5 Question Friday - 4/30!

So I've decided that 5QF is a good time to recap my week for everything I didn't talk about in the past week's posts. Feel free to scroll past the non-5QF stuff if you wish, or read the whole post. I'll try & keep the non-5QF stuff brief.

**********************

OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGG, I am so.effing.happy.this.week.is.over. I was in this class for work & this psycho guy literally p!ssed off everyone - even threatened me! Yep, a 13 week pregnant woman. It was sooo ridiculous, so a bunch of us banded together & reported him. I hate to say this, but I hope he either gets fired or gets SERIOUS repercussions for the way he was behaving in class. Ugh. I'm so happy it's over & I can just go back to my normal life at work. So sad that I actually want to go back to work. Says a lot about that class huh? It was mainly that dude though...so effing frustrating. Okay, that's all the blog space he gets outta me, just had to vent.

Today was a pretty cool day though after the class was over. we got to see Baby J again. I don't think I'll post the pic b/c it's not very clear. The u/s machine at this place we went to sucked compared to the place we went last week, but the baby's h/b was 162 bpm, s/he was measuring right on track for how far along I am (12w6d) & we saw him/her moving around bit in there! We went for the NT Scan, which is a test (blood work + u/s) that tests for several genetic disorders, one of which is Down's Syndrome. Our baby is considered very low risk due to my age & the lack of any genetic issues in either of our backgrounds. They can't tell you the final results until the blood work comes back, but the u/s part went perfect - everything looks normal with the little one. :)

Okay, now back to our regularly scheduled blogging - 5QF. If you want to participate, head on over to My Little Life & link up (and let me know if you do, I'd love to read my follower's answers)!

1. If you could, would you go back to high school?


The answer to this one is an emphatic hell-to-the-naw. My ex boyfriend (of 5.5 years/high school sweet heart) was so horrible to me & pmb (prettymuchbasically) ruined my HS years for me. The only times I had fun in HS was when were broken up. So so sad, but true.
 
2. If a genie appeared and granted you two wishes, what would they be? (And, no saying "more wishes".)

Hmmm, this is a hard one. But I think wish #1 would be to have a healthy, happy, strong family with more babies a little lata on!  I know this sounds shallow, but wish #2 would definitely be that money is no object & that we could afford whatever we wanted. I know it doesn't buy you happiness & is the root of all evil, but I'm already happy, now I'd just like to be a SAHM momma with Baby J (& the future kiddos) & not have to worry about the bills & be happy...UKWIM?





3. What kids show do you secretly like?

LOL, it's more of a tween show, but I like "That's so Raven" on Saturday mornings, I sit back, relax & watch it while DH is still sleeping in, hehehehe.



 

4. What is your beverage of choice?

Well if I was w/o child, I'd have to say a long beach, white sangria, or mojito. But, since I can't have any of those anytime soon, I'll go with my fav mocktini - IDK what it's called but it has pineapple, orange & cranberry juices with a splash of sprite - ahhhhhhmazing!


 
5. What is something that you would change about yourself (or are working to change in yourself)?
Ummm, I have a pretty short temper sometimes & I'd like to change that. Sometimes it works in my favor, but usually not. I blame my mother for that one, haha. I am just like her & everyone always says so.

That's all I got. Hope you enjoyed this edition of 5QF! I'm going to start doing weekly pregnancy posts complete with u/s & belly pics likely on Saturdays or Sundays just for documentation's sake. Until then...hope everyone has a great weekend!

Wordless Wednesday...new birdies for my collection

Say hello to my {new} little friends...

Got these cuties on clearance at Michaels for my entryway table - only $1.99 each! Okay, so that was a few words. ;oP

Mood Board Monday - a serene guest room

I was so excited to participate in my bloggy friend, over at pewter + sage, Sarah's Mood Board Monday blog party this week! I could hardly wait to get started on my board & then Monday came & I realized I hadn't gotten started. So, I set aside a couple hours to work on this & take breaks when necessary. The hubbs was giving me the sad-you're-always-blogging-face the whole time I was working on it, so I'm sure he'll be happy when I finish up this post & cuddle him, tee hee. ;oP

This week's challenge is to design a room around one of several items from West Elm's new PATCH NYC collection. All the new items to choose from were beautiful, but I choose to design my room around these pretty throw pillows:

Now that we finally announced that we are expecting our first little one, I thought about doing a nursery, but I think a much more adult, peaceful guest room fit with this collection. So, here is what I came up with:

4/26 - MB Monday West Elm Contest by Jen J. on Polyvore.com

Items in this set:

Gourd Table Lamp | west elm, $180

Banded Hemstitch 400-Thread-Count Duvet Cover & Sham - Sandalwood |..., $29

Carved-Circles Window Panel | west elm, $44

PATCH NYC Pillow Covers | west elm, $34

PATCH NYC Pillow Covers | west elm, $34

All of the sources I used in the set can be found above & you can also click on the link to the full set for more details. So, what do you think?! Would you stay in my guest room if it was decorated this beautifully?! I know I'd be thrilled to stay in a guest room like this! I really love how this turned out...makes me want to convince hubby to let me buy all this stuff for a guest room - too bad we only have two bedrooms in our teeny townhouse & the extra is now going to the baby. Eh well, next house, right?

Anywho, head on over to this week's MBM post on  pewter+sage to check out all the other beautiful rooms everyone came up with! And cross your finger that I win the $50 West Elm gift card giveaway...I love love love winning blog giveaways & love West Elm's stuff! Okay, gotta run - my hubby is giving me the "get off your blog" side eye right now! ;o)

Some {BIG} news...

Hey there everyone - I am so so sorry that I didn't participate in 5 Question Friday last week, I will continue to do it this week. But, in my defense, I have a really good excuse:

Yep, that's right!!! The Dennifers are expecting our first child & we are SUPER excited! It was a long road to get here & we couldn't be more thrilled! We love him or her so much already...it's so amazing how attached you can get to something the size of a large lime. So, that's where I was on Friday - at my OB, getting the bejesus scared outta me. Baby J (as I'll refer to him/her) decided that instead of letting momma & daddy hear his heartbeat with the Doppler at the Dr's office, that he'd make momma wait a little while & get a last minute ultrasound. That's how we got this pic at 12 weeks of our little one, otherwise I was going to wait until next week to announce it on the blog after the Nuchal Translucency (NT) Scan. His heartbeat was 164 bpm, which was perfect, but yeah - that was majorly scary!  I even think I'm showing maybe a little bit?! My OB seems to think that I am at least, which sounds great to me since I have already started wearing the most comfortable invention ever - maternity jeans! Here is a 5 week vs. 12 week "bump" comparison:

But don't worry, this blog will not turn into an exclusive baby blog. It'll still be about everything going on in our lives, including other non-baby D&R projects, my DIY crafts, trips, etc. Although, of course, the baby is a huge part of our life & I'll be documenting my pregnancy as well on the blog. I can't wait to get started on the nursery & all the other baby DIY crafts I have in mind. In fact, we are going to scout out a new rocker for the nursery today - I talked the hubbs into it after our scary day on Friday. :o) I now have an even more powerful tool to persuade him - the baby!!

Anywho, I hope everyone continues to enjoy my posts (both baby & non-baby related) - I still have to finish up our spring cleaning to do lists, give updates on the craziness with our front sidewalk, post a couple recipes, and lots more! Now, I need to go jump in the shower so we can get shopping!!

WTF (almost) Wednesday...

OMG, the saga of our front/backyard clean up & landscaping. I didn't elude to this much in my previous post about our outdoor spring cleaning, but have had a MAJOR problem with the landscaper we hired to do some of the heavy lifting-type work. They were supposed to be trimming the branches on the tree away from the house, trimming the branches on the evergreen tree that was ruined during the three snow storms we had in our area this past winter, clearing out the scary weedage (yes, just made that word up :oP) in our backyard, and lay sod in the back surrounding the patio. All of the work minus the sod-laying was done this past Friday & they were supposed to come back on Monday to finish up the job. Simple enough right? Wrong.

Problem #1: They were using a chainsaw to trim the branches on the large tree in front of our house & they used some sort of lubricant or oil for the chainsaw & well, look wtf was left on my sidewalk & stairs:

Yes, as you can see from picture #3 - one of the guy's workers even walked thru the huge spill at the bottom of our steps & tracked it across the sidewalk! Are you EFFING serious?! And they just left. No clean up, nothing. So, we called the "owner" (quotes b/c I'm not sure it is even a legit business at this point; unfortunately we got this referral from my mother & didn't really check it out b/c we trusted her word) on Saturday morning, he didn't calll back. But several hours later he did TEXT my husband saying something about he observes the Sabbath on Saturdays & doesn't talk business or return business calls on Saturdays or something. We respected that - it's his religion, so we didn't trip. He said he'd absolutely clean up any mess they left on Monday when they came to lay the sod. Great. Wonderful.

Problem #2: So yesterday, I get home from work...big oil/greasy spot still there. Little smaller spots, foot prints still there? YEP. So I calm down. ::deep breaths:: Walk into the house & go out on the deck to check the back yard to see if maybe they laid the sod? Nope, nada, nilch, nothing. No messages on my home phone, he didn't call my cell all day, called my husband - didn't call him either. So, I say to myself, "Jen - you got home early today, chill. He's probably coming by a bit later to finish up the job & clean up the mess they made." I waited until 4pm, then called him; no answer; left him a message to call me back ASAP so that we know what's going on. He still hadn't showed up by the time my hubby got home, so he called him. No answer again, so he left him a more firm message around 5pm'ish. Well the guy still doesn't call back. Then, my husband's phone rings at 9pm - it's the guy. He apologizes profusely, gives my hubby some BS excuse about his guys not showing up for work, PROMISES - I mean is completely adamant that the work will be done tomorrow (which is today now) & then when we get home, the mess will be cleaned up.

So I get home today - oil stain still on the sidewalk. My husband never called me & he got home first, so I figure maybe the guy called him & worked out other arrangements or tried to get the spill/mess up & couldn't so he was going to try something different maybe later on? I'm trying to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. I am literally praying when I get to the back of my house that at least he came by & laid the sod. Nope. My husband is pissed, like livid. And usually I'm the sorta crazy, aggressive one, so him being upset is not normal - at all. Once I saw him, he said that he had tried calling the guy & he didn't answer as usual, but that he didn't leave a message because he was scared of what he'd say to him. So I called him & basically threatened him with contacting the Better Business Bureau & told him that our HOA (who technically owns the sidewalk) will be pursuing charges against him for destruction of property. I told him that we didn't want him to do the work on our property, but that if he wanted to avoid future legal problems, that he'd need to contact us immediately to make arrangements to come by & clean up this mess. That was hours ago. He still hasn't called me back.

So, just an angry, b!tchy little, friendly Public Service Announcement (PSA) to anyone in the Northern Virgina area that is getting any landscaping or yard work done - DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT use Daniel Saavedra of Freedom Services (not sure this is an actual business name). He does not follow thru on his word, does not complete the work he promises in the time frame he promises, ruins your property and makes no attempt to remedy the situation, does not return phone calls & all around is a horrible business man.

At this point, I have no clue what else to do. I Googled his so called "business name" & I can't find it. I'm so annoyed I can hardly contain myself. I feel like calling him every hour until he answers the phone. I may try calling him from another phone number tomorrow. This is freaking ridiculous. What would you do? We just want the oil spill cleaned up at this point - nothing more, nothing less. Any suggestions/advice are VERY welcome. Le sigh.

Spring Cleaning - Part I

The spring has sprung in the NOVA/DC Metro Area & in the World of Dennifer that means time to actually do some spring cleaning! I have decided to break up our spring cleaning this year into a few different areas:

• Part I: exterior of the house - front & back yard, back deck & patio.
• Part II: main level - entryway, living room, kitchen
• Part III: upper level - both bedrooms (including closets), bathroom, attic
• Part IV: lower level - basement, basement bath, under stairs storage area, utility storage area, laundry room.

I am going to be posting before/progress pics as we get thru each of the areas. We'll likely be doing each of the areas concurrently, but I'm going to post the "to do" lists & before pics in parts (so as to avoid a ridiculously LONG post). So, I'll start with Part I - the exterior since we actually got started with the work we want done on this area this past Friday.

Front Yard To Do's:

Last summer, we did a MAJOR clean up of what I lovingly called our "forest" - AKA our former front yard. It was a hot mess to say the least. We were sooo happy to see it cleaned up. I'm happy to report that even after the snowmageddon + the two other huge snow storms that hit our area this winter, our front yard/landscaping held up pretty well. We lost two of our little solar lights & the rest are all crooked, but still work! And as you can see from the photos above, parts of our grass were ruined. Also, as you can see in photo #1 - the Evergreen tree to the right of the house was damaged. So, on the spring cleaning to do list for this area of the house (crossed out are the items that have already been completed):

• Trim branches on large tree away from house & from hanging low over stairs.
• Trim off damaged parts of the evergreen & possibly remove tree completely (need HOA approval to do this).
•  Plant grass seed, keep watered, cross fingers that it grows!
• Pull up weeds in flower beds & around tree.
• Plant annuals & re-mulch.
• Get house & stairs power washed.

Back (upper level) Deck To Do's: 

We have never really done anything with our deck since buying the house three years ago. We have been waiting & waiting & WAITING for our HOA to approve some deck stain colors so that we can stain & seal the deck. It's badly in need of some TLC, but unfortunately we are under the rules of the HOA as to what we can do to the outside of our house. We plan on attending the next HOA meeting on May 11th to find out about their decision on the deck stain colors - urrg, it gets really frustrating with them sometimes.

We also purchased a really cheap patio table & chairs from K-Mart the first year we bought the house just to tide us over until we could afford to buy what we really wanted the following summer (2008). Well, three years later, we never bought a new set. It just was not high on our priority list, so it fell to the side. This year we may or may not get around to it, but the set we have will continue to do for now. I added it to the spring cleaning to do list for this area just in case we decide to purchase one this year:

• Look for & purchase an outdoor dining set (we currently have a cheapo plastic set).
• Get deck power washed.
• Re-stain & seal the deck.

Back Yard & (lower level) Patio To Do's:

I was a little embarrassed to take before pictures of this area, but I also kinda forgot to take a picture before the work got started in the back. You can see a little of the forest pat deux in the deck photo above. It was pretty bad - I mean weeds, small bushes, small trees, etc. and none of it ever kept up. But to make up for that, I took some in progress pics:

Ahhhh, so clean, such a blank slate!

We hired an independent contractor (referred to us by my mom) to do some of the work around the outside of the house that we couldn't or didn't want to do ourselves. They cleaned out the back yard area, trimmed the trees up front & cleaned up all that stuff for $225. We thought that was an awesome price b/c we had gotten a quote last summer for $500 just to clear out the back yard! Here is the spring cleaning list for this area:

• Get weeds, bushes, etc. removed from the area.
• Get sod laid surrounding the patio.
• Clean under the deck area, get rid of any debris in that area.
• Fix exterior water spout (it has never worked since we bought the house; but we need it for the sod!!
• Buy a small sitting/bistro set for the patio.

Now you see why I needed to break this up into several posts! And I still have three more areas left to make spring cleaning lists for! We are doing pretty good so far on our Part I & plan on getting even more done next weekend! Have you started on your spring cleaning yet?! I'd love to see what you've done so far!

5 Question Friday!

Hey everyone! If you are joining me for the first time this week, I have been working hard trying to get my new blog design launched & I'm happy to say (as you can see ;oP)...it is up & I LOVE it! Did you see the new Michaels gift card winner I announced yesterday - if it's you, hurry & contact me at worldofdennifer@gmail.com.

I cannot tell you how 'effing excited I am that the weekend is here. I can tell I'm domesticated b/c do you want to know what I am excited about this weekend? 1) getting an estimate for the yard work & power washing we need to get done (the guy will be here today to look around), 2) cleaning up the weeds that are beginning to grow in our front yard, 3) picking out annuals to plant & re-mulching the front flower bed, and 4) getting our state taxes done. Hahahaha - dork, right?! Man, what happened to the days about being excited about partying late into the night, going bar hopping, and shopping for a new weekend outfit? Le sigh. I guess that's what happens when you settle down & get married - I kid, I kid. Your priorities just change.

And speaking of priorities - this week I made a major decision to stop participating with a group that I have been involved with since college - I have been very involved for the last six years & it has been a major source of drama, anxiety & stress (basic cattiness) for my life, but I made the decision this week to not be involved anymore. I'm not a quiter, but I feel like I needed to do this for my sanity. People have crossed the line & it's not acceptable to me. It feels like a HUGE weight has been lifted & I can't wait to hand in my resignation letter (I hold an office) next month. In other stress reducing news, I'll be out of the office for the next two weeks for training, woot! I don't really like the classes, but I am happy to be out of the office & closer to my house!

Okay, okay, so enough about me...time for 5QF - the April 16, 2010 edition:

If any of my readers decide to participate this week, please comment on this post, I'd love to read your Q&A! Here goes....

1. What words do you use on your blog/online that you don't use in real life?

Hmmm, um well I don't use the word "bloggy", "woot", "le sigh", basically anything that people would look at me & go, "huh?!" LOL. I try to at least pretend I'm cool IRL. :oP

2. Do you still write checks?

 

Only for our gas, water, HOA (Home Owners Association) & electric bills. Oddly enough, these companies charge a fee for paying online in my area & our HOA doesn't have the option, so to avoid unnecessary/stupid fees, I write checks. Everything else we receive electronically & pay electronically...you know, tryna stay "Green." We even balance our checking account via an online spreadsheet that we both have access to - that was courtesy of my budget-obssessed, spreadsheet-lovin' hubby.

 

3. Who was your favorite President and why?

 

I am essentially liberal, but respect everyone's views & even agree with some conservative points in the whole political debate. Honestly, if I know someone who is really passionate about politics, then I try & just not talk about the topic too much when I hang out with them. I'd rather just not get into. But, my two faves are Bill Clinton & our current Prez - Barack Obama. Regardless of how he was as a husband, I think BC did a lot of good things for the country when he was president, granted I was quite young during his term. And Barack - well I work for the Government, so he's sorta my boss now ::winks:: :o) & I also just think he's such a provacative speaker & changed the way US presidential campaigns will be conducted in the future. His whole grassroots approach really worked out for him & so far, I think he's delivering what he promised during his campaign. Do I totally agree with the Healthcare Bill or (insert any other of his policies/proposed policies here) - no, but I can respect that he doesn't just talk about it, he be's about it, lol.

I also really wish I had been alive when JFK was president, I bet he'd be on my list as well - he seemed like an amazing man.

4. Are you a yeller?

Nope, not really. But if someone raises their voice at me, then I can get loud too.

5. Have you ever dumpster dived?

 

Bwahahaha. Yep, but not in the traditional sense of the phrase. My dad was p!ssed! My mom had just bought both my older sister & I real birthstone rings for Christmas. The realness of them was a big deal since I was like 11 or 12 & I didn't own any real jewlery before that ring. I believe & my dad took us out to lunch one day shortly after we got the rings (some fast food place). Well a couple hours after lunch, I noticed my ring was gone!! And since my mom would have killed me, I begged my dad to take me back to the restaurant & they let us go thru the most recently disposed-of trash bags & we actually found my ring! I know, needle in a hay stack, but it was worth it that day. Consequently, I ended up loosing the dang on ring again a few months later & my mom was then p!ssed. I was just too young to have real jewlery - that's all it boils down to. My mom never bought me any more jewlery until I was out of high school, hahaha.

Hope you enjoyed this edition of 5QF. Spring cleaning list & *hopefully* some front yard updates coming soon.