4 Months

Wow! That's so weird to say.....4 months....I am 4 months pregnant. I don't feel like I look 4 months along (thanksfully), but maybe I should ask someone else. :) Things have been going well. Other than the frequent heartburn, still not much has changed. I'm in that awkward "in-between" stage where I can't really fit in to many maternity pants, but most of mine are getting too snug to wear all day. It has meant I've gotten to wear my jeans to the office! YAY! I'm down to just two pair of "office pants" that fit, so jeans are my only resort. And I am fine with that.
In just a few more shorts weeks, we'll have our ultrasound to find out if we'll have a bouncing baby boy or an adorable little girl. What do you think??

Chuggin' Along

We had doctor appointment numbero dos on Friday and everything is looking good! All my tests were normal. Other than that, they pretty much just weigh you (not my favorite part) and ask if you have any questions. I did get to hear the heartbeat and my mind suddenly changed that I think we're having a boy. Now I'm REALLY confused. While there's no reliable correlation between the whole heart rate thing and gender thing, I just got a feeling it was a boy when I heard the heart beating. Great, now I don't even know what to guess! In a couple more, short weeks, we shall know for sure!

One of these things is not like the others.......

Big news here at the Refuge! We've finally decided to start our herd and we're expecting Baby Pugh in August!! We're super excited and pretty much super terrified at the same time! Ha ha ha! We are currently just over three months along and anxiously awaiting finding out what we're having. Jared is really crossing his fingers for a boy, but I think it's going to be a girl. We'll see.....camo or PINK camo?!

Sliggity-Slack-WHACK!

How whack is it that I have been a total blog slacker? For, like, a loooong time! October?! Really?! I apologize to any of you still out there in blogdom. So, what's new? We hit up Disneyland the first of November with Jared's parents and had a BLAST! It was like a big kid trip!
Thanksgiving came and went as Thanksgivings do. Jared's grandma passed away and we got to spend some quality time with the WHOLE family that week. It was sad, but I came away overall feeling really grateful family in general.
Then, my nephew, Shay, came home from his mission in Boston, MA. It was a regular Griswold shindig at the airport and we all bawled our eyes out.
We had an AWESOME Christmas around The Refuge. I got a gun, Jared got a guitar. Surprise, surprise, eh? We've just been enjoying this mild winter weather we've been having. I was missing the snow around Christmas time, but I've kind of decided I'm okay with this. Other than the $800 in snow tires I have sitting in my garage waiting for the first flake to fly. I'm pretty sure, though, come about March, we are going to get POUNDED and spring won't begin until about.....well, we'll just skip spring and summer should begin around August.
These days, we're recovering from the holidays and all the over-eating. Thankfully, I managed to only gain 2 pounds, though I was sure it was more like 22 lbs! I've been trying to cut my caffeine habit to help combat my current weight loss plateau, but it's kicking my butt. I REALLY, REALLY need (what I really mean is - LIKE) my Diet Pepsi in the morning. So, as spring approaches, or maybe the snow, I'll try to be better about keeping you posted!

Happy New Year, Y'All!!

Just in Time for Halloween

It's been a rough couple weeks around The Pugh Refuge.....at least for Roxy. About 2 weeks ago, she got in to some mouse poison at our cabin. Luckily, I saw her with it, and our awesome vet told us the trick to make her barf. Worked like a charm and up came the poison. However, that stuff is designed to slowly kill mice, so you really don't know what damage is done for days. So, we took her to the vet to be safe. They gave her a hefty shot of Vitamin K to counteract the de-clotting properties of the pesticide and put her on Vitamin K pills for two weeks.
Then, yesterday, she was out playing in the hay field behind our house, like she does EVERY DAY, and when she came back she was all torn up. I think she had a fight with the barbed wire fence. She has a cut across her face, under her nose from one side to the other. And she had this baby......

So, the doc said he could patch her up, no problem. Enter the shaver. She got a pretty big patch of hair shaved off, the wound cleaned and a local anesthesia - which she LOVED. But, she only yiped once when the doctor stuck the needle right in the middle of that thing! OUCH! So, two stitches and 5 staples later, she's all patched up. Turns out she got her Halloween costume just in time....... FRANKEN-DOG!!

Cupcake Wars!

For my family's Halloween party this year, we decided to have our own version of Cupcake Wars. If you haven't seen this show on Food Network, you should. Teams compete to make crazy cupcakes with mandatory ingredients and a theme. We didn't require any specific mandatory ingredient, but everyone came up with some recipes on their own. We also didn't require a specific decoration, but we just went with the creepy/Halloween theme. I must say, that all the cupcakes turned out so AWESOME! Each team/family slightly "dressed" up to show that they were a cohesive team. For our team, Jared and I had black aprons that said "Cupcake Army" and digital camo trim. We also both wore digital camo hats and jeans. That was as complicated as our costume got. Each team had to present their cupcakes in a gross, descriptive presentation detailing what they were made of and how they were decorated. We even had awards for different categories. Granted, pretty much everyone won some category or the other, but it was still fun. We all came with our cupcakes baked, but un-decorated. Then we had a timed decorating contest. Thirty minutes to adorn and dress our cupcakes. Here's some pics of how things turned out.
These are our Mountain Dew cupcakes. We decorated them to look like eyeballs and filled them with green colored lemon pudding. We posted a radioactive logo in front of ours because the filling looked something like uranium and these could have been the third eyeballs people might grow when exposed to crazy chemicals.
This is the whole spread. I didn't get close ups of every cupcake, but you get the idea. Lots of eyeballs, fingers, zombie teeth, monsters and bats! Everyone came up with original cupcakes from peppermint patty brownie cupcakes with Cool Whip frosting, to oatmeal/Reese's peanut butter cup cupcakes and pumpkin spice cakes!These were one of my sister's family cupcakes. Their spread was called, "Calling All Monsters." That brown one in the front is a werewolf, but you can't really see his face from this angle. They had some really creative fillings like oreos, gummy worms, sour cherry and cinnamon!

“It takes all the fun out of a bracelet if you have to buy it yourself." - Peggy Joyce

Yep, you guessed right........I have made more bracelets. I started playing around with elastic cord bracelets at my last bracelet session with some of the girls. Pretty simple, yet totally awesome! They make GREAT additions to the large, beaded bracelets for a "stacked" look. Here are two very simple ones I made in about, oh, uh, 30 seconds each.
I made this one from beads I found at Michael's. They were having a big sale on lots of their different bead lines, so I got a few. I LOVE this bracelet and think I will probably reproduce it for sale, if any of y'all are interested. Leave me a comment. I think they will sell for about $20. Most of the beads are metal, so it's a bulkier, heavier bracelet.

Then, I've been experimenting with the whole "subway art" idea and this is the first piece I've "offically made." I created it on my computer, using Word, and then used scrapbook paper to matte it in a frame. I sanded the frame because I personally like the distressed look. I added the gerber daisy because this is for my niece for a gift and I thought it just added to the "girly-ness" of it. Pretty happy with how it turned out. Clearly, I dont know all the tips and tricks, but I've also learned that you don't learn those tips and tricks until you try something and it DOESN'T work. Then you improvise.

I also just discovered Mod Podge Dimensional Magic. The possibilities with this stuff are ENDLESS! I feel some magnets, keychains and charms coming in my future. As I explore the stuff, you can be sure I will post my successes (and my failures) for you to enjoy!