The nursery- part one

Before we could even think about setting up the nursery, we had to paint over a terrible paint job. The blue wasn't so bad, but you could see the previous colors through the paint. Here's what it looked like before:And here's the after:

It took 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of paint for the base color. Then, Brandon measured the 6 inch stripe and we had to tape it off. It took 2 coats for the stripe to look right- but that didn't take long at all!

Brandon and my dad hung new wood-like blinds, which has made a big difference in the room as well.

Now, we just need to assemble the crib, shelving and put everything up! My mom is recovering a rocking chair that we bought from one of Brandon's co-workers, so that'll need to be completed as well.

I feel like we're on the right track though- it feels great to have all the painting done!

(ps- we used the Olympic, no VOC paint from Lowes; it rocks! There weren't any fumes!)

Big purchase

After 10 years of driving the 1996 Dodge Avenger, Brandon traded up this weekend.....to a 2008 Dodge Avenger RT! :) This one is a four door though, which is what we need with our little guy on the way.
He really researched and got a great deal- I'm so proud of him. He really got his money's worth out of the old one, and its still hard to believe that its gone!

98 days to go!

26 weeks- 98 days left!

I have my 1 hour glucose test and another ultrasound this week- I'm not too excited about the test, but it'll be nice to get it out of the way.

School ends on Thursday- I'm excited for some time off! It'll be a busy week.

Weekly grocery trip

I made a quick grocery run to Homeland today- those $1 off Kraft printable coupons really came in handy! Here's how I did:

Total OOP: $29.72
Total Saved: $53.10- a 67% savings (28 items total)

I bought several things without coupons that we needed, but here's my best buys:
$0.50 chinet plates
$0.59/package kraft singles (cheese)
$0.50 ritz crackers
Free Kraft Salad dressing
$0.50/box Kellogg's cereal
Free Cool Whip
Free Wishbone Salad spritzer dressing
$0.69 Kraft bagelfuls
$0.50/each Philly cream cheese
$0.99/3 instant pudding mixes
$1.18 New York Garlic Toast

I meant to take a photo, but I needed to get the groceries put up before the melted!

I'm gonna run by Super Target and get another $2.99 seedless watermelon- and we'll be set for the weekend!

It's offical!

I'm officially licensed to practice speech-language pathology in the state of Oklahoma! :) Woo-hooooo!

This past year I've been an SLP under a 'clinical fellowship' umbrella- but my license card/number came in the mail today!

Now, I just need to mail my stuff to ASHA (the American Speech Language Hearing Association) and get my CCC's!

Shopping

I'm officially addicted to neighborhood garage sales. I love the 'hunt'! I've found some great stuff for our little guy. Here's everything I've purchased (clothing wise) thus far- I've divided it all out by size. In the white box is 12 months and up, white bag is 3-6 months, in the blue bag it's 6-9/6-12 months and on the floor is newborn/0-3 months.

This past weekend, my best finds were 2 PB Kids baby outfits, 1 Janie and Jack shirt and overalls, 2 Restoration Hardware baby outfits (NB and 0-3 months), Baby Gap socks and a Dwell (from Target) sleep sack. I also found several cute OSU outfits/shirts- which I just couldn't pass up :) The most I've spent on an outfit so far is $1.50, and I've found some outfits for as cheap at 10 cents!

I also ordered my 1st Vera Bradley bag this past week. I'm going to use it as a smaller diaper bag/purse for short outings. It was 1/2 off on the Vera website- I'm really impressed with it thus far. I'm excited that it's washable and easy to care for.

I also stopped into Ross on Sunday- they have some great, cheap maternity shirts/pants- in case anyone is looking :)

My Target trip

I felt pretty good after work and supper this evening, so I decided to go to Super Target to check out the deals. Here's how I did:

Total OOP: $30.70

Total Saved: $45.40

Best deals:

$0.04 each for 3 boxes of Nabisco 100 calorie pack snacks

$0.99 each for 5 boxes of Kellogg's cereal

$0.75 a box Ritz crackers

$0.99 each for Crystal Light (I used 2 $1/1 coupons, 1 B1G1 free coupon and 3 Target $1/1 coupons)

$0.44 each for Target Brand baby wash

I could have done better with the Miracle Whip and salad dressing coupons, but I went ahead and picked up 2 of each because I was there and the price wasn't bad.

I ran all of these deals by using the printable coupons from http://www.coupons.com/ in conjunction with the weekly Target coupons.

Great Printables!

Some amazing printable, $1/1 coupons are up on coupons.com and Kraft's website.

They don't expire until 6/10/09 and they ALL double. This will make for some free or close to free salad dressing, cream cheese, mayo, crackers, etc at Homeland and/or at Target with their store coupons. Hurry and print these out :)

www.coupons.com

Target coupons can be found on www.hotcouponworld.com in their Target Coupon Generator

Remember, you can print each coupon twice!

22 & 23 Weeks

22 Weeks:

Maternity clothes? Yes

Stretch marks? Nope

Best moment this week: Our 1st baby shower

Movement: yep- he doesn't move much though while I'm at work

Belly Button in or out? In, but it doesn't look as deep...

What I miss: sleeping on my stomach, my cute spring clothing

What I am looking forward to: end of the school year! I only have 12 more days of therapy with the kiddos....

23 Weeks:

Back in the saddle

I finally got 'back in the saddle' and did some couponing at Homeland this past week! Here's how I did:

Total Spent: $13.50
Saved 64% on the following groceries:
*3 bertolli pasta sauces
*2 jars of miracle whip
*Texas Toast
*C&H powdered sugar
*Wishbone salad dressing (for $0.16!)
*lemon juice

Saturday, I went garage sale-ing in the rain! I found 2 really good sales- I picked up a fisher price baby swing that turns into a rocking chair (for my parents house) for $5! And a bagful of baby clothing. Again, all of the clothing was from Baby Gap and Gymboree.

In 2 weekends of garage sales, I've probably spent $15 to $20 on clothing for our little guy. But, it's all name-brand, stain free, and varied sizes. I know that he'll out-grow the smaller sizes so fast, why spend alot of $ on 'em? But, he'll still look really cute :)

May Shower

My 1st baby shower was held at work on Friday morning. My friend Kayla put together all the decorations and the email invite, and 'goodie Friday' (aka Fat Friday!) was combined with the shower so we had an amazing breakfast. I am truly blessed to work with such neat women! They went all out on the gifts- here's some of the pictures:
Our new high chair
Enjoying the breakfast :)

We were given the pack-n-play, the highchair, several cute outfits, our bassinet mattress, several feeding accessories, baby sling, bibs and shoes.

Now I just have to find a place to keep it all until he arrives!