Oh For Pete’s Sake

That was my tweet last week. “Oh for Pete’s sake.” It was the only thing I could manage to get out that I wouldn’t regret. “My ****** dog” and “Are you ****** kidding me? I will kill her!” did not seem very nice.

Okay y’all, see through my anger. I do love my dog and, for the most part, she is kind of awesome. But every now and then she does something to make me remember that she is an animal and could very well live in the woods on her own and be just fine. DO YOU HEAR THAT, ROOKIE?

Do you remember last year when I told you about how much Rookie hates the mailman and tries the destroy the mail? You can click here if you want a refresher or if you’d like to see the proof. Here are the basics: Our mail comes through a mail drop directly into our house, Rookie hates the mailman, sometimes she chews up the mail as it’s coming through the slot. She got in big trouble earlier this year and has been good ever since.

But, well, last Thursday she out Rookie’d herself.

My mother in law was at our house, as she is every Tuesday and Thursday, because she gets to watch my baby those days. They were relaxing on the world’s most comfortable recliner (seriously) and Rookie was hanging out at their feet. Jansen was asleep and I’m not quite sure about Rookie, whether she was asleep or not is irrelevant as far as I’m concerned.

The mailman approached the door, Rookie didn’t see him coming. As he began to push the mail through the slot, she fah-reaked out. She hopped up and with the speed of an African sprinter, she hauled it towards our front door. The problem with sprinting indoors is two-fold. 1) It is very hard to slow down when you need to. 2) You run into things.

This is what we call foreshadowing.

This is what our front door looks like from the inside.

Yes, the grout is disgusting. It’s stained. I don’t want to talk about it unless the conversation involves you giving me lots of money to hire someone to tear up the floors and install some wood. What I really wanted you to see were the windows on either side of the door. They are these little foot by foot windows running from the floor to the ceiling.

Look there on the right. There is a giant television stand pressed up against the windows. Why, you ask? Well we don’t usually have it there. In fact, it was in the hallway for us to take to Goodwill. But it had to get moved because my IDIOT DOG didn’t stop running and ran smack into the glass.

Do you know what happens when you run at full force towards a window and hit it with a pointy snout? That’s right. It breaks. It shatters and flies down your walk way and (thankfully) misses the mailman to avoid any law suits. It also scares the crap out of your mother in law.

So I get a call at work telling me about the incident. I was this close to telling my mother to letting Rookie out the front door and not letting her back in. Ever. But I love that dog something fierce so after going on and on about how much of an idiot she is, I finally asked if she was okay. She was. She got a gash on her front leg that was bleeding a bit but seemed to be okay.

We ended up taking her to the vet on Friday evening. (And by “we” I mean “Stephen,” as I almost always do when it comes to errands that I dread.) The vet said that she could have had a stitch put in, had we brought her in sooner. I don’t really know if I believe that, I think that doctors will put a stitch in the flu if you let them.

She’s fine now. She’s healing like a champ. She may or may not have learned her lesson regarding the mailman. Stephen talked to the mailman on Saturday and he said she scared the poo out of him. He thought she was going to come flying through the window.

All those posts I’ve written about my smart dog? Ignore them. I don’t care if she can go to her room when she sees us putting our shoes on, or if she can go find Stephen for me if I tell her to. She doesn’t understand two very basic facts. The mailman is not evil. And just because something looks clear, doesn’t mean there is nothing there.

For Pete’s sake.

The Reveal: The Themeless Nursery

I’ve been talking about the nursery for months. You’ve given advice, links, and opinions. You’ve asked for pictures several hundred times and have been (semi) patient when I told you to wait. Now the day is finally here. I’m going to show you Jansen’s room.

There is so much love in this room. I’m not a decorator, I will never pretend to be. But I think this room rocks. People tipped their heads in concern when I said I wanted to paint the walls bright green. They hesitated when I said I wanted to take off the closet doors and hang turquoise curtains. But I had a vision. A vision of bright colors that didn’t include farm animals or trucks or footballs. A nursery without a theme. I am 100% satisfied with the way it turned out!

Many many thanks to Lauren for taking pictures of the nursery last weekend while I was sleeping. She took some fantastic pictures. There will be a changing pad on the dresser but that was in our room since Jansen is currently sleeping in a bassinet by our bed.

Enjoy!

 

So? What do you think?

Seven Quick Takes

Yay for Friday! Yay for three-day weekends! Yay for random blog posts!

Yay!

1.
Alex the Hurricane is being a jerkface. We have a 3 day weekend and plans to go to the beach but it’s been raining for 4 days straight with no end in sight. While I am thankful that he didn’t visit our section of the coast, I’m annoyed that he is messing up my beach time. So we’ll be taking books and laptops and movies to the beach and relaxing indoors. There are worse things, I suppose.

2.
Last weekend we were in South Padre Island for a family reunion. At one point I went into the ocean with Stephen and I think I stepped into a divot wrong. I woke up Sunday morning with some serious back pain. It has been bothering me off and on since then, mostly during the night and in the morning. Wednesday was almost unbearable. Thursday was pretty good. I woke up at about 4 this morning with serious shooting pains. I got an ice pack and went back to sleep. It’s pretty sore today. I’m hoping this doesn’t last forever.

3.
The second coat of paint is up in the nursery! It looks fantastic! I’m hoping that Stephen gets in the mood to shampoo the carpets tonight. While my mom and sister were painting, Rookie was hanging out with them. My sister turned around to look at her and this is what she found.

That’s my pup… with a dot of bright green paint on her snout! She’d been secretly sniffing paint while they weren’t looking. We had an intervention (after the laughter) and she said she wouldn’t do it anymore. We sort of believe her but we’re still considering random drug tests.

4.
When I got home from work yesterday, I walked over to the curtains to open them so we could watch the rain. The second I touched one of the panels, the rod came tumbling down. The screws in that section BROKE. Half was still in the wall, half was attached to the bracket. Stephen says it’s probably from making it too tight and the drill broke it and when I touched it, it fell. I think I’m a super human and I break metal with ease.

So now we need to add that to the list of things that need to be fix at our house. Ugh.

5.
At what stage does a baby in the womb start getting hiccups? I keep thinking it should be any day now.

6.
My bed skirt and pillow were delivered yesterday. I knew it would be soon because I’d gotten an email on Saturday saying that they’d shipped. When I heard the knock of the UPS man, my heart skipped a beat. I ran (in the very very slow manner that preggos run) to the door to get my package and walked back to the living room with a huge smile and two thumbs up to Stephen. He wasn’t quite as thrilled but still said things like “Oh good!” and “It looks nice” probably more in an effort to please me than to adequately reflect his opinions on the matter.

7.
I need a pedicure something fierce. I can’t see myself spending time or money on it though so I’ll probably be doing my own toenails this weekend at the beach house while my dad makes funny faces and tells me I’m stinking up the house. There are few things in this world that get in the way of a woman and freshly painted toenails. A giant belly and concern for others’ noses aren’t going to phase me.

Have a wonderful 3 day weekend. I hope Alex the Hurricane hasn’t screwed up any of your plans.

Facelifts: Revealed

I suppose it wasn’t very fair of me to tell you about my curtains and then not show you. I’ve been blogging long enough to know that you’d request pictures. Rookie mistake.

The window in question is a large bay window over a window seat. The middle portion of the bay window is ginormous, the sides aren’t too big. This is what the window looks like with the curtains up and closed.

Not a big fan. It’s just a lot of green fabric hanging there. I do, however, like the way it looks with the curtains open.

Not so bad, eh? But the problem is this. We don’t want to have to keep the curtains open all the time. That defeats the purpose. We need curtains to keep the heat out and keep the sun’s glare off our television. So in order to make that happen, the curtains have to be closed and look blah.

My mom came over yesterday to paint and she played around with the curtains. Her thoughts were that there aren’t enough panels. If we add one more panel to each section (for a total of 4 more panels) it’ll lay nicer. So we pushed the curtains around to develop some thoughts and feelings about it.

The more fabric, the more folds. What do you think? I think it adds texture and looks nicer. The only problem is that the curtains are heavy and the curtain rod is sagging in the middle. We can’t attach a bracket because there is no wall there, only window. We thought we’d attach a bracket from the ceiling but we can’t do that because the rod is too high, and the bracket is too long. So I think Stephen is going to wander the aisles of Home Depot until he finds some sort of U bracket that’ll work.

Thoughts and feelings please.

Next up on the agenda is the nursery. I had originally planned to wait until the nursery was all done to show you pictures. But that’s just mean, right? I happened to be home yesterday due to some serious back spasms that literally left me crying in pain, so I snapped a few pictures of my mom and sister in progress.

My sister took on the green walls. She started with the edges and didn’t like the color (thankfully she waited until the room was done to tell me this). Once it was done, she liked it.

My mom took on the orange walls because she’s a trooper. She knew Lindsay couldn’t handle being trapped in a closet all day. I’m sure her body is hurting after all of the bending and stretching.

Here’s a reminder of the bedding we are using.

(I love looking at it, it’s just so cute!) The colors match almost exactly. Because the green is so light and the orange is so dark, they are in desperate need of a second coat of paint. My unpaid helpers will be back today to complete the job. This is what it looked like last night.

Apparently I don’t know how to take straight photos! This isn’t actually a Dr. Seuss room with crooked walls.

At night, the orange looks more red. During the day, it looks burnt orange. Stephen took the doors off the closet and we’ll be hanging long turquoise curtains instead.

It’s all coming together and looks fantastic. I get giddy when I think about moving the furniture in there. I think the only thing I still need to buy is a new sconce. My requirements are as follows: 1) Looks better than the one we have, 2) Is hard-wired (meaning not plugged in), and 3) Has an on/off switch. I have found this one and this one. (Those are links.) I’m leaning toward the first one. It’s cheaper, I can replace the shade if I want to, and the bronze matches the ceiling fan. As always, please share your thoughts and feelings.

It seems like with each facelift, more things are needed. More money is required, which makes me grumpy and stressed. We are trying to space out all of these “projects” so we don’t get ourselves in a money bind. Maybe I should just keep reminding myself that having a blog is free but hiring a decorator is very not free. So to all of you who share your opinions, thanks for saving me money!

Facelifts

Things are a-changing around Hurst Castle.

After two and a half years of being homeowners, we finally put curtains up in the living room. Amazing, I know. I mentioned it a few weeks ago and I guess that lit a fire under my butt. Stephen and I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to pick them out last week. Of course the had to be special ordered since we own an old home that has NOTHING standard in it. It’s like they just cut random rectangular holes in the walls and said, “Okay glass company, make that into a window.”

The curtains were delivered over the weekend while we were on vacation so Stephen hung them on Monday night. I was so excited to get them up. Not that they are up, I have mixed feelings. When they are closed, it’s kind of ugly. It’s fabric overload! There really is no way to avoid it though because it’s a ginormous window and we want thick curtains to keep the heat out. So I just have to deal. When they are open they look nice, so I’ll just keep them closed while we’re at work and open them when we get home. No biggie.

With every improvement, I’m feeling more and more like an adult. I feel like our house is coming together and starting to feel like a home. It’s a wonderful feeling.

I’m going to have a hard time focusing today because AS WE SPEAK my mom and sister are painting Jansen’s room! This morning, the room had white, dirty walls. Tonight, it’ll be very bright green! THRILLED! Oh and did I mention the burnt orange closet? Burnt orange makes me happy.

Once the painting is done, we’ll shampoo the carpets and then start moving the furniture from our front living room into Jansen’s room. I’m really hoping that everything fits well. Not that I can really do anything about it if it doesn’t!

My house isn’t the only thing that has changed. This little site here has too. Those little tabs at the top were just not working for me. First of all, the Contact Me tab was practically worthless since it only worked half the time. For some reason WordPress only chose specific messages to send to me. I often got emails from people who said that they’d used the Contact Me tab and hadn’t heard back from me. That’s just not okay.

So that tab is gone. You can now find my contact info on the About Me tab.

Another tab that’s gone? The Book Swap… because, let’s face it, I was seriously slacking on that. I did a good job in getting the books out in a timely manner but nothing really came of that. People read their books. Some people reviewed them, some didn’t. So instead of seeing it everyday and being constantly reminded that I’ve left it incomplete, I’m just going to take it away altogether. It’s my blog, I can do it if I want to.

I need to do some major revisions to the Blogroll. It’s not very accurate or helpful. I didn’t get to it in time for this update, but it’s on my List of Things to Do.

I have added a new tab up there by the request of many of you. I ever-so-uncreatively titled it “Bumptastic.” It includes all of my weekly bump pictures in one spot. Go check it out, I think you’ll like it. It’s kind of shocking to scroll from nothingness to a large bump.

That large bump is an ever-present reminder. It makes my back hurt, my feet hurt, my butt hurt. It weighs me down and makes my clothes too tight. Of course I have maternity clothes but I am so tall that most of the shirts are too short and you can see my belly panel sticking out the bottom. Nobody is really going to judge me, but it’s not very convenient to be tugging on my shirt every time I walk around the office. My solution? A facelift of my own. Monday and Tuesday of this week I wore Stephen’s t-shirts to work.

I’m telling you, people. There are so many changes around here you can hardly keep up! Let me sum it up for you: house updates, blog tab changes, and I wear men’s clothing. Wonderful.

Seven Quick Takes

I’m tired but happy this Friday morning. I slept through the night, minus one or two interruptions from asleep arms, but somehow I’m very very tired anyways. But what’s new? On with it…

1.
This weekend I have plans to make a chocolate hazelnut (read: Nutella) pie for Father’s Day. I’ll take pictures and give you a full review. It sounds promising because anything with Nutella is amazing, but we’ll see!

2.
Last night we went to the dog tracks to celebrate Father’s Day with my dad. We don’t go often and I’m not really sure why, because it’s one of our favorite things to do. Thursday night is the deal night. They have $1 hotdogs (gross), 50 cent beer, and $1 margaritas. For a family that salivates over good deals, it’s the perfect set up for us. So last night we went as a family. My parents, my brother, my sister in law, my sister, Avery, and Stephen and I. Normally Stephen does all the betting for the two of us, unless I see a dog name that I really like and want to throw $1 or 2 his way. He never really wins much because 1) we don’t really know a ton about dog racing and 2) it’s sooo out of your control.

Last night, God was smiling on us. He knew that we could use a few bucks and that our anniversary is sneaking up on us and he wanted us to be able to go to a fancy dinner to celebrate at the end of July. So if you take out the money that was spent on bets, hot dogs, beer, and nachos Stephen ended up coming out about $100 ahead. Y’all, this is unheard of for us! Normally we come out a few cents ahead or a few dollars behind. Stephen was still glowing this morning!

3.
PS- I have written about the dog tracks at least twice before. Once was actually last Father’s Day. But if you want a fun post about what the dog tracks are like, check out this one (<- link). To this day it’s a story we talk about often.

4.
Last week I mentioned that we’ve lived in our house for 2.5 years and still don’t have curtains in our living room. It seemed like such a daunting task. The windows in that room are over a window seat, so we’d have to get one of those fancy curtain rods that has connectors so it can fit the corners. We actually found one and bought one about 6 months ago and it’s just been sitting on the window seat ever since. I finally decided that we should do something about this. We went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond on Wednesday to see what we could see.

We found a set that we think will work. They are now on order (they don’t carry the shorter length in the store) and should be here in 7-10 days. I can hardly believe it! No more glares on the television and laptop? No more 100 degree heat in the living room? This will be amazing!

5.
I think I’m going to get my glucose test tomorrow morning. I haven’t heard good things about this. Wish me luck!

6.
I’m also going to the beach tomorrow. I’m really hoping that I don’t get out there and have a heat stroke. I’m so sensitive to heat now, which is so weird because I used to be the girl who didn’t feel heat. So wish me luck on that too.

7.
Because every Friday is a good Friday if you get to look at pictures of a baby, right? My sister took several pictures of Avery last night. I thought I’d share a few. Enjoy!

(It’s normal to get the urge to squeeze her cheeks.)

(She was reaching for the camera. You can see a glimpse of the really long fingernails I was telling you about.)

(She was staring at my dad. She giggles at him a lot. And there is a glimpse of the watch I was telling you about.)

(Is four enough? Yes, I think four pictures will do. Is she not the cutest baby you’ve ever seen? I think, yes.)

I Am Not Ashamed

I officially have the pregnant chick waddle. You know what it looks like, it’s nothing new. You can see a normal looking woman from the back but know she’s pregnant by the way she waddles. That’s me. I can walk normal, it’s just not as comfortable. It seems to take more focus, more work, more determination. I’m just not into that. I’d rather waddle.

You can judge me if you’d like, it doesn’t hurt my feelings. In fact, there is a woman at work that mumbles “waddle waddle waddle” as I walk by her and I don’t even want to punch her in the face. Why? Because it’s the truth and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. You try carrying approximately 25 pounds on the front of your body and walk like nothing is different. It just doesn’t work like that.

I also have a bit of a problem with my clothes. Maternity clothes aren’t that uncomfortable when you compare them to regular clothes with buttons and waistlines. But when you compare them to large elastic things or flowy dresses, there is just no contest. On the weekends I live in cotton dresses but if I’m not going anywhere, I don’t see the point in dirtying a dress.

So I get creative.

On Saturday, Stephen and I had plans to hang out at home all day so we could get a few things accomplished. We also had to be around for the Rooms To Go people to deliver our table and recliner. I saw no point in taking a shower and getting fancy so I put on a pair of Stephen’s boxers and a tank top. The boxers are turquoise and say “Wii” all over them. (In fact, click here to see a picture that I found on The Google.) The tank top… well… it wasn’t maternity.

I had no problem with this outfit. I was comfortable and, frankly, that’s all that really matters to me. But Stephen wasn’t sold. Early in the morning he said, “You’re not going to wear that when the delivery guys come, right?” I stared at him, “Why not?” And he replied, “It’s kind of revealing.”  I decided not to argue and just continue doing what I was doing… which was sweeping and mopping and generally being awesome.

We knew the delivery was going to come between 2 and 6 so I figured I had some time to hang out in my comfy clothes. And let’s face it, I was also hoping Stephen would forget that he told me to change. At 2:00 on the dot, the doorbell rang. I walked over to answer it and he stopped me. “Please go change.” Ugh. It’s not like he’s some random guy that I’m shacking up with. He’s my husband and I’m pregnant and it’s Saturday and I’m comfortable and I wanted to wear that outfit. This was no walk of shame, it was an adult pregnant woman hanging out in her own home in whatever makes her comfortable.

But I’m a fantastic wife so I submitted. I went to our room and put on some yoga pants. I kept the tank top on because I was able to hide my (apparently inappropriate) belly. I’m not sure if Stephen didn’t notice my tank top or approved, he didn’t say. Or maybe he was distracted by the excitement of our new furniture.

You’ve been asking, I heard you. Check out our new goods!

Lovely, huh?

I spent the majority of my Saturday doing a chore and then resting in the recliner. Chore, waddle to the recliner, chore, waddle to the recliner. And it made me happy.

If you want to know the honest truth, there is something that can embarrass me. It’s not a waddle through the office or short boxers in front of delivery men. Nope.

Last week I had a serious craving for a slice of cookie cake from The Great American Cookie in the mall. I caved. I stopped on my way home from work and parked at Dillards. I thought the cookie place was closest to Dillards. I was seriously wrong. I walked through Dillards, dodging the perfume ladies, out into the main area ignoring the hair straightening people and cell phone kiosks, past the food court where everyone seemed to be staring at my belly, on and on. Finally I reached the wonderful cookie kiosk. I got my slice of cookie cake and started back the other way. I was unable to wait until I got to my car to eat my glorious giant cookie. Commence embarrassment.

Big pregnant woman waddling with cookie in hand… past the food court people who are now staring at my belly and my cookie, again passing the cell phone kiosks and hair straightening people, back through Dillards and the perfume ladies with no personal space. I felt like they were all staring, all judging, all concerned about my belly and my cookie.

That’s the pregnant woman’s walk of shame. But you know what? I didn’t feel an ounce of shame! Okay well maybe I did at first, but not after that chocolate icing hit my taste buds.

Pregnant Pause – Week 26

Twenty six weeks. Today I am 26 weeks an 1 day. Which means I’m well over my halfway point and, according to most sources, I am a week away from my third trimester. We’re getting closer to the end. I’m much more relaxed and not dreading the arrival of Jansen like I was at one point. I think it’s because I’m feeling more prepared.

All of our furniture is in boxes in our formal living room, waiting for us to get our act together so we can move it in it’s proper spot. We’ll need to paint and clean the carpets before that happens. Hopefully Stephen and I will get the carpets cleaned this week. My mom and sister are going to paint the walls in about two weeks. I have a whole clan of people who have offered to help paint but the room is pretty tiny and I don’t want a “too many cooks in the kitchen” situation. Want to see the progress that was made this weekend? Of course you do!

A ceiling fan! I think I mentioned this but all of the bedrooms in our house came with sconces on the wall instead of overhead lighting. Stephen installed a fan in our bedroom right after we moved in (Houston without ceiling fans is equivalent to some sort of ancient torture) and we decided we’d slowly add them as needed. There is no way we’d allow our child to have a bedroom with no ceiling fan so that was on the pre-baby agenda. I picked out a pretty but plain $69 fan last week and had my handyman husband install it. It’s not something he enjoys doing since it requires attic work and have I ever mentioned that Houston is hot? 

But he did it and it is beautiful!

We decided to keep the sconce on the wall as an additional source of light. Now we are in need of different sconce because we currently have THIS gold number that is selling for $7 at Lowe’s. I love my child too much to keep that in his room. Any advice on where to find a good sconce? I’d love to find one that looks like a kid’s fixture but that’s proving to be difficult. To make things more complicated, we want one that has an on/off switch so that we don’t have to have it on every time we flip the switch on the wall. Advice? Anyone?

I also washed and folded a box of hand-me-down clothes. They were already washed but somehow it still creeped me out. They needed to be washed at MY house. After doing that, let me just say this… Jansen has a lot of clothes!

I’m sleeping alright once I can actually fall asleep. But during the day I’m constantly tired and hot. I’m about to resort to my first trimester self and make a 9:30 bedtime. I know it’ll be hard to get myself in bed that early but, man, I really think I need it. This baby-growing thing is really using up a lot of my energy.

Probably the biggest development this week is that we can now see Jansen moving from the outside. It sort of looks like an alien trying to get out, but we try not to think about it like that. It’s pretty fascinating. He feels pretty huge when he moves around inside me but I thought that might just be because he’s cramped and I’m being dramatic. I’m not! Stephen and I stared at my belly while Jansen was doing one of his kick boxing classes and my stomach was moving all over. He’d kick the top left and it would stretch the skin down to the bottom right. It was pretty amazing!

That’s about all I’ve got for you this week. Sorry if you think these weekly updates are lame, suck it up for another 13 weeks! I need this to be documented. Here is my belly shot. (I’m not sure why I thought that taking these pictures in the morning was a good idea. I don’t think I look good in any of them. I should take them in the evening when I’m awake and my hair has settled down from the blow dryer frizz.)

Hellllllo belly!

(ToT questions are posted. Just click the Ten on Tuesday button on my right sidebar.)

Seven Quick Takes

 Another 7 random tidbits of info that you just couldn’t live without…

1.
I’m so glad you all loved the colors we chose for the nursery. I’m pretty thrilled about it. I’m sitting here wondering what I used to fill my brain with. Now it’s all visions of blankets and booties and toys and colors.

2.
Yesterday a guy at work came to chat in my office. He’s not in the office very often so he wanted to get caught up. “Boy or girl?” I told him it was a boy. He asked the name. “Jansen Bridges.” His eyes got wide and said, “Wow. Unique. Well I can honestly tell you that there is nobody else that’s ever had that name!”

I smiled and said, “Actually…” and then immediately shut my mouth “…you’re probably right.”

I don’t know if you caught it, but back when we announced the name and sex I got the following comment on my blog (for the record, I wouldn’t be sharing this if it was sent in a private email, but since it’s already public I think it’s okay to post):

“Congratulations and blessings to you and Stephen on the impending arrival of your son! We have never met. My name is Betsy and I live in California. I found your blog awhile ago while surfing the net for the latest BL updates and have enjoyed your ramblings ever since. Normally, I am not a big “commenter”, but when I saw your post today I was completely blown away! (So much so that I even emailed a link to my sister to make sure I wasn’t seeing things.)

Your son Jansen Bridges Hurst shares the SAME name (almost exactly when you say it out loud as my sister pointed out) as our beloved late grandfather, JANSEN BRIDGES HERTZ of Toronto. His friends called him Jeb. As I understand it his older siblings took to calling him “J.B.” which when said fast in a child’s voice sounds like “Jebby” which evolved into “Jeb” as he became a young man. Until today, I had never heard the name outside of our family. Many of us are named for my grandfather. My given name is Elizabeth Jansen in his honor.

While I have no doubt that your son will leave his own unique mark in the world, I wanted you and Stephen to know that he enters in good stead. My grandfather was the finest man I’ve ever known. I miss him everyday. He loved his family and the LORD above all else. He taught by example and always gave more to others than he took. He made sure that his children and grandchildren grew up knowing what it means to live in the LIGHT.

God bless all three of you as you grow into a family of your own.

Our family will be holding your family up in prayer for the safe and healthy arrival of Jansen. May he always know God’s grace and be blessed with a lifetime of health and longevity.”

But work doesn’t know about my blog (I’m a firm believer in the separation of work and play) and it would be really hard to explain how I randomly knew of a man in California that had this name. So I shut up and was thankful that I stopped before too much damage was done.

3.
Stephen and I are going to try to fashion our own curtain rods out of painted PVC pipes and wooden balls. Anyone ever tried to do this before? Wish us luck.

4.
We got another floor fan in our bedroom to help with my hot sleeping issues. Ever since then, I’ve started a morning ritual. After I get out of the shower I walk to Stephen’s side of the bed, unplug his fan, pull up his side of the sheets and comforter, then walk to my side and to the same with my fan and sheets. We aren’t really “bed makers” but I feel like this is pretty good. Yesterday morning Stephen walked into our room while I was doing this.

S- So you’re the one that’s been making our bed every morning?!
C- Well who else would it be?
S- I don’t know. I thought maybe I was doing it but kept forgetting.

5.
An automated machine from RoomsToGo called Stephen on Wednesday to tell him that they’d be making the delivery between 2pm and 6pm. While I’m glad that they did that (previously we were told it would be anywhere from 7am to 10pm), I wonder why they don’t tell you that you’ll be getting that call. And really, it doesn’t change our day a whole lot. That’s still a pretty big window.

6.
I get to see my niece tonight! My SIL is out of town on business so my parents invited my brother and Avery over for dinner. They knew they had to invite us too or else we’d be having some serious words! I can’t wait to see her.

It’s been a while since I’ve shown you a picture of her. This is her first time to go swimming, look how cute they are! Such a fun family!

7.
I really don’t care about hockey or soccer so this week’s sports news is lost on me. I do need to read up on this whole Big 12 business though… what’s that all about?!

Have a great weekend. Try to contain your excitement about our recliner being delivered… I know it’ll be tough!

False Advertising

Today we are talking about Jansen’s nursery. If you don’t care about nursery decor, here’s your warning to push that little “x” in the top right corner of your screen.

I already told you what bedding we picked out. It’s this bed skirt (<- link) with a throw pillow to match. (We didn’t order bumpers because they were too expensive and we’ve been hearing mixed reviews about having bumpers. I don’t really want to get into that right now.) Based on that decision we decided to go with turquoise, bright/lime green, and orange.

Remember that commercial that Lowe’s put out not too long ago that talked about color matching paint? All these people were bringing random items into the store to have them match the color and then this one guy brought in some huge purple stuffed animal and said he needed THAT color for his daughter’s room. Are you with me? Well Monday night, I was the dad. My crib skirt swatch was the big purple stuffed animal.

I walked into Lowe’s thinking that it would be quick and easy. I just needed two small samples, one of orange and one of green. There was an unhappy looking man behind the paint desk when I approached. “I need some help. I need to get two samples made. One of this orange and one of this green.” I wasn’t prepared for what happened. He looked at me without a smile and said, “I can’t do fabric. If I can see through it, I can’t do it. You have to go find your own swatch. And I assume you want low VOC paint so you should just look in the Olympic section.”

I’m sorry… what? I have a few issues here. Let’s discuss:

1. They can’t color match fabric?? What? Isn’t that the main thing people need to match? I tried to find the commercial to show y’all but I couldn’t find it. I wanted to see if it mentioned that they couldn’t match fabric. But the big purple stuffed animal, isn’t that fabric? As I was Googling this commercial, I did find some details about it. Apparently in that scene, it shows a Lowe’s employee matching a swatch with the big purple thing. The scanning machine didn’t match it. Maybe that’s something that should be mentioned next time, Lowe’s.

2. RUDE!

3. You’re wrong sir. Just because I need to buy low VOC paint, doesn’t mean I can only choose an Olympic color. In case you weren’t aware, you can mix any recipe in any brand of paint. Now wipe that frown off your face and get back to work. Punk.

4. “You’re going to have to find your own swatch.” Seriously? That’s the easiest way to go about doing this? Even the person in the commercial helped the customer.

So I started scanning through the 72 million swatches along the Lowe’s wall. I had worked my way through a few thousand of them and was nearing a breakdown when my parents came walking up. Thank you Lord, you must’ve known I needed some support during my time of need. I told my mom the conversation I just had with the angry man and she advised me to go to Home Depot. So I did.

This story isn’t very necessary to showing you my nursery choices but I just feel like I need to get it all out. I was peeved. When bloggers get peeved, they write about the problem.

Anyways, I went to Home Depot and timidly approached the paint desk. I told the woman, “I hope you can help. I need two samples. One of the orange, one of this light green.” She took my swatches in her hand and said, “Okay. But I need to be honest with you. I’ve worked here for 4 years and I’ve never had good luck with fabric. I’ll give it a shot but please don’t get your hopes up.” She’ll give it a shot, did you hear that? She continued, “That Lowe’s commercial has really screwed us over, people come in all the time wanting us to match fabric. It just doesn’t work well because of all the thread and the light behind it.”

She fiddled and toyed with her machine. The green looked like mustard. Wrong. The orange looked perfect. Perfectly beautifully burnt orange. I searched through green swatches on the wall and took them home.

Last night Stephen and I went back to Home Depot to have three green samples made. I wanted to get them on the wall and make a decision. Check it out:

It’s probably not the same as seeing it in real life but I love you and want you to be part of this experience. These are the paints.

Ahhh, beautiful. We ultimately chose the middle color. It’s bright without being too bright. It’s a beautiful, pure green. I love it. It’s pretty similar to the fabric, yes?

These are some other goodies that we bought for the room. Here’s a fun picture frame and the rug. The rug? Oh the softness! It’s amazing! (Yes I’m wearing tie-dye. No it’s not maternity. Yes my belly is hanging out the bottom. SORRY.)

And this is the valance that’ll go above the window. We also bought these curtains in 84″ length and they’ll replace the ugly cream closet doors that you can see behind Stephen. Also, the interior of the closet will be painted burnt orange.

We know that a baby’s room doesn’t really need pillows because they don’t actually use pillows. But we saw these and they were just too cute! Orange on one side and brown on the other. And then turquoise on one side and green on the other. Perfect! I should have taken a picture with the pillows flipped but I didn’t because I’m a doofus and it was past 10:00 and I was exhausted.

I can’t wait for it to all come together. We’ll hopefully be cleaning the carpets and/or installing the ceiling fan this weekend. (Can we talk about the ridiculousness of the previous owners? There wasn’t a single ceiling fan in this entire house when we moved in. None of the bedrooms had overhead lighting! What the what?)

I probably won’t show you any more pictures until it’s done. We have just about everything we need to put the room together, minus a crib mattress, sheets, and the actual paint we’re going to use. Oh and curtain rods. Anyone know where I can find simple curtain rods with clear balls on the end? (They are actually called “finials” but that sounds really fancy. I just need a clear ball.)

And I’m looking for a cute, easy, creative idea for a mobile. Something that is bright and fun and doesn’t clash. I know there are some creative types out there. Help me out! I’ve got nothing!

So what do you think? I told you I hate themes and I hate soft colors. How’s that for bold? And even though the bedding lady told me that it was a “true orange,” I couldn’t be more delighted that she was WRONG and it’s actually and very lovely burnt orange. All babies need a little burnt orange in their lives. Just don’t look to Lowe’s to provide that for you.