The Waiting Game

So, as of today our little angel is officially one week overdue and seems perfectly content to hang out in there as long as possible. My parents came out to State Center last Thursday evening, and are planning on being here until the baby decides to show up or the doctor says it's time to induce- whichever comes first. To pass the time we have been working on our basement renovation for the "man room" and extra bedroom. The great thing about the tardiness of the baby, is that we have gotten A LOT of work done that we didn't think would happen until after birth. In a week, texture has gone up on the walls and ceilings, doors are being installed into door frames, paint is up on the walls of both rooms, cabinets for the bar have been stained and varnished, and lights/outlets are getting hooked up and plated.

Today, we're hoping to get the tile laid for the bar floor so that it can cure and grout can go in on Friday, and also would like to get casings for the doors and windows stained/varnished and installed by the weekend.

Here are some pics from working and playing the last several days:

Dad installing the door frame for the French doors into the man room- they are going to look SO great!

Mom and Amanda painting in the bedroom where Amanda will keep her stuff while she lives with us. I chose a lighter gray, and I'm not sure what it is about those types of paint colors but they always turn out a little too purple-y. The same thing happened with the gray paint in our bedroom. Hmmm.....

My parents' dog, Guapo (for those not up on Spanish language, it means handsome- he has these ice blue eyes that are so pretty). It was really hot this day that we were working and so we brought the dogs into the basement where it was cooler. He found this pile of rollers and decided it was nap time!

Matt and Mollythe 4th of July- a very grainy picture, my apologies. Jerod says that after he buys his TV with his Biolife money, he'll save up for a new camera for me, YAY!

My littlest brother, Gabriel, hamming it up for the camera as usual. I guess some things will never change :)

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Nursery Additions- Decor not a baby yet

Baby Brown is officially 5 days overdue. Little stinker- I wonder if he/she knows how badly everyone wants to meet him/her and so they're just going to wait everyone out and make sure we're really ready for the big arrival, just taking some sweet time.

So now I figure since the baby doesn't look to be coming anytime super soon, I better bide my time doing something else and I haven't been a very good blogger lately so I thought I'd catch everyone up on what's going on with the nursery and do another post update about the basement.

There is a big wall across from the closet in the nursery and, for my life, I couldn't decide how to decorate it. With wall words? Picture decals? Framed children's art? Family photos? The possibilities seemed endless- but I had NO inspiration. Then I started thinking about how we've already received some keepsake type items, things FOR the baby, but that baby won't actually get to touch until they have their own home and family :) I thought a long shelf would be a nice addition:

We purchased the shelf and the brackets from Lowe's for about $30 total, not bad for such a display in my opinion. The funny part about the shelf (though not at the time) is that I completely misjudged how high it should be on the wall and didn't realize my mistake until after inserting wall anchors of about 3/4 inch diameter, which meant moving the shelf (which I had to- it looked ridiculous) also meant filling in holes, sanding, and painting over the patches.....lesson learned.

Now, obviously there is still a ton of wall space under the shelf, and then I GOT IT! I don't know where the spark came from, but I loved it and this is the result of my short-lived hiatus from pregnancy brain-block:

Do you love it?! I'm always looking for different ways to hang/display photos and frames, and I was thinking of framed art under the shelves when I realized that I didn't just want random art in my baby's room, I wanted things that represent our family, where they came from, and how they are growing. I found the ribbon at Hobby Lobby (I will have to put together a different blog post about my love for that joint) and it was all half off so I go 4 spools for $4. The pictures frames were all Dollar Tree purchases and the best thing about the Dollar Tree is that literally everything is $1. They were different colors, but a nice can of $3.50 metallic silver spray paint jazzed them up and the best part is that if one falls and breaks- whatever, it was only a dollar, and super easy to replace. The rod the frames are hanging from is just a cheap $6 cafe curtain rod from Kmart that I threaded through the shelf brackets.

So far I have displayed a picture from our wedding, pictures of Jerod and I with our respective family members as babies/toddlers, and an ultrasound photo of Baby B. I am very happy with how this project turned out (though JB thinks the bows of the ribbon make it look too girly) and am looking forward to adding photos of my sweet little button!

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Our impending arrival

Just a quick update on Baby B! It's been forever since I've posted- I keep forgetting to take pictures of all the things I've been working on to keep myself busy while we wait for our sweetie. These things include completely reorganizing the kitchen cabinets (Jerod wanted to kill me- he still doesn't know where everything's at), washing all the bedding in the house, organizing and reorganizing the baby's clothes and storage baskets, installing shelving in the bathroom closet, hanging shelves and wine racks in the dining of the kitchen, sewing some reusable shopping totes, and my latest project has been using an old shelf from the bathroom closet to create a rack of hooks to hang baby's hooded towels and jackets (later, maybe it will hold dress up clothes!).

Anyway, between my psychotic episodes of nesting I have had a couple of appointments and am pleased to report that we are in the early stages of labor- I think. I'm about 75% effaced and went from 1 cm to 3 cm dilated between last Thursday and this past Monday, the doctor seemed pretty impressed that I had progressed 2cm in 4 days and haven't had any noticeably strong contractions. Hopefully, we continue this trend and meet our baby soon!

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Think Happy Thoughts

Have you ever had a time when someone you care about is in line for a promotion, or a position, that you know they would do SO well at (and not just because of your biased opinion of them) but you just had this feeling, and lots of rumors to back it up, that even though they're the right person for the job- they're going to get screwed, and there's nothing you can do about it?

Without going into much detail, because we really don't know what will happen, so far everything's just hearsay, that seems to be what's happening in our lives. So I'm just asking for a little hope and faith from everyone else, because my husband is feeling pretty pessimistic and frustrated about this situation. It breaks my heart to see him upset about this, I have never seen him want anything so badly, but I think he just seems like he doesn't know how to help the situation turn out the way we would like it to. So, if you have some to spare, send some positive thoughts his way- who knows when we'll be at the end of this waiting game- but I know he would really appreciate some friendly encouragement, even if just through the blog :)

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Sweet Easy Treat

If you have preschool or early elementary age kids at your house or in your life and you're looking for a yummy treat that they can help you with, then check this out:

Cinnamon Sugar Bread Twists

Frozen white/wheat bread dough, thawed and risen
Melted butter

Cinnamon and Sugar mixed to your liking

Frosting: 1/4 c. butter, 1 c. powdered sugar, about 1-2 Tablespoons milk

I gave each kiddo 2 balls of the risen dough, each about an inch and a half in diameter. They rolled the dough balls into 2 ropes with their hands or on the table. Next, we brushed them with melted butter and tossed them in a bowl of the cinnamon sugar mixture. To make the twist we simply pinched the ends of the ropes together and twisted the dough by folding the dough on the left side over to the right side and repeating until we got the end and pinched those parts together. The twists went onto a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray and we let them rise (in our SUPER HOT classroom) for about 45 minutes. They baked at 350F for about 10-15 minutes, until the bread sprung back when poked. While they were still a little warm I mixed up the butter and powdered sugar, then added the milk until the frosting was thin enough to brush on with a pastry brush. We shared these treats with the kids' families on their attendance day celebration, and they were a hit!

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Get outta my belly!

Actually, I need my little booger ball to stay in there for another week or so to make sure he/she is done cookin', but that doesn't mean I can't be looking forward to that day right? We are at 36 weeks this Thursday and I have my next appointment Wednesday afternoon and then weekly after that (I feel like I've said this all before- forgive me if I'm repeating myself, I forget a lot of things lately). Anyway, thought I had better update with a belly pic since I haven't posted one since about 28 weeks or so I think. I'm just now beginning to swell a bit (not in my face- that's just the weight I've gained over these past few months), in my ankles and toes if I'm up on my feet for too long. Good thing today is the last day with kidlets- I'll get some much needed and appreciated resting time in my classroom as we clean and organize for next year :)

This was from my parents' home, we made our last road trip before baby for a shower my mom and sisters threw for me. I loved seeing everyone, and forgot how nice it is to see family and spend time with them. Thanks to all my fam who made it!

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Al....most....there.....

In a couple of different ways actually! We have 5 weeks to go until this pregnancy is "supposed" to be over and we can meet the little stinker butt who's trying to do full body stretches in this belly of mine. I noticed some stretch marks on the underside of my tummy just this past week and was DEVASTATED! I thought I had been doing so well and that my Palmer's belly lotion was actually a magic potion......but I am apparently not destined to ever wear a bikini again, I guess I'll take the trade off though, for a sweet little addition to the family :)

The end is also in sight for the school year-- and it seriously couldn't come soon enough! I have ze-ro energy to keep up with these kidlets anymore. My feet are sore, I walk like a penguin, and the sheer exhaustion of hauling around an extra 30-some odd pounds has definitely become more than noticeable. Plus, the kids are just DONE. Their little noggins checked out of school about 3 or 4 weeks ago and, with all the extra baloney the administration wants them doing besides exploring their world and learning to get along with other kids, I can't say that I blame them. They have them coming back for 1 stinking day after Memorial Day! I'm not saying I want them the whole week, I'm saying, "What's the point of coming back for 1 DAY?!" So, that's where we're at- 1 more student day for preschool and then a bunch of family visits and teacher work days until I can finally officially begin my summer vacation on Tuesday June 7. Ahhhhh.....I can't wait, I'm thinking a virgin margarita is in the works for that day :)

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