Ah, Yes - The Bathroom

Well one room we finished over the weekend was our second bathroom. There are a couple of things that we'd like to do over time, but we put a lot of work into it already (in my opinion). We repainted, changed most of the hardware, and tried to make it seem like "ours".

Here are a couple of "before" pictures. Sorry about that black dot that's in so many of our photos.... it's something underneath the lens, and we're too busy/lazy to change it. :) And yes, this window was painted orange.


These are a couple of "afters". I realize I'm not very skilled at taking pictures of rooms, so you'll have to use some imagination. It looks a lot better in person, if I do say so myself. :)


We are pretty lucky to have two pretty decent sized bathrooms. Coming from a place with one small bathroom, I feel like we have a ton of space.

In any case, enjoy!

The Art of Breathing

The weekend we moved I caught this terrible cold that kept me up at night for nearly a week. I was congested, and couldn't breathe through my nose. I tried vapor rub, nose sprays of various brands... nothing seemed to help.

Well, enter neti pot. I've heard how wonderful this gross little "gadget" was, and was desperate enough to try anything. Now for those of you who don't know about the neti pot goodness, let me let you in a secret: it's amazing. You mix saltwater in the pot, and put the spout in your nose, allowing the water to flow out of your other nostril (while breathing out of your mouth). Yes, my hubby thought I was crazy for wanting one, but hey, he was sleeping fine at night!

I used it a couple times a day, and wow... it really does work. Much better than any cold medicine, and much cheaper, too, since it's a one time investment. If any of struggle with allergies or just can't stand irritating colds, a neti pot might be worth a shot.

Here's a blog that I found regarding the neti pot. Evidently I'm not the only crazy girl out there.

Oh, and by the way, Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Hope you're having a great day!

Days Like These

I am just loving this spring weather. I'm thinking having a spring baby is really going to work nicely in our favor, as we'll be able to get out and enjoy the sunshine. The sun really picks me up, and hopefully force me to get outside, even when I'm exhausted. If that doesn't work, I'm sure the kiddo below will encourage me to go anyway. :)
I am so impressed by this little girl that will soon be a "big sister". She has so much life inside of her, so much curiosity, so much joy. We've spent our fabulous afternoon playing outside, planting flowers, having some of Daddy's ice cream (shhhh!!), and drinking this. I love days like these!

God has made motherhood such a special responsibility. It's hard and demanding and tiring, but it's the most rewarding role I've had yet. :) I feel like I should be thanking her for being such an incredible person than for her to be thanking me for being her mommy. She's way cooler than I am, no doubt.

Flower Power

E helped me plant these flowers on Saturday. They were on serious markdown, so I wasn't incredibly concerned if she was rough with them. Mostly she liked putting the dirt in and watering the flowers. "More water" she kept repeating. This is one of the fun aspects of parenting - teaching her, helping her learn, and seeing her eyes light up with excitement. I wish I had bought a few more plants, because flowers just make everything happier, don't they?

She has loved watching her Daddy work on our house, and it feels like we're getting somewhere, thank God. We're going room by room (ignoring the kitchen and living room at the moment), and each night we've tried to get something done - even if it feels minor.

Something that's helped us get our bottoms moving is 1) my nesting instinct 2) the fact we've decided to go without cable once again. No cable = no channels. We went cable free a few years ago when we bought our first house, and didn't want to pay for cable. I don't remember missing it (though, we relied heavily on our friends T and B to record Lost episodes).

We found that we were using cable as background noise, and we ended up watching shows that we never even cared about. There's nothing wrong with vegging once in a while, but it sucked up more time than it should have. So we're back to pocketing some extra cash, and being "forced" to find something to do in the evenings, even if it is just reading, etc.

Of course, don't worry. We're still feeding our Lost addiction and watching it online. Some shows are just worth keeping up with. :)

So, I'm Done

This is the one thing that I'm going to miss about our duplex - our lilac tree (er, bush). I really love the scent of lilacs... maybe our landlord/realtor will still let us clip a few as a thank you for all of our great business? :)

My main goal was to get a little more prepared for baby this weekend. The car seats are in the car, the baby's room is sort of up and running. The dipes/covers are ready to go with some disposables thrown in. Clothes are sorted. Blankets are folded. Swing is ready to go. Now we just need baby.

And, boy, this weekend made me decide that I am SO done being pregnant. This whole pregnancy I've been panicked that we have so much to do, so much on my mind. I'm certain that God makes us go these 40 weeks so that we welcome the birthing process by the end of them.

I'm uncomfortable and my belly is huge. :) Getting on the floor is probably humorous for my clients to see. Getting up is even funnier, I'm sure. I had some pretty strong contractions over the weekend, which encouraged me to get my bum moving on all things baby.

My doc says I'm dilated 2 cm, my cervix is thinning "nicely", and the baby's head is pretty low. He jokingly said "I bet you're feeling every pound of that". Why, yes, I am Mr. Doctor, which is why I am now waddling, and much of the reason why I'm ready to be done.

And I will be soon. Maybe later than sooner. Maybe sooner than later. But eventually, right?

The Girl's Room

So we're going room by room, trying to get ourselves situated, so that we feel like we're actually accomplishing something. E's room isn't finished - her wall art is somewhere in the box abyss, but we're slowly making headway.

Here's what we have for now. The "Before Shot" - no carpet, and yes, they did paint the window green. Gotta love it.

And a couple "in process/maybe after depending how ambitious we get" pics:

The All Over Post

This was taken at the end of April last year. I hope May allows us many beach outings... I'm itching for some consistent warm weather.

I feel like things are starting to come together for us - in more ways than one. We've moved in to our house (though we're still swimming in boxes), and just the other day we had carpet placed into all of the bedrooms. E's room is the most "put together", so hopefully we can get a lot done this weekend.

We are liking our house, though - and looking forward to making it "ours" as time passes (and money is saved). Some things I'm drooling over doing is this:

Composting: http://simplemom.net/how-to-make-a-compost-bin/
Line drying my clothes
Gardening... E has asked to plant flowers this entire week. Maybe she'll live up to her name and have a green thumb?

As far as baby goes, we're a little less than three weeks away from my due date. I'm certainly starting to get uncomfortable and tired, but feeling like there's still some time left until he comes. Some really good news though - I think we've found THE name, but we need to say a few more times before we announce it to the blogging world. L actually suggested it early on in the pregnancy, and I shrugged it off but now it just seems to fit?

I'm feeling better about going on maternity leave. I've gotten a lot accomplished over the last couple of months. My supervisor and I went over every.single.case. so she knows what to cover when I'm gone. We were both surprised to realize I went from eight cases last August to over 40 cases now. No wonder I have more gray hair? I just NEED to get through this week at work, and then leave for six weeks, and then back to my three days a week. Oh, how I've missed that!

E's potty training progress is slow, but re-emerging. The last couple of weeks were a mad dash of cleaning and working on the house so we didn't even push it. The past couple of days have resulted in her going on the potty three times. This morning she went by herself, while I was showering. I didn't even know until I asked her to sit on the potty afterward. Major sticker points on that one. :)

Hmmm.... this post is so random, but my preggo brain seems to be working this way. We hope that you are all experiencing some sunshine. Now I'm off to take a nap. :)