Something Ridiculous

I have this guy at work who likes to say funny things to me, like "would you like me to push you back to your office in your chair?" after a meeting.  Or "are you sure you should be eating that chocolate chip muffin?"  Or "your poor dog, she has no idea what life is going to be like now that baby is coming." So I decided to milk it.  I said, dear so in so in exchange for giving me a hard time for the next six months I think you should buy me baby sperrys.  (He also loves to talk about his multiple pairs of sperrys).

And ta da.  I got them!  I knew working with a bunch of rich guys old enough to be my parents was going to be fun :).  I think the jokes are hilarious (at least at this point when I still fit in my pants, well at least mostly and I'm not too crazy hormonal yet) and getting ridiculously adorable baby shoes is even better.

That's all.  I'm so glad it's almost the weekend.

Nesting Already?

Okay maybe more just like we are finally crossing some major projects off our home and yard improvement list. We're also adding to list though so we'll see how this goes . . .

First up, the driveway!!  So we've been wanting to replace the driveway ever since we had this landscape architect look at our house and make a design to die for.  I mean like our house should be featured in Better Homes and Gardens if it ever actually looks like his plan.  Which might be in 30 years when we are both retired and all we do is plant hydrangeas and weed flower beds all day long.  Okay actually we've wanted a new driveway since we moved into the house, but the master - my house will look like the ancient gardens of Babylon - plan reminded us just how much we wanted it.  So, Spencer in his handyman ways decided he wanted to do it himself.

I was a little suspicious.  

But I decided, hey so far everything he's done on his own has turned out good, so we'll see how it goes.  If he passed on the driveway I was going to let him pour the patio.  That was our deal :).

First was the prep work.  Okay first was paying a guy with a bobcat to destroy our backyard.  And dig up an ancient cistern under our sidewalk.  And kill all the grass that was still left from Blitzy.  Which, granted was very minimal.  So back to the prep work.  I'm going to pretend like I know what he did.  First he framed out the first third of driveway (it's so long and large he's doing it in three pieces).  Then he put down sand and rented a compacter to tamp the sand (see I did learn some of the lingo haha).  Then he laid down re bar to help keep the concrete from pulling apart.  This part I did actually help with.  The night before the concrete was coming I help tie together a bunch of pieces of re bar in the dark after yoga.  Note to self.  Squatting and tying together for re bar for an hour after a power yoga class is not generally a good idea if you want to walk the next day.  But enough about me and my one hour of helping ;).

 

 So the next day the concrete came bright and early  . . .

 And while I did laundry and cleaned the house and shopped for groceries, the boys were hard at work spreading and leveling and cutting the edges and floating . . . and that's the extent of my knowledge on concrete.  Oh and getting blisters from dragging a long board across the concrete to get it smooth.  Oh and I almost forgot!  The leaves.  It was beautiful weather for pouring concrete but no one had taken into consider Oklahoma wind.  And our forty foot oak tree dropping leaves by the bucket onto the wet concrete!  So a lot of the time was spent rigging up a contraption to go across the concrete pad so that they could individually pick each leaf that had fallen out of the wet concrete.  I told them I didn't mind leaf prints but apparently that is not good concrete etiquette ;).

 But check it out!! Not too shabby right?

And even more impressive after it dried!

 

So he passed with flying colors and it was on to the patio!  The plan was originally to do the whole driveway first, but then we realized letting a concrete truck on our new driveway was not really a good idea.  Only problem was the patio required a little more ground work.  Like raking up a million leaves.  And pulling up the bricks from the old patio that we found under a layer of dirt and leaves when we moved into the house.  So I went on ground work duty while Spencer went to work framing out the design our friendly landscape guy had given us.  Oh and Blitz whined like a little baby the whole time because she couldn't be right next to us (this step required pulling out the fence too) and because she hates power tools make that any tools.  Rakes are not her friend haha.

  

Okay this is getting long so I'll just skip to the good part.  Ta Da!  Our new patio. Love, love, love it. Okay I'll love it more once we've added some greenery and installed the new fence we've been dreaming about.  Oh and put in french doors off the back room, but honestly sitting out on the patio with the chimenea has been pretty awesome even if the view is a bit lacking :).

 

So next on the list: finish the driveway.  And then added closets to our spare bedroom, which will be our new bedroom when hell baby makes an appearance.  Oh and we also just finally hung up a bunch of sweet prints in our living room from my dad's machine shop.  Pictures to come when it is not dark outside.  Iphones still hate room with no natural light . . .

And yes we had a very nice thanksgiving.  More on that later . . .

Ch-Ch-Changes

I've been wanting to write this for awhile but it was all hush, hush, so I figured I shouldn't put it out for the whole blog world (I know I'm flattering myself) to read.  The last couple of months have been a little different around here.  We've added a baby to the mix!  A very small one, but still.  And Spencer has affectionately dubbed it "hell baby" for the time being until we find out if it'll be a little mini me or a little mini Spencer.  So here's our official online announcement (and yes don't worry my mother has known for a while now):

 Coming May 2013

Approximately the 16th of May

Baby Hellman!!!!

(Currently the size of a lemon, hopefully a cute one haha)

 

 

And as my father nicely pointed out while laughing (with me not at me I'm pretty sure haha), I am such an engineer.  I had said all along I'd like five years of work experience under my belt before moving to a different stage of life and pretty much five years exactly after graduating from the lovely TU we'll be definitely entering a different stage of life.  And .. .  we are pumped!! Freaked out for sure, but we are also really excited.

 

So let's see, yes life has already changed a little, but honestly less than I thought it would.  I think right now most of the changes are happening in our heads.  Give it a month or two though and I'm sure I'll say differently when my wardrobe no longer functions haha.  So far though, here's my list of changes:

 

- taking nasty prenatals every night before bed

- feeling like I'm going to explode every morning when I get out of bed and have to run to the bathroom (haha I know TMI)

- raw meet looks pretty nasty

- spinach and plain lattes, both of which I loved before this oddness no longer look good at all

-bacon cheeseburgers look oddly good all the time (so far I've only given in once haha)

- no martinis, I know so sad; and I am definitely already looking forward to my bday next year in June!

- umm I'm still drinking coffee, I'm not that extreme goodness.

- my reading list has expanded to include titles like "Pregnancy and Work" and "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth" (yes the current plan is to go all natural at a birth center .. . . we'll see if I change my mind)

- I've become the ultimate multi tasker, I mean come on I'm growing a kid while working, going to yoga, shopping for groceries, even sleeping!  So weird. 

 

That's been about it honestly.  I know don't hate me, but I never got sick.  I felt tired, but not awful.  And Spencer says I've been a little more on edge, but nothing too extreme.  Hopefully he's not just being nice ;). My pants still fit, but give it a few weeks and I'm pretty sure that won't be true . . .

 

I think so far the nicest thing anyone has said to me has been, wow I can't believe it!  I don't think I've ever been so excited for anyone other than when I found out I was having my own kid.  I thought that was pretty awesome. 

 

Alright I'm off to do a little fall shopping and share the good news with some more friends.  For the record this has made me SO AWKWARD.  I wait really long into conversations to tell people.  And I wait till really awkward silences to say oh and by the way, we're having a kid . . . and then I sort of trail off.  Maybe I should have just put that on the post ;).