Alive and .....kicking

Hard as it is to believe, I haven't fallen off the side of the earth. I've just been eh, preoccupied, to say the least.
I've blogged about the progress on the new house, and now we've been living in it for almost six months already. We moved September 6th of last year, after a weeek of frantically painting the whole house on a reduced time-schedule. At that point, I finally realised the house was *really* a lot bigger than old one. In spite of my plans for a really cool and bold colour scheme, and mixing textured wallpapers with paint, the house turned out to be just painted white, top to bottom. I just couldn't decide on what colours I actually wanted, let alone find the courage to start wallpapering for the first time in my life. So instead, we bought 30 buckets of white primer and 30 buckets of white paint and had a go at it. Colours can come later (or not, LOL!) We moved in with the paint barely dry, but hey, we made it and that's what counts, right?

Then came moving day. We rented a truck, got much welcomed help from family and friends and started loading up the truck and tractor my BIL brought. It was total chaos, to say the least. I think we had about 100 boxes in the living room, because the guys brought them in quicker than I could read their destination labels and I finally just gave up and let myself be buried in them. I sorted through our belongings twice in the past year and was still amazed at all the STUFF we had. We schlepped and hauled and worked and unpacked until I could no longer distinguish left from right, and I was determined not to rest until the house was finally feeling like home with things in their final place as much as possible.

So the week after the move, we bought two new HUGE closets, put them together (IKEA was our friend) and unpacked as many boxes as we could manage. and then, with the house still feeling 'bare' and empty in spots, the BIG fatigue set in. Luckily, we had two weeks of vacation time left, and decided sleeping was a first priority. After a week, I got suspicious because I got more tired by the day. And then, the reason came out:

(drum roll.....) I was pregnant. PREGNANT! Actually, I still am :o).

It was a very welcomed and happy shock, but a shock it was. And I spent the first 16 weeks of pregnancy trying to keep my head above the water. I dragged myself to work, longing to take naps on the floor under my desk during office hours. I got into my car to drive home, wondering if I'd still be awake for the whole drive. I ate, slept, worked, slept, and that was basically it besides feeling awful. I wanted to slap everyone who told me this was completely normal and it could last the whole pregnancy (gee, thanks!), but lacked the energy to do so. Let's just say that baking was the farthest thing from my mind. I could cry. Here I was, I had this wonderful, shiny new oven, a glorious pink cake in front of my window, and all I could manage was stay awake long enough to force down a sandwich. My sister turned 40 and I made her a cake (it took me a three-day weekend), but that was IT.

By Christmas, I started to feel a little better and managed to make my nephew cupcakes for his birthday treat. I also managed to make some cookie dough, that I froze and baked one sheet at a time whenever I could manage :o). I promiss to download the pictures from my camera and post them soon.

Now my belly is proudly sticking out (dare I say 'think hippo') and I'm starting to plan and look forward to making treats for the birth, treats for saying goodbye to my collegues when my pregnancy leave starts, I'm making birth announcements and I'm basically trying to get my 'oomph' back :o). My energy is still extremely limited and temperamental, but I'm doing the best I can and will try to bring the blog back alive as well. It will be a great incentive for me to push myself and start the baking routine back up :o). So yes, I am alive, and the baby is kicking me :o).

I hope to see visitors and comments return as well!