Just when you think everything is fine...BAM!

We must have used up our good luck last month because now we are on a bad luck streak. I was so excited to get our garage roof repaired and now I regret we even decided to do the work. Our contractor told us it would take 5 days and he added 2 additional days just in case. They started the work on Tuesday April 13th *bad luck already I know* and said he would be finished Tuesday April 20th. Today is exactly 2 weeks later and they haven't done any work to the garage since Thursday April 15th. David told us last week he was having blueprints drawn to get city permits and we should have them by Friday April 23rd or Monday April 26th. We didn't hear anything from David until Antz sent him a text message at 5pm last night. This morning the architech came by to take measurements and told Antz he should have something by NEXT WEEK!! I haven't been sleeping well ever since Friday April 16th and now I have the stress of this project. I don't even want to think about what if they don't finish the job by our shower. Seriously, doing construction when you are pregnant is the worst idea ever. I worry everyday that I will go into early labor and having a baby and dealing with this garage nightmare is something I am unprepared to deal with. I was much more worried about shower issues a month ago than a 3 week garage roof repair. The only reason we hired David is because he completely re-did my neighbor Carol's house roof in 2 quick weeks. I was really impressed with how quickly and respectful the crew worked I wanted them to do ours. Our roof is a fraction of the size of Carol's house and so much drama! The worst part is David isn't keeping us updated, we feel like we have to call him to remind him about our project. He knows I'm having a shower on the 15th but he can't work up until the 14th. This whole thing is making me have a knot in my stomach. :(

It's a new week!

I was hoping this last week of April will be a productive one. It's already lagging because no work has been done on the garage for 2 weeks and I am just now getting a call from the architect asking to come by tomorrow morning to look inside the garage. That means the blueprints aren't finished and David doesn't have the permit so it could possibly push our completion date a few days. Ugh!! I am over construction projects :( This is really becoming a nightmare and it's such a small job. It holds us up from organizing and cleaning our house because all the holiday decorations are in the trunks of our cars *we had to move most of the stuff from the garage* and Antz tools, and things we store in the garage are in the living room and hallway. It's really lame.

Today I went to acupuncture and had a really peaceful session. Gilli talked to me about labor options and getting prepared for the birth. She still is saying if she is in town she'll be my doula. She gave me a number to call to have my placenta made into pills for me to take after the birth. Sounds gross but it's going to help me replenish my blood and help battle post-partum depression. After seeing her, I went to a fabric store to look for matching thread for my baby shower dress.

I also wanted to buy black linens for the shower tables but the least expensive they carried wasn't the right size. Purchasing and having to sew the fabric to make it fit the 5ft x 30" tables would be more expensive than renting the linens. Again, lame to the max! I had a $25 budget for black fabric and if I rent them I will spend almost $60!! I even went to Smart & Final to look for inexpensive table linens and they only had 40" x 100" plastic tablecloths for $14.99 each. Tacky city! Antz and I are going to look in the fabric district of downtown LA this weekend but I know they won't have the right size. So far the only thing I can cross off the list for today is Antz is presently priming the door mat for the pink spray paint. If it dries before dark maybe he'll spray it tonight. He also got 2 more rsvps today at work and asked his friend to print our baby shower posters. He is doing much better than I am. :)
Tomorrow is the second half of our Labor & Delivery class. I don't have much I can work on during the day since Antz has all the shower designs on his laptop and I don't know how to use Flash so I'm feeling a bit useless. Waah. I did order the frames for our pregnancy portraits today.

I love the color and ornate style of these frames but I worry that 4 x 6 is a tad too small. The wall space in our house is pretty much maximized at the moment so I'm not sure where they will end up but we are putting them on the gift table at the shower.

Sunset Blvd. for a Sunday night

OMG William Holden is super cute! Antz and I are watching Sunset Blvd. *such a great classic* and trying to relax from a busy weekend. Today we didn't do as much as I hoped; we finished decorating the scrapbook and we did go to Bed, Bath & Beyond.

Antz sister ordered our fireplace screen online and got us 20% discount and free expedited shipping. We also bought an umbrella for the backyard. This was totally an unplanned purchase but it was $79 and we got 20% off so I had to get it for the shower. We already have an umbrella but it's the kind that goes through a hole in a table and since we're renting the round table with no hole I was bummed that there would be no shade for the *older peeps table*. The umbrella we bought today is the kind where the umbrella stand cantilevers to the left. The umbrella is 9ft so that will cover the table completely.

We also mentioned to Clinnie *Antz sister* that we were using a boring frame for our menu and she had a bright idea to use a rubber door mat instead. We bought it using her discount and figured out a way to make it look like the one I want for only $20! Antz will work his DIY-magic this week.

So surprisingly, I just got an rsvp from 2 of my friends from my old job who I thought wouldn't be able to make it. I am happy they are coming but it really messes up my seating chart. :(

My ridiculous rendering of the backyard and seating chart *lol*!! The backyard looks huge but it is nowhere near to scale so it will be a tight fit. The worst part is I will have no idea if everything will even fit until the Friday before when the tables and chairs are delivered. I am also concerned about the tight fit of the food and dessert/drink table for all the guests to line up on the patio. The orange tree is really bigger than I drew and Antz keeps telling me the only solution is to trim the tree but there are 3 bird's nests in that tree and it breaks my heart to evict any of our birdies :(

Last weekend before the chaos begins

This weekend is officially the last weekend we have to fuck around and do whatever we wish at our leisure. I STILL haven't finished the celeb baby match game *I need to pin the photos to the foam board*. Our list for things-to-do for the shower is shrinking but the worst part is waiting for the rsvps to trickle in so we can print the name stickers for the takeout boxes. I haven't found a table for the caricaturist but hopefully I can borrow a table from Antz Mom tomorrow which means I need to buy a black linen for it. Today I took back my Sam Edelman sandals at Nordstrom. I didn't find anything to replace them with so I will either wear my Steve Madden gladiators or my black flip flops *most comfortable option*

We browsed around the mall, I tried to get Antz to try a pair of Tom's shoes but he wasn't int to them. He did like this awesome Fedora.

We went to Build-a-Bear and looked at infant clothes but I was too tired to walk around. We went to West LA to look at Thrift shops. We found a great one on Fairfax *in Little Ethopia* that had a ton of huge frames with the look we are searching for but the prices were pretty steep. The one we liked most was $95 but the owner was willing to negotiate. We really didn't want to pay more than $25 for a frame and we have looked for long enough. I decided to use a frame we already had *we were about to donate it to Goodwill* although it's not at all ornate, Antz could use clay and make it pretty. We went to Home Depot to look for supplies for repairing the crown molding in the living room, the chalkboard paint and the pink spray paint. We are trying to figure out the best option to make the fireplace look better, the tile is loose and the grout and cement are cracked.

The biggest problem is anything Antz does can't be permanent because our house still moves from the foundation problem so if he cements anything in place it will crack. He may use a flat piece of wood to cover the exisiting tiles and level the hearth and grout new tile to the wood. Not sure how much time and money we want to put into this project but I do want to buy the fireplace screen from Bed, Bath & Beyond tomorrow.

We are going to pick up Antz Mom tomorrow to sneak peek the nursery and have spaghetti *I'm cooking*. She's also going to tailor my shower dress but I haven't found the right thread to match.

Best Day Ever!

I am such a spazz! I totally had nothing to worry about for our photo shoot. Sarah was so INCREDIBLE! She was really friendly, she is 5 months preggo with her 3rd child and so gorgeous! We met at the beach but unfortunately there was a beached whale over-tanned old guy in a speedo *yes an actual speedo* laying next to our palm tree. Other than a few people and a dog peeing on Sarah's backpack, the beach was pretty much all ours. We were so excited we forgot to take pics with our camera for us but here are a few we did take before the shoot. You can see what a beautiful day it was.

We took a great variety of shots, we got Olivia's banner in most of them, Antz did his jumping and I used my parasol. Sarah said we should get the pics in a week so I am counting down the hours. She is so creative and talented, I felt like we were in the best of hands. Everything went perfect but I am super bummed I left my week 34 sign at home. Lame! We grabbed lunch *I had Emerald's Thai, so yum* and we stopped off at Antz Mom's house. She gave me the bad news his sister Reva is going to be in Vegas the weekend of our shower. I'm glad she let me know but I am annoyed Reva hasn't called me to let me know. Seriously, when I say RSVP I mean it! So after hanging with her for a while we went to downtown LA and found the christening store *like finding a needle in a haystack* and bought the Baptism set but it wasn't the same one I saw online. It's totally cheap but it's cute and has everything we need for her.

It doesn't have the shell for the water but we have our own from the wedding. Then we scurried off to the Glendale Galleria so I could return my Sam Edelman sandals * I tried them on this morning and they are waaay too tight to wear to the shower, tears *
Goodbye adorable shoes :(

However 15 minutes on the way to the mall I realized the time and was like OMG! We have a prenatal class at 6:30 tonight and it's 5:45!! Wow, I am so glad my brain kicked me and we rushed home to change and got the the class with 10 minutes to spare. This class was ok, I was seriously tired from such a long day *3 hours is much too long for me* and the instructor was kinda lame but we learned alot about infant care and we swaddled doll babies so that was fun. The first half was pretty nightmarish as our instructor told us about the severe bleeding I will have for 6 weeks, the swelling and burning from the episiotomy and the boob leakage. I left our camera at home so we had to use our iphones.

Piles of evil babies

Seriously creepy!

My husband, king of the swaddlers.

Demonstrating the football hold technique.

Me shhing the baby, it's not a very happy baby.

We watched a video showing the Happiest Baby on the Block technique and although it seems to work, I am highly suspicious of the *doctor's* methods. He was shh-ing loudly in the babies ears and I hated that. I would totally swaddle our baby but not as tightly as he did. I am using a swing Gilli, my acupuncturist just bought us this swing from our registry last Wednesday.

The guy recommends swaddling the baby and then putting her in a swing on fast. Many of the couples were laughing at his methods, the guy came off as a quack! So we have one half of our classes done and next week we finish. Then May 3rd I have breastfeeding which is the most important class. Our car seat was delivered today but we are much too tired to open it and play with it. I am so happy with the day. Tomorrow I have to return the sandals *hopefully find new ones that fit* and finally finish all the baby shower projects!