Baby B's first Harley Shirt!

So, my Dad has a Harley and is pretty involved with the Harley Owners Group and generally loves all things Harley. Including T-shirts. The man has got to have, easily, 200 of the things- usually picks one up whenever he travels to a new place, or when one of us kids travels to a new place, or whenever the sky is blue. Get it?

So, its only fitting, that Baby B's first onesie would be a Harley Davidson one! My Mom picked it up this past week, I think at the Minneapolis airport. She was dying to make a baby related HD purchase :)

Week 4: Poppyseed

We are now 4 weeks pregnant. Our baby is the size of a poppyseed!

The baby is now an embryo and is entering into a very important development stage. Over the next 6 weeks, all of the organs will begin to develop and some will begin to function. I can't believe that this little poppyseed turns into a person!!! Being such an important time, I find myself analyzing every feeling I am having. I would be so crushed if anything happened to this baby. For now, all I can do is think positive thoughts and just do everything I can to nurture our little monkey!

So far we have only spilled the beans (or poppyseeds!) to a few family members and a few close friends. As of now, the lips are zipped until after our 1st appointment on March 5.

Symptom wise not much is going on yet. I have almost gagged a few times on my toothbrush, my back has been sore, and I have been very tired. I took 3 naps on Sunday LOL and have dozed off on the couch every night this week.

Hopefully the next week goes by quick! I have girls night tomorrow night with the girls from work and then a baby shower for our friend Emily to go to on Saturday. I have been spending lots of time doing research online and cruising the Bump and other baby websites. What the hell did expecting Mom's do before the Internet?!?

Week 3: We are pregnant!

We found out that Baby B was on the way on Sunday, January 17. Our reaction was a mixture of shock and joy. I mean, we were obviously trying to make this happen but its was still kind of a shock to see those 2 lines on the home pregnancy test. The estimated due date is September 28, 2010.

I called and made an appointment with a new doctor, but they don't even want to see me until 10 weeks, so we have some waiting to do. I decided to get a new doctor because I wanted to be able to go the clinic/hospital on this side of town vs. driving to the north side of town. Will just make doctors visits and such that much easier.

For now this blog is pretty much going to be a secret except for the few people that know. We don't want to tell too many people about Baby B just yet. After the Dr. appointment in March is when we will probably make our announcements to the world.

I can't wait to document this journey with this blog!

Apparently, Baby B looks something like this right now. Isn't our little Monkey adorable?!? :)

14 Hour days....

...are for the birds.

Its year end close where I work, and being part of the tax department, we have lots of responsibilities related to close.  It just kind of sucks because we are at the mercy of everybody else in terms of when we can start our work so we have to wait until everybody is is done before we do.

Made for a long day yesterday!  Today shouldn't be as bad and then its the weekend!  I haven't been this ready for a weekend in a long time!  I have an idea for a project I want to try this weekend.  We have a laundry room that is right off the kitchen and the door to the house from the garage.  There is room in there for us to hang up some coat hooks which would be nice to have so we are not always throwing coats on the dining room table.  Now I just need to head out this weekend and find some cute/functional hooks.

Another home project I want to do in the near future is putting up some kind of backsplash in our kitchen.  I found this blog yesterday during my lunch break and love what they did in their kitchen with the backsplash/spice storage.   I am always bitching about not being able to find the spices I want in the cabinet, so this kind of setup would be perfect.  Now I just have to figure out what kind of backsplash would look good and then talk Josh into doing it :)

 I also need to start prepping for the Corporate Finance class I am going to be teaching in March.  Just got the book yesterday so its time to start studying.  Sad that I still have to study even though I am the teacher.  Oh well, never stop learning, I guess :)

TGIF!

Resolutions

I waited until a few days after new years to do this because I don't want these to be "new years" resolutions, just resolutions in general.

1.  Blog more.  I like doing this.  Its a good outlet and its fun to look back on old posts a year later.  I think it will be nice to have this as something we can look back on years from now to have a more detailed account of the things that happen.  I won't say blog every day because I doubt I have that many interesting thins to say.  I will shoot for 2-3 times per week.

2. Less ponytail days.  Sometimes I get up for work and just don't feel like making the effort to straighten my hair and make it all cute so those days become ponytail days.  I'm sure I look fine on these days, but I always feel like kind of a slacker for not making the effort.  I feel much better about myself on days where I make the effort and feel cute.

3.  Get more healthy.  I don't really have a number of lbs in mind that I want to lose, but I would like to be more how I was when Josh and I met.  This is going to come in the form of eating better, but specifically no snacking in between meals.  Also going to try to stick to either salads or lean cuisines for lunch.  Since I love to cook and am having fun experimenting in the kitchen right now I really don't want to give that up, but I am going to make more of an effort to substitute healthy ingredients, if I can.  As far as working out, I'm not going to lie, its always so hard for me to get motivated with this.  I did so well last year with the 30 day Shred, but that was really hard to keep up every day.  That said, I really saw results.  I guess that Jillian Michaels has some free programs on Comcast on demand that I can check out.  Perhaps tonight when I get home from work I will take the first steps.  If I could make myself workout 3-5 times a week, I know it would really help with this goal.

4.  Keep savin the bacon.  We have been working on trying to pay down debt and save money for a rainy day.  I would like to see us get a bit more aggressive with this and try to get the major stuff paid down this year.  We are very blessed with the things we have in our life and really don't need anything else.  Its time to stop spending and start saving!

5.  Work on me.  I just want to keep doing the things that make me happy.  Working on cooking, cake decorating, photography, blogging.  Also, I am going to start teaching this year and am excited for that.  I won't have any exams to study for or big parties to plan this year so I have a lot more free time, and I want to use that time on me.

I guess thats about it for now.  Wish me luck :)

I love the Pioneer Woman!

If you haven't checked out this blog yet, I highly suggest doing so.  After you finish reading mine, of course :)  I have been experimenting with many of her recipes and they are great.  So far, I have tried the following:

Brisket, Baby- Am in the process of making this today, so I don't have any commentary yet.

Chicken Spaghetti- This casserole was really good.  All of the leftovers were gone by like 2 days later, so this recipe is definitely a keeper.

Wings- Made these for our Super Bowl watching event last year and they were fantastic!

Fancy Macaroni- Made this last week.  Was so good!

Baked Lemon Pasta- Have made this twice now.  I really like this, but Josh thinks it has too much lemon.  I loved it both times and this one will definitely be one of my go-to recipes.  The leftovers heated up really well so I had several day's lunches ready to go.

Braised Short Ribs- Heaven on a Plate- No joke about the Heaven part.  These were sooooo good.  I seriously can't wait to make them again.

There are TONS of recipes and lots of great pictures on PW's site.  I have so many more that I can't wait to try.  Hopefully you find some you like as well.  

Fooling around with my camera

I have this desire to start taking better pictures.  Everybody online talks about how awesome DSLR cameras are but frankly, I don't have $500 laying around to shell out on a new camera right now.  I decided to fool around with the settings on my Sony Cybershot this morning to see how it affects the pictures I take.   Daisy was displaying much cuteness this morning!

I started out with the flash enabled and mostly on auto settings.  I thought it was way too whitewashed so I started messing around with the settings a bit.  I think I got it to look pretty good by last photo.  Based on this, I think I will just focus on using some of the settings on my regular point and shoot camera for awhile vs. trying to buy a new camera.