DIY Weekend

So this is from a few weekends ago. Maybe even before school started back, who knows, but it was still worth sharing... 

This past weekend we crafted it up. It has rained here in Athens for at least a week so it was hard to get projects finished that we had started. We bought a changing table from Craig's List a while ago and have been slowly working on it. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Luckily I started working on sanding it while out for summer. My lovely husband did not offer up the power sander until I was mostly finished with sanding the bad boy. Love him. Either way it turned out awesome. Here are some shots of the changing table.

If you're asking yourself if that is a kindermat as a changing pad, then why yes, you are correct. That is in fact a very dirty, very used, kindermat used as a changing pad for who knows how long. Did I mention that we clean this entire table several times and handled the changing pad with rubber gloves before it went in the trash can. Hurry look at the after pictures, they make it all worth it! 

                                          

Eventually I'll add some wire baskets to the changing table to put tiny baby things in. I just haven't found what I have in my head yet. Any suggestions where to find wire baskets so I don't have to order them online???

Next, we have a school project that my lovely husband also helped build. I love the fact that I can come up with something and not describe it very well at all and he can take it and pretty much figure out what I'm talking about. Love that about him! So this is an idea I found on Pinterest. Originally it was used for a magazine "keeper", but I have no need for that. However, I do have a need for a paper sorter at school; construction paper, computer paper, notebook paper, etc. You get the picture. Hopefully. So these are all the boxes just stacked on top of each other. The hardest part was trying to figure out how large a piece of construction paper is so we knew how big to make each box. I should know the measurements for construction paper, but sadly did not and had to actually find the construction paper to measure to know for sure. Anywho, it turned out the perfect size. 

 Here they all are getting painted in the hot blazing sun. Notice the flip flops turned over in the grass. Soooo stinking hot. I'm sure this did look strange since our neighbor stopped us and inquired what we were building because they couldn't figure it out. It turns out really great though, keep reading. 

And here's the final project. We added (by we I really mean Ryan, just know that for future reference) casters or rollers as I call them, on the bottom of the cabinet so I could roll it around my classroom as I need to. I also really like it so I can turn the whole cabinet to face the wall and no sun shine through the windows on the paper. My classroom is in a trailer and has a good number of windows, which is nice, until it fades my construction paper. And there's nothing I hate worse than faded construction paper. Maybe there's something worse, but its up there in my top five. Did I mention that we found all the scrap wood at Lowe's? For free? Love it! If you check the back of Lowe's where they cut wood for customers, anything that is left over is considered scrap and is free for the taking. Yes please! We also used paint we already had as well so the whole thing cost the price of the coasters/rollers on the bottom of the cabinet. Love me a good deal and a great DIY project that comes together! Enjoy the final product...

24 and 25 Weeks Pregnant

This weekend was one of those perfect weekends. You know the ones where you don't have anything that HAS to be accomplished, the weather is beautiful, not a cloud in the sky, a slight breeze in the air, and you find things to entertain you all day long. That was this past weekend. It made me realize how much I love our little life here in Athens. I miss all things Alabama and one day I'll probably do a post about that, but I do love our quiet little weekends here, just hanging out and living life. Here are the 24 weeks (6 months pregnant? What?!?! How did that happen?) and 25 weeks pregnant pictures. I'm ashamed to admit that yes I have on basically the same outfit in both pictures, but I am proud to admit those are not maternity shorts and I'm pretty impressed I'm still wearing them comfortably even with a rubber band to help just a bit. :) 

Not much of a difference, but as Ryan says and I tend to agree, I think I grow more and more each day. 

Symptoms: I've officially entered the days of swollen feet and leg cramps. If I drink enough water at school each day then they're not super swollen, but its enough that Ryan calls them little sausages each afternoon. So I've started drinking more water at school and coming home and putting my feet up for at least 20 minutes before I start piddling around the house. This of course is just fine by me, remember, Hi I'm Ashley Crowe and I'm an official couch potato...As far as the leg cramps go I can laugh about it now, but it was not funny at the time. This story goes along with my theory that everything awful happens in the middle of the night. When have you ever heard your fire alarm go off in waking hours? No way it always happens in the middle of the night scaring the bejesus of out you, along with things spontaneously falling off walls, children getting profusely sick, animals to loose their minds and start barking crazy. I could go on, but I digress. 

So the other night around 3 am I wake up with the worst leg cramp I have ever had in my life. This is a good time to mention that I've never in my life had a leg cramp before. I wake Ryan up by repeatedly beating him and demand he rub my leg. Only problem is, Ryan can't find my leg under the covers because I'm shoving it in his face, but its pitch black dark and he can't see this. So then we're trying to communicate to each other how to get my leg to him, but in incoherent sentences and moans and cries from me. This goes on for at least a minute until finally he realizes that is my leg hitting him in the head and finally starts rubbing out the cramp. Needless to say it took both of us quite a while to go back to sleep. This taught us a very valuable lesson. Ryan now sees the importance of rubbing his precious wife's legs before going to bed each night so we can avoid these kinds of misadventures. 

Other than that, I'm feeling pretty good these days. 

Maternity Clothes: Did I tell the story of popping the rubber band at school? No you say? Well let me enlighten you. I had on a pair of my regular-not maternity pants at school one day recently and was really enjoying the fact that I could still use a rubber band and get away with it. Nevermind the fact that either side of my pants was a good 3 inches apart. So I'm sitting at my desk with a couple of my co-workers close by and all of a sudden I feel the rubber band give way and realize I have officially popped the rubber band holding my pants together. After laughing hysterically at my wardrobe malfunction, Amy, one of my wonderful friends who got to experience this with me, tells me in her most gentle voice that perhaps its time for me to hang up the non-maternity clothes for a while and go just to solely maternity clothes. I've taken up that great piece of advice for the most part. There are some dresses and blousey shirts I can still get away with. Ah the joys of getting plumper. 

Sleep: Just last night I had the conversation with myself about the many mid-night visits to the bathroom. I'm not typically a middle of the night visitor to the bathroom, but last night as I laid there debating this issue for at least 30 minutes I realized I could have just gone ahead and gotten up and gone to the bathroom and gone back to sleep by the time I had convinced myself I didn't actually have to go to the bathroom and talking myself into going back to sleep. Does this even make sense? Most of the conversations I have with myself in the middle of the night don't make sense in the morning. Suffice to say, I'm not a fan of getting up for middle of the night bathroom visits, but I'm starting to see the light that maybe this needs to be something I start getting used to experiencing. 

Cravings: Still nothing crazy. I have started to get more and more serious about my food. Like don't get in the way of the pregnant lady and her food type reaction to meal time. But then again, I've always taken my food pretty seriously. I'm still a really big fan of the all fruit popsicles and could eat three in one sitting. There's not a whole lot I'll pass up these days...all food in general. 

Baby Size: I don't know what I was reading last week that said Cullum was 11 1/2 inches long, because everything that I've read this week has him at only 9 inches long. Then I've read other things that have him at 13 inches long. Let's just say he's growing and he's bigger than what he was yesterday. I need to get one of those handy gadgets on here that shows the baby's size and compares them to a fruit or vegetable or something. I just haven't gotten that crafty with this whole blog thing yet. I'm still trying to fix the ticker that says Ryan and I have only been married for a year. 

Movement: Cullum is a mover and a shaker wen he wants to be, and only then. Ryan finally told him the other night that he wasn't playing his games anymore and would try to feel him when he got a little older. In other words, Cullum usually only kicks up a storm at night right when I climb into bed. I feel him throughout the day and every once in a while I'll get a big kick or a punch, but other than that, not a whole lot of movement. I'm trying not to over analyze this and freak out every time I don't feel him move when I think I should, but let him just do his thing. Maybe he'll be a really chill baby who just hangs out, or maybe he's still in a place where I can't feel all his movement...who knows. But just to make a liar out of me, Cullum has kicked me the entire time I've typed this paragraph...stinker.

Looking Forward To: We're going home this weekend for my birthday, to see some old friends, and to of course see family. My sister-in-law is also pregnant and is due any day now. I told Ryan if we wanted to see them one more time before our precious neice is born, we might better go home soon. I am also looking forward to the Birmingham shower in the next couple of weeks too. I can't wait to start filling up his room with all the precious little boy things we'll be getting. 

22 and 23 Weeks Preggo

Okay before I start this post I have to preface this by saying things have changed a WHOLE lot since I went back to work. I am here confessing that I am a couch potato. And this summer I lived it up. Before I sit here and bash myself for this entire blog post let me first say yes, I am a teacher and thus get the summer "off". However I have never had a summer off until this summer. I've worked every summer since I was 16 for the sheer reason I liked the extra income. Last summer I was getting married so I can't say I had a free summer, I was planning a stinking wedding in three months. That is not a summer off let me tell you. But this summer was the first and only official summer with no working. I say that because next summer I will have an infant and will not be able to live up my couch potato-ness. Ok, so we've established I'm lazy over the summer. A typical day was spent slowly waking up on the couch with my coffee until around 10:00 at which point I may or may not have gotten out of my pajamas. There were frequent trips to the library, frequent trips to bodies of water to lay beside, and frequent trips to the refrigerator. When I went back to school around five months preggo, you could barely tell I was pregnant. However, since returning to work, the girth of my stomach has increased a good bit according to what I perceive. My sweet mother informed me if was probably because I was lying down most of the summer and when forced back to work, Cullum had no choice but to fall forward with the sheer position of my body now being upright all day long. Ha! Probably true Mom, probably true. Needless to say I'm no longer a chubby girl and officially a pregnant girl.

I do think its really funny to watch the parents/students at school try to decide if I'm pregnant. I have had the same morning duty for going on three years, so for most of the parents who come down by side of the school they've been looking at me in the mornings for two years now. However, when they pass me now its funny to watch them look at my protruding belly and try not to look too long to make it awkward as well as try and figure out if I am in fact pregnant without coming out and asking. I find this entertaining while I'm perched on my morning duty post. It keeps things interesting. Onto the pictures and stats.

Symptoms: Since I was a slacker all summer long I'll be honest and say it was physically hard on my body to go back to school. I wasn't used to being up that early or on my feet that long or even close to used to walking around that much in a day. I did struggle with the physical side of going back to work and even felt pregnant for the first time. It was not pleasant that first week, but since I've adjusted I feel much more like myself and don't go home limping each day like I did the first week.

Maternity Clothes: I'm in maternity clothes half of the time. I've arranged my pre-maternity clothes in a system so that I know which pants I need to go ahead and wear with my belly band while I can and which pants I have a little room to grow into still. I have maternity pants/bottoms that I wear if I'm just feeling extra pregnant that day. I will say it takes me three times as long to get ready in the morning because I put one outfit on and it just doesn't feel right/look good and I can go through four different outfits before I get out the door. One of the girls I work with hit the nail on the head when she said I was still wanting my clothes to look and fit the way they did before I was pregnant and that's just not the way it is anymore. True Amy, very true. Thank you for that insightful piece of advice. I am a round pregnant woman and I'm not going to be as cute as I was before I was pregnant. :(

Sleep: I haven't been sleeping well lately but that has nothing to do with being pregnant. That has something to do with the fact that our school is under construction, my classroom is still nowhere close to ready for children even though this is the second week of school, and car rider tag numbers which I have found myself in charge of this year...don't ask I'm liable to go postal on you over some car tags. I even dream about setting up my classroom, dream of organizing parts of the school that are driving me crazy, and spend the entire night passing out car tags to students...in my dreams. Pray for my dear husband who is having to survive me streamlining our house since I can't do it at work.

Cravings: Nothing unusual. I did gain a good bit of weight since returning to work. :( So obviously I have no problem eating everything and anything. Anything sounds good these days, so nothing in particular.

Baby Size: Around 11 1/2 inches long or one pound or the size of a chapter book. So the websites say.

Movement: Oh buddy some movement. He's a mover and a shaker. Mostly when I lay flat and mostly at night right before I go to sleep. I told Ryan the other night I look forward to going to bed now because I get to feel Cullum move around so much. Such an amazing feeling!

Looking Forward to: We worked on some more furniture for the nursery. I'll post pictures soon, but I'm looking forward to getting more work done in the nursery and more finalized what it will look like as the final product. First I have to talk Ryan out of calling it the "man room" and instead refer to it as "Cullum's room", you know our child, who is coming in a few short weeks. Baby steps people.

23 Weeks Pregnant

     

Week 22 Pregnant

Big difference between week 22 and 23! I also made Ryan start taking pictures in our living room. The mirror was just too hard to get a good picture. Out of 20 pictures I usually could use 2. Have I mentioned I want a new camera? 

What's In a Name

Ryan and I have a habit of creating nicknames for people. Or maybe I'm the one who has always created nicknames and Ryan just joins in. Let's go back a bit further. You know when you're reading a book and you come to a name that you're not really sure how it would be pronounced...well I tend to make up a name for them. For example, one of the character's name from Hunger Games is apparently Finnick Odair. So I would probably name him Finny. Wikipedia describes him as some type of "playboy" as my grandmother would say so chances are I'd name him something like The Big Cheese or something which would then be shortened to Cheese. Get the point?

Sidenote: I have not actually read the Hunger Games (gasp) but knew they probably had some funky names in there.

So we're really bad about dubbing people in the neighborhood with nicknames because we know nothing about them but what we see in the 30 seconds it takes to drive past them in the car. We're awful I know, but it really is quite entertaining. Its also nice when you happen to pass them walking and can use the nickname and they're none the wiser as to who you're talking about. Ha! Crafty are we!

Silver Surfer
This was our first neighbor who was christened. Silver Surfer is an older woman with silver hair, hence the Silver in Silver Surfer, but don't ask me where Surfer came from. That's all Ryan. Here's the thing about Silver Surfer, she's a runner, but I use the term runner loosely and this is coming from a girl who says I don't run unless something is chasing me. I can probably walk faster than Silver Surfer can run, but man she's out there, doing her thing. The crazy thing is we can see her on the way to the grocery store and three hours later when we come home, Silver Surfer is still at it. Its like she's the energizer bunny...

Mom and Dad
Mom and Dad are not an actual mom and dad, they are in fact a newly married couple. We dubbed them Mom and Dad because whenever we get drive past their house on the way home or on the way somewhere they have this black/white cat who sits on the kitchen table which sits in the front window. When you drive past, you can see the kitty waiting on "Mom and Dad" to come home. And of course when Mom and Dad are home there's no kitty on the table waiting for someone to come home. Did I mention that we refer to each other as Mom and Dad when talking to our dogs, so this helped aide in naming this couple.

The Newlyweds
Another ironic nick name. The Newlyweds are an older couple, and by older I mean over 60. When Ryan first moved into the neighborhood before we got married this couple had just bought a house here too and had Newlyweds on the back of their car. Then we saw they were an older couple and of course I thought that was fantastic. So they were dubbed The Newlyweds. They're really cute, walk their dog every morning, plant flowers/plants in their garden together, and generally are just really cute.

The Crazy People
I hesitate to write about this people because they could very well be stalking me and know I write a blog and see the description of themselves and then start doing their crazy people things to me directly. I'll take my chances. They have (or had) two dogs that are so malnourished you can see their ribs. The smaller of the two dogs has disappeared so we're thinking its gone on to better places. They don't have a car and the woman out of this couple walks EVERYWHERE. We can be 10 miles away from home and will see crazy lady walking around. Ryan has never made a secret out of his job (all things animals/meat) and this lady approached him to tell him the benefits of all organic Salmon and this is the only thing they eat. She makes multiple trips a day to the grocery store near our house, I'm guessing for all her organic salmon. They also never have any lights on in their house, we're pretty sure they burn their trash, and they put their dog's poop in other people's trash cans. Ew. I can write a novel and go on forever about this couple. Did I mention they're brother and sister and yell at each other when walking throughout the neighborhood. Their nickname fits like a glove.

Last one...Awkward Runner
On a busy road near our house is beloved Awkward Runner. Awkward Runner is just what his name implies. He's awkward. He runs for short periods of time. He also sports a HUGE backpack on his back that bounces to and fro while running. He's not exactly the runner type so when he does run for longer periods of time its a little concerning that he'll just fall out. However we haven't seen Awkward Runner in a while and got a little worried about him, but never fear we were describing him to our neighbors and they had just seen him last week. Whew!

Now all of this is to say I'm sure our neighbors have nicknames for us. Bald guy and chubby/pregnant girl or Obnoxious Saturday Lawn Mower guy and his wife. I'm good with having a nickname from our neighbors, even a little curious if we do have a nickname. I wonder what our nicknames would be...