5.30.2009

Best commercial ever!

If our child were to be in a nursery after his/her birth, this would have to be me!!

5.29.2009

So annoyed

On Monday, after weeks of searching, I finally found an affordable and nice dress to wear to a wedding that I am going to a week from today. Most maternity clothes are found on-line only and are either way too expensive or of poor quality. Anyway, I ordered the dress and they said they would send me an e-mail when it shipped. Today is Friday and I still hadn't received an e-mail even though I paid for express shipping. I give the company a call and they tell me that my order was cancelled because the dress wasn't in stock. This is information that would have been useful on MONDAY. I am leaving for this wedding on Wednesday morning so I have no time to find another dress on-line, order it and wait for it to be shipped.

Needless to say, today will be spent going to every store in Colorado Springs and trying on dresses to find one that looks nice and fits. I've tried on every dress that I own and my belly has just gotten too big to fit into any of them. I am super excited for this wedding, but I wish that there was a better selection of nice, affordable dresses for pregnant women.

Bummer.

5.28.2009

19 week ultrasound

Today was the ultrasound that everyone refers to as the "big one". Usually people find out if they are having a boy or a girl during this "big" event. From the get go, Dave & I have been ambivalent about the gender. As of right now he is saying girl and I am saying boy. Not that we really care either way.

Aside from gender this ultrasound really was exciting! First of all, it had been 4 weeks since we last saw our little one. For most people this is normal, but because of my blood clot I have gotten used to having weekly/fortnightly ultrasounds. 4 weeks seemed like an eternity. Our lab tech measured the length of the bones, the heart, the head, the waist, etc... We got to see the stomach, kidneys, all 4 chambers of the heart, the brain and the multiple kicks. With as many times as he/she kicked during the ultrasound you would think that I would feel them by now.

True to our word, we are still clueless to the gender of little Baby R. and that is exactly the way we want it! Stay tuned until mid to late October and then we can all find out together.

P.S. If you are trying to dissect these pictures to see if you can tell the gender, the umbilical cord was between the legs so even the lab tech couldn't see. Better luck next time.....Becky.







5.13.2009

17 week belly


We planted a garden!

If you know me, then you know how I feel about planting, plants, dirt, bugs, etc... I would much rather be baking a cake than getting dirt under my finger nails. It just seems so tedious and boring. This is all very much to my mother's dismay.

Well, I have bucked tradition. This past weekend Dave & I planted our first garden. He tilled and prepped the soil, I picked out the plants, he installed the drip irrigation system, I put the plants in the ground, and then he planted a mini vegetable garden. We put some organic mulch on top to complete the look. Can you believe they sell mulch that is dyed and has disclaimers on it saying it can be poisonous to some animals?

I still cannot say that I have a deep love or even a new found respect for the horticultural life, but it was kind of satisfying to see this to fruition. Anyway, here are some picture of the new garden.

Dave putting in the drip irrigation

Me putting is some annuals for color

The finished product

The mini vegetable garden

Here is a list of some of the plants that are in our garden.
  • Salvia
  • Hosta
  • Columbine
  • Phlox
  • Vinca Vine
  • Ivy Garland
  • Corydalis
  • Trollius
  • Marigold
  • Pansy
  • Dianthus
  • Labelia
  • 2 varieties of tomatoes
  • basil
  • sweet banana peppers

I can cook in peace once again

Today we had a special delivery. Our brand new stove! It is black with a flat, glass cook-top and a large oven window. I cannot wait for Dave to come home and cook dinner on it!

You might wonder what prompts a person to spend money on a new stove when they had a working, albeit, stinky old stove. I blame it on pregnancy. I had some very strong smell aversions during my first trimester. One of them is that smoky, meaty scent that most fast food restaurants seem to have surrounding them. Another was my stove. There was about a 1 month period in our house that if it couldn't be cooked in the microwave then we didn't eat it.

Our old stove was a coil top that I believe the old owners had for many years before we ever moved it. The white had given way to a murky yellowish tint. The oven had baked on nastiness that even a self-clean cycle wouldn't remove. The coils were all so warped that a lighter pan would tilt towards the weight of the handle. All in all, it was a stove you would expect an apartment to have, not the house that you pay a mortgage on every month.

Anyway, here are the before and after pictures.

Before
After

5.11.2009

"Free At Last"

While I am in no way comparing my current situation with the one that the Great Dr. King was talking about with those infamous and dramatic words, I still feel very liberated...from crappy Comcast cable!

Ever since I have been living on my own/with my awesome past roomies/with my hubster, I have always had Comcast cable. I felt no particular affinity towards them, but the company is everywhere and usually offering some great sign-up promo. Ever since we got our HD box almost a year and half ago, our service has steadily declined as our bill simultaneously increased. Our cable would freeze usually right around the climax of the show we were watching. This has been an everyday occurrence too.

Well yesterday was the straw that broke the camel's back. Back in September we ordered the NHL Center Ice package so I could watch all the Red Wings games. This is no cheapy thing either. It costs about $180 for the season. As we all know, playoff hockey is the best sort of hockey there is. No true fan misses a playoff game. So I was searching for which station the game would be on yesterday. and searching. and still searching. Where is my hockey game??? Finally I see that it is only playing on NHL tv. Do I get NHL tv? NO. Grrr.

I decide to call Comcast to see what is up. The lady I am talking to double checks to make sure that the game isn't playing on any other station. It isn't. I ask her why it isn't playing on the Center Ice channels. Apparently this particular game was not authorized to play on them, only NHL tv had the rights. Okay. So I am getting a little frustrated and I ask her why I paid so much money to watch my hockey team when I cannot even watch them? I also ask if as a courtesy to a paying and loyal customer if they could unblock the NHL channel for like a day so I can watch the game. She says no and I ask to speak to a manager.

Here comes the manager. I fill him in and he treats me as a nuisance. I let him know that I have been a customer for over 5 years, we paid almost $200 for the NHL package and we also pay over $100 a month for cable that is less than stellar. The least they could do was try to keep their loyal customers satisfied. He is still not being very nice to me so I must admit that I started to yell and cry. The yelling was all me, the crying was all pregnancy hormones. After about 1-2 minutes of this, I tell him that we are done with Comcast and I want to cancel our cable. He says that I cannot do that over the phone and I must bring in my cable box. I yelled fine and hung up the phone.

I am usually very nice to customer service representatives, because I have been one before and I know how crappy it can be. However, I do not feel bad about this incident. Nobody comes between a pregnant Red Wings fan and her Game 5 of the Western Conference Semi-Finals. I mean NO ONE! So my dear, loving and loyal husband promptly gets on the phone with Direct TV and they are currently at my house installing our new dish and cable boxes. We are getting a DVR with each box AND the NHL channel comes standard with our package. We will soon also be switching our Internet provider and I will wash my hands of Comcast.

Comcast does not care about their customers. Whenever you call their customer service department you get the run around. Once Dave was given 5, yes FIVE, different phone numbers to call and none of them were able to answer our questions. They charge their "loyal" customers an arm and a leg for their services and their HD cable really isn't that great. I will not be recommending Comcast to anyone and I will in fact be encouraging people to seek out better companies in which to do their business with.

Down with Comcast!

5.06.2009

Zoom Zoom!

(not my car, but an exact replica)

A little over 5 years ago, I went to a Mazda dealership and drove off the lot with my first brand new car. The first car I ever had to pay for every month. The first car that required I carry full coverage insurance until it was paid off. The first car I was solely responsible for. And I have been in love with that car ever since.

I give it car washes, clean the interior with dash protecting wipes, vacuum, wash the windows, remove the clutter, rotate the tires, get regular oil changes, and fix things as needed. When I see other Mazda 3 5-doors on the road I still stare at them even though I currently am driving mine. I think my car is beautiful and would buy it again and again. The only two drawbacks that I ever found on my car are the stock tires that it came with and the fact that it isn't available in AWD/4WD. I have two sets of tires though to help with those issues.

I guess I am writing this ode to my car because yesterday I got the FINAL PAYMENT bill! I will own my car officially and am so super excited! I researched the heck out of this vehicle before I bought it, I did my legwork on loans and got a great fixed APR and I did it all by myself. I haven't missed a payment or had to refinance. I switched my insurance companies as needed and soon it will be all mine!

I guess I never thought I would have love affair with a car, but my Mazda has actually made me a car person and given me the experience of having true joy over a big hunk of machinery. In our family, I get to choose the vehicles. Our Jeep was harder for me because it is primarily Dave's car. I had to find a car that he could love and I could tolerate. Let me tell you though, when it comes time to replace my car (way down the road) I will get to find a whole new love affair.

Cars I could love!

BMW 1-series (five-door). Not available in the U.S., but if it were....

Lexus IS 250. Drool.

Infiniti FX35 AWD

Volvo C30. I am really digging this little car!

5.01.2009

I like food again!

We have had an interesting spring so far. We've had sunny days, warm days, cold days, rainy days, snowy days and all those days in between. It is great! On the sunny days I want mocktails, caprese salad, and fresh fruit. On the rainy days I lean more towards soup and bread rolls. Hot chocolate is a must on snowy days. The best part though is that fact that WANT food. I do believe that the worst of morning sickness is behind me. Woohoo!

I have also been a little more productive lately. Last weekend Dave and I went to Lowe's and Home Depot to stock up on manure, mulch, plants and various around-the-house items. We are actually going to till up our garden and redo it. I am going to put plants into the ground. Crazy! This weekend we are planning on getting a new stove. Our is old with those crappy electric coils that I cannot stand and it stinks up the house every time we use it. There is an appliance outlet in town and we are going to look for the flat top stoves like my Mom has.

So basically spring has sprung and so have I.

Some of the plants for our new garden

Caprese Salad I made for Dave

Mock Mimosa. Not as good as the real thing though.

Dave working from home under our new umbrella.