Hi folks – sorry I haven’t blogged in a while!  My husband and I went on a great trip to Wyoming – such a beautiful place that I highly recommend visiting if you can. 

Baby has been kicking away a lot and doing fine as far as we know.  Our next doctor’s appointment will be on Monday.  We get to see the little guy again on ultrasound which thrills me.  There is nothing like actually seeing your baby kicking and punching away to remind you what is actually happening in there!

In more exciting and stressful news, our kitchen remodel is moving quickly!  Here is the latest photo of progress.

We are not 100% sure we like the wall color but are going to live with it for a while.  It is a light, bright, yellowy-green.  This is a lesson to all you would-be renovators: when everybody and their grandmother tells you to paint a portion of the wall in advance to select paint color, DO IT.  Please don’t rely on that tiny swatch because it LIES. 

Anyway, although the color is a bit bright, we feel like we might like it once furniture and art are in place.  If we don’t, we paint.  Simple as that!  We are incorporating a few red accents and I think that will help offset the green color, too.

Our granite is fantastic and we absolutely love the color.  The stone is from Brazil and is called Delicatus.  We used Inman Park Granite and Marble and they did a nice job.

Next up – floor sanding and staining.  I can’t believe we are 4 weeks in and hitting the home stretch!

Last Tuesday, I tried to go to the dentist. In the middle of my first intraoral x-ray, I was summoned to leave.

I’d been going to the same dentist since I was ten years old when I lived in Canada. Even when I moved away for school or work, every trip home was punctuated by a scheduled cleaning with Dr. Zaharichuk, a dentist with movie star good looks who made you feel sexy even though you were getting two fillings. Needless to say, I was never one of those afraid-of-the-dentist types.

That is, until I moved to Atlanta last year. Suddenly I was asked to opt-in or out of this or that kind of medical and dental plan, and with no guide or reference as to what I needed, I opted for basic everything. Heck, I figured, I’m healthy as a young calf in springtime and I brush and floss nightly. No need to pay big bucks for the fancy stuff.

So back to last Tuesday. After putting off a dentist visit for a few months I finally found an in-network dentist right across the street from the Kudzu office. And then I committed the Kudzuvian’s first cardinal sin: I said yes to an appointment, without even looking on Kudzu for their reviews. (I know, what was I thinking? I stare at the Kudzu.com homepage every day!)

The office was in a strip mall, wedged behind an Arby’s, next to a Publix and adjacent to a small community bank. When I walked in, little brass bells hung above the door signaled my entrance and the smell of glue permeated my nostrils. There were about….four chairs in the waiting room. Maybe six. An empty water cooler. I asked to use the bathroom and the toilet paper didn’t have a toilet paper holder. Hmmm….

I forgot to mention that I’d also made an appointment for my dear boyfriend. He likes to do things with me, and we were going to have a dental lunch date that day. Since I arrived first, they took me in and started on some x-rays. My cell phone would not stop ringing so finally the x-ray lady asked me to answer. It was him.

Him: Are you inside?
Me: Yes.
Him: Where did you find this dentist?
Me: Um, what do you mean?
Him: I mean, this place looks really sketchy. Dirty and sketchy. I’m not going to this McDentist and neither should you. Just pay a cancellation fee and leave now. I’ll find us a dentist. I thought you said you found them on Kudzu?
Me: I did…(lying)
Him: No you didn’t, I just looked them up and one of their reviews said “Beware.”
Me: Oh.
Him: Come out. I’m waiting in the parking lot.
Me: (relieved) OK! Be out in a second.

I didn’t feel right about going to this dentist either but I am just too nice sometimes and felt compelled to stay for the appointment I made. I blame the Canada. Thank goodness I am dating someone who is the complete opposite of me. I told the x-ray lady it was an emergency and left the office. They waived my cancellation fee.

Once outside in the glaring, 92-degree sunshine, I ran into my loved one’s arms, laughing with joy, like I’d just broken free of a kidnapper. He pulled me close and said, “Lianna, for someone so smart, you really are not very sometimes.” (Don’t worry, I don’t let him talk to me like that very often).

We found another dentist who is out of network, but who has great reviews on Kudzu. And free laughing gas! Hopefully my next trip will be a successful one, and I’ll have a better story to tell. Until then my friends, remember to always, ALWAYS check reviews on Kudzu before choosing a doctor, dentist, plastic surgeon, landscaper, etc. etc. etc. You will thank us.

Just wanted to leave a quick entry today to show off our kitchen remodel, in progress. We are two weeks in and so far they have taken down the extra wall, torn out all the cabinets and countertops and put up sheet rock and dry wall to frame out the new (BIG!) pantry. They have also added in hardwood floors to the newly created area and will stain those boards to match the existing ones.

My to-do list this week includes ordering the granite – we are using Inman Park Marble and Granite – and order the tile from Zumpano.

This is a lot of stress for us to deal with, especially with the baby on the way. We can still use our fridge, which currently lives in the formal dining room and our makeshift pantry, currently spread out in piles all over the dining room. I just keep telling myself – better to do this now than with a baby in the house! And we will be so happy when we have our new, beautiful kitchen to enjoy.

More updates to come as the weeks progress!

It amazes me that a little person is growing inside of me. Sometimes I get really hard kicks to remind me of that fact. Lately, it has been a combo of kicking, punching and what can only be described as sophisticated acrobatics in there. Often when I get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night (approximately 47 times), I lay back down only to be tickled by his wiggle worm antics. I love that feeling because it means he is doing well, but I know this is the beginning of the next year/3 years/5 years/eternity? of poor sleep!

All of this serves to remind me that he is a real person who just happens to be living in a cramped little home, not unlike an adult must feel in a New York studio apartment. As a real person, he will soon need real person things like his own bed (furniture ordered!), toys and accessories (registry complete!), food (breastfeeding class signed up for!) and a doctor (???). Uh oh…haven’t thought that one through yet. It is truly amazing to me how many things one has to think about for such a little person.

In the search for a pediatrician, my husband and I intend to be disciplined and follow this approach -

1. Ask family and friends, many of whom have little ones. This will be great to get a starter list of 5-6 doctors that I know aren’t quacks right off the bat.

2. Check Kudzu to see what kind of reviews these doctors receive – I may be able to narrow the list down to 2 or 3 this way

3. Set up appointments to interview the 2 to 3 finalists – here is a good list of questions I found online

4. We’ll make our selection with 100% confidence!

To be honest, this whole detailed, disciplined process that we need to go through is so not me. I like to make quick decisions with easily accessible information – so normally I would skip step 3 and just go on personal recommendations and Kudzu reviews. That is until this little person came into my life. Now I am responsible for more than just myself. Just like with the daycare process, I need to be disciplined and pull out all the stops.

Once we get this decision made, there will be one less thing to lose sleep over – I have plenty of those as it is!

This past weekend marked my first real July 4th celebration since living in the United States. Last year I spent the holiday at an Ashram in the Catskills meditating, so it didn’t really count. This year, we drove down to Fort Walton Beach, FL and took the boat out to Crab Island, giving ourselves away to the gluttony of a great American holiday.

What I find most interesting about American holidays is that we work so hard for weeks to obtain that perfect bathing suit body, only to stuff it full of as much sugar and fat it can take in the span of a weekend. We clean the house, perhaps even giving it a new coat of paint, only to spend the entire weekend at the beach, coming home only to sleep, tracking sand in between the floorboards. Loads of food is prepared, packed in tupperware, and taken on the boat, but no one eats anything except the greasy pizza that is delivered via mini-speedboat.

We watch the fireworks in awe, hug, kiss, cry, and are so grateful for the happy lives we lead. With our sticky-salty skin, sand-swept hair and nauseous tummies filled with celebration cupcakes, we have never been happier.

And then the weekend is over. Have to go back to work, guests must go home, and it’s time to clean the house — again. Life is normal — that is, until the next long weekend, the next holiday, or the next celebration. It’s like a rollercoaster.

Now, after a weekend of frosted cakes, fried food, lots of “punch” and sun (yes, i wore SPF 60!) my body knows what’s coming. I will punish her with frequent trips to the gym, leafy green vegetables, and deprive it of sugar and fat for as long as I can, in an effort to wash away my gluttinous ways, only to do it all over again at the next Great American Holiday.

When in Rome…

Hi Kudzuvians, it’s me KUDZILLA again. Yes, I am quite spoiled for I was just on vacation in Vancouver, Canada with one of the Producers here at Kudzu.com. I had a wonderful time hiking, eating and sightseeing but really, I am quite happy to be back home and checking/eating reviews. In this picture, I am feeding a parking meter with what them Canadians call “Toonies”…hehe, they’re these silver and gold coins filled with chocolate that they use for money! I ate quite a few toonies while I was up there. Click on for my pictures! If you want to take me on vacation, email my manager here and she can mail me to you! I’d really like to go to Hawaii… …CONTINUE READING »