My Cousin’s Big Day

Our main reason for the trip to Vermont this past weekend was for my cousin’s wedding on Saturday.

It was a wonderful event, filled with plenty of love and laughter.  He and his new bride certainly have a lot of family and friends that love them very much.

Our second cousin was the ring bearer and the bride and groom’s daughter (also our second cousin) was the flower girl.  They were adorable!

The reception was fun and everyone had a great time… especially those sitting with my Mum, who brought the bar in her picnic basket.

Five Things: Home Sweet Home Edition

{ 1. View from the “back” of Mom & Dad’s house }

{ 2. The anticipation of play and projects in Mom’s “studio” while I’m home }

{ 3. A pile of freshly picked cucumbers on the counter with knife handy for a quick peel and snack }

{ 4. Open windows and sunshine through curtains }

{ 5. Bits of my past passed on for my future }

(Five Things post inspired by Cupcakes and Cashmere – she does one every week)

To the Shire

Tomorrow Casey and I head to Vermont, along with my sister who flies in from CO tonight.  Casey will be there until this Sunday and me and sister until next Sunday.  We have a few celebrations to attend, but most days will be spent soaking up the beauty of Vermont in summertime.  It will be a supreme rejuvenation and I am so excited.

Pergo It Is

So the carpet in the main living area of our condo is pretty disgusting.  I won’t go into why, but let’s just say it has mostly to do with the kitties and is not due just to regular wear and tear.

With a little one on the way who will eventually be crawling all over, we’ve been looking into a less holds-in-the-gross kind of floor, aka wood instead of carpet.  We started out hoping for hardwood, but found out our subflooring doesn’t allow for hardwood, but that we’d have to go with engineered hardwood or laminate.  Casey is pretty against laminate,  so we got some quotes for engineered hardwood.  The prices were a bit scary for us and we decided to postpone making changes until my contractor Dad could come down and help.

Then we went to our friend’s house for our baby shower and they had awesome looking floors.  Awesome looking laminate floors that is, which they had installed themselves.  They have two dogs and a ten month old baby and the floors looked great – which got us talking about laminate, where before Casey was completely against it.  His main reason for not doing it was resale, but since we aren’t going to be able to sell our condo for quite some time, and since laminate seemed from example to be a durable floor for pets and babies, we decided to take a look.

Thankfully we didn’t have to look long, which is important since the baby countdown is progressing quickly.  We went on Sunday and found floors we really liked.  The best part: they were super on sale.

Casey was still unsure and we didn’t pull the trigger right then, but with my encouragement, his disgust with our carpet, and some info from his parents about their success with Pergo, we went back tonight and made the big buy.  Soon our place (at least the floors) will look beautiful like this!:

I am so excited that we’ve taken the first step.  Of course, now we have to figure out when to pull up carpet and install floors in between other baby preparation, work, and Casey studying for his first CPA exam section.  Not to mention all before a baby arrives in less than two months… well really, whenever he’s ready!

Super Generous Folks

I had a baby shower at work today and it was wonderful. The food was really great, a potluck with foods varying from buffalo chicken dip to pasta salad with feta.

The cake was great too.  Look a little familiar, though?  Yeah, I think it’s the same kind as our first shower, but when something is as tasty as this cake, you don’t complain that the decorations are similar.  (If you can’t quite decipher the yellow frosting, it says “Congratulations Christie and Best Wishes with your baby boy”)

The decorations were sweet and included this awesome balloon.  My friend thought I should detach the umbrella and use it in the afternoon rainstorm we had today.

The gift situation at this shower expressed the extreme generosity of my coworkers.  There were lots of prizes, many of them things that were considered “big” items on my registry and I was excited (and a little relieved) to have them checked off the list.

We received the travel system, pack-n-play, swing, and plenty of other items, like diapers, wipes, onesies, bath sets, and an absolutely adorable stuffed penguin named Petey.

I am so thankful for the place I work and the people I work with.  Not just because they are so generous in their gift giving, but because their support and kindness is unmatched by many places of employment.