I Can Breathe Again!

My house has been quite the sad, embarrassing disaster here lately. Downstairs has probably been the worst, since all of the junk that was in our under-the-stairs-closet is now scattered all over the dining room, due to our remodel project. It’s hard to keep that from looking like anything but a disaster. Tools, wires, parts, etc. are scattered everywhere, not helping matters at all.

Now, while downstairs has been the worst, upstairs really hasn’t been much better. And in that area… I have no excuse. And it’s been bad. See?

Yeah… that’s embarrassing. But you see those plastic stacks of drawers in the last two pictures? They are what initially led me on this quest to clean my room. Those things used to be in Logan’s room. But Mike kept getting frustrated when he needed something out of them, and couldn’t go in there because Logan was sleeping, so he moved them into our room. The one room that wasn’t tainted by the clutter of our small home (ya know, clutter besides my laundry laying everywhere *ahem*). And I so badly wanted to keep it that way. Every tiny little spot of storage space we have is taken up by something. We have no more room. (And I have gotten rid of a TON of stuff, trust me! It’s not so much that we have too much junk, we just have a really small house, with almost zero storage space) So when the clutter overflowed to my “no junk” zone, I began to feel even more overwhelmed by it all. And I knew there was no changing Mike’s mind about having those things in our room, so I had to find a way to hide them. I got the project done, and the room completely cleaned up a few days ago. And here’s what it looks like right now… because I have kept it clean so far, which may be more of a miracle than the initial cleaning itself. ;o)

I moved one of the drawer things over to my side of the bed, so I would finally have something to put my stuff on besides the floor. I think that covering this up will be my next project. ;o)

This is what I did to cover up the two tall, and the one shorter drawer things though. Isn’t it pretty? And not cluttered at all anymore. :o) They’re just two curtains hung on that lowest shelf by circles of sticky-backed Velcro. I love that they hide something ugly, while adding color and pretty decoration to the bedroom. :o)

I used my old Olympus camera for these next pictures, so you’ll have to excuse the horrid picture quality. Man I hate that camera. Maybe it’s just the lens that’s the problem, but regardless, I LOVE my Canon. :o) I only used my Olympus because the lens I bought for my Canon has a really narrow angle, and doesn’t zoom, so it crops things in pretty tight (which is why you only see tight shots of the messy room above, instead of the room as whole). The lens on my Olympus has a wider angle, so I used it so that you could have a better feel for the room as a whole. ;o) Crummy pictures like these will have to do until I have money saved up to buy another lens for my camera that better suits this type of photography. :o)

I tell you, it’s amazing. I can breathe again. Even in the dark, a clean room feels incredible. :o)

I spent most of today finishing up Logan’s room. I had it all clean a week or so ago, but then had the bright idea to drag out all of his clothes, so I could get out his 9 month clothes, and put away his 6 month stuff (yep, he’s still a tiny little peanut!). Well, in the middle of me doing this, he got tired and needed a nap, and it’s been a mess all over again ever since. Until today. Today I got his room completely clean, so now, my WHOLE upstairs is clean! Which is amazing. :o) Anyways, here are a few shots of Logan’s room. Again, with the Olympus and in much worse lighting than the pictures of my room. Don’t judge me by these terrible pictures. Haha. ;o) My husband says I’m too picky when it comes to my photography!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!!! :o)

Trying to win a pair of Agoo leg warmers :o)

A blog called "Just Add Cloth" is doing a giveaway for a pair of baby leg warmers here.

I get an extra two entries for posting on my blog about it. ;o)

Baby leg warmers are SO cute (although I don't know that the Daddy would agree so much, haha) and are GREAT to use with cloth diapers, which is what I'm about to start using since we're getting a washer and dryer installed in our condo this week. We've been working on this project for about a month now, and I am SOOO excited to have my own washer and dryer! No more buying diapers, or withdrawing at least $50 a month in quarters to pay for laundry. Yes, our electric bill will go up a little, but even with that, we will still be saving money every month! This is very exciting since we've been working our tushies off to pay down some debt (we almost have a pretty good sized loan paid off, yay!!!) and so now we will be able to throw a little more each month towards that endeavor. AND I can do laundry any time I want, and not have to wait for someone else to come get their stuff out of the washer/dryer. It's gonna be SO great. :o)

Anyways, I guess I'll let you know if I win the leg warmers! :o) Check them out here, they've got some cute stuff! :o)

Twice the Blessings

Most of the people who read here already know this but… we found out about 9 weeks ago that we are expecting Baby #2. :o)

(I’ll share more pictures from this photo shoot later!)

I will be 14 weeks this coming Saturday, and couldn’t be more excited. The nausea and fatigue of the first trimester (which is not easy to deal with when you have a needy one-year-old. But, I survived!) is slowly ebbing away. I still get tired easily, but the nausea isn’t as bad. I only get nauseas if I haven’t eaten, or if there’s not enough light in the house in the evenings. (weird!) Daylight savings has helped a TON with that! I can’t really tell if the nausea has been worse or not this go-round. It first hit around 6 weeks, and that first week was definitely the toughest. I could not function in the evenings (which is when I would start feeling sick, just like with Logan! Whoever came up with this “morning” sickness stuff is crazy!) and it would feel like the whole world was coming down around me. Everything felt like a MUCH bigger deal than it was, and I had a hard time coping with life at night. But then… I’d wake up feeling normal for the most part, and life was good again. Haha until that evening. ;o) But that only lasted for the first week, then it let up a little. I’m hoping within the next week or so, the nausea will be completely gone. But the good thing is, I haven’t thrown up at all this time! I have come REALLY close several times, but I managed to fight the gag reflex hard enough to win. ;o) By about 11 weeks with Logan, I had thrown up about 15 times. SO thankful that didn’t happen this time!

Anyways, we went to our first appointment about 3 weeks ago, and we got an ultrasound! They burned a copy of the ultrasound onto a DVD for us, so I have a little video to share with you! It’s about 5 minutes long (it was 7, I reduced it down!) and I put some words in there, to help clarify what’s going on for those who haven’t seen a ton of ultrasounds. ;o) It gets good towards the end, so watch the whole thing!

I’m so excited to have another baby. Some days, (haha, like when Logan is being especially needy, or won’t go down for a nap) I get kinda scared about having two. But then the good moments come back around, as they always do, and I know that things will be fine. That they will be good. That they will be GREAT. How could they not with twice the amount of cheeks to kiss, toes to tickle, and bellies to blow raspberries on? :o) I’m excited to become a mommy of 2. Twice the work, but more importantly… twice the blessings! It’s going to be a wild ride, and I can’t wait!