. My first thought was that it was so early to have a shower...but then it dawned on me that in only 2.5 weeks I'm full term. So no, it's not too early.

I had protested the shower early on for various reasons: interesting work politics, dislike of being the center of attention, lack of a true registry, a sea of obnoxious pink. I was told the shower wasn't about me, it was about little Y and there would be one regardless of my feelings on it.

The running joke with my coworkers was my distate for pink...sure pink accents here and there are ok but as soon as people hear you're having a girl, they go into pink overload and pink is totally not my thing. Pink is uninspired...pink baby clothes is to a baby shower as roses are to Valentine's Day. Let's show some originality!

After lunch, I suddenly noticed that I was the only one in my entire office suite except for my boss who was in her office with the door closed. I became suspicious also when I saw one coworker whispering in conspiratorial tones with another coworker even though I was the only one there. The icing on the cake was seeing a coworker running down the hall with a gift bag sneaking into the conference room. At least these tip offs gave me time to apply one last coat of lip gloss :)

So with the running joke being that I hate pick, the entire conference room was decorated in pink and the cake had hot pink frosting on it. I suddenly noticed that all of my coworkers were wearing pink and I had even complimented one of them on their sweater first thing in the morning!

I was really touched by the effort everyone put into the party and to the wonderfully thoughtful gifts. We were given a Target gift card with a substantial amount of money on it as well as cash from the late gift contributors. In addition, we got:

• a baby carrier
• lots of cute baby clothes
• hats
• socks
• burp clothes
• slippers
• books
• stuffed animals

It's unbelieveable how much people want to give you when you announce you're having a baby, I'm glad everyone ignored my protestations and threw me this great baby shower!

Liftoff!

Ok people...the moment we've all been waiting for....the flooring is being installed this weekend! So far, I'm in love with this contractor. We had our issues with his payment scheduled but he was willing to restructure it because of our concerns. He has been wonderful with communication and actually uses email! He came over for the contract signing and to get the first payment on 5/28 and said it would take about a week for the wood to come in. He called to let us know the wood was in and that he had made arrangements to have it delivered on the morning of 6/8/10. Last night he emailed to say that he had arranged for him and the flooring guys to come over this weekend to start AND finish the floors!

This is great timing, we have the in laws coming to stay with us next weekend. I'll take one last before picture and post it...

Knitting Related...

I think I found the perfect project to use up a boat load of my yarn stash. It's the Autumn Haze blanket from Comfort Knitting & Crochet: Afghans.

I really love using the Berroco Comfort yarns...there is some minor pilling after heavy use but it's machine washable and incredibly soft. I made a blanket for my in laws previously with the Comfort Bittersweet and it's holding up great and been through several washes. So I tend to gravitate toward this yarn when I need a worsted weight that will get some heavy duty wear.

I have tons of Bittersweet left over, small amounts of other autumn like colors and then I think I'll pinch hit with a deep plum and a rust orange that are not Comfort but still worsted weight. It will be great to get rid of that yarn!

I aslo like that this pattern doesn't seem overly monotonous, you get to change it up every few rows.

Ikea, I Wanna Love You

So, my mom flew out late last week partially in case I decided to go to graduation and partially because she was dying to see me pregnant and really wanted to partake in some of the baby shopping.

And yes, I did go to graduation but skipped the main ceremony and only went to the College of Nursing ceremony. In the end, I'm glad that I did go. It was nice to have closure and see everyone one last time. As predicted, my name was butchered even though we spelled it out on cards phonetically which the announcer read from....whatever.

Anyway, yesterday was Ikea day. Hubster, Mom, and I took the trek and found a bookshelf for M's recods, Mom and I both found duvet coveres (one and the same), we contemplated getting a dining room table but held off for now, and found a dresser, crib, mattress after much debate. By this time, my lower back and feet were killing me. We finally head to the warehouse only to find that the only thing in stock was the shelving unit M needed for his records.

I was so annoyed!!! My back and feet were killing me for nothing, to think of the time we wasted pondering this piece versus that piece when it didn't matter. We asked at the checkout and the woman told us basically that we would need to arrive early to have our best shot at getting the item and to check online first. Then she quickly told us that even though it says it might be in stock on the website, it might not actually be in stock when we get there because people might have it in their carts and haven't checked out yet. So basically, you're taking your chances.

So needless to say, the search continues for all of the baby gear. The whole point of going yesterday was to get this done and we have nothing to show for it. The plus side is that I read Baby Bargains so long ago that I couldn't remember if foam mattresses were better than coil, how to judge a good mattress etc. Today we are venturing to Target and Baby Depot at Burlington Coat Factory to finally get this job done. I will cry a thousand tears if we come home empty handed.

Graduation

So the dust has settled, I'm officially done with my Master's program and I'm adjusting to the non crazy life of working part time while studying for the boards on the days that I used to have clinicals. Enough time has passed that I'm no longer over zealous about attending graduation, but I still can not totally make up my mind!

My mom is flying in today, not for graduation but would go if I decided to go. The reason for the visit is to glimpse me while pregnant, before that baby bump goes away and she has a new granddaughter. We're planning on doing some baby shopping and catching up since school kept me so busy for the last semester.

Here are the pros and cons of graduation
Pros

• Won't regret not going
• Memories
• Worked really hard for degree and it would be nice to be recognized

Cons

• 33 weeks pregnant
• 2.5h main ceremony directly followed by another 2 hour nursing college ceremony
• No time for lunch
• Need to be at University by 8 for 10am ceremony so I can line up,which means leaving house by 645a, getting up at 6a.
• Do I have to stand for that long?
• Sitting in uncomfortable folding chairs outside for 2.5h
• Dealing with parking
• Inane chit chat and family introductions with colleagues
• Losing a day of visiting with Mom to attend

I was totally leaning towards no and then got an email from the College of Nursing today with all the details and someone reminding us that we should be so proud. I guess I can still be proud without attending though.....

Stay tuned for final decision.........

Contractor Update

So, after some tinkering with the contractor's contract, we have finally hired him and the wood has been ordered (allegedly). We had some issues with the payment schedule, he basically wanted the finaly payment to be only 10% of the total bill. We didn't really feel comfortable with that, it is a pretty small job so that last amount is under $1000. Where's the incentive for him to finish? In the end, we doubled the amount we'll pay him at the end. We are paying 50% up front at contract signing which will serve to cover the materials and then another chunk after day 1 of work (it's only supposed to take 2 days).

The pic is of the wood we are getting. It's Bruce Red Oak Seashell stain. The planks 3 1/4", we have 2 3/4" (I think) downstairs and liked the bigger planks bigger.

We signed the contract on Friday with K, he says it will take one week to get the wood and then it needs to acclimate in our house for a few days before the installation. After that, it should take 2-3 days to install. Finally! I think I'm more excited about reclaiming my bedroom and putting things back in the babies room and the office than having nice new flooring!