Five on Friday

I'm in Washington DC this week, but I can't miss out on my favorite post day: Five on Friday.
Make sure to link up with the girls, Darci, April, Natasha, and Christina.

ONE
I ran into Sephora the other day because I needed some face cleanser and while waiting in line I saw a tiny version of Benefits They're Real! mascara. I've always wanted to try it, but can't bring myself to spend $23 on a mascara I don't even know if I like. (I know, I'm cheap) Anyway, I picked up the small version to try it out and I'll let you know what I think.

TWO
Last Saturday we took dessert over to a friend's house and I wanted to make something I'd never made before. I had pinned The Best Ever Angel Food Cake recipe a long time ago and decided to give it a try. Other than having 12 eggs on hand the recipe is really easy and the effort is so worth it. The result is so much better than a store bought version and when paired with the Best Homemade Whipped Cream recipe you can believe it was a hit. So much so actually that I totally forgot to take a picture of the finished product. Oh well, guess I have to make it again. 

THREE
Columbia, SC got snow Tuesday morning! Well, a sprinkling really. It wasn't even enough to delay work for us, but it was fun just the same. I thought about taking a picture of Camden playing outside, but he was all curled up warm on his bed and I didn't want to torture him just for a picture. 

FOUR
As you can probably tell in the picture above we have some serious landscaping to do this spring. However one of the things we need to do now is trim our crepe myrtles. We've never done it before, but I hear there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. Anyone have any expertise? 

FIVE
I saw this tote on Etsy this week and I'm thinking I might need one for me and one for baby girl. 

 

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!

23 Weeks

How Far Along? 23 weeks

Size of Baby: Papaya (8in, 1.2lbs) My weekly update said baby will almost double in size over a month. Incredible!

Gender:  Sweet little lady

Maternity Clothes: Regular tights are a no go anymore. However I checked two Targets recently and they were totally out of maternity tights. I need some badly for my trip to DC this week so I might have to go to just a bigger size for the time being.

Nursery: We have our dresser all picked out and on hold at the store. I did a lot of pinning on Pinterest this weekend and need to make my appointment with the bedding department about getting  some items made. I have some ideas of what I want, but nothing concrete. I want color and different patterns in the room, but nothing obnoxious or over the top. I’m also really thinking about a collage on the wall with different pictures, quotes, monograms.

Movement: It’s still pretty sporadic, but I’m definitely feeling her move more now. I mostly feel her on the underside of my belly, which I was a little surprised about. I was a little worried about what position she must be in if I’m feeling everything so low, however I can very clearly tell when she flips because it feels like a big wave in my belly, such a weird feeling. I’ve started doing the pregnant lady move of resting my hands on my belly so I don’t miss anything.  I also was able to see her move last night from the outside. Her kicks were pretty strong and I looked down and I watched my shirt move. It’s the craziest experience.

Symptoms: I now know what ladies are talking about when they say their bellies itch, because they do. I’m also getting a little nervous about my glucose test next week. I know there isn’t much I can do about the results, but good grief I want it to go well.

Sleep: I finally bought a Snoogle pregnancy pillow and I’m still a little undecided about if I like it or not. I start out every night with it, but usually end up kicking it away halfway through the night. I’m used to turning over throughout the night and my body isn’t loving the one position. We’ll just see how it goes.

Cravings: Nothing in particular, but I definitely have a healthier appetite lately.

What I Miss:  I’d love a cold turkey sandwich with a Diet Coke. I’ve had plenty of turkey sandwiches (heated up) and the very occasionally Diet Coke or Sweet Tea, but it’s just not the same.

Best Moment This Week: Seeing baby girl move from the outside was pretty incredible. 

Also, while maybe not the best moment, I have a very memberable/embarrassing story. I was running a bunch of errands on Saturday and I knew I had gone past my usual lunch time, but decided to quickly run into Target. Well, like every other woman, a quick trip in Target is not possible. So halfway through I started to get really hot and a little faint feeling and I knew my blood sugar was super low. So I ran to the food section, grabbed the first thing I saw, which were Teddy Grahams, and started eating them while I walked around the store. I felt a little trashy eating something I hadn’t paid for yet, but boy did it help. I closed up the box and paid for it at the register like nothing had happened. This might not be a big deal to some, but I just kept thinking how embarrassed my mom would be of me eating in the store. (By the way Teddy Grahams are delicious, I’d totally forgotten over the last 20 years.)

Looking Forward To: My first baby shower is this weekend. Since I’ll be in the DC area for work my mother-in-law had the great idea to throw my Maryland shower while I was up there already. Thankfully I’m driving so I can pack the fourteen clothing options I have since South Carolina girls don’t know how to dress for snow, especially not while pregnant.

The Beacon Drive-In

Last weekend my husband and I took a road trip to the upstate of South Carolina. We rarely take spontaneous road trips, but with a baby on the way I think we are trying to do fun outings while we can. We got all our planned shopping done by 12:30pm and then it was time to eat. I remembered hearing people talk about The Beacon Drive-In, but neither Andy or I had ever been there.

The Beacon was started in 1946 and has been a landmark for the SC upstate for a long time. It has been reviewed a million times and featured on shows like Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.

The Beacon is the definition of a greasy spoon. They are known for their unique ordering style and boy you better know what you want when you get to the front of the line and they yell "Call it"! Andy ordered a Chili-Cheese-A-Plenty, which is a chili cheeseburger covered in a mix of french fries and onion rings, and I got a M&M Cheeseburger, which is a cheeseburger with mayonnaise and mustard. We had been warned ahead of time that we could easily share one serving of "a-plenty" and I'm glad we held off on a second order, we couldn't finish what we had. Oh, and we order two of the famous sweet teas.

 

(Borrowed from Yelp)

We thought the food was good, but honestly it was more about the experience. Talk about some of the best people watching. You had families with little kids, church youth groups, older couples you know had been coming for decades, every walk of life really. While the ordering process is intimidating everyone was super nice and helpful. Definitely a must experience if you find yourself in Spartanburg, SC area.

Five on Friday

It's Friday!!!!!! Make sure to link up with Darci, April, Natasha, and Christina.

ONE:
I saved the Saturday Night Live 40 Year Reunion on my DVR while I watched the Bachelor so Andy and I could watch it together. Let me tell you, it was AMAZING! The guest appearances, the montages of different themes covered over the years, the tributes to past cast members, they were all great. My favorite part had to be the clips from cast members auditions. It's incredible to see how many people got their start on SNL. If you didn't see it, find it and watch it. You won't regret it.

TWO
My mom gave Andy and I some Dark Chocolate Covered Caramels from Whole Foods and holy moly are they good. They have sea salt sprinkled on the top and it just makes them perfect.

THREE
I finally broke down yesterday and bought a Snoogle pregnancy pillow. I don't know what my hangup was, but I just didn't want to spend the money on it. Well, after a week of fitful sleep I caved and the verdict is still out on if I like it or not. Last night was my first try with it. I used it for half the night, then kicked it away. I'll report back after I use it for a week or so. 

FOUR
I was wandering around Target and found a new La Croix flavor, Pineapple Strawberry. I can't pass on a new flavor and I'm glad I didn't. I really like this one and can see turning to this during the spring when everyone else is having fruity cocktails.

FIVE
Next week is super busy for me. I travel up to Washington DC for work and then finish the trip with my first baby shower in Maryland on Sunday. Thankfully my mom will be traveling with me so I won't be all by myself. We are staying in Alexandria so if you have any tips of where to eat please let me know.

Have a fabulous weekend and try to stay warm!

22 Weeks

 

I definitely feel like I've "popped" this week. I've had more people comment on the baby bump and it's pretty much impossible to hide. I loving finally looking pregnant, instead of just looking like I overate. I find myself resting my hands on my belly, which I always noticed other pregnant women doing. It's just comfortable and safe feeling.

How Far Along? 22 weeks and 1 day

Size of Baby: spaghetti squash (8in and at least 1lb)

Gender:  Baby Girl

Maternity Clothes:  So, funny story. I had a business meeting yesterday and had what I thought would be a cute outfit all planned out. Of course I put it on and it was definitely not cute, it was terrible, horrible, made me look like a blimp with stumpy legs bad. (Totally rational thinking going on.) I then proceeded to pull everything I own out of the closet and try it on. I finally found an outfit, but at the end of the day Andy gave the huge pile of clothes on the bed a questioning eye and asked “Rough morning”? Needless to say, wardrobe planning has gotten a little tougher.

Nursery: We added the rocker to the nursery this weekend and I’m still in love with it. Read all about how we bought it for a steal here.

Movement: Yes! It’s not all the time, but when I sit still for a while or lay down I can feel her roll around. It sometimes feels like a wave in my belly or a bubble popping. I’m trying to enjoy these sweet movements since I know un-fun kicks to the ribs and punches to the bladder are in my future.

Symptoms: My lower belly has been pretty achy lately, especially when I’ve been sitting a while and then get up fast. I can definitely tell the muscles are stretching, which means baby is growing! I can also tell when I’ve been standing too long, because my lower back aches for days afterward. I’m a little nervous about my road trip to DC next week, any tips about how to keep the aches and pains at bay?

Sleep: For the first week really I haven’t slept well. I can’t seem to get comfortable, I freak out when I wake up not on my side, and this crazy weather has made me super congested.

Cravings: I’m not craving anything in particular, but my hunger level is way up. I want to snack constantly. I’m trying my best to only eat sweets in moderation, but we have so much in the house right now. Everything needs to be replaced with only fruits and veggies, I’ve got that glucose tests in a couple weeks and I’m already nervous about it.

What I Miss:  Being low maintenance. I was at a meeting where they served box lunches and I had to ask if there was a microwave somewhere so I could heat up my sandwich. It wasn’t a big deal and the coordinator totally understood since she is a mom too, but I hated having to ask.

Best Moment This Week: This is easy, because this moment will be burned in my brain forever; Andy felt our daughter move last night. I was lying in bed reading when he came to bed, so I just put his hand on my belly to see if he could feel anything. (I’ve done this a dozen times before with no luck so far.) I made sure not to prompt him when I felt something and suddenly his eyes flew open and he asked “did you just tighten your stomach?” I said nope, that was baby girl moving. She kicked around more than ever before last night, showing off for Daddy obviously. It was a great moment and I love when Andy can be involved in the pregnancy.

Looking Forward To: A quiet weekend and nursery planning on Pinterest. We have had pretty busy weekends so far and we both have a crazy week next week, so a little down time is what I’m looking forward to.

Weekend Recap - Valentine's Day

I hope everyone had a fabulous Valentine's Day weekend! We had a very busy Saturday that wasn't exactly romance based, but we spent the whole day together which was awesome.

Saturday morning I got up with Camden, since he wakes up at 7:00am no matter what day of the week it is, and let Andy sleep in. I ran to Dunkin Donuts and picked up breakfast. We exchanged a few small gifts and then hit the road to Gaffney, SC to visit their outlet mall.

 

Our first stop was the Coach store. I had received a couple small Coach purses for Christmas gifts and wanted to exchange them for one big one. Well I was shocked to find that they wouldn't take any of them since they claimed the pursed were purchased over 60 days ago. Every purse had the original tag on them, were in perfect condition, and when I said I got them as gifts this past Christmas and didn't have the receipts or know when they were purchased I was basically told tough luck. Ummm, what?!?! Has anyone had better luck with Coach or is my only option to sell them myself and use the profits to buy any other brand of purse?

Okay rant is over.

Moving on to the wonderful part of our trip. I had fallen in love the the Pottery Barn rocker that Christina from Carolina Charm got for her daughter's nursery instantly. I pinned it, dreamed about it, and then tried to forget about it, because there was no way I could convince Andy to pay that much for a chair. Well we were walking around the Pottery Barn outlet store and there sat my dream rocker. We both sat in it and marveled at how comfortable it was. We liked that it's not oversized, the armrests are a little higher, the fabric was neutral and would go with everything, and the fact that you can switch the rocker legs for regular feet and use it as a stable chair was a huge selling point. So then it just came down to the price. Well the original tag said a price well over $1,000, and that's so far out of our price range it's not even funny. Well it already had a 30% discount being in the outlet store and then there was the 20% off for their President's Day sale and then we got another 20% off from the friends and family email. I almost reached across the counter and hugged the cashier I was so excited when she told us the final price. We were taking my dream rocker home to our little nursery. I beamed all the way home.

 

(The fabric looks white in this picture, but it's more like a tan/linen color)

Since we were in the upstate around lunchtime and a pregnant lady has to eat, we decided to try a South Carolina landmark for the first time, The Beacon and I'll share more about that experience in a later post.

When we got back home Andy surprised me with already having a low-key dinner planned. Fresh Market had an amazing deal of two steaks, a pound of asparagus, whipped potatoes, huge chocolate dipped strawberries, and a dozen roses. We baked the steaks and heated up the veggies. It was a perfect way to end our long day.

21 Weeks

How Far Along? 21 weeks

Size of Baby: size of a banana (tracker says 11 oz, but we know she was 12 oz last Monday.)

Gender:  Sweet little girl

Maternity Clothes: I regret it every time I try to make a pair of my regular pants work. I’ve been able to switch back and forth up to this point, but I think I’ve past it now. I’m copying April from A.Liz Adventures’ idea of the skinny beat to prevent the “tent” look with dresses and flowy shirts. The more structure you can introduce to the wardrobe the better at this point.

Nursery: I mentioned here that our nursery is painted and the crib is put together. Lots more to do, but I love walking by and seeing the progress. We need to pick out bedding soon, so we can decide on a rug. The room echoes pretty bad at the moment and a rug would definitely help.

Movement: It’s still hard to tell exactly what is the baby and what is um *cough* air moving around. I usually feel it when I’m lying down at night or early in the morning. I had Andy sit with his hand on my stomach, but all he could feel was my heartbeat. Did you know about feeling the mother’s heartbeat on your stomach? I sure didn’t.

Symptoms: I finally caved and started taking Prilosec for my heartburn. After waking up in the middle of the night with super strong heartburn I threw in the towel. I’ve used it before and it worked like a charm and thankfully it is working again. Three whole days without heartburn so far, that’s a huge record for my pregnancy.

Sleep: I’ve been waking up when I turn over at night, which is out of the ordinary for me. And Andy woke me up the other night to say I was sleeping on my back, which I never do, and was snoring, which I hope I never do. I’ve been putting off buying the body pillow, but I think I’m actually doing to take the plunge.

Cravings: Nothing in particular, however my appetite has increased a ton this week. I’ll basically been snacking all through the day and then I only eat small portions at meal time because I get full so fast. Hopefully this won’t get out of hand and it just means baby girl is growing.

What I Miss: Not having anything to follow up on. Call me naïve, but I’d never thought of all the stuff you have to do before baby gets here. I knew you had to get a nursery ready and register for stuff and go to your doctor’s appointments, but that was about it. Umm, no! My life is consumed with setting up appointments to tour child care places, arranging pediatrician meetings, signing up for classes at the hospital, etc. All super important things I just hadn’t thought of. Thankfully, if baby #2 comes along in a couple years all those decisions will already be figured out.

Best Moment This Week: Seeing our nursery come to life. I hated the original color of the nursery from the day we moved in. However, we always said we wouldn’t bother repainting it until we had a baby on the way. Seeing the room all painted and new definitely gave me the “wow this is really happening” moment.

Looking Forward To: Figuring out some of the nursery stuff. A trip to Pottery Barn and Ikea may be in our future. ;)

Weekend Recap - Starting the Nursery

This weekend was all about the nursery, well the start of it. I mentioned earlier that my mother-in-law was nice enough to come to town and paint the room we are using as the nursery. Talk about an amazing gift and help this was. The room before was hunter green, which I hated, and had cream trim. It was used as a guest room and storage for lots of junk.

 

Sorry for the terrible picture. I had already started taking apart the bed and walls and only then realized I should take a "before" picture.

My MIL painted the trim bright white, my favorite!, and primed and painted the whole room. (We went with Olympic Toasted Almond for the walls.) She even hard waxed the floors. They look so good and I can guarantee it would have never occurred to me do that, but they look amazing. Andy was able to put the crib together in able 10 minutes with no fuss. I had heard horror stories about how difficult it was to put cribs together and was so relieved that it was so easy.

 

The looks black in the picture, but it's a dark wood color. 

So the nursery is officially started. Now we just need a dresser, a glider, a rug, curtains, decorations, and the baby. Thankfully we have a few months before baby though. ;)

Five on Friday

It's Friday and I'm so excited! We don't have anything really planned and I'm loving that. Make sure to link up with Darci, April, Natasha, and Christina.

ONE
I have a new favorite show for you: Booze Traveler on the Travel Channel. Jack Maxwell is from Boston, but travels the world in search of the history of different cultures drinking habits. While I thought it was just going to be "try this bar if you ever visit this country" I was pleasantly surprised to find that the show really talked about the different cultures and reasons behind certain traditions. We watched the Mongolia episode where Jack drank horse milk and learned that sake has been around longer than the Japanese written language. Check it out.

TWO
I had one of my favorite lunches this week from Garden Bistro. I grabbed my usual chicken salad sandwich and a bowl of their roasted red pepper soup. It is so good! They are only open for lunch during the week, so if you find you are in search of a Columbia lunch spot definitely try Garden Bistro. (And yes, I got it to go and decided that it was so nice outside that I ate it in my car. Don't judge.)

THREE
I just finished a great book called Roses by Leila Meacham. I saw the recommendation on Carolina Charm and had to give it a try. It's really good, easy read, and I would have loved to be reading it on the beach like Christina did.

FOUR
I love wandering through World Market. I rarely buy anything, but I think all their stuff is so fun. Well yesterday I just couldn't help myself and bought my favorite treat in the store Caramel Digestives. I fell for these cookies during my trip to Ireland back in 2004 and was overjoyed when I found them in World Market. Digestive cookies are pretty popular in Great Britain and I love that a cookie can make me feel worldly. (It's a stretch, but let's go with it.)

FIVE
Yesterday my alum mater, the University of South Carolina, experienced something terrifying. We had a shooter on campus. They are still working on all the details, but they think it was an isolated murder-suicide. So scary. There were students and professors in the building and was just something you never want to happen. I'm a proud Gamecock and my heart is with everyone affected by this. Forever to thee!