Updated Bump

Updated Bump:  

25 weeks with 20 lbs total weight gain so far.   Recently have been able to see Amelie kick from the outside :)    Beginning to feel achy in my lower back and at the bottom of my sternum where the muscles and skin are stretching.  Doing light maternity yoga at home and feeling very un-flexible haha.  That's all for now!

Pros and Cons of Homeownership

For the past two weekends, we've been busy with outside projects, and we've been incredibly lucky to have had sunny weather during our free time, in between the record rainfall on the weekdays.

Last weekend, I decided to hurry up and mulch since we were going to have a 3-4 day sunny streak.  The previous owners of our house were landscapers, so we've been enjoying all the nice plants that have been coming up this spring.  However, since the home was vacant for more than 6 months, I had to do some serious weeding and reorganizing of the eroded dirt - I think it turned out pretty nice considering I only had a day to do it and happen to be 5 months pregnant (don't worry, I used gloves the entire time!):

I was surprised how sore I was for the 3-4 days afterwards....I must be more out of shape than I thought.  Maybe.  Probably :)   It took 24 bags of mulch and we could have used more, but it's good enough for now, considering our BugBat budget. 

Meanwhile, as I was busy maintaining the gardens, my dad and wombat decided to do something about our 4-tiered patio/deck in the back.  Originally, the home was built with a nice flat patio.  However, somewhere along the line, one of the previous owners decided to add a second layer of concrete on top, which ended up being higher than a normal step, to which they tried to remedy with a very short concrete step, breaking up the patio into 3 separate tiers.   This made it difficult to place a simple table and chairs set, since no layer was big enough to hold them all on the same level.   They also tore out one of the six original concrete squares and put in a horribly built wood deck, to make it even with the back door, breaking up the patio into yet another level.  Then, a second set of previous owners (the ones that directly sold to us) poured another slab of very cheap concrete onto the second layer in order to accommodate their hot tub.  SO......dad and wombat decided to tear up all these silly layers, beginning with the wood deck:

   

It took awhile because they also removed all the nails from the wood so we can burn the pieces in a bonfire.  They also had to remove the border of cement blocks with a sledgehammer.  We hope to use the blocks to build a fire pit soon!

The time we had to work was cut short because we wanted to celebrate in Columbus with some good friends, Brian and Mamta, and finally hang out after both wombat and Mamta passed the February Bar Exam!  We went to Level in the short north, and boy was it yummy!

That is all we had time and energy for last weekend.  This weekend, we continued where they left off.......dad rented a cement saw from a local tool shop for about $90, and they went to town removing the top cement layers.  We crossed our fingers that the original blocks of cement below would turn out alright.......

SUCCESS!!

It was a dirty job, but they worked through rain and darkness to unearth......

A SALAMANDER!   :-D

More to come next week, including a picture of the patio cleaned off after we haul away the scraps.   Then, the guys will be building a frame for the new concrete to be poured where the deck used to be.  Can't wait!   Til then, enjoy some more random pics:

Flowers

Atticus Cat

Jack Dog

Indiana Visit 2011

So this weekend we left rainy Ohio for sunny Indiana and a much-overdue visit to some favorite family members.  Friday morning, wombat finally received the good news that he passed the Ohio Bar Exam!  I found out while watching the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton and promptly woke him up by jumping on the bed.  Once he celebrated with a couple beers, thanks to dad at work, we were on our way.  The drive was pretty uneventful until we were nearly there and saw a........

FOX!

Since we arrived in the evening, this sly guy was taking advantage of the twilight and likely catching some field rodents.  Anyway, we were lucky enough to get to my cousin Sara and Ben's house before their 2-almost-3 yr old daughter, Maddie, had to go to bed.  She dried off from taking her bath just in time to show us her awesome doll house!

We chatted and snacked for a couple hours, but everyone was pretty tired after a long week and we headed to bed shortly after.  

The next morning, we slept in a little and I came down to see some fun cat gymnastics from Sammy, their flame-point Siamese as he was reaching for his food from cousin Ben:

Sara and Ben provided us with a yummy breakfast of fresh fruit salad with bagels and schmear, and then we headed up to Cousin Emily and Dave's house, since their 3-yr old daughter, Ava,  was feeling better after having a slight fever the previous day.  Cousin Dave and Uncle Dave were already busy working on laying new wood floors in the living room:

It's pretty amazing how much the house had been transformed since the last time I saw it.....and I wish I had remembered to take pictures of the new kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms, closets, and laundry room, but I did happen to get a good look at Ava's secret playroom, which uses a kid-sized door off the side of her bedroom:

Definitely a kids room!  Then both girls got a ride out by Ben, the horsie: 

While the guys continued their tireless work on the flooring, I finally had a chance to see the poultry haha. Here are the chickens, Chickasaurus, Henrietta, and Squirt?; the rooster, Mo; and the ducks, Ming-Ming and Quackers.  Chickasaurus got a bath, while Mo had to have time out for being a bad rooster.    

You can see Emmy's bump in this last pic :)   The poor thing is carrying so high and narrow so it looks like she has a basketball in there haha!  She's gained less weight than I have, but she's due much sooner, end of June.  Sara is due early July, and I'm about 7-8 weeks later.  Here is a cute pic of all of us from the side:

By the way, those chairs were very comfy and I might have to find some for our new patio, once we finish it.  

Emily made us a really yummy lunch - finger sandwiches, lots of fruits and veggies, potato salad, and Aunt Carol's amazing cookies.  By then, the guys had made lots of progress on the floor:

While in our lunch coma, we watched the girls play with bubbles, take a tractor ride with "Papaw", and play with the poultry:

Here is a cute little video of Maddie's bubble-blowing:

Dinner was also good - burgers on the grill, prepared by wombat, and more yummy snacks.....we are always very well fed after visiting our Indy family!  Ava definitely had a full day:

After dinner, we headed back to Ben and Sara's, and actually had the energy to stay up until nearly midnight talking, which is a record for me haha.  However, I still fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow.  We left around noon the next day to get home in time to pick up Jack from my mom's.....but not until we had a lovely brunch of quiche-like egg dish (very good, highly recommend!), organic smoked apple bacon from a local butcher, and more fruit and bagels.  I feel so well-fed, yet healthy!

Thanks to our awesome family for a great weekend!  <3

Note to self (since this is a journal of sorts):  Sunday, May 1, 2011 also marks the day that Osama Bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan.  We found out after arriving home, around 11 pm.