Feeling much better now....

I went to my weekly check up and mentioned the lack of sleep to my doctor. She asked why I hadn't called her. Well - because I just chalked it up to end of pregnancy sleeplessness. She laughed and prescribed Ambien sleeping pills. I was a little hesitant to take anything but she assured my that it was safe for our baby and that I needed sleep or I would be to tired to go in to labor.

So, I took one last night at 11:30 pm (after mopping and waxing the floors, lol). I didn't wake up until 7:30am this morning. I didnt' dream, I don't remember Graedon crying last night and I didn't wake up to go to the bathroom.

I felt dizzy at first but really good. My attitiude is optimistic again and I have energy. In fact I just took off all the kitchen cabinent doors, washed them, sanded them and put the first of two final coats of oil based paint on them. It's something I've been wanting to finish.

Now off to teach school and then hopefully take some pics of items around here to list on eBay. Trying to clear out the clutter and get some money for our baby's hospital bills.

I'll probably crash a little later but at least I feel good now. That is such a blessing.

Oh I need to go outside to take some pics of the work we got done on the backyard this weekend. Wow! Looks so different.

Yes, I would like some cheese with my whine...

I'm miserable. I have a little over 2 weeks to go and I'm miserable. I can't sleep because as soon as I lay down, my arms fall asleep. I try to sleep sitting up on the couch but that's not comfortable either. I'm so tired. There is so much more I want to get done. We are almost finished with the bedroom, just need to get one more coat of paint on the walls. I need to find some fabric for the headboard and get it stapled on.

I want this to be over and I want to meet my little one.

Okay - enough said, I'm going to drown my whining in a bowl of chocolate ice cream....

Bedroom progress

We are almost done with our bedroom makeover. The ceiling is a pale silver blue that I LOVE. Here is the inspiration for our paint colors. My Pottery Barn duvet:


We spray painted the brass/faux wood ceiling fan a hammered copper and the blades the same blue as the ceiling. It really disappears now.



Please note that I could not get the right blue in any of these pics.
The walls are a brown that I like now. After I put the first coat on I thought I was living in a sand pit. The paint dried darker - thank goodness - and it is fine now.



Gone are the phone numbers etched on our walls.





Closet doors before.



The closet doors are a pale blue with glass knobs.
Now. Just need to put up some inner moulding.


The sliding door to the sewing room is also a pale blue. Brian is going to paint some branches and cherry blossoms on it soon.


The plaster wall patch repair we had to do turned out great and you can hardly tell there was a big gaping hole there.



Before
\

One coat of plaster


Now
Next up is to build a picture frame headboard for our Sleep Number bed. We already have the moulding and I just need to paint and distress it. Then find some fabric to put inside. I didn't think I would actually be painting at 36.5 weeks pregnant but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Painting the top part of the walls was no big deal but getting up and down off the floor was a challenge. :)


Oh and here is our next project. We scored this dresser at the Goodwill outlet for $20. It is solid oak with dovetailed drawers. We plan on stripping it and staining it. I'm trying to convince Brian to build a hutch for it. We'll see ;) Our current teeny, tiny, small dresser will go to the girls. I'll post some "after pics" soon.

4 year olds

Ellie will turn 4 in one month and has her big day all planned out. She is currently obsessed with all thing princess - especially Disney Princesses.

While the girls were finishing up their math, Ellie informed me that she was in princess school. There she was at the dining room table drawing princesses.

As I got up from the computer to make my every-15-minute-trip-to-the-bathroom, she came running with her paper.

"Look Mommy - it's a princess with a squirrel on her head."

"A squirrel on her head? If you were a princess would you want a squirrel on your head," I said.

"Not a squirrel, I said swirl," Ellie said with a withering look. Then skipped off.

Ooops - won't make that mistake again.

Bridge is done...

We pretty much finished the garden bridge. It is over 8 ft long and made of cedar. Brian didn't want the "new" wood look so I stained it a dark blue. I think it turned out very nice.

Next step is to add some more plants around the rocks under the bridge. Excuse the mound of mulch behind the bridge. We are waiting to put in more garden paths and build the girls playhouse. Then that mound will be gone.

Here is what it looked like a couple of weeks ago.

Dear Billy Blanks

Dear Billy Blanks,
I have been a huge fan of your cardio-kickboxing series, Tae-Bo for 7 years now. I'm not sure it is popular to "kick-punch" (as my 22 mth old son says) with you anymore but hey it works for me.

The reason why I'm writing is to confess my guilt. When you say on your advanced Tae-Bo dvd to "get your knee up past your belly button or you're not really working your abs" - well - I can't do it. You see, I'm 35 weeks pregnant and the best I can do is get my upper thigh to touch my stomach. Even then it's pretty pathetic.

Oh and while I'm confessing, I must admit that I can't do some of the floor stretches with you either. I either get dizzy or I can't get back up. So I either walk in place or check email kick something.

Well, I feel better getting that out in the open. I really do enjoy Tae Bo and it actually feels better than walking right now. After about 15 minutes on a walk, my lower back hurts but I can do 30 minutes of Advanced Tae-Bo and feel fine.

Thank you,
Your biggest fan (literally).

Thinking Blogger Award

My cute friend Gyl of Rhembein nominated me for the Thinking Blogger Award.

Here are the Rules:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.

3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote.

So here goes:

My friend Kerri, Cup of Grace, who is recently back online after a year off (can you imagine, lol). Her girls and my girls are best friends and do everything together at church. She has 9 kids, homeschools and is a joy to be around.

Casapinka , I find this blog fascinating. She is decorating her house using a decorator 9000 miles away. They email back and forth and so far her house is looking great.

A great craft blog I read is Turkey Feathers. I recently found out she's also an Oregonian! She has great ideas and I love all the stuffed animals and mini quilts she makes.

And of course I LOVE this blog, One Woman's Cottage Life. Kim has inspired me to paint my kitchen cabinents (which aren't done yet). I love how she's taking a ranch style home and making it cottagey.

And one of my favorite eBay designers, Gock's Frocks. She's very creative and very sweet.

Oregonian speak

Me: "Lots of granola's live down there."

Brian: "Yeah, its pretty crunchy."

Do you know what we're talking about, lol?

Day outside

Bedroom progress has begun (i.e. plaster repair) but by the time we got back from Farmer's Market it was time for Grae's nap and work on the room stopped. His bed is in our room so we went outside to start working on building our garden bridge.


Brian working on the second piece of the bridge support. You can see, on the left, the first one cut. While Brian was taking a break, Maddie and I worked on cutting the cedar cross pieces. Yes I helped out and have photo proof!


I really needed goggles but Brian couldn't find any.
And showing my 8 1/2 month pregnant belly. Big isn't it, lol.
We went to the toy store while on our Farmer's Market trip and bought Grae what he desired most. It only cost $2.50.


Walking the plank with his trusty new sword. Forget trucks and cars, Graedon is into pirates, dragons, knights and Peter Pan. He has a Captain Hook voice that he uses when holding a sword.


 

Yeah - painting again!

We are about to do a makeover on our bedroom. We've been living here for 1.5 years and our room has never been touched. The walls have cracks in the plaster, there is some form of tape reisdue on the walls with phone numbers etched in (we haven't called them but I'm always tempted too, lol). The paint is blotchy and we have no curtains, just 2" wood blinds.

Soooo, before the baby comes I decided that I wanted a nice room for a change. We went to Home Depot tonight and purchased some Plaster of Paris for the cracks in the walls and some rollers. I bought 5 gallons of white trim paint and a nice light blue for the ceiling. The walls will be a light brown. I'm going to paint our $5.00 garage sale end tables a deep brown and put some new hardware on them. The ceiling fan will also get painted a dark brown and the metals parts a hammered brown (spray paint). We also need to get a new dresser as the kids really need the one we have. We're going to the antique stores tomorrow morning after perusing the opening day of Hillsboro Farmers Market.

I can't wait until the room is done and we get to hang our antique window frame on the wall.
This one:



I bought some neat bird postcards from etsy that I'm going to put in the windows panes. Hard to describe right now but I will be sure to get a pic of it. I really want Brian to paint some cherry blossoms on the sliding door (the door that leads into the sewing room) but we will see how far we get on the room. I feel a little guilty starting this project when I haven't even finished the kitchen.

But hey - I deserve a nice bedroom, right?

Doctors visit

Grae and I went for my 33.5 week pregnancy checkup. Part of the routine, as you may know, is giving a urine sample. And there is nothing more dignified then and 8 1/2 mth pregnant lady trying to urinate in a small cup. Anyway off to the bathroom Grae and I went. He was thirsty so I took one of the sample cups and filled it with TAP water and gave it to him. Then I took one for my sample. I told him to drink his water.

He said "No."

I said "It's okay, just drink it."

He again said "No, potty cup."

"Oh, no it's just water." I reassured him.

"No, potty cup," he said again.

He would not drink the water. Of course the nurse was standing outside the door and was laughing as we came out.

Everything is fine with the baby and I'm going in for appointments every two weeks. Getting close!