Home Sweet Home

Well we made it home safe and sound. And to my surprise the traffic was not bad at all yesterday! What a relief because the 7.5 hour drive is long enough without sitting in traffic. Our Thanksgiving was great. After eating with Frankie's family we headed up to WV. We woke up early the next morning to head to my grandmothers. Lets just say the weather forecasters missed a snow storm. We got about 30 minutes from my parents and the roads were COVERED with snow/ice. In some spots the snow on the road was at least 2 inches deep. We drove 20-30mph for the first hour of our trip. Then, with the help of some prayers, the roads cleared up for the rest of the trip (except for about the last 10 miles, which were once again pretty slippery.)

This is a small section of road. This was taken the day before we left so you can imagine how it looked when we drove on it.

Pretty to look at as long as you don't have to drive anywhere

A rare sight, especially during hunting season

I am usually a big kid when it comes to the snow and I cannot wait to play in it but this time around I passed. I think with being pregnant I just didn't have the energy to put on all the layers and go out in the cold. Cameron was so excited though. He was making snow angels, throwing snowballs, and even built a snowman. His little cheeks were rosy red by the time he came inside.

We spent the next couple of nights at my grandmothers. It was nice being able to keep her company although I don't think it distracted her much from the events that took place a couple of months ago. She looked better but she was still not herself. We had to leave early Sunday morning, just in case there was traffic. On our way out we stopped by my grandfathers grave site to place a little Christmas tree on his grave. He always did love the holiday season so why not give him a little tree of his own =o)

I've also had some more side effects of pregnancy :( I now have carpal tunnel in my right wrist which can be painful and extrememly irritating at times. I bought a brace last night so that has helped out a little bit. I also noticed that my ankles are starting to swell.

Anyways, I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday!

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

Well I guess it's technically Thanksgiving based on the time so.... Happy Thanksgiving!! We have a busy few days ahead of us. We will be spending the afternoon with Frankie's family and then we will be heading up to West Virginia. We will be spending the night with my parents and then going to my grandmothers so that she does not have to be alone on Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone but not looking forward to the driving. Can you imagine how bad traffic is going to be on Sunday?!?!? I don't even want to think about it =o) Since we are traveling, I decided to make a Thanksgiving cake, especially for my dad. I put a lot of work into it so I really hope he likes it.

On a side note, I forgot to mention some things in my last post. I am now 24 weeks pregnant and had the joy of experiencing my 2nd charlie horse this morning (I've been told they can occur frequently during this time.) Let me tell you, those are not fun to wake up to.

I had a doctor's appointment last Friday and everything checked out great. Baby Joey's heart sounded good and he is growing like a weed. I did find out that I have started having Braxton Hicks contractions. I just assumed it was the baby stretching because it was not painful, just uncomfortable. But to my surprise the doctor said that they should not be painful. I guess you learn something new everyday. At my next appointment I will be doing my sugar test which means I get to look forward to sitting in the office for atleast an hour. Keeping my fingers crossed that mom will be in town by then so she can keep me company. I know Frankie would go with me but we will have Cam by then for Christmas break so I'm not going to bore them with that. If all else fails, I'll take a book to read. Anyways, I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and I hope you all eat way too much food because I know I will =o).

Been Busy

So it's been almost a week since I've posted a new blog... but there is a very good reason for this. I am happy to say that the nursery is complete!!! We finished cleaning out the room and cleaned the carpet earlier this week. We then went to Target and got our furniture. Luckily one of the stores had almost every piece so we only had to pick up the chair/ottoman at the other store. We were so happy when we got home...only to discover that they had given us the wrong crib. But were there any doubts that something would go wrong given our luck?!? Fortunately we were able to pick up the right crib the next evening. Frankie assembled the furniture Friday night and we were able to hang everything on the walls. It is such a huge relief to know that the room is done. Now all we need is the little boy that goes along with it =)

I also got to hang out with a a dear friend today. She and I have been friends since the 4th grade but we have not seen each other since our senior year of high school (she lives in SC now). We decided to meet at a halfway point at an outlet mall. I was so excited to see her. We have one of those friendships where it's like we've never been apart. There was not an awkward moment the entire afternoon. We had a blast reminiscing and catching up on our lives. She also brought her parents along as a surprise. It was great to see them because it has been even longer since I have seen them. We spent the afternoon grabbing lunch and doing some shopping.

Third Times a Charm

Well we hit a couple bumps along the way but the nursery is painted! We ended up having to paint the ceiling, which we were not counting on.

As you can see, I let Frankie have the honor of rolling the ceiling.

And remember how I said I thought I would love the color after the second coat, well I didn't. I did however really like it after I put the third coat on. I also did the baseboards, doors, and windows just to freshen everything up. Well that freshening up turned into two coats :).

Needless to say once it was all done, the room looks great. We hung new blinds last night and Frankie replaced the old doorknob and window locks. But as Frankie's luck would have it, one of the window locks broke when he went to lock it. For those of you who know Frankie well, you know there was a look of disgust, a moment of silence, followed by a few choice of words. I had to laugh. So he will be picking up some more new locks on his way home today so that we can once again, replace the window locks. Our next move is to get the guest bed out of there and then we can hopefully go get the furniture! Once the room is empty, I'll put up pix of the entire nursery instead of just a single wall.

Up......Down...... Up...... Down.....

We have been working this week to clean out all of the junk that has accumulated in our guest room a.k.a. nursery. As posted earlier, I gathered 3 trashbags full of clothes out of my closet. We added another 8 bags of stuff (stuffed animals, books, office supplies, toys, etc.)We also disassembled our old junky computer desk. The other pieces of furniture should be cleared out of here by Sunday.

Tonight I came home from work and put the first coat of paint up. It was a little shocking to see at first but I know it will look good once the second coat goes on.

Right now it looks a little neony (if that's even a word haha). It seems to glow a little bit but I think that is because of the old green color that used to be on the walls. I know the color matches because we took the dust ruffle with us when we picked out the paint to make sure it matched. I plan to have all of the painting done by the end of the weekend so I will post the updates when I'm done.

Tweet, Tweet!!

I have officially entered the nesting phase! It is amazing to me how all of sudden I am in the mood to clean all the time. I spent the entire weekend straightening up stuff and cleaning, even the stuff that's not that important (such as our medicine cabinet). So far I have organized our bathroom closet, bedroom closet, and now the living room. While organizing our closet, I thought "Why not go through my clothes and see what I can give away". Keep in mind I have not gone through my clothes in about 6 years, so it was about time. I managed to collect 3 trashbags full of stuff to donate to Goodwill.

Like they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure.

I've even managed to pass the nesting bug along to Frankie. His has come in the form of carpentry as we have had to modify some of our furniture to accomodate the changes in our home. He made a computer desk so that we could have our computer in the kitchen rather than what will now be the baby's room. He also reconstructed our "coffee table" (which is actually under our TV) by making it shorter because we moved the entertainment center to a shorter wall. His final project was completed last night. He made a shelf to put in one of the entertainment center cabinets so that all of our game systems (we are such big kids) could be grouped together on one shelf. He's so proud of his handy work, and me too =o)

Here's his desk =o)

This is thing under the T.V. (with all the games... it used to be 10" wider)

And he made that shelf and put it in (with all the junk on it) Thank goodness for doors =o)

Hello!

Yes, I have decided to join the world of blogging... again... seriously. I tried one other time but I just couldn't get in the groove of providing consistant updates. What better time to start than now, with a baby on the way. I feel this will be a great way to keep our family and friends updated on our pregnancy and the arrival of our baby boy.

For starters, I am currently half way through my pregnancy and have recently returned to work. My pregnancy so far has been great! ::knock on wood:: My only complaint for now is the daily heartburn but I will take that over morning sickness. As our little boy grows, I am feeling him move more and more everyday. His little kicks are now strong enough that Frankie has been able to feel him move as well. The first time Frankie felt it his face lit up!
To those of you that do not know, our little boy's name will be....

Joseph Douglas

The recent passing of my grandfather persuaded us to reconsider names we had been throwing around. We both love this name. Joseph is for Frankie's family (his grandfather, his fatherand Frankie himself). Douglas is for my family (my grandfather and father). We plan to call our little one Joey and J.D. We are super excited about his arrival!