Zeus's very first Twins game

Today I won tickets from our company lottery to the Twins game. As you can see, we had some pretty great seats. Our company has season tickets to all the pro sports games for client entertainment and when there are no clients going to a particular game, they do a free lottery to all the employees. This game was part of the series with the New York Yankees. The night before, the game was suspended due to weather so the other half of that game was played just before our scheduled game, but our tickets worked for that game also. Jerad was able to get out of work earlier than scheduled and watched the ending of that game and I arrived when our game started. I will say the ballpark is beautiful and definitely gives you options on what kind of food you can choose from. You are able to walk around the entire perimeter to check out food options and still keep your eye on the game. I really don't know if there is a poor seat in the place. All in all, while in utero, Zeus did enjoy his first game at Target Field. Our next game will be July 15th - tickets Jerad won from his company. Boy do I love free tickets!!

Cabinets and Cupboards go in - its beginning to look like a Kitchen

This weekend my parents came up to help install the cabinets. Okay, let me rephrase, my parents came up so my dad could help Jerad install the cabinets and mom and I could be gophers and do other odd jobs. Below are some pictures of the cabinets that went in at different stages. Mom and I did get the job of installing the cabinet doors - well the ones we could reach. Don't you think we did well?



Practically done now, except that the lazy susan arrived with a big crack in the side. We were able to use the broken one as a space saver in order to install the other cabinets, but it pushed us back on getting the countertops measured. At this point, who knows when installation will be for those. So the below picture you can see the only appliance we have installed is the refrigerator.

If you go back to a previous post, you will see that our prior cabinets were quite a bit shorter since there was a 12in soffit above them, now we have cabinets that go to the ceiling. Guess who is going to need a step stool to get to items? It will take some strategic planning on our part on where to store items. Most used will go on the shorter shelves, items rarely used goes up top and towards the back. But with the storage we are gaining, I have no problem with planning. :-)

Another rather exciting event happened this weekend also....while I was out mowing the lawn, a storm decided to head in. I was kind of watching it move in so I was just booking it to get the front lawn complete before it hit...but I did not make it. I had maybe two lines that were 6 feet long left and the bag got too full so I had to dump it and then it just started hailing on me. It was only pea-sized hail, but who knew what was coming up behind. So I had enough time to dump the bag, get the lawn mower in the garage and get under cover before it started pouring on me. So, needless to say, our front lawn had a mohawk until later in the afternoon when I was able to finish the rest of the lawn. And as it looks right now, I don't see myself mowing the lawn much more until the baby is born. The mowing isn't bad, it is the bagging. Lifting the bags and shaking the grass out takes a lot of energy. But if I need to do it, I will, just at a much slower pace.

Time to Tile!

Now that we have all the cabinets out and all of the appliances unhooked and out of the way, it is time to put in our new tile. Jerad (at a time when I was down visiting my parents) heard about a big tile sale going on up in Maple Grove and decided to head up there. This sale was too good to resist - so he told me. 50-75% off amazing tile brands. Most women probably wouldn't want their husbands to pick out tile without being present, but I trusted him. For the kitchen he picked out a greyish swirl tile with a few specks of tan in it and is a Versace tile. It is really great. So this weekend we decided to install the tile. And trust me...even though I'm not in any pictures, I really did help.

We really needed to get this done this weekend because next weekend my parents were coming up to help install the cupboards. It needed to be dry and sealed by Friday night at the earliest and Saturday morning at the latest. One of the things I love the best about the tile is that it really feels good on bare feet. I know that sounds weird, but I rarely walk barefoot in our house. We have a lot of hardwood floors and some carpet and other tile, but this one just feels really nice on my feet. Who knows...maybe it is just the pregnancy talking.

TAYLOR SWIFT - what a concert!!

For one of my Christmas gifts from my loving husband, I received Taylor Swift tickets to see her peform tonight at the Xcel in St. Paul. Jerad was such a sport and was my date for the night. I don't think we have ever seen so many little girls, tweens and teens in one spot before. Not to mention the random tween and teen boys that were there also - Jerad said that it was the smartest way to pick up chicks. :-) The opening acts were Gloriana and Kelly Pickler which were really good and then when Taylor came out - watch out....I needed ear plugs. That girl knows how to work the crowd of young girls. I have never heard a crowd so loud in my life. There were moments when I had to plug my ears and wished that I had ear plugs for little Zeus as he is at the stage of hearing things these days.
She had some amazing performers in her show that helped tell the story of her songs. It made me wonder what would have happened if I would have just stayed with dance when I was a little girl. Too bad I quit at the ripe old age of 6. I guess I figured it wasn't my dream.
Here she came out to the middle of the audience halfway through the show to do a song and then on the way back to the stage, she greeted and/or hugged about 500 fans. She even gave out little bracelets from her wrist to some of the younger girls. It was pretty neat to see. Oh and I have to mention that some of those teen boys in the audience got kisses on the cheek from her and seeing their reaction was hilarious. It looked like they screamed like little girls.

27 weeks and growing

Here I am at 27 weeks with little Zeus. I am feeling him kick constantly and - I know I will regret this - I am anxiously waiting for him to "pop out". He is tucked in pretty tightly and is enjoying sitting on my vena cava and kicking my ribs. So needless to say...if I don't get my relaxing time of laying on my side, my right ankle starts to swell. In a way, it is entertaining....I have one ankle - minor swelling and then a major cankle. But it also gives me a chance to lay down in the evenings with a book. I think in the past month I have finished 3 really good books. I have one to go and then it is time to start looking for more books. Any recommendations?

I don't have any complaints about this pregnancy as it all seems to be going pretty smoothly. If I had to complain about something it would be that the hormones are giving me bacne - which is basically my back breaking out like a hormonal teenager. But if that is the worst of it, then I am having a great pregnancy.

Gotta love family and their talents

So I have to admit that I have a very talented family. Since I have a big family, that means there is a wide variety of talents. As we are doing our kitchen, there are some electrical needs that should be taken care of by a professional. Luckily, my cousin Aaron is an electrician. In his off time today, he was able to come over and help Jerad move the wires for the can lights and other stuff. I don't get too technical as I was sent to Home Depot to pick up some of the needed wire and other brackets so I wasn't there when they were discussing what needed to be done. Luckily, I came back to the house with the correct items. There is just something about a woman walking into the electrical aisle that just screams - ASSISTANCE PLEASE! Below are some pictures of Aaron and Jerad working on the electrical stuff and cutting additional holes to get to the electrical stuff.

What do you think of our new can lights? If you recall, they use to be hanging from the gaping holes in the ceiling and now they are placed in the middle of the kitchen. I wonder who the next family member will be that we contact.........

Kitchen Remodel - nothing like taking on a big project right now

If any of you know my husband, you know he constantly has ideas in his head on improving our house and updating. He has several projects that he has been talking about for a while. One is building a bigger patio by either concrete or pavers or building a deck, another is finishing our basement, another is updating our kitchen, and finally updating the main bathroom, otherwise known as my bathroom. And the winner this summer is........THE KITCHEN!! Yes, I told him he had to choose one and not two at a time or all of them...JUST ONE! In my "delicate" state I don't think I could handle much more. So we headed off to Home Depot to check out the cabinets and counters and talked with the Kitchen design lady, Patty and then we got a design together and went for it. Now that we ordered, it was time for demolition. I helped out where I could, but Jerad did most of it. One of the biggest changes for us is that we tore out the soffiting that had our can lights, moved the lights closer to the middle of the ceiling, closed up ceiling and will have cabinets that go to the ceiling. Can anyone say "step stool for Amanda"? :-) Here are some pictures from Demo day one and two!

As you may see, we currently have a wall oven and stove top as well as an 18 inch dishwasher (space saver size) so the plan in the new kitchen is to take out the wall oven and stove top and put in a new full size range as well as putting in a full size dishwasher. I am absolutely thrilled with this!!!!