Advice Needed

I want to paint.

But I don't want to paint just anything, I want to give one of the rooms in the house a spruce. I know that if I wait a few months I will be able to find out the sex of the baby and then we will be painting the nursery... but I don't want to wait for that.

That being said, I think I want to paint our hallway! Our hallway is extremely bland and... well, so many other boring words. I am actually ashamed we haven't painted it yet. I mean, we have been living here for four years now and I think a paint job is LONG overdue.

So here is where your help comes in. I need help figuring out a color to paint the hallway. For your convenience, I have included a picture of the bland and yucky looking space.

My gut reaction is to go with a neutral color. An earthy tone. Something safe. But here is the problem. The hallway leads into the living room, which is a brown earthy color. The hallway also leads into mine and Daniels bedroom, which is painted in two different brown colors. And guess what? The hallway leads into the kitchen, which is ALSO painted with two shades of brown and a lovely shade of white.

Yeah. We went a little crazy with the browns. We realize this now.

So here is my question...

Would painting the hallway an earth color just be too much? Should I go with a red or something different to set it apart from the rest of the house, or will I be safer to stay with the same color scheme we have going on?

Oh, and then there is the problem of this nasty wallpaper covering the bottom half of the hallway. What do to with that? Paint over it or re wallpaper with something a little more trendy?

Obviously I need your help people. So PLEASE leave your feedback! I am desperate!!!

Pregnancy Update

Hello! Its been almost a week since my last post, so I figured I should pop on over here and update you all on what is going on. And to tell you the truth, this is going to be a pretty short post considering nothing much has changed! And this wont so much be a post as much as it will be me rambling. Just thought I should give you all a fair warning!

Ok, so pregnancy news... I am about a week and a half away from being out of my first trimester. Can we say, hurray? I cannot wait to reach that point. Not like the sickness will magically go away like it does for most people, but it means I am that much closer to holding my baby and being DONE with pregnancy. For those that say pregnancy is the most enjoyable thing, I want to slap them. For those that say the second pregnancy flies by, I want to slap them too. Now, I wont actually slap anyone, but these two things could not be farther from the truth for me!!! I guess its kinda hard for a pregnancy to "fly by" when I am constantly being reminded (by spit and puke) that I am pregnant.

Speaking of being pregnant, I am so incredibly emotional and exhausted all the time. I cry at the drop of a hat least once a day, and it is usually because of something silly. Yesterday it was because Jackson asked Suki to marry him on an old Gilmore Girls episode. I have seen this episode at least a dozen times, and never once have I done anything more than smile at that particular part. Needless to say, I felt dumb. And I remember being extremely tired when I was pregnant with Zachariah, but it has been hitting me hard this go around. Thankfully Daniel has the flexibility with his job where he can stay home for a couple hours in the morning and he takes care of Z and lets me sleep in! How wonderful is that? I am telling you, I am spoiled rotten. I mean, Daniel is usually a BIG help to me and Z on a daily basis anyway, but he is really outdoing himself during the pregnancy issues. He wins about 438 awards for being so fabulous! Having the luxury to puke in the morning without a toddler climbing on my back or sitting in my lap is just... heaven.

Speaking of puke, as of this week I have gotten my puking issue under somewhat control! I am throwing up no more than two times a day, but mostly its just once in the morning! I am stoked about that. Now, I don't feel 100% fine and dandy all day and I still hang over the toilet a bit and hack up mucous like its going out of style, but its so nice to know that I have the puking on a schedule. It allows me to get out of the house every now and then! Can you believe that I went 5 weeks without going out and about? I went to family's houses... that's it. Monday was the first time I went out into public, with my toddler, in 5 weeks. Now, I felt like I was going to pass out the whole time, but I did it! I went to Target and bought my baby some big boy underwear.

Speaking of big boy underwear, he is not actually wearing it yet. But I had high hopes of starting potty training this week, so we bought it just in case. So far I have been lazy and not been diligent about it. Anyone surprised? Didn't think so. But I swear, I am starting soon! I told myself that I wanted to start potty training when he turned two. That came and went and now I have set the goal at potty training him before his third birthday. Well, sadly, his third birthday is coming up in TWO MONTHS. Don't get me started or I will cry. I will just say that I don't have much longer before I meet this deadline! So I promise, I WILL start it sometime soon (as in, before he graduates high school) and I WILL be keeping you updated on the craziness.

Speaking of craziness... haha. Just kidding!

Well, I guess I did have a decent amount of stuff to say. So much for this post being short, huh? Ah well. I don't think I have anything else to ramble on about, so I will just go ahead and say goodbye.

Goodbye! :)

Laundry Fun

I have had these pictures ready to post for a week or two now, but I just haven't been able to come up with any words to go along with the post. So, in fear of never posting this, I am just going to post the dang pictures and get over the fact that its going to be a lame post. Is that ok with everyone?

Ok. Good.

This is Zachariah's new laundry basket. Its pretty much the most adorable laundry basket I have ever seen and Zachariah LOVES it. I mean, absolutely loves it.

Along with being flat out adorable, it has this fabulous handle that you can use to swing over your shoulder and carry the lion down to the laundry room. Fabulous? Yes, yes it is.

The mouth of the lion opens up so you can throw clothes in there. Zachariah LOVES this.

Every time he has dirty clothes he runs over, opens the mouth, throws the clothes in, closes it and says (in a very deep and raspy voice), "Mmmm. Yummy shirt!" (Or shorts, or pants. Insert appropriate clothing item.) So yeah. He talks for the lion. How cute is that?

Anyway. I just wanted to share about the cute laundry basket. We found it at Target for $10 and we are VERY pleased with it. They had a couple other laundry baskets similar to this. I think one was sports related and one was a butterfly or something. But this one is by far the cutest. And it fit his safari themed room so wonderfully, so purchasing "Mr. Lion" was a no brainer for us.

And yes, Zachariah named his laundry basket. :)

Like Mother, Like Son

In case you missed it yesterday on facebook or twitter, here is a picture for your Thursday morning enjoyment...

Is this not the funniest thing in the world? I was hanging over the toilet and when I turned around Zachariah was doing this little number. Cracked.me.up. He did have a few sound effects to go with it, and he did spit in his toilet. I started getting onto him for spitting, but then I figured that sounded a bit hypocritical. Ha!

Anyway, just wanted to share this priceless cell phone picture with my blogger friends! Hope everyone has a great day!

Pregnancy Woes

Ok... I really am hoping to post more than once a week, but, as my last post explains, I am pregnant. And for those of you who have not realized this yet, I feel you should know that pregnancy is a form of torture for me. Seriously. I am not one of those pregnant women who have a bit of nausea for 3 weeks and then joyfully enjoy the rest of their pregnancy. I am cursed.

You see, while some pregnant women only suffer from nausea, I suffer from vomiting. And while some pregnant women suffer from vomiting, I suffer from extreme vomiting. (I have actually busted blood vessels in my face a time or two.) When I was pregnant with Zachariah I threw up 6-8 times a day until I started taking Zofran. Even with the meds I still threw up 3-4 times a day. Not fun when you are a preschool teacher! This go around I am not yet on meds and only puking 2-3 times a day. So its not quite a bad as last time, but still just as inconvenient due to the fact that I need to raise a toddler. Oh, did I mention my vomiting lasted the whole 9 months when I was pregnant with Zachariah? Yeah. Well, it did.

Now that we have covered the vomiting, lets move on to the spitting, shall we?

Yes. I said spitting.

Believe it or not, excess saliva is a common pregnancy symptom. Most women have an increase in saliva, but its not a very noticeable one. And the women that do notice it can usually just swallow the excess saliva. Not the case with me. I have SO much saliva that I have to spit it out. I have to spit so much that I am forced to carry around a cup with me to spit into.

Yes. I have a spit cup.

And yes, I have been asked if I am chewing tobacco.

Doctors and nurses brush me off and tell me that the spitting will probably go away around the first trimester and then I promptly give a respectful eye roll. My vomiting does not stop in the first trimester and neither does my saliva increase. In fact, when I was pregnant with Z I did not stop spitting until four weeks AFTER I had him. And every month when my menstrual cycle rolls around I would always notice an increase in saliva. Never to the extent of needing a spit cup, but I would have to spit in the sink a few times a day during the week of my period. (Sorry if that is TMI. Going through pregnancy and child birth makes me numb to the whole TMI factor. lol)

And now that we have covered the saliva issue, lets move on to the mucous. I guess mucous and saliva could go into the same category though couldn't they? Ah well. On with the mucous!

Ok, so along with the puking and saliva issue I have developed a mucous problem. Tons and tons of mucous will literally back up in my throat and I will have to spend an hour or so gagging it up. I literally have to stick my finger down my throat to get it up. And sticking my finger down my throat triggers the gag reflex which makes me puke again. Oh the joy. Anyway, the mucous problem is getting a tiny bit better thanks to Zyrtec. It thinks out the mucous a bit and makes it easier to gag up, which means less puking.

And I would be completely fine if I never type the word "mucous" again. That was just too much. My apologies.

All of that to say that I go through one heck of a time during my pregnancy and that is why I may be slack on my blogging. I am starting to cope better with my symptoms though, so hopefully you will see a couple more blog posts here and there. Just know I haven't given up, it just takes me a little bit to drag myself to the computer!

Signing off,

Your sick-o pregnant blogger

:)