Wow, it's been awhile.

Not much new to report!

I'm just that interesting :)

Still no baby.

I turned 26 on Thursday! I had the best birthday ever! Each year is better than the last. We had some men out last week staining our basement concrete. The carpet down there was horrendous, and it had some water damage and was starting to smell. Great, huh? So Mr. D ripped it up and we hired someone to come stain the concrete. We had a friend whose family friend did this to her concrete, and it looked AMAZING. Ours? Not so much. But I'll get to that.

They were still working on my birthday. This meant Mr. D and I could not leave the house until they did! Boo. However, Mr. D woke up early before they came, and went and got me some DONUTS!! I freaking love donut store donuts, but we never get them. We enjoy sleeping in too much, and by the time we wake up, the stores are all sold out. We walk in and discover half a donut hole and a stale cinnamon roll. Heck, even getting there before 8 on a weekday, Mr. D said they didn't have a lot left!

We still gorged on some delicious pastries. I could've eaten a million, but I only had two. Mr. D gave me my gift. He got me an iPad!! I still can't believe it. He always gives the best gifts, and then I majorly fail when I give him things. I love the iPad, and can't recommend it enough if you've been thinking about buying one. Mr. D knows I am a major Internet addict, and thought it would be handy to have something small and light that I can entertain myself with while I'm holding Baby D.

Then the concrete guys had some trouble with the staining process. This meant they had to leave early and come back the next day, which was very annoying because it screwed up my Friday plans. But it did mean that Mr. D and I could celebrate my birthday the right way! We drove to this area we used to live in to eat at our old favorite Chinese place. Then we went to the movies. The movie we wanted to see was only available at a "cinema suite" which meant tickets were twice as expensive, but as the overly excited teenage employee told us, "You get food vouchers!!!!" Well, I had just eaten crab wontons, edamame, lots of chicken, and hoards of rice. No thank you. We ended up seeing Despicable Me as a last resort and I loved it! Such a fun movie.

Then we came home and I played on my iPad and haven't put it away since.

As for the concrete situation. As I said, my friend had this process done and it looked so fabulous that Mr. D and I couldn't stop dreaming of it for the past year. The man who did her floor was a family friend of her husband, and when I looked him up on the Internet, discovered his company only did concrete countertops. I assumed he just did their floor as a favor, so didn't bother to call and ask him if he'd do our floor. I should have.

The process was supposed to take 3 days and start on Monday. Sunday night, I got an e-mail from the company saying they were running behind and asking if they could start on Tuesday. This upset me because I knew they would now be here all day on my birthday Thursday.

The guy arrives on Tuesday with some college-aged kid and leaves the kid here. The kid starts grinding down our existing concrete and fills the ENTIRE HOUSE with a thick cloud of concrete dust. My God. And I'm pregnant, so I wasn't feeling too enthused about the idea of breathing in this stuff. I locked myself upstairs in our room with a scarf around my face.

Mr. D ended up going to the basement doorway and nailing a sheet up. It helped a lot, but dust was still abound.

The kid does not talk to us the entire time he's here - and I mean all 3 days. We never knew what he was doing. He came and went as he pleased. We never knew if he was coming back for the day. The next day, the guy who I'd been in contact with explained that our concrete was unexpectedly soft and that's why there was so much dust. They continued working, slinging more dust.

Then the 3rd day, they began staining. Apparently our soft concrete sucked up the stain and they would need to do two coats. One on Thursday, and the next on Friday. I was supposed to go into work on Friday and prepare my classroom for the school year before I go into labor. I was unable to do this now. Ugh.

Meanwhile, the stain looked awful. I did NOT like the color. It didn't look like the one we'd picked out, or at all like I'd expected. I told myself that after they stained it again and polished it, it would look much better, and more like my friend's basement.

They came on Friday and finished up, and I really am not too fond of it. The color is too dark and ruddy, and it's not really glossy at ALL. My friend's looks like marble. The pictures on this company's website looks like marble.

Ours looks like an industrial loft floor but we live in the suburbs and needless to say it doesn't go with the house layout or decor. I am SO disappointed. Mostly because I'd built up this floor in my mind to be a masterpiece, and we spent so much money having this done. I should have called the guy who did my friend's floor, even if his website doesn't advertise it.

Now we're out all of this money and I feel like we've lowered the value of our house even though it was supposed to raise it.

Oh well, you live, you learn.

That's all that is new with me. Baby D is still baking away, but I keep telling him or her to feel free to come out ANY TIME.