Free Music

I love getting new songs and love it even more when they're FREE!

I also love getting into the Holiday spirit and that means Holiday music. :-) The Civil Wars is giving away two free downloads and they are quite lovely. You can find out about it on their Facebook page here:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/thecivilwars

And get the free tracks here:

http://app.topspin.net/store/artist/3620?wId=46685&theme=black&highlightColor=0x00A1FF&w=400&h=300&src=fb

I'm feeling great and have a full on bump now. You can't see it from the Thanksgiving picture below but I'll post some pictures tomorrow. :-)

I still haven't felt the baby move and it's the size of a sweet potato now so you'd think I'd be able to feel it moving all about. I long for that day.

I'm a full 41/2 months along now which according to MY math means I'm halfway there! We'll see if baby feels the same way about that math. :-)

I have my 20 week check up on the 17th at 9am so any prayers and thoughts you send my way would be great. I'm confident Dr. Taylor will give me a clean bill and show me that the placenta is no longer blocking the cervix.

I've been listening to her and limiting myself to walking everyday at lunch for 30-45 minutes. It feels great to be getting some exercise.

Mom met me and the Hubs at the Baby Store in Los Gatos to get schooled on all things baby stuff. We picked out some items and are of course comparing prices which led to a wicked argument about what else? MONEY! Sigh. One of these days we'll be able to communicate without it ending in tears, teeth gnashing and door slamming.

Blink
Blink
Blink

What? Haven't you ever heard of pregnancy hormones?

Apparently the hubs has not and has not a thought about simply smiling and nodding rather than asking questions that lead into arguments. Again I ask this amazingly wonderful God of mine what in the world he was thinking putting a man and woman together. But that's a topic for an entirely separate blog post. :-)

Luckily I have a very good friend who's husband thinks pretty close to identically to mine. She listened and offered me sage advice on handling these discussions that start out with me excited about acribandadresserandastrollerandbassinetandacarseatandaandaanda well you get it, and end with the hubs punching the seemingly impossible numbers in his head.

I was not brought up to believe in that word. Impossible. It was a swear word in our house and I believe we'd have our mouths washed out with soap if we were to even THINK it.

What do you get when you mix a pessimist realist with a dreamer? Just come on over to our house, bring up acribandadresserandastrollerandbassinetandacarseatandaandaanda and you'll find out. ;-) Mostly it's a gorgeous, complimenting, loving pairing but sometimes the stubborn-ness  wins out and we both lose.

What?

Oh right. Like YOUR relationships are all rainbows and butterflies. Liar.

It's what makes us smarter, wiser and better people and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I'm open to any and all communication tips however. Those are never too much.

Love,
Cares

New Beginning?

Well, Shawn and I have been avidly searching for a bigger place to rent. 
I want something with a dining room and a yard.  
He wants something with a square footage that matches the price.  
WE both want a home that makes sense for us and our pups and someday soon growing family.

What I love best about my partnership with Shawn is how we fill in one others gaps. I know I've said this many times over, but hopefully that repetition is a good sign. :-) Shawn is a thinker, a researcher a let's-talk-about-this-until-Care-wants-to-chuck-that-paper-mache-bird-she-bought-at-a-winery-at-my-head. WHAT? Care bought a paper mache bird?  
At a winery?

BLINK
BLINK

Hey, it's a cute bird!

But I digress.

All of the discussion we've been having would usually make my head pop off, but this time is much different. We're discussing the year ahead and how an increase in rent will affect our everyday lives. Sure we can manage it, but is it what we want? What are the sacrifices we'll have to make? How can we cut back so we aren't strapped? We've been round and round, up and down through all these questions over a dozen times each.

We make our decision tonight! This morning as I walked back upstairs to get ready I looked down and my husband who was standing in the kitchen taking a sip of coffee and asked him "Babe, are you excited?" to which he swallowed, smiled and through his teeth said, "I'm nervous". "Me too!" I sang as I skipped up the stairs.

There are definitely more pros than cons for this place and when I think about it I get the teeny tiniest butterflies in my stomach. So please readers, send out your prayers and positive thoughts as we make a pretty big decision. Sure it's not as if we are BUYING a house, but this is a really big deal for us!

xxoo

Cares

Valentine's Day

Happy belated Valentine's Day! I'm running a contest on my blog today to see who had the best Valentine's Day. I'm going to start the contest off by saying ME!! It was ME who had the best Valentine's Day!

Shawn and I don't tend to make a big deal about the Hallmark Holiday, and this year was no different. We wanted a nice quiet weekend that didn't entail an overpriced meal or overdressed crowds. So we stayed in and he took on the kitchen. And oh did he take on a feat! If you know us, you know that I love to cook and Shawn usually doesn't get much of a chance to use all of our lovely appliances. This year we were to have a quiet dinner on Saturday night at the Cooke's but instead they were sick. :-( Somewhere between the phone  call and the trip to the Farmer's Market Shawn became inspired to cook me dinner AND a surprise dessert. He wanted to cook a Mahi Mahi recipe he found in Rachael Ray's Guy Food cook book. He took his time evaluating our stock checking the book, checking the pantry, checking the book, writing down ingredients until he was satisfied with his list. I tried to check on his list but he just covered it with his hand and said "I got it". :-)

We didn't ever separate in the grocery store but he still managed to sneak in ingredients for his super secret delicious dessert. I knew SOMETHING was up when he asked me to pick out the ginger snaps, but then he knows my love for ginger snaps so I guess it wasn't THAT big of a clue.

We got home and he took care of EVERYTHING. He put the groceries away and even got me a sandwich for lunch. We took the afternoon and rested, played with Winston the enormous dog and just lounged about.

He began dinner while I watched Twilight for the 3rd time and I watched him deep in concentration as he checked, double and triple checked the recipe for his guacamole (which was FANTASTIC) and even pulled out the food processor! I snacked on chips and guac and watched him carefully follow each step to cook his mahi mahi. He cooked it on a stove top grill and it came out so TASTY. It melted in my mouth! I don't know what seasonings he used for his marinade but it was fantastic. He cooked corn and broccoli to fulfill our daily 5 servings of veggies and it worked great. I praised him for a job well done and cleaned up my place setting thinking we were done.

About 30 minutes later he asks if I was ready for dessert. The man made a lemon custard with a gingersnap crust.

Blink
Blink

Yep, he made a homemade crust. If you know me, you know how much I love lemons. I could get all Bubba Gump, but I won't. :-)

It was a priceless meal and an amazing gesture. I WIN! :-)