Enjoying the Small Things

Click HERE to read an incredibly inspiring blog. This woman has taken what most would consider a huge setback and turned it into one of her biggest joys. Its inspiring and you cant help but learn from her.

Thanksgiving!!! (Almost)

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am sooo excited. We are going to Justin's grandmas house in the morning to visit for a little while and then my mom and uncle will be coming over for dinner!

Needless to say, since we have company coming over our trainwreck of a living room had to be cleaned. I am happy to say the box spring and the boxes are put away and the junk is now at Goodwill. Now all I have left is a pile of laundry on the couch and all of my sewing/craft stuff all over the dining room table. I have a SERIOUS nesting bug right now so I am trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to keep it in check. I am going to get some couch slipcovers and will be making some Christmas pillows for the living room. Oh, and I am nearly done with my first apron. Its not terrible, but I have definitely learned some lessons. I used the pattern basically just to cut out the shapes and then just kind of made it how I felt like making it. Patterns make no sense.

We finally got to see our wedding pictures, too! I will post some as soon as we get the CD. There are some pretty amazing photos and I am totally thrilled with them.

We had our second to last ultrasound yesterday. It was the anatomy ultrasound and I can say without a doubt that the baby is definitely a HE. He was not being shy with his boy parts at all. He wouldnt, however, show us his brain so we have to go back and hope that he switches positions. Right now he is basically standing on my cervix. Sometimes he likes to dance on it too. I think I prefer a foot to the ribs over a foot to the cervix. Hopefully he flips upside down sometime soon. I LOVE ultrasounds, though. He was acting like he has the hardest life ever...stretching and yawning a million times like he just got off of a 12 hour shift, haha! SO cute.

I seriously need to start posting photos along with these posts. Ha.

Holiday Bug

Image stolen from Pottery Barn

I went shopping for a little bit yesterday and I have to say I am officially in the holiday spirit. If it werent for Avah's bday being on the 12th the whole house would probably be decorated by now. We have a rule, though, that no Christmas decorations go up until AFTER her birthday. That way it makes it a little more special. Of course, she always has the right to revoke the rule on any year but she decided she still  wants to wait. Thats not to say that I cant start getting it all ready though!

50 million things

One of the things about me that I think REALLY bother Justin (secretly) is my inability to ever completely finish one project before moving on to the next. Honestly a photo montage would probably be best to truly show the extent of my problem, but I'm at work right now so thats not gonna happen. Instead, I'm just going to make a list of the projects that I have started but are not complete.

1.) The cabinets in the downstairs bathroom. The doors have been removed and have been sitting on my back porch for a good 6 months now. They've been sanded but not yet primed or painted. Classy!

2.) The countertop in my hallway upstairs. Its been primed and painted, but is still waiting to be polyurthethaned to protect the surface. Still, it looks good.

3.) The 30 (yes, thirty) boxes in my living room from Amazon that have yet to be opened. Justin and I went on a crazy Amazon kick trying to get Christmas shopping done asap. Now I have a million boxes and no where to put them for the time being. They all have to be opened and wrapped immediately because many are for Avah. I am putting it off because I hate wrapping.

4.) The rejects from the old guest room that are also in my living room. Ok, ok. My living room looks like a junk pile. Literally. We have a box spring, a desk, a tv (unplugged and on the floor), a fan, and a few other things that are going to Goodwill. This is partly Justin's fault since he is the one with the truck and the manpower but I havent decided what can go and what will stay.

5.) The baby's room. Its been primed. Mostly. As soon as the baby's room is painted (by me with the windows open and low VOC paint) then I can start to stash the Christmas gifts away in the closet. See the pattern here?

6.) Several sewing projects. I havent actually used a sewing machine since I was in 8th grade Home Ec but I decided I wanted to make a whole bunch of crap and went to the fabric store and bought fabric. Then I headed over to my mom's and borrowed her super crappy 25 year old sewing machine that I wouldnt mind throwing out the window. The bobbin system blows. I can;t get more than like 3 stitches done before it jams. Needless to say, I miiight be buying a new sewing machine soon. Don't tell Justin. =)

All of this stuff could be busted out and done within like 3 days of just working on it. Problem is, I dont have 3 days. Avah has soccer on Saturdays, I'm in school full time so much of my evenings after mom duty are spent doing homework, and our family has a tendancy of making us do at least one thing on the weekends which means I have no days to just throw on work clothes and tackle them down. Oh well! I love my projects.

Diaper Stash

I know this is really nerdy, but I have to share my cloth diaper excitement! We are slowly building our stash and currently own:

2 Bumgenius 4.0 diapers
4 Bumgenius Organic Elementals
2 Flips with 3 staydry and 3 organic liners
3 mystery one size diapers

The mystery diapers are because I took advantage of a sale at Kelly's Closet where you spend $29 and then send you a free one size diaper of their choosing. I cant wait til the packages come...it'll be like an early Christmas!!!

Decorating the Nursery

I am having serious issues with choosing paint colors for the nursery. We (and my "we" I mean "I") chose to do a neutral nursery. Espresso colored furniture and white and light beige/taupe walls. I have looked high and low and I cant seem to nail down a color. I normally just buy a paint color and go with it, but this time I bought samples. I got Studio Taupe by Behr and Gallery Taupe by Behr. The Studio Taupe is too dark and the Gallery Taupe seems too light, but I dont know. Now I have just discovered Bleeker Beige by Benjamin Moore and am REALLY stumped.

Here is the Gallery Taupe:

Here is the Bleeker Beige:

And here is the inspiration for this nursery:

Arg!

15 1/2 weeks

I have to say, throughout this entire pregnancy I have not felt pregnant. I mean, I definitely had my bouts of food adversions and feeling really tired among other symptoms, but nothing like I did with Avah. I'm also not really showing. I am pretty "thick" looking, but it really just looks like I just gained some weight. I dont have that obvious pregnant belly yet. Even with the ultrasounds and the flutters that I've been feeling, I forget I'm pregnant most of the time. Justin and I planned this pregnancy for months before we ever tried for it so I had this "when the baby comes" mind set before I ever even got pregnant. I think about the baby, baby stuff, life with the new baby, etc, constantly but I still manage to forget I am pregnant. Weird, huh?

Oh, and we bought the crib a few weeks ago. Here it is:

I never got to actually decorate a nursery with Avah so its a fun new experience. I will keep you posted!

Ultrasound photos!

He looks like a baby!

See...you can tell he's a boy!