Helen's Bday Weekend

I am a little out of order with my posts but I wanted to post some fun times with the family for my 31st bday! I really wanted to go pottery painting so we went to Clay Casa and had a blast!

The whole fam was in town which made it extra special... Nate and Lindsey came in from Htown. Cath was in town from Houston also! Joe and Kristen came in from Camp Lejeune, NC. Joe gets deployed in a month to Afghanistan - he is an artillery officer in the Marines. And, of course, the p's and my wonderful hubby joined in on the fun. See some of our crafty projects below. I painted a plate for little Luke - Que Tengan Los Suenos Felices! - Sweet Dreams! Ben painted a frog glasses holder for me. Sister painted a fabulous Sisters plate. Mom's piece looked the most professional - of course - her soup bowl. Dad painted a sushi plate. Joe and Kristen painted Chip and his mom from Beauty and the Beast. Naties painted a funky open mouth fish and Lindsay painted a hippo! It was so much fun. We picked up the completed pieces this week - they look awesome - these pics were the "pre-fired" dishes so I will have to post the after pics. :)

The table at the end of our painting session!

Nate and Lindsey

Joe and Kristen

Ben and Helen

Cath and Helen

My Fabulous Friend Baby Shower

This weekend my dearest friends hosted a sweet baby shower for me and little Luke in Houston. It was so nice and personal with my closest friends attending (and some who were out of state and missed - but they were there in spirit).

It was so much fun b/c not only was it a fun baby shower but it had a book theme so little Luke has a great library to choose from in both Spanish and English. Que bueno! Some highlights - Allison made a wreath for Luke out of diapers to hang outside the hospital door and his nursery. I had not seen that before and I love it! We played a nursery rhyme game and there were books as centerpieces on all tables. The food was delicious from La Madeline. Ally made the most precious chick cake from scratch. It was so yummy - I had 2 huge slices. The chick took a fall in the parking lot but the cake was absolutely scrumptous! Annie and Julie worked hard on decor and planning for all details. My hostesses were fabulous and we had such a nice time.

It is so nice to have your nearest and dearest celebrate your most special moments.

Anne of Green Gables Marathon

I absolutely love the classic series "Anne of Green Gables." My sister is visiting for most of the week and we are enjoying a marathon of "Anne Shirley" movies. We used to watch these as little girls and it is fun to re-watch now that we are older. Such sweet movies...

Today, we had some odd weather - threatening rain and storms. Our power was off for about 3-4 hours many places in the city. Nothing really ever happened - weather wise but the power outages did cause quite the mess in the city... plus it was so hot! Thankfully it is back on now.

Bday boots and Chick Fil A Fashion!!!

Who doesn't love this look! Loving my new Lane Boots! And, my new Chick Fil A mini (XXL) tee. Enjoying my red lipstick Tuesday!

It's All Coming Together...

Well, it has almost been one week since we moved in and things are shaping up nicely. Our home is pretty much unpacked and things are somewhat in place. Thanks to family pitching in, we were able to get things done in record time with Ben having no time off and me on bedrest. I will have to post some pics soon. Next week we will set up the nursery and I will get my office in shape. Looking forward to that. My goal is to have the house as beautified as possible before the fam all gets into town for my bday next weekend! YAY!

My bday weekend should be a blast. I really wanted to go pottery painting so the whole fam is off to Clay Casa for painting and lunch next Saturday. Then, Sunday we are going to Hill Country Hyatt for the day - spa and pool with the family. Perfect.

Happy Sunday and I am off to celebrate my mom-in-laws bday with PF Chang take out!

BEI LE XIAN

When Ben and I traveled to Southeast Asia this summer, we stayed for a while in Singapore. We went to the markets and I discovered the most fabulous artist: Bei Le Xian - a Singaporean with amazing ability to create whimsical worlds. I loved the work and really wanted to get a few pieces for Luke's room. Xian also has a site on ETSY where you can see some of the pieces. Aren't they just adorable?!

This one (above) Ben and I bought for the nursery! I also bought the little tiger since 2010 is the year of the tiger - little courageous one! Plus, as many people know, my middle name is Nemir which is Arabic for tiger. (I love having a splash of Lebanese in me. :) )

Ben's Addition to Helen's Blog: Helen stars in "People of Walmart"

So, per my previous blog, I am technically on rest and supposed to be off my feet except for light walking, etc... Tonight we needed to make a run to Walmart for a number of things for the house. You know how it is when you move - just always things to get for the house. So, I decided I would go if I could ride one of those electronic cart things. Thankfully they had one available. So, I enjoyed an evening with everyone staring at me, confused, trying to figure out what exactly was 'wrong' with me... Ben was thoroughly enjoying himself laughing at me and taking film/photos of me while on my escapade. So much so, that he posted a link on YouTube and forced me to blog about my electronic Walmart Adventure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyLkjy7XSOk

If you are unaware what "People of Walmart" refers to... check out the horrible, hideous link below. I hate to associate myself with this - but this is all the brilliant, hilarious idea of my husband. God love him...

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/

A Slight Scare...

Yesterday we moved into a cute home in a great part of San Antonio. I really love the area and I know we will have a great time there. It was quite the stressful day dealing with incompetent movers, heat, Ben out of town and being 29 weeks pregnant - but we made it. My parents split the day to help out and unloading was finally finished and signed off around 8:00pm (started at 8:30am although I was up at 5:30am getting ready...) What a day! Well, needless to say, I over-exerted myself. I ended up have contractions all night and little Luke dropped a little too much. So today I had an emergency appointment to make sure the little guy was not trying to sneak his way out too early. Thankfully I was not dilated but he had definitely dropped and was lingering extremely low - which I can definitely feel. So, I am on rest for a week. That's not too bad except I feel bad not being able to unpack anything... Oh well, it will get finished eventually. I have three big projects through Advance Grants to work on so I will be busy even if I am confined to rest for a while.

Chick Fil A mini T!

I just found out that Chick Fil A is releasing the cutest mini-T in stores soon! Apparently, they hit Wally World stores in early August. I guess I will venture into the nightmarish Wally World by my house to see about these Chick Fil A mini T's. Not sure if they will fit my belly but I will try to make it happen. Otherwise, I will have to save it for post October. YAY! So cute and scrumptous.

Birthday Boots!!

I am so excited that I will be getting new cowgirl boots for my bday!! Lane Boots are gorgeous handmade boots that are very sassy and forever fashionable. http://www.laneboots.com/

As a little girl, I always sported red cowgirl boots! Apparently, they were my shoe of choice. So I was tempted to get some sassy red cowgirl boots - called Chile Pepper.

Then, I saw these other pair, called Coral, that I also just adore...

I do love the turquoise color on brown with red stitching. Plus if I didn't want to be as outrageous then I could wear them with jeans and just the brown would show. So, those are fab also. I am trying to decide which ones I love most. I am pulling toward the turquoise pair... Aren't the boots just gorgeous!! A signature stamp of Lane Boots is the turquoise sole on all pairs. The boots are handmade in Mexico. And, Lane donates a portion of each boot to childhood education/scholarship fund in Texas.

Udder Covers - So cute!

This week (August 1st - 7th) is World Breastfeeding Week and Udder Covers is showing their support for breastfeeding so they are running a promotion whereyou can get any of our nursing covers (regular price $32) free! The code is"Breastfeeding". If you're not currently nursing (or about to), you can stock up on great baby shower and Holiday gifts and a great promo code to pass along!! I just ordered the cute floral one. I might order a few more for gifts. :)

Once you get to http://www.uddercovers.com/, click on "Shop Now" and select the cover you would like. Type Breastfeeding into the promo code boxand it will bring your product total to $0. All you pay is the shipping fees. You can use the code more than once - you just have to open a new browser window to do so.

You can also use this promo code to get a 3 piece gift set for only $5!

I could not get onto their website last night-it was so busy. But, today I was able to get on! Pass this along.

Best Buy Blunder - Beware of Geek Squad - Bad Service!

I have been so excited today because I finally was going to purchase my new laptop! I have been looking for a while, and Best Buy had some really good deals on laptops that work perfectly for me and Advance Grants. Tonight, Ben and I went to Best Buy and had a great great sales guy. A computer geek to the max, Sean, - totally knew his stuff and was a huge help to me. Apparently, Best Buy bought Geek Squad about 5 years ago and Geek Squad does all the software installations and computer set-ups. So, we go to check out and get this complete nimrod Geek Squad guy. He was quite the chunkster with Camels in his breast pocket, disheveled clothes and overall a miserable character of a guy. Three different times he tried to sneak significant charges and made too many mistakes for me to care for him or the company - period. First of all, he charged us an extra $200 for the computer and then proceeded to tell us we got the wrong computer for the price listed. Secondly, he overcharged us for the installation package that was on "special." Then he tried to sneak out of providing us the "promised" recovery disks for the computer. It was one thing after the other. This guy from Geek Squad - who must have been the manager - named Andy - was horrible. He never apologized or tried to compensate for multiple shady mistakes. I have a feeling I will have a huge bone to pick tomorrow when I pick up the computer, but I will try not to think negatively and hope they complete what they agreed to. I am disappointed because Best Buy has always provided great service and had very nice staff. My experience with Geek Squad in their store was very frustrating and disappointing. Ben and I were not happy. We were tempted to cancel the entire transaction... Maybe we still will - depends on tomorrow. Anyways... very unfortunate. I hope it all ends well because I am SO excited to finally get a new computer (and a pink wireless mouse). There are just too many options of places to buy computers to have to put up with bad service.

PTSD in Dogs

I read this article about Gina on Yahoo. It was one of the cover stories online so others might have read it... But, sweet Gina - a German Shepherd - was trained to be a military pup and help locate explosives as troops fought in Iraq. Well, now that she has returned she has extreme PTSD. The article states that she returned very withdrawn, scared of people and going into buildings. A year later, she has improved significantly. YAY Gina! Check out this article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100803/ap_on_re_us/us_ptsd_military_dogs

I am a true believer that dogs have feelings and are impacted by major events. (Dakota is already reacting to my pregnancy...) So, this is a very interesting article and I love that Sweet Gina!!

Baby Bumper Update

So, my last blog discussed the bumper issue. I have since had a high response. A couple of friends shared with me about the breathable crib bumpers. http://www.breathablebaby.com/ Looks like it might be a good solution. They are not the cutest things but maybe a good alternate solution? I talked to my Dad about it and he was unfamiliar with them. He checked out the website and noticed they were not endorsed by the medical community (or at least visibly on the website) - but he said they seem to be like Pack and Play material and that they are probably ok. I am kind of curious... Maybe I need to try it. So many decisions and I just want to do the best thing. I guess I better master the swaddle or use those zipper things with no arms. :) The thing is I know 95% of my friends use bumpers - I love them and think they are fine! But, knowing me - worry wart - I will worry about the baby rolling into them - especially since my dad has seen the worst case scenario come true in some patients. So, the best option for me is to remove that possibility. :)