5. Buy a new car

CHECK!!

Didn't think this one was going to happen so quickly. And note that when I say "new" I mean new to me, not brand new.

Anyway, Grant and I were offered a fabulous deal on a car that I've been in love with for years. We have some friends who were in the market for a new car and looking to sell their old one and because they love us so much they made us an offer that we can't refuse. They called us up on Sunday evening and asked us if we were interested. We talked about it and pretty much decided that we can't pass up their offer. So yesterday after work we went to their house and took it for a drive, then we talked numbers then we drove it home.

Check out this beauty!


This isn't MY car but mine looks exactly the same. It's a 2000 Lexus RX300 with only 77,000 miles on it and in perfect condition. Black exterior, tan leather interior and the works. I'm talking every upgrade that was available for this model; sunroof, heated seats, memory driver seat, 6 disc CD changer, all wheel drive. It's awesome!

Like I said I've been dreaming about owning a Lexus RX SUV one day but I honestly didn't think it would happen. I've been so stressed about what we're going to do when Carter comes (which is in less than 2 weeks) because this is what I've been driving for the last 7½ years


Again, this isn't the exact car but mine is identical except it's dark grey. It's soooo not baby friendly. I was dreading having to deal with a two door car with a small back seat.

I feel so much better now that I have one less thing to worry about. So I'll be selling my 2002 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT (with a sunroof, lol) if you or anyone you know is interested. It's a good car, just not a good family car.

9. Have a romantic dinner with Grant at the Melting Pot

This has been my favorite thing to check off the list so far. OMG it was sooooo good. If you've never eaten at The Melting Pot you need to go. I've been wanting to try it for a long time now and I've also been wanting to go on one last date night with Grant before I have Carter. I was thinking that it would be prefect to go for our one year anniversary but that's not until June 21st and I'll be 38 weeks pregnant then and it's probably not the best idea to drive 2 hours out of town at that time. So we decided to have an early anniversary dinner celebration.

It was probably the best meal I've ever had. It's a four course meal and 3 of the courses are fondue. There's a heated glass top burner in the middle of the table for us to share.

First they start you with a cheese fondue (we had the artichoke garlic cheese *yum*) and they give you fresh vegetables, 3 different kinds of bread and granny smith apples to dip into the cheese. It was so delicious!


Then we had our salads. They were good, but nothing compares to the fondue.


Then we had our entree which included Lobster Tail, Fillet Mignon Medallion, Jerk Seasoned Sirloin, Vanilla Rum Chicken, Marinated Pork Tenderloin, Zesty Peppered Shrimp, Butternut Squash Ravioli and Fresh Vegetables. Then they give you 7 different sauces to dip the cooked food into.


The best part though, was dessert; milk chocolate with a swirl of crunchy peanut butter. For dipping we got pound cake, brownies, cheesecake, Oreo crumble covered marshmallows, gram cracker covered marshmallows, fresh strawberries and bananas.

Guess what I'm doing tomorrow!

I'm going to the Melting Pot with Grant!

91. Be able to check off 50 things to ­ Cleansweep my life

I've been working on this one for a couple of weeks. The first time I completed the ­Clean Sweep checklist I had 48 checks, so I was close. There were a few things that I wanted/needed to work on though (one of them being tying up loose ends at work). I went through the checklist again and I now have 51 things I can check off.

I can't wait until I can get over 75 checked off. I really love this list, I think it's something that everyone should try to live by.

Check it out and see how many you can check off (I'm sure it will be more than me, my life isn't every organized right now, lol).

66. Write a letter to Grant’s grandma and snail mail it

I am on a roll. This is a goal that I've been meaning to do for a long time. We always get the sweetest letters from Grant's grandma and usually enclosed there will be a stack of coupons.

So today I sent out a letter to them. It's just a card with a note that says we're thinking of them and in the card I wrote about how we can't wait to see them in July for a wedding that we'll all be going to. I mentioned that the pregnancy is going good and Grant is taking great care of me. I also wrote down the web address for my pregnancy blog so she can log in and read about it.

I think she's going to love getting the letter in the mail. Grant's mom said that she always sends letters but rarely receive any because not many people send letters anymore.

So although I don't plan on this being the last letter that I send to her I will be crossing this goal off my list. I'm glad to have gotten it done!

42. Finish my thank you cards from the wedding

I'm bad. I'm sooooo bad that I haven't written my thank yous. You have a year though right? Well ladies and gentleman I have completed goal #42! I got them done last night and dropped them in the mail this morning. I had most of them done for some time now but I was waiting on some addresses and I didn't want to mail them out until I could mail them all out at the same time.

Notice that several of them at the top are white? Well those would be my thank yous from the baby shower. Yep, the baby shower that I just had 3 days ago. All those thank yous went out too.



I didn't think I'd be knocking off these goals so quickly. I don't know if it's because I'm nesting or what but lately I've felt the need to get so many of my loose ends tied up. I think having my 101 goals written down helps too.

70. Buy blinds for the entire house

A couple of weeks ago I bought the blinds for the nursery and this weekend I put them up. I would love to say that I never want to do that again but I know that I still have 6 more to do.

It wasn't as easy as the directions say. First of all the lady at Home Depot told me that although the box says the blinds are 39" they're actually 38½". That's great because my windows are 38¾" and 39" so they'll work. Except that once you install the brackets to hang the blinds that leaves the opening smaller. How did I fix it? Well I was home alone at the time (Grant finally got to go fishing) so I had to come up with something because dammit I wanted those blinds install NOW. So I found Grant's Dremel and went to work on shaving off the sides. Luckily the blinds themselves fit in the opening, it was just the top part that wouldn't fit.


So after like ½ an hour of taking the Dremel to the blinds I got the first one to fit. The second one was easier because it was the bigger window so there was less to take off. After that I was able to hang the blinds then cut them to length. Overall I think it took me about an hour to an hour and a half. Not too bad for an 8 month pregnant chick who's never hung blinds or used a Dremel before.





So that's 2/8 of the blinds that I can knock off my list. Yay!

17. Get rid of all of my shoes that I haven’t worn in the last 6 months

Finally I did it. This last weekend I had a great time going through my closet and getting rid of old shoes. I think I threw away about 20 pairs (a lot of them being flip-flops). I only kept the shoes that I wear regularly or the ones that I wear on special occasions like weddings and such. I wish I had a before picture, but here's an after;


Someday I'll have a nice big organized closet, not a small closet I have to share with a boy!

48. Read the Twilight series

Before I read the books I didn't really know what they were about. I thought they were just about vampires and that didn't interest me too much. Everyone kept raving about them though so I decided that someday I would read the series. It wasn't on the top of my priority list though so I figured I'd read them when I got around to it (and for me that could be years). Then my friend Alexis told me I had to read them because they are so good. She owned all four so she let me borrow them. I started the first one on a Friday (the day of my three hour glucose test) and was done with the four one in less than three weeks.

Needless to say, the Twilight series is not just about vampires, it's a romantic love story. I would totally recommend these books to anyone. I'm so glad that I didn't wait to read them, and now that's another thing marked off my list. Go me!

19. Donate hair to Locks of Love

Crossed off my list.

This is something that I've been wanting to do for years! Well I finally did it, I cut 11" off my hair. I had already made my list of 101 in 1001 that included this goal before I cut my hair so I figured that I'd leave it on the list, even though I didn't post it to my blog yet. Here's a before and after.

Before (not the best picture of me):


After:

My blog makeover!

So I mentioned before that I had something new for my blog. I have been working on this for a LONG time and let me tell you it was hard. It's called the 101 in 1001. I saw another blog that had it and I thought it was a great idea. I have so many things that I want to do in my life, especially the near future, and I love lists so I thought this would be perfect for me.

To the left you can see a list of 101 things that I want to do in the next 1001 days (a little under 3 years). I have everything from small home projects that I've been meaning to do for ages to big things that I've always wanted to accomplish in my life. I will be blogging about each one as I complete it. There are a couple on there that I've completed between making the list and now finally posting the list but I'll blog about those later.

If you think this is something that you're interested in and you want to start one and I'm the one who motivated to do so let me know. Because towards the bottom of the list you'll see that one of my goals is to get 3 people to start a 101 in 1001 of their own.

Me and Micky in LA (31w5d pregnant)

Twilight

Have you read the books? OMG I LOVE them. I've been hearing people talk about it for some time now but I just picked up the first book about 10 days ago. Well I'm ready to start book three now and I couldn't been more addicted. I haven't seen the movie yet but I just watched a trailer and holy cow it looks so good. If you haven't read it I totally recommend it. I can't vouch for the movie yet but books are always better than movie in my opinion.

I've gone all weekend without reading it but I'm starting book three tonight. Can't wait!

Check this out.

I just found the coolest blog.

http://hyperhomemaker.blogspot.com/

She is the most organized person I've ever seen. She has great tips on organizing, cleaning, entertaining you name it. The only bad part is that I read her blog on my lunch break and now the only thing I can think about is going home and cleaning my house. I've already bookmarked the link and the first thing I'm going to do Saturday morning after I wake up is read her blog. Within the first 3 minutes of reading it today I was so anxious to tackle my hall closet that I've been meaning to clean and organize.

So sometime this week on my lunch break I'm going to head to WalMart or Target or something and pick up some bins and trays so I can get to organizing. Wow, I don't think I've ever been so excited up to clean.

Here's my living room. Do you see why I need to clean. Haha, no really this was taken not long after we moved in and we had to pull everything out of the kitchen to do the tile floors.

This was taken awhile ago but it still looks pretty much the same. See, it's not too bad.

Look how speical I am....

I got an award from Cindy. Thank you so much!

Here is the description of the award:

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

I nominate the following;
Leah
Tabatha
Of course I would nominate Kaci but she was on Cindy's list
And there are many other blogs that I read but I don't know if then read mine. :)

Long time no see

I'm bad at blogging, I know. But really there's nothing to blog about that isn't pregnancy related. Here's a little of what's going on;

- If you remember, Grant and I have been trying to refinance our house. We bought the house 2 years ago and have an adjustable rate so we've been trying to get it fixed . We actually have two loans, the first is adjustable and the second is fixed at a high percentage. The first loan is for 80% of the purchase price and the second is only for the remaining 20%. Well after 9 months of trying the guy was finally able to get the first loan refinanced. Unfortunately he couldn't get anything done on the second but I'm okay with that. So the first loan is going down almost 2.5% which will hopefully make a huge difference in out mortgage payment. We should be signing the papers later this week so I'll know more then. Yipee!

- Grant and I have been going back to the gym finally. We've had a membership for a long time but just never had time to go. Well now that the days are longer it so much easier to get to the gym after work. And we've stocked the house full of fresh fruits and veggies, no bad food so that will help with the weight loss.

- Remember that master bath we've been working on? Ya, still not done. We are able to use it, toilet, sinks, shower, but we still don't have electrical in there. But our main focus has been on the nursery.

- I cut my hair. It's short, like to the shoulders. I wish I had a pictures but I don't. I'll have to take one someday. I cut like 12" off and I was able to donate it to Locks of Love. I've always wanted to do that. *more on that later*

Here's Grant with Larkyn (on the left) and Taylor (on the right). They love their Grant. I can't wait until I get to see Grant with Carter.

Oh....my.....gosh!

10 years?! 10 years since I've been out of high school?!? I just realized our 10 year reunion is coming up. Wow I feel so old.

Kaci, are you coming over for the reunion? I think you should. Word on the streets is that it's mid September so then you'll get to meet little Carter too. :)

I know you're jealous.....

of my bad ass fanny pack! ­Kaci, this is for you, sorry I made you wait so long.

Me, Robin and Kaci in 6th grade.

We're making progress

Over the weekend Grant and I (with the help from my parents and his mom) cleaned out our offices, which used to be in separate rooms. Then yesterday while I had to work and Grant had the day off he was able to move his desk and computer into my office. Now we just have to move the guest bedroom into his old office before we can start on the nursery. We really only have weekends to do this because we don't get home until 6:30 in the evenings which barely leaves us time to cook and eat dinner and get me to bed by 9:00 . :)

On Sunday Grant and I went to dinner at Red Robin for Haley's birthday. Afterward we went over to some friends house and played pin ball and rock band. We had so much fun playing rock band and I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard. Grant is too funny when he's drunk. We didn't get home until midnight and I had to work the next morning. It was worth it though.

And ­Kaci, I did find the pictures that I need to scan in so we'll be able to show the world that cute picture of us from 6th grade, fanny packs and all. I'll also be posting pictures of the progress of the rooms as soon as I actually take some.

Grant's the drummer, Emily and I on the guitar and Haley as vocals.

I had to add these pictures in too. This is Tiffany and Garret on guitar and Grant singing. He had never played this before so when it started everyone yelled at him to start singing so he just started singing the chorus, he didn't realize he had to follow the words on the screen. As you can see from the picture everyone was busting up laughing.


Here's Haley laughing at Grant. She couldn't drum because she was laughing so hard.

5 minute chocolate mug cake

Kaci, I'm sorry. I know that you like to post healthy recipes but how can I not post a recipe that sounds so delicious? I can't wait to try it.

5 minute chocolate mug cake

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips
A small splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee mug

DIRECTIONS:

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well

Add the egg and mix thoroughly.

Pour in the milk and oil and mix well

Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.

Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.

The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!

Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.

I love PF Changs.

I've heard of PF Changs before and how it was so delicious, but I didn't have the pleasure of trying it until yesterday. OMG it was good! A little pricey, but worth every penny. I can't wait to go back. Too bad the closest one is over 2 hours away.

Speaking of delicious restaurants, I've heard that The Melting Pot was good. I want to go there so bad. Yet again the nearest one is over 2 hours away. But I told Grant that I want to go before Carter (oh ya, did I mention on this blog that it's a BOY?!) is born. He thought that was a good idea too so he's on board. That's going to be one expensive dinner but I'm willing to save up for it. :)

In other news, Grant's truck broke down yesterday. His transmission is bad. BOO! So we figure it's going to be about 2k or so to get it replaced. That sucks. We're going to have to use our credit card :( At least once that gets done his truck should run good for a long time still. It's a 2002 Tacoma and he loves it so we'll be keeping it for sure.

That's pretty much all that's going on. So to leave you with a random picture;

This is the candy buffet I had at my wedding. It was such a hit. In the background you'll see my delicious wedding (yes it's leaning but it was the BEST cake I've ever eaten) and Grant's surprise soccer ball grooms cake. I loved it all.

Had a great weekend

Grant and I had a fabulous weekend. It started out on 7:30 Saturday morning when we got up to clean and do yard work. I cleaned, Grant did the yard work. At 5:00 we were done and the house looked great. We both hurt though. My lower back hurt so bad from all the cleaning, and poor Grant with all the mowing and weed eating he did. We prepped the food and people started coming around 6:00. We had 15 adults and 5 kids so the house was packed. We made some delicious kabobs and pasta salad. We had a great time. Everyone had a great time.

Then Sunday we did nothing. We slept in a little, watched T.V., I went on a walk with Haley, we watched the super bowl, Grant fixed a computer for an old customer of his, watched more T.V. and ate so much left over pasta. It was a nice relaxing day.

Today is a big day for us. We have a doctors appointment this afternoon to see the baby. I can't wait. I hope everyone else had a great weekend too!

I hate that I can't remember what pictures I've already posted. I don't think you've seen this one yet. This picture was about 20 years ago or so and in it are my cousins, my brother and I. Can you guess which one is me? If you already know don't say anything.

Sorry, sorry, sorry!

I don't know why I neglect this blog so much. Maybe it's because my life is kind of dull? LOL!

My sister in law, Leah, started a blog today so go check her out and show her some love.

Grant and I are still doing great. We're both just working all the time it seems like. I feel like we haven't had much of a social life lately. It's like we wake up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch T.V, go to bed then repeat. Everyday. So at 8:00 this morning I decided that we should have a BBQ at our house this weekend and invite all our friends. It's supposed to be beautiful weather so what better time? I sent out a mass text message to like 15 people in my phone and invited everyone. I have a few yeses and a couple of noes (I had to look up how to spell the word no in the plural sense, it still doesn't look correct but whatever). I'm really looking forward to the BBQ, I can't wait to hang out with some of my friends again.

So that's about it, sadly. I hope that everyone is enjoying 2009 so far. I know I am.

I don't think I've posted this picture before. As you can see from the date it is a couple of years old. Actually this is just three months after we started dating. We were at a party at my parents house (the same one where Haley was doing the keg stand in a previous picture) and as you can see we where pretty drunk. Fun times.

I had a fabulous weekend

Saturday I got to sleep in which is always wonderful. Then Grant and I went over to Jack and Alexis' house for her graduation party. There was great food and great people there. We played some poker and the girls kicked ass then played some Wii Mario Kart where I kicked ass.

Sunday Mona, Tonya, Amy and I went to lunch at a great local pizza and pasta place called Luigi's and had a fabulous lunch along with some much needed girl talk.

Then we went to the movies to see Bride Wars which I had been dying to see. OMG it was a great movie. During the previews I saw a few good movies coming out soon. The one I'm most excited about is Confessions of a Shopaholic. I've read the series years ago and the only thing I really remember is that I loved those books. The previews look so good I can't!

So that's about it. Nothing else new. I hope everyone else has a great week!

Here's Grant at Jack and Alexis' house a couple months ago playing guitar hero. That was a great night.

I'm so bad

about updating my blog, someone smack me!

Things are going great here. Work has gotten busy which is good for me, bad for my blog.

So an update on the bathroom; It's so close to being done that I can taste it. We have all the plumbing hooked up (thanks Dad). I've been able to use the toilet and sink. I LOVE having my own sink. Grant can dirty his now and mine will stay nice and clean. The only thing we have left to do is clean the shower one more time then let it dry completely so we can seal the grout. Oh, and we don't have electrical, but I have a lamp with an extension cord so that works for now. And then there's the glass block that Grant wants to install (in the square hole in the wall between the shower and vanity) but that can wait. So YAY! The pictures are on Grant's camera so I'll post them this weekend.

Tomorrow we're going to my friend Alexis' graduation party. She just graduated college with a BA and she got honor's. Go Alexis. Then Sunday I think I'll be hanging out with some friends. We're kind of dorks but we call ourselves the Fab 4. There's me, my BFF Tonya, her sister Amy and then Mona. We're all great friends and we try to get together every once in awhile. Me, Amy and Tonya all live in the same town but Mona lives about 2 hours away so it's been hard to get together lately. I'm excited for that.

So that's about it. I do post more on my pregnancy blog because well, that's more important to me so you can check the latest updates there. And don't forget to take the poll to vote whether you think it's a boy or girl. 24 more days until we find out.

Here's the Fab 4. Top left to right, Tonya then Me. Bottom left to right, Amy then Mona.

Happy New Year!

Grant and I joke that it's the year of Poppy.

I hope that everyone had a great New Years! I went to my BFF Tonya's house right after work and watched Lifetime movies until 10:00. Then I went home to bring the new year in with Grant. We watched T.V. until 1:00 then went to bed. On New Year's day we literately sat around and it nothing. In fact we stayed in our p.j.'s all day. I haven't done that in years, but it was so nice. We slept in, watched T.V., then while he was playing his computer games I busted out my Super Nintendo and Sega and played Mario Kart, Super Mario Borthers and Super Mario World. It was a lot of fun.

Then today it's back to work. My parents gave me the option to work but I decided to do it because 1) Grant had to work anyways and 2) I'd rather save my time off for giving birth. So I'm the ONLY one here at work today. I have some projects that I need to tie up though, some end of year filling and stuff. I'd rather be in bed though.

Here's a picture for about 3½ years ago. That's Kymmie, me and my good friend Mona at a party. Good times!