Baby Barto's Nursery!

I am very pleased and proud to announce that Baby Barto's nursery is (mostly) complete!  We ordered the crib and dresser on January 21, and it was finally delivered to our house last week.  Who knew that it took that long to get furniture?!  As it turns out, it was totally worth the wait...I am thrilled with the furniture we picked out, and even though I know the baby really won't care that much at all, it still makes me happy to know that the baby will get to sleep and grow up in such a bright and cheery room.  I thought I would post some pictures of the nursery so you could see what Tae & I have put together.  Now, I am just crossing my fingers that Baby Barto wants to come out (SOON!) to see his or her room!  =)

The rocking chair is from Tae's parent's house.  They were kind enough to give it to us to use in the nursery. Tae (all by himself, no less!) reupholstered the chair to better suit our needs.  While I was gone to a show with my mom yesterday, he went to the fabric store, bought the fabric and put it all together to suprise me when I got home.  What a guy!

Not to toot my own horn, toot, toot, TOOT!, but the artwork on the walls is all me!  We opted to do a jungle theme for the nursery, so I bought some paints and blank canvases and painted all the animals you see free-hand.  I don't know if I should be offended by how shocked surprised people are to learn that I made the artwork myself, but the truth is, I LOVE to do crafts and crafty things.  I can't say much for my drawing skills, but I do love to paint, so I found some cute animal pictures online and tried to replicate them the best I could.  I am very pleased with the results!

Here is a close-up of the crib.  Baby Barto already has some cute stuffed toys!  The white blanket was a gift from my parents.  It is already very special to me because I had a similar white baby blanket growing up that was a gift from my Grandma & Grandpa Jones.  In fact, I still have my white baby blanket, special corner and all! 

Baby Barto is a Cyclone fan already!  Luckily for him or her, mom and dad already purchased their season tickets for the 2012 football season.  Baby Barto is going to be so well-dressed at the games! None of that UGLY Hawkeye crap for our child!

For my baby shower with friends and family, the guests were asked to give books for Baby Barto to enjoy.  Look at how full that bookshelf is already!  Baby Barto is so spoiled already!  We are very much looking forward to reading our baby stories each night before bed.  We have even read some of the books to Baby Barto already.

Oliver can't wait for Baby Barto to arrive so he can read to him or her also!  If our child ends up being even half as cute as our puppy, we have a winner!  (But Oliver is a whole other post for another day...)

In other news, we had a great, lazy weekend!  Congratulations to my friends Laura & Kent on the arrival of their son, Kase on April 27.  I tried to urge Baby Barto to be a birthday twin with little Kase, but he/she wasn't listening, I guess.  It freaked Tae & I out It is crazy to think that the next time we go to Mercy, it will be to have our own baby!  Yay!

My mom and I went to the Civic Center on Sunday afternoon to watch the musical Memphis.  This is the second year we have gotten season tickets to the Civic Center Willis Broadway Series shows, and they never disappoint.  We have gotten to see Wicked!, Jersey Boys, Lion King, Rock of Ages, Mary Poppins, and many other wonderful shows.  The tickets are very affordable and we always have a good time.  I would highly recommend it to anyone!

Hope you all had great weekends as well.  Until another day!

Thankful Thursday

There are so many things that I am thankful for each and every day.  Where to begin...

I am very thankful for all of the wonderful women in my life: my mom, my sister, and my girl friends. 

In high school I loved to hang out "with the girls".  I was always involved in sports and there was a lot of "girl time", whether at practice or on the bus rides from here to there or just hanging out.  Great times!  Once I went off to college, I still had girl friends, but I found myself taking classes with mostly guys.  Most of my close friends were then guys.  At dental school, it was more of the same.  Most of my classmates were guys and so most of my close friends were guys.  Don't get me wrong, hanging out "with the guys" can be fun and you can build some really strong bonds with your guy friends, but nothing compares to the bonds that girls share.

I am thankful that over the past couple of years I have been blessed with the opportunity to make new girl friends and reconnect with some "old" girl friends that I had missed so much over the years.  I get so much joy and comfort from an email, a text, a blog post, or a lunch with my friends.  We talk about everything and we talk about nothing, but it doesn't matter because we just enjoy each others company.

I am even more thankful to have such close girl friends during my pregnancy.  Who else will be totally honest when answering the millions of silly intelligent questions I have about pregnancy and childbirth?  Would you believe that my sister and ALL of my BFFs have had babies within the last 10 months?!  In fact, one of them is literally having her baby today, as I type this!  Oops!  Just found out that her induction was moved back to tomorrow.  I still can't wait to meet your little guy, Laura!  =) 

I am also very thankful that Baby Barto is now full-term!  It's comforting to know that Baby Barto could be safely welcomed to this world at any time.  I would be even more thankful if Baby Barto would make a soon and quick arrival.  =)

I am thankful for my husband.  There are a million reasons why this is true.  Suffice it to say that he is perfect for me and to me in every way.  Last night he even gave me a much deserved needed foot massage!  (And he only tried to crack my toes (which I hate!) twice!  Now, that is true love....haha).

I hope you all have a great Thursday and have a chance to remember all of the things you are thankful for.

Randomness...

Well, the day has finally arrived!  The Bartos are joining the blogging world!  My lovely friends who have pestered and bothered strongly encouraged me to start a blog will either be pleased with the results or curse the day they thought it was a good idea for me to blog.  =)  Here goes nothing!

The last few days have been filled with random thoughts and observations, so I thought that would be a good place to start.  Here is some of the randomness, folks!

1.  Yesterday I went to Wal-Mart to return a crib mattress pad.  I wanted to return it because I had already bought a couple and received another one at my baby shower, and I didn't think that I really needed three (do I?).  The package was unopened and I had the receipt.  Should be an easy return, right?  Well, the lady at customer service appeared very suspicious as to why I was returning this item.  She carefully inspected the receipt.  She carefully inspected the item.  Then, with a smile, she made the transaction and gave me a gift card for the amount.  She carefully lifted the package to her face and SMELLED it!  Yes, she smelled it.  Of all of the things I thought she might do, smelling the mattress pad was not even on the list.  Do people really open, soil, and then re-package soiled mattress pads so they can return them rather than wash them?!  Oh, the joys of Wal-Mart...

2.  Even though I am approximately 20 months pregnant, I still feel guilty if I even think about parking the the space marked "for pregnant or expecting mothers" at Hy-Vee.  Probably no one who saw me park there and waddle gracefully walk into the store would judge me, but it still just feels wrong.

3.  I am a creature of habit.  Usually at the Hy-Vee deli I order 1lb of honey turkey.  Yesterday, I decided to only order 1/2 lb because I won't be going home for lunch every day this week as I normally would.  The same deli guy usually helps me each week.  Yesterday, when I ordered the 1/2 lb of honey turkey the deli guy promptly measured out 1lb of honey turkey, started to wrap it up, and then looked at me with a confused face and said, "oh, you only want 1/2 lb today?"  I felt a little bad because he had measured exactly 1.00 lb on the scale, and I think he was proud of this.  When he took some away, the closest he could get was 0.47 lb.  Bummer...

4.  Even if I have the cash (which I rarely do), I will still pay with my Mastercard, no matter how small the bill.  I will look past a $1 bill in my wallet to find my Mastercard to pay for a $0.97 item.  Our monthly mastercard statement is usually several pages long.  For most people a bill this long would indicate a spending problem.  In our case, the bill is just a long list of charges, most of which are under $5.

5.  On the way to work today I drove past a man on a bike with a backpack talking on his cell phone.  This was a pedal bike, not a motorcyle.  The speed limit on this road is 55 mph.  Call me crazy, but this just seems extra dangerous at 7:30 am.

6.  At this point in my pregnancy if you want to be my best friend say things like "wow! you look like you have dropped...I bet this baby will be here soon!" or "I have a feeling this baby will come before your due date" or even "you definitely look like you are dilated" (although how you would know or sense this I'm not sure...depending on who you are, this could be awkward...).  If you want me to curse you as soon as you leave the room, say things like "just remember, even though your due date is only 3 weeks away, you still might not have this baby for 5 more weeks" or "I think you will go a few days past your due date" or "don't wish the baby to come early, it still needs time to grow; it will come when it is ready".  I fully understand that the baby will come when it wants and that there is little I can do about it, but at this point, tell me what I want to hear, even if that is not reality!  If you don't, I'm probably not listening to you anyway.

7.  Pregnancy brain and forgetfullness are real.  As I was thinking about this post the last few days I had no less than 20 random things to talk about...at this moment, I cannot come up with anything else.  I guess those will have to wait for another day.  Unfortunately for you, the random things I have forgotten were probably also the most entertaining of the bunch.  =)

In other news, I had a great weekend with my family and friends at my baby shower!  It's not often you get to have most of your (female) family and all of your BFFs in the same room!  Tae, the baby, and I feel so blessed to have so many people around us who care for us and love this baby even though he/she is not even here yet!  Once I figure out how to post photos I will write more about the shower and my wonderful family and friends.

Hope you are all having a great day!  Hope you enjoyed my first blogging attempt.  I am looking forward to my first "Thankful Thursday" post tomorrow.  Lord knows I have plenty to be thankful for!