pans out?

"I'll let you know if this whole project pans out".

Famous last words. I believe that is where we left off from my previous post.

Well, you could say it panned out, alright. Right out of the pan and onto my living room carpet.

When the paint container jumped out of my hands and fell face down, I screamed so loud, John thought my water broke. 

Happy Anniversary honey!(We went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary that night).

For better or for worse, right?

John's exact words were, "It doesn't surprise me that this happened". 

???? On hindsight, I wonder what he meant by that. 

He was actually very gracious and understanding about my little spill. 

I cannot say the same for Finn.

"Mommy, you need to be more careful", he said.

And pointing at the seams on my shorts, "Mommy your shorts are inside-out".

No mercy, I tell you! Thank you, my first-born.

Where was my drop cloth, you wonder? In the garage. I have learned my lesson. I used it for the remainder of the project. But I am partially blaming gravity for this accident. If it weren't for gravity, my paint container would still be levitating somewhere. Any pregnant person can hopefully attest to that one.

And aside from the paint, I really did enjoy my painting project. If that makes any sense. 

And even though my project killed a patch of my carpet, the couch will cover it up.

My husband and kids may not agree with me, but I think the project was worth it. 

It is late and dark and my living room furniture is completely out of place. John is fast asleep and I dare not move furniture on my own. I will hopefully get the room in order soon so I can show you some pictures. Sorry that I don't have a photo for you tonight. 

Do you still want to hire me *CPA* Su? Ha.

foiled again

Paint hates me. 

I don't know why I thought it would be different this time.

I thought it would be feasible for me to paint a branch on my living room wall(my front room). I really did. I somehow convinced myself that it would be easy enough.

And at first things seemed to go ok.

I found an image of a branch and printed it onto a transparency sheet. I borrowed a projector.

Here is the image projected onto the wall, above my couch.

And here I am, tracing the branch with my favorite mechanical pencil. I was so happy and optimistic.

And then comes the paint.

I bought some paint brushes and acrylic paint at Michaels. I thought I was going to outsmart the paint. I was just going to buy a tube of paint, that was the perfect color and be done with it.

I bought some burnt sienna.

And a lighter shade of sienna. Just in case.

Right there I should have had my brain checked. Mixing paints=nightmare.

But the first nightmare was the cheapo brushes I bought. They mercilessly dragged the paint across the walls in clumps and lines.

DON'T SKIMP ON BRUSHES. I knew this. So I am not sure why I bought them. Thankfully, I was able to return them tonight and buy better brushes.

Back at the home front, I mixed the two acrylic paints. 

Bad news. Wrong color. Too brown. And still too gloppy.

Doesn't that look just ghastly?????

I went to the garage and found some regular orange wall paint.

The color was still off. It didn't have enough red. Looks too desert-like and makes me thirsty.

But the good news? It went on smoothly.

Unfortunately Home Depot is closed for the night. I really wanted to cry. I have to wait till tomorrow to buy the proper color. I will just color match to something I already have that I think is the right color. 

We shall see if this project ends in disaster or success. The suspense is killing me. Sometimes doing things yourself is NOT better. 

So here I am, blogging instead of painting. I'll let you know if this whole project pans out.

be back soon

The last 2 days I've been working  very, very hard and have not had a moment to spare. The good news is that I finished my last shirt order and am officially on maternity leave! Indefinitely, for now. 

And it's a good thing I'm done, because apparently I have a new job. Finn's kindergarten registration:

A sea of paperwork. Is my child applying for law school? 

Obtaining his birth certificate. I dragged all boys to the downtown recorder's office. Thankfully I did not have to parallel park. Last time I tried to parallel park I was in college and started to gather an audience, I was taking so long. Back and forth, back and forth. I gave up in embarrassment. When I got back to my car I had a ticket. The crime? Tail end more than 3 feet from curb:( 

Then there was the kindergarten doctor appointment today. 2 hours of waiting. Complete with 4 shots. Finn was such a trooper. Thursday we get to go back to have the Tb test checked. Oh, and while we are at it, let's throw in my Thursday OB appt and registration for the hospital check in. Not to mention my upcoming eye appointment because I am on my last disposable lens.

Then monday is the kindergarten dental appointment.  

All of this has left me completely exhausted. 

I have been pretty silent regarding Finn's education, mostly because I was was not completely sure what we were going to be doing. However, John really wants Finn to attend our local kindergarten, and so for right now, that is what we will be doing. 

It's only 9pm, but I am turning in for the night. I will be back as soon as I get a spare moment from all this madness!

spot your leader

Tonight, I escorted Finn to Sparkies, while John took Calvin to Cubbies. I walked into Finn's little room and noticed that his little teenage helper had hundreds of red spots on her. I tried to inspect her, but I did not want to seem intrusive or rude.

What kind of rash did this poor bespeckled girl have? I had never seen the likes of it before.

I nervously left Finn in the room, with the plague.

Honestly, I wanted to grab him and run for the hills.

I walked out and found John on the lawn. "Honey", I said, "Finn's leader is COVERED in a wild rash. What should we do? I don't want to catch anything dangerous for the baby. Would I look ultra rude and paranoid taking him home? Should I ask someone?"

"Whatever you feel comfortable doing, is fine with me", he said.

I tentatively walked up to the front desk and asked the lady in a tiny whisper,

"Um, is Finn's leader ok?" I asked.

She walked into Finn's room and then came back laughing, "Oh she's fine. It's 'spot your leader night'. Every time a kid says a section they get to mark her with a pen. She just went a little overboard and covered herself with red marker...I thought it was chicken pox at first. She's fine."

Good grief.

So yah, I'm a big dork. Hopelessly neurotic. 

It happens regularly with me. I was due for a spectacle.

gearing up

Yesterday  I got a message on my cell from the nutritionist, Tina...

"make sure when you take your new glucose test that you have your blood drawn just 1 hour after eating, NOT 2 hours...when pregnant, sugars spike highest after just 1 hour...

I called back and said "I already took the test saturday, and they drew blood after 2 hours"...whine, whine...

"Ok", Tina said sympathetically. Don't worry. We'll just test again in another month."

"Um, my baby is scheduled to arrive in 6 1/2 weeks".

Does that sound soon to anyone? 

But I'm not freaking out because,

Look at me! I'm semi-prepared! I feel so much better.

And you will all be relieved to hear that most major brands of bottles, pacis and sippies at Target are now BPA free! 

I know you will all rush out and throw out your toxic sippies, ri-iii-ght?

Back to Tina.

"Oh, 6 1/2 weeks? Well then. We don't really need to test again. Your sugars weren't that high. Rest assured that you and your baby are in no danger. Let's just tweak your diet a bit in the meanwhile".

And by tweak, that means: 

eat a protein EVERY time you have a carb. 

eat 3 meals a day and 3 snacks a day, each with protein and carbs

avoid table sugars, brown sugars and honey

i'm allowed treats(cake) on special occasions, but make sure to eat it with dinner:)

So, that's pretty much it. Pretty anticlimactic after all that fuss. I'm disappointed that I don't get to go back to my reckless way of life, but happy not to test blood sugars and do insulin.

So, now I just need a special occasion. My anniversary isn't for 2 weeks. Anyone think I can make it til then?

It feels like I'm doing lent. But I'm not. One of John's students gave up ALL sweets and fast food for lent. She claimed that was much easier for her than giving up texting. She texts like 100 times a day. Kids are insane.

I could soooo toss my cell in the ocean over giving up sweets, but to each his own!

So, just plugging along here. 

Though I'm semi-prepared for baby, I still have a lot to do. My front living room is still waiting for another coat of paint. It's all taped and ready, but hubby got sick this weekend. In the meanwhile I'm sewing a lot and working on shirt orders. Back to the grindstone.

my ordeal

I awoke monday morning to a phone call. It was Nidia, my favorite OB nurse.

"Hi Miss Davi", she said. "Sorry to have to call you, but your 1-hour glucose came back with elevated sugars...you're going to have to take the 3-hour glucose test".

Me, completely groggy and hazy, "sure, no prob, thanks!", like she just invited me to a tea party.

It wasn't til later in the day, that I began to fully understand my new reality. I opened the cupboards for breakfast. Carbs. I opened the cupboards for snacks. More carbs.

Carbs, carbs everywhere. Did I even eat anything else, I wondered?

By the end of the day, I was completely drained from trying to find food alternatives that weren't laden with carbs. John went out and bought me some sunflower seeds and beef jerky to munch on. Unfortunately those had way too much salt(swollen fingers).

My 3-hour test was scheduled for thursday morning. And by 3 hour test, this does not mean drink the orange drink and come back 3 hours later. No, this meant you had to have your blood drawn FOUR times in 3 hours. And you had to drink the orange goo.

In the meanwhile, I cut waaaay back on the carbs. I was in complete disbelief and disgust at how many carbs I ate on a normal day. I started eating more protein. Turns out, I don't really like meat that much at all.

All I could think about was,

chocolate chip cookies
chocolate chip cookies
yellow cake with chocolate frosting
chocolate chip cookies
chocolate chop cookies.

How sad am I? I really need to get a life.

And then I started to lose my energy. I dragged all day tuesday and wednesday.

I woke up bright and early this morning to get this test OVER WITH. John took the day off work for me. I brought a bunch of stuff to embroider. It was going to be a lovely, restful, blissful 3 hours and nothing was going to get in the way of that. I even went to Michaels the night before for more embroidery floss.

As I drove to my appointment, I could not believe how many cars were on the road. I am usually snug in bed at this hour. I have a lot of respect for you early birds. It's not easy, that's for sure.

I got my initial blood drawn, along with a nice bruise, and they handed me my orange drink. Last saturday I had guzzled it happily and then ran errands. Today was different. It tasted like straight syrup.

I then settled myself on the couch and started to happily embroider.

Til I started to feel a bit icky. I took a zofran and rested my head on the couch.

No, this did not feel good at all. I left my stuff on the couch and rushed to my doc's office down the hall. I barged in the front door(a first for me) and informed the receptionist that I needed to lay down. Right. Now.

I lay on the bed and tried to think happy thoughts. I started to feel very hot.

And then my darling little wiggle worm started to kick the tar out of my stomach. I prayed that I would not throw up. I did not want to drink the orange goo ever again. I did not want to re-do this test. After all, John took the day off.

As hard as I tried, I could not stop what happened next.

I projectile vomited across the office. All over. In my hair, and in my clothes. The nurses rushed in as I continued my relentless vomiting spree. One nurse tried to clean me up, while the other nurse patted my back while I puked. I must say, they were so sweet. I owe them cookies or something.

So I went home, drenched, took a shower and napped for 3 hours. I was so beat.

The nurse called back and said we could do a different test this saturday. No orange drink involved. Praise the Lord. If I am still high in sugars, we will need to supplement with something to help me absorb sugars til this baby is born.

I also wrote to Jenn(diabetic nutritionist extraordinaire), who gave me awesome advice: don't cut back on carbs so drastically that it alters the test and you go undetected.

Good to know. If I hadn't puked, I'm pretty sure this test would have continued and the results would have been based on swayed readings. Also, she said that even if I did pass the test it is important to have a continuous even amount of carbs throughout the entire day.

Also good to know. I was skimping on carbs all day and loading up at dinner.

I will find out more after saturday. Maybe monday. So, that was/is my current ordeal. If you have any tasty carb-less alternatives, I am all ears!

knuckleheads

What's a girl to do when she has a hankerin' to play dress up with her 3 boys?

Why, she plays dress up with her 3 boys of course!

Especially when she finds some old man-ish retro bowling shirts and wool plaid trousers(by Knuckleheads, old fall line).

And then she proceeds to drag them all downtown to an old brick building for pictures. 

We got there late afternoon, but the sun was still too strong for poor Gege's eyes.

Actually the sun was too much for everyone, and so I failed, yet again, to capture that elusive shot with all 3 boys together. These were the only few I managed to get, and they were not that great. 

The sun pains my eyes looking at this shot.

I don't know why I thought I would be able to get a decent shot of all 3 boys together, at this stage of my pregnancy, where I can barely get up and down...but a girl can dream, right? Even if I could move like a gazelle(which I most certainly cannot), I would still not be able to outrun Ollie. He cannot stand still longer than 1 second. 

Finn tried to set up Ollie's bowling pins for him,

but that little stinker just took the ball and ran for his life. He bawled his eyes out if anyone came near his beloved wooden ball.

Finn and Calvin doing bumps.



They love each other. They are always together, rolling around like puppy dogs.

Finn looking particularly somber. He really was quite chipper that day!

And finally, the sun started to settle down. 

Next step? Getting a few photos developed for my funky old window frame. Friday I had it dismantled into 3 pieces, so now I have 3 frames. I will show you later.

So yay, another project almost done before baby comes!

blogger bumps collide

This day was a long time coming. 

The day I would finally be moved from "Bloggers I don't actually Know But still Love" to "Bloggers I Know and Love".

Well, she just recently changed it to "To Know Them Is to Love Them", but you get the point. 

Today, Loriloo finally introduced me to the charming&sweet Talia! She is just as beautiful and delightful in person, if not even more so.

Wearing my new secret seamless maternity jeans. They were everything I hoped for and more.

We chatted about babies and kids and church and other stuff. I feel like I've already known Talia forever. She is so fun and easy to talk to.

On the way to meet her at the park, I was telling my boys we were going to meet some very special girls, that also liked to color all day too. 

The chase was on.

How did my boys do with these enchanting ladies?

Let's just say that I caught Emma and Finn having a very serious conversation on the swings. "I didn't know that little kids could wear watches", Emma told Finn. Yah, I think she was totally diggin' his sweet camo watch. 

And I certainly am not trying to swoop in on Emma's prospective suitors, but what can I say? My kid has a cool watch! And I must have Talia as my co-mother-in-law. I must. I must. Anyone who knows her will know exactly what I am talking about. Maybe Talia needs to have a few more daughters to marry off!

Introducing my first ever pre-engagement photo session.

Finn giving the a-okay.

Um, how sweet are they?????? Could Emma's little feet be any cuter???

And from a distance, someone spotted Annabell-vin.

Having some sort of precursory squabble.



But not for long. Oh the face of an angel I tell you!

Thanks girls, for the loveliest day ever.We can't wait to play again. Perhaps next time we can have a coloring fest!

it's wednesday night

and the mood is bright...because it's pizza night!

We have recently declared Wednesay as pizza night around here.

And since I have always been secretly dying to do a Pioneer Woman post...

Procure pizza pies from freezer

Pop in oven

Set timer for 14-15 minutes. Which I forgot to do, of course. Miraculously, they didn't burn.

Make salad, using bagged lettuce.

I know you are all super jealous of my mad cooking skills.

And because no cooking post is complete without the side distraction...

Ollie spilled Raisin Bran all over the floor. Three vultures then swept in for the kill. Is this what *beans & rice* has reduced us to?

And you'll notice they gobbled the raisins right up. How are we even related, I wonder? I can't even look at a raisin without shriveling up(only exception, Natasha's famous oatmeal raisin cookies).

And surprisingly, with all that time spent slaving away in the kitchen, I even had time to run a few errands. I bought sewing supplies at Joanns, cover-up at Sephoras, socks at Children's Place, and new jeans at Motherhood.

Yes, it was finally time to buy the dreaded maternity clothes. Sadly, my super-low-rise american eagles are too tight, even with a rubber band. 

And WHY hasn't anyone told me of the new secret fit seamless belly at Motherhood?????

If you haven't tried them, you MUST. They are so comfortable, I can hardly come to myself. You can wear them 2 ways. Over belly, or folded under. And strangely enough, both ways are comfy. I have never been able to wear over-the-belly pants because I have an aversion to anything touching my stomach.

And the best part? They come in size petite, so I don't have to hem them. I am going to wear them on a playdate tomorrow where I FINALLY get to meet this little missy.