Awesome bargains

So it is fairly common knowledge that my sister is the Coupon Queen of the family. She manages to find the most amazing deals on amazing stuff, and pay barely anything. One of my plans when I become a stay at home wife is to learn from her. All the savings will go a long way on a Dental School budget.

However, this post is about what I have managed to find for baby, at awesome deals.

A few weeks ago Rosie told me that Target was re-setting its baby department. This means that tons of stuff went on clearance--clothes and gear. It took me a while to get to Target, but when I finally did, I found two great finds!

1) A crib mattress for $22. I had been told to expect to pay about $100 for this piece of equipment. I got it for a fifth of the price, and a pretty decent one too!

2) A Jogging Stroller for $55! Also a potentially pricey item. I haven't opened it up yet to make sure it is perfect, but it looks nice and I think it will work well.

This next find was not from Target, but still a deal!

Obviously, not yet put together, but this is our crib for Baby Bass!! I found it on Craigslist. A young family had used it and were done having kids, so they just wanted to get rid of it. They took good care of it and it looks brand new, with all the parts included. Most people know that cribs can cost a quite a bit. For this beauty: $85! They really just didn't want it in their house anymore. Oh, we were so excited when we found this and saw how good it still looks. I'm so excited to put it together and get the nursery set up. But that will require some organization first.

And for this curious souls, here is a new baby bump picture of me. One of these days I'll get one where I actually look decent. Oh well.

We got our wish!

Happy Birthday David/Happy Valentine's Day!!! Today we got to have the full anatomy Ultra Sound of our little baby. And the gender is....

A BOY!!!!!!!!!!

We are so excited. We both thought that the baby is a boy. For one thing, this child squirms and moves a lot! When I heard the heart beat on friday, the Dr could hear the movements too--they were big and there were a lot of them. This child is active! Even the Dr said she thought baby would be a boy after she heard that. Even the Ultra Sound technician had some troubles getting some good images because of our little squirmer. I've been getting kicked, punched and head-butted for the past 4 weeks, a lot. Though I love it because I know baby is alright. We both just felt like we were having a boy. Even the Chinese Calendar gender predictor said Boy.

We were really hoping for a boy. One big reason is because there are only 2 boy cousins in the whole Bass clan (out of 6 uncles!) with the last name of Bass to carry on the family name--so we were really hoping to be able to carry on the name. Another, more selfish silly reason, is that I wanted to be right. Everyone in my family has had a girl first, and my sister was convinced that I would too, because that is what the McKee kids do. I told her long before I got married that I would break the trend and have a boy first--I didn't want to be wrong. :)

David was so excited when he told his family, he was boucing around! He thinks that having a boy will be fun, and of course it will! We are ecstatic and can't wait to meet this little guy. Now for a name...which involves convincing my husband that we are not going to name him Jimmer!

Change in my Daily Routine

In just a little while, my daily routine is going to change quite a bit. No, I am not talking about when I have my baby. I am talking about work.

For those who don't know, at the end of June 2010, I was hired on as an Intern at Market Strategies International, working on their Healthcare team. The expectation was that I would be able to be hired on full time a few months later. Well some things happened.

1) We brought on another girl to the team in the fall. She had been working with a different department in the company as an Intern since May. When the opportunity she thought she was going to be able to go into on that team fell through, her internship with that team ended and she was able to come into Healthcare. Right around October/November Healthcare had the opportunity to hire some of the Interns (like 2 or 3 out of 6 or 7) into full time positions. They could only hire one of the Portland interns, and they chose the other girl as she had been working for the company longer. 2) I got pregnant! I told work that I would not be returning after I had my baby--I want to be a stay at home mom. Because of this, they decided to give me the chance to stay on as an intern, as long as I wanted, until the baby comes, but hiring me full time for a few months wasn't really going to be feasible.
So now, I had the decision to make. How long do I continue to work? Originally I told them that I would stay until the beginning of May and then leave the company. However, I have been unhappy for a while, large in part to my working full time and I am starting to worry about my general health while working full time. I have struggled over this decision for a long time. David doesn't like to see me break down in tears, especially when there is nothing he can do to fix it. And this was happening much too frequently, especially on sunday nights as I faced the prospect of the coming week. Concerns over my health and general well being lead to the final decision--stop working sooner than planned.

Thus, at the end of February I will no longer be a full time employee anywhere. I will become a stay at home wife and allow myself to get healthier and take care of my unborn baby. I am quite excited at the prospect. I am already thinking about things I want to do--scrapbooking, crocheting, organizing the house, take a yoga class... I will work part time as I plan to get back in touch with the temp agency I worked with before. But I feel like now I can do things that I want and need to do, before baby arrives and turns things upside down, including taking care of myself and my pregnancy better. :)

So very soon, my daily routine will become much more lax. :) The experience at Market Strategies has been good, and I am grateful that I had the chance to work there, to use the skills I learned in school/working with Darron and learn some new ones. I'm grateful I had the chance to actually use my degree, at least for a little while. But I know that my place really is in the home. I've never wanted a full time career, and I know that even more now. It isn't for me. I'm grateful that I was blessed with this experience but also grateful that I could make the choice to move on.

I've been crafty!!

So several months ago, my sister-in-law Shonda wanted some help with a baby gift for her cousin/my cousin-in-law. We decided to go in on it together, which I was grateful because I hadn't gotten her a gift yet. Shonda showed me the directions for how to make cutsie, decorated burb cloths. The result was these:

So easy!!! I became obsessed with them for a while, making several for friends and a lot for Shonda when Cameron was born. I enjoyed getting to pull out my sewing machine and actually using it! That is something I don't get to do very often.

These are so great because they use the really padded cloth diapers so moms' shoulders can be better protected from baby spit up, and they look cute!

I'm excited about them. Once we find out what gender of baby we are having I'm going to start making some for me too!! :)

Bun in the Oven

Yep!! We're pregnant!!!!

Okay, almost everyone, if not all, who read this blog know this already. But, who cares. David and I are expecting our first baby!!! Baby Bass is due June 30,2011. However, knowing stubborn-ness that runs in my family when it comes to babies actually arriving, we'll have a July baby.

We found out we were pregnant just a few days before Halloween. I was so excited and nervous to tell David that morning I found out. I was fighting between tears and laughter, and I was shaking. But so happy. The road ahead certainly isn't going to be easy, but I know that I am supposed to be a mother and it is what I want to do.

I am now over 4 months along and feeling pretty good. I'm tired, but that is mostly from work and not enough sleep (I never knew 9-ish hours wouldn't be enough). Baby is active and moves around a lot. It feels funny, but it is comforting to know that baby is alive and well.

Here is a picture of me at about 16 weeks. Please forgive my post-work hair and face.

We get the full anatomy Ultra Sound (gender included) on February 14th!!! Less than 2 weeks!

This is how we told David's family. (My family lives all over the country, so they got phone calls) :) 

Quick Update...just to get caught up.

Okay, here is a brief snippet of the past few months..

Thanksgiving:
We went up to Whistler Canada with my parents for the Thankful Holiday. David had never been before, so it was extra exciting for him. We stayed in a Condo really close to Whistler Village, and skiied for 3 days straight. Oh, fabulous! Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of the resort open yet because of lack of snow, so David only got to experience a small taste. But it was enough to wet his appetite to want to go again. Blackcomb Mountain is often more our favorite to ski on, but the snow conditions were terrible on that side of the resort, so we stayed on Whistler mostly.

We skiied during the day and at night we would visit the village, or enjoy the TV and couches in the Condo. Yes, we even had a Thanksgiving dinner, while in Canada, on Thanksgiving night. Thank you packaged Thanksgiving Dinners from Safeway.

Here are just a few photos from the trip. :)

 Skiing, well David is on his board.

 David and I playing on the Olympic Ring monument

Christmas and New Years:

Since we spent the entire Thanksgiving break with my parents, it was only fair that we spend Christmas with the Bass clan. David and I were able to open our presents to each other in the early-ish morning of Christmas and then head over to his parents house for the family gift exchanging. Fun and loud with 4 excited kids and a new baby around. Honestly, by the time that was over, I was so tired that I took a nap... On Christmas!!

That evening we went to the Bass Family Christmas party with all the extended family and enjoyed some laughs and memories of the past year.

For New Years we went up to my parents house for the weekend. On New Years Eve we went to Crystal Mountain--the ski resort where all of us McKee kids learned to ski--and watched them light off fireworks on the mountain side. That was incredible! To have the whole mountain light up, under the fireworks, all covered in snow, was just gorgeous. It was a new adventure for all of us and we are so glad that we went. Too bad we didn't get any pictures while there. New Years day we got to have lunch with some long lost (well more like we all live far away) friends--Brian and Tara and Jordan and Christina. That was fun to be able to visit and enjoy some laughs together.


Okay... I think that is a brief catch-up, with more legit posts coming. :)