Off for Christmas

Sorry I forgot to tell you guys I was leaving for the holidays. I got an extra day off at work and really ran with it and forgot all of the things I was planning on telling you about. More to come after the holiday...

Merry Christmas to you all and I can't wait to see what the new year brings!!

Warehouse Syndrome

Me and E have always gone back and forth about whether we wanted to get a membership to Sam's or Costco or some other warehouse store of type. Well, last night was military appreciation night at Sam's so we thought we would take advantage of the invitiation and see if there were things there that we would actually use. While we did get 3 Christmas presents, all very small, we still walked out with 8 items and a $200 bill. However, we did get a GIANT box of newborn diapers and giant box of wipes too. But I think we both agree now that we don't "Need" a warehouse club membership. We will find too much crap that we can't live without!!

Christmas Gifts and a Casserole

I always like to cook during the holidays so I bought some small little bread pans and planned to make Cappuccino Bread and Pumpkin Bread for everyone. After finishing 10 loaves and nearly dropping dead in the kitchen, everyone is only getting one loaf of bread and some cookies. I baked like nobody's business today!! Feet...Sore!! Back ...Aches!!! I also made a casserole and a lasagna for later this week. I will not be stepping foot in that kitchen for the rest of the week. Mark my words!!

Here you can see the first 2 Cappuccino and pumpkin loaves that I made. As you can tell, the pumpkin loaves didn't turn out that well. I even think the raisins towards the top burnt. For the Cappuccino Bread, I used my recipe for Cappuccino Muffins. The batter made enough for 2 small loaves that need to be cooked for an extra 15 minutes. They are going to be delicious!

Here is the casserole that I made. My friend Chrisa made Zucchini Feta Casserole for a girls night we spent at her house and I thought I would make it at home. I bought the ingredients and put E up to the task about 2 months ago and he just didn't have the touch to make it what it "could have been." So Sunday, I took another crack at it and E didn't even recognize it when I put it on a plate for him. I started out a tasteless Cooking Light recipe but once I was done, it was a delicious meal that I would definitely recommend you try. Also, this would be great to serve company, make when the family comes over, take to someone's house if they are sick or just had a baby. It's just that kind of recipe. ...Well, at least it is now!!

(I made Paula Dean's The Lady and Sons Lasagna Sunday too and I will update you all on that too later on this week when I finally get around to cooking and eating it.)

Renovations and Nursery Finishes

I am trying hard to use things I already have or find things really cheap to outfit the nursery. However, the other night, E dragged me out to Hobby Lobby and I ended up finding this fabric and fell in love with it. Turns out, that it matches the crib bedding perfectly and softens the polka dots a little bit. Here is a picture of the 2 new peices of fabric with the bedding in the background.

I spent Saturday sanding and painting the baby's crib (not finished yet), I finished the dresser for the nursery and E put the hardware on for me...

and I got a chance to start using some of that new fabric when I repainted this chair...

and turned it into this chair.

I am so pleased with how it turned out. I have to touch up one or 2 places where I scuffed it up when I brought it into the house.

E worked hard this weekend too and had to make new door frames for the laundry room. He worked so hard trying to get everything measured and cut right. And we finally have a door up. Whoo Hoo!!

Never in a Million Years!

Never in a million years did I think that I would see snow here in southeast Texas!! Never!! Especially not enough to stick. Poor Maggie didn't even know what to think when we let her out this morning. She had never seen snow and wasn't about to step in it alone. E had to put on shoes and go out with her. We heard there was a winter weather advisory last night on the news and I completely ignored it. So this morning...Surprise!! If this doesn't put you in the Christmas spirit, you are a serious Scrooge!! (sorry about the pictures...of all of the days to leave the camera at work...so the camera phone will have to work)

Gift Tags

I think I am going to put these on all of the gifts I would want for myself this year...from Pretty Bitter. Aren't these funny!!

The Ban on Blogging

About a week ago, an event happened around the house that I was specifically told "Don't not blog about this!!" from my husband. Well, last night I recieved the green light.

While E is a genious around the house in my eyes, he doubts his ability to do certain projects. Electrical work is one of those abilities that he questions himself on. He reads up and the project, consults wise council, takes safety VERY seriously and then checks his work very carefully. Last weekend, he relocated the electrical outlet for the washer and installed a new outlet for my future desk. We checked the connection and all works.

Since I was behind on laundry because of the weekend project, I would do a load a day by throwing a dirty load into the washer as I was heading out to work and dry it when I got home. I did this Sunday, Monday and Tuesday morning. E was coming home early on Wednesday so I left him a note to start a load of laundry when he got home. He just so happened to be walking by the laundry room when he saw flickering flames inside the washer!!!!! He quickly turned the washer off and began airing out the house from the black smoke that had taken over the house. (Thank God the fire didn't happen on one of the previous days and send out house up in flames)

Well, Robert, a friend who is an electrician came over last night to check E's work. We got the green light and he even fixed a few other problems for us. What an angel!! So now that E knows it wasn't his fault, I am allowed to blog about the fire! Here are the 2 boys taking apart and rewiring the washer, just what every woman wants to see...Men taking apart one of her most expensive appliances. And Robert's wet shirt isn't sweat...it's was just raining cats and dogs last night!!

P.S. Thanks Katie for allowing us to borrow your husband last night!!

Bailey Christmas Traditions

E and I talked the other night and he explained to me that he was really feeling blue this Christmas. He felt like we were both too busy with work and our lives to appreciate the season and all of the reasons behind it.


Well, I come home from work early on Sunday night (yes, I know, I did have to work this weekend) and made a big pot of wassail and hung ribbon on the tree. E came in, we checked out schedules and decided we had enough time to fit in our annual Christmas tradition of drinking wassail (or Egg nog), decorating the tree and watching The Elf. I love that movie!! If you haven't seen it, you are a fool for missing out on this awesome movie for so many years!!!



E put out the family nativity scene (which is a little cluttered for my taste but every year he insists that all of the camels and sheep have to be there...but hey, they will only be up for 3 more weeks anyway)



I was finally able to come up with a solution to our stocking problem. You see, last year, the stocking were so low that Maggie kept pulling them down. I thought about NOT putting them up this year and then regretted my decision and needed a solution. So I found one...they are hanging on the wall now behind the Christmas tree.



And I was super excited about finding our new Christmas ornament that I thought I lost. Our friend Justin went back to Key West a few weeks back and got me and E a Christmas ornament which has been something I have wanted to do in the future...have a special themed ornament from everywhere we lived and I had forgotten to get one from Key West.

So now, I present the famous (Ha) Bailey Christmas tree.

Belly Sneak Peek!

While I don't have any new pictures of my belly at 28 weeks, I have this accidental picture that found this morning while cleaning off the camera memory. And yes, I am getting super fat!!

Reason Number 2

The second reason I haven't been around lately is because I joined the Junior League here in town. I thought it would be a good way to volunteer around the community while meeting lots of new people. Especially, since we move around so much. So this has been my provisional semester and Saturday night was my last night of meetings and/or obligations before I officially become a member.

So this weekend was our Christmas fundraiser called Main Street Market. Santa was there, so was Tracy Byrd (the country singer who lives here in town), along with a beautiful red mercedes benz (that someone won with a raffle ticket) and about 50 vendors with the pretty and nicest stuff in each booth. I went to the Market on Thursday night for a meeting and then stayed to shop and got some cute stuff that I thought I would share with you!

I got this green bag with brown leather accents and a brown monogram the other night and I absolutely love it.

This is a cup I got for the baby. There was so much cute little girl stuff there. But I just have this deep feeling that as soon as I buy lots of "girly" stuff for her, then she will come out a boy. So I am fighting the urge right now but I wanted to monogram everything in sight the other night. So this was the compromise I made with myself. She won't be able to use it for a little while but it was still cute and something I could use in the future!


If you missed the market this year, I highly suggest going next year. It's a big deal!!

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

I know I haven't been around much lately but trust me, there are good reasons.

First, let's start with work. The twelve hours days are catching up with me alot faster than they used to especially when we work through the weekend. Such a drain on my "good attitude" and my extremely pregnant body! All this working makes me sour, fast and that goes double for E who has been working strange hours lately too. All of this schedule shifting has left Maggie INSANE!!!!! She never knows whether we are coming or going and with all of the uncertainty, she has been destroying our house once again.

Let me give a few examples of what we have encountered this week alone:

-She ate a bag of assorted chocolate bars
-SHE UNWRAPPED ALL OF THE PRESENTS THAT WERE WRAPPED UNDER THE CHRISTMAS TREE!!!!! (Ironically, she unwrapped all of them but only ATE all of E's gifts from me)
-She ate and DESTROYED a roll of paper towels
-She ate and broke our heating pad
-She nosed through E's bag and ate a pack of gum
-She has eaten the craziest things outside and then gets sick in the middle of the night, 3 NIGHTS IN A ROW LAST WEEK. (Another reason I am tired, from cleaning dog vomit off of the floor at 3am)

I thought you would enjoy a picture or two of what we came home to the other night...





I am too tired to give any more excuses any picture today so I will leave the rest for tomorrow!

Renovation Updates

Slowly but surely...that's the team Bailey motto these days. Since I'm not much help to E with this giant watermelon in my shirt, he has been working hard by himself. Last weekend, he worked tireslessly for hours (longer than I would have had the patience for) to move the power for our dryer over a few feet. Last night, he ran the electrical sockets for my desk and for the washer while I unpacked our suitcase and started folding the laundry. The hope is....that the flooring will go into the laundry closet tonight, then the electrical work will be finished, we can put up the walls and install the washer and dryer by the weekend. Here is a picture of the work behind behind the washer and dryer.

In the meantime, I have put up our Christmas tree, wrapped all of the gifts, cleaned out the baby's room and continued with the painting projects I have in the garage.

Bailey Holiday Projects

We just got back from Thanksgiving vacation and after getting stuck in traffic for 4 hours, BOY were we glad to get home. The only problem is that time buffer that I always like between the time you get home and the time you have to go back to work. I missed that buffer and feel like my life is a little nuts with all of the home projects going on, no groceries, a filthy house and mounds of dirty laundry.

Maggie had a good time playing with E's parents puppy, Bob. Bob repeatedly tried to sexually assault Mag but he was lacking in size so she just thought he was playing. He pretty much just rode her tail around the house the whole time since that was all he could wrap he little paws around...if you get the picture. E thought it would be funny to get some VERY graphic pictures of all of the assaulting so I had to search hard for a pic that wasn't too dirty. They played for almost 3 days straight with E's brother (he really loves her and I think I may will her to him) and Mag had such a good time...so good that we had a hard time waking her up in the morning.

What else did we do? Well, my mom found a local thrift store that sells Target returns and rejects so we raided their store and spent a fortune but got so much.

Here is a picture of my biggest purchase. The seams have ripped on our comforter (I think Maggie's claws helped more than anything) so we were looking for a new silk quilt. And I found one at this store for 25 bucks!! All of the other ones I had been looking at were over 200 dollars!! I was thrilled.

We also picked up the bedding for the crib. I really like it and think it will turn out cute once I get the nursery finished. We also picked up several things my mom had started collecting for us...diapers, hangers, clothes, playpen, baby positioner, etc. We are sitting pretty so far.