The crazy bag lady...

I have a new obsession (dealing with the baby) daily. Obviously, the glider was an obsession that lasted longer than a day, but whew... that's over with! : ) Quick change of topic really quick for update purposes: We ended up choosing the Four Seasons Down, Slip-covered Claire chair in a white fabric with baby blue piping! It's supposed to be here in 4-6 weeks and I can't wait to see it!!! Choosing fabric is NOT easy... so, fingers crossed it looks great when it gets here! : ) Back on track now... So, today's obsession has been a diaper bag! I've looked online at them before today, but mostly just glancing, observing and wondering. Today, I was on a mission! : ) I found a website called JustDiaperBags.com and they're having a 20% off Memorial Day sale, so I thought this would be perfect timing! But, of course, the decision is too hard! : ) I'm stuck between 2 bags! And, for one of the bags, I'm stuck between 2 colors! Ugh! Being indecisive is for the birds!

Option #1:

The Timi & Leslie Hannah Bag

I like 2 colors for this one... pewter and black:

It also comes in these colors too, which I really like:

Option #2:

The Storksak Olivia bag

(This one doesn't have as many pictures, but comes with all the same extras as the Timi & Leslie bag.)

Both bags have great reviews and are close enough in price to not let that be a determining factor. So... which one!? AGH!

My first born...

Yesterday was one of the hardest days of my life. That may sound dramatic, but I assure you, it's true.

Our sweet, sweet Maggie died really unexpectedly.

Magnolia Lane Alliston came into our lives with SO much energy, there were times we would have traded her for just about anything. And then, just as quickly, she would do something so sweet, I wanted to just snuggle up and never let her leave my side! She was not the smartest girl, but she made up for it in so many other ways. I don't even know if Clay and I realized how much we loved her and needed her in our lives until she was gone.

I put Maggie and Reed outside around lunchtime yesterday to get some stuff done around the house. At about 3:45, I opened the back door to let them in. Reed immediately ran in, but Maggie had been sleeping in the shade and was sort-of sluggish coming up the stairs. I really didn't think much of it because we've seen this from her many times. I became concerned when she still looked really sluggish and unstable once inside, so I made her walk over to her water bowl and tried to coax her into drinking. She wouldn't do it. She just stood there, eyes glazed over, teetering back and forth a bit. I called Clay and had to leave him a message to call me back immediately because something was wrong with Maggie. As I was leaving him the message, her swaying got worse, so I called the vet to describe what was going on. They advised me to bring her in right away and mentioned that it could be a heat stroke. Clay called back and I told him to meet me at the vet. Right about then, Maggie's swaying had become much worse and she just sort-of fell over on her side. I completely lost it. I ran and got her leash, put it on her and tried to get her to get up and get in the car. She wouldn't budge. I had to pick her up (and she was dead weight) and put her in. Traffic was, of course, horrible and it took as twice as long as usual to get to the vet's office. The entire way there, I had my hand on her to make sure she was still breathing and to try and comfort her a litte. I also told her, repeatedly, how much I loved her and I begged her to just hang on until we got to the doctor. Once we turned onto the road the vet's office is on, I felt like she had stopped breathing; however, I felt her body rise and fall a few more times, so I was still slightly hopeful. I pulled into the parking lot and Clay and a nurse were waiting for me. Clay came to the door of my car, took one look at her and started crying. (That did NOT help my already hysterical crying.) The nurse took her inside and we waited. The vet came out a few minutes later and led us into an exam room to tell us that the nurse was still administering CPR, but that Maggie hadn't made it. We lost it. I guess I knew that was coming, but it was still unreal to actually hear it and know that it was true. It just happened so fast! Maggie's temperature was 107 degrees (normal for dogs is 101 and anything over 103 is bad). The vet reassured us that there was nothing we could have done and said that he suspects there was something else to it (maybe she was sick). Maggie was brought back in so that we could have a few minutes alone with her. We cried and told her how much we loved her and missed her already. It was terrible. It's so strange that animals can become such an integral part of our family and warrant the same type of sadness that normally seems reserved for a human loss.

We will miss our sweet, beautiful girl so much!

RIP Magnolia Lane Alliston

11/19/05-5/26/11

The great glider debate...

Who knew that choosing a damn glider for the nursery would be my biggest cause of stress!? A glider... really!?

It's true though, I've literally lost sleep over what brand to choose, what color, blah blah blah! And, sadly, the decision hasn't even been made! I don't feel that I'll rest well until the thing is ordered and I can't change my mind! : )

We named this child in no time, picked out a crib in minutes, chose bedding without a second guess, etc., so what's different!? AGH! Also, Clay thinks I've lost my ever loving mind because I'm so concerned with this! : )

So, I'm taking it to the blog! Here are the ones we've settled on... now it's all about fabric and price! Oh yeah... that's the hard part!

Our bedding is Serena & Lily, so we really like the Serena & Lily Hayes glider:

I'm super worried about white fabric, but it's really the only gender-neutral color that also goes with the bedding that we've chosen. Here's the bedding (our crib is dark wood though):

We probably won't go with the Serena & Lily glider, simply because we'd also have to pay a ridiculous amount for shipping and it's already a little more expensive (we think) than the other two we've picked out. And... we've never sat in it. If it's not super comfortable, that could be REALLY bad! I'll be using this chair in the middle of the night and I do not enjoy missing out on sleep, so I need something wonderful to make it all ok! : )

Option #2 is the Four Seasons Claire chair. This is the chair that we picked out at Rattles & Rhymes here in Athens and fell in LOVE! Clay didn't want to get out of it! : ) It's down filled and, quite possibly, the greatest chair EVER! : ) However, we didn't really find the right fabric for it!

:( I'm hopeful that we'll be able to find something that works well!

(They don't put the fabric choices online, so this is OBVIOUSLY not the fabric we would choose, just the chair.)

Option #3 is actually very similar to Option #2, so it will probably come down to which is cheaper and which we can find the right fabric for!

It's the Little Castle Buckingham Chair:

I'm going to a couple baby stores in Atlanta tomorrow to make the final decision and GET.THIS.DONE!!!

*Side note: While typing out this blog entry, Rattles & Rhymes called to let me know that our nursery furniture (crib, dresser and hutch/changing station) came in!!! I AM SOOO EXCITED!!! : )

Belly progression...

I, easily, have the most boring looking blog on the planet! Ugh! I'm so out of the loop on how to do all these fun things! : )

Also, I have NO idea how to manipulate the formatting on this thing! When I add pictures, it totally throws off my spacing, etc. which drives me B-A-N-A-N-A-S!!! So, when a post looks really weird... I promise I tried to fix it!

Ok, rant over! : )

Now, I've been ok (not great) about taking belly pictures. So, I'll post the progression below. First, I, of course, have to explain a little (you didn't think I was just going to shut up and post pictures, did you!?).

I have a pregnant belly!

This should seem like a VERY obvious statement coming from someone who is 21 weeks pregnant; however, it wasn't true very long ago! And... that was a definite frustration of mine!

I was in that "is she pregnant or has she just gained weight" phase for FAR TOO LONG!!! I just wanted to look pregnant... geez! : ) I would wake up on certain days SO excited because I looked pregnant and then, the next day... just a pudgy tummy! So, these pictures are really entertaining to me because they fluctuate so much! : ) But, as of about the 29th of April, the belly is here to stay! : )

12 weeks:

15 weeks:

17 weeks:

18 weeks: Where the hell did my belly go!?

Almost 19 weeks:

Almost 20 weeks: THERE IT IS!!! : )

20 weeks: The belly is here to stay! : )

(I have no idea why it looks like there's a stain on my belly... there wasn't that I'm aware of!)

Well, growing belly= growing baby= happy mommy! : )

*Laura, did the number of times I used the word belly make you want to vomit!? : )

The greatest friends...

So, today has been the day of nostalgia! Which means... I've been crying ALL.DAY!!! Damn these pregnancy hormones! : )

I've been cleaning out under the beds of our guest rooms and unearthing ridiculous treasures!!! Pictures, pictures galore! It's been amazing! And, I really haven't gotten a ton of actual cleaning or cleaning out done because of all my finds! Shocker!

So, I just had to share one of my discoveries because it was a total tear-jerker for me!



I know it's hard to see, so I'm going to type it all out in a sec... first, the explanation! : )

Senior year of college, we had our AOPi Senior Banquet coming up and learned that we had to get up in front of everyone, in pairs or groups, and read something we had written. So, naturally, the task was dealt to Katie! : ) Katie is our creative genius. Period. Anytime we ever needed ANYTHING creative, we turned to Katie! So, we all took turns hiding in our bedrooms while the rest of our group made up a little rhyme about us. I still, very clearly, remember how hard a time we had coming up with something for Katie! Cute just flows out of that girl! : )

So, we have our Banquet, get up in front of the group, recite our little poem and have a blast for the rest of the night! Then, a week or so later, we all receive these versions on pretty silver cardstock from who else... sweet Katie! : ) She had taken our little tidbits and added her own paragraphs to make it even more special!

I know this won't really even make sense to anyone other than me, Katie, Alli, Laura, Lauren and Kris, but that's ok... it's still fun! : )
So, without further ado...

The five of us are the best of pals

Not only are they silly, but they are the nicest gals

Apartments eight eleven and eight twenty-one

Have been nothing but craziness and fun

Bed with an i-n-g field is Laura's name

She has lots of drunken claims to fame

Sleeping late at the bar

Naked or clothed she's a superstar

Do you have a sister? Let's clank our teeth

This innocent girl has a crazy side underneath

Alli's the pro at getting the y's

You even have fun with those random military guys

Sophomore year Reba went M.I.A.

Now her famous wild dancing is just for Clay

Long walks home with a broken shoe

Golden girls and a messy room is perfect for you

Lauren was forced to ask Lea to be her formal date

But only after she and Laura had a yelling debate

PCB she wanted her teddy to ride

She asks us 6:45 or 7:00 so that she can be by your side

You'll never find Katie without a thong

Give her salsa or candy and you'll never go wrong

One glass of wine is all it takes to get her drunk

She's always the one to help you out of your funk

Words cannot describe how lucky I am

These friends have become my second fam

Alli's our nurse and our mom when home is far away

Laura's honest, funny and reliable every single day

Reba laughs at your bad jokes and never gets mad

Lauren says there's a reason for everything each time you get sad

We can't forget Kris our other roommate

She puts her friends first and says her problems can wait

I can't imagine my life without friends like you

Just wanted to say I love you and thank you too

I am so thankful for the day we all met because

Ya'll are friends that I could never forget

Ok, crying again now! : ) I have SOOO many fantastic friends in my life (including these 5) and I am thankful every single day for all of them! It's amazing that each friend has her own little niche and is the perfect friend just because of who they are! I don't know what I'd do without them in my life!!! : )

The baby journey...

Might as well start from the beginning...

We took a test on January 20, 2011 that said *Positive*... we weren't really sure whether or not to believe it, so a second test was obviously necessary! : ) Well, I don't suppose two tests would lie now would they!? : )

I called the doctor's office the next day to tell them about our positive tests and to schedule an appointment to confirm. Unfortuntately, they didn't say, "Come in now, we're so excited for you!" like I'd hoped! We had to wait almost 2 weeks! Ugh!

So, on February 2, 2011 the doctor confirmed it... WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A BABY!!! : ) And, that tiny little dot...that's our little peanut! : ) They warned us before they did the ultrasound that it was still early and that we may not be able to hear the heartbeat. But, we could! It was the coolest sound ever! : )

We also found out that we were 7 weeks and that our due date is September 21, 2011!

The next day we made up really stupid excuses to go see our parents to tell them the news! My parents were the only ones gullable enough to not guess why we were coming! : ) We've got some pretty excited grandparents on our hands! : )

That weekend, I had already scheduled a girl's weekend at Laura's in Columbus with Laura, Lauren, Alli, Katie and Kris. So... now what!? Our entire plan for the evening revolved around staying home, drinking wine and catching up... how can I seriously look these girls in the eye and say NO to a glass (ok, multiple glasses) of wine without them questioning me!? Answer: I can't! So, plan B!

Alli and I were going to drive to Lauren's house so that the two of them could go for a run (overachievers). Lauren lives right down the street from Kauleen, so I called her, told her I was coming and planned to meet up for an hour or so before we headed to Columbus.

Kauleen picked me up at Lauren's and I was sweating bullets. I don't think she noticed though! : ) Armed with my ultrasound pictures, I followed her into the house and took a tour! Then, I basically just shoved the pictures in her face the second the tour of her house was over! And then, I started crying! Yes, I am SOOO excited about this baby, BUT... Kauleen's getting married on September 24... in Naples! I am devastated to have to miss my best friend's wedding! : ( I was beyond nervous to tell her that I'd be missing it!!! But, of course, because she's Kauleen, she was so sweet about it and just told me how excited she was for me! Great friend! : )

So, step one of the baby reveal was complete.

Kauleen dropped me back off at Lauren's. Alli and I went to Kris' so that we could all ride down to Columbus together. Once we got to Laura's, Kris left immediately to meet with a photographer, leaving Alli, Laura and I at the house. Laura gave us a tour of their new house and offered us wine. Alli was on medication and wasn't supposed to drink, so she declined. SWEET! : ) So, I just said, I'll just wait until everyone else gets here. Laura looked at me like I had 3 heads, but said ok! : ) Kris got back and THE first thing out of her mouth was, Why aren't you guys drinking!? Crap, now what!? : ) So, Alli explained her reasoning and I just said I'd just wait since Alli couldn't drink anyway. So stupid, but whatever, I was grasping at straws at this point! : ) FINALLY, Lauren and Katie arrived, took a quick tour and then we all stood around in Laura's kitchen catching up. I couldn't wait any longer! I snuck off, grabbed my ultrasound pictures and held them up for the girls to see. It took a second for anyone to realize what in the world I had, but the second they did, the screaming, etc. commenced! : ) Katie started running circles around the island screaming, Alli started crying and everyone else basically stood there with their mouths hanging open! : ) I only wish I had the whole thing on video somehow!!! : ) It was awesome!

Once I got back home the next day, I called Audrey and Brandy to fill them in and let them know that they would soon be Aunt Audrey and Aunt Brandy! : ) I LOVED being able to tell my best friends and couldn't wait for the moment when I could just tell anyone and everyone!!!

I'm normally pretty laid back; however, I was COMPLETELY neurotic about finding out the sex of this baby!!! I have NO idea how people go the entire 9 months (who am I kidding... 10 months) without knowing! At one of our doctor's appointments, we found out that we wouldn't have another ultrasound until we were 20 weeks, so we'd have to wait FOREVER to find out if we were having a boy or a girl! SERIOUSLY!? Stress is not good for pregnant people... what are they trying to do to me!?

So, Masters week arrives. My dad gets tickets for the practice round on Tuesday and (finally) takes me!!! I was SO excited and knew that my one purchase from the merchandise shop would be a cute Masters onesie for my sweet little baby! Well, no such luck... they had adorable baby things, but they were either pink or they were blue! I was SO annoyed! : ) I got home that night, looked at Clay and said, you have to get one of those pink or blue outfits when you go to Augusta on Sunday! His response was that we weren't going to get both just for the sake of it, so it just wasn't going to happen this year. Wrong again! (I may have had a pregnancy flip-out moment where I plugged my ears and stomped around like a 3 year old... thank you Alli for teaching me that trick! ;) ) So, I went online, found a 3D ultrasound place in Atlanta that my friend, Bethenny, told me about and booked an 8:45pm appointment! Clay couldn't come up with an excuse not to go since he was in town and it didn't interfere with work or, more importantly, golf!
Thursday, April 7, 2011 at 8:45pm, we were sitting in a tiny little office in Buckhead waiting to find out what we were having. Clay started lecturing me about how unhappy he'd be that we drove all the way there if we weren't able to find out because we were only 16 weeks! Crap... I hadn't even thought about that! I was only thinking about what my reaction would be when the ultrasound tech said, IT'S A GIRL! I might as well have been rehearsing for my Oscars acceptance speech! I had it planned out... I should definitely cry! : )

So, we head into the room and the lady tells us that she's really hopeful that our baby will cooperate since we were the last of the day and all the other babies had been difficult. Clay just shot me this look like, yeah, you and me both lady, we just drove over an hour for this!

I took a deep breath, got on the table and got ready. She put the ultrasound wand on my stomach and about 3 seconds later said, well someone's not shy, it's definitely a boy! I'm sorry lady, did you just call my beautiful little GIRL a BOY!? She did! And then proceeded to show us his penis! Girls don't have penises! I was definitely in shock and my rehearsed reaction went down the drain! : )

I don't think I said two words on the way home! I was in complete shock! Of course, I have NO idea why I was in such shock, but I was! There's a 50/50 chance here and somehow I managed to choose wrong. I'm pretty sure I thought that made me a terrible mother! Great logic! : )

So, don't get me wrong, I was in no way upset that it was a boy, I was just shocked! And, it took a good week I think for that shock to leave so that I was left with nothing but pure joy! : )

I am SOOO excited that we're having a little boy and can't wait to meet him!!! I sure hope he likes the airplane nursery that I picked out the very next day! : )

I also hope he likes the BLUE seersucker Masters outfit that we got him on Sunday! And yes, it was worth it! : )

We really wanted to be able to tell our parents in person and with all of them present at one time! This is much easier said than done! We had to wait until Easter weekend (and Asa's Birthday weekend) for it to happen. That meant that we had another secret to keep... UGH!

I also wanted to let our close friends know in a fun way too, so I bought blue helium balloons, wrote IT'S A BOY! on them and boxed them up! (When the box was opened, the balloon flew out making our announcement for us.) I took the boxes to UPS on Friday, April 22, 2011 and made sure that they would all arrive at their destinations on Monday, April 25, 2011.

Then, on Saturday, April 23, 2011, we picked up the gender reveal cake that we had ordered from Bee's Knees here in Athens and headed to Milledgeville for the weekend. We had dinner with Asa and Pattie that night (and Pattie even asked point blank about when we'd find out the sex of the baby... lying is NOT fun) and then had our Easter/B-day dinner with the whole family planned for the next day.

So, Sunday, April 24, 2011: Janice, Asa and Pattie all came over to my Mom and Dad's house for an Easter/B-day dinner. We had a great meal, regardless of that fact that I was getting more and more nervous by the second! After everyone finished eating, I went out to get the cake and Clay explained to everyone that it would be a very special cake. Everyone was confused! : ) I walked out holding a cake that had "It's a..." written on the top and had pink and blue question marks all over it. Janice immediately screamed and wanted to dig into it with her hands! : ) I'm not sure what everyone else thought, but I do know that my Mom was utterly confused! : ) Clay got out his new Flip video camera and asked me to explain what was going on for everyone. We gave Asa the knife and said that he could do the honor since it was his B-day. Janice wasn't exactly ok with not being in control of this situation and the video is hilarious proof! : ) I explained to everyone that when Asa cut into the cake, if it was blue, we're having a boy, if it was pink, we're having a girl... easy enough. Asa started cutting and realized he didn't have a plate to put the cake on when he cut it (so cute)... Janice did not care! She grabbed his hand trying to force the cutting several times while we all laughed! It was hysterical! Finally, a piece was cut and pulled out to reveal... BLUE!!! Everyone screamed! : ) My mom was excited and pissed at the same time! Her first comment was, I can't believe you knew and didn't tell me!!! : ) I guess someone doesn't like surprises! ; )
It was such a fun way to make the announcement and I think, once everyone got over being lied to again, they were really excited! : )

On Monday, April 25, 2011, I delivered the balloon boxes to the people who live in Athens and then waited for the phone calls to come in! : )

It was SO much fun to hear everyone's reaction and I even got pictures of Kris and Brandy opening their boxes (thanks Blake and Jimmy)! : ) Priceless!!!

So all of our secrets were finally out... whew!!! : )

We are SO excited about sweet little Asa Clayton Alliston, III!!! : )

And, we got to see him again on Thursday, May 5, 2011!

We had our big doctor's appointment with the anatomy scan. Everything looked and measured great AND we found out that our Quad-Screen resluts all came back negative! Yay! : )

We also got TONS of pictures of our sweet little boy! Here's one of them:

Needless to say, we have A LOT to do before he gets here in September (maybe October), but we can't wait to meet our little Asa! : )

What a journey!

It's beginning...

After the urging of friends, I decided to continue my blogging (just in a MUCH different way).
I debated and debated and have finally given in, simply because I know it's much easier to keep up with people and families through a blog these days than it is to pick the phone or make time for a visit!
So, since we're expecting our first baby in September, what better time!? : )

First, I feel the need to put a warning on this blog. I imagine that most of the posts will be random stream-of-thought type entries and, therefore, may not make a whole hell of a lot of sense all the time! I also imagine that if the blog begins this way, it will only get MUCH worse after September when my second love (SLEEP) goes missing (my first love is FOOD- sorry Clay)! So, bear with me... or don't! : )

Second, I, for some unknown reason, feel like a blog needs a cutesy name. I'm not sure why The Alliston Family (or something similar) isn't good enough, but well, it's just not! : ) So, after TONS of thought and finally giving up, the radio inspired me. I grew up a HUGE Beatles fan (thanks Dad) and decided I'd pick a song title that reminded me of family. So, P.S. I Love You was born. Cute and meaningful... perfect! : )

And so it begins...