Friday Recap (with Pictures!)

I am going to TRY taking more pictures from now on. I think that posts are way more fun when there is something look at. Who wants to read a whole bunch of text all the time? Not I, said the cat.

I have a lovely walk to work. It’s a little over 1 mile, mostly uphill. Today was particularly exhausting (extra pressure because of the baby, and my legs were extra tired because of yesterday’s workout). So I took my sweet time and decided to take pictures along the way!

I thought these were lovely! Does anyone know what they are? Some in the middle there were slightly different colors.

I’m not quite sure what this is – was it used for tying up horses a hundred years ago? Serious question!

There’s a beautiful cemetery right when I make it up “the big hill”. Sometimes, I see deer roaming around in there.

This is called a monkey tail tree. It’s spiny all the way down every single branch, and it blooms all year. It’s amazing.

From time to time, Cheryl, at work, takes a big order to Georgetown Cupcake. I DID eat both of them, but I only ate about half of each. So really, that’s just ONE cupcake total. 🙂

Someone dropped 17 cents on the ground and didn’t bother picking it up! Jackpot! And because I found such a treasure, we went out for dinner….

A bacon cheeseburger from BTS. 🙂

Here’s my fine husband, once more. He got something with mushrooms and all that mess on it. Apparently it was delicious. He wouldn’t shut up about it. 🙂

And THAT, my friends, was Friday.

It doesn’t include the last 3 hours because that was the childbirth class. We go back tomorrow from about 9:30-4:00, and I will post a recap of that either tomorrow evening or Sunday!

Good night all! And thanks to all my new followers!

Linking up with Molly:

Baggu Backpack Review

For a while now, I’ve been having some major shoulder pain. I decided (okay, trainer Chris decided) that I needed to wear a backpack instead of a heavy one-shoulder bag (which apparently looks like curtains).

I did a search for “grownup backpacks”. Oprah had a list of them, ranging in price from $32 up to $3,900. I stuck to the low end of the spectrum and purchased the following bag from Baggu:

Monday, April 15, I decided to try it out.

Here’s a picture of the new bag with my old Vera Bradley:

It’s about the same size, which is great. The only difference is that the VB bag has two outside pockets, six inside pockets, and then the main section for big stuff. It was super easy to keep organized. The Baggu bag has an outside zipper pocket which has a small pocket inside of it, another small inside pocket, and then the main section for big stuff.

Before forging ahead, I emptied all the “essentials” from my purse:

I decided to put my phone, headphones, and sunglasses in the zippered pocket.

Inside the smaller pocket inside, I put my small things that I need access to regularly (like Kleenex).

There are other small items (like a single bandaid, medicine, and chapstick) that I don’t use often but might need one day. So I tucked them into a Ziploc bag and put that inside the main part of the bag.

Here is the inside of the bag, with my essential contents:

It was hardly filled AT ALL. So I tested it out for a typical weekday situation. I put in a big Tupperware container and a change of shoes. There was still TONS of space left! I could fit another pair of shoes, a bottle of water, a book, and my iPad easily (not that I’d ever bring all of that to work on a single day).

And finally, the test of cuteness. Does it look okay? My biggest issue with wearing a backpack is that I would look like a high schooler. A pregnant teenager. What do you think?

Overall:

PROS: Lightweight, colorful, waaaay bigger than it looks

CONS: Hard to access stuff (unlike a purse where it’s just right there at your side), not enough pockets!

But for $40 and loads of color options, I’d say it’s a perfect backpack for grownups. 🙂

Today, I’m linking up at Tuesday With a Twist, Adventure into Domesticland, The Inspiration Board, Just Because, and Anything + Everything.

Babymoon

A babymoon is basically a “last hurrah” vacation before the baby comes. For me and Cameron, it will be the last vacation the two of us will take together without having to “worry” about a kid.

Here is the basic agenda for our little trip:

Sunday, March 31
We drove to Dover DE. I know what you’re thinking….Delaware? What the heck is in Delaware? To answer your question: NOTHING. Dover is really dry. BUT we were staying at a Hotel/Resort, which was very entertaining. In fact, it is the only entertaining thing to do in Dover. The reason we picked this place is because we found a sweet deal on travelzoo.com. Basically, for each voucher you purchased, you got a night in the hotel, two free all-day all-you-can-eat passes at the buffet, and $25 off at the spa.. It was about the same price that we would have paid for a night in a hotel anyway (about $100 per night). Essentially, all of our meals were free. I’ll get to that in a minute…

On Sunday, we got to the hotel around 5:00. Neither of us was hungry yet, but we checked out the buffet anyway.

Dude, they hook you up. Here are a FEW things I remember:
crab cakes
linguini with crab and lobster meat
boiled shrimp
fried chicken
baked chicken
steak
ribs
steamed veggies
corn bread
cheddar biscuits
pizza (cheese or pepperoni)
collard greens
stuffed pork chops (with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes)
sandwich bar
salad bar
sushi bar
red velvet cake
tiramisu
creme brulee

That’s just what I can recall off the top of my head. All you can eat. And, no joke, 95% of it was faaaantastic. Of all the things I tried, there were 3 things, over 3 days, that I didn’t care for. Everything else: superb.

Additionally, for $5, you can get a filet mignon or a lobster tail. Naturally, we got one of each (on the last night).

Sunday, we relaxed and watched some television. There wasn’t much else to do because it was Easter Sunday.

Monday April 1
Monday, we had a great breakfast (again, all you can eat):
three types of bacon
two types of scrambled eggs
egg bar (where you can order exactly what you want)
broccoli/cheddar quiche
pancakes (plain and chocolate chip)
waffle maker
biscuits and gravy
lots of fresh fruit
4 types of cereal
grits
lots of pastries (muffins, danishes, that sort of thing)

At 11:00, we had a couples massage scheduled at the Toppers Spa. I’ve had many massages in my adult life, and this was quite unique. We each got a private locker for our belongings (in separate locker rooms, of course), and we slipped into robes. We met back out in the lounge area where they had hot tea, water, and some cookies. We relaxed in this beautiful little space for about 10 minutes while we waited for our masseuses. They picked us up and took us back to our room. Cameron got the traditional Swedish, and I got a prenatal massage. It was fun. 🙂

Afterward, we had lunch and then we took a long nap (I’m trying to bank some good sleep hours before the baby gets here!). Dinner was delicious – We got to watch live horse racing out of the window! We took a quick trip to Wal-Mart (ooo!) and bought a few things for the baby. We also bought a 300-piece puzzle! That was my idea; I knew it would take up some time, be fairly relaxing, and give us something to do together without spending loads of money. Here are two pictures of that:

Tuesday April 2
We drove down to Rehoboth Beach…….

and spent most of the day at the outlet malls there. I won’t get into details because, well, who cares? We shopped a little but didn’t spend much. We just browsed and enjoyed each other’s company. We decided to eat at Grotto’s Pizza for dinner; we saw several of this chain on the drive down, and we figured there must be something to it. It was fabulous!! I’m a pizza fiend, and this really hit the spot.

Because the puzzle from the night before was fun, we went out and got another one, this time 550 pieces. It was not as fun because it was so frustrating! It took us three hours to finish, but here she is in all her glory:

Wednesday April 3
Wednesday we got some Chick fil A because it’s a vacation tradition: we always find a day to get a chicken biscuit for breakfast. We drove out to Amish country outside of Dover; there wasn’t much to see, and we got a bit frustrated because there weren’t big signs that said “Amish Country, This Way”. So we gave up after a little while and headed back toward DC.

On the way back, we hit up Annapolis MD just to wander. Cute little town!

We also hit up IKEA and got a few things.

It was what a babymoon should be. It was relaxing. We spent lots and lots of time together without too many distractions. We weren’t trying to go-go-go the whole time.

Oh, and sorry I don’t have more pictures. They’re all in my head.