The Weekend

Finally, my first weekend at home with "nothing" plannned. It ended up being pretty useful though and I now have almost everything done off of my "to-do before the baby comes list (home version)."

Friday night Eric played a lot of X-Box and I got some important stuff done. I did the laundry, picked up the house, vacuumed upstairs, moved the litter box. I better explain that one. Until Friday, the cat's litter box has been what was originally was our computer room, but now has turned into the office/guestroom. There is no computer there anymore, but we still have a desk, 3 bookshelves, and a futon. The closet in that room is also where I keep most micellaneous items. The dog's cage is in there, but he only uses it while we're at work. Anyway, with the baby on the way, I'm thinking if my parents could use that room as "home base" while they are visiting. You know, keep there stuff in there, sleep, etc. The dog cage won't be a problem because he doesn't need to be in there unless no one is home. However, the litter box was also in this room and that would prevent us from closing that door, plus who wants to sleep in a room with a litter box? So, I would like to move the litter box to the basement. I have tried this once before, and the cat protested and decided to just use the carpet instead, but I am going to try this in stages. For the next few days the box has moved to the upstairs hallway, just outside the room it was in. On Tuesday, I plan to move it to the bottom of the stairs in our landing. This will not be a practical long-term solution, but I don't want the cat to "forget" where the box is. On Saturday, I will move it into the basement at the bottom of the stairs. My cat does frequent the basement, as his food is in the laundry room, but last time for some reason, he refused to use the litter box when I moved it from the bottom of the stairs into the laundry room. Someone suggested that the basement may be too dark. I bought night lights this time. We'll be sure that Smokey can see where he is going and find his way. Eric will not like the litter box hanging out at the bottom of the stairs. I'm not sure if it's the unfinished part of the basement that makes the cat jumpy, so if I need to the final step will be to put it behind the bar area (still in the finished part). Wish us luck.

Anyway, also on Friday night, I did two more thank you notes, wrote all receipt amounts in the checkbook, paid the bills, and updated my budget spreadsheet, I also pre-ordered our birth announcements and typed all addresses into "labels" to be printed off of word. I'm thinking that will help out on the Christmas cards too.

Saturday, I slept in until about 9:30 a.m. Samara and I planned to go Christmas shopping, so I called her. While she was finishing up some things at home, I showered, dressed, and took Zeus to Petsmart for a nailtrim. I left the house to meet her at the mall at 12:30 p.m. We thought the mall would be empty because the OSU/Michigan game started at 1:00 p.m., but it was still slightly crowded. We first got us some lunch and then we shopped, and shopped. We finally left the mall just after 6:00 p.m. I had to stop by the grocery store for some essentials as I was completely out of contact solution, water, milk, cereal and Coke for Eric, and I got home at 6:45 p.m. I was so tired and while I didn't get all the shopping done, by the time we were done I at least knew what I was getting everyone else. Eric was sleeping on the couch when I got home. It must have been a combination of staying up late Friday night, being at work by 8:00 on Saturday morning, and watching football all day with some guy friends. He slept all night. I ordered pizza, watched Erin Brochovich on TV, and cross-stiched with my feet up for the rest of the night.

Today, we finally went back to church! I hadn't been since October 3rd with everything we've had going on. It was good to be back. We picked up some Wendy's came home and then I took a nice 2 hour nap. It was so nice! Eric went to BW3s with Martin to watch the Colts game. After my nap and waking up a bit, I went to Wal-Mart to finish up the Christmas shopping. Since then I've taken a bath and sat on the couch. It's like heaven.

So, here's what I still need to get done before the baby comes. Get my Thanksgiving recipes from my Mom, do the Thanksgiving grocery shopping, Wednesday evening and Thursday cook and have Thanksgiving dinner with Will & Samara. Finish the final Christmas shopping (I have a couple of items to order online for Eric, plus one thing to return at Hallmark and a gift to get Eric from Grace, also one other friend gift and then I'll be done). Next weekend, put up the Christmas tree, decorate the house and wrap all the presents. We may also need to come up with a backup labor and delivery plan for Zeus' care depending on when April and Martin will be out of town for Christmas. Now my "to-do list...Work version", that's another story.