Pinterest Project COMPLETE!

I just love when I can check things off the ever growing list of thing I must get done before October and this week I accomplished 2!  TWO!  That's huge!!

About 2 months ago, Mom gave me a stroller and car seat that she bought when Bella arrived that was in pretty great shape and the stroller is a jogging stroller which is what I REALLY wanted.  Downfall...Jack the Cat, my sister's cat, who has a peeing problem, found it first.  But, I was determined to majorly clean it, get the cat pee smell out, and make it work!  I soaked the seat in mild yet "you better get the heck out" chemicals and then washed it twice, and then let it dry in the sun.  I had to replace a piece of particle board which was the biggest feat but we survived and now, I HAVE A STROLLER & AND A CAR SEAT!  (No pictures, but come on.  You know what a stroller looks like.)  

NOW FOR THE MAIN EVENT!

I finished a Pinterest Project!!!!!  YAY!  This was also on the list of projects to get done, so last night while I slightly moped, while my family was playing volleyball and I wished I could have played, I stayed home and created.  

This was my inspiration...

I know that it's been pinned about a gazillion times, but I was determined to make it with my own twist.  It's taken me a REALLY long time.  I've had my canvases covered for MONTHS!  But, here is the final project!

I think I will still look at it and touch up with a marker here and there, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  (Please disregard terrible picture.)  Not sure where it will go yet, but I like.  

Now for my next projects to finish...

The Ornament wreath I started before LAST Christmas for my front door.  

This sweater I saved so I can turn into leg warmers.  I think Ruthie with LOVE them!  

I think I am going to glue the letters together and screw hooks into the bottom of them for the wall to hang bows, or jackets, or ANYTHING.  

This is supposed to be a large rug that I started crocheting out of T-shirts.  I have the t-shirts, it's just cutting them up that's the hard part which I still have to do.  Ugh.  

So, craft on, I MUST!  I also have to refinish a cedar chest for a toy box, and paint/assemble a coffee table that I have, and I am determined to make another print with the quote that says, "Let her sleep, for when she wakes, she will move mountains."  that I will put above her crib.  Not to mention, I would like to have some new tree skirts done to sell before Christmas.  Why am i still typing?!?!

The WIERDness of being Preggers...

I apologize if pregancy/babies/food is all i've talk about around you, on here, in general everywhere lately.  It quite literally has consumed my life, and my body for that matter and it's a new experience for me that I have yet to get used to.  I understand they have books about this, "What to Expect When You're Expecting" and "Child Birth for Dummies," but they scare me, they are large, and i have a general understanding that many people have done it without them so I'll be just fine, I'll just be kind of in the dark.

Also, seeing as how I generally avoid ANYTHING that has to do with hospital-ness, medicine, I have experience some crazy things that come with baby that I had no idea.   Then I get on TheBump.com or BabyCenter.com and read..."You may be experiencing...(fill in the blank)..." and then I feel better.

But stuff that I didn't know that freak me out for 5.7 sec and then I'm ok...

• I got my hair cut the other day and usually the hair dresser oos and ahhs about how soft and healthy my hair is..."Do you flat iron your hair?  Or blow dry it?  Your ends are really wimpy.  Have you been shedding a lot lately??"  WHAT?!?  It is growing REALLY fast though...
• My stomach is hairy.  Not like what Nathan refers to as a "man sweater"  but my tummy glistens with my blond hairs all over.  I laugh when i look at it.
• No major details here, but I'm pretty POSITIVE this constipation business was involved just to get you prepared for the birthing process!!  Misery.
• Because your skin stretches, it itches.  I'm sure I look like an ape scratching my tummy and my sides.  
• My co-workers make fun of me because I have a food stash box at work...It includes
• lemon heads
• rice cakes
• caramels
• club crackers & wheat thins
• microwave popcorn
• almonds
• easy cheese
• powdered donuts
• granola bars
• fruit jerky
• bananas
• I'm extremely hungry often, so I get something to eat and then eat it really fast.  Then b/c I ate to fast, I get sick and the vicious cycle starts again.  The other day at Jimmy John's, Nathan just laughed at me.  Especially when I couldn't get my shoes on fast enough so I ran to the bathroom barefoot.  I laughed too, so no harm.  Now, if he notices, he tells me to slow down....lol he takes care of me...:)
• I drink a half gallon if milk in two days.  Then, I feel like I pee for two days straight, but  it tastes sooo good!
• I waddle. BAHAHAHAahaha.

I know that this may not be her topic of choice, but I love talking to Tricia about this kind of stuff, b/c she generally find most of these things weird also, and then I don't feel like such a bad mother-to-be.  I am soooo happy that I am generally not moody.  I have notice times where my sarcasm with my boss especially may be slightly harsh, but that's when I say I'm pregnant and you just have to deal with it!  

Shag Carpet, Radon, & Answered prayers...

God gave me one of those, “I told you so…” moments today. 

So the house Nathan and I live in is pretty stinkin’ awesome.  It is a flip house that his parents bought, flipped the upstairs and are slowly flipping the down stairs as they have time.  We moved in to help them with payments and to get us out of Peoria.  We love it, but we obviously know it’s temporary.  In it’s final form, the house will be a 2-story, 5 bedroom, 2.5 bath masterpiece, sitting on just over an acre with two out buildings, a 2 car garage, amazing sunrise and sunset views out in the beautiful cornfields of IL…and out of our price range. 

So, we’ve been looking…nothing urgent.  Just keeping an eye on things to come and go on the market.  So there’s this house.  In the school district we want, in the general price we want.  We understand that the resale may not be great, but we could rent it when the time comes for a profit and really make this place work.  It’s also VERY outdated.  There are oh…5 different colors of carpet throughout the house; green & blue & black shag in the master, brown & white & pink-ish upstairs, brown throughout the living and dinning room, blue in the kitchen…yes there’s carpet in the kitchen.  It was a very stylish kitchen in the 70s!  But yeah… we would have to work on it. 

**Pictures thanks to PAAR 

There was that glimmer of hope in Nathan and I as we walked around this house…until the basement.  RADON…I hate you, radon.  The owner is one of Nathan’s friend’s grandmother who’s still well.  When she put the house on the market, she found out that the radon levels in her basement were at a 40.  In order to get a conventional loan or even a rural development loan the radon test has to come back at 3.9… and no, I didn’t misplace that decimal point.  We are looking for a difference here of about 36.1 points.  They put in a mitigation system (somewhat costly which includes drilling a hole in the basement), but still only cut the radon in little more than half to a 17. 

So remember, gimmer, stellar carpet…and radon.  So did Nathan and I want to pursue this?  Is this a battle to fight?  This was when a few weeks ago I posted on facebook, “How do you know when God's wanting you to fight for something vs. God saying, "Give it up already, Linz...I'm trying to close the door, so just let me!"’  So I prayed.  I didn’t pray a lot for a reason; because I didn’t want to convince myself that I should fight for it, which is my natural instinct, but I wanted to say, “If this is what you want for Nate, me, and the Ruth I trust you.  If not, I’ll forget about it.”  Granted I didn’t forget about it, but I talked to Nathan one more time, and said, should we just ask if they’d fix it?  The worst they would say is no, and then we’d move on.

So, about 20 emails and a week later, with LOTs of conditions, they agreed they would accept a certain offer if the stars aligned and they made the radon disappear.  So there was no fighting or  God back-talking me, but this morning on the way in to work, it was made very clear to me that God majorly answered.  Not, “can I have this house?” or “What does everything have to be so difficult?” but “I’ve had the baby and you in Nathan in my mind all along.  Don’t ever doubt that I’ve got things under control.”  And I smiled, and of course slightly teared up…b/c that’s what pregnant women do, and then made it to work peacefully. 

This still isn’t a done deal yet.  There’s still LOTS of stipulations and still a large change that this isn’t THE house.  But,  when God reveals things to you like that,  man, it’s just cool.