7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 51)

1) I would like to start by saying "Merry Christmas, Joseph!" I finally got around to buying his Christmas gift this week (Yes. That is in the singular.). I mean 4.5 months late isn't too bad, right? I didn't want to set the bar too high the first year we gave an actual gift to our son at Christmas.

2) I bought him an IKEA play kitchen. I spent months researching play kitchens, looking up used kitchens on Craigslist, hemming and hawing about what to buy. Once I finally decided I was going to get the IKEA kitchen I kept an eye on their website waiting for it to be in stock. I was hoping to buy both the kitchen and a couple spice racks at the same time, but it seems the spice racks are pretty much never available. So, I finally took the plunge and went to IKEA to buy the kitchen and just skipped the spice racks. Now I just have to put it together. Hopefully that won't take another 4.5 months.

3) Joseph was so good during our 4-hour trip to IKEA (I went with a friend and we took our time, what can I say?). The highlight for him, I think, was the helicopter that flew by as we were loading the car. He's still talking about that "hapidodur."

4) I love Ann Taylor LOFT. I bought this dress (in 2 different colors) and this shirt (in 3 different colors) this week. I've been wanting to buy some non-maternity + breast feeding friendly clothes for a while now and finally took the plunge. I took the boys with me and just powered through. And I'm so glad I did. I feel so much better in non-maternity clothes (I'm still looking for some shorts I like and am willing to pay for, though). It was definitely worth going (especially since the stuff I got was on sale!).

5) Our yard is a mess. About a month ago Pepco (our utility company) dug up a good portion of our front yard for "quality improvement work." Now Verizon is digging in a very large portion of our yard (all along the side and front of our house - we're on a corner) to install FiOS. I'm ready for all the destruction to be over so I can take Joseph out in the yard again. I just hope it doesn't take too long for grass to grow again.

The flags mark where they will dig/where lines will go.
This is about 15-20% of the flags in our yard.
Obviously, they haven't dug here yet.

6) Joseph loves to wear Will's hats. He wants to be just like daddy.

7) I let Joseph play with water in the sink a couple weeks ago. He LOVED it.

In heaven.

Completely soaked.

He played at the sink for over 2 hours! It was amazing. I was able to cook dinner, nurse John, read blogs.... But the mess. It took a while to clean up all the water/Jospeh. I'll probably let him do it again sometime though. Probably on one of those days where I hit a wall around 4-5pm and just. can't. do. anything. else.

Thanks for hosting, Jen!

A Trip Down Memory Lane

I meant to write this post several days ago, but...life happened. Anyway, August 17 marked one year from the day I started this blog. (Woohoo!) So, I figured I'd take a minute to remember why I even decided to start blogging in the first place. It all started with this fiasco - my first clear sign that I have no idea how to run a house. Seeing as how I had only been at home full time for a couple months at that point I was sure there would be many more incidences like it, and it was just too hilarious not to share. Luckily, everything got cleared up fairly quickly, and I haven't really had any more incidences like that again.
There is (of course) a lot that goes in to running a house and home ownership in general, and I've documented some of my attempts at these tasks. Over the past year I have learned about gardening (whether I like yard work or not), a little about cooking (I have particularly enjoyed trying out new recipes and sharing some of my favorites), a lot about pregnancy (and it's perks!), and now parenting. It's been fun being able to document so much, and I particularly enjoy being able to document my experiences with Joseph. It seems to much easier for me to document his milestones virtually than by keeping a journal (although I am attempting to keep a journal as well), and I love being able to share the fun (and cute!) times with all of you. Here's to another fun year blogging!

Bring On the $avings

As I talked about earlier, I found great motivation to go out and do some yard work after receiving a quote from a local landscaper. So, last Saturday I got up at a reasonable hour, had some breakfast and headed out to trim the privacy hedges in the back yard and the vines that grow over our deck.
The privacy hedges have basically gone untouched since we moved into the house except for my husband cutting back a few branches here and there so he could mow the lawn. Needless to say they needed a LOT of trimming.

before

after

Clearly there's still more work to be done, but it's definitely better. Will is going to have to trim the tops of the hedges - I'm not tall enough. Also, right toward the end I accidentally got the extension cord caught in the hedge trimmer.

Oops!

I took it as a sign that I should stop trimming those hedges. So, I decided to move on to trimming the vines.

before

after

I don't think the second picture shows just how many vines I cut back. Most of the trimming happened underneath so there weren't vines hanging down onto the deck. And I know it's important to make sure the vines don't reach the house (otherwise they could wreak havoc in any number of ways) so I cut back the vines that were getting unsettlingly close to the house.

Thinking about the quote from the landscaper kept me going. And now I'm glad I did the work. Who knows, maybe this will inspire me to do more work in the yard.

Considering that it only took me about an hour and a half to trim the hedges and the vines I'd definitely say I saved us some money (I think somewhere around $400!) - even if I did ruin an extension cord.

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 20)

1) I love my pampered chef "cool and serve tray." It rocks my socks off. I love how versatile it is. I love that it keeps food cool. I love everything about it. I've only had it for a few months now and have already used it a bunch. I have used it to serve fruit, deviled eggs and store/transport cup cakes. And the fact that it's dishwasher safe ain't too shabby either :)

www.pamperedchef.com

2) I learned this week to never let fruit juices sit for a period of days enclosed in a serving container on your counter. When I finally got around to washing my "cool and serve tray" after taking fruit to a dinner this past weekend, I was greeted by quite an unpleasant smell not to mention some weird growths. You can be sure I won't make that mistake again!

3) I have a newfound drive to go out and do some yard work after getting an estimate for how much it would cost to have a landscaper come in and clean up our yard. And we're not talking anything fancy - just weeding, trimming bushes, and various other basic yard maintenance things. The estimate was easily three times what I would be willing to pay, so...yea. I guess that leaves me with a lot of work to do! Although, I am considering offering to pay the neighbor's kids to come over and weed a bit. We'll see how that pans out.

4) The car seat has been installed and checked. That means we're officially ready for baby Joseph. Yay!

5) I've been working on putting together this TV stand for a couple weeks now. It's taking a while because I can only do so much at once before I get winded/exhausted. Assembling this thing is taking more squatting and crouching than I anticipated. Hopefully it'll be done before Joesph gets here so the extra TV in the living room can finally be moved.

6) Does anyone else get frustrated/overwhelmed with the sheer number of papers that come into your home? I feel like this is something my mother used to make comments about, and she was always ready to toss any papers that she deemed useless. I think I'm beginning to understand her sentiments. We get so much junk mail. And even the papers I need or want to keep for whatever reason seem to pile up. I just don't understand where they all come from. And speaking of random papers - let's talk about getting put on mailing lists you never signed up for. I've been getting all this stuff from Enfamil and I don't even plan on using formula for Joseph. I get something in the mail from them about 2-3 times a week. Talk about useless papers. Sheesh! This is a battle I will continue to fight, and one day I will WIN!

7) My favorite Facebook post of the week goes to Emily. If you'll just take a quick glance at #6 you'll know that I can understand where she's coming from - minus the exhausted part. I doubt I'm nearly as exhausted as her seeing how she has two kids to deal with every day.
"organized, and exhausted. i wish i had the energy to purge 90% of my stuff!"

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 15)

 

1) Why is batter (of any kind) so delicious? It's especially hard to avoid eating it when you're pregnant. Sometimes all I want is a little cookie batter or to lick the spoon after making pancakes. Alas...this is my life for at least 5 more weeks (or so).

2) It's been pretty rainy and overcast all week. So, while I've enjoyed the reasonable temperatures that have come along with this weather - upper 60's low 70's - I can't wait for a few sunny days in a row. And I especially can't wait for swimming/pool season. I love sitting by the pool on a nice sunny day, and I'm only going to have the first half(ish) of summer to do this, so bring on the sun! It can rain all it wants once I'm stuck inside and sleep deprived with the baby.

3) I finally got the bassinet put together. So, the only thing left that has to get done before the baby arrives is installing the car seat, and I've delegated that to my husband. I'm pretty sure we've covered all the other essentials (diapers, wipes, clothes, etc), but you know I continue looking at lists and creating my own lists of things I've missed. I just know we're going to get home from the hospital and have forgotten something important. I'm not sure what that important thing is, but I'm sure we're going to miss it. Here's to being type-A and making comprehensive lists so that sort of thing doesn't happen!

4) Was anyone else a little disappointed with the season finale of The Office last night? I mean, I understand why they made the entire episode a series of interviews. But it got a little old, and some of the characters were just weird. I can't even decide who I want to be manager. The practical side of me wants Darryl or really Jim (but I guess he's not in the running). For some reason I think Darryl would make a good manager. But, would that make for a boring show? Kelly just annoyed me last night. Andy was quirky as usual, and I think he would make a hilarious boss for the show, but then again...maybe not. If he becomes boss, then nothing can happen between him and Erin - right? Or maybe that would be a plot twist. *sigh* There were just so many options and I have no idea who they're going to choose. I hate not knowing, but I guess that was the point.

5) I'm thisclose to hiring someone to maintain our yard. I still feel like we should do it ourselves to save money, but I'm just so uninspired. Those darn weeds just won't go away and my tulips only lasted a couple weeks. Seeing those poor tulips die so soon is what really made me disgruntled about maintaining the flower beds. I put so much work into weeding, preparing the soil and planting those darn things - and they didn't even last very long!!! And my husband doesn't have time to work in the flower beds unless I don't want to see him at all on the weekends (maybe that isn't true, but that's how it feels). I'm going to give it another few weeks, but if I haven't changed my mind (and actually gone out there to do some significant work) by the time the baby arrives I'm pretty sure we'll be hiring someone to take over our yard.

6) I'm going to make a fruit pizza this weekend! I can't wait! Fruit pizza is one of my favorite summer desserts and I can't wait to make one. Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever even made one for my husband. This will be his first one which makes this even more exciting!!! I'll be sure to post the recipe in the near future.

7) I had a hard time choosing my favorite Facebook quote of the week. I couldn't decide whether to go with a reference from "The Office" or with a reference to the impending "Judgement Day." I ultimately decided to go with the latter. So, my favorite Facebook quote of the week goes to Caitlin.

"Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, USA, a business run by atheists which for $135 will take care of your dog or cat if you're among those believers who are whisked away on Saturday." LOL!

'Judgment Day' Entrepreneurs And Pranksters Are Revved Up For Saturday : The Two-Way : NPR

www.npr.org

An evangelical radio broadcaster who has said before that Judgment Day was coming, has predicted that this time it really will happen on May 21. Care to pay someone to take care of your pet in case you're swept up to heaven? You can.

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 12)

1) He is Risen! Truly, He is Risen! I hope everyone had a blessed Holy Week and Easter. Will and I had a fairly relaxing Easter weekend at home. We went to mass early on Sunday morning in an attempt to avoid a mass that was too crowded then headed over to some friends' apartment for Easter lunch. We had a nice time and I really enjoyed seeing some of my friends back in Annapolis!

2) You know those ads that say stuff like "1 Tip to a Flat Belly" or "Click here for ancient secret for a flat belly?" Yea. Well, every time I see one of those ads I feel like saying "OOHHH!!! ME!! PICK ME! I KNOW! DON'T GET PREGNANT!!!" But, I'm pretty sure that isn't the tip or secret they're willing to share with you if you click on that link.

3) I ran into this while doing laundry last week. 

At least I'm not afraid of killing spiders :)

4) These beauties came out in time for Holy Week! 

They've been so nice to drive home to. They lasted until earlier this week when heavy rainstorms took a toll on the petals. And, yes, one day I will (err...my husband will) move those bags of potting soil :)

5) I watched my very first episode of "Extreme Couponing" this week. It was a little insane. I've started to try to use coupons more often, but find I forget about the ones I have until they've already expired. I'm working on coming up with a system for organizing my coupons, but it just takes so much time and energy that I'm not sure it's really worth it. I use coupons when I remember, but don't freak out if I forget.

6) This weekend is chock full of awesome events! First, there's the royal wedding which I'm actually not ALL that interested in, but I'm sure I'll poke around some of the photos that get published. Then I get to see my niece/goddaughter get baptized and meet her for the first time. And last, but certainly not least, is the beatification of Pope John Paul II. Lots to look forward to! Yay for weekends!

7) My favorite Facebook post of the week goes to Emily - in honor of all the birthday's that happened in her house this week. Both she and her two daughters have birthday's within 5 days of each other (and her brother-in-law is thrown in somewhere pretty close as well). How awesome is that!? She had several posts that made me smile, but I think I liked this one the best:

"holy moly, two 1-year olds for the next 36 hours. im that mom!"

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 11)

1) The Childbirth and Baby Care class last weekend two weekends ago went really well. We learned a lot, but I'm still totally freaked out about actually giving birth. I'll just push that thought to the back of my mind for as long as possible.

2) I've started paying more attention to coupons and taking the time to look through newspaper inserts and such for them. Although, I'm not always the best at shopping around savings. My husband and I tend to be people who like routine, so my grocery list generally doesn't change much from week to week. This can make it hard to use coupons to find deals, but I'm working on it!

3) Can I tell you how much I love making lists? I do. Last week I started two major lists. One is my list of "things that need to get done around the house (ideally) before the baby arrives" and the other list is "baby stuff" - either things we need to purchase or things we need to do to get ready for the baby. I'm looking forward to checking off items on both of these lists....and then making new, refined lists for me to go by :)

4) I put together the crib and changing table this past week. I'm so excited to have something completed for the baby. Although, we still haven't gotten a mattress or changing pad so I guess neither the crib or changing table would be very useful if we brought home a baby tomorrow. My goal is to assemble and/or organize things as we acquire them that way I won't be too stressed as the arrival of Baby Rayel nears.

5) My tulips finally bloomed!!! Well, some of them bloomed anyway. The rest are just waiting to make their appearance :) They're all so close to opening up. I can't wait to see them all in full bloom. It's going to be awesome!

The whole bunch :)

A few up close

6) Last weekend Will and I spent a night in historic Winchester, VA. It was my Christmas present from Will. It was really nice to get away and be able to spend some time together before the baby arrives.  Below is one of the few pictures from the weekend.

7) My favorite Facebook post of the week goes to Megan. She has two kids. The oldest is a boy she and her husband fostered then adopted named Marlon. I believe he's 4 years old. This post made me laugh:
"any ideas on how to get finger polish off lips? marlon has a beautiful shade of purple he mistook as lipgloss!"

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 7)

1) I have the teeny-tiniest little tulip sprouts in my front yard. I can't wait to see the tulips in full bloom!! Yay - it looks like my first attempt at gardening is going to be a success.

2) Not watching TV for lent is going to be much more difficult than I thought. I've realized I'll probably be reading a lot of books, so if you have any suggestions please let me know.

3) Last weekend I got to have another ultrasound. Our local crisis pregnancy center is in the process of training a new ultrasound technician and needed pregnant women to practice on. I was more than happy to volunteer :) I got to see baby Rayel again and this time we got a "profile view" picture (we only got front views at my earlier ultrasound). 

I think it's also significant to mention that of the 36 ultrasounds they did last year 31 of the mothers decided to keep their babies! How amazing is that? What a blessing it will be to have another trained technician so they'll be able to offer ultrasounds to even more women.

4) Last weekend I also took Will to this huge baby sale. Bad idea. Lots of women looking for a good deal and my husband do not mix. At least I was able to find some stuff for the baby at reasonable prices :)

5) I didn't babysit on Monday like I usually do. This made me nearly miss adoration on Tuesday. For some reason if anything other than my "normal" routine happens on Monday my whole week is thrown off. Thank goodness Will was there to remind me!

6) Peanut butter and chocolate is the best food combination ever.

7) I would first like to say that there was some competition for my favorite Facebook status of the week. I was choosing between four different statuses, but my favorite Facebook quote of the week goes to a friend who lives in DC. It rained a lot yesterday and I loved Oregon Trail as a kid. This was her Facebook post after her morning commute.  Elizabeth said:

"Had to ford several rivers on my way into work this morning. Proud to say I didn't lose a single ox."

The comments were also quite entertaining to read:

1) "Any dysentery?"

2) "better change that pace to grueling if you want to get to oregon."

3) "Did you notice anyone wandering off?"

4) "Joseph is drowning in a river. Would you like to retrieve him? No. Would you like to buy supplies? No. Would you like to hunt? Yes. You have shot a 200 lb. Senator. Would you like to eat? No. Would you like to hunt? Yes."

Planting Tulips

A couple weeks ago I finally had a chance to go out and plant the tulips I bought when my mom was here Remember? I was delayed on planting them because of the sawfly fiasco and then had to deal with the weeds. Anyway, it took me 2 days to plant them.
The first day I started by digging one hole, putting a bulb in, covering it and moving on to the next hole. I quickly realized that this method was going to take FOREVER. So, I decided to dig out a whole row and plant an entire row of bulbs at once. This method was much quicker. I got through about half of the section where I wanted to plant the tulips before I called it a day.
The second day I decided I would just dig up the entire section that was left and plant all the tulips at once. Yes, this was the best idea I had yet! Hooray for efficiency! Here's a picture of the tulips before I covered them back up.

As you can see - this was definitely the way to go. That whole side where the pile of dirt lies is where I planted on the first day. Can you imagine how long it would have taken me if I had planted each tulip one by one? I probably would still be working on planting them...
I can't wait to see them bloom in the spring! I shall post pictures as soon as they sprout :)

The Tree is Gone

Will and I have been wanting to cut down a tree in our backyard for a while now. We talked about it a little bit in late spring/early summer then let the idea percolate in our minds a little before we decided we were actually going to go through with it.

I called a couple different people to give us an estimate and finally settled on one. The guy didn't give me a definite date, but said he'd call before he came out. Since I'm home most of the time I figured that'd be fine. So, he called me on a Tuesday night a little over a week ago and said they'd be able to come out the next morning. Sweet! I was excited that this was finally going to happen. We needed this tree down before we could even think about re-grading or re-seeding the backyard. So, here are a few pics of what the backyard looked like before the tree was taken down (sorry about the poor lighting - it was getting dark out).

See the really huge tree right in the middle?

view with the tree on the right and porch on the left

view from the porch

Now for some pictures of the after. It's kind of funny because I took these during the day so it's nice and bright. It reminds me of those "before" and "after" pictures you see in adds where the lighting is different and makes a huge difference. But, I don't think it's JUST the lighting that makes the yard look better in this case.

See the pile of mulch? That's where the tree used to be.

So much more sun!!!

view from the porch

Our backyard gets so much more sun now it's insane! I think grass will definitely be able to grow now. And I plan on using the mulch from the tree in our flower bed in front of the house :)

Sawfly Larvae

Just as a forewarning what I am about to write about is kind of gross - especially if you don't like bugs.

My mom came up this past weekend to help me with house stuff. One of the things she helped me with was the front yard - the flower bed in particular. She showed me how to weed more efficiently and effectively than I had been doing before. We also spent some more time trimming the bushes - particularly the ones closer to the ground that I wasn't sure what to do with before. And she helped me clean up the flower bed in general by raking, etc. After about 10-15 minutes into working on the flower beds my mom asked out one of the bushes. Can you tell which one??

Upon further inspection, and to our horror, we found this (or these depending on how you look at it).

Ummm, EEEEEEWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!! WORMS EVERYWHERE!!!! We looked some more and they were all over the poor bush eating it to pieces (if you couldn't already tell from the first picture). 

Mom was adamant that we needed to find out what these were and how we could get rid of them - ASAP. So, we clipped them off the healthier bush (they were just beginning to infest the bush to the right) and put the clippings in a bag. We then took the clippings to Lowe's to figure out what we should do. They had a professional arborist who was really helpful and told us that my bush was infested with "Sawfly Larvae." These little creatures eventually grow into wasp-like bugs, but they don't sting. 

The solution? Spray them with this soapy liquid. The sawfly larvae apparently breathe through their skin, so the soap adheres to them and basically suffocates the larvae (fine by me!). So we bought a couple bottles of the soapy stuff, went home and began spraying away.

I have continued to go out every day and spray any remaining larvae I can find that are still alive. And we now have what I like to call our "Sawfly Graveyard"...

Yes - those are the dead larvae. There are several patches of them below the bush. I don't feel sorry for them at all. Here is what they did to my poor bush:

They ate EVERYTHING! The guy ay Lowe's says our bush has a 50/50 chance of surviving :(

Here's to hoping it survives!! I will continue to diligently go out and search the bush for any more of those darn sawfly larvae. I shall let you know what happens with the bush.

Hopefully it will be strong enough to regenerate...

Happy healing little bushy!

Trimming the Hedges

I have lived in this house for a little over 9 months now, and my husband and I have really done only the bare minimum when it comes to taking care of our yard. And by bare minimum I mean we have mowed the lawn....that's really about all we've done (just ask our neighbors!). And, so far it's pretty much been my husband's domain. Unfortunately, he doesn't have all that much time to devote to the yard. Pair that with the fact that I'm too cheap to pay someone to do it for us (why should we pay someone to do something we are fully capable of doing ourselves?) and you end up with me taking it upon myself to help Will out in the yard.

Our poor hedges are one area of the yard that needed some desperate attention - they hadn't been trimmed in nearly a year! So, this was one of the first tasks that I decided to tackle. Here are a few "before" and "after" pictures.

before

after

before

after

before

after

So, as you can see it made quite a difference in both the appearance of the hedges and in the ability to see the porch. I was amazed at how simple (and satisfying) it was to trim the hedges back and shape them (except for that last one - it refused to let me shape it).

What will my next project in the yard be, you ask? Take a look at this:

Unfortunately the weeds have taken over our yard (and footpaths) so I think I'll tackle them next. And in the process of tackling the weeds I hope to re-grade and re-seed our back yard....I guess my husband and I have a lot to learn about taking care of our yard!