Saturday, 2 weeks and counting!

I can't believe after 8 long months it is only 2 weekends until our shower. I feel so physically and emotionally unprepared!! I know Antz will go into hyperdrive and complete all the projects on his list but there are so many issues still needing to be dealt with. I called everyone *except Gail because she is currently on vacation in Hawaii* to get their final rsvp. I was really worried because at first I only got voice mails and I didn't want to spend all week playing phone tag with them. Happily almost everyone I called returned my call right away and confirmed they are coming. I still have a couple of maybe responses because one person may have to work and the other would be coming from out of town and doesn't know if he's available yet. So, I feel confident we will have no more than 44 guests and no fewer than 42. Whew!
The crew worked inside the garage today and David came by with the architect and the iron guy to make plans for putting in the iron posts on Monday PROGESS!! Still, need another inspection from the city so I can't get too excited yet.
My Mom stopped by on her way back home and I showed her the maternity photos. she LOVED them. I also gave her a map to the hospital and showed her the car seat. Once she left, we went downtown to buy zebra print fabric for the gift table and caricaturist table linens. I never in a million years thought I would be shopping for anything in an animal print *I despise animal prints* but we had too much black for the other tables and the zebra will coordinate with the zebra print tableware. It's not exactly the size we want but Antz reassured me he'll "Make it work" like Tim Gunn.

It was packed in downtown *due to an immigration reform protest* so it took us awhile to drive all the way to Burbank to go to Lowes. We needed more materials for his big DIY projects. This morning he started repairing our cracked crown molding in the living room and he was waiting for it to dry to paint with semi-gloss.

He also needed grout and cement-board to set the loose tiles on the fireplace hearth.

He's going to work on it tomorrow. While at Lowes we picked up a bunch of mulch for the backyard, found a decent *not totally in love with it* indoor plant to replace our sad dying one in the living room and some wood for the back of the menu mat. Walking around that place leaves me exhausted! When we were packing the truck I saw some swirly topiaries outside of the nursery that I fell in love with for the front porch.

 

Our porch currently has a sad plant that hardly grows flowers and has vines that love to tickle your legs when you walk by.

I would have bought the topiaries today but they look about 5 ft tall and the truck was absolutely packed with mulch. Poor Antz had to bring the mulch up the stairs and made about 6 trips! We both decided he should take the rest of the day off and just work on craft projects to relax his aching back. We bought more foam board and spray glue from Aaron Bros. so he put together the posters and framed them!! LOVING IT!!

It seriously couldn't look better if we had a professional print them. We already had the frame, he painted it black, a friend of ours printed them for us, bought the foam board and spray glue, grand total: $10!! Mega radness. One poster doesn't have a frame but it's going to hang on our front gate with curling ribbon. The other one *with the frame* will hang on the deck railing in the backyard. So now that we have almost all the rsvps, he's going to finish printing the name stickers for the take out boxes and print maternity pics for the Mod frames *which are supposed to arrive this Monday*. I crossed off a bunch of stuff on my list but there still is so much left that the garage repair is holding up *wash curtains, mop/wax hardwood floors, clean/organize kitchen is impossible with so much shower stuff stored in there. It is good that my Mom took home a bunch of stuff of hers that was cluttering our house today. The week of the shower I'm going to change the bedding *our Target red set which we only use for parties*

Antz can't hang the artwork and the stuffed animal holder in the nursery until the Glider is delivered. The Thursday before the shower he's going to Lowes to pick up some sod for the backyard lawn. That's when he wants to buy the topiaries for the front porch because he is sure I will kill them if I buy them any earlier. I am just worried they won't be there by then *there was only 4 of them*. Tomorrow he's going to paint the nursery door threshold and touch up our bathroom sink storage cabinet. I bought a new toilet seat cover today because ours is always loose. Everyone keeps asking me how will we handle 44 guests and one bathroom but we managed to survive our Halloween party which I am certain we had over 50 people here. Next week is surprisingly chill, we have our Breastfeeding Basics class on Tuesday which is only 30 minutes. Next Saturday we need to get as much done as possible because that evening we are going to see my Mom perform at her friend's art show. Tonight I need to write my birth plan and figure out a budget since I really want to have my placenta made into herbal pills for me to take after the birth. *major gross I know but it helps replenish my blood and stops post partum depression*.