Finally!!!

It's Christmas break!!

I feel like I've been looking forward to this for a long time, okay at least for the last two weeks.  It's been crazy here in t-town this month, and by that I mean we are really blessed with community here - a community that likes to party!  First we had my work party at the convention center downtown, complete with the awkwardness that comes from being one of the only people not drinking.  I'm sorry but my personal bubble hadn't shrink that night, even if everyone else wanted to be right in my face telling me congratulations haha.  Then we had small group get togethers, dinners with work friends, dinners with TU friends, dirty santas in the office complete with a marshmellow launcher gun, an awkward neighborhood punch and cookie party with all the old folks fighting about the bilaws of our association (and they wonder why no young people come to the meetings?!!), a guy's night of drinking beer to celebrate all the babies being born in the spring (the count is up to five I think within our close group of friends at church!!!), a girl's wine night to just celebrate wine and friends (don't worry the hostess was kind enough to make delicious prego drinks for all of us non wine partakers), and that doesn't even the include the night we had three parties and decided to skip them all to go on a date, eat steak and burgers (no I didn't eat both!!) and finally watch Skyfall, which by the way was wonderful.

It's been a fun couple of weeks.  And today . . . well we are cleaning!  And nesting haha.  Okay so apparently we both have the urge to get rid of all the stuff we have lying around the house that we don't need.  Maybe it's being spurred on by baby coming or maybe by the fact that Spencer is building new closets for us in the room we'll be moving into so we can convert our room to the nursery (ahhh so weird), but either way it's been satisfying.  We've spent this morning cleaning out our current closets and making giant piles for good will, the trash, and then a pile of, man I hope we know someone who is this size because these things are barely worn or still have tags on them!  Amazing what you find when you dig through the backs of your drawers. 

Also I've been going through my clothes and putting away what I probably won't be able to wear until little munchkin gets here.  Yep the fun has started :).  Okay I thought it was going to just feel like putting on 10 pounds, but this is weird!  It's like someone is inflating a balloon inside me and my insides have to stretch to accomodate the changes, such an odd feeling!  In other baby news, in case you haven't heard, it's a BOY.  And we are both relieved haha.  I don't think either of us was prepared to have a girly girl complete with bows and tutus and barbies.  Don't get me wrong I think they are adorable, but we both are really excited about a little man in our house.  Plus I mean all the nursery stuff I looked at that I liked was blue, so this will just make everything easier.  And I much prefer crazy loudness to drama.  I know, famous last words :).

Okay I'm off to prenatal yoga.  No time like the present to acknowledge the fact that I am in fact having a baby and at some point running and rock and roll yoga complete with lunges and planks is probably not going to be feasible.  I'm going to keep trying though!  Until I feel completely miserable or I just can't do any poses due to my giant belly haha.

Hope you are all enjoying a slower pace of things for a few days at least.  Merry Christmas!

  

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 ;).



Random

You know those things blogger does to make sure you are a human and not a computer?  The little pass code things?  When I, an actual human, have to try three times to get it right because they are so cryptic and hard to read, something is wrong.

The machines are getting too smart for me.

And I should probably not blog at 8 am either ;).

Sisters, Sisters, There Were Never More Devoted Sisters

First up this weekend would have been better with Amanda and Peter, just saying.  But don't worry Thanksgiving and the Turtle Rock festivities are just around the corner! Complete with (hopefully) weather that is more conducive for using the wrap around porch and the fire pits and the hot tub.  I. Can't. Wait.

Okay that being said this weekend was pretty fun.  Rach and her boyfriend Dan came up - okay more like across - for the weekend.  I love chill house guests who help you do the dishes and go grocery shopping and don't mind that you have no idea what you're making for dinner.  They got in town Friday night with plenty of time to eat a delicious pizza Spencer made with our homemade pesto before we headed out to watch the cards play (for the record I think we've already made 12 jars of pesto from our basil plants and you can't even see where I picked basil - so ridiculous!).  Go Cards!!  That game was so ridiculous!  And heart attack inducing!  Good thing DMac has cable and lives 20 steps away, so we could walk across the street and watch it in the comfort of our hoodies and socks - even though he was in Bentonville not Tulsa for the night haha.

In the morning, after some yummy breakfast and coffee, it was off to Porter, OK, the home of peaches.  We went to pick . . . wait for it . . . nope not peaches :).  We went to pick apples and pumpkins!  The apples were a no go, apparently it's too late in the season but we did find some lovely pumpkins.  We decided to be cheapos and skip the hay ride and just walk out to the pumpkin patch to find us some lovely gems.

 

 

Rokcy and Blitzy also had lots of fun laying around the yard and getting in mock dog fights all weekend long.  For the record Rocky is so chill and he loves sitting on your lap and cuddling.

 

Blitz however does not love sitting on your lap.  But it is pretty funny to try and get her to cuddle with you :).

 

 

After heading back from the pumpkin patch we hit up topeca and shopped around some little botique places downtown before heading home for bunches of football and some crazy weather!!  The boys wanted to make steaks and decided it was still feasible to grill them outside even though you could barely see through the rain to the garage!  

 





 

Rach and I opted for staying dry inside and making this awesome pie from some apples we got at the pumpkin patch (you could buy them just not pick them haha).  Our dinner turned out so, so delicious.  Steaks marinated in this awesome sauce we saw on a cooking show, grilled corn on the cob, and yummy potatoes roasted to perfection with spicy mustard and garlice.  And of course the pie :).

 



Today after church we just all sat around on the front porch and chilled.  It was so, so beautiful.  75 and sunny and breezy.  And the company was delightful.  Once they headed back to Arkansas we took our crazy not lap dog to walk by the river and then it was home for a delicious breakfast for dinner with David and Kat and David, complete with pumpkin pancakes topped with delcious apples and maple syrup and whipped cream.  Yum Yum.  I'd call that a pretty good weekend :).

Bring on the Chilly Bumps

Yes Alisha that's for you :).

It feels like fall - like yesterday we had on our air conditioning, and today I'm kind of wishing the heat were on! Instead I'm just enjoying all things fall.  Like wearing my Uggs even though it's only 47 out and getting a new pair of boots! My old ones were pulling apart from the soles, and they only cost 19 dollars so I don't feel too bad about replacing them :).  And that was all before 11 this morning!  I also drank a lovely irish cream latte and about licked the cup it was so delicious, but since I was at an establishment instead of my house and I was with friends from work I refrained haha.  Then it was off to the post office and grocery store which stressed me out - too many people shopping on Saturdays!  So I headed home to finish baking some pumpkin snickerdoodles I had started last night.  Guys, these cookies are so, so yummy.  And now we're sitting watching football and eating cheezit duos while Spencer waits for the dough to rise on a batch of homemade cinnamon roles.  I'd call that a pretty good saturday.  Ooo and we still have thai food to look forward to tonight at Libby's bday party!!  Man I am spoiled and apparently my life most definitely revolves around food :).  I guess there are worse things life could revolve around haha.

 

I really need to switch over my drawers so that they aren't full of shorts and tank tops, but right now the couch is feeling pretty good and looking at fall outfits on pinterest is calling my name.  Oh and I also started cleaning out the attic - that might have to get finished another day too ;).  I have for the record changed some of my candles from coastal se blue to a fall cinnamon color.  That's about as far as I've gotten in saying goodbye to summer.

 

Oh and I almost forgot GO CARDS!!!! :)