A close network of friends and family can sustain you in more ways than you know.

Monday *hack, hack*. I’m trying not to die. *bark, bark*

Weekend review
Friday night I got into my pj’s and got all snuggy, planning on eating tomato soup and grilled cheese for dinner WITH PICKLES ON THE SIDE! I even had Seth stop at the store and get me fancy deli cheese for it. I got under my duvet, as planned, got a kitty on my lap and one on my feet and was just in heaven. Seth came home and told me that Ty had called and he needed help with his cable and internet. I was interested to see Ty and Holly’s new house so I pulled on my pants and went with him. Their new house has so much charm! There are so many little things that I’m envious of. Like their wood burning stove and their open hearth style kitchen. Their pebbled walkway, big covered entertaining deck, and all the space!!! After I impressed (or scared them-whatever) with my DVR/Cable TV skills, we headed out and grabbed some grub at the new Hardee’s (meh) on L street and then went home. We watched a ton off the DVR. Criminal Minds (so good-loved Hotch’s comeback and I seriously hate JJ’s new hair), Castle (Oh Nathan Fillion. Hearts! Hearts! Bam said the lady! Also Beckett, I love the new hair), How I Met Your Mother (stripper Lily!), and Dollhouse (come on Joss, I’m trying here).
Saturday we woke up around 10 but stayed in bed and watched Flip this House and Football until 11. It was so nice to sleep in. I knew the only thing I wanted to do that day was lay under my duvet and read and go pick out paint. I made some Fat Potato Fat Fat in the crock pot and settled in. Seth suddenly got the wild hair to start working on the house. So I had to encourage him, because well, it’s nice to not have to nag him about house stuff. I tried to stay out of his way and watched Ghost Whisperer and Law and Order. We ended up eating a nice lunch and cleaning the house. Mom stopped by with some homemade scalloped potatoes ( I love that she is stopping by more) before going to a picnic. Then Dad stopped by to pick up the guest bed to take to his house (thanks Pop!). After that and wrapping up all the pictures and left over headboards and dresser mirrors (Dad only took the mattress, we have to find somewhere to store the headboards, they already had a bed frame) we headed out with our shopping list to Home Depot. It must have been all the dust from moving things around, but I started to feel really congested and grumpy. We couldn’t find anything on our list that was a billion dollars so we decided to pick out the paint and go to Menards instead. It is shocking sometimes how much cheaper Menards is. We spent about 160 bucks at Menards getting the various things we needed for house projects. We bought the tile for the bathrooms (99 cents a tile!) and the weather stripping for the garage door, gummy worms (those were mine), and some other odds and ends. We came home and Seth finished the foyer painting while it was still light out. Then he took the doors off the hallway to finish sanding and staining door jams and covered the existing doors and hall entrances with plastic. Then we had dinner. I had Fat Potato Fat Fat and green beans. We watched The Soup, Destination Truth (SO SPOOKY-this is my favorite ghosty show by far), Top Chef (yay Kevin won a challenge! Penn and Teller creep me out), and Saturday Night Live which was a huge waste of time. It isn’t even funny anymore and Lady GaGa, who I love to death, was just strange and every time I force Seth to watch her she does something completely strange. Then we went to bed. We woke up around 10 again on Sunday and I got a wild hair and made a big breakfast (trying to get rid of that buttermilk by making buttermilk pancakes). Then we did the dishes and ran out to Home Depot to pick up the paint that we had picked out for the bathroom cabinets and the baby room trim. We came back and I helped Seth put up the weather stripping. I also deep vaccumed with the shop vac the two recliners in our garage. One is for the baby’s room (Jesse gave it to us) and one is for Kathy’s house (the old wine colored dead grandma chair-I just couldn’t get rid of it!) When we brought Jesse’s chair into the house the cats immediately started smelling it and making what we call sex face. Seth smelled where they were smelling and sure enough-cat pee. I thought I had smelled it but my nose has been clogged since Friday. So Seth made an executive decision that steam cleaning that chair had to happen if it wanted to stay in the house because the cats would totally pee on it. It took him about an hour but it got done. In the course of cleaning we discovered someone vomited all over the back and the foot rest of the chair. Do you know how bad wet old vomit smells? I’m praying it will be better once it dries. We put it in a room with fans, incense, and Lysol. If it still smells like vomit it will have to go. Which makes me sad because it’s a big cushy perfect for baby rocking chair. Seth got exhausted and we made dinner and went downstairs and watched Heroes. Then we decided to call it an early night because my hacking was getting worse. I took a bath and we went to bed to eat cake and watch Mad Men. After that my hacking got to the point that I could hardly breathe. We looked it up and I couldn’t use anything so we got out the warm air humidifier and the eucalyptus oil and put it directly over my head. It really helped, once we turned all the fans off, but then I had no white noise to help me sleep. The cats decided they knew I needed love and one laid against the baby while I was in the fetal position taking in the humidifier and Bags kept trying to lay on my chest. I finally got him to go cuddle with Willow. When I tried to roll over around 4, they made me even more uncomfortable so I tossed and turned until 6:15 when I gave up and came in. My throat is starting to tickle without the humidifier and the snot has started draining down my throat. It’s going to be a long day.

This week
This is going to be quite the week. Tonite I’m going to try (depending on how I feel) and meet my family for dinner at the bowling alley (I may have to leave a little early from work and take a nap). Seth has class (sad face). Tuesday we have to go to Walmart and get Seth’s hair cut. Chet is coming over to help move some furniture out of the baby’s room so that the floor can be steam cleaned and the trim can be taken off for painting. Jesse is coming over later to get his house key and get his instructions on his odd jobs. I’m pretty excited about it. If he gets the trim done in the baby’s room, we can move the furniture back in and it will be done for remodeling and I can start decorating. Also, I found a 15% off coupon for The Baby Depot, where our crib is, and it expires the first of November, so we have to get the crib before then. I’m thinking Halloween weekend, or the weekend of the 17th. So that might all come together before the end of the month!
We decided to do a completely different idea then what we originally had for the arrangement of the room and I think it will really be much better, Seth is a genius-FYI. Don’t worry, I’ll take pictures.
I’m not sure what is happening the rest of the week, but Saturday Kathy and Dan are moving to their new house and we (Seth) are helping them). I’m so excited to see the new place. Also I’m excited to eat moving day food, I’m not sure why. But somehow food always tastes good when you have to eat it straight out of the bag and wash it down with gas station drinks.

Bean’s Blog
Dear Bean, happy 17 weeks! Next Wednesday you go back to the doctor and I’m excited to hear your heartbeat and schedule your first ultrasound!! I’m supposed to (according to the books, but my doctor says week 20) start feeling you move this week. It makes me nervous that I can’t, or haven’t yet. So get grooving in there little Bean!
Did you all know the Bean’s conception day is a Saturday? So every Saturday night we read out of the books about what is going on with the Bean this week. True story.
I found an article (conveniently right next to the coupon!) in a baby talk magazine about the top 20 things that you should register for and will use every day. Number one was a Boppy, and like number 3 was a diaper genie. Frequent blog reader Mel was totally in the know because the bottles the recommended were the Dr. Brown bottles (and this is in a magazine wrought with Playtex bottle ads) and she totally recommended those to me-way to go Mel!
I think I will register after we figure out what the Bean’s sex is. I think it will be easier that way. Bah I hate registering though.

That’s the limit!
Alright kiddos. We are down a person this week so I have to go act like I work here.

Love (weekends that come quickly but last indefinitely),
Carrie