What's up? (Saturday Ramblings)

Hola amigos! All I can say is I'm glad we survived a roller-coaster finale to January and I'm trying to start February with a clean slate.

(Note: I'm just jumping in here. I know a LOT has gone on in the past few weeks with the pregnancy, but Jen has already done a great job recapping all of that. So follow the link at the top of the page if you want the latest scoop on what's up in preggerville.)

I'm taking a few minutes on a Saturday morning while Jen is sleeping in to get out and stretch my legs, collect my thoughts and update the blog. I'm up at a Starbucks near Vanderbilt University, which is not really close to our house, but it's close to where I used to live when I was single. It's big and cushy (for all the ritzy Vandy students to hang out), so I make the trek here when I want to camp out for awhile. The only downside is that they are BLARING Sinatra (who I love, but not THIS loud), so I've got white noise playing on my iPod to try to tune it out. It's working. Kinda.

It's supposed to be amazingly beautiful here in Nashville today. High around 69 I think. I think I'm going to take Jen for a picnic lunch later. Yes, she's still on bedrest, but I've got some picnic blankets & pillows in the back of the car. I figure laying on the ground is just as good as laying on the couch. Maybe we can just go grab a few sandwiches somewhere and lay outside. I know she's going stir crazy in the house, so this will be a good chance for us to get out and get some fresh air. She did make a trip to Target this past week (you have to see the pictures on her blog - it was awesome), but nothing beats being out in the sunshine on a beautiful day.

Although we're loving the new house, we're sick of being inside all the time because of the cold weather, so I think it will do both of us some good. Her parents hooked us up with a 2-month subscription to NetFlix which we've already started wearing out. We used to have NetFlix and I can see us getting it again for good, especially with the Instant Play feature, where you can download tons of movies and don't have to wait for them to email the DVD's to you. It's pretty cool, actually. Plus I've found a way to "hack" the AppleTV I got for Christmas and can now access Hulu.com as well as a host of other video sites, so we're rockin' the high-tech TV right now. I'm pretty grateful considering we had a loaner TV this time last year.

Anyways, the house is coming together well. We've been saving money for the odds & ends we need for the house over the past year, and now we're able to start getting stuff. The good thing about the lousy economy is that everything we need for the house is on sale! So we're able to get curtains at West Elm for Target/Wal-mart prices, which is awesome. Speaking of sales, we got a great deal on our crib when one of Jen's friends saw that Babies'R'Us was selling their display model of Jen's favorite crib for $75 off! So I went and got it - that made Jen VERY happy.

On a side note, you know you're life is changing when you're excited about getting furniture at Babies'R'Us. Wow.

Speaking of the house, I've decided to try to create some artwork for the den myself. I found out that one of my clients, LifeWay, has an in-house printing press where they can print on canvas, so I think I'm going to create some digital artwork and print it out and have a friend of mine stretch it on canvas. I'm actually excited about that - I haven't done a project like that in a long time. I hope it goes well, and I'll show you the results when I get it done.

Anyways, I'll share more later. I know this has been more of a "brain-dump" than well-conceived blog entry, but that's about all I'm capable of right now. I think it's Etta James SCREAMING in the background here at Starbucks that's encouraging me to wrap things up. I'll update when I can, but honestly, I'm REALLY hoping to not have any urgent news to report anytime soon. I've had enough excitement lately.

Later, y'all!

-chadley

P.S. - Did I mention that I'm excited that we're having a gir? Well, I am :)