Furniture!

This weekend we got our kitchen table and chairs, couch and loveseat, and mattress set. So now we're finally feeling like it's more of a house. We'll get our bedroom set mid-August and can't wait for that, since we have no furniture in the bedroom and clothes and things are just piled on the floor in baskets.

We'd like to get some more bookshelves and similar types of things to organize the house a bit, but we're running out of house-money and would like to keep some in savings, so for now the house will be unorganized. Plus, just found out the car needs new brakes and rotors and that will cost $450, gee great. We tried to trade it for a used Camry which is bigger and more reliable, but the people were crazy with their offer, so we just walked away. Right now we're "renting" my dad's Kia as a second car, paying that monthly payment, until we can figure out how on earth to afford a second car. The second car needs to be bigger than our Elantra to comfortably fit two carseats safely, fit a double stroller with groceries, etc, yet still be economical on gas... which isn't something you can find in an affordable car. Yikes! Not sure how we'll do it but we need to soon...

There are also the other household items that we'll need to get that we didn't necessarily need with our small apartment. More towels, washcloths, some kitchen items, a new vacuum, air purifier for my allergies, lawnmower, weedeater, etc. We're crossing fingers that maybe some people will see it as a time to get a housewarming gift so we won't have to wait much later for some things... but I'm not really expecting that.

Oh and grass, someday we'll need to plant some grass seed which is the cheapest way to go, and the best time to do it is now... but I have a feeling that won't get done until next summer maybe. I do feel a little bad that Toby won't have a nice grassy yard yet, but he does have a nice big house!

Speaking of Toby, his favorite new thing to do is either growl like a dinosaur (or like his daddy imitating a dinosaur) and stomp (Toby does this by just lifting one leg really high when walking), play in the kitchen cabinet, or sitting at our new table and pretending to laugh within a conversation he's having with invisible people. Very cute, and can all be seen at www.dropshots.com/adspencer. Enjoy!

Helloooooooooo.

Well we've done it - bought a house! With baby #2 on the way we had a little extra motivation and of course that worked. Now we're in our OWN home, just the three (and incubating 4) of us, probably 3-4 miles from my parents' home (and their swimming pool, ahhhh).

We closed last Friday and over the past week have moved in little by little. Our first night spent in the house, July 4, was our own independence day. Toby was with Aunt Kathy that night so Thurs night was his first night and he only threw a little fit when we tried to get him to sleep in his new room. Actually, he has two new rooms. A "big boy" room for when baby comes and hopefully we can move him into either his new toddler bed, or a borrowed crib from our friends; and the nursery, which is where he sleeps now, with the crib and changing table in there. He also has a playroom which is also the office, and 4th bedroom for his grandma when she comes over to play.

Unpacking has been interesting, since we hardly have any furniture. From our Virginia apartment survived a bookcase, desk and tv stand. Toby's rooms have furniture, the big boy room is fully furnished by DH finding a clearance sale at KMart - such a clearance that everything together - dresser, side table, toddler bed, and two toy chest/bins cost under $100 total. The toddler bed itself was $7 (which is why we got it now instead of later). We ordered furniture from Ashley furniture in town and in a week we should get the delivery of the kitchen table and chairs, couch and loveseat, and our king bed mattress and box spring... however the bedroom set we ordered won't arrive until August 18. So right now we're sleeping on an air mattress, and once the mattress comes we'll sleep on that on the floor which should be more comfortable than the air mattress. We also bought 4 lawn/patio chairs which we are using right now as our furniture, and two side tables for the living room from craigslist (but they look new and will go nicely with everything. So basically most of our unpacking, except for the kitchen and bathrooms, has been sorting into boxes - for the attic, for unpacking later once we have furniture, and what little stuff we can unpack now. We've finally finished that, and now DH is going to take all the cardboard and newspaper we used for packing to the recycling center, and I think that's it, other than a good vacuum over the floors.

Most of our stuff has been in storage for almost 2 years, since we moved down from VA, and some of it didn't survive thanks to mold. So we threw out our toaster and sandwich grill, among a few other things. Nothing too important and have since replaced the toaster. We've also realized that we need a lot more things for a house than we had for our one-bedroom apartment!

Toby has enjoyed the new house, and our unpacking mess/frenzy. He has "helped" by moving things from box to box, room to room, and rearranging what we've managed to unpack. He also loves running from room to room chatting about everything (in his own language).

Here are the pictures of our progress so far...

By the way, more molars and canines have come in, look at the set of munchers he's got now!

Unpacking and Sorting in the living room. Lots of things to go through.

Helping mummy and daddy.

More helping, also very tired but not yet wanting to nap.

The clean and unpacked Kitchen!

Well, sort of clean. The boxes and recycling.

Big Boy room!

New washer and dryer... except when on the pedastools they're too tall by 1/4 inch. Have to get a carpenter to either raise the cabinets or cut 1/4 inch off to have them underneath like they should be. Still, they're hooked up and we're using them!

Extra bathroom, the duck bathroom! The people before us had it also as a duck bathroom and left the duck decals up on the shower and toilet. The rest of the ducks are ours (should I not tell anyone most of our duck bathroom stuff was before we thought about having kids?). Need a curtain rod to hang shower curtain... and maybe some extra towels and handtowels.

Master bedroom... our air bed and tv tray side tables for the moment. I did take a picture of the other side of the room but... you don't need to see a bunch of clothes and things lying on the floor that have no place to go until August 18!

Our bathroom.. the drawers are on the bottom instead of on top of the cabinet doors, which makes things awkward, so we're looking for wire shelving or wire drawers to put inside the cabinets to put everything. Can't have me bending over to get things while pregnant and this dizzy, I won't make it back up!

Playroom/4th bedroom/office. We're going to try to make it look more bedroom-y for grandma's stay - we want her to feel as comfortable as possible so that she'll want to visit more and more!

That's all the pictures for now. We still have to put grass seed down in the yard to grow some grass, and there are lots of extra things we need to get... but we're crossing fingers that maybe a few housewarming presents would help. If not, we'll just get things little by little and eventually it will be a real home! Well, it's a real home now, but you know what I mean.

And as far as unpacking boxes that have been in storage for 2 years goes... DH just found an egg, the size of a marble, he cracked it and yes, it's an egg. What the heck kind of egg? I'm scared to know. Time to vacuum. More pictures and Toby videos at www.dropshots.com/adspencer.

Big stupid grins

This morning was full of baby and toddler pictures. One of my mommy friends showed me some of her children sleeping and playing, and ex-little-boss who is in the cubicle over <--------- there showed me pictures of her brand new grandson, born a week ago today. So cute. I don't know if I ever went so ga-ga over pictures of people's children/grandchildren; but now, I just adore looking at these pictures, that remind me of my own son, and how special each child is to their loved ones. Then I get a big stupid grin on my face for most of the day.

You know that grin, the goofy one that you forget is on your face but other people notice it and wonder what on earth are you smiling about? The one that, while you walk down the hall and do that "okay look down, look down... look down... okay look up, now look down... look down.." thing when you pass someone in the hallway and notice their frown... then all of a sudden you feel a little embarrassed that you're wearing this silly stupid grin for no reason when obviously this (work) is a place to frown and look serious and important.

Yeah... that grin.

Yay for Friday, this weekend I'm going on the church women's retreat and cannot wait. Pretty much all of the ladies are older than me.. actually older than me with their own children either my age or only a few years younger - but they adore me and probably feel good that this 'young'n hip mama chick (ahem, me) wants to spend her weekend and time with them. Plus, K is coming too! I'm so excited to be able to share her with my church ladies and vice versa... also a little nervous. I hope she sees what I see in these ladies and loves them too. I know they'll love her, no doubt about that. Have a good weekend!

A Day in the life of ... Mummy!

Well, I've seen a friend do this before for her daughter's baby book and have wanted to do it but have been too shy to carry a big camera around with me all the time and take pictures of everything that might seem mundane. But now that I've figured out that I can send pics from my phone straight to my photobucket account, I thought it'd be neat to try this and see how it looks... so, here's yesterday for me, in really grainy and bad pictures (all from my camera phone). Wow now that I've posted, the pics really are bad, gives me a headache. Sorry! I think I'll do it again but have to face the "Yes, I'm a dork" facts by taking random pics of my camera at work and in public, it'd be cool to do some pages like this for Toby's baby book. Sort of a "day in the life of mummy when you were a baby" thing. DH started to do a day in the life of toby but only took pics halfway through.

Sorry that the pics aren't good quality, used my camera phone and I seem to either be in the office or in the car, neither are good places to take pictures... so it's boring too. Woohoo. Leave home at 5:55am, hubby and baby are still in bed...

Interstate through Baton Rouge to the office downtown, pass up the exits for LSU...

Yay! I got here early enough to take one of the 6 spaces on the street near the front of the building where the city has yet to put parking meters. Yay for good free parking! This is the view from my car when I parked. I work in a state office building down the street from the state capitol building (shown in this pic):

My building, it's brand spankin' new. We moved from our old falling down one in August.

Walking towards my building as I cross the street. My building, DSS is on the right, DHH is on the left (health and hospitals). Up the road is various office buildings and a church.

I go through the lobby, pass the police and security guards, swipe my badge to get through to the elevators and go up to the 7th floor where my cubicle is. This is the view getting off the elevator on the 7th floor. State Library is the smaller building closest, and you've seen a pic already of the capitol. Don't think you can see it in this pic but in person, you get to see all the smog and gross lookin' clouds of yuckiness over the oil refineries and other production plants north of Baton Rouge on the Mississippi River (you can see the river a little to the left if you peek).

Cubicle Land!!! My unit's cubes are to the left, everyone else is to the right. The big open space is just weird, no other floors have it... that's a Mardi Gras tree that needs to be taken down over there. My cube is on the other side facing the window. That's my little boss's cube you can open there.

And voila, my cubicle

My desktop picture once I log in, I change it up every few days

Mmmm coffee... the mug is.. interesting, I'm not a pink heart kinda girl, but I got two of those filled with candy or something as a gift once, and they're big, so I like them for tea or coffee. I didn't take pictures of the break room where I got the coffee, I'm a coffee club member where a bunch of us put money in a pot every payday to contribute to the pots, coffee and supplies.

And breakfast. I'm not a big breakfast eater unless it's 11am and I'm having stuffed french toast at IHOP or something.

Time to read my Getting in Touch with your Inner B calendar...

The view from my window, that's the Mississippi River I-10 bridge going over connecting Baton Rouge and Plaquemines. But the fog is so thick you can't really see it.

I didn't really have pictures of me working, but I can promise you I did! And right now I have tendonitis (tennis elbow), so here's what I get to type in, not easy but ow my arm hurts!!!

11:15am Lunchtime! Time to grab my leftovers from one of the fridges in the break room down the hall.

Views from the balcony outside the break room on the 7th floor. First to the left is the Mississippi River once you look past our parking garage, to the right, just past the Dept of Revenue/Natural Resources building that the camera snapped the corner of, is our old office building that they're in the process of tearing down (they started on the side you can't see from this angle). Supposedly they will build a park there, and in the vacant parking lot where they won't allow anyone to park anymore.

3:30pm, time to go home! I managed to get a lot of work done, see my empty trays?

I'm not taking the interstate home because I have a 4pm appointment with my therapist in south Baton Rouge. So I'm going to cut across downtown and pass LSU to get to her office. Here's the old state capitol before Huey P. Long decided he needed a weird looking taller one. Picture is wonky b/c I'm driving.

And I enter through the LSU gates...

There's the stadium and natatorium.

Oops, I better stop for gas! I can't believe how much gas is now! I swear it was just $2.02 two weeks ago!!

4:10pm, aack, I'm running late, but finally, I'm turning into the drive to my therapist's office. She's in a fancy office building that I think used to be an old plantation. It looks awesome, but darn it, the pic I took of it somehow didn't make it from my phone to here. Same w/the therapist's couch pic. Sorry!

5:05pm, finally, I'm on my way home!

5:36pm, I'm home! Charlie the cat tells me that I'm late, while walking across my sister's car.

Once inside, the dogs are there to greet me first. Buddy (black) and Schatzie (white, Toby calls her Dot-chee) our standard poodles that desperately need a trip to the groomer's!

Toby just woke up from a late nap and Daddy picked him up to greet me

6pm - Dinnertime for Toby - Mmmm mac and cheese and peas and carrots and goldfish!

Topped off with yummy water! (Toby LOVES water and will not drink juice, which is fine with me!)

6:30pm - Now, bathtime for Tobester! He wants to eat the rubber duckies I think.

Now it's dinner for Mummy and Daddy. After a long day like this, and an empty fridge, it's time for some chinese (mmm sesame chicken)

7:15pm - Time to catch up on last night's The Daily Show and Colbert Report with DH while Toby plays

7:30pm - Toby has a bottle.. I'm all finished Mummy!

8pm - Toby gets the phone to call Grandma in England... no, no Toby, it's almost 2am over there!

8:20pm - Toby looks tired as he sits down, enthralled with Stephen Colbert on the tv.

8:30pm - I put Toby down for bed, and watch Tobyvision on the video monitor

9pm - I'm tired, time for me to call it a day and go to bed. Time for brushing my teeth, taking my contacts out and setting the alarm clock.

Goodnight!