What to do in case of fire...works.

First you must huff and bark and be generally annoying to your owners.
Then, maybe your momma will put a Thunder Shirt on you in hopes it calms you down.  Silly momma.
Next, stare at dad intently until he pays attention to you.

Finally, jump up on the couch and crawl into dad's lap.

Hopefully, this will protect you from those mean loud fireworks.

Why I Love My Husband

I feel like I need to take a moment to be thankful for the life I have worked so hard for, waited so long for, and am enjoying as best possible.

I waited and waited for "Mr. Right."  I was 33 when I got married and that was not my original plan.  I had the "Just Add Man Plan" when I was younger. I would be married by about 24-25 years old, have my first kid by 27 (wanted to have a couple of years for myself and my husband to bond as a married couple), and have my last kid by 32 (leaving about 3 years and potty training completed before #2). Sounds perfect right? Well the problem with this plan...the right man.  You don't expect to not find the right one until you are 30 years old. Sure it caused me lots of anxiety.  The older I got and the further I got detoured from the plan the more anxiety I had.

But alas, I did find him, and he is wonderful.  Patience is a virtue, and when I think of who I could have been with for the plan I shudder. I am now able to look back and say everything happens the way it should.  I can't imagine being with anyone else for the rest of my life, and I couldn't imagine having anyone else be the father of my soon to arrive child.

This doesn't explain why I love him so much though.
Steve makes me laugh.  All the time, whether it is with him or at him.  I love to laugh.
Steve cooks for me.  I HATE cooking.  Really, I abhor it.
Steve fills my car with gas on the weekends.  He doesn't have to do this, but he does.
Steve gets up with the animals in the mornings so I can sleep. (And yes, I know this will change with the baby, but I will enjoy it for a couple more months).
Steve cuddles with me before he gets up in the mornings.
Steve offers me the extra gator basketball ticket (offered to us on occasion) even though I will always let him go over me.
Steve supports my dreams.
Steve puts up with: my tech addiction, OCD behavior, my work schedule, my many bed pillows, my home improvement needs, and I could go on here.  And I will note he may put up with it, but he isn't always silent about it. ;-)

So that's why I love him. There are many more reasons, but this a good list thus far.

Why it doesn't feel like Christmas

I see the inordinate amount of holiday sales commercials, I hear the holiday music, and I see the Christmas lights all over the neighborhood.  Yet, it doesn't feel like Christmas yet. Here is why:

1. It's Florida, and it is currently 72 degrees outside. I'm wearing a tank top, capris and flip flops.

2. Our house is for sale, so we can't decorate. No lights and no tree (no room for tree without rearranging the house which would make it look "crowded" and "smaller"). We do have a pretty wreath on the door.  I felt like that was harmless enough.

3. I haven't started wrapping the gifts for which I just bought yesterday (a mere 6 days prior to Christmas).

We won't be home for Christmas, so it isn't terrible that we didn't decorate.  Next year when Elsa is here you better believe I will go all out.  A couple of years of pent up Christmas creativity will throw up all over our house.  And hopefully no animals will get hurt in the process.  Haha.

Birthday Painting

On Saturday night  group of great gals and I got together at Corks and Colors Studio to do some painting.  We had a blast and got some good art out of it.  I choose to alter the painting colors to match Elsa's bedding.  I really love how it came out!

New Traditions

With Elsa coming it has really made me think about traditions.  I have to say there aren't many that are related to my heritage (Swedish) that we have with our family.  So I have decided that Steve and I need to start some new traditions of our own.  Some of the things I want to do include having a signature dish we cook for the holidays and learning about and using traditions from both our heritages.
One thing that we did do in our family was make yummy rosettes. This is a Swedish tradition and I want to start making them this year. My mom has all of our original irons, but a local store sells them as well, so I may purchase a set of my own.

Last night we went to Haile Village Center for their Light the Village festivities.  Andreas' mom Marianne owns a store in the Village called European Essentials.  And of course (since she is Swedish) she carries tons of Scandinavian items.  Including Swedish ornaments.  So we started our collection,  and got these adorable ones:

So let the traditions begin!!

Just Between Friends sale

Ok, so I'm back and it was awesome. They have staggered check in so earlier today any volunteers and consignors, tonight was the first time mom's (could be your fist time every going) night. Then tomorrow it opens to the public. 

They had everything!!

So for $104 I got the following:
3 burp cloths
a boppy pillow
a summer digital video monitor (big score!)
a nursing cover
a mirror for the nursery
8 outfits
1 cherrios bib
a hooded towel and washcloth
an Eddie Bauer head thingy for the carrier/car seat

All in pretty good to excellent condition. They also had tons of toys, play centers, strollers, high chairs, swings, bouncers, tons of baby crib bedding sets, nursery decorations, clothes clothes clothes, shoes, breast pumps, bathtubs, I could go on. Tons of stuff.

Nursery Design

I have begun to start to explore designing the nursery.  We picked out the Layla bedding:

After visiting a few stores today and looking for items, I got a little worried that I wouldn't be able to find things that I like in this color scheme.  But a little bit of internet inspiration, and I think I might be on a roll.

The wall color will be a nice soft, soothing butter color:

I decided to pull the green from the bedding for the area rug.  A nice soft shag rug:

I found this lamp, however, I think it is discontinued.  But that doesn't mean I can't paint a lamp!!

And I heart these hooks!!

The only problem I am having right now is what color curtains to get: (feel free to comment for a vote)

And lastly, I think I will make the mobile.  I went on Etsy and got some inspiration from this one:

So all in all, I think this can work! Just needed to get my creative juices flowing.

Thanksgiving and thoughts about how life is going to change...

That's a long title for a post.  But it sums this up.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and as every year we head up to Hiram Georgia to Steve's parents house to spend it with his family.  Although my family has grown, adding Todd and Tim's kids, it doesn't get nearly as big as the Ladendorf-Goelz clan.  Being that our family has always been somewhat small in comparison, I tend to get slightly overwhelmed after a little while.  I always need about 30-45 minute downtime.  Add to the fact that last night I had a migraine, and that a pregnant woman should NEVER eat that much food in one sitting and I had to crash for a little bit.  I can't wait until Christmas eve to spend with the Corlew's and enjoy the anticipation of things to come.

Next year, life will be so different for Steve and I.  We will have the newest family member Elsa Anna joining us.  I think about what all that will mean, how much it will change our lives and what new traditions we will create with her.  It makes me excited and makes me even more impatient than I already am. Hurry up and get here already!!

Registering...a Racket!

Yesterday we travelled to Jacksonville to start our baby registry.  We had to go up there because Gainesville is lacking in baby items overall.  Sure there are some cute boutiques, and Target and WalMart like places that have things.  But the quantity is dismal. I wanted to be able to look at stuff, read the packaging, etc.

We went to Babies R Us.  The lady who was setting us up told us we needed to register for 150 to 200 items.  Yeah right!! Nice strategy for sales I suppose.  But we couldn't possibly need that much stuff.
Steve had fun using the gun.  When we registered for the wedding a lady went around with us and she wouldn't let him use the gun.  So I think he loved that. It took us about 2 1/2 hours, and wore us out.  It was so exhausting. Courtney was a trooper and did the whole thing with us.

Afterwards, I compared prices online with Target and moved items around to register for the best price between the two places. Goal accomplished!!

And we wonder why America is obese...

You here all the time about how America is obese, and that it is an epidemic.  But it's no wonder why when fast food restaurants keep upsizing everything.  Yes, we all have our own responsibility to eat in moderation and eat healthy, but seriously do we need to upsize the following??

KFC Mashed Potato Chicken Bowl: Now with BACON.  I love bacon, but really did the heart attack in a bowl need more heart attack? Without bacon 680 Calories and 2130mgs in sodium!!!!

Taco Bell Triple Steak Stack: Triple, more, more, more! 3x more! 690 calories and 1950 mgs in sodium.

Burger King buy one get one free Original Chicken Sandwich: The cashiers don't know how to process the order if you only want one. "But you get the other one for FREE." So what! For BOTH sandwiches: 1260 calories and 2780mgs in sodium.  I don't need 2, I really don't need one.  I just happen to really like them.

Color Psychology

Steve and I have been stuck on what color scheme to use for the baby's nursery. I really wanted yellow, and Brittany said that I should look into the psychology of color  So I did and I found a great article: http://www.creative-baby-nursery-rooms.com/color-psychology.html

Warm Color Psychology

Warm colors include the red, orange, and yellow sections of the color spectrum. 

They will make a large room appear smaller and cozy and they elicit feelings of happiness,comfort and relaxation. However, intense shades tend to be stimulating and excitingand can result in the buildup of too much energy - not what you need for smooth nap times!

Red 
While reds add a sense of warmth they can be over stimulating. If you want the warmth of red in your baby's room try toning it down from a bright, vivid red to a more earthy terracotta tone. Also avoid using it on all the walls. Maybe use it on a focus wall and balance it out with a more neutral shade in the rest of the room. 

Bright, bold red has been associated with headaches and aggression. However, it is a great accent color. Use it to add a burst of energy and fun to a neutral palette. 

Orange 
Orange is less intense than red and still very warm. Only the most intense of oranges will result in over stimulation while the softer tones will create a place of homely comfort and vitality. 

Orange rooms can tend to feel cramped though, so make sure there is an abundance of light before using this color. 

Yellow 
Yellow is a bright, sunny color promoting feelings of happiness. It's great for brightening a dim room. However, bold yellows are associated with increased intellectual and muscle activity and if over used can be disturbing - babies have been found to cry more in yellow rooms. 

Therefore, bold yellows should be kept to a minimum and used only as an accent color to add sparkle to your nursery design. Soft yellows are calming, however, and are a lovely sunny choice for your baby nursery. 

My Picks:
Red                                           Yellow

 

Cool Color Psychology

Cool baby nursery colors include theblue and green sections of the color spectrum.

Lighter shades will make a smallbaby nursery appear spacious and airy and they are calming and soothing. However, darker shades tend to be depressing and cold so be careful when introducing these.

Blue
Blue is a wonderful color forpromotion of baby rest times - a key component to a new mom's sanity! It slows down the human nervous system and produces a calming effect that prepares the body for sleep.

As mentioned above, dark blues can be cold and depressing and can zap your baby's energy leaving him listless. However, used sparingly as accent colors in your baby's room, dark blues can have a very striking effect.

Green
Green is a calm, tranquil nursery color promoting feelings of peace and well-being. It is also a refreshing color that can lend vibrancy to an otherwise dim room.

Green can result in a complacent feeling, however, and is best counter-balanced with hot shades of red and orange to inject some energy into the nursery room. 

My Picks:
Blue

 
Green

Neutral Color Psychology

Neutral baby nursery colors include brown, beige, cream, ivory and white. 

Neutral shades have a warm, relaxing, grounding effect. They enhance the size of the room, unify and tone down bolder colors and go with anything. 

Neutral shades are an excellent choice for your baby room making a wonderful anchor for splashes of other bright, fun colors. 


My Pick:

And the winner is.......

Productive Day Off!

Steve and I took the day off to get some things done.  First and foremost, we had our 2nd ultrasound for the Quad Screen.  They measured everything from the length of the arm and leg bones, the abdomen, the skull, the heart chambers, the bladder and kidneys. They made a dvd for us, so we can watch the whole process in real time.  Which is super cool.  We can see her cough, move around, kick and open and close her hands.  Oh yeah, and it's a GIRL!!

Um, still not sure how appropriate it is to show this photo.  It shows her hoo ha, and well is that bad?  :-)

We also applied for additional life insurance today.  UF cut back our life insurance policies about 2 years ago, so we had to get more.  Still have to get the exams, but I feel better now that the process is underway.

And we toured a daycare center.  The place was nice.  A co-worker has her baby there and another old co-worker had her baby there.  So it comes with good recommendations.  But Im still not crazy about the idea of having to go back to work after she is born, and having to put her into daycare.  We also have an appointment with a home daycare late in Nov.  This lady has come highly recommended, so we'll see how it goes.

So all in all a productive day!

And we think she is a smart aleck already. Is she giving us the finger?

And one last one....

Art Festivals

I had such a great day with Courtney at the Micanopy Art Festival. It has grown so much since the last time I had been there.  It was almost 2 full streets, both sides.  We were originally just strolling our way through, looking at just about every booth.  When we realized how big it was we had to step it up, and move along.  We saw some goofy stuff, pretty stuff, unique stuff, and typical stuff.

Courtney got some fun stain glasses, a box office door bank, and some Cross Creek Honey.  I picked up 2 outfits for Lando. I love them.  And the lady had so much more I totally wanted to buy.
Check it out!

First baby dream

I have had dreams about being pregnant.  Not many but some.  But last night I had a dream about giving birth and what the gender was. In the dream we gave birth at home because the baby came too fast for us to get to the hospital.  Not something I would want of course.  But everything turned out fine. And it was a ......GIRL!  So I wonder if this is premonition of sorts.  Until now I have had no "feeling" of the gender whatsoever.  But now I'm thinking it might be a girl.  Hmmmm....we find out next Tues (Nov 1) so stay tuned!!!

Clarification

Why do they call it morning sickness?  It's really any time of the day sickness. Yuck!

Bad Flip Flop!

I'm sitting in the living room relaxing today, watching some tv.  I hear one of the cats (pretty sure it was this one:

)

Meowing like crazy.  Going nuts.  I'm meowing at her and she's meowing back.  Or so I thought.  Later I get up and walk towards the bedroom and see this in the middle of the hallway:

Apparently, she drug it out of the bedroom, and then proceeded to attack it. And that was what all the racket was about. 

Travel with baby

Oh my gosh, I just realized that our car may not be big enough to take on a trip with an infant.  They have so much stuff to take! Our first trip with Lando* will be for July 4th.  Lando will be about 3 months old. Therefore s/he will need the following: portable play yard with bassinet, stroller, bathtub (unless we opt for the sink), portable swing, and s/he's luggage including bottles, diapers, wipes, etc.

*Lando is just a nickname of the unborn child, until we find out the gender on Nov 1st. Just wanted to make that clear. :-)

Lando has a bed!

On a whim one evening this past week Steve and I went to a local boutique baby store.  They had a beautiful crib.  And surprise, we BOTH agreed on it! The best part, it was on sale 50% off. So we bought the crib and a matching dresser.  The dresser is a little big, and may work better for Steve then for baby.  The crib is a lifetime one, so it will grow with the kid all the way to a full bed.

Pregnancy Vocabulary

Some words dealing with pregnancy are just awkward to me.

Pregnant: the "ant" portion bothers me.  Saying I'm preggers is much more comfortable, yet so unsophisticated.

Quickening: this word sounds so icky.  It is the moment when the baby will start to move in the uterus for the first time.  They couldn't come up with a better word? Really?

The Ladendorf Baby Naming Method

So really only one of us is offering up names, and I have gotten a series of consistent answers from papa to be. So I started a spreadsheet with the standard answers as the rating system.  As I call out something he gives me the answer and I plug the name into it.

The standard answers are as follows:

Love it: Nothing yet
Like it: 1 name
Like it, but don't love it: 5
Meh: 2
No: 3

This is going to be a long process!

Ambitions

I have a blog. So what does that mean? Well I guess it means I should come up with something witty to write at least 3 to 4 times a week.  Ambitions! But sometimes life is just boring.  I wish I could look at each day and find one thing of wonderment to write about like Randall.  I like Anna's new 365 project.  I might have to steal that. And Carmen's biking around Jacksonville project is pretty cool, but there is no way I will bike everywhere in Gainesville and write about it.  So not bike friendly.  Oh wait, I don't own a bike either.

I feel like I can't write about my animals everyday, although they do really silly stuff. And are pretty darn cute I might add.

Pregnancy is well...pregnancy.  I have good days and bad days.  Not much is going on right now.  Don't have another appointment until October 17th. So until then, Lando is just cooking in the oven.  At some point I'm sure I will have more to write about that as I can start to feel stuff, and start freaking out about giving birth, and making sure we have everything we need and and and... Mostly, I only have minor physical inconveniences to complain about, nothing blog worthy.

So that's what's going on in a nutshell.   If you have any clever ideas that I can write about let me know.  :-)

Colds and Apps

Colds
Well I had a great time at FAM, but I brought back a nasty cold.  As did Brittany.  Our travel companion Leeann somehow escaped getting the cold.  Very jealous over that.  Being pregnant means I am very limited in what I can take.  Sudafed is ok now that I am in my second trimester.  But no nyquil.  And really that's what I need, a really good nights sleep. Hot compresses to the face are awesome. And netti pot has been suggested numerous times, but honestly they freak me out.  I wish I could get over the fact that pouring water in my nose would probably not drown me. :-)  I have tried to go to work everyday, until today.  Sometimes it takes a little to figure out I just need to stay home and rest, and hopefully get better faster.

Apps
I thought weddings were big business.  I now think babies may be even more of a big business! Nuts what's out there.  Including iPhone apps for everything. I now have two apps to track the baby's growth: Sprout Light and Baby Bump.

• Sprout Light is a free version of a paid app, it shows a drawing of a developing baby, you can name your baby in it, set our due date, it has an organizer that includes to do lists and a Dr visit planner among some other things.  It also includes some tools like a kick counter (for later), a weight tracker, and a contraction timer.

• Baby Bump Free is also a free version of a paid app.  It includes a mom's journal you can take notes in, forums and groups of others you can chat with, you can add photos of yourself at various weeks to compare to the images they provide.  This one is a little more customizable and community friendly than Sprout.  Sprout is more a planning tool. Like them both.

• I also have a baby names app, which I have been underwhelmed with from American Baby. Still need to find a good baby name app I like. 
• Medala breast pumps has an app to track breastfeeding called iBreastfeed.  Don't need that one yet, but it came highly recommended! 

One app I wish was out there is a Target Baby registry app.  Being able to track your registry from my phone wold be awesome! Maybe I need to write to them to suggest that! :-)

FAM and DNA

Today was a great week.  Attended the Florida Association of Museums conference in Tampa.  It is always great to see my fellow colleagues and friends.  It also gives me great ideas to take back to the museum.  I get reinvigorated about what I do. All in all, it is not only a treat, but a great learning experience.  This year I presented a session called "Fundraising is Everyone's Business." And I moderated the Membership forum.  It was fun, and they got a lot of good responses.

We also got the call about our first genetic screening.  I went from the chances of the baby having Downs from 1 in 183 (based on my age), to 1 in 3000. And the Trisomy 18 is now 1 in 5000.  Very happy. Still have some more screenings to go.  But it's all looking good so far!!

Big news!

I haven't blogging much lately, because I have been journaling instead.  I started a pregnancy journal, so I can write down all my thoughts, feelings, and physical changes so I can look back on it years from now.
And I need a pregnancy journal because I am preggers!! Yay!!

After 2 years and thousands of dollars, we finally are expecting a little Lando/a due April 2.  And we did it naturally.  It was a no stress month, and everything worked.

Today was a big day.  First we got to hear the heartbeat for the first time.  Then we went for some genetic screenings that included another ultrasound. Score! An extra picture for us!! Yay!

Let's watch the progression of all of ultrasounds:
August 8, 2011- little sesame seed.

August 22, 2011- bigger nondescript blob

Sept 19, 2011- It actually looks like a baby!!

So exciting to see things like it's head, nose, arms and hands.  Pretty cool!! The tech said s/he was asleep, so it wasn't moving around.  She poked at it a little bit and then it started squirming.  It was wild. It must have been mad, because it preceded to moon us. 

This is an exciting time, and I will be updating as often as I can. 

Love,

Leslie

Sometimes Nothing is Going On

And sometimes, I can be a nosey neighbor. On Sunday afternoon, Steve and I were just hanging at the abode.  We had our front room curtains wide open, enjoying the beautiful sunlight coming through.  The house across the street is for sale and currently vacant. Late in the afternoon I see the last tenants pull up in their explorer with a very large trailer, they back up to the front door.  At this point, I'm curious and wondering what the heck they are doing. They open the front door using the pin code door lock, and proceed to load up the over-the-stove microwave, the fridge, and the washer and dryer. And maybe the dishwasher.
While this is going on someone who appears to be a realtor with a couple come to see the house for sale. Now I'm thinking its about to get messy. But no, they just load up and leave. Awkward!
The only thing I could think of to do was tell my realtor. Who then in turn contacted the agency for the house.
I will probably never know if they had made some deal with the owners to buy the appliances, or if they were stealing them.
I hope it was a deal, because they seemed like really nice people.

Catching up

I read a couple of my old posts and noticed that I promised some photos.  So here we go.

Ashleigh's Baby Shower a la Anna!

And some photos from our trip to the mountains: