What word surpasses happiness?

Being that I currently suffer from pregnant lady brain I cannot think of a better word than happy but we are beyond happy. Home depot guys just installed our new stove AND they were able to install the microwave/range hood!

We just saved $100 bucks! We tipped them $50 but it's well worth it than having to wait until Tuesday to have it installed. Now we see we must paint and refinish our floors. How did we live with that disgusting stove and hood range for the last 4 years??? It was super easy, they brought it up the stairs no problem and hooked it up in like 10 minutes. The guy kept telling Anthony, you can install the microwave yourself but there was wires hanging and we are clueless when it comes to installing electronics (we hired a guy to install his office fan). Antz had to drill a hole in the upper cabinet to run the cord through and we have to buy a 3 prong adapter for the stove but it's looks perfect! I was bummed he couldn't fix our closet light but oh well, now I have to go to Home Depot to get my $100 refund *dances*. This morning I woke up bright and early to a rainy day but that didn't damper my spirits as we went to buy the nursery paint. I must have cashed in my Kharma points because I was all prepared to spend $52 per gallon on Benjamin Moore paint but we saw this!

Martha Stewart Living Low VOC/No odor paint!! They just got her line in stores 2 days ago. They were $26.97 per gallon, WOWSERS! Needless to say I am so stoked and no even bummed that we lost today because of the rain. We chose a light beige called Reed for the walls and a chalky white called Tailor's suit for the ceiling. We also got primer and semi-gloss for trim and the door. So with a budget of $200 we spent $146! Gnarly! I have alot to do today so I'll post again tonight but before I go, here is the updated magazine storage nook.

Portrait of a Lady

I am debating on my pregnancy / newborn portrait options. I orginally wanted to use Ortiz Harpaz, a Pasadena photographer whose work I truly adore.

She is just a tad too expensive at the present time. Her rates are $425 for pregnancy session and $825 for birth/newborn but it doesn't include prints :(
I calculated close to $2000 for prints and that is not realistic for our budget. I would hate to miss black and white professional shots of Olivia's birth. I also want someone to film the labor but besides Antz, noone else can be trusted with the camcorder. I can't get those moments back. Some of the photographers I've found in a more reasonable price range are too serious and not candid enough. I dislike the posey wrapped up like Anne Geddes style. And while I'm on the topic of photos, I found a delivery gown in my size for $30 less than the dear johnnie's one. I just worry that I may need a much bigger size in 3 months. I'll most likely be as big a house.

Still have to pay a security deposit to confirm the photo booth and call Pico Party Rents and try to talk them down by $2 per chiavari chair. Endless things to do!

Turn that frown upside down

Last night I ordered the delightful Sasquatch! Music Festival Poster see below. What a steal at $37! Today I get an email from the artist, Don saying he is sold out of that poster and he offered me a refund. Hmmph, I was totally bummed so I started looking on ebay and other sites for the poster. I found a site called Poster Caberet that had it for $46.75 so I bought it. Well within 5 minutes I got an email from Don saying he can print the poster on giclee for no charge *usually $50* and he'll ship it next Tuesday. Antz told me to say yes because giclee looks way better than poster print, problem was I had already completed the purchase with Poster Caberet. So I called them and asked to cancel the order and the guy with super nice and said no problem. Now my nursery will look super rad!

Antz is going to take it to Aaron Bros to have it professionally framed. I'm just concerned with how expensive that may be but it's worth it. I am glad I found Poster Caberet because I found these 2 mini posters that I love.

So rad! and both are under $30 but I need more wall space. So this weekend we have our work cut out for us. We need to prime/paint the entire nursery, ceiling and all the trim and crown molding. We are going to start tonight. Antz wasn't able to remove the hood/exhaust fan last night so hopefully the installers will know how to do it. We are still looking for an electrician and haven't sold the TV stand yet. We also have a bookcase, side table and chair we need to either sell or donate. The house is looking a bit less disastrous and Antz woke up early and cleaned the floor of the nursery but we need to fix the gap that is showing from the carpet removal and the baseboards.

I don't know how we can afford it but I really want to get the floors refinished. We'll see how they look after some Murphy's Soap scrubbing. My living room curtains have shipped out and I still haven't found pillows for the couch. I really want the Karen Hilton Union Jack pillow but Antz doesn't like them so much.

Karen Hilton Designs

He thinks the color is too bright for the room and at $80 each they are pretty expensive. I found these at CB2 but they feel a bit boring.

Maybe we'll find time to go by there this weekend while the paint is drying. I usually prefer painting at night when it's not so hot but the weather is cloudy and it may rain. Today I'm going to the container store to pick up some magazine bins so my magazines look more orderly.

I love this collection but from $9.99 - $19.99 I'm not 100% sold. I definitely need a new folder for my finances because this is the state of my current one. It's falling apart at the seams.

I need a bigger binder and more folders, I could also use a labelmaker so I need to contain myself today because I go crazy when it comes to office supplies. I'll post my finding later today.

The madness now begins (Part II)

Our daughter is going to end up sleeping in a dresser drawer at the rate we are moving. I spent 3 hours this morning sorting, filing and getting rid of 10 years of paperwork. Our filing cabinet is at capacity. I feel a little more organized but last night I was really annoyed that I couldn't find our home maintenance book that kept our records/remodeling info when we bought this house. Antz needed the paint name for the brown walls in his office. I still have to empty the cabinet over the hood/exhaust fan, orgainze our hallway linen cabinet, orgainze our kitchen drawers and make space for Antz tools on the top shelf over the laundry nook.
Goodbye old hood/exhaust fan and good riddence!

I am so exhausted! My back is aching and I'm hungry but the kitchen is a wreck so I can't cook anything at the moment. We did get rid of our VCR and a box of VHS tapes and a few bags of trash but the living room is still looking like a storage facility. We may have someone interested in buying the TV stand for $50 which is going in Olivia's ING Direct savings account along with the $100 Antz made in freelance and $100 I made selling some leftover meds. She is doing better than us! I wish I could put her savings in this adorable bank I bought yesterday from Urban Outfitters when I bought the curtains.

I bought the curtains by telephone because for some reason I couldn't enter my $10 discount code online. It's a great thing I did because I got the curtains for $18 each instead of the online price of $28 and I bought the owl bank for $8 and I saved about $40! I really hope they are heavy enough to get rid of the mini blinds but if not, they won't look so bad. I recalculated our budget and managed to squeeze a budget for a new office chair for Antz. His old chair was plastic, too short and armless, I don't know how he sat in it for 3 years but this new one is much better for his posture and back.

Not the prettiest chair in the world but a huge improvement. So this Saturday the stove is being installed and Tuesday the microwave/hood is being installed. Hopefully Home Depot can install the stove and I won't have to pay the Gas Co. to come out on Tuesday. Yesterday I found a handyman to fix the light in the closet, he's sort of weird but doesn't charge too much. There are so many things to do my mind is feeling hazy. I need to reline the hallway closet with paper and make more space for the bebe's toiletries and buy magazine bins from Ikea. Antz calls me Hoarders for keeping all my Domino, Cookie, Living and Real Simple mags but he will never understand how helpful they are for reference. I need to organize and catalog them, this is just about 5% of my mags. I'm sure I have the past 4 years of Domino which is awesome.

I am hoping I can negotiate with David for repairing the garage roof and get the work done in March.

What a year, 2010 Rules!!

Can I just say how amazingly awetastic 2010 has been so far 54 days in??!! Today Antz was off work because we had our annual tax appt with our family CPA, Gail

Gail and her lab Mollie, My Mom and Ching. Gail knew my Mom before I was born and was at the hospital when my Mom had me. She was one of the first people who saw me at birth. I've been going to Gail for my taxes for about 5 years now and she is a genius! She is my Jewish aunt. This year's appt was so much better than last year. We got back $5000 more than I anticipated and that is a miracle because it looks like after some negotiating we may be able to get our garage repaired in March. :)  After we saw Gail with huge smiles on our face, we went to Lowes to take back the indoor plant/pot we killed by leaving it on the porch for a week. We bought curtain rods for the living room and I am hoping to buy these guys from Urban Outfitters.

We may have to keep the *horrible* mini blinds because the curtains are quite sheer but we'll see.

We also went to Home Depot and BOUGHT A NEW STOVE!!! Finally, after almost 4 years we are getting rid of this heinous artifact.

Our new baby!

Not only did I score the online price in-store but we bought a matching microwave/range hood for only $199! I do have to call the Gas company to make sure we have the correct gas line *ours is prehistoric* and Antz has to take down the old hood range before the delivery on Saturday. I am so super excited for our house. No more popcorn in the nursery, new curtains in the living room, Antz put down manure in the backyard this morning since we have rain coming so hopefully our lawn will come back from the dead. More good news, Antz was able to get the new doorknob to fit. I just have to find a budget for the fireplace screen and a candlabra like this one

I am counting my blessings because when things look this good, something bad seems to lurk around the corner. For now I shall bask in the happiness sunshine and as soon as our refund is in our bank account I am ordering Olivia's furniture. Looks like we'll have the room finished right on schedule by April. The biggest concern is items on backorder and production time. Every year around this time I make major purchases and it's inevitable items sell out. Such is life.
My second trimester is coming up on March 10th and my next doc appt. I'm getting tested for gestational diabetes. I am counting down until the next ultrasound so I can see her again.

S-U-C-C-E-S-S that's the way you spell success!

I have just returned from my mini vacay in Apple Valley at my Mom's house. I left with Maxwell yesterday to avoid the dust storm from my contractor husband. He worked himself to death till 3am last night removing that awful popcorn. He said it was fairly easy but hard work. The new ceiling looks like a map of the world from all the plaster but once we paint it should look smoother. Here are the pics:

We went to Lowes to stock up on supplies and hardly needed to buy much besides a sander, a small scraper, plastic sheets, a brush and the infamous frog tape!

Obviously the popcorn spirits were dancing about the room

Warm water and elbow grease saved us $600!

Antz is shocked he was able to get it all done in one night by himself! He should host a show on HGTV.

Yesterday we went to Anthropologie to buy the elexia flower doorknob but when we brought the existing doorknob and matched them up it looked to long so we found this one that I adore.

I love the ceramic bird and the color palette. Sadly Antz couldn't figure out to to make it fit but we're going to Lowes again to see if we can buy the interior door parts and ask a saleman how to install it. The bird is absolutely perfect to coordinate with this amazing find at Lowes for $29.97!!

I had a budget of $50 for the curtain rod and accessories and this guy and the doorknob just made it. Now all I need is find an electrician to fix the light in the closet and buy furniture. Good news, I received my Naked Malfi yesterday. It is bigger than I thought which is great since it's a focal point in the room.

I don't want to take it out of the bag until the room is finished. Here is how it looks without the bag

My honey bunny stayed up late last night not only toiling away working on the ceiling but he finished the mobile dolls! It came out better than I could imagine. Everyone is going to want one but I am *trying my best* keeping it a secret until the baby shower when we unveil the finished nursery.

Antz, Me, Bebe Olivia, Maxwell and Lola. He is attaching them to a stick he has been keeping, we just have to find a way to secure it to the wall and make sure Lola doesn't try to pull it down. We are both pretty tired *although I haven't really done anything* so we'll start again on Tuesday after my tax appt. *fingers crossed on a huge refund*
I am beyond excited!! Everything is coming along beautifully! Now I really want to work on the rest of the house. Now off to watch the BAFTA's. Toodle Loo!