Mission Completion!

Or at least close enough to completion...

Daniel and I finished the nursery this weekend!!! We still have the little stuff to put up here and there... but all the painting is done, and all the furniture is in place. So here are some pictures of the nursery before and after we painted. (ignore the lighting issue. I am not too sure what is going on...) Reminder: We are doing a safari-type theme... and later there will be bedding and wall hangings to pull that in. But here is what we have for now.

BEFORE

AFTER

Now comes the best part ever. My wonderfully talented husband designed, printed, laminated, cut out, and installed grass blades to the bottom portion of our nursery. ( i am sure more work was actually put into it, but I cant remember all of what went on... I am sure he will post a more accurate blog about it though) Anyway, it looks AMAZING and he did such a great job!!! So here is what it looks like now!

Bedding

So here is our bedding that we have registered for. We are doing the nursery in a safari type theme... the colors we have painted the nursery are khaki and green. It looks good, but we have to add our finishing touches (which could take weeks)... so once we are done I will post pictures. But for now, here is our bedding set. And there are a ton of cute accents that can be bought... like a lamp, window valence, hamper, sheets, and wall decorations. So go to target.com and buy us all of that stuff! :)

Procrastination

I don't have a thought in the world to blog about. I am just tired of seeing the picture of the eggs from my last blog. So here I am, sitting here...

not going grocery shopping
not getting the nursery ready to be painted
not organizing the butt load of baby cloths people gave us
not doing laundry
and not doing dishes

This is going to be a productive day.

Another Craving

Does anyone have some deviled eggs sitting around their house? If you do, PUH-LEASE let me know soon so I can come over. I really need to eat some of those right about now.

Marshmallows Roasting on an Open Fire

I have had a major urge to eat roasted marshmallows. I LOVE to roast marshmallows and get them the really pretty brown color... then eat that coating off, then roast the rest of it. Last year I tried roasting marshmallows on one of the burners of our stove. It didn't work out too well.

So does anyone have a decent way to roast a marshmallow inside? I may have to resort to digging a fire pit in my kitchen floor.

Toaster de la Oven

For some time now Daniel and I have had differing opinions on Toaster Ovens. We had a toaster oven in our house grown up, and I think they are pretty useful. Now, by useful I mean I would rather use the toaster oven instead of the real oven when possible... but that's not the point. Daniel thinks they are useless. He sees no point in them whatsoever. If you ask him why we don't have a toaster oven, he will say "We have a toaster, and we have an oven. Why would we need a toaster oven?"

Side note:

We got one for a wedding gift, but Daniel convinced me that we didn't need it. And like a gullible newlywed I gave in to the peer pressure. So we re-gifted it to my mother.

So what is your opinion on the Toaster Oven? Useful or useless? Should I try and win the fight to buy one, or let it go? Will it be useful for preparing food for small children? Or will it end up being one of those kitchen appliances that I use for a week and then it spends the rest of its life cluttering up my kitchen counter? I need feedback people!

Bored

As of last Tuesday at 12:25 pm I was officially done working at my former job! Needless to say, I was thrilled and excited and way to many other adjectives to list. Talk about a weight lifted off your shoulders. ANYWAY, I had the rest of the week to myself since I don't start my next job until tomorrow (Monday). So I had THREE whole days to do nothing.

And let me tell you, I didn't do one blasted thing besides eat and watch TV. It was great. But since I was at home all day long by myself for 3 1/2 days I think I am having social withdrawals. We hung out with Steve and Tammi on Thursday and Friday night, so that helped a TON. (coughweneedtodothatmoreoftencough) But now the weekend is almost over. Tomorrow starts anther week. And I am afraid I am going to slip into my anti-socialness yet again. *sigh*

Moral of the story: I have got to hurry up and cram social time in before I have this kid!

Holiday

Last night Daniel and I were trying to decide on a movie to rent. I cant tell you the last time we actually rented a movie... I cant think that far back. We have a plethora of movies that we own, my brother has rented movies and brought them over to watch, and we have watched rented movies at friends houses. But we ourselves have not rented a movie in forever. So we were trying to decide what we wanted to watch. I had not heard of most of the movies that were new releases, so we ended up with The Holiday. So the long and short of it is, we watched The Holiday and I liked it. I wont go out and purchase it or anything, but I definitely enjoyed it!

Anyone got any movie suggestions for the next time we get the bright idea to rent a movie?

Shower Power

I had my first baby shower last week.... so I decided to post a picture of all the stuff I received.

Just cause I can.

We got a nice supply of diapers and wipes (wohoo!!) that you can see on the bottom shelf and in the basket on the floor. On the middle shelf you will find bath stuff, lotions, bottles, etc. On the top shelf there is a plethora of blankets, washcloths, adorable towels with hoods, and some cute toys. To the side of the changing table sits our monitors, bottle warmer, bathtub, and a mobile for the crib.

And below you will find the CUTEST little robe in the world. Yeah, it has a Lion hood.

And because I am a slacker, this is officially the first picture I have taken of my pregnant belly. I am officially 21 weeks along (5 months). Ignore the gross teacher tan line. (ugh)

Boy Oh Boy!

As most of you know, Steve was the winner of my prediction game!!! For Steve's prize we have decided to name our little boy after him. So in September you will be able to meet baby Steve-o Titus.

Ok really... I cant come up with a freakin name. I have two I am debating between... I just cant find the perfect middle name for one of them. If I could come up with a perfect middle name to go with the first name I like I would be sold. But thats another post for another time. Give me another week and then I will be coming to you asking suggestions for that name. sheesh. how pitiful am I?

So, Daniel was a massive party pooper tonight. I woke up from my first shift of sleeping (7:30-10:30ish) and soon after that Daniel comes to bed in hopes of sleeping. But goodness knows I am wide awake now... so I expect him to actually carry on a conversation with me for a little bit... but noooo. He becomes cranky butt and actually goes to sleep. Sheesh. What is the world coming to? So that leaves me here, to ramble on, and on, and on...

ok. I am off to go check my Myspace and Facebook accounts. (yet again, pitiful)

Boy or Girl?

I am going to the Dr. to find out the sex of our baby on Wednesday. That is in two days!!!

What does that mean?? Prediction time! I am apparently in desperate need of entertainment around here...

So give me your predictions people!! Do you think I am having a boy or girl?

A Reader I am Not

I used to read ALL the time. I couldn't put a good book down once I started. So it was not uncommon for me to read a couple books in a week. Ever since I graduated high school (4 long years ago) I have just stopped reading books. It doesn't really interest me anymore. My husband on the other hand reads like crazy. He has a whole bookcase full of books that he says I will love... And I am sure I will. I just don't want to read them.

All that to say, Daniel bought the book Sex God by Rob Bell. I have read the first chapter and I could probably write 5 different blogs on that one chapter alone. It was great. The book is amazing. And let me remind you, I have only read one chapter.

School is out in 5 weeks. So I am sure you will be hearing more from me about Rob Bell after that. Until then, let me just say, I love this book.

Week 14

I want to go ahead and apologize for being a major blog spot slacker. I have been very inconsiderate for my old readers, and my new readers, my borrowed and my blue readers. So for that I apologize. The times I am not puking, I am sleeping. So the computer doesn't get to see me often. You would think that since I am on my 14th week of pregnancy this stuff would start fading, but no. I believe its going to stick with me till this thing comes out.

Until next time...

Cravings

My food cravings have been kindof odd. I havent craved a lot of weird foods. I have been craving one type of food and I will crave it and eat it for a week straight. Then I will move onto another type of food. A couple weeks ago all I ate was Ravioli. Then it was Mac n Cheese. Last week it was mashed potatoes. Now its Zaxby's. This has been my favorite. (This ha been our budgets least favorite)

So what if our electricity gets cut off this month? At least I have Zaxby's.

Chocolate Milk...

is my new best friend

7 weeks 3 days

Wow time is creeping on by in the land of the pregnant. It seems like I have been "with child" for about 3 months now, and its only been a little over 7 weeks. Its this dad gum morning sickness. If I weren't puking constantly I think this whole process would go by a little quicker. And just in case anyone was wondering.... In the past 2 1/2 weeks I have only been one day without throwing up. Yeah. That's right. I am a pukaholic.

Round 2

This is going to be a short blog... well because I still feel barfy. But I just wanted to inform everyone that I am pregnant again. (yay!) Went to the Dr. today and everything looks great. The baby is the right size, the heart rate is great... so the Dr. said there is nothing to worry about. (that of course is silly, cause well, I am gonna be worrying regardless) The due date is September 28... and I am 6 weeks and 4 days pregnant. :)

I dont know if I left anything out, but thats it!

Oh yeah, we WILL be finding out the gender of our baby and we will share names eventually. :)

Poets

For those of you who dont know, my husband is the greatest. No, really. He is perfect. He does the dishes, laundry, cleans the house, goes grocery shopping, manges our money, takes care of me when I am sick, and spoils me to no end. The list could go on, but I dont have all day here. Basically, he makes me really, really happy. Anyway, along with all of those wonderful things, Daniel writes poetry. Now, I am not a poet. I dont really appriciate poetry, so all is lost on me. But he wrote me this poem the other day, and I thought I would share it with you.

For those of you who appriciate or know anything about poems, its called a Cinquain poem.


My light
Without my wife
Had might as well be night.
No doubt every day would be rife
With strife.

My Love
Can't be better—
She's the answer in thereof
To poverty... If the debtor
Met her.

My song
Is quite succinct.
Would it somehow be wrong,
Or would it make my point distinct
If winked?

My joy
Is not in deeds.
My services, employ
To meet with the greatest of speeds
Your needs.

Toilets

I have been sick for the past 5 or 6 days. (i have lost count) I have been vomiting like no other, so therefore my new best friend has been my toilet. I am so freakin tired of toilets. I am tired of looking at a toilet. I am tired of smelling the "toilet smell", I am sick of it. The fact that my head has been hung over an object that holds my urine and my crap, disgusts me. NOT to mention the fact that I haven't cleaned my toilets in... well its been a little too long, so I am staring at a gross looking toilet. In between my puking, I grabbed the toilet scrubber brushy thing and went at it. But there is only so much a puking person can do. So I really didn't improve it all that much.

Alright, that's it for now. I will post more late, I promise. I have just been getting some vibes from CERTAIN people to update. Sheesh. No sympathy for the sick and dying.

Blue Ball

Casey and Amanda stopped by my house for a very BRIEF moment, but while they were here I managed to capture a couple pictures of them acting like.... well themselves. I recently bought a blue exercise ball (it was like $4.00 at hibbett). I mainly use it for a computer chair because our computer chair is broken and i have ADD so the bouncy ball does wonders for my concentration. Anyway, they came over and Casey decided he would try some of the exercises that the muscular man was doing on the instruction manual.

Here is Amanda showing Casey the instructions.

This is when Amanda decided to turn all Matrixy on us and kill Casey with her Jedi like reflexes. (notice the great camera work)
P.S. I will NOT quote Casey on what he said soon after this when he took a topple onto the floor.

And then here is Amanda being all seductive.

I swear I would have had more pictures, but they kept making me laugh, so I kept screwing up the pictures. sheesh.

Apples and Peanut Butter

I have just recently fallen in LOVE with apples dipped in peanut butter. I mean, in L-O-V-E. For the past couple days I have eaten apples and peanut butter like they are going out of style. If you are one of the unfortunate people who has not yet gotten a chance to enjoy such wonderfulness, I beg of you... go try it. Its amazing.

angry... very angry

(I will remain calm)

OK. I just spend a good 15 min. typing a blog about my classroom door. I had cute pictures and everything. It was actually semi-clever too. But as I was previewing and spell checking, my Internet Explorer closed itself. Almost as if I had said, "I am done with you... be gone". I will not begin to tell you the actions I took upon seeing that my well done blog was now, kaput. But I will say, that hopefully when I can be calm while sitting at this computer again, I will give you the pleasure of seeing my door this month.

I will hopefully return within the next few days. Goodbye All.

Mistle Toad

I know you have all heard of Mistle Toe.... But has anyone heard of a mistle toad? Well if you haven't, let me introduce you to my new friend. This lovely toad is our newest addition to our household. (at least during the Christmas holiday season) My grandmother has had this Mistle Toad ever since I was a tiny little girl. I loved that thing. And as usual, my grandmother had the very same Mistle Toad up while we were there visiting. Daniel and I made it a little joke to stop every single time we walked under it and wait for the other to come give that said person a kiss. And when I said every time, I meant it. Whenever we would walk under the doorway we would stop and wait... without flack or fail. So it was "our thing" and so when we left my grandmother insisted that we take it. I was so excited. Now when you people come over to our house next year you will have the privilege of getting to see our Toad!

North Carolina

As I mentioned in my previous blog (see below) Daniel and I went up to North Carolina with my family to visit my grandparents. (my Dad's mom and step dad) Unfortunately, it didn't snow this year... so that was a bummer. But we did have fun regardless for the no snow issue. My siblings had the wonderful idea of riding in a separate vehicle. (this ended up saving our sanity) So me, Daniel, Wesley, and Amanda rode in Amanda's Jeep while following my parents and Dustin.

It was a long, but fun 9 hour drive. Even though its a little hard to see, we did pass the Girls Gone Wild bus as we drove into the state of North Carolina... and it was because of moments like those that we were able to make it through a 9 hour drive.



The following pictures are a few shots I took during the trip. There was really nothing else to do in NC besides wander around the farm (yes, i said farm) and take pictures, so there are a ton of them. The first one is a picture of Amanda and my grandmothers key board. I thought it was adorable.






This is a random piece of farm equipment we found. It was extremely rusty and decrepit... so Amanda decided to risk her life climbing on it.







We all became extremely obsessed with these Magnetics toys. Daniel and Wesley made some pretty cool pyramids...









The following pictures are some pictures that Wesley and Amanda took on the farm, on the front porch, in the yard... or wherever the heck they could find places to take pictures. Ignore their expertise... it makes my pictures look bad. :)

We found a Teeter Totter! :)

Post Christmas

Whew! I finally have had time to breath. These past couple weeks have been so busy! Let me give you a sneak preview of what has been going on:



We of course had the whole Christmas to-do. We went to Daniels Grandparents, my Grandparents, my parents, Daniels parents, and so on and so forth. We also went to North Carolina where we visited my other set of grandparents. (pictures will be posted soon) We had a good time at each of the places we visited and got some wonderful gifts ranging from movies to yard equipment. (I have been wanting to complete my Disney Princess collection- I still need "Snow White" and "Beauty and the Beast" if anyone feels so inclined) Among wonderful spread of gifts came a few decorations for our house. We are wanting to start a Penguin collection- seeing as we are totally obsessed with them... so my mom gave us quite a few adorable Penguin's to start our collection off wonderfully. We also got a few things to add onto our kitchen decorating project that has been going on for about 5 months now. If you haven't seen our kitchen, its done in different browns and whites with coffee accents. My mom gave us some cute coffee plates to display





and my Aunt Diane gave us nifty some art work that she bought from Ireland.




Along with the Christmas giving and receiving, we decided to do a few home projects. We painted and mounted shelves for our plates to be displayed, hung up our artwork, put up a much needed clock in the living room, started to organize our closet in the living room, painted and put up our outlet covers, and I am currently on the never ending Take-down-Xmas- stuff project. (Am I allowed to have that many commas in one sentence?)


Last thing... then I will stop boring you, I promise. As part of a joint Christmas gift Daniel and I FINALLY purchased our very own, new and improved, Digital Camera. Not the exact thing I wanted, but for the price we paid, it is stinkin awesome. We didn't end up getting the printer that was an extra whatever dollars. so ignore that part of the picture. So yeah, I am excited. Now I just need to take lessons from Tammi so I can learn to take a decent picture.

Freak Show

Wow... 2 blogs in one day. I will never cease to amaze myself. Anyway, my grandparents are celebrating their 45th anniversary tomorrow... So my family took a group shot as part of their gift. This is my family and my mom's sisters family.

We saw some graffiti that described our family to a tee. So we decided to partake in being halfway funny.

After the previous picture was taken, I thought it would be a good idea for everyone to be Emo... since we were dressed in black and white and in front of graffiti, it seemed appropriate. Obviously we all need to work on our emo/depressed expressions, but its a good first try. A lot of family memebers wouldnt have a clue what emo is. So I give them 4 Kudos for knowing exactly what to do.

Kudo

Kudo

Kudo

Kudo

Turtle Park

Today I spent the day with the coolest little girl ever. She was in my class last year, and she is utterly adorable. We went to turtle park, the mall, ate at chick-fil-a, played at my house, watched a movie, took a nap, and ate cookies! So we had a very busy day. Anyway, I just wanted to share a few of the pictures that Daniel took of our Turtle Park adventure. Enjoy!

short and sweet

I am so tired of looking at that wedding picture. I really need to remember how to update my profile picture. I just cant seem to figure it out! Apparently I am just having a brain fart or something.

Vent

I am cranky. And pouty. I hate paying bills. It makes me realize how much money we dont have and how much I cant spend because we dont have it. And the worst part comes when I think about how much other people dont have. Some people dont have a house, some people dont have a car. Some people dont have food to eat or cloths to keep them warm. And here I am complaining that we have to move money over from savings so that we can pay our bills. I should be thankful we have a savings account. Not complaining about having to use the money in it. Thats what the dadgum account is for isnt it?

I guess when it all boils down, I am cranky cause I know I shouldnt be having a bad attitude about this stuff. Things could be a lot worse. I need to see the glass as half full... not all the way empty.

Classroom Doors

As you all already know, I teach K3. Its not an extremely easy job, but I LOVE it. One thing I do not love is the fact that I have to change my door every month. We have to change it to either the holiday, or unit we are studying... basically just change whats on the outside of it so it looks cute and interesting every month. So last year me and one of my fellow coworkers decide to start painting things and putting them up on our doors. we had the cutest doors ever. This year another K3er gets in on the painting idea... so we all get in competition mode. Both of my competitors painted. One painted carolers singing with the saying "sing praises unto the lor", the other painted a snow scene with a Christmas tree and baby Jesus laying in a trough underneath the tree with the saying, "Don't Forget the True Gift of Christmas". I had three main beefs with this particular door. 1) Since people are brown nosers, they try to be all spiritual with their doors. Putting Jesus under a Christmas Tree as a baby was dumb. Jesus wasnt born on December 25th. The Bible never says that date. Someone picked December 25th to celebrate His birth. 2) On this door, He is put under a tree in the winter time with snow coming down. He could freeze. 3) the saying is a ball of cheese. just gag me. Ok, i am done. On with my story.

What was I going to paint? Nothing. This month I decided to rise above painting. I went 3D.

I don't want to brag or anything... but:

I traced and cut out a bazillion hand prints from the kids in my classroom. I single handedly curled every finger on those hands and pieced each of those hands together to make over 15 rows of hands. I cut out 60 tiny lights from construction paper. I copied and cut out 25 ornament patterns and had the kids color and glitter them. I copied and cut out 8 items that would go under a Christmas tree (presents, rocking hoarse, teddy bear) and had each kid color one of those. I put "Merry Christmas" over my door, instead of a cheese ball saying. All in all, I spent over a week and a half on this door. And what do I have to show for it?

A freakin awesome door, thats what.

So I dont have a "spiritual" door. I have a sinking cute one.