Registering, Shopping, Spring Cleaning and Preparing the Baby's Room!

Wow, what a week. Dawn and I were supposed to be on vacation this week but it turned into a week of "work". We spent the first part of the week registering and shopping for all of the fun stuff that we want for our son. It took us a couple of hours to register at Babies R Us and Target. While I thought this was loads of fun, Dawn was not as thrilled. I thought I was prepared as I had done tons of research on all sorts of baby products for the past couple of months but quickly found out that I wasn't as prepared as I thought I was. Oh, well, it is done for the most part. My sisters are going to review our registries to let us know what we missed!
Now on to our spring cleaning. We cleaned out closets, moved furniture, washed windows, hung blinds and cleaned base boards. All necessary projects in order for us to prepare the baby's room. Sounds like fun, huh. For the past eight years we have been able to use all three closets in the house for our "stuff"; however, since our son will be here before we know it, we had to clean out his closet to get it ready for all of his stuff. In doing so, it was time to part with clothes that we thought we would wear again and "things" that we have kept thinking we would eventually use someday. After taking 4 bags of clothes, 3 CD stands, a bag of books and several boxes of odds and ends, we have managed to consolidate two closets into one.
Then we were off to Babies R Us to pick up the baby's furniture. There was a bit of a snafu and the furitnure was delivered to the store in Raleigh as opposed to the one in Durham where we ordered everything from! After an hour on the phone with several managers, the best they could do was give us $75 credit on our invoice so we were off to Raleigh in Dawn's little pickup truck. I was a bit skeptical whether or not the 4 huge boxes would fit but she was determined to make it work. After tying everything down really well, we were headed home. We looked like the Clampets; all we needed was Granny in the rocking chair on top and it would have been perfect! We finally made it home safely!
Dawn spent the afternoon putting the crib together, hanging the wall decorations and the curtains and now the baby's room is complete. It looks awesome if I must say so myself.

Happy Keester - I mean Easter!

EVERYTHING I LEARNED ABOUT LIFE, I LEARNED FROM THE EASTER BUNNY

Don't put all of your eggs in one basket

Walk softly and carry a big carrot

Everyone needs a friend who is all ears

There's no such thing as too much candy

All work and no play can make you a basket case

A cute little tail attracts a lot of attention

Everyone is entitled to a bad hare day

Let happy thoughts multiply like rabbits

Some body parts should be floppy

Keep your paws off other people's jellybeans

Good things come in small sugarcoated packages

The grass is always greener in someone else's basket

An Easter bonnet can tame even the wildest hare

To show your true colors you have to come out of your shell

The best things in life are still sweet and gooey

Froggy Tales - Our Nursery Theme

We had an exciting weekend that was filled with all sorts of baby purchases. We ordered our crib, two dressers and all the bedding and room accessories. For the most part, things went well with the exception there was almost a catastrophe which I am certain would have led to having an emotional pregnant woman on site in Babies R Us. I will explain. Dawn and I choose our nursery theme several months ago and were both in love with the pattern that we chose. However, we decided to wait until I was about 20 weeks along before we purchased anything; almost a BIG mistake. We woke up on Saturday morning and ventured to Babies R Us to order our furniture and buy the accessories for the room. Of course, I am really excited as I have wanted to decorate the room for weeks now. So, we are off to Babies R Us.
As soon as we got close enough to the bedding area, I noticed they were completely out of our “froggy tales” set. Then we noticed all of the red stickers that said CLEARANCE! Normally clearance items make us excited but not this time. I hurried to the first salesperson I could find to inquire about this. As our luck would have it, they did not have any more in the back and politely informed us they were discontinuing that specific pattern. Before the tears became rolling, I asked if there was any way for them to call others store to find out what they still had left. For once, lady luck was on our side and a store 40 miles from where we were had the bedding set and several other pieces still in stock. The salesperson asked what items we wanted and I responded by telling her to hold one of everything she had left in that pattern and that we would be there in less than an hour to get all of it.
Thankfully it all worked out in the end and we were able to get the pattern that we wanted. As soon as our furniture comes in, it will be time to decorate! More on that coming soon.

Reconnecting with old friends

Over the past 6 months, I have reconnected with a bunch of friends from high school and college using Facebook. While many people are opposed to the use of social media sites such as FB, I absolutely love it. It has become rather addicting. I found a high school friend that I have not seen nor spoken to in 15 years. We were able to get together for dinner this past weekend and it was great. She has recently gotten married so I was able to meet her new husband and she was able to meet Dawn. We had a wonderful time catching up. I was also able to locate another high school friend of mine that happens to live 3 hours away in Wilmington. She has been living in NC for the past two years and neither of us had any idea we were living that close to each other. We get to Wilmington every couple of months to visit Dawn’s mom. Our next visit will be in a couple of weeks so, Dawn and I plan to have dinner with her and her partner.
It is always interesting to reconnect with old friends. It is amazing when you find the ones you haven’t talked to in 15+ years and yet it feels like yesterday when you see them. Your friendship bond is still there. I have discovered that we all just got caught up in living life and time just passed us by. If you haven’t reconnected with anyone from your past lately, Search the internet Facebook or MySpace perhaps, pick up the phone or write a letter. You will be glad you did.