Well, here you go. 28 weeks baby! Officially in my third trimester! I can’t believe how fast this pregnancy is going. I can barely keep up. When he’s not at work or hanging with us, Roberto is busy with school full time (online, thank God) and filming a movie with his Dad; Jace is going a hundred miles a minute and hitting sort of a rebellious stage; and my work load isn’t getting any lighter at work. I don’t even know what day of the week it is, half the time. Major pregnancy brain. I just had to check my BabyCenter app to find out the size of our little baby inside (an eggplant, in case you’re wondering). I definitely am not tracking my progress like I did the first time around, but all the little kicks remind me that I have another on the way. He is moving around like crazy (always a good sign), and my ribs are killing me. My hoo ha’s are enormous (how?! What’s in them?!). Sleeping is not comfortable anymore. I’m not supposed to be sleeping on my back, but somehow always end up on my back. With a headache. Gotta work on that. At home you’ll find me in our lazy boy or rubbing shea butter all over myself, or stuffing my face, hahahaha. My bad junk food cravings have definitely leveled out. I can eat salads and seafood now. As you know I’m trying to cut back on the sugar since I need more protein and iron-filled leafy greans, my Doctor says. And Jace is keeping me active with baseball in our backyard every night. I’m still able to work out at the gym a couple days a week, which makes me feel great. Only 12 weeks to go .. and then we can meet our next little boy. Hope he’s healthy in there and all is going well. I wonder what he’ll look like??? Dimples maybe? I hope so! I sure love feeling him in there and knowing he’s almost to the 3 lb mark. It’s about to get really real up in here, come March. Aghhhh!
Oh, hello there! Thought I’d post another DIY project I tackled recently — pillows! I bought this Florida-bohemian inspired fabric thinking I’d use it for our bar stool cushions we inherited with our house, but ended up loving the natural cushions I discovered underneath the weird fabric covers that I was left with this fairly expensive square yard of fabric. Only $35, but still fairly expensive when you don’t know what to do with it! After a few months of deciding, I went with new pillows for our couch! I used the pillow stuffing from two other old pillows I had in a closet and then hopped on over to my friend Kristin’s house to borrow her sewing machine. We made quite the crafternoon out of it and spent the time chatting it up (and teaching me how to use a sewing machine). I felt like I was in JoAnn’s going through a how-to-sew class. She walked me through everything but then let me do all the dirty work. I just love her and how much patience she had for me!
One year ago we lost our Lucy, and I’m now just ready to talk about it :(( I’ve never had to put down a dog before; the pain of saying goodbye really shocked me. It changed me. It activated tear ducts I’ve never allowed myself to use before. I wanted more than anything for Lucy to go on her own peacefully. But, so many things started to go downhill with her health, so quickly, that we had to make the decision for her. Which was the worst part I think. I don’t like playing God. Which is why I don’t support the death penalty. The idea of making the decision to end someone’s life, or in my case, my favorite doggy of all time, just rips your heart out. It twists your stomach into knots. It just isn’t right. And then seeing life end. Watching her take her last breath. It’s the absolute worst experience and feeling in the world. You feel like it’s all your fault. If you had only caught the diabetes sooner. Brought her in sooner. If I could only commit to the shots. If I only had the money. If only I made more time for her. But now, a year later, I’m OK with talking about it, and can laugh and rejoice in the 10 years we had with her. The guilt is slowly melting away. She was my first ever dog all to my own (Rob’s, too of course, since he bought her for me). She was my world before Jace and even after, I still loved her so dang much. Even when she growled at me, or nipped or scratched on walls and doors. Or chewed up my underwear or ate her own poop. She had problems from the beginning, but that didn’t phase her. She still survived a pit bull attack, a skin rash, UTIs, chocolate truffles, cherry eyes, horrible hair cuts, a broken tail, getting lost in our neighborhood, chewing through a fiberoptic Christmas tree.. and so much more.
Wanted to share a little IKEA hack a friend of mine told me about. A “hack” if that’s what you call it when you take a cheap IKEA piece of furniture and make it into something even cooler? Like something you’d find at a vintage flea market? Well, this little DIY IKEA shelf was ridiculously easy and can have multipe uses! In our case, I decided to move it into our front room so it could be on display as a bar cart. Rob likes his options for scotch and gin, and me some rose. Add my little pineapple details and it’s complete!
I’ve been rather obsessed with someone new lately. Her name is Dolly Alderton. I can’t stop listening to her podcast, PanDolly (with co-host Pandora Sykes). It’s so light and funny, and their chemistry is adorable. I immediately subscribed to her weekly Dolly Mail, and actually read every word. The only other email or blog type I do that with religiously is Cup of Jo. Not sure if it’s her british accent or her friendly, just live life attitude, but I can’t get enough. Her writing is so wonderfully eloquent and real, and witty, and easy. It’s truly been the most inspiring thing to me lately. I’m even listening to her Christmas spotify playlist right now as I type this (I think I’ve offiically crossed over into stalkerville). And now, come to think of it, I can’t even remember how I even found her podcast .. but I’m glad I did. I love listening to her talk about family, and dating, and pop culture, and get togethers with friends (that normally involve a lot of champagne and food). I’m going to leave you with her 10 realistic resolutions for 2017, because I think they’re fab. And for some reason, this post of hers really makes me want to be better person and friend, all around. Who has inspired you lately??? Please share!