To the Weekend!

We are enjoying our first weekend at home as a family with the cold fall weather, lots of college football and visits from the grandparents.  Parker and Henry will even get to meet their aunt and uncle, Ryan and Whitney, for the first time!  With all the helping hands at the house, I’m hoping to run some errands while others stay with the boys.  We still have some girl stuff to return and some other items to grab for P and H.  Like a second swing.  That thing is worth its weight in gold around here!

Enjoy your weekend!  I can’t believe Thanksgiving is next week.  So much to celebrate!

t-minus 2 months

Well, time is flying.  Like whoa.  And I keep trying to come write a post on this ol' blog, but I get maybe a sentence written before I am distracted, off to do something else, or just plain too tired to go on.

Month seven of pregnancy is wearing on me.  I am uncomfortable.  Baby girl is up in my ribs, like all. the. time.  And the two of them move around like aliens inside me, constantly pushing and shoving on my insides.  Sometimes this is really cool and amazing.  Other times I am so over it and just want to lay down without the internal drumming beginning.  My feet are starting to swell up, and some days it is so bad that I feel like Shrek with my ogre feet.  Other days it's just my toes that get swollen, which isn't too bad but still feels very weird!  I am still plagued by heartburn.  It is mostly manageable but some nights I can hardly sleep without sitting straight up (which is, you know, impossible).  And my never-ending cough is pushing the two month mark now.  That's two months of coughing.  Oy.  Plus, due to baby girl or the constant coughing or who knows what, I have a constant pain in my right ribs/side, which is especially painful when I lay down.  So again, sleeping is tough.  I borrowed a Snoogle pillow from a friend.  Despite being a little ridiculous and large, it does help with actually getting comfortable at night.  We took a quick, 24-hour trip to Oklahoma City this weekend to see my family, and you better believe the Snoogle came along!

It's not all bad news over there, though.  We've been seriously talking baby names and we are officially decided on Baby Girl's name, and down to a handful of options for Baby Boy.  So that is fun.  We aren't keeping the names a secret, but we are holding out until we are set on both names.  Hopefully in the next week or so we can share those with friends and family.  And our nursery is coming along too, thanks to Mark's hard work and my delegating of ideas :)

I've got bedding to wash and walls to decorate, but the big items are assembled and in place.  Not pictured from this angle: a dresser and a chest of drawers.  It's crammed tight in the room, but babies don't need that much extra space, right??  Let's hope not.

It's hard to believe our littles will be here in less than two months!  I saw my doctor on Thursday and she told me to expect to see "exponential growth" over the coming weeks.  Which kind of freaks me out.  I am already growing out of most of my pregnancy clothes, so what will I do after exponential more growth!  Eek.  But the good news is that everything is still going great with the pregnancy.  Besides some really minor aches and pains, I am doing well and lucky to not have anything worse than some discomfort and ill-fitting shoes and clothing. It could be so much worse.  I feel like we still have SO MUCH to do to get ready, but at the same time, I'm ready to just dive in and figure out this crazy Parenthood thing when they get here!

Stay away, August!

I am in some serious denial that August is two days away.  WHAT?!  No, August.  Stay away. We are so not ready for you.

In just 3-ish weeks, I go back to work.  Oy.  I am not ready for that, mainly because I had big dreams of getting all this stuff ready for the babies "over the summer" so that when I went back to work, we would just be relaxing and waiting for them to make their appearance.  Well that has SO NOT HAPPENED YET.  I know I will be kicking myself when school starts back up and then I am trying to scramble and get things put together after work every day.  I will say, "Self, why did you not do this when you had those THREE MONTHS OF NO WORK??"

Well, in my defense, we didn't really want to do anything until we knew if we were having boys, girls or a combo deal.  Now that we know it is a boy and a girl, we can really hit the ground running.  Sort of.  Turns out, finding any kid of nursery bedding and decor that tastefully blends boy and girl is...... pretty much impossible.  After weeks of looking, my options were basically as follows:

- Beach theme with plaid in pink for her, blue for him (Eh. I don't want a "theme-y" room that has surfboards and palm trees and ocean waves.  Too much.  Stay away from themes.)

- Solid white bedding with subtle hints of blue for him, pink for her (Eh. I don't even want to mess with solid white crib bedding and blankets.  I spill enough as it is, without adding two babies into the mix, also making their share of messes.)

Annnnnd that was pretty much it.  My Plan B option was to just pick a boy bedding set and mix it with a girl set.  But here's what I'm finding - boy things come in two categories: animals and sports.  With the occasional "western" theme sprinkled in.  So I could do monkeys, giraffes, elephants, birds, fish, zoo animals, circus animals, moose, etc.  Or I could do football, baseball, soccer, basketball....  Again with the themes.  Not working for me.

So Plan C is the always-trendy "gender neutral" nursery, which means tan, gray and/or yellow.  Or even all white (No. See above)  Ducks.  Bees.  Birds.  Things like that. But I knew I wanted more color and something fun.  So after being throughly overwhelmed by all the lackluster options I was finding, I decided I would just have to put together my own design, picking and choosing from all over.  And as I have started to make decisions and even purchase things, I am really getting worried that this room is just going to be an explosion of patterns and colors.  But hey.  These kiddos won't complain, right?

Here's where my basic vision is going, with an update of where we are on the whole Let's-get-the-entire-nursey-set-up-this-summer plan:

- All white furniture.  We have this all picked out, but have only purchased one crib so far (side note: please send any and all Bed, Bath and Beyond/Buy Buy Baby coupons your have our way)

- Mint green/pale aqua walls, with one or two walls accented with white stripes.  This is halfway done. The mint color is on the walls, stripes coming... soonish.

- Navy blue (for him) and coral (for her) throughout.  This was tougher than I thought it would be, and my mom and I ended up buying some cute fabric to make our own crib bedding (which means my mom and mother-in-law will be sewing this... not me!)  Here's what we got:

- I am also wanting to get some of those very Anthropologie-ish ruffled curtains for the window.  So we're talking stripes on the walls, ruffles on the curtains, patterns on the bedding, and then, you know, throw a rug and some art work in there somewhere too.  Oh and we ordered a chair with a geometric print on it.  Uhh.. too much?  Only time will tell.

I'll wrap this up because I know it's more than you probably ever wanted to know about my unborn children's bedroom, but before I do, here are some quick "before" shots of the room that is going to be the nursery:

Cleaning out this room was actually a big part of our June and July.  I lost count of Goodwill trips after our fourth one.  We had to do some serious purging and organizing, so that whatever was going to stay would have a new place in the house.  Like that dresser has moved to the guest room, where it looks so much better than, you know, right in the doorway of the room when you walk in!

This room has always been the place we stashed the things we just didn't know what to do with, or even never really unpacked when we moved almost a year and a half ago.  Some things have found new homes, thanks to our friend Craig ('s List).

This closet was my "dress closet," housing all my dresses.  I am proud to say the closet is now EMPTY for our two little foxes to fill, but that meant giving away a lot of clothes on my part, and then squeezing the remaining stuff into my actual closet (well, the Bridesmaid Dress Hall of Fame was relocated to a guest room...)

That little TV there, I bought with a year's worth of babysitting money when I was in the fourth grade.  I paid for it, in cash, at Best Buy years ago, and even remember handing over baggies of coins to the cashier.  I've never wanted to give it away, but it did finally make it's way to Goodwill.  Not before I gave it a hug though.

And now (finally!), here's where the room is now:

Empty (other than a kitty who still thinks it's his room) and in it's current, mid-paint stage.

Whew!  If you made it this long, congratulations.  I'll save the rest of my rambling for another day.

What's up, weekend?

Hello Saturday.

I am currently taking a break from:

* laundry {does anyone else feel like they are ALWAYS doing laundry?!}
* dusting
* clearing out one of our random junk-filled bedrooms (and by clearing out, I mean moving everything out of this room and across the hall into our other random junk-filled bedroom)

Wanna see?  This is the before-but-not-all-the-way-before shot because, well, I forgot to take a picture when it was totally filled with junk.  So picture like, way more junk in this room and way less carpet visible.

This room could loosely be referred to as our Office.  And I saw loosely because neither the Hubs nor I ever does any kind of officing at home, ever.  So this room is really a glorified place to print out things.  Because the computer in here is only ever turned on when one of us wants to print something off and we didn't think ahead enough to actually print it off at work. (shh, don't tell).  We are making a little trip up to see my parents tomorrow because they are giving us some bedroom furniture they don't want anymore, so this room will soon go from a waste-of-space "office" to a full blown Guest Room # 2.  Which means we can have more than one person/couple stay with us and not have to get out the ol' air mattress.  Woo!  And this also means we will soon have only one room left in this house that has no purpose other than holding all the stuff we don't know what to do with.  We are six days away from being in our home for one year, so I don't know if that achievement is really sad or really impressive?

Anyways, I am looking forward to decorating this new space.  I really want to paint the walls but I don't have even an inkling of what color I want them to be.  Gray?  Coral?  Pale blue?  Soft yellow?  What will my potential guests want to see when they come stay in Guest Room #2?  I've looked at Pinterest a little, but that really only makes me more confused, not less.  And I know there is quite possibly nothing more boring than talking about paint colors, so I will move on.

I wish I had something more exciting to write about right now, but all I can really report is that Mark is waxing the cars today, I am transferring junk from one bedroom to another, and I really need to do a little bit of homework today so that I don't end up way behind later this week.  Not too exciting.  Does anyone else feel like every time they talk to someone and they ask "So what's new with you guys?" or "What have you been up to lately?" you have NOTHING to say other than... well, the usual?  It sounds so lame.  Umm.. we get up and go to our jobs every day, and then hang out in the evenings and on weekends, perhaps enjoying a little time with friends and family.  Rather, rinse, repeat.  I don't know what news exactly I wish I had to report, but the lack of anything is making me feel like I missing something.  Does everyone else have big and exciting things happening around them?  Happening to them?  Maybe we need to go on a vacation?  Or quit our jobs?  Or buy new cars?  (Spoiler alert: We are not doing any of those anytime soon.)

Christmas at Home

Christmas Day, we drove home from Oklahoma after spending some time with Mark's family.  We had hoped to beat the bad weather, but ended up driving through most of it, making our usual 4 hour drive last nearly 7 hours  But it was worth it to spend part of Christmas at our house, with our little furry family.

I bought this wreath from a boy scout who came knocking at our door in November.

A White Christmas in Dallas... who would have thought?

Warm and Cozy

Our Christmas Card "wreath" by the snowy front door.

New ornaments this year :)

Hubs made a fire for some Christmas movie time.

She was glad to be home too!

PJ's, fireplace, movie and the iPad. Not too shabby way to wrap up the holidays, eh?

My Christmas Goose snuggled up next to me for some Christmas Vacation viewing.

Today I started taking all the Christmas stuff down and it's back to work on Monday.  I'm not as blue as I usually am this time of year, which could be due to the extra week of vacation after all the Christmas hustle.  And just think, in five more months, it's summer vacation :)

Cheers to Chairs!

Yesterday I noticed that there was an estate sale going on a few houses down from us.  I really wanted to check it out, not only to see what was for sale, but also to look at the house.  I love looking inside people's houses.  When I drive/walk/run around neighborhoods in the evening, I am always looking for one that has the windows open and the lights on, so I can see inside.  I like to see how people decorate and set up their rooms.  I am not alone in this, yes?

So anyways, I recruited Mark to go check out the sale with me.  It was definitely an original owner that lived or was living in there, cause it was O.L.D.  Old.  Old appliances, old carpet, old wooden built ins and paneling.  Old.  And all kinds of old stuff for sale, including an Atari that was $90.  We passed on that, but did not pass on this gem of a chair, that cost me a whopping $5.  Mark helped me carry it down the street to its new home.

I was so jazzed to do a real Pintrest-y inspired re-do on this chair.  So excited that I immediately went to Home Depot AND Lowe's to get some supplies.  I came home and sanded it down, which immensely improved its appearance.  

Today I took it back outside and gave it several coats of a spray paint primer.

I would have kept going with the re-do, but it started to super rain.  And I had a paper to write, so I called it a day for the chair, for now.

But, my chair adventures did not stop there.  This week is bulk trash pickup in the neighborhood, so Mark and I did a lap around the block just now.  We were wanting to pick up some pallets that we saw out on a curb last night, because hello, Pinterest is full of pallet projects!  And this was apparently the week to get rid of your pallets, because they are all over the curbs around here.  So we hopped in the 4Runner and hit the streets.  Before we even made it to the pallets, we saw an even better find: a pair of wooden adirondak chairs.  We have been wanting some of these chairs since we moved in, so we wasted no time loading ‘em up.  I don’t have a picture because it was too dark outside, but let’s just say these will need a little sprucing up as well.

Are you tired of talking about chairs yet?  No?  OK, here’s a picture of my anniversary chair, in action in its new spot in our bedroom.  Please ignore all the laundry scattered around it.

And finally, Gus wants it to be known that he has already claimed this spot as his own.

Home Tour: Living Room

We've been in our house just about three months now.  Every room is still a work in progress [some way more than others], but things are mostly coming together so that it really feels like home.  I thought I'd start our tour out with the room we spend the most time in: the Living Room.

First up, here's how it looked before we bought the house.  I took these photos during our inspection, so everything here is the previous owner's stuff.  The man we bought our house from was pretty much a rock star when it came to updating homes.  Our house was built in 1962, so I can only imagine what it looked like before he went to work on it!

Here's the fireplace wall before we moved in.  There is a built in entertainment center on the far side.

View from across the room, pre-us.

A close up of the built in entertainment center.  We knew our TV wouldn't fit here, so I had to get creative with this space.

Now for some real fun.  Here's the living room in the days after we moved in.  We had our furniture more or less figured out for in here, but it was still pretty empty.  As you can tell, all the moving really wore out Gus.

Here's a tiny fraction of the mess from the process of unpacking. 

And now, here's how it looks today!  I turned the entertainment center into an end-table of sorts, with a lamp, some photos and the iPod dock.

Behind the chair is the dine-in part of the kitchen.  Do you spot a Goose Cat?

Along the opposite wall of the living room we have our couch and ottoman.  The ottoman moves around so we have it in front of the chair sometimes too.  The frame collage is still a work in progress [the big orange flower isn't staying].  To the left you can see into the kitchen.

Our TV is on the far wall.  Someday it will get mounted on the wall. [also, I am watching House Hunters.  Of course]

The sad little clock in the corner isn't staying there.  We actually have two clocks hanging on this wall right now, trying to figure out what works where!

I think the built in works will without the TV.  I use the small shelves below for books and baskets filled with blankets and other...well, junk.

And in case you were wondering, Gus is still worn out.

There's a first time for everything

Well, I managed 29 years, 6 months and 5 days of life without ever mowing a lawn.  Thanks to having an older brother, I never had to do yard work growing up.  I unloaded the dishwasher plenty of times, but never had to mow the lawn or take out the trash.  Those were boy chores.  I couldn't avoid the trash once I started renting an apartment after college, but the lawn mower?  That I still managed to escape, thanks to getting married and hanging on to my boys-do-the-yard-work card.

But then, Mark went and had to have knee surgery.  And two and a half weeks later, we were becoming those people on our street.  The ones who don't mow their grass.  So I did what any girl who has never even turned on a lawn mower would do  Made my husband take pictures of me and the lawn mower.

And then, I mowed the lawn.  Front and back.  Dare I say it was almost fun?  I concentrated super hard on making the straight lines and realized it was a lot like vacuuming.  And i love vacuuming!  I told Mark I thought it was pretty fun and said he'd check back with me in August, when it's 109 degrees outside.  To which I flashed my boys-do-the-yard-work card and went back inside.

Shelf Numero One

Our new house has four built-in shelves, which I L-O-V-E.  I have been avoiding decorating them, because I feel like it's a pretty daunting task to take on, so they have been sitting empty for the past six weeks.  Or not empty really.  More like a place for anything and everything that doesn't have a place yet to sit and gather.  So pretty much, 7 lamps, 26 candles, and lots and lots of knick knacks.

This weekend, I took on getting them in order.  I searched Pinterest for "shelf arrangements" and "shelf decor" and what not to find some good examples, and then tried to mimic the ones I liked with whatever I can find around the house.  I think a trip to Home Goods is in order, because I do not have nearly enough "things" to decorate with, but I did manage a nice little set-up on my first set of shelves.  This one is in the kitchen/dining/living space.. which is hard to describe.  Here's how it turned out:

 

Not too shabby, eh?  I pretty much used every pretty thing I have, so the other 3 shelves are hurting for anything other than books and picture frames.  Home Goods, here I come!

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Three weeks ago, we officially became the owners of this little gem:

Our new home!  I just had to check the calendar to see how long we have in fact been living here, and I can't believe it's already been three weeks!  It feels more like it's only been a week or so.  In those 21 days, we have already had five overnight guests, with numbers six and seven arriving tomorrow.  So I have washed the guest sheets four times already!  Last week, we got new gutters installed on the back of the house.  Two nights ago, we got some torrential rain for a good 12 hours straight.  I found Mark standing outside in the dark with an umbrella, just admiring the gutters work.  He loves the yard.  He's already mowed once, weeded the garden, picked up all the sticks and leaves in the grass, and cleaned out those gutters twice.  In 21 days!  I tend to focus more on unpacking all the boxes on the inside.

Watch for house photos in the near future.  I'm slowly but surely finding a place for everything and getting organized.  Just the other night I was sitting at the kitchen table, working on my laptop and thinking to myself, gosh, I love living here.