March has been Busy!

Along with more doctor appointments and getting the house as squared away as we can before Peanut arrives, March is just slipping away!

Tom had an out of town conference in St. Pete Beach, FL from March 12-15. Luckily I got to go along (with some convincing from Tom.) It was really nice. Our hotel room looked out over the gulf of Mexico and we had a beautiful beach to walk on. Tom was only in conference from 8-noon and all meals were included, so we were pretty carefree! We really needed it, too. Tom has been working so much that he was pretty beat down and I really needed to have some time with him. It was nice to just spend time together.

It had the added bonus of revitalizing Tom, too. When I asked Tom about getting some yard work done yesterday, he was quite willing, which was a big help to me. I've been starting to worry about how I'll get everything done before the baby comes. We got bulbs planted and mulch put down and the yard mowed. Honestly it makes the whole place feel a little more homey and more like our own.

Other projects are starting to fall together now, too. We had the roof replaced at the end of December and the new heating/air conditioning system goes in on Thursday. Both were unexpected expenses, but I suppose it gets chalked up as the joys of home ownership. I had a guy out to do a "tune -up" on the HVAC system in December and he more or less delivered nothing but bad news which included the inside of the air handler being covered in mold. Since the system is 9 years old and we will likely be moving again in the next few years it only made sense to upgrade and clean it up. It especially makes sense with a Baby on the way and because Tom got sick back in December and it really didn't clear up until we put him on Claratin at the end of January. I would chalk it up to the mold. Hopefully the souped up filter system we're having installed will mean he can get off the Claratin.

I also had some of the gutters fixed early this month. Then once the HVAC system is replaced I can have ALL the carpets and living room furniture cleaned. We never managed to do it when we moved in, but honestly I'm just as glad now that I found out about the mold. Now we can clean everything at once. When the carpets are cleaned I can finally put the crib together and start getting ready for Peanut to come home. It really feels good to be marking stuff off the list.

Spring is definitely in the air here in Charleston. The trees are budding and the flowers are blooming. The bugs are buzzing. I've already seen a large Palmetto Bug skittering across the garage floor and with all the outdoorsy stuff I've been doing I have been eaten alive. My forearms are just bug bites on top of bug bites.

A Table for Four!

When we moved to Charleston in June we had our dining room table (for the dining room) but no table for our eat in kitchen. I have been searching and searching for a table that would work and FINALLY today I found one! It was the perfect shape, size, has the right chairs and is a pedestal and comes with a leave to make it oval if we need more room. I found it on Craig's list for a reasonable price (I thought, but Tom wanted to haggle - and he's sore that I didn't let him) and it was still available when I called on it. I told Tom the ONE and only thing I can think of that would have made it better was if it had had a drop leaf so that we could have the extra space, but not have to store the leave somewhere else.
I was so frustrated with the whole situation I was about to give up. Tom had mentioned at one point how great it would be if we had a couple of recliners in the kitchen so he could stretch out and relax while talking to me when I made dinner. I told him on the way to look at this table that if it wasn't what we wanted I was seriously temped to make a little sitting area there with our love seat, a small coffee table and an area rug and call it good. Once I saw this table, however, I knew it was the right one.
Craig's List in Charleston doesn't work as well as Craig's List in Portland. In Portland there were rules about posting and your ad was removed after 7 days to keep if fresh. Here you'll see the same ad placed day after day and people don't go in and remove their ad's once the item is gone. There were many times I got all excited about a table only to find out it had sold several days before. I can't believe I found one that was so perfect and mine for the taking.