Pregnancy

This is at 29 weeks which was almost 2 weeks ago.

I had a lengthy post but it sounded quite whiney. Suffice it to say, I have 9 weeks left and I couldn't be more excited to be done.

News

Well, Halloween happened. We went to a pumpkin patch with some friends and we carved pumpkins. And on Halloween we went trick-or-treating. Ryan was a dog and had to be wrestled into his costume. Once he was in it and he realized people would give him candy, he was fine with the dogsuit!

Christmas also happened and I was dismayed to see how few pictures I actually have. None of the cookie decorating that we did. None of our train ride, (but I believe my Dad at least has some of those) None from our get together on Christmas eve. None of the rest of Christmas morning. Hmmm...perhaps a New Years resolution to take more pictures?? Anyway, Ryan got this FJ Cruiser and he loves it. It has a little radio inside that he can control. Unfortunately it has been FREEZING here. The average temp should be about 50 and it has been in the 30's for two weeks. It is finally beginning to warm up again so hopefully we will be able to go outside again. But on Christmas morning, we took it out for a test drive. Notice from the picture, Ryan doesn't keep his hands on the steering wheel. He points to Matt where he wants to go!! We are working on that!

There are two things going around over here that seem to preclude me from blogging. One, for whatever reason we have a lot of projects going on. Odd, this house is new and so we shouldn't have to do anything (at least that was the idea when we bought it) but a year later the "to do" list is much long and the "complete" list remains sadly empty. BUT we have made serious progress in just the past few weeks. Who is silly enough to start a project before Christmas?? Yeah, I guess us. But we also worked on finishing some outstanding projects, and we are making really good progress. I haven't taken the after photos yet, but I hope to post the before and afters SOON. From these pictures you can see....Ryan LOVES to help Papa. This is his favorite thing. Luckily he was given some tools for Christmas so now he "help" with his own tools.

And this project is actually done! But I don't have the photo to prove it. I am keeping them to do an entire before and after post when I am done with the other two projects. This will hopefully be in about three weeks.

This hole was large enough for my Dad to fit half his body into....

The other thing going on is hardly news at this point as I'm sure most of you already know. But we are expecting our second boy in about 11 weeks. We are really excited! Ryan is going to be a big brother! We are quite sure he has no earthly clue what we are talking about when we tell him this.

I looked back to when I was pregnant with Ryan (which also made me a very poor blogger, I have my reasons) and I have two pictures of me pregnant, (Well like the ones where you stand to the side and show off how pregnant you are) one at 29 weeks and one the night before I had him. I will be 29 weeks in about 2 days and I will take a picture to post. Because I'm sure you all want to see me pregnant (it really isn't that exciting but people always ask for pictures and I can see Jeni's comment right now asking for a picture...Mills don't worry I'm on it!)

So that's it. Kind of a lame post to recap like 3 months but now we can start fresh for the New Year!

Random

Sooo...it's been a while since we (I) have posted an update. Matt pointed this out the other day which is interesting because I thought he had zero interest in our blog. It's been about a month since I promised my Grandma in Canada that I would update with some photos of Ryan and I think its been about 3 weeks since my friend commented that my blog needed to be updated. I have another post I'm working on...actually that implies I have done more than thought of it in my head...so I'm not working on it, I just know that I have other pictures that I need to post. I'm the proud owner of two cameras. I have them for separate purposes but funny, I can't seem to find my camera with Ryan's birthday pictures on it. I could look harder, or I could post from the camera that I have sitting on my desk!! Since it could take up the rest of nap time to find the other camera and then you would all have to wait three more months for a new post...I'm opting to post with these random photos that I have accessible now!!


A long time ago Matt and I went to the Braves game (it would have to be over a week ago since they didn't even make it to the playoffs) Matt and I usually go to several games during the season and this year was no exception. But the game I have pictures of is from when we went to the Braves v. Yankees and got to stand on the field for batting practice. We were thisclose to the players and Matt was in heaven. He states it was totally "worth it" and would do it again.

If you follow baseball you know how old these pictures are as Francouer was traded to the Mets mid-season.

Matt kept making sure I was taking all these pictures of players...so these few are a representation of the over 50 that I have!!

Ryan went to his first movie with some of his friends from the ward....it was the free morning movie, good thing since he lasted about 30 minutes then wanted to get up and run around!

And this picture represents the over 100 (no joke) self portraits that I found of this camera. Ryan loves to take pictures (I also have a ton of random pictures of our computer and the carpet) but his favorite thing to snap a photo of is himself.

Here is what he looks like (since it seriously has been that long since I posted a picture) while he dances behind the desk to "his music." (Usually the Four Seasons).

Ryan has a very strange personality quirk. We used to think it was funny but now we find it kind of annoying. As far as I know it's not some two-year-old behavior so much as Ryan is just weird. But he likes to stack things. EVERYTHING. But only things that shouldn't be stacked. Stacking legos is not a challenge because they are meant to go together. He only likes to stack things that shouldn't be on top of each other. And when he can't, he gets pretty upset (that's the annoying part). So whenever he stacks something, he wants to show us. So he will come and get us to show us his latest accomplishment.

When he showed me this one I was kind shocked, he usually stacks his cars or other toys, I couldn't believe he didn't spill anything so I got the camera so I could show Matt later....well since then, he wants me to take a picture of all of his "creations" For your sake I only posted a few (actually its a lot but I have WAY more as this is really his favorite activity!)

This is one his early works, only two cars!

As you can see, he is starting to get more stacked together.

He loved this arrangement and did it over and over in different places all day.


On the couch is challenging because it isn't a hard surface, but don't try to tell him he can't do it.

His greatest accomplishment, four cars, on his racetrack. So excited.



I made him get in the picture, you can see he had raspberry crystal light with his lunch.

Old?

So I won my first ever item on eBay. I have been telling everyone I talk to about how I am so excited that I won my first ever item on eBay. Seriously, I can think of at least six people since Friday that I have shared the excitment of my "eBay win". They send you an email and say "you won" it's SO EXCITING that you almost forget that you have the pleasure of paying for whatever you bid on and you feel like you have won a real prize.

So, anyway, I pay for my item. Then when I get my confirmation I realize that I hadn't updated my address in eBay so its going to our old apartment. Yikes. I email the seller and I still haven't heard from them. I'm feeling kind of stupid and now my item is being shipped via FedEx to my old address, they don't have package intercept (thanks, Matt for pointing this out) so I will wait until tomorrow and they say that after it isn't delivered because its the wrong address I can go and pick it up at the FedEx location. Hopefully this all works out and they don't just leave it on my old porch for the new tenant to enjoy (like I did for several months with InStyle magazine that the previous tenant paid for.....) We shall see.

BUT back to the question of me losing my mind. I am hoping the seller will email me back. I mean c'mon, please acknowledge that it's the wrong address or SOMETHING. And so I'm clicking around in my eBay account. Trying to figure the dang thing out. Then I have this little "1" by my name. It's FEEDBACK. How can I have feedback? The person says in December that I am a great eBay-er??? What? BECAUSE THIS IS NOT MY FIRST ITEM. I've won on eBay before...about six months ago. And now that I remember what I bought, I also remember that I was just as excited then about "my first win on eBay" So basically if I can just keep forgetting parts of my life it will continue to be super exciting because everything is NEW!

Title?

So if you scroll through my archives (which I'm sure you all do multiple times a day) you will see that I often give a shout out to great products, services (like Brian at OTB) or retailers (Costco). But I don't think I've ever used my blog as a rant on bad products, services or retailers. Which is a shame if you ask me because truly, before I try anything I go online and try to read about what other people are saying about it...like are they happy, was it everything they expected, has this product entirely changed their life, you know the usual stuff :)

WELL, I am so SUPER annoyed with AT&T I can't resist. My phone broke. The screen is black. I had this super neato phone that I got at Costco (swoon, I love Costco) they were selling it with a coupon for only $10 regularly $115! What a smokin' deal. Well the phone LOOKS cool but has never been a real champ of a phone. It doesn't get the best reception (which truly, I've never thought AT&T has the best reception) and the buttons are pretty weird, they look cool, but it turns out they aren't really that functional....not a huge deal since I am a pathetic "texter" anyway.

So anyway, I bought Matt a new phone for Father's Day, early so that I could steal his phone and replace my broken one ;) Well, when I get said new phone, they INSIST that I buy a "protection package"....sounds like a good idea right....yeah, except it only covers the phone if there is a software issue or internal battery malfunction. No coverage if it is damaged by Matt...or Ryan (let's be honest here). SO BASICALLY I am buying protection so that if the phone you are selling me turns out to be crap all on it's own you will give me a new one....SO IT'S PROTECTION from you selling me a crappy product? AND I GET TO PAY EXTRA?!?! Awesome. I buy it anyway and go on my way. Annoyed. Not annoyed enough to rant about it on my blog....that comes later.

Then I find out yesterday that I had bought the phone one week later it would have been $100 cheaper. Yum. That tasted good with my breakfast (thanks Chris Uno for calling me and eagerly reporting this fact!). Annoyed. But hey that's technology....what can you do?!

Well it turns out the phone I "stole" from Matt totally sucks. Honestly, not sure how he has been using it. Seriously. It's a problem. As in it sounds muffled when I talk to people (if I have EVER talked to you, you know I'm like one of the loudest talkers known to man) and they can't hear me. The buttons are stupid and weird and I can't find anything and its dumb and I hate it. So my dad says isn't your phone fairly new...like only 8 months old? Why yes, yes it is! Call warranty. Cool.

Just spent an hour with them on the phone. They transferred me all over Timbuktu (and I think it literally was Timbuktu because I'm quite sure I wasn't talking to anyone in America) and will not be sending me a new phone. They will only send me a new one if they can repair my old one. Like with a software up grade. Oh good, so the warranty on this phone is only good for software issues. Good thing I didn't have to pay extra for that!! Since I'm pretty sure you can't hack into a phone that isn't a smart phone!! And the worst part is that they keep transferring me to some one who can help me....I end up talking to a dude in billing who has no idea why we are even on the phone....we said good night and hung up. Whatever. I'm annoyed. Less annoyed as I finish this post. And kind of sorry to all those that have to read it. Matt isn't home to listen to me rant and I OBVIOUSLY can't call anyone to complain about it since my malfunctional phone will probably push me over the edge. So I will get over it by posting this LONG post on my blog.

Summary. I don't recommend AT&T I have never been satisfied with their service. Customer service and phone service. (The only reason we have them is because we get a awesome discount through UPS). So, if you are thinking of switching carriers...think about NOT switching to AT&T. You won't be happy in the long run.

In other news, I have been wanting to throw a shout out to Publix. I love that store. Not as much a Costco ,but a lot. I'm starting to think that they may drug their employees as they truly are the happiest people on earth (probably the only real competition is the people who work at Disney). I would grocery shop everyday if it was always at Publix. The free cookies. The stickers. The car carts. The carry-out service (which is a Publix service and they explicitly ask you not to tip them). The woman who runs to get Ryan a new box of Goldfish after he dumps an entire box all over the floor in front of her check out and then she only charges me for one. Love that place. Seriously. One time I said excuse me to one of their stock boys and he was like "oh excuse me ma'am, this is Publix where shopping is a pleasure, not an inconvenience." And he was serious. Seriously. And shopping there is a pleasure. (For those who don't know, the tagline is: Publix. Where Shopping is a Pleasure.) Never has a tag line meant so much.

Sorry for all the time you have wasted reading this post. Next time I will post about something fun. Like our trip to Florida perhaps....

Peachy

So it was Mother's Day yesterday. Which was wonderful. Matt and Ryan did a great job making Mother's Day special. My own mother invited us over for dinner that night and asked us (me) to bring dessert. She wanted peach cobbler...I wanted pie (I love pie) so I decided to make both.


If you know my mom, you know she would make this


If you know me, you know I like to bite off more than I can chew. And therefore I would decide to make peach cobbler from scratch, even though I have no idea how to.




If you know the peach growing season (which you do if you live in the peach state) you know that peaches are ripe in August and September.

If you watch this video you will see what would be possible with RIPE peaches.

If you ask me, I can tell you that when you attempt this with UNripe peaches, you will be completely unsuccessful. Blanching unripe peaches is like trying to peel a mango with a spoon.

If you live close by and went to the store at 10:30 on Saturday night, you would see me, in my pajamas....buying this.....

Like mother, like daughter I guess.

Love you mom!

Chickens

I'm making some drapes. For the dining room project. Which means I had to go to the best fabric store in Atlanta. But it was actually IN Atlanta, so we had to drive all the way downtown. I dragged my friend with me and convinced her that she should also make some drapes for her dining room! We pull up to this store in a somewhat sketchy part of town and what do we see....

Examine the picture closely. THOSE ARE CHICKENS. Yes, when we are walking in we noticed some chickens in the parking lot. Weird. Then when we walked out almost three hours later (they had A TON of fabric and it was tough to make a decision) we noticed these beauties eating the chicken feed placed out for them. Evidently someone at this store is feeding these chickens. And they are HUGE. Like probably the biggest chickens I have ever seen. They have clearly been living it up for a long time in this parking lot. Ahhh...only in Georgia!!

In other news. Ryan's tube surgery was a success. The worst part was having to keep him from eating all morning. After the surgery we could feed him and he quickly returned to his normal self!

UPDATE on the office dilemma. I would happily post some pictures of my office now but I am simply too lazy. It is cleaned out and organized!! Matt made me cave a buy a filing cabinet but I am going to use some of Ci's ideas for my day to day work stuff (thanks for all the sweet links Ci) We also moved the office upstairs and the playroom downstairs....it makes more sense and I'm not sure why we didn't do that in the first place.