Approved!!!

So....
I'll be 23 weeks pregnant tomorrow (this will also be the beginning of my 6th month!)
I cut my hair off. I love it! It's so much easier to take care of when it's short.
I finally look like a pregnant chick.
Most importantly, my vacation was APPROVED by my doctor!

Yay!

I had approximate dates scheduled for my trip to Louisiana but I couldn't make any real pans until I talked to my doctor. It just so happened that my glucose test day would fall during the time of that planned vacation. Luckily she said it was fine to push the test back a week and to go enjoy my summer fun!

I really don't think you realize how excited I am. I want to go pack my clothes right now but obviously I can't because the trip is still a few weeks away. I can't wait to see my family! I need to call my friends to schedule dinner dates! EEEEK so much happiness is inside me!

I'm super excited to eat when I get there. I actually have a list saved to my phone of all the places I want to eat. I doubt I'll actually eat at all of them but I can hope right?

THE LIST!
- Genghis Grill
- Bistro Byronz
- Trejos
-Cheddars
-SONIC
- Ichiban
- I also need to eat crab legs with my mom AND crawfish

As my wonderful doctor was telling me how great and healthy Emily is all I was thinking was wooohooo I get to go home! I'm glad she's doing well of course. I just really really really miss my family! She wiggles around a lot now. Noah likes to sit on the couch with me and feel her move. He just laughs and laughs. Our neighbor is going to watch him while we are busy in the hospital having his sister. Well really I will be busy. This works out perfectly. She is super sweet. Noah plays with her daughter all the time. They are in the same grade and even the same class right now. It'll be easy for them to just send him off to school with her. If we have the baby on a school day that is... I feel better knowing we have a plan in place for Noah.

NOW back to my awesome vacation!
Joey is not going with us. He is saving his vacation time for when Emily is born. I will be taking the dog. So it will be me, Noah, and Bella on a long journey home. At Christmas time we made the trip in 15 hours.  I'm not optimistic enough to think I can do that alone AND pregnant needing to stop and pee every hour. We will split the trip up into two days. Noah is very excited about staying at a hotel. He loves them lol.

I'm actually not nervous about the trip at all. I guess maybe because I'm used to traveling. I'm just excited to get on the road and get there!

Now I need to go make some phone calls!
Yaaaay!!!!

The Book Chat - Cookbooks

Today Jessica has asked us to share our favorite cookbooks. 

I was at Joeys grandmas house one day looking at her cookbooks. I found this one and it had so many great recipes in it. She told me she bought it just a few days before at Family Dollar. When I left her house I stopped by the store and found one of my own AND for only FIVE bucks! I'm sure this was because the book was a few years old...but I didn't care!

I love this cookbook. It's meant to be a holiday cookbook but I make things out of it all the time. There are some amazing entrees in here.

Just like Jessica mentioned in her post. My food never comes out looking as nice as the pictures...

I read somewhere once that after they prepare the food they pretty it up with shiny sprays and sometimes glue to hold things together. It has to look picture perfect! When they're done it's pretty inedible. So if your food looks crappy but tastes amazing don't worry about it. =)  

Reading drought...

It's been a week maybe even 2 since I've read a book! This is so unusual for me. Normally I always have my nose in a book. I really don't know where this lack of desire to read came from. I even went to the library to return our books and DID NOT GO INSIDE! What?

Thankfully I woke up this morning wanting to read. It looks like I won't have to search for medication for my illness after all. I think a trip to the library will be in the plans for this week.

Here are a few books I just put on hold:

What's Left of Me

The age of Miracles

Dark Lover (Book #1)

My friends from Sweet Green Tangerine & Dear Brighton will be very happy about this I'm sure =)

They've been encouraging me to read this ASAP! I know it'll be good if they liked it!

Tina Fey, Bossypants

I think that should be a good start!

The Room!

I'm starting to feel anxious and overwhelmed. When I was pregnant with Noah we had an ultrasound at every visit (Thank You Germany). We found out he was a boy at about 16 1/2 weeks. This time we didn't find out Emily was Emily until about 20 weeks. With Noah I started buying things and fixing his room up right away. Today I can say I have a chair for Emily's room and that's it. I know I still have plenty of time but it FEELS like it's right around the corner and I feel unprepared.

I know what I want her room to look like... I just need to get started!

Pinterest is my favorite place to find inspiration. I know I want her room to be grey, yellow, and pink.

Pinterest Image

Via Pinterest via alexislrobbins

Via Pinterest via ontobaby.com

I know I want a wall tree like one of these.... BUT I don't want to spend a fortune on it. I'd love to be able to find a stencil and paint it on the wall. I'm worried a decal might peel off after a while and I really don't think I can free hand it.

Via Pinterest via projectnursery.com

Via pinterest via how-do-it.com

I bought this chair for $5...FIVE DOLLARS!!! I replaced the buttons with grey buttons, painted all of the wood portions grey, and added pink ribbon trim to the cushions. I absolutely love it. It is super comfortable and I love just looking at it.

I found the curtains I want to get so that's next on my list...along with the crib because I think that's pretty important too =)

I'll feel so much better when the room is finished.

Museum Madness

I've been to art museums before but never a museum with really cool exhibits and lots of fun things to do. When Noah told me his class was going to this great museum in Milwaukee of course I volunteered right away to help out.

Things I learned on this trip:
1. As a chaperon you probably won't REALLY get to enjoy the museum.
2. You will spend most of your time trying to yell quietly at the children in your group to stop touching things and constantly count heads to be sure you haven't lost someone.
3. If someone in your group happens to touch a dinosaur bone a VERY loud alarm will sound. Lights will begin flashing and people will stare at you as you shuffle your group quickly away....
4. If the same kid who touched the dino bone also tries to climb into an exhibit the same scenario will occur... Why did I get stuck with this kid?
5. No matter how many bathroom breaks you take someone will always have to go when the bathrooms are very far away. Running is not allowed in the museum but fast walking is okay...sort of.

Noah was so sweet. When we got on the bus I could hear him telling kids, "No I'm saving this seat for my mom." I love this guy =)

All craziness aside it was a pretty fun trip. I plan on taking Noah back one day so we can look at everything. We only had about 3 hours there and that really was not long enough. We had to choose a few things that everyone wanted to see and really focus on those areas.

They didn't allow flash photography of any kind inside so a lot of my pictures came out kind of yucky.

They had a pretty cool dinosaur exhibit complete with gruesome T-Rex eats a poor dinosaur model.

My favorite part was the butterfly room. You go inside and there are tons of butterflies flying around. If you stand really still they might even land on you!

They had a very small mummy exhibit. That was probably good though because it freaked the kids out.

There was a streets of Europe area which I LOVED! We bought candy from the German candy shop. The kids loved it.

We saw LOTS of animal exhibits from places all around the world.

Finally it was time to round up the children and head home. Most of the kids fell asleep...thankfully =)
Noah napped for a teeny tiny bit.

It was a REALLY long day and when we got home I fell asleep right away. We will definitely go back again someday.

the book chat - BOOKSHELVES!

 

I like to write my posts the morning that I plan to publish them. Unfortunately last night our computer kicked it. At least I'm pretty sure its finally dead. Joey knows a lot about computers and he's been fixing for months maybe a year? It's time to get a new one. BUT they're expensive! So I'm blogging from my tiny netbook. I loved it at first. Now not so much. It's extremely slow and after a while my hands hurt from typing on the tiny keyboard.....

Anyway...

Today is the book chat!!! I'll struggle with my netbook because I can't miss out! 

The topic is bookshelves. I've been looking at getting new wall mounted shelves for a while. You see... as I complained about in this post our furniture doesn't seem to fit too well in the house. We moved the computer desk into the family room and it took the spot of my large bookcase. Now my books, picture frames, and decorative items that sat on that bookcase are homeless. Sort of. I guess you could say they are being fostered on and in my dining room hutch:

EEK! Looks pretty bad huh? I hate walking through there and seeing that mess. In other news, I have BIG plans for a furniture makeover in the dining room. That stuff needs to be updated ASAP!

And now for some Pinsperation. I'd love to hang some shelves like these:

I like how these shelves make the books look like framed art.

I like how messy but at the same time put together this looks.

Are you kidding me? How cool does this look!?!

Hopefully soon I'll get around to getting the shelves. I feel like there are a million things I need to get done. None of them too important but all of them things I want completed SOON. I'm very impatient...


Happy Book Chat Day!!!!

What happened to my brain?

I got pregnant...that's what!

There are so many weird things that happen to you when you have a baby. One of them is preggo brain. Really it's the lack of being able to USE your brain properly. The science people say we can blame this along with many other things on the crazy surge of hormones. I definitely have a more extreme case this time around.

-We have a 2 gallon water filter that goes in the fridge. I took it out. I filled it up. I then began to struggle to get it into the cabinet over the breakfast bar.... "Why doesn't this stupid thing fit in here?!?"

-While driving I had a moment of panic where I thought, "Oh No! I forgot to put my contacts in!" Yet, I was driving. I did not have glasses on and could see just fine.

- Also while driving down the street, "Oh No! Did I take the car out of reverse?!?"

-Again while driving, "Did I shut the trunk?!?"

(maybe I just shouldn't drive?)

- I have to write EVERYTHING down. If it isn't on the calendar and in my phone I WILL forget about it.

- Going grocery shopping... I filled my basket up and went to get in line. Sadly I took my wallet out of my purse and it was at home on the computer desk. Joey and Noah had to drive to the store and bring it to me. 

- Buying groceries, putting them away, not being able to find them because they are in the wrong spot, buying groceries again.

- Several times I have left the house and had to circle around the block because I was certain that I left the garage door open. Sometimes I have to go inside to make sure the stove is off EVEN if I'm pretty sure I haven't used the stove.

- Getting MAD at the stove because the burner has been on for 20 minutes now and the food is still NOT heating up!... It helps if you make sure you turn on the correct burner.

Let's hope my brain function starts to improve soon!

What's in a name? (baby)

So this is me at 20 weeks. At this point I hate all of my clothes whether they be mine or maternity ones. Most days I get dressed, look in the mirror, and feel like I don't look pregnant yet...just like I've eaten too many donuts. I know this will change soon and perhaps I should avoid mirrors until then?

We had a VERY exciting ultrasound on Friday. I wish I had some photos to share but I don't. They gave us a disk with video clips on it but they are super fuzzy. I'm willing to let that slide though because we found out that we are having a G-I-R-L!!!!  I am beyond excited! Noah is super happy. The last few days before the appointment he started saying he really wanted a sister. Well he got his wish! Now visions of bows and lots of pink dance in my head.

Her name was not hard to choose:

When we found out Noah was a boy there were baby book names. There were lists. There were arguments. Finally there was compromise and relief that finally we chose a name we both liked. 

Choosing Emily's name was much simpler. There wasn't a discussion. No books were opened. It just was. Let me take you back a few years. We had no intention of having another baby yet. Noah was about 3 and he started talking about how he was going to have a little sister named Emily. He would draw her in pictures of our family. He would save things for her. Once he got one of those giant suckers from Chuck E Cheese. He ate half of it and put the rest in the fridge for her. He never ate the other half and throwing it away was not an option. Before we moved it snuck into the trash though... At the time Thomas the train was his favorite thing. There was a girl train named Emily. So really her brother named her and he named her after a train. =)

Hearing that name all the time made it stick. We just knew that if we ever had a girl baby that would be her name. 

Her middle name is Patricia. My grandma on my mom's side and Joey's grandma on his dad's side both share that name. We thought it would be nice to include that in Emily's name. 

Now we just have to wait and wait and wait to meet her =)

I call a do-over!

I normally don't swear but if I did now would be the time to do it.

I really need a do-over right now. It's been a while since I've ranted about living here. Oh, I complained about the cold weather a lot but I've tried to remain pretty positive about our new home in Illinois. That positiveness is fading fast. It's pretty non existent at the moment. I'm feeling pushed over the edge. If I can't go back and stop the move all together I'd at least like to go back and not buy this house. There isn't one big issue on its own that is stressing me out. It's all these little things that when put together are really frustrating me. I wish you could get refunds on house purchases!

The house is big but our furniture does not fit in here the way we thought it would...When house shopping ALWAYS bring a measuring tape and furniture measurements!

The A/C unit seems to be too small for the house. The upstairs was HOT last summer and I'm sure it will be this year too. We HAVE to get ceiling fans put in the two smaller rooms up there. It is just unbearable. The downstairs has to be freezing for the upstairs to be even a little comfortable. 

The great humidifier attached the the heater in the basement just leaks everywhere so we weren't able to use that for the winter. We need to get it fixed before next winter though. Running small humidifiers every night was a pain. 

BUGS! Oh geez the bugs! In Louisiana we barely ever saw a bug inside. Once or twice we saw a nasty roach that found his way indoors but for the most part our home was a bug free zone. I am about to lose my mind. We see spiders ALL the time. The other day I was not so pleasantly surprised by one on the toilet paper roll AS I reached for the toilet paper. I honestly thought I was going to die of a heart attack. We keep seeing wasps in our family room. I really can't take it anymore. I want to find all of the wasps and spiders and crush their happy little bug families and ruin all of their happiness. We are bug bombing the house next weekend. If that doesn't work I'm calling an exterminator ASAP.

There is this annoying pipe in the basement that makes an awful kerrrrrTHUNK sound. It does it when we run the water. OR it does it at 5:30 am when no one is running water. It will do it for an hour over and over again. It's SO loud!

We're finding cracks in a lot of the walls. Having a back ground in real estate I know that cracks can be nothing OR they can be BAD news. It looks like some of them were sanded over and painted. It doesn't sit well with me.

Our water turns orange when they flush the fire hydrants. I can deal with that because we have notice and know not to wash clothes or anything during that time. However it also turns orange at random times. There is nothing more pleasant than filling up the bath to take a nice relaxing soak only to find orange rust colored water in the tub. Our neighbors have said the water system is super old here. We do only pay about $40 a month for water. BUT I'd rather pay more and have nice clean running water all of the time. 

If we knew all of this I really doubt we would have signed those papers but we did. Now we have to deal with it....

I think in hindsight we should have expected more to be wrong than we initially found in our home inspection. Our inspector found a lot of issues with the house but they were all things that could be fixed and the sellers did fix most of them. In the future when we buy a house if the report comes back with lots of things wrong I think it'll be easier for us to walk away knowing that there could be so many more issues than what is in the report. At the time we were living in that tiny rental townhouse with the leaking ceiling in the closet. We were cramped, unhappy, and ready to just MOVE on. I think we rushed things. Next time we will be more patient.

I'm longing to have my old house back. I want my big screened in back patio. I want my kitchen counter space with endless supply of cabinets. It was a smaller house. It was an older house. BUT I felt connected to it in a way I do not feel with this one.

For now I guess we'll just tough this out and hope things improve.

Thank you!

I have been very lucky and am so thankful to Michelle for thinking of me when she received her Liebster award. You should go check out her space in the blog world. She lives in Australia. How cool is that? Right now she is doing a major kitchen remodel and I can't wait to see the final product!

And now let's get to the questions she left me...

1. Describe yourself in only 5 words?

Books - Kind - Happy - Crazy - Talkative

2. How would your friends describe you?

I hope they would say I am a genuinely nice person. Maybe they would say I'm funny? I have my funny moments...

3. What is your favorite season, Summer, Spring, Autumn or Winter?

My favorite season is spring. It's not too hot and not too cold. It's time to break out my cotton dresses and flip flops. 

4. What would you take with you to a deserted island?

A few favorite books, notebook, pens, a pillow, someone else so I won't be all alone

5. What is your favorite line from a movie?

I am the WORST with movies. I can never remember which movies I've seen. My brain just doesn't want to store that information I guess. Sometimes a movie will come on tv and I'll tell my husband we should watch it. He'll tell me that we've already seen it. I won't believe him until 3/4 through the movie. Then I'll realize that YES I HAVE seen this movie. So sadly since I have bad movie memory I also have bad movie line memory.

6.  What country is on your travel destination wish list? 

I've been to Italy, Germany, and France. I'd like to visit Spain. 

7. What is your dream job?

I would love to write books and make it a career. This was actually a popular book chat topic you can read my post all about aspiring to be an author HERE.

8. Where do you see yourself 3 years from now?

These kinds of questions make me feel old. I'll be 30. That means...oh geez....Noah will be 10...10! The baby will be almost 3. I'm HOPING that by then we will have been able to sell this house and move back to LA or at least be closer to doing that. I'll be back in school. 

9. Why did you start your blog?

I read my friend Jessica's blog every day. Sweet Green Tangerine...Heard of her? If not get over there and check it out =)

Reading her blog led me to read other blogs. After we moved to IL I found myself with a lot of time on my hands and I was feeling pretty lonely. I played with the idea of blogging for a while. Finally I decided to give it a try and I love it! I'ts a great way to stay connected with my family and it has allowed me to "meet" so many great people. 

10. Where did the name of your blog come from?

I think naming my blog was the hardest part! I thought of so many different things but none of them felt right. Then one day I read something about how you can't plan your life out. You can try but for the most part life won't stick to the script you write and so...The Unscripted Life was born.

11. What has surprised you the most about blogging? 

The people. When I started blogging I thought I'd share a little about my life now and then. I thought it would just give me something to do. I never expected to find a community of people who I could connect with. It has been a more than pleasant surprise.

Dear Friday....

Dear Family,
I apologize for my overuse of emoticons. Something happens when I get bored and I feel the need to play with emoticons and send you funny? rude? awkward? text messages. For instance I sent this to my husband last night. He stayed up much much later than me to watch hockey...yawn. I couldn't sleep, got bored, and this happened:

Dear Noah, 
Flower beds are not for excavating. Light digging to plant a new flower? Yes. Digging to fill buckets with dirt? No. I need to make you an awesome garden/dig zone of your own like this one made by Kristy from The Everyday.

Dear Rain,
Please do not ruin our Saturday. We have two soccer games to go to and yummy steaks for the grill. Go Away!


Dear Tummy Sleeping,
I miss you! Sleeping on my belly is my favorite but now it feels like I'm sleeping on top of a small cantaloupe. See you in  a few months tummy sleep....


I hope you all have a great weekend.... EVEN if it rains or dare I say snows where you are. 

Enjoy!