A little about our anniversary

For those who were wondering:

For our anniversary a couple of weeks ago, Ryan took me to the JaJa Bistro in downtown Littleton. Cute, quaint, romantic little French restaurant that is actually in a little house with just 20 tables or so.

Ryan had done lots of research and learned that they only take reservations in the first hour of operation (they open at 11am on Saturday) so since we wanted dinner instead of lunch, we made sure to get there at 5pm before the rush. We excitedly walk in and the following unfolded:

French man: "Do you have a reservation?"
Us: **confused** No?
French man: "Oh we're booked solid through 7:00 unless you have a reservation."
Us: **looking as though he's just punched our puppy in the face** "But....we were told....no reservations...."
French man: "Yeah we get that a lot. A lot of people are confused about the reservation policy."

So then we didn't know what to do. Do we wait two hours to come back and MAYBE get a table later or do we postpone? We ended up mulling over what to do at a little espresso shop down the way and decided to go back, get reservations for the NEXT week, and just get pizza at a great place downtown. So, off we went, way overdressed for the pizza place but it was delicious.

We also learned that it was 5280 Restaurant Week which means at nice restaurants like Jaja, you eat for two for $52.80 which is also why they (and lots of other nice places) were booked solid that night.

Ok so we went back last Saturday and enjoyed our reserved table this time.

As the waitress was going over the appetizer list, I found myself nearly in tears because it all sounded weird and gross or unsafe for pregnant people (like escargot and pate). She was nice enough to have the chef just make me a salad and I was satisfied. The entree food was good. I got a seafood soup (more on that in a second) and Ryan got an eggplant and chicken dish. Now, when I say seafood soup, are you envisioning a kind of chowder? Well I was. Apparently French people like to take a vegetable base and stuff as many mussels and clams (in their shells) as they can into the bowl. There was also grouper and shrimp. It was a mountain of sea creatures basting in a giant bowl. Tasted good...but it was odd.

Looked similar to this, but without the giant squid/shrimp hybrid on top.

I also enjoyed a French soda. It was delicious.

This is actual footage from dinner.

So we are glad we went because we needed to know what the JaJa was all about. Now that we know, we do not feel the need to return.

The End.

Week 29: 11 weeks to go...YIKES!

29 weeks sounds nice. 11 weeks to go sounds CRAZY! That is not much time before this baby is here.

So I just did a workout tape and I'm pooped. Translation: my comedic genius has been depleted along with my energy so this post, by nature, must be short and to the point. :)

Here is the picture update. Lil Monty is growing and becoming more active. I can only imagine what the next 11 weeks have in store...

Week 28: Happy Anniversary to Us! :)

This week, we celebrated our 3 year anniversary. Yes, a plague on all your houses who forgot...but I forgive you. We haven't actually celebrated yet - we are going out to a nice dinner tonight since our actual anniversary was on Tuesday and it's just more fun to go out when Ryan hasn't been busting his butt all day at work beforehand and doesn't have to get up at 4:30am the next morning. I don't know where we are going yet but I think I know we are going somewhere in downtown Littleton which is the cutest downtown I've ever seen in my life. Very sweet date spot.

We got a little more snow this week. About 6 inches or so. Of course, it's all going to melt today I'm sure since we are sunny and in the 50s. Can't say the same for our north-facing neighbors...they'll have snow in their yards until July.

Some ladies from church are going to be coming over a week from today for a "Couponing Class". People are always asking me how I do it so I'm having them over to teach them. Haha. Take that Southern Savers lady! I still maintain my coupon blog and hope to make at least $1.00 from it this month :). Also, interesting factoid for all your coupon skeptics out there, according to my calculations I saved over $2600 in 2011 from couponing and strategic sale-finding. Are you a believer now?

We got a big bag of hand-me-down toys from one of Ryan's customers. We picked through it all and (although it was hard to say no to the bright pink and purple rolling horse) we chose a Tonka truck, a lego-esque type thing where you build bridges and it has a track for cars, and this super annoying mail box that talks and sings when you put "mail" in or put the flag up, among other things. We're thinking Lil Monty won't know the difference if we just go ahead and take those batteries right out. Aside from it's so-irritating-you-want-to-stick-a-Qtip-too-far-into-your-ear-too-many-times songs, it's a cute little toy. We were amused by it for at least 10 minutes last night discovering all it's little tricks.

I also had another doctor's appointment yesterday. Went well. No news. We are now on a schedule to go every two weeks until maybe week 36?? and then we'll go every week until Lil Monty decides to join the party outside of my body. As usual, we heard his heartbeat. I think she said it was around 136bpm so it's getting slower which I guess is normal and my midwife is very pleased with our progress.

Here are the pictures. And yes, I know I look like I belong in Santa's workshop with my choice of outfit colors. I was tired and I didn't feel like changing! Even though I look like I just rolled out of bed, I believe I was about to get into it.

Week 27: Third Trimester Fun

I'm officially in my third trimester and my belly is getting bigger. Starting to be a challenge to sit up from lying down...have to roll over and push myself up with my hands.

Lil Monty is super active and getting bigger all the time. Yesterday he was moving in such a way that it actually tickled. He's constantly rolling around if he's not kicking me but I have yet to have any discomfort from it. All in good time I'm sure...

I've been pretty dedicated lately to getting rid of my Mary Kay inventory...it has been nice to see it go away. For those of you who don't know, I'm getting out of Mary Kay (hooray!) and the company has a policy where they will buy back any inventory at 90% of what you paid for it. So, for the past couple of months I've been working to get as much sold as possible so I have less to ship back (and less to lose 10% on) in March. If you want any, get it now. It's all 50% off. To see what I have left to pick from, go to this blog that I created just for listing inventory.

I've also been working on figuring out baby classes and stuff. Before it's all said and done I'll be attending a cloth diapering class, a baby food making class, a breastfeeding class, a childbirth prep class, a practical baby care class, a pre-admission consultation at the hospital where I tell them what I do and do not want to happen on that day, and we are going to trek down to a huge consignment sale in April to try to get some good last minute deals. I also have another baby shower on March 10th which I'm super excited about. AND I'll be hosting a baby shower some time in April. Busy busy for the home stretch...

This week's pictures:

Week 26: Lots of babies around here!

So this week, we found out:

1. That our friends Steve and Rachael are having a girl! (she keeps a blog too, if you are interested.)

2. That our friends (who will for now go unnamed) are pregnant!

We are so excited to have friends here who are in the same stage of life that we are. We are ALL pregnant with our first baby. Lots of baby showers to be had in the next few months. So I'm due in May, Rachael is due in July, and Anonymous Until Further Notice is due in September.

I also found out that I was summoned to jury duty. However, I am summoned to a county I don't live in and supposedly that means I don't have to go. I submitted the request to get out of it yesterday :). We'll see...

Lil Monty's room and personal possession acquisition is coming along nicely. We have everything but the glider in the room and got a car seat and mattress delivered this week. It's like Christmas! A very expensive Christmas..but nonetheless, it's fun to get packages in the mail. We also got our boxes of gifts from the shower in NC - it was fun to go through that stuff again and start finding places for it all!

My success story from the week happened yesterday. I bought a decently expensive skillet from Bed Bath and Beyond over a year ago. Within a few uses, it started to warp miserably for no apparent reason so I haven't been able to really use it since it sits all wonky on the burner. Then, I found out yesterday that BB&B takes back just about anything so I called them and told them the story: no box, no receipt, used it a few times. They said to come in and they would see what they could do. So in I went...and out I came with a lovely store credit and no more crappy pan. Now I can buy a new one! Hooray for that.

Just for fun, here is a little comparison. For Week 26, I have on the same clothes as Week 15 and 20. I guess I need more clothes...but my, how Lil Monty has grown hmmm?

15 weeks

20 weeks

26 weeks..yikes!

:)

NC Baby Shower Pictures

I had a baby shower thrown for me when I visited NC last week. Here are some pictures from the festivities!

Diaper Cake!

Tree O' Many Toys

Very thoughtful...Broncos colors were the theme!

I said "Ok be candid!". This was the result.

Food and drink set up.

Week 25: Snow and more snow!

Holy cow is there snow!  It snowed about 18 inches here from Thursday to Saturday but I still managed to make it to the doctor on Friday and the roads were clear and somewhat dry by Sunday. The picture here might be hard to see but that's measuring in the front yard a solid 18 inches.

Grover enjoyed the snow immensely. It is the deepest snow I've ever seen so I know it's the deepest snow he's ever seen. I'll let the pictures and video tell the rest.

Videos:

Grover getting the mail

Grover helping to shovel the driveway

Grover playing with Ryan

So I am definitely getting rounder. And Lil Monty is getting stronger. The weekend I went to NC and the week after I got back, he was very quiet and I even told my midwife he was so much calmer. Ever since "complaining" of Lil Monty's calmness, he has been going crazy. He is very active in the morning when I first wake up (but before I get out of bed), kicks when I have finished a meal, and perks up right before bed time again. It has been fun that his kicks are so strong because Ryan has been able to experience a little bit more of his growing boy :). It's not fun if I'm the only one that gets to enjoy it.

I'm still fortunate enough to be wearing my normal pants and shirts but I've invested in a couple of the BeBands from Target because my belly pushes my pants down :) It just looks like an undershirt under my top shirt which is highly convenient and comfortable.

I also added a registry on Target.com in addition to the Amazon one for those who like to shop in store rather than online.

Ok here is the picture update: