A blog post about something

M: Hello. Tony suggested we do a blog post and that we take turns writing every other paragraph. I'm not sure what this post is going to be about. We will just have to wait and see! Of course, the big thing on our minds is going to Walt Disney World tomorrow. We are stoked!

T: Yep, stoked. Like wild, blazing fires of Disney nostalgia, waiting for the wind of our jet engines to ignite the blaze of childhood in our hearts.

M: Right..... Anyway, I was super excited about going on all the rides until a few days ago, when I realized that pregnant women aren't supposed to go on a lot of the cool rides. I know, I'm only 12 weeks along, so at first I thought to myself, "I can get around this rule... I'm barely showing!" But I did some research and apparently thrill rides can cause placental abruption. We don't want that to happen. So I'll be restricted to the kiddie rides. Even though I love thrill rides. Oh well.

T: This really is an exciting trip, and it's starting to sink in. Walt Disney productions have always played an integral part in my own childhood. I mean, I remember my father, the man among men, taking me alone to see The Little Mermaid. After the movie, a woman came up and thanked us because, according to her, my hysterical laughter at the scene where Sebastian's jaw drops helped her enjoy the movie even more. I feel like I'm going, not only to enjoy myself, but to say "Thank you" for a childhood full of wonderful memories. Plus, I get to hang out with my dorkface brother and my non-dorkface sister.

M:We're staying at the Fort Wilderness Resort, which includes cabins, campgrounds, fishing, canoeing, horseback riding, tennis, etc. We're staying in cabins. Tony and his brother are planning on fishing during their free time. I'm so excited! We keep telling Ruth that she'll get to see Nemo, her favorite Disney character. Hopefully he shows up!

T:Really, Ruth is at the age where she will probably have a good time because of the visual and audio stimuli, but she can't really associate it much further than that. My sister's daughters, though, are older and will probably get a lot more out of the princess breakfasts, etc. I figure Walt Disney will be sticking around with us as a family for a long time, or for at least as long as Disney continues to put out quality productions. And yes, we plan on fishing. And I have to say I'm pretty excited.

M:We're also pretty excited about seeing our family, including our nieces, Tony's siblings, his mom and others. It will be even better to have this experience with all of them! Our general attitude at this point is that we want to just relax and go with the flow. There's no ride that we can't miss. What really matters is having fun and spending time with family.

T:Meredith just said it's time to wrap it up, so, I guess... *fold* *fold* *spin* *tape* *twist tie*

M:*Cough**dork**Cough* We will be back in about a week with lots of pictures and great stories! See you then!

Tony's projects

Tony has been very handy around the house, and if it weren't for time and money constraints, I'm sure we'd have a lot more done at this point. However, Tony has finished three fairly major projects:
1. Replacing the shower head and faucet. Shortly after moving in, we found out that the faucet on our shower didn't properly switch the water over from the tub to the shower, meaning only a small trickle of water came out of the already broken shower head. We could only take baths for a few days. So Tony replaced that. And it works much, much better now.


2. Installing the dishwasher. The actual dishwasher installation wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. The part that was hard was getting it properly mounted in the space we created. We had to take out some of the cabinets to put in the dishwasher, which wasn't a big deal because we have a lot of other kitchen cabinets. Tony did a great job on this project, and I LOVE having a dishwasher. It saves me so much time.


3. Building sawhorses. We have big, BIG plans to build new furniture (check out this blog, which has some awesome plans for all kinds of furniture: www.knockoffwood.blogspot.com), but first Tony needed sawhorses upon which to build the furniture. So he built sawhorses. He did a great job and was able to use some wood he took out of an old box spring we didn't need anymore. How resourceful! His first project will be building Ruth's big girl bed, which will look like this.

He has done lots of other small projects, but those are the major things. Next up on our list is steaming off the wallpaper in the living room, bedroom, bathroom and upstairs, and then we'll redo the bathroom. We are still debating about whether or not we will totally replace the tub, tub surround and floors. We went to Home Depot yesterday and saw some really nice stuff, so it's tempting.

I've purchased slipcovers for the couches in the living room and bought Ruth a new quilt for her big girl bed. I loved this quilt when I saw it, so instead of painting her room blue, we will paint it yellow to go with the quilt.

In about three weeks, when we get back from Walt Disney World, we may be getting a kitty! We took Ruth to the Humane Society yesterday to look at them, and she had a blast. We are also going to transition Ruth to her big girl bed in April (after the bed gets built). I'm hopeful the transition will go well. We have the mattress all made up for some company we're expecting tonight, and we've told Ruth it will be her new big girl bed. Whenever we go upstairs to the loft she likes to go and lay on it.

We are making progress, and it is great!

Oh, and two weeks until Walt Disney World!!!!

I {heart} Etsy.

I made my first purchase on Etsy today. Look at my new wristlet by Buttercuppity, made with Amy Butler fabrics:I love Amy Butler Fabrics. Her website is so neat, and she offers FREE patterns for quilts, scarfs, and other projects. I printed some out tonight.

Buying this wristlet on Etsy was an interesting experience because I couldn't find exactly what I wanted. I was actually looking for a wristlet wallet - basically a wallet (with a coin pouch, credit card slots, etc.) with a wristlet strap. I couldn't find one - at least not in pretty Amy Butler fabrics. It has made me feel a little motivated to open my own Etsy shop and sell the style of wristlets and wallets that I couldn't find. However, I think I would need to get a lot of practice making them before I would feel comfortable selling them. My lovely sister-in-law, Jenn, is also thinking of starting an Etsy shop and inspired me to shop on Etsy today.

I was looking around Etsy and found so many pretty, wonderful things that I would love to buy. I need to learn a craft really well and start my own business! Here are some cute things I love:
Crochet hat by LovelyKnits: $18.96


Fresh Poppies Coin Purse by Girl... by Aileen: $20 (This would match my bag!)


Wool Felt Finger Puppets by StayAwake: $6.50 each

The Gwenna A-Line Maternity Skirt by SeeMommySew: $45

I enjoy shopping from Etsy because I feel like I'm supporting fellow stay-at-home moms and entrepreneurs. And there's just some neat stuff on there. I found purses I LOVED, but they were listed at $60-$80, which of course isn't in my budget.

Oh, and if any of you are feeling generous enough to buy me one of those things, feel free!!! :)

What's new?

Hello. It's Sunday and I thought I'd post a short update. I was going to post photos of Tony's projects he's completed around the house so far, but unfortunately our camera is dead. :-( It will have to wait for another day -- hopefully tomorrow if I remember to charge the battery.

The snow is finally melting, and our spirits are lifting! The temps have been in the 40s and 50s this week and should stay that way next week. We can see patches of our yard! Honestly, some spots don't look so good. They will probably have to be weeded really well and re-seeded. There's a lot of landscaping work to do. We live on a street that gets a lot of foot traffic, and there seems to be a lot of trash in our front yard near the sidewalk, so we will have to go out and pick that up this week.

We are making some progress on our decisions about how to decorate the house. We are going to take down the paneling in the dining room, although it probably won't happen for a while (probably this summer). We are also going to paint the living room a basic neutral taupe color and get some fun fabric for curtains and pillows. I think we'll paint the upstairs a nice cream color and possibly add an accent wall. That's about as far as we've gotten. :) We are also looking forward to a total redo of the bathroom. We were hoping to do it this month but probably won't get to it. Right now we're trying to decide whether or not to replace the tub, which is in okay shape but it's aluminum and pretty shallow. A new tub and liner will easily double the cost of our project, so we'll just have to wait and see how rich we are when we go to buy materials. :) The idea of a nice, deep soaker tub does sound good right about now, though...

We still have some unpacking to do. I need to get it done this week because we have company coming into town on Saturday. We are excited to show our house to some good friends!

Tony has one week to go until Spring Break. Boy, does he need a bit of a break. Poor guy works his bummy off. And then in three weeks we are going to Walt Disney World!!! We've been so busy with other stuff that it really hasn't sunk in yet. But we could really use a vacation, and we are SUPER EXCITED to see all of our family! I'm sure I'll blog more about it in coming weeks.

As for me, I've been pooped and not feeling great. I have to eat every couple of hours or I feel nauseated. I think I'm going to have to start working a nap into my afternoon routine because I'm exhausted by 8:30 or 9 p.m. every night. I've lost my workout routine since we moved, so I'm going to try to get back into that this week. However, I have started using this nifty page from SparkPeople called BabyFit.com to track my nutrition and set fitness goals. I've been doing well with my calories so far. I find that I actually have to make an effort to eat enough calories for the day. If only it were like that when I'm not pregnant!

More pictures and updates to come this week!

Numero Dos

In case you haven't heard yet, I am pregnant with Gardner baby #2. We are affectionately calling him/her "Numero Dos" right now. Maybe we will just end up naming the baby Numero Dos Gardner. Just kidding.

I'm about 8-9 weeks pregnant, and I'm due October 8. The baby is about the size of a kidney bean right now.


(Image from Babycenter.com)

I had my first appointment with my midwife this morning and everything is going well. I am feeling very tired and sometimes nauseated. The midwife said (paraphrasing), "I'm glad you're feeling so bad. It means your pregnancy is going well." So yay for feeling bad and having a good pregnancy so far. :) We are excited. Ruth is going to be a wonderful big sister.

My big girl

Ruth is becoming such a big girl and she has done some really cute stuff over the last few months, so I have a handful of photos I wanted to share.

First of all, she has really gotten into hats. She loves taking them off and putting them on all by herself. This is one of my new favorite photos of her:




Notice how this hat actually goes with her outfit. Luckily for Ruth, her love of hats is being encouraged by her Grandma Christensen, who bought her two new ones during their shopping trip to Target last weekend.

Secondly, as is evident from this photo (hair style by Tony), her hair is getting REALLY long.

She had a trim back in November, but I think I'm going to take her in for another one during the next couple of weeks. I'm trying to let her bangs grow out so we don't have to deal with cutting bangs all the time.

Thirdly, Ruth LOVES coloring. Her self-appointed job during our move was the "box decorator" :


The girl would spend hours coloring boxes. She came up with this idea herself, and she was actually very good about not coloring on walls. When she's really into her picture she gets this very focused look on her face, and she makes really little scribbles. I think she's actually starting to understand the concept of coloring within the lines, although she's not good at it yet.

Thirdly, the girl is a little ahead of herself with her interest in women's undergarments. She thinks her mommy's bras are quite peculiar, and whenever she can get her hands on one, she likes to see if she can try it on herself.


In this situation, she was "helping" me fold clothes and found one she wanted to try on herself.

I don't have a photo relating to this, but she has also taken a very sudden interest in butterflies. She loves going through books to see if they have pictures of butterflies and pointing out all the butterflies. I think I'm going to buy some vinyl butterfly wall stickers for her room.

Anyhow, that's what's up with Ruth! More updates tomorrow!

New House!

I'm sorry for the long delay in posting! The last two weeks have been very busy and exhausting. But we moved and we love our new house! We are so glad to be done with renting (hopefully) forever. Our mortgage payment is slightly higher than our rent payment, so it's incredibly affordable for us. And this house has so much potential! I took some pictures of it before we moved in all of our stuff.


This is looking into the living room from the dining room. The front entryway is on the right side. There is a lot of old wallpaper in this room and the dining room that we will be taking down. We are going to put slipcovers on our furniture that will be a darker sage green. Not sure what color to paint the living room.


This is the dining room. There's a nice window seat (I will be making a big cushion or two), and it's a fairly big room. It also has a bar, so we're going to get some bar stools. I think we're going to take down the wood paneling because I generally don't like wood paneling, and I don't really want to paint over it. We'll see, though. What do you think about the paneling?


This is a corner of Ruth's room. Her wallpaper border has unicorns on it. She loves her room and has an awesome closet. We're going to paint this room a very light sky blue color.


This is the other bedroom on the main floor. Tony and I are currently using this as our bedroom, but it will eventually be a spare bedroom/office. It's got this really cool old, glass light fixture that I need to take a picture of. We're going to clean it up and keep it. The wall color in this room is currently a very light pink. Not sure what color we will paint this room.



This is our one and only bathroom. It is currently covered in some very old wallpaper. We will be painting this room a nice light sage/celery color. It's also going to be one of our first big projects. We're going to replace the molding and base boards, vanity, and possibly the medicine cabinets.

This is the entryway to go upstairs, and you may not be able to tell this, but the stairs are very narrow and steep.




The loft spans the entire length of the house is divided into two very good sized rooms.



We've decided not to put anything upstairs yet so we can make it the first area of the house we paint. I don't know what color we will paint it, though!


This is the master bedroom. This picture doesn't do justice to how large it is.

And finally, this is our kitchen, which is ENORMOUS compared to our old kitchen:


The walls were painted using some kind of faux finish that doesn't look so hot. It also has giant florescent lights in it. Ick! My dream is to paint the walls, sand and paint the cabinets, get new flooring, and replace the florescent lights with some cool track lighting. It will probably be the last thing we get to, though.

We also have a huge unfinished basement that will be Tony's mancave and a big backyard that will probably take a couple of hours to mow. We love it!

I've already picked out the colors I want to paint a few rooms, but I'm having a lot of trouble picking out paint colors for the main living spaces. Tony is leaning more towards greys and blues for the main living spaces, while I am trying to decide if I'm brave enough to paint the living room something bold like cranberry. I think if we did that, it would probably only be an accent wall. But I don't know that I'm actually brave enough this time around! I don't have a particular style yet, although I like things to feel warm and homey. This house turned 100 years old this year, and I really want to honor the old charm of the house with our decorating. If you have any color/decorating ideas, let me know!

I have a lot more to blog about, but I'm limited on time this morning. I have some fun pictures of Ruth I've taken recently that I want to post. I also want to take some pictures of the handyman projects Tony has already completed. He's such a good handyman! My house is a total mess right now as we try to unpack, but I'll take some pictures as we get everything picked up. I'll try to blog more later today or tomorrow! Let me know what you think and if you have any ideas!