Thursday, April 16, 2015

March Baby Bump

March was a busy month! Somehow, I still managed to snap a bunch of bump pictures -- I have seriously never taken so many mirror selfies (or any selfies, actually) in my life. 

The first weekend in March was the Sister Trip to Baltimore. Then after that, my dear friend, Camille came to visit. It was a nice, relaxing visit, and I didn't really take any pictures. Sad that I didn't get any photographic evidence of our fun visit! 

The next weekend was Richard's and my weekend trip to Norfolk (blog post coming). This was just a quick, little getaway but at this point, it pretty much counts as our Babymoon. We didn't really plan to do a full trip or anything, but it was really nice to get away just the two of us. 


3/4/15 -- 23 weeks 2 days
3/5/15 -- 23 weeks 3 days
3/6/15 -- 23 weeks 4 days
3/9/15 -- 24 weeks
I've still been feeling really good with very few pregnancy symptoms (other than the bulging belly). I had to stop running right around the end of February due to back pain and increased recovery time. Basically, I could run 1.5 or 2 miles and then be really sore all day and have back pain all night, or I could just not run. So I opted for not running. I've been walking when I can and trying to get in as much yoga as possible. 

It's hard to schedule time for yoga around all of my ice cream eating. Just kidding! I haven't really had any real cravings either -- just the things that I normally wanted before, only I now feel like I have an excuse to eat them more often. I've been trying to watch what I eat, and I've definitely been tracking the protein intake. I've pretty much gotten to where I'll only eat something if the protein content is high enough -- this helps keep the empty calories to a minimum. 

3/15/15 -- 24 weeks 6 days
3/17/15 -- 25 weeks 1 day -- St. Patrick's Day green!
3/20/15 -- 25 weeks 4 days
3/21/15 -- 25 weeks 5 days -- at the Norfolk zoo!

I also had my first baby shower during the month of March. I am so blessed and have so many people that love this baby already, and so my generous friends and family are throwing FOUR showers for me and Baby! Isn't that crazy? One of them is a small one with just a few girlfriends since they couldn't come to this past one, but still! I feel so loved! :)

I'll need to do a post from the baby shower since my dear cousin, Mel, took some excellent photos. And I'll be able to show off what a great job my sisters did in throwing the shower for me! 

3/23/15 -- 26 weeks
3/24/15 -- 26 weeks 1 day
3/26/15 -- 26 weeks 3 days
3/28/15 -- 26 weeks 5 days -- Baby Shower #1

One last thing, we've picked a name! I always loved the idea of my firstborn having my maiden name. Richard and I both really like using family names, so his middle name will be after Richard's dad (and my paternal great grandfather). So, his name is Barrett Edward Surber. We're all getting pretty used to calling him Baby Bear. :)

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Billiard's Light Fixture

Last July, when we completely redid the downstairs bathroom, Richard built a new light fixture from scratch. He knew what he was looking for and couldn't find it, so he just made one. Crazy talented. 






And with that in mind, we knew that other light fixture needs in our house would probably be met by Richard's handiness. At least until we can afford to just buy light fixtures like this one, which is on sale! For $715: 




We liked the look of that light and others, but we knew that the price tag of any of those would be beyond our current means. So, we looked for other, similar fixtures or ways of finding the pieces and making one ourselves. (I include myself in that, but, let's be real -- it's all Richard.)

Recently we checked out Class & Trash, a thrift and antique store here in Richmond. And we found some lights! They had a bunch of these green guys, and we took two of them home. 



We talked strategy and decided to paint the insides a bronzish gold and the outsides a nice, matte black. 

Richard cleaned them up and painted them and then devised a plan to connect them into one light fixture since there was only one light box in the ceiling. 

Again, I'll have to get Richard on here to guest blog and post about all of the nitty gritty, electrical details because I definitely don't know them.