Blessings In Disguise

We've been going through many changes over here. Most of them good changes, with the arrival of baby girl soon, but some changes have been a bit more challenging. For those of you "in the know" I received my RIF notice (pink slip) about a month ago. As of June, our school is closing and all the teachers and staff are being let go. At first I was a bit nervous scared out of my mind. What a time to lose a job right?! The "planner" in me started freaking out about a million things at once and tried to figure out what the heck we would do. As I started to process all the information and just pray for guidance, I felt that the Lord was leading us in a new direction. It was time for me to break ties with the district I was in and this was just the little push big kick in the pants I needed.

We had planned on me staying home with the baby until February so this was just a few more months that we would need to figure out. We continued to pray about it all and really felt that this is definitely what we were supposed to be doing...taking a giant leap of faith...and we both felt a peace about it all. So what started as a total bummer of a situation has really turned into one of the biggest blessings. I get to stay home with baby girl for a year and I'll try to find a job closer to home (rather than commuting a 100 miles a day) for the following school year. Not too bad, huh? :)

In the mean time, maybe I'll start doing something with these bad boys to help pay for extra things...

(♥ the appliques in the back lately)

...yeah because I'll have soooo much "extra" time do be doing anything!

Sneak Peek: Next Before and After Victim

Isn't she just a beauty? Hahaha, just kidding!

We picked up this dresser, two night stands, and some snowboarding boots for B at a garage sale...all for a whopping $40! Not bad, eh? When you're trying to fill as many rooms as we have, one must be thrifty as well as creative. I knew we could do something with this bad boy that it would make it a bit more attractive. Well the time has come. Our next re-do victim. I'll keep you posted on its progress. Until then, you'll just have to look at these and try not to cringe!

I've also been tossing around ideas for baby girl's room. I think I've narrowed it down but we'll see. The plan is to finish the guest rooms then tackle her room...think I'll run out of steam first? I'd place bets on it!

Counting Down

No, I'm not counting down baby girl's arrival yet! That would be a lot of counting...not sure I learned numbers that high! :)

I'm just super excited for our upcoming babymoon!

Can you guess where we're going?

A Day In Our Kitchen

I realized that most of the things I have been posting have either been about the baby, pregnancy, or sewing projects. It's funny how one of my absolute favorite interests hasn't even made an appearance! Those who know me well know I LOVE cooking and baking. I love taking a recipe and adding my own "love" to it. Our kitchen has always been my favorite room in the house (it may change once baby girl gets here though) and I really enjoy having people over so I can use my culinary "skills."

Since getting preg-o I haven't spent too much time in the kitchen for one reason or another. I know, bad wifey. Well today I decided that I wanted to make a pie. Why you ask? No reason. Just to make a pie. Hmmm, so many to choose from, but in the end I went with one of my favorites. Banana Cream. It's a bit different from a traditional Banana Cream so it's being called "Banana Cream Delight." Fun huh? Ha!

Here is the cast of characters:

 Instead of a 9x13 I made two round pies...crust just out of the oven...

the "delight" layer + the bananas...

 The final product...yummy!

Don't worry, we didn't just eat pie for dinner. We had my version of this dish posted at SwiftMamas. 

It was a good day in our kitchen. Feel free to come over for dinner and dessert anytime! Just let me know beforehand :) Happy First Day of Spring ♥

Too Good To Be True

You know how people offer you "free" things but you think to yourself, "there has to be a catch"? I'm that person who is skeptical of awesome deals that seem too good to be true. Some call it cynicism, I call it caution. My husband, on the other hand, is that person who is totally taken in with their pack of lies marketing ploy and can't wait to try out whatever it is that they are pushing.

Case and point, I am upstairs on the computer when I hear two random people in my house. What is going on??? B is outside washing his new toy car so I know he had to have invited them in. I stand at the banister and listen as this guy is telling B that they are offering free carpet cleaning today in the area. We can either choose two pieces of furniture or one room (no matter the size) to be cleaned. So I start asking questions that I've been trained to ask (thanks, dad!)...Why is it free? What is involved? What do we need to purchase? When is this happening?, the list goes on and on...After a few minutes of answering my endless questions -hey, I'm thorough- B says sure! Oh, did I mention they are going to do this cleaning right now?

Here are the tools he unpacked from his boxes...

Here's homeboy demonstrating (to B...see his foot there?) how this thing works...

As he is cleaning the stairs (hey if I'm getting a free cleaning, he's gonna clean what I don't want to!) he's going through his speech of how his machine is better than other machines out there and why we need one. I'm sitting in the computer room just listening to what's going on...I'll intervene if I have to...and making sure chatty cathy my husband isn't buying anything we don't need. 

Long story short, he really did clean our stairs and another piece of the entryway at no cost. We did have to listen to his speech, which (for those who truly know me, was like nails on a chalkboard. I have NO patience for stuff like that) wasn't all that bad. No, we didn't buy anything...is that wrong?! Oh well. We have other priorities right now. In the end, though, we have some pretty clean stairs!

Week 18 Update

We went in for our fetal anatomy ultrasound today. It took much longer than we expected because the baby would.not.keep.still! There were flips and turns and B swears he saw a fist pump in there. No, we don't watch Jersey Shore...not sure where the kid got it from. The ultrasound technician asked if I had any sugar before going in. Hmmm, I didn't think it was a good time to tell her about the strawberry milkshake we I had to have. Anyway, here is my favorite picture of the bunch.

Just a thumb's up to let you know she's doing just fine! Thanks for all your prayers. ♥ Oh, and Happy St. Patrick's Day! (yes, E, I am part Irish!)

One Of Those Days

Do you ever have days where all you want to do is do nothing? Perhaps it's because I'm pregnant. Or maybe it's because I didn't sleep well last night. Maybe I'm just plain lazy. Regardless of the reason, it's been one of those days. I just want to go home and sit on the couch. I don't even need to turn the tv on. I could just sit there and do nothing. Alas, I'm at work...on my lunch break (no, I'm not that much of a slacker that I'm blogging on the clock) just waiting until I can head home.

On a happier note, we have an appointment on Wednesday and will hopefully find out what our little Spott is! We will keep you posted!

And because I needed a picture to post, here I am a couple weeks ago

 

Friday Sew Day

I don't work on Fridays but I swear I'm more tired today than on my normal work days! I've been sewing, sewing, sewing pretty much all day and I'm exhausted.

I told you in a previous post that I was working on a couple other projects...well, those projects have turned into a lot of other projects and it's a bit overwhelming. Even though it's a bit crazy in my sewing room, it's really exciting too! I've been working on a few t-shirts, onesies, and snack bags.

 I think the red shirt is my new favorite. I ♥


A few more onesies.
 

 The bags are inspired by Melissa who has a great line in her etsy shop!

I think it's now time to go to bed. I have to get up early to wrap a few presents. Oh, did I mention we have two birthday parties this weekend? Happy Birthday Erika & Brianna!

Sweet Relief

I think I have a pinched nerve in my back. Great. Just what I want, right? It's probably because "they" say I have to sleep on my left side. Not fun. I'm not a left side sleeper (well only if the hubs is snoring breathing heavily). I like to sleep on my right side or my back most of the time but whenever I do I start to freak out (mostly from all these pregnancy books) that I'm cutting off circulation to the baby so I switch over to my left side. Well now it seems that I have a pinched nerve in my back...yup, you guessed it, on my LEFT.SIDE.

To make matters worse, it's in a spot where I can't really reach to massage it out. Now some of you may be wondering, "why don't you ask your husband to massage it out?" Good question. Here's why. B is a fantastic guy. He has a great list of qualities, one of them being his helpfulness. However, he's not a fan of giving massages. If you get him on a good day, it might last 4 or 5 minutes. Usually it lasts about 2 minutes then he's done. My favorite trick of his, though, is when he agrees to massage, but he massages so hard that I wince in pain and tell him to stop! Oh, I know your tricks Spotts. I know.

So what's a girl to do? I read (in one of the million pregnancy books I have-thanks E!) that tennis balls are good for massage. So I hunted one down and put it to the test. And you know what? Aaaahhhh, sweet relief!

I put it against the wall or my chair and just sway back and forth as it works its magic. I can adjust the strength by leaning further into it or not. Either way, it's fantastic. My new friend.

Maybe I can convince B to use it as a massage tool...you know, so he can save those precious hands for his baseball game on Sunday. Hehehe, maybe.

Before and After: The Banister

We have been in our new house almost a year and I still can't believe that I'm not finished decorating it. Now for those of you who have been to our house you know what a daunting task that is! The house is big. I'm not bragging, just letting you know. Large. Many rooms. Infinite possibilities. Limited budget. Short on time. I'm hoping to get the whole house most of the house done by the end of the year but until then here are a few pictures of my favorite project so far.

We bought the house brand new so everything was builder white! I hated the color of the railing and seriously thought twice about whether or not it was a deal breaker. Come on, it's HUGE plus it was u.g.l.y.!

View from the entryway

From the upstairs...don't mind the builder's plastic, we've removed it since then!

I told myself that if we did indeed buy the house that was the first thing we would change! And boy, did we. Now I don't have any pictures during the process but I will just tell you that it was a BIG task. Not as big as it could have been, but BIG nonetheless. I think I tried to quit a few times during the sanding process but thanks to my awesome hubby, we pushed through.

First we sanded the darn thing. I hear they make these awesome electric hand sanders but we're old school and we used good 'ol elbow grease! Then you must clean the awful mess it makes so as not to get any of the dust in your stain. Next comes the staining. This was the scariest part for me. I mean, it's not like you can just "undo" in case you mess up. Anyway, we used Minwax Wood Finish in Jacobean.

Nice mess!

A couple of coats and touch-ups later, our railing/stairway/banister (really, what's it called?!) looks like this:

Isn't it SOOO much better? I ♥ it!

My ultimate goal is to rip up the carpet and do the stairs and landing. Oooh won't that just be gorgeous?! *Ouch* I think my wallet just cringed. First things first. That room straight ahead in the above picture is the baby's room. Stay tuned for its transformation!

So Thankful

Thank you to all my wonderful friends and family members who flooded my inbox yesterday with nothing but nice things to say about our new blog! Your support and encouragement makes me motivated to do even more. I am really excited about the possibilities that this new adventure brings and I hope you will stick around to watch it grow. Feel free to leave comments, I love hearing from you all! Thank you again ♥

Restlessness + Nesting Fever = New Hobby

Recently I was blessed with a new sewing machine from my wonderful Grandma in Hawaii. I had expressed an interest in learning to sew and she was thrilled, having been a talented seamstress herself. Now, I have never taken any classes or had any training at all, so looking at the machine and figuring out how to even thread the bobbin (what does that mean?!) was a daunting task! Luckily a good friend of mine came over to help and give me the basics. And by basics I mean just that. I think we attempted a pillow that day and to my surprise it wasn't as difficult as I imagined it to be. Now please don't think this pillow was high quality by any means. Heck, the fact that I even finished it without pulling out my hair or sticking a pin in my eye was accomplishment enough!

*I even took on the challenge of making a few more*

All in all it was a good start to a possible new hobby. As I have gotten more comfortable behind my machine I have attempted to branch out a bit from just pillows, and with the baby on the way, I figured baby clothes would be a great start. Inspired by an old friend from college, Jodi, I started with baby onesies.

*A few onesies I made for friends who recently had babies*

I discovered I really enjoy sewing and making little things for other people. I also discovered there is a whole world out there of really cute baby things that I could make for my unborn child. Talk about exciting!

 

*one of the onesies I made for little baby G*

*B-man posing in his new shirt*

 My next few projects involve pants and some form of snack bags that were inspired from another old college friend, Melissa. Hopefully I'll get better at this sewing thing before little Spott arrives...we'll see.

The First of Many

Let me just first say that I did NOT want to participate. B was very adamant about us documenting this time in our lives and I totally agree. But just not right now.

I mean, I don't even really look pregnant, just fat bloated.

Trying to be a good sport because I know I'll appreciate it someday

I'm sure there will be many more pictures to come...at least if my husband has his way!

A New Adventure

So, I did it. I gave in. I decided to start a blog like the other 584023689758 people out there. 

After much thought and debate, it started to make sense. The family can stay connected and I can add one more thing to my plate...hehe. No, but seriously, it's a great way for us to all stay in touch and for the family to see how we are doing and get updates about our new addition:

For those that don't already know, we are expecting a little Spott on August 15th!