Bargain Shopping

It took a baby to motivate us, but we are finally "moving in" after buying our house over a year ago .. hey, it takes awhile to get all your junk in the right place. Over the next few months, we'll be making some changes to different rooms of our house to make them work better for us especially since we'll be turning the spare bedroom upstairs into a nursery! I'll be sure to blog about each room along the way. Today involved dipping into our pocketbooks a little to make this happen, but there was one bargain I could not pass up.

Obviously, I'll be losing a closet soon to make way for Poppy's wardrobe. I've gone through a lot of my clothes and have tubs full to put on our "make room for baby" garage sale this summer. I have a feeling I could get rid of some more if I was really honest with myself and let go of those things that I have had for 4 years and have never worn but "I might want to wear it some random time..." 

I've been wanting a bedroom set since we got married. I wanted a big dresser with a mirror and then a 6-drawer chest for some more clothing and I wanted it to be fabulous. I've been putting it off because I hate spending money, but we've decided if we don't get some of the things on our wishlist now, we will never buy them once baby gets here because our funds will be going elsewhere. It's really expensive to furnish a house when you're just starting out, so we've slowly been buying for different rooms and making what we have work. I've also found some steals at garage sales! 

We've been looking for quite awhile now for the perfect set. The problem with a "set" is that I LOVE our bed. It was given to us when we got married and I see no reason in getting a new bed just to match our dresser set when I'm in love with it. I knew we wouldn't find anything that matched perfectly, but I wanted to get something that  didn't clash either. I had a little shopping trip planned to go to a furniture store in Des Moines that I've heard really good things about and I was determined to buy something that day! 

However, Sundayafter church we decided to just go through the furniture store to see if they had any loveseat sleepers. We will no longer have a spare bedroom upstairs, and we need a piece of furniture in the basement anyway, so we thought we'd get one that could fold out into a bed. I got distracted at the furniture store by their adorable chairs I'm just certain I need for Poppy's nursery and their dance sculptures and kitchen tables, and then I noticed a "sale" room which I've never seen before (even though I've been in that store 1,000 times). We decided to check it out and and we found several floor models of things that we would like to have, but definitely don't need. 

Then I spotted this beautiful dresser with a mirror and went over to it immediately. I expected it to be on "clearance" which normally means still rediculously overpriced and unaffordable .. but it was a STEAL. I really did not believe the tag and immediately began opening the drawers and searching for any chips or major defects. Then I thought, well there's no way the mirror will be included because usually they make you pay $500 more just for the mirror but it WAS included (and the whole set was WAY less than $500). I really couldn't believe it. Before I said anything, Benny told me he really thought we should get it. We went back into the main part of the store and looked at chests. The chest is probably going to go in our closet anyway, so it doesn't have to match perfectly. We found one that was really cheap and on sale an additional 25% off right now. We went and found the sales lady and I asked her why the dresser was on sale and she said it was a floor model that had been discontinued. The bed that matched it was also on sale dirt cheap, but like I said, I'm not ready to part with our bed and there's really no reason to. I was ready to hand over my card when Benny said, "Well, we better go home and measure." Oh the life of being married to an engineer .. we literally have an entire wall for this dresser to go on, so unless it was the size of a movie theatre screen, I think we were okay. But we went home and measured and sure enough it would fit perfect .. back to the store Benny and my dad went with the truck! 

Within minutes of them assembling the mirror, I had already filled the drawers and removed the plastic drawers from our closet that had housed our socks & underwear since .. we'd been in college? This made more room in our closet which makes me even happier. The plan is to paint/touch-up our old dresser we had bought at a garage sale & put it in the nursery closet so I won't have to spend money on a dresser for baby clothes (and once again, no one will see it so it doesn't have to be beautiful!) But, until we go purchase that chest, the old dresser will remain because the rest of my clothes still have to go somewhere!!

Out with the old:

Goodbye "sock drawers" .. complete with the sticker    from the moving company who moved us into our condo back in June of 2010. These will be used elsewhere for storage. By removing them, it also made more room to hang things!

Our $5 garage sale find when we lived in our condo - people stared while we shoved it into Benny's cavalier .. getting it out was another story! This picture actually makes it look not too bad. The paint is awful, the knobs are clearly falling off, and the drawers are a little wobbly .. but it holds clothes, and that's it's purpose. It will be repainted and cute little knobs will be put on and then it will be moved to Poppy's room!

In with the new...

Here's our new beauty! I love, love, love it! I especially love the cute little compartment in the middle. Isn't she perty?










Oh, and Benny also brought me a little gift from the furniture store - another dancer figurine to add to my collection. What can I say - I am loved. :)

Junk Drawer

Thank you Pinterest for destroying my messy know where everything is even though no one else would ever find it lifestyle. I've now become an organizational freak... First victim, the junk drawer.

This is the drawer where EVERYTHING goes .. and I mean EVERYTHING. When I've got 10 minutes until people are showing up at my house, I stuff everything in there. Take that times living here for a year, and it's just out of control. I always tell Benny, "We don't open that drawer when people are here." It never fails - he ALWAYS opens it and I'm extremely embarrassed, so I suppose it was time.

How does ALL this ...

Fit in this...

20 minutes later, I have a drawer I will gladly open when company is here:

Next up, Benny's junk drawer! Happy Saturday everyone!

Rantings, Ravings & Some Serious Cravings...

Really, I only have one rant right now .. these darn headaches! Wake-me-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-and-never-go-away-all-day-long-no-matter-what-I-do- headaches. I have been a migraine sufferer for many years, so when I heard headaches might be involved with this whole having a baby thing, I thought I could probably handle a few headaches here and there. Wowzer.. But just like morning sickness, I'm sure they'll run their course and be gone. And then for the next 18 years, little Poppy will be giving me real reasons to have a headache.

Things I'm seriously loving right now:
1. Pregnancy books & journals (I'll give you my faves in another post)
2. Project Nursery (I don't know how I'll ever decide!!)
3. My growing belly (oh yes, it's Tuesday .. picture time!)
4. Babycenter.com -- I get so excited when the newsletter comes to my inbox every week & tells me how big my baby is and what he/she is up to in my tummy. Plus there's a lot of other really good info. on the website.
5. Hair Ties - I'm not quite ready to give up & buy maternity pants quite yet .. mostly because I'm cheap & I don't think I need them quite yet, but the hairtie works perfect. 
6. Getting to pick the restaurant EVERY time we go out to eat at work (we eat .. a lot!) I never throw my suggestions out there, but it's always "what does baby want today?" and then I gladly tell them because I know if they say mexican or chinese I might as well just bring my barf bag.


And finally, those serious cravings...

I'll start with something that happened to me yesterday. I ran to Bomgaars to pick up Benny's Bday present (he turns 25 on Sunday .. yay for cake!) The checkout line, like at most stores, is lined with candy. I saw these sour gummy worms out of the corner of my eye. I can't even remember the last time I had sour gummy worms, but I imagine it was at least 7 years ago. I never even really liked them because I don't like how they feel gritty. Anyway, I told myself I was not going to buy them because I was headed to Hy-Vee next to find something for lunch. I put my items up on the counter and the next thing I know, the gummy worms are in my hand. It was like my brain had no control over my arm and it just reached out and grabbed them. But at that point, there was no turning back so I "gave in" and bought them. I had a few more errands to run and I found myself ripping open the bag and eating them as I drove. When I got back home, I had only a few left. I was no longer hungry for lunch, but I had this genius idea to leave the rest of the gummy worms in my car so they would get cold and hard and I'd just want to throw them away. After supper, I couldn't stop thinking about those darn gummy worms and I asked Benny if he would go get them for me. He, of course, told me know because he's a fun hater and I decided I really didn't need them. Once again, I truly believe my brain had no power over my legs when I put on shoes and went out to the garage to get the rest of them .. and then continued to eat the rest of the bag. (That was quite the story .. I probably could have shortened it to "I ate an entire bag of sour gummy worms.")

Other foods that have been making my mouth water...
Fried Pickles (I was driving home from dance one night & I called Benny & said I just HAD to have fried pickles. He laughed - as if it was funny - and then I went on to tell him this was no laughing matter and that I would possibly die if I didn't have them. It was about 9:00 at night, so there was no way I was going to the restaurant where I usually order fried pickles. I settled for an order of large fries at McDonalds and some pickle spears .. mmmm .. Oh, and for the record, I may never eat fried pickles again since I spent the entire evening hovering over the toilet. 

FRUIT: I am pretty sure I am solely responsible for my dad still having a job .. he may even be up for a bonus if I keep it up. I fill half my cart by the time I'm through the produce section. (This is a GOOD, but expensive) craving to have. Some major obsessions are apples, bananas, kiwis, and pineapples. My most recent love is clementines. I bought a whole bag yesterday and then my dad told me they were going on sale today for $2 cheaper .. so I bought another bag!

However, one night I was dying for a kiwi so I slaved over peeling it (those things are a lot of work for just a couple bites) and on my last peel, I dropped it in the trash can. Normal Grace would have grabbed another kiwi and started peeling again. Prego Crazy Grace threw the knife across the room at the sink (Benny claims he was standing between the trash can and the sink) and stomped into the bedroom crying. My darling husband came in saying how he would peel me as many kiwis as I wanted and that if we didn't have anymore, he would go to HyVee and get some. I sobbed on his shoulder about how that wasn't the point and kiwis are 2 for $1 and now I didn't even want one. The next thing I knew we were laughing hysterically for a good 5 minutes over how completely rediculous the whole situation was and I was eating a kiwi peeled with love. I now peel kiwis over a plate, so we won't suffer that tragedy again.

Milk and Cottage Cheese: I have never been a milk fan. I drink what's left in the bowl after my cereal is gone and that's about it, but I cannot get enough of that stuff. We went from buying a half gallon and throwing 1/4 of it out to going through a whole jug and sometimes more a week. Poppy will have strong bones!!

I haven't craved anything really strange yet -- I mostly want anything sweet and anytime someone mentions a food (chips, swedish fish, popcorn, etc.) I have to have it that very second or I'm convinced I'll drop dead.

I'm off to a Baby Sign Language training for work .. but first, a stop at the gas station to get a bag of gummy worms! I won't be getting home until after 9 .. waaaay past my bedtime .. so I need some sugar. :)

.

"Are You REALLY?!"

And then .. we shared the news with our parents on Christmas Day! It was extremely difficult not to tell them right away, but we really wanted it to be special and it was totally worth the wait.

First up, Mama Donna... Unfortunately, I don't have this on video. Well, I do, but she made me promise to never show it to anyone. It was one of those plans gone wrong. We tried the "Say Grace is pregnant" while taking the family photo, but she just thought we were kidding (for a good 10 minutes) while Wendy made ackward comments about zombie babies, Grant started to feel uncomfortable, and I started crying. But, when she did finally realize I am indeed pregnant, she was beyond excited. Poppy even gave Grandma a Christmas gift:

Next up: Papa John. It was so hard to not tell my dad when he lives in the same town as us. There were so many times he wanted to come over but I was already sleeping or he'd want to do supper but what he wanted made me want to vomit. We took bets on his reaction -- I thought he'd tackle me, Robyn thought he'd cry, and Benny thought he would .. excuse my language .. "shit his pants." I'm glad that Robyn won that bet. Unfortunately, my dad made an inappropriate comment (go figure) so I had to trim the end of the video .. which means you miss out on all of us being excited and him still sobbing in the background. I'm not sure who was more excited -- Grandpa John or Aunt Kaitlin. ;)

 

Here's what was in dad's last Christmas package:

Christmas evening I went to my grandma's house to give my mom her gift. It was a countdown to being a grandma (gotta love Hallmark!). She was the one who jumped up and down and went crazy...

And last, but not least, I told my grandma Jaris. She screamed so loudly the nurses came running because they thought she fell down .. whoops! 

This has to be my favorite video EVER .. and my favorite line is "Oh, so you're pretty pregnant." Ha!

These are moments I will ALWAYS remember. We had some fun ways we shared with other friends, and we told the majority of people through our annual Christmas letter!

Soapy Surprise

I'm getting a little excessive with my Poppy posts, but you should probably just get used to it because they won't be ending anytime soon. One of the most exciting parts thus far was sharing the news with everyone we love. Of course, first I had to share with the man who played a big part in this whole baby thing...

I had ALL these ideas in my head about how I would tell Benny I was pregnant when I found out. However, there was just no way I was going to be able to keep this from him long enough to cook something up. So it's pretty uneventful, but I'll always remember ... he was in the shower in the other bathroom when I took the test. I ran into the bathroom screaming at the top of my lungs, "BENNNYY...GETTT OUTT NOW!!" Most of you probably think he would have assumed the house was on fire or I had chopped an arm off, but Benny is used to my "occasional" (..every day..) overreactions to things such as spiders or him forgetting to the take the trash out, so it really didn't phase him. And now, the rest of the story...

B: "I'll be out in a minute."
G: "NOOO! GET OUT NOW!"
B: "But I still have shampoo in my hair. Just a second."
G: "Seriously. NOW!"
B: "Just a..."

That's when I reached the test over the shower curtain ... followed by him ripping open the shower curtain with his mouth wide open. (sorry if this is a little TMI) but you have to get the full effect. His mouth remained open while he got wrapped up in a towel and then I screamed something like "Ahhhhhhhh!! Can you believe it?" And he goes, "You really are?" (No, I made it up). Then we jumped up and down in true Grace & Benny fashion, cried a little, mostly didn't really comprehend what was going on, admitted that Benny was right for once, hugged, and it was off to work (shampoo in hair and all). 

We probably looked
something like this...

 

 

 

Dressing For Two

I remember fondly the first time I tried on a pair of pants for work and realized .. hmm .. there is no way I can button these and be comfortable. And yes, it was a fond memory, because I'm highly enjoying eating for two. Three pairs later, I settled for unbuttoned pants & a really long shirt. For the record, it was on 1/4/12 (Thank goodness for pregnancy journals since I can't remember anything these days!)

This morning Benny looked at me and said, "You're really going to wear your pants unbuttoned to church?" (as if I hadn't been wearing them unbuttoned to work for the past two weeks). I gave him the, "Don't make me go prego crazy on you" look and that was the end of the conversation. Last I chatted with the man upstairs, he wasn't real concerned over whether I could button my pants or not. But I remembered the old hair tie trick from when my friend was pregnant and decided to give it a try - it worked wonders. My pants were very comfortable and no one would know they weren't buttoned.

On another note, I think my prego crazy side is trying to take over today. The lady at Perkins broke the news to me they were out of the pie I wanted so I ordered a chocolate chip cookie only to be informed they were also out of those. I had a little "well, I guess give me my money back" pity party until the lady came out huffing that I could have 2 halves of a chocolate chip cookie that had been cut up for a kid so now they'll have to make more .. well, duh .. what else would you do if you were out of chocolate chip cookies?! And for the record, it was a horrible cookie. So Benny should probably just avoid me for the rest of the day if he knows what's good for him. ;)

..Hopefully my belly bands come in soon!! My dad says at this rate my baby will definitely be a linebacker.

               Hairtie                     +            Jeans             =    Happy Pregnant Woman

Practicing for July

My coworker asked me earlier this week if we had anything going on this weekend. A family friend had passed away and they had no one to watch their little guy while they went to the funeral. We just think he's so much fun and know that soon we'll be asking for those kinds of favors, so of course I said we'd do it.

We just spent the last 4 hours playing away -- from sorting objects to bowling to banging on bowls to reading books and doing puzzles! Needless to say, we are EXHAUSTED. I think we'll both be taking naps this afternoon before we head over to spend the evening with his parents. The highlight of his day was looking out the window at the "SNOW!" He was also quite helpful - I did 4 loads of laundry while he assisted with loading the dryer and attempting to fold the clothes. Seeing how awesome Benny was with him made me even more excited for our little Poppy to get here. Here's some pics I captured from our fun-filled morning with the little man:

Bowwlinng!

Just Playing XBOX

Stirring Soup

Now it's a hat!

And the best part of all - not a single poopy diaper. ;)

Waitin' on Two Pink Lines

The 3 of us!

After almost a year of retiring from blogging (aka becoming busy, lazy, and uncreative), I've decided I'm going to try this again. After all, I feel I have something very exciting that's going to take place over the next (well, 6 months now) and I want to be able to look back and remember it all ...

Here's how it all began... (and no, I don't mean I met a boy, fell in love, and well, ya know...)


November 7th: My boss came into my office to tell me something. When she walked out, I started bawling uncontrollably. My coworkers were very concerned and wanted to know what my boss had said to make me upset, but I could not come up with anything.

Later on November 7th: I fell over after a meeting at the library while trying to get the librarians signature .. how embarrassing. I've never been so dizzy in my life.

November 9th: Benny told me, as serious as can be, that he knew I was pregnant. I laughed, told him he was crazy, and moved right along. (Turns out he was right for once..)

November 10th: I got to work and told the ladies how I'd gone to bed at 7:30 because I was just so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open. One of them looked at me and said, "You're totally pregnant." No, I'm clearly just tired.

November 11th: We were planning on going out for drinks with a couple of friends. Since everyone was so convinced I had a bun in the oven, I decided it was better to be safe and I took a test. Just like I suspected ... not pregnant. However, I felt very sick to my stomach that night and chose to drink water and be the D.D. Even though we weren't planning on starting to "try" until January or February, my heart did sink a little when I saw the results .. especially since Benny was SO sure I was pregnant.

November 14th: I called the dr.'s office to set up my yearly physical. I was making sure I had everything done to make sure I was healthy and ready to start trying to have a baby. The secretary asked if I was pregnant. I laughed and said, "I am definitely not."

November 15th: I woke up and just felt different, but figured I had felt strange in lots of ways lately and it was probably nothing. Just to be sure, I thought I'd test one more time to prove everyone was crazy. I didn't pay any attention to the test and went on getting ready for work ... let's just say I've never been so shocked in my life. Next, I told my darling husband (but you'll have to wait for the next blog to hear about his reaction).

Later that day ... I called the dr.'s office back and said these exact words, "I called yesterday to schedule a physical and told you I wasn't pregnant, but my circumstances have changed. Turns out, I am pregnant."

November 18th: We went to the Oklahoma State vs. ISU game in Ames. I decided to give my ticket to Adam because I was so exhausted that I knew I couldn't stay awake and I thought it was going to be a really boring game.. boy was I wrong! Benny had told me at the beginning of the season if ISU beat Oklahoma State, we could have a baby. He didn't think it would EVER happen. After we defeated them in double overtime, our entire section chanted, "Make that baby!" (Little did they know, baby was definitely already made.)

Stay tuned...lots of Baby Edward's posts to come .. how we told everyone, month-by-month of the changes I've experienced, things that really annoy you when you're pregnant, silly things that make you cry, first trimester necessities, and all those doctor updates. I LOVE being pregnant .. if you can't tell. ;)