It's About Time To Announce...

Seeing as I'm 25 weeks I figure it's high time to announce that we're officially expecting our first child, due at the beginning of February. I waited so long partly for superstitious reasons and partly because I've just been so busy spending every waking (and sleeping) hour thinking baby. It's overwhelming in a good way.

To kick off my many more baby posts to come, I thought I would start by divulging my initial symptoms. The ones that clued me in on the fact that I may be pregnant.

You might be pregnant if...

1. Your dreams are so vivid you wake up in tears, furious with someone, or thinking something actually happened when it didn't
2. You cry when the guy at Taco Bell gets your order wrong and you don't realize till you get home and it's too late (don't judge my occasional lapses in healthy eating)
3. You cry while watching fireworks
4. You cry while watching the Olympics
5. You cry while watching Kendra, the uber-educational, emotional reality show
6. You cry because you don't want your dog to die ... because eventually she will...even though she's only 4
7. You cry because your hubby doesn't think your crying is rational
8. You cry because you haven't cried in a while
9. You find yourself hysterically crying and laughing at the same time because you realize how ridiculous your crying really is (noticing a theme)
10. At dinner time you can't tell if you're hungry, full, have to go to the bathroom, or need to throw up (made for an interesting night out)
11. You go to the bathroom more in one day than your hubby goes all week (no joke)
12. You're anxious about everything and nothing and can't make a simple decision to save your life

Legitimately, those were all my early warning signs. I've been really lucky to have absolutely no morning sickness whatsoever though (aside from #10, which wasn't really morning sickness as much as it was indecisiveness), so I'll take the above symptoms any day. My main, overarching symptom that has become the theme of this pregnancy is my incessant need to go to the bathroom. It's really bad. I should own stock in Charmin and I have definitely gotten to know the ins and outs of stopping at public places. Yet, I've been told this is still way better than morning sickness. The jury's still out on that one.

In The End...

Okay, so I'm admittedly stealing this (in pieces) from The Vampire Diaries, my guilty pleasure, but it hits home. Despite all the positivity I can gleam out of my dad's life and even the way he died, I still have moments of despair resulting from his early passing. Moments where it feels like all is for not and I'm being dumb for filling my thoughts with a hope that just doesn't matter. They don't last long, but they are there, waiting for me in my darker hours.

"Like lighting a candle's going to make everything OK, or even saying a prayer... Stupid, delusional, exasperating...'It makes you feel better'. So what? For how long? A minute, a day? What difference does it make? Because in the end, when you lose somebody, every candle, every prayer is not going to make up for the fact that the only thing you have left is a hole in your life where that somebody that you cared about used to be. And a rock with a birthday carved into it..."

I can usually push passed it, but sometimes it's there.

Surprisingly, and fittingly, my dad is the one who helps me out of them.

Baking Tip

Tip #5 - This isn't so much a baking tip as it is a cake eating tip, but you get the gist...

The minute you cut into a cake, its shelf-life quickly begins to diminish. Especially if it is not stored in an air tight container, but rather the box it comes in from the baker. One of the more noticeable changes is the hardening of the exposed edges.

Placing a paper towel over the insides of the cake will help keep it moist until you're ready to dive in for seconds - and save you from having to cut off and toss valuable portions of cake.

Similarly, before you cut into a cake for the first time, placing a damp paper towel in the box can help provide moisturizing freshness until you're ready to eat.

Kitchen Renovations - Before and After

This post is long overdue, but I love the renovation so much that I don't care how old it may be, I'm still posting. It's been over a year since we renovated our kitchen, but I love the transformation. Since it's long been established that I'm into the natural, stone decorating way of doing things (Colorado-style), it should be no surprise we took this renovation in that direction as well. One of my favorite decorating ideas to date was the decision to put backsplash not only below the cabinets, but above them as well. You would not believe the flack I got from actual decorators and suppliers who thought it was a terrible idea. But the only person I actually had to convince was Mr. W. And believe me, it took a lot of convincing. However, as you will see, I won that argument. In the end he not only loved it, but insisted we install backsplash on the TV wall as well. Below are the photos of the complete renovation process.

Before

Selected Materials

Granite - It's so pretty in the shop that I wanted them to keep that rough 

edge upon installation. Apparently it's not a safe choice for when you have 

kids and your clothes will totally rip and tear if you rub against it. But it's so pretty!

Backsplash

Interestingly enough, the hubby and I agreed 100% on the 

granite and backsplash. For once!

The paint choice wasn't as easy to decide upon, but I liked the Merlot idea b/c it would highlight the lighter backsplash and granite really well. I also liked it because throughout the granite there are trails of a Merlot color. The actual paint we chose was Sherwin-Williams - Blackberry.

During The Renovation

Ripping out the old backsplash

 

Granite installation

The granite company had an extra square of granite that they gave us and 

we now use as a pot holder/heating pad of sorts on our dining room buffet table. 

It protects the wood from any hot dishes we are serving.

Love the sinks! 60/40. 60 is 10" deep and 40 is 8" deep.

My favorite feature though would be the touch faucet. 

As in dirty hands, no worries, just touch anywhere on the faucet with your hands!

Because I wanted counter to ceiling stone backsplash (and not granite backsplash) 

we took off the granite backsplash seen here:

At first they gave us the wrong backsplash. It was tinted pink, and 

clearly did not match the granite. Yet they insisted it was the right color.

After about 2 months of going back and forth they FINALLY 

realized the boxes were labeled wrong and gave us the right material.

Almost done installing backsplash under the cabinets.

Painting

It took three coats of Blackberry Sherwin Williams paint to get the dark 

Merlot color we wanted. It started out looking pink, then purple, then Merlot!

The Finished Product

Gotta have my television. Helps pass the 8+ hours I spend making each cake!

See what I mean about the backsplash? It appears as though the

whole wall is rock and the cabinets were mounted on top of them.

Now we just have to work on updating those floors.
There's always something, I tell ya!