November in a nut shell

November was a busy crazy month for us (well, October was too!)...
October 30-31st, we headed up to Killeen to celebrate our nephew's 3rd birthday, and stayed for Halloween. The next couple weeks were spent trying to finish the baby registry and making a gift for my parents.com due date club secret santa (as well as all the eating and sleeping and other things that are normal for a pregnant woman, plus occasional cleaning!). My Secret Santa LOVED her gift- a crocheted Zebra and a monkey hat and through her thoughtful words and the posting of her pictures, she managed to get me some business! I'm so excited that I have orders!
 November 21st was my first shower, thrown by a couple of church friends, with my sister helping a bit. It wasn't a very big shower, but everyone had fun and I'm really thankful for all the love and support as well as the gifts! My mom is planning on throwing an absentee shower for me up in NY, but I haven't had a chance to talk to her to see if they came up with a date yet! I hope so- since I'm due in 6 weeks!
  Then, November 23d I had my most recent appointment- It was in the afternoon so Tom took off the second half of the day and after the appointment we went down to the radio station to pick up the Panera Gift card I had won in one of their contests! We proceeded directly to Panera, where we picked up some dinner (I simply love their tomato soup, but unfortunately they forgot my croutons in it and we took it to go, so I didn't realize until it was too late). We took it over to Zilker Park to eat- our first time there ever- but due to the bees that seemed to really like our food, we ended up heading back to the car to finish eating and then got out for a bit of a wander around the park until we had to leave. Definitely worth going to again when we have more time! Tom was helping with the sound system at church for worship practice, as he does each Tuesday night, so we headed up to church for that (Though we got to church a little later than we hoped because traffic was horrendous!). Then home to rest!
 Wednesday I spent cooking and baking for Thanksgiving. I was so thankful for being near my sister this year- as all I needed to make were 2 pumpkin pies, 2 loaves of graham bread (a family tradition), and a tray of deviled eggs. Thursday we spent with my sister and her family, plus 4 of the other military guys who didn't have family or anywhere else to go for the holiday. It was a nice relaxing day, and I'm so glad I was able to go- I'm restricted from travel as of yesterday (Just reached 34 weeks and travel isn't recommended after that point), so it's great that we had a chance to travel for Thanksgiving- even though it's only an hour away. They'll be hopefully coming down for Christmas (or possibly early Christmas) to celebrate with us.
  This week is a little more relaxed, but since I ended up winning tickets to Tran-Siberian Orchestra (from the same radio station!), we have dinner and concert plans, just the 2 (3?) of us on Friday. I'm very excited! I've always loved TSO and this is a perfect December date night!
  Not sure exactly what the rest of this year will bring, but as the birth of our son gets closer and closer, I'm nervous and excited and all sort of emotions. I'm sure this will be a winter never to forget!

Well, I've been a slacker on this blog lately! I got very discouraged with lack of sales on my Etsy shop and kind of gave up. I kept creating items, because it is my passion, but my listings all expired and the business side of things just didn't appeal as much, and I let things fall apart. But I'm back and I'm more determined than ever!

This time, I have true motivation! In May, we found out we're expecting our first child in January- 1/11/11 to be exact! And, as I've always hoped to stay home for at least a couple of years with our children, my Etsy shop is something that can bring in a little extra income while I stay home to take care of my family.

So, I'm here and determined to stay. Let me know if you have any ideas for what you'd like to see!

Cheap flight tickets!

Well, I feel pretty good. After searching and watching the prices of flight tickets fluctuate but never low enough for the last month or two, I finally stumbled across some tickets into Newark for $202 a piece (Thats including all taxes and fees but baggage!). Newark wasn't our first choice but with the difference in ticket prices being $100-150 a ticket higher in Syracuse, Binghamton, Rochester, Buffalo, and even more in any other remotely close airports, I decided to jump on these when we had the chance. I'm blessed with a wonderful mother who, despite abhorring cities - NYC in particular- agreed to come get us in Newark to bring us back to Vestal in June!

It's not an optional trip- it's for my husband's little brother's wedding, (whose birthday also happens to be today!), so no matter what we were going to be going up because we really wouldn't want to miss it, plus Tom is a groomsman and probably going to be doing a reading as well- it's just good to know we were able to get a deal and save probably as much as possible.

I'm also excited that my long time friend is going to be having a baby shower while I'm up, which I sort of helped plan the timing on while commenting to her status on facebook (what a world we live in, eh?). So I'm going to be busy. I've been working on a diaper bag (though not for her, for sale), and lost interest in it, but I'm going to be in the spare room in a sewing fury! I have this diaper bag to finish, a dress to make for myself for the wedding, a gift for Iris' shower, and maybe even Tom's other shirt if I have a chance. and just 2 months to get everything done.

Plus, we've been looking at houses. If we can get the financing to work (hitting some snags there...) we'll be putting an offer on a house we saw the other day. I fell in love with the big and plenty windows and Tom liked it too. It'll need some work, but not necessarily major, and it's livable until we have the chance to work on it, so it'll all depend on how financing and offering goes- then the inspection...and of course, my worst fear right now is that someone else will buy it out from under us...but it'll be ok if that happens. We'll figure things out- we always do!

Flirty Aprons GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

I came across this giveaway at Grosgrain- and these aprons are just adorable! What better way to get in the spring mood than a bright, sexy fun apron like these ones? My only difficulty is choosing a favorite- I like them all! Follow the link to enter:

Flirty Aprons GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

A Good Day

Today was one of those days where I woke up sleepy but the sun was shining and it woke me up quickly. I finished a fantastic book (Mistborn). A friend from my second year of college chatted with me on facebook- she wanted to double check that I was the one who made the knit stuffed piggy for her because her second daughter loves it and walks around with it and sleeps with it. That just touched my heart. It's in the mid or upper 70's and not a cloud in the sky. It's gorgeous out so I went for a walk. On my way back I stopped at the mailbox and although we got the typical junk mail and coupons, and even an electric bill, it's ok, because I also received a book, My Single Friend, by Jane Costello, thanks to the lovely folks at Simon and Schuster UK. (I no longer wonder what book I'll read next :). And we also got our security deposit from our previous landlords- which we have been waiting for since June (Long story- not really their fault, not really ours either- lots of missed phone calls and miscommunications, 2 addresses on our part, etc. We visited our landlady when we were in NY for Christmas and she fed us (She's a older Italian lady- she always fed us!) and she hadn't known her daughter had been unsuccessful in sending us the deposit back (no clue what happened in the mail, they had our address at the time). She was quite upset, and kept trying to call her daughter (her daughter manages renting out the apartments upstairs, where we lived), and we gave her our most recent address and phone number- and today we received it after so long.

It's a gorgeous day, I have a new book, our savings just got a boost. I think I'm going to eat some grapefruit and then head outside to read until Tom gets home from work. I hope everyone else is having as good a day.

Mistborn, By Brandon Sanderson

I just finished Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. My copy was one I received as a giveaway from http://www.bookloveaffair.com/ .

Mistborn is a fantastic book! The characters were dynamic and fantastic, the world was described in wonderful detail, and the magic was unlike anything I've ever read in fantasy. Brandon Sanderson is a wonderful author. His systems of Allomancy and Feruchemy were so fascinating. He kept you on your toes too, adding little twists and turns in. And the themes of trust, love, and friendship are so well done. I had so much trouble putting this book down that I got barely anything done yesterday! I highly recommend this book and I'm off to find out information on the rest of the series!

More Books in 2010

I've read 4 more books since I last updated about them:

-The Other Queen, By Philippa Gregory- I have read 5 or 6 other books by Gergory and this is the only one I didn't absolutely love. I'm not sure if that is due to the changing first person perspective every couple of pages or due to the fact that I had very little prior knowledge of Mary, Queen of Scots. I usually like multiple perspectives, but this book fell a little flat for me. The White Queen, The Queen's Lover, and The Other Boleyn Girl are books I heartily recommend.

-The Guardian, by Nicholas Sparks- This definitely was not what I am used to with Sparks. He combines romance with thriller- but it totally works! My only wish was that I'd like to know more about what happens after the climax. This kept my heart racing, but also had the tender teary moments one is used to when reading sparks. I liked it.

-Chinese Cinderella, by Adeline Yen Mah- A Heartbreaking story, but I'm not sure I'd equate it to Cinderella. I'm a huge fan of Cinderella variations and even did a paper on them in college (That Folktales and Fairy Tales class was awesome), but while Yen Mah was an unwanted child, she always had her aunt, and there were also siblings from the same mother that shared her plight, albeit not to the same extent. Still a great read (and a quick read- I read this in less than a day). I've added Yen Mah's "Falling Leaves" to my books to read list.

-Survival in Auschwitz, by Primo Levi- This was not what I'm used to for concentration camp survival stories. While Levi goes through what the camp is like and what happened, that takes the back seat to his analysis of how they survived, what they thought as prisoners, and essentially, how humans can treat each other as the Germans treated the prisoners, but even more so, how the prisoners treated each other. I'd love to see a female perspective written in the same way. Very well written!

That brings me to a total of 8 books so far. I haven't yet picked what I'll be reading yet, but I've crafts to do!