Month: May 2007

I’ve been thinking that it would be really nice to have a not-too-big area rug in the nursery, and since we are going with the home-grown artist motif (Jimmy Lee Sudduth, Floyd Shaman, Lonnie Holley, etc) to maybe get a Gee’s Bend rug! I think there are a couple of different ‘scales’ of the rugs that have been licensed – the less expensive line is carried by Shaw Floors.

ABC Carpet carries the more upscale (not nursery-friendly!) Gee’s Bend rugs.

I am *in love* with the blue checkered (which I know would be great if it turns out to be a boy)…but even with it being on sale, it’s still $3800, which is definitely not nursery-friendly…

When Leslie and I went furniture shopping over the weekend, I told her I wanted to find something nice for the den, but also something I wasn’t going to worry over. I don’t want to be the ‘not on mommy’s good furniture’ mommy when it comes to the den. The living room is a different story, but in the den, I figure that’s where we’ll do all our crafting and playing.

I remember going with Nanny to Aunt Helen’s house, and her furniture – this was in the 70s – was covered in see-thru plastic (so you could see it was nice furniture, you just couldn’t spill your tea in it (oh! and she made the best ice tea – she put Tang in it, and would wrap a paper towel around the glass before serving it, which for me as a little girl…I somehow thought that was the classiest way to serve a glass of tea, ever!)). In the summertime when I would be wearing shorts, I remember getting off the couch after we would be sitting there a while, and leaving the top three layers of my leg skin on that plastic-covered couch!

…Anyway…I’m going to see if I can find one of the rugs locally so we can look at the colors.

Av’s mom and dad came over this morning for Mother’s Day, and we all spent some time together, looking over what’s been done to the house in the last week or so (new interior paint in a few rooms, our new garage doors that look *so* good!) and talking about what’s going to be accomplished in the next two-three weeks (new wood flooring in the kitchen and den, the exterior of the house will be painted, a new deck in the back yard, a new exterior door downstairs, a few other things…). I’m not sure why we waited for my last trimester to come for us to say, “wow, let’s think about doing a bunch of things!”!

We gave his mom a card with a bunch of ultrasound pics inside, and giggled over the one that was taken around 20 weeks – it shows a sweet little foot with the second toe just ever-so-slightly longer than the big toe, just like his/her daddy.

Our nesting instinct has really hit and it’s been all cleaning and organizing, too. One of the nice things from the decluttering is that we have several bags of nice clothes and some household items that we’re donating to one of the women’s shelters tomorrow.

Leslie and I went out last night and had a great time. We had a nice supper, went shopping and tried on every pair of Borns in town, and spent some good girl-time together. We’re sooo excited about how close it’s getting to the little one arriving. It makes me think about how blessed Av and I are with so many friends and family that are just blissful over meeting the sweet little bundle that I know will turn our world upside down in the most beautiful ways. We’re so lucky to have so many people who love him/her so completely already!

There’s an article in Wednesday’s NY Times about Koolickles! I wrote about them back in November of last year when Av and I tried one in Clarksdale – they’re pickles that have been…um, marinating…in a Kool-Aid super solution.

One of the really neat things is that the USA Today Blog linked to my pic on Flickr! I was wondering why all of a sudden that particular shot was getting so many views!

We stayed a few nights this week at the Redmont Hotel in Birmingham – it was pretty nice:

The hotel was built in the ’20s and just went under a renovation to make some of the space into condos, too.

The Redmont is right downtown, close to the (also historic) Tutwiler, which is where Av and I spent the first night of our honeymoon because our flight to Europe left really early the next day. I’m not sure if it still is, but the Tutwiler used to be considered one of the nicest hotels in town. Hilton owns it now and branded it as a Hampton Inn, which I don’t think does it justice, but I heard that the reason it had to be branded as a Hampton and not a Hilton was that it doesn’t have a pool…

In the lobby at the Tutwiler, they used to (not sure if they still do) carry the Southernness brand of sleeping powders and candles. I have one of their sleeping powders, and when I put new linens on the bed, I sprinkle it over the sheets and it smells *wonderful*!

Guess where I was today?

We had a teensy bit of a scare, thought we were going into early labor, got admitted into the hospital, they hooked me up to a monitor and…determined everything was just fine!

The best part is, I got to ride in the gurney (which for some reason was so exciting!) to the ultrasound lab where we got to see more pics of the little one – and we found out that he or she is now 5lbs, 1oz!

We’re all back now, assured that everything is perfect, and completely tickled that we got to see more ultrasound pics! Yay!

We had a lovely lunch at The Cypress Inn with everyone who came into town for Leslie’s graduation – I think there were about fifteen of us there!

After going to her pinning ceremony that evening, we started to leave for home but then decided to try somewhere new for supper…so we drove out to a place called Nick’s in the Sticks (4018 Culver Rd, 205/758.9316).

How can you not love a place called “Nick’s In the Sticks” – right?

It’s really not too far out in the sticks, but it’s also not the easiest place to find, partly because there is no sign at all out front (the waiter said he thought it got blown away during Hurricane Ivan). It doesn’t look like too much from the outside:

…and on the inside, it has dollar bills stapled to the ceiling, a few strings of lights, and…

…(of course)…lots of great Alabama football things, like this pic of the team at the ’93 Sugar Bowl (where we beat the Hurricanes):

and lots more pics, of Bear, and Gene Stallings especially!

Av had the large fillet and I had the small one – soooo good.