Jogging Strollers

So I've been researching jogging strollers.  I typically find that the reviews aren't exactly helpful because lots of people love and hate all the options.  

I found one, however, that seemed AWESOME.  It has amazing reviews and converts to a bike trailer.

Check it out.

Source--go here to see the bike version.

Being overly frugal, I started to think this was a great option.  I already had a bike trailer on my wish list, and if I could get something that multi-tasks, so much the better.

I did another quick online search to price it out...I found it at Amazon.  

$611.97.

I burst out laughing.

Oh awesome jogging stroller/bike trailer...I will never own you.  You sound amazing, but that's WAAAAAY out of my price range.

Running

It's gorgeous weather in St. Louis today--I went for a run OUTSIDE* for the first time in a very long time.  It was glorious to run outside and just reminded me how much a struggle to run on the treadmill.

I feel like I should elaborate why I've been running on a treadmill lately.  My hiatus from running outdoors was not imposed entirely by the weather.  About a month ago, I took a nasty tumble while running with my friend Susan.  I wasn't paying enough attention and tripped over a crack in the sidewalk.  Luckily, I landed mostly on my head (I think pregnancy might be the only time when landing on your head after a fall is good), but it really shook me up.  And gave me a nice bruise.  I called my OB a little hysterical, who recommended I go to my regular doctor since I wasn't having torso pain.  Blah, blah, blah, long story short, everything was fine except my confidence to run outside.

Anyway, Grant's Trail was packed with runners, walkers, and bikers today.  I ended up running 6 miles, which was my longest run in a while.  I've been signed up for a half marathon in April since before I was pregnant... I'm hopeful that I can still complete the half, even if it's not running.  Obviously, a decision on that doesn't need to be made today.

Tonight: David and I are going to Law School Prom, where there's an open bar.  Can you guess who's driving home?  This might be David's favorite Law School Prom EVER!

Doctor's Appointment!

I had another prenatal appointment today...I love those.  I'm at the stage where I'm not really rocking a bump (it's more of a gut/fat thing now) and I haven't felt the baby yet (although they say it can start at 16 weeks...which is tomorrow), so there are days when I don't really feel pregnant.  The doctor's appointments are great because they reinforce the fact that I AM pregnant.

Anyway, we got to hear the heartbeat, which was around 140.  The doctor said girls typically have heart rates around that and boys are slower, which contradicts our ultrasound tech's "guess" that it was a boy.  To me, all that means is that we have to wait 3 weeks until our gender scan, but David is FREAKING out.   I think he took the tech's "guess" to heart, so now he's not sure what to think....

However, in three weeks I get to start picking out fabric for the quilt!

In semi-related news, I gained an appropriate amount of weight between my appointments!
I celebrated with a bacon cheeseburger, which was amazing.

Owls

I've been having a bit of trouble sleeping lately, so I've been trying to use my nightowl hours more effectively.  Last night, I was up from 1 until about 4ish.  I ate a slice of pizza and researched quilt patterns.  

It was productive...especially since Grandma Stainbrook is going to make us a baby quilt.  She didn't volunteer, exactly, but said she would be happy to make it for Baby Brady :)  

Grandma making a quilt is great on multiple levels--I get an heirloom AND I get to pick out the pattern and colors I love.

Here's the pattern I've decided to go with.

Source

How cute is that??  Colors will be decided after we know the gender, but I'm pretty sure the nursery will have an owl theme.  

I think the lack of sleep inspired me, but owls are still cute.

In other owl/mooching news, I've convinced my friend Erin to make us some artwork.  

Here's my favorite inspiration piece...

Source

Awwwww.  Erin's going to do it (or some other Owl work) in the colors I want and make it fit on a canvas.  Woo!

I also think I'm going to make my own crib bedding and changing pad covers.  I'm not seeing pre-made, reasonably priced ones I like.  It's a bad combo.  I'm both cheap and picky :)

Anyway, here's a fabric I really like.  Does the little bit of pink make it too girly if we have a boy?  Is it too busy for sheets and changing pads?  I think I'll make the crib skirt in a plain fabric.

Source

Softball

For the last two summers, David and I have participated in a co-ed softball league through my work.  It's a great team--very competitive but actually welcoming.  I usually trade off catching with another girl, Courtney.  But it's amazing--even though I'm not good at all, they fight me on sitting out.  I imagine that if I demanded to play pitcher, they would probably let me, even though I would walk EVERYONE.

At any rate, our captain, Michelle, is planning for the next season.  Even though I'm not playing (obviously), I'm enjoying the email strand.  Another player, Amy, is having a baby in the spring.  The last email from Joe made me laugh out loud at work.

Enjoy!

Michelle: Hello, South Sluggers!  I don't know about you guys, but I'm kind of done with winter and ready to play some SOFTBALL! 

 

It's time to start signing up.  I'd like to know a couple of things from you...

 

1. Are you in for Monday nights at Brentwood?

2. Are you going to play full or part time?  Ladies, unless you are pregnant, you have to play part time.  (=  I will make exceptions for pregnancies.

3. Can you pay me when we get our next check (1/28)? 

Amy: Even though I am preggers Matt and I are still committing!  I am due April 12th, so that gives me the first few weeks off (and with usually all the rainouts that will only be a couple of games) and then ready to roll come June time =) 

 

Can't wait---our baby softball player is already kicking and ready to go!

Joe: 

1. Im in.

2. Im not pregnant, its a beer belly.  I can play full time.

3. You will get your money.

Dan: I'm in and so is Megan. I've been working with her in the off season and now she only sorta throws like a girl.

Michelle: Nice recruiting, Dan!  I just signed us up/paid today.  If you haven't yet told me if you are in or out, part or full time, please shoot me an e-mail.  Once I get a semi-accurate head count, I'll send you the bill.

 

What to do for the remainder of the off season:

1. Work off those beer bellies

2. Do not become pregnant

3. Count down the days until spring

Amy: 2b. If you already are pregnant, feed baby lots of fatty foods so they get big and are delivered early so their moms can play ball sooner =)

Courtney: Flipping sweet.  I hope she (Dan's recruit) wants to trade off catching with me.  I'm mad Darcie is leaving her post to have a baby.

Me: Look, I'm convinced that there's no way I could get much worse (or slower, really) than I am now.  I'll waddle out to trade off catching if you want.

Courtney: How big of a jerk would I be to make someone nine month's pregnant squat down to catch the ball?  Sigh.  I'll do it every inning if I have to.  I'll miss swatting at the bugs in far right field though. 

Lisa: Wait, Darcie, you're pregnant?  Am I the only one who had no idea????? Sorry, I'm late to party evidently.  Congrats!!!!

Joe:  Yeah I didnt know either.  I was really hoping that after a season in which we defended our back to back titles by not making the playoffs we would focus on the fundamentals and improving our speed and agility on the softball field not in the sack.

Runners are misunderstood

My friend Susan shared this with me today... hilarious.



I figure it's ok because I think my co-workers' hobbies are boring and weird too.

Snow Day Productivity!

We had a snow day yesterday, so I painted the bathroom.

After I slept in until 7:30.

I'm very exciting. 

We also have another snow day today...but I haven't yet decided how or if I'm going to be productive.

Anyway, I painted the bathroom nearly the same color.  The original paint was a flat paint and wasn't working out so well for a bathroom.  I would try to scrub the toothpaste flecks off, but the wall just ended up looking gross.  So I repainted with a kitchen-bath enamel.

Before I repainted, I patched all the holes and covered my (new) floors with paper.

I'm not taking any chances with my new floor!

Before you get all excited, I used no voc paint and had the fan running the whole time.

I also took lots of breaks.

That aside, the new color looks the same as the old in pictures, but in real life there's not the touch of blue that was there before.  I'm happy with the walls--I think they'll be much easier to maintain.

But I'm thinking I'm going to need some more color on the walls--since that blue is gone.  

Here's what used to be above the towel rack...

And here's what I'm thinking about adding instead (I stole it from the guest room, which will get redecorated soon to be the nursery anyway)...  

Obviously, I would hang it on the wall.

Here's what used to be above the toilet, except minus the top shelf.

And here's what I'm thinking instead...again, hung on the wall.

 I'm not as happy with this option, but it was stolen from the guest room too.  Maybe I'll hunt around my house and see what other options for stealing I have.  I'm thinking the shelf won't go back up--it didn't really feel very stable and the only reason I put it up in the first place was to cover up holes that existed when I moved in....

Thoughts?

Hair/Gut

Saturday morning, I got a haircut.  This is a big deal...since it had been around a year since I had cut it last. 

It was getting SUPER long.  Pretty much Little House on the Prairie long.  I was considering giving up shaving and just turning into a Cousin-It like creature.

So at any rate, I cut 8 inches off on Saturday (ok, I paid a lady to cut it).  The lady was awesome, btw.  She offered to take care of donating it to Locks of Love for me.

I wanted to show you a before and after shot, and the best photos I have are of my gut. 

I've been forcing David to take pictures every few weeks.  

You know, so I have evidence that I'm getting bigger.

It's healthy.

So here's my hair before, at 8 weeks preggo.

8 weeks

 Notice that the hair goes down to midback, well past my boobs.

And here it is at 14 weeks...along with my gut.

14 weeks

And now the hair only goes about halfway between my shoulders and my boobs!  It's way less frizzy looking than before.  I think I should never go a year between hair cuts.

Also, notice the gut.  My pants hurt.  Booooo gut.  

Mom insisted that I buy some maternity pants because she got a little freaked out when I talked about how I was smashing the baby in my jeans and the baby was going to come out all funny looking.

I'm still fighting the maternity pants, but loved her suggestion that I wear sweats more often.

An excuse to wear sweats?  Yes, please!

Columbia

On Monday, K-State played Mizzou in basketball.

I wore purple.  I might have married into Mizzou, but K-State was good to me.  

Loyalty, people!

I traveled to Columbia with David, Danna, Liam, and Danna's friend Bethany for the game.  My older brother Kyle met us there for the game, but we got dinner beforehand.  Kyle ordered the biggest piece of pork loin I've ever seen.

How can you not take a picture of this??

That's a lot of meat!

Dan and Debra met us for the game...which was a fun experience.

Except for the ending.  And the bad sport who tapped me on the shoulder a couple of times to heckle me.

I think the highlight of my night was probably Kyle's plate of meat.

Wrestling

 This weekend, my parents came into town.  After forcing my father to do some handy-work around the house (fixing fan in bathroom, replacing ballcock in toilet, AND fixing a broken switch on a lamp), we took them to wrestling at the South Broadway Athletic Club.  Mom & Dad hadn't been here since our wedding reception (and had never been to wrestling here), so they were very excited.

 I took a lot of shots of wrestling...for some reason.  Here's just a couple.

After the show, Mom got her picture taken with the tag team champions--Abe and Gabe, also known as The Lumberjacks.

She was thrilled.  Dad has big plans to blow up this picture and hang it in the beer room.  Mom's not entirely bought into that idea, but she's coming around.

The next day, we took them to a buffet brunch at the casino, after which I complained enough about my tight pants that Mom took me shopping for maternity pants.  Ignoring the fact that the gut was probably related to the BUFFET BRUNCH, I'm grateful.  I haven't worn them to work yet, but the day is coming when my pants are not going to be forgiving.  David says he's already tired of listening to me complain about my pants every morning.

I can't wait for it to be warm enough to wear dresses. 

Dresses are forgiving.

Lotion

I'm terrified of pregnancy stretch marks.

I blame this fear on google images.

Seriously.

Ahhh!

Terrifying.

HUGE!

I know that a lot of this is linked to genetics and, luckily, Momma Brownback doesn't boast scary zebra-like stretch marks.

Still, though, I don't want to look like the ladies above.  So I've been using lotion like it's going out of style and convinced Lindy to buy something I noticed on our trip to Seattle.  This stall at the market sold organic bee's wax lotion and I purchased some for my hands.  I almost bought the Tummy Bar version of the hand lotion, but opted against it because I wasn't yet pregnant and didn't want to jinx myself or get the Nanc-in-ator too excited.

So Lindy got sent on an errand...

It's a really cool product, in that it's a solid bar that you rub on yourself.  I've taken the hand version through airport security without a problem.  The hand version looks like a sun with a face, but the tummy bar looks like...well...

A tummy.  Boobs and all.  I love this stuff--seriously, it feel like heaven when I rub it on, but I have to admit, it's a little uncomfortable to rub boobs all over my boobs.  

To correct this problem, I've decided that I will use the bar with the boobs facing my palm.  

Genius!

FLOORS!

I came home today to the greatest thing ever...finished floors!

 I'm so happy.

 It's hard to tell the color for sure on here, but it's got variations of gray and brown in the tile. 

It's way less taupe-ish than it appears on camera, but that's probably because I purchased my camera for durability and low price, not quality :)

In case you've forgotten, here's a shot that happens to have a bit of the old flooring in it.

I tried to crop a lot of my pictures to miss the old flooring, mostly because I hated it and thought it was heinous.  Trust me, this is better.

As far as installation goes, David and I opted to pay a professional rather than attempt to do it ourselves.  We didn't have the right tools or knowledge to attempt this without ended up divorced.  

Seriously.

We went through a small local company called B-Back Floors, and couldn't be happier with them.  I have a soft spot in my heart for small businesses (mostly due to being the daughter of a small business owner), and am seldom unhappy when I go with people over companies.  Joe called me several times on my cell phone to update me on the progress, and finished up over a day early.  

Joe also owns a snow cone stand, which was a surprising selling point.

At any rate, please consider this my official referral to use B-Back floors-- 314-849-0447.  

Did I mention how happy I am?

House Progress

It's been a while since I've written about house progress--

and I have huge news.

Huge for me, which is relative.

We've hated the flooring in our kitchen and bathroom since before we bought the house, but we always intended to replace it, "someday."

Oh, the mythical "someday."  Sounds good when you're house shopping, but sounds less good when "someday" doesn't have a specific date.

Turns out, our "someday" came sooner than just saving allowed, thanks to some generous Christmas gifts from family.

The flooring guys came today and got started... they expect to finish tomorrow.  Here's our ripped up bathroom.

 I put the towel on the floor, not them.  

For some reason, it felt necessary.

Here's the kitchen.

 Another angle...

 On an interesting note, it turns out that there is hardwood in EVERY room in our house--including the bathroom and kitchen.   

The floor guys were amazed--apparently, it's really rare to find hardwood in bathrooms and kitchens.  

We opted not to keep it hardwood and go ahead and tile.  

But it's still an interesting piece of history with the old homestead.

I'm excited for the final result--hopefully tomorrow!

Ball!

David and I traveled to Kansas again over the weekend--but this wasn't for the holidays.  It was to go to my uncle's inauguration celebration.

Friday night when David and I arrived, we were greeted by a fantastic brisket meal, my parents, my sister and her fiance, my aunt Mary, cousins Eric and Adam, Adam's son Wyatt, and Eric's wife LaNita.

It was a fun night-- Aunt Mary refused to tell stories about herself because my father is the "Chronicle of Time" and would re-tell any stories at regular intervals for the next thirty years.

True, very true.

Everyone was enjoying adult beverages except Wyatt (he's 10) and me.  Then Wyatt busted out a RedBull at 9:30 and I got jealous...so I went and got chocolate milk.  That's about as fun as I'm getting for a while.

The next day, almost everyone went hunting and I went to the clinic to play with Maggie. 

And I took a nap.  I'm exciting. 

That evening was the ball...look how snazzy I can get!

I don't think you can tell I'm pregnant yet...except my ta-ta's aren't fitting into anything.

I'm not usually so scandalous with my dresses...but this one cost $17 and the more modest one cost $70.

I can totally sacrifice modesty for $53 in savings.

Cher and Kyle arrived in Lyndon at 4:30 after driving in from Colorado that day...I think she looks awesome! 

And here's my Great-Aunt Delores, Grandpa, and Grandma Stainbrook.

We posed in front of the stage... because we're cool.

David was trying really hard to get a picture of this guy's jacket--who wears a denim jacket with a SILVER DOLLAR CITY iron-on decal on back to a ball? 

And here's the family of origin.... we never managed to get one we all the extended family, mostly because there were over 2,000 people at the ball and all of them wanted to talk to Sam. 

I think we look pretty good, though.

On Sunday, Kyle, Dad, Cher, and David (along with all of Aunt Mary's family) went to the Chief's game.

I could have gone, but it was cold...there was seriously no way I was sitting in the cold that long.

I blamed pregnancy.  It worked like a charm.

We were supposed to go to the actual inauguration on Monday, but a MONSTER storm hit Kansas Sunday night and the roads and weather were terrible.  So, we headed back early, hoping to beat the storm to St. Louis.  It took us 7 1/2 hours to drive was normally takes 5 hours, and it was rough going.  I'm a little sad we missed the ceremony, but we saw so many accidents...I'm glad we headed back when we did.

Today, the storm hit St. Louis and I had a snow day.  Maybe we should have waited until today to come back?



Secret, Secret, I'm bad at secrets

It's no secret that I'm bad at secrets...and a worse liar.
However, it was important to David that we didn't immediately tell everyone we knew that Baby Brady was coming.
Since he wasn't ready to tell people until Christmas, it was important to me that I not blab it all around before family knew.

But, man, celebrating the holidays were hard.  I started secluding myself at home, but that was no fun and didn't help anything.  For a couple of events, I said that I had a "stomach" thing earlier in the week and didn't feel like drinking, which wasn't technically a lie.  My stomach wasn't too swell.  However, I realized that I couldn't keep that up for long before people started questioning that.

Enter my booze stand-in, white grape juice.

Pour it in a wine glass and no one's wiser.

It actually worked out really well for me, mostly because I have a reputation for liking "crap" wine.  Which is true... I like my wines to taste like kool-aide.  Since I don't have a refined palate, people rarely want to share wine with me. Turns out that my love for crap wine was a blessing!  At least when people thought I was drinking, no one asked me what I was drinking and I eliminated the need to lie.  

It was a perfect solution...and I've been sure to tell all my friends that I wasn't guzzling wine a mere 3 weeks ago.

However, as happy as I was at that solution, I am much happier to be out of the baby closet.  It was so much less stressful to just drink my water (and sparkling grape juice!) on New Year's without feeling all sneaky.

Our Weird Couple Activity

Oh calm down, I'm not talking about that.


I'm talking about the weird things couples do together that you wouldn't do with a roommate or friend.

David and I pretend to house shop.

Lately, David and I have been watching A LOT of House Hunters.  So much so, that I forget and think that we might actually be in the market for a new home.  So... we go to open houses.  Usually, we pick a house just barely out of our price range so we're not tempted to go crazy and put an offer in :)

It's fun to walk around and critique the choices strangers have made in their homes...but I need to be careful.  Last Friday I went to a work holiday party at my co-worker Cathi's home.  Her house was breathtakingly cute--very Young House Love with color schemes and DIY'ed things.  I was telling another co-worker that I would have put an offer on it if it were an open house.  Then I started talking about my opinion of her color choice for her kitchen...not realizing that Cathi was in earshot the entire time.  Luckily, everything I said was complimentary, but I need to work on slowing down on the opinions.

Looking at houses is fun because we're NOT in the market... if we were actually shopping I would be stressed out and a mess.

News!

Now that we've officially told all THREE of my bosses and our families, 

David and I are ready to share some news with you all...

In case you can't read that little test in my hand...here's a closer view.

I'm pregnant!

Happy Day!

Here's a picture of us the morning our positive test came...

 I woke David up a deep sleep, which explains why he's not wearing a shirt and I'm still in my glasses and Golden Girls t-shirt.

We found out the Monday before Thanksgiving, struggled to keep it quiet since then.  

You can imagine how hard this was for me.
Secrets are not my area of expertise.

Anyway, our due date is July 16, 2010...here's a picture from last Monday!

Awwwwwwwww.

Furniture

Our house has small closets and David and I tend to be hoarders of clothing.  He loves anything that says Mizzou and I love clothes in general.  Oh well.

Anyway, on Saturday, I convinced him that it was TIME to get a dresser for our bedroom...but the only reasonable-ish one I had found so far was from Target and was $300.

For a Target dresser?  notsomuch.

Luckily, I found the LAST of these dressers at Weekends Only for under $150...

We loaded it up in David's car.  It was a miracle that it fit!

I'll try to get a picture of it actually in our bedroom...when our room is clean.  We also got a new comforter over Thanksgiving that I need to show you all!

New Years

Our Christmas celebrations were so hectic, that I was hoping for a low-key New Year's.

Luckily, my friend Tara was having a few people over...and most of them canceled, so I got exactly what I wanted :)  I got to see some of my favorite people all fancied up...

And the love of my life stopped looking like a garbage man.

Meaning that he shaved!  I'm so happy!  I had forgotten that I was attracted to him :)  

Seriously...check out the before...

Garbage man, right?  Or at least creepy guy that lives in the forest (think True Grit guy)...

 Even if he refused to smile, the after is so much better!

At any rate, our New Year's celebration was nice and calm...just how I wanted it.

Christmas....

I'm back to blogging with a vengeance!

Ok, maybe not, but I thought I would at least share how winter break was before I fade off into bad-at-consistent-blogging-land.

Sorry :(

Anyway, we celebrated Christmas with David's family at our house on Christmas Eve.  Due to a big storm that was supposed to hit St. Louis, Danna (David's sister) and her son Liam came over on the 23rd.

David insisted we all watch Toy Story 3, mostly because Liam brought it.

On the 24th, I woke up at about 7:30 and looked outside, expecting mountains of white fluff.

Nada.  Zilch.  No snow at all.

So I decided to laze around the house and head out for a run in a few hours.

I peeked back outside at 8:15 and the ground was covered!  It was incredible--I had never seen the ground get covered so quickly.  I decided that it was a Christmas miracle and that Santa was telling me not to run.

Thanks, Santa.

Instead, I spent the day being lazy and hanging out with my favorite nephew and my fantastic in-laws.  Mostly, we discovered that Liam likes to wear flowers in his hair.

His grandpa wasn't so thrilled about the bows, but I know my friend Lesli (who made said bow) would be pleased as punch.

We went to 3 o'clock church, since the snow was still coming down and then headed back to our house for dinner!

No pictures, but a smorgasbord of food...

Ham Loaf (it's amazing... I know it sounds gross)

Turkey

Mashed Potatoes

Broccoli and Rice

Salad

Rolls

Raspberry Chipotle Dip

Corny Cheesy Casserole (which didn't turn out...my Jiffy was old.  TERRIBLE!)

Needless to say, we ate well.  Unfortunately, Danna's husband was roped into work all day (because of the storm) so he missed dinner.  Sad.

After dinner--we all watched Liam open presents.  I love watching babies open presents.

After dinner, Liam was one tired, cranky boy.  However, we pulled out the Bundt Cake I made and he started dancing and twirling.  It was amazing to watch the transformation that sugar had on the little guy.

Now I see why David tries to feed me when I'm cranky :)

The next morning, we got up at a reasonable time and ate some delicious quiche-type things I made.  I didn't feel like making pie crust (since we were leaving) and had some croissant dough in the fridge, so we had nice muffin-type eggs.  I was proud of myself :)

David and I exchanged gifts (I got a flip cam!  YAY!) and then headed for Kansas.

For some reason, we decided that we didn't feel like packing lunch (stupid) and we would just pick up something on the drive.

Did you know that NOTHING is open on Christmas day?  

I didn't feel like eating at a gas station (hot dogs are so not on my Christmas meal menu), and all drive-thru's were closed.  I totally vetoed going in somewhere for time.

Luckily, we found a Wendy's in a gas station that was open.  And I like Wendy's!

It was a Christmas Miracle.  (I love saying that.  Number 1 reason I'm sad Christmas is over.) 

We stopped at David's grandma's house to say howdy and then traveled on to Lyndon...where I was greeted by a tipsy family.  I know this because Lindy immediately pulled Veronica Breadbasket out of her cage and started cradling her like a doll.  Sober Lindy doesn't usually attack kitties.

But we had a nice dinner (turkey!  stuffing! broccoli salad!) and opened our very generous gifts from the parents.  The siblings were supposed to do a holiday booze exchange, but Lindy & Jon had already put a significant dent on the, um, handle of tequila they brought.  So the family just finished off that handle and called it good.   Well, maybe not so good, if stained carpet later in the evening is any indicator.  :)  Luckily, Mom's a fantastic sport.

The next day, we headed to my grandma Brownback's to celebrate Christmas. 

With guns, of course.  Because a holiday isn't a holiday unless you're trying to kill someone or something.

After David left for the bowl game, we traveled to Topeka for a beer tasting.  The (only) brewery in Topeka, The Blind Tiger, made a beer for my uncle's inauguration.  I hear the beer wasn't close enough to Bud Light for most of my family's preference, but my cousin Andy mentioned that the night could only have been improved if it were a beer drinking, rather than a beer tasting.

The rest of my break was full of shopping--for dresses!  I successfully found two dresses for the inaugural ball and got fitted for my bridesmaid's dress for Lindy's wedding.