$.31 Cent Ice Cream

I forgot to mention about Ben & Jerry's free cone day yesterday, but tonight, Baskin Robbins has $.31 Ice Cream night! Tasty!!

Allergy Poll Results

Just wanted to close & post the results of my food allergy survey, based on the diet of you or someone in your household...

25% of you have a restricted diet by choice (14)
19% of you have a restricted diet due to food allergies (11)
55% of you have no restrictions to your diet. (31)

That is, if you understood the question. ONE of you told me that you answered based on what MY family eats.

Another Wreck Update

So there's not a whole lot of new to report. Things are moving S-L-O-W. At this pace, we'll begin repairs in another 8 months...It's aggravating when we want to get our house back in order quickly. The insurance 'game' is frustrating - it's like we're trying to buy a used car & have to haggle with the car salesman. Anyway, on the housing front, we're needing to get moved out in the next month since the baby is coming soon. I don't want to be moving when I'm weeks away from delivery. The insurance company, however, won't give us $ for rent until construction begins. And we can't begin construction until we come to a final negotiation with the insurance company on how much money they will give us (which like I said, is moving SLOW). AAHH!!! So we think we'll just move in with my folks, which will be...snug. If there are some out there rolling their eyes, then you probably don't know that my parents moved last year into a much more cozy home. So nothing new here, just a lot of waiting around for things to get done, becoming more & more pregnant by the moment.

Eric Volz Reception

We recently went to a reception for Eric Volz, who was falsely convicted of murder in Nicaragua last year. He spent nearly a year in Nicaraguan prison, but was acquitted and released in December '07. I can't imagine how freedom would feel after an experience like that. I know many of you sent letters & prayers his way, and I know he truly appreciated all of them!

Lilac & Lavendar

This is our first Spring here at our house, so I was excited to see what was blooming. I had no idea that we had such beautiful & fragrant lilac blooms! So I began researching some ideas of things to do with the lilac, as well as the lavender we have growing in our yard. With the wreck and everything, I missed my window on clipping & drying the lilac. But I wanted to share some of the ideas I found online for using dried herbs, in case you have some growing in your yard too!

This or this Lavendar Sachet
Herbal Fire Starter
Bath Salts
Herb Place Cards
Herbed Salt
Lavendar & Rosemary Soap
Herbal Bath Tea

Mini Donkeys

Yesterday, we got to go with McHaney and Rachel to see the miniature donkeys at Mc's grandparent's farm. We had such a fun time. Big surprise - E was just as impressed with the Easy-Go golf cart than with the donkeys. It was a fun day!

Dreaming of Kitchens

The only good part about having a car run through your house...we get to design a new kitchen! I love these kitchens. Looks like I'm not the only one inspired by the kitchen in "Something's Gotta Give." Of course, ours will be about 1/5 the size... Here are some kitchens inspired by the movie (see kitchen clip here). Kitchens here, here and here.I like Barefoot Contessa's tv kitchen too. And House Beautiful has some beautiful kitchens on their website. Like this in Vegas, Connecticut, Massachusetts, or New York.

This flickr photostream has some nice kitchens. Particularly this one. Now, if we could only get started...

Big News About BPA

I've blogged before about BPA, but it's been all over the news recently. Last week, NY Times reported that Canada will likely be outlawing the use of BPA in their plastics. A couple of days later, NY Times reported that Nalgene will stop using BPA in their products. Then, on Friday, Washington Times said that Wal-Mart Canada immediately stopped selling Baby Bottles that use BPA (you mean, WAL-MART is even paying attention?!)

This time around, I'm getting BPA-free bottles. There are 3 that I'm considering, but can't decide which to get. Born-Free's glass or plastic bottles, or Think Baby's plastic bottles. Does anyone know of others, or have a BPA-Free Bottle Recommendation? I only have one friend (in Germany) who uses glass bottles, but would love to buy based on the recommendation of someone who has used them.

Big Questions

An update on our house situation...There are still a lot of big questions, and no clue when things will be settled. Right now, the big questions are: Insurance, Were we will Live, and How long the construction process will take. A few details below on our status...

Insurance: We're hoping that the insurance process moves quickly, but we probably won't be able to begin work on our house until we agree on the claim amount. Best case scenario - the insurance company agrees with us on the extent of the damage. We can start repairs quickly. Worst Case Scenario - they don't want to give us as much money as we think is needed, lawyers & such to follow, which would be a long drawn out process.

Timing of Move: We'll be moving us & everything else out of our house in the next month. Because of the baby's arrival, we want to be out of here soon, so we don't have to set up a house when the baby's arrival is imminent. We are beginning our search for a rental house in our neighborhood. We also have the option of living with my parents, but are considering all options.

Length of Stay: We still don't know how long we'll be out of our house. We're thinking about 1 year, but hopefully much sooner.

What we're doing now: We're in a bit of a holding pattern right now. But in my spare time, I've started boxing a few things & shopping for a new kitchen. Much of our kitchen design decisions need to be made now, because it will be difficult to do in the midst of our move & then with the new baby. I've had meetings, but mostly, Lance has been meeting with contractors, insurance folks, engineers, etc.

Repairs Needed: Looks like we'll need to possibly rebrick the whole house, renovate the kitchen, repair plaster throughout the house, repair frame of the house, re-landscape the front of the house, plus some other repairs through the house.

Diet Restrictions

I'm now officially in my third trimester, which should be exciting. For me, however, it marks the start of a challenging allergist's order - Stop eating all Nuts, Eggs, Dairy, Shellfish - from now until I'm done nursing the new baby. It doesn't necessarily rule out food allergies for Katie Belle, but that is the idea. The problem is that it's all speculative. No one knows what causes food allergies. No one knows how to make them go away. No one knows how to prevent them in future children. So I'm starting this restricted diet based on a theory. I've not been looking forward to this. Especially for when I'm nursing. For those of you who haven't experience the whole nursing thing, it's a whole different level of hunger. When I was nursing Ethan, my appetite went through the roof. I'd eat anything I could get my hands on in those early days. I felt famished. The idea of having to limit myself, particularly when I'm sleep deprived, recovering from labor & can't cook, is a bit daunting. This only adds to the craziness that is our lives these days. Wish me luck!

Here is the 27-week-blog-side-profile-belly-shot. And I'll post a house update on Monday.

Car Prodigy

Our child loves cars. He'd rather look at "Car & Driver" or "Motor Trends" magazine than a book any day. Hopefully you can hear some of this. He can get on a better roll than this, but we tried to keep it quick so we could add it to Blogger. Plus, we had to hide the camera, because he doesn't like being on film.

It's funny how a child has their interests at such a young age. Since he was 14 months, he zoned in on cars. He loves everything about them & can tell the difference between a BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Ford, Jaguar, Mercedes Benz, Nissan, Infiniti, Jeep, Hummer, GMC, Mitsubishi, Chevy, and even more...I guess I'd prefer that he master the alphabet first, but he knows what he likes! It's pretty crazy, if I do say so myself.

Her Name

So it's time to share our baby girl's name with you. It is...Katie Belle!!! That's first & middle names, but that's what we'll call her as well.

I won this awesome "Love My Baby Necklace" in a random giveaway from Courtney. I had to move the charm out of the way so both letters would show in the picture, but it has a cute silver charm. It couldn't have arrived in the mail at a better time. I needed a pick-me-up. I love it - Thanks again!!!

Nursery & Nesting

Even before I was pregnant with Baby Girl, I dreamed of the colors I'd use in her nursery. Pretty Yellow & Green flowers, like in this adorable lighting fixture. I never got to do the nesting thing with Ethan's room, because we moved shortly before he was born, too. Again, I won't be able to fix an adorable baby nursery for a long, long time. Who knows where we'll be moving & when we'll return to this home. Makes me a bit bummed out. I still will need to get her some bedding, because hopefully we'll have a bed for this baby girl SOMEWHERE. So if you see any cute baby girl things that would be cute with the lighting fixture, keep me posted! I haven't been able to find anything, and am now sure that I won't be able to craft anything on my own.

Craziness Updates

If you've missed a few days of my blog, read yesterday's blog below first...E & I were out of the house for most of Friday to steer clear of all the mess & people. So this morning when he woke up, he proclaimed, "Uh Oh! Big Mess!" Daddy explained that it would take lots of tools to fix it. He promptly ran and got his tool set, ready to help. How perfect is that?!Thanks for all your calls & comments. It's been a crazy weekend for sure. Here are some updates & answers to faq's!

Thankfully, neither Lance nor I saw the driver at any time. The police were there quickly and wouldn't let us leave the house because it was a crime scene. (I guess they knew it was a stolen vehicle.)

He was going so fast that the force of the impact knocked one side of the house off its foundation 3 inches.

This means that they will have to tear the house apart from plaster to brick (on one side of the house). They will see if they can readjust the frame onto the foundation and then rebuild the exterior and interior.

There was not really any water damage. Fortunately, we readjusted the downspout, which kept the rerouted the water from continuing to come into our basement, and no water came in through the first floor of the house.

Our house is securely boarded up, and we had new alarm system put in, complete with motion detectors for safety.

We will absolutely be getting a new kitchen (yeah, silver lining!) We liked our old kitchen, but it was completely original 1930's, so we sure won't mind the updates.

All this work means we'll have to be out of our house for the next 6 months to 1 year. Yes, in the meantime I'll have a baby.

THANK YOU so much for all the help, calls & emails we've been getting over the past 2 days. We are so fortunate to have your support & know some very wise people who are helping guide us. It's still INCREDIBLY confusing to figure out next , but we have some great folks advising who want what's best for us.

Hopefully, Ethan will be "visiting" lots of friends in the upcoming days, while we spend our time focusing on next steps. E got to hang out with McHaney today. (Thanks Rachel!)

What can you do to help? Not sure. Right now, our kitchen is operational & our home is secure. If you have any expertise in design, construction, insurance, landscaping, etc., we are welcoming advice, referrals & estimates. The biggest challenge might be Ethan & keeping him occupied while we need to run around making decisions to move home renovations along. And for the record, those with newborns are not allowed to help in any way (but thanks Heather & Laura!) This will be a LONG process involving many hours and many moves. Of course, I'm sure I'll blog through all the craziness, so stay tuned!

We are the Morning News

Here’s what happened this morning…

1) A rental car was stolen downtown & ended up knocking in our house 15 minutes later.
2) The suspect did not survive. Therefore, our house has become a crime scene. (Please pray for anyone impacted by his death.)
3) Our house is old & very solidly built of stone & brick. But the crash SHOOK the whole house, knocking picture frames and damaging plaster throughout the house.
4) We’ll have to get the whole house inspected to make sure it’s structurally sound.
5) It set off our alarm at 3:30 AM. I had been tossing & turning all night (being 26 weeks pregnant and all) so Lance had moved to the guest room upstairs during the night.
6) So I wake up all by myself downstairs, alarm blaring, not knowing what happened. Was someone in our house? I had felt the shaking, but still had no idea what was going on. I was petrified to move to even turn off the alarm.
7) The alarm company calls. Still not knowing what happened, we tell them to send an officer to check things out.
8) Lance notices the dismembered eating room & kitchen (drywall & dishes EVERYWHERE) and car-in-house, and calls police. Tells me & Ethan to stay upstairs. Not in E’s room, because we’re still not sure about integrity of that side of the house.
9) Ethan is crying, upset, scared. The crash happened right above his room. If I felt it in my room across the house, he was surely shaken in this bed.
10) The car MUST have been FLYING down this side street. Our house is set back like 150 feet from the road. He flew through 1 tree, hit another one, and THEN knocked open our house.
11) My Poor Crepe Myrtle and beautiful hyacinths are gone.
12) It’s raining & is scheduled to rain a bunch more today & the rest of the week. Not great news when you have a whole ripped open in your house & water leaking all into your basement.
13) Looks like we need a new kitchen. We wanted a new one eventually, but looks like the time is here.
14) We haven’t budgeted for a new kitchen. We were planning to put a fence & deck around our back yard in a few weeks, so looks like that plan will have to change.
15) It’s terrible timing for a new kitchen. I’m having a baby in 3 months. New kitchens take FOREVER!
16) Do we need a new house too? I’m hoping and praying that the rest of our house is okay.
17) I’m praying that the gas line did not break. The car came in on that side of the house. Lance noticed damage in the basement against the gas line.
18) I have no idea what else broken. I know that one of the two soup tureens survived. Good thing I bought two!
19) I guess this is now our 15 minutes of fame, since we’re all over the local (Channel 2) news.

Also...If you guys are praying for our family, please pray for #1: The structural integrity of our house. I'm not joking, the car literally moved/shook the house, so I'm just praying that it's not severely damaged. #2: For the insurance to cover as much as possible. This is not minor damage, here. #3: The upcoming uncertainty & stresses to follow.

3:00 This Morning!!

At about 3 this morning, a car flew through the side of the (Stone & Brick) house. It set off our alarm and shook the house. No idea how much it will cost to repair, and if the person will make it. Prayers please. This is the craziest thing that's ever happened...Snapped this on my Mac photo booth. More pics to come later.

Another thing...My phone was cleared of all phone numbers yesterday, so I probably won't be able to call you today if I don't have your number memorized. And I may not be available by email. E & I are going to my parents house.

Trader Joe's

Have you heard yet? Trader Joe's is coming to Music City, USA. If you aren't familiar with Trader Joe's, it's like a Whole Foods-Meets-Sam's Club adventure. Woo Hoo!

You Can Pick Your Friends

You can pick your friends. You can pick your nose. But you can't pick your friends' noses. I'm glad that at least Ethan knows this much.

Karina sent me this photo of Radnor and E, from yesterday. The boys had fun playing, although E had difficulty sharing!

Allergy T-Shirts

There are some days that I wish I had a shirt like this. Random (well-meaning) parents feed in the park feed him food, and elsewhere. A couple of these would make me feel a lot better. I wish there were more that I really liked. The one I really like is pictured, but only comes in sizes 4 and 6!

For those of you who have kids with allergies (or for a gift idea for someone who does) check these out!
Making Friends
None for Me, Please
Goats Eat Anything (pictured)
I'm Allergic
Please Don't Feed Me
I Have Allergies
Please Ask First
Ask Mommy
Cluck Allergies
Don't Feed Me Button

I can't decide. Which styles do you like best? I like the message of "Please Don't Feed Me" but wish it was cuter. Lurking designers want to design me one that I can have printed?

Sleeping Habits in the Wild

2 Days ago, we switched to a toddler bed (a race car!). So far, it has been going very well! Of course, we hear pitter-patter of little feet during the first part of nap/bedtime. But then the little feet noises die down, and he ends up in his bed. Dr. says not to worry, as long as he stays in his room - even if he sleeps on the floor. I always wonder what in the world he's up to in his room! Well, last night we snuck in after he fell asleep and this is what we saw. An uncomfortable-looking child, upside down, with books ALL over the place! He makes me laugh!

Another blog for another day...Our child's obsession with cars...it's crazy.

Baby Names

We'll be announcing the baby girl's name on the blog in a few days. But I wanted to give a heads up to those friends who'd rather find not from a blog post. Anyway, if you are one of those friends, make sure to ask me very soon before the cat's out of the bag!

Laura's Shower

This weekend was Laura's bridal shower. I've known this awesome girl since we were benchwarmers on our 5th grade softball team & I'm looking forward to the big day. Here are most of her bridesmaids. For those curious to check out the 25+ week bump, you'll just have to wait! Thanks to the strategically placed head in the belly's place.

And the dresses are in! I'm so excited. I think it will actually fit!! It's gonna be a good preggo dress, like she picked it out just for me. We ordered a dress 4(ish) sizes bigger than I regularly wear. So I thought the whole entire dress would have to be ripped apart and resewn, but it's just a few minor alterations. I just hope I don't gain much weight in the next month!!

Hiding

Where's Ethan?Here he is!

Cherrybrook Kitchen

Thank goodness for Cherrybrook Kitchen! I’m way impressed. Commonly sold at places like Whole Foods, I never expected to see their brownies and pancakes in the pharmacy section of my regular, more urban grocery.

The pancakes were great, the brownies were AWESOME! My personal opinion is that these are as good as any other mainstream brand of brownie mix around.

If you are peanut/dairy/egg-free, or are ever making a treat for someone who is, this is a great easy solution! Go buy some Cherrybrook Kitchen brownies today!

On the same note, Allergy Free Foods makes some awesome (cheap!) chicken nuggets. They are $1.99 versus Ian's & Applegate Farms, which sell for $7-8 for a smaller box. Only problem, is that they've stopped selling it at the groceries near me!!

New Food Survey (See Top Right Also)

Since food allergies are such as integral part of my life now, I’m just taking a poll about how & if you have any food restrictions, for curiosity-sake only. Please take a moment to fill out the anonymous survey. Below further describes the choices.

A) Someone in my immediate family has a restricted diet for personal reasons (Vegetarian, Vegan, etc. Does not include minor restrictions, like "I'm not eating chocolate" or "I'm trying to eat more veggies.")
B) My immediate family has a restricted diet, due to food allergies
C) I do not have a restricted diet.

If there is something I've left out, let me know!

Daffodils

I love the Springtime. How beautiful are all these daffodils? There are about 7 varieties here. I tried to transplant some of the bulbs last week. Any gardener know if that will actually work for next year?

Baby's First Gift

This is baby girl's first gift. Hmmm...Should I be worried?