Thursday, December 10, 2009

Picture update ~ Seneca shower!

Here are some pics from our sweet shower in Seneca!
Cute invitation!

And adorable decorations (LOVE LOVE LOVE this):



Hostesses!

My friend from high school, Kristen, who is due in March with another baby BOY!

High school girlfriends!!!

And a close-up of miss cutie pants

Visiting with everyone and opening wonderful gifts galore!






And I could go on and on!!
With my mom, grandmother, and Peyton

Even though it was a rainy afternoon, I had such a good time getting to see everyone and catch up! And the little guy got some amazing gifts and he definitely has no excuse to go naked once he makes his debut...I think he has (almost) as many clothes as his mom (okay, so maybe that's a stretch but he has A LOT)! :) And we also got his carseat as a gift from Leah, Sara, and my aunt and grandmother, so he's ready to ride around in style! Such a sweet shower!
Next up...pictures from the Columbia shower, but that's another day, another time...
OH, and I have some baby progress news, too!  To be continued... ;)

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

35 is the magic number!

That's right - I'm 35 weeks today, and if you take a peek at that nifty little tracker above, we have 35 days LEFT (give or take a few, of course)!!!  Can you believe it????
I owe you an update, a baby belly pic, photos from the last two FABULOUS showers our sweet friends/family have thrown us...not to mention pictures of the nursery (which has had a LOT of progress made recently)!  BUT, unfortunately that's not gonna be tonight. :(  I'm pretty stinkin' tired, my manager is riding with me again tomorrow, and I have tons of catch up work to do!
Sooooo, I will be back later this week for some fun!
Have a great night!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Oh babyyy, we've got a lot of catchin' up to do!

Get ready, grab a cup of coffee, put on some elastic waisted pants (oh wait, that would be me, ha!), or cozy up on the couch, because this is gonna be a long post! I've been way too busy for blogging over the past week and a half, so I'll hit all of the highlights (or lowlights, you'll see what I mean...) to get us all nice and caught up!

Week before last:  My manager was with me for 2.5 days, so that pretty much took up all of my time. To sum up that time, here are a few of our conversations/his comments:
(when I first saw him)
Mgr: I lost 5 pounds - you didn't say anything!
Me: Haha, oh sorry, you look great!
Mgr: Yeah, that's ok...I guess everyone looks small to you.

(while eating at O'Charley's for lunch, and I had soup and salad and was moving some of the grilled chicken off of my salad)
Mgr: Is something wrong with the chicken?
Me: No, I just didn't want that much of it. I'm not a huge meat-eater; I could probably get by without it. (then I reach for a roll)
Mgr: Yeah, geez, if you eat a whole loaf of bread with every meal I'm sure you could!

(as my partner and I are talking about a dinner program)
Mgr: Just remember, word to the wise, whatever weight you put on, you've got to get back off.

Wow, thanks bud! I should also mention that whenever I told him I was pregnant, he said, "Well I've never dealt with that stuff before so I don't really know how all that pregnancy shit works...talk to someone in the company who has had a baby."  I should probably also mention that he's 36 and single.

Last week was equally busy with two dinner progams that lasted upwards of 10:30pm (but I got to enjoy yummy meals here and here!), my mother-in-law and the McLaurins (yay Anna) were in town for part of the week for Deedie's surgery (which was successful, thank the Lord!), and the Schonfelds came over for dinner and some much-needed playtime (well, the boys played playstation all day with baby Callahan in the Baby Bjorn, haha) on Thursday night. Callahan is especially stinkin' cute right now and she is all giggly and smiley and ADORABLE! Unfortunately, Friday the 13th was very true to form for me. I had a lunch at office... the first doc and the PA were super nice, then the 2nd doc came up and told me that Moe's was not what he wanted for lunch, he doesn't like Moe's, and even though I called and asked the front office the day before what they wanted to eat for lunch, I should have consulted him, because "which is more important, what the receptionist wants or what the doctor wants?" (literally his words exactly) So he signed for samples and walked right out. Then the last doctor obviously had multiple personalities, b/c she went back and forth between being super nice and yelling things like "enough about that, I don't care about managed care, go to something else!" Crazy people.  I hope my husband and his sweet friends are never stinky, mean, complaining, arrogant doctors to people in their offices.  I don't think they ever will be.  Anyway, back to the story...so after that awful lunch at least there was a light at the end of the tunnel, b/c I was going by Nadeau to pick up this awesome table to go next to the tv/fireplace to hold our vast array of tech-savy equipment  (aka playstation, games, dvds, two stations for surround sound, ugly wires, etc) and it was awesome!! It had been there for a month or so, and I measured it, came home and it was PERFECT (b/c it also has to double as an end table) and gorgeous and I have been waiting a year and a half to find something exactly like this...Nicholas and I had gone the Sunday before to get it, but we discovered the latch was broken, so the girl said the owner would have to fix it. I called back Tuesday and she said he had to drill in a new latch, and that she would call when it was ready. She called Thursday and left a message saying it was ready and they would hold it for 24 hours...so back to Friday, I was mucho excited to go by there and get it! So I walk inside...only to find that A LADY IS BUYING IT RIGHT BEFORE MY EYES!!!!! The stupid girl said the 24 hours ended at noon (THANKS FOR TELLING ME THAT, LADY!) and that this lady had a second hold on it and came right in and bought my perfect table, for the perfect spot, that I discovered was broken in the first place and had been sitting in the store for over a month until I decided to want it!!! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! So I got back in my car, burst into tears, and cried all the way home. Like a big baby. Nicholas was sweet to remind me that I had a "loving husband and a healthy baby boy," which I was and am super de-duper grateful for, but it didn't help the tears. So in true Miss Ladonne form (we used to go do this after work when one of us was upset about something back when I lived in Clemson), I went to TJ Maxx and looked around until I felt better. Then I went home and took a bath. It didn't help my Friday the 13th that Nicholas was on call, so Harley and I just had a pity party for ourselves (me, b/c of my bad day...her, b/c she's getting ready to get booted as the only ridiculously spoiled baby in the house).  And that was my week, folks.
This past weekend was much better! Nicholas and I had a "Super Saturday" baby class at the hospital for 6 hours on Sat. He was such a trooper, b/c not only was he post-call, but he had to re-live the "anatomy and physiology of pregnancy," which I'm pretty sure that he had pushed far from his brain after his OB/GYN rotation in medical school.  It was pretty funny though, b/c all of the husbands were petrified of the videos (which were not graphic AT ALL) and of passing out/puking in the delivery room b/c of the blood, and then Nicholas was trying not to fall asleep b/c he's like "been there, done that" with the whole baby delivery thing (but again, has placed it far from his memory as he said there was nothing "pleasant" about it).  Touring the maternity floor was really neat, and really scary. Not gonna lie. You should see all the things that those delivery tables do - they pull apart, pop open, have handlebars, all kinds of creepy things like that. Overall, I can't say that we learned anything major we really didn't know, but I got some good ideas of what to pack for the hospital, a visual explanation of why my lower back hurts so freakin' bad, and an idea of what to expect we're back in that hospital for GAMETIME!
Speaking of gametime, Clemson also beat NC State this weekend, woohoo, so if we win this coming weekend (or as long as Boston College loses), we'll be headed to the ACC Championship in Tampa! Go TIGERS!
Sunday was my sweet friend, Kayla's BIRTHDAY! I haven't seen her in SOOOO LONG b/c she and her husband, Brad, live in Birmingham now, but I thought I would share a lovely picture of us from prom in high school - this would be my sophomore/her freshman year. Bahahhahahahahaa!  Happy birthday, K - love you!

I also wanted to add these pictures:


 
 
 
(and yes that's Leah all the way on the left, in those sweet windsuit pants)
 
 Because it has been 13 years today since my sweet Daddy has been here with us. It's hard, because I was 13 years old when he died, so I've officially lived as much of my life without him as I have with him. Not truly though, because I've thought about him every single day since then, and I think I have a lot of his personality traits, and physical traits, too, which makes me feel connected to him. To be honest, it just feels like two different lifetimes in a lot of ways. The things I miss the most about him are his laughter, his smile, his teasing, his outgoing personality and ability to get along with anyone in any situation, and his sweet and loving disposition. I miss that he can't play golf with Nicholas and his dad. I miss that he can't come to Charleston and visit and meet our friends. I miss that my little boy won't be lucky enough to play with him and have the relationship with his grandfather that I got to have with my grandparents. But there's a positive side to that too, because you see my dad was probably the first one to ever meet Baby Mills. And I want to have a "grandfather" name for him so that Mills will still be able to grow up hearing stories about him and knowing him in a way. Leah (who was spending the night with me the night my dad died and hasn't forgotten to send me a card or note on this day every single year for 13 years) sent me a text message this morning that said "grandpa jimmy would be proud," and I think he would be. I think he's looking down from Heaven so very excited and I think he'll get a lot of laughs over the things little Mills will do in the years to come. PaPa, too. I'm sure they're celebrating together.  And speaking of Baby MILLS...
I don't know if you saw that pregnancy ticker at the top of the blog, but it says 49 days.... in the forties, people! That's like nothin'! Holy cow! We're sitting at 33 weeks today, and the baby boy is the symbol of southern hospitality this week
That's right, over 17 inches long and weighing in at close to 4lbs (according to babycenter.com, of course)! Sometimes I think he's shaped more like a pineapple than a human being, too, haha! We're down to the 2 week dr. appts, still waiting on the rocker and bedding to come in for the nursery, still on the hunt for a changing table/dresser, and we've pretty much gotten all of the wall decor/artwork, we've just gotta get it up (which I will need mom and MaMa for, clearly). Geez I think I've been typing for over 30 minutes now...blame the ranting and rambling on the pregnancy brain and hormones.
To sum it up (can you tell I was a communications major and wrote LOTS of papers and feel the need to provide a summary on a blog entry this long), last week was kind of crappy. (oh, and another random thought I forgot...I literally came ONE INCH from getting projectile vomitted on by an old lady in a dr.'s office yesterday...she fell on the floor then got sick, and I jumped over/mangled 3 people to get to the other side of the room before I got covered and then probably would have joined her in the vomit fest...blehhhhhhhhhhhh!) Ok, back to now...last week was kind of crappy, weekends are good, today was a good day, I'll try and keep caught up with the blog, and I'm excited to be at 33 weeks, AND even more excited for January 5 (give or take a few days)!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

So back to the shower pictures...let the games begin! (By the way if you didn't see all of the other shower pics on my previous post, scroll down!)
First, Nicholas had to change the diaper on a baby doll, blindfolded, which he unfortunately did really, really well, because for him this means he will be taking middle-of-the-night diaper changes with ease...right, honey? :)
Then the boys had to chug beer out of a baby bottle...harder than it looks, evidently! We had one cheater on our hands (Nicholas!), but Richard prevailed to pull off the win!

And the belly measuring game - Calee won (woohoo, next baby, haha), and I appreciated her faith in my belly size...aka, she didn't go overboard, ha!

A few more presents:

SO excited about this adorable print to hang over the crib! Ahhhhhh!
Me, mom, and phil

Sweetie pie, Callahan! Mills can't wait to hang out with her and for her to show him the ropes of babyhood! :)

Pregnant SIL's and our moms! :)

Mills is already so lucky to have so many loving and generous friends and family! Thank you so much to everyone for all of the thoughtful gifts and to the sweet girls for hosting such a wonderful time!!!

Hey Diddle Diddle...

Let's get right to it! Here are some pictures from our first shower this past Saturday, which happened to be on Halloween, and happened to be in costume - nursery rhyme characters, to be exact!
Goldilocks and her bear:

The loveliest hostessess!

The adorable and scrumptious food! Please notice the printed nursery rhymes that coordinate with each dish - so amazingly creative and cute!!!




Generous gifts galore!

Hostess gifts for the sweet friends

Opening gifts!

Oh my goodness I have so many more great pics to post of fun games, amazing gifts, and wonderful friends and family...but I just realized it's 12:45 AM and my manager is riding w/ me tomorrow and I'm too stinkin' exhausted (AND my computer is taking forever to upload these pics to the blog for some reason!), so I've gotta call it a night. Recap to be continued...tomorrow.
But I will leave you with this last picture of a great group of friends!

(from L to R - well kind of): Three little pigs, twinkle twinkle little star, the cow and the moon, another cow (minus the moon) and the cat (minus the fiddle), three blind mice, little red riding hood and the wolf, hickory dickory dock - the mouse and the clock, mary and her little lamb, jack and jill, and of course we're right smack dab in the middle, goldilocks and the "just right" bear.
What a wonderful time!!
ok, i'm gonna fall asleep on my laptop. goodnight!!!! :)

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Sweetest Husband Ever Award

So I interrupt my regularly scheduled blogcast to tell you this:  I have the sweetest husband ever. ever. ever.
Not that I didn't already know that, but this just adds to the case.

He happened to get off early yesterday (as in early enough to play golf w/ Robert in the afternoon, too!), and he called me about lunchtime to see if I had gotten his text message, which I hadn't, so he told me to call him back when I did.

The text said "Surprise!" with this picture attached:

He went straight to Baby Bloomers after work, picked up the crib (which had been in for a few weeks but we said we would wait until the rocker and bedding came in...AND I wasn't sure it would be very easy to put together), and put it together!!!  After all of the work on the nursery and trying to figure out what to put where, he said he thought it would make me happy just to go ahead and have it in there.
And he was right. :)

Monday, November 2, 2009

Before and After!

Not a lot of time to blog today, but I wanted to briefly post the pics of the nursery before and after! I've told you just how LONG it took, how hard everyone (JOHNNY!) worked, and how much we love the final product! :)  I think it just looks so sweet, calming, and little boyish!  So here we go...
Guest room before:

The work in progress - beadboard being put up:

The difficult wall!!

Primer time!

And after many, many coats of paint, the final product:




(ignore the ironing board and little harley in this one)
So what do you think?? Ahhh, I love it! We spent quite a while over the weekend sitting in the room with lots of family members trying to figure out where to position everything (b/c we have to fit the crib, rocker, changing table/dresser, and a daybed - tough! Three bedrooms is just not enough room when our family lives far away, so we have to also have the daybed/trundle in there, but I think my sweet hubby finally figured it out Sunday night)! :) Anywho, we already have so many cute things to go in the room - it already looks different! So more pictures are to come! And baby shower pics coming soon! Happy Monday! :p

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Happy Howl-O-Ween!

Hula Harley says she hopes you had a Happy Howl-O-Ween!!!

We had the most amazing first baby shower yesterday, on Halloween, and pictures will be posted in the next few days fo' sho'! :) Everyone looked so stinkin' cute, the girls decorated soooo creatively and beautifully, and we got some awesome and adorable gifts!! Can't wait for you to see! But right now I'm celebrating Nicholas' month of night float being over, and enjoying the fact that it's nighttime and he's actually AT HOME!! It feels weird, in an amazing kind of way, haha! But I'll leave you with another picture of our first-born in her halloween get-up! :)