Happy Birthday to me!

Today is my birthday! And just how will I be celebrating 25 years of existence, you might ask? Well, my day started at 4:30 am, when my son wanted to wake up and and wish me a happy birthday. Haven't slept a wink since. I had waffles and mimosas for breakfast, and will probably hit up Sonic drive-thru for lunch. Then, we'll probably cap off the eventful day with a trip to Target for some groceries. Exciting times, eh?  As I get older, birthdays become less and less exciting, but as each year passes I seem to have more and more to look forward to! As I sit here on a unseasonably warm, sunny day, listening to my son snore loudly, and my husband catering to every need, I realize that this is the life! It took 25 years to get to this blissfully happy point in my life, but it was well worth the wait. 

A few pictures!

I have been horrible about updating with pictures! A certain little someone doesn't allow much time for me to get on the computer... =) Anywhoo, here are a few pictures taken over the past week or so- he is getting so big and heavy! At his first appointment (10 days old) he weighed 10 lbs (up from 9 lbs 8 oz at birth), and was still 22 inches! I wouldn't be surprised if I weighed him today if he were 10 1/2 lbs; it's quite the workout to lug him around! I am doing really well, my incision scar is almost completely healed, and I've lost 30 lbs (of the 42-ish lbs I gained) in just 3 weeks! Cameron sleeps very well (most nights) and is a very good baby! He's pretty cute too, if I do say so myself! Enjoy!

This was supposed to be Cameron's Christmas outfit. I put it on him to take a few pictures the other day, and it's too small. When I bought it I was worried that the 3 month size would be too large, but his feet are practically ripping out the seams at the bottom.  Too bad, he sure does look handsome!!



I hope to get a lot of pictures at Christmas... hopefully it won't be so long before an update! 

Lots of pictures...

Here's some pictures we took during our super-fun extended hospital stay. Birth story still to come when I have an extra hand free up. Enjoy! =)

Ready to go... little did I know I still had 2 days before I'd meet my son! And yes, I'm completely aware that I have 3 chins.

Dad is ready to go too.

Just the two of us...

And he's out!

Look how big he is!

9 lbs. 8oz.

I love this little guy.

Just the three of us. I love Jon's facial expression in this picture.

You can tell he's just got the biggest smile under his mask!

Such a priceless picture.

I look completely exhausted, huh?

Cameron's first diaper change. I warned and prepared Jon about what newborn poops look like. I might have failed to mention how MUCH poop there would be. He thought he'd step up to the plate and attempt the first change; but his jaw dropped to the floor when he unveiled the contents. It definitely took both of us to change this one! He was the "leg holder."

My niece, Corinne
My sister, brother in law, and niece Audra (3 months). I think Cameron will catch up to her in no time at all!

Cameron is here!!

I know you guys have been waiting to hear news... well he is finally here! He is so perfect and beautiful- definitely worth the wait. Jon and I are blessed and are just in awe of him. I am typing this message with one hand as I hold him in the other, so here's the quick stats:
Birth: December 5, 10:30 pm
Weight: 9lbs. 8oz. Literally shocked the crap out of me. I had no idea he would be so big.
Length: 22 inches. Tall, just like daddy!
Cameron was born via c-section after 2 days of an unsuccessful induction. We were in the hospital for 5 days (due to the days spent inducing and then having the c-section), and we just got home today! I'm doing extremely well with recovery. I will post the whole birth story and pictures VERY soon, but I'll leave you with a quick picture from my iPhone (I'm getting good at this one handed stuff).

Thanks to everyone who was praying for Cameron's arrival!

...and waiting

:::taps foot impatiently:::
So yeah, I'm still here, sans baby. And since it doesn't look like he wants to exit on his own, we'll be going in on Wednesday to start the eviction process. Looks like Cameron and I will also share the same birth month, too.

Still waiting.

No sign of baby. Due date came and went. Bags are packed and we are twiddling our thumbs.
On one hand, his tardiness has allowed me to finish my Christmas shopping that I swore I'd get done before he came. Everthing is ready. So I'll venture out of the house to kill time and walk a little, and store clerks ask me when I'm due. I tell them "yesterday" and they are a little surprised to see me bouncing through the store with ease. Then they disappear out of fear that my water might break and they'll be responsible for the clean-up of amniotic fluid on Isle 7.
Oh, and Sunday's are a blast. Our church is small, so I get asked by every. single. member. if we are ready to have a baby and if we're excited. Um, yes. And my mother in law has been kind enough to remind me every week that all her kids were 11 pounds and that all her kids were 2-3 weeks late. Thanks. Perhaps I'll just hibernate until he gets here. It's been too cold to go outside anyway.
In other news, daddy got a new truck! His old truck (which is still trooping along) has almost 300,000 miles on it, and we needed something with 4 doors. We'll keep both trucks for now, but for some reason Jon feels like he's "cheating" on his old truck. He loved his truck. I for one, am a fan of the new truck: it's got heated seats. It almost feels like you peed your pants, but no wetness. Its great, really.
Anywhoo, I'm hoping my next post will be to report a new bundle of joy! Stay tuned!

Project 52.5

I'm usually not a fan of any type of insect, but I spotted this bright green hopper on a trail we were hiking on this afternoon, and he didn't seem to mind that I took about 20 pictures of him. He's pretty cute (for a grasshopper), right? 

Here's where Cameron will sleep, play, and scream his little lungs out.

The nursery is just about complete! I still need a few finishing touches, but we are ready for him to come any day! 

Fall Cleaning Challenge: Day 2-3

Since I slacked yesterday (cleaning on Sunday just doesn't happen around here) I had double duty today! I started bright and early and pulled everything out of the cabinets, cleaned them, and organized them even better than before. I'm pretty darn impressed. Oh, and the oldest thing I threw out was a can of bacon bits... they expired in January 2004. Nice!


I also cleaned the microwave, all of the appliances (except the oven- I'm scared of what lurks in there), the cabinet doors, and swept and mopped the floor.

Today's challenge involved bathroom medicine cabinets. We have two bathrooms, and both needed to be cleaned out pretty bad! The guest bathroom was especially bad... a little embarrassing, actually. =(


The master bath wasn't so bad...


I'm all caught up, and it feels good to have some serious cleaning done!

Fall Cleaning Challenge: Day 1

So I am partaking in an Ultimate Fall cleaning challenge with some Nestie/blog friends. Honestly, a cleaning challenge couldn't have come at a better time; with 3 weeks till D-day, I could use this time to get the house sparkling for Cameron's arrival!

How it works:

Katie, (aka Hyper Homemaker) has organized our to-do list and posts them on her amazing blog each day. Then I get to work, crossing off the things on the list as I accomplish them! I love crossing items off lists, by the way. =) I take a few pics, and show off what I've done, and Voila! A clean home just in time to hibernate for the winter.

So today's list was quite large; and I'll admit that my Saturdays are usually reserved for hanging out with my husband, which doesn't leave much time for chores! Today's list was to conquer the kitchen- and I had already planned to clean up after last night's party (the kitchen was NASTY), so that was my main goal. But since the challenge started today, I went ahead and cleaned out the fridge, top to bottom, and I must say that it is sparkling clean! Cleaning out the fridge was long overdue- I found pickle relish that expired in October of 2006! Gross, right?


Organized and clean! I threw out a lot of stuff, so now I need to go grocery shopping.

Look at those shiny shelves- no more sticky residue from leaky containers!

Wiped Counters... check! Cleaned and shined sink... check! And I have a nice clean kitchen!

Though I didn't get to clean out the kitchen cabinets (Lord knows they are in desperate need of organization), I feel quite accomplished by just cleaning out the fridge. I'll get to the kitchen cabinets (promise!) and since I don't have a pantry, that's one less item for today's list.

Keep checking in! I'll try to post daily to track my progress. Inspired to do the cleaning challenge? It's not to late to get started... check out Katie's blog!

Halloween Fun...

Last night we hung out at our house and had a few neighbors over. Trick or treating at our house was like hitting the jackpot- we had 4 couples total at our house, and that meant getting 4 houses worth of candy all in one. We were all hanging out in the driveway and garage, and I think some kiddos might have been little intimidated at first, until they spotted 4 huge bowls of candy.

Yeah, i decided to be a little festive and wear some Shrek ears. I even convinced a couple of people I wasn't really pregnant and that I was just wearing a belly costume. And what's a party without food? I made a couple of appetizers and this DELICIOUS caramel popcorn. It was seriously like crack- no one could stop eating it. Check out the recipe here.

Project 52.4

I am full term (37 weeks) as of yesterday!

A new face for Pepsi...

From time to time, companies and brands will rebrand themselves to reposition themselves in their market. Sometimes, the brand has changed/progressed over time, and the current logo or slogan no longer suits them. Sometimes it's simply to bring "new life" to a brand, or to increase lackluster perception by its consumers. The latter seems to be the case for Pepsi Co, in addition to facing a difficult economy.

Changes generally excite consumers, but I'm a little indifferent towards the new packaging. I for one don't prefer Pepsi, so I'm not really going to be influenced by its snazzy new packaging. But as far as the new logo? It's ok. It looks a little weird and "off-brandish" to me, but I'm guessing that if we look back at the old logo years from now, it will look weird too. What do you think?



Pepsi's new cans should be out by early 2009!

Project 52.3

A tall caramel apple cider, just for me. One of the things I love about fall and winter is Starbucks seasonal drinks. Pumpkin lattes, peppermint mocha's... it's all I need for a blustery afternoon like today!

Heaven in a 12oz. cup. 

...Speaking of Starbucks

At the Starbucks near my work, there is this girl who is always working the drive-thru window on my lunch hour. I know this girl; yet I could never seem to remember where it was that I recognized her from. I couldn't place her for the life of me, and it was very clear that she didn't recognize me the least bit. Weeks pass, and I was still struggling to figure out why this girl looked so familiar to me. As I pull up to the drive thru window today, it finally hit me; the reason I didn't recognize her because she had all of her clothes on. (Stick with me here.) The last time I saw this girl she was fully naked, standing on a white platform, and her tall, slender frame was being sketched by twenty-some odd students in a college Life Drawing class. I was one of those students. In fact, I have 3 figure drawings of her hanging in my guest bathroom... Small world, wouldn't you say?

Sketches of naked starbucks girl.

All these thoughts were running through my head. Should I say Hi? "Hi, I think you were in one of my classes. You may not remember me, but I remember you..." Ask her what she's been up to? "Soooo... are you still nude modeling?" Nah. I think I will just let her keep making my coffee and let the anonymity between us remain so.

Ok, kids. We've got 30 days...

I had figured that the last 10 weeks of pregnancy would be the absolute longest. I'm getting bigger by the nano-second, my feet are swollen, and rolling over in bed is darn near impossible. To my surprise, things are going by pretty fast (though I might change my mind when things aren't progressing at week 38), and it's hard to believe that we'll have a baby boy in our presence in just about a month! 

Looking back, I've had a pretty easy pregnancy; I never had morning sickness, and I've felt pretty good the whole time. Oddly enough, I haven't enjoyed pregnancy much, and I can't say I will miss lugging our son around- inside of me, that is. I'm ready to fit into my regular clothes again, and say good riddance to anything with an elastic waistband. I want to drink as much coffee as I want without getting evil stares from people at Starbucks. And I miss wine like nobody's business. I was also looking forward to not receiving unsolicited parenting advice from the "been-there-done-that" type, but I'm gonna guess that giving birth is just the beginning of such. More than anything, I'm ready to hold the baby that has been in the works for the last 8 months, and I'm curious to see who he looks like. 

These last few months, Jon and I have been doing a lot of things together, enjoying our time together, and just being together. It's been great but I am positive we'll get an even greater outlook on life raising our son together. Only one month left, and somehow I think I'll look back and wonder how a month, and even a year can slip though our fingers so quickly. I suppose I ought to enjoy these last 30 days, huh? 

Project 52.2

Hi ya, Bambi. 

We've been taking more walks in the evenings now that it's cool, and we are spotting these guys every night if we are quiet and observant. They seem to like us ('cause we're friendly), and they let us get pretty close. 

Project 52.1

Behold the first installation of Project 52. I decided that instead of taking a picture a day for a year- Project365, I would do one per week (hence, 52). The original purpose is to be able to document your life, events and surroundings, and be able to look back and remember them by the pictures you took.

Gas prices beginning with a 2 as the first digit: haven't seen that in over a year!