birthday madness

for my birthday, which we had off, we decided to paint baby k's room. jeremy went in the morning and bought supplies. After puttying several holes in wall, we left the apartment to run some errands and let the mud dry. jeremy went to guitar center while i availed myself of the services of the nail salon next door. after a pedicure and a new guitar, we went to a great thai place down the street. by the time we got home it was time to paint!

i taped off the borders and jeremy prepped everything else. he mixed and poured the paint and we got to work. i was able to sit on the floor and paint a large portion of the edges and bottom of the wall while jeremy edged the ceiling.we finished about two hours later in the nick of time. it was time to get cleaned up and head to the hospital for our first of a series of four birthing classes. this one was an intro to everything, a review of a lot of info that we knew, and learning some breathing and relaxation techniques. im thinking that if labor involves this much deep breathing and back massage that it can't possibly be as bad as everyone says! ;)

in celebration of my 27th birthday, here is a pregnancy picture. now everyone can stop bugging me about it for at least another week or so...

for the record, here is how pregnant i looked when i entered my late twenties. 32 weeks and 5 days along. also how pretty baby's room is after we finished with the safari green paint job.

aerogardening again

after one week, almost all of my plants are blooming. 

the cilantro is going nuts! in a few more weeks we will have yummy fresh herbs to cook with! this is especially nice considering how cold and snowy this winter has been. just seeing grreen things growing makes me happy.

valentine's celebration

for valentines day we made chocolate lollipops for everyone at work. it was my first time making candies by myself (although jeremy helped) and it was fun. i missed my girlfriends though! baby k had a good time too. he's starting to get in the way a little bit though. :)

i made yummy mahi mahi, roasted fingerling potatoes and veggies for valentines dinner. you can see from the box on the counter i cheated a little bit on dessert.tjs makes a much better tartlet than i do though.

we ate on the china then played wii. CLASSY, huh?

30 weeks - feb 2

this was me one week ago. lovely picture, huh? 30 weeks - 75% done cooking the little guy. i'm wearing my new pregnancy red sox shirt. im not sure when baseball season starts but if it starts before the middle of april then i am all set. i have horrible posture and my hair is funky (and jeremy is not the best photographer ever - he doesnt even count to three!) but for all you guys who have been bugging me about bump pictures this ought to satisfy you for a little while longer. :)

concert in the casino

a couple of weekends ago ryan and stephanie drove down on saturday. david nail was playing a show at the mohegan sun casino on saturday night. our amazing friend justin was able to reserve us a table for a really fantastic show. it was way better than the first time we saw david play (when anna was here in october).

the band was having a good time and the crowd was waaaay into it. several people didnt stop dancing the entire time. we took it easy and sat. i enjoyed a virgin margarita. it was almost as good as the real thing. the baby liked the sourness of it though!

we did a little gambling - i put $5 into a penny slot machine and walked away with $18 and stephanie killed at the blackjack table. the boys werent as lucky. it was really really fun and great to see people that we dont get to see very often - justin, ryan and steph.

i still think it is a little bit lame that i see justin about three times more often than anna but i was able to send her a care package home with him.

seeing a great concert with friends is definitely a great way to spend a saturday night!

wii are fitter?

i've been trying to get on the wii fit for at least 30 mins five times a week. there was a week of vacation, and two weekends of moving and many other wonderful excuses for why i didnt get to all of it. but i did pretty darn good anyways:

see how chubby my mii is? there is no way to put in that i am pregnant, so at least twice a week the little scale guy asks me if i know why i am gaining weight. "growing a human being" isnt a choice, so i always pick eating too much. :)

baby k's bed

although we havent gotten his actual bedding yet, we had some of the extra pieces and now that we are in a bigger apartment, we set everything up. it is just too cute. so far the cats have been supremely uninterested in the crib (they love the spare bed in baby's room though).

the little forest creatures are adorable and we've found tons of our old stuffed animals as we've been unpacking stuff for storage. there is still a TON of work to do in there before he is all set, but i can rest easy knowing that if something crazy happens and he appears early, he has a place to sleep. he won't have much else, but it is something. cute, huh?

Junky Arm

Nine days after my three hour glucose test, my left arm still looks like I've been doing heroin. The good news is that I do not have gestational diabetes. The bad news is that the crook of my elbow still hurts!
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

update on the little guy

we went in today for an ultrasound. we got to see our son swimming around in there. he has finally turned head down and decided today to start kicking me in the ribs. oh the small joys of motherhood.

he weighs about 2 lbs 11 oz right now and has those nice long legs you would expect from the offspring of two people shaped like jeremy and me.

he helped mommy and daddy move all our stuff out of the storage unit and into our new apartment upstairs this morning. we went to babies'r'us and bought his crib and stroller/car seat. jeremy is upstairs right now assembling the crib and spare bed in the little closet/second bedroom. next weekend we will be moving all of our stuff in our current apartment up and living up there.

we are so happy to start puting otgether the little guy's room and preparing for his arrival! we have signed up of birth classes at the hospital - they start in february. we will have a few purcahses to make to complete our new little nest upstairs (like a dresser or two or three, since there isn't a single closet in the whole place and a couch) and i think some painting, but i can't wait!

baby koci will be here in about 11 weeks (give or take) and we are well on our way to being ready!

kansas trip 2011: koci family shower

 darci made a cute diaper cake and the family loaded it down with gift cards! we've been doing some shopping online with some of them, and as soon as we move to the upstairs apartment that is a little bit bigger, we will go and buy our crib and stroller/car seat. i can't wait!!!!

 the women all made tons of food - we ate non stop all day and it was great. YUM. nothing a pregnant lady likes more than a buffet!

the whole family was together in one room for the first time in ages! look at all of us! next time we are all in the same room there will be one more little koci. he is excited to meet his big cousins!

kansas trip 2011: family time!

 i got to have some serious baby time with garrett, the newest (but not for long!) member of the koci family.i spent tons of time with garrett's big brother and sister too, but for some reason didn't take a single picture with either of them :(

 we stayed with shane and darci and it was great to see them too! i have just this one super awkward picture of me and darci - again, i awas apparently a failure at taking pictures.

during our shower we got to see tons of family that we never get to see ever, like aunt corrine!

spending so much time with our families was wonderful. the kids are growing up so fast and everyone's lives are constantly changing - new kids, new jobs, new houses... it is hard to keep up from 1500+ miles away!

kansas 2011 shower #1

 the ladies from central threw us a shower. it was great. not only did we get some great stuff and gift cards for the little guy, i got to see some friends that i havent seen in ages and actually spend time talking to them.

 everyone kept asking me where the baby bump was. he's defintiely in there, but he wasn't poking out so much then. now is a whole different story. all the people at work tell me they think i'm growing by the second. that's the way to a pregnant lady's heart, let me tell you.

 the diaper cake was cute and the little monkey guarding the gift cards was sweet. our little guy is going to have so many cute stuffed animals. not only have we received several as gifts, there are a few of ours in storage from when we were little. i kinda hope that jeremy's old grover becomes his favorite.

most importantly. he received his first k-state gear. it is size 12 mos, so he will definitely need something smaller for football season, but i am happy that our little wildcat will be properly attired for march madness next year. after all, raise a child in the way he should go... and all that, right?

kansas 2011 part 1

after a nightmarish airplane trip, my brother bryce and his girlfriend picked me, jeremy andjeremy's luggage up at the kc airport. not so much my luggage. we made it home for dinner and to celebrate my baby brother's sixteenth birthday. SIXTEEN. yikes.

the next day, after the arrival of my luggage at 3:30 in the morning, my mom and i spent some girl time together. we went and got our toes done, shopped for me and the baby and just played around. we also took some quick time to visit the holiday retirement building in wichita. it was exactly like the building in kittery that we trained in, so i gave my mom a practice tour. we also went to her doctor's office so she could here the little guy's heartbeat. it was great. we arrived home to a small situation with my parents air conditioner unit (thankfully it is winter time and they can fix it).

 after dealing with that, we all went out to eat to celebrate my dad's birthdya and max's again. p.f. changs was delicious as usual. the company was fabulous too. we were loud and the waitress had no idea what to do with all of us, but it was just the way we all liked it. and i had clothes to wear. so that was good.

new day, new year

yep. it is time for the annual "let's see how i did on last year's resolutions and make some new ones" post. here's is last year's post if you want to refresh yourself. i had to look back and see what i wanted to accomplish this year - most of those goals were news to me. so much has happened and changed this year that several of them were not practical to meet.

bascially, losing my job in april, getting a new one and moving all over in may and june and getting pregnant in july meant that life was strange this year.

i did run a 5k (just one! i am so ashamed!) but did not pr. i prolly made my goal of 500 miles but fell off keeping track around the time i found out i was pregnant.

instead of focusing on what i didnt do last year, let's talk about what i am going to do this year...

i got a wii fit for christmas and i would like to do at least 30 min on it four days a week. its fun and interesting and has plenty of exercises that will keep me occupied through the end of this pregnancy in april. after that i make no promises because i dont know what kind of baby this will be. if i wind up taking him running in my bob instead of doing the wii fit thats even better.

i'm not off medication and in fact have added several vitamins etc to the mix but i feel healthy and the baby is healthy and thats the main thing. once he arrives i can cut back again and that will be a good thing! im not setting any goals about this for the year because pregnancy is weird and i dont know what will happen after he arrives.

there are some reading/writing related goals i have been thinking about, but i'm not ready to commit most of them to paper. i would like to pay more attention to my blog in 2011. hopefully i have plenty to talk about in april!

i don't really have tons of goals or ideas for this year because i know that life will take a dramatic turn once the little guy arrives and i dont want to set too many expectations for myself without knowing him yet.

anyone out there making goals for 2011? do share!

cats on my chair

rumpy as sitting in my computer chair and i moved him so i could sit there. he jumped up with cricket and started kissing her. she tolerated it for a while then pushed him off.  its a short clip and i am NOT a good videographer but enjoy!