One Week Down

Frances Harper has been home for one week now. She is doing great, and my sanity is still holding on by a thread. By anyone's standards, we can mark the week up to a success.

As a new mother, I have already learned several important things...

1. I enjoy leaving her with other people. Michael and I left her with my parents for twenty minutes while we went and picked up pizza last night. This time apart helped me decompress and have an enjoyable evening.  My sanity would probably stand a better chance of survival if I was able to relax when me and her are in the same location.

2. The possibility of a fretful baby in the afternoon is worth a cup of coffee in the morning.  Lets face it, even without the coffee there is a 50/50 chance she will be fussy. So, I might as well be well caffeinated.

3. A good night's sleep consist of getting a solid fuss-free-hour-and-a-half between EVERY feeding.

4. Sleeping in the crib is over rated. Also, I will do anything to accomplish number 3. We will worry about attachment issues later.

5. An outfit change is only necessary if a diaper has malfunctioned. I think this one pretty much explain's itself.

6. And most importantly... sometimes, you are just shooting for survival.

Welcome to the World Baby Girl!!

As many of you know, Frances Harper came screaming into the world last Friday.  Luckily, she has not spent too much of her time since screaming (Well, except for a brief period Monday... but I won't get ahead of myself). 

We are all home now and settling in nicely. She is an extremely good baby. With three nights under our belts, we are all starting to feel more confident that 1) we will not break her and 2) we actually know enough to usually figure out what is upsetting her. The only real question is whether or not we are able to fix whatever that is. 

(This is all a lead up to me telling you about her first doctor's appointment.)

On Monday, Frances Harper had her first doctor's appointment. Auntie Frantie and I got her looking all cute and she was pretty content when we got to the pediatrician's office and we were shown into our room. They asked that we undress her down to her diaper and change her if she was dirty. We got her clothes off and checked her diaper. It was clean. And then, just as I thought, "Wow, this taking a baby out isn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be" she did her poopie squirm. Yep, things had gotten messy. 

No biggie though, we had come prepared. We got her cleaned up with only a little fussing, and she was calming back down. Things were going to be okay!... this was the last positive moment. Next came weighing her-- naked on a cold scale. She screamed. I fretted. Then she was laid down, still naked, and manually stretched out to measure her length. She screamed some more. I fretted some more. Then her joints and reflexes were tested... and she really SCREAMED. By this point I was ready to cry too. I just wanted my baby to stop crying.

Then she peed all on the doctor (who handled it all in stride).

Finally, after declaring her in the best of health, we quickly dressed Frances Harper and Frantie took her to the car to cry in peace. She slept the whole way home without so much as a peep. 

We have all mostly recovered. The good news is... we get to go back on Friday!!

Hope everyone is having a great Tuesday!!!

Cooper Salad

As I have written about before, Cooper has an itching problem. You may remember the Cooper Cone Head post? His itching is an ongoing battle.

Last weekend, my parents bathed Cooper with some new shampoo, soothing oatmeal with a Green Apple scent. Yum. He has been itching all week as a consequence of this. So, this morning he got another bath with unscented Aveeno body wash that 'gently cleanses and moisturizes to soothe itchy, dry skin'. No yum factor there, but that is okay. Then things got interesting, and the bath was followed with an apple cider vinegar dousing.  You may be thinking, "Apple cider vinegar's pretty mild. That doesn't sound that bad." My response to this would be, "Do you know how much vinegar it takes to douse a German shepherd?"

The long and the short of it is, Cooper smells similar to a salad. Not a scent you usually associate with a dog. I am not sure this is an improvement over dog smell or not because it keeps you guessing, "What is that smell. Oh, yeah. It's Cooper."

And lest you think this treatment was something we dreamed up, it's on the internet. So, it has to be true.

Happy Wednesday!

Our New Home

We are finally in the house, and I have some pictures for your viewing pleasure (sorry for the poor quality... as evidenced, I am not a professional photographer).

First off...

We have our living room. Our previous house was about 800 square feet. Our new living room feels about that same size. Well, it may not be that big, but the room is about 17 feet long. We brought some outdoor chairs in to fill in some of the space. Those are below. You can see that Macy has acclimated pretty well, or at least she is keeping an eye on her couch.

As this picture shows, we still do not have interior doors up. Well, we do have an old one on the bathroom. We are not a couple who feels the need to share EVERYTHING.

Besides lots of space, another thing we did not have at our old house was a fire place. And while this one does not work properly yet, decorating its mantel made the whole room feel much homier. 

Next to the living room, we have the dinning room...

We have eaten at the table every day since moving in. It all feels very domestic. And last, and most certainly least, we have our kitchen. 

Our new stove arrives on Friday so that big hole next to the refrigerator will be filled in then. The ugly floors and cabinets will take more time to fix, but I can be patient. Maybe. 

So, with three weeks to spare, we are now somewhat ready for Frances Harper's arrival. Whew, just thinking about all the work that went into making this happen makes me tired. Is 8:30 am too early for a nap?

*Full disclosure, I am not sharing pictures of the office or the master bedroom because they are complete disaster zones with lots of miscellaneous items that I don't know where to put. We hope to have all of that cleaned up before we move to our next house.

Have a great Tuesday!!!

Family Fun Day

I know I have written about how great my family is, but... I am going to talk about it again. So brace yourselves for some family envy…

We have finally wrapped up the painting in the living spaces (Thank you, Mama) and are getting some final touches done for Saturday to be the big moving day (Thank you, Daddy -- more on what he is up to further down).

Yesterday, we tackled a good scrubbing of the kitchen. I say 'we', but I really mean my mom and grandmother spent six hours cleaning brown gunk out of there. I had never seen cabinets so dirty that after wiping them several times your rag would still come away brown. It was all very educational. This was also true of the pantry shelves. Which I had been very nervous to put my packaged food on, but now could probably eat directly off them (Thanks Granny!!). Here is a shot of her in action…

While they were both hard at work inside, my grandfather pressure washed the outside.

They were both super helpful, and it was nice that I got to spend the day with them. They probably would just as soon have me come over to there house and spend the day with them :).

But wait… THERE'S MORE!!

Let there be light! The foyer no longer feels dark and closed off, and now it has a pretty view of the trees outside. 

Yesterday, was a very productive day at the house. Prior to now, the house has mostly stressed me out because of the work that needed to be done before we moved with time ticking away towards Frances Harper's arrival. Now though, thanks in large part to my family and the work they have put in, I am excited. The house is looking more complete, and we are going to be in it on Saturday!! Tune in for pictures of a sparsely furnished home on Monday.

What!? Okay, I will go hide now.

We have all done it. Well, we have all at least heard the horror of someone else doing it. Ewww NO!, not that 'it'.  I am talking about uttering those words, "Oh, when is your baby due?" Only to be told in response, "What? I'm not pregnant." Then, you're engulfed by the feeling of wanting to die.

My friend Megan, asked her son's teacher when her baby was due. The teacher wasn't pregnant, and Megan had to see her pretty regularly when she dropped her son off at school. Their conversations were strictly school related after that. Could have been worse. Well, no not really… but, who doesn't lie to comfort a friend?

I made this dreaded  mistake when I worked at Patagonia. I asked a customer (who was moving to New Zealand), if she was moving before or after her baby was due. This comment was followed by "What?! I 'm not pregnant." This is probably the MOST embarrassing moment of my life. Keep in mind, I perspired so much in math class once in high school that it appeared I had wet my pants; bad, not just a slight damp spot. The teacher commented. That was HIGH SCHOOL, the most embarrassing time of life, and I had to walk around in the pants until they dried.

The pregnancy moment tops that. After I made this verbal fumble, I hid in the bathroom until the customer had left the store.

In light of this defining moment, I have been waiting for someone to ask me when my baby is due so that I can reply, "What? Oh, I am not pregnant." Mean? Probably, but I also think it would be really funny. I am sure my victim would laugh about it afterwards. Alas, I am running out of time. It would would be funny though.

Crunch Week

So, Saturday is the big day. WE ARE MOVING!!! This means we are only about a month behind schedule on everything. If you don't know anything about do-it-yourself home repair, that is pretty good! Here are some of the completed rooms that Mama and I have been working on.

Dinning Room… check. Let's all just take a moment to admire that wainscoting. Ohhh. Ahhh. The really special part about wainscoting is that it hides all of the wall-paper damage.

Here is the living room… 

And, the hall. Nothing too exciting about this room, but let me tell you all those doors add up. This area seemed never ending. Similar to this movie I went and saw with Michael recently. Did any of you see The Grand Budapest Hotel? If not, save yourself the money and just paint your trim. 

We hope to finish up the painting in the kitchen today, work on the master bedroom on Wednesday, and give the house a good scrubbing Thursday and Friday. This may all be slightly over ambitious, but we like to aim high (How do you think we got a month behind schedule?).

Many small and big things will still need to be done once we move in, but that will slowly be checked off the list as time and money permit. These include projects such as: painting the cabinets, purchasing/installing light fixtures, re-doing the bathrooms, furnishing the living room... this goes on and on. Now that the whole place is looking much more habitable than it did originally, this list makes me excited for all of the improvements to come. I am amazed at the transformation that has taken place over the past few months. Just imagine how it will look after a year!

My Magnolia

This is my magnolia tree. I received this tree for Christmas from my grandparents when I was about 7 years old. I am sure as you read this, you are thinking that is a nice gift. Keep in mind I was not some super Earth-conscious kid. Now, imagine your cousins got a trampoline that year, and you got a tree. In my grandparents' defense, my mother told them that my sister and I wanted trees. I think we all know that really it was my mother who wanted two trees. My sister's was a weeping willow. It died.

At the age of 26, I really like my tree.

In honor of all of this, we thought it would be nice if Frances Harper had a tree. But, I wanted to spare her the disappointment of receiving it as a Christmas gift. 

This is Frances Harper's tree, a Newport Plum. While it looks pretty small in the picture, it is about 5 feet tall right now and will grow rapidly. My mom planted it up near the end of her driveway. As it gets bigger, my dad is going to build a bench to go under it, and Frances Harper can sit there while she waits on the bus. (Michael and I will eventually move over here, so this is where she will be catching the bus.)

Now, we just have to keep it alive.  

It's Official. She Is Arriving Early!

I am not ready for Frances Harper to arrive, but I am ready to not be pregnant anymore. We are hoping to move into the new house on June 28th, and she can arrive anytime after that. You hear me Frances Harper?! If she wanted to give me a couple of days to get settled, that would be great. So, it would be perfect if she came on July 4th. She would get a parade every year for her Birthday!!! Except... we don't really go to the parade (in Forsyth County steam engines are involved, and they are SUPER LOUD!!!). Also, who wants to stand outside in July? But, fireworks are cool.

I took a labor prediction quiz this morning though and here are my results.

A week early is better than nothing, but I am not sure how I feel about 13 hours of labor. 

The quiz was very scientific, and my results are based on when Michael and I were born. I was a planned c-section so… I figure that skewed my numbers some. Michael on the other hand, WAS NINE DAYS LATE!!! This explains some things about his personality -- he never goes anywhere in a hurry. If I was Monica, I would still hold this against him. 

Hopefully, Frances Harper is already learning to be her own person and is not going to follow either of our examples (especially Michael's).

Everyone keep their fingers crossed for July 4th!!!

We Have a Crib!!

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great Father's Day.

We made some excellent progress on Frances Harper's room over the weekend (I was no part of this. It was all Michael and my mother-in-law, Monica). We now have her crib set up and her dresser, with most of her clothes, in place. My mind is some what eased by the fact that if she arrived today, we would at least have some where for her to sleep. Although, she better not come this early because Michael is in the midwest all week for work.

I had originally picked out this bedding for Frances's room, but...

After laying awake for a couple of nights worrying about it (literally), I decided to order some different bedding, and when I saw this next selection, it was love at first sight. 

This set is from a company called Cotton Tales. Isn't it pretty!? We did not get all of the pieces pictured above. I am not sure what a couple of those things are. Is the thing on the right a dress to match her bedding? Also, what is that in the upper left? Here is a picture of Frances Harper's crib. I think she will be extremely happy with her bedding. 

She will be here in five weeks!!! Hopefully, we will be living in the house by then. My energy level has hit an all time low in the last week, so… things have started moving even slower. Luckily, I was blessed with some amazing parents who are still plodding away at the list of things that need to be done. 

Hope everyone's week is off to a great start!!

A Crowning Achievement (Too predictable?)

I shared before about the deal we were getting on crown moulding (it was discard from a job my dad worked on… so the deal we got was, IT'S FREE!!) This was excellent because setting up a new home is expensive and saving pennies is excellent. The only problem was that there was not quite enough crown mould to do all of the house. As I mentioned, saving pennies is excellent, so I decided we would not put crown moulding in the hallway. BUT, we would put it in the foyer, and we would just stop it where the foyer becomes the hallway. The picture below shows how the trim would look where the walls turn and become hallway.

I told my builder I wanted to do this. He was not a fan. He said this would look odd. So… we have crown moulding in our hallway. Now that it is up, I really like it. So… point for Daddy for being right. With the crown molding up, the rooms (and the hallway) all look much more finished than they did previously, which excites me with the notion that we will eventually be able to move in. I am consistently amazed that such a simple addition has such a large impact on a room. I also wonder though, would I miss it if I had never had it? Had we gone with my plan would I walk through my house and think, "This hallway should would look better with some crown moulding"?

Here is a progress picture to hold you over until I am able to show the complete set of finished rooms!

Have a great Thursday!!!

A Bacon Brainstorm

My mom buys lots of spinach, but she does not eat lots of spinach. She also hates to waste food and frequently says, "Pretend this is the depression" to get us to eat food we believe is past its prime. Today, she asked that I have spinach for lunch because it was beginning to go bad. I figured if I had to eat spinach, I might as well make it super tasty with some bacon. Voila, I had a BLT. 

The sandwich was SUPER tasty, but not so incredible that I felt the need to share it with y'all. What was incredible is that I cooked the bacon in the microwave. I know people do this, but it is has never occurred to me to try it. I have been wasting my time. I had six perfectly cooked slices of bacon in three and half minutes. THREE AND HALF MINUTES!!!! I usually cook it in the oven and spend 10-15 minutes looking at it through the window in the door waiting for it to be done. I am probably going to be on a bacon eating tirade now that I know how quick-cooking bacon an be (Michael will be very supportive of this).

Has anyone else belatedly stumbled upon a trick that blew their mind? I feel as though I just caught up to what millions have known all along. 

Bees a'Buzzing

First off, sorry there was no post yesterday. We are pushing to get all of the tedious painting done, which means my days have gotten a little hectic/exhausting. I just keep telling myself, it will all be over soon and Frances Harper will be here. YAY!!! (t-minus six weeks!!!)Then I will be able to focus on easy projects (wink, wink), such as redoing the kitchen cabinets and taking care of a baby -- one task I have no experience at.

Now, segueing into what I had originally been going to talk about… 

Did it rain last night at your house? The weather has been really strange this summer. We get a good rain every few days here. Usually by this point, we are having to break out the watering wands and turn a blind eye to water restrictions in order to keep the flowers alive. Not this summer though, and I would like to tell you why that is. 

All of this rain, which is so good for the flowers, is a result of me buying a house with a possible foundation problem. According to the inspector and the specialists that were called out, our house has settled slightly more than usual because the dirt around the foundation is so damp. Damp dirt compacts more than dry dirt, and the dirt is damp because the yard is not draining properly. Their opinions were -- it took it thirty years to develop the two current cracks in the cinder blocks, and it could be done settling or it could take thirty more years for it to become a real issue… OR we need to have four piers put in to stabilize it. We just have to wait and see. (We knew all of this before we sealed the deal.)

I of course am hoping the cracks have stabilized. But while I wait and see, I want the dirt to remain dry just in case it has not stabilized. Instead though, it is raining every other night. Argh!!

There is a lesson here, that I am working hard to keep sight of. There are always going to be problems that I can do nothing about, and sometimes you just have to wait and see and know that it will all be okay. 

So, for now, I am just going to look at the flowers that are going gangbusters and watch the bees buzzing around. BUT, if you want to send up a prayer for some slightly drier weather, who am I to stop you.

Have a great Tuesday!!

Coopie Cone Head

Cooper's mojo has really taken a beating the last couple of weeks. He got his haircut last week, and this week, he got a cone to wear. He is falling less into the handsome and more into the cutie patootie category now. Macy needed some competition.

He is reading over my shoulder and wanted it known that he is still just as ferocious (or should I say fuurrocious) as ever.

Cooper is having to wear a cone because he likes to snuffle. This is where he licks and bites at one spot until it bleeds (it is really common amount German shepherds). He always is inclined to this, but with the shorter hair he was making several spots on himself. Also, he was keeping me awake at night doing this. So… now he is a cone head. 

Now he can not snuffle, and I get the added amusement of watching him try and navigate with a cone on his head. He runs into a lot of things!

Hope everyone is having a better week than Coopie. Happy Thursday!!

Knobs and Globs

Because we are moving into the new house later than planned and are getting close to Frances Harper's arrival, I am trying to have everything for her nursery ready to go. That way, when we do finally get in the house, we just have to set her stuff up and then wait for her to arrive.

With this in mind, I am painting her changing table/dresser this week. She will be using the same dresser that I had when I was little. This is also the dresser my sister used in college, and she felt the need to paint it turquoise. I think she would have second guessed this had she been responsible for repainting it when she was done using it.

I am restoring the dresser to its original color of white. If you are wondering how many coats of white paint it takes to cover up turquoise, the answer is three. I am putting the coats on pretty thin though, so as to avoid globs and runs.

After the first coat, I decided it would be easier to remove the knobs than to paint around them. I also was having trouble getting the underside of the knob painted while it was still on the drawer. After the second coat, I decided to break out the roller. 

Now that I have removed the knobs, I am thinking of painting them a color besides white. I could paint them purple to match her closet door, or I could paint them some other color. White seems nice and classic though. 

Here We Come A Caulking Among The Leaves So Green...

Happy Monday! I know that a lot of people do not like Mondays, but when I worked in an office, Mondays were my favorite day of the work week. I was well rested, and I had forgotten all the stresses of last week. By Wednesday, I was ready for the week to be over. Monday was good though.

Moving on, I mentioned last week that I am working on some tedious tasks over at the new house. I am caulking trim. Caulking can be, and often is, messy and frustrating. The end result though makes the aggravations worth it. I spent an entire summer caulking one of my parent's rental properties. The house is over a hundred years old and instead of sheet rock the walls are individual boards. Each board had to be caulked. Just another example of fun times at the Thornton house. I comfort my self with
reassurances that this will not be that bad.

Here is a small tidbit of my work…

And here is a bit of what is left to be done…

There is more than just that bit yet to be done, but why focus on the negative? Doesn't the caulked trim look more finished than the un-caulked?

To keep morale high, I break my work up into hour long segments. I work for an hour, and then I go home. This helps me from becoming completely depressed about all of the caulking, and it gives the pregnant body a break from constantly being bent over -- most of what I am caulking is baseboards. For hoots and giggles, you can try bending over with a basketball in your shirt and give yourself heart burn. So, the work gets done one hour at a time. Slow? Yes, but it works for us. 

I am not going to include a tutorial about caulking because you basically just squeeze caulk onto a crack and smooth it out. Sounds easy. The reality of the the job is only revealed in the actual execution of these seemingly simple steps. So if the unknown appeals to you, feel free to go buy some caulk and give it a go. 

Have a great Monday!!!!

Turtle Pace

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

Another week is almost over. I found this critter on the side walk this morning.

I think he is commuting to work, putting in a long day at the office before heading home to Mrs. Turtle.

Things over at the new house are moving at about his speed. We are down to some tedious bits that are not that fascinating while in progress but will really be nice once they are done. These bits include: caulking, priming door frames, painting trim. Things have slowed down even more because I lost two of my best helpers to the beaches of South Carolina. They left behind two understudies, but…

Well, they just want to stay in bed. 

There is always next week to be productive. I expect real panic to set in then because we will only be seven weeks out from Frances Harper's arrival. I work best under pressure. At least I hope that is true. 

Have a great weekend!

It's Movie Time

Sorry that today's post is so late, but we finally figured out how to upload our video. Turns out, the key is to post it to YouTube first. So without further ado, here is the post I wrote for Tuesday and then revised for Wednesday... only to post Thursday night. 

Continuing on the the Memorial weekend re-cap theme... I wanted to share another bit of our weekend with y'all. Fortunately, I have no other stories that involve the loss of massive amounts of hair. Although, my mom also got her summer hair-do on Tuesday. 

Anyway... Michael and I spent last Saturday visiting some of his family at his Grandfather's house in Eatonton, GA. His house is about two and half hours from home, and I created a video house tour to take with us because his Grandfather has not seen the new house. AND NOW (imagine this being said in a big stage voice) FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE, I bring you The House Tour.

This should put to rest any notions that I have been leading a secret life in the movie business. Although, I do expect to hear from Hollywood any day now.

"Argghhhh!" (Dogs look at me in confusion)

Technology is wonderful. I know this. I am not experiencing this, but I know it. Maybe if I believe in it hard enough...

I have spent the last two days attempting to post a video tour of the house that I made last weekend. If you visit the blog daily, you know that this has not come to fruition. When I kept getting error messages yesterday, I called tech support and got him (Michael) working on it right away. You probably know where this is going because you are reading this story instead of watching my super cool (and I mean SUPER COOL) video right now. I am still getting error messages. They make me emit a growling noise that unnerves the dogs.

This in fact is not the only technology glitch I have run into this week. I spend most days over at my parent's house, and I enjoy a nice toasted sandwich for lunch on occasion. Yesterday was one of these occasions. Their stove top has a light that indicates if one of the burners is on. Super handy, right? Yes, except now the light is stuck on. No burner is on. Light is on. Solution: turn breaker off.

To add insult to injury -- I typed this post twice because the computer encountered a glitch when I tried uploading a picture and would not let me save or publish or type. I had to close out and start over. So in honor of today, I will leave you with this thought: SAVE OFTEN!!

Now, I am going to console myself with watermelon. Happy Wednesday.

His Summer Do

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. Ours was busy but good. Michael and I both cursed him yesterday when his alarm went off at 6:00 am.

One of the most exciting things that happened this weekend, is Cooper's new haircut. As I am sure you have noticed from other photos that I have posted, Cooper is a German Shepherd. This means that he has VERY thick fur. This also means that he sheds A TON during the summer and always seems to be hot. So after much campaigning on my part, Cooper got a summertime hairdo.

He took it like a trooper. Yes, we are calling him Super Trooper Cooper.  Of course, we also have the requisite lion style tail. He loves it. 

Hope everyone else's summer kick off was fabulous. 

Teaser Alert!!

Hello, All!!

Here is a teaser of a progress report for what I am working on done this week, lest y'all think I am being lazy. Full confession, I do spend about half of my day being lazy, but the other half I am productive (I would insert a smiley emoticon here, but I am feeling a bit more professional than that today. After all, I used the word 'lest'. So, just imagine one there… and here).

Teaser pic #1

On a different note, I do not understand why almond colored light switches were all the rage back in the day. Or maybe this is just my dad's favorite color, because every house I have lived in has them. For those of you who do not know, I have only lived in houses my dad built. This includes the one I just bought from a complete stranger. My dad helped build it thirty years ago. So, I know who to blame for all of the things that are wrong with it, starting with the almond light switches (smiley emoticon here).

Teaser Pic #2

I am waiting to post full room shots until next week. Most of the trim will go down this weekend, and I want y'all to get the full affect of the completed rooms, but in the mean time you can salivate over the painting progress that is happening.

One area of the house that I do not think will ever seriously be included in a progress report is Michael's office. This room is the ugly step child while we focus on getting the rest of the house Frances Harper ready. For those who have seen our current office, you know that it may remain ugly forever. Those in the know is a group consisting of just Michael and me because NO ONE sees the office. It is that bad.

Hope everyone has a great Thursday!! 

Playing and Planning

Do any of y'all play the lottery?

I do, weekly. I play Mega Millions on Tuesdays and Saturdays. I want to win, but honestly, I enjoy planning out exactly what I would do with the money.

There would be no boats. No mansions. no fancy cars. Well, I am addicted to Royal Pain, the TV show, and it tempts me to buy a place in The Hampton's. Maybe along the lines of Mrs. Newburg's place? Or, this one would do.

I plan out how much I would give my parents, how my sister's  allowance would work. I plan what I would purchase for my house (I wouldn't buy a new house); I plan the type of car I would get, Subaru Forester. I also plan out how I would explain my extra funds (some of you may be thinking, 'no one would ask', you obviously do not know my family).

I would tell no one that I won (for those that telling would unavoidable, nondisclosure agreements would be involved). Also, Michael would keep working.

I know I would be ecstatic if I won, but I get more than two dollars worth of fun out of just buying the ticket and planning. This all to say, last night I matched no numbers. I rarely match a number, but I keep playing and planning anyway.

Two Days and Two Months To Go

As the title suggest, I am counting down the days until I am internally alone again. As I type this I can see movement rolling across my belly.

There are many things I miss about not being pregnant. Here are a few of them: diet coke, sleeping on my stomach, hard physical exertion, diet coke, being able to move easily. I miss the fatigue of a long run and sore muscles in places other than my back. 

While I do not enjoy being pregnant, this pregnancy has given me a great amount of free time. This time has encouraged me to try new things, such as blogging. Also, I get to spend my days doing exactly as I please (for the most part). This time has been a mini-retirement of sorts and has allowed me to learn a couple of things about myself. 

I have learned that I need daily goals and accomplishments or I quickly become depressed. These do not have to be major things. In fact, they can be as small as doing our weekly grocery shopping and vacuuming the house, but for sanity, I have to get at least a couple of productive things done every day. 

I have also learned that I need companionship more than I previously thought. I thought I was always fine on my own, but now I know that I am happier when I have a couple of people or dogs to interact with. 

These are my two most constant companions. Such cuties!!! 

I am sure once Frances Harper is here I will look back on these quiet and physical cumbersome days with longing, but right now I am just ready to have my body back. So, heres to 62 days left! 

Happy Tuesday!

Fumes, Fumes, FUMES!!

Floor fumes, primer fumes and paint fumes are abounding at the new house! Here is an update on some recent jobs that got completed without this pregnant person's participation because we could not find a VOC free primer, and we want Frances Harper to be one smart cookie. So, I was benched for these jobs, except for offering support and guidance of course.

The first update is THE FLOORS!!! A job I would not have been a part of even if I was not prego.

Pretty floors, shiney floors, ohhhhhh FLOORS! (Cloudy Mondays call for lots of exclamations. Consider yourself warned.)  

All of our trim has now been primed. I repeat ALL of our trim is primed! Sprayers and free laborers come in super handy for such jobs. Hey, Daddy!

Here we have his other half and our other free laborer. Hey, Mama! (Aren't my parents great?) She is working on cleaning and priming the windows.

We also got our interior doors all painted. As you can see from the photo, we chose the $30, six panel doors over the $60 five panel doors that we were considering. I am still coveting this, so saving $ is important (dreams are important). 

I thought this was a very clever way to arrange the doors. You can see that are balanced on a couple of boards at the bottom and have one, to which they are secured with a short nail, running along the tops of all of them. This way all sides are accessible and they do not take up much room. 

One other thing also got primed this weekend…

… Frances Harper's room!!!

We primed it with a product made by Kilz that is designed to even out the differing textures of sheetrock and sheetrock mud. The primer takes away the sheen of the sheetrock mud that can bleed through your paint and leave a visible shiny spot on your freshly painted wall. The only draw back is that it is oil based; of course, it is also very fumey.  For those of you who have used oil based, you know how awful it is. We should avoid dwelling on such nightmares. 

Hope everyone else had a great weekend!!

Doors Galores

Happy almost the weekend!!

Michael and I have an exciting weekend planned for the new house. We will be purchasing new interior doors and priming the trim, if the weather cooperates. The trim will get primed outside, so we need everyone to pray for no rain!

We are hoping this changes by tomorrow! Weathermen are consistently wrong so… hope springs eternal. 

The interior doors we currently have are similar to the ones below, only imagine this one in that nice greenish stain. These are not doors I can live with. Well, I could if there was no other option, but I would stare at them daily and wish they were different. If I was more of a free spirit, I would be tempted to say that we just won't have any doors for a while, but I am not an exibitionist. So… we are going to replace them.

While my first choice would be solid wood doors, stained the same color as the floor, that is a touch out of our price range. (A solid pine door is a little over $100.00 and this is not our forever home. Our forever home already has them.) 

I have narrowed down our door options to the following two. We would not buy it in blue, but I thought the blue was easier to see than the all white one. 

The five panel one (door on the right) is a little over $60 and the six panel door is a little over $30. I have until this evening to decide if the extra cost is worth it to me. The good new is we only need 7 doors. Part of me says, I will be using them and looking at them every day, so I should get the ones I really like. The other part of me says, it is just a door and anything is better than what is currently there. 

Decisions. Decisions. 

Thoughts? Is anyone else have home decisions to make this weekend?

Also, for anyone wondering about a floor update -- because I can not walk on the floors I am not really able to get any good pictures of them. So, tune in next week for progress pictures!