Big Project

I have been thinking a lot about how to decorate our girls' room and what type of bedding would be cutest. I was leaning toward doing a black and white damask theme, which I do still really like, but I wasn't 100% sure. Then my sister Olivia (check out her blog here) offered her opinion and it swayed me. I was feverishly looking for other ideas yesterday when I came upon this bedding set. What do you think?

I think it is so DARLING!! The problem is that is costs $600. Sorry, I'm not the kind of mom who can justify spending that much money on crib bedding. Or any other bedding set for that matter. I decided that it doesn't look like it would be too difficult to recreate and I could make a matching quilt for Madeleine's bed too. That would be even better. I then spent even more time scouring different websites in search of a cute printed fabric that would be just right for this project. I found lots of good options, but ultimately ended up at Joann's and found this:
The color's a bit softer than my inspiration bedding, but I think it's going to be perfect!! I am so excited!! I didn't sleep very well last night due to my mind racing over thoughts of this bedding coming together. And unfortunately this weekend is poised to be way too full of activities for me to be able to get started just yet, but soon enough I will get to work and see this thing take shape. It's lucky I decided to do this while I still live with my mom. Her help is going to be invaluable. Wish me luck!!

New Camera

Neither of these pictures are anything amazing, but I decided to post them anyway since they are from our new camera. Which, also, actually is not super special, but the viewfinder works and it takes pictures, so now our blog will be able to have current pictures on it again (as long as we actually take them). Hallelujah!! I hope that sometime in the not-too-distant future we will be able to get a really nice camera (like a digital SLR) but for now we needed something functional and inexpensive. So for a combined Mother's Day and graduation gift to each other we got our new camera. Ian is eager to get his hands on it, but we have told him that is strictly forbidden. It's thanks to our kids that we needed a new one in the first place.

I look at this and think "yuck," but whatever. This was me last night curled up with Spencer's laptop catching up on my TV shows online. I have DVR so why should I have to watch shows online? Well, my DVR had a problem a few weeks ago where it wouldn't record anything on ABC. Really? Just ABC? Only 90% of the shows we watch are on that channel! So annoying. I finally decided to buckle down and catch up. You see, my DVR missed about a week and a half of shows but then we fixed it so there were all these subsequent episodes piling up and tempting me to watch out of order. I couldn't do that. Don't get me wrong, I think it's awesome that a person can see all the shows they want online. But I do not pay for DVR service so I can watch TV on my computer. If you have Tivo or DVR you know exactly what I'm talking about. Don't worry. I'm caught up now and all is right with the world.

Now, so you know what you have to look forward to thanks to our new camera: Spencer's graduation, Madeleine's ballet recital, our new house, our new baby. And I'm sure we'll find other stuff worth taking a picture of. All in good time.

Progress

Here's the latest picture of our house. We have a wonderful salesman who goes by the property almost everyday and takes a picture to send us since we aren't there to check progress ourselves. It is the highlight of our day to see how things are coming along! Even though it will still not be done by the time we get down there, I can hardly wait to see it in person!

Another bit of progress: although we will have packers and movers come take care of getting our stuff to Texas, there is plenty to do beforehand so they don't pack up all our garbage and move it 1200 miles. Yesterday, my mom and I sorted through all the toys and packed up what we will take and left out things that she'll keep here and/or donate. It was quite a task. I'm lucky I have such a great, hard-working mom to get that project rolling and I am so glad it's done!

Next up: tackling the junk in our many closets.

Not a lot to say

I wish my blog wasn't so boring, but I have just not been in the blogging mood. Is it being pregnant that just makes me feel so blah? I think so and it's rather unfortunate to have such a feeling for such a long period of time. I really wish that human babies didn't need nine whole months to get ready to be born, but obviously that is not changing anytime soon. Anyway, just to add a new post to my page and to give me something to do (as if I really need that) this posting will be compiled of a few random thoughts. Let's all hope it turns out to be something worth reading. :)

Spencer has just a few more weeks left before graduation on May 15. His time in school has really gone by fast. He'll be starting work a week and a half after that. Can you believe it?? Now we just need to find a perfect interim housing situation. What will make it perfect? Basically if it's cheap and not scary and not a terrible distance from his job. Oh, and if me and the kids can join him a couple weeks after he gets there without having to move into a hotel till our house is done. Then it will really be perfect. The less we have to spend on interim housing the more we have to put towards other things. And really, who doesn't want all sorts of new things when they move into a new house? Not only are there things we'll want, there will be some definite needs too. Like a washer and dryer. And a fridge. And a lawn mower. You get the idea.



Madeleine is a reading queen. For school they get to pick out books to take home and read 3 times before bringing them back to school to be quizzed on them. Our new favorites are the Pigeon books. So far she's read Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, The Pigeon Wants a Puppy and The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog. They are such funny books! If you haven't read them, you should check them out.

Ian is an obsessed Lego ship builder. Give that kid a handful of Legos and he can come up with all sorts of different ship configurations. It's quite a talent, I'd say. If I had a fully functioning camera I would post a picture of some of his creations, but since I don't you'll just have to take my word for it.

As for me, like I said, I've been feeling really blah practically for the last 6 months straight. Although I am very excited about all the upcoming changes for our family, I'm probably not expressing that excitement as well as I could. So what do I do with myself? Besides constantly looking online for different things I want to buy after we get into our house, I daydream about being able to workout like I used to and making measurable progress once I have the baby. Oh yeah, and I need to find an OB/GYN when we move down there and that might prove to be a challenge. I've never moved during a pregnancy before so I didn't know what to expect, but I talked to one doctor who doesn't accept new patients who are past 22 weeks. (I'll probably be around 34 weeks by the time we get down there.) Luckily I spoke with another doctor who will at least look over my file and determine if they will take me on. That sounds promising, right? I'm not too worried. I'm sure it will work out just fine.

I looked through the pictures on this computer to see if there were any old ones I could put on here to make this post a little more interesting, but no luck. Most of our pictures are on our other computer which is pretty much down and out right now. Too bad.

Easter, etc.

I really, really don't want anyone to see this picture. I hate to see my pregnant self captured in photographs. Of course I can't blame it on the photograph. I really am as huge as I look and it's extremely depressing since I still have more than 3 months to get even fatter before I get to have this sweet baby girl. But I am posting this and the next one to stand as a reminder of what being pregnant does to me. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't forget anyway, but just in case. The good thing about this picture is you can see that Spencer is as handsome as ever. He's not even gaining any sympathy weight. Don't worry. I'm putting on enough for both of us.

Good thing Madeleine and Ian are so cute! They really save this picture! This was at the park this weekend at the fabulous Easter party my sister-in-law threw. It was complete with an egg hunt and pinata and tons of other goodies and candy besides. My kids were a little late in getting in on the hunt so they each only found a couple eggs, but thankfully they have some really generous cousins who shared their bounty. We ended up with way more than enough!
I just have to give a shout out to my sister, Maggie. She has been working out so diligently to lose weight and she is doing so good! And looking so good! You can check out her blog here if you're interested. She's hardcore.Sweet Madeleine on Easter morning. Yep, same dress as the day before. It is this year's Easter dress so I couldn't really make her change. I probably couldn't have forced her to if I had tried. In fact, I'm pretty sure she slept in her new dress Saturday night. Maybe she was just wanting to wake up prepared.
Our little man after their Easter morning egg hunt. My mom was a great Easter bunny. That morning, she hid all the plastic eggs we had restuffed the night before and all the dyed eggs so these two got to go searching for over 50 eggs. It was a good re-do since the hunt the day before was a bit of a bust for them. Hope you all had a great Easter too!

We found a house!

This isn't exactly what our house will look like, but it is similar.

Spencer and I spent a week house hunting recently and this is what we decided on. For a lot of reasons, it was a better way to go than buying a home resale. One of the top reasons being that the cost is hardly different and we can have just what we want in our home. The location is great (not a bad commute from Spencer's work) and the timing should be just right for when we'll be ready to move. Once we are down there I'll post more pics of our actual home in all it's glory. I'm imaging there will be a lot of glory. Can't wait!

Give away!

My incredibly talented sister-in-law has recently set up her own etsy shop and blog to promote the darling dresses and aprons she makes. Here is the link to her blog so you can sign up too:

http://polkadotcanar.blogspot.com/2010/02/polka-dot-canary-drawing.html

Here are some examples of what you could win:



And here's a link to her etsy shop in case you don't win but really want one of her wonderful creations!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/polkadotcanary

Good luck!