Lipstick for my blog

Flabalanche. Today at work I was productively emailing back and forth with a coworker of mine who lives in California. The topics at hand: C-section scars and baby weight. She introduced me to the word flabalanche. I'm not sure if this is a common term and I'm just the last to hear it, or if it's a unique creation from her humorous mind. But those of you pregnancy and childbirth veterans may know what it refers to -- that lovely dangle of skin that forms a kind of "ledge" on your lower tummy. An avalanche of flab just waiting for you to OD on donuts so it can happily tumble over and ruin your entire wardrobe. Yes, I am still obsessing about getting back into my clothes for our trip home in July. Obsessing, yes... doing anything positive to fix the problem, no. But I have been seeing a million commercials lately for the LAP-BAND system. Unfortunately, you must be at least 100 lbs overweight to use it. Which got me wondering, is it easier to lose 15 lbs, or gain 85? I'm not sure, but I like the challenge. My coworker's advice to me, though, was to just go shopping and buy clothes that fit me now. Sensible. She also suggested getting a new lipstick color to give myself a boost. It's been probably two years since I've gotten any new make-up, as that hasn't fit with my whole letting-myself-go plan, so it is probably time for a tune up. Which leads me to...

New header. Body image issues aside, I decided to get new "lipstick" for my blog. Are you loving the new header? I employed the skills of Calliope at Creating Motherhood. She was ever so patient as I changed my mind on things (I'm a female, after all), and I think she did an awesome job. She initially started doing headers to raise funds for a frozen embryo transfer (FET). But since then, with the help of U.T.E.R.U.S. (seriously read about this -- it will restore any faith you've lost in humanity), she's achieved her goal! She'll be doing her FET this summer, and I am hoping that my contribution goes to a cute little outfit like this or this for the little bean when s/he arrives. I'd love get one of those for Bean, but they are too expensive for me... Hey, anyone need a new header??

Leave my pooch alone! Now changing moods to a very serious subject. Someone is messing with my pooch and I don't like it ONE BIT! In my last post, I mentioned how our gate to the fenced-in backyard was "mysteriously" opened, allowing the dog to roam free. DH suspected it was done on purpose by a neighbor, but I thought he was just being paranoid. Well, it looks like he was right! We had pushed the heavy garbage can in front of the gate, and when DH came home on Tuesday, the gate was wide open again, which required pushing the garbage can aside first. No way that was done by the wind or a faulty latch. The only other possibility is that I have dissociative identity disorder (split personalities) and there's a part of me that wishes harm on the pooch. Which is absurd... of course all of my other personalities would be devastated if anything happened to her. Anyway, I rushed out to get a padlock for the gate, and we've had no incidences since then. Our neighbors have all been really friendly -- other than whoever broke my car window and stole my GPS last month -- but it won't be too soon that I can get out of this neighborhood. Apparently someone else feels the same way. In other serious dog news, there was a casualty in our house this week. DH wondered who the stuffing came from, Evey Louise or the fish.


Inspection. Only 24 days until we close on the new house! I have a countdown ticker at the bottom of the page... I couldn't find one that fit nicely into the sidebar like my Bean Counter does. Oh well. We had the inspection on Tuesday and it went very well. Here are some pics of my favorite features.

The front. (Duh.) I'm not a huge fan of the color, we will be getting an estimate from house painters. There are some nice dark green and slate blue colors to pick from in the neighborhood.

Finally, we'll have a flat backyard! Perfect for playing washers, Missouri style. This yard is HUGE compared to most houses we looked at, believe it or not.

The family room, kitchen, and breakfast nook have a nice flow. A doorwall (or sliding glass door, for all you non-Michiganders) leads out to the backyard. The door from the kitchen leads to a pantry/mudroom/laundry room and then out to the garage. There is also a formal living room, dining room, and bathroom on the first floor near the front of the house.

There are three bedrooms upstairs, and then this loft, which can be turned into a bedroom and a loft or two bedrooms if desired.

Off the master, there is a quaint sitting area with a gas fireplace. Through that door is the master bathroom.

Bean was enthralled with the whole inspection process.

Plans. Looking ahead at June, there is one word that comes to mind: insanity. My to-do list, like my email inbox, has officially gotten out of control. I have absolutely no idea how all of this stuff is going to get done. We did have a moving company come by yesterday to give an estimate on moving our furniture. I'm hoping we can use them for at least part of the move. We will just have gotten all of our stuff into the new house when it's time for our trip to Michigan. I can't decide if that's good timing or horrible timing. Hopefully my mom will be coming back to Seattle with me to help us settle in and decorate the joint. You may be shocked to hear, but the thought of organizing kitchen utensils again sends me into a fit. I spend most of my time avoiding those objects anyway! Hopefully we'll have some time to start enjoying the beautiful spring weather. DH is going to the Mariners/Tigers baseball game tonight with a friend from college who recently moved here. (Kinda interesting story... this friend moved to St. Louis from Michigan shortly after we did to work for DH's employer, then he recently transferred out here also with DH's employer. Maybe HE'S the one opening our gate...) Anyway, lucky me, I get to spend all evening snuggling with this sweet little man. Netflix on the menu: I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. Good stuff.