my birthday.

Tuesday is March 1, which means there will be only 17 shopping days left until my birthday.

Now, I know you guys probably have tons of gift ideas up your sleeves, but for all those last minute shoppers, I thought I'd provide a few things I've got my eye on.

1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5

These are just a couple ideas. Feel free to think outside the box or to purchase a gift card.

belly business -- 30 weeks

How far along: 30 weeks -- just 10 weeks to go. nutso!

Size of the baby: head of lettuce (18 inches and 3.2 lbs.) 

Total weight gain/loss:  official weight gain from the doctor -- 12 pounds. I'm not weighing on my own, so I'm going with what the doc told me last time.

Maternity clothes: All maternity pants, but now that the weather is nice, I've been able to wear some of my non-maternity short-sleeved shirts, etc. 

Cravings: sweets and pasta with alfredo sauce

Symptoms: Bending over is definitely getting harder and getting in and out of bed has gotten harder, too. A little bit of an aching back, but really I can't complain. I still feel pretty darn good! 

Movement: Lots of movement.  

Gender predictions: I got a pedicure with a friend yesterday and the the lady doing my nails thinks it's a girl. 

I'd say this week has been pretty darn productive as far as baby is concerned. 

We had our first childbirth class on Monday. J and an family friend primed the nursery on Wednesday. And, J and another friend painted the nursery and hung a new fan in there. My goal is to get the furniture put together before our shower in the middle of March. And, I'm fully willing to help with that one!

In a bit of bad news, J's aunt called me today telling me that Babies R Us no longer carries the travel system (stroller and coordinating car seat) that we loved, nor do they carry the highchair or the swing. Great. And, I have a feeling that going back to BRU to try out strollers is low on J's list of things he wants to do. Ugh! This shouldn't be happening!

I've added a highchair and swing to our Target registry since seeing those in person isn't as essential. Now ... on to the stroller/car seat. This should be fun ...

In a bit of good news, though, I found out another friend is pregnant, due in September!! Now, if only all my friends would tell me they're pregnant so we can all have kids the same age!!

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning, so keep your fingers crossed that all is still well with baby M!

And, here are a couple pics I took of myself today. I took a 29 week pic on Thursday, but had a little miscommunication with J and it got deleted. But, I haven't changed that much since Thursday, so you get the idea.

gone thriftin'.

Yesterday I had lunch with my preggo guru again and then had to get a couple of last details finished on our most recent issue of the magazine. After that, I thought I'd run over the TJ Maxx.

I never go there, but thought since we're working on the nursery, maybe I'd find something really cute and cheap that I had to have.

Well, I found something cute and cheap ... but it wasn't for the nursery.

I perused the shoes (I'm looking for a pair of black patent heels) and found the cutest pair of nude flats (hello, they'll go with everything!). They're BCBG and normally $75. I got them for $40. Such a steal!

Unfortunately, this was the only pair I saw. But, I was only in the size 6.5 and 7 aisles. Happy Thursday lovelies!

belly business -- 29 weeks

How far along: 29 weeks as of Sunday

Size of the baby: butternut squash (17 inches and 3 lbs.) 

Total weight gain/loss:  official weight gain from the doctor -- 12 pounds. I'm not weighing on my own, so I'm going with what the doc told me last time.

Maternity clothes: All maternity pants, but now that the weather is nice, I've been able to wear some of my non-maternity short-sleeved shirts, etc. 

Cravings: sweets and pasta with alfredo sauce

Symptoms: Bending over is definitely getting harder and getting in and out of bed has gotten harder, too. And, let me tell ya (while I'm complaining), I slept terribly last night. I woke up and my back and legs were aching, then my stomach started churning. I'm crossing my fingers that that won't be a regular occurrence just yet. 

Movement: Lots of movement.  

Gender predictions: I've had people tell me they are convinced I'm having a girl and people convinced I'm having a boy. J's great grandmother (who turned 100 right before Thanksgiving) is certain it's a girl and apparently she called all 3 of one of her granddaughter's kids.

J and I had our first of three childbirth classes last night. And, even though a lot of the information was TMI, I'll be glad that I know what to expect in the long run. The more I think about it, the more I just get excited to finally meet our baby! I can't believe I'm almost to the single-digit weeks left point!

One of J's best friends is coming up this weekend to help him paint the nursery and put together the crib and changing table and get some of the stuff hung up in there! So, maybe, if you're good little readers, I'll post a pic of the nursery when it's all put together.

Since Thomas is coming, I'm going to make myself scarce -- I have plans for lunch and maybe a mani/pedi with a friend on Saturday! Yay for pampering myself!

My weekly picture is in the works.

wordless wednesday.

(my usual terrible pic -- I just don't like bothering J to take one...)

belly business -- 28 weeks

How far along: 28 weeks as of Sunday

Size of the baby: small cabbage (17 inches and 2.9 lbs.) 

Total weight gain/loss:  official weight gain from the doctor -- 12 pounds. I got an A+ from the doc on Thursday on my weight gain! Go me!

Maternity clothes: I'm now rocking mostly maternity clothes. I can still fit into most of my non-maternity tops, but the pants are All Maternity, All the Time. 

Cravings: sweets and pasta with alfredo sauce

Symptoms: It's getting hard and harder to get up from the couch or get out of bed and bending over isn't as easy either. I think I've started getting more tired again and on Wednesday I got a headache and my stomach wasn't feeling good. Other than those, I'm good! 

Movement: Lots of movement.  

Gender predictions: I've had people tell me they are convinced I'm having a girl and people convinced I'm having a boy. J's great grandmother (who turned 100 right before Thanksgiving) is certain it's a girl and apparently she called all 3 of one of her granddaughter's kids.

Like I said, I had my doctor's appointment on Thursday morning and I heard today that my glucose levels were fine, but that my iron level was a little lower than the doctor wants. So, I'm adding an iron supplement to my daily ritual. I just hope I can remember the iron supplement better than I remember my prenatal vitamin!

I go back to the doctor on the 28th and after that, I start going every 2 weeks, which is totally crazy! I cannot believe how far along I am and how little time we have left to get everything ready!

We had a pretty uneventful weekend, and got a couple more things checked off my list of to-dos: taping off the nursery to get it painted ASAP and doing my Target registry! Now, who wants to help J paint? And, who wants to buy me everything off my registry?? Ha!

My weekly pic is coming tomorrow. I promise!

sappy but true.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that the midwest (Oklahoma included) has been hammered with frigid temps and inches upon inches of snow for the last two weeks.

The latest round of snow and negative wind chills was expected to hit on Tuesday night. Turns out the storm was moving a little slower than the weathermen thought, and the snow started around 3 am Wednesday morning and didn't stop until at least noon the same day. We got 4" of snow, and the temps stayed in the teens all day.

Now, our house is nowhere near well-insulated and, as such, we have to drip our kitchen faucet otherwise it freezes. (See where I'm going with this?) Wednesday morning, in the craziness of getting ready and getting out the door, I forgot to re-drip the faucet after refilling our Brita filter. Not.Good.

That evening we got home and J noticed that the faucet wasn't dripping. He turned the handle to turn on the water ... nothing. Cue my stomach dropping, because I remembered refilling the Brita, but couldn't remember re-dripping the faucet.

Over the next 4 or 4.5 hours, J worked his butt off to get the water flowing agian. My hairdryer probably lost at least 3 months of it's life in the process (a sacrifice I was more than willing to make) and we'll probably be paying our February heating bill in installments for the next 8 months. But, nothing worked. We had to go to bed that night knowing the temps were going to be hovering around 0 degrees and hoping and praying and crossing every extremity that the pipe did not bust.

Sleeping was futile. I was hot and stressed. Not to mention, I had a doctor's appointment Thursday morning. The dreaded glucose test. And, I knew that I was going to have to brave the roads by myself. Boo.

I got to the doctor's office with plenty of time to spare, heard the heartbeat (134 bpm), got my blood drawn and got lots of praise for good work on weight gain from the doctor. Unfortunately, my good doctor's appointment did not translate into good news on unfreezing our faucet.

The plumber got to our house around 9:30 and by the time I got home around 11:30, he still hadn't gotten it thawed out. J said there was a ray of hope at one point when the faucet dripped a little, but then nothing else happened. After more than 2 hours of working on the pipes, the plumber left and we continued trying other remedies.

Maybe 30 or 45 minutes later, J hears the faucet drip ... and then trickle ... and then ... fully flowing!!!!

We had water again! And, needless to say, I have my gameface on when it comes to making sure the faucet is dipping. I do not want to feel that stressed again!

Anyway, around 230 today the doorbell rang and when I answered there was a girl delivering me flowers from J! How sweet is he?? He knew I felt really awful about the whole frozen faucet thing, and even though he'd told me a dozen or more times that it was ok, he knew i needed a little extra reassurance.

I've got a keeper.

if only it were 2008.

I've been on the search for a cute rug for the nursery. J and I, without ever discussing it, both really wanted a round rug for that room. Unfortunately, finding a round rug that is basically neutral and not $800 is not the easiest thing.

So, I've been scouring blogs looking for something just as cute, but not as expensive.

Now, I love me some animal print, however J isn't as enamored...

A couple of years ago, DwellStudio did a collaboration with Target and they sold the cutest Zebra rug for a really reasonable price. I've found several images on the web, but, considering we're now in the year 2011, it's no longer available.

Below are some of the images I was able to find.

found here

from here

So, now that I know I can't get the rug that I want (it was sold for $150-180 at the time), I've been searching for something similar. I randomly put the HSN and QVC apps on my phone a couple weeks ago, and last night, I thought about checking their websites for rugs. Hey, why not?

So, I'm on HSN, looking at the gorgeous Nate Berkus upholstered and tufted headboards. After drooling over those, I perused the rugs. And, guess what I saw! Jonathan Adler has a rug that is almost exactly like the Target rug!

But. It's almost $1000. Yes. A grand. That is so not worth it, unless it's made of actual Zebra, then it might be worth $1000. But, it's not, so the price is way too high. 

Too bad I wasn't thinking three years in the future when the DwellStudio for Target line came out in 2008. I should have spent $150 then, and been happy now. Ugh! Who has a time machine??

belly business -- 27 weeks

How far along: 27 weeks as of Sunday

Size of the baby: eggplant (15 inches long, 2.2 lbs.) 

Total weight gain/loss:  official weight gain from the doctor -- 8 pounds (I haven't weighed myself since then and I don't really want to, to be honest)

Maternity clothes: I'm now rocking mostly maternity clothes. I can still fit into most of my non-maternity tops, but the pants are All Maternity, All the Time. 

Cravings: sweets, although I'm trying to curb that craving this week because I have the dreaded glucose test on Thursday. If you think of it, say a little prayer or think a good thought that I don't have gestational diabetes!

Symptoms: I really can't complain! I've been reading stuff lately that I might be starting to swell and have back pain and discomfort while sleeping, but so far, I haven't really had any of that. Knock on wood that that continues!

Movement: Lots of movement.  

Gender predictions: I've had people tell me they are convinced I'm having a girl and people convinced I'm having a boy. J's great grandmother (who turned 100 right before Thanksgiving) is certain it's a girl and apparently she called all 3 of one of her granddaughter's kids.

Starting yesterday I'm entering my third trimester, which is totally crazy! I'm feeling a little stress that we're running out of time to get everything ready, especially with the busy weekends we have on the calendar! Thankfully J puts up with my stress (and mood swings...) and he's been very helpful.

We have the bedding ordered, and the furniture is in. Next up is painting and finding a chair that we both like. I plan on getting the last few things out of the baby's room and (maybe) starting to paint next weekend.

Like I said above, I have a doctor's appointment this Thursday (as long as we're not snowed in again) and I'm doing the glucose test. I have to drink a sugary drink and an hour later I have blood drawn to test my blood sugar levels. I'm crossing my fingers I'm below 140 so I don't have to do the test over again.

And, finally here's this week's picture. Enjoy!

that picture i owed you.

I took this picture on my iPhone on Monday with the intention of taking a better one in front of a huge pile of snow (ya know...for effect). But that didn't happen. And, since I never posted a 25 week photo and I promised a 26 week photo, this is what you get!

Enjoy!

It's still snowing and the temps aren't getting above freezing anytime soon, so there will be plenty more opportunities for a belly pic in front of snow. Get excited!

high gloss.

A new online home decor magazine launched on Tuesday, High Gloss. The editor is Paloma of La Dolce Vita, and let me tell ya, that lady knows a thing or two about interior design. So, it's not really surprising that High Gloss has plenty of beautiful pictures and lots of great ideas.

Below are a few of my favorite images from the premier issue of what will surely be a go-to online source for all gorgeous home-related goodies.

This is an image from Jamie Meares' home. Have you checked her blog and website? They are must-visits!

 I love the zebra rug and really love the soft palette, even though I don't think I could ever do this color scheme.

Another soft(ish) palette, but I love the preppiness!

Check it out, I'm sure you'll love it!

tonight.

Tonight is part 2 of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills reunion. I've watched the whole season (with lots of opinions) and I'm kind of anxious to see the rest of the drama unfold. And, see more about this Kim being an alcoholic thing. That piece of info was kinda thrown in our face in the last episode with no lead up or explanation.

Find a sneak peak video here. I can never seem to get the html on Bravo videos to embed for me.

Enjoy!