Last week was an amazing week for me.  Four of my friends (including my sister) have been trying to get pregnant for years, been doing fertility treatments, etc. . . and as of this week, ALL of them are now pregnant!  :)  I am so happy for all of them that I just can’t explain.  All of them have been through so much and so many ups and downs.

I have learned a lot from their difficulties.

I have made two comments about babies that I regret.  One which was completely not my fault. . . I asked someone about her baby on the way, and she just got back from the doctor and got some bad news.  :(  One was my fault though.  I just wasn’t thinking.  A friend told me she had exciting news, and I said,  ”ARE YOU PREGNANT?”. . . well, no. . . she was not pregnant, she just was offered a new job.  Also, (although I didn’t know it) she had miscarried so my comment was probably painful.

I see those comments as more innocent and unknowing. . . WAY higher up on the scale of annoying are people who constantly ask married people, “WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO HAVE BABIES?” every chance they get.

If you are one of those people, STOP IT.

First off, it’s a really personal thing, and not something you should press on people you barely know.  Some people can’t have kids, and they may not want to discuss this with you.  Also, some people are desperately TRYING to have kids and having a rough time.  It’s really not helpful for you to remind them 24/7.  I didn’t discover how annoying this was until I watched my sister deal with this.

Another thing I am careful about is making any comments about pregnancy to someone who *looks* pregnant.  I am so thankful I have kept my mouth shut about this.  One of my friend’s wives was at a party, and I almost asked him why the heck he didn’t tell me his wife was pregnant.  Um, good thing I didn’t because she was definitely NOT pregnant.  Also, I almost asked someone when her baby was due at a wedding, and she’d had the baby three days prior.  Yikes.

Basically, unless someone brings it up, I don’t say anything to avoid a foot-in-mouth moment!!!

Oh, and I don’t think I’ve done an official blog post about this, but most of you probably know . . . my sister is having twins. . . a boy and a girl!  :)  :)  After looking at her registry and all the cute stuff, I would like her to have the babies NOW. . . however, she is not due until the beginning of July.  :)

Here is the shower invite I made for her at www.tinyprints.com (my new favorite website). . .

Is it cute, or what???

With info blacked out so that randoms from the world wide web don't show up at the shower.

I am very excited about the progress made!  So much fun!

So I picked out brick this morning.  WOW.  I didn’t expect it to be so overwhelming.

With the help of the guys in the showroom, I picked this out:

They gave me a “sample” of the brick so I was sooooooo pumped when I went to the house and saw that some siding was already on the house so I could put the up against it!

WINDOWS, people!

I am really happy with the siding.  It’s a very subtle green, but I like it.

Sample picture of brick up against the siding

Here’s what the inside looks like. . .

Meet the fireplace, windows, insulation and wiring!

Kitchen

The outdoor lights. . .

I’m still struggling with the kitchen light.  I’ll do a separate post about that.

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/108701/the-10-must-have-features-in-todays-new-homes.html?mod=family-love_money

Big kitchen with island–CHECK

Energy-efficient stuff–CHECK

Home office–Well, I’m making a bedroom an office. . . Not sure if that counts.  I don’t have a formal dining room. *Kinda* CHECK

Main floor master suite–Well, everything’s on the main floor so CHECK

Outdoor living room–Not.

Ceiling fans–Living room and Master bedroom CHECK

Master suite soaker tub–Not.

Brick exterior–Not.  Siding AND brick.

Community landscaping, walking paths, and playgrounds–We have a hiking path. . . pretty cool.  CHECK.

Two-car garages–TRIPLE CHECK. . . THREE!

This was the progress on my house last weekend. . . I hope to see more stuff this weekend!  I haven’t been over this week because I am never able to go when it’s daylight!

If you look carefully, you can see that there's wiring and some plumbing and such in there. Woo hoo!

My mom reminded me of a lovely story today. . .

When I was younger (but not too young. . . probably early high school?), my family was eating at the Tavern.  Our family friend, Pedro, who was also an owner of the restaurant was sitting with us.

My food came, and I was STRUGGLING to get the ketchup out of the bottle. . . *hit*hit*hit*SHAKE*SHAKE*.  .  . whoooooooa.  The entire bottle went flying into. . . Pedro’s shirt.  Neat.

Also, the ketchup was coming out of the bottle pretty well by then.  I wanted to die.

I don’t know if Pedro ever chose to sit across from me again.  :\

Please note that my name means “Grace.”. . . um, yeah. . . not so much for me!

I think the only celebrity that people used to say I looked like was Jennifer Aniston.  Didn’t she have a nose-job because I’m pretty sure this only happened PRE-nose job?  No shock there.

I just did the myheritage.com thing to see my lookalikes.  I wanted to post it here, but it’s dumb and not working.

Holy crap.  NONE of the people look like me that they posted.  Seriously, I can’t see some of the features at all.

First consider that one of the celebrity lookalikes was. . . LANCE BASS???  Seriously?  If anyone thinks I look like Lance Bass, well. . . yeah, I don’t.

What about JOEY FATONE?  WHAT???

Apparently, I look like a boy band.

As for girls. . .

Cynthia Nixon.  Nope, not really.

Sheryl Crow. I don’t think so.

A couple of girls who look Indian or Latin.  Definitely no resemblance.

Some old lady I don’t know.  I don’t see it!

There were a few others, but I don’t see any resemblance anywhere.

I guess I just look like. . . um, me.

The friend that cracked me up with this thing the most is my friend Lauren.  She resembles the girl from “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”. . . not a dead ringer, but she looks somewhat like her.  She changed her facebook picture over to the actresses’ picture, and her dad and cousin, who are on facebook, both told her that she looked different somehow, but she looked great.  Bwahahahaha.

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage – Ancestory – Family reunion

People ice fish here and do all sorts of sporty stuff because there’s water all over.  While ice fishing is big here, and I’ve decided that it would be a fun thing to watch and experience. . . I’m slightly terrified of this idea.

People parked and walking around the lake near me

There’s a storyline in “Little Women” where Amy falls into the icy water when Jo and Laurie are flirting, and she’s tagging along.  (Way to go Amy.  Way to ruin EVERYTHING.)  I can’t find the actual movie clip, but here’s the depiction a girl did her her book report, and it cracks me up!  (The girl playing Amy and flailing around deserves an Oscar!)

I’m not sure if that freaks me out. . . or the fact that you have to put your windows down in your car while you drive over the ice *in case* you fall in. . . and I’m told the ice crackles as you drive.  :\  . . . OR could it be that at least once/week on the news, someone dies from falling through ice.

Hmmm. . . maybe I’ll just watch videos of people ice fishing?  It’s a lot warmer, and you are probably a lot less likely to die when watching videos.

Another thing. . . CHEESE  Sure, I’ve probably had WI cheese plenty of times, or maybe not.  I’m really not sure.  Well, I plan on living it up and cheese-tasting while I’m here, as I always hear good things about the cheese here.  They are famous for a reason, apparently!

At happy hour last week, I tried sharp cheddar, smoked gouda, and havarti.

All good!

Um, we'd already snacked a lot by the time we took this picture.

Things are still good.  I’m just still exhausted.  I’d be concerned. . . but I’ve just had a constant stream of moving stuff and a lot of work (and it’s DRAINING learning new people and things. . . *always* feel behind).  I’m pretty sure this is normal.

I looked at lighting today.  I didn’t go overboard, but it’s really hard not to.  Of course, I want to upgrade stuff, BUT I was cheaper in some areas because I want to upgrade in places that it really does matter. . . namely, the kitchen.

I have pretty generic stuff overall. . . but here’s what I got in my bathroom. . . whaddya think?  I wanted my master bath to be a little neater and not so generic.

http://shop.menards.com/shop/kitchen-bath/bath-bars/five-lights-and-more/6-light-vanity-light/p-31104.htm?cid=1353

I am still holding out on the kitchen because I don’t know what to do.  I don’t like the store’s selection so I’m going to look at another store. . . but I may need to order online.  What REALLY makes me angry is that I didn’t blog about my old chandelier in Htown or save the web address. . . because it was really unique and took forever to find.  I’ve enlisted the help of the HGTV board people. . . we’ll see if they can help me come up with the website.

Also, I want the pendant light over the sink to match the chandelier. . . and possibly be slightly unique. . . BUT I also want to wait to see what I do for my countertops and backsplash. . . as this my affect my decision.

So much to think about. . . and I don’t have time to deal with this while I’m working!  I keep telling myself that this will pay off when I have stuff in my house that I love!

I love dueling piano bars.  The people are so flipping talented, and it’s just too much fun!  My first experience was at the Big Bang in St. Louis.  Whenever any of us went to STL for work, we always went there after dinner.

I’ve had MANY fun times in piano bars all over. . .

I went a lot in Houston. . . but Kevin took me to one downtown.  I’d never been there, and it was F-U-N, fun.  :)  When we walked up, there were only ~ten people in there.  Seriously.  We decided to have a beer and decide whether to stay. . . well, the exciting thing was that all ten people who where there were very participative so it was very fun. . . and Kevin and I got much attention.  :)

Kevin was so kind as to tell the piano guys that I was moving, and they called me onstage.  ;)  Surprisingly (and thankfully), this was the only time I’ve ever been called onstage in all my piano bar experience.  When you don’t know anyone in the bar, and you’ve had four or five Budweisers, this really doesn’t bother you though!

I didn’t not bring my camera in, but I should have so I could have captured some of the songs!  Oh well, I probably would have been too busy taping at times and not singing and enjoying so it’s probably better.  Kevin did snap this picture on his phone though!

Thanks to Kevin for a fun *official* last night in Houston!