Surprise!!!

I went home early from work yesterday and when I got home, I just wanted to lay down. I peeked my head downstairs to tell Garth that I was going upstairs and as I peeked, I also smelled something, something chemically and wonderful...PAINT!! My fatigue quickly wore off and I darted into the nursery and this is what I found more or less (I did do a little staging, but the WORK had been done):

This is the $3 rocker that Garth got for me at a garage sale. We still need to paint it. I was going to paint it white to match the rest of the furniture, but now I am thinking about kind of just white washing it to keep the "antiquey" feel of it...what do you think? The blanket is monogrammed gavin randall thomas ;)

Here is the crib set up with the bedding...I love it so much!!!!!!

Here is a wider shot of part of the room. In the pictures it looks like we need more stars, but I think it looks ok in person, I guess I will have to get some more opinions "in person". I am thinking about putting our chocolate brown floor length silk curtains over the windows...I will just have to see if the browns match.

This is the changing table set up with random stuff in it...I need to get some baskets and I have lots of the blue paint left so I can paint some baskets blue...or leave them brown, I guess I will try both and see what I like best...This time I haven't bought ANY newborn diapers since with Garth Lee I thought I was soooooo smart buying diapers before the baby was born and I bought lots of sizes, but I bought a box or 2 newborns that he NEVER fit into, so I have started with size 1's and I think I will go ahead and start buying 2's. I guess only time will tell, but I am pretty sure this baby will be at least 8.5 pounds, he feels like he is already about 6 or so...we have an ultrasound on the 11th of January that is supposed to give us a better idea of if he is actually a big baby, so less than a month and we will have at least some idea of if he will follow suit for the Thomas boys, which by the way Garth Lee has been the smallest at 8 lbs 14 oz, his 2 boy cousins were 9 lbs even and 9 lbs 2 oz...but Garth Lee was 2 weeks early ;)

Thank you so much to my husband and to his brother for helping!! It was a wonderful surprise.

Speaking of surprises, I failed my 1 hour glucose screening on Monday, so I get to do the 3 hour test this Monday, YAY--oh and my uterus decided to grow with the baby this time...I have been measuring 2 weeks "small" (I have to put that in quotes, because there really isn't much small about me, so it seems weird to be "small") pretty consistently and this time I was 2 weeks bigger than normal, which is still in normal range, but I feel better about 2 bigger...anywho, 2.5 months to go ;)

Spread The Word...

I have a blog that I like to read because of how inspiring I think this woman is. She lost her 14 month old daughter a little over a year ago in a tragic accident and she has used her blog to help her through the trials that have resulted from that experience. This past week and up until the 12th, she has an auction going on her blog to benefit another family that has gone through an equally tragic experience. The link to her blog for the auction items is HERE, and the link to the story behind the auction is HERE, auction "rules" are HERE. I know not many people read my blog, but maybe it could make a little bit of difference...Merry Christmas everyone!

You Are What You Eat...

A List Challenge...kind of fun, quoted from my friend Karen Snow's blog:

"The 'Omnivore's Hundred' was posted on Andrew Wheeler's blog Very Good Taste. The post has become really popular around the food blogging world. I thought I'd take my chances and see how adventurous (or not) I have been. I always thought that I had eaten some strange things, but I've never heard of some of the things on this list! I'm curious about everyone else as well, please do it. Here are the instructions: Copy this list into your blog, including these instructions. Bold all the items you’ve eaten. Cross out any items that you would never consider eating"--I'll put them in red since I don't know how to cross them out in a post.

I will add that I will put the one's in green that I had to look up and I put my simplistic definition in (grey)...Is it sad that I had to look up more than I had eaten?

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding (blood sausage)--after looking up, this is also a not going to try it either
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht (beet soup)
10. Baba ghanoush (eggplant)
11. Calamari
12. Pho (Vietnamese beef and noodle soup)
13. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
14. Aloo gobi (cauliflower and potatoes)
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses (pungent unpasteurized cow's milk cheese, so pungent it has been banned from public transport systems in France)
17. Black truffle--I really would like to try these
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns--sounds yummy
20. Pistachio ice cream--actually my favorite flavor
21. Heirloom tomatoes---really want to try these
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras--not something I aspire to try, but I would
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda (dip made with garlic, anchovies, olive oil, butter and sometimes cream)
31. Wasabi peas--and I spit them right out
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi (salted buttermilk, sort of)
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a big fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu (puffer fish--lethally poisonous if not prepared correctly, so I will also mark this one off the list as well)
47. Chicken tikka masala (curry roast chicken)
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi (pickled fruit kind of like an apricot)
53. Abalone
54. Paneer (Asian cheese)
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle (german egg noodle or dumpling)
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine (French fries topped with cheese curd and brown gravy--a fast food staple in Canada)
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads--kinda like foie gras, I would eat, but not excitedly
63. Kaolin (clay???)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian (asian fruit with strong "offensive" odor)
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini (Russian pancake--I think I knew this already)
73. Louche absinthe (absinthe with water added--also added to the won't try list)
74. Gjetost or brunost (Norwegian brown cheese)
75. Roadkill--eat it at Roadhouse, but it is just the name of a hamburger steak
76. Baijiu (Chinese white liquor--red for me)
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong (Black tea)
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum (Thai fish soup)
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky (Chocolate covered pretzel)
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse--does eating dogfood when you are a kid count?
90. Criollo chocolate (a "brand" of cacao bean)
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa (spice blend)
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor (cheesy lobster stuffing)
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Well, that was if nothing else informative...now your turn.

Thanksgiving Pictures

We had a very fun family Thanksgiving. We went to my parents' house and we were joined by my 2 aunts and uncles, my cousins Kenny and Sara, the Clements and of course Granny. It was really very nice and the food was good. My dad fried a turkey and it was REALLY good and moist, we cooked the first ham from Horton II and it turned out OK. I think I overcook ham because I am worried that it isn't actually cooked so it gets dry. I guess I have 3 more chances with this piggy to perfect it, so maybe the Easter ham will be better, it wasn't bad though. The kids had a blast and we ate A LOT, so I would say it was certainly a success. Hope you all also had Happy Turkey Days!

Mom and Sara...thanks Sara for the pictures, I was still waiting on the camera to come in the mail, so these are her pictures...hope they aren't copyrighted or at least I hope I have given her sufficient credit (she makes me nervous...she's a lawyer ;))

Garth Lee and Brooke Clement having fun with the whipped cream.

Papa Randy and I comparing "baby" bellies. I feel like I must also say that my belly contained twins at the time...Baby Gavin AND my Thanksgiving dinner belly...I'm really not that big yet (I don't think).

Baby "Mo", just too cute for words.