Furry Friday!

This Furry Friday is a special one, because Mr. Pit himself picked out the pup of the week, Fudge.

Meet Fudge! His description is great, and as I've said of a lot of dogs from this facility, if Lil' Pup didn't have to be an only child, Fudge would probably live with us!!
Here is his description from the site, doesn't he sound fun!!!

It has been said that there are basically two types of Labrador Retrievers; Food Labs and Ball Labs. Fudge is definitely a Ball Lab. He will play catch with you all day if your arm holds out. His energy is boundless and his enthusiasm will bring a smile to your face. He's not all play; he has good manners also. He will sit on command and give you his paws, as long as you promise to play ball afterwards. He's strong and energetic, and will require a firm hand, but he will make somebody a playful and loving companion.

As always, check out Main Line Animal Rescue's site for all sort of animals that desperately need homes. We're supposed to get a storm in the area on Sunday so take tomorrow to go get an animal that really needs you!!

Main Line Animal Rescue

Mr. Pit and I are off to Kennett Square tomorrow to go check out Talula's Market ( Talula's Table is the famous impossible to get reservation opened by the former owners of Django, my favorite restaurant from our days in Old City). The attached market is famous for it's cheese selection as well as it's carry-out case- I hear you can even get their famous Goat Cheese Gnocchi, yum!!! Doesn't it look delicious?!

Then we both have Monday off so we're having more contractors come in to do some pricing on the work we want done- not that I don't want to do it with the first guy, I just know that from being in construction you should never make a decision without at least 3 sets of pricing for every project. It helps keep everybody honest, and gives you a good idea of what the center line is for your project. Always, always tell contractors that you are getting more than just them to price something, otherwise they'll take full advantage of your naivete and add in lots of extra's for no reason. If you are ever doing any work to your house and want advice on contractors, insurance, codes...anything, email me! I've been doing this for almost 10 years now, and I am constantly advising family and friends on the how-to's of home improvements by contractors. I don't want anyone spending unnecessary money!!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

xoxo Mrs. Pit

Thanks!

Thanks to whomever got me this subscription as a gift! I just got an email saying I would start to get the magazine next month, but it doesn't tell me who it is from, so if it's you, THANK YOU!!!

xoxo Mrs. Pit

Weekend= WIN

Hi all,
We ended up having one of those great weekend that you LONG for after a few weekends of travel and insanity and I couldn't be happier.

Friday night we stayed in, made a delicious dinner and ended up passing out as soon at The Soup was over at 10:30...lame, but brilliant as we were both exhausted from the work week.

Saturday we got up early-ish and started in on our de-cluttering clean up of the various closets in the house. It is AMAZING the ridiculous things I save and refuse to get rid of (any and all cardboard boxes, paper bags with handles, any sort of large plastic bag, any box that any piece of electronic equipment came in, you get the idea) so Mr. Pit convinced me to purge some of my strange things and we cleaned up 2 closets and brought out 2 huge trash bags before 10am! Then it was off to Bucks County to look at some baby furniture I had found on Craigslist.

Now, Craigslist can go either way in terms of quality, truthfulness and everything else that goes into an online sale listing. However, we made out like bandits. First, the family selling this furniture was amazing and perhaps the nicest people ever. Their kids were adorable, thier house was amazing and we really really lucked out with the pieces. We ended up buying the whole set, crib, dresser, changing top, and then the lady selling it was nice enough to throw in the changing table pad (they are a custom size for this table), the crib mattress, an adorable diaper caddy from Pottery Barn and 2 Peter Rabbit prints that she had gotten for her nursery. We ended up loading BOTH cars to the brim and stayed to hang out with our new friends for an hour! It was by far the best furniture experience ever and everyone came out a winner.

To celebrate our good Craigslist fortune, we stopped for lunch at P.F. Changs (oh yeah, my brother helped move stuff and allowed us to borrow him and his huge SUV for this trip, so lunch on us was the least we could do). Anyways, none of us had ever been there and we were SO pleasantly surprised. The food was amazing and their chocolate cake is to DIE FOR. I got a piece to take home after spying it on the dessert cart on the way in and OMG, totally amazing. I am a chocolate cake expert and since Little Pit has given me QUITE a sweet tooth, this cake really tops any that I've had. The cake is nice and cakey and smooth and the icing is a perfect consistency and not layed on too thick (I hate too much icing), just delicious. I think we might be having P.F. Changs a lot more often now :)

Then of course, as if we hadn't been busy enough, we decide to go home, make chili, invite 6 people over, and before they get there for the Eagles game, we (*I*) decide that the Christmas tree has GOT to come down. So, while Mr. Pit was working away in the kitchen on his famous and delicious chili, I took to taking down all the ornaments and decorations. We finished up in about an hour, but then it took another hour to get our ginormous tree out of the stand and out the door. It was quite a site to see this HUGE tree get dragged through this TINY door opening when we didn't struggle that much bringing it in (it was wrapped from home depot when we brought it home, duh!) So, by 8:30 the house was clean, chili was cooked and the Eagles choked...but we had a great time seeing our friends after the holidays and it was a great excuse to clean up the house and put away Christmas.

Sunday I went to the outlets with my Mom, went out to lunch with Mr. Pit and then we came across another great baby furniture discovery. We walked past Kids N' Kribs on our way to lunch and I thought we should stop in to see what it was all about (all I had heard was that it was crazy expensive) but I was SO uninformed! We found the exact glider we wanted for $150 less than what we thought we could find it for, plus, their lead time on the chair is only 4 weeks, compared to the 10 weeks we were quoted at Bellini...amazing! So, we looked at fabrics and decided on one, and we plan on ordering it in about a month so it gets here in March. YAY!

The rest of yesterday was spent dozing on the couch and watching lots more football and our sick VH1 addiction- Tough Love. I normally wouldn't admit to watching such a show, but we also watch Jersey Shore for the 'make fun of' factor, and seriously, for laughing purposes, these shows are tops. You can't even believe that these people AREN'T acting!!

Anyways, I've babbled long enough, now I can show you what we got this weekend, yay!!

This is the dresser:
This is the changing table top:(Ours actually has a blue and yellow toile cover on the changing pad, so don't get excited that it's pink, that is from the website!)

This is the chair we decided on: Except we're getting ours covered in a blue and white ticking stripe fabric to contrast with the yellow walls and green in the bedding...yay! (and again, don't read into the blue, I promise that we have NO idea if Little Pit is a boy or a girl, so the room will be yellow green and blue)

The nursery is really coming together, I'm so excited!!

Hope you all had great weekends as well!

xoxo Mrs. Pit

Furry Friday!!

Welcome back to Furry Friday 2010!!!
I mean, do I really even need words for this one? How CUTE is he?? This is Richie and he just turned 1 in December. He is a German Shepard/Basset Hound mix and might just be the cutest thing (besides Lil' Pup of course) I've ever seen :)

As always, check out Main Line Animal Rescue for tons of available dogs and cats and other animals that are in desperate need of adoption. Believe me, they need you more than you could ever know, and isn't one of your New Years resolutions to be more giving? More selfless? Then adopt an animal, it's a win/win for everyone!!

On the home front news, we are going up to Bucks County tomorrow to look at and perhaps purchase the dresser and changing table set from the Craigslist listing and I couldn't be more excited. We have to buy the crib also, but I'm thinking that I might just give it to my parents to use in their house, that way we won't have to lug a pack n' play over there if we want to sleep over. Brilliant huh? Plus, the price is just SO right for the whole thing that it's worth purchasing the crib even if we don't use it in our own house.

Then I'm headed out to the outlets on 422 with my mom to return some Christmas gifts gone awry (my brother says his sweater is too itchy, and my moms sweater is too small) but I love shopping so I'm the last to complain!

Then we may or may not have people over for the Eagles game on Saturday night, they played so poorly last Sunday it makes me nervous to even be near a TV with the game on, but hopefully they got that out of their system and they'll kick some butt down in Dallas.

I hope you have some great plans for the weekend!

Happy Friday!!

xoxo Mrs. Pit

Nesting, Continued...

Yeah, so I may or may not have invited a contractor over last night to review my elaborate plans that now include moving two walls, painting, adding 2 skylights and possibly making the kitchen have cathedral ceilings, now we're just waiting on pricing and I had Mr. Pit look into a home equity loan...oops :)

Other than that I think I may have found the dresser we wanted from Bellini on Craigslist...now I am just waiting for an email back from the person to see if they will sell it separately from the crib, which I am hoping they will. Cross your fingers!!!

Mr. Pit is going to the Villanova basketball game tonight, which gives me the opportunity to eat cereal for dinner (he hates it when I do that) as well as play with my new wrapping paper organizer. Lame as it sounds, I can't wait to get all our paper in one place and then throw the whole thing in the attic.

OOH, also, a new episode of Mercy is on tonight, and I will be sure to set the DVR to record the whole series as opposed to just one show like I did in the fall. YAY for good TV coming back!!

Hope you had great days!

xoxo Mrs. Pit

Nesting

Oh yes...it's happening. The phenomenon known as nesting has officially happened to me. I have a whopping 16 weeks before Little Pit is scheduled to come into the world, but that hasn't stopped me from pricing out the following:

*Changing tables from the following companies
-Pottery Barn Kids
-Land of Nod
-Bellini
-All 3 via their own websites and Craigs List hoping for a steal

*Dressers
-Same kind of thing, hoping to maybe get a dresser instead of a specific changing table

*Armoires even though I know they won't fit in Little Pit's room

*Strollers even though we already picked ours out, now I'm second guessing

*Every other thing on our registry that I am now second guessing after talking to friends with little ones

*Putting in new windows in the kitchen

*Moving a wall in the basement

*Painting the entire first floor

*New towels for our bathroom (The Company Store is having a sale, can you blame me for looking?!)

*Clothes from the following stores
-Gap
-Banana Republic
-Old Navy
-Vineyard Vines (their Whale of a Sale is awesome!!)
-Lands End
-LLBean
-Ann Taylor
-Ann Taylor Loft
-Bloomingdales

*New cars
- yeah, I don't really have an excuse for this except that I am convinced it's going to be really hard for me to get Little Pit in and out of the car in a car seat because my silly Grand Cherokee back doors don't open as far as I want them too. Mr. Pit thinks this is silly and irrational and most of all WAY out of our price range...so I'll stop looking, but it worries me!

And yeah, everything else in the world that is for sale, or could be going on sale anytime soon or was on sale in the past...I have priced it and talked to Mr. Pit about buying it. Poor guy!

So, that's what's going on with me. A lot of virtual shopping, a LOT of second guessing and some serious instincts to make my house even more of a home!

A Decade in Review

I saw this on someone else's blog and I thought it was a neat way to remember some of the bigger things that happened in the last 10 years.

So, here goes...my life in the last 10 years:

2000- I was a sophomore/junior at Johns Hopkins. Went from living in a quad with my 3 best friends to living in an apartment for the first time with my then best friend. By October of 2000 we are not speaking (ugh). I get my first dog, Morgan, as an 8 week old puppy in a McDonald's parking lot. She was in a cardboard box, and the woman selling the puppies said she would shoot them if no one bought them...yikes! So, $25 later I had a puppy on my lap driving home. NOT a fun phone call made to my parents shortly after that. I realized then how much money a dog cost- and a sick puppy at that. NOT easy money for a 20 year old. But we got through it.

2001-That spring I was not on speaking terms with my roommate, and we had 2 dogs in our tiny apartment. Started dating a new guy, his pre-med status held great allure (though looking back I have NO idea why). That summer I moved into my own apartment, just me and my pup. It was a great change for me. Then 9-11 happened. This changed a LOT of relationships for me as I seemed to react quite differently than everyone around me- definitely a grow-up moment for me as a recognized the fact that I could take control of what relationships I wanted vs. not.

2002- Graduate from Johns Hopkins in the spring. Boyfriend at the time decides he can't take anytime off to come see me graduate (red flags started flying a long time before this, but this was the kicker). I cried graduation night because I had wasted so much of my senior year spending time with him and no time with my friends like I should have. I move out of Baltimore the day after graduation. I move up to New Jersey for my new job in August. The new landlord says my pup is too big for the apartment. She is adopted by a family in my parents neighborhood. I cry for weeks. Boyfriend and I break up in October. I cried for weeks over the dog. I shed nary a tear over the boyfriend...

2003-I move out of my original NJ apartment into an apartment with friends in Hoboken. I know I should love it but I am homesick and hate it. I meet Mr. Pit in June. I kiss him for the first time in July. We are seriously dating long distance by August. I quit my job and move back to Philly in December.

2004- I move into my new apartment on New Years Day. The movers end up losing one of my boxes that has yet to be recovered or 'found' as they first say it was delivered to me and I signed for it, then later admit they lost it. It had all my plates and bowls wrapped in my favorite t-shirts. I still miss those shirts. I start my new job. Mr Pit and I are madly in love. We live about 6 blocks from each other and see each other 6 nights out of 7. By this point I KNOW I will marry him.

2005- Mr. Pit and I start seriously talking about getting married. By the spring we are looking at rings. Mr. Pit proposes in August on a picnic in Pound Ridge, New York, on our way up to Lake Placid for a week. I haven't stopped smiling since :) I had my 25th birthday party at Bourbon Blue in Manayunk. It is 80 of our friends and family and it still stands out as one of the best parties I've ever been to/thrown or had anything to do with.

2006- We registered in January, finalize linens in February, transportation in March, invites went out in April, wedding shower in May and got married in June. We honeymoon in St. Lucia and Virgin Gorda. It was the most relaxing 12 days of my life. I quit my job in September and join a company that I think has TONS of potential in the Philadelphia construction world.

2007- We both got tired of living in the city and commuting to the suburbs, so we bought a house we both adored in a suburb we love and have lived there ever since. The move this time was without peril or stress and by the end of the year we have most of the house furnished. In August we adopted Lil' Pup and he's been with us every since. I start hating my job and quit in November. (the company would go under in mid-2009). I start working at the company I first tried to work for when I graduated from school and never got an interview then. This time around I had my job offer by the end of the sit-down. I start working in the city again- total irony since we JUST moved out of the city 5 months prior.

2008- No job movement, no house movement, no new pets (well, some new fish but who can keep track of those!). We take trips to Vermont to ski, to Vegas to party, to New Hampshire to relax and otherwise are just a very happy married couple. Mr. Pit starts grad school at Villanova. We make new friends and are thrilled by the prospects that his MBA brings.

2009- Start off the year well at work and think I am making great progress in the department I am in. I get taken out of that department and moved to a jobsite over Easter weekend. It takes me a few months to get over the shock of the move and get used to being 'onsite' again. As a result of this, Mr. Pit and I decide we will start trying for a Little Pit. We got to 3 of 5 weddings by August. I find out I am pregnant and we get to celebrate the great news down in Virgin Gorda. We come back to go to wedding #4. We didn't say a word about being pregnant to anyone as we were only 8 weeks. But, by the end of the weekend everyone is telling us congratulations. I guess when they saw me not drinking it was enough for them to assume. We dont even tell our families until the end of September. In October we finally get our 12 week ultrasound and all our wishes are confirmed, we have a healthy baby. In December we get our 20 week ultrasound and are even more thrilled to see 10 fingers, 10 toes and the tiny little heart beating away. We have a great Christmas with both families and celebrate the new year up in Massachusetts with wedding #5 of 5 for the year.

2010-Not much to report on so far, but we have already seen 2 set of friends on New Year's day, put 1000 miles on 2 cars in just under 2 weeks and will go to Vermont for 4 days at the end of January for our annual ski-weekend with friends. In February we are going to Vegas for our 'babymoon' and in March my mother in law is throwing us a shower up in New York. Then, April is the month of Little Pit- unless of course he or she is late, then May will be, but either way, we'll be home those two month for sure! That's as far as we've gotten for this year, and I can't wait!!

I hope you guys had a great Christmas and New Year and past decade like I did. I couldn't ask for a more wonderful husband, great supportive family on both sides and the best friends a girl could ask for.