A Visit From my Parents

Once again I've been a bad blogger. And it's a good thing I already wrote teasers of upcoming blogs, or I would so not be writing. Believe me when I say pregnancy has given me a serious case of lack of motivation to do....anything. Blah.

My parents arrived right around dinner time on a Thursday evening. And of course, I was in the middle of a cooking catastrophe. I had planned to make meatloaf (one of my favorite meals) that day and when hubby called and asked what we were having, after I told him, he made the comment that he sure wished he could help me with the menu planning because he can always count that at least one night a week we have meatloaf and another night we have grilled pork chops. Now, one reason why I hate Monday's is because that's the day I go to the grocery store. It also happens to be the day it literally takes me two hours to come up with a menu for the week. And I'll admit, yes, I'm guilty of making the same things repetitively. I can't help it! However, I don't beat myself up because I know if it were up to Greg we would have tortilla soup and chicken burritos at least once a week! But, I digress. Back to the meatloaf. Since he made that comment I decided to make the meatloaf like one of his grandma's makes. It happens to be the recipe on the back of the Lipton onion soup mix. I thought I had all of the ingredients. Until I started to make it. One ingredient was ketchup. I had ketchup...just not enough ketchup. So this is how my parents arrival went:

Note: a prior phone call from my mom, who was lost in my neighborhood (seriously who would name all the streets in a neighborhood the same name?) resulted in me telling her to just "come on in because I'll have raw meat all over my hands" when she got to my house.

Mom: "Hello, we're here!"

Me: *frantically* "OK, I'm having a little catastrophe! I don't have enough ketchup! *banging of ketchup bottle on the counter top*

Mom: "Uh-oh"

Me: "I gotta go to the store! Make yourselves at home!" *dashing out the door*

Yup, that is what life is like in my house. Sounds exciting, huh? Needless to say, I finally got the ketchup and dinner went off without a hitch. Oh, except Greg decided that he liked the old way I make meatloaf better because it's less greasy! (I am proud to say that I haven't cooked meatloaf since then! I'm working on it!)

The next day, Friday, Greg and I had a lot of errands that were pertinent to be taken care of. Unfortunately they took up most of the morning and my parents had opted to stay at home. That afternoon we just hung out around the house. I did ask my mom to help me with a project though because *surprise* I just wasn't motivated to do it. I know I could have, but the idea of having my mom help me just sounded much more appealing. That project was to make new pillows and pillow coverings for a rocking chair that Greg and I were refurbishing. The rocking chair has kind of a funny story. I'm probably about to get in trouble by Greg's side of the family for telling it, too! But, years ago Greg's dad gave us the rocking chair that his mom used to rock him in when he was a baby. Greg told his dad that he didn't want it, but his dad wouldn't hear anything of it. We both thought it was ugly (sorry) and therefore we always kept it in the garage of every house we ever lived in. Let's just say that by the time it arrived in Colorado it had definitely seen better days. The fabric was covered in dust and I was a little scared to sit in it because the bottom was made with lawn chair strips. But, Greg and I decided to give it a little TLC. We ripped all the fabric and cushions off and chucked them. Then, I wood filled all the holes and marks that were in the wood. Next, Greg sanded it and painted it white. He also re-stapled the lawn chair strips to make them sturdier. After that it was up to me to make pillows. That was easier said than done because the rocking chair is kind of an odd size. I did find one pillow that worked for the back and ended up just demolishing an actual bed pillow to make the seat cushion. The hardest part was finding upholstery fabric in this little town. In the end, I got creative (which is a stretch for me) and bought a fabric shower curtain and just used that!

By the time my Mom was at my house I had partially finished one pillow. All I needed to do was stitch the fabric closed. Luckily, my mom saw what I was about to do and told me how to do it so it would look more "professional". I knew there was a reason I was procrastinating! I let her take over the actual sewing and went about tearing up my bed pillow. We worked on them for a little while longer and then decided to finish them up the next day. My parents are pretty cute in the sense that despite the fact that they are in their 70's and late 60's, they go on a date every Friday night. Usually dinner and a movie. So Greg and I thought they might enjoy going to the one screen movie theatre here in town. I was a little worried they would have already seen the movie playing, because movies don't usually show up here until they've been out for a month or two. Luckily, it was a kid's movie, "The Tooth Fairy" so they hadn't seen it. It was actually pretty cute! After that it was time to go home and hit the sack!

Saturday morning was again a lazy day at the house. Luckily, it also gave my mom and I chance to finish the pillows. I was beyond happy! It felt so good to have another piece of furniture in place in the nursery before my baby shower the next day!





That afternoon I drove my parents around to do some sight seeing. We went to the wind farm south of town (Greg opted to stay home...that's the last thing he wants to see on his day off!). Not because my parents hadn't seen one before, but because at this wind farm the property owners put wooden windmills next to the big wind turbines. It's kind of funny! I always think, "past meets present" when I see it.


From there I took them to Two Buttes. From the highway it looks completely flat (like all of SE Colorado) but once you get in there it drops down to a canyon and there's a water hole there. It was a little chilly out so we didn't last there for very long. I forgot my camera, so here's a pic I took at "the hole" the first summer we came to town. If you look real close, you'll notice that's actually a person jumping off of the cliff into the water. Legend has it that divers have gone down and cannot find the bottom of this water hole. That's what all the locals say anyway!



The rest of our day was spent at home hanging out. If you read my blog about my baby shower, you already know that on Sunday we took them out to lunch then came home for the festivities. The baby shower was a lot of fun and I was happy that my mom was there to celebrate it with me.


They left early Monday morning. If things work out well, they will be making the trip back up here in just 5 weeks to meet my sweet baby boy!!

P.S. In case you're wondering why I didn't post any pics of the completed rocking chair...that's because I forgot to take one of it by itself. And a before picture would have been nice, too, huh? Oh well! I finished decorating the nursery this weekend so stay tuned for pics and you'll see the rocking chair there!

My Colorado Baby Shower!

This past Sunday was my Colorado Baby Shower. I think most people may only have one baby shower, and I was fortunate enough to be blessed with TWO. Not only that, but they were both FANTASTIC! It was actually held at my house, which I thought would be a neat way to show off my almost-finished nursery. Also, some folks that I invited had never even seen our house, so it was fun being able to give people a tour of where Greg and I call "home". However, since it was at my house, my friends who were hostessing kicked us out so they could decorate! My parents made the journey from Oklahoma to be with us in Colorado so my mom could attend the shower, so Greg and I took them to a restaurant in Holly (a town about 30 minutes away) to eat lunch. Unfortunately, we couldn't find much to do afterwards to kill time, so we ended up coming home early and I just closed my eyes and Greg led me upstairs to our bedroom where I just relaxed until the festivities began!

When I was finally allowed to come downstairs, I couldn't believe how cute they had decorated the dining room and kitchen! Every detail was perfect! One of the hostesses, my friend Cathy, is a follower of my blog (thank you!) and she had noticed that whenever I wrote a post relating to my pregnancy I always label it "pea in the pod". So that was how they came up with the theme! And, for those of you who don't know, I'm doing a star theme in the nursery. The girls had actually found star shaped glassware to place on the tables. Too cute!



Here's a pic of me with my lovely friends/hostesses: Brittney, Me, Christina, and Cathy.


The yummy snacks! And see that punch? I had asked Christina if she would mind making my grandmothers Ruby Lemondae Punch way back before I knew my Mom was going to be at the shower. I figured it would be a good way for my family to be there in spirit! An added bonus: it was the same punch Greg and I served at our wedding. Awww!


There were even party favors for all the guests!!! Cute little baby socks filled with candy and a lib balm with the date of my shower on the lid! So creative and so cute! However, I have so many lip balms left over I can already picture me applying some to my lips during Parker's High School graduation ceremony! ;) (Not that I'm complaining!)



After all of the guests arrived (unfortnately, many people weren't able to come, but we still had fun with the ones who were able to attend!) we began to play some games! The first game: The Dirty Diaper Game! I had never played this before and it was so funny! Basically, the girls squished different candy bars into diapers and you had to open the diaper up and guess what candy bar was used.



The Winners! Karen, Nelle, and Bri...hey, three heads are better than one when it comes to games like this!


Afterwards, we played a series of games that were printed on a fold out. The front of it had a little poem and was personalized just for my shower. It was too cute! It had games in it like: Which child belongs to the Celebrity parent, What is Mommy Wearing, Pregnancy Facts or Myths, etc.



The Winners!



After all the games it was present time! After everything I received from my Oklahoma Baby Shower and from the goodies my sister gave me, there was really only one thing I wanted. So, everyone either gave me this:

or this:

so we could buy this:


Needless to say, we're pretty stoked that we will now be able to capture Parker's birth, along with all those other milestones he'll cross during his first year and the years to follow!

After presents it was time to cut the cake and eat! Isn't this cake adorable?? We were scared to cut it!!



After snacks I was presented with the big surprise that my hostesses had in store for me. Once again, Cathy was inspired by my blog. In my Goals for 2010 post I mentioned how I screwed up my wedding book by not having newspaper clippings from that day. Apparently that gave Cathy the bright idea to create a time capsule for Parker! My hostesses brain stormed a list of suggested items for all of the guests to bring to put into Parker's time capsule. After my shower my mom gave me her invitation so I could see the instructions that my hostesses had put inside all of the guests invitations. I was blown away by the amount of creative and brilliant ideas they had for what to put in the time capsule! Some of the itmes included: newspaper articles, cell phone ads, vehicle ads, a burned CD of popular music, stickers depicting this years famous cartoon characters, pictures of Parker's hometown, etc. Granted, everything that was suggested was not put in there, but I plan on adding items to it myself. I am so excited that they came up with something so thoughtful and fun for Parker to check out on his 18th birthday. What can I say? My friends are AMAZING!



After everyone ate their snacks the guests began to leave. And it wasn't until only the hostesses and my Mom were left when I realized I forgot to do something that was extremely important to me. Just like at my Oklahoma shower, I forgot to take a group picture! Ugh! I was so disappointed. Luckily, I was able to drag my hubby into the kitchen for a quick photo opp instead. Sadly, this is what my husband does 99% of the time we take a picture. Apparently I have really yummy ear wax!

The Second Floor: Before and After

I promised I'd post some pics of our second floor. I just didn't realize it would take me this long to do so! Keep in mind, like the third floor, it's not completely finished. We still need new flooring in the dining and kitchen and will eventually be replacing all the doors in the house to raised panel doors and painting them white to match the trim! So without further ado, here's the living room:



I'm really hoping that our next house won't have wall paper that we'll have to painstakingly scrape. At least I think it looks a lot better now!




Our kitchen was what I'd like to call a "hot mess". I'll just let the pictures do the talkin'



Actually, it doesn't look quite that bad from the pictures. But believe me, if you saw it in person, you'd agree that it needed some work. All of the appliances were missing, including the garbage disposal. Needless to say we survived with a big gaping hole on one side of our kitchen sink for at least a month. There was just a cut out above the kitchen sink with a two by four and another two by four was used as the support to the ceiling. (You'll see it in the before pics of the dining room). Then, on the far South wall was a lone random cabinet. Very strange. It now has a more appropriate home in our upstairs bathroom above the toilet. It makes much more sense there. And, I mentioned before that my awesome husband turned the oven connection into a gas line for me so I could get a gas stove! I really love it! Here's the after pics. It's hard to tell, but the walls are painted a chocolate brown. Unfortunately, most of my decor I had on hand to decorate above kitchen cabinets was also brown, so the decore kind of fades into the background. It'll get worked on eventually, but first we need to focus on the house itself!

What can I say? I LOVE my sink! The head of the faucet pulls out so I can rinse all the way around the sink, and it also has a button for a vegetable sprayer. It's oversized, so my crock pot can sit on one side with room left over. Even Greg loves it! (Why yes, Kohler, I'd love to be your new spokesperson!)


Had I known that my camera was going to pick up all the smudges on my stainless fridge and microwave I probably would have cleaned them first. Key word: probably.



See? Doesn't a wall of cabinets and countertop space make much more sense than one random cabinet? I think so!


As you'll see below, the dining room had a ton of nasty wall paper. Yuck! Thankfully, that's all gone now! I've never had an actual dining room before, we've always just had a little breakfast nook in the kitchen. So needless to say our dining room table looks a little lonely in there. We'd love to add a china cabinet soon so I can display all of my beautiful crystal! Also, remember the cut out above the kitchen sink I mentioned before? Greg turned that into an actual bar. I think it looks great, the only things it's lacking is barstools!






So there you have it! Now, don't be expecting any pictures from the first floor anytime soon. There's a LOT of work to be done down there, but we are probably going to focuse on the top two first. I can tell you that downstairs is a den, utility room, bathroom, and guest bedroom/sewing room/Greg's jam session room. Another fact I can tell everyone, is that I've been a horrible blogger. So, as a teaser, here are some of my upcoming posts:

* Are you smarter than a fifth grader?
* Snowboarding weekend with friends
* A visit from my parents
* My Colorado Baby Shower!
* A creative baby gift idea

So stay tuned!!! Hopefully I'll be a better blogger this week!

Watch Me Grow Part II

At 26 weeks! Can you tell I'm a little tired?


My 27 week belly is getting a sweet kiss from my niece Zoe!


28 Weeks! The beginning of my third trimester!


29 Weeks with my fellow preggo friend Leslie! She is scheduled for a C-Section the day before my due date and is also having a boy! It's funny to see how different we are carrying our boys!


Do horizontal stripes make me look fat? Or just 30 weeks pregnant?

Procrastinators Unite!

I never used to be a procrastinator. I promise. In fact a lot of times in college my mantra was "Why put off until tomorrow what can be done today". Wasn't it Ben Franklin that said that? Anyway, those days have apparently left the building and bolted the door shut. You may recall when I posted my Goals for 2010 that one of my goals was to finish Parker's Baby Book. I am very proud to say that I have started writing in it! Yay! One page has a family tree and I distinctly remembered having a similar page in my wedding book. I figured the easiest thing to do was to get the wedding book out and copy the names. I know it's horrible that I don't automatically know the names of all the Great Grandparents. Sue me.

I proceeded to get the wedding book out. Being a day dreamer though, I can't just take something like that out and flip to the page I need and shut the book. Nope! I sat down, and opened it to page one and began to read the entire book. Do you know what I discovered? I NEVER FINISHED MY WEDDING BOOK! UGH! There were so many pictures that needed to be taped in and parts that needed to be filed in. Including, you guessed it, the family tree! So much for my wedding book being helpful!!! The thing that really gets me is I never wrote in gifts and who gave them to me. I think I have one list from one of my four showers. But other than that I hardly remember what most people gave me. Great. Granted, I've learned from my lesson and I am going to start writing the list of who gave what present to Parker in his baby book today. Or....tomorrow.

Parker's First Package!

Two big packages arrived in the mail from one of Parker's great aunt's a few weeks ago! I was so excited to dig in and see all the goodies he received. By the time I was finished going through everything, I felt as though our house had been visited by Santa Claus! I mean, look at everything! Afterwards I sat in a chair and just stared at all the cute baby items for about twenty minutes because I was so overwhelmed. Blankets, bibs, pacifiers, jumpers, shoes, you name it: He got it! I have a feeling he is going to be one spoiled bundle of joy!