Another Day, Another Destiny

I had my 36 week growth ultrasound today, and it went great. Addison is continuing to do very well. She jumped from the 5th percentile at 34w to the 8th percentile. Just to give you an idea, the last time she was that high was at 22w and that was in the 7th percentile....

Now for our guest speaker:

Hi, my name is Brennan. I decided that I'm going to tell you a little bit about what I do every day in a new section called "The Daily Adventures of Lord Brennicus." Yep, that's me. Mom calls me that when I do something silly.

I don't have a story from today to tell you, but I will take something from last week!

~ * ~

So, I found a box of cereal I liked. It was a box of Kix. Kid-tested, mother approved. I am definitely a kid-tester. Mom didn't see me with the box of Kix, so I went to go hide and eat my Kix in peace. I tried to put the box of Kix underneath the table, and it got stuck on the legs! It was hanging midair, and I couldn't get it to go through. So I crawled underneath the box of kix underneath the table, and I pulled, and pulled it with all my might.

Until I fell backwards.

Mom saw me, and laughed.

But I was determined, so I crawled out to try again. On my way out, I hit the box of Kix with my big head and it knocked down to the ground. As I was trying to climb out, I got stuck because the box of Kix was in my way! Ooo, it was so frustrating! Finally, I fell over the box of Kix and landed on the floor.

Then, without skipping a beat, I hit the box of Kix. That will show him!!

When I hit the box of Kix, a couple Kix fell out. Yum! Just what I wanted! Then we were all friends again, and everything was good.

The End.

~*~

Did you like my story? It even has a happy ending! I got to go now, it's bed-time!

Thanks, Brenn for sharing that delightful story!! :)

Now where was I? OH yes. Addison is looking so good now the Dr. says that I can go until 39w. I am pretty happy about that, but also kind of bummed! I guess I will just deal with it, and hope I go before the induction.

The cleaning/nesting/organizing/craft extravaganza has continued into this week. Tonight I have been organizing the bedroom, and then I need to work on the bathroom. I have NO idea where I'm going to keep all my nursing supplies. I better ask advice from mommas who BF'd to figure this out!

I can't honestly figure out where all this CRAP comes form--- I mean, how much of the crap sitting around in my house do I honestly USE/NEED? Very little of it, actually, which is why I am trying to purge so much recently. Also, because it will be easier to keep the apartment clean when there is less clutter. My next "big" project is going to be in the living room-- we're getting rid of the record player (it needs a piece to work, and it doesn't right now so it's just taking up space) and we're gonna put it in the closet until we get the piece, but we're taking the DVDs out of there and going to put them in a big CD binder. That way, we won't have so many cases laying around. (We can get rid of the nightstand next to the TV, and put a speaker there to get some sort of normal sound) and then clear the DVDs off our brick and board shelf to make room for other living room necessities. I'd like to add a lamp or two to the room.

Tomorrow I am meeting with a lady who is going to let me use her washer/dryer in exchange for some help around her house. I am hoping this will work out well, and if it works out REALLY well then I could even start using cloth diapers on Addison! (Since I would need to do laundry every 2-3 days, going to a laundromat with diapers is WAY TOO expensive at $3.00 per load) My mom is getting her sewing machine fixed so I can use that for my sewing projects. I can't wait! Just thinking about it gets me excited...

Until tomorrow,

The Final Countdown

Things are moving along quickly in preparation for the final days. Yesterday, Matt and I made three separate trips to storage and I am so happy with the progress we made. We went through our boxes of clothes (God, I didn't realize we had that many clothes!) and sorted them officially by season. The good news is that means we will be able to go over to the storage unit, grab our Winter clothes boxes in a month or so, and return the short-sleeves that are in there our dresser now.

We're going to have a major space crunch when we try and fit these three boxes of clothes in the house. Of course, I have an entire box in storage filled with shoes and purses, and a bag in the back of the closet filled with purses. It'd be nice to actually be able to use some of these things occasionally!

The other depressing thing about going through the storage unit is seeing how much weight I've gained. I've kept a bag of jeans from when I was smaller in hopes that when I lose weight I will fit into them again. Jeans are expensive, and I don't really want to have to rebuy jeans. Of course, I am getting tired of looking at a bag of jeans I may never fit into again... losing weight is a goal, but something that realistically, is not going to happen for some time.

I digress, we finished that... and then we brought a pile of shyt back to the house to be organized. I'm no longer going to stress that Matt cant bring stuff back to the house... I'm going to stress that while it's here, it must be useful and in a proper place.

Hopefully as we bring more of the miscellaneous stuff back into the house, he will realize that it's junk... But, you know, in good time.

Oh, and the other big victory yesterday was we went through all of the misc. crap and organized it... It went from several small boxes and a couple large boxes to three medium sized boxes. Very good consolidation if you ask me... Now, my goal is to get through those boxes again in the future and pack them properly. (And not have a box of random crap... Seriously, what do people do with all the crap they accumulate??!) We have done very well consolidating, so I am very very pleased. :D

It looks like most of my life is now going to be consumed with price shopping... It is hard being broke, and having to make every penny count... But, until Addison is born and I can work again, we'll do what we gotta do. :)

Adventures In Storage

So, in an effort to get a head start on our long list of things to do tomorrow, Matt and I headed over to the storage unit this morning to make some headway.

The miscellaneous clothes were boxed and sorted by season, and we grabbed a bunch of stuff to take home. There are still 3 more boxes to come back home, and we didn't bring any stuff over to storage today, so we will do that tomorrow.

So, further items to do:

1. Move boxes at home to storage
2. Move boxes at storage to home
3. At storage unit - dump all small, half-filled miscellaneous boxes into larger boxes to be sorted.
   
4. At storage unit - reorganize
   
5. Move loveseat to storage, measure dimensions of sofa in new unit and determine size of shelf to be built, poss move to CT for long-term storage.
   
6. Bike-hanging or move to shelf

Well, one step forward... ten more to go...

Addison's Journey to Mommy

I am posting a new page at the top of the blog regarding my pregnancy with Addison, with all of it's twists and turns. It is not finished yet, but I wanted to post it before she was born.

I will eventually finish Brennan's story as well, and add pictures. But our computer has been down since the end of July, so all my pictures are trapped on that hunk of plastic! :-(

Nesting, Nesting, Nesting

Sorry, I dived off the face of the earth for awhile. I just haven't had much of a heart to sit down and write anything recently. I will do better, I promise. Writing is a positive release, and I can spare 20 minutes a day to fill the Internet in. =)

Updates on Our Projects

1.) Cabinet Liner (Cost $0.97)

My kitchen project with the wallpaper as cabinet/drawer liners hasn't been finished. It's a big hassle to cut without an Xacto knife, and so doing it with scissors was a real labor of love... and I just don't love these cabinets! When Matt and I have some free time, I think it will be a good project for us to tackle together... So I don't have to keep climbing up and down the ladder, cutting, measuring, and pasting. A little too much for me to do at 9 months pregnant.

2.) Repainting Changing Table/Dresser (Cost $6.97 so far, more supplies needed)

We purchased the paint for the changing table/dresser combination in the nursery. It is a nice, pale sunshine yellow. We also are going to be moving the dresser got for Addison on freecyle to our bedroom, and switching out that dresser with Matt's dresser. We will probably repaint that dresser too. The changing table/dresser is a big project and since it needs to be completed in one day, we need to have one day to devote to it before we can begin. Next week Matt has three days off, so it is looking like one of those days will be Dresser #1 day!

4.) Repainting Nursery Hamper (Cost so far, $0.00)

I have yet to find a suitable color for the hamper, so I am thinking I will just buy regular paint and paint it. It was SUCH a big hassle to do before, and it will have to be painted white first I think but I can NOT find the color of spray paint I want.

5.) Bathroom Wall Organizer (Cost $19.99, plus $5.94 for paint so far)

A couple months ago, I purchased a bathroom wall organizer at wal-mart to match our bathroom theme... and of course, it was the wrong color (even though it was the right color on the box)...so Matt, like a dutiful handiman can... spray painted it a rubbed bronze color to match the other items in our bathroom... Except, well, it keeps rubbing off. It needs to be stripped, and redone, and then some sort of clear needs to be put over it. Oh well, it's completely doable.

6.) Shadow Boxes (2 @ $0.97)

I purchased two shadow boxes from Good Will, and then repainted them with acrylic paint I got off of Freecycle. They turned out beautifully, I will post pictures in another post.

7.) Picture Frame ($0.97)

I purchased a picture frame from Good Will, and repainted them with acrylic paint I got off of Freecycle. Picture will be posted in another post.

8.) Baby Mobile (Cost so far $13.68)

I found a DIY- Baby Mobile project that works perfectly for while Addison is sleeping in our bedroom in her bassinet. The only thing I need for it to start is the embroidery hoops that I am hoping to pick up tomorrow and start on.

9.) The Storage Unit Mess

I don't even know where to begin. Months ago, Matt and I tried to go over there at night (because it was cooler) to go through everything. It's a terrible mess. Empty boxes piled high, crap everywhere, clothes scattered across the floor... We got through about half of the boxes and got rid of a bunch of garbage, and we freecycled a TON of stuff. But there is still more, there always is. And going at night (past a little one's bedtime) meant we could only stay there for about an hour... in a hot steel box. No fun! Our goal is for this Sunday to get over there bright and early and go through the boxes and break them down or throw out the ones we don't need. Then, we need to pack the clothes on the floor into boxes, and label them by season. We also need to find our fall/winter clothes and move those to the front of the storage unit so we can grab them quickly. We also need to grab the remaining baby items (Infant rocker, baby tub, etc) before Addison gets here. Where the heck has all the time gone?

Also, on Sunday (like we weren't doing enough all ready??) Matt's sister, Abbe, is coming down from Philly to grab some furniture we've been holding onto her since MAY. So, we're going to make her work for us for a bit... LOL. We're moving a loveseat out of our living room, plus a desk, and some boxes out of the apartment to clear up some room for baby stuff. The guy we used to pay for those things currently owes us $60, and we offered to forgive that if he helped us move the loveseat, and his wife babysat for us twice. Sure, we usually paid him a lot more than that to help us move, but hey, we loaned HIM money a month ago... so there's interest involved. WELL, he didn't respond to that email (and then I found out when I did need his wife to babysit, she LIED to me and told me she wasnt available when she was) so needless to say... we are collecting our money and saying PISS OFF. Last week, this same guy wanted to borrow an additional $120, and I was like "HELL NO!" We have a daughter due any time now, we need every cent we can. Sorry, that was way off-topic... Anyway, storage unit...

It should be exciting. I'll post pictures of our progress after it is completed.

10.) The Great Desk Organization

We purchased a $50 desk a couple months ago, and it is about 7' long and 7' high, with shelving and cubbies built in. It is very awesome craigslist find. Well, we never really officially organized it, and it's been "half-assed" a couple times. So, I finally tore through everything and I have the filing system almost 100% complete, along with our billing, and budget organization... I need to find a system to organize my coupons, but that is another job... for now they are at home in a big plastic bag and I have them paperclipped in categories (Food, HBA, Cleaning, etc) it seems to be the easiest way for now.

Right now it's about 85-90% complete, after I did an additional THREE hours of work this evening, and I still have another hour or two.

Well, those are all of my projects... I hope I can get most of them done before Addison decides to make her arrival. Wish me luck!!