Needing a big change!

Ok so I have been wanting to redo my kitchen cabinets for a really long time. All I was thinking about doing was distressing them since there isn't much to them anyway. They are just the plain panel doors that were the original cabinetry from when it was built in '77. I know that we can't afford actual new cabinets, but they definitely need to be updated from the plain oak color they are now with the original handles as well. So one day as I was browsing Lowe's website to see if they had any ideas on kitchen cabinets I found a little blurb about putting beadboard on the cabinet fronts. I had never heard of this before so I asked my sis-in-law if she had ever heard of it. She hadn't either so I forgot about it for a while. Then I was talking to my friend at work about distressing her kitchen stools and I told her that I wanted her to teach me how to do that because I wanted to distress my kitchen cabinets. Then I remembered about the beadboard so I asked her if she had ever heard of that. She told me yes and kinda explained to me what it consisted of and reassured me that it turns out really cute. All I could picture in my head was the old fashioned cupboards that had the entire face as beadboard so I wasn't too keen on the idea. I decided that I would try and find some ideas online to see if I wanted to even attempt this adventure. Then I found this..... I absolutely fell in love with this look. My friend told me that it would be super easy to do since my cupboard fronts are already the plain panel. Now the part that I am wondering about is the drawers. I know that it will look stupid to try and fit this whole beadboard and trim design on a small drawer front, but I also think that if I don't add something to them that it will look odd since the cupboards will now stick out further than the drawers. I'm thinking maybe I could find a smaller trim and put that around the edge of the front of the drawer and leave the middle the flat panel and get some cute handles to go on them instead. We'll have to see. I really am wanting to do this really bad, but when I start that means that I will have to do something with my countertops since they are an ugly cream color and will clash really bad with the paint I will use for the cupboards. Maybe we will have to play around with all these ideas in a few days when my week off starts. I think it will be a fun project, but may take me a while :(.

Anywho... So there have been quite a lot of decisions on our little family lately. There still isn't any word on a full time job from Brock so we (we as in me) are kinda getting a little nervous about when this baby comes. Since I was unaware that short term disability leave is something extra that you have to sign up for on your health insurance we unfortunately don't have it. What does this mean? Well it means that when I go on maternity leave I will not get paid at all for being off of work. You may be asking well what about PTO... yeah since I'm 7 on 7 off that isn't a perk that we get. All I have is EIB. That's more like sick leave that kicks in if you are out longer than 3 days. I calculated it, and I will only have 77 or so hours of EIB by the time Addy comes. So that means that I will technically only have a week of paid leave. Therefore I will only get about 3 weeks off with my little girl. This really makes me sad, but there is no way that we can afford to do anything different since I am the main income at this point. Now you're asking where did the decision making come into play? Well we were tinkering with the idea to rent our condo out and move in with my parents 'til something happened with Brock and a FT job. That way I could take more time off with my baby, and we wouldn't have to worry so much about paying a mortgage payment and other bills while I wasn't getting paid. Plus I would have the help of my mom and when I did go back to work she and my dad would be there to watch the baby while I tried to get some sleep when I got off work in the mornings. The problem we were having with this decision was that we both weren't getting that for sure feeling that, that is what we needed to do. We started with this idea at the end of October, and it has taken us this long to decide that I will have to live with the fact that I will only get 3 weeks off with Addy and at this point we will are staying in our little home. We want to see how it goes the first couple of months with our little bundle of joy and if things can be handled by staying put. I know that it will be quite stressful on my end, but this is mainly what Brock feels so I have to go with what the patriarch of our home thinks. I know that I will need a lot of help and support from my Heavenly Father, but I know that he will help us and bless us because we have brought a precious little spirit into this world.

So now that this decision has been made I need to get on top of getting the nursery ready for our little monkey. We only have 44 DAYS left 'til she is supposed to be here. Time is going by so fast now, and I'm afraid that I won't be ready for our little peanut. I guess I have a lot to do on my next couple of weeks off since I only have THREE left 'til she gets here!!! OH MY I don't think I realized that until right now!! Well I better get my bum into gear.

Best week!!

So my week started out pretty great. I had my 31 week OB appointment on Tuesday. My mom wanted to go with me to see what the Dr. was going to say what his plans were as far as labor and my brain tumor went. When I got to my parents house that morning my dad of course wanted to come to so he could hear his little baby's heartbeat too. The appointment went like they usually do minus all the questions that we bombarded the Dr. with this time. Her heart beat sounded great, and he asked if I knew how she was positioned. I told him that I thought that she was head down since her hiccups were in my lower abdomen. He did some more poking and prodding of my little belly, and then asked the best question ever! He asked since there is family at the appointment and the US room is open if we would like to take a peek at our little critter. I obviously wasn't going to turn down an opportunity to see my little girl! Her daddy was pretty sad since he was at work instead of being at the appointment and didn't get to see her. I felt sad that he wasn't there either, but he will be there when we have the official one in 3 weeks and will get to see how beautiful his little girl is. Anyway, so the minute the nurse started the US I could see her face perfectly. I could see her fat little cheeks, and beautiful features. I was so happy to see her. We got a really good shot of her side profile, and we noticed that she happened to have her momma's lips. :) I also found out that she isn't head down, and all that pushing on my ribs is her little stinker of a head. The nurse said that she's folded in half, and her chest is in my lower abdomen so that's why I feel her hiccups down lower.

Because of that it made my week that much better. Wednesday didn't start out so great since I spent the entire morning trying to figure out our health insurance for 2011, and also figuring out how much this little baby of our's is going to cost us to have her come January. When Brock came home from work he surprised me with a dozen beautiful pink roses just to thank me for being such a loving wife. I was so happy that he made the effort to do that because I was almost in tears with all of the insurance mumbo jumbo that I was dealing with. The spoiling didn't stop there, though, he also took me to the mall and bought me a cute new maternity sweater (it can also be worn when I'm not pregnant too... BONUS!) and some new fancy black dress boots. Thanks baby for being so wonderful I needed you more than ever that day, and you did everything right to be there for me. I love you!

Thanksgiving was great. We went over to my parents for dinner, and my mom invited Brock's family too so we had a great big combined family Thanksgiving. It was good to have both families together. I didn't feel too wonderful that day though because I was having Braxton hix contractions and uterine ligament pain pretty bad so after dinner was over I pretty much laid down 'til I had to go to work. It was still a good day, and I'm very grateful for both of our families.

Now bring on Christmas! I was so excited when I got home from work yesterday morning that I took down all my fall decorations, and put up what I already had out of storage of my Christmas/winter decorations. I love decorating so this time of year when we have all holidays back to back I'm in heaven. :) Brock jokes around that he needs to buy me a house just so that I can fit all my decorations in it since I am always making new ones or looking for good deals and buying them. :) I guess that I'm extra excited for Christmas because not too long after Christmas is over I will have my baby. I can not wait to see her and hold her in my arms. I am ready and very excited for this next journey in my life of being a mother. I am very blessed with such a wonderful husband and I will soon have the most perfect daughter in the whole world. I don't think that this moment in time I would change anything. I am very excited to watch my loving husband be such a great daddy, and raise our little girl with me.

Random

Ok so I got this in an email at work today, and I had to share it with everyone.

Truths for mature humans

Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize that you are wrong

I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to take a nap when I was younger.

There is a great need for a sarcasm font.

How the h*** are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

Was learning cursive really necessary?

Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I’m pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

Obituaries would be a lot more interesting it they told you how the person died.

Bad decisions make great stories.

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.

I keep some people’s numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday of Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.

I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.

I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

How many times is it appropriate to say “what?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear or understand a word they said?

I love the sense of comaraderie when and entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters! :)

Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and pinning the tail on the donkey- but I’d bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, overtime!

That's all...

Latest...

I had my 28 week appointment last Tuesday! It was fun to hear Addy's heartbeat... That was after she stopped being a brat and kicking every time the Dr. would put the Doppler on my belly to hear her heartbeat. It was funny because instead of the usual lub dub that you should hear Addy would add an extra beat so it was a lub dub thump sound instead. We got a good laugh out of it and the Dr. said that was good that she was so active. He said that she sounded great and that she was growing just as she should. ANNND I gained a pound!!! Yea I know whoop de do on a pound, but it has been so hard for me to gain weight so a pound is a huge milestone for me. Also, Addy started her hiccups.... well I started to really feel them that is. It is the funniest feeling in the world. It was fun to have her daddy feel them, and he giggled when he finally felt it. Brock's new thing is put his hand on my belly and push down in spots just so that Addy will kick or punch his hand. Yeah I know antagonizing her already what am I going to do with him! ;)

So this past seven off I was able to do, and accomplish quite a bit. The first part of the my seven days off I was able to spend the day with my mom. I was in need of a day with her so it was perfect! There is never a dull moment with me and my mom, so you can imagine that when I was done being with her either my tummy hurt from laughing so hard, or my cheeks did. I had a great day on Thursday going with Brock to a photo shoot for a band. The pictures turned out amazing, and I'm so amazed at how talented my husband is with this sort of stuff. I wish I knew half as much as he does about computers and technology as he does. It's great to see him with it and how much he loves it. I think that he should have gotten a bachelors in some sort of computer technology area, but I guess that's his second love and forensics is his first. Too bad maybe he would have a job if he did the computer degree :(. Oh well, we know that something is out there for him the waiting is the hard part though.

Anyway, I was in a huge nesting mood on Tuesday, and happened to deep clean and reorganize my entire house. Yeah you would think that, that would be enough, but nooooo I decided that I needed to do crafts after I was finished cleaning everything. I made both Christmas presents for my sister-in-laws, I would like to post pictures of them to show you all, but then they would no longer be secrets if I did. I will for sure post a picture of them after Christmas though. I also started my Thanksgiving calendar, and got almost every day made until I realized that I couldn't find my magnets. Yes, I have an issue keeping track of those stinkin magnets! When I finally bought them to put my Halloween calendar together I lost one of the boxes, and couldn't finish putting my Halloween one together. Now I have managed to lose the entire box!!! Yeah not fun for sure!

So I ended my week off by cooking yummy dinners for my handsome husband, and spending time with him. I love the time that I get with him during my weeks off, and that's what makes it so hard for me to go back to work after my seven days off. We also spent yesterday evening with my parents at Lowe's pricing how much it would cost to redo our bathroom.... Yeah lets just say that I wanted to walk out of the store crying. That's only what the supplies would cost since my dad said that he would do all the rest and not charge us. I can't believe how much a little bathroom costs even when shopping around for good deals!!!

So that was my week in a nutshell now time for me to disappear for seven days...

Craft day Saturday!

So this morning I woke up pretty early really in a nesting mood. I decided to clean my house. That didn't take long and I soon ran out ofthings to do. Sooo, I decided I would make some bows for Addy's beanies and or headbands. This is one that I made. I love how it turned out, and can't wait to make more! The best part is that they were cheap to make and I was able to make them how I wanted to ;).

Here are the other ones that I have made so far...

The picture doesn't do any of these real justice. They are really cute!

My craft day with my sister-in-law and mother-in- law we decided to make holiday magnet calendars. It's not quite finished because I need to still get the magnets for them. Speaking of magnets... Do any of you know where to get cheap ones? The only ones that I could find were at the craft store, and for 6 of them they wanted $3! The magnets will cost more than making the entire calendar if I bought them from there. It'll be very cute when finished and it'll be fun to make one for each month if I can find some magnets that is. Here's kinda an idea of what I'm talking about...

I actually think that mine turned out a lot cuter :) I'm not being bias at all though :D

So after I got home I wasn't done being in a crafty mood so I decided to finish my spooky blocks. I love how they turned out! The best thing is that I figured it out and the total cost to make these was less than $5!!! That's what I love!

So anywho... I'll post a picture of my finished calendar when I get it all the way finished. :)