Tomorrow marks the start of my third trimester. Crazy. Time flies when you’re having fun – er, when your pregnancy is so ailment-free and uneventful that you feel totally normal the whole time. However, I know the next three months … Continue reading
We still don’t know the gender. I know. We’ve waited a lot longer than most people to find out. And for good reasons too. 1) We wanted to be SURE when they tell us that it really turns out to … Continue reading
Ok so maybe I’m nesting or maybe I’m just the girl who gets Spring Cleaning Fever a tad later in the year, but either way, I’m full-throttle into cleaning, re-organizing, purging and de-cluttering mode.
I’d say decorating but really I don’t think this counts as there is no furniture involved (if I could afford to, I’d completely decorate and furnish the front living room, replace or reupholster the dining room table set and also get a buffet piece for in there, and buy a king mattress for the master…..but we have to focus on the nursery and the new guest room first).
So anyway, here’s what I’ve been up to the past couple of weekends around the house in preparations for Baby Irvin’s arrival:
1) Spruce up the backyard. Check.
2) Begin the transition from guest room to baby room. Meaning, EMPTY CLOSET, RELOCATE ITEMS, FIND SPOT FOR THEM ELSEWHERE IN HOUSE. Also know as… closet re-organizing mania. See pictures.
Baby Irvin’s closet: newly emptied and cleaned, save for baby’s first little things.
To get to where I could empty the closet, I had to relocate my entire linen storage (it was previously in the guest room), relocate my golf clothes, and soft shells and sweatshirts; and I took the opportunity to purge items I didn’t need or use and could donate. Here’s a peek at my new linen closet and more … spiffy with labels and all!
I know. As organized as I am, I refuse to take the time to fold sheets properly. Or blankets for that matter. This is the best I can do.
As a result of emptying one closet, this one got re-organized. Now my scarves are neatly hung for me to grab on a whim this fall/winter when I grab a jacket or coat.
Another closet that fell prey to my re-organizing. This has always held some of my shoes and misc. clothes. Now it will be my designated MATERNITY CLOSET! Yay!
3) Deep clean the entire house.
4) Tidy. De-clutter. Re-arrange knick-knacks.
5) Finally frame some wedding photos after 5 years (instead of buying new frames like I wanted to, I re-used some boring-but-satisfactory frames I found in a box from my college townhouse.
6) Organize and decorate the office built-in in our master bedroom. For the past two years, it’s been a wasteland of clean and dirty laundry, new and old mail, a to-shred mail pile, a to-file mail pile, dog toys, random cords to electronics, etc. A MESS. AND MY WORST NIGHTMARE. Finally, I cleared it all off. Sorted, shredded, cleaned, filed, and headed to Target to buy some cute desk accessories. Here’s the end result of that over-due project (sorry no before photo!):
I labeled the slots and storage boxes and such to help keep us accountable!
My amazing co-workers bought me this NEST Candle in “Moss & Mint” and it’s the best, most relaxing bedroom candle ever. NEST Candles are pretty pricey but well worth it! Fortunately, this fragrance doesn’t seem to bother my allergy-prone hubby.
Oh, and I’m OBSESSED with my small glass lamps. $60/2 at Target. DEAL!
I chose to do a his and hers side, where the books under each lamp are gender-friendly, and themed to our aesthetics (kind of). Note: Michael’s sniper, war, politics and business books and my childhood keepsake fairytale books, personal memoir books, and a motivational, personal enhancement book … fits us too a “T”!
These baskets – which I placed at both sides of our built-in – correspond with our drawers for clothes in the built-in. I bought these for us to store clean laundry that we’re too lazy to put up at the moment. If the basket is full, I told Michael, too bad, time to put it all away. LOL. We’ll see how long that lasts.
ta-da! clean, peaceful room with a view of our serene backyard!
Now, the next two projects on my brain are….
1) Paint the mud room and decorate it. (No picture, sorry). Ever since we got broken into and the door had to be replaced…no, scratch that…ever since we moved in and I’ve had to live with this weird wallpaper that you’d have to see to understand, I’ve been waiting to paint over it. We will be DIY painting over wallpaper … stay tuned for the post!
2) Renovate and customize our media cabinet in the main living room – aka, the blue room – to fit modern TVs and such. We’ve been talking about doing this since we moved in too and now I’m super motivated to get this eye-sore of a TV stand from our college days out of the house and off the floor, so Baby Irvin has more room to spread out and play. And so mama and dada can buy a 70″ TV haha! Ok, that’ll actually have to wait a while but it’s def. in my future plans for this room too.
Until then…
I decided today I’d brave the water and share baby bump pix with you and just share what’s been going on with my pregnancy since my last post about it. But don’t judge me. I’m way too lazy to do … Continue reading
As you may already know from our announcement post, my husband and I are expecting our first child.
I was never a baby person. My sisters and I were never exposed to babies, never had baby dolls as toys (even if we did, they weren’t played with), and I rarely babysat anyone (let alone anyone under the age of 6). Usually babysitting for us was just hanging out with kids younger than us and “watching” them (aka watching MTV and ordering pizza while they played video games in the other room).
And while this whole thing is very exciting and has my heart filled with a joy I can’t explain, I’m also fearful of and questioning a lot of things these days.
1) How will I know what to do?
2) Will I be a good mom?
3) How tiring will it really be?
4) Will my baby be cute?
5) Will I miss my baby-less life a lot?
6) Are my friends going to avoid us?
7) When do I need to get the baby room ready?
8) How do I know what to register for and how much of each item?
9) Will the delivery hurt really bad?
10) How will I ever be able to go back to work and concentrate on work – how could I possibly stop thinking about the baby all day?
11) Will the daycare place really let me come visit 100x a day, and to feed as necessary?
12) Do we need to go to a birthing class?
13) Should we go to a parenting class?
14) Will they love God as much as I want them to?
15) How will I lose the weight?
16) Can we afford to give them the life we want to give them?
17) Will my parents be as involved as grandparents as mine were – I want them to be super close to my kids, as my grammy and poppop are/were unbelievably important to me?
18) Will I be able to breastfeed as long as I want to – with all the complications of going back to work and such?
19) How do I avoid fighting about how to parent, finances and the stresses we’ll face after the baby is born?
20) Is there any way to be sure the daycare we pick is better than the others we’ve toured?
21) Am I gaining too much weight? Too little?
22) Should I be showing more or less right now?
23) Why do I feel like crying sometimes when I think about the baby – happy tears, tears of anxiety, tears of impatience, etc.?
24) How is it that some girls my age were born with this baby thing where they’re aching to me moms the minute they hit puberty and then become instant rockstar moms the minute they find out they’re pregnant?
25) Is it OK if I am still ME as a mom? I want to be the same old Lindsay but with a baby on my hip and my designer bag on my shoulder (sorry, no Vera Bradley Diaper Bag for me). I want to still see my friends all the time and have fun.
26) How soon am I supposed to start educational stuff for the baby? Immediately? Does that mean reading to them and that’s enough? That’s adorable and I can so do that, but what else can I do to make them smart?
27) Sort of along the lines of question 26 … how do I ensure they’re smart and learn what they need to, when they need to?
28) Should we have stayed in Dallas so that we have family close as we raise a family?
29) How hard will it be without family nearby to help?
30) Is sending them to daycare as an infant going to be harmful to my bonding / my husband’s bonding with them?
31) Will I experience post-partum? And what the heck is post-partum anyway?
32) Is it bad that I think some moms are just so cheese-y and I don’t want to talk to my kids like that at all? I’ve heard that baby talk is bad for them, and talking to them normally makes them smarter – is that true?
33) How will our dogs react to the new baby? Will they behave? Will they love the baby and protect it? Will they be jealous and act out? Will they have to become outside dogs full-time?
34) Are other moms going to judge me for the way I am as a mom (which I don’t even know how I’ll be yet)?
35) Why does it take so long to make a baby – I want to meet it now?
36) Will a boy be better for me getting used to this mom thing first, or a girl?
37) Am I going to be mean?
38) Am I going to be a push-over?
39) How do we ensure we are a super tight-knit family and are always close throughout our lives?
40) When will I know the answers to all these questions and more?
I decided to share these here in hopes that it would be somewhat cathartic and elicit advice, wisdom and encouragement from you. If only these all magically became answered when the baby is born. 🙂
I have the best sisters and friends in the whole world. This Saturday, they threw me a surprise party. Better yet? It was a surprise maternity wear shower. What’s that, you ask? It’s an original idea my sister Ashley came … Continue reading
This gallery contains 3 photos.
I’m excited to announce that baby #2 is COOKING! I am so, so ,so SOOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!! Our son Presley will be 2 1/2 and I know he is going to LOVE having a little playmate 🙂 I think it’s the … Continue reading
This gallery contains 2 photos.
By nature, I tend to overshare just a tad; I’m not afraid to talk about things others are–including birth control. Seeing as we are Mrs. & the Misc., this is def. a topic for any Mrs. (or Miss), but still, … Continue reading
mrs. and the misc. 