It feels slightly foreign yet very liberating when Niels doesn't have to do anything school related and doesn't have to feel bad about it. Sure there are nights where he decides to sluff and just hang out with me instead. But of course the consequence usually entails staying up late the next night or two to catch up. Pesky consequences. Technically he is on "summer break" but has been studying like the Dickens for boards so it doesn't feel like it. Not even one bit. But the good news is that BOARDS ARE OVER as of yesterday and it feels pretty dang good. (I love how I say it like I'm the one who took them.) But really ... it is a huge milestone for him, and I would venture to say for both of us because I swear our automated and programmed response to pretty much anything the last few months has been, "Oh we can't do that until after boards." Luckily he still has a week and some odd days to fit in a few fun things before he's back to the grind next month. It is sooo nice to be able to just lounge at night and and watch movies and not have to stop them half way for him to go study. I love it.

I'm pretty sure painting the nursery and registering aren't necessarily what he had in mind for "fun" the first day after his big test, but I am pretty stoked about our hot date to Babies R Us tonight and am thrilled that he is home taping walls as I type this. And I'm confident assembling the crib isn't what he had in mind for day two of freedom either ... thanks honey. I will be one happy momma when it is all done.

I don't know how to make these awesome photo collages I am seeing on other blogs (your shared wisdom would be appreciated if you do) but here are a few pics of inspiration for the nursery. Not sure exactly what we are doing just yet, but the walls will be aqua. I am loving the little dainty chandeliers right now, but I know it is kind of ridiculous to have one. I guess we will see if I can think of some way to justify it in the next week or two.

29 Weeks

She's cooking nicely.

Pros:
She is finally large enough that not only can we both feel her move, we can sit back and watch her move without even touching. Craziest and greatest thing ever.

Cons:
Don't have too many to name. In fact I have felt great overall and feel pretty lucky. The only minor beefs I have are with Charley and his horses striking my calves in the middle of the night, and the fact that little miss has decided that my sciatic nerve is super comfy to rest on.

Reality:
I am starting to feel some anxiety about not being as prepared as I would like to be at this point. A lot of things have been on the back burner because life has been crazy and we have felt like it is still so far away to start getting things ready. But we are realizing that 2 months will be here faster than we know it and we really need to get on the ball. Perhaps we should register, choose a name or maybe decide what hospital we are delivering at... just some minor details.

We did however order our nursery furniture and it came in this week (we went with rocker style # 3 if you care). Everything is just sitting in ginormous boxes in our living room waiting to be put together. It would be a grand understatement to say we are looking forward to Niels finishing his boards this month so we can go full-force on the baby business next month.

Hello Cupcake

Have you seen this book?

If not, you should pick it up next time you're at Target and thumb through it for some cheap thrills (I just assume you go there regularly becasue I do).

I hit a drought for ideas for mutual last week so we tried our hands at these creations, sans the Starry Night Masterpiece. While they all look pretty cool, let's be honest ... they don't look super delicious at first glance.

Corn on the cob: Super easy. Just frosting, assorted Jelly Bellys and a Starburst.


Spaghetti with Meatballs: Piped frosting, Ferrero Rocher Chocolate ball, Strawberry preserves

Sunflower: Mint Oreo, frosting and a red M&M

The New Diggs

So I’ve been MIA for a while. Mainly because July was the craziest month for us in a long time, if not since we’ve been married. The biggest of all the many events of last month is that we moved. Nothing too crazy, just a few miles south of where we were. But the hectic part was that we only had about 30 days to find something as it was somewhat unexpected, and it was almost as if we looked at the calendar and said, “When would be a really hot, busy, and inconvenient time to move?” and went with it. Besides it being a thousand and four degrees outside, Niels has finals and his National Boards this month and I am seven months pregnant. But alas, everything actually went very smoothly thanks to great family and friends who helped a ton.

Niels says I think the move went smoothly because I didn't have to do any manual labor (reason # 47 I like being pregnant). However, I did all of the nasty contracts and paperwork as well as most of the unpacking and organizing which is just as difficult in my book. I picked up some fresh Winchells’ Donuts for our helpers the morning we moved and I had to laugh at myself as I held a cake donut (white frosting with rainbow sprinkles in case you care) in one hand, and I directed everything that needed to be lifted and moved with the other hand. It was pretty amazing. I'm thinking child #2 might need be scheduled around our next big move in a couple years.

I'm not going to list our new address here for obvious potential creeper purposes, but I will say we have slightly upgraded in the street name department by no longer living on Anticipation Court.

We really like the neighborhood – quiet, friendly, clean and there is a nice community pool that doesn't have hoodlums in it.

We had several rental leads from friends, but most of them didn't have enough space for Bertha, Niels' big, black and beautiful baby. She arrived safely in the new place and fits nicely in our front room.

We are acclimating nicely and it is starting to feel more like home everyday. But there are a few quirks we don’t love about it. I discovered that’s kind of the name of the game with rentals. There is no such thing as a PERFECT rental so you pretty much need to make a mental list of things you can bear living with and the things that you can’t look past. While weeding through the dozens if not hundreds of rental listings I found myself thinking things like, wow that is an awesome floor plan but I just can’t do the mauve carpet, or the ivy wall paper or (insert any other heinous feature here) … I just can’t.

Sure, I realize that might sound ridiculous because it is only a temporary dwelling. And yes, I do realize that we are in dental school and should be living the stereotypical one bedroom apartment lifestyle with crate boxes and cinder blocks. However, with the way the housing market is in Las Vegas right now there is definitely room to be picky. There are so many places available so it is somewhat foolish to rent an apartment when most are just as costly if not more than rental homes. And again, it's all about having space for Bertha.

Anyway, like I was saying … overall, we enjoy the new place. We love having more open space which will be especially handy when little miss arrives. The features we don’t necessarily love, but make the "we can live with list" include things like having carpet under the kitchen table area, oak cabinets, hokey bathroom light fixtures (you know the kind with five 60- watt light bulbs in a row screwed into a silver rectangle), etc.. So while there are probably about 15 things that bug us about the house, there are really only two things that drive me crazy enough to spend the the time and/or money to change asap.

# 1 This brass beauty in the kitchen has to go.




# 2 White walls. We have TONS of wall space in this house and it is all white with white blinds. I don’t know why this drives me crazy but it does. We aren’t painting the whole house because that would just be a silly waste of money, but we thought we would give at least our family room and kitchen some pigmentation. A HUGE thank you to my step-dad for doing this for us since I can't inhale fumes right now (reason # 23 I'm happy to be pregnant) and Niels is up to his ears in Board preparations. Pictures forthcoming once we get things up on the walls.

The good news for you all is we still have a guest room. We have loved hosting a good share of visitors at Hotel Jensen the past two years and hope people will still come even after baby J arrives on deck. Actually, now that I think of it … if you come stay with us we will graciously allow you take baby night duty. Deal?