Stamps to the Rescue

Ellen and her dog food company, Halo, have partnered with the USPS for a great cause! By buying these stamps, you help donate meals to animals shelters. You can probably buy the stamps at your local post office or on the Stamps to the Rescue website here.




I look forward to the stamp below :)




If you go to Halo Pet's website here, you can see other ways (listed below) to help donate meals.
Other supporters of the campaign include the www.adoptapetgifts.com, www.petfinder.com, American Humane and The Humane Society.

Happy cute pets on your envelopes :)

Speaking of meals - I made a yummy one..though not for pets..chicken spaghetti! I posted it on my food blog HERE.

goodies for nails and hair

You all probably know my love for nail polish at this point. If not, you can search for the ones I've posted. They are pretty :) I came across OPI's Ate Berries in the Cannaries and thought it was so pretty! I didn't have anything similar to a pink like this....



This on the other hand....
I'm not so sure. This is the new OPI line for the Shrek movie. It is called Who the Shrek are you? (do I italicize the names of nail polish?) I'm a huge Shrek fan, and I really love the color green. However, I'm just not sure this green would like right on my nails.

I also finally gave in and bought Batiste Dry Shampoo from Sally's. So far, I'm liking it. I got the one in the pink can also known as Blush. It smells like gardenia. I naturally have very curly hair. I wash it once or twice a week. I usually once and then dry it. If I wash a second time, I wear it curly for a day or two until the next wash. I can't do curly long because it is SO thick and it doesn't stay looking good. It's starting to hurt to stand and dry my hair. I know, why don't get a chair to sit in. Well, it's not convenient really. So, it was either a hat or Batiste for about one day per week :)



I figure since it's not logical for me to buy clothes right now...or shoes...besides necessity, I figure I shall buy a few beauty products :) I'm already having visions of chopping my hair off and I NEVER thought that would happen. It won't happen. I think it's a pregnancy thing. Hopefully, my allergy to dark hair color will pass and I can have my hair dyed again in the future. My sister-in-law (who does hair) said she would bring hair color and wine to the hospital this summer :)

Happy Friday!

Baby Book Details

Last night I was so tired that I forgot to include some important details about Cohen's baby book!


The brand is Jan Sevadjian. She is located out of Dallas, TX.

There are several websites that carry these albums. I ordered mine directly from Jan. As I've mentioned, my brunch was a last minute decision and I decided at the point of planning, I wanted to have a baby book ready for it. Therefore, I went right to the source. I didn't know if I could get it in time if I ordered it through a middle man. I knew about these books because Jan did our wedding book as well.

(sorry, taken with iphone)

Jan was quick and easy to work with! I told her what I was looking for and she basically said no problem. The book is worth every penny. I did pay a bit extra for quick shipping..and it arrived within about 3 days of finalizing the order. I am SO pleased!

I spoke with Jan and she said the best way to contact her is via email:

jan@jansevadjian.com

More pictures of the book can be seen in this post.

Prego Mego - Week 33 (BABY BOOK!!)

This week I am 33 weeks pregnant with Cohen!

First off, I'm SO excited about the baby book! It arrived today and I think it is beeeeeautiful!




Dupioni silk is so pretty and I picked royal blue. I was going to do Cohen's monogram but I decided to go with his name. I got the idea for this book because it is the same as our wedding book. Our wedding one is champagne with our married monogram and no ribbon. Anyways, I opened this book and found the sweetest little pages! There are tons and they have embossed little images on them. I ordered some extra blank pages I'm going to have lines printed on for hospital and home visitors to sign.

These are not all the pages, but a few I snapped pictures of......















LOVE it :)

Things are moving right along. The weeks and days are flying by! We are still busy. I'm having more and more moments when I wish I wasn't busy. It's really inevitable right now though. I wish I was snuggled on my couch more days and nights but whining about it would get me no where.

Another special blessing delivery arrived this week! Cohen has a prayer quilt now :) It's amazing and I will post it soon.

My freckles have gotten darker. I don't think it's the sun either. I'm still wearing my SPF everyday.

My hair has gotten thicker. I got it thinned. I just get too darn hot.

When I stand up after sitting on the couch, my thighs and legs hurt so bad. I figure this is because of the extra weight. I'm not really sure but I do know that sometimes I feel like I'm going to fall, ek.

I can tell Cohen's kicks and jabs are becoming less swift. I bet this means he is getting bigger and is running out of room.

I still see a lot of movement on the outside.

He is still getting the hiccups quite often. They sometimes tickle me.

My tummy has gotten harder but I'm pretty sure I can pinch fat. That's probably not a great sign, haha.

He is head down a lot more lately. I'm getting those shooting pains down low. Lovely. Overall, I'm having a bit more pain and discomfort, but I'm sure that is normal! I'm probably like 5'2" tall and 4'5" wide.

I'm still waking up about once a night. I'm hurting a little worse when I get out of bed.

I think I am getting a bit more nervous and emotional each day.

I go to my normal OB tomorrow. I think maybe I will get some measurements and see the little guy :) Hopefully he is getting big! I'm getting too. I think I'll avoid the scale this visit.

Brent got Cohen's room taped off and my friend, Kristen, is going to paint it on Monday. :)

I'm not having his bedding made as I was before. I'm deciding on the bedding a bit down the road.

I'm having a brunch on Saturday and I'm pretty excited :) It will be so nice and my hostesses are expecting about 35 or so people.

Here I am.....


My arms are feeling puffy so I usually have a cardigan on...

I just got the dress from Target. The medium fits great for being a non-maternity dress. It almost goes down to the floor even. I could have done a small (surprisingly) but it would not have allowed any growing room..for the still-growing body parts. I think I like it better in person that pictures.
I think the dress will be great post pregnancy as well.

I think that is all for this week.

Thank you all for the comments on the house. I will post after picture but it may be many many moons before that happens. We are only going to have a chance to do a few things before Cohen arrives. I'll do some posts on it here and there.
{Please don't forget to vote below for my friends to win a TCBY franchise!! thank you:)}

TCBY!! (please vote!)

Hi all! I need your help! Do you love TCBY? I do. I love it a LOT. We have one here, luckily :) If you haven't had it before, I can tell you, you would love it too.

Some of our friends from college, Sarah and Jared, have entered to win a TCBY franchise! They live in Northwest Arkansas, and I must tell you, I remember the day TCBY closed their doors in NWA. Brent and I lived there and I had to say goodbye to my white chocolate mousse.They definitely need a new one there! Out of the nationwide competition, Sarah and Jared are in the top 10 finalists. They made a cute video you can see when voting. If you would take just a few seconds to vote for them, that would be SO SO nice!!! (directions below)

I thought I would post a picture of Jared and Sarah...
I borrowed this pic from Sarah's blog :) It was hard to pick because they are all good pics!

Here is the info Sarah posted on her blog..

For those of you that don't know the story, here it is :)

Jared and I have wanted to own a franchise for a long time..... We both love TCBY. He worked there in High School and I went there a zillion times as a kid (before the one here closed down). One night last Fall, we heard of THE GREAT TCBY STORE GIVEAWAY. The prize is a valued at $312,000 and includes everything we would need for our franchise... and then some. We decided to go for it and make a two minute video and enter the contest. We recently found out that we are top 10 semi-finalists. This is a nation wide competition. The public will vote from today-May 10 and narrow the semi-finalists to 5, and then TCBY will pick the winner. We need YOUR VOTE!!! Please follow the directions below! We would really appreciate it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The voting is now open!

Step 1: Vote Here: http://tcby.com/giveaway/videos/ar

Step 2: Forward This Info to All Your Friends

Step 3: Post This Message on Your BLOG/Facebook Wall/Twitter Account

Step 4: Print the Coupon Above to Receive Free TCBY Yogurt When We Win

Thank you so much for helping us!

We won’t be able to accomplish this without you!

Jared and Sarah

http://www.nwatcby.com/

{Thank you, Kori. I couldn't get the map to work with me on my computer.}

You have until May 10th to vote. I'll probably do another reminder before then as well :)

HERE is Sarah's blog.

Thank you all!!!

New House Pictures - Before (Part 1-pre changes)

Hi all :) So I've been posting about what we are doing and how busy we have been. One of the major things we are doing is getting Brent's grandmother's house ready to move into. She moved in with his mom and has kindly offered us a place to live.

We aren't sure how long we are going to be living in the house but more than likely it will be several years. While there, we are planning to make the house our home :) We are somewhat sad to be leaving our house we live in now, but in our current situation it's not financially an option right now. Still hoping it sells soon!

Brent's grandparents moved into this house in the early 1960's. We aren't exactly sure when it was built, but it's quite old. I've always wanted to live in a charming older home and that is what excites me about this one :) For not, we are not going to be putting too much money into this home for multiple reasons.

I love reading blogs about houses and updates as well as decorating. I thought I would post a few pictures of updates we do along the way. I took these pictures a few weeks ago when the transition was starting to take place. We are still living at our current house right now and going over almost daily to get some things done. Some things we having are/must/want to repair consist of:

-There is no AC upstairs. We are have having a window unit put in upstairs.
-The electrical has some issues and of course that is extremely important to get fixed and checked. At one point, only certain appliances could be run..but not at the same time.
-There is some ceilings and walls with damage from roof leaks in the past. The roof was always fixed outside but the damage inside had not been. So the cracks must be fixed.
-There are some openings in closets to the attic that must be closed off so bugs and what not don't get in.
-Paint bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchen
-Remove wallpaper from full bath.
-Basement cleaned out. I didn't get a before picture...but it was covered in dust from when the french drain was installed. Brent worked his booty off lat weekend to get it cleaned and it is making a HUGE difference.
-A few light fixtures replaced
-Leak in guest bathroom sink
-Having carpets cleaned in master
-Replacing carpet in middle room (nursery). It's old and Cohen will need new and fresh :)
- A vent from master bedroom to middle room for air flow.
-The toilets need some work but probably not replaced just yet because we hear that can end up being more of a task that it's worth. So for now, probably new seats and such.

There are a few other things but these are the ones that come to mind quickest.

One of our good friend's dads does remodeling and his has offered to help us!

Brent's grandmother lived in this house at least 50 years. These pictures are mostly before we started to move things out.

The kitchen


Maid's room..which will be a pantry type room for us. (I believe it is called a maid's room because when these houses were built, there was often a room built for a maid with a separate outside door entrance) There is no outdoor entrance anymore as Brent's grandparents removed it and open the kitchen to have a doorway into the room...
maid's room..(To the left is the doorway to the kitchen. When that was closed off, the fridge was there)

the breakfast area which is next to kitchen (kitchen on left)
one of the dinning room walls...
I love the rounded french doors.
looking onto dinning area from breakfast area....
another wall in dinning room...
living room....
more pretty french doors that open onto a covered porch....


closet and door leading to porch
guest bath (downstairs)...
this is as if you are heading down the stairs (from 2nd floor). There is attic fan behind screen...
full bath (upstairs)
has anyone ever glazed a tub? Our friends just did theirs white and it looks awesome. It wasn't expensive so we will see about that in the future.
hallway upstairs.....
master.....
master.....


Middle room. We will make this room the nursery. The master is to the right of it. Yes, that is wallpaper, but luckily it is on really good so we are just painting over it! I didn't snap the picture of the old green carpet.
I think Cohen will be a dog lover so the cats must go...His dad is so allergic these will probably make him sneeze....
end room... this will be the spare bedroom/office type room
Brent going through books....

Isn't it cute? :) I LOVE the archways, french doors, wood floors, plantation shutters, etc. It has lots of character!

The next post will be one of the upstairs in progress and the downstairs being set up for the estate sale.

Since Brent's grandmother has downsized, there will be an estate sale of her things. She has requested that the proceeds from the sale go to a trust account for Cohen and his medical needs. I about fell over when I heard that. Brent's grandmother loves him so much. The trust is being set up right now. We also have lots of friends and family donating items they do not want or need to the sale. Last night, Brent and I went and picked up an old washer and dryer from a couple who had just bought new. I had met the girl once or twice before. She is a good family friend of one of our friends. She heard about our situation from our friend and emailed me about the washer and dryer. People are so kind! Cohen is one loved little boy! The sale will be not this weekend but the next, May 6th-8th.

More soon!