Monday, January 21, 2013

On the Mend and Into Full-Blown Nesting

We are gradually recovering from the flu. Forgive me if I've already posted about this; my brain is slowly being consumed by Baby Brudder, I am sure of it.

We are all still coughing. And tire easily. And I'm still achey, as if I've been coughing. Oh wait, I have. 

But we're getting a bit better every day. This weekend we had enough energy to launch my long-crafted Decluttering Plan. We cleaned out the entire hall closet and got rid of three bags of trash and took two bags of shoes and clothes to Goodwill. We got rid of all kinds of stuff, but mostly it was stuff we had just put off making a decision about or thought we would use but reality was far different. 

We also tried rearranging the living room in various ways to make our space look fresh and well, larger. We flipped the direction of the sofa with the entertainment center and uh, didn't like it. Then we thought about trying the entertainment center further down on the wall (closer to the door) so Pete's desk could fit there, and we hated that even more. So after moving stuff all day (maybe this is why I was sore??) we moved everything back to where it was. 

BUT. The good news is we were able to deep clean as we went, so there was lots of vacuuming and dusting and hey why do we have four extension cords out of this one outlet kind of decluttering. We were able also to put one of the items that were in the office area floor space into the newly cleaned out closet, which means more floor space and a cleaner appearing space. That is not a bad thing, friends. 

I have a Pinterest board created to pinning things we'd like to purchase for reorganizing our space; we're still trying to figure out where we're going to put Baby Brudder's clothes (seriously). One idea is to use our old shoe rack, but the only things that fit in it are baskets, and well, we both are not fans of baskets. I could be talked into it if we sand and repaint the thing, then line the baskets with fabric or felt to prevent clothes from getting stuck in the wicker, but man that sounds like a lot of work. We can't really do tons of shelves in the second bedroom because of earthquake concerns. We're trying to figure it out; we have one minimally used bookcase that I think we might be able to move into the closet for baby stuff. You'll see on that Pinterest board that we're contemplating big girl beds for Lucia, and I think we'll probably go with just this one given 1. the price and 2. our need for additional space 3. it matches the crib. That one isn't as big as a twin, so it'll fit. We're not transitioning yet though; we plan on waiting until around her birthday, when baby boy is around 4 mos and trying to leap out of the bassinet. Lucia was standing at 6 mos, if you recall. So we'll move stuff around at the 4 mo mark and move our sofabed to our friend's house for storage. And voila, we'll have space for the crib. 

Our goals this week are to continue to declutter the bar area, which will become our diaper changing station, take bags of stuff to Office Depot for shredding, take stuff to the post office and continue to work our Freecycle/Craigslist ads to give away/sell old stuff. Making progress! Only 10 weeks until baby is here. GULP. 

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Flu

We all have the flu; me the worst. I'm writing this from bed, where I am soaking up the mist of the new cool-mist ultrasonic humidifer, and trying not to get into a coughing fit since it already feels like I've been kicked in the ribs from the days upon days of hacking. My fever is down today, which is a good sigh. Lucia's is up, however. We have basic groceries to get us by for the next day or so and are hopeful Pete can get out tomorrow for a quick trip of necessities. 

Say a little prayer for us, if you could. 

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Uncle

I've been sick off and on since OCTOBER, with maybe three periods of approximately 7-10 days of wellness where I'm able to feel good enough to hit the gym and rock our daily routine. I had a cold going into Christmas, was feeling better, then inadvertently ate gluten, which aggravates my allergies and asthma, on Christmas Eve and picked up another cold on Christmas. Gah. So I went from almost no coughing and operating at 75% to back down to 50-60% and coughing my head off. I had JUST turned the corner this weekend, and was back up to about 80%, when here comes another cold or something. Only this time it was with a fever and with less-than-optimal phlegm color. Ugh. Also, my asthma took a freaking nose dive, which is dangerous given the pregnancy and well, in general, let's be honest. So I finally called the doctor Tuesday as I was feeling super bad, and got an antibiotic, new nose spray to hopeful curb the post-nasal drip and instructions to double my preventative asthma inhaler.

I am feeling better, thank god. My asthma has settled down and I took leave without pay today, as I have exhausted my vacation and sick days (UGH), but thought it was worth the investment to feel better. 

But then tonight Pete picked up Lucia and they RAN to Chipotle, where our dinner order was waiting, to get her to the bathroom. She had diarrhea. He got her home and while washing her hands before dinner she threw up. Then I checked, and sure enough she has fever. 

UNCLE, people. We are tired of being sick over here; it's unrelenting and we are sick of not feeling well. 

Thursday, January 3, 2013

New Car in the garage!

Amazing handling, incredible acceleration and design. Love it! Thanks Josh for demonstrating! I'm sold.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

As cold as it gets

These mornings are extremely cold, as evidenced by the ice on my car in the morning. 


Brrr!