New Driveway!!!

...Little by little, we're getting things fixed around our house. Our driveway had settled and there was about three inches that one slab was lower than the others. Luckily, Matt's friends are very talented and work for trades so we were able to get our driveway done for pretty cheap.

The project started last Saturday when I was at work. I called my mom and told her to take some before pics. I forgot that I'd set the camera on manual for pics I'd taken the night before so yeah, no real good before pics...sorry!

Breaking up the concrete.

When I got home, all the sidewalk/driveway was gone so took these pics.

Sunday morning AR woke up asking, "Where's my sidewalk?"

AR was pretty excited that she got to ride in the machine in the driveway.

Daddy showing her how it works

On Tuesday, the boys came over and started pouring the concrete. AR was the supervisor.

It was so hectic and crazy because you have to move really fast!

Site boss AR! The guy out the window is Matt's friend, Dusty. O...M...G! AR LOVES HIM!!! She talks about him all the time, recognizes his truck, and when he's here, she'll dote over him the entire time.

Checking it out from both windows

Sorry for all the inside shots but we were kind of trapped inside!

Putting in the crack and look at the guy in the background in the orange shirt. Concreters must have the tightest abs!

Don't believe me? Look at this, balancing on a fence to do the finishing touches!

Of course, we had to put our handprints in and we included a penny that had the year in it.

So woot, woot new driveway-woohoo!!! Only bad thing is that we left one slab that wasn't broken only to have it snap under the weight of the concrete truck SO next year's tax money will go toward that last slab. Now on to the next project!

New Carpet!!!

...our basement has been partially finished since I moved in. It has this yucky wood paneling and it had fake wood-looking carpet with no padding underneath. If the dogs ran down the stairs going 90 mph then the carpet would always flip up and it would just be concrete. In an effort to make the basement our new family room, we ripped up the ugly "wood" carpet and indulged in some new carpeting and padding. So far this has been the biggest expense in the remodeling projects.

Here is Matt and Andyflipping the carpet:

A pile of new carpet:

Stretching it to reach all corners:

Ta-da!!! Finished!!! Still not cute walls but that's a project for another day!

Who doesn't love a man with a vaccum in their hand?

Now in reverse order, here are the before pictures:

Hard, concrete:

It's so soft now to walk on! I absolutely love it. We haven't moved anything back into the room yet so I just want to lay on the floor. The doggies haven't been on it yet. We're hoping to add some more lighting and then move everything in.

We're having a garage sale on March 3 so hopefully after that then everything will get back in order for the basement. I'm gone next week at conference so I'm hoping to come home to the house all ready for me to get to nesting!

Let the Mural Begin!!!

...bright and early this morning, Matt headed out to his cousins' house to pick them up for a fun-filled day of painting! When they got back to the house, they feasted on pancakes, bacon and we tried out the deer sausage we made. It's almost noon and we're all still stuffed!

After breakfast, they got down to business:

Matt said it was like paint by number.

Katherine is the artist in the family and an art major so she's the boss!

I'm trying my best to stay out of the room but I'm so excited for the end product! Luckily, I'm about to go get my haircut and then heading to a bridal shower so hopefully it'll be done when I get back. I'll post the final pics later. 

A Post about the Puppies...

...I wanted to do a post with our plans of what we are going to do with Em Dog and Shad once the baby arrives. So let me recap our pups for you, explain our situation and then give you our reasoning. Here it goes...

First off, we have two LARGE dogs. Shadow, a 100 pound black lab and Emma, a 60 pound whatever you want her to be (seriously, everyone who sees her has an opinion what she is!). These two are like my children. Emma has been around longer than Matt. Notice, I say MY, not our. I'm the major dog lover in the family. I always grew up with large inside dogs; Matt grew up with large outside dogs. Being that Emma was around before Matt, there wasn't much discussion as to whether the dogs would be inside or out.

I love having them in the house especially when Matt is gone hunting or working late, they make me feel safe and ALWAYS make me feel loved. Sometimes I think they can read my emotions and feelings better than Matt! However, there is some drawbacks...they shed...a lot...year round. They also bark at every person, animal or strange sound that goes by the house. Plus our house is not huge, it's a one-story ranch and with large dogs, at times, we can all be walking on each other.

Shadow actually came from a home that had 2 small children. The little girl learned how to walk with him because she'd stand up and hold on to him until she was ready to take those first few steps. He's so funny because it's like he knows how to act around different people. If an adult comes to our house, he's a jumper but if my niece or a small child comes over then he's gentle...still in their face but just out of curiosity. My niece always spends a week with us each summer and Shad always sleeps in bed with her.

With Emma, children or adults, if you're a stranger then you're going to stay a stranger. Someone comes in the house, she barks and runs to the other room. If you stick around for awhile, she'll eventually come out and visit. She let's my niece pet her and lay with her but she's a momma's girl and would much rather be with me than anyone else (Matt is a close second).

As stated above, I'm also a HUGE dog lover! I refuse to be one of those moms that has a child and then the dogs get no attention. That's why I REALLY want new carpet in the basement so we can spend time with them in the evening (the carpet now is thin and gross and been there FOREVER). We kennel them during the day while at work and I do NOT want to keep them "locked up" (meaning not in their cage but still just in the basement with no contact) all night too.

So our decision to move the dogs downstairs to our basement was a reluctant one on my part but a no brainer to Matt. I know it'll make Matt happier and I know it's best for the baby with the dog hair and noise plus it'll hopefully keep our upstairs (where people actually see!) cleaner which is good since I know having a baby limits your time to do daily tasks like vacuuming, dusting, etc...

I also want our baby to grow up with dogs and have that love for dogs, the friendship (I know that sounds silly but those of you with pups know what I mean), and not fearing dogs. I also wanted to transition the dogs before the babies get here so they don't resent the baby if we did it when s/he arrives. I have a feeling that Baby G and I will be spending most of my maternity leave downstairs with the pups (it's SOOO much cooler there in the basement) or taking walks with them (one at a time!) if the weather permits (MO summers get pretty toasty!).

I really didn't do any research on this topic. I wasn't told to seperate the dogs or anything. Matt and I just made the best decision for our family. It was more or less based off how we know our puppies and their behavior. I think every family has to make the right decision for their family and you're the one that knows your pets best.

Now before you go feeling sorry for the dogs, as I type this post, Shadow is sprawled out over the couch in the basement while Emma is curled up next to him!

Frustrated & Grateful...

...I'm writing this on Sunday afternoon about 1pm. It's fantastic because I worked last week Monday-Saturday, got up today and got all my "chores" done and now I have time to chill and blog...it's great!

Let me start off by saying that I'm extremely frustrated right now because our house is a HOT MESS! Seriously, I cannot find ANYTHING. I have one nice pair of black maternity pants that I've worn once and cannot find them ANYWHERE. This isn't a huge deal right now but I definitely need them for the conference I'm going to at the end of the month and as showers and church things pick up.

With that being said, I have NO WHERE to put anything. Before, Matt had the computer room closet and I had the master bedroom AND the guestroom closet. Now I just have the master bedroom closet and I can hardly move anything to see what I have. Most of my dresses, graduation gown, prom dresses, etc...are being stored in Matt's closet so HE has no room to search for anything either. Simple solution-get rid of what I'm not wearing, right? Well, that's the hard part because I'm normally any where from a 12-16 so post-baby, I have NO idea what to expect! I hear I'll wear continue wearing my maternity clothes for awhile but I'm hoping I'll get down to at least a 14 by Christmas. I'm researching half-marathons to run in the fall so I can get back on track but that's another post for another day. And I have gotten rid of a TON of stuff already...prom dresses at a resale shop, I'd taken my 15+ pairs of pajama bottoms and kept my favorite 5 (for both winter and summer) and my box of sorority sweatshirts has been divied up and given to active girls still in college (Busted! I kept a few of my fave). Okay, so Matt suggested boxing up all my smaller clothes and putting in the basement to pull out when I'm ready for them. In theory that's a great idea but currently, our basement has a bath to the dog cages, the basement door, the washer/dryer and back out (it's one big circle).

Which leads me to the basement where everything that was in the upstairs spare rooms are now downstairs piled up waiting for us to go through the old boxes and decide what we can REALLY part with since the last time we went through the boxes. For instance, the snowball maker that's been used once, I threw in the garage sale pile and Matt got upset saying he was keeping it for the baby. I narrowed my eyes and didn't say a word to which he put it back in the pile with a "fine!" So apart of the boxes we're keeping, we have a garage sale pile! This is Matt's idea which normally I would be all for but with so much going on, I just don't feel like we have time for it (I work at least part of every weekend in March). So I told him if he wanted a garage sale, it was all him. He's hoping we get enough money to get stuff off our registry we still need, I think we'll be lucky if we break $100 but hey, that's better than nothing! Back to the disaster called our basement, I was looking for my gift box (I buy gifts throughout the year and put in a box and then when birthday/holiday rolls around, I have my own shopping center) and I couldn't find it anywhere. Matt came downstairs with me, had to move a few boxes and we found what I was looking for. It's also very difficult when I can't lift or move heavy boxes. We also have ANOTHER huge pile of baby toys that friend's have given us which I am TOTALLY grateful for but right now we're in a holding pattern. Everything piled in the basement until the upstairs is done, then move downstairs up until the basement is done THEN everything back to normal. Okay, I'm getting stressed thinking about all that! I'm sure you all don't care about any of this but it's really been bothering me so I had to just write to get it all out there! Whew-feel better!

Now, let me get on to some awesomeness! Saturday I worked all day so my FIL came over and helped Matt paint the baby room and touch-up the computer room. I was thrilled when I came home and the paint looked good. It turned out a bit more blue than I thought it would but that's okay because I was worried it would look too white so I'm liking it so far. Matt's cousin is coming in February to paint a mural in the room and then we can start moving things in! I promise pics later don't worry. On top of the great job that Matt and his dad had done, my MIL had come over and cleaned!!! I didn't know ANYTHING about that so I was totally shocked and completely grateful. Like I stated above, our house is packed like sardines so she only cleaned the master bath and our kitchen but whew-that was a LOT. My stove top is spic and span now, my toilet scrubbed and I am one happy lady!

Then as though that wasn't enough, Matt came downstairs to wake me up (I'd slept in the basement on the couch because it was a little too painty smell for me upstairs still) and told me to get up because he was cooking breakfast! Yummy-scrambled eggs with bacon AND sausage and biscuits. He knows the way to my heart...the baby's too, s/he likes to move a lot after a delicious meal!

So while I feel completely overwhelmed because our house is a bit of a hot mess, I'm completely grateful for all the work that is getting done on it. I'm also grateful for my in-laws who gave up their Saturday to help us out and for my wonderful husband, who I don't always give credit to, that's done an AMAZING job on getting lots of things done. We still have a long way to go but it'll get done!!!

Surviving the Registry!

...Yes, friends, I survived registering for all the baby stuff and I'm happy to say Matt and I are still married. After all the comments about what to register for, I spent an ENTIRE weekend researching baby products. My mind was on OVERLOAD but when I started to get overwhelmed, I stopped and said to myself, "Self, as long as you have:

1. A car seat
2. Diapers
3. Food
4. A place for the baby to sleep

then you'll be okay." Matt may be running to the store every 5 minutes but we'll have the basics to figure things out as we go. Needless to say, my registry was 3 handwritten notebook pages!?! Matt was shocked when he got home from hunting and I showed it to him. I thought I was being smart and had gone ahead and registered for the "small stuff" at Target without him. Then last Thursday, we headed back to finish up the registry and World War III almost broke out. He questioned EVERYTHING I wanted to register for and not in the I'm curious and want to know way, more in the WTH? way. By the time we got to the end of the list, I'd given up and let him register for whatever he wanted. We left the store sans Slurpee (I was really craving one once I walked in and saw the machine) and near tears.

After a LONG discussion, we decided we would try again together and headed to Babies-R-Us this past Sunday. It went so much better! I almost got overwhelmed when I printed out 3 other friends registries to get them a gift and realized I didn't have "everything" the same as them but I ended up just getting them a gift and not stressing over it. I was also pretty excited because this is the first time that I parked in the Expectant Mothers parking spot!!!
I will tell you this though, an hour in a half registering really makes a girl have to pee...I went twice. Once when I first got there, right when they opened and I thought wow these bathrooms are really clean. Then I went about an hour later and I was gagging they were so gross...pee on the seat, long hairs on the seat-ugh! I'm going to do my best to teach our child not to pee on the seat.

When I got to work on Monday, my co-workers looked up my registry. What do you know that my boss had the exact stroller we registered for and I had the carseat in my car that we're going to use! Both of us and another co-worker, headed outside to see if the carseat fit (it did!) and I got to try out the stroller-woohoo! I feel much better knowing that it will work.

So are we done with the registry? Probably not but I have started it and have a good heads start on it. I'm sure there will be lots of additions along the way. I plan on adding some big stuff like a video camera and steam cleaner (stems and sanitizes bigger stuff so no chemicals to clean-woohoo!). Do I expect someone to buy that for us? Probably not but closer to your due date both Babies-R-Us and Target send you coupons so we can at least buy it and get some money off.

I officially bought the dresser that will match the crib tonight. Thanks to my sister for letting us borrow the crib and to my daddy for buying the dresser! I'm really excited about the swing we found because you can take the seat off and it's a bouncer! We weren't planning on registering for both so when we found this we were super pumped!

Now my plan is also to borrow things because 1. it'll save us money and 2. we won't have to store it once we're done using it! So here's my list of things we need to borrow, anyone out there that knows me IRL and cares to share, let me know! Of course, my number one priority is safety so I plan on borrowing these things as long as they are safe.

To Borrow
1. Bumbo
2. Play mat (where the baby lays on their back and plays with the stuff above them)
3. Moby Wrap
4. Exosaucer
5. Stroller-not like a travel system or a jogging stroller, just something smaller and more compact
6. Safety gate (if it works with our door frame7
7. Any other toys (big or little) and clothes (once we know the sex)
8. Crib (borrowed from my sister)
9. Infant carseat (borrowed from my bestie; still in good shape; gonna take to the fire department for inspection)

My mom is also known as the Quilting Queen so Grandma has a list of things to make:

To Make
1. Boppy Covers (Thank you Pinterest for this link!)
2. Shopping Cart Cover (Again, thank you Pinterest for this link!)
3. Baby Quilt (we didn't really pick out bedding, just plain colored sheets and then we'll use the quilt to decorate until the baby is old enough to use it)
4. Lamp shade (already have the lamp, going to buy a shade and try to match it to the theme of the nursery)
5. Wall prints to frame for the nursery

So there you have it! We survived registering but we have a long way to go! Say some prayers for me and Baby G as we have our glucose test next week. In the meantime, tune in for posts on our boy baby name (it's official!), the bump debate and the winner of my giveaway!

My Party!!!

...my party was Saturday. Matt did a great job cleaning the house all day Friday! I did a couple things but according to him, I didn't clean so I'm giving him all the credit-thanks Pretty for your help!

I think I ended up having 15 people from all my walks of life! Some were from work, some blogger friends, some college friends and some family. My friend Jenny couldn't remember which house was ours. She knocked on the door and someone said, "Come in!" So she did and then realized she was at the wrong house! My neighbor pointed her in the right direction and told her to tell us hello. HA! I only snapped one photo of the evening-oops!
OH! I totally forgot to take a picture of all the food! I was worried we wouldn't have enough but we ended up with plenty, Matt was a very happy camper when he got home on Sunday from the farm to all the leftovers.

We had the 31 lady in the basement, she was the "quieter" side of the party because really people just went down there to place their orders. My friend Stevie ordered all 9 of her bridesmaids (including me!) tote bags with our initial on it. I can't wait to get mine...in April 2012!

Haley was there as the waitress. She did a good job taking everyone's coats and getting them a drink. After everyone arrived though, she got an earache so she went to my room to lay down. She wanted Emma so I brought her upstairs but Emma only wanted me so she cried. Here's a picture I snapped of them, as you can tell Emma was NOT happy.
She was passed out sound asleep by the time they left. Overall, I would have to say that my third party ever at my house (the first being 5 years ago and the other being outside when we had the pool) was pretty successful. I was kind of bummed though because I didn't get much time to chat with anyone individually and some of the girls I hadn't seen in FOREVER!!! Oh well, the good thing (well depends on how you look at it!) is that all the 31 stuff comes to me so I'll have to deliver it to the ladies and hopefully have a chance to visit and catch up then.

Thank you everyone for coming and ordering! I'll do a follow-up post when I get the stuff I ordered. What'd everyone else order or what'd you do this weekend?

Kitchen Addition...

...we got an over the hood microwave!!! I'm so flippin' excited. We've had this monstorous microwave that sits on our counter since I've lived here. It was actually my sister's microwave that I took to college then to my apartment in SC and then to this house. Whenever I would cook, it was such a pain because I had NO counter space.

My MIL came over before Christmas and we got to talking about the house and what needed to be updated and such. She picked up on me complaining about the microwave so for Christmas, her and my FIL gave us $300 for this project.

Perfect! But like any project, you get nickeled and dimed so the microwave was under $300 but then we have to buy white metal for the backsplash (or whatever it is) and that was a $100 then the electric box had to be installed then all this little stuff. Oh well...bottom line is that it's done! Ta da!!!
While Matt cleaned up his mess, I scrubed the whole stove since it was out and every side was easily accessible. Then we put everything together and just look at that extra counter space!

Only down side is that there isn't a lot of room between the stove and microwave so you have to bend a little to see the knobs and clock but it's worth it! Plus now all the ugly brown paneling from the old stove is gone!

Matt's been off quite a bit last month but he's gotten a TON of updating/renovating done. We've added ceiling fans in our bedrooms, FINALLY finished the hall bathroom (kinda) and then this microwave thing. Luckily, we'd purchased the projects over the past couple years so we didn't spend TOO much money all at once. I'll try to post about the other updates around the house.

Thank you pretty! I love the microwave and I'll do my best to keep it clean even though you let your BBQ baked potato explode in it over the weekend!

Feeding the Wildlife...

...it started innocently enough, Matt brought "me" home a bird feeder he bought at Wal-Mart. I say "me" because it was really for him but he tried to pass it off as for me. It was just one bird feeder, then corn for the squirrels, then this year he's built a "cross" for lack of a better word and put it in concrete in our garden. He now has two bird feeders and puts out four ears of corn. Sunday afternoon it was "feeding time" and I had to go help him.

Here he's switching out the corn:
Yummy fresh corn!

This is for the "big" birds and the other bird feeder is for the "little" birds. However, they all seem to like this stuff best.

Now I don't mind that my husband likes to "feed the wildlife" in his words. I enjoy watching the birds and squirrels from the kitchen so I don't really mind BUT I DO mind that my dogs want to go outside 4-5 times a night so they can gobble up all the stuff the birds and squirrels drop on the ground and then Shadow has REALLY stinky farts all night. Sigh...that's what I get for marrying an outdoorsy man, huh?

OH! And one last pic of me and my hubby, please don't mind either of our hair, we'll definitely blame it on a bad hair day for both of us!

Happy Wednesday everyone! Christmas is right around the corner. If it's not too much to ask, say a prayer for Mattie and I today. We're going to be getting news today and we're really hoping and praying and wishing it's good!

Cleaning Out My Closet...

...last Sundy, Matt and I went to church then headed home for a day of NOTHING! Well, that didn't last long after I was getting antsy and bored so I decided to clean out the pantry. UGH! Take a look at the disaster, everything was just shoved in here and there, no rhyme, no reason which resulted in spilled herbs and like multiples of certain products such as oatmeal, sugar, flour, kidney beans, etc...
I took everything out and put it on the floor. I swept out the pantry and cleaned each shelf. I threw away expired items and merged multiple items if I could. Um...we had FOUR big containers of salt and three containers of cocoa! Oops! Here is the final product...TADA!!!

I'm really hoping you can tell the difference. Some stuff is still buried and other items will have to be removed to find them. The most exciting part though is that I made room for Matt's lunchbox (cooler) to be stored in the pantry making the kitchen look bigger!

We're off to the farm this weekend for opening weekend of deer season. I've got my books packed, my warmest clothes in my bag, and my gun waiting by the door. I'm sure I'll have book reviews for you in the next few weeks and hopefully I'll be able to tell you some successful deer hunting stories too! After Vee's post yesterday, I must admit I'm a little worried about this weekend although I know that you can't live your life in fear so we're still planning on going and being super careful. Please continue to pray for her and her family. Have a good weekend everyone.

Trick or Treaters...

...Sunday night we had the trick or treaters come!!! We really didn't have too many this year. One little toddler told me he didn't like what I handed out and I think his mom was about mortified. She kept apologizing and I just told her, no worries! Just more treats for her! They were all pretty well behaved, I was just really disappointed by the turnout...probably because I had so much flippin' candy to give out!

While we waited for it to get dark, I took this pic of the inside of Matt's pumpkin.
Shad was really bummed he couldn't try out the new Snickers...I gave him a dog treat instead!
Here we are goofing off with the camera waiting for the trick or treaters. Don't mind the dog hair that he just shed as we were playing around.

EB, my SIL, walked over with her roommates and their son and dog. Here's Chase and Rebel, I loved Rebel's costume! It's a pumpkin, I got a better picture but you get the idea here.

Here was Shadow waiting patiently at the door for some trick or treaters. Matt had to work so I was stuck handing out candy by myself (BORING!). I had the dogs in the bedroom then brought Shad out first. He was really good. He laid right in front of the door then he'd perk up when someone was coming to the door. He never barked and he only tried to nose his way out once. I was very proud of him. Emma on the other hand...well, she wouldn't stop barking and wouldn't go to bed!

So all in all, pretty successful although I do have quite a bit of candy left over. Guess my co-workers will be happy!

Spring Has Sprung...

...yep, spring has sprung here in the Midwest. Most of the year, we have this dull, boring vine climbing around our flagpole looking like weeds but now that spring has arrived, check out how gorgeous this is!
Matt's not here as I write this but I think it's called a clematis, not to be confused with chlamydia which is what Google kept suggesting when I was trying to type clematis...I just can't stay away from Google!

The Man Cave...

...I introduced the term Man Cave to my soon to be husband and he fell in love with the idea. Being that he was moving in to my, in his words "girliefied" house, with myself and my female dog, he was looking for an escape where it would be nice and manly. I kindly responded with a nice option, take the unfinished part of the basement and make your Man Cave. Here is a picture of the Man Cave:

The blue blob is actually a mattress but its turned sideways right now.

He has an entertainment center with a small tv and stereo. Take note, he shares his space with my scrapbooking table and dogs...yes, I said dogs. In the making of the Man Cave, he felt he should get a male dog so we now have Shadow, a three year old 100 pound black lab who is a garbage disposal.

Speaking of our dogs, here they are! Shadow, the garbage disposal and Emma, the princess:

Emma decided to help Matt and I hunt Easter eggs last weekend:

One last thing on the Man Cave and then this blog is done. Matthew's birthday is this Wednesday so I painted him this incense burner so it doesn't smell like dirty socks. I hope he likes it!

Okay, now I'm off to watch Vh1 Teen Stars...Where are They Now...yum...Jake Ryan!