so much to do so little time

I was supposed to be up in new york for a meeting (telomeres!) this week/weekend and we decided not to go at the last minute. well, it ended up being a disorganized, unpaid-for mess, so i decided i wasn't going. and thank goodness! there is so much going on this weekend! and luckily for me, i had already taken off work b/c of this meeting, so i kept the day off so i could enjoy an actual whole saturday at home. so far this is what my weekend is looking like:
thursday:- first prenatal yoga class. long time coming - i am way out of shape.
-lewis ginter plant sale starts today. we'll either go thur or fri
friday: -begin getting the living room ready to be painted (finally!). this means taking everything
off the walls, moving everything to the middle of the room, taking all my books off the
bookshelf (!!)..... this is good though b/c i need to get rid of books and i found out last nite
at a meeting for the new Patrick Henry charter school that the forest hill yard sale will
be selling books to raise money for the school.
saturday: -first south of the james market
- lowe's!! veggies, plants, ladder, mulch
-prime and paint the living room
-possible/probable yard work since i won't be the one painting
-try to stop by arts in the park for initial scoping of goods
sunday: -arts in the park
-finish up painting
-finish up yard work
oh and we'll be dog sitting - so that will be three medium-to-large dogs in our tiny house while we paint.
we've had our first two parenting classes, where jack got to watch his first birth video! needless to say, the look on his face was priceless. but he needs to be prepared before he's actually involved in one. we're learning a lot and i will never think of a lifesaver the same way again.
we've also decided to join a pool b/c i just can't see going through a whole summer pregnant without some sort of pool comfort. especially if i'm going to have a bit of time off (which i hopefully will. my boss may have other plans though)...either way, pool partay here we come! thanks blair!
i've been starting to compile a list of children's books i want to begin collecting for the baby. so far my list is for an older child (b/c those are what i remember reading and loving) so if anyone has any suggestions PLEASE send them along! i also want to get a music list going, so any good kids cd's that aren't completely annoying will be greatly appreciated!
along with the books, i've been looking for some cute bookends b/c we don't have room for a bookcase in her room. so far i have found nothing! no, i found these:
which are no longer available. lame! i love these - especially the colors. so if anyone sees cute bookends give me a heads up!

and even though it wasn't so long ago, i found this guest blog by our wedding photog (who coincidentally is due with her first baby the end of aug!) with a picture of us included! we still haven't gotten our wedding pics back yet, and this reminded me of what a good day/night that was and how fantastic it still is!

oh shopping, how i've missed you!

so, i have a bit of a shopping problem. as everyone knows. today did NOT help. mom wanted to go shopping. so of course, i'm not passing up a chance to go shopping with her b/c i usually get at least lunch out of it (although today jack bought lunch - not that he knows).
first we went to spring bada bing - the local craft show put on by richmond craft mafia. i have a new obsession with crafty and since i myself am not at all, i like to enjoy other's talents. mom bought a really cute courdory dress for merit from april scott, who also sells her dresses at alchemy and is super cute herself. and the dress is NOT pink (i have so many pink clothes for the baby from hand-me-downs i want nothing else to do with pink). we also bought some birth announcements and a robot print (above) from magnolia moonlight. loves.
and then i bought myself some shoes at nordstrom. so bad.
anway, i just checked jenny's blog and she has up pictures of the moses basket she recovered for me. LOVE the babushka/stacking doll print!!! so talented, i'm lucky to know someone who can and will do this for me, or i'd be spending a whole lot of money on stuff i didn't completely love. thanks again jenny!!
and now, its back to saving money. i even went into anthropologie and came out empty handed. how's that for self control (buying the shoes helped too).

the search for a name

After a little deliberation on my part, we've come up with a name for the blueberry. Her first name has always been merit. this was jack's pick before she even existed and he was so passionate about it. since i had a boy's name picked (max) we decided if he named the girl, i'd name the boy. we also decided the other person could pick the middle name. so once we found out she was definitely merit, it was my turn to pick a middle name. now jack had this long list of criteria for a middle name - it had to have a certain number of syllables and end in a vowel and be Norwegian (since part of my family is wegian) and all kinds of weird stuff to make it sound nice with merit and his last name (since all kids will have his last name). my criteria was i wanted it to begin with an "A" to keep the "a" tradition going in some way. As we started going through the name books (thanks blair!) we both gravitated towards the english names - especially poppy and lilly. lilly i've decided will be the next girl, if we have one - although thats a lot of l's for one kid, i really like that name. and i liked avery (although that would work well with a boy too) and aisling (which i still really like). but i decided on alice. ok yea, it has much to do with my love for the character, but it works well altogether: merit alice. and we've decided to nickname her poppy. so she won't have to live with it at school, but we still get to call her that. kate likes poppyseed - so it has now morphed from blueberry to poppyseed. the poor kid. it could be worse...
and to make it even a little more meaningful merit is actually a norwegian name (spelled marit) and alice is nancy's middle name too (coincidence!). so we have a little bit of my nana and a little bit of the woman who has helped us through this whole thing.
so now that i've put it all out there - no one go stealing my name ideas!

the good ol days...

placenta party!

would it be too much to force my tea obsession on my daughter?
these are both from pottery barn - which i have been kind of adverse to looking at for baby stuff, b/c its way overpriced. but that fabric tea set is only 8$! the lamp is 30$. earlier this season they also had a lamp that was a bunch of tea cups stacked together - i wish they still did... and i already have about 8 lamps for her room. but really whats one more? one can never have too much lighting.
thanks to dlisted, i found this article (why he was looking at it i don't know) on momlogic. i've heard of the placenta-eating parties and always enjoy a good placenta joke but this is way too gross for me. DO NOT look at the pictures. especially not at 9am like i did. DO NOT! the fact is, we will most certainly be burying the thing in the back yard and planting a nice blueberry bush on top (mm...placenta blueberries - is that any better?), although i could probably get rid of it at work, since its a biohazard, you can't just throw it in the trash. again, DO NOT look at those pictures.
I am back at work this week, but am on such a roll with the writing, i think i'll be scooting out of here as early as possible the next few days/weeks. just a few more experiments and i can be totally out! lets hope they work for my sanity's sake.
and i know i say this for every holiday but i really enjoy easter. i love the eggs (i'm so sad i missed jenny's class on fabric egg making - but i'm going to try it myself) - dying them, making egg trees like my mom used to, Easter baskets (yes we still get those b/c my mom loves this as much as me), all the pastels. i can't wait to do easter egg hunts, Easter bunny pics - hopefully blair will dress up as promised. yesterday we hung out with my aunt and uncle which was nice and relaxing. i got a sweet robe that my mom, grandma, and aunt all wore while they were pregnant (hopefully i can post a picture soon - it is ridiculous!). but its tradition and my aunt and i are both suckers for tradition...Jack was appalled by it to say the least.

work from home day 4

Surprisingly, I've gotten a lot done. even with not doing anything the majority of the day i have over half my introduction written, a lot of figures organized, and the methods done (mostly). and as i expected, i feel a lot better getting this accomplished.
speaking of how i feel - i have morning sickness! how weird right? 22 wks with morning sickness? but apparently her endocrine system is developing right now so that means a double dose of hormones! lucky jack. i knew she'd get me one way or another with the nausea, so here it is. but it really is first thing in the morning and then -barf, all better. and then if i lay down she starts kicking the crap out of me (which she does when its time to eat. apparently she gets as hangry as her mom). so i can see her poking out of my belly. it is by far the weirdest thing i've seen. i can also see her heart beating if i sit really still, my belly moves with each beat. crazy. but totally cool. unfortunately jack hasn't been around to watch her kicking yet, so i think he feels a little left out. instead, he pokes my belly to make her move. usually right after i've eaten. not the best idea. in a couple weeks we start parenting class. which, unlike birth circle, jack has no choice but to go, since we've paid for it. should be interesting....
i went to weebsworld yesterday (which is a higher-end stroller store out at short pump). its a small place and i'm assuming locally owned. anyway, they carry mostly bugaboos, per perego, mclaren...the expensive stuff. but i figured they may have some mia modas (the one i want), which they had one that i saw. anyway, there was one other customer in there - a woman much more noticeably pregnant than me and her parents it looked like. so there was only one guy working and he was helping them when i came in. and i walked around the store and he said nothing to me. didn't acknowledge me in the slightest. the pregnant chick said hi to me. her other kid talked to me. this dude said nothing. which made me really mad. i may not look like i can afford a high end stroller and i may not look that pregnant, but i'm still in your store looking around - the least you can do is say hello. b/c if he had stopped and said something to me, if they carried the stroller i wanted i would have likely gotten it there. not now, no way. its not that hard to help more than one person at a time. its not a large store. i am able to do it every saturday at alchemy. argh. it made me mad. hormones? perhaps. but still, i think it would have made me angry anyway. maybe not shawn angry. but angry. so don't go to weebsworld. snobs. like saks. i can afford your shit whether it looks like it or not!
and on that note, i may soon be fitting into the presents blair got me before my wedding...

work from home day 1

who would've guessed that by 4:47 on the first day of my "working from home" i have done absolutely no work? ha! anyone who knows me well. or not well. just knows me. actually, its not entirely true - i did someone else's work this morning (don't get me started). so i have done some work. just not my thesis. but i have all evening right?
Jack and i went to the cherry blossom festival saturday. i don't know why, but i didn't really consider that the rest of the east coast would be doing the same thing. and they were. since jack gets highly annoyed with crowds and thats all we encountered, it was not as leisurely as i would have expected. but it was fun. we had a good time together. and the cherry blossoms were pretty. i dragged Jack to the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials b/c i realized i hadn't been to them since elementary school. you can see here how happy he was with that. we also went to the new world war II memorial, which was pretty spectacular, as far as war memorials go. we walked more than i think either of us had walked in a long time. i was exhausted, but pretty happy to get some exercise. now if i could that on a regular basis....

i've discovered mothering magazine and decided i will replace my vogue subscription with it. i mean, it was inevitable that the magazine queen would eventually find some sort of parenting magazine to get. this one is more geared toward natural parenting, so i don't get those ridiculous ads for baby bedding with the kid dressed in pearls and satin. instead, they had a great article this month on crafty moms (angry chicken and soule mama were both featured). they have articles about alternatives to vaccination schedules, home birthing, etc. loves! and sorry vogue, but you're kind of boring and everything is way over my budget.

so as i sit at home, i am reminded of all the other things i would rather be doing. i have this great tunic all cut and ironed that needs to be sewn together. i have my baby sewing book sitting next to my bed begging for fabric to be bought and things to be constructed. i have a bunch of plants that need to be put in the ground. i need to weed and put cat repellent down (sorry cat lovers. if you would like to come clean stray cat shit from my mulch, be my guest). instead i am forcing myself to sit in front of this computer. i need to make better use of my time. especially as i blog- stalk this chick who does all these great crafty things while working and having tons of time to hang. now if i could just stay off the internet.....