A room in progress...

Well, my parents are gone and the house seems a little quiet and empty without them here... They left Wednesday around noon to drive to Bangor Maine where Dad was supposed to fly to Iowa for meetings. Unfortunately the weather had other plans, and his Friday flight was cancelled, and then his Saturday morning flight was cancelled... They found a flight from Portland, Maine yesterday at noon, so they drove down to catch that one..  Mom had to drive the long 8+ hours home alone. Thankfully the Lord gave her a good clear side of the highway most of the way home and she arrived safely!

Here are a few shots from the last week to give you a taste of what we were working on. And lest you think my Man didn't do anything, since there are no pictures of him, he was super helpful on the one day he wasn't working...  he drove us downtown through annoying traffic and patiently waited while Mom and I perused the fabric store... he made supper and cleaned up... he went and bought supper another night so we didn't starve. So, while he may not have gotten dirty in the paint (though he did offer!), I appreciated his support in this venture. :)

Mom did the hard job by doing all the trim and cutting in (as well as prepping and priming the walls)... I had the fun job of covering the walls with colour! :)

The room is done and ready for inspection once Dad arrives back from the West Coast

Mom showing one of the materials we chose to do a wall canvass and the curtains

Measuring the fabric to cut for one of the canvasses

We all took a break to pick Dad up at the airport... didn't take long for his laptop to come out once in the door... I get my addiction honestly!

One piece cut and ready to create our canvass!

Tacking around the wood frame before stapling - making sure we have it pulled tight, straight and even

Almost done our first one... with the new staple gun that jammed about every 2 minutes... grrr

Next piece of material...

It was getting close to midnight at this point and exhaustion was setting in... we called in help and let dad manage the frustrating staple gun. How's this for teamwork?!

Finished products! We're hoping to tone down the red wall a bit with the canvasses...

Just an idea of how the curtains will "look"... that's my crib bedding that I ordered at Christmas time... and I l.o.v.e. my sea blue wall! :)

So that's just a snapshot of what the room will eventually look like... need to find a rug, dresser/change table, get some things on the walls, and somehow make it cozy with a slight babyish touch... can't wait to get the crib set up!

A little of this and that...

Just going through a few of my pictures over the last month and a bit:

Nothing says summer more than berries 'n cream...  well, there are many things that scream, dance and shout "SUMMER!!", but berries were the only sign I had last week to get excited about... so thought I would share a shot of our dessert. yummm

My Man went away for a few days for work, and when he returned, I not only got HIM back, but I was surprised with these:

Just a couple cute cards we received from dear friends... I'm incredibly horrible at sending out real mail, but I LOVE getting it! And when friends are celebrating with you and taking the time to show it... well, it means a lot. Thank you. :)

Jersey Girl, her husband and their precious bundle joined us for brunch one Saturday along with another friend... it was a first visit in our home for Jersey Girl's Girl! :) :)  Hopefully she'll spend lots of time here over the years.

She's changed so much since this picture... growing way. too. fast.

I'm working my way back through pictures... maybe you'll get a Christmas update and then a Thanksgiving Vermont/NYC trip update! ha.

Baby Prep

I'm 24 weeks along... it's still saying our baby is the approximate size of an eggplant... except I have to picture something cuter than an eggplant since the thought of eggplant turns my stomach! ;)  Tomorrow a new vegetable or fruit may show up on my iPhone app to let me know how big our baby is... :)

For awhile now I have been feeling little movements, but for the first couple weeks I couldn't be 100% sure it was the baby I was feeling... now I am finally confident that this little one is making herself/himself known. I love the little nudges I get at unexpected times throughout the day. I can't help but put together an imaginary conversation with this child I'm growing... every poke makes me think he/she is saying "Hello?? Do you know I'm in here??"  "Yes my precious one, I am well aware that you are there... but you can say hello ANY time you like!" L.O.V.E.

The nudges are still quite small, but they do sometimes bump against my hand if I have it there at the right time... Daddy even was able to feel a little nudge the other night. What a miracle this experience is. So thankful!

My Mom is here for a week and our guest room is undergoing quite a transformation to prepare for this little one... I worked hard at packing up guest room #1 and office/guest room #2 in preparation for this week. i had movers come in over a week ago to move furniture all around our house... office desk (*never used*) has been moved from the very top floor to the basement, bookshelves have been moved from the office to the family room, a 5-piece bedroom set has been moved from soon-to-be baby room to the old office on the top floor... thankfully it matches the wall colour better in it's new home than where it was before. Unfortunately our guests now have to go down a floor to find a bathroom. Did I mention we live in a 4 story townhome and there are LOTS of stairs?! My apologies to our guests...

Here are a few snapshots of the "before" process...

The "Baby Room" before... with the furniture that did not match the wall paint...

All our books moved out of the bookshelves in preparation of their move...

The empty "baby room" ready for Mom to arrive... awaiting it's transformation!

All prepped and ready for paint - yay!

Mom hard at work cutting in... definitely not the fun part of the job in my books. After getting one coat on everything, we concluded this wasn't the colour I was aiming for... it looks orange here. In real, it looked identical to my hallway/stairwell paint colour ... NOT what I wanted. I was going for "desert tan"...

So we went and got a new colour after much humming and hawing... we're sticking with this colour, but it's still not what I was going for.  Who knew "tans" were so hard to get right?? THis still looks quite yellow with a greenish undertone... but it works so I'll keep it. I just have to keep remembering that it's a "BABY ROOM" and not my room. *smile*

We have two end accent walls to do yet, which will hopefully make the room "pop" and ease my "typical yellow baby room" concerns...

I was excited to FINALLY receive the baby room bedding I ordered at Christmas time from my parents' couch in Summerside... it just over 5 weeks to arrive. Talk about impatient. I'm going for a unisex room, but since I'm not a girly-girl, it's leaning towards my personal taste which isn't overly soft and baby-ish... I hope it ends up ok. I must say that any creativity I might sometimes have seems to have gone out the window with this pregnancy...  that's why I'm thankful Mom is here for a week to help with ideas - she has far more creative juices than I do! I do know I want some kind of coastal/beach feel in the room... we'll see!

We took a break Saturday afternoon and went downtown to a fabric store that is AMAZING. I heard about it from a friend, but it was my first time there... Mom and I could have spent hours there. I was thankful to have my Man drive us down and drop us off, so we didn't have to fuss with traffic and finding parking... we had a successful trip, and have material to cover 3 canvasses for my wall plus curtains. Definitely can't wait to see this room come together... it'll be awhile yet, since mom is taking the material home to do the sewing...

Aren't moms the best?!?  We're certainly super thankful for her help!

Unexpected Gift

My parents are here... Dad is holed up in his room day and night preparing for his weekend in Arlington, WA, and Mom is working hard on our baby room... so neither are here on vacation. :) 

I walked into their room last night to see what Dad's "office" set-up was like, thinking he had brought up the folding table I suggested from the basement... but nope - his desk is the dresser. How uncomfortable!! And he's been working around the clock at that "desk" since early Tuesday morning. If you have a minute, pray for him as he pulls his messages together for the weekend. He seems to be slightly in panic mode.

Anyway, I walk into their room and on the bedside table I see this:

It was about as much as I could see from where I was standing, but I'm suddenly pointing... "WHERE DID YOU GET THAT?!?" Mom looks confused, and says, "You know what it is? I brought it for you but was waiting to give it to you when you were less tired..."

"Yes I know what it is! I read her blog every day - she's fantastic!"

This is what I was referring to... my unexpected gift. :)  Thank you Mom!

If you haven't read the Pioneer Woman's blog, you might be interested in checking it out here.

Thankful

I just finished reading the update on Joanne's blog... and can't help but give God praise here for what He is doing! It wasn't long ago that this young mother was fighting for her life... it was touch and go, and all around the world we were praying hard for this young family. While it is a long recovery process, she has already come SO far and has amazed medical staff with her improvements. This is totally God's work... and I am so thankful! She has been answering questions with some simple sign language so has had some sort of communication with her family this way... but Monday, she answered a question verbally! Completely blew her family away with this, and it is all so exciting. Then yesterday, she fed herself ice chips with a spoon! So, as we ought to do with answered prayer, I am thanking our God for showing and proving His love and care for this family with these small but very exciting steps of recovery along the way. We know He has heard our prayers and we know He is working. I am praying Joanne's experience will not only bolster our own faith in our Almighty God, but will also speak to the medical team that is working with her day in and day out... that they might meet Joanne's Healer as their Saviour.

More later on "Baby Prep Progress"... according to my "What to Expect" app, there's 16 weeks and 4 days left until our due date... this little one is currently 23 weeks and 3 days along and is around 8.5 inches and 1.5 lbs. A comparison? Apparently that's the same size/weight as an ear of corn....  hopefully our little one is cuter than an ear of corn! ;)