14 Weeks and a Santa Barbara Getaway

This past weekend, the hubby and I took a little weekend getaway down to Santa Barbara.  It was so nice to literally get away from our normal lives of yard work and house work and whateverelse work, and just have some time to ourselves!  The first day we went to breakfast at a place called Renaud's.  It's a cute little cafe and came highly recommended to us from Jenn over at July Moon.

Then we took a little drive down State street and found some parking a little closer to the beach.  We walked down to the beach, and took a stroll down the pier at Stearn's Wharf.

The entrance to the pier

The view of the marina.  

Stearn's Wharf

It was so clear!

These guys were so tame!

Baby Bean at 14 weeks.  First trip to the ocean!

After the pier, we walked back down State Street to find some lunch.  After passing so many little restaurants, we decided on one called Killer B's.  It was a grill, and after looking it up on yelp, Hubby decided it was rated high enough for his taste ;-)

After lunch where we got to sit outside and enjoy the 80 degree weather, and people watch (my favorite!!), we decided to head over to UC Santa Barbara and check out the campus.  Sorry, I didn't take any pictures there, we were trying to see how well we fit in as college students!  Finally we came back to the hotel to rest for a little while before dinner.  We went to dinner at another highly recommended location called Jane's.  This place reminded me of eating in a quaint little restaurant in Paris.  The decorations inside were so fun and cute, with twinkle lights everywhere.  And our table was upstairs right next to a window that overlooked the balcony.  It was fantastic!  And, the filet was absolutely delicious!

Sorry for the quality, it was low lighting and taken on my phone.

After dinner we did some more walking around and came across a fun little Italian restaurant where we decided to have dessert (the theme this weekend was eating apparently...)

Also while walking around and exploring all of the little alcoves were fun shops were hiding down on State Street, I saw this awesome piece of work!

Excuse my nerdiness here...but this looked like it was straight out of Harry Potter!  I was so tempted to get in and see if I would be transported to the Ministry of Magic :-)

The second day we went to breakfast at a little place called D'Angelo's Bread.  It's a great bakery and they had super delicious croissants and danishes.  From there we headed to Hendry's Beach.  It's a very cool area and they even have a whole stretch of beach just for dogs to run loose off their leashes!  It was so fun to see them all running and playing and swimming in the ocean.

After some relaxing, reading, sunbathing, and frisbee throwing on the beach, we headed back to hotel to rest up and change for our dinner cruise!

Our dinner cruise was courtesy of Santa Barbara Sailing Center.  It was a sunset cruise so we headed out on the water around 5:30.  On our way out of the harbor, we saw some rather large and rather unique boats that happened to be docked there.

Just some cool yachts and sail boats

More coolness

First up, was this beauty of a yacht.  There were some fancy shmancy people boarding this guy before we left the dock.  Apparently you can rent it out for private parties, but we learned from a couple on our cruise, that it's about $1500 an hour!!!

Then there was this piece of history.  The Spirit of Dana Point, which according to our captain, used to be called the Pilgrim.  A little tidbit of info here: This ship is an accurate replica of a 1770's privateer used during the American Revolution.  Known for their speed, it measures 118 feel long, with a rig height of 100 feet, and 5000 square feet of sail! 

More info can be found here

Then we saw this one.  The pictures definitely do not do it justice.  This massive sailboat/yacht is owned by the Firestone family.  This sucker is a whopping 171 feet long.  This was the epitome of luxury on water.

You can see better pictures and more details about this floating wonder here

 And last but not least, was this guy, the Taxi Dancer.  This boat competes in lots of long distant races all over the west coast.

And since sunset pictures don't really need an explanation...I'll just let you view :)

Tons of pelicans!

Love this silhouette.  I need to adjust the angle of the horizon though :)

Final moments of the sun

First moments of the rising full moon

On our drive back home, we were able to stop in San Luis Obispo (my old stomping grounds) and had lunch at Firestone Grill.  So yummy!

Thanks for reading my marathon post!  More craft posts to come soon, I promise!!

First Trimester Recap - 13.5 Weeks

I am now “technically” through my first trimester.  I say technically because if you divide 40 weeks (length of an average pregnancy) by 3, you get like 13.3 or something.  So now that I am past 13.5 weeks, I will say I’m out of my first trimester!  Some books and sites will argue that this isn’t until 14 weeks…but who’s counting (only 184 more days till I get to meet my baby!)??  So I thought I’d do a little recap of the first few months of this pregnancy, especially since it’s my first, I want to have all of this information documented for when the second kid comes around! 

There hasn’t been much exciting going on in the world of baby on the outside at least.  Obviously on the inside the bean is growing like crazy!  Already about 3 inches long and weighing in at one whole ounce J  www.thebump.com says that this week is about the size of a Georgia peach.  At this point, the bean has fingers, toes, nails, some peach fuzz, finger prints, all internal organs, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, a healthy heartbeat, and even gender organs.  Although those won’t be visible on an ultrasound for another 6 weeks or so.  And yes, we are definitely planning on finding out the gender! 

Sickness: Up to this point I’ve felt pretty good considering how bad it could have been.  I only got sick a few times and mostly that was due to not eating before I got too hungry.  Not sure if that makes sense, but basically, when I start to get hungry, all of the sudden I feel like I haven’t eaten in 3 days.  And from that point, I usually have about a half hour window or so before I get sick.  So far, I’ve managed to keep that one under control for the most part.  Around week 8, I did have some days that I just felt nauseas the whole day.  

Fatigue: I never really got fatigued, at least not enough for me to notice.  I mean, yeah I was tired, but never to the point where I was going to bed at 8pm and taking naps during the day.  So, that has been a good thing because being that exhausted at work just sounds awful. 

Exercise:  I have been continuing my regular 3 days a week at Crossfit.  I obviously have skipped days here and there, but for the most part I keep up with it.  Granted I have slowed down on a lot of the work outs because I’m finding myself out of breath faster, but I figure it’s better than nothing!  And yes folks…not to worry, continuing Crossfit was approved by my doctor!

Food:  Now this has been a tricky one.  For the first 6 weeks or so (from when I found out, so weeks 4-10) all I could really eat were carbs.  Some of my staples included: Ritz, Doritos Salsa Verde, Cream of Wheat, and Mac n Cheese.  I know…super healthy right?  I have been taking my prenatals, and I have been drinking V8 juice to get some of those fruits and veggie benefits, but I was basically trying to eat what didn’t make me sick.  Now, I don’t know if I’d call those cravings persay…the hubs would beg to differ.  But, oh well.  I’m pregnant!!  It’s allowed!  I’m starting to feel better now, and am back to eating veggies and more protein in my diet.   Although chicken is still a no-go for me at this point. 

 Clothes:  According to my scale, I’ve only gained 3 or 4 pounds, which is good.  From my 8 week appointment to my 12 week appointment, I apparently lost .6 pounds according to the doctor’s scale.  Who am I to argue that??  Anywho, I’m to the point now where the pants that fit juuuust right before, are now needing the belly band.  And the pants that were slightly loose before, are fitting juuuuust right.  So I’m not completely out of normal clothes.  But the belly band has come in handy a few times. Thanks Sarah for getting me the black one!!  I’m not in maternity pants yet, but I have a feeling it’s just around the corner.  As for maternity shirts, I have bought a few at Target, but they could also be worn as non-maternity shirts.    

Other: The only other thing that has been happening out of the norm is stuffiness!  I have been stuffy every day (the worst at night) since around 10 weeks or so.  It’s very annoying when trying to sleep since I can’t really take any meds for it.  But, the hubby has been very helpful and usually just rubs my belly and says “it’ll all be worth it soon”.  He’s so sweet J 

That’s about the only interesting stuff I can think of for now. We haven’t made any baby purchases because we’re trying to wait until the gender appointment.  It has been very difficult though!  I can’t wait to start getting baby stuff, and decorating the nursery!!  I also can’t wait for my belly to pop out some more so I don’t just look like I ate too much at the buffet! The second trimester is supposed to be the “honeymoon” trimester, so I’m really looking forward to that.  Thanks for reading and I promise there will be a picture next week!!  Feel free to leave questions if I left anything out J

Growing Our Bean

I will officially be 13 weeks pregnant tomorrow.  I think my bump is juuuust starting to show.  If I "let it all hang out" then there is definitely a bump.  But standing normal, I just look like a had a large Thanksgiving dinner.

We have been taking almost weekly bump pictures since around 8 weeks.  Well.....we actually started earlier than that since I was so stinkin' excited, but there's nothing there, and the first couple are on my phone and without the chalkboard, so I'm omitting those.

You'll have to forgive the poor lighting, poor outfit choices, and awkward arm/hand positions I have.  I'm still trying to figure out what works best for these, which is not difficult considering I really don't like pictures of myself in the first place.  But I'm hoping that one day down the road I'll be happy to have these as a keepsake. So, without further ado....here are the pictures up through 12 weeks.  We will be taking the 13 week picture tomorrow or Friday, so stay tuned for that.  I'll also be posting my symptoms and experiences up through now with that picture.

Just as a note, I got the idea for the chalkboard from this blog.  I found it on Pinterest :)

Not sure whats going on with the bumpiness of the pants here...but I swear its the clothes, not my belly!

The 12th week is clearly my favorite picture so far.  And I think that will be one of the outfit favorites for showing off the bean.  And just for fun...I thought I'd share this picture with my furry baby girl protecting what we sometimes call "her baby" :)  I just thought it was precious the way her paw ended up across my belly! (Please excuse the awkward position of my hand :-P )

Our Barker Bunch....Is Growing!!

Yep, the hubs and I are expecting!!  Our Barker Bunch is growing :-)  This is my grand excuse for lack of posts.  But now that we are in the safe zone, and are telling people, I hope to post more!  I am about 3 months along, a little over 12 weeks.  Our expected due date is March 28, 2013, but my intuition tells me it'll be in the first few days of April.  Mother's instinct??  Maybe, we'll see :)

The first weeks seemed very long to me, and that may have been because we were having to keep it a secret.  But, now that the new is out, I thought I would share our story.  So here it goes...

The hubby left for Boston on work travel on June 18th, 2013 (a Wednesday).  He wasn't coming back until Sunday June 22 because he was staying a few extra days to visit his aunt.  For whatever reason, maybe it was instinct...maybe it was just impatience, I decided to take a test on Thursday night.  I was fully expecting it to be negative, no big deal.  But as I sat staring at the little strip of paper...I thought I was seeing things.  A second little pink line started to develop!  I was beside myself trying to figure out if this was true, or accurate, or a fluke.  So of course I took a couple more :)  All with the same result.  Then, since those were just cheapo internet bought tests, I drove myself to Walgreen's and picked up some digital tests.  And sure enough, the little blinking hour glass turned to "Pregnant".

I was so so excited, I had a few tears in my eyes. And I was celebrating with my dogs because they were the only ones home!  Then came the hard part.  Having to talk to the hubby every night while he was away, and not spilling the beans!  I couldn't tell him over the phone.  I had to do it in person.  And to make matters worse, I had plans to spend nearly all day Saturday with my parents.  And I couldn't say a thing!  I was dying.

Sometime in those few days, I managed to go to Target and pick up a couple of things in order to surprise my new Daddy-to-be with the news when he got home on Sunday.  He got home Sunday afternoon and after he had settled in a bit, I handed him a shoe box asking him if he wanted to see the new shoes I picked up while he was away (this is a common occurrence...I love shoes)  and this is what he opened...

The test does say "Pregnant" even though you can't tell in the picture.  Sorry for the poor quality, it was taken on my phone.  He was so excited he nearly dropped the box!  So needless to say, we are both over the moon and so so anxious to meet our little one.  We have adopted the nickname The Bean for the baby since we don't know the gender yet. So, without further ado, here is our little Bean's first picture... 6 weeks and 5 days old :-)

It's the little nugget right where those cross hairs are.  The cross hairs are used to measure how long the bean is, .45 centimeters :)  

We have been taking (mostly) weekly pictures.  I will write another post soon with a catch up on those.  Thanks for reading our story!!!  And I'll keep you all informed of the progress that we are making!  

New Floors

Ok, brace yourselves for a long post (mostly pictures).  I know I have been terrible about updating this thing, my next post will be on why that is.  But for now, I want to show you our new floors!

When we first moved in, we had already decided that we wanted to redo the downstairs floors at some point.  The carpet was gross and stained (regardless of how much we steam cleaned it, spot treated it, etc.) and the tile and grout in the kitchen/entry way was just .......ick.  You could never tell if the tile was dirty, or stained, or if that's just how it was supposed to be.  The grout was very clearly stained and just had to go.

So, since we have dogs and we plan to have kids down the line, we figured that real hardwood would not be durable enough, plus it was a little out of our price range.  We decided to go with laminate that looks like hardwood.  It's much cheaper, and much more durable since its man made.

We enlisted the help of one of our friends and fellow softball teammates Noah Brown who is a general contractor (Noah Brown Construction).    After much debate, and many samples that we brought home, we finally decided on one from Gold River Carpet One.  They have a great selection!  And thus the process began...

The before pictures (and in process of moving furniture out of the downstairs)

It doesn't seem that bad in the pictures...but trust me it is.

Then came the demolition stage...

This is all our new flooring that was ordered...yay!

Our entire downstairs was covered in plastic for about 5 days.  We spent most of our time cramped upstairs (since half of our downstairs furniture was up there too) in the loft to watch tv.  We had a lot of mac n cheese, and ordered in pizza during that time :-)

And finally, putting it all back together (in a much nicer way!)...

The dogs are more of a fan of the rugs since they have no traction on the new floors.  But we are so so happy with the way it all turned out.  It looks amazing, and it really helps make the layout of the house flow better.  A huge thank you to Noah!!  We also replaced the baseboards in the process, and they look great.  

The house slowly came back together as the plastic came down, and the furniture came back in.  Now all we need is a couple of nice rugs!  

Our next step will be to replace the carpet upstairs since its just as bad as downstairs.  So hopefully we'll be able to get that done in the next few months!