Nesting

Well, it's full nesting mode here at our house. It all started 2 weekends ago when I felt the sudden need to redo the upstairs hall bathroom. I'd be tolerating the hideous green paint and wallpaper border left behind by the previous owners for 3 years because downstairs projects had taken priority. However, with a baby on the way, there seemed no better time to finally update the bathroom. My original intent was to find a brightly colored but sophisticated shower curtain that would work for a kids bathroom as well as guests who stay with us. That was until a monkey shower curtain caught my eye. Mommy hormones kicked in and I thought "I want to bathe my baby in a bathroom with monkeys!" so, monkeys it is.  And I'm kind of obsessed with the shower curtain.  Who knew.

This past weekend, JD and a few friends started putting together a shed kit we ordered from Home Depot.  This will allow us to move all of his bikes and tools out of what we now call the "man room" (really more of a junk room) out to the shed.  The man room will be transitioning to the office/guest room so the current guest room can covert to the nursery. JD is excited to have a space where he can really organize all his stuff and work. I'm excited to get all his junk out of the house.  Our extra bedrooms have kind of been neglected since we don't use them a whole lot.  Plus, I didn't want to go all out with decor when I knew we'd be updating them eventually for babies.  

The other evening, I was struck with the desire to clean out the closet in the soon-to-be nursery. I spent most of the evening sorting through office supplies, candles, scrapbooking supplies, and junk that should have been thrown away a long time ago. I was able to get rid of a good amount of stuff and prepare to move everything out of that room to make room for the baby.

I'm sure I'll be posting pictures of all of our completed projects in the near future!

Wanting What I Can't Have

One of people's favorite pregnancy symptom topics is cravings. There's the infamous pickles and ice cream or, in my mom's case, raisin bran, when she normally didn't like raisins.

So far, I've avoided the really strange cravings (maybe those come later, I don't know), but I have been craving pretty much everything preggers aren't supposed to eat. It seems to prove that theory that you always immediately want what you're told you can't have.

For the most part, I've been able to find substitutes. Instead of deli meat (listeria), I eat tofurkey, which surprisingly tastes almost exactly like turkey breast, and I was already used to thanks to my hippie vegetarian ways. I found an eggless cookie dough recipe on Pinterest (all that time pinning finally paid off!) and was able to cure a wicked craving for sushi by getting veggie sushi with no fish.

Then came the cherry coke craving.  This one was weird because I rarely drink soda, but I saw my sister drinking it on vacation and immediately wanted it. It looked delicious, but there was no way around the caffeine. I was like a recovering drug addict. I stared at her as she sipped it, remembering the flavor, knowing I couldn't have it, and it only made me want it more.

That memory has been haunting me for a  month.

I searched the grocery store but coke doesn't make caffeine free cherry coke. So, I had the idea to buy caffeine free coke and mix in grenadine or whatever cherry syrup I could find. But my search came up short, as these items were no where to be found at my usual grocery store.

Next I tried the liquor store, knowing that grenadine is commonly used in mixed drinks. No luck.

As I continued to grow more desperate, I stopped at another grocery store in town. At first, I didn't see it, but hiding among the other mixers was that magical bottle of grenadine. I squealed with delight and I think JD was slightly embarrassed to be seen with me.  We grabbed some caffeine free coke and came home so I could finally mix what I'd been so desperately wanting.

It was everything I dreamed it could be.  I actually think I'll go have some right now...