life all around

What is this all about?

2013-04-07T15:02:00.001-05:00

I've been thinking a lot about this blog, and the social networking platform of blogging itself. Clearly, this hasn't been a priority for me (you know, like raising my son has...). Because of this, I've been thinking about just walking away, shutting it down. I mean, I haven't posted since January, what's the point, right?

But then I thought more and while it's been awhile, I like the opportunity to randomly pop a post up. I'm narcissistic, so the chance to brag about my kid, or a project, or put up some gratuitous dog pictures or whatever, I'm not willing to let that go.

So I'm going to stick around.

I'm making no promises about posting what and how often. But I'm still here.

Oh, and I'm pregnant again. C is going to be a big brother.

2013: The year of the project "The Lobby"

2013-01-08T19:12:00.003-06:00

I have decided that 2013 is the year of the project. I know we do a lot of projects around here, and I'm sure it's thrilling to all of you wen I post crappy pictures of my WAY-less-than-professional results.

But, it's my blog and I'll DIY if I want to.

The first project I want to tackle is the "lobby".

Our house was built in 1950. As a part of renovations at some point, one of the owners finished the upper level attic and turned it into the master bedroom. A lot of times when people do this, they don't put a door up there, and the entire floor is one big open bedroom. Thankfully, the person who adapted our upper floor added a wall and a door. I'm thankful. I like privacy. Outside our bedroom is a small area we call "the lobby". It is the area between the stairs and the bedroom. It currently operates as my craft space:

But, let's be honest. If I'm working with my craft stuff, I'm carting it into the living room where there's a TV. and now? With a child? Toys for said child to play with. So, this space has slowly degenerated into a terrible place to toss stuff. Just... stuff.

I am so ashamed. And this is after N carted all of the craft boxes from the corner downstairs to the storage area.

So that's January's main project. Project lobby. There are some other projects are also on the agenda (such as a budget), but this is going to be number 1.

Happy New Year?

2013-01-01T22:03:00.001-06:00

I'm not making any apologies. I post when I post and if you don't like, well, :P on you.

H and I have some serious things to get done this year, so in lieu of resolutions, we're making a 2013 project list. Without further adieu, here it is:

finish tiling the freaking downstairs shower. (seriously, guise, we're on year 3 here)
get the upstairs shower fixed
paint our bedroom
organize the office
clean out the lobby
pay down as MUCH DEBT AS POSSIBLE
basement storage part 2
hang the mirror in the guest room
patio by the house
remove rock from the front of house
patios in the front
touch up dead grass
paint the front door
fix Boo's door latch
paint hallway
organize master bedroom
shelving for kitchen cabinets
organize Nick's closet

18 goals. 17 house-related, that's an average of 2-3 per month.

g is for... gross

2012-11-13T12:03:00.001-06:00

Which is how I feel today. I went to work this morning, despite feeling like I was hit by a truck and like there is a spikey ball in my throat, but I didn't even last one class.

So pawned my students off on another teacher and came home. Boo is still at daycare, he's probably safer there than here.

Now excuse me, I'm going to take a nap.

F is for... Family

2012-11-12T07:06:00.000-06:00

A few thoughts on what it means to be "family"

1. One thing that has always bothered me is when people say "Oh, you've started a family." To imply that N and I weren't a family until Boo was born? Was I not a family when I was single? This has always eaten at me a little bit.

2. When people with large families are scolded or asked "wow, are they all yours?" We as a society are so judgmental about how other people live their lives and it bothers me. My friend has seven children, and as far as I can tell she is a wonderful mother to every last one of them and no one is left out or asked to raise one of the other children. While seven children is NOT for me, I'm happy that she has the large family she's always wanted, and to be honest, seeing her so happy made me realize I was finally ready to have a kid of my own.

3. While I love seeing how much fun my friend's big family has, we are not big family people. I think we will stop at two kids, MAYBE three. There, know no one has any reason to ask us this question anymore.

4. My extended family, and N's, is huge. I loved the huge holiday gatherings as a kid, and now that our family has split up into new generations, I miss it. Probably because I'm an only child with one parent so our gatherings are small. But we still have a great time.

5. I think we sometimes do ourselves a disservice by having different words for friends and family. Our close friends are often more family to us than some of our own family members. Sometimes, I think these words should be used interchangeably.

6. I love the movie "Dan in Real Life" and I want my family to be that fun together.

Aerobics on the front lawn of the family summer home. How much fun is that?

Don't forget to give me a good question to answer here!

E is for... Education

2012-11-09T12:35:00.001-06:00

I'm not gonna lie, I'm whipping this post out in less than 15 minutes before I hit the road for work, people. Bear with me.

I struggled coming up with an E, until a friend suggested education. Which is perfect since I'm you know, a teacher...

But this post isn't about me teaching (I'm saving that for another letter, I'll let you guess which one.)

This is about my education.

My bachelor's degree is in vocal performance with a minor in education. How useful is that? Um, it's not, FYI.

Back in 2004, I was prepping myself to apply to graduate school in social work. The plan was I was going to go to Loyola Chicago, because a: I'd always wanted to live in Chicago and b: they had a dual master's degree in social work and child development. Perfect, since I wanted to be a school social worker.

As I was applying and trying to pass a pre-requisite statistics class, (HARD) I started finding these programs that let you get your teaching license on the way to a master's degree. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to go back to teaching. So on a bit of a whim, I applied to St. Mary's University Minneapolis for their teaching certification program. I got accepted immediately, and as a bonus, all my pre-reqs were covered by my undergraduate degrees. I knew I was on the right track.

After getting my teaching license in elementary education and middle school English, I got my first teaching job. As a part of that job I had to teach one section of intervention reading. Within 3 weeks of class, I loved it. I signed up for and started graduate level reading classes that same semester, and completed my reading license in 2 years. (I have taught reading-only ever since, under a variance). I am currently teaching reading intervention.

After completing my reading license, I decided to pursue my master's degree in Literacy education. I am currently in my second semester of this, and should be finished by next December. Ask me how much fun it is to take grad classes with a newborn. Oy.

I'm considering continuing on for a doctorate, to open up the possibility of higher-ed teaching, but we'll have to see.

D is for Day.

2012-11-08T09:44:00.002-06:00

As in "the day I forgot to blog a letter"

yep. I was wiped last night and have no excuse. So today I'm going to ask you to do the blogging for me.

Ask me questions. Anything you want to know about us? I reserve the right to privacy, but if it's reasonable, I'll answer it, either for another letter or under Q for question.

So go.

All three of you who read this, that is...

C is for Charlie

2012-11-07T08:46:00.000-06:00

Did you really think I would make "C" anything else? I thought C would be a good time to finally tell Charlie's birth story.

I went to my appt on Monday, August 20th, scared they were going to put me on full bedrest for blood pressure. Never did I imagine it would be fluid that got me sent straight to the hospital. I had a BPP (Bio Physical Profile) and C got 8/10 points, he made all his movements perfectly. But, the technician couldn't even find enough fluid to measure. Charlie had decided to drain his swimming pool, as one of the nurses put it. When you don't have any fluid, you have to come out.

So, the doc sent me right over to the hospital and told me to get ready to have my baby. I went downstairs, sat in my car and cried for a few minutes because holy crap, overwhelming. Then I sucked it up and called N and told him he had to leave work. It was 4:15, he's off at 4:30 anyway, but I didn't want to wait the extra 15 minutes, because his drive is so long.

I sat in my car for a few more minutes before driving over, (I felt like an idiot driving from the OB to the hospital, [you can see the hosp from the parking lot] but it was getting close to 5 and I didn't want to get towed) and checking in. Labor & Delivery was busy that Monday night, it was completely full except one little room in triage. I scored that last available triage room until a bed in L&D opened up, which was better than getting sent to the other hospital, but it was crazy how busy it was. I was in Triage until maybe 6? So I wasn't there long at all.

Once I was in my Labor room, they started my induction by giving me the drug to get things moving. Basically, that drug just hung out for 12 hours, hopefully getting me ready. My nurse that night was hilarious.

About 7:30, the doc came to visit, and she explained what the plan was. I was told to mentally prepare for a possible/likely csection because induced babies with low fluid tend to not progress on their own. The plan was one drug for 12 hours and then Pitocin until delivery. I was told to try and get some sleep and Nancy, my night nurse was trying to find Boo on the monitor.

Holy crap did this kid not want to be on the monitor. Nancy ended up spending most of the night sitting on a stool by my bed, holding the little doppler thingy in place, because it wouldn't press down hard enough to keep him on enough to get a steady reading. I felt awful for her, but she was awesome. I did not sleep much Monday night, despite some Ambien.

Tuesday morning, Nancy checked me around 5 am, and said I was 1 cm and about 40 effaced. Awesome *sarcasm*. So she was going to call Doc to see if she wanted to start Pit to open me up. While we were waiting, I got to take a shower. It was awesome.

Around 8, the doc came in to do a check and BAM, I was 4 cm and 90 effaced. This meant we could put the scalp monitor on Boo so Nancy didn't have to sit there all the time. Apparently that shower did wonderful things. So instead of starting pit, they just let me labor. Around this time I started feeling my first contractions. I know women say they don't remember the pain of childbirth, but really, I don't remember what those felt like. In fact, when my day nurse (Amber) asked me if I was having contractions, I said "I don't think so." She looked at the contraction monitor and was like, honey, you're having contractions. Apparently I have a high pain tolerance.

Not long after that, I'm not sure how long, my hero came in. Peter Taylor, the guy with the epi. I seriously thought about naming Charlie, "Taylor", in his honor. I didn't even feel him putting the epi/catheter in, everything was awesome. I was numb from chest to toes, but I could still feel that my legs were there, and for quite awhile I could move them. Doc came to check on me a few times, the new on call and the one who was going to be there for delivery. I basically slept all day, the nurses came in every hour to flip me over and every once in awhile they checked me.

Around 3 I was completely dilated and effaced, but I wasn't have enough contractions to start pushing or even to drop Boo past 2 station. So I got the pitocin anyway. Oh well, I couldn't feel a darned thing anyway. (Pitocin makes contractions around 10X more painful, god bless my epi). Around 4:15, my nurse came in and checked and said it was time to start pushing. My contractions were 2-3 minutes apart.

We kicked the grandparents out (precheck) and started pushing. Around 5:00, she went to call the on-call doc (my second favorite) and tell her not to go home after work, because baby would be here before 6. She said she'd be right over. I kept pushing. My contractions slowed down to 4-5 minutes apart, so they upped the Pit and I kept pushing. I actually fell asleep a LOT between pushes. I woke myself up snoring at one point, true story. My regular doctor (my favorite) walked in around 5:30, apparently the on-call's mom got sick, and so she was the one who delivered Boo around 5:48.

Warning: semi-gross:
I couldn't believe what it felt like when he came out, it felt like all my internal organs came sliding out, it was bizarre. I actually asked if that was the baby coming out or if I'd just lost my intestines. I was pretty tired and dopey. They brought him to the warmer first and the baby nurse cleaned him up while the placenta was delivered and OH started repairing me. I have no recollection of delivering the placenta because I was enthralled with Charlie getting cleaned and then getting to hold him right away.

No longer gross:
N was amazing. I can't believe how involved he got. At first he didn't even want to think about cutting the cord, and then once we were in labor he was amazing and involved in everything. This is so not what I expected of him. I love my husband, but I didn't picture him wanting to watch or anything. (If you knew my husband, you'd agree.)

We recovered until about 8pm, then moved upstairs to postpartum. He had to go to the nursery for a little bit the first night because he was puking up too much amniotic fluid and the nurses were worried, but he came back around 4am and stayed with me until about 3 the next day when I wanted to take a shower. Since H was at the house with the dogs, I sent him to the nursery. It was weird just sending my kid away, but when you're recovering from childbirth, it's hard to think about showering and being available to a baby at a moment's notice.

His first pedi check in the hospital was good, except he was jaundiced. This led to us spending an additional night in the hospital (I got to "room-in" with him since I was breastfeeding), but we were discharged on Friday. C spent two nights under bili lights, but by day 4 of his life his numbers were low enough to go home.

Charles Gordon

Mommy and Charlie

And then there were three.

B is for Baby Gear

2012-11-06T08:45:00.000-06:00

Friends who have been around a long time. I'm very sorry. I know I don't post much anymore, and lately it's all baby related. But, this is a life blog, and right now? My life is just about all baby related.

Baby Gear. Wow. When we first found out we were expecting a baby, we were overwhelmed. Car seats, strollers, baby carriers, cribs, mattresses, nursery art, the list goes on and on.

I don't even want to think about how much we've spent on junk for Boo. Boo himself wasn't that expensive. He eats for free, we cloth diaper, so there's not a lot of expense there, and our insurance covered almost all of his birth (I think we've shelled out about $3.14).

But before he was born? Oh my.

But the first place we started for almost everything was Baby Bargains.

We built our list slowly, focusing on one item at a time, looked it up in baby bargains and also on lucieslist, and made our decision.

This cut out a lot of the stress and let someone else do the research for us.

My recommendations for baby gear? All I know is what works for us.

Swaddle blankets: Aden & Anais. I know these will be my go-to shower gift from here on out. Plus, they're so cute.

Must haves:
Fischer Price Rock 'n Play

Favorite Cloth Diapers:
Bum Genius one-size pocket 4.0's

Frankly, I'm so tired right now, i can't think of anything else. But hey. I got my "B" blog in.

Night.

A is for apples

2012-11-05T09:41:00.000-06:00

Once upon a time, I had a serious apple addiction. I posted many an ode to apples on my blog. I wish I hadn't deleted that blog. I started that puppy in 2004, wow, have we come a long way. Shortly after I started that blog I met my now husband, and life was never the same.

I digress.

As many of my friends will testify I had a serious apple problem. I ate 4-5 apples a day for a good month.

A day.

That's a lot of apples.

I think apples kind of get left in the dust in the fall. They're constantly overshadowed by that uppity fall gourd. You know the one I'm talking about. I'm no different, I even have an entire pinterest board dedicated to it.

But I kind of miss my apples. They're a wonderful fall food, and I found this recipe I want to try.

What do you think? Are you team pumpkin or team apple? Do you love them both equally? Are you weird and you don't like pumpkin? (I don't think I've ever met anyone who doesn't like pumpkin)

Two months old

2012-10-25T07:04:00.000-05:00

I'm crying inside.

Recipe? Baked Potato Bar

2012-10-24T12:27:00.002-05:00

This past weekend, my cousin was coming over to watch the Vikings game and roast little sausages in front of the fire on the hibachi grill. My in-laws were at our house as well because Boo was baptized on Saturday night. So with the addition of my mom coming over, we had a nice-sized crowd that needed feeding.

Currently, I am all about low-energy cooking, especially when feeding groups. So I decided Sunday was a great day for baked potatoes.

I threw 8 large baking potatoes in the oven at 400 for 75 minutes. Then I assembled the toppings.

Looks yummy, doesn't it? Cousin was drinking bloody mary's, so the ingredients for those are in the background as well. He made mother-in-law one as well.

What kind of toppings did we have? Well. The big dish in the bottom right is taco meat. We also had bacon, green onions, pulled pork, green chilies, chili, nacho cheese, shredded chicken, broccolli, black olives, white cheddar and fritos.

For dessert we had cookies and pumpkin roll.

It was delicious, and a good time. Just don't ask me who won, because I didn't pay attention. I was sewing.

Pinterest Projects #1

2012-10-05T15:44:00.000-05:00

Is there anyone out there who isn't on Pinterest? Even my anti-social-networking-friend Toni is on Pinterest. I admit, I didn't really get it at first, but now? I easily kill 2+ hours a day on there while C is nursing.

One thing I realized though, is I pin dozens of things a day, but I never go back and look at them, and really, at that point? What is the point?

So I committed myself to doing some of the projects, recipes, and classroom things. (Pinterest is an EXCELLENT teaching tool, trust me)

The first thing I tackled comes from this pin, which I've seen pinned all over the place. (Original Source)

I love(d) my coffee table in my living room. It was my accent color, and provided a wonderful yellow that was cheery and soothing at the same time.

But, with a baby coming, and two rambunctious dogs, we decided we should probably move the coffee table out to make room for some baby gear. And, the dogs knocked stuff off the table all the time anyway, so it got kind of annoying, and was very very cluttered.

So the faux sofa table pin was high on my list. Because we still needed a place to put things and our living room is small. (Our house is over 60 years old, every room seems small)

The inspiration. (source) I saw this photo, and immediately knew I wanted it in my living room. So I got to work. Two 1X6's, a few cuts from home depot and I was left with the materials to build my new table.

We brought the wood home, and one summer day, 8 months pregnant, I crawled around on the floor and built my own sofa table.

I painted it white for a couple reasons. 1. Our trim is all white in our house and 2. staining wood scares me. But mostly to match the trim.

From the other side.

From the front. Complete with the ever-present Yoshi. The color is off in this photo because it is without flash, oh well. I never claimed to be a photographer.

It's wonderful. Our living room is open and C and I can do tummy time on the floor, and the swing fits in the living room (which is a necessity) and the dogs can't destroy things. It also has the added bonus of keeping things off the floor out of Yoshi's reach. Remotes have a much longer life span now.

Have you made anything you saw on Pinterest? What was it?

You can follow my pinterest board here:

A day in the maternity leave life

2012-10-01T10:23:00.000-05:00

I am on week 5 of my maternity leave (how is my kid almost 6 weeks old?!?!?) and one thing is very, very clear. I am not cut out to be a stay at home mom. I absolutely adore my son, (aah! my son!) but to perfectly honest? Infants aren't that exciting. He sleeps, a lot. He definitely has his fussy time, but mostly, he sleeps.

Mom, stop with the flash already.

Granted, he's adorable doing it. But still. Lots of sleeps. I do find myself staring at him a lot. Because really, how can I not. Look at that perfection. Wow. It's distracting.

But, how do I spend my time while he's sleeping and I'm not being creepy stalker mom? My day comes in short, short bursts.

5am: Breakfast for the kidlet. He usually wakes up between 4 and 5 am, so he eats for 30-60 minutes, then we go back to sleep.

Damn the man, save the Empire!

8am: We wake up again. Boo eats his second breakfasts and I try very hard to get him back to sleep. Usually, this results in me holding him for a couple hours (not a hardship) and him staring cutely at me like this:

Hi mom!

11:00 am: Tummy time. He hates tummy time, and we aim for 10 minutes before he starts screaming bloody murder and I pick him up for snuggles.

My face is turned away from the camera because I'm grumpy.

11:30 am: After some snuggles, we try to get outside for a bit. Sometimes this is just sitting in the backyard with the dogs, sometimes we go for a walk, or, if we're really lucky, we get to go out with friends. Today, we actually went to the apple orchard with some friends.

Here is C meeting his first goat at the apple orchard. (Hey, it's hard to take a picture of a baby and a goat when the baby is hanging out in the moby wrap and you're taking the picture yourself.)

2:00 pm back home for second lunches, C is a hungry boy. While C is eating, I cruise the internet and check emails. One day I spent way too many hours reorganizing my pinterest boards.

3:00 pm Since we're going to Grandma's tonight, mommy needs to shower, so everyone piles into the bathroom together. We have a very small bathroom and this is tight, but we manage.

After our bath,we try to take a nap, some days it works, some days it doesn't. Daddy calls every day when he leaves work, around 4:30, and sometimes he wakes us up, sometimes we're having fussy time.

Then, Daddy comes home around 5:30-6:00 and our day is over!

One month old

2012-09-21T13:15:00.001-05:00

Time really does fly.

Fifteen things I've learned in a month as a mom.

2012-09-18T15:28:00.001-05:00

I can't believe C is four weeks old already. On Friday, he'll be one-month. A MONTH! Wow, that happened quickly.

I've learned a lot in the last 4 weeks, and I thought hey, I'll share my "wisdom" with the world.

1. You will cry. There will be no reason for it.
2. Breastfeeding is hard. Stick it out.
3. A baby can sleep through a lot of noise.
4. A kitchen can be cleaned in 4 minutes or less.
5. Sometimes, brushing your hair is the only accomplishment you need to make a day feel valuable.
6. Staring for hours at one person is not always stalkery.
7. Babies do NOT always smell nice.
8. It's ok if it takes you awhile to feel like a mom.
9. Invite other moms over to visit. They will understand when you hand them your kid to hold and go to the bathroom alone.
10. Nap, nap, nap. Then? Take another nap.
11. Target is a perfectly legitimate outing. Cart rides lull babies.
12. Make sure you get one hour to yourself every day. (this frequently turns out to be just 1/2 hour, but it's still super valuable.
13. It's ok to say "no, you can't visit today."
14. Even if you've gone 33 years without drinking coffee, or even liking it, you may find yourself heading out to buy a coffee pot at one week post-baby.
15. It is possible to make chili, bake a frozen pizza, pay the bills and brush your hair in the time it takes for that pizza to bake.

I don't know how women do this with more than one child (or SEVEN, I'm looking at you, Alison) and especially single mothers? Single mothers deserve lifetime achievement awards. Seriously.

Are you a mom? Any other wisdom you'd share?

A really good reason

2012-09-05T12:27:00.000-05:00

I've been gone, but I have a really good reason.

In mid-August, I got put on bedrest, as baby was causing my blood pressure to get a little higher than the doc liked. Thankfully, as a teacher, I was already off for the summer, so it went from me sitting on the couch with the dogs to me laying on the couch with the dogs, so it wasn't a big disruption in my schedule.

Then, I went to my doctor appointment on August 20th. Because of my blood pressure issues, they did a special test where we found out Boo had "drained his swimming pool" and there was no fluid left in utero for him.

So, I got induced. I went into labor the following morning and less 12 hours later Charlie was born. (Henceforth known as "C"). I won't go into more detail than that, promise. Not without warning and putting it under a cut at any rate.

We are adjusting well, he's eating and sleeping like a champ and N and I are completely in love and enamored of him.

We had newborn photos taken with Leah of Leah Maria Photography, and she posted this sneak peek photo on Facebook. I can't wait to see the rest.

basement floors!

2012-08-06T08:10:00.000-05:00

I had to add the exclamation point to make this post seem like it would be more exciting than it's going to be.

I have a confession. Since we moved into this house, N has done the majority of the laundry. For a couple reasons.

1. He's awesome. Best husband ever.
2. I'm afraid of the laundry room.

Yes, I admit it. The basement laundry freaks me out. But, probably not for the reasons you're imagining. I don't fear monsters, or boogey men or anything you'd find in a horror movie.

I just really hate the floors.

Shut up.

The floor is basically concrete poured unevenly over the original dirt floors and painted. You can kind of see it in this handy before picture, but really, the only thing that will do it justice it to feel the grossness on your bare feet.

Another before picture. It's really shameful how cluttered we let this space get.

So we completely emptied the space out, into the basement family room.

The dogs were bored out of their minds. We barricaded them behind all the junk because Yoshi is still incredibly puppy-like, and enjoys snatching things and swallowing them.

Kirby is quite possibly the best DIY dog ever. I pull out a tool of any kind and she just lays down on the nearest dog bed.

Yoshi, on the other hand, needs to know where N is and what he is doing at all times. He was ticked that he wasn't allowed to play and help.

Another shot of all the JUNK that we pulled out of the space. Some of those boxes were still unpacked from when we moved in.

I ordered these rubber floor tiles from Amazon awhile back. I can't recall how much I paid, but it varies based on many square feet you need to cover. They are 2' x 2' tiles, and they come with enough borders to work in any space. They are most often used for gym floors.

I started laying the floors, just kind of rolling with it. This step went REALLY fast, and before I knew it...

I had a completely covered basement floor with a nice warm, squishy padding.

We got rid of oodles of stuff before we loaded everything back in. Which leaves us with this nice little corner where my plan is to set up an ironing/drying area. Since we've decided to cloth diaper, having adequate drying space indoors is vital, since the covers can't go in the dryer and drying them outside isn't really an option in Minnesota in the winter.

So there you have it. Probably the most unexciting home improvement step ever, but since a baby comes with a lot of additional laundry, especially when you're using cloth diapers, well, let's just say N is happy I have no excuse to not do laundry anymore.

Update on the weekend list...

2012-07-02T10:10:00.001-05:00

Yikes. It kind of makes me cringe to look at this photo. Just a little bit.

So, this was our list for the weekend:
rip out the bushes
plant some containers for the steps
overseed and water the yard
sweep the sticks off the sidewalk
email the city about the boulevard tree
find a home for the recycling bins

and we did ok:
~~rip out the bushes~~
plant some containers for the steps
overseed and water the yard
sweep the sticks off the sidewalk
~~email the city about the boulevard tree~~
~~find a home for the recycling bins~~

We did add one thing to our list, and that was to tackle some of the weeds that have popped up in our window wells to the basement. We did a quick roundup spray all the way around the front of the house and they're dropping like flies.

We didn't get to the other things on the list for one reason: the heat. The dew point, humidity and temperature made it pretty amazing that we got done what we did. Today is even worse, heat index is supposed to hit 110 by 6pm. Holy cats that's hot.

I did already receive an email back from the city about the boulevard tree and they've scheduled an inspection and a trim for us, so that's one task we won't have to tackle.

Get anything done this weekend? Or did you hide indoors from the heat?

Weekend To-do List

2012-06-30T11:35:00.000-05:00

I confess.

I'm horribly ashamed.

When we moved into our home, it had wonderful curb appeal. Wonderful. See?

That's my old blog header, and that picture is actually from the listing. Our first winter in our house, it looked like this:

Still not bad, not bad at all.

Then, life happened. Now, today, it looks like this:

Ugh. I have planned, since the day we moved in, to remove all three bushes that were in front of the house. I removed one and replaced it with a hydrangea I was given as a gift, but neglect has made the survival of said hydrangea a little questionable. Plus, the evergreen bush has taken the absence of his neighbor to mean he can just grow right across the front of the house. And look how tall he's gotten! He's blocking the view from the living room windows, I think Yoshi is a little ticked, because he stares out that window for hours.

Then there's the right side of the steps. Um, there's only one bush over there, that big clump in front is all weeds. Shameful. I'm certain our neighbors refer to us as the trash house. The bush all the way to the right got trimmed once, last fall, but it's really had a grand old time since it's been so warm here so early, and he's big.

This is our boulevard tree. It's actually the only tree on our lot. I'm not going to lie, I like having a tree-free lot. But having a boulevard tree gets kind of tricky, because it's owned by the city, not us. And this guy? Out.Of.Control. That front branch? The really low one? That sucker hangs down about 20 feet into the front yard, and it's so low it's between my waist and chest. This baby needs a trim. But we're not sure who is responsible for trimming it. It also has several dead branches that keep dropping sticks in our yard and all over our cars when they're parked in front.

So, today/this weekend, we've decided to pay some attention to the front yard. With all the work we've done in the back yard, sodding, shrinking the garden, and detail work, the front yard has been sadly neglected. So, as soon as N finishes his PB&J toast, and I finish this blog post, we're tackling the following:

rip out the bushes
plant some containers for the steps
overseed and water the yard
sweep the sticks off the sidewalk
email the city about the boulevard tree
find a home for the recycling bins

Aaaaaand, go!

Boo's Nursery. Finished. Mostly.

2012-06-28T10:45:00.001-05:00

There are still a few things to get, like a changing pad and a wetbag for diapers, but for the most part? We finished the nursery. My goal was to get it finished by Friday (the 29th) since I start teaching summer school after the 4th of July.

Made it. Now, a tour.

From the door. This room has kind of a funny little entry way, so it's difficult to get a really good picture of the ENTIRE room, but this does pretty well. It's cloudy outside, so I had to leave the light on, so the color's not the best, but it's a pretty good view. The dog bed is crucial, since we're traiing the pups that this room is for relaxing, not playing.

Crib and Art. The crib is Graco Lauren in Espresso and the Art is customized from Etsy seller Field and Flower. My friend steph actually found the artwork and we both ordered it in our own colors.

The glider and bookshelf. The glider is from Buy Buy Baby and is a Best Brand chair. It was a little spendy, but totally worth it already, as I sit in it a lot, it's one of the few places I'm still comfortable. It glides, swivels, rocks and reclines. Plus, because it's not a wood one, we can move it into the living room at some point after we're done with babies. The bookshelf is IKEA Expedit, we just moved it in from the office. The green frog on top is Yoshi's new favorite thing ever. It's also a white noise machine and light show projector for nighttime.

The dresser is from IKEA, the Hemnes line. The smaller drawers on the top are currently housing our diaper stash (more on that later), socks and sleep sacks. The mirror is one I've had forever, and couldn't bear to take down. The shelves are from Menards, bins from Target. The stuffed animals have all been gifts, The duck in front it named Mortimer, courtesy of BFF. Spike the plant is chilling in the corner.

The two things missing from the dresser are a changing pad and wet bag. We're waiting to buy some things until we get the "completion coupon" from our registries. But the changing pad will go under the mirror on the dresser, and the plan is to hang the wet bag from a command hook on the left side of the dresser.

The cradle was mine when I was a baby. My mother's Uncle Johnny made it for me by hand. The aqua blanket inside was given to us awhile ago by N's grandmother, also handmade.

This picture of the closet is from a couple days ago, before I loaded it up, but it's a good shot of the yellow that I painted the inside.

The right side of the closet, fairly boring, we really need to get on top of stocking up on clothes for this poor kid! The ottoman in there is for a step-stool, because at the VERY TOP of the closet is another hanging bar, that no one under 7 feet tall can reach without assistance. I tried to move it lower, but no such luck, that sucker is stuck.

The other side of the closet. The shelves were in the closet when we moved in, and I fell in love with these bins at Target. I was thrilled when I discovered how perfectly they fit on the pre-installed shelves in Boo's closet. The labels were printed for free from Better Homes and Gardens and laminated on the snazzy new laminator machine I mentioned in my previous post.

One last picture of the entire space, this one with the lights off to give a better idea of color. The room is super serene, I frequently find myself in there in the chair just relaxing and reading with the pups curled at my feet.

What do you think?

(adding some details I've been asked about)
The wall color is Behr's Cool Jazz. We didn't repaint, we painted it this color when we moved in.

My pretty, pretty new toy.

2012-06-25T07:11:00.000-05:00

When you have your first baby, you kind of start to bleed money. Thankfully, N and I started a savings account for a potential off-spring before we found out we were actually creating sprog.
It's kind of (assuming you can afford it) fun to spend money willy-nilly. You can justify all sorts of purchases when you're having a baby. For instance, we bought a carpet shampooer. Of course we want to keep the floors clean and the dog dander out of precious baby's airways! I've justified many a smaller purchase as well, but I won't go into detail.

But, how many mothers-to-be justify a laminating machine when they're having a baby?

Just me?

I'm ok with it. Nerdy, yes, but look how shiny and fairly-indestructible my closet labels are!

Those labels are for Boo's closet, which I'm hoping to get painted and such tomorrow. Consider this a sneak peek. My goal is to have the nursery finished by Friday. I think I can do it since the closet is the last big project.

Where I will place my pretty, laminated, labels. aaah. Contentment.

Am I the only one who justifies nerdy stuff like this?

Summer goals

2012-06-03T18:07:00.002-05:00

Whew! One week of school left, then it's off to summer school and prepping my life for a baby. A BABY. Still can't figure out who let that happen, but we're getting pretty excited with every kick and roll.

Professionally, I have a pretty big list of goals. You can read all about them over here at my teaching blog.

Personally, I have a pretty big list as well. Mostly involving getting ready for Boo's arrival at the end of summer. Which I'm certain is a big surprise to everyone.

1. Finish Boo's nursery.
2. Get at least 2 of the 4 paver patios in the backyard finished.
3. Remove remaining bushes from front yard.
4. Paint the front door. I've had the paint picked out and purchased for quite sometime now, so it's really time to get on that.
5. Finish a blog overhaul and branding/identity.
6. Plant new Hydrangea bush in front.

I could probably give myself a ridiculously long list to finish, but since I'm teaching 25 hours a week this summer and writing a new curriculum for fall, I'm going to let myself off the hook a little bit. Besides, that nursery list is long enough for a few lists.

What are you up to this summer? Even if you don't get "summers off" like I do (which isn't even really true, but that's an entirely different and much too political debate) do you have anything good planned?

The proof is in the details.

2012-05-31T07:42:00.000-05:00

In case you can't remember, we recently took our yard from this:

And this:

To this:

Leaving this:

And this:

Still left to do. (not to mention the weeding of the back garden, as seen in the picture with the dogs in it.) Well, I would like to state for the record, that I got those two areas done. It made me feel better to actually work on the yard instead of making beer and taco runs. It actually took me less than an hour to fill in the gaps on either side of the sidewalk and the big patch by the garden. I had N lay out the rolls of sod I would need since lifting them is over my current weight limit, and got to work. I got in such a groove that 45 minutes later I had this:

Looks good, eh? I left it like that for the night, but a few days later I went back out and made it look even better. Like this:

Oh look at it! The beauty! The pretty weed-freeness of the sidewalk! The glory of letting the dogs out in the backyard leash-free for the first time in weeks! Look at it again. Scroll up! Then come back down, doesn't it look fabulous? And, notice that back fence? Remember the plethora of weeds that were habitating back there? Look at it now!

What weeds? (They all got tossed over the fence and brought to compost). We still haven't mowed the new sod yet, it's soaking wet because of the number of storms we've had over the past couple weeks (which we're not complaining about, because they kept our water bill lower), but mowing is on the agenda for this week as soon as it dries out a bit. The sod has taken firm root and has even stood up to Yoshi's frantic circle running.

We're trucking right along, and school isn't even out yet!

The backyard to-do list:
~~Re-Sod~~
paver stones along the house
create a flat surface for the bonfire pit
flat stones along the back left fence for opening the gate
~~clean out the back garden~~
~~clean out the side garden~~
raise the back garden bed another 4 inches
remove the sandbox (we're going to use the sand to level the paver stone patio)
paver stone the former sandbox area
~~level the yard~~
paver stones along the fence by the house

We've purchased the paver stones for the back fence area, and hopefully sometime over the next week or so we can periodically work on that. We're using that small area as a test-ground to try out our paver patio skills and see just how much work this is going to be. Once we get all the pavers laid in the various areas, we'll be done with the sandbox and can ditch that thing too.

My first foray into "mommy blogging"

2012-05-29T07:17:00.000-05:00

Ok, I don't really plan on turning this into a "mommy blog" because a: I still can't quite believe I'm going to be a mom (whose bright idea was that?!) and b: I don't really enjoy reading "mommy blogs" so why would I write one? But, being pregnant and having a kid are definitely a part of my life now, so I will be posting about childy things on occasion.

Today's topic? Baby registries.

swag bags from Target, Buy Buy Baby and Babies 'R Us

I know several people who are pregnant and have gotten questions on registering for baby gifts. Registries are funny things. When you get right down to it? They're tacky. "Here's a list of all the things I took responsibility for supplying my child when I decided to get knocked up, in a handy list in case you want to foot the bill for any of it."

While I'm thankful to have friends and family who are throwing me baby showers and people who are requesting registry information, I still think it's kind of a funny thing. And if you were one of the people who got an invitation to a shower, and you don't want to buy me a present? Don't, but please come anyway, because I love my friends and family and I like to hang out with all of you. If you didn't get invited to a shower, but wanna come? Let me know, I'll hook you up (and you don't have to bring a present).

Registering for baby stuff? In a word? Terrifying. There are SO many things a baby needs, bottles (even if you're breastfeeding), furniture, bedding, clothes, diapers (disposable or cloth), travel accessories like car seats (plural) and strollers, and books. Then there are all the things designed to make your life and baby's easier. Toys, chairs, gliders, gates, outlet covers, changing tables/pads, the list goes on and on. There are so many "things" you can get when you're having a baby, it's slightly ridiculous to think about. Then you have to also think about safety concerns. Which car seats are good, which are ok and which are just overpriced? Is it ok to use your old crib from when you were a baby? (FYI, probably not, it was probably drop-side which is now illegal). What bottles will work? Oh the research.

But, people ask where you're registered, and at the end of the day, when you're talking items with safety concerns (car seats) or just what your preference is (diapers disposable v. cloth) it's easier to register.

Which brings up an entirely different dilemma. Where do you register? There are lots of things to consider. Where do your friends and family live? What is available to them? Can you do online only, or do you have to have a brick and mortar store to go to?

I actually had a very, very difficult time registering. In the end, we spread ourselves a little thin and registered at FOUR places. Which is a lot, but let me explain. We registered at Amazon, Target, Babies 'R Us and Buy Buy Baby. Amazon we chose mostly for us. It's easy to use, you can add things from ANYWHERE and you get a discount on completing items after baby is born. Since we also have a prime membership for free shipping, Amazon was the way to go for us. But we knew we couldn't do an online only store, as when people shop for baby/wedding showers they tend to shop last minute, which precludes ordering online. So we also registered at Babies 'R Us, they have a lot of locations and you get a 15% discount on completing after baby is born. But where we really wanted to register was Buy Buy Baby. A subsidiary of Bed, Bath and Beyond, BBB is fairly new (at least to my area) but the return policies and product lines are great and high quality. They also accept those precious 20% off coupons that Bed, Bath and Beyond hands out like candy. So we registered there for our benefit. Lastly, we have Target. If I had to use one word to describe Target's baby area it would be: sucky. Target's baby area is tiny, changes over incredibly quickly and their return policy is pretty craptacular too. (Rumor has it you can't return ANYTHING without a receipt, even if it's from your registry). But, Target is the most universally available store and with a large number of friends and family living in small towns, we wanted to make shopping easy on them, so we added some basics there.

One perk of registering for baby is that the brick and mortar stores give you free stuff. I've always been a sucker for free stuff, so let me show you what each place gives you. (This is for the moms-to-be out there, the rest of you, I promise, there's a house/yard post on Thursday, you can quit reading here, if you haven't already).

Target:

Reuseable envelope bag, breastmilk storage base, coupons, a newborn-size diaper and breast pads for breast feeding. Meh. However, there is a $20 credit to Shutterfly in there, and that alone almost makes starting a registry worth it.

Babies 'R Us:

Free magazine, product guides, buttpaste, baby catalog, reusable bag, boogie wipes, coupons newborn-size diaper and a registry guide. Eh, not bad, the product guides are kind of helpful.

Buy Buy Baby:

Three free magazines, a $5 off coupon, lotion sample, breast cream sample, boogie wipes, throw away bag, breastfeeding guide, pacifier and a 4oz bottle. All in all, this is the most useable swag bag.

Amazon doesn't give you a "swag bag" of any sort, but their registry is the easiest (for me) to use and manipulate. Plus, it creates a Thank You card list for you. That's handy.

The in-store registering experience I found most comfortable was at Buy Buy Baby. Target is tiny and Babies 'R Us is Hugely Overwhelming (yes capitals are appropriate here). We quit walking around BRU before we even got to the bottles and things because we were tired.

So there. People have asked for help on registering, and now it's available. If you don't care about any of this, I'm sorry, I promise there's a yard post scheduled for Thursday. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go write a yard post to publish on Thursday.