Not to make light of a sad situation...

Just to make light of my sweet mother.

Me: Did you hear about the shooting at UT?
Mom: Yea, I couldn't believe it!  They said he was running around with a ski mask and an AKA-47.
Me: (laughing) Really?  An "AKA" 47?
Mom: An A-47-K?  Whatever it was.

We obviously don't have a lot of experience with firearms...  :)

I am supposed to be cleaning house, so I'll blog instead.

I was hoping the "nesting" thing would hit me during this pregnancy, but it really hasn't.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I love to have the house clean.  The problem is, I don't want to clean it...  I refuse to pay a person to clean the house, but I also don't want to clean.  See the issue here?

I have always been pretty lazy.  I like to think that I do the things I need to do with jobs and such, but I do lazy things like... waiting to go to the bathroom because I don't feel like getting up off the couch yet or trying to make it into the house in only one trip so I don't have to go back out to the car.  Maybe the baby will change all of that.  But I thought being pregnant would change all that, and it didn't!  I don't want to nest on weekends, I want to take a two hour nap and then have someone bring me dinner.  Is that too much to ask?!  Anyway, enough of that. 

Our domestic situation is sometimes pretty hilarious.  Example: this is a conversation that took place after I picked out a polo shirt for Dave to wear today to church:
     Dave: See, the only problem with this shirt is that it's missing a button.
     Me: Oh, why didn't you ask your mom to fix it while she was here?
     Dave:  I was waiting to see if my wife would want to do it.
     Me:  Do you realize I once hot-glued a dance recital costume to hem it?

See, I don't know how to sew.  I also am not great at ironing.  I tend not to have real jobs where I need to iron clothes, or I buy clothes that don't need to be ironed.  For Dave's birthday, he asked me to iron his shirts, and I did (because I'm an awesome wife)!  Apparently, I did it wrong.  Honestly, how do you know when to spray that stuff on the shirts?  I maintain that it's not common knowledge. 

In other news, I made Dave let the lawn guy go.  I am willing to let Dave suffer in the heat for hours and hours every other weekend so that we will be $60 richer a month.  In my defense, we also got rid of cable.  I have to tell you, I do miss the Duggars a little.  Our cable-less life is only super-boring on weekends when I am being lazy and Dave is tinkering with things around the house. 

This is dragging, so I'll get outta here.  But fyi, our baby is still nameless.  We use a different name every week to see if one feels right, but who knows if that will work.  Our backup plan is just to name her "Scooter."  She won't mind, right?

Nursery Happenings

Like I mentioned, we have the cutest nursery ever.  It's a tiny little room, but we're pretty sure baby will fit in there just fine.  These pictures don't really do it justice, but they are all I have right now! 

(Taken from mama Sue's camera)...

Nursery Reveal / Fajita Night.  Notice how I'm sitting in a chair while other people do all the work for dinner.

Purple!  We weren't too thrilled about an entirely pink room, so homegirl gets bright purple.  (In real life, that pack-n-play will be in our room for a while, and the crib will move over toward the corner to make room for a glider...)

Here comes the series of Dave hard at work while I took a nap...

Reading directions is sexy.

Yes, he moved the dog crate out of the nursery.  Thanks for asking.








Ta-da!  Storage + a place to clean poop all in one! 

Remember, these pics don't do the fabric work justice, so I will have to post again to show all the pretty little finishing touches.  But now, a series of the final product:   

Cute, huh?  Pretty much the only thing cuter than this room will be the baby we stick in it.  Oh, and check out this toy from grandma that the dogs went ga-ga over:

I'm not really sure who that man is....                                    

Fake Smiles all Around

Yea, I know I don't post often, but the truth is, life is pretty ordinary around here (besides the whole bun in the oven thing).  I like bulleted lists, so I'll just give some quick updates before the belly pics.

• My in-laws are in town.  It has been awesome.  My mother-in-law has been working nonstop to make the cutest little nursery for our little nameless babe.
• Yes, the babe is still nameless.  We're working on it. 
• Speaking of the nursery, my in-laws on both sides have rocked the house.  Dad and Janet helped with all our awesome furniture.  Mom and Rick came to decorate!  Baby Livingston has a lot of grandparent love in her little room.  
• My parents are awesome, too.  Duh.  I'm not trying to leave them out.
• I started student teaching!  So far, it has been great.  I am working at a lovely Christian school in Sugar Land, and it has been such a blessing so far.  The atmosphere is great, and it doesn't hurt that my mommy works there, too!  Please pray that I finish my Clinical Teaching Practicum (which ends December 3) BEFORE baby comes (due December 15).
• I had gained 10 pounds total up to my 20-week OB appointment which led me to think, "Awesome, maybe I'll just gain 25 pounds during the pregnancy.  Easy Peasy." Fast forward to my week 24 appointment.  9 more pounds.  What?!  I guess the new goal is a pound a week from here on out to put me at a total of 35 pounds at the end...  Ah well.  I don't really care enough to limit my ice cream sandwich intake.
• I had to switch to aforementioned ice cream sandwiches to limit my total ice cream intake.  The bowls I scoop for myself are way huger than a simple sammy.
• Too many bullets.  On to my expando pics:

16 Weeks, crazy smile reminder:

17 Weeks, yes, they're pajamas:

18 Weeks:

19 Weeks:

20 Weeks:

21 Weeks:

22 Weeks: 

23 Weeks:

24 Weeks + "Yikes, I shouldn't put that on the internet!":

25 Weeks:

Once again, the fake smile has a mind of its own.  I can't control it!

Besos.

Doggie Dentist

*Disclaimer: if you have better things to do than view pictures and videos of my dogs, you should skip this post.

When I first got Laci, I knew that owning a dog costs money.  In fact, my ever-so-wise parents told me I shouldn't get a dog because I didn't have any money, but I didn't listen... 

There were things that I never knew you had to pay for.  $15 to cut her toenails?!  No thanks.  I'll do them myself.  (Actually, Dave does them himself, because Laci is a little less drama drama for him.  I like to think that's not my fault, though.  Let me keep thinking that, please). 

Anyway, Laci Wiener's teeth have been looking a little bit dingy, and of course the vet's suggestion is to spend over a hundred dollars in a teeth cleaning.  Instead, we picked up some $5 doggie toothpaste and left it up to Dr.. Livingston.  Here are the highlights:

Laci's "before" shots:

Now the big brushing session:

Penny didn't have a "before" shot, but here is her dentist visit:

All in all, I'd say it was a success!  Dave still won't kiss the dogs, though... I guess there's no hope for that.

Chicago + Ceci's Visit

Our trip to Chicago was lovely.  We spent some time with family, ate amazing food, and bought some baby furniture!  I brought my camera, of course, but I took zero pictures.  Whoops!  Dave also got to play with his dad's Ipad, so he got his technology fix for the weekend.  It was great to be in the city and actually see everything because my eyes weren't frozen shut.  Fun times. 

Una amiga mia, Ceci, came to visit this weekend with her wiener, Thumper!  Thumper is the cutest mini dachshund ever (don't tell Laci).  We took a few pics of the ween team, but these pictures do not express the love relationship that Thumper and Penny now have.  They wrestled nonstop for three days, and Penny keeps going into the guest room to look for him now.  Poor little girl. 

Dave loved having another man around the house, even if he was only an eight pounder...

He enjoyed spooning with Laci a little more than she did... 

Another weekend highlight was seeing Step Up 3D!  We actually didn't go to the 3D version for two reasons: 1) I'm too cheap for that, and 2) 3D movies haven't really been blowing my mind lately.  Either way, it was great!  It was the perfect dance movie: mediocre acting, shallow and predictable plot compacted into about 15 minutes of dialogue total, and DANCE scenes!  It was neat seeing some old contestants from So You Think You Can Dance as well. 

Only a few more weeks until I start my clinical teaching semester!

Baking Fail + Dave's Natural Charm

Well, the going has been good around here.  Surprisingly, Dave suggested we start a registry this weekend, so that is underway.  (I'm not sure if you know him, but he's not the registry type).  I think he jumped on the bandwagon when he realized how broke we'll be if we try to prepare for baby girl alone.

(Baby girl?!  Weird!) 

So, I told everyone about our big reveal dinner, but I left out the actual baking part.  I made strawberry cake from a box.  I'm not sure if you know this, but it's delicious.  The part you probably do know is that I'm not so talented in the kitchen. When I tried to get the cake onto the plate, this is what happened: 

Whoops!  My solution was to just try and jam the top back into the hole on the cake then glop a bunch of icing to cover it.  It turned into a very heavily iced cake.  Oh well, I like icing, too!  No one complained, either.  Probably because I distracted them with ultrasound pictures. 

Moving on.  My dad always said that he could tell when mom was pregnant because she would wake up one day and her butt would look bigger.  Such a charmer, I know.  Anyway, this little conversation just happened at my house:

Me: Is my butt getting bigger?

Dave: Little bit.

Me: That's so mean! 

Dave: What, did you want me to lie?!

Me: I just don't want it to get any bigger!


We have a long 20 weeks ahead of us.