My Book!

I was pleasantly surprised when I went to get the mail this weekend and there was a book-shaped package. Book-shaped packages appear at our house on a regular basis, but for once I didn't know what this one was - I couldn't remember ordering a book this time. I opened it up, and. . .there was my book! I wasn't expecting it until the end of this month, but they got it to me in just a few days. And it looks fantastic! We were both so excited to see it! Cy is reading it right now, and he seems to be really enjoying it! There are already several other readers waiting in line to read it when he is done too. I'm starting to feel like a real author! :)

More Random Baby Stuff (What Else?)

This weekend we determined that we would go to Target and Babies R Us and finish up our baby registry. It was quite overwhelming for me (stuff like that gets me really frazzled), but somehow we managed to get it all done. The best part of it was that instead of just registering for everything, we ended up buying a lot of stuff. A lot of it was stuff that we knew we absolutely needed, so we didn't want to rely on someone else buying it for us at some point (like a mattress for the crib). And at each place, we picked out a few outfits because they were just so cute we had to have them!

Even though our baby will not be born for about three more months, she has already acquired quite a wardrobe. She is going to be the best dressed baby girl in town!At Christmas, when my parents were here, they brought me my old cradle from when I was a baby. My mom and I were going to go pick out new bedding for it together, but I saw this adorable cream and pink colored set at Babies R Us yesterday and it was on clearance and the last one, so I snatched it up! I also got a snazzy diaper bag for me that looks super functional. (Cy already bought himself a diaper bag/backpack pretty much the day after we found out I was pregnant.)
And here is the stroller/car seat system we picked out. We have heard lots of good things about this Chicco travel system. We got an extra base for the car seat too, so we can have one in each car and not have to hassle with switching - we just pop the baby in & out! Now that we have all this stuff, it is getting so much harder to wait for her to get here!

Baby Furniture, Part 1

Last night, Cy and I put together the baby's changing table. (It ended up having to be a team effort, because of course, the instructions were categorically unhelpful.) In the end, we got it together and it looks great. I even put a pack of diapers on the shelf to get it all ready for her. We also moved the glider into the room. We are getting closer every day! Pretty soon all we will be missing from the room is the baby herself!

Novel = Flowers + Chocolate

Today I reached a huge milestone: I finally finished a novel (well, novella really), fully edited it, and submitted it for a proof copy! Because I reached the 50,000 word goal this past NaNoWriMo, CreateSpace had a special promo code for me to upload my novel and receive a free proof copy. Although they have offered this in the past, I have never successfully finished writing any of my novels, let alone embark on the editing process. . .until now, that is!

This past NaNoWriMo was the first year I actually completed the storyline of the novel within the 50,000 words. I've spent the past month editing the completed novel. And I've spent the past two days in an epic battle trying to format the PDF file of the finished book to fit the 6x9 cover I created. I finally figured it out, and ordered the proof today. It has already shipped, and will be here soon! I was able to use one of my photographs as the cover art, and to write my own synopsis and author bio for the back. I'll be sure to post pictures of me with my printed book when it arrives!

To congratulate me on reaching my goal, Cy surprised me with flowers and chocolate when he got home from work today. He is the best!

Baby's Room: Now With Chair Rail!

I already wrote this entire post once, saved it, and posted it, only to have it disappear completely. Hopefully it will work this time or I'm going to be quite furious. Anyway. . .yesterday Cy and Frank got started early in the morning on the chair rail for the baby's room. After doing the chair rail and the molding in the dining room, they are quite experienced now and were able to get the baby's room done really fast. (And on the first try!) It looks great! The chair rail really makes the two colors in the room look good.
Once Cy finishes sanding the chair rail and touching up the room, all we have left is to put the baby's furniture together (all which we have, strewn about our house in various boxes), and put the bedding and curtains in the room (which we also have), and we will be all ready for the baby girl! (Or at least, her room will be all ready for her.) :) So exciting!

Yesterday I also had my worst episode of "baby brain" thus far: I took my socks off at some point during the morning. A while later, I went to put my camera away after taking some pictures, and found my socks in my camera bag in the slot where the camera goes. . .with no recollection of putting them there. Weird. Especially since I have never been a forgetful person.

Photography Blography

I decided today that in order to motivate myself to get back into some photography, I would start a photo blog chronicling my attempts. I plan to try to shoot some photos daily or at least a few times a week (we will see how it goes).

You can follow my amateur photography attempts at: http://www.photosbycarissa.blogspot.com

The name of the blog is "Cat's Eye View," Cat being a family nickname. I had to come up with a title on the spur of the moment, and that seemed kind of cute for a photo blog, albeit a bit on the cheesy side.

25 Weeks. . .and counting!

I went to the doctor on Monday for my monthly checkup. They had me right at 25 weeks and I was measuring right on target. Everything else was great at the checkup. The funniest part was when the doctor tried to find the baby's heartbeat. She initially found it right away, then there was lots of static and it went away. The doctor explained that the baby had just moved. So she moved the wand and found the heartbeat again, and then there was a bunch more static and the baby ran off again. After a few times, the doctor declared, "I will chase you down!" and did eventually get her long enough to get a good reading.

I crack up because every time I'm in the doctor's office, one of the doctors or the nurses is always telling me, "Wow, she's really active" as if I don't already know this. . . especially since baby's favorite time to wiggle and frolic and turn somersaults and kick is anytime I am trying to sleep! I am not complaining though. . .I am very happy to have an active baby in there. I rarely have a chance to doubt her well-being since she moves around constantly.

Anyway. . .things are going great and I am almost into the third trimester. I go back to the doctor on Feb. 16 for my glucose screening, and then after that, I will start going every two weeks since it will be getting close to the big day!

I finally got around to getting a belly shot to put up here (this is for my family, who are having a hard time being 4 hours away while awaiting the first grandbaby). I feel super huge already but people keep telling me I'm still pretty small. I'm just trying to stay active as much as I can and trying not to stress about the weight gain. I'm just trying to do what's healthy for the little girl and once she arrives, I can worry about me later. :)