Breaking in the Crib

Every so often I get to watch Maggie's girls for a day.  We usually play in the living room, drag all Cliff's toys out, and repeatedly find it necessary to be warned about how mad Uncle Zac will be if we touch his electronics (and yes....this does go for me too).   

Eventually my sweet babies get tuckered out, and I'm happy to say, Clifford's crib works like a charm.  

My pretty Penelope girl loves it.  

I just love you Pia girl. 

Pa Stuart

   Today is Pa Stuart's 53rd birthday.  I can hardly believe that my parents are workin their way through their 50's but it is the case my friends.  

I tell ya, I have a great dad.  I really do.  

He absolutely adores his grand babies. 

And endures buddy walks with a sprained ankle.  

He loves my mama, and sets the bar high for my husband. 

He knows life is like a box of chocolates.  It's even better when that box of chocolates is giant and there's enough to share with the entire family....not that that was the plan when we gave it to him... :)

He's a man that loves a project. 

( On the agenda for this year....build a shed with a butcher shop inside, build a pond, a lane, and Maggie's house, dig and install the septic system and pour concrete at what will eventually be me and Zac's house, pour concrete for mom's patio and sidewalks and then a thousand other projects that come up on a daily basis. )

He is also very handsome.  

Like postcard, toursim campaign, handsome.  

Case in point. 

Here's to hoping Cliff Stu gets some of his looks from his Pa.  

Happy Birthday Daddio.  You're the best dad I could have ever hoped for.  You make me proud everyday!

Meet the Min Van

Well folks, we did it.  We bought the minivan, DUAL POWER SLIDING DOORS and all.  It has been mine for all of a week and a half now.  I've officially moved in.  

Honestly, the van is pretty handy.  And it is freaking huge.  

I have stronger opinions about parking now.  

It still doesn't feel like mine really....I keep thinking I need to get it back to Annie or Maggie and pick up my car again, but I imagine after Cliff Stu gets here, it will really feel like mine.  

Now before I go showin off my new ride, I wanna share something random with you.  When I wrapped up the sale of the ol' minivan, the dealership gave me a dozen long stem roses.  Yep.  

These are my flowers.  I still can't decide if it is nice, or odd.  Feels personal.  But maybe not in a "thanks for buyin a van" type way.  More in a "thanks for bein my woman" type way.  

Regardless, I got pink roses....and a grey Dodge outta the deal, so I can't complain. 

The minivan is alread being broken in.  I had boosters for Annie's kiddos and a full-on carseat for Ollie.  Annie and Jade were out of town for 5 days last week....which explains my lack of posts.  I had night shift at their house, like 5pm to 10am, each evening and couldn't seem to get anything done in the days.  This includes laundry at my house, remembering obligations, and banking, just in case you were curious. 

Check out all the storage space.  

I have cubbies everywhere. 

I have 6, yes, 6 cup holders in my center console, plus 1 in each door.  It is AWESOME.  I am so thrilled to have a ridiculous number of beverages within arms reach.  I just can't even tell ya.  It doesn't help me to cut back on bathroom trips, but dammit I am hydrated!

This van is getting it's road time that's for sure.  In the last 2 weeks I've been all over the world.  In the last 7 days I will have been to St. Louis, Bloominton, and Galesburg.  I seriously underestimated my gasoline expenses this month.  But, my trip to Galesburg is for my first baby shower with the Zacman's family.  I am super pumped about how big my van is.  A two door car would suck for loading up baby stuff I do believe.   

Now time for a little tale about my recent travels....

Last Sunday, Maggie and I decided to brave church with 5 kids.  We loaded all of them into my new van and hit the road to make the 9:45 service.  Getting all 5 of them dressed, fed, teeth brushed, with car seats transferred and animals fed all by 9, was a bit of a mess.  Not so surprizingly, I was not my most beautiful when we left the house.  I thought I'd throw on a little make-up on the drive.  This promptly turned into me nailing the ceiling with the wand of my mascara.  

Not to worry...I had a Tide Stick in one of my cubbies.  Maggie was there to save the day.  That is...until she pulled the tube in half and flung Tide Stick solution all over herself and my camera, while missing the ceiling.  We are two peas in a pod.  Two very graceful peas, in two matching Dodge Grand Caravan pods.  Lucky us.  

For a future athlete

My friend Jenni asked me, when she suspected that she was pregnant with a boy, if I might do a few paintings for his room.  Of course, I could not deny a baby, so I had no choice but to say yes!

She was considering a sports theme, without going full-on matching design everything.  She found some really cute images online and emailed them over to me, asking if I could pull them off.  

I think they are great and perfect for a manly man's room. 

Here is what I painted for her.  

I did age mine a bit, but not as much as in the originals.  

I just love them.  They look great and Jenni was thrilled.  I think I even got her convinced to do make pendants to hang in the nursery with his name on them....whatever that name will be (which I can't wait to find out).  I look forward to seeing some pictures of them up in his room.  They will be great!

Hope you love them baby Storm!

Rollin with my homies

I have a hot date today people! 

We are talking REAL hot!  (Well, at least on the drive over since Zac's car has no AC and it is nearing 100 degrees around these parts on a regular basis.)  

Why am I driving an AC-less car anywhere you ask?  

Because folks, I've gotta get my trade-in value assessed, and I am pumped about it!  Pretty much immediately after I found out that I was pregnant for sure (not that fake pregnant you find in rumors and television) I knew we had to do something about our vehicles.  Not "maybe" needed to, had to.  This is mostly due to the aforementioned lack of AC...and the un-aforementioned lack of heat in Zac's daily commuter car. 

 Zacman likes to roll with the elements, which is fine, considering he has a company car that's only 6 blocks away, but not so fine when it's his dad-duty to pick up a bean and it's below freezing outside.  That, my friends, is when we need a car with the capability to de-fog a windshield and bring the ambient temperature to over 38 degrees.

I've been asking, nagging, and then cussing, at Zac to help me pick out a vehicle for months.  He, is a car snob.  Shocker right?!  Snobby about movies, electronics, food, tap water, soap, cars...etc.  The man has no filter when it comes to his opinion on quality...or much else, let's be honest (my apologies if he has ever blatantly offended you.  sometimes, i swear, he is oblivious to his rudeness.  i, on the other hand, am very aware of my rudeness and am probably choosing to couple it with tactlessness as well, so suck it...ha!   i crack myself up!). 

 I can't say that I am not appreciative of Zac's experiences, it's just frustrating.  I name a car, it is either ok, or crap.  No in between.  His opinion comes from years, literally, years, of dealing with cars.  He worked part-time as a mechanic and worked full-time for Best Buy doing car audio/video installation all through college and then some.  The man knows his way around the electronics and mechanics of a car.  I gotta give it to him.  He was really good at it too.  Even got his "Master" level certification (think master carpenter...but with cars)...which entitled him to a patch on his shirts that said "Master" which amuses me.  I digress.  After 7 years of workin on cars, Zac is picky.  When I asked what I could look at, my grand list was 

-08 and newer Dodge Grand Caravan or Chrysler Town and Country, no more than 80k miles

-Honda Odyssey with under 100K miles

-Honda Accord, varied years

-Nissan Maxima....which he later said he was not sold on.  

Extensive right?  It took me months to find a vehicle I liked, within our price range, that wasn't stained-up and didn't have a ton of miles, that was in a color I didn't hate (sorry light blue).  I was frustrated....then I found one!  I called yesterday and am going this morning, which is good, cause I'm getting impatient and ramy over here.  

I may be coming home with DUAL POWER SLIDING DOORS!  That cracks me up!  What is with the comic book blam sign on the side about doors.  Like I would see the graphic and be like "well, power doors! How could I not?!  That's a major feature!"  But really, I am excited about the power doors...

It is nice.  It will officially be the nicest and newest car I've ever owned (hopefully).

I think the funniest part of it is that Maggie has a dark grey Dodge Grand Caravan.  Annie has a light grey Town and Country.  I may have a light grey Dodge.  

The children will have no idea where they belong.  This just adds to the compound-like feel you get when you build houses within close proximity to one another.  We like to keep it cozy.  

Anyway, say goodbye to our dear white Grand Prix.  Red Grand Prix will miss you.  (Again, we focused on lack of diversity in our vehicles...whatcha gonna do?)   

Zac is gonna have a hard time figuring out how to recline himself to "ridin dirty" position with a carseat behind him.    

I asked Mom if she would like to go test drive with me.  She promptly said "no."  Aubrie Grace said "I would like to go test drive that van."  Looks like it may be me and a 6 year-old driving a Dodge and a hard bargain today.  

Here's to hoping I come home with functioning AC, stow-and-go, and room for 7!

I hope the world of mini-vanning welcomes me with open "DUAL POWER SLIDING DOORS!"

Golf Pro

Zacman has a few loves in life.  Electronics, blu-rays, food, sleeping in, and golf, are high on his list.  Zac has been on a budget for a long time, and I won't lie, it is fairly strict.  He has been talking lately about getting golf clubs.  I told him, he could buy them when he saved the money. 

 He looked at me like I had crushed his dreams.  It was seriously pathetic.  

Luckily, Zac is a man with some talents....and some fairly unused tools.  He sold a couple tools, removed and sold an amplifier and stereo system from his car and before ya know it, he had scraped together the money for some new irons.  He called a few times the day they were supposed to be here.  He was thrilled to get them!  

Look at him grinning in these pictures.

He was seriously pumped!

I did let him charge his golf bag.  He does have a job scheduled that will pay for it and he can be very convincing.  Plus, like he said, it just didn't seem right to get new clubs and have no where to put them. He is spoiled.

As soon as he had them unwrapped, he was out the door....with the water jug.  

Because if he is off work early, he can run errands too.  And, because tea (not made with "awful tap water") probably should've been #1 on the list of things Zac loves.  

Happy golfing Zacman!

Why do I do this to myself?

I had sort of been dreading Wednesday.  Why you ask? Because I knew I needed to go get my glucose tolerance test for my OB.  I didn't want to do it in the first place.  I think it is silly.  If there is concern that I have gestational diabetes, why not just put me on the special diet?  Save everyone's time, effort, and insurance dollars....plus I'd likely be eating healthier.  Better yet, assume we all could use more nutritious things for growing babies, and put all pregnant woman on a better diet.  Makes sense to me.  

Anyway, I had mine Wednesday.  I should not have.  But I am stubborn.  And stupid. 

Tuesday night was a miserable night.  My stomach ached all night long.  I thought maybe I had pulled a muscle.  I propped my belly up with a pillow.  I was up a ton.  At about 4:30 I thought I might throw up....then decided it was heart burn and stuck more pillows behind me until it subsided a bit.  When Zac left in the morning I told him I didn't feel good.  So now, why in the world would I go do this test at 9?  Because again, stubborn and stupid.  

I checked my phone when I got out of bed and Mom had texted me to see if I wanted to do a little shopping.  I declined...big test on the horizon.  She said she didn't have Maggie's girls that day because Maggie was throwing up.  You would think I would get a clue.  Instead, I commented that I also didn't feel good.  

A half hour later, I threw up in my sink.  

Gracefully, mind you.  

I  decided to get over it.  I was gonna man up and drink that stupid stuff and be done with the test.  

Maggie told me I shouldn't go.  I told her I was already at the hospital...that she wished she had my "strenght and power."  (Which is maybe more funny when I reflected on the irony)

The ladies at the hospital had me come into the lab.  They chit chatted about how if you throw up, the test is automatically over while I chugged the warm, flat, orange-soda-like dextrose solution.  

I handed back the empty bottle.  Said "oh....I think I might be sick."  And promplty 45 seconds after I finished the stuff, proceeded to throw it right back up on the lab bathroom.  

Not in the bathroom toilet mind you, just on the bathroom in general.  

It's a proud day for me over here.  

Not only was the test a mega fail, but I have to go back Monday to do it again.  

I am just sure the ladies look forward to seeing me.  I'll be ready for the nasty stuff.  

They should be ready with sawdust, paper towels and fading sympathy.    

Clifford's Dresser Re-do

Cliffy has a pretty darn good dresser, given to him by his already much loved Aunt Courtney.  

She proclaimed, and I agreed, the bookcase next to the dresser is a "cuter" green and the dresser should be painted orange.  

Step one, make that dresser lighter!  

I am ramy people!  If I thought I could've wrangled that thing down the steps by myself, I would've happily tried.  Mom and Dad would have chewed my ass again for moving dressers, but I would've. 

Instead of pushing the whole cabinet down the hall and dragging it off the porch, I took out and de-knobbed all the drawers.  Put your hardware where you won't loose it.  Trust me.
 Loosing 1 knob is a quick way to make yourself frustrated, disappointed, and crabby.  

Since I had the drawers out and outside, I decided to let the paint slinging start.  The sun dried the drawers in about 5 minutes.  The clock-watcher in me was PUMPED about it!

I made Maggie come by over her lunch hour to help me drag the dresser outside.  Then, of course, I couldn't help but fling paint as fast as my little, well, big, arms could brush.
Just look at all that orange glory!

After the paint dried I did what all Fox women will do, I "distressed" the brand new paint right off the edges of that bad boy.  Zac was not so thrilled that he got home earlier and had to help with the sanding and glazing of the cabinet.  He got over it and turns out to be a pretty darn good sander.  

This is the newly orange dresser.  Fab right?  Now I like the curtain better....but I still think I need a grey one there instead.  Oh who knows, I like to be fickle about the whole thing when possible.  Turquoise today, grey tomorrow. 

Now time for a cautionary tale....when heading outside in fits and bursts throughout the day, don't underestimate your extraordinary pale-ness.  Even when your hair is darker than your mama's, you still have the skin tone of a ginger, and 20 min + 20 min + 20 min = Ridiculous sun burn.  

Thank you again pregnancy for making my immune system weak and my poor back and shoulders a future play land for melanoma.