Cousins

My sister and her family came for a fun visit this weekend. She and her husband had to run over to Birmingham on Saturday to make arrangements for his upcoming show (John Westmark at Litehouse Gallery, Pepperplace Showroom 2825 Second Ave. South, for the month of July - for all you Birminghamians!!), so they turned the work related trip into a family visit. We could not have been more thrilled to see everyone.
Jean Louise and Laura stayed with us all day on Saturday while Carrie and John went to Birmingham, and we all had a great day. Jacks worships and adores his cousins, so he was in heaven all weekend long. I could give you a play by play of what happened all weekend, but it's so much nicer to just enjoy the pictures.
We miss the Westmarks, and any of our family, anytime they drive away, but we always look forward to the next visit. And, thanks to Florida schools having a later spring break (in 2 weeks), it looks like I might get to see my sister sooner than later thanks to Nealy's arrival! Carrie will have the chance to zip up here to see the new little bundle while she's spring breaking with her bunch in Pensacola. Nealy has the best timing. :)



The kids enjoyed an afternoon of painting on the deck.

John and I compared our belly bulges - I think I win.
We were worried we would have to pull Jacks out of the van kicking and screaming when it came time for the fam to drive away, but he handled it surprisingly well. He must have waved and said, "bye bye," a hundred times as the van pulled out.
Me and my sissy.

Nealy's Room

I'm not the photographer in the family. Joe's camera is clearly too fancy for me, so these pictures aren't that great. But, here is a taste of what Nealy's room is looking like right now. There are still a few odds and ends that need doing, and some baby gear needs to be gathered from friends, but things are mostly all put together. Enjoy.....

this is an old oak desk that has been painted several times - Joe gave it a fresh coat and a new drawer pull, and now it's a changing table! Don't worry, that pad is secure.


Here are those burp cloths that Ashley made for Nealy. I love them so much - I can't stop admiring them!!

Here is another piece that we painted and gave new hardware (pulls found at the Heartstrings going out of business sale!). That lamp is from a cute little thrift store in Gainesville called Loop-de-loop. New shade with some ric-rac, again what's old is new again!

Here is her lovely crib with her sleep sheep in place - ready to soothe her to sleep with sounds of the ocean, rain, or something like that.
Here is a close up of her bedding. I adore the print. I found this entire set at Target for a price that could not be beat.
I couldn't get a good shot of the far wall. The bird art pieces are on either side of the window. Those curtain rods, you ask, oh - we made them!! I had been coveting some at Pottery Barn Kids, but do you know what they want for the smallest size rod? It was ridiculous! These are dowels from Lowe's, painted and trimmed with some of those Heartstrings pulls.


The box under the changing table was a box that my Grandmother used for dress patterns. Joe painted it, added the little shelf on the bottom, screwed on some casters and a new glass pull, now we will keep diapers inside. This was one of my favorite transformations in the room - so small, but so useful!

I know you're insanely jealous of my plastic canvas tissue box creations. What can I say? It's a gift. (please note sarcasm - it is sewing yarn onto a plastic grid - not hard) And isn't the ombre, hobnail glass piece a beauty? I need to put fresh flowers in there....you can tell I have no idea how to "stage" a photo shoot of a room.

The rocking chair will go where the yellow chair is now. I will post that when I get it back - there's a story there, too.


As I was taking pictures, I caught a side view of myself in the mirror. Nice, right?

It is out of focus, but the pink card on the mirror is the Queen of Hearts. Joe thought that would be a fitting addition to our little girl's room.


I will be sure to post better pictures when I get someone else to take them. Love to all - K

It's snowing in my living room

So, with all this humidity with the rain and such, I'm having difficulty with climate control in my house. And the fact that I'm constantly hot doesn't help anything. So, I just pulled the cord on the living room fan to turn it up to high speed. All of a sudden, I'm noticing fine bits of dust gently floating down and landing on everything like delicate snowflakes, only much, much grosser. Why is this my life?

She's Crafty!

I made some art work for Nealy's room today. I basically painted some stripes on to a prepared canvas, then glued some felt branches, leaves, and birds on the canvas. I got the idea from someone's Etsy page. I'm really hoping that I've managed to make this piece my own, because I think the other piece was copyrighted.......oh well, I used felt, and theirs was all paint. Let me know what you think. I was so worried it was going to turn out miserable!!! I'm actually pretty pleased with the finished product. I still need to decide if I'm going to go back and add some eyes for the birds. Not sure, yet.

And for those of you wondering what I look like these days, here's a glimpse. I have a few sideways shots, but they always come with a double chin......I need to work on that.

April 7th, 2009

Did I mention that we scheduled Nealy's birth already? Oh yeah, I guess I forgot to mention that. We will have a baby on Tuesday, April 7th. For those of you who look at me, then enjoy saying something like, "Oh, honey, you're not going to make it that long." Well, you can take your lovely comments somewhere else, because I WILL make it that far, dammit! This baby is coming on April 7th, via C-section with lots of lovely painkillers. No arguments, no questions asked, no speculation.
Wouldn't it be funny if my water broke as I was writing this??
No, no it wouldn't.
We will be situating the nursery this week (please come over and join us if you'd like!). I have lots of plans for my little girl's room. I can't wait to see it all put together. I'll be sure to post pictures when it's all done. There's lots of painting and organizing to be done. I can't wait to get going on that. To those of you thinking, why doesn't she get going on that like....now? Well, things get so much easier around here when a certain little fella goes to school all day long while Mama and Daddy stay at home. I can't wait for Monday morning!
We're also going to attempt to set up Jacks's big boy bed again. For those long term readers out there, you might not be aware that the first attempt at the big boy bed was a failure. This time, we're hoping it will work! Here's hoping.

Showers

I have been blessed to have 2 baby showers, but I don't have any pictures to show for either. I'll be sure to post some as they are sent to me. I just feel so incredibly lucky to have been given two showers for a second baby - this is too much!!
Last weekend, my cousin KJ and three of my closest - Summer, Heidi, and Bethel - threw me a small friends and family shower. It could not have been more perfect. A couple of the party goers and hostesses brought their little girls along, so it was an all around girly getogether. My mother was in town for the event, and she had a great time bonding with our cousin Mary Leda - she is always the greatest person to sit next to at a party. She has lots to talk about. We feasted on delicious treats and sherbety punch (my favorite), and I was showered with all kinds of adorable girly things. I am in the process of sorting and washing all of Nealy's new things. I can't wait to get her room situated so that everything can be put in it's place.
Then, this morning I got a special treat. I arrived to school a little early, only to be paraded all around school in search of some signs made for our team until I could barely breathe. My teaching partner, GH, was really trying to keep me clear of the hallway so the students could prepare my surprise shower. Although, after I had walked the length of our campus at 7:30 in the morning, knowing my purse was still sitting on my desk because she didn't even give me time to lock it up, I was about to strangle Mrs. GH! Either way, it was for a good cause. I made it back to my room without passing out, and I ordered my class to give me a good five minutes to sit still before bombarding me with questions. We were watching the morning news announcements, as usual, and one of the students from our team was announced as having a special song to sing on the announcements. I was so excited, because I didn't even know this child could sing. So, I fussed at the class to hush up so we could hear. Then, before he began to sing, for the entire school to see, he announced that this was a special song for ME!!!! He went on to sing a song that he wrote all about me being a great teacher and a good mama - I cried like an idiot. It was so sweet.
Immediately when the announcements were over, I was called to my principal's office for no good reason. It was then that I realized - I was being distracted. The march all over the school was a ruse, the song was a hint, and now an impromptu meeting with the boss? I knew something was up. So, I gladly played along. I've never been given a surprise party, and I was NOT about to ruin the surprise! I went down to Debbie's office, and she made some attempt at actually having something to talk about (but, of course, we ended up talking about clothes, last night's Survivor episode, and more talk about clothes....), then she dropped the act and told me she had to walk me down to the library.
I walked in to find all 110 or so of my kids waiting for me so they could yell SURPRISE!! It was adorable. I got a little weepy at first, but quickly got over it when I saw the amazing cake, the 2 enormous trays of iced cookies (I do LOOOOOVE an iced cookie), and the mountain of gifts just waiting for me to dive into. I cannot get over the generosity and kindness of these kids. Even those with so little to give managed to write me a special card or get me a little something for Baby Nealy. It was overwhelming. My recent (last night) panic over having so little for this child (which sparked a small spending spree on babiesrus.com) quickly went away as I opened one gift after another - diapers, wipes, bath things, outfits, pajamas, socks, monogrammed bibs, hats, books, blankets, toys - you name it! I even got a handful of gift cards to Target, one to Baby Gap, and a ridiculously generous card to Winn Dixie! Of course, my favorite of all the gifts were the handmade burp cloths made by my friend, Ashley, who does an impeccable job with her crafts. Those are the burp cloths I've been waiting for, plus she had them monogrammed for Miss Nealy. It was truly awesome.
Now, I'm gushing. It was truly great. I was so thrilled when it was over that I didn't even dread the faculty/student basketball game. I take that back, actually, I never really dread that game. It is the one sporting event that I enjoy because I don't have to pay any attention to the sports. I can laugh at the teachers acting like fools because they are so serious about beating a group of 12 year olds! My friend Seth did a good job of acting like a fool, grabbing kids by the jersey and even kicking a chair on to the court toward the ref. Later, he revealed that all that athletic activity got him so winded that he thought he was going to have a heart attack, so he figured it would be easier to get thrown out of the game than admit that he couldn't run another step! Good times at Drake Middle.
I will be sure to post pictures when I get them. I hear there are lots floating around out there! Now I have A TON of thank you notes to get to. No one can be left out.

Are you kidding me with this snow????

This is a picture of yesterday:


And here is what we woke up to this morning....



Did you notice, in the picture from yesterday, the children were frolicking in the dirt pile wearing shorts and tee shirts? Yesterday, we enjoyed the Gnu's Room fundraiser for a little while, and we ran into the Stewart kids who were out for a bike ride on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. We were all very skeptical about the possibility for snow that has been predicted all week long. I guess we were WAY wrong. Because when we woke up this morning, everything was covered in a thick blanket of thick snow, and the flakes continued to fall throughout the entire day. Crazy!!

Scroll down for more pictures of this insane day....

Snow angels - yes, I got my pregnant self all the way down to the ground. I felt like, as I was doing it, that I resembled a beached whale.


Joe started to worry for his precious SLR camera when I started trying to pelt him with snowballs.
Jacks also thought it would be fun to throw some snowballs at Daddy....
Jacks could not stop making tracks in the snow - while yelling at the top of his lungs.
Can you get over this? We all went down for a mid day nap, and when I got up at 2:00, I expected the majority of the snow to have melted. WRONG again! Everything was still completely covered, and there was a fresh batch of fat snow flakes falling from the sky. At first I thought it was melting snow falling out of the trees. No, indeed it was FRESH SNOW. We have been out for about three or four rounds of snow day fun. I can't even tell you how many pairs of socks, pants, and shirts Jacks has been through already. We are totally not prepared for snow with this toddler. His mittens are not water resistant (knitted), he has practically no water proof pants, and the only jacket we could find that wouldn't soak up the moisture like a sponge barely zipped up. But, it didn't stop Jacks from running top speed through the snow yelling, "Woo-hoo, Yee-haw!!!!!" Fun has been had by all.

Jacks sends you big kisses on this wonderful day.....

Here is the last picture I took of the house at about 4:00 this afternoon. I can't remember the last time snow stuck around this long. But, the sun was coming out at this point, and the snow was melting rapidly. This doesn't look so good for school cancellations tomorrow, but a girl can still hope!!!!
Happy snow day to all!! I hope you had as much fun as we did. Love - K