Stress/De-Stress

I sat at work all day stressing out about how we are going to fit in visits with everybody we want to see while we're in TN this week. It's sooo exhausting running from house to house and trying to spend ample visiting time (usually a couple of hours) at each place. This seriously cannot persist, especially once we have the baby to load and unload at each stop. Therefore, I've come to the conclusion that we have to start consolidating visits, like parents and grandparents together, and maybe even set up a couple of of "open house" days where whoever wants to see us can stop by wherever we're staying. It's really way too hard to spend our entire "vacation" rushing from place to place and trying to fit everything in. I wouldn't go so far as to say it makes us dread coming home, but it definitely makes something we enjoy doing--visiting family--much less enjoyable and much more stressful. 

Thank goodness, when I got home tonight a lot of my stress faded. Paul had done all of the laundry and was in the process of cooking some yummy spaghetti for dinner. I have to say, I kind of like having a "house-husband" :) I also got to Skype with my best friend, Jinny, and her little girl, which was a treat. Then after dinner, Paul and I swaddled a stuffed manatee (which Paul was able to show me how to do thanks to his first-time dads class) and took it for a spin around the neighborhood in our stroller with the dogs in tow. I had read that we should start practicing walking the dogs with the stroller to get them and ourselves used to it. They actually did pretty well with it. I think Posey was a little afraid of it so she actually walked better than she normally does on leash. I don't know if I could walk both of them together with it just yet, but maybe with a little practice. Here are the girls checking out the new contraption and wondering "Is that this 'Baby' fellow Mom and Dad have been talking so much about?'":

I'm also pretty excited because we went to Ikea on Sunday (Best store ever, by the way! Thank you, you wonderful Scandinavians!) and found, not what we went there for, i.e. a changing table and a coffee table, but something much more exciting... CURTAINS! The perfect curtains at that! They are a light sage green linen that perfectly matches the sage green in the crib bedding and they are floor length. Actually, since the Scandinavians are so smart, these curtains come super long with little strips that you use to iron a hem into them to make them whatever length you need. Even a sewing dummy like me can handle that. So now, my curtain dilemma has been solved! Here are the results: 

These pictures make them look a little more chartreuse, but they really are sage green...

They are a little long hung a little low but that's something we'll fix later ;)

OK, well, I better go finish packing... We'll see all of you in a couple of days! Can't wait for the MSU/GA game on Saturday, my baby shower on Sunday, and all the quality time with family to come in the next week! Bear with me if I have to take a nap break in there somewhere. :)