Confessions Of A Scrapaholic

Help Me! I'm Surrounded by Boxes!

Dude. I swear I packed up our house in a couple days. Why on earth is it taking me so long to get rid of all these freaking boxes? I'll tell you why. I have to find a place for everything. Now normally, my nesting self would love that idea, but my unpacking adventure started badly. Let's back up to last Saturday...

I brilliantly brought a separate bag with orange juice, frozen waffles and cereal for us to have breakfast Saturday morning before we started unpacking. I had not taken into account that we would need either a) our toaster or b) silverware to eat cereal.

I should mention that we had the movers pack our kitchen, so unlike all of the other color coded and labeled boxes in our home we just had a huge pile of "Kitchen" boxes.

Now picture a starving four year old and her pregnant and increasingly grumpy mother while she dug through boxes for FORTY FIVE MINUTES until she located the toaster sitting in a box (on the top) that Kelly had already opened and failed to see the flipping toaster. Yeah, so that kind of left a bad taste in my mouth regarding the unpacking, especially the kitchen.

On the plus side, yesterday I did in fact locate the silverware...at the bottom of a large moving box. Nice.

A Little Misdirection...

I have always been surprised by the amount of information people share on their blogs, sometimes a little too much, sometimes *wham* they are six months pregnant and you never had a clue. I never really got it until now. This last month has been crazy busy at our house. Why? I'll give you some clues, see if you can guess.

-I ordered a beautiful address stamp about two months ago. I've always wanted one. I actually had to order two because I typed our address in wrong the first time. Oops.

-There have been no children in our community the entire time we have lived here. Two weeks ago three little girls about Zoë's age moved in next door.

-Kelly has a HUGE project that is gearing up right now, and the staff from his Romanian office is coming to visit Seattle for two weeks.

-Kelly signed a three year lease on his office space when he started working outside the home that way he could ride his bike to work. (It's only three miles away)

-I'm almost eight months pregnant and getting larger as I type. Bending is not very Maegan friendly right now. Lifting is definitely not Maegan friendly. Stupid round ligaments.

Still no clue? Here's one that will make it easy for you.

-This is my new favorite show. I watch it religiously every night after Zoë goes to bed.

So what is the big secret? We bought a new house and are moving next Friday! We had no intention of moving. In fact, it probably couldn't be a worse time. It just kind of worked out like that. You always find exactly what you are looking for when you aren't looking. (Although it usually doesn't happen to me on such a grand scale, usually more along the lines of clothing.) Remember me mentioning that Kelly joined our Home Owner's Association to get air conditioning approved for the community? Well he did get it approved but the board is refusing to approve any A/C installations. After sweltering in our house during the first heat wave Kelly asked his cousin (our real estate agent) to email us some home listings, and we found the perfect house.

A/C wasn't actually the deciding factor, it just got the ball rolling. This house is less than a mile from the elementary, junior high and high school. Less than a mile from the grocery store, shopping, movie theater, Kelly's favorite sushi restaurant, and two miles from Redmond Town Center. The clincher? The neighborhood is swarming with children. Zoë will finally have little friends she can play with.

This past month has been a whirlwind of home projects and preparing for the move. The actual packing starts tomorrow after we finish up our to-do list to get ready for the stagers. Speaking of stagers, have you ever used one? I would recommend them to anybody putting their house on the market. Our home has never looked better. The suggestions they made for furniture placement and accessories have completely changed the look of our house. It is amazing.

So there you have it. I'll probably be MIA for the rest of the week. There is much to be done, but it will be worth it. And come on, packing is like nesting on steroids. Hehehe. I can't wait. I even have color coordinated packing tape. It's just the little things that make me happy. :)

Family Movie Night, Room Service Style

Things were so crazy last week that I completely forgot to tell you about our exodus to the hotel last weekend. It was so flipping hot in Seattle (90 degrees inside and out) that we checked into a hotel down the street. Our home away from home when it gets too hot or we are having renovations done. We suffered through on Saturday, but Sunday we threw in the towel. We went to the annual Strawberry Festival in the morning and it was already smokin' hot (our car said it was 87 degrees in the shade at 11:30am.) We dressed Zoë in her swimming suit so that she could enjoy the new water park at the festival, but it was malfunctioning and the water was coming out as a trickle. It was pitiful seeing 50+ kids in their suits all standing around the one water feature that was drizzling water. Zoë wasn't too bothered though because the festival had all sorts of bouncy houses. Her favorite was actually the balls. She used up most of her tickets there. Can you see how red her face already is from the heat? It was only 10:30am!

When we got home from the Strawberry Festival I booked a hotel room for us and we spent the rest of the day playing in the pool and enjoying their air conditioning. We got lucky and Horton Hears a Who was showing in the room, so we had spontaneous family movie night. Family Movie Night room service style if you will. It doesn't exactly coordinate with the movie per say, but it was really fun. And look, I figured out how to use the timer on our little Elph to take this family photo. Zoë's not exactly smiling, but I am just happy we are all in the shot. LOL!

When we got home on Monday I did some more maternity shopping. Two reasons: Capri pants are just not cool enough when it is 90 degrees outside, even when paired with a tank top. Two: Kel and I went on a date last Friday and I don't have anything even remotely dressy to wear. Did I tell you about our date nights? About two months ago Kelly decided that we should have a date night every other week until the baby arrives because we won't have much adult time once she arrives. Isn't that sweet?! So I needed something that would be date night appropriate and tummy friendly. I found some really cute items (thanks to my friend Gina who is also pregnant, just a week behind me). These dresses should be comfy and cool and I can dress them up with the necklaces and some cute shoes. I also bought some tank tops but that isn't nearly as interesting, you know?

I also updated my pregnancy journal today (two weeks in a row!) so click on over. We finally decided on a name for this sweet little baby girl. Speaking of which, here is another layout of the wee one using a page from the Twirl Piece-of-Cake Album.

I Like My Snobby Coffee

Have you seen McDonald's new Unsnobby Coffee commercials? Totally funny and brilliant marketing, especially considering that a grande latte at Starbucks will run you about $4.00+. There is one little hitch in McDonald's evil plot to take over the coffee world though. (OK, so evil might be a touch dramatic...) There espresso and lattes are gross. As in, undrinkable.

On our last road trip I thought I would give them a try, a vanilla latte to be specific. The first few sips tasted like straight espresso (bleck!) so Kel gave it a stir to see if that would improve the flavor. The next few sips were so sweet that I am shocked my teeth didn't fall out of my mouth. Bleck, again. It went in the garbage at the next rest stop.

The moral of the story?  You get what you pay for. A sixteen year old McDonald's employee does not a good barista make. I'll stick to my favorite snobby latte, thanks. Or better yet this, available 24/7 a few steps away. Man, I can't wait until I get more than one measly cup a day. (I can't quite give it up completely, but I only allow myself one small cup a day while I am preggers.)

Now for a quick layout. This is a lift of a layout that I saw in the Simple Scrapbooks gallery. I think this definitely qualifies as a Hall of Fame layout. I could use this design over and over again and be perfectly happy. The photo itself is not fabulous, but it happens to be the only picture in existence of me and my brothers with the exception of my wedding reception. I really try to avoid scrapping less than stellar photos, but scrapbooking is not all about perfect pictures, it's about the stories and the people we love. So, here it is in all its' badly lit glory.

Credits coming soon.

Maegan...The Law Breaker

I usually consider myself a law abiding citizen, especially on the road. Unlike my sweet husband, I think that seat belt laws are a good thing. I use my turn signals. I keep at least two if not three car lengths between myself and the car in front of me. Now let's flash back to last week...

I'm on my way home after running errands and as I pull up to the stop light I see an interesting license plate holder on the car in front of me. I pull up a bit closer to read it and notice the bright red "09 license tab on the plate. I think to myself, "Hmmm, that red is really bright."

Next thought: "Holy crap, our tabs expired TWO months ago!"

Next thought: "Oh my gosh, Kelly has my drivers license in his wallet."

Next thought: "Hang up the cell phone before you get arrested." (Talking on your cell phone without a hands free device or head set is against the law in Washington. In fact, as of today you will get a $100+ ticket if you are caught doing it.)

Thankfully I made it home without getting pulled over. Not that I was too worried about it, after all I have been driving around for months with expired tabs and had no clue. And I could always play the pregnancy card.... Either way, you can bet I went exactly the speed limit until I got home.

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I've got some more layouts to share. First up, a layout about Miss Zoë at age four. I forgot to do this last year and I have no idea what she was doing at age three. All the days and months just kind of blend together, you know?

Click HERE for credits and journaling.

Next up, the first layout of Baby #2. I used a layout from the new Twirl Piece-A-Cake Album by Shabby Princess. I can honestly say that hers are my very favorite quick pages. They are so well designed and the detail is amazing. All of her new products are on sale right now, so click on over for some shabby goodness. :)

Click HERE for credits and journaling.

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So did anybody catch the new episode of Tori & Dean tonight? (I'm actually watching it while I blog since I am watching it live. Horror of horrors. Commercials are the worst!) Love this show. I have to say, I totally relate to Tori right now. I went to the doctor today for my check-up and was equally as horrified by my weight gain. Evil scale. Granted, I didn't gain eleven pounds this month but I am about at the 25lb. gain mark and I still have the third trimester to go. Eek! I got the same talk she did from the doctor, "25-35lbs. is a healthy weight gain...blah, blah, blah." It still doesn't make me feel better. I need to start doing squats while I brush my teeth again.