Iris' 'Garden-inspired' Nursery

We were going for girly, but not over-stated (who knows why, this probably the only time I'd be allowed to have an entirely pink room!) for Iris' nursery.  We also wanted to create a nice space that didn't cost an arm and a leg, as we know that this isn't a permanent space and that she'll be growing out of everything in about 5 minutes!

So, with that in mind, here are some pictures what Iris' first bedroom looks like:

Back in June, this was how it all started, just a room full of stuff that we weren't sure what to do with yet (from the move).

 About a month ago, starting to see some color and baby-ness (we can't paint walls because it's a rental, so bringing in color was a bit harder).

 And the finished product (sorry for the bad lighting, I keep going to work before it's light and coming home when it's dark). 

 The crib!  The beautiful quilt that Mike's Dad and Sharon bought us, along with the green Iris picture on the wall, were the beginning of the entire room.  The quilt is handmade and depicts a little girl picking flowers in the garden-totally gorgeous!  Bedding from The Land of Nod goes perfectly with the lavender in the quilt.  In the crib, we even have a couple of Mike's most favorite stuffed animals, just waiting to be cuddled! 

 The "Love" pillow on the chair was a perfect pick by my Mummy!  On the walls, we have my old bookshelf (still a work in progress), an absolutely awesome banner with Iris' name on it (again, sorry for the poor pictures) and, my personal favorite, a green wooden/metal wall flower holder that we used as part of the diaper station.  It's garden-y and I love it!! 

 Most of her clothes are folded in the hanging organizer, but definitely a plethora of onesie's and other essential items.  The top shelf of the closet is dedicated to diapers-cloth and disposable at this point-lots and lots of them!  Also note my favorite thing ever-the Becco Butterfly carrier-so excited to carry her around in this ALL the time (no slowing us down!!)

 Closer view of Ted and Bear and the pictures on the wall.  Two frames are still to be filled, one with a maternity picture and one with her birth information. 

And last but not least, the new guardian of Iris' room, The Lloyd.  He has NO idea what's about to happen, and still lives blissfully unaware that he's getting demoted to #2 really soon (he won't believe you even if you try to tell him!)! 

So, that's the room.  It's not perfect yet, but we like it so far!  Hopefully we find it functional and not over the top.  I tried so hard to make her room personal and individual, and incorporating all of the wonderful gifts that we have received along the way helped us so much-so thank you all for loving us, and Iris, that much!  Fingers crossed that she likes it!  And that she hurries up so she can see it for herself!  :-)

Meghan & Steve's Wedding Weekend!

What a perfect weekend it was!!  Mike, Lloyd & I drove to Hendersonville on Thursday night, to break up the drive (and visit Grandma Peg!) and to make sure that we were in Raleigh on time for the rehearsal on Friday.

I unfortunately missed the Bridesmaid Luncheon, so the rehearsal was up first!  After finding our spots for the big day and running through the basics (everyone knows how it goes, but it still helps to practice), we all headed to The Landmark for a drink before the rehearsal dinner.  The rehearsal dinner was at Cafe Luna and we all enjoyed a delicious meal, followed by even more delicious desserts!  It was a great night catching up with friends and meeting Meghan & Steve's family!

Then the big day was finally here!  Lisa and I spent the morning getting ready together and catching up a little (miss my best friends so much!), before we all headed out to Fletcher Park for pre-wedding pictures. 

After pictures, we headed to All Saints Chapel for the ceremony and reception.  Such a cute venue!  We did final touch-up's, enjoyed a little snack and got the Bride ready for the "I do's"! 

The ceremony was beautiful!  Meghan's cousin officiated and did an amazing job conveying Meghan & Steve's love and committment, it was absolutely perfect!  They said 'I do' and it was more pictures and cocktail hour before we knew it.  After the cocktail hour, we enjoyed a fabulous dinner, pies for dessert, and lots & lots of dancing!  Meghan & Steve exited via Raleigh Rickshaw, through a cloud of bubbles and the wonderful day was concluded (officially-all the non-lame-o's went out for drinks after, clearly that didn't include myself or poor Mikey)!  It was a perfect day all around and we're so happy for Meghan & Steve!! 

Congratulations, Mr. & Mrs. Rehnborg!!! We love you!!

Nashville Tour!

Maybe because we don't live at the beach anymore (I'm not calling you all shallow, I'm just saying), but we have not had as many visitors since our move to Nashville, so far.  It could also be that we've only lived here for a few months and have been REALLY busy too, but I'm sticking with the beach theory.  So, last weekend when Mike's Dad, step-mom and his/our (do I get to claim them as my own friends now that we're married, I've always wondered this?!) friends came to visit, we had big plans!  Call it over-zealous, but we aimed to fit a lot of fun stuff in to just over two days and boy did we make it all happen! 

Mike's family arrived on Friday afternoon and we all enjoyed a nice, relaxing evening cooking out and admiring the Lloyd.  Around 11p Brian and Peggy arrived from Michigan (we love them for driving 10+ hours each way to come and see us!), and we caught up a little before heading to bed in preparation for Saturday fun-day. 

Saturday, we made the most of the BEAUTIFUL weather and spent the day mostly outdoors drinking (not me, but you get the idea).  We visited the Franklin Farmer's market, had lunch at "The Factory"/did a little shopping, and then headed to Arrington Vineyards for an afternoon of wine sampling outdoors.  It's a beautiful vineyard, owned in part my Kicks Brooks (yes, that's really his name) of Brooks & Dunn.  After our afternoon out, we re-grouped at home before heading to Whiskey Kitchen for dinner (so delicious!) and then Broadway for music & bars.  I don't know if it's always this way at 10:00p on a Saturday, but WOW Broadway was packed!!  The city was having a busy weekend, but geez people were out in full force!  We enjoyed listening to "The Eskimo Brothers" at The Wheel before calling it a night around midnight, after what I have to say was one of the most adventurous days we've had in Nashville so far! 

Whiskey at Whiskey Kitchen

Peggy & Brian!

Cowboys at The Wheel

 And then, it was game day!!  We headed downtown to LP Field for the 12:00p kick-off of the Lions Vs. Titans game, and again were in luck with perfect weather for a Noon game.  Anyone that has met Mike can attest to his love of sports, particularly his Michigan teams, so it was really exciting that the Lions were playing in Nashville this season!  We went in to the stadium early and enjoyed watching the team warm up before finding our seats in time for the start of the game.  I don't know if all of you watched this game, (family in England, it's like rugby but they're wimpy and wear padding ;-) )  but OMG it was crazy.  Things were not looking so good for the Lions (down two touchdowns with 76 seconds to play), so we conceded defeat and slunk out of stadium, much to the "well wishes" of the Titans fans.  In the three minutes it took us to get out of the game, the Lions scored not one but TWO touchdowns to tie the game with six seconds left to play!!  It was an intense few minutes in overtime, but unfortunately the Lions ended up losing by a field goal-total heartbreak. It was a quiet car ride home, that's all I can say. We made it home in time to cook out again and ended the evening with a fun game of "Compatibility" (if you visit, we'll probably play it) and strawberry & rhubarb crumble (fresh from the Farmer;s Market).

Go Lions!

Warming up

Ready for the game!

It was a wonderful weekend, full of so many fun things!!  We couldn't have asked for better weather or company, we love you all for visiting!! :-)

With my love and his love, The Lions!

Enjoying a weekend off with Hubs!

It's true.  I like my Husband.  Also up there is spending time with him, when possible.  With travels and an ever-changing work schedule (Mike's, not mine), we have not had a weekend day off together in quite some time, so this past weekend felt like a super bonus because he came home at a normal time on Friday, had Saturday off and only worked half a day on Sunday! 

So, what did we do with our day off, you ask?!  All kinds of fun things!  We had an afternoon outing to the Nashville Zoo, which was great!  It wasn't quite as amazing as our Jacksonville Zoo experience, but it was beautiful weather and we got to see lots of animals (Mike will be only too happy to share the giraffe porn story with you...I'm a lady, and I just can't write it down here...)!  We did see some cute meercats that I'm now discussing trading Milton for, but that's another story.

After the zoo, we ventured around town for some baby shopping and then went home to hang out with Lloyd before going out to dinner at Brick's Cafe, just down the road from our house.  Dinner was fantastic and we even got to sit outside and the enjoy the fabulous weather again! 

Sunday was filled with cleaning, football and a trip to the dog park with The Lloyd.  You know it's a good weekend when that guy gets a trip out!!  And here we are the in middle of the week already, getting pumped up for this next fun weekend with Mike's parents and friends (we're going to the Titans vs. Lions game!)!!

Iris' Baby Shower!

Last weekend I traveled to Raleigh to celebrate Iriss arrival with a baby shower!  My family and friends spoiled me/Iris with a beautiful shower and far too many lovely gifts.  The girl is going to look adorable, that's all I can say!!

The ladies and Alex!

Best Friend Baby Bumps!

After a great Saturday afternoon celebrating, I spent some time catching up with Meghan & Lisa (love it!), then spent a fun evening with the family!  Such a perfect day, I'd love to do that every Saturday ;-)

Sunday was spent with my family, seeing a bit of Raleigh and enjoying the beautiful weather!  It was a great way to end a lovely (though quick) weekend.  Can't believe Mike & I will be back in Raleigh in just a few short weeks for Meghan & Steve's wedding weekend, then it's countdown-on to Baby Iris' debut!!  So many exciting things!!!

Greece in Nashville

You might not know it, but it's true.  As the "Athens of the South", Nashville "boasts" an exact replica of The Parthenon, right here in the heart of the city.  So, like a tourist, I talked Mike in to going to check it out one afternoon a few weeks ago.  It sits in Centennial Park, which is a pretty cool place by itself, and was well worth the $6.00 each to check out.

It's a beautiful structure, it looks just like The Parthenon in Athens, except this one is still completely standing and isn't missing bits and pieces after hundreds of years of weather and turmoil.  Inside, there was a great art exhibition that we enjoyed, before venturing in the center of the Parthenon, only to find a GIANT (42'10" tall) gold statue of Athena.  She was stunning, really.  We loved everything about this statue, from her beautiful face (she has gorgeous eyes), to her trusty aid, Nike, and her really shiny outfit! 

Pretty spectacular, if unexpected, to find this structure in the heart of Nashville! 

Last Weekend in North Carolina

Mike, Lloyd and I packed up after work on Friday and headed to Hendersonville to visit Mike's Mom.  It's a 5+ hour drive, but is a very straight line and once you get through traffic, really not a bad drive at all.  We were so excited to see her and catch up on everything going on in her life.  I got up Saturday morning, "dealt" with Lloyd (yes, it's dealing with him when he's THAT all over the place) and spent about an hour in the garden with Peg, seeing what she had growing-she has a banana plant that's actually growing bananas!!!!  Most.exciting.this.ever. in a garden in Hendersonville, seriously!  I had a beautiful banana plant that she gave me in Florida (don't get me started on the movers and our plants....) but it didn't get big enough for bananas, so this was really cool for us to see!!!  Anyway, after the garden tour, we had breakfast and I left the Mahoney's to head to Charlotte for a much-too-short visit with my BFF!

Ivy and I met Daniella for brunch and mani/pedi's on Saturday afternoon, it was the best way girls day ever!  I loved seeing my friends and catching up, I miss them both so much and wish we were closer.  I even talked them in to going to Trader Joe's so that I could buy Mike some wine, having one non-preggo in the group makes it less inappropriate to buy half a case of wine, right?! :-)  After our day out and about, we went back to the Berman's, took their lovely puppies for a walk (I miss my new BFF Emma, Lloyd just doesn't cuddle like he's supposed to!), and went out to Cantina for dinner.  It was a great day!!

And then Sunday was Ivy's baby shower!!  Such a beautiful shower for my very lovely Best Friend and her growing Bumpalina (Ivy & Adam's name for their child without a name still....:-) )!  It was a beautiful party, the food was delicious and the decorations and games were just too cute!  A great way to celebrate Baby Berman's arrival soon!!!

We had a great weekend visitng our family and friends, Lloyd especially enjoyed Grandma's house and the fantastic weather!  And it's always nice to see my Husband on the weekend's even if only for a little while in the car, driving I-40! :-) 

Feeding for One & a Half

Mike and I had our first child birthing class on Tuesday.  It was not nearly as "scary" as we expected and we're both happy that our teacher is fantastic and we think we're actually going to learn something over the next 5 weeks. 

We love food, we all know this!  It's right up there with alcohol, which we all know we also love!  A lot of this first class talked about nutrition during the Third Trimester, which I've wanted help with throughout the entire pregnancy so far (life is so much easier when someone tells you, 'eat this now').  I don't want Iris to be born with a tick or a bum leg because I didn't give her enough Vitamin Z, you know.  We are pretty good at eating well-balanced meals most days, but you just never know.

So, in an effort to absolutely hit all of the "necessary" servings of the "necessary" food groups (fyi, ice cream isn't included in the "necessary" food groups, not sure I should be entirely trusting of this system after all), and because I'm a neurotic over-achiever that wants to make my Husband insane, I'm working hard this week to keep my diet in the right place.  Here's what's happening with my lunch bag today:

Yes, the poor little lunch bag is bulging at the seams with tupperware.  Need a bigger carrier.

So, not including breakfast (which obviously happened 3.2 minutes after I was out of bed), which was healthy and included two servings of fruit, a serving of dairy and a serving of carbs, here's what the work-day snacks and lunch look like:

Included in tupperware heaven:
Leftover homemade chicken pot pie
Mixed green salad with tomatoes, cucumber, mushrooms, and avocado (and a tiny bit of spicy peanut dressing!!-mmmmm)
1/2 cup of cottage cheese with cantaloupe
Green apple and raspberries

How, I ask you, am I supposed to find time to do work when there's that much food to eat?!  And, to top it off, even with breakfast, this covers MAYBE 1/2 of what I'm supposed to be eating in a day to get the "necessary" amounts for each food group.  Holy food, Batman! 

Important to notice here, again, there is no ice cream or other overly sugared snack-I think the Third Trimester (which I know I'm not quite in, but still) diet is broken.  Mike is the boss and the boss said I'm allowed ice cream, so maybe I can squeeze that in as another "dairy" for the day!! ;-)  Hope you're all eating having a good Thursday!

Tuesday is the new Monday

"Sounds like somebody has a case of the Monday's"...No, I have a case of the Tuesdays.  Let me note: that is the worst phrase ever and thank you Office Space for putting it out there.  But Tuesday's seem like the low point in the week, for a person that is still new to this "Monday-Friday" gig.  On Monday's, there's lots of catching up to do, things are busy, the day goes by quickly.  Tuesday, that mess is done and you're on to the week at hand, and the week feels like it's going to stretch on forever (this is bad news, fyi).

Today is no exception.  It took ONE HOUR to drive the 15 miles to work that normally takes 30-35 minutes, 40 on a really Nashville-kind-of-morning.  But an hour?!  Are you serious?!  You know I didn't leave the house with an hour to spare, I can barely manage the 40 minutes that allows me to be in the door and at my desk on time, let alone 20 extra minutes of staring at some stranger's personal license plate that makes no sense.  I tried to stay calm, for Iris' sake, but heavens above, it was pretty Tuesday even for Tuesday.

Then, there's the whole work thing. Two-three meetings plus the regular shenaningans and that's Tuesday.  Really exciting, eh?!  But, at least I have a job that I like, most days :-) 

This Tuesday also marked the beginning of Mike, poor baby, having to be AT work by 6:00am-how un-fun is that?!  And, to top off his Tuesday, I signed us up for child birthing classes that start today.  Props to Mike for being a wonderful Husband and doing it all to keep Lloyd me happy!

So, that's my feeling onTuesday right now. I'm venting writing a blog instead of working.  On the really bright side, they are starting a new downtown farmer's market on our block at lunch time on Tuesday's, so fresh produce to the rescue!  And dinner is already cooking at home, so we'll be ready to go when we get in! :-)

Here's to learning lots of really "interesting" things this evening!  And keeping a straight face through it all, fingers crossed. ;-) Happy Tuesday, people!

What happened to July?!

In my mind, August is the "end" of the summer somehow, so what the heck happened to the summer?!  July apparently flew by, because it came and went without us really noticing, and now we're in August ( yes, that is how the months works).  Two things: 1) Summer is "ending" and I don't have a tan, 2) blogs are boring without pictures and I've been useless with a camera lately, so sorry about that.

What did we do for the second half of July, you ask?  Well, we had a great trip to Vincennes to see Jack and Sharon's play, Happy Dayz (and to celebrate Mike's birthday-yes, more celebrating!), it was a great show and a huge success overall for the OTP! It was a REALLY quick trip, because we had to take Lloyd and ended up only staying one night (he had been pretty sick for a few days), but well worth the drive for a fun time with family! 

Puppy on the way home from Vincennes-worn out!

After that, well I don't know really.  Mike and I took a drive to Leiper's Fork last weekend to see what that was all about.  It was cute, spanned about 2 city blocks maybe, so we ate some BBQ (what else would you eat at Puckett's in Leiper's Fork), and came back to civilization to run some errands (cue: "we have a nice little Saturday planned...maybe Bed Bath & Beyond, I don't know...I don't know if we'll have enough time..."). 

BBQ was amazing!  FYI, that is Mike's beer that I stole for the picture!

Mike, Taryn and I ventured to a Nashville Sounds game last week.  The company was fantastic and the San Diego Chicken-google him, he's famous-was visiting, so he basically took over as entertainment for the night, and I believe the Sounds won the game (we left early it was still a million degrees at 10p)!  VERY different than the Durham Bulls, who apparently really care about playing baseball at a baseball game, but still a great night! 

   Enjoying the chicken :-)
That's it for July.  I'm sure we did other things, this is the entire purpose of the blog, to ensure we don't forget what happened, but what can I say, I forgot. Here's to being more up to date in August!

Attemped shot at Nashville at night

                                          24 Weeks

Iris is a Michigan fan!