better than a red rabbit’s foot

Last weekend was a fun but busy one. Besides being the first easter for the little man, it was also his first ever Cards game. We lucked out with a beautiful, sunny, Saturday afternoon and arrived at the stadium just in time for the first pitch, decked out head to toe in Cardinal red. By the way, I do believe Henry has more Cards gear than Tim and I combined.

Although it would be a memorable event for our little family regardless, of course we hoped we would see a good game. However we never guessed that we would be treated to an 11-2 victory, complete with a Pujols grand slam and 3-run homer! I think that Henry might just be luckier than the red rabbit foot keychain that I brought along every baseball game as a child. Looking back, it doesn’t seem to make sense to give a child a dead animal apendage dyed red for luck, but I digress. Our little lucky charm had quite a day and we had so much fun introducing him to the best fans in baseball.

a week of weird

I don’t know what is in the air, but the days since last Thursday has been a bit out of the ordinary and I’m hoping things will get back to normal soon. Let me take you through my week- bear with me this will be a long one…

Thursday: My friend Kristie invited us to join her at the baseball game, which was great except for the rain and a Cardinal’s loss. But before the game I was determined to make it to my yoga class because I haven’t been able to go for weeks. So, in my rush to get home from work, change and make it to yoga I almost didn’t notice that Odie had puked all over his bed and my brand new, birthday present, only been on the floor for 3 days, beautiful rug. This alone is not the end of the world. Besides making me almost lose my lunch, it all came up pretty easily. However when the dog has an upset stomach he’s been known to chew on things. Guess what he picked? Yep, my brand new rug. He took a small, yet very obvious chunk out of the edge. So I flew out of the house, already late for yoga and called Tim to cry out my frustration before trying to block it out with some meditation. Luckily my yoga instructor is wonderful and I had an hour of relaxation before having to deal with the reality of my ruined rug.

Friday: Odie begins his confinement in the kitchen where he cannot access anything valuable to puke or chew on. After work Tim and I went shopping, out to dinner and to the laundromat to wash the dog bed which is too big to wash at home. Outside the laundromat we witness a little white puppy run across the street and nearly get hit by a car. He also has a little puppy friend following close behind. Being the dog lovers that we are, although at this point I’m giving Odie the silent treatment, we catch up with the puppies and check for tags. They both have collars but no identification other than a Humane Society tag on one of them. So we walked around the neighborhood looking for anyone who may recognize them and finding nobody, we put them in the back of the jeep and drove up and down every nearby street. After nearly an hour with no luck, we dropped them off at the Humane Society’s overnight cages. I felt really guilty leaving them in lonely metal cages, but we couldn’t really take them home and didn’t have any other safe place for them. We hope and pray they were reunited with their owners or re-adopted.

Our little puppy adventure took up a big chunk of the evening and so when we got home I just threw on a load of laundry and hoped to snuggle in the rest of the night on the couch. That is until we heard the sound of a waterfall coming from the laundry room. Instead of draining into the pipe that leads out of the house to the sewer, our washing machine backed up into the utility sink and overflowed all over the basement floor. With a mountain of towels, a mop and a bottle of Drano, we seem to have the problem under control.

Saturday: pretty uneventful. We actually had a great day at our niece’s 5th birthday party/carnival.

Sunday: looked like Hurricane Ike made its way north into the Midwest and landed in our back yard. Everything was blowing all around, including huge puddles of water into the basement. So, more towels and mopping. Right after Tim finished cleaning that up and was headed out to the garage to finally paint our bedroom furniture, we got a call from his brother. We learned that late the night before their mom went to the emergency room because of a possible severe kidney infection. She and Tim’s dad were there into the wee hours of the morning only to wake and find that Ike had flooded their dock and yard. Thankfully Tim’s mom is doing fine, but with such little sleep his dad needed some help reclaiming the dock and the boats. So Tim jumped on the road and drove an hour to his parents house to help. The happy ending to Sunday (besides his mom being okay) is that he still came home and painted the furniture so that his crazy pregnant wife would stop freaking out about the baby’s room.

Monday: Tim left his keys at work accidentally and locked himself out of the house until I got home from work. Of course I was working late that night.

Tuesday: I went into work early and left before Tim was out of bed. He called me about an hour later at work to tell me his car had been broken into (right in front of our house by the way) and that the ignition box had been torn out of the steering column. Thankfully they didn’t successfully steal the car or take anything else, but the car was no longer drivable. So, he had a neighbor drop him off at my office so he could use my car for work. Of course this meant I had no car  to make it to my doctor appointment that afternoon and had to have my mom come pick me up. She kindly took me to the doctor, but on our way home discovered that now Tim had MY keys, so I was locked out of the house until Tim came home 45 minutes later.

Wednesday was a quiet one – we were still trying to recover.

Today: I came into work early again, after dropping Tim off at a car rental place to get a loaner until the Jeep is fixed. Nobody was in the parking lot and I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. When people started showing up for work I heard a buzz about a dead body across the street. Apparently after I came into the building the police showed up to investigate a body that was just found steps from our parking lot. Now keep in mind we work downtown and there are usually some homeless people hanging out under the overpass, but we don’t really consider it a dangerous part of the city. People park here for baseball games, walk back here after visiting the local bars and leave their cars here overnight. So it was a bit unusual to find out that there’s been a homicide right outside our building. We haven’t gotten much information so far other than they suspect the man was homeless, was shot or stabbed in the stomach and stumbled to the spot under the overpass where he was found. Very unsettling.

So, that has been my week. On the upside there have been alot of good things about the week, including getting a new laptop and ipod, hanging new artwork and curtains in the baby’s room and a great baby checkup at the doctor.

With any luck, the strange and unfortunate events are behind me and I can enjoy a fun filled weekend. Tomorrow I’m off work for our annual field day,  Saturday I’m attending a celebration in honor of my dear friend Amy’s 30th birthday, and Sunday is a BIG baby shower at my mom’s house. I hope to have some happy stories to share with you on Monday!

extreme home makeover

I’m not a big fan of reality shows in general, but there are a select few that I’ve grown to enjoy, specifically The Amazing Race and Extreme Makeover Home Edition.  So, when I heard in the local news that a St. Louis family had been selected by ABC for a home makeover, and there would be a surprise second makeover of a local coffee shop, I was curious to find out who they were. Well I discovered that the home was mere blocks away from where I live and the coffee shop was down the road from my parent’s house! After driving past the blocked off subdivision multiple times, Tim and I finally decided to stop by and take a look. Although the entire subdivision was closed to non-residents, they did have a spectator entrance where you could walk down and see the progress.

We were completely amazed at how many people were there just to see the house and how generous the neighbors were for dealing with restricted access to their own homes and their lawns trampled on by strangers. There were tons of volunteers on the site and even more off site with fundraisers for the family. It seems the whole community really came together to support a very deserving family in need.

The pictures above show the new house two days after the old one was demolished and the reveal to the family is tomorrow afternoon. The episode of the St. Louis home and coffee shop airs sometime in early November.

be on the lookout…

…for this crib.

It’s part of the Baby Mod line at **gasp** Walmart. I know – I can’t believe it either! I’ve made it a point to steer clear of that place since being forced to shop there all through college – it was all we had in Kirksville. Its not that I don’t love a good deal, but most of the stuff they carry is so generic, mass-produced and unattractive, unlike my FAVORITE discount store – Target – they love design.

But I digress.

After an exhaustive search high and low for the perfect crib, we determined that this crib is it. The best combination of modern design, quality and price. Similar style modern cribs are only available in specialty boutiques and run upwards of $1000!

Here lies the problem. Its sold out online and we can’t find it in any of the local stores we’ve checked. So would you all be so kind as to keep an eye out for this beauty? If you see it at ANY Walmart store please let me know.  I will call and buy it and pay to have it shipped. It is called Baby Mod- Olivia 3-in-1 Crib, Amber and White. I just have to get my hands on one before the baby is here!

*UPDATE* Tim was able to get in touch with the manufacturer and find out when the cribs will become available online once again. Evidently, the crib is only available at Walmart.com and not in stores as their website suggests.

baby’s bottom

One thing I’ve been thinking about lately is how we will diaper our baby. While it seems the norm these days to use disposables and there’s no arguing that they are easy, I’ve been very interested in exploring the cloth alternative. First of all, my mother used cloth diapers on all three of her children, even when disposables were quite common, so the concept is pretty familiar. I can’t actually recall if she let me wield a diaper pin to change my little brother when I was all of 6 years old, but I got the idea. The most obvious benefits of course, are environmental friendliness and cost, however I’ve also read quite a bit about the health benefits for the baby. Cloth diapers don’t have the chemicals that disposable ones do, they’re softer on skin and less likely to cause diaper rash. Really, the only downside I can see is the business of washing all these stinky suckers.

I’m still planning to do a little more research and found a great resource here in St. Louis. One retailer of cloth diapers called Cotton Babies, has a retail store in South County. They offer classes about cloth diapering and give information about all the options available.

I also found another great website and blog called Nature’s Child, that has a variety of useful topics about parenting and offers wholesome, natural products on their website. The best part?! They have a contest going on right now through July 31st where you can win a starter kit of diapers. So if you’re a mom who uses cloth diapers, or if you’re one of my family members or friends who want to win me a spectacular gift, be sure to enter the sweepstakes!

Win a Bum Genius 3.0 Starter Kit from Nature’s Child – Wholesome Goods for Mothers and Babies

head of the table

If you’re hostessing any kind of party or get together coming up and need some fun inspiration, you should head on over to head of the table, one of my favorite daily reads. My friend Kim has a great eye for theming and decorating and on her blog she offers great ideas for showers, holidays and parties just because.

ps. check out her sweet new header art :)

independence day, st. louis style

If you’re in St. Louis and looking for some good old-fashioned Americana this Friday, then march yourselves downtown to watch the 131st annual VP Parade. You can download the above image as a printable pdf here.

(Who, you ask, designed that oh so festive poster above? Why your’s truly of course!)

free prenatal yoga class

My friend Kristie forwarded me an email about a free prenatal yoga class being offered at Southtown Yoga on June 15th, from 3:00 – 4:30 pm. Southtown Yoga is a new yoga studio in South St. Louis city that opened last September and its so cute from the outside I’ve been dying to go in and try a class. As it turns out, the instructor who teaches my prenatal yoga class at the YMCA is also the same prenatal instructor at Southtown, Cameron Metheney. She is an excellent instructor and her classes are great for moms-to-be of any yoga experience level.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it to the free class at Southtown, but if you’re pregnant and looking for a wonderful exercise and stress relief, I highly recommend dropping in and trying Cameron’s class. If you’re not pregnant, but think you would enjoy yoga, they also have a drop-in fee of $15 for any of their classes you want to check out.