Another month has passed

What's new around the totes house? I suppose a good deal. The garden ended up produces Tons of squash, watermelon, and sunflowers. Everything else was a bust. Eli managed to pick quite a bit for himself. At least some one got use out of the garden this year. Next year I'm going with all flowers.

The dining room was stenciled. While its not perfect, I do like it. I plan on building a wine bar, maybe around Christmas time, for the dining room. Can't wait and hope I can replicate my pin but scale down the size to half.

We are 18 weeks 3 days and I just popped. You can tell depending on what I wear. I have gained 3.5 lbs so far, all is well there. I have not been able to continue running. So sad : ( I don't have the energy to log the miles I did. I'm lucky if I get 1-2 runs in a week. Since vacation is over I am hoping to get into the swing of it again or move on to the elliptical. I did take one spin class, which I loved, but haven't been back bc of my schedule. Mom picked up a jogging stroller for me to use this spring, from a yard sale, until I can figure out what I rally want. I know I'll get back to it. I really wish I got to those other two 5ks back in May.

So up and coming. We find out the gender Oct 5 and plan on a reveal party that night. Bee themed, I made te invites : )

Matt's 30th Oct 13. I'm so excited to have a food truck cater the event. Also made some BBQ themed invites. So glad I bought that program.

B's destination wedding in FL, Oct 19, which will be a fabulous girl trip for my BF and I. After that we are on to the holidays. Things are moving pretty fast!

Gallery wall, chevrons, and baby appts.

We have been busy around here. I finally finished the living room. Decided on a gray, cement, and off white color pallet. Did I mention the yellow/gray color pallet fail? No? It was ugly! I need some new accent pieces such as lamps, pillows, and a throw rug and then I'm done. Well...I do want a bigger tv with some type of mantle and the tv mounted to the wall. But it's not in the budget for a while.

I ordered some wedding prints for the house. Since we never did an album I figured some prints on canvas and a stair gallery wall would be nice. 4 canvas prints will go in the living rooms. The rest were hung up on the stair case. I was poking around hobby lobby and the frames were supposed to be 50% off, well not the ones I wanted apparently. And since I decided to go BSC with the number of gallery wall prints, those effing frames would have cost me about 200.00 sigh! Since I spent about 80 on the prints I don't think a 300.00 gallery wall was appropriate. Anywho I found those acrylic frames and got all I needed for 40.00! sweet! Well guess what, I fricken hate them. They bubble, look tacky, and cheap. So I went rooting around the house for frames. Since I mostly have black, I replaced what i could and hung up the rest. In time I will replace them. And by in time I mean in the next week or so. I am not the type of person who starts something and could not finish.

And lastly, but most def not least, we have had several baby appts. We are growing right on track at 13 weeks 1 day, as of today. I haven't been sick, or anything wacky related to being pregnant. Also I made it out of the first tri without gaining a pound. Whoot whoot. 2 more trimesters to keep my weight from going bananas. All that being said, I haven't worked out in like 2 weeks. It's sad but I've spent most of my free time doing house projects, so that's gotta count for something right?

Also I ordered a stationery program. Friggen totally excited!

Married 10 months

Yesterday Matt and I took a little day trip into the city. This was my first actual 3 day off in a while, so we made it worthwhile.
We headed out to Coney island, which I bet was something amazing back in the day. Today, not so much. It's like a dumpier seaside. Is that even possible? After walking around it started to rain, so we headed for the aquarium. It was a small quick tour but cute nonetheless. We had the brooklyn pizza and then headed to the single A mets game. The Brooklyn cyclones game was fun. So much easier to negate than Citi Field. But I think we must get a real Mets game in before October.

Running +1

Its super important to me that I continue to workout while pregnant and eat well. I am so scared of gaining weight and well, too much weight. I don't want to be one of those yo yo dieters, doing cleanses, detox, or only eating this or that. So it is my goal to continue on with a healthy lifestyle and not eat any fried pickles.  Keeping that in mind, its my goal to log about 300 miles, running for as long as I can and then switching to the elliptical. I hope to get to some spin classes and some yoga while I am at it.

Week 4: June 11th completed a total 10 miles. Mainly in the gym.
Week 5: June 18th completed a total of 4 miles. We are not off to a good start here.
Week 6: June 25th completed a total of 5 miles.
Week 7: July 2: One stinking workout the entire week. For whatever reason I picked the 4th of July. It was so hot but we managed 2.5 miles.
Week 8: July 9. Clocking in at 9 miles. We are getting back up there.

No belly pics yet and thankfully none showing yet either. Not that it should.  The pics above are the last few weeks since we found out. The test, walk way over the Hudson, my first ultrasound at 7weeks, and the 4th of July.

Back to healthy

It has been a while since I blogged. I went back to work 3 weeks after getting bit. I had to have multiple follow ups with the plastic surgeon. Some people say you can tell, but others say they see the scar. I can see it in photos. My bottom lip is hard and I lost feeling in it, but occasionally, if I get hit it hurts. That being said it is much better than I anticipated so let's just be happy about that.

Speaking of healthy, we started TTC in March and got a BFP on June 7th. It was quicker than I thought because of the whole coming off of BCP thing. But we are happy, healthy, and excited. I have my 10 week appt in 2 weeks, but already went in for a confirmation and u/s. the HB was 142. I can't wait until the next. I'm hoping to keep up with running. The heat and exhaustion has been killing me, but I'm still tracking. I'm aiming for 7-10 miles a week for as long as possible. Down from 16-20 but I'll get back there at some point. I just want to stay healthy, eat right, and exercise. I think the long term benefits out weigh any cravings...so far anyway.

Dirt, dirt, and more dirt. Trying our hand at landscaping.

Matt and I finally dug up all that mulch. When we bought the house the original owners had a bad ass swing set in the backyard. Unfortunately they took it with them but left the mulch, the wood borders, and that ugly sandbox turtle. Back in April I had big dreams for our backyard...and I still do, but it's hard work.

There was a 1/2 assed flower bed behind the garage and some over grown weeds. We decided to make it less weeds more flowers, plant some veggies, and grow some grass.

Well after getting bit I pretty much didn't do anything for a month. Kind of late for veggies and grass, but we tried anyway. I planted tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, eggplant and watermelon in pallets with inspiration from pinterest. Also planted lavender, sunflowers, and sweet peas. If they don't bloom I will be super sad. I'm hoping to make it a wild flower/veggie garden. Next year I'm hoping to get on the ball sooner and yield more blooms. If the grass doesn't seed I'll be calling in the pros for some sod, but I'm hoping we don't have to go that far.

But before I post before & afters I need to share my top soil fiasco. We don't have a truck, so I needed a delivery. I called 2 companies and they both said about 6 yards. The trucks came and dumped it. Holy shit that's a ton (probably literally) of dirt. 2 dump trucks. I was nervous it was too much AND I was right. Way too much. If I wasn't such a dope I could have saved about 100.00 but I digress. My neighbors and co-workers got their hands on dirt, lots of free dirt. I couldn't stand the thought of paying someone to remove it. Ugh! Hopefully next year will be much easier since the hard stuff is out of the way. Thanks Matt for filling the flower bed and lugging block for me. <3 your hopeful green thumb of a wife!

Healing up

A week ago I was working a 3-11 shift and following up on a dog bite call. I expected to be in and out of the homeowner's house, as the bite was something that happened several days prior to but went unreported.

While at the owner's home I was bit by the same dog. Exactly 7 days ago, to the T, I was bit in the mouth by a pitbull. Initially I thought the dog just nicked my chin. Then I felt the warm sensation run down my chin and knew it was bad. I was trying to stop the bleeding, but it continued to run down my forearms and on my uniform.

They always say waiting for back up feels like forever. It felt like 5 minutes but I can say it was less than 2. My partner rushed me to the hospital. My Sgt. had the painful task of calling my husband and telling him to meet me in the emergency room.

I can see the look on Matt's face as panic. I have never seen him like that. After assessing the damage, a plastic Surgeon came in to stitch me up. I lost 25% of my bottom lip and have a gap about the width of my index finger. I have a small scar on the left side or my upper lip and one on my chin.

I was blessed with so much love and support that night and it has continued. My co-workers are my family and are nothing short of amazing.

The first few days were the worse. Every time I looked in the mirror I was reminded about what happened. It was horrible to look at and even more horrible to explain over and over again what had happened, especially to people who are not on the job. Everyone just expects you to have the time or opportunity to shoot it and I can tell you that opportunity did not present itself that day.

I can say I was kind of depressed but it has gotten better since the stitches were taken out. I lost a few pounds not being able to eat. I found myself having the patience and temper of a child, taking it out on Matt and getting frustrated with the puppy. I feel healthy enough to return to work, but since I run the risk of getting cracked in the face, I'm out of work until enough scar tissue develops to toughen it up. It's going to be a long haul, but I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing Ashley, gardening, painting, and reading a few books.

Again having the love, help, and support of my family in blue, friends, family and husband has been instrumental to this whole ordeal. I love you Matt and thank you for telling me I'm still pretty. I'm a lucky girl. It could have been so much worse.