Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful time with your friends and your family. We are having such a good time here in Virginia. The baby shower was a lot of fun and it is nice just to be able to hang out with family and sleep in and eat :) I will be posting a lot of pictures when we get back. Until then, I hope you all have something to be thankful for this year. If you can't think of anything, then you can be thankful that your brain at least knows how to think, but I am sure we can all think of quite a few things God has blessed us with this year:)
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Almost forgot!

The first contest has officially come to a close, although earlier than expected! Next time I will make the rules a little easier in hopes of getting more participants :) However, the winner is a great one! I hope you enjoy the pictures (since she was the only participant, I am posting more than one of her photos). Congratulations Kristen! You will get your prize the first week of December :)
Here is her entry:




My name is Kristen Jeffery. My blog is cliffnkristensblog.blogspot.com
My favorite holiday decoration is our girls. I know that might sound incredibly
cheesy. But I saw your contest and started thinking about what was my favorite
thing to see at Christmas and the only thing that kept coming to mind was
memories of the girls. We have them eating candy canes, wrapped in bows,
sleeping under the tree etc. I could not think of anything more special than
our two beautiful girls that I would rather see at Christmas or ANY holiday for
that matter!

And we will leave on that note. . .

We leave tomorrow to go home for the baby shower and Thanksgiving! I am so excited :) This is what it looks like outside of my window right now. It isn't supposed to be snowing tomorrow, which is good because we are traveling, but I sure am enjoying this first snow right now :)

I also have an interview at a preschool for a part-time job tomorrow before we leave. The substituting has not worked out like I had hoped. Seth and I have actually already met the lady that I am meeting with tomorrow. This is the preschool attached to the church we attend and we toured the nursery on our first visit. We had a great time that day with her and were very impressed with the facility. We were also able to tell her about ourselves, our home church, etc. So I am hoping that gives me a little bit of an advantage (haha, although it may have hurt me, maybe I shouldn't have reminded her!!! :)). This would just be a perfect job because when the little guy gets here, I can take him to work with me! Seth doesn't even know that I got an interview yet, so he will be excited when he finds out (we have been praying about it pretty hard since Sunday).

Thirdly, I will more than likely be missing in action for the next week (I am sure a lot of you will be as well!) We won't have very much access to our computer, plus we are going to be visiting with our families and friends, so expect me back in full force after the 28th or 29th. Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving (in case I can't post before then) and I will talk to you as soon as I can!!!

Lastly, there are two new polls, both of which I would be VERY interested in knowing the results!
The last poll showed that Mary Kay is the most popular. I guess I at least made a good choice as to which consultant I was, too bad I didn't get much further than that :/ oops!

Bummer

Remember back to when the only thing I could stand to eat was Mexican? Seth was so kind about it and indulged my nausea by enduring Mexican food at least 3 times a week!!! I would lay in the bed at night thinking about fajitas and I woke up in the morning thinking about fajitas. Thankfully, my Mexican craving died down, although I could still eat it everyday! Yesterday, Seth and I contemplated eating at our very favorite Mexican restaurant. I mean, when I say favorite, I mean favorite. Back home, we thought we had a favorite called "La Carreta" that was until we found "El Patio" and we were in love. We decided not to spend the money eating out, but as we were driving by, I didn't see the sign on the restaurant. I figures maybe it fell down and they were in the process of having it repaired. So, today I was out and about and decided to drive by the restaurant just to make sure the sign was indeed broken. I walked up to the door, only to find a sign on it saying they relocated and were closed. Since they didn't leave the relocation address, I have to assume that they moved far away. I am devastated! What am I going to do??? I can't imagine my life here without El Patio. It is all I have ever known. It was my glimmer of hope amidst weeks of nausea and sickness and now it is gone. I guess we will have no choice but to try the other Mexican restaurant that we never tried because we hit the jackpot at El Patio. Wish us luck!

Also, I went to the doctor yesterday. I have gained too much weight, but I don't care. I was extra super careful. I have been eating apples for snack, spinach salad for lunch and cut out most of my sugar substituting it for splenda or just having fruit for dessert. According to the doctors scales, mine are way off! She said, "My! You had a good month!" What is that supposed to mean? Then she followed it up with, "Well, you don't look like you are gaining too much weight, but I would still try to be careful." I was very sad, but I got over it quickly. I don't feel huge, so I just have to keep doing the best I can and hope that when the baby comes I can lose it as easily as I gained it! I also took my glucose test. She said she would only call me if the results came back and weren't good. I haven't heard from her today so I guess all is well! The baby is measuring 28 weeks, which is exactly how many weeks along I am. Now I have to do "kick tests" where I take an hour a day and make sure he moves at least 4 times. Today I haven't had to take the time out to do it because he woke me up with hiccups and hasn't stopped moving/hiccuping all day!

Blast from Past

Attack of the bears! Leggett's bears, anyone else have these? This was my first Christmas.


L to R Donna (my older sister), Nichole (my cousin), Me! Crazy Halloween costume Nichole!


Me!


My mom, my older sister and me. This was my second Halloween I believe. I look like a boy!


One of my sisters first Halloween costumes, what is she? I may never know!

Smorgasbord

So first things first. This is a pretty big week for us. Here's why:

1. Seth signed into his unit today. His first unit ever after graduating officer school. We found out that his Commander is giving him all next week off so we can travel home for Thanksgiving. Yippee!!!

2. This is the week I officially have begun my 3rd trimester! I can not believe I am in the final trimester!!! I remember the day I started my 2nd. I felt like it was such a milestone and now that one has flown by and I am onto my last one. Labor and Delivery, here we come!

3. I have my very first baby shower Saturday. My mom made the invitations and is having it the house I grew up in. I am so excited!




Baby invitations :)


Okay, then on a funnier note. This morning I was drinking an orange-banana smoothie and I was trying to find somewhere to set it down for a second. I looked down and found a great place! Now this tummy is coming in very handy! Hey, if you are gonna be big, work with it.


Saturday night, our friends Josh, Lisa and Baby Ty came over for dinner. Lisa gave me a few baby surprises. This is called a "pee-pee tee-pee". I think it is pretty self explanatory. How cute??? And funny.


Little teenie tiny diapers! Ahhh! So little!

hello

Well, Seth is home for the weekend. He finished the 3 week leaders course and passed, so we are officially issially done with schools for a while! 13 months of training and we are done! Now on to the house. Today we are spending most of it organizing the upstairs. Then I need to go grocery shopping because our friends Lisa and Josh are coming over to see our new place and have dinner! Plus they have the cutest baby boy and I love getting in some practice. I asked Lisa if she could try to see if Ty can save a big stinky for Seth to practice changing, haha. I am not sure if that will fly, but I will let you know. I hope you guys are enjoying your weekend. It is cold here, and supposed to snow a little so we will be all bundled up!
P.S. Don't forget to send your holiday picture in!

Contest and Give Away!!!

In the spirit of the upcoming holidays, I have decided to have my first ever contest and give away!!! The contest is simple and fun. Here are the rules:

1. Pick out your favorite holiday decoration from Thanksgiving or Christmas. This can be something homemade, bought, vintage, anything! It can be a picture, a plate, a wreath, an ornament, etc. Just make sure it is your favorite :)

2. Take a picture of it and include a brief summary or story behind your decoration and submit it to retrogalusa@aol.com with your name and blog address (if you have one).

3. Submissions will be accepted up until November 19, 2008 at 11:59 pm ET. That gives you a week from today!

4. All submissions will be posted on November the 20 and the voting will take place from November 20-28.

5. The winner will be announced Monday, December 1. The winner receives the barrette case pictured above made by me, a Mary Kay eye shadow in Sheer Pink and a Mary Kay Satin lips mask (which is a great way to exfoliate those dry, winter lips!)

Good luck to all!!! Remember that the goal is to win, so pick a great decoration and take a good picture!!!

Perfect fit!

Mama jeans makeover! Click HERE!

I have the posting bug today :)

Learning new things every day

I have a friend here who is about 10 weeks behind me in her pregnancy. This will be her second child and she is having a boy as well. We are so excited to have met each other and be able to have babies so close in age. Her little girl says that they will be twins, lol. Today, she came over so we could chit chat. I made pumpkin bread and a great new dip from a Tastefully Simple mix I bought at the arts and crafts fair when I was with another friend on Saturday. I had a lot of fun today eating and talking and eating and talking. My friend went to eat her pumpkin bread and figured out the amount of carbohydrates in it before she ate it. Is she on some kind of super diet, is she rude, what??? None of the above. She has stage 1diabetes. Her insulin pump has to be adjusted daily depending on how many carbs she eats. She also has to take the needle out of her skin every two days and place the needle in a different area of her body. This also means that the catheter has to come out each time as well and be reinserted with a needle each time. She said that is the part that hurts the most, but she gets used to is. Because she is expecting, it is important for her to pay close attention to her diabetes and the best way she does this is by having the pump. I have never thought much about diabetes, but after seeing my friend today and hearing what she has to do everyday to stay healthy, I am ashamed at how I take my good health for granted. I get annoyed when I have to shave my legs, much less having to keep up with an insulin pump. My thoughts go out to all of you who have diabetes. I now have a better understanding and compassion for those who have this disease and I hope one day a cure can be found. As for me, I will thank God an extra time today for blessing me with good health. He is so good to me, much better than I deserve.

One of my new favorite things

On a sunny day, although it is only in the 40's!



Yesterday, which was cold and overcast. I thought it was going to snow!!!

This is the view outside our back door. I feel like I am back in the country when I look out there. The funny thing is that the front door view is completely city! Now I just need me a Town and Country Chrystler van and I will be all set. Actually, on second thought, I will keep my Jetta :)

Is it too soon?

Cbristmas faves by retrogalusa

New Poll!

Okay, I have a new poll on the right :) And in case you didn't already see, you guys liked the red and the chrome mixers, with Pistachio coming in at a close second. The red and chrome doesn't surprise me, but he pistachio sure does! Thanks for the input, I will let you know if and what I get, haha. How many of you guys have been a Mary Kay, or equivalent, type of "independent consultant"? I got sucked in right before I started college, only to quickly realize how poor college students are and really don't like to spend more than Wal-Mart prices on make-up, oops! Anyways, I fell in love with Mary Kay (which was as cheap as Wal-Mart makeup for me), surprisingly, but since I wasn't selling very much, it was too expensive to keep it just for myself, seeing as every 3 months you HAVE to order at least $300 wholesale from them (which was in the fine print and no one cared to tell me until it was too late). I was watching a segment on Avon this morning and I had a flashback of my college Mary Kay days so I thought I would share.

On another note, Seth gets off of work in about 2 hours!!! We are taking our car to Louisville to get it's 20,000 mile check up (since the closest VW dealership is that far away!!!) but the plus to that is I am getting to register at Babies R' Us just in the nick of time. My nanny called me yesterday to tell me my family was giving me a shower when we go to visit for Thanksgiving, which is very nice considering how busy Thanksgiving week is. I am sooo excited though. I went to Target yesterday and finished my registry there, but I also LOVE Babies R' Us and even though my hometown only has Toys R' Us, I can use gift cards at both places! Poor Seth has to endure more baby stuff again. He just wants the baby :)

One big post!!!

Okay, so I have been preoccupied the last few days with unpacking. I have taken lots of pictures of all sorts of things to do with the move. After being in a 400 square foot apartment, living out of rubbermaid containers and being new to a town since July, I couldn't be more excited about being in a new house!!! I wake up every morning and sit at my table with my coffee and I just look around and say, "Thank you Jesus for giving us this place to live!" I am just so overwhelmingly grateful. I keep on telling Seth, Thank you! Thank you! Are these emotions partly due to being pregnant? I might never know, but I do know that I could stay at home all day and be perfectly content. Okay, anyways, the packing is only 1/4 done. The bedrooms upstairs are packed with boxes and odds and ends. We took a load to the thrift store today, I have ebayed some things and several trips to Goodwill have taken place. We haven't organized anything since we got married and Seth says that I am a hoarder, so I am trying my very hardest to get rid of as much "junk" as I can, although I can find a reason to keep everything but it does feel good to have some space. Here are some pictures from our moving adventure!

The movers finally arrived, only 3 days and 1 1/2 hours late!


It was a strangely warm November day. Here I am pretending to be in charge of the check list.


Seth was really the boss behind the checklist. It was actually relaxing just to sit there and have our stuff brought into the house while we checked the list. That was until we went inside and saw all the boxes that took over our once empty home in a matter of 2 hours!


Here is Seth in front of his new pride and joy that he has been wanting to get 17 months now and since our other TV is about to go out (the screen is getting darker and darker)this is what we have! After looking at TV's every time we go to Best Buy, Wal Mart or Target, he finally bought one, and guess what? We are still looking at the TV's just to see if we got a good deal, oh my.


If you noticed the ridiculous height of the plugs in the above picture, you will realize that the people who built the place weren't very smart. Seth and I brainstormed on how we could hide this, and here is our solution, which was not as easy to do as it may look!


So this part was the most tiring. I had to go through my old high school boxes and determine what was worth keeping (because I kept every note, flower, program, etc).


While going through the boxes, I came across the CD I bought Seth for Christmas. He loves Paul McCartney, but this picture is exceptionally feminine of him. It is on the back of the CD cover. I thought it was a joke but every time we look at it, we laugh.


Here is Seth's interpretation. What a dork!


I had to post this picture because Seth decided to get artistic with it! I could hardly believe my eyes!


Here is my 25 1/2 week pregnant picture. This is my favorite maternity shirt so I am trying to wear it as much as I can because I am quickly growing out of it. I have tried to find a bigger size but I have had no luck!


Apple pie a la mode! I have enjoyed having my dishes and cook wear back. I made this apple pie with homemade cinnamon ice cream. Seth loved it! And I made it with splenda and skim milk, so he really liked it when I told him that. Num Yummy!

My plans?

Old School Surprise

My mom sent me these pics last night. This was me and my sister and brother for a few years of Halloween growing up. Can you tell which one I am? I think they are funny and I thought I would share :)