Speechless... (Super Double-Post)

POST #1:

We made dinner plans with our friends awhile back, as we thought it would be an excellent break from all the painting, nailing, sanding, drywalling, flooring, etc.

The plan was for sushi around 5pm and we were meeting at our friend's house.  And when we walked in the door, all my friends from work were standing in their living room:

Jaw, meet floor.  Yes, they all snuck around and planned a surprise baby shower for John and I.  It is, hands-down, the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me.  We got great gifts from great friends and it was a night I'll never forget.

As I write this, I'm realizing we didn't take pictures (we always forget to do that!), but they did take a video:

The awesome party favors...

We played a game where everyone places a bet on the sex, birthdate, and weight.  The general consensus is that it's a girl, born toward the end of January, in the (I think) 6-7 pound range.  My family also thinks it will be a girl.  I'm 51-49, leaning toward a girl - it seems like most of the SCI babies are girls, LOL.

The gifts...

Thank you, to all my friends, you're all honorary aunties & uncles!  Feel free to babysit whenever I want.

REGISTRY NOTE:  We made our registry at Babies 'R' Us and I guess a lot of what they have online, isn't actually in the store.  So if you're thinking of setting up a registry there, it may be better to go to the physical store to do it (and probably more fun!).  Almost all my friends said when they went to get something, it wasn't in stock.

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

POST #2:

It feels like we've been working non-stop on the house renovations and the nursery.  And while we still have a long way to go, things are progressing nicely (though time is going by much faster).  The kitchen and dining rooms are mostly done, we need to reattach the trim & molding, and stain & hang some doors.

The nursery is a whole other beast.  John installed the hardwood floor all by himself (I tried to help, but sometimes two people = too much);  I opted to paint the dining room.  We painted the nursery walls (blue for sky, green for rolling hills) to prepare for the forest theme.  As John is reattaching the trim & molding, I'm beginning the mural.  I'm cheating a bit and using some appliqués for some of the the animals and painting the rest of the animals, trees, pond, etc.  Have I ever painted a mural before?  Of course not!  I'm hoping I didn't bite off more than I can chew.  I did simplify my grand design (by quite a bit, actually), but even so, this seems pretty daunting.

Work in progress:

I really can't wait to be finished with the nursery.  I'm keeping all the baby stuff in my home office, away from the pets; and right now, it looks like I could be on a show called "Baby Hoarders."  Wall-to-wall piles of baby things in a confined space, with no organization.  [Embarrassing Photo Not Available]  Ugh!

Before we left for our surprise shower, we received a box of goodies from my sister, Auntie Dana:

Thanks, sis!

BABY UPDATE:  No news is good news.  We're expecting a scan later this week - hopefully a nice profile shot (fingers-crossed).  We've got our names picked out (we had them locked-down months ago, actually).  I like to tease people by giving extremely difficult hints, and so far no one has come close to guessing the right names - and we won't let you know if you're right or wrong.  Go ahead, guess:

Boy name is biblical, starts with a "J", and isn't John (good luck - there are tons of them!).

Girl name starts with an "S", mentioned in a song from the 60's (any other hint would give it away).

Until next time...