Baby Sale!

Last week on my way home, I stopped at Target to pick up shampoo, a shower liner, and a few other basic necessities. Well, each time I go to virtually any store, I can't leave without glancing through the baby section.

So I meandered through the aisles of baby gear and accessories and caught a glimpse of what looked like a sale tag underneath the display of the crib I'd been wanting. I stopped to take a closer look and saw that not only was the crib $20 off, but you got a free mattress when you bought the crib!

I realized what a great deal this was, but didn't give it too much thought because I didn't know that we had an extra $250 to spend that night. Not to mention the reason why I'd been holding off on buying the crib up until now, because if/when we move in a couple of months, I didn't want to have to move it. I went on to work, but I just couldn't forget about it.

I came home and told Dan about the sale. He agreed that it was a great deal, but asked where we would get the money from. After figuring out a way to make it work, we headed out to Target to take a look. By the end of the night, we came home with this...

and this...

Also as part of this big baby sale Target was having, they had a smokin' deal on the swing and bouncer that I wanted. The swing was $7 off (not that much I know, but just wait), and then you got the $50 bouncer for free when you bought the swing!! I couldn't believe it. I called my mom, and she almost couldn't believe the deal either. She told me to call my grandma and let her know, because she knew my grandma would want to get something bigger like that for my shower and she is always ones for big bargains.

So I did, as soon as I got home from work (before we left to get the crib), I emailed my grandma and told her about the swing deal. Being that this was all happening Thursday night, and the sale was only good through Saturday, I needed to get on it quickly.

My sweet grandma emailed me back the next morning and said she would go to her Target in Surprise, AZ that afternoon to check it out. Friday night, while I was at work, I received a call from my grandma saying that her Target was out of the bouncer and asking if I could check at my Target and get it if they had it. So I did.

I went at 9:30 on Friday night and picked up both the swing and the bouncer for $135!

What a deal huh?

We're having a...

I know this is a little late in being posted, but for those of you who have not already heard...

We're having a baby BOY!

We went in for the ultrasound last Thursday (the 14th) and he looked so wonderful! It was so exciting to see a baby inside instead of just a small gummy-bear like shadow. He is growing very well and was even a few days above average in his weight. The tech said everything looked great, the only thing she wasn't able to see was his feet because he had them jammed into my cervix the whole time. His little legs look so long and crammed in there already! From this ultrasound at 18 weeks, it looks like he's going to take after his dad in height, but we'll see.

The tech looked at all of the organs and everything like usual, and then told us to just tell her what else we wanted to see. When we asked if she could tell if it was a boy or a girl, she went right to it, and pointed it out to us. Dan squeezed my arm and was so excited to hear he was going to have a little boy. I had a feeling since the beginning that it was a boy, but never had anything more than that to go on. Turns out, my gut feeling was right!

Probably the neatest part of the entire appointment was at the end, just as she was getting ready to turn the machine off, she was holding it still over his little face so we could see him. He had been squirming around so much during the entire ultrasound, but had finally settled down right at the end. Then, just before she turned it off, he looked at us and smiled, then yawned a HUGE yawn. She was able to take a picture of his little smile real quick, so I have it in a little frame next to my bed.

This ultrasound made it so much more real, and made us so much more excited. We were already overjoyed to begin with, but seeing our little boy in there, and having him look at us was an unbelievable experience. We can't wait for him to get here!

(If you tilt your head to the left, or counterclockwise, you'll be able to see his nose and mouth, and his hand over his eyes)

(Side profile)

Baby Update

I had my monthly OB appt. last week. I obviously had one last month too, but it was pretty uneventful so I didn't really have anything to post about it.

This time, I was finally able to hear my baby's heartbeat again. That sound is honestly music to my ears; I don't know if I can think of a better thing to hear right now. The first and only time I had heard the heartbeat before this was when we had the first ultrasound done, and at that time it was at 175 bpm at 7 1/2 weeks. Last week, at 15 1/2 weeks it was down to 136 bpm. It was so neat to hear and kinda cool to hear how much slower it was this time. All that means is that the baby is getting bigger and the heartbeat is slowing down to a child's rate instead of a tiny embryo's. They said the heartbeat was great and sounded good.

Other than that, the appointment was pretty uneventful. I knew that at my next appointment, we would be doing the ultrasound to find out if it's a boy or girl. According to our schedule of appts. that ultrasound should have been scheduled for the end of October. But, since I am very anxious to find out and we will be out of town for almost a week, and really just have a lot going on at the end of the month, I decided I would ask my Dr. if we could do it in 2 weeks instead of 4. Turns out she's going to be out of town and is getting married, etc. at the end of the month too, so it worked better for both of us to move it up a little. She said the ultrasound should be done between 18 & 20 weeks, and in 2 weeks I would be just a day or 2 shy of 18 weeks. (At my first appt. last month, she said they try to do it between 16 & 20 weeks, so I think I should be fine). She told me to just schedule the ultrasound for the end of the week so I will be just a day or 2 shy of 18 weeks and it should be all good. She also said if for some reason we can't see everything we need to, we'll just do another ultrasound after we all get back into town.

So, the moment Dan and I, and probably a lot of other have been waiting for is finally scheduled! We are having the ultrasound on Thursday October 14th at 10:10 am! Which yes is 1 week from today. I am so excited and can't wait to find out who it is that's growing inside. I'm so excited to see the little human inside of me that doesn't look like a peanut anymore like it did on the first ultrasound.

If you haven't already, and you'd like to, post your vote as to which you think it will be at the top right of the blog. Also, if you're interested, I have set up a baby website where I am uploading all of my baby bump pictures as well as many of the ultrasound pictures and post any new updates about the baby/pregnancy. The website is http://babybienz.shutterfly.com/ if you'd like to check it out.

Stay tuned next week for an update on if it's a little boy or a little girl that will be blessing our lives shortly!

Garage Sale Find!

This morning, for whatever reason, I woke up fairly well-rested with Dan at 7:15 am. He was getting ready to go to work for the morning, and I decided that I would go around to the hundreds of garage sales out here on Saturdays.

I didn't really have anything specific in mind that I was looking for. Of course, I knew any real cheap baby stuff would be good if it was in good shape. Otherwise, I was just going to see if I could find any hidden treasures.

I got out at one of the first sales I went to, and then the next probably 25 after that, I just drove by slowly and kept going when I didn't see anything of interest. I was starting to get a little disappointed at my lack of garage sale luck for the day, but I decided I would go through one more subdivision and then head back home.

Boy am I glad I did...

The first and only sale I ended up driving past had something I've been searching for months for. You may or may not remember the table we bought from Craigslist back in January. I posted about the refinishing we did to it shortly after getting it, as we were planning on it being our kitchen table after we moved out of Tucson. Up until now, we have been using it as our kitchen table, but have had an office chair and a folding chair as the chairs since it didn't come with any.

I've been searching Craigslist since January for a certain style and design of chairs that I wanted to go with it. I've found a few sets, but they have all been well over $100 for a set of 4. I also knew that if worse came to worse, I could either buy new chairs from the store for about $150 each, or just buy a new kitchen table and chairs set from Craigslist and use the table we refinished as a scrapbooking table or whatever. This has been my plan for the past few weeks, as now we have a baby coming and need to have an actual kitchen table with real chairs to sit in.

Until today...

I pulled up to this sale, and was immediately in disbelief. The exact style and design of chairs I've been wanting for our table were sitting out on the driveway for sale. 4 of them. In black, just like our table. I ran across the street and up the driveway to see they were priced at $10 each! $40 for the set of 4 chairs!!! I couldn't believe it. They were used, but still in good shape. Honestly they just need a little touch up and they'll be good as new. Even if they were a little used...they were the chairs I'd been wanting forever... 4 of them for $40...and we've been sitting on a folding chair (which hardly works at a counter height table) and an office chair for 3 months now.

I paid them all the cash I had ($20) and luckily the lady was super nice and said she'd hold the whole set for me since she knew I'd be coming back for them and that I could just bring the rest of the money then. I had to wait until Dan got home from work with the Trailblazer so we could go get them, but as soon as he did we ran right over. I was so excited.

They look SO good with our table, and I'm so excited that it actually looks like we have a kitchen table and chairs set instead of just random stuff all thrown together.

Here is a picture of the table with 3 chairs around it. (For now, with the placement of the table, that's all we can have. Eventually when we move, all 4 will be used :))

(I know it's a little dark, but don't worry. There will definitely be more pictures to come when I get a tablecloth and some halloween decorations put together on it :D)

My Favorite Thing About Sundays

Dan and I were called a few weeks ago to work in the older nursery. We were actually excited because we really do love being in nursery and love those kids. We were in the nursery before in Tucson for about 9 months and loved it. I mean come on, when 2/3 of your Sunday meetings include playing with toys, coloring, eating snacks and blowing bubbles, what is there not to love?

While I love those little ones in our class, and have a lot of fun with them each week, I do have to say that this is my favorite part of our Sunday meetings...

I absolutely love watching my husband play and interact with these children. He has such a sweet spirit about him that draws the kids to him and are they are so comfortable with him. Many of our screamers settle down within a minute or two after Dan holds them, talks to them and sits down to play with them. He has such a love for children and I have never met a kid, of any age, that has not been completely enthralled with him. Kids love him. They think he is so fun and are just drawn to him.

This has always been one of the things I have loved most about Dan. His love and knack for children has always been one of his most attractive qualities. The fact that he doesn't mind when he has kids climbing all over him, and has no problem sitting down, kicking his shoes off and playing whatever toys or books they're interested in at the time. He makes it so fun for them.

It makes me so excited to see how he will be with the baby coming. He is going to be such a wonderful dad. I have a feeling when it comes time for "play time", whether it's a boy or a girl, Daddy will be their first choice of play time buddies.

Promotion!

I received a promotion at work today.

I have been somewhat expecting it, because I knew they were going to be looking for at least 1 person to promote within the first month or so. My boss has asked my opinion on many things and has left me in charge of things many times when he has to leave for a while. I am the oldest employee in the store and the one with the most experience.

So, it wasn't a complete surprise; but I wasn't expecting it today.

I won't have too many more duties than what I already do, which is just about everything. Only now I will make more and will be given the responsibility of opening and possibly closing the store on my own from time to time.

I'm kind of excited. I have really enjoyed getting to know my boss and his wife. We have a pretty good friendship and it makes working so much more relaxed. This job really has been just what I was looking for. It's a great extra income for the extra things we like to buy occasionally. It will also be wonderful when it comes time to start buying baby stuff.

We went to Texas Roadhouse tonight for dinner to celebrate. Then to continue our family night, we went to Target to get me a body pillow for sleeping. Last night I was in so much pain with my lower back, I could hardly move. Hopefully the body pillow helps.

It made for an exciting evening and a gave us a reason to celebrate.

Major BARGAINS!

I went to Superstition Springs Mall today (for probably the first time in 2 or 3 years...man it's changed a lot since I worked there in high school). I went to pick up a few things at Clinique that I've been out of for a while since they were having a bonus! (Spend $21.50 or more and get $60 worth of stuff free!) I love Clinique bonuses!

Dan came and met me for lunch in the food court. But after he left, I walked over to JCPenny to look at some baby stuff. Since I never get to the mall, I wanted to take the opportunity to look at some of these stores in person instead of just seeing everything online.

I browsed through some sale racks, and saw a ton of cute stuff of course. But since we haven't found out whether we're having a boy or a girl yet, it makes it kinda hard to buy clothes...

I looked around a little more on the other side of the baby section, just mainly getting ideas of all the cute stuff I'll want to buy as soon as I do know what we're having!

Then...in the back corner, on a small clearance rack, I found these 2 things!

They were both things that I thought could be worn by either a boy or a girl, which is pretty hard to find anyway. Plus, the prices on them was something I just couldn't pass up!

I have usually have mixed feelings about "Baby's 1st..." things because they will probably wear them once or twice, and that's it. But since this was a bib, I figured you can never have enough bibs, no matter what they say on them. And, even though this bib has an adorable bow on the side, I decided we'll either deal with it or cut it off if we end up having a boy.

The shorts were just adorable. And while they were probably meant to be boy shorts, I thought since they were khaki, and they didn't have anything particularly boy-ish on them, I could definitely put them on a girl with maybe a longer shirt and be ok.

Now for the deals...

The bib, was originally $9.00. I paid $1.97 for it!

The shorts, were originally $36.00. I paid $2.99 for them!!

Full price, I would have spent about $50 for these 2 things, and today...I spent $5.19!

I absolutely love finding deals like this, and usually just can't pass them up! This time was no different...