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!!!