full

I feel so lovely and full after this long weekend. Not just full, as in "I ate too much"... though I am certainly that type of full too! But full, as in full of contentment and love and all that sappy stuff. It was so great to see my family, and have a house filled with conversation, crazy playing puppies, and laughter.

My parents brought their camera tripod with them, and my mom snapped some shots of Trav, the pup and I for Christmas card use... and just to have. I am using two for Christmas cards (which I don't want to break out yet), but here are some of the outtakes (they were all a bit bright, but I was able to color adjust for the cards, I didn't bother with these):



She also snapped some of just Trav & I, while she was at it:





Thanksgiving dinner was great. We had so much food! Trav actually did a lot of the cooking, with my mom as sous chef... so I got to relax and just handle one or two things. Afterward we observed one of my family traditions and watched Miracle on 34th St. Every year that would be the first Christmas movie we watched... and we would do it after Thanksgiving, so as to respect the turkey. ;-) It was always that movie, since MoTFS starts with the Thanksgiving day parade, and ends with Christmas... so it seemed fitting. We also watched much football, of course.

Friday we had breakfast and relaxed for a bit before my parents got on the road. Then Trav, Ethan, and I went food shopping to stock the boy up for the rest of the semester. He went home with a lot of food! I rode into the city with him again, then came home to relax. Trav harassed the puppy:


Saturday we cleaned up some more from Thanksgiving, then used the extra space we finally had to set up the nursery furniture! We're leaving the futon in there, but it will be upright unless someone is coming over and needs to use it.

The changing table:
The crib:
A close-up of the pattern on both:

They were actually pretty easy to put together, and now its really starting to look like a babies room in there!!

After that we both wrapped the Christmas presents we had accumulated so far... we both had gifts for each other that we wanted wrapped, and I also wrapped stuff for my parents and for Ro. It makes Christmas seem right around the corner to see wrapped presents sitting in my closet!

Sunday (today) we were pretty lazy... watched more football, and Monk episodes (there was an all-day marathon since the series is ending on Friday), played with the puppy and just relaxed. It was the perfect end to the weekend. Now I have to get ready to go back to work... but hopefully this nice, full feeling will carry on for a while!

you might have noticed

...that things look a tiny bit different around here. I did some updating yesterday. Went from two columns to three, rearranged things a bit, changed the background, and updated the banner. I'm pleased with it, and it helped me kill time on an otherwise slow day. Hopefully you like it too and that it makes finding things a bit easier.

Otherwise not much to report. Still just prepping away for the holidays... Trav brought up the big dining room table last night, vacuumed and dusted, I made the guest bed and cleaned the last of the "stuff" from the guest bedroom/nursery, and sorted some more "stuff" in the office. Its really pretty much there. Tonight we're going to prep the appetizer veggies and clean the kitchen. And then I think we are ready.

And tomorrow... well a big old

I hope its full of delicious food, loving family, and thoughts turned to all that you have to be thankful for. We have so much this year.

Enjoy your holiday, and enjoy your weekend.

this that and the other thing

Weekly Review
(And guess where that picture was taken! More of office, at the bottom.)

How far along? 27 weeks!

Total weight gain/loss: Not sure... but I'm sure there will be a gain when I go back next week, especially after Thursday!

Maternity clothes? Oh yes.

Stretch marks? Nothing new, nothing on the belly.

Sleep: Okay, lots and lots of crazy dreams.

Best moment this week: It will be showing off my belly to my fam... and hopefully letting them feel her move.

Movement: Great big movements, ones that move my whole belly.

Food cravings: Not too much right now. Just the normal stuff.

Actual Gender: GIRL! :-)

Labor Signs: Nope.

Belly Button in or out? Innie... barely!

What I miss: I would love to be able to drink this awesome apple wine with Thanksgiving dinner... but I'll have some yummy sparkling grape juice instead. :-)

What I am looking forward to: My baby shower on the 12th.

Weekly Wisdom: I got nothing.

Milestones: 3rd Trimester!!!!!!!!!!


Also... I present the office!:

Before:


And NOW:



What do you think? We're very happy with how it turned out!

check, check, check

Furniture is moved back into the office, and we actually picked up a new (smaller) desk to replace the large L shaped one we had. We purged as we put stuff back in, and managed to throw away 3 extra large trash bags full of old papers, junky knick-knacks, etc that we no longer needed. Because of all that, and because Trav finally got rid of the nasty beat-up recliner chair that had been in the office (left by the previous owners!), we have so much more room in there now. Its great.

We have our nursery/guest bedroom back now too... which is also great. Washed the sheets last night, will do the comforter tonight, plus vacumming (etc) and the room should be ready for my parents.

We also did our Thanksgiving shopping, so food-wise, we are ready. We have pepperoni, cheese and crackers, shrimp, and some veggies for earlier in the day snacking. For dinner we have a big turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole, corn, crescent rolls, and cranberry sauce. My mom is bringing desserts... maybe pumpkin pie and monkey bread? We have sparkling grape juice and wine for toasting. For breakfast the next morning we have eggs, bacon, scraple, and cinnamon rolls. Maybe I'll get Trav to pick up some fruit too.
We are going to be stuffed!

The next few nights will be busy as we sort the last of the items back into the office, clean the house, and bring the big table up from the basement... but I'm feeling relaxed about it and confident that it will get done. Even if the table has to be brought up on Thanksgiving day, my parents aren't going to care.

Trav is going to ask my dad to help him hang our diploma's in the office. Finally they will be on the walls!! Probably the only things going on our beautiful new walls. ;-) If we get the chance, we'll pick up blinds sometime this week too (we're looking at maybe the white faux wood kind)... so Trav can get changed in that room again without feeling like a perve. But he can work around that for the time being.

As for the other weekend activities... my movie night on Friday was great. Very fun, very relaxing, and I got home early enough to not be completely wiped by it. Saturday at Lehigh was fine... though I didn't get to see many people, which was disappointing. But I did pick up a cute Lehigh onsie and baby hoodie for our little girl to wear when we head up next year! :-) Mama got a new hoodie too. Lol.

All in all, good stuff to report!

No pictures of the room at the moment... I ran out of time to snap them this weekend! But hopefully I can get some tonight, and can share tomorrow.

For now, I'm back to work since we are very busy with an event today.