Finally DONE!

So i am happy to say the renovation are OVER!!!! Monday the closet people came out and built out all of our closets. The spray foam installers also came to spray-foam the underside of our house, so now our house is at least half well insulated ;-)

A few pictures:

New Pantry

(used to be our laundry room)

New Laundry Closet

Lillian's Closet

New Entryway Closet

New Guest Bedroom Closet

(closet is still filled with our junk but at

least its more organized junk, right? LOL)

I am so excited that everything got done before the holidays. Now I feel like I can actually relax and enjoy being at home while I am off for the week between Christmas and new years.

Work is continuing to kick my butt. Its just exhausting. But I've only got 5 weeks when I get back from the holiday break, so I should be able to make the last little haul. I am seriously BURNT OUT!

In pregnancy related news, I've begun experiencing some swelling in my ankles. I haven't had any swelling through out the pregnancy. However, last week after being on my feet for 3 hours while making oreo truffles, I had one fat ankle. This morning I woke up and the other one is a bit swollen. Not good, and definitely a sign that I need to stay off my feet more. sigh.

Exhaustion...

I am completely exhausted. I literally go to bed every night at like 8pm. The sad thing is that its not because I'm 32 weeks pregnant (<---btw how did that happen?!?), rather its because I am working 10-12 hours every day. I swear they're trying to send me into preterm labor. Its insane! I am really stressed, but I keep reminding myself I only have 2 more weeks before I take a week off for Christmas and New Years!!!! I can't wait for a little break. All of my sisters are coming in town for the holiday, so I am really excited about my little vacation.

My dresser has finally shipped from RH Baby. The very exciting news is that they just started their friends and family 20% off everything event, so I was able to call and get 20% off the crib and dresser!! 20% off makes the wait totally worth it! I can't wait to get the furniture in the baby's room. Hopefully it looks as good as I think it will.

We are also 1 week away from the house renovation being done!!!! I can't wait!!!! Next Monday the closet people are coming to build out the pantry and all the closets in the house. We also have the spray foam installers coming to spray foam the underneath of our house! We live in a raised cottage and during the winter the floors are VERY cold. We were worried about a baby crawling around on them, so we decided to take the plunge and get spray foam while the energy efficiency tax credit was still in place. After everything gets installed, I'll have about 3 days to put my house back together before all my sisters arrive for christmas! Its going to be a very busy week.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Seriously?

So we arrived in Kentucky on Monday afternoon. We stopped by to visit one of DH's aunts on our way to his family farm. We visited for about an hour and then headed to the farm to unload the car and get the dogs settled. Once we had gotten everything settled we drove into Louisville to go to the UL basketball game with one of DH's uncles. While racing to get there in time for tip off, we managed roll over a piece of steel laying in the middle of the road and blow our back tire...

The tire was obviously beyond repair. And to make matters worse, because the tires were old, we actually had to replace all 4 instead of just the one which was shredded by the piece of steel. Price to replace: $1063

This morning my husband went out to hunt on the farm. He had to drive over to the area of the farm where he was going to hunt... so he wakes up, turns on the car to warm it up, and when he gets back in it after getting dressed he notices:

The windsheild is cracked from the drivers side to the passanger side. Just got off the phone with safelight auto glass...Cost to replace: $223.

This has got to be a joke, right?

::off to search blogs for good homemade christmas gifts::

Rest and Relaxation

That is what is coming up for me... a week of rest and relaxation. I can't wait. I had another totally crazy week at work, including going in on Saturday. Grrrr. But I'm happy to report I got everything done, so I should be able to spend the next week relaxing!! I can't wait.

We're definitely making progress on Lillian's room. Please excuse the poor picture quality, I was lazy and took them with my IPhone...

PBK Carpet on the new hardwood.

Closet ready for build out.

We're also almost done the first phase of the laundry/pantry renovation. Below is the new laundry closet...

(previously this was just a normal single door closet)

New laundry closet with washer in it.

We still need to stack the dryer and then we'll put some shelving on the left side for storage of cleaning products. We thought we were going to be able to get the dryer moved this weekend, but we got sidetracked with some other things around the house. DH promises it will be done soon! I think I am going to  schedule the company to come up to build out the closets and the new pantry for the second week in December. I can't wait to be DONE!

And just for fun... a picture of me. This is from last night. My mom was hosting a sweet sixteen party for her boyfriends niece, and DH and I went to help host.



Woooo...

...I'm officially in the 3rd trimester. How did that happen?? Although the weeks seem to be creeping by at times, its also been flying by at the same time. Only 3 more months until our LO will be here. Yikes!

I'm dreading weighing in tomorrow. 2 weeks of eating every meal out is surely going to cause some major weight gain. Ugh. I go back to my midwives on Thursday and am sure to get a scolding.

On the bright side, thanks to daylight savings time changing this weekend, my morning walks with Maggie are in the day light again! I hate walking her in the dark. I know as we move further into the winter, the sun will start rising later again, but for right now it rises right before we get up! Its very nice :-)

Phew...

As I mentioned below, I am in a two week long training for work in Ohio. I arrived on Sunday October 24th and leave tomorrow! I must say two weeks seems like a LONG time these days. I've enjoyed the training but have not enjoyed eating every meal out, and having to do a lot of work in the evening to keep up with my normal duties. Its been quite exhausting!!

I am very excited to report that my husband has officially made progress on the house renovation and the nursery in my absence!! I am quite impressed with his determination to get everything done before I get home. Our house came with a good sized laundry closet right next to the kitchen, but there is no pantry. For a pantry my husband and I have been using a single hanging cabinet in our kitchen. However because that cabinet is stuffed with just two of us in the house, and all the other cabinets are full of dishes, glasses, and serving pieces, I was getting really concerned about how we could integrate a baby into the house. I literally have no where to put a bottle. A few months ago we made the decision to take over the current laundry closet and turn it into a pantry. But this forced us to relocate the washer and dryer. We decided to relocate it to the front of the house into a closet that was basically being used as a junk room. However this required us to do a little renovation to get the closet ready (widening the door frame, getting the closet plumbed/wired/vented, ect). Since I left, the new laundry closet has been constructed and the plumbing and gas for the washer and dryer has been run. All we need is electrical and we should be good to go! I am fortunate to have an electrician in the family so that should be done shortly! Once we get the washer and dryer moved, we can start un-plumbing the other closet and prepping it to become a pantry! Before I left for Ohio, I met with California closets and got a quote from them to build out the new pantry. It is a little pricey, so I am going to call Closets by Design to see if they'll come out and quote it for me. Once we make a decision on who to go with, we should be able to have the new pantry built out within a week or so! I'm really excited to get this project done! We're been talking about it FOREVER!

The other thing DH has been busy with is the nursery. He had the carpenter who was helping us with the closet run the hardwood floor in the baby's room. After that was done, my husband painted all the walls and the ceiling. I am sooooo excited to see everything when I get home. I also received my rug for the nursery so I am excited to get home and put it in the room! Eeek! Everything is actually coming together!!

We decided to go with the Polka Dot Border rug from pottery barn. Hopefully it will look good with the green walls...

Hope everyone has had a good week! Say a little prayer that I make it to my last day of class safely tommorow. They are predicting SNOW here in Ohio! eeeek!

Does anyone have an eraser I could borrow?

Does anyone have an eraser I could borrow? I need to erase the word "Sucker" from my forehead. I would usually say, "wow, how has over a week passed since my last post?" But I know exactly how it has happened. About 3 weeks ago, the head of my office approached me and told me he was going to be giving me some additional responsibilities. One of my colleagues was leaving, and rather than back-filling her spot he was going split her duties between me and another person. I was still going to retain all my current duties but would take this on as well. So the next week more details came out... apparently I was expected to move cubicles, and what was supposed to be 50% of the other job turned out to be more like 75%. So basically now I have 1.75 jobs. So last week, I finally got fully integrated in my new position, and I totally got my butt kicked. I stayed at work every day until after 6. Which may not seem late to some of you, but when you get in at 7:30am staying until past 6 is WAY too late in my book. It is just brutal.

To be honest, I feel like I am being used by my senior management. They know that I'm too much of a perfectionist to do either job crappy, so I'm busting my butt to try to do them both to my usual standards. Its so frustrating. Grrrrr... I would probably sit them down and tell them how this is too much responsibility for one person but then I remember the following is my schedule until the baby comes..

2 weeks - out of town work training (currently doing)
2 weeks - work
1 week - off for thanksgiving
4 weeks - work
1 week - off for Christmas/new years
4 weeks - work

then the baby should be here... or just about. So the reality is its just busting my butt for 10 weeks. Which is totally doable in my book. That's nothing.

After I return from my 12 weeks of maternity leave, I'll assess the situation again. If its too much I'll cry uncle and try to get some relief. Until then, wish me luck!