Small but Much Needed Home Improvement

The Before........ So, we got lucky and our house is fairly new (built in 1996). Sort of uncommon for the area we are in so it's much more up to date than 99% of the other houses we looked it. The problem is that, while it doesn't need anything major (yet), the decor is very 90's chic. I have always wanted a house with white doors and window trim and we got it, but unfortunately on those white doors is gold, gold, GOLD! Gold hinges, gold door knobs, gold latches on windows. The gold continues to every fixture in the house, and we are not gold people.

This lovely sconce is the beast that was hanging in our stairway as you head upstairs. It is absolutely huge in height and length, and then there's the gold factor. We knew it had to go, post haste. We have looked for awhile for a sconce with two lights to replace it and those were surprisingly hard to find. We ended up downsizing in the size of the fixture and the number of bulbs although or wattage stayed the same.



The After............

We wanted something simple and we continue on our quest to replace all gold with the deep bronze color. I'm sure in ten years, we'll wonder why we fell for this fad but for now we like it.

It's a She!

Things went swimmingly at the ultrasound yesterday, couldn't have asked for better results. We are very relieved soon to be parents! We had the technician put the gender in a sealed envelope, with the plan being that we would wait until we were in the comfort of our own home to open it. We made it as far as the hallway outside the clinic. M was right with his prediction the whole time amazingly!

Now I feel like I can really get excited about the pregnancy, there were no signs of potential problems and now we can start planning since we know that it will be a girl. We're talking about ripping up some of the carpet upstairs in the two spare rooms and the hallway and replacing it with hardwood that hopefully comes close to matching our main floor of the house (we think have ash with a natural stain). We do plan to paint the baby's room but we have pretty much decided against any particular theme.

Neither of us are the frou frou pink it's a girl types...we want to go with a more tasteful approach. I'm thinking of a somewhat neutral tone on the walls, some kind of rug with some color and then obviously the necessary baby related furniture. Aside from that, we aren't going to go nutty with things that scream baby, I think it's possible to find whimsical and cute lamps and what not that aren't from Baby's R Us etc.

M is pretty creative so I think it would be neat if he created something on canvas for the artwork for the room, that would be much more sentimental than buying something with an elephant on it.

Just thoughts at this point, but this is what we're thinking..

Big Day for Little Y

Well, today is the day that I've been counting down to in my head since our last OB appointment in December...the big 18 week ultrasound.

Excited to find out the sex but nervous because they can see a lot more now which means they can pick up many more abnormalities....keep your fingers crossed!

Food Related/School Related Pet Peeve

I think all of you know that Tuesdays are my foe...I have clinical all day and then it's straight to class from 7-9pm. With unpredictable traffic, there's really not time (nor an easy on/easy off place) to stop and get something to eat. It's difficult to think of a suitable dinner to bring, one that won't be ruined if frozen in winter or that requires refrigeration in the warmer months.

These dilemmas leave me with one option, eating at school. The school is basically a commuter school, it has no dorms and it relies heavily on it's non traditional student/grad student population to keep things afloat. These students primarily attend classes offered after the typical work day, either from 4-7p or from 7-9p.

Here enters my pet peeve....
The sad excuse for a food option (really the only one that isn't just a tiny Starbuck's Express), is located in the student union. It only operates until 6pm! Does that seem illogical to you? It would seem to me that if the second set of night classes are first starting at 7pm, you would keep the store open until around then so you can get the extra business. Also, the times I do make it to school a little early, everything is entirely picked over and they have started shutting down everything. I rarely get to campus before 6 due to traffic, leaving me with junk food from the bookstore as the only option. To make it worse, the bookstore doesn't even sell beverages!

Last night, I did not make it in time so I got some Baked Lays and a Sprite Zero from the Starbuck's express. Not ideal dinner for a pregnant lady. I've started to eat a bigger lunch in anticipation that dinner is going to be hard to come by.

Isn't that ridiculous? Makes me want to write a letter.....