Things I forgot to show you....and new stuff, too.

So, I know it's been awhile and I'm sorry for that, I just never seem to find the time to blog anymore, and I'm sure that will decrease even more once the baby gets here. (Well, maybe I'll have more to talk about then, as there is not alot going on here in our household right now. I guess we will see.)

Anyway, there are some things that I have wanted to share with you. Now, keep in mind these are cell phone pictures and they're not going to be good quality, but I wanted to share them with you anyway.

Let's back up to Thanksgiving. I want to share my awesome table setup with you! I can't believe I never shared it with you, considering how proud I am of the fact that I put it together all by myself and I think that I did a pretty good job with it!

 I can't wait until next year when I can set it up again! (And just think - when I set it out again, I'll have an infant! omg.....)

Then, at Christmastime, my wonderful hubby let me redecorate for Christmas. That was essentially my Christmas present, getting to buy whatever I wanted to decorate the table for Christmas this year. Here it is:

 And here is my Christmas tree in full view:

I was very proud of this as well. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday and I cannot wait until next year when I can share this with my son/daughter!

I also want to share with you some baby bump (or lack thereof) photos! The first is at 6 weeks on January 10th:

This one is at 7 weeks:

And here is more recent, a 13 week photo (side note: it's laundry day - LOL):

As you can see, there's not much there. My hubby keeps saying that he can see the difference, but to me it still just looks the same as it has the past eight months - chubby fatty goodness. I'm sure I'll begin to see the difference here soon but I just don't see it right now.

Now to more recent news:

I had my doctors appointment on February 16th, and everything went well during the visit with our OBGYN. We got to hear our little bean's heartbeat and I had actually lost 6 pounds which means now I can gain a little more than I originally thought toward the end of my pregnancy. Then I went upstairs to the other section to do my fasting blood sugar. I failed: my blood sugar was a 116, when normal fasting is 92. So, they diagnosed me with gestational diabetes. So, now I get to prick my finger four times a day with this lovely contraption:

And drop my blood on a test strip inside one of these contraptions:

And report to my doctor weekly. So far, I have been really bad about doing it every day, but all of the readings I've gotten recently haven't been bad, and I haven't been dieting or anything. So, I don't know what they're going to tell me, but I'm sure as long as I keep doing what I've been doing I'll be ok.

I have another appointment with the Diabetes section of the OBGYN office on March 4th, to discuss my readings, and then a regular appointment on the 16th. And then hopefully, three weeks after that, I will be coming back for my next ultrasound and *crosses fingers* we MIGHT be able to find out what the sex of the baby is!

On to today:

My husband and I made our first "baby purchase"! Now, before you get ahead of me, it's more for the dogs/cats than anything right now, but the good news is we were able to move all the cats stuff out of the spare bedroom (read: nursery) and into the kitchen! Here is what the kitchen looks like now:

Guarded by this AWESOME baby gate, which is super tall and comes with a gate for the cats so that they can get through freely. Now, we can't use the door yet, because Vala is still small enough to go through, but I figure in about two months or so she will be too big to go through the door anymore, and we will be able to open it.

And now the nursery is a blank slate ready for whatever we want to do with it!

There is a small closet around the corner to the right, and I really feel like its going to be a big enough room for the baby to be able to grow and live in for a good long time. I have a few ideas as to what I want to do with the room, and there is alot of cleaning and painting and repair work on the window to do, but it's all easy stuff. I want to put a rug down on the floor, and I want the quote "Life is but a dream, so row merrily..." written on the wall above the crib, but that will come later. I think it will be ready soon for furniture, maybe a month or so.

I know this post is long, but bear with me, I'm almost done. I had so much to catch up on! On to my Day Zero goals:

- I have read three more books:

They were all really good, and I will tell you if you are a cat lover, you HAVE to read Dewey, it is a heartfelt, beautiful story about a cat that changed a TON of people's lives. It was a tearjerker for me it was so good.

- I've started a fund to save up to buy my camera that I want:

A Canon EOS Rebel XS - $550 at our local Best Buy. So far I have saved about $80.00.  I am hoping to have it before the baby is born so that I can get some awesome pictures. (Not to mention learn how to use it correctly before the pressure is on to get good baby pics)
- I have completed #28: Cut soda out of my diet completely. I now only occasionally have a sip of soda when the mood strikes me. I am drinking water 99.9% of the time now! Go me!

- # 70 will be completed within the next two weeks: Pay off the storage unit. I can't WAIT for that day, because I get my childhood toychest back, plus a few things that I think we will be able to sell for a decent amount of money, and then we can get # 58 going - a yard sale!

- # 72 will also be taken care of with our tax money this year: Fix the car.

- #90 get a professional massage. I am going to be doing this on Thursday with my friend Amber for her birthday! So excited for this!

- #91 donate my hair at least once. I am going to grow my hair out during the pregnancy since your hair grows faster, and donate it a week or two before the baby is born!

Ok, so that about does it! I think I am all caught up for now!