Saturday Morning Find

Dave loves only a few things more than waking up on Saturday mornings and going yard/estate sale hunting.  Knowing that today was going to be a lovely day, I suggested that we do a little homework Friday night to find some good ones this morning.

The first one that we came to was lucky door #1.  Right inside I found a blue glass Mason jar; I recently decided that I wanted a couple colored old jars,  and it was mine for a good price.  On the way back to the car to grab some cash, we stopped in the garage and found two sets of lockers.  These lockers were calling my name.  They were in good shape and I assumed that they would probably asking a pretty penny for them.  The price that the older man quoted us made us think of all the possibilities and made both Dave and me want them even more.  We were set on getting one of them to go in Griffin's room once we move the Mama chair out.  I had already decided to clean it up and paint it a fun muted shade of blue.  I imagined little die cast cars lining a shelf or two and Dave envisioned a stack of comic books and a cap gun.  Dave even mentioned putting a lock on one when Griffin is a little older so he would have a place to hide his secret stash, I'm  guessing his candy cigarettes and temporary tattoos.

It was fun playing around with the ideas, so we took both of them.  (The kind older man gave us a fabulous deal.)  It will be such a fun piece to have in his room and I am way too anxious to clean it up and make sure my idea works.

I do love the sign on the side, it's two women sitting at a table and says, "Break time, not shrink time!"  Maybe I'll keep that there.

I rarely find fun things at these kinds of sales, so I may have reached my estate sale climax today.  However, if I would of had an extra $500 dollars with me I could have gotten the most beautiful dining room set, but I didn't.  That and I already have a sufficient dining table now.

It was a great start to a picture perfect day.  The sun was shining and we were all smiling.  Here's to many many more days like today!

36 Weeks

I. am. so. sleepy.

My head wants to get up and clean the house for this weekend, yet my body won't allow me to move for more than a few seconds at a time. 

Yesterday Dave took a day off to help me around the house.  We finished up the nursery (YAY!) and painted our bedroom.  We had been wanting to give our bedroom a little attention for a while, but somehow, it would always get pushed to the back burner.  Now, it's finally more like we have wanted it.  I really do not want to paint anything else for a very very very long time. 

Oh, but the nursery.  I really feel like a momma bird when I go in there.  It's the only room in our house that can literally change my mood.  I am planning on doing a separate post about the nursery, so I'll hold off saying too much about it.  

I had wanted to have the nursery finished by August, and I have been driven a little crazy that October had come around before we realized it and the nursery still needed this or that.  But now I smile when I walk in there and I am reminded how awesome Dave really is.

36 weeks brought me a present.  One day I had swollen feet, ankles, and hands; and since that day the swelling lets up a little but hasn't gone away.  Ugh.  Dr. B says that the swelling will linger until about ten days after G-day.  Oh boy!  Thankfully the swelling is not related to my blood pressure, instead just plain ol' fluid retention.  My hands feel tight and my feet feel sore and hot.  Just one more reason that I hope that G-day comes sooner than later.  However, I should point out that I am incredibly grateful that I am just getting this now and not any sooner. 

At my appointment yesterday I asked Dr. B if I'd need to take my rings off.  I was crossing my fat little fingers that he'd say "no."  But he didn't.  He told me that we'd need to get them off so we wouldn't have to cut them off later.  Let's just say that I had been planning on taking them off for a little while now, wanting to leave them on as long as possible, but then I woke up with swollen hands that, as I explained above, has not gone away.  Yesterday I tried all day long to get them off, without any luck and just more swelling as a result.  Then later in the evening, with the help of Dave and a glob of conditioner, it came off.  Even though it never seemed like it was coming, and I thought for a moment that my finger from the knuckle up was going to fly off, they came off.  Whew!

I could write on, but my eyes keep trying to close and we have a breastfeeding class later on tonight.  Hopefully I can stay awake for it. 

Project: Nursery

I was really hoping that my nesting phase would bring me lots of motivation to clean and organize everything.  Instead it has upped my creative energy and made me think of a million projects to start, none of which include cleaning or organizing.

For quite a while now I have considered making Griffin's mobile.  I had looked for one I liked in stores but couldn't find anything to my liking.  I had seen a few on Etsy, but they weren't exactly what I had in mind and the ones that I almost liked were quite pricey.  Browsing on Etsy also gave me a few ideas and slowly I told myself that I could make one.  Now, I have a knack for polymer clay but not for needles and thread.  A few months ago my Mother-in-law taught me how to sew and use my sewing machine, but I still categorized myself less than a beginner. 

One night I had an itch to go get the supplies to make a mobile and headed to Hobby Lobby.  I grabbed some felt and embroidery floss and headed home to see what I could whip up.  I drew and drew until I had a pattern that worked for a little owl.

I decided on four little owls and thought maybe a little tree for the middle.  I surprised myself by cranking out the four owls in a night and a morning.  I had to make another trip to Hobby Lobby for the hanging apparatus and the tree fabric.  Dave helped me by putting the wood parts together. 

There's still a few things that I need to do before it's complete, but I am quite excited about it.  And, the best part, it cost me less than $10. 

In the meantime I decided that I could enlarge the owl pattern and make a pillow/stuffed owl.  I used the fabric that I used on the treetop and instead of felt used brown corduroy.  I had to machine stitch this guy; however my sewing machine happened to be possessed (maybe operator error) and this pillow took way way too long.  Overall it's not perfect but it's still a little cute.  I will tell you I've had my sewing fix for quite some time.

Still on my list of to-do's is painting a mural near the crib, yet another thing I've never tackled.  These crazy hormones are doing a number on me.  I've gone back and forth on doing this mural, but right now I'm on board.  If I don't do it soon I probably will be talking myself out of it again. 

I am starting to think that cleaning the house would have an easier task.

Week 27

So it took a little while for Bean Sprout to show his bump, but now there's no stopping him. My belly is growing in epic proportions, and its size is beginning to be a little intimidating.

This is the last week of my second trimester. Where has the last 7 months gone? In no time, Griffin will be on the other side of my belly, and Dave and I couldn't be more excited. The second trimester was indeed much friendlier than the first. I had a decent amount of energy, even though I tire quickly. My appetite hasn't been that of a trucker (I don't really understand this analogy) YET….It's definitely getting there. I haven't been too nauseas, which was a nice change from the first trimester where I was constantly nauseas. I haven't been an emotional wreck. I had heard stories of women's emotions going through a whirlwind in their second trimester; but thankfully, I have remained emotionally myself. I have had time to appreciate the miracle that's taking place inside me without being overcome with pain and tiredness. I needed this time.

Next week I go back to the doctor for my gestational diabetes test, and I do hope that there are no signs of this. If there is anything I learned in all my physiology classes, it is that I do NOT want diabetes of any kind. I am not much of a sweet eater, but I do have low blood sugar and I know that that can have an effect on a person as far as the diabetes stuff goes. Keep your fingers crossed.

I had mentioned that we found the crib that I was wanting on Craig's List back when we first found out that we were expecting. It needed to be cleaned and touched up with a little paint, and now it looks brand new. That's another thing to check off the to-do list. The room is taking shape and I can't wait for it all to come together.

It's a little too hot to think of something clever....

Happy August. It's not my favorite month or anything, so on with it. I knew that I would dread the heat that August had in store...I was right. It has been HOT, and we're just 4 days in. I am not sure if maybe it has seemed so hot since July was somewhat pleasant, or if it's just plain hot no matter what last month was. I have always looked at August as a gateway to September, one of my favorite months. This is possibly because my birthday is in September, or because chilly fall nights make me feel warm inside. Just like every year in the past, I do look forward to this fall, although this one more so than ever before.

I had to practice a bit (or a whole heck of a lot) of self-control today. I stopped by Target today and (obviously) glanced at the baby stuff. It appeared as though they are getting their fall stuff in and boy, was it calling my name! I have already mentioned that I am doing a woodland themed nursery with owls, squirrels, and hedgehogs. Mainly I wanted to do this kind of nursery because it was stuff that I liked. Pre-pregnancy I was drawn to this same sort of stuff and also I have wanted a pet hedgehog for years now. I can’t really tell you why I am obsessed with them, besides that I think that they’re incredibly adorable. Well to my delight, and my detriment, Target’s Dwell Studio brand has an entire collection of hedgehog baby attire. I stood there with my mouth hanging open just wanting to buy it all up. My intention to calm my baby clothes craving was to rush home to write about it. I was hoping to find the stuff on Target’s website, but sadly it’s not there. I did happen to snap a picture of the blanket in the collection, so I’ll share it. Enough about that, the writing didn’t calm my craving any.

When I asked my doctor when I would start showing, he told me that Dave could see the bump around 20 weeks and then the world would see at 26 weeks. I thought he was crazy...26 weeks is six and a half months! Well turns out, he was basically right. Last week I think some clothes didn’t quite accentuate the bump, but this week nothing is hiding it. It’s beginning to look like there is sporting equipment being stored in my belly, and it’s kind of feeling like it too. Before now it seemed like I could tell a difference in my size week to week, but now it seems like there are noticeable little changes day to day. And to think, we’re not even to the third trimester.

26 weeks 2 days

Chiropractor update: I went and I didn’t really like the guy. That, and I am not sure if it’s really worth the cost and the hassle. I am a little bitter over my short experience with him, so I think I have officially quit going. Instead I plan on getting a soothing pregnancy massage from Natural Body. I hear they’re to die for.

This one may bore you.

Not much is new right now which is quite refreshing. The summer is treating us well and I am glad that we're enjoying it. Dave has been doing some work on the house, trying to get us more organized. Well I should say, he has done a lot of work on the closets which in turn should encourage us to be more organized. He had been using the closets in both his music room and the (now) nursery for his clothes and other junk. Our closets basically consisted of a bar set high and a shelf above. Pretty boring and inefficient, if you ask me. The nursery has a "walk-in" closet that is 4' wide by 5' deep. He lowered the bar for hanging clothes to the lower half of the closet and added four 20" deep shelves above, then added five 10" shelves to the right side of the closet. It is now a storage mecca, and it is beyond nice to have that project completed.

*The target will be coming down soon.

Dave took off Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday with me this week to work on these projects and other things that needed to be worked on. Since he is working on his school stuff, we really only have time on the weekends to get things done and then every other Saturday is occupied by his actual classes. Needless to say, the time this week has been quite valuable for us. It's also been kind of nice to have more than an hour a day to communicate. Tomorrow we plan on going on a lunch date to see a movie (which we never do) and eat lunch, and possibly grab Bean Sprout a little outfit with a BRU coupon that came in the mail. I may even dress up a little for this occasion ;) Speaking of our time together we have played tennis for the last three days. Sometimes I enjoy tennis and other times I am really bad and don't enjoy it at all. On Monday evening we played in something like 98% humidity, which took the life out of me. It was so sticky out and I tired out far too quickly. Yesterday's games were played in the morning and were much more enjoyable and I decided to dress in more appropriate attire. Getting exercise in without hurting, cramping, or sweating to death was a real treat. Today we played around lunch time and it may have been 1000 degrees out, I was having a ton of fun playing and even playing better than I had been, but my body decided it was too hot. I was drinking tons of ice water but I still had to surrender to the heat and not over do it.

Yesterday I made something for dinner that I may end up craving all the time now. It was a delicious combination of chickpeas, cucumbers, red onions, and tomatoes. Ohh....how I love love love chickpeas, I could eat them everyday. I mixed all the veggies with olive oil, a little red wine vinegar, lemon juice, dill, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese. Yummy!! Healthy and tasty!

Over on the left you can see my latest product of boredom. I had been joking about making "bean spout '09" tee shirts for anyone who wanted one (even if it is just me); and like most things I joke about, it came to fruition. I found zazzle.com and it's now one of my favorite things. You can get to my store by clicking here . The site is very nice, you can customize just about anything you want from postage stamps and travel mugs to dog shirts and baby onesies. Here's the shirt that I created, which you can get to by clicking on the image of the shirt in the zazzle box on the left.
The font that I chose for this shirt is called "birth of a hero" which I thought was fitting (but first I liked it for the way it looked). I also did a Bean Sprout beer stein but felt it a bit unrelated to the birth of my son. I put his "logo" on a mug too and I am considering dog shirts next. Oh let me know if you have any suggestions for anything that I should put on the back, like a slogan...he needs a slogan...

Hopefully I didn't bore you too much. Next time I should have much more exciting things to write about....I hope.

Becoming a Mamma Bird

At the moment I am taking a much needed break from painting. This is the forth day in a row that I have been painting, and it's starting to get old. The majority of this work has been for Bean Sprout so even though it's draining me, I am determined to get it finished and do it well in the process. I could be wrong but I think I may be "nesting." Even when we're not working in the nursery I'll still go in there and look around, and think about what's going where. It's a nice feeling, but at the same time it's starting to take me over. We painted the nursery with the accidental can of green paint that we had originally got for the dining room which didn't work out; despite the lack of planning it ended up being absolutely perfect for the nursery. We knew that we'd be using that paint, but couldn't remember exactly what the color looked like. It was a pleasant surprise to have it work out the way that it did.

So far I have painted an old night stand of Dave's that will live beside my momma chair and a dresser that Dave's parents were not needing anymore that will also serve as the changing table. My goal is to have everything painted by tonight...but that's quite a lofty goal. By the way, I did consult with my doctor about painting and I was assured that it was fine.

Yesterday I noticed paint on Lucy and realized that our living room had turned into painting quarters. All of us are ready to have BS's nursery ready.

Time for pictures!

The dresser before, well after I took a couple knobs off.

Dresser after, still needing knobs. We need to do some knob hunting. The little black bear sitting on the dresser came from the Pottery Mill, which we got on our Gatlinburg trip.

The left side of the room. The little green basket beside my chair was in the bath room, but I decided it would do a nicer job holding books. The turtle on the night stand is actually a little light. My best friend Liz got it for me a few years ago, and now it fits perfectly in Bean Sprout's woodland themed nursery. The curtains need to be ironed and a few other things touched up, but overall I like this side of the room.

This view is from the BS's bathroom (he has the master bedroom, lucky duck). I think that the crib will go in the corner, where the piece of it is. I am also considering a brown valance for the short window. I'm not a huge fan of valances but I think that it would tie the windows together.

I forgot to take before pictures of the room. Imagine a huge desk where the crib will go and boxes and other random crap throughout the rest of the room. It was pretty much a mess, so maybe it's better that there are no photos to document it.

3 months down, 6 to go

This past Sunday marked 12 weeks, so I just have 28 more weeks to go. Woohoo! I think I have felt better since Sunday, although it could just be a mind over matter thing. Or it could be that I am done with my finals and so close to being finished with this semester. I haven't felt nearly as tired, but last night i couldn't sleep. Sleepytime tea didn't even help. I ended up finally going to bed around 4:30, but I did get my fix of middle of the night infomercials.

I am really hoping for a pleasant 2nd trimester, it sure would be a nice relief. But more than that I hope that we have a healthy happy baby. The past week I have really been worrying about the bean sprout. After my initial doctor's visit I felt fine about the health of the baby and had planned on being extra careful during the crucial 1st trimester. Then came the surgery. At first I felt good about having the surgery, since we were removing something that shouldn't have been inside of me, and especially next to the baby. But all the medication is what is worrying me. The anastetics during the surgery, the strong pain meds in recovery, the take home pain meds, and the hormones that I am taking for 2 weeks. I trust my doctor, but I know that there are risks involved with everything and that worries me.

I am going to celebrate this Cinco de Mayo with an ultrasound. I get so antsy to go back to the doctor (at least for my scheduled appointments), and I really can't wait for this one. Dr. Brody had mentioned the possibility of determining the gender of bean sprout. I also can't wait to hear his or her heart beat again. Speaking of gender, I believe we have chosen the girl name. At first I wasn't going to tell the names that we picked out and surprise our family and friends at the birth, and then I remembered that I can't keep exciting info in for very long. Drum roll, please.......Harper Magnolia. There is a rather long story as to why I chose Magnolia that I may blog about one day, but basically it is after my Nana. My Nana is very very important to me as she taught me and influenced me more so than anyone ever has. Okay, so for the life of me and Dave we cannot pick out a little boy name for bean sprout. I have came across names that I like but not that I love, hmm....maybe I'll think of something soon.

Yesterday I was searching through the names on the babycenter.com and was blown away by some of the names that I found on there. Now I have looked at several unique names lists, but have yet to see what I saw on baby center. I want to warn you that I will not be naming my child any of these, and felt like these were so outrageous that they deserved mention on my blog. I was looking for mainly boy names but saw a couple of crazy girl names to.

So here goes:
Crazy boy names
fu (really?? Fu Jeffers)
firstborn (this is fitting for us, but no)
fish
froggy
fuzzy (this also could be fitting)
faggot (Seriously, why would someone do this to their child??)
food (I do love food)

Crazy girl names
fakhr (I am not sure if I am saying this one correctly)
hypothetical
haha (this is scrapping the bottom of the barrel)

These were just a few of crazy ones that I saw, and now I want to know where the babycenter.com gets these names from.

Time to get cracking on finishing my papers for my Scientific Writing class, as of this Thursday I will be completely finished with school for a little while. And, I'll have more time to concentrate on getting ready to meet the bean sprout and more time for blogging.

Time for another

I am rather excited about this week, because my 1st doctor's visit is Tuesday. I don't believe that I have ever been so excited about a doctor's appointment before. It will be nice to finally know how far along we are and when to expect to meet the little one. Right now I am guessing that I am about 8 weeks along.

I haven't had much of any morning sickness since the first two weeks (after I found out), but I wish I could get over the constant tiredness. I know that I am asking too much here, but if I could get a 3 week spurt of energy to last me till the end of this semester, that would be fabulous. I have so much to write (for my scientific writing class), but my brain doesn't want to function after 5 PM. At least the end is only 3 weeks away. Other than being tired I am not experiencing any symptoms yet. I haven't noticed a change in what I like to eat or had any cravings yet. Expect wanting to eat all the time, but I always have liked to eat anyway. I wonder when the changes will hit me, like swollen feet or pickle and ice cream cravings or (what I really want to know) when is this baby bump going to make it's debut? By no means am I trying to rush into these, I am just not a big fan of surprises.

This week Dave got a crib on Craigslist, and it was the exact one that I was wanting [woohoo!]. That's one thing checked off the list. Our plan is to clean the "nursery" out and paint the walls as soon as possible. There are a few people at work that have laughed that I just found out that I was pregnant but yet already have the nursery planned. I guess I am still able to plan some things. This past summer we had a painting spree and choose the wrong shade of green for the dining room, but ironically it should work perfect for a gender neutral nursery. For months we have been trying to figure out what we could paint that shade of green and I am happy that it's not going to be a wasted can of paint.

Speaking of the nursery, I was talking to my dad today about the plans for the room and he was saying that it wouldn't be appropriate for a little girl. However, I think otherwise. My color scheme is brown, green (like a muted grass green), and white. The walls will be green, the crib is white, and have I found brown and white bedding that I liked. I like the idea of a woodland theme, but not going overboard with the theme. I have found and fallen in love with tons of owl, squirrel, fox, hedgehog, rabbit, etc things.
For example I saw this swing at Target the other day and got excited that it fit in my plan. I don't see this being too masculine at all. Dad's point was if the room ended up being for a little girl, that it would be all sorts of things that were out in the "dirty outdoors." He also offered some of his deer heads for decoration. Am I right by thinking that this nursery is more for the parents than it is for the baby? I am getting a little giddy about decorating the nursery, I can't wait to prove him wrong.