Thursday Thursday

• Anyone else watch Private Practice?  The story with Mason and his mom dying is SO SO sad.  Makes my heart break.  I can't imagine being Erica and having to choose between dying alone and knowing you wouldn't see your son again, or letting him see her shut down and die.  And Mason... I can't imagine either of my boys being told they couldn't see me again.  Heartbreaking!  You bet I bawled like a baby when they said goodbye.  


• My feet.  They are so so fat.  This is at 8:30am.  Sausage toes and swollen ankles.  ICK.  

• And speaking of feet... I painted my toes the other day for the first time since last summer.  Hudson was intrigued and wanted his toes painted too.  He wanted red, but I didn't have any red.  So he wanted pink.  Ryan was not too happy, but Hudson LOVES his pink toenails.  Its hilarious.   And of course when we went to my doctor's appointment he wanted to wear flip flops.  HAHA! 

• Hudson and I spent the afternoon and early evening at the hospital.  I was sent from my routine appointment to L&D and then to have a BPP.  Details on baby's blog. 

• Anyone out there have a front loading washer?  I swear ours stinks (literally).  If laundry isn't swapped over right away they tend to have this weird smell.  Mildewy, kind of.  Ryan has ran different cleaners that are specifically to clean front load washers but still... laundry tends to stink.  UGH.  

Hump Day Ramblings

• SO SO beautiful out today- mid 70's and sunshine! 


• I surprised Porter and picked him up from school and took him to Dairy Queen.  He got a slushy/ice cream float.  Hmm.   We took our goodies to the park and threw rocks in the stream and ate our ice cream. 


• On the way home from work today I heard THE perfect song for baby sis' birth slideshow.  I am in love. 

• This warm weather is amazing, but I so pity women who are preggers in the summer.  I've been swelling up in the evenings the past few weeks, but today at work my feet were like sausages and my hands were all puffy.  Didn't help that the heat is still on at school and our classroom was easily 80*.  ICK!  


• I've decided to take a semi-leave from Facebook.  I'm going to take a break from posting, but will still check occasionally to keep up on friends/family etc.  I want to try to retrain myself to choose Blogger to post on vs. sending a blip to Facebook.   But, I don't want to withdraw completely from FB as it definitely has a time/place in life today.  I just need to refocus my priorities. 


• Do you know who Rev Run is (you know, from Run D.M.C)?  Oh I am so addicted to his "words of widsom".  Love it.  I've been posting them on Facebook (see... again... dissing the blog!) and wanted to write them down here as well.  
• The Lord will make perfect that which concerns me. Psalms 138:8. 
• Solid plan to have a stress free life: Do your best and forget the rest. 
• Being happy doesn't mean everything is perfect, it just means you've decided to look beyond life's imperfections.
• Remember:: The Law of Gods Grace is: When you are down to nothing, Gods up to something!!
• You lessen your blessin when you compare what you have to others. 


• Denise is currently doing a "30 Days of 30" blog posting (the idea started with Lindsay ).  I was bummed I didn't start this in December and document my first 30 Days of 30, but decided... hey, why not start it now?  So, I think I'll be working on those kind of posts for the next 30 days.  Hopefully I can stick with it!


• I've got a couple designs done for baby sis' birth announcement... love all of them so now the hard part is deciding which one to use!  Still no name for this little girl.  I think *I* am down to 3 names... though Ryan is pretty stuck on one in particular.  Her nursery is pretty much done- just need to quilt/bind the quilt, fill in a few frames with artwork/pics on the wall, recover the glider cushions and make a changing pad cover.  I am in love with how her room has turned out.  It is so much better than I ever envisioned!


• My grad class is ALMOST done.  I'm in week 7 and next week is the last week!  I'm behind 2 assignments but... ughhh.  I'm not stressing.  I am not a "must get a 4.0" type of student and this might sound terrible but when the class started one of the first things I did was check the syllabus to see how many points I could possibly miss and still get a B.  HAHA!  It's pretty certain I'll be getting a B or somewhere around there.  I'm just so unmotivated anymore.  

Hump Day Thoughts

• The weather today is gorgeous... 65*, sunny and a slight breeze.  LOVE IT.   Porter didn't have school yesterday and I so wish the boys were home this afternoon instead of yesterday.  We will have to go out and ride bikes or go on a walk tonight (for me... uh... to the neighbors driveway and back  BAHAHAH! Ok... I can attempt further I suppose).


• Goodbye paper snowflakes on the windows... time for a new "springy" project to decorate the windows.  Any ideas?


• I've fallen into a slump of dwelling on the past these last couple days... wishing things were the way they used to be.  Which is silly... I can't change people's decisions and I certainly can't change others' thoughts and feelings.  Its one of those "sad because its over and mourning the loss of what used to be such a great thing" type of things.  Trying to stay positive and move on.


• I'm almost through with my first week of working half days.  Loving it so far, of course, but will probably not love it so much when my paychecks start coming in.  Oh well... I'm summing it up to mental health afternoons.  I need daytime to either rest or get school work/accounting/housework stuff done.  I'm too tired by the time 8:00 rolls around and the boys are in bed.


• I'm sad that we won't be spending spring break in Holden Beach this year, or well, any beach as we usually do.  Trying to keep my eye on the prize and know that baby sis will be well worth missing one annual beach vacay.  There's always next year, right?


• Thank you, yet another person at work, for pointing out that I am waddling. You don't think I realize, you know, between my hips feeling like pliers are ripping them apart and knives are being stabbed into my joints.  Thank you for making me aware of the waddle. And, no, calling me "ducky" is not cute or funny.


• The boys are getting SO SO excited for baby sis to get here.  We have a baby girl doll that is wearing some preemie jammies and the boys play with her in baby sis' room all the time.  They put her in the swing and in the carseat and bouncer, and Hudson likes to lay her on his mine mine's and cover her up.  Almost daily they ask "When will baby sis get here?!" and every time I have a doctor's appointment (every 2 weeks now), Hudson asks if we're going to the doctor to get sissy.  Its sooo cute.  I am going to make a countdown for them, I think, to count down the days until my due date.

Sneak Peek of Sis' Room... so far....

I'm actually preeeettty close to being done... and I'm soo soo happy with how it has turned out so far.  

This afternoon Porter helped me make the 16x24 painting above the crib.  He was so cute painting the flowers... he said "I feel like an artist!"  :-)  I made sure to take a few pics so Sis could see, when she's older, that her big brother helped make this for her.  

The flower/butterfly painting is a combination knock-off of Land of Nod's Butterfly and Flowers wall art.

UGHH.  I still need to recover that rocker.  Any suggestions on fabric/color etc to put on it?  I was thinking a subtle, small patterned, monochromatic fabric... but not sure if that'll be too busy.  Do I go dark?  Light?  More pink?  Orange?  Green?  Brown???

Name Polls!

So... baby girl still doesn't have a name.  We DO have a short list and I am thinking we will probably take that short list to the hospital and name her then.  We are not sharing the names (I'm kind of having fun keeping it a secret!), however, I'm curious as to outsiders' opinions of the names.  I made up a few polls, with a mixture of names we like and some names we used to like and some names that aren't even on our list (you know... to keep it discreet HAHA!).  So... out of each of the 7 pairs, can you choose your favorite?   Thanks!

(And... if you'd like... leave a comment with your top 3 names out of the list!  I'd love to hear!)

Crafty Weekend

This weekend I was pretty crafty... painted a shelf and picture frame for baby sis' room, made a growth chart for a friends new baby boy, finished a painting for Hudson's room and... hmmm... well, the weekend isn't over, is it?!

I thought I'd share some projects here... some from this weekend and some from the past weeks/months.  Things I haven't yet shared on my blog.

So, first up is Growth Charts.  Lately I have been making these for friends for babies' 1st birthdays, births, etc.... it has turned out to be a great, one-of-a-kind gift and I enjoy making them.  Each of my boys have one (see Hudson's... looks like I never posted Porter's!) and I will be making one for baby sis as well.  Jessica just had her 3rd baby, little Abram, and I made this for her.  It matches his room decor (see more here!)

Last summer I made growth charts for Jillian and Lyla, Jane's twins.  These also match their nursery. 

And onto Hudson's room... the poor kid hasn't had any artwork in his room since his nursery pictures.  I started painting this Solar System (knock off from Land of Nod) back in... 2010... 2 years ago really... when I began sewing his quilts for his "big boy bedroom".  I never finished the painting and it has been in the basement ever since.  I finally started to feel bad that Porter's room is all decorated and I've been so obsessed with decorating baby sis' room, but Hudson's was pretty bare and simple. (not to mention his wall is still under construction from 3.5 years ago when we moved in!!)  So... I finished his painting today.  And he's so proud of it.

He loves that "he" is in his picture... in his rocket ship.  He says he is flying to Mars.  Because Mars is red and red is his 'fravorite' color.

 And our upstairs hallway.  Remember it used to look like this?  Well... last fall-ish I updated the wall collage with all beach pictures.  I love the colors!  I pulled some of the red and orange and teal fromt he pictures and used the colors for furniture/accents.  I plan to repaint that chair the aqua color and distress it so some red comes through.  And I'd like to get some teal/orange do-dads to put on the book shelf.  

This wall just makes me so happy.  I love that we have been able to vacation at the beach 1 or 2 times a year.  I love our beach memories!  I'm really bummed we won't be going for spring break this year, but I am so so so excited about taking a trip next spring break with our THREE kids!

 On to baby sis' room.  I still have a ways to go (need to recover rocking chair pad, sew quilt, put up some more wall decor, get a rug that doesn't cost $500.... what else..... )

I'm still debating on location of these wall decor items.  Originally I had planned to put her name (if we ever decide on one) above her crib in the space between the circles.  But I almost would like to put the circles above the dresser and her Sunshine plaque above the crib.  But I'm kind of nervous to put a 2'x2' piece of plywood above the crib.   I would really like to do a wall collage with a mix of vintage prints and photographs... but not sure what wall to do those on.

Here is another crafty craft I did.  I stopped at the thrift store a few weeks ago and found PERFECT sheets to match her room.  I decided to use them to make the crib skirt and I LOVE how it turned out.  I added little pom pom trim to the bottom.  The little patchwork blanket?  That is her "mine mine" (that is what Hudson has dubbed his little blankies... his mine mine's).

OOohhkay.  I think that's about enough craftiness for today!

A little DIY Weekend

Awhile back I saw this wall art from Etsy and fell in love.  I really wanted it for the baby's room, and knew I could recreate something similar on my own.  Little did I know it actually would be pretty darn easy (though I think what they are charging is completely reasonable for the time it took!).

First off, I wanted to do a 34x34 board like shown, but I had the option at Menards of a 24x24 ($4.98) and a 48x48 ($15) which I would have cut down.  I decided for the cheaper price to go smaller.  I figured if I wanted to I'd be able to mix other things on the wall along with the wall art.

So, I started with a 2'x2' piece of sanded plywood.  I let the boys go to town painting 3 different shades of pink on it (I let it be messy with some bare spots as well... this would be the under coat so it wouldn't really matter).  They have been really helpful in all the nursery projects and I'm glad they're getting to be a part of preparing for Sis' arrival.

After that dried, I put a nice coat of a light mango orange color, and then over top lightly brushed/glazed some burnt orange.  Then, let it all dry. 

I had to do a little Photoshop handiwork to get the "stencils" for the wording, but luckily it wasn't very tricky just slightly time consuming.  I used the fonts Marcelle Script and Tin Doghouse for this.  I created a 24"x24" canvas in PS, laid out my lettering exactly how I'd want it to look on the board and then cropped out 9 different 8"x10" sections (the bottom section being 8"x4" which I resized that canvas to 8x10).  Then I printed all the 8"x10" pieces out, taped them together like a puzzle and voila!

The next part was a little trial and error.  First I attempted to cut out the letters (and got "Yo" cut out and decided that was taking too long).  This method also would have left me with lots of pencil outlines (ick). The next method I tried was just tracing the rest of "You" and using the imprint in the wood as my outline.  That was easier but the imprint was still tricky to see (probably would have been easier in daylight, though).  The final method, which was my favorite, was to color pencil all over the back of the paper and use that to "carbon copy" onto the wood when I traced the lettering.  This worked nicely... it left a faint pencil outline but it covered up well when I painted.  

So, then I painted in the letters...  (I put one full coat on and then went over some lighter spots with a second coat, but didn't worry too much about it being super even).

And finally I sanded (after it dried).  I used some hand sanding (with sandpaper) but found that the orbital sander was much quicker and easier.  

And... voila!  I just need to put the hanging hardware on and put it up!  

Teeth, Sports, Careers and Babies

-Porter lost his 2nd tooth last night.  It'd been wiggly for a few weeks and Oma had told Porter the other day that if he pulled his tooth out before Saturday's Christmas she'd give him $2.  Last night he asked me, out of the blue, "Mom, do you want me to pull my tooth out?"  I said I didn't care (because, really??) and he walked into the kitchen, got a towel, came back into the living room and pulled that baby out in a second and said "Oops, there it is! I pulled it out!"  So random.  HAHA! Not sure if he was motivated more by the money promised by Oma or that he wanted to pull his 2nd tooth out before Aubri pulled hers out.

-Porter started basketball on Thursday.  It should be interesting... they had one practice (Thurs) and have a game next Saturday.  As usual, Porter was the only kid on his team (there are 6 kids) that was dinking around with his shorts, hands in his pocket, hopping and spinning around while the coach was instructing them on drills.   He said it was boring because he didn't get to play... but doesn't get that he has to LEARN how to play in order to PLAY.  Duh.  The child has no attention, I swear.   So... we're holding him to playing this season (just until the end of Feb) because he is the one that initiated that he wanted to play basketball and the money is paid already.  I hope that he enjoys it after they start playing games.

-I decided to drop my Master's classes.  I am taking a different direction (approach, mindset etc..) and just getting my 18 credits in a planned program to move onto my professional license.  The past few months I've become more at peace with where I am at with my work/career path at this time.  The bottom line was that I'm not sure when I'll be fulltime and I don't want to spend the next 4 years busting my butt to get my Masters degree and have it possibly over-qualify me and hold me back from getting hired in full time.  College will be there later.  Masters degrees will be there later.  One on one days with the kids?  They're limited.  And I'm so glad I have made that discovery now rather than later.  My kids are only little for such a short period of time and I want to try to focus on them and not so much on building a career.  Sure, I'd love to be teaching full time but I also know that that would mean less time with my kids (no Friday-Mom-Days, more time planning at home etc) and right now I'm okay with not being full time.  I'm okay with putting the extra time into the boys (and soon baby sis) and viewing it as a blessing rather than a setback.  Sure, it may mean a few more years of doing photography more than I'd like, and it may mean driving my rusty but paid-off van instead of getting something shiny and new but I am choosing to be thankful for my Fridays with Hudson right now and thankful that I have been blessed with photography skills and a prosperous part time business that helps fill in the gaps when we need it to.

-Baby Sis (as we've come to call her) still does not have a name.  We have a few top contenders (and really, though, Ryan is pretty set on one name) but I'm not 100%.  I don't have an absolute favorite, but feel pulled by one in particular.  I don't know.  Regardless, we've decided to keep her name to ourselves until she is born.  Even if we decide I feel that this time I need to SEE her to be settled on her name.

Her room is coming along nicely!  Her walls are a light light spring green (very pale yellow/green).  New curtain rods have been hung and the curtains have been made (by me!) and hung.  We purchased a dresser at a resale shop and it was a pale yellow (which was pretty in itself but it clashed with the wall color) and I repainted it pink and distressed it so the yellow shows through in spots.  It is beautiful.  I love love love it.  I've attempted to work on her quilt today but only got so far as to cut out the 5" squares.  My sewing machine has taken a dump on me.  So, hopefully I'll get some progress done on that soon!  I still need a rug for her room though I kind of want to get the bedding done first to see if I need color or something neutral.  I wanted to do pink, but now that I have the curtains up I am leaning towards wanting something shaggy and cream/white colored.  We'll see.