the May list, in June

What we're watching: Well, with The Office and 30 Rock and American Idol (less said on that last one, the better...whatevs, America) already on summer hiatus, there's just about zilch to watch. So we're falling back on our favorite basics: Food Network (we can't get enough Ina Garten and Paula Deen in my house) and HGTV, of course. The one TV show I'm watching (I can't say that Marty actually watches it...he dozes throughout and makes a comment now and then) is the new season of Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood. I can't help it, I love this girl. She just cracks me up, and I'm obsessed with the decor in her bedroom. It's a little too Hollywood for me, but it's definitely French-inspired, and I just heart it so. I wish I could find pictures of her little conversational area...great chairs and a great rug!

You can see the fabulous headboard and the lovely blue on the walls.

More of that delicious blue paint color, plus ivory curtains (on my wish list), and gold lamps (we have burnished gold lamp shades on ivory porcelain lamps).

What I'm reading: Speaking of Paula Deen...

I'm reading her autobiography/memoirs, and whoa, there's a lot more to this lady than even I thought, and I knew that there was a lot going on in there. What a life she has led...and what challenges she has overcome. This woman knows poverty and depression and hopelessness, and still kept fighting for a dream. So very inspiring...and quite funny, too. I recommend it, but remember, she's a sassy woman from the South, so those swear words slip out now and then!

What we're spending on: Baby equipment, what else? I can't believe how much stuff you have to have for a baby, and we're not even getting everything "out there" that we could possibly be guilted/swayed into buying by the baby-advertising machines (and even word of mouth). I mean, we didn't want to go with the cheapy $99 Graco carseat, nor could we afford (who can?) the $3000 Bug-a-Boo strollers, so we went upper-middle of the road: a Chicco Cortina travel system.A salesperson could only sell me so much on ergonomics and such things, but safety? Yeah, that's a big deal to us. The car seat base on this system was rated #1 in safety!

What we're saving for: a house. Now that we've really created a home together (furniture, kitchen supplies, electronics, etc.) -- and I have to remember sometimes that we haven't even been married a whole year yet -- it's time to start really plugging away at our savings for a house. This little boy inside of me needs a backyard and a swingset in the not-so-far-away future! I'm already mentally going through some of my favorite neighborhoods on the southside of Indy to show Marty...

What I need to do: Oh, the to-do list is still a mile long, but we seem to be getting little bits done here and there. We want another few long stretches of time of dealing with the basement (yes, the EVIL STORAGE ROOM has kind of taken over the entire basement), and I think we'll actually have purged through all the stuff we need to get rid of, stored and organized everything else, and then we'll create a nice guest suite for visitors when they start coming in about a month or so!

What I'm thinking about: the fact that my maternity leave starts a month from today. Oh hallelujah! I keep saying that phrase, but it means so much to me to have this light at the end of the tunnel. I mean, Will is going to come whenever HE decides to come, but Mama can take off work on her own timing. The way it looks right now is that I'll have at least a week off, to myself, before Will's due date. I'm going to put a whole new spin on relaxation: I just might spend entire half-days in the bathtub reading. I can't wait!

Things I've learned this month: That physical limitations are real and can't be ignored. We didn't end up going to Charleston this past weekend because my body simply couldn't do it. In fact, the trip from a couple weekends ago was still affecting me physically late last week -- I feel like I only bounced back just a couple days ago from that huge excursion of energy! With all the swelling I'm experiencing, plus the nearly 6-pound baby I'm carrying, plus the Southern heat of May/June (it's 86 degrees here, y'all!), there's just no way I can be out and about for hours at a time. It's very frustrating -- oh, the things you take for granted until you can't do them anymore -- but I'm learning to listen to my body and obey its signals, so I don't end up doubled-over with Braxton-Hicks contractions, sweating like a pig, and puffing for a good, deep breath. In the middle of a store. With people watching. Not good!

What I'm happy about: This is so expected and cliche, but I can hardly think of anything else these days -- getting my baby OUT! I don't want that to sound ungrateful, because my gratitude for this little blessing is deep and wide, but at this point in pregnancy, when you feel like your body is a joke, and energy is a myth, and you can actually see how big your baby's feet are when he pokes them out just under your ribs, it's just TIME to go ahead and have a baby already. Like I told my mom, I didn't pray all those years for pregnancies, I prayed for babies! So I think it's not TOO bad to simply want him on the outside of me, rather than where he is now, pushing my diaphragm up into my throat, my bladder up into my stomach, you get the picture. :)