Simple Joys

Wow, this past week has flown by! Mark and I moved out of our place last Friday and set up house in our new little cottage in the same complex. We had lots of last-minute help. My dad came up and spent Saturday with us, Nathan and Peter came with their man power, and the wonderful awesome Pellissier power couple carried our mattress across the complex. Another lovely lady named Kate came and helped me carry some things. (I wasn't allowed to move a whole lot, so it was nice to have a friend add her strength to my limited ability. I was the organizer.) We are so blessed by the simple little joys we've experienced since moving to our new place. Here are a list of a few of them.

joy #1.  Location—We no longer have to carry the laundry downstairs and basically a football field length to the laundry mat since the new laundromat is around the corner and we live in a one-story cottage. Our last place was in the way back of the complex, if it rained we had to run and groceries were part of our workout routine. The pool and the mailbox are also right behind our house now.

joy #2. The absence of a train—In our last apartment we lived right next to the de-railer. Trains would park literally on the other side of the fence and would wake us up with loud explosions as they were reconnecting the cars. The vibrations were so powerful that sometimes things would fall off of our bookshelf. It was exciting, especially at 6 in the morning but we didn't think baby Bjerke would appreciate that. Last weekend, when Mark and I woke up on Saturday morning I reached for his hand and said "do you hear that?!", and he was like, "hear what?", and I was like, "No train booms!"

joy #3.  Space—We have an extra bedroom, a patio, and a hall closet! I have so many little plans with all this space. One is to turn the patio into a little romantic retreat. I'm hoping to thrift and find the perfect little table and two chairs, so Mark and I can have short escapes outside in the evenings for some summer dinner and a glass of wine. I've even planted jasmine in a pot next to our front door which will add a sweet fragrance to our little home. We can just bring the baby monitor out with us while he's sleeping or even just pop open up the window.

here's a picture of some desks and other furniture at Urban Ore.

And Joys Galore!!! (#4.) Thrifty finds—I took Mark on a date the last weekend of February. I wanted to surprise him with a unique adventure in Berkeley. My friend told me about this store called Urban Ore. Urban Ore is like a giant garage sale of all kinds of random things from all kinds of random places. They have bath tubs filled with plants, a huge assortment of doors (from freezer to front), clothes, furniture, old music, posters... You name it. Of course Mark picked out some baking dishes and we got this awesome clock. Last weekend in Davis we went to the local thrift store to find some more bakeware. We ended up finding a beautiful green arm chair for 10 dollars(!) and a bundt tin for $1.50. We bought the cup rack for 2. I think I scared Mark with how excited I was about our finds. I was literally turning bright red with joy. I felt like we just won the thrift lottery. I couldn't believe we walked away with all this cute stuff for our house for less than 15 dollars. It took me awhile to calm down (silly pregnancy hormones.)

 I don't have a picture of the bundt tin we got but I "kind of" got a picture of the grapefruit pound cake Mark made on Wednesday. I should've taken a picture of it right after it came out of the pan but it was too delicious to leave and find the camera. Did I mention I gained back my original weight as well as 2lbs so far? I lost 10 pounds in the first trimester, and now at 24 weeks I've gained back 12. Supposedly our baby is supposed to weigh around 1.25lbs alone. He sure does love getting my nutrients. I keep hoping he loves the food that I love so that Mark will make more delicious grapefruit cake.

I guess I should add this little story to my list of joys. Last saturday was pig day here in Davis, yes you read me right, "PIG DAY". People in Davis love celebrating pigs. The event involves the local farmers market where people can enjoy looking at little piglets and then find the nearest food stand and enjoy a nice juicy piece of bacon. It's a little odd in my opinion, but it is also fun to visit. I was also helping out with my preschool's booth since a lot of parents are shopping around for their children's future schooling. During all this pig commotion a woman was playing with her cute little son and I asked how old he was; she then asked me when I was due. I was so excited that she could tell. She was the first person who noticed and was bold enough to ask me my due date. I was thrilled to have a legit and noticeable pregnant belly. I told Mark when I got home, "It's real! People know I'm pregnant now! Not just some girl who really loves to eat!" (which is also true.)

Now here's some 24-week pictures of me and the belly. My lovely friend Lacy came over on Wednesday and asked to take some photos of me. She even took one of the belly. This is probably the most "revealing" photo I will ever take. Now I just need to get back to organizing and finalizing the registries, since I'm almost to the 3rd trimester and I've already started to feel that burst of energy fade.