Baby Room Progress

A week ago Saturday, June 6th, we finally got Joshua's room cleaned out enough so I could get it painted.

My painting adventure started out earlier in that week when Amanda and I went to pick out the paint colors at Lowes. I wanted a color that would feel comfortable and relaxing. Amanda's favorite color besides pink and purple is teal. We could not decorate a boy's room with pink and purple so we started looking at the blue/green colors. We decided on Gentle Wave for one wall. It is a darker color and Mystic Sea for the other. I talked to the guy to find out how much paint we would need the room is only 10X11 and he said a quart of each color. He said I wouldn't need to prime since the existing color is not a gloss.

On Saturday - I got a late start and went to my mom's around noon and picked up her step ladder. I got home around 1:00 and then taped off the area put down the drop cloth and started painting. I learned that I am a really messy painter. I had paint all over me, my clothes, somehow I even managed to get paint on my handbag that was in the living room???

I thought that it would only take me a couple of hours to get everything done...I was wrong. I also ran out of the Mystic Sea color for the other 3 walls and could barely get on one coat. Eric and Amanda had to run out and get me another coat. It was around 7:00 pm by the time I finished and my results were ok. I did get a little on the ceiling and the baseboards, but if you don't look to close to the details it is ok.

This is me painting the room the Mystic Sea color. The Table with Eric's Computer will be out of the room before Joshua gets here.

On the following Monday -Amanda was tired of the seats being up in the back of the Element and the ladder rattling around in it. We went to my mom's to drop of the ladder and to get Joshua's bed. We got home around 9:00 pm and I could not wait until the next day to put it together. I am just that way. I read the reviews on the bed at JCPenny.com and people said it was easy to put together and they did in less than an hour. Well it took the three of us about 2 hours to get it put together. I am happy with the look of the bed and it seems really sturdy. Now we need to get his bedding set, curtains and the word vinyl for the walls and the room will be ready for him.

This is what his bed looks like. We are going to order the Rocket Baby bedding set to go with the "space theme" of his room. After I get it finished I will post more pictures. The wall at the foot of the bed is the Gentle Wave color and the other wall is the Mystic Sea.

Messy Messy Messy

My friends that know me well know that I am not the perfect housekeeper. My house is usually a little messy but not real dirty if you know what I mean. But at the moment it is in utter chaos!!!

My grandbaby will be here in about 12 weeks and his room will be our old junk/craft but mostly junk room. We had boxes and boxes of miscellaneous stuff. We have spent the last few weekends working on cleaning out the room. But that means the rest of the house suffers from it.

I didn't think to take a picture of the room before we started but I think you can image how much stuff we had. This first picture is what my living room looks like right now! Yikes!!! This was the 3rd time we filled up the living room. We go through stuff organize it; in four piles - keep, through away, recycle and donate. And before we bring out another pile of boxes we make sure the keep stuff has a home and is put away. It does seem like about half of it is going in the garage but at least half of it is leaving.

We did go through 5 boxes of beanie babies and cataloged the ones we are getting rid of. My friend Tiffany, has a friend that is a collector dealer and he may be interested in them so we made a list to see if he wants any. If not I am going to donate them. I don't know what I was thinking when I went crazy and bought them back in 1998-1999, I did waste a lot of money that I really didn't have at the time. I have over 100 beanie babies - Let's pretend that I only have 100 that is over $595 spent on clutter. Oh well I am doing something about it now.

We are almost finished with the room as you can see by the second picture. I am disappointed that the book shelves full of Eric's books and star trek collectibles are going to stay in the room when it is Josh's room, but we do not have anywhere else to put the stuff. It is a good thing he is going to be a boy. Amanda and I decided his room will have a space theme so it will go with the star trek collectibles. I hope we don't warp the baby too much from his environment.

My goal is to have the room all cleaned out and my living room cleaned up by tomorrow evening. So next Saturday I can paint the wall his bed will be on and clean the carpet. There is nothing like a baby coming that will get you to through out stuff you don't really need or use anymore. I will keep you posted on the room progress in the next few weeks. My ultimate goal is to have the house ready by mid July so we can just relax and enjoy the summer and not have to rush before he arrives!

Apron Accomplishment

My friend Nadine is a wonderful seamstress and she makes cute aprons that she swaps with other apron makers. Well she inspired me to make an apron.

My church enrichment group was making aprons but I could not go to the class since it was on a Thursday afternoon during work, so I had a wonderful idea...my mom could help me and Amanda make aprons. It would be so fun to have mom and daughter bonding time together.


The church group apron was so cute and the pattern did say it was "suitable for advanced beginners" . I did sew a dress for home economics class back in 9th grade (that was only 25 years ago) . I received an A on that dress and it was put on display. So that makes me an advance beginner...right???

Nadine also had the pattern that she graciously loaned me so I didn't have to buy it...so it had to be meant to be. I had this thought in my mind that it would take us only about an hour or two to make it but it took a little longer than that.

We had fun going to the store and picking out fabric. Since the aprons are reversible I we picked out two different fabrics. They were going to look so cute!!! We decided after a few crazy weeks that we would go over to mom's on Sunday afternoons so she could teach us how to make the aprons. The first Sunday, we learned how pin the pattern on and cut it out. I was ready to stop and give up but I was determined to finish.

On the first sewing session Amanda was busy doing something else and mom showed me what to do. I had to learn how to thread my sewing machine that she gave me 20 years ago but have never used. I wasn't very fast at all and really had a hard time sewing a straight line. Mom told me not to worry. I can be a little bit of a perfectionist but she wasn't letting me be one. The first session we sewed the bodice. I had to make 2 seams at the top and bottom and pull them so they would gather. That was kind of fun and not too hard. Amanda came at the end of the session and mom had almost put together one side of Amanda's apron. She said it was so she could teach me what to do.

Anyways the next session I did the section under the bodice and the skirt of one side. I thought isn't this good enough? Now I had to do the other side. The two hours that I thought it was going to take was long gone by now. We did finish the other side. Mom helped out with the straps which I was glad and then I was finally done!!! It took about 10 hours total.

I don't want to mislead you, we did have a good time and it felt like an accomplishment when we finished. I am glad we made them even if they are not perfect.

Traditions

When most people think about traditions, I think they think of things that are holiday related or something like that. I also think about the song "Tradition" from Fiddler On The Roof.

My husband has a tradition of going to every Star Trek movie on opening night. I guess I do too; at least since we have been together. I have gone to Star Trek Movies on opening night since "The Final Frontier" - June 9, 1989 (thank you Wikipedia). It has almost been 20 years; seven movies and four TV series.

Star Trek has kind of grown on me over the years. I do live with two Trekkie's...not the kind that dress up to go to movie premieres but they could beat a lot of people when it comes to trivia.

When I was a kid I hated it. I remember on Saturday nights my dad would watch reruns of the original series and I thought why are we watching this stupid show with some green tinged pointy ear guy. Of all the TV series I liked Voyager the best. I liked Captain Janeway...girl power! I really didn't give Enterprise a chance, even though the captain had a beagle.

This last movie was my favorite so far...I am sure they will make more. We saw it at the IMAX in Lacey. I bought tickets on-line and it was a good thing I did because it was sold out. We had planned on getting there around 6:20 but the freeway was stopped on the way down. We got there at 6:40. Only one of our tickets would scan so we sent Amanda in to get our seats so we could get new tickets at customer service. After they gave us new tickets, Eric and I went in and Amanda was standing by the entrance. I looked up up and it was full...I was thinking Crap! We should have gotten there at 5:30. There were no empty seats with three seats together except for the lower level and we would have to look up to see the movie. We did luck out with Eric being "handicapped" and there was 2 seats together and one on the other side of the gap for wheelchairs. So we took them...they were perfect seats. We had lots of leg room. The movie was pretty awesome..great effects and humor. I would recommend the movie even to non-Star Trek kind of people. I am glad I went...here is to tradition and live long and prosper!

Becoming a Grandma

There are so many emotions on becoming a grandma. I am really starting to look forward to meeting Joshua. I can't wait to hold him, kiss him and count his toes. In the past when I thought about being a grandma, I hoped it would be a few years from now when Amanda had finished college and was on her own. I am a little sad that she won't get to experience her early 20's with no "real" responsibilities. Since I had to grow up fast too…I was hoping to live vicariously through her experiences. Oh well…we look forward to him blessing our lives very much. Another thing that I did not expect to happen when I became a Grandma was for my grandbaby to also live with us. Joshua's coming into the world is not only changing Amanda's way of life but ours too. One great thing is we will get to be hands on grandparents! I am sure he will bring great joy into our lives.

Creating a Blog

For awhile I have thought about creating a blog. However I have felt a little inadequate about creating one. Some of my friends have awesome blogs...they write well and they have great photos on their blogs. They do really awesome things with their families or friends. I know I shouldn't compare my life with others, I actually really like my life. However, I think that my life may be a little too boring to actually have a blog. For the most part my life is pretty simple...I go to work, come home, hang out, go to bed and then start the whole process over. There are times when I have stuff going on every night of the week so I don't get home until late but I think I waste a lot of my time doing really nothing because I am tired from the day. So I am hoping by blogging I may find or notice the more exciting things in my life.