That 'New House' Smell

We've lived in our house for 6 months now and moved in right after construction was (almost) complete. This past weekend, we had family come in from out of town and stay with us. We received the comment multiple times that our house still smells 'new'. What is that new house smell? I'll tell you what it is: the chemicals and crap used to build the house are still giving off fumes. Tony & I no longer notice it but it's apparently still there. The paint, carpet, glue, treated wood, etc, will be giving off fumes for who knows how long. It makes me sad.

The thing that was even worse? My dad thinks he might have been suffering from an allergic reaction from all of it. He couldn't stay in the house for very long before feeling sick. LAMENESS.

Atlanta trip

Me and Tony at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Thanks to Betsy for the picture!

Recap of our last vacation being able to travel lightly: we arrived in Atlanta Thursday night and went out for a lovely dinner to a restaurant I cannot remember the name of. We stayed with Betsy at her very cute house with her very cute animals and her very cute girlfriend, Sarah. Friday, Betsy and I went to yoga in the morning and then the 4 of us met up with Amanda, T and the other Amanda for brunch at a place called Delish or something like that. Afterwards, we went shopping for Tony - he was in desperate need of appropriate clothing for Georgia weather. The 4 of us (me, Tony, Betsy and Sarah) met up for dinner with Sandy, Heather and Amy at a place called Harry and Sons. They serve Thai and sushi which seems weird to me, but is a common combination in Atlanta. Afterwards, we went to see Feist. Fun day!

On Saturday, we met T & Amanda for brunch at The Flying Biscuit. Yummers! The Botanical Gardens were on the agenda for the day. Beautiful! That evening, we went to a bbq anniversary party. Sunday was a relaxing day before heading to the airport to come home to Seattle.

It's Friday so I'm allowing myself to procrastinate

Our trip to Atlanta was too short but still lots of fun. I took lots of pictures during our trip to the botanical gardens - they're posted to my Flickr album. We were sad that Kik & Amy didn't make it up, but they are going to try to visit us in Seattle in the near future.

This weekend is all about family visits and the baby shower! Tony's mom & niece arrived Wednesday night, Dad & Carolyn arrived last night and Jenn is arriving tonight. The skin on my belly hurts and I'm expecting stretch marks to show up any day now. I have red spots on my skin that makes it look like someone has been giving me hickies above my belly button.

I need a nap.

Cascade Fresh products

I've been making an effort to eat locally produced food as much as possible. When I picked up yogurt earlier this week made by Cascade Fresh, I figured I should check out their website to see where they get their milk from. I couldn't find any information, so I sent them an email. Here was there response:

Thank you for taking the time to contact Cascade Fresh. At Cascade Fresh we use milk from cows not treated with rBGH (recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone)also known as rBST (recombinant Bovine Somatotropin) to make our products. Cascade Fresh purchases milk only from suppliers who have certified that their cows have not been treated with this genetically engineered hormone.

The cows that supply our milk live in the best possible conditions. They graze in open pasture and are also fed a pure vegetarian diet of hays and grains including alfalfa, barley and corn. Cascade Fresh pays farmers a premium to not use hormones, steroids or antibiotics. Our carefully crafted products would not culture successfully if there were antibiotics in the milk.

Additionally, cows that have health problems are removed from milk production immediately and properly taken care of. We purchase our milk from various milk co-operatives in the Northwest, Northern California and Southern California.

Thank you for your interest in Cascade Fresh.

I was hoping that they got all of their dairy from Washington farms, but we aren't a big dairy state. I did find some lovely yogurt made from goat's milk at the farmer's market, but it is 3 times the cost and we're having to tighten our budget in preparation for the baby.

Trick your body

Real post coming soon!

Who me? Rest? Never!

Whew! I am pooped!

The next few weeks will be busy; I started off hitting the ground running. This weekend, I painted the downstairs room in preparation of moving the office down there so we can start setting up the nursery upstairs. I will post before & after pictures once it's all situated. This was the first time I have ever painted a place where I have lived. I could never paint the walls in any of my rental apartments for all of these years. It was great fun! I'm taking a break while the second coat dries and am a bit nervous about taking off the tape - that's when you notice all of your mistakes. Per recommendation, I used American Pride paint and am quite pleased with it. The color is called Almondine and Cory described it as a pale avocado. I wanted something light since the room is so small. We'll be busy moving the office down there the rest of this week before heading to Atlanta on Thursday.

I'm still waiting on my grade for Business Ethics. I have no idea what I got on my last two projects, but I think I did well. Final grades are due this Thursday.

The Final Countdown

Business Calculus: done and passed! I got 100% on my take home final and an embarrassing score on my in-class exam. I left the exam not knowing if I scored high enough to pass the class, but I did. My overall grade in the class was a solid B. I have come to the conclusion that I just test terribly when it comes to math. Now it's on to Accounting, Finance and Economic classes. I'm hoping that my brain stores this knowledge differently so it will not blank out during test time.

This weekend, I focus on my final project for Business Ethics. I have until Friday to complete it, but really would like to finish it ASAP. It would be awesome if I could get it done this weekend so then I can be D-O-N-E after my last class Monday night. I am so ready to start focusing on nesting and getting ready for the baby. Although it's late spring, I am ready to delve into spring cleaning.

The heat wave we've been experiencing here is almost over. It has been making the office miserably hot and my guess is that it will cost the building owner a big chunk of money to properly fixed it. We'll keep on bugging him until the environment is comfortable to work in. I just do not feel right asking our employees to work in such terrible conditions. The weather is meant to be cloudy and in the mid 60's next week, so no suffering then. I typically do not wear tank tops to work, but did all last week. The heat was just too much. I also haven't been sleeping as well as I would like. I don't know if it's the heat, hormones or stress.

Damn. The prenatal yoga class I was planning on taking today was cancelled. Good thing the one tomorrow was not. I'm going to be diligent about attending yoga in these last couple of months because I've heard it really helps with labor. I've started reading up on HypnoBirthing...very interesting. I'm hoping to pick the brains of Rachel and Angie to see what methods they used to make their natural births successful.