Pregnancy so far: 22 weeks

Shockingly, I haven't done all the adorable Pinterest/blogger things with the chalkboard and weekly updates on how Baby is growing and changing and acting. To be completely honest, it wasn't really on purpose...I just kind of forgot. Time kept passing by and before I knew it I'd kind of let the opportunity pass me by. I figure I'm okay, though, because I've been posting nursery updates like it's my job and you'd probably all be super annoyed if you had to hear even more baby-related things from me. I thought I would take the chance to share a little bit about what the first half of my pregnancy has been like, and even though 22 weeks is a little random I can pretend that I'd planned this all along in honor of Baby weighing one pound this week (according to my Baby Center app, anyway).


First Trimester

The first trimester was pretty rough for me and Baby. Not the worst ever, by any means, and there are lots of women who have had it a lot worse, but I will say I didn't enjoy it. A lot of nausea, lasting all day every day. A lot of running to the bathroom and getting sick, lasting all day every day. A lot of fatigue, knocking me on my butt at random times throughout the day. There were many naps on the couch because it was closer than the bed. I did cave about halfway through and ask the doctor for some nausea medicine, which I didn't like being on but it helped considerably so I didn't complain. I complained a little bit about the side effects of that nausea medicine (is constipation better than throwing up?) but everything is temporary. That's my pregnancy motto, in fact: everything is temporary. Whether it lasts the first trimester or the first two trimesters or the whole pregnancy, the baby will be born at some point and the symptoms will stop. (I'm planning on continuing that motto into childbirth, which I hear sucks. Also, all-night breastfeeding.)

It's funny, because the first trimester dragged and dragged and seemed to last forever when I was in it, but now that it's over it all just seems like a blur. A blur consisting of only carbs for me, dinners not cooked for the hubs, and a house not cleaned too often. But the blur is over, and right around week 14 or so I felt like a veil was lifted and the nausea that had been constantly present since week 2 was finally gone. It was a beautiful feeling, and I'm a huge fan.


Second Trimester

The nausea did go away, but my appetite didn't come completely back.  It's kind of hit or miss, and most of my days consist of multiple small meals whenever I get hungry. The constant nausea and vomiting in the first trimester meant that I didn't gain a pound until recently, but as of my last appointment a week and a half ago I've finally gained five pounds. The doctors aren't concerned so neither am I (although I will admit that there were times it really bothered me). I've gotten a lot of energy back, although there are moments I still get hit with exhaustion and take random naps. I've been able to capitalize on my bursts of energy, though, and get a lot of projects done both in and out of the nursery, which always makes me happy.

The first tiny kicks were barely recognizable, which I hear is normal, and then when I didn't feel any for the rest of the day I started to wonder if I'd imagined it. But have no fear, the baby has gone violent and by now I feel them all the time, usually when I'm sitting but sometimes when I'm up and moving. The hubs still hasn't been able to feel a kick; whenever the baby is kicking a whole lot and I put his hand wherever the kicks are, the little stinker stops. Every single time. It doesn't matter if the kicks just started or if he or she has been going strong for fifteen minutes. Trust me, Baby and I have already had words about this. Stubborn little pain in the butt.

We've finally had our second ultrasound and gotten to see our baby, who actually looks like a baby now! (See photo on top of post.) Baby's stubbornness showed up in full force with both the ultrasound tech and the doctor as well, rolling over to hide his/her face and covering it with his/her hand...kicking the ultrasound wand away...curling up in a ball and refusing to show his/her heart so they can count chambers. The tech had me moving into different positions and taking bathroom breaks to make baby cooperate, and the doctor did her fair share of pushing and jiggling my belly with the wand to annoy the baby into moving for her. Like I said: stubborn little pain in the butt. That being said, it was the most exciting thing to sit in that room for over an hour and watch different parts of our baby show up on the screen as they did the full scan and check, making sure everything was growing and developing normally. There were a couple of times where I saw the baby's leg or arm move on the screen and felt the kick or punch in my belly, which has got to be the coolest thing in the world. Everything seems to be on track and great with both me and Baby, which is always something to be excited about. (And for those who will ask: we're not finding out the baby's gender this time. We'll find out in the delivery room!)


Quick Timeline:

• First ultrasound: week 8
• Nausea ended: week 14ish
• First kicks felt: week 19 (on Mother's Day!)
• Second ultrasound: week 21
• First time going into public and knowing I looked pregnant: week 22

Pieces of Advice/Things I've Learned:

I don't want to be the pregnant woman who thinks she can now offer words of wisdom to every other pregnant woman, but I do have a couple little tidbits that I've learned that may or may not be helpful to someone.

-When I was super nauseous all the time and couldn't keep too much down, Ensure protein shakes were literally lifesavers. They're small, but have a couple hundred calories of goodness in them that curve hunger and go down a whole lot easier than most of the food in your fridge when you're that disgusted by food. Plus they come in multiple flavors (I had to keep myself from drinking too many of the chocolate ones in one day, because they're so stinking yummy).  

-Buy a belly band. Guys, these things are fantastic. I have the Belly Button brand, because I got a sweet coupon from my doctor's office, in both black and white. I can't even describe how helpful these little things are. They slide over your jeans and cover your waist, allowing you to wear your non-maternity pants/short/whatever without buckling or zippering them up. There's a little button in there, too, which attaches to your pants so it stays in place; there are about ten slots on the inside of the band to allow you to move the button as your belly grows. Translation: you can wait a really long time to buy anything labeled as "maternity." As of today, at 22 weeks pregnant and a now very showy belly, I haven't bought any clothing other than these bands to be more comfortable while pregnant. And even though my belly didn't pop on out until recently, it was so uncomfortable and rigid that I couldn't zip my pants at about week 8 and the belly bands came to the rescue. Right now, the little button has almost made it to the middle slot on the band, which means I still have lots of room for growth before I need to get something with a maternity panel. Every pregnancy is different, which means every pregnant belly is different, but I will sing from the rooftops the beauty of these things forever and ever.

-Stay off Google. When I was pregnant last summer with Sam, I was constantly afraid of what I was eating and what medicines I was taking and how I could potentially harm our baby. I didn't want to to do anything wrong, and I spent a ton of time researching my every move on the vast world wide web. As it turns out, there are a million different opinions on the internet and there are crazy people on the internet. There are also about a billion things, according to the internet, that you cannot eat, drink, consume, or be in the same room as if you are pregnant. Honestly, it can be ridiculous. Even doctors vary greatly in what they tell their patients and what standards they consider to be safe, which is enough to make you absolutely crazy. And I stressed myself sick over all of it, needing to be perfect so the baby would be healthy. When we lost Sam anyway, it took me a couple months to get to the point of healing where I realized that God is in complete control, and I am not. Google isn't either. When we got pregnant this time, I made a firm decision to stay off of Google. I haven't asked Siri a single question. I trust my doctors, and I follow their guidelines and their guidelines alone. I don't worry about what other pregnant women have been told or what rules they follow, and I don't worry about whether I'm somehow hurting our baby. I follow my doctor's instructions, I use good solid logic, and I take comfort in the healthy reports that have come with each month's doctor's visit. Baby is healthy, and Baby is growing, and it's such a wonderful relief to not have to worry about every one of my actions. Pregnancy isn't supposed to be a prison sentence or a source of stress, for crying out loud. If you trust your doctor, do what your doctor says and tune everything else out. If you don't trust your doctor, find a new one.

-Take every piece of advice with a grain of salt (even mine). Every pregnancy is different just like every child is different. Family and friends and acquaintances - and random strangers - will give you plenty of advice and nuggets of information, and I'm a big believer in taking everything in and deciding whether you need to keep it or discarding it. Not everything is going to be helpful, and not everything is going to apply to you. I'm sure it will only become a bigger issue once I have a child people can see and offer advice about, but it can start now too. Everyone has an opinion, everyone has their own experiences, and everyone wants to be helpful by sharing with you all of their opinions about their experiences. Take it all in, smile, and then consider whether it's actually helpful to you or not. Talk to your husband; see what he thinks. You're allowed to ignore people's advice, and you're allowed to table it for a later time to see if it applies to your child or not. Because honestly, who knows? We can plan and plan and plan every single thing down to the smallest detail ("I will be this kind of parent...", "We will do such and such...") but in the end, your individual kid's personality and preferences can't really be planned. A lot can be planned, and should be, but a lot is just going to have to be left up to "we will see." And if you're a first-timer like the hubs and me, a whole lot is going to be trial and error anyway, am I right?


I think that's all for now, friends. Sorry it took me so long to put this together, and I'll try to check in again at some point before I have a real life screaming baby to show you...but if not, there's always nursery update blogging to look forward to.

Deck Reno Stage 1, Part 1

We might have fallen in love with our house the first time we saw it, but I definitely can't say the same for the deck. We stood out on it and admired the views of the mountains, horses, train, and backyard while dreaming of the day we could tear down the piece of junk we were standing on and replace it with something entirely new. It's bare, exposed wood with no stain or paint, so it's been deteriorating in the sunlight and weather for who knows how many years. The wood is warped in places, cracked in lots of places, and moldy in places. Nails are sticking out, the railings aren't secured too well, and there's an odd half-step up in the middle that you don't see until you're tripping over it. All of that being said, though, we were very thankful that there was a deck at all, giving us a place to put the grill and to sit while we save our pennies for a remodel.

That remodel was supposed to be next summer. We want to tear everything out and replace it with a Trex deck that has a whole new layout and design that makes more sense for us. But in the last couple months both the hubs and I came to the same epiphany at similar times: next summer wasn't going to happen. If we do this deck the way we want to - or at all, let's be honest - we're going to need a couple more years to save and be smart with our money first. We decided to do a smaller, cheaper, Stage 1 update to the deck to buy 3 to 5 more years. I'll share the bigger part of that update next week (rain has been making progress difficult this week) but for now I'll show you a smaller, simple change we made that has made a huge impact.

One of the cool features of the deck is the built in, brick planter boxes that hug the house. There are two smaller ones that flank the chimney and one much larger one that sits under the kitchen window and next to some built in wood storage. I've always gotten excited and inspired when I see them...but last summer flew and by the time I took a break from the painting and organizing and whatever else I was doing last year, the summer was gone and it was time to ride out the colder months. With warmer weather finally sticking around, though, it was time to go flower shoppin'.

I first need to say that I have nothing close to a green thumb. I know nothing about plants except that they need water and sunshine, and I've been kind of hoping that's all I really need to know. I will say, though, that if these flowers don't make it all the way through the summer, I'll do my research for next time and learn some basics. Because otherwise it's kind of a waste of money.

Here are some before shots of the flower boxes. (Also, while you're there, feel free to take notice of the crappy deck that surrounds the flower boxes. And my dog, who can't stay out of pictures to save his life.)

You'll notice that there is a dead plant in one of the smaller boxes. That's because I was given a beautiful plant by a friend last fall as a housewarming gift that I planted...just in time for cooler weather. It was pretty for a couple weeks, anyway. Other than that, though, the boxes were empty. I knew the bigger one under the window was more of a mess than the smaller ones just by looking at it - it was full of dead weeds that had been Rounded Up to oblivion, for one - but I figured it would be as simple as stirring the dirt up a little bit and removing the weeds. To put it mildly...I was wrong.

I started out by cleaning up that wood storage area to the right of the bigger box that you can kind of see in the picture. It wasn't a complete mess, but there were several things that had collected there in the last year that needed to either be trashed or put in a more logical home to help the whole deck look more cleaned up. After that, I started in on the boxes themselves. The small boxes were super easy like I thought; some minor tilling and stirring up with a trowel and we were good to go. The big box, though, was a nightmare. On the surface it looked like just those dead weeds, which easily pulled right out. But when I started turning and stirring up the dirt, I hit a couple of rocks. I thought that was odd and tossed them aside. Then I found a couple small chunks of brick. I thought that was even more odd, but again figured it was a little mistake. The more I stirred, though, the more I discovered that this entire stupid box was chock full of bricks, rocks, concrete chunks, broken glass, and rusted beer cans. Awesome, huh? I would really like to gather every person who has ever lived in and/or owned this house, line them up, and slap them in the faces. I'd also like to ask them what was so hard about tossing all this crap in the garbage can instead?

It became clear pretty quick that the best rule of thumb was going to be to remove all the dirt - or close to it - from the entire box and start over. There was just too much crap in there and all I could picture was digging in here with my future kiddos and having someone cut themselves on a piece of 30 year old glass or a rusted beer can and I knew I couldn't take the lazy way out of this one. I bit the bullet and carried about a million buckets of dirt over to the fence line to dump it, slowly and methodically and painfully emptying that deceivingly huge box, pulling out every piece of garbage I could along the way since we mow the grass on the other side of the fence and don't need to bend any more blades on chunks of brick than we already do on sticks and rocks.

This is what I found on the first day.

And this is what I found on the second, much more labor intensive day.

It was blazing hot, dirt is super heavy, and I broke two nails on chunks of brick, but eventually it was all moved and I was left with this.

There is dirt still in there, clearly, but only a couple of inches and it's all brick, rock, glass, etc. free. You can see that I removed all the dirt up to about a foot deep in the whole span of the box (this is where I need to say once more that dirt is heavy). We ended up filling the box with basic top soil from Home Depot, and it shockingly took eight 40-pound bags to fill it back up (meaning that I removed eight 40-pound bags worth of dirt...which is heavy. It needed to be said one more time.)

Next came the fun part! Picking out and planting pretty flowers. We went with pinky-white Apple Blossoms in the small boxes and a mixture of Apple Blossoms, purple Petunias, and reddish Celosias in the bigger box.

Here are the after pictures.

Fingers crossed they grow and spread a little bit, filling the boxes with happiness and color. All of these flowers are annuals, meaning that we will only have them for this summer and then we'll have to start over again. I think I'd like to see how this summer goes and maybe invest in some perennials next year - bright yellow marigolds are what I envision - that we can hang on to a little bit longer instead, but we will see.

All total, this part of the Stage 1 renovation came to about $62. That's about $50 in flowers (the Apple Blossoms were $5 each, and the Petunias and Celosias were both $3 each) and $12 in top soil to fill in the big box after we had to remove all that unfortunate dirt. That's definitely more than I imagined filling the planter boxes would cost, but considering how much better the deck looks because of them I think it's worth it. There just aren't too many things sadder than an empty planter box. 

Here's one more before and after of the bigger box.

Before

After

I love my pretty little flowers, but I can't wait to be able to finish the big portion of the Stage 1 deck renovation so A. I can share it with you and B. I can look at it's beautiful final results. The little bit we were able to get done before the rain came this week is making me so excited for the finished product.

Whatever Works?

I was updating my 2014 goals list just now and realized that I think I can cross something off. I've always struggled with maintaining a consistent exercise routine; there have been seasons where I'm serious about it every day and seasons where months and months pass with nothing. Getting pregnant was a great incentive to get my butt moving, but it took me a while to make it happen. But once I got through about week 14 and the nausea went away, the weather also started to get really nice and it became really easy to get out and start moving again. The best part is that I didn't even have to really try...once the weather gets warmer people want to go for walks and I've been super happy to join in on the fun. It's just kind of worked itself out so that I have walks with friends 2 to 3 times a week, which to me qualifies as having an exercise routine figured out.

It's kind of funny/ironic to me that I've worked so hard to schedule exercise as a firm and concrete thing in my calendar before and it hasn't really worked, but now I'm just kind of winging it week to week and it's all working out to be just fine. This won't work for me long term, I know, because once it gets colder all my friends will go back into hibernation mode again and I'll be tempted to join them. I'll also have baby weight to lose by that point, though, so I'll have some extra motivation to travel the three minutes down the road to the gym instead of using the great (freezing) outdoors. So it will all work out just fine, I think.

How I Survived Bullies, Broccoli, and Snake Hill: a brief review

Since I powered through the last Middle School book so quick, I figured it would be nice to cross another one off the list in a couple days as well.

I'll keep this review really brief, since all my Middle School series books seem to have the exact same review. James Patterson's How I Survived Bullies, Broccoli, and Snake Hill takes Rafe to a remedial camp for the summer, where he has to manage normal camp insecurities and struggles as well as attend classes all day to fix his bad grades from the year before. He quickly realizes that he's been placed in the reject cabin, and learns the quirks of his bunk mates as they bond over being the personal punching bags of the camp bullies. Although he may be tempted to stay under the radar in an attempt to avoid conflict and make it home as unscathed as possible, Rafe soon realizes that it's time to bring out his bag of pranks and rule-breaking techniques to fight back against bullies of all ages.

Everything I've said about the first three Middle School books (here, here, and here) can be repeated here. It's cute, it's witty, and it's a crazy fast read (the pictures help). Patterson captures the mind of a middle school boy pretty well, and he also uses this last book in the series as an opportunity for a PSA about all forms of bullying. In an author's note at the end of the book, he discusses the fact that bullying takes place in many forms, including verbally, and that we adults and kids alike need to work together to put a stop to it. It's a cute book and a cute series, and I recommend it to any elementary or middle school kid (especially ones who are taken with the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, because they are really similar).

Painting's my favorite.

I've said it so many times and I'm sure I'll say it again: paint is the easiest, most dramatic, and usually the cheapest change you can make to update a room. My favorite kind of painting updates involve using extra paint we already have stored in our basement from previous projects.

I painted the laundry room/mud room quite a long time ago, using leftover paint from previous projects.

Originally, the whole room was just white. I painted most of it a dark grey (originally used in the guest room) and two accent walls in the laundry space a minty green (originally used in the book room). It was a stellar idea, and changed the whole huge weird room in a pretty incredible way. But unfortunately I can't find a picture of it in that state. I really thought I had taken one, and I in fact have a memory of taking one, but I cannot for the life of me find the picture. But for your ability to kind of picture this strange space, here's a kind of sort of shot.

I honestly don't know why this picture was even taken, but imagine that almost all the walls surrounding that grey one are also grey. (And the wood has been painted white.) Everything in this whole room have been that dark grey with the exception of the wall right behind the washer and dryer that you would see through that window cut out. I painted that wall the minty green, and it was supposed to be a cool accent wall that popped out and helped define the laundry space as different. Except...and you have to keep imagining now...it didn't really pop at all. It was such a faint color next to such a dark color that it just looked like I forgot to paint a wall. And it's bothered me ever since. A while ago it hit me that maybe I could repaint the whole laundry space, this time with a brighter blue left over from our bedroom, and that this time I could include the other wall that the slop sink and mirror are on too. That way it would define the space even better by including more walls, and the color is a little bit brighter and would therefore give me more of that pop I was looking for.

Because I have other plans for the laundry room (see to-do list at the bottom of this post) I figured I'd wait and do it all at once. But like I've mentioned several times...my husband is out of town on business and I have been on the hunt for things/projects to keep me busy. Busy and distracted and productive. The laundry room seemed to be a logical thing to attack...or at least start attacking. I still can't do much about the rest of that to-do list right now, but painting I can do. My brother came up to help me prime the back grey wall - no primer for this pregnant lady - and then after he left I painted all three walls. And even though pictures don't capture it too well, I'm kind of crazy about the change it all made.

I know it looks more white than blue in all of these pictures...which really annoys me, but I'm not even close to a professional photographer and none of the pictures I've ever taken of the inside of my house actually look like my house so I've learned to roll with it. But in person it's less subtle and does work with the dark grey walls, the white sink and trim, and the grey appliances.  The whole space does look a lot crisper, cleaner, and separated from the rest of the strange mud room/entryway/dog feeding area. And when you walk through the kitchen and through the path to the garage - which has become the main route in and out of our house now - you see both of those walls painted the same bright blue instead of the odd singular accent wall from before that made me think "that was a mistake" every single time.

Horrible photo quality (our ceiling looks green?) but hey, the whole laundry space is painted a color that works and if you want to really believe me, come visit me. I'll show you in person.

You live and learn, and paint is the super easiest of all things to change. Seriously. Don't be intimidated by painting walls. I'll say it one more time: it's such an easy and cheap way to change the entire mood of a room.

So now that that's crossed off the list, here's our laundry room to-do list:

• prime grey wall
• paint accent walls blue
• cabinet(s) above washer and dryer
• hanging bar above washer and dryer
• shelf behind counter top
• organize under the sink
• new ceiling light
• rug?
• tile back splash around sink?

It's a small list, which is exciting, but have you seen the cost of single cabinets? I mean, my goodness. Who are they kidding? So although it's the kind of thing that won't crush us financially or anything, it's definitely something that has been and will probably continue to be put off till the right time. So we shall see, but for now, the painted walls are making me happy.

My Brother is a Big Fat Liar: a brief review

I thought I was doing a pretty good job making sure I was reading and getting books crossed off all my various lists, but then I looked again. I made a goal to read 20 books from my 94-book challenge and 20 books that aren't a part of the challenge this year, and as of a couple weeks ago I'd read 6 books from my 94-book challenge and 8 books that aren't...in case you're as bad at math as me, that means as of a couple weeks ago I had read 14 books out of the 40 I had wanted to read. And it's May. That's not really looking promising. It's important to point out that I went into this goal of 40 books this year knowing that it was a complete shot in the dark; I had no idea what a reasonable goal for me was, and I didn't want to set the bar too low. So I want to be realistic and it's not necessary to kill myself to reach my own goal...but let's be serious. I can up my game a little bit. I choose TV a lot when I could very easily choose a book instead. So that's what I'm trying to do. Also, I sat down and wrote out specific books I want to read during the rest of the year, making the blueprint just a little bit easier to follow. Again, not set in stone and I want to be realistic about all my expectations, but this is helping already.

Now that all of that's out of the way...I read a book this weekend.

The next book in James Patterson's Middle School series, My Brother is a Big, Fat, Liar, is told by a different character than the others. Author, artist, and narrator of the first two books, The Worst Years of My Life and Get Me Out of Here, is Rafe Khatchedorian, trouble-maker and prankster, but this third book is written by his little sister Georgia. She's entering middle school as a sixth grader, and despite the fact that she has a life-long record of straight As and being the perfect student, all her teachers and principals give up on her once they hear she's Rafe's sister. Her typical sixth grade struggle to find new friends and find her way with newer, tougher classes is made so much harder by having to live up to her brother's choices instead of her own. Meanwhile, the clique of "princesses" that rule the social ladder of the school go out of their way to tease her publicly. It seems that no matter what she does or how hard she tries to prove herself, she just proves everyone right instead.

It's really fun to get a different perspective in this series; you still get Rafe as a main character, but told through the eyes of his little sister who thinks he's a smelly bully. Patterson thinks outside the box a little and it's really cute. I also think it was a smart choice to potentially bring some girls into the genre of diary-style books, since they seem to be pretty boy-heavy. Other than that, I have a lot of the same kinds of things to say about it as the others: cute, super easy read, witty and charming and mildly surprising at times.

The Fault in Our Stars: movie trailer (and tears)

Here's a brief list of things that have become dangerous activities since I've become pregnant (and by "dangerous," I of course mean "will make me cry buckets of unnecessary tears"):

1. Rewatch Michael Scott's last season of The Office. 
2. Rewatch Parenthood from its beginning.
3. Experience the first couple days of my husband being really far away on a long-term business trip.
4. Listen to ancient episodes of Adventures in Odyssey, particularly anything with Eugene. 
5. Watch the freaking trailer for The Fault in Our Stars. 

But how great is it going to be? It's going to be great. So great. 

Cinder: a brief [book club] review

taken from dclibrary.org

This book has been on my radar for a long time. It's one of those that I heard about when it first came out and thought sounded great, and then time passed and I forgot the actual details of the plot but had faith that my original interest was founded in something. You ever have that conversation with someone? "Oh I want to read this!" "Why? What's it about?" "I...don't remember. But I knew at one point and it sounded good then." The hubs and I have that conversation a lot I think...about books...about movies...and television shows that get added to Netflix...it's a problem. In any event, we chose this book for May's Book Club book, and I finally got to read it (and find out what the actual plot is).

Marissa Meyer's first novel in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder, is a futuristic, intergalactic version of the classic Cinderella story. Cinder is a young girl working as a mechanic in the capitol city of New Beijing, working on androids and various other mechanical and robotic parts. She lives with her stepmother and two stepsisters who (with the exception of one stepsister) deeply resent her for the fact that her stepfather died of a tragic death shortly after adopting her into their family. Cinder's personal and social life are further complicated by the fact that she's a cyborg: a human with various replacement robotic parts due to a severe accident in her childhood. In addition to all this, there's a savage plague stealing the lives of countless citizens of Earth, leaving doctors and scientists scrambling for a cure. And in addition to that...the Lunar inhabitants of the moon, brandishing magical powers and a threatening intergalactic relationship policy, are pushing alliance through marriage with New Beijing's young emperor, but he's not so sure it's the best idea.

This is a very layered plot, with so much going on at times it was a little hard to keep up with what I was supposed to be concerned about at any given moment. For the most part, though, that wasn't my issue with the book at all. My biggest struggle was figuring out all the intricacies of the android/cyborg element. I don't typically read books like this, which means I don't really understand much about this whole world of fiction. I'm tempted to say that that almost shouldn't be a problem if the author does her job and explains fully what's going on (what the androids look like, what the androids' functions and purposes are, which of Cinder's body parts are actually robotic, what do those robot parts even look like) but I didn't feel like she did. If any of those questions were answered at all, they were usually much later and deeper into the book, frustrating me that she didn't help paint that picture sooner. She also kind of dropped the ball, I thought, with explaining the origin of the Lunar people. She mentioned that they were originally humans on Earth who relocated to the moon....but now have magical powers and aren't human? I'm sorry, you need to give more explanation than that. Was there space radiation that caused them to mutate? Was there something magical about the moon that gave them the powers? I don't know and I don't care, but you've got to do your job and explain. A couple people in Book Club who have read more of the books in the series said that that question gets answered in later books, but I reject that. If you're going to base that much of the plot and conflict on something, you've got to do the work and explain yourself to your readers right up front. But that's just me.

All of that being said, there were a lot of things I really liked about this book. I think the parts that drew me in the most and kept me really engaged were the links between this story and the original Cinderella story. Some of them more obvious (stepmother who doesn't like her, hardworking and low level job, studly prince who shows interest in her) but a lot are pretty subtle (the car she's fixing up to run away in is orange, like a pumpkin). It truly was a work of art, reworking such a well-known and overdone tale into a brand spanking new story (I mean, cyborgs? Come on.). I'll be honest, though, when I found out this was the first in a series of four books, I was kind of hoping this one would end in a way that wouldn't force me to keep reading. Womp womp. Ends with a cliffhanger and I'll have to officially add the rest of them to my list. Don't you hate that? 

Drum Roll Please...

I've mentioned before in other nursery blog posts that this is the one update I couldn't wait to see. With the exceptions of the mobile (which will happen next month) and the actual child for whom the nursery is created, painting all of the furniture was the addition I have been the most excited for.

The plan was for all the furniture to be white, except for the glider which had a limited amount of colors to choose from and was by far the biggest financial investment in this room so we weren't going to be picky. We bought the crib off Craigslist back in the fall, half because of its ridiculously cheap price and half because it was white. The rest of the furniture, though, was a myriad of colors because it was gathered from thrift stores and other parts of the house. All the mismatched colors were super annoying to me and I couldn't wait to paint them white to match the crib and the rest of the color palette.

First up on the painting checklist was the dressers/changing table. The hubs bought these when he moved out of the Air Force dorms and into an apartment approximately a thousand years ago. (And by a thousand I mean...8? 10? They've been around for a while.) When he bought them they were the cheap 90s style fake pine color, and he painted them a much more attractive black as well as changed out the knobs. Since then they've served as the dressers for various roommates and as extra storage in our guest room, and they're the perfect height and amount of storage to serve as the changing table in the nursery now. They also fit my absolute favorite qualification of FREE. Here they are in their "before" state:

Because I would be painting white over black, I figured going against my usual lazy style and priming them first would be a safe bet. The primer we use, however, isn't safe for me to use in my pregnant state, so the hubs primed and then helped me knock out the painting before he left for his work trip.

Captain was really helpful as well.

Once he primed them all we were able to quickly knock out the first coat of paint together, and then I wrapped up with the second and last coat the next day on my own. It really didn't take too long per coat, and the results were so dramatic.

We were able to use the same knobs the hubs had replaced the originals with all those years ago, which was really exciting. They actually look way better with the white paint than they ever did with the black.

Next up was the little green bookshelf. When I moved out of the freshman dorm and into an apartment, one of my mom's friends let me rummage through her [super full] garage for furniture pieces I wanted to take for free (aren't those the absolute best kinds of people?). I painted it green and used it as a bookshelf/nightstand in my apartment for a couple years, then loaned it to my friend for a year (who tried to convince me I'd actually given it to him to keep), then used it as an organizer in my closet for a couple years until I reorganized and had no more use for it. It's been sitting, unused, in our extra room ever since, and I'd completely forgotten it even existed. Meanwhile, I was putting together my list of things I wanted for the nursery and realized that some extra storage in the back corner of the room would be helpful. The space would be filled and we'd get some more storage; win win. I put a 6-cube organizer on my shopping list and figured we'd pick one up from Target at some point this summer. But then I was casually speed walking through the house getting things done about a month ago and glanced inside that extra room...spotting the bookshelf. The bookshelf which I had literally once stored 6 cube bins inside at one time...AKA, a 6-cube organizer. Can you even imagine how happy I was? A $30 organizer from Target wouldn't have broken us financially, but $30 starts to add up after a while when you're adjusting to a new baby budget. Here's the bookshelf's before (including my sister's feet in the background):

Painting this guy was pretty straight forward; two coats later and she was white!

It's not very full or styled right now, but there are two cube bins that we've registered for that will hopefully appear during a baby shower later this summer, and I'll figure out the rest of it then. There's a lot of storage potential there, and I'll get to it once I have a better idea of what storage needs I actually have. But in the meantime...it's white, folks.

Last but not least was the side table for next to the glider. This guy was one of the only furniture purchases we had to make (the crib and glider being the other two), but he was a sweet $15 thrift store find that I'm in love with. I wasn't so in love with the grungy yellow, but I knew it would be awesome once it was painted. Here's the before picture:

I was a little nervous about the top of the table, since it was a weird plastic-y laminate surface.

 I wasn't really sure whether the paint would stick to it well, but I tend to put the paint on pretty thick and it didn't end up being a problem at all. And what's great it that the top doesn't have the plastic-y look and feel anymore; it just blends right in with the rest of the wood as if it's all the same. After removing the couple of screws holding the handle on, it was go-time. Don't think it didn't occur to me after about 20 seconds that those round legs look an awful lot like spindles, which we all know I don't have any kind of love for, but it wasn't horrible. The legs took a three coats, since I tend to go pretty thin on spindles to avoid drips, and the rest of it only too two. And just like with the others, the difference was incredible.

The whole room seems a lot lighter and cleaner with all the furniture painted white, and I love it. It's the effect and mood I was going for all along, and it's so fun to see it start to come together.

To be able to look in from the doorway like this and see all the white furniture instead of the mismatched conglomeration of furniture that had been there up until now is so much fun. As I look at this picture, though, I can't help but notice that I really need to bite the bullet soon and hem those curtains so the naked curtain rod can finally have a purpose.

Here's the nursery to-do list now:

• 1 Samuel 1:27-28 chalkboard
• quote for inside side table frame
• hang all pictures 
• turn green bottle into a lamp
• recover lamp shade? new lamp shade?
• prime dressers
• sand side table
• sand cube organizer
• paint dressers white
• paint side table white
• paint side table drawer pull silver
• paint cube organizer
• make mobile for over crib
• paint metal pail for books
• clean out closet and closet drawers
• clean out dresser drawers
• line dresser drawers with contact paper
• organizers for inside of dresser drawers
• hem curtains and hang them...or new curtains?
• storage system and bins
• basket(s) for cube organizer
• get small lamp for changing table
• make/buy crib skirt
• metal trash can for diapers
• basket with liner for hamper
• shelf over storage system?
• new overhead light?
• art piece above changing table
• large frame for showers

That list, guys, is getting really short. Pretty insane. 

Super Cheap Pantry Overhaul

Something that was really beautiful about our Berryville house was that we were buying it from someone who flips houses for a living. It had originally been a foreclosure in bad shape - most of the 1970 fixtures and decor was apparently still present - and he replaced all the sheetrock, installed tile floors, restored the original hardwood floors, and completely replaced the kitchen and two of the three bathrooms. All things that make a house really and truly wonderful. There's something to be said to the "we'll renovate the whole house ourselves" approach, and we would love to do that someday in the future, but there's also something lovely about being able to walk into a house knowing that all the parts that determine how liveable a house is are all brand new. There's plenty we've done to the house since we moved in and we have a humongo list of things we still want to do over the next many years, but it's also been a huge relief knowing that the biggies had been done for us. All of that being said...there are a couple rooms in the house that have made me slightly crazy since we moved in that I've been looking for a chance to fix. One of those is the pantry.

Our pantry is truly awesome, I should say. It was one of the aspects of the house that really sold me, to be honest. In our old house our pantry was a typical tiny closet that didn't really fit our food much less anything else, and this one is magically huge. I'm able to stock up on both food and paper goods Costco style, which is my favorite way to stock up. But there was little to no organization, which is what drove me crazy. I've spent the last six months or so thinking about what specific organizational tools I needed to make me happier and the whole room more productive. I hadn't really tried to go shopping or start the organizational process, though, because I just assumed it would be a fortune to get the various bins and baskets that I needed....but after a pregnancy-induced breakdown a week and a half ago the hubs encouraged/pushed me to do some price checking and to see what I could find. The next day I found everything I needed at none other than the Dollar Tree for a whopping $9 total. Husbands really are smart.

This is the before shot.

A. I told you it was huge, and B. I somehow manage to clutter it up on a regular basis. The first step to organizing it was cleaning and weeding out what was taking up space for no reason. Some embarrassing examples? The completely empty Coke can box that was left in there empty who knows how long ago by my sister (we don't drink Coke but kept some stocked for my family when they visit, and I never noticed it was empty). The two gallon water jug that's been a couple glasses of water away from being empty for about two months that I hadn't ever bothered to just empty and toss. Etc. etc. I also cleaned out some of the existing storage bins that I'd been using that I'd noticed over time weren't working very well for the space. If they're not being helpful, why keep them? Then I filled the new bins I got from the Dollar Tree with the items I'd planned ahead for.

These bins were born out of moments of desperation; before when I'd tried to organize items in bigger, less specific bins, they would all get buried under each other and I would always just assume there were more under there somewhere until I went to grab something and I realized I was out. I wanted a more visually helpful way of organizing, where things were corralled but still out in the open enough for me to easily see when I needed to buy more. So here are some after shots.

Some of these containers - all the bigger baking containers and the ones with pasta, rice, and cereal - I've had for a long time and have been really great. But the new ones have changed the functionality of the room so much. Items like the instant potatoes, grits, and seasonings all got moved from one huge enclosed bin to the smaller, open ones so I can easily see what I have and what I need to buy. Massive rearranging also took place, moving items around like puzzle pieces to try to get the most logical use of each shelf; all the baking things are on the same shelf and all the grains/pasta/cereal are on the same shelf. Packaged items that I buy in bulk - like applesauce and fruit cups - all got a new home in one of the enclosed bins and therefore freed up a whole lot of shelf space. All in all, I think it's a much better and more productive system. Plus, some other minor tweaks left the whole room feeling a lot more clean and freshened up (like removing the grungy carpet segment that was on the floor originally because we thought it would add some warmth but instead became huge piece of dog hair and dust collector that was impossible to clean, and taking out the huge pieces of cardboard that had been propped up against the wall for a year because I thought I'd put them down as a hard surface for the shelves).

So here's the overall before and after:

Before

After

Even though these tiny - and cheap! - changes have made a huge difference in the functionality of the pantry, there are a couple things left on my to-do list for this room that will happen someday down the road to add even more function.

• add more shelves to wrap around the back wall
• potentially redo the shelving system with solid wood shelves
• paint the walls to add some color
• make a weekly menu board
• make a mass inventory board to chart food inventory and shopping needs

 But all in all, none of that is an emergency and will get done someday, with time. For now, this room is giving me many less headaches than before. And for a mere $9, I'm pretty okay with that. 

Hoot: a brief review

Consider another book officially crossed off the mighty 94 Book List. I remember when this movie came out a hundred years ago, and I remember thinking that it wasn't really a plot I was too interested in, but at some point I stumbled across this in some used book store somewhere and the full extent of my thought process was "huh, a Young Adult book." I'm pretty easy in a used book store, guys.

Carl Hiaasen's first Young Adult book, Hoot, features Roy Eberhardt, who has just moved to Florida with his parents from Montana. While trying to avoid the bully on the bus and struggling to make any friends after being labeled a "cowgirl" when everyone found out he was from Montana, Roy spots a barefoot boy running through the neighborhood one day and gets curious. Following this strange boy lets Roy slowly become a part of his life, where a couple of middle school kids are fighting off a national food chain from building on a site where tiny burrowing owls live.

This book was good, but it wasn't my favorite. It was an easy read, I just wasn't hugely interested in the plot. I'm not a fan of needlessly killing animals, especially for the purpose of expanding concrete and development, but I just never got as passionate about the topic as the kids did. I think part of that is me and my own convictions (or lack thereof), but I'm blaming a huge part of it on Hiaasen. The movement of the plot was pretty slow; you don't read anything about the owls themselves until page 124 and don't find out they're endangered until page 243...and there are only 292 pages in the book. The entire point of the plot seemed crammed in far too short of a space, and I didn't have the opportunity to really care about it as much as he wanted me to. His writing style was also a little over-detailed...even though it's on the shorter side of books there was still way too much rambling descriptions and characters' thoughts. It was fine, it just wasn't the most engaging book. I'm curious to read the other Hiaason book that's on the 94 Book List, Flush, to compare and see if he gets better at the YA thing as he goes.

Two Thumbs up for Investments in Storage

One of the biggest financial and physical investments we've made for the Berryville house arrived on a trailer yesterday. We bought our new shed, mostly used for yard stuff like the lawn mowers, weed whacker, shovels, rakes, trimmers, etc., about two months ago and it finally came yesterday morning. We've been so excited to see it, and even though it was a fairly painful price tag we feel good about the decision we made to go with this company. It cost about the same as if we had gone with a kit from Home Depot, and this one came fully put together and ready to go. We considered building our own from scratch and we considered the kit route, but in the end we felt like this was one project we were willing to pay for someone else to do and to have minimal hassle.

I - shockingly - didn't take any actual pictures of the shed we originally had next to the house. There is one picture with it in the background. You can get an idea of its placement but not really how bad a shape it was in.

It's the little red metal building on the other side of the fence. It sat on a concrete slab off to the side of our garage, and couldn't hold much more than the lawn mower. The shed itself was about a third the size of the concrete slab it sat on, which never really made much sense to us. It had obviously been around for a while too, since the metal was worn; the doors were warped and bent and you had to wrestle, kick, and shove the doors in order to slide them open. They were kind of a nightmare...not my favorite. We loved that there was a shed there to buy us some time, but we also knew we'd have to replace it no later than this summer.  The less than ideal state the shed was in wasn't great, but it also didn't store too much for us so a lot of things still had to be kept in the garage. Our garage is larger than normal (about a stall and a half) but it fills up quick with my car and the bike in there, plus a tool bench, storage units, etc. So we did some research, asked some friends about local options, and bought from a great little company down in Front Royal. We were able to give the old shed to our neighbor, and I did snap some pictures of the slab after it had been hauled away.

The dirt is from where the shed was, so you can see how much more space we had to work with. The new shed was made to the same dimensions of the slab, so we could take full advantage of the space. Our neighbor took the shed himself so all we had to do was sweep the slab off and pull those dead bushes out of the mulched area so the guys could back the new shed right in.

 There she is! The hubs and I stood on the driveway, holding our coffee cups and in complete awe of the guy's ability to back this massively huge trailer up, weaving in between our cars with no spotter. I've seen a backed up trailer in my time and I can say with much authority that he's an expert. The rest of the process of getting it on the slab was equally - if not way more - impressive.

They backed it up, right onto the center of the slab, and then let the hydraulic lift/dump do pretty much the rest of the work. Can I also mention that this thing is remote controlled? I looked at the hubs and said "I want one." Do we have any use at all for one? No. Could we even come close to affording one? No. But seriously...I want one.

Incredible. Truly, incredible. Can I also mention that at one point the shed was about a hair away from hitting the fence but they were such artists. I should also point out that this whole process was basically torture for Captain, who was stuck on the other side of the fence. So close and yet...

And there's the finished product, in place and ready to fill! (So sorry about my finger in the bottom of the photo...) The ramp was an extra - but really unavoidable - add-on we got for driving the lawn mower in and out. A couple details about the shed we chose: it's the barn style, with the two big doors you see and two small windows (one on the back wall and one on the other side wall). There's also a storage loft on the inside. Here's a look at the inside of the shed, before we filled it.

There are the windows and the loft. Also, look at all that beautiful space. We wasted no time moving as much as we could from the garage into the shed as soon as the guys left. It's not very organized at all, and we will invest in some organizational items in the future (hooks to hang things on walls, shelves, etc.) but what's so great is that it's not an emergency. There's so much space in there it will work like this for as long as we want until we're comfortable spending the money to make it more permanent and organized.

The only thing you don't see in here is the riding lawn mower, which was left out because the hubs mowed the lawn right after we moved all of this into the shed. But you can tell from that first picture that there's plenty of room for it to park in the middle of the empty space.

Getting the shed crossed off the list was huge, but we have quite the to-do list of big and small things for outside the house. Here's how that list looks now:

-trim all bushes and trees on back property line
-trim bushes in front yard
-dig out drainage ditch in front yard
-replace shed
-paint trim on back door
-repaint back door
-hose holder in front yard
-hose and hose holder by back door
-black barn trim pieces for garage door
-relandscape front beds
-tree in front yard
-rock beds with landscaping around back of house
-fix fence
-power wash fence
-repaint fence
-plant flowers in deck flower boxes
-fix up wood storage area on deck
-build new wood storage/barn
-organize new shed
-reorganize garage
-move storage unit from garage to shed
-clean deck wood
-repaint deck and railings
-build garbage can storage
-level off shed's ramp
-paint shed's ramp
-bury drainage pipe in front yard
-new shed for bikes?
-driveway redirect of driveway to bike shed?
Eventually:
-new deck
-lattice under decking?
-new furniture for deck
-build permanent fire pit
-roof over portion of new deck

Yeah, we always seem to have a super long list for every part of our home. But it's fun...plenty to keep us busy, plan for and dream about. We were originally thinking that we'd replace the deck next summer, but we've both been rethinking that lately. We're going to paint the existing deck instead this summer, and buy a couple years to save and do the new deck right. Otherwise, we'll pick away at the list when we can, and eventually it will get done.