Homeowners!

We are now proud fist-time homeowners and since we own the house now I can finally post pictures for all of you that haven't seen it yet. This is the front of the house (obviously).

Kitchen
Study

Living Room

Master Bedroom

Backyard Pergola

D-City!

Last weekend we headed out to Washington, D.C. for a little road trip with Kara. We had a really good time. The worst part was hitting traffic on our way out so a 3 hour car trip to DC took 5 hours! Yikes! Thankfully, the return trip was not as torturous.

DC is a beautiful city. Lots of green space and history. We did the usual things...Memorials, Museums, The White House, & Arlington National Cemetery. It was pretty low key. We were hoping to see the cherry blossoms blooming but I think we missed it by a few days!

It is at The Cemetery I discovered what had been causing me some misery the past day or so. I kept thinking I had a pebble in my shoe and when we parked at A.N.C. I finally had it! I sat down and was determined to inspect my shoe thouroughly until I figured out where this difficult pebble was hiding. Turns out there was no pebble in my shoe, there was a big old screw stuck in the sole of my shoe poking through the inside! Ouch. No wonder I was all annoyed?! There is a picture of the famous screw next to Kara's Aggie ring in our pictures.

Click here for the DC pictures

Shock And Awe

I just have to blog about this because I've had it up to here! And I'm pointing to the top of my wacky hair! (see yesterday's blog for that story)

The past week or so our apartment building has been running tests on our building's fire alarm system. Which is great if you're into safety and all that -- although I'm not sure why it's taking over a week to "test the system"? The best part of this so-called "testing" is that at random times during the day, when I'm at home minding my own business -- being quiet, the loudest siren you've ever heard blasts through the apartment and makes me almost jump through my skin. Yes, friends, I am living through my very own Shock and Awe campaign raining down from the merciless apartment management: Shock everytime the siren goes off and Awe that they haven't finished the testing by this point?! Does no one realize I'm 32 weeks pregnant and the last thing I need is to be scared witless at random times during the day. But it keeps happening! All day! When I least expect it. Completely unnecessary. Bun is going to be born with a permanent adrenaline rush if this doesn't stop soon.

March Madness Note: Watched the Ags fight a hard battle tonight. I am so sad. It was rough to watch the last minute of the game. We were robbed by crazy officials. That's all I have to say about that.

Hair-raising Horrors

I finally made an appointment to go to the hair salon to get my hair cut. The last time I had it cut was in New York back in August....so it's been a while.

So last night as I was preparing for bed I thought to myself, "my hair looks good...why am I going to get it cut?". Famous last words.

You can probably guess where this is going:
Stylist cut my hair. When she acted like she was done I guided her for another 20 minutes to do certain things to make it look a little better. Not really expecting I needed to guide the stylist when she's charging over $50?! But she blow dried it semi nicely and I figured I'd do what I always do: go home, wash it again, and try the 'do myself to figure out my "everyday look".

Upon exiting the shower and attempting to dry my hair I realized something very bad and very scary happened in that salon and the tears started to flow.
Note to all: I have NEVER EVER cried over my hair. My hair grows so fast that I usually don't care all that much. And, no, it wasn't pregnancy hormones...it was just THAT bad.

So I sit in front of my full length mirror, legs crossed indian-style, tugging desperately at my hair that looks like a 10 year old's all one-length blunt cut. No layers, no style, no body, no nothing---except for a head full of ALL WRONG!

(What in the world happened here? Did I somehow stumble into one of those "budget" hair salons and tell Ms. Salon Scissorhands that I, at the age of 28, felt like reverting to the glory days of my pre-teen hair years? No. I did not.)

As the horror of my predicament settles in I start crying again harder and my big belly starts shaking up and down like Santa Claus and his "bowl of jelly" which sort of makes me start laughing and crying at the same time...it was the twilight zone. So I finally call the salon back and they say I can come in and get it fixed by ANOTHER person for free. I have never gone back to a salon to get my hair fixed so I was glad they were nice about it and even the girl who fixed it was surprised at how "juvenile" it looked.

Bottom line: Now I'm back to semi-normal. It's a little shorter than what I like but at least I look my age and I can deal with waiting the 2-3 weeks it will take to make it look normal again. Sorry, but there will be no pictures of this one. I don't want any evidence of this tragedy.

Wacky Weather, March Madness, & A Rita's Re-run

Just 2 days ago we enjoyed beautiful 75 degree weather. I had the short sleeves on and was gloating that we had cheated Mother Nature by being gone for so long and missed all the nasty weather here in Philly. But right now it is 33 degrees and snowing outside. The weather has gone manic!

On another manic note: March Madness has officially begun. Yesterday Kyle and I and some of our friends gathered to watch the Texas A&M v. U Penn basketball game in the NCAA tournament. We had 4 Aggies and 1 Aggie supporter in attendance. It was a fun game although when we won there was a bit of emotional confliction. We kinda felt sorry for the Penn team because they looked so sad and the rest of the group (except me) all go to Penn....but that sympathy lasted about 10 seconds and then we were happy for the Ags again.

Bun update: I went to the doctor on Wednesday and, after reviewing my blood sugar log, she mentioned THREE times what a great job I was doing keeping my blood sugar low. So that evening Kyle and I celebrated, of course, by heading out to RITA'S!!!!!!!!! Yes, Rita's is finally open for the spring/summer (although today's wack winter attack should slow business down a bit). I had a small cup of ice and savored every delicious bite!

The Vacation is Over :(

We're back in Philly! Man, I've never been so happy to be back home. I've been gone from home for over 2 weeks and I just missed all the comforts of being in my own space.

Kyle and I had lots of fun in California. We went to Carmel as soon as I arrived and what was supposed to be a 2 day stay turned into Kyle and I staying there until Wednesday. I mean, how can you leave beautiful Carmel when it's sunny and perfect weather? You can't. So we didn't.

We did a lot of walking on the beach and a lot of walking around town to visit all the cute shops. We also went to Point Lobos State Park and hiked along the coast and saw some beautiful rocky shoreline views. On Friday we visited Muir Woods and hiked a beautiful path among the giant Redwood trees. There is a stream that flows right next to the path so it was really peaceful and serene and the trees were SOoooo tall! I tell you, I walked so much on this trip I'm surprised Bun didn't force his way out. We just did everything very slowly and leisurely which is what vacation is all about anyways, right?!

Click here for the pictures


The worst part of the whole trip was the plane ride back from California. We woke up at 3:45 AM to catch our 6 AM flight. 2.5 hour plane ride to Denver and 3.5 hours to Philadelphia. Plus crossing 3 time zones. Not cool. I was quite uncomfortable being in my 31st week! As the plane landed in Philly I really wanted to stampede the people to get off the plane but I kept myself under control. Plus daylight savings was last night so I was still hurting this morning....

Bun update: I predict he is practicing to be a King-Fu fighter because the little man will not stop moving. Doesn't he believe in sleeping??