Merry Crafty Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I wanted to share some pictures of our minimal holiday decorations, including our concolor fir that we love! We chopped one down last year, and they last forever! They have a more unique look than other Christmas tree types, but you have to be careful as they are not the best with heavy ornaments. This was the first year I put out any of my Dept. 56 houses my mom and others gave me growing up. I put a few under our tree and some in other places in our living room. 

I mentioned it is a crafty Christmas in my title, and over the next few days my plan (the best laid plans...) is to post on the different homemade gifts I made for people this year. I'll link to the tutorials I followed for most and offer any tips or ways to avoid disaster that I found. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! On to the pictures...

Twas four days before Christmas, when under the tree

All these presents had vanished, packed up to leave

The stockings were hung under the TV with care

Precisely perched, the remote sensor not to ensnare 

Alright, I'm done with the poem thing. It's far too long to continue :)

And because I already gifted this item and have no plans to tell you step-by-step how to create your own, a picture of one of my gifts.

This is the largest rag quilt I've made--11 rows of 8 squares--and I won't make one this large for awhile! I actually started it for my friend Sarah for Christmas 2010, then her birthday 2011...finished for Christmas 2011! I've made about five or six of these before, but I always made them for babies or toddlers. Sarah really wanted one her size (she's a grown-up) yet still made of "little kid fabrics." I'm happy I was able to deliver this year. And don't worry, I also gave her a second present to make up for the lack of gift last year--it will be included in a later post.

I'll leave you with the tutorial my friend Jana found when making some of these for her daughter. There are several out there, and instead of using batting for the middle layer, we both used more flannel. Enjoy!

Congratulations! It's a...

baby! We're now 99 percent sure we are indeed having a human child. I say 99 because ultrasound babies do look like aliens. Cute aliens, yet aliens nonetheless.

Monday afternoon we had our first ultrasound at my 20-week mark, and not only did we get to see our baby, we were also able to rule out any placenta issues from my fun trip to the hospital the night before. Speaking of that, there was one thing I failed to mention that occurred during our trip. Nothing major, I just like to be detailed, and I left something out.

When they were checking me for various whatevers and listening to the baby's heartbeat, I was also given this strapped contraption to wear around my stomach to determine if I was having any contractions. After an hour of that I guess they figured out I wasn't having any and took it off. I kept trying to figure out how it would alert them, thinking maybe an alarm would go off or something fun and scary like that. Andrew told me last night there was actually a print-out, sort of like a heart monitor shows. He likes to bring me back to reality and ruin my fun :)

So now we can get to the part most of you probably care about--the ultrasound pictures! The tech gave us three to take home with us--two are actually 4D pics, which we honestly find somewhat creepy and weren't expecting, yet we love them anyway!

Profile pic--head is on the right side, belly on the left with legs over head and a hand over the head

Partial face pic on the left

Better face picture

And those are our first baby pictures! We had a moment where I think the tech thought my husband was slightly nuts. He began by asking questions about what she was doing--he was more interested than I expected. When we finally got past the measuring of the uterus and stuff like that (and I got to go to the bathroom--they make you have a full bladder for the first part...and generally run late...great combination!) we saw our first picture of the baby. Andrew said, "So, our baby is half head?"

Great question. The tech looked at him blankly and replied, "I'm not sure what you're asking?" So I then had to translate that my husband did not think our child would always have a large head disproportionate to its body, but that at this stage, babies have larger heads that make up about half of their size. I'm glad he talks...he just has a less serious view of the pregnancy right now that doesn't come across with the pros sometimes :)

We also learned that Baby Floyd is slightly uncooperative as it never moved into a great position for the tech to get what she needed on the brain. She also wanted more on the fingers and some of the heart. At this point, we don't know if our child has fingers, but I sure hope so! I'll have another one in a month to see if we can find those things. 

Unfortunately for me, as she was trying desperately to get our baby to move into a better position, she kept pushing on my right side--where I had those pains Sunday night. The head was right there. My side is still a little tender, but my midwife provided a comforting explanation in our appointment that followed. She really felt I was having a ligament spasm, and those areas would be tender for a few days just like any muscle that spasms or cramps. She also dropped to the floor and gave us an interesting demo for ways to stretch out those areas. Andrew thought she was passing out--turns out she could be my favorite midwife yet! Very dedicated--I'm pretty sure you'd rarely see a doc do something like that :) She was also wearing a really interesting outfit that involved a longer black skirt and colorful striped knee socks...reminiscent of the wicked witch from The Wizard of Oz...that made this demo even funnier.

For those of you not in New England, try and remember this is New England. Some things tend to be a little hippier (which I love!) and may seem off-the-wall to Southern ways. Soon I'll update you all on some of my birth choices--we finally found our doula!

It's kind of a funny story...not

*Note: If you've never seen the movie It's Kind of a Funny Story, you should. It's great. While it has its comedic moments, it is not a comedy. Neither is this story, though I will do my best to add some humor. 


*Second note: While I don't feel this post will fall under the TMI category, you might. Read it anyway, for educational purposes! I'll be sure to use clinical/medical terminology. And if you're a man, married or not, put on your big boy pants because this might have/could happen to you one day...


So my next post was originally going to be house related. We've cleaned out our garage and mudroom, built a compost box and decorated for Christmas. However, the events of last night/early this morning take precedence. You see, I had my first "I'm pregnant for the first time and something weird is happening need to go to the hospital" experience.

Sunday was a pretty chill day for me. We had church Sunday morning (no strenuous set up/take down for the band as we are meeting in a house right now), ate lunch, did some laundry, took a nap, cooked dinner and then set out to watch the Patriots/deliver Christmas gifts to friends. Andrew and I are leaving for Alabama Wednesday night so I started prepping for our trip over the weekend.

We got back from our final "Merry Christmas and goodbye!" just before 10, and I got ready for bed. We were both pretty tired from our day of doing very little so we got in bed just before 10:15. As soon as I got situated I started having sharp pains in my lower right abdomen while simultaneously having throbbing pain in my right thigh.

I've had the normal aches and pains that come with muscles/organs growing and stretching, but this was different. I also know that round ligament pains will become a little more frequent from this point forward. This still felt different as it continued to pulse rhythmically in both places. I was also cold because it's down in the teens here now, so I was shivering from cold and a little fear.

I immediately made Andrew call Christie and Ryan--our good friends and Ryan's our pastor--who are in Oklahoma right now for Christmas. They have three kids, so I always run my weird pains by her first. Christie had never experienced my pains before, but asked if I had a fever or diarrhea as one of her kids and another kid we know had those symptoms with right side pain just a few days prior. And I had been in one of the kid's presence while she was sick. I didn't have those other symptoms, so Christie told me to go ahead and call my midwives' after hours number.

I will say here that because I was having pain but no bleeding I did not really panic. You might be shocked to hear that, but I really figured that something else was wrong, and since I didn't have bleeding, I hadn't miscarried.

I called the number and after leaving a message I received a call pretty quickly. I talked with the midwife on call for a bit, and she felt like it could be one of four things: ligament pains, problem with the placenta, intestinal problem or something else that I have since forgotten. (I only slept four hours last night.)

I was told to lie down (already doing that), drink a glass of water and call back in half an hour. I did that, but still had consistent pain in both areas. At 11:15 or so I spoke with the midwife again and she really didn't have any suggestions as the pain had now been constant for an hour. So in to the Wesson building (the women's building at the hospital) we went. We arrived shortly before midnight, registered and received a labor exam room.

Proof of registration

So remember--I'm in some pain. Walking/standing is less fun than lying down. I'm in my flannel pj pants and an Alabama sweatshirt (with appropriate down jacket, gloves and hat on as well since it's about 18 degrees outside). I'm also in glasses because who feels like putting in contacts at midnight? Let's just say I looked bee-yoo-ti-ful. Then they tell me I have to go do a clean catch urine sample. If you're a woman, you've probably done some of these in your lifetime. I won't go into detail if you don't know what it is, but it's a little more involved than simply peeing in a cup. It's a pain when you feel well, and it was a real pain as I was in pain while doing it.

Over the course of the next three hours the following things happened: my urine was checked for a urinary tract infection. The nurse checked for the baby's heartbeat--first with something that generally doesn't pick up anything until 28 weeks (I'm 20)--but I didn't panic when nothing came through. Really, I promise. Me, not panicking. She found it with another device later, which was a great sign. I answered a bajillion questions about what I'd eaten, done, etc etc for the nurse and later the midwife on call. At 1:15 a.m. or so, the midwife has exhausted her possibilities and wants to do a "less invasive vaginal exam." Don't worry, I won't share details.

She took a sample for some test, but then basically lifted and prodded muscles, tissues and other inside parts for a bit. Crazily enough I felt no pain from the inside--which was great because that meant it might be intestinal rather than baby-related--but when she finished, the pain was gone! No more throbbing. Unfortunately, no going home yet either.

We speculated that it could have been a ligament spasm, and her basically massaging my insides made it let up. Regardless, I had throbbing sharp-ish pains for about three hours. Then they wanted to do a blood test to rule out appendix, gallbladder and other things I'm sure.

I would like to say here that I have fabulous veins. Nurses tell me that all the time. I've never had trouble having blood drawn, and I've given a few times voluntarily. It doesn't hurt me so much, and since I never look, I always do great.

Enter experienced nurse. Enter extremely tight tourniquet. Prick. Comments from nurse about how my veins are doing something weird or something. [If you're a nurse, please please please keep these comments to yourself. No one needs to hear them until after you've removed the needle. Then tell me you missed or you messed up or my vein even disappeared! Don't say it while it's happening!] I calmly continued to lie still and watch Andrew. She had to give up and move on.

Her next try was on my wrist. I've never had surgery or an IV so this was new for me. Apparently (due to her continued comments) this one started flowing but then stopped. Two tries, two fails and she was out. Nurse number two entered about half an hour later. She felt my veins were probably too good for a tourniquet, tried further up my forearm (again, very new for me) and had success. Here's a visual record of this annoying, somewhat painful anecdote:

After this we waited forever for the results, but during that time I learned my urine sample was fine. Just before 3 a.m. the nurse and midwife came back. All of my tests were "beautiful" and since the pain was gone (aside from some slight side twinges that seemed like previous pregnancy pains) I was free to go.

My first ultrasound is this afternoon, so they will be looking to make sure the placenta is still intact and normal. Other than that, I'm supposed to take it easy and call back if this happens again.

So we survived my first "freak-out" of the pregnancy. It came much earlier than expected (according to Andrew's expectations that we discussed this morning), but it's over. I slept for four hours and got up to continue my Christmas trip prep while he called out and slept in. I will be taking a nap pretty soon :)

Hopefully I can share something from the ultrasound in the next day or so. In sum, I hope your Sunday evening/early Monday morning was much less eventful than mine!!

Things I never knew about pregnancy, part deux

If you didn't get a chance to read my first post on things I never knew about pregnancy, click here. If you did, I hope you were entertained! Without further ado, on to more things I've been learning...

Odd way of measurement

You may have noticed a few sarcastic Facebook status updates about the size of my baby or heard me talk about it. Lots of baby sites (babycenter.com, thebump.com, etc.) send you email updates each week telling you helpful and unhelpful information alike about where you are in your pregnancy. They generally start with telling you how much your baby weighs or how long it is, and they do so by giving you a fruit or vegetable to compare it to. For example, I'm 18 weeks, and my baby is as long as a bell pepper. Because that's informative. Ever think of having a whole bell pepper in your stomach? Me neither.

One day I posted something on Facebook about how I was a lime a week or two before but had moved on to a lemon and how that just seemed odd. Aren't those fruits really really similar? My friend Josh commented saying how funny it would be if we measured all things like that. Like going into the hardware store and asking for a shelf that is 10 apples long by 4 oranges wide or something.

While I realize the point is to help you connect with this thing growing inside of you, I can't help but laugh at the various emails. One week it was an apple--weight-wise at 2.5 ounces. Andrew was like, hmm...that must be a pretty small apple. That's no Granny Smith or anything. In the beginning I had a kumquat...never actually seen one of these in person so that was entertaining.

You also have to read what the comparison is for--either length or weight. Just because the baby is as long as a head of kale, doesn't mean it's as wide. Or if it weighs as much as a cantaloupe, that doesn't mean the baby is melon-shaped. I'm sure you're smart enough to know that, but when they send you a picture of a hot pepper, it's hard not to get fixated on that image. 

Hunger pains

I knew abut the nausea going into pregnancy, even that "morning sickness" is a misnomer, but I never knew about the excessive hunger. During my first trimester I was nauseated all day and also starving--at the exact same time! Eating was such a joy then!

Since about week 14 or 15 I've been feeling much better and no longer loathe all but five or so foods. But I still get really really hungry. Wicked hungry if you're from New England. It's sort of hard to satisfy that hunger because I run out of things to eat! I only want so many apples or bowls of cereal in a day, and eating extra helpings at dinner doesn't mean I won't be starving an hour later. I was hoping to learn this would get better, but in my week 18 email there was a note about how right now my appetite should be increasing...maybe they just didn't know how much it increased from the get go?? Doubtful.

Here today, gone tomorrow

Finally, I'll share with you the case of the disappearing baby bump. I alluded to it in my first post on things I've learned, but I said way too much about other things before I got to it. Like I said before, I'm not really showing yet. It's weird. I wake up in the morning, and there's not much to see. I go to bed at night, and wow, there's a baby in there! Wake up the next morning, and it's gone again. Andrew and I laugh about it, but I'm now at the point where I'd like a little consistency!

Some days I need to wear my bella band thing that allows me to wear my own jeans unbuttoned. Some days I don't. Or there are times when I don't need it in the morning, but you better you believe I need it at night. I'm really thankful I haven't had to buy maternity clothes yet (the list of must-haves to survive pregnancy on babycenter.com included several outfits that cost $300 and up...because I plan to buy my maternity clothes at Nordstrom), but since I keep expanding and...un-expanding...what happens if I wake up tomorrow and find the only clothes that will fit are my flannel pajama pants? Now that's gonna be a fun trip to Target. 

Things I never knew about pregnancy

There are quite a few things I never knew about being pregnant, and rightly so, as I've never been pregnant, nor walked through a pregnancy with a close friend or family member. I did know a lot though--but most of what I've researched in the last couple of years has been related to actual labor and delivery, so nothing that would be of much help in the majority of the pregnancy. And I recently found out I know way more than my husband. Again, rightly so, but I was somewhat shocked to learn that my husband had no idea what a C-section was and that he has never, ever changed a diaper. Never! I mean I can see that when I think about it, but I've changed hundreds of diapers in my life, so I was still shocked. I've tried to get him to change one since learning that, but he maintains he'll figure it out when our baby gets here. We'll so how well that works!

Because a lot of my friends who read this have never been pregnant, I figured a post of some of the things I have learned in the last few months would be helpful. Or at least humorous. So here we go:


Not quite the gestation period of an elephant
I'm betting if you ask most people how long a woman is pregnant, they will say nine months. (Maybe not most men, but I feel this is a fact many women have filed away in the inner recesses of their brains.) So nine months is how long you carry a baby for, right? Wrong.

For a lot of women it can actually be ten months. This is partly due to the math doctors and midwives use when confirming your pregnancy. I went to the doctor's office on Sept. 13. They asked me when the first day of my last period was, and I said Aug. 1 or 2. The nurse grabbed a little wheel, spun some things around and determined I was six weeks pregnant. If you know anything about a monthly cycle, you don't ovulate until somewhere between 10-18 days in. So there are roughly two weeks added to your gestation period when no baby was ever present! Now I realize this doesn't prolong any pregnancy symptoms since you hadn't conceived in that period, but still! It can really throw you off if you never knew that!

Then you have the pros tell you that the average woman delivers between 38 and 40 weeks. The World Health Organization says 37-42 weeks. What does that mean? It means if you deliver at 38 weeks, congratulations, you carried a baby for exactly nine months! (Remember, subtract roughly two weeks for that pre-conception period.) But if you go over 38 weeks, you go over nine months! Make it to 42 weeks (which rarely happens in our country, by the way) and you've carried a kid for ten months! Nowhere near the gestation period of an elephant--22 months--but still! It's not like there's anything we can do about it; I just feel like the general population should be re-educated to know that a typical pregnancy lasts longer than nine months, that's all.


Unsolicited information
So I'm not really showing yet. I'm supposedly 18 weeks today, and I seem to have a case of a disappearing baby bump (see more on that below). I know from friends with children that once it is readily apparent I'm pregnant, I will get more advice than I ever wanted to hear. And mainly horror stories at that. However, I do have one story I can share that I find pretty funny.

Before we told anyone we were expecting, I had to visit the podiatrist. Note: it's always a good idea to tell your doctors of any kind that you're pregnant. I told my dental hygienist, not thinking dentist appointments affect anything, but they do. You shouldn't have dental x-rays when you're pregnant. Good to know. Anyway, back to the podiatrist. I shared with her I was a few weeks pregnant, so I could no longer take the prescription I had been on for plantar warts. She then congratulates me and asks how I've been feeling. Typical reactions, especially when you're in your first trimester. But it gets better.

I tell her I've been horribly nauseated--24/7. Very little vomiting, but major nausea that never ends. Not bad enough to land me in the hospital because I wasn't dehydrated or unable to keep food down, but just bad enough to keep from doing anything productive. Stop for a moment and think how you would react. I expect many of you would say, "Oh gosh, that's terrible! I'm so sorry!" or something like that. Here's what I got: she proceeds to tell me that she loved being pregnant and felt great with all four of her kids. Really?! She then says, "And I gained about 66 pounds with each baby. It was great! I ate everything!"

I'll let that sink in. Sixty-six pounds?! Not only should you not gain that much weight, but why on earth would you share that story with me after I just told you I've been unable to eat much of anything!

Wait...what can I eat?
Speaking of eating, I went to lunch with my friend Sarah a few weeks ago. During that time I was telling her about the foods I'm not supposed to eat. Things like deli meat, fish with high mercury contents, crab meat, sushi, soft cheeses. Before being pregnant I pretty much knew not to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes or do drugs. No brainers. But I had no idea the extent of things I can't eat or should rarely eat, as well as other things to stay away from. Deli meat is a huge thing--I've had nurses tell me none at all, but one of my midwives said, go ahead if it's been thoroughly cooked first and you trust the butcher. Subway? Nope. Local grocery store? After a few months, I'm giving that one a shot. I never thought I would actually want to eat ham sandwiches as much as I do.

Along with deli meats, no hot dogs. No undercooked meat. Man, do I want to eat a hot dog right now! It's not just because of the risk of listeria crossing the placenta, but it's also the nitrates or nitrites or whatever that are in hot dogs and other meats. And I like to eat steak cooked medium. That has to go out the window. I need to become a "well" sort of person now. Boo.

It gets even more complicated. While you have to limit caffeine (not really a problem for me, but I do drink Coke when I feel nauseated. You gotta do what works!) you also have to limit herbal teas or nix them completely. There are some that induce contractions, some that do other weird things. How the heck am I supposed to know? My midwive said, just call us and ask. Yep, I'll be sure to put you on speed dial so each time I enter a coffee shop I'll know what's okay or not. Think I'll be sticking to my hot chocolate, black tea and cider.

Speaking of cider--you can't have unpasteurized things. I had a sip of unpasteurized cider the day before I found this out. And for those of you who know Andrew and I drink raw milk from a farm, I have cut that out, though I really believe in this farm and feel I wouldn't have any problems if I continued.

Other than that, you can't sit in hot tubs, ride bikes, ski, stand on ladders, paint things, on and on and on. And many doctors will say no baths. My midwive just told me I'm fine to do that if I can stick my elbow in the water for 15 seconds. That means the temp is below 100 degrees and fine for bathing. But what if my elbow is just way tougher than yours??

Being pregnant can be complicated.

Because this post is getting long, I'm going to break it into two parts. Check back for the second installment including fun stories of measuring shelves with fruit (what?!) and the case of the disappearing baby bump that I promised.

And the name shall be...

Surely no one thought I would actually give up names for the baby. Those, along with gender, will be a secret until the child gets here. However, Andrew and I are being good parents-to-be and doing our best to figure out what we'll name the child even though we have five more months to spare.

I should say for those of you who don't live in Mass, our baby does have a nickname floating around right now: Baby Floyd. Our dear friend Caleb decided on that. My cousin Steven also provided his choices when I told his family I was pregnant--Thurston Franc for a boy and Helga for a girl. I'm just gonna leave it at that.

About a week ago, I went to bed around 8, and Andrew stayed up to start his next batch of beer. I failed to remember from the last time how bad it smells when the wort (what beer is before it's been fermented) is brewing. I woke up around 9:30 or 10 to a horrible smell and made Andrew open doors and windows despite the fact that we're close to winter temps around here. I continued to wake up every half hour to an hour, and around 12:30 woke up to no Andrew in the bed. He never stays up that late. So of course I freaked out momentarily.

When I called for him, he answered from the living room. I asked what he was doing. His reply? I'm looking at baby names! Seriously? Up past midnight looking at baby names.

Now I feel this was a momentous occasion for him because, while he still likes to share outrageous names with me, he is actually thinking seriously about what we'll name our child. (His previous suggestions were names like Porterhouse.) He left me a note with some of the ones he liked, and then we checked out some websites together that night. I thought I might share some of the more ridiculous ones we found through our search.

Please don't name your child this...or if you do, know that I will laugh


Banjo: Andrew could not get over this name. Turns out Rachel Griffiths (celeb) has a son named this.

Yaakov: we giggled over this for a bit.

Anson: not really a humorous name, but it is if it's late at night and instead of reading "anson" you read "arson," it has potential.

Ballard: same as anson. I saw "bastard." Maybe I should get my eyes checked...

Xanadu: simply a fun name to say!

Baby: yes indeed, naming your baby what it is was on the list.

Rafiki: even if the Lion King is your fave movie ever, naming your kid after a baboon is probably not a good idea. What's more, this name was listed as appropriate for a girl or a boy.

Hades: need I comment? We also found Lucifer in a book the other day...

Fairy: listed as gender neutral...

And there are always those names that make you say, yeah yeah, that's a joke right? Like everyone has had twins at their school named Lemonjello and Orangejello. But those names are on lists! The one we found on the website we were searching was "Abcde," pronounced ab-suh-dee.

So of course, we decided if we have a boy, his name will be Abcde Banjo Holloway. Now stitch that on a sampler.

The year of natural disasters

What a year it has been. On April 27, the place I called home for 6 years (not to mention several other places around my home state of Alabama) was hit by several tornadoes. I didn't get to see the damage in Tuscaloosa until October, and by that time most of the crumbled buildings had been leveled for rebuilding. It was still crazy to see all that had taken place in a matter of minutes.

Then in June a tornado hit Springfield, Mass.--about 15 minutes from my house. While this was nothing compared to the ones in Alabama, a lot of damage was done. People are still recovering here--and most of these people have never been near a tornado.

Moving on to August, Hurricane Irene made her way up the East Coast, downgraded to a tropical storm and swept through New England. That was an interesting weekend. Our dear friends Aaron and Amanda tied the knot about an hour from where we live. Several members of their wedding party got stranded at the wedding site as the storm hit the night and day after the wedding. A&A made it to their honeymoon location in the Berkshires safely, but had to do some plan-changing due to weather and power outages.

I was working for a paper in Connecticut at the time, and Monday morning I had to drive around my towns taking pictures and talking with people about what they experienced. The damage was mostly in downed power lines, but flooding was a major problem in parts of Mass and especially Vermont. We usually take a paddling trip with Brett & Jenna over Labor Day weekend, but we decided to change our plans slightly and do some relief work that weekend instead. We borrowed a friend's condo at Sugarbush Resort and worked in two nearby Vermont towns.

One of those was Waterbury where a fabulous restaurant called The Alchemist is. Andrew and our friends like it because they brew good beer. I like it because the food is great, and it's fun to see my friends and husband get really excited about things they like. Because of the flooding, the restaurant lost everything. We cleaned out a house next door, so we stopped by to grab some pics at the end of the day.

We didn't get any pictures of the places we worked, but we helped out at one home and one restaurant. At the home, we did things like pick up glass, spray mud off wood, rebuild a woodshed, clean floors, etc. At the restaurant, Andrew and I worked under the foundation to shovel mud from around the structural pillars (can't think of the correct terminology for this) so they could dry out. We were pretty nasty by the day's end.

If all of those events weren't enough, we then get to October. If I am remembering correctly, on the Thursday before Halloween we got a tiny bit of snow. You can see it here on my car:

But then on October 29-30 we had a nor'easter come through leaving at least 10 inches of snow in our town and tons of downed trees and power lines. I took some pics of when it started on Saturday, then Andrew and I put on our snow clothes and went to take pictures Sunday morning. Here are some pictures from our neighborhood:

 Saturday

Saturday

 Sunday morning

Our street

I took nearly 50 pictures that morning, so if you want to see more, check out my Facebook page. We had so much damage because the trees hadn't lost all of their leaves yet. Where we live, the snow was very heavy and wet, breaking tons of branches. I think most everyone in Mass had power back by the following Saturday, but in Connecticut some people went 10 days or more without power. We were lucky enough to be without it for only about 48 hours, and we had friends with power who let us crash. 

I almost forgot--somewhere in there (end of summer, maybe?) we also felt a mini-earthquake! What will the last month and a half of 2011 hold for New England?

Kitchen Update

Alright, at long last, here are details of what we've done to the kitchen in the last however long. This post will mainly include pictures...hooray if you hate reading, and boo if you like witty banter :)

We got new floors!

A note on the new floors: we chose to go with Dura-Ceramic. We initially thought we had hardwood under the many layers of carpet, but that turned out to be false. There were a few more slats of hardwood between the kitchen and living room, but not many. We then moved on to tile. We figured we'd tile the kitchen but first put in a radiant heating system so the floors wouldn't be cold in the winter. After some research, we (by "we" I of course mean Andrew) decided those systems are expensive and often heat only a direct area--meaning the heat doesn't spread out over the whole tile. Our neighbor installs floors for a living, and he pointed us to this Dura-Ceramic stuff that looks like tile but is lighter, easier to install and warmer to the touch. Sold!

Andrew installed the recessed lighting and hanging pendants. Still on the hunt for globes...

We started building and placing cabinets. 

Credit for building the cabinets goes to: Brett & Jenna, Aaron and Andrew. Yep, I never touched a one. I don't think. Brett & Jenna built the first one on July 4, after which we decided it would be really fun to bring engaged and married couples over to the house for a rousing game of "Marriage Challenge." The idea would be that each couple had to put together one of our kitchen cabinets, according to the instructions and in a condition acceptable for install. We envisioned a few arguments, some wives walking away from the project, some husbands breaking our cabinets...so we nixed the idea. Then in August, our friend Aaron lived with us for three weeks before his wedding. Most mornings he woke up, ate breakfast, put together a cabinet or two, then headed out. We rarely saw him, but man, those cabinets got done! Andrew put together some with Aaron and did a little on his own.

 Aaron and Andrew determining where the bottom of each upper cabinet would sit. They nailed a board in to keep them all level. The holes will eventually be covered with backsplash, though I forget they're even there.

 The boys building and gluing.

 Two cabinets are up!

Confession: Some of the cabinets may look a bit off to you in the final pics. Or you may have no idea what I'm talking about :) Our cabinets are where they are because our house was built with an interesting structure. Studs are where they shouldn't be and aren't where they should be. Not sure how it happened, but the cabinets had to hang where there were studs for them to be screwed into. Because of this, they are not centered around the window. I've dealt with the issue and moved on. Mostly. At the time I just left the house until the project was done, and I couldn't do anything about it!

 The first countertop delivery came!

 Andrew and Brett checking out the countertops. Unfortunately, they were bowed by a quarter-inch and had to be sent back. Three-ish weeks later we received another delivery.

 New countertops! Andrew installed them alone (I did help...by sitting on them to hold them in place!) He then drew on them with Sharpie (eek!) to mark the cut-out for the sink.

Sink note: So glad we chatted with Brett before ordering the countertops. We were going to order them with the sink hole already cut out. If we had done this, the hole might not have centered up under our window. By doing it ourselves, we were able to get it exactly right. Otherwise we would've been out of luck if the placement was slightly off. Most sinks come with a template to help homeowners do this, but you can also measure the sink and draw it out like Andrew did. The good news is, you can be off by almost half an inch and it's all good since top-mounted sinks have an overhang.

 Cutting the sink hole

 Now that's focus...

 Home stretch!

Empty hole for our new sink!

Now for some after pics. Remember, the kitchen is nowhere near "done." But it is in workable order--minus the fact that our pantry cabinets have yet to be secured to the wall. So our food is crammed in on one shelf per cabinet. And strewn on our counters. 

Also, I debated on whether to clean up the kitchen before taking pictures. I decided that since vulnerability is a good quality, I would just give it to you like it is. Plus, I wouldn't have gotten this post up for another few weeks days if I had taken the time to clean. Andrew brewed beer last night (which is now on the list of things not to do at night/pre-bedtime due to the smell and pregnant wife combo) and he hasn't quite finished cleaning up. I'm being a good wife and leaving it for him when he gets home from work :)

 The fridge/pantry combo. Another cabinet will go above the fridge. 

And yes, Sherpa's ears made it into the pic as well...

 Living room side: the trash can will eventually be in a special cabinet. For now it helps keep Sherpa blocked into the kitchen/mudroom when we leave the house.

 The other side. Those holes in the sink cabinet will have drawers "glued" in place.

The view from the living room. The bar will be in place and barstools will be where the camping chair, microwave/toaster and buckets are. That big box is also used to block Sherpa in the kitchen. We currently have two microwaves--neither of which work 100%. The buckets hold cider that Andrew and his BFF Caleb are making and the beer Andrew brewed last night.

So hopefully that brings everyone up to date! Maybe one day I'll show you the inside of the cabinets...I should probably do that sooner rather than later while they're still organized. My lovely friend Sarah (who is a math teacher and crazy-organized about nearly everything) came over one day to help me fill them up. I still have one empty drawer and two big cabinets with lots of room left! So excited to have double the space of the previous kitchen...maybe even more!

Mixin' it up

You may have noticed in my last post that I detoured from the usual renovation posts to talk about something else, in this case, my pregnancy. I also recently changed the blog header and tag so it reads "home renovation + life along the way." I decided I'd like to write more about the things we do, trips we take, good recipes we find, crafts, sewing projects, etc. etc. And since I knew we were going to have a baby when I redesigned the header, I figured some of my family might like to be kept up to date with the kiddo once it gets here. Thus, you will begin seeing more posts that are non-renovation related, as well as posts about the house as we complete more projects.

Speaking of projects, this week I'll have pictures up of our "almost finished" kitchen--90% of the cabinets are in, the countertops (minus the bar) are in and the sink works! Woohoo! We also completely cleaned out our garage on Saturday--to the point my car can actually fit in there! Besides more little things in the kitchen (think backsplash, trim, installing the bar, securing the pantry cabinets), we have a laundry list of projects to accomplish by the time the baby gets here. We'll see how far we get. Things we'd *like* to complete include: finishing the ceiling in the living room and hallway, painting those areas, maybe redoing the floor in the mudroom and, of course, repainting a room for the nursery. Unfortunately, I've been told I can't paint (can't say I'm terribly sad about that!), but stay tuned as I try to find ways around that...

Ready, set, approximately 25 weeks to go!

Upcoming project: the new home addition

Before anyone begins thinking we're terribly crazy, our "new addition" has nothing to do with adding on to the existing structure of our home. We have yet to finish the kitchen (small glitch with the countertops), and we'd be really dumb to start something of that size in October with snow coming!

In actuality, the new addition comes in the form of a person...we are expecting our first child in May! (It seems even crazier to write this down than it does to just tell people, by the way. The enormity of the situation has yet to fully sink in!)

Our precious pup Sherpa, who turned five a couple weeks ago, will now be a big brother! He just doesn't know it yet. For those of you who would like the full story with the few details we have to this point, continue reading.

Finding Out
We found out we were pregnant on Sept. 12 with a home pregnancy test. The day before I competed in a triathlon in Connecticut. That morning I was feeling especially queasy, but since it was a.) 5 a.m. and b.) I get car sick and was in the back of a minivan, I didn't think much of it. I was also a little nervous since it was my first tri. By the time we got to the race and got our gear set up, I was totally fine.

I had been thinking I could be pregnant, but because tests cost about $10 each Andrew wouldn't let me get one until I was two weeks late. This is also because I had taken one the month before, after being about 5 days late. (TMI alert: I went off birth control pills several months ago because I did a lot of research and don't believe they are completely safe, so I've been late a lot since then. Alert over.)

Anywho, he conceded, I took the test and it was positive. The next day on Sept. 13, I called the doctor and had an appointment that day. They confirmed my pregnancy and said I was six weeks along.

Today I am 12 weeks and hopefully we'll get to hear the heartbeat this afternoon!

Sharing the News
We wanted to keep it a secret until the second trimester, which was difficult because I have been feeling terrible. I haven't been vomiting, but I'm constantly nauseous. Fun fun! I have said this a few times already and will say it again: I have no idea why women say "I want to be pregnant." You should say, "I want to have a baby." I will love and care for this child, but after the last few weeks, pregnancy is for the birds. I'm grateful for the time to prepare...I just really hope I start feeling better so I can actually read all the info I need to and stuff like that.

We did tell a couple of people early out of necessity, which did help that someone other than us knew. Over the last week we shared the news with our families, close friends and then our church on Sunday. I wrote a song to Oasis' "Wonderwall" to announce the news.

A few notable reactions:

My friend Kristin--screamed louder than anyone. Twice.

Our niece, Ava--Andrew said, "Ava, you're going to be a cousin." Silence. Her mom, Logan, said, "Wait, I'm going to be an aunt?!" to which Ava said, "I'm going to be an uncle!!"

Prophetic dreams: My friend Christie had a dream a few weeks ago that I was two months and showing, making an announcement at church. I found out yesterday that my friend Katharine also had a dream recently that I was pregnant.

Suspicious: my step-mother, great aunt and cousin Leah. I should point out that my step-sister-in-law is due in March, and my sister-in-law is due in April. Lots of babies!

Secrets
We are not going to find out what we're having, nor are we revealing names until the baby is here, in our arms and given said name. Sorry!!

Baking in the remodel

The events of this post happened about two months ago...oh well :)

So two months ago we were in August, and the kitchen remodel was in a similar state as it is now. That seems sad--we are making progress, just had a little hitch that I'll get into in another post. My friend Kristin's birthday was July 31, and my friend Laura's birthday was August 5. (You can read their blog here.) To celebrate, Kristin's husband, Mike, decided to have a little party for the two of them.

One day he handed me the August edition of Rachael Ray's magazine and showed me several fun birthday cake ideas. Kristin liked one in particular, but there were a few others she thought were pretty cool, too. I told him I'd make three of them: one that looked like pancakes, one where the cake is baked inside ice cream cones and one that was a rainbow-colored cake. Each was pretty easy and used a box mix, and two of the three were smaller looking so I figured it would be fun to have options. Now remember, I have no sink in my kitchen and no counters. I did have a working oven, though, so I assured Mike everything would be fine.

Fast forward to August 9, the day before the party. I got a call from Laura's husband, Caleb, asking if I might be able to pick up a cake he ordered from a bakery in Easthampton. At this point, I was unaware that anyone else was bringing dessert. He said it was a cake that he and Laura had tried and loved and that it would feed 20 people. I'm really glad Caleb called me because I knew we wouldn't have 20 people at the party, meaning I didn't need to bake three different cakes in addition to the one he ordered.

On to August 10. I decided to go with the pancake cake since that was the one Kristin really liked. Here is a picture from the magazine of the finished product:

I gathered all of my ingredients together on an IKEA cabinet that we were using in the living room.

You need a yellow cake mix, whatever the cake mix calls for, powdered sugar, water and sprinkles. I then got my set-up ready on the stove. Remember...no counters. (I didn't end up using my big mixer--it was easier to do my hand.)

I melted butter in my pan, had my cake mix ready in the bowl and then got to work. You pour the cake batter in your pan a little at a time the same way you would to make pancakes. Now I like Rachael Ray, but I will say I feel like the recipe lied a little. The cooking time given was about 8-9 minutes on the first side, then a few more on the other. I'm pretty sure I only needed about 2 minutes on the first side, then about 15 seconds on the other. Just cook them like you would pancakes--wait for the bubbles before you flip. It is a little trickier to flip cake batter as opposed to pancake batter, but if you work at it, it is possible I promise! (Andrew benefited from my mistakes, though!) Here are some cooking pics:

Once you make a stack, you can then make the icing drizzle for the top. The recipe said to mix powdered sugar together with water, then drizzle on the stack. I read on another blog that you could also use milk or orange juice. So I headed to the bathroom--my source of water--and made the topping, drizzled it and added sprinkles. Here's the finished cake--the icing doesn't look as thick as the one in the magazine, but it worked!

At this point I got really worried. The cake didn't look so great to me, I thought it would get too soggy since the party was in another hour, on and on. Andrew said it tasted good, but I wasn't convinced. I finished it up anyway and hoped for the best. I broke a wooden skewer in half, cut out a triangle of card stock, wrote happy birthday on the card stock, then taped the flag to the skewer. Voila! Who needs candles?

Turns out, the cake was great and everyone loved it. It definitely took more work than I anticipated--mainly because I was running through my house looking for better spatulas to flip with or trying to find a ladle for the batter, etc. Cooking and baking is definitely harder when your supplies are spread throughout your home.

One last note: The batter lasted me forever. I read on another blog that someone got 9 pancakes out of their batter. I got about 16! I made 7 or 8 for Kristin and Laura's party, then made the rest for Andrew and our house guest, Aaron. I made several of the pancakes, then I think just made a bowl of the icing for them to dip it in.

And, we're back in the game!

The game of dishes that is. Most of you have no idea what I just [mis]quoted, unless your name is Mike Thomas, but it's from one of my favorite movies--Ten Things I Hate About You. Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character kisses Larisa Oleynik's character, she gets out of the car and he says, "And I'm back in the game!" and simultaneously hits the steering wheel for dramatic effect.

I apologize for that brief tangent, but since my last post lacked random humor, I felt it was needed :)

Anywho....our dishwasher works! Let that sink in...

OUR DISHWASHER WORKS!!!

Well, we hope. Our first full cycle has yet to complete. But we're 10 minutes in and no flood yet.

I realize these pictures will show a bit more work than what I've told you about to this point, but the news is so exciting I had to share this first. Expect some more backlogged-work-updates soon.

We woke up Saturday morning with nothing major to do until later in the evening, so Andrew decided to do some plumbing. And plumb he did. My beautiful husband hooked up our dishwasher in only a couple of hours and two trips to the store.

blurry....he caught me taking pictures

All I know is there was something about drilling holes in the floor, hooking up some PEX tubing, the use of teflon tape and voila, it worked! He ran a quick rinse cycle to make sure nothing leaked, then we loaded her up!

Because we don't have our countertops in yet, the dishwasher isn't "built-in" so to speak. When you open the door it becomes top heavy, so Andrew had to hold it while I loaded it. I've never seen dirty dishes look so beautiful.

Even better, free soap included!

And that green light and the minutes on the face mean it's working. Clean dishes minus the bathtub, here we come!!