The Eyes Have It!

  After many moons of waiting until I used every last little bit of all of the "ok but, not loved" eyeshadows I own (except for the very darkest, clowniest ones) I finally ran out of anything suitable and allowed myself to buy more.  I am trying to minimize after all. 

  Remember my Blush Rush?  I bought the Vintage Peach and I love it.  It doesn't take very much at all and the packaging keeps it very safe when I drop it.  This is important, I drop things a lot.

  My first choice was Physicians Formula in the paper boxes (click here for the link) because it seemed safe (EWG, anyone?) and was fairly cheap.  After searching high and low here in town, it was nowhere to be found. 

  On to my second pick!  I bought bareMinerals READY^TM Eyeshadow 2.0 in "Top Shelf" (click here for the link.)

  Ya'll, although pricey, this stuff is amazing!  It looks like a powder in the little box but, it goes on and feels like a cream.  It sticks to my eyes all day long and I still look like I'm wearing makeup when I get back home from work.  It has definitely changed my mind about cream eyeshadows and I'd be willing to try more. 

  Luckily enough, I ran out of mascara at the same time I ran out of eyeshadow.

  I ran out of Physicians Formula Organic wear® 100% Natural Lash Boosting Mascara (cick here.) I really liked it but, I wanted BUXOM Sculpted Lash Mascara (click here.) When I got to the store, I found out that it's only carried at Sephora and we don't have one of those around here so, I bought bareMinerals Flawless Definition Volumizing Mascara instead (click here.)

  It doesn't make my eyelashes as thick and fluffy as I would like but, overall I like it.  It doesn't get flaky and my eyes don't itch.  It removes easily and I don't look like a raccoon when I wake up the next morning.

  Blush, eyeshadow, mascara- what will be next? 

20 Weeks (Half Way!)

We're on the downhill slide now! Nothing much new to report this week.

The baby is supposed to be the size of a banana, carrot, and a coconut- you pick which fruit or vegetable you like best, haha!

No photo, I'm too tired from tiling to put much (ok, any) effort into posing. More about that later.

Goodnight, folks. I'm off to fall asleep on the couch while trying to watch television.

Last Look

I hope these are the last few days our kitchen and bathroom look like this.

We (Boots mostly) have spent the last week getting our mojo back to attack the rest of fixing up this house and making numerous trips to Lowe's to buy supplies and things we'll need.

Boots has been painting, changing electric plugs and light switches out, wiring up new lights, hammering and nailing boards in the attic, stressing and scheming about how we're going to do this and that. He's a train- takes him a while to get rolling but, then he's hard to stop.

Monday, we'll (Boots, my uncle, and me) start laying the tile in the kitchen and bathroom.

At the end of the week, after the dust clears, I'll share "after" pictures. These are the "befores." I've found that we get more work done when I'm not trying to take pictures of every little step to document the process.

After walking on concrete for nearly a year and a half I'll be glad to have a real floor.

Please note that I did not clean any before taking these pictures. I wanted to preserve the horribleness that is the bathroom.

(Someone needs to learn how to white-balance their camera!)

Goodbye towel bar that we never use!

So long swag lights!

(Anybody want these? They're nice but, got to go!)

Here's to you getting replaced!

See ya, scraps of old linoleum!

Au revoir, blue toilet!

Can't wait to see you after your makeover!

We're planning to replace this blue tile with some other tile but, we haven't picked it out. That will probably be our next project.

19 Weeks, Two Days

This belly photo post is two days late because I wanted to wait and share some baby-doctor-appointment news.

We had "the" sonogram today but, didn't look when they rolled over the important parts since we want to be surprised.

We saw the arms, legs, ribs, hands, and could even see the heart beating inside the chest and the brain inside the skull! The baby yawned and moved its arms and legs around. The eyes on the face were little dark circles.

The baby weighs 10 ounces and is growing right on schedule. Still keeping the March 19 deadline.

We have in our possession a DVD that shows what the baby is but, we're not going to watch it. Some people (side eye to my sister, ahem!) will probably resort to bribery to get a chance to watch it but, no dice.

I got my very first flu shot while I was there and my arm is kinda sore. Hopefully I won't get sick though.

The doctor said that the lady couldn't get a good view of the heart like she needed so we get another sonogram next month. I'm so excited to get to see the little pipsqueak again!

Success in the Kitchen!

*This post has been "cooking" for several days. Here's hoping I found a new blog app that works!*

Hello, beautiful!  Isn't that just the prettiest?

Thursday I made this Glazed Triple-Chocolate Pound Cake from Real Simple magazine.

After much "You're really not going to let me have a piece?" from Boots, I took it to work Friday and my coworkers just loved it.  I did too, mainly because I know what a crap baker I am and it turned out fantastically, super chocolatey and moist.  Don't serve this to your vanilla lovers!

I did cut Boots a big piece and brought it home to him but, his feelings were still hurt about eating "leftover" cake and not getting to try it first so not much of a review from him.

I ran out of eggs after making the cake so I stopped by a man's house a few miles down the road to buy some eggs.  I've seen his sign about selling eggs every morning on my way to work for the past two years and I decided I wanted to buy some "real" eggs (Boots makes fun of me every time I say that) but, the man was fresh out.

So I came back by Friday afternoon on my way home from work and he had saved me a dozen.

Look at these beautiful babies!  (Yellow cartons do you no favors when photographing, ahem!)

They're all different shades of brown and some of them have little freckles on them.  The man said his 44 hens and 4 roosters are Rhode Island Reds and Dominickers.  He keeps them in two separate pens at night (The Northern Chickens and The Southern Chickens-- they don't associate. Ha!) and they roam during the day.

Three bucks is a mighty fine price for "real" eggs in my mind, especially after Boots said they tasted better than he expected.  I count that as a win!

Dear Followers,

It appears to be that I'm having some technical difficulties with my blogging app.  "They" say they're working on it and should have it fixed in no time but, who knows how long that will really be?  This is quite frustrating since I have things to post and no good way to post them.  Just know that I'll be back as soon as I can!

18 Weeks

No photo this week since my photographer is working late and it's dark now.

Boots and I finally decided on a crib and it's not the one I posted about before. We sold the queen bed that's been living in the baby's room for the past six months and tomorrow I'm going to start cleaning out the closet. I'm feeling motivated to go through and get rid of things.

I think I've started feeling the baby move. I was sitting at the railroad tracks Friday morning waiting my turn to stop and drive over the tracks and I felt something like a little thump on the inside. I've spent the past couple of days wondering if that was really what I felt. Washing lunch dishes at work today I felt the tiny thump again so I'm pretty sure the kid was pushing off the wall, making another lap.

I still haven't been sick even once, which I am especially happy about and have been reassured multiple times that I probably won't be, even though the next baby might be a different story.

My clothes have started getting tight and I'm down to one suit for work. The good news is October is one of our two months for suit allowance so I have an even better excuse for new clothes shopping.

Maybe next week my photographer will have more time for photoshoots during daylight hours. ;)

More Dreams (One in My Head, One Tangible)

In the weirdest of weird dreams, I dreamed the baby was born on a cruise ship. My whole entire family was there, like we'd planned for the baby to be born on a cruise ship. There were dolphins on the cruise ship that you swam with in the pools. We never named the kid after it was born. And where was Boots? I don't remember seeing him once! But my dad was there, which everyone knows would never, ever happen in a zillion years. He's only a fan of water when he's on land.

Anyways, away from the not-chemically-induced nonsense inside my head here's something real.

Photo from here.

This is Stokke. Or as I call it, Brokke because that's what you'll be after you drop nearly a thousand big ones on this thing. Unless you're a Trump or somebody equally rich, then no big deal. "I'll take two." Whatever.

Outrageous price tag aside, this thing is cool. The first (and only) time I've ever seen one was probably a year ago in Barnes and Noble with my mom. I wasn't even thinking about babies (and certainly not planning to start cooking one of my own) but, I was captivated by the sheer awesomeness of it.

The lady behind the wheel was pushing an older baby without the infant carrier attachment and the kid just looked so happy and secure, so high up off the ground where he could see but, not touch anything which is pretty important in my book. It maneuvered around the aisles so effortlessly. Hers was green too!

I put it on my mental "gotta get me one of those one day" list right at there very moment. I should have asked her right then and there how much that bad boy cost and went ahead and broke my heart myself in the middle of the classics.

If I'd known where to start (other than "space age awesome baby stroller") I would have googled it and found out myself but, as luck would have it (or in this case unluck) the stroller link was emailed to me by one of those baby websites with a 20% off coupon to add insult to injury. It's still too much!

Just know, I like the way it looks and I wanted to share it with you so maybe one of you bazillionaires can try it out for me. I want you to be my guinea pig, I might not even like it in real life.

17 Weeks

I skipped last week's photo because I just wasn't feeling it. Pretty blah.

This week, I got motivated. I took pictures this morning as opposed to this afternoon, hence the fairly nice looking hair.

And those pants were per-fect-ly flat when I put them on. Five minutes later- wrinkles. Starch didn't work and I don't like to use the dry cleaners because they make my clothes stink.

And, no, I did not wear my Captain Planet shirt to work, just the pants.

Not JUST the pants! You know what I meant!

Anyways, back to the baby business. The kid is supposed to be turnip or apple-sized.

I can definitely feel a turnip or apple-sized something or the other in there when I try to bend over. I feel like I'm squishing something. Somebody.

I don't feel any movement yet but, they say i should soon. Now he/she is supposed to be able to hear my voice resonating through my body. I bet it sounds like yelling underwater.

I still haven't been sick yet and I am unbelievably thankful for that. I just hope it doesn't catch up with me in the end.

My tastes are definitely changing. I ate salted nuts this weekend at my sister's wedding and I liked them! For anybody that's known me longer than a brownie, eating nuts and liking them is no small thing. I've always detested, abhorred, hated nuts vehemently!

This is getting weird.

But I like it.

:)

Today I want fruit.

Strawberries, bananas, blueberries, peaches, cherries, pineapple, mandarin oranges, pears, kiwis, mango, watermelon.

Cold fruit. Maybe a smoothie. And honey.