House, 37 weeks

So this past Saturday we found out that we could move into the house we were hoping to rent. We had been waiting for over a month to hear the news and our move out day at the apartment was this past Monday, so we were thinking we would end up moving into my parents for a while. Then we found out that we could move into the house the very next day!! Lol. So Patrick rented a uhaul Saturday night and we started packing a few things and loading up the truck. With a friends help they got the washer and dryer loaded. Next morning, bright and early, Patrick went to the house to help the guy finish loading up his things into his truck so he could take off to Lubbock. He came back and with the help of our friend and my brothers we got most things moved to the new house. We also got most of the living room set up and moved all of the boxes elsewhere so we would have at least one room to relax.

We still had things left to move though, so Patrick and I missed work this Monday to catch up on some sleep and finish moving. We picked up my brothers to help us move the last heavy things. I didn't do any heavy lifting since I'm super preggo but I sure made a lot of trips up and down those stairs at the apartment and we finally made it to the house sometime around 2am. Done with that apartment!!!!

The reason I am up so late writing this when I need to wake up in 5 hours is because I'm having a serious allergic reaction to some cat hair left over in this house and I'm trying to keep my mind off of it. So let's move on.

Yesterday was Tuesday and we didn't do much of anything. We both worked and just picked up a few things here and there. But right now our goal is to work on one room of the house at a time. I told Patrick to rest when he got home from so when I got home around 9:30 we could clean. I decided the room we should work on today would be the kitchen in case we have people over. Since the guy we rented the house from left a lot of his belongings, it was sort of an unpacking/packing/trashing session. We got like 4 of our kitchen boxes emptied out though yay!!! And it is looking a lot better... I could tell Patrick was about to pass out so I asked him to vacuum this one room really quickly because there was still cat hair in there. I did not realize how bad it was so I went in first to pick up some things from the floor. The dust and everything was bad. I got out of there and soon started sneezing like crazy so I took a Zyrtec. We went to bed after Patrick finished vacuuming and it has been like an hour now. Finally I feel like I can breath a little better. This is the worst reaction I've had so far because I started coughing with a little wheeze and my throat felt itchy and a little tight. Probably need to keep some Benadryl around because that was scary... So that's why I'm writing this novel, to keep me distracted so I didn't get anxiety to make it all worse. And it helped! I think I can sleep now.

Except I just realized we have our ultrasound tomorrow so now I'm too excited!! I hope to see the baby having the hiccups since it happens so often! But I do need to try and sleep because after work I need to keep working on the kitchen.. and after we get home from the ultrasound, we will probably move on to fixing up the nursery. :)

36 Weeks

It is really incredible feeling this little person moving arms and legs in my belly. I have grown so used to it that I don't know how it will feel to have my body back. And despite the discomforts I'm going to mids having our first baby moving his or her little butt around in there.

For the past two months or so I believe the baby has been head down, butt up by my left side, and feet over on my right. I always feel hiccups on my left side, and kicks on my right. Every now and then it feels like the baby gets stuck in my ribs because there is so much pressure there! And I've had a couple of strong kicks that actually made me feel sore.

I didn't realize just how long I've been having Braxton hicks. But it has actually been several months. But with time I came to learn that's what they were all along. My stomach tightens up, and it looks kinda warped. The closer to my due date, the more uncomfortable they get. And now they take my breath away, and sometimes it feels like I am getting hot flashes with em!! If I over do it, like walking to the Rangers game in this heat, they are so much worse. The worst so far lasted a couple of hours, getting like 10 in a single hour. So of course I started timing them, and although they were pretty regular they started to space out instead of getting closer.

And lately, I feel so much pressure so it hurts to lift to my legs, AT ALL.  Whether I'm trying to get up, put on pants, or just turn in bed, I feel sore.

This all sounds kind of horrible, but it is not that bad!!! I just felt I should write it all down before our baby arrives and we get so excited that I forget all of the details of our pregnancy. We both love this baby so much already and cannot wait to meet him or her... But I think that one of the coolest things about being pregnant is being able to protect your little one at all times. I think am going to miss that feeling the most of all. And feeling someone wake up throughout the day and kicking you randomly to remind you they are there is pretty cool too! 

Pregnancy ramblings

The past week has been long and crazy. My grandfather who has been sick for quite some time passed away last Thursday.  He's no longer in pain, but we will miss him greatly. It's difficult to handle it all being so far away from the family, but we are together in prayer.

Over the last few days, Patrick and I have been trying to figure out our living situation.  There is a house that we can rent to own but of course it comes up after we already have a lease on a new apartment that we are supposed to move into in a few weeks.  But if it works out, I'd much rather have the house.  We'll need the room for guests.  It only needs cosmetic work, but overall it's great.  It has everything we need, plus the extras that aren't a must but that we always wanted like a small porch, side garage, and a corner lot.  So it's a lot to figure out within a short period of time, and along with family things and work, I really need to watch my stress level for the baby.

So this is a random post.  But I also wanted to talk about some pregnancy symptoms that drive me nuts: Shortness of breath, and acid reflux.  The worst! Feeling short of breath is I guess mental, because I'm still getting the oxygen I need, but it feels like I can't catch my breath. And it makes you feel desperate to breath.  At first I thought maybe I was getting short on breath because I was eating too quickly.  Or walking a bit too much out in this Texas heat without enough water.  But really, it starts up out of nowhere these days. Thanks progesterone!  Acid reflux is another pain. There are certain foods I need to avoid now, or keep to a minimum, or pop a Tum's prior to eating it if I REALLY have to have it.  Pretty much everything I love to eat can give me reflux haha. For example, I am most upset about having to cut back on these: fried foods (like Whataburger), chips (Lay's Chile Limon), ice cream, and orange juice (which I used to drink every morning during the first few months of pregnancy without a problem). I know, most of those are bad for me and I should avoid them all the time anyway.

And about being pregnant in Texas during the summer months: the heat makes you cramp up (makes my belly so tight and uncomfortable.. maybe the baby is trying to hide from the brightness?). It helps to drink tons of water when I'm outside.  Usually on the drive to work I'll down my cup of water, and I'll always take an apple with me in case I need to eat it on the way because even with the a.c. the sun is just too much. I've only been in my bathing suit for Memorial Day and Fourth of July this summer, so I haven't had to worry too much about getting burnt.  Last time we went to a Ranger's game was fine.  We totally prepared and brought tons of water and fruit.  But the time before that was horrible.  I was short on breath the whole time.  We brought one water and even though we were mostly in the shade I was miserable and didn't think I'd make it past the 3rd, but I toughed it out and stayed til the end.  We should go to another game soon before things start getting hectic.

Clothes are interesting.  I don't look as pregnant in the clothes that I can still fit in from before.  I look really pregnant in pregnancy tops.  Other than maternity bottoms, I can't zip my jeans at all so I use rubber bands to keep them closed. And the scrubs I wear to work have become too tight an uncomfortable, so I wear the scrub top about twice a week and our work t-shirt the rest of the time.

I'm 30 weeks tomorrow!  And the baby kicks and kicks... sometimes it feels like it's got all limbs stretched out at once and it's just poking me everywhere. At times I think the baby is trying to flip in there instead of slowly getting into another comfortable position. Other times I get jabbed/kicked for minutes at at time, and when it's in the same spot sometimes it starts to tickle. Those little bones must be getting strong because when the baby kicks for like 30 minutes the area gets a little sore.  It's nothing you can't bare, and it's totally awesome feeling the baby being so active.  But I wonder how it's going to be over the next 2 months.. OMG I'm almost 8 months.

Mosaic Tile DIY

So we have this bookshelf that we turned on its side to use for our tv in the living room. It's got 8 cubbies, and only came with enough backing to cover whichever 2 cubbies we wanted. I got tired of being able to see through them and the mess of cables. I thought I'd buy a 12" x 12" mosaic tile with a really awesome pattern from the store, attach it to some wood, and then to the back of my cubbies.  But I didn't want to spend that much (even though that could also be fairly low cost).  Then somehow I thought of this: painting wooden sticks and attaching them to a poster board.  Now, I didn't have a clue how that would turn out or how long-lasting it'd be, but I figured that it would at least be a fun project. Plus major bonus:  the materials are so incredibly cheap!  I wouldn't be too upset if it didn't turn out as I envisioned it. So here's how it looks in our "entertainment center":

DIY mosaic in back of shelf  (left of the owl)

Supplies (Less than $5.00):

1. Bottle of glue - Elmer's or Tacky Glue ( I used tacky glue because that's what I had laying around and I'm comfortable with how it works.)

2. Paint - any paint/glazes/stains you have.  I used small acrylic paints that I got for like $0.30 on sale. I mixed my own colors to have more variety.

3. A brush - I used about a 1" brush and I was able to paint 2 sticks at once to speed up the process a bit.

4. Popsicle sticks - these come in multiple sizes, choose whichever you'd like.  Mine are the 1/2" wide. I found them at Michael's and I used a coupon so I spent less than $3.00 for a pack of 500.. don't know if I'll ever use them all but I probably won't have to restock on these for a very long time!

5. Poster board - yeah, like the $0.25 poster board! One sheet covered 2 of my cubbies (each about 1' x 1'). You might want something sturdier, but this worked just fine for me.  I chose white, but if you're trying to go for a look that is all different shades of one color, I'd go with the poster board in a similar color.

6. Scissors, pencil, ruler

7. Cup of water and paper towels to clean brush in between colors.

8. Nails and hammer (if you plan on attaching to the back of a bookshelf like mine).

HOW TO:

1. Lay out your poster board.  I used the same board to paint the sticks and then attach them on.

2. Cut your sticks. This is the not so fun part, so get it out of the way now.  I wanted all of my sticks to be rectangular, and at least the sticks that I found had rounded corners.  So you can volunteer a partner if you want for this ;).  If you have a chopper of some sort, that might save you some time.  I just used plain old scissors and help from hubby to cut these corners off.

3. Get your paint on! I actually decided to water down my paints a bit so you can still see the grains from the sticks just a bit (bonus: you'll use less paint and have leftovers for more projects).  The possibilities here are endless.  I decided I wanted a bright punch of color for ours. So I have a little bit of every color, and added a few bronze and silver pieces for a some shine. A little glitz can't hurt!

Maybe you want to do shades of browns, or cooler tones.  I turned a close-up of mine into sepia so you can see how it might look if you wanted to do all browns (which I really like and would like to do for a different project):

Paint, paint, paint.  By the time you move on to using a different colors, your first ones will be dried. You don't really need to worry about drying time for these especially if you don't glob on the paint - easy does it.

4. Measure out where your piece is going. Then draw it out on your poster board.

5. Here's how I attached the pieces: I wanted an offset look.  So I started with 3 different stick sizes; the full length, 2/3 of the length, and 1/2 of the length (I eyeballed these measurements).

I started with a full length stick on the bottom left border and glued my way over to the right.  In my case, the sticks hung over the edge when I got to the right. I marked with a pencil where it should stop, cut, and glued.  Depending on what size or pattern you're going for, maybe you won't have that problem! 

On the next row, I used a stick that was 2/3 of the length, glued my way over to the right, marked and cut if there was any hangover.  On the next row, I used a stick that was 1/2 of the full length, and glued my way to the right. Then on the third row, I used a full length stick again. And repeat.

There might be an easier way, but I started this project late at night and I refused to stop until I finished, so maybe I wasn't thinking as clearly as I would have earlier in the day.  

6. Then when I let it dry for about 10 minutes just to make sure those last few rows were really attached, I cut the poster board about 1" around the tile because in my case, I still had to attach this to the back of my bookshelf and that was just enough space so I could nail it down. Patrick nailed the poster board to the back of the bookshelf while I made sure it was nice and level, and ta-dah!

I really, really want to do a radial pattern to hang as art on the wall using this same technique.  And maybe add a circle mirror on the inside.  There are so many possibilities with this.  It's simple and fun, kids can have a blast with this and you can turn all those painted sticks into anything. Maybe a frame for their artwork? Lay some mod podge over it and create a place mat? Coasters?

Linked on Clean & Scentsible

Fabrics

I have a coupon to Joann and since I want to make a pillow for the rocking chair we stopped by on this strangely cool and rainy evening. I was looking for something red and blue but I fell in love with this cute animal fabric. It's the closest to a wallpaper I really liked online. Since it's flannel I think we will just turn that into a baby blanket, so we got a yard. And we only got one foot of the blue fabric with white circles for the pillow. Any leftover scraps I can frame or maybe use to make the mobile. And once the baby is here I can mod podge his or her initials in red onto the pillow. I also decided to make a new label for my posts, 'to do', so I can go back and.. look at everything I have left to do!

Nursery Ideas

So I put together I little mood board on my computer with some of the things we've already bought, things we have but need to be finished, and a couple of extras I'd like to have. 

My nursery mood board July 13, 2013. Click image to enlarge within page.

Here's where you can find the things we bought at Ikea:

Curtains: LAPPLJUNG  |  Rug: BÄLUM  |  Blanket: Gurli

We have the dresser, which will become the changing table, but we haven't finished it yet. We are going to paint the drawers in gradient shades of turquoise and add some cute glass knobs, or maybe paint the current knobs the same color as the drawer it's on.

We bought the rocking chair but that also needs to be finished.  My inspiration came from KFD Designs - she's incredible and you should definitely check out her blog.. you'll be there forever.  I'm not sure if I'll be simply adding a pillow or if I'll try to re-upholster the chair.  For now though, I think making a cute pillow cover for one of our existing cushions will have to do.

This is the crib I want: it's from Storkcraft and I found it at Walmart.

*-*-*

I'd like to add some cute frames in different shades of turquoise.  I want to leave some empty and some with some simple gray and white drawings of animals I'd make, some elephants, giraffes, whales, owls, penguins, etc., with little hints of blue and red if it feels right.

I also want to make 2 simple paintings, each with a different quote.  One from Dr. Seuss: 

"We're all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutual weirdness and call it love."

And some lyrics from "Make you Feel my Love". I absolutely love this song and Patrick's youngest brother played it on the piano at our wedding:

"I could make you happy, make your dreams come true. Nothing that I wouldn't do. Go to the ends of the Earth for you. To make you feel my love." 

So.......................... I think that's it? Whew. Glad I organized all my ideas in one place so that now I just need to follow through with everything I want to do.

Rocking chair

I have been wanting one of these bentwood chairs for a while now. Finally decided to check craigslist again and found one a little further from home than we would have liked, but it was $20.00. So today we met the seller at a Best Buy and picked it up! They were a young couple who was also expecting, so I guess the chair just wasn't their style. But I'm sure happy about it! Although Patrick didn't want to buy it right now since we are moving in a month, I didn't want to run the risk of not finding another deal like this. Plus I want to use it as soon as the nursery is set up!

And soon I'll post what I plan to do with the chair and if I go through with it I'll definitely be showing my process.

Exciting!