Say My Name....

Early on after we found out that there was going to be a little bug,

Joe and I decided to keep the name a secret until bug was here. 

This was a decision made on the fact that we thought it would be fun

but also because we had both a girl and boy name that we both LOVED

and did not want anyone crushing our love for the name. 

We did have to figure out middle names but again that seemed to be so easy for us that we just went with it. 

So Baby OH or bug will have to due for the time being. 

But that being said I totally find it humorous how many people have tried to guess bug's name or

give us suggestions. 

LOVE IT! 

I promise you Bug that your name will totally be you.

It will not have anything to do with Clemson University- Sorry Calhoun.

It will be normal -  sorry no Snickers. 

You will not be the top 10 names but you will probably be in the top 100. 



Finishing Our House Goals

Earlier this year, you might remember when I blogged about our "House Goals" for the year.  

This is something I have done for the past two years and I truely love this idea.

It helps prioritize what needs to be done but also spreads your projects out financially.  

Well it is now the middle of November and happy to announce that we completed all of our 

house goals for 2012 with some additions.  

You May remember...

1) Storm Door

We paid someone to install it because our doorway was not standard and this was not a project I was willing to let Joe take on.  

Cost of door and installation- $500

Completed in February 2012 in around 2 hours

2) Painting the house

We again decided to pay someone to do this.  After finding out we were pregnant, this added another huge room.  Joe was totally against paying someone but after getting an estimate from someone who did work on our neighbors house- we were sold.  

We ended up having the entry way, that downstairs living room, the stair way on the main level and the upper level, the hallway upstairs and the nursery upstairs painted.  

3) Move the bushes out front to the side of our house and use that area for flowerbeds.

Done is less than a couple hours with the help of hubby.  

Done in March/April

4) Moving furniture into the house

As you recall- Joe's parents moved out of their house and down to Florida. 

We inherited some furniture.  

The big item was a chest which is now going to go in the nursery to store stuff.

Fortunately, Joe's parents moved this for us since it was big and heavy.  

5) The carpet down in the basement level.

This was our May/June project.  

After looking at a couple places we went with CarpetLand because they were the cheapest and also the least pushy when it came to sales.  

Total cost:  $750 for the two large rooms.  

6) Guest room

This was a 2 month project because I did it gradually.  

Originally this was going to be my winter project but quickly became my first trimester project once I found out that we were pregnant.  

We moved furniture down from the old guest room and got rid of furniture that we no longer had a use for.  

We painted the room.  

Got new linens, hung curtains, etc.  

The total cost of the room remodel was less than $450 which included everything from the dresser, to the paint, to the bed frame purchased on Craigslist, to the all the linens/curtains.  

7) Attic

Joe completed this task over the holidays last year! 
Money:  Less than $100 for floorboards
Time:  5 hours total 

I am so thankful to have all this extra storage area now!

Especially with a little one on the way.

 All the projects this year are considered minor considering in

2010 we redid the kitchen and in 2011 we did the patio and all the bathrooms.

All in all I am happy with the fact that we completed every task that we set out to do.  

Now a new task has been added to our list...

 The Nursery.

Fortunately we have a lot of time to get this done. 

Paint- Done

The nursery is officially painted!!!

WAHOO!!!

Now I just have to order the furniture if it ever comes into stock!

Leave it to me to pick the one that is back ordered!

We went with Ashes in Behr Paint!

I totally love it especially with the white crib we have picked out and the yellow accents that will be coming!

Why you do not take your husband to HomeGoods

For the most part I have learned to shop without Joe,

 because it is painful.

He wants to go in get what we need and get out, which some times is great but sometimes this does not work and he gets frustrated so easily.  So I was dreading taking him to HomeGoods with me to pick out a mirror for bug's room.  

We are going to put a mirror over the dresser/changing table to add to the room.  

I needed his help to carry it to the car because it was too heavy for me.  

So we walked in to HomeGoods and found the mirror, 

the next thing I knew my husband had in his hands a life size Portuguese Water Dog Stuff Animal.  

I looked at him with the "You have to be kidding me" face.  

But then he presented- "Well you get a mirror, I should get to pick out this for the nursery!"

I decided this was a pointless battle primarily because it was cheap.  

So we brought it home and placed it next to Clemson.  

For the most part it is spot on.  

It was humorous because Clemson at first thought it was a really dog and he wanted to play with it.  

So this will be also a decoration in bug's room.  

Thank you HomeGoods!

Baby on Board

I truly hate these signs.

I hated them before I got pregnant and I still hate them now.

I know hate is a strong word but it is appropriate because I do hate them.

Why?

Well it is like stating-

My car is more special because I have a baby!

I mean we do not Wife on Board Signs, or Sister on Board Signs, etc.

Why don't we all just drive normally, and respect every form of life-

whether it is baby or adult. 

Urrrrrr....

This brings up another topic that has grown particularly frustrating for me. 

My only complaint about being pregnant is talking about being pregnant. 
Don't get me wrong, I am happy being pregnant and have been so fortuante to be surrounding by loving friends and family but I am a person who happens to be pregnant- not a pregnant person. 

I want to talk about normal stuff life books, TV, shopping, etc. 

It amazes me how everyone wants to know how I am feeling, etc. 

I get this asked at least 10 times a day.

Thank God Joe has learned that asking me how I am is my least favorite question.

I am great! 

Which is what I would be if I were pregnant or not pregnant! 

I found myself at a party the other weekend and of course I am introduced to the other pregnant woman there and she was so happy to talk about everything pregnancy while I wanted to scream....

"Please can we talk about anything else.."

Some might take this as not being excited to be pregnant and I have had a couple people ask me if I really am excited. 

I am- I am so excited. 

But I am also not consummed by it. 

So please...

Do not asking me how I am feeling...

=0) 

The small stuff....

With the crib on back order and the painters not coming till today
(we opted to have a couple rooms painted in our house and since Joe has no extra free time right now our baby splurge was paying to have someone paint) I am left waiting to do things. 
That being said I have tried to keep myself busy with small stuff.  

Working on our will, scheduling classes, figuring baptism stuff, finalizing our registry, etc. 

One of these small things was finding bins to place in the closet that
Joe put together two weekends ago. 
I wanted something yellow which to be honest made my job a little harder than I thought.  

Yellow is not a easy color to find things in I am finding out. 
But thankfully I found yellow bins at the Container Store which worked perfectly. 
So we stopped by on our way up to Bethesda this weekend to have dinner with friends.  

We opted for the Small Gingham Storage Bins in Yellow.

They also offered a larger size but being Laura I measured prior to go to look at them and the large bins would not fit.  

We decided to purchase 3.  

$12.99 each

Happy with the end product!
I might go get another one to use as a diaper caddie on the changing table. 

Coming out of the Closet

A couple of weekends ago while I flew down to St Augustine with one of my besties I left my husband with a long honey do list.   The major thing on the list was to install bug's closets.

We have two closets in Bug's room which up to this point just had one shelf for hanging stuff on it.

We decided to make one of the closets a functional closet where we would keep closes, toys, etc and the other closet a storage closet to eventually keep the bins of clothes.  

So a couple weekends ago we head to HomeDepot to get the stuff we needed.  

We decided to move the self in one closet over to the other closet so it would have two selves and then buy a kit for bug's functional closet.  We looked at the kits- ranging anywhere from $55 dollars to $400 dollars.  After a short discussion we went with the $55 one because after all this is a closet we are talking about.  We picked up some white paint so Joe could paint the closets since they are all marked up from the previous owners- we opted for a gallon of cheap white paint which came in at $9.30.

So when we got to the register and the closet kit rang up $8.23- Joe and I looked at each other and decided today was our lucky day.  We headed home with paint and a closet set for less than $20!

Seriously how lucky are we!

I was worried it would be missing pieces or something- but everything was normal!

So last weekend while I was away
(because I have learned this is always the best way to let Joe do his projects)
Joe went to work on the closets.  

Closet the way it was previously-  Joe painting them white.

 Both closets while Joe was working on them..

 What happens when you are occupied with working on closets and 

Clemson gets a hold of a stuff animal.

Final functional closet.

All in all I was happy with our less than $20 project!