14 weeks left and out of the system

This blog has been sitting open on my desktop for the past four days. I hadn't really felt inspired to write anything worth noting, that was until my very special husband made a comment in the car last night that made my brain click on the lightbulb. I was telling Nate for the millionth time about the car seat (click "car seat" for the link) we needed to get for the baby and how funny it was that this was the only thing we actually needed this time. I kept going on and on about how when I was pregnant with Charly we had a list of "things we HAD to have" in order to successfully raise this child. We certainly would never be able to have a baby without a stroller, crip, swing etc. So this is the point in the conversation when Nate blurts out..."Now we are out of the system". I love him for that! I love that we know better now than to think we need "things" to have another child when all we really need is my warm body to make milk, his loving hugs and perhaps some diapers to catch the poo from W's butt. LOL, but even then, there is always elimination communication....which I may indeed be too lazy to do, I haven't decided yet.

With the prospect of my house transformation almost being done I get to now focus my efforts and energy on the birth. I have to prepare my mind for another journey before I run out of time, I only have 14 weeks left! Crazy how fast this pregnancy has gone by. A couple of my really great birthing books are on loan to another pregnant gal in our ward, but she is due at the end of October so I should be able to seek their wisdom before my time comes. In the meantime I ordered a book called "Spiritual Midwifery" written by one of my favorite midwives, Ina May Gaskin. She has a way of writing that reminds me of the wonderful midwife we had with Piper, everything she says is so calming and normal. I should be getting that in the mail today! 

The girls are doing great, enjoying school, bickering one minute and loving each other the next. Charly is changing so much and Piper is still practicing stunts. This week it was window jumping (She is OK) and reminding Nate and I how grateful we are to have spent the $12,000(paid off) on new windows to replace the 130 year old ones that we had prior. Piper surely by now would have fallen out the old windows and really hurt herself.

I think we are all just getting inpatient with the hot weather we are having but I can smell fall on the doorsteps, I can't wait! This summer has most surely put me into an almost constant bad mood. I can't wait to feel the breeze again! Only a couple more weeks. Right? 

Anyone, right?

*Crickets chirping*

Progress so far

You asked for it...all four of my readers, LOL. While the bathroom is not done just yet here is an update of where it is going. I REALLY love it so far.

Before....(This was before Nate ripped out the entire floor,  you can see behind the red bucket where a wall used to be)

During... (laying down the new leveled floor.)

And after, thus far...

On the right of the picture is where the new sink will go and to the left under the window is where the tub will go when we finish it. I can't wait to see it with the trim and curtains up!

Thoughts?

I had a dream last night, a rather interesting one.....

I was sitting on the couch looking at my freshly born baby girl who was named "W" and she was huge, like 6 months old huge. So big in fact, she couldn't be swaddled in the newborn blanket laying under her. She was so sweet and perfect but all I could do was look at her. I didn't pick her up which is so not like me.

What the heck does this dream mean? I'm not scared of having an overly large baby, perhaps I should be? LOL And what is with me not holding her? Probably because I have mentioned so many times lately how I forget I am even pregnant, maybe psychologically I am not as connected now and I feel I should be more.....which is most likely due to all the construction going on here and my brain constantly thinking of what needs to happen next in the house. This is why I really need to be DONE in a month. I need time to just relish in my pregnancy in the cozy 'new'' house.

So here is an update on the house....

The only major thing I have to do is finish painting the dining room. After that it is all finishing touches, you know, things like curtains and rugs etc. 

The bathroom is coming along beautifully, more amazing that I would have ever imagined. My mom and Kristy coming down to help last weekend made a few week job for just Nate a two day job.(which he appreciates immensely.) The floor looks amazing...and LEVEL! The walls are gorgeous and don't even get me started on the cool new toilet. I will post pics as soon as Nate gets the sink in, which hopefully will be this weekend.

Look who's back!

...well kind of....

I don't know if it's the rebellious nature I have or just complete lack of enthusiasm to paint around the house but on the official first day of public school today I decided to take the girls to the park in the middle of the day and get some pictures. The heat made it very hard for me to get motivated with the camera but I caught a couple of cuties anyhow.

I seriously don't know what I was thinking, the girls had a blast and if Charly hadn't been so sick from spinning on the tire swing for so long I would have got an after shot of them when we were done. Two sweaty little girls who actually wanted to go home after an hour, priceless.

Um, hello but can you please check out Piper's outfit? I don't remember Charly really caring about what she wore until this year but miss Piper is very particular about her style. PS: She will not have anything to do with bows in her hair but is completely open to them around her waist.

These were before their hair got all wild from playing.

Last year on the first day back, we took Charly and did her official Kindergarten pictures as well. Look at how much she has changed!

This was then....

And here is now....

The park was calling their names, perhaps it wasn't the best idea to try and do pictures there. I'm thinking later this week I will take them somewhere in the evening and just focus on pictures so I can get a better 'official first grade' picture.

I love homeschooling and being completely done before lunchtime...most days. How cool is it to get to go the park and have an extended recces any day you want? LOL

Shortly after arriving another homeschooler showed up whom I hadn't talked to much so it was nice to visit while our girls spun themselves out on the tire swing. Who knew there would be someone as crazy as us to come out in the middle of the day during the month of August? It's just unheard of!

So while I may have hit a wall with all my painting, (the dining room is anxiously waiting for me to finish) I certainly feel productive after a day like today. I'm thinking we should do this more often! It isn't every day when they girls cuddle up on the couch with me, both with books and on the edge of falling asleep in the middle of the day. Yes, I think we shall again tomorrow!....errr, maybe.

The money pit

It's Saturday morning, Nate is ripping up the twelve hundred layers of laminate, particle boards, and paneling. Suddenly he calls for me and shows me a sea of termites crawling around on the actual first floor. I call Terminix and their systems are down so they can't quote me or anything. Nate reminds me about a member of our ward who does pest control, so I call him.

Chat, chat, chat...."treating a house will cost over $1,000"...blah blah, I go blank, want to cry. I'm wondering if this is indeed an infestation or did they just show up. We had a termite inspection before we bought the house and it came up clean. As I write this Nate is still talking on the phone with Adam and I want him to get off so I can curl up and cry! One part of me is saying to calm down, it's a good thing we are tearing the floor up, otherwise we wouldn't have this discovery but then the other part of me is knocked down.

Last night I couldn't control my excitement on the bathroom and how it will look when it's done. I mentioned how I was going to give birth in their with the new plan, the layout is way more spread out.

Notice the divider wall has since been removed, the toilet is outside with the tub. Nate also ripped out the sink area. When we get this floor situation taken care of  I have high hopes about what a beautiful bathroom it will be. I just hope termites or rotten wood don't get the best of me.

This will be OK. This will be OK. We have our health, and family. A house is just a house, it will be fine. Besides look at this man who I have by my side to make me laugh through the crazy house episodes....(Ignore the baby trying to escape jail behind us)

Sneak dining room peek

Despite the temperature being over 100 today, Nate and I took an AC break and worked outside for a good portion of the day. I painted and Nate did lawn work. I got one dining room chair completely done and I am loving it, so much so that I joked with Nate I wanted to marry the chair. I'm pretty sure at that point in the day I had my share in the sun. I only have one more coat for the table, which I hand painted and five more chairs to spray paint. Here is the before and after chair, and YES I put vinyl on the seat cushion, LOL.

The fabric is just what I wanted, thank you Dee for helping me!! She took my thoughts and brought them to magical fabric life. The yellow in it is what I am painting the dining room, only Im not painting all the way up, just the bottom half of the walls which Nate will put white trim along the line to separate it from the top half which will be white also. I cant wait to finish the dining room. I think of all the spaces it will be the most transformed.

On another note, not related to my nesting issues....Nate has been trying to get his bike running the past few days and got it going a bit today. I think now all he needs is to fix a leaky tire and register the poor little thing. The girls always get a kick out of riding with him, even if it is just around the house!

Let there be light!

As my nesting adventure continues, painting the stairs was definitely on the to-do list. I love love love these stairs and fell in love with them when we first saw the house but all the dark wood was really starting to just be a buzz kill when I walked through there.

So naturally, what does one do when things are dark? You paint them bright white of course!

Obviously now the space is a little plain and needs some color accents but the major part is over. Almost 11 hours of painting and voila!..... PS, I'm pretty sure I have acquired Carpel Tunnel through the stair painting process, LOL. I literally woke up with a sore hand this morning.

Oh and for those wanting to know what a 130 year old door looks like with a little trim and paint, here you go....This is the quilt Patti made for us before we left Utah, matches perfectly huh? Although I do think I may trade it out sometimes for a modern blanket which I have yet to find. Keeping my eye out for a retro looking comforter with Red, white and brown(but not too much) in the pattern.

Home improvements

Click here to compare with the brown less colorful house with bare walls....

Just for the record, these pictures don't do the living room and playroom justice AT all! But here is what is looks like with a face lift, can you believe I actually have pictures that I took on my wall? I can't either!

Before 

 (That's my BFF Sally slaving away while she was there)

 After....bye bye brown!

These are the old book cases that were brown and got a mega facelift with some white paint and silver knobs, instant entertainment center! PS. Suggestions for something to go above TV? Notice the books are color coordinated, LOL.

And here is my pride and joy in the playroom, which took me FOREVER! That brown molding was tiring to cover, three coats later and I LOVE IT! I have to put the last coat on the corner nook and more molding on the top but other than that it is done! Look at this before and after shot....

Before

After (sorry about the quality of pictures)

A big sigh of relief pours over me to have two major rooms done! Next on my list is to vamp up the stairway with some white paint to accent the trim....Im really hoping that will brighten up the entry way. The bathroom, dining room and kitchen also need a makeover and after getting this big project done, Im super hopeful I will get those all done before Oct. gets here.

My six year old can do this

Click here to see a few shots Charly got alongside Meagan. I can't wait to get these in the mail to hang up! She did such a great job!

Too cool for school

I recently had the pleasure of teaching Meagan the ins and outs of exposure on her new camera. Usually it takes people a while to get the concept of how the different settings apply to each other but with her, she got it almost immediately, even on manual mode, which makes me so proud. She is a prodigy, LOL. I asked her if she would mind doing a session with Nate and I and was super thrilled when she jumped at the opportunity. Lucky for me she loaded them on my computer after she was done and I got first dibs on editing, which is great because I'm trying to perfect my skills in that area.

So here are a couplr from her that I got to edit. I'm was anxious to put my new PS skills to the test with these photos.

The one below has got to be my favorite so far. I love the composition and the B&W conversion I was able to do.  (Forget the crazy eye look I have and the half face Nate has, I just love the way the coloring turned out...did I mention how excited I am to finally have to PS figured out a little bit more?)

Oh and Charly walked around with our Rebel and took some shots of her own. She gave me her input with this one on her new blog. She is VERY excited about having her own blog. Can you blame her? Tomorrow we will fix it up a bit, it was getting pretty late when she wrote that so I told her she could glam it up tomorrow.

I'm thrilled to have pictures of Nate and I for our room, I can't wait to see Meagan's editing and what pictures out of the 400 she likes the best! I will post them as I get them from her.

*House update* Pictures for the living room are ordered and today the girls and I made a trip to IKEA and Target to get stuff for the official playroom. We picked a paint color and hope to start painting  today after school. I will most definitely post pictures when we get everything done. This house is starting to become the home I envisioned for giving birth!