A chance of Showers

Six to be exact! I love a good party and to be fortunate enough to celebrate this wonderful occasion with 6 parties (and 6 cakes! mmm) was amazing!

Before I go into details, I want to thank EVERYONE for being so wonderful, overly generous, excited, and happy for us! This is an amazing time in our lives and it is so special to us to be surrounded by friends and family who are so supportive and loving!

My awesome team at school, the All School Team (i.e. Spanish, Art, Music, Drama, Student Services, PE, library, extended care, etc.) threw me a luncheon where we all had yummy food and they presented me with a basket of books to start our baby's library! That was a wonderful present! Scott and I have already read Goodnight Moon to baby many many times to get him/her ready to be read to often!

Then the Newman-Haas-Lanigan Wives' Club all gathered for brunch one Sunday morning to celebrate the growing Raymond and Hartsell families! Missy (2nd pic below in red--the 'other' pregger) just had her baby boy last night--a whopping 8 lb 15 oz bundle of joy! Congrats Missy and Brandon!)

Missy and me--can't wait for the playdates!
The wives! (Veronique, Laura, Missy, me, Tiffany, Laurie, Helen and Sandy and Gugge--seated)

Then Scott and I headed to Sheri's house, straight from our 'baby-toasting brunch with the wives, for a shower involving some other teachers from school--the grade 2-5 teachers with whom I work, some Student Services, our office staff and some more All School Team teachers. We got lovely gifts and our car seat! It was fun to hang out with everyone! The food was spectacular. (I love food and it was so good!) :)

Pictures of me and Scott as babies as well as us now and our little tyke's ultrasound photo.

The gang! (Cara, Scott, Jackie, Caro, Jen, Juli and Stu hiding in the back, me, Nancy, Shila, Christine, Sheri and Marianela--Diane was taking the pic!)

And another shower thrown by the Middle School teachers--I still have to get the photos from Sheri, but here's a photo of the awesomely comfortable glider/ottoman set that we got as a present and the super yummy Cake-a-la-Carol (note the shape of the baby's head in the pram--a maple leaf! ha!). Again the food was delicious and a fun time was had by all!

And over Memorial Day weekend (the last weekend in May), Scott and I traveled to Ottawa and were spoiled with two showers--one from the Raymonds and one from the Blairs/Zukichs :). It was great to see everyone--we had a wonderful time at both showers! Scott got to hang out with the guys while the ladies chatted, ate, and ooo-ed and aww-ed at all of lovely gifts! A big thanks to Trudy for all of her hard work in planning the shower and another big thanks to Catherine and Mom for all of their hard work and for Megan for opening up her lovely home for the shower!

The Raymond Shower:

This child WILL know his/her Canadian roots!

Some warm, practical (and highly fashionable) good Canadian boots!


Me, Heather, Meg, and Leah (who is due with baby #2 in the fall)

more yummy cake--thanks Anna!

The Blair/Zukich shower:

Meg and Cath getting all set up

a lovely home-made quilt from Meg

The grandmas-to-be!

me practicing with Stacey's little angel, Shelby!

Steph, Liz and me (Steph and me acting as Liz's pregger bookends!) Steph is due within the next week or so!!
Again, thank you to everyone for such wonderful parties and beautiful presents! We loved the time that we spent with everyone the most--that part was priceless!

34 and a half weeks and counting! Baby could be here tomorrow or in 6 weeks! (I'm aiming for 5 weeks--that will work! I have way too many things to do yet before baby arrives!)

Although publishing this post will allow me to cross one thing off of my very long list of things to do! Yay!

Love you all!

Becky

The Sweetest Thing

30 weeks, 5 days today.

The latest picture of our little sweetie from our appointment this morning.

See baby's little arm all curled up...cozy!

:)

Celebrating from afar (with a bucket of paint and some dirt)

We're in Buffalo Grove and all of the excitement is everywhere but!

Congratulations to Kathleen and Jeff! They got married today in North Carolina. Kathleen is Scott's cousin.

And, yahoo to the SENS!! The Ottawa Senators kicked some Buffalo Butt and are heading to the Stanley Cup Finals! Is it too early to say that Ottawa just might have the cup this time?!

And here we are, slaving away. Scott's painting the baby's room (former closet). The colour is the same as the light colour in our bedroom. He's working on the last coat right now. We're hoping to be finished so we can go to the movies--yay, date night! We're off to see Spiderman 3!

And here's Scott peeking out from the baby's room window down to me, where I have just finished glitzing up the garden with some pretty flowers!
Man, what a difference! Below you see our courtyard garden before I attacked it (I felt like I was in the jungle!) and pulled out all of the pachysandra and cut back the bushes (and rearranged the perennials).

And below is the final product! I pulled out everything (except the bush on the left--I forget its name-- and the whitestar clematis on the far left wall) and rearranged all of the ferns and hostas and astilbes, and moved the tree to the corner, a few weeks ago. Today I added some impatiens, pansies, poppies, butterfly scabiosa, phlox, petunitas and some pretty blue border flowers (I forget the name). I potted my black eyed susan vine with some pansies and some purple flowers (I forget the name...sense a trend here?)

Anyway, once it all fills in, it should look pretty colourful! Just above is my herb garden, too, with basil, oregano, chives and lavender.

At the front of the house, I trimmed back all of the leftover tulip and daffodil leaves, planted more impatiens, pansies, petunias and some blue morning glories along the fence to the left. The hostas are coming in nicely.

Scott and I are excited to be going to Ottawa for Memorial Day weekend next weekend--all of our friends and family up north are celebrating their long weekend this weekend. That's okay, we'll just take ours next weekend! :)

Well, I should go get ready for date night. There won't be a lot of those in our near future!

love,

b

Now that's what you call Storage!

The latest sub-project in the house renovating project was to buy and install IKEA wardrobes in our bedroom. Since our townhouse is a one bedroom townhome (with a loft, which can be converted to a second bedroom if needed, but we use it as an office) we needed to create a space for our newest family member!

Off of our bedroom and master bath, we have a huge walk-in closet (8' x 11') with a nice window which we are converting into the baby's room, so we need some storage solutions for our clothes! Hence the wardrobes!

(see first photo below--this is the view from our bedroom--you look through the master bath to the closet--except that we've changed the carpets since this photo was taken! The next photo down is a shot from inside the closet; the window is on the left and it looks out onto our private courtyard)






We wanted storage. We got storage. Here's Scott installing the "innards" and the doors. Each interior block has a hanging rail, baskets, storage bins and shelves for all of our clothes! Scott says it would only take him one block for all of his stuff (which leaves me 2 and the baby gets 1) :) Perfect!

As always, my hero.

The closets measure 2 feet deep, 7 feet high (right to our ceiling) and 13 feet long (the whole length of our bedroom--might as well use the space!) And here's the finished product!

And this is what our bedroom looks like now. It needs some accessories (and a new ceiling fan) to jazz it up with some colour, but it's functional and fabulous!

So, there we be. Another busy weekend, and another check beside something on our "NESTING LIST OF THINGS TO DO BEFORE THE BABY COMES". Our next sub-project is to transfer our clothes, then to start ripping out the "closety" stuff and then to patch and paint the baby's room.

And finish up the kitchen.

And replace the floors in the living and dining room.

And give birth.

Ahhh, the list never ends. :)

Happy Monday, all!

love

b

Building, Creating and Growing

Hi All!

A renovation update...things are progressing!

I threw in a few 'before' and 'after' pics for your enjoyment! An FYI that I found out about this house from the friendly neighbourhood neighbours is that the most previous owner took out some customized upgrades that were done by the owner before her, since she didn't like them. I wonder what they were and why she didn't like them... Well, not like her taste was any good, as you will see by the wallpaper choice in the bathroom and the pink carpeting. Anyhoo, we are making our way through the house and changing all of the "stuck in the 80s" decor.

Below is a pic of the bathroom with wallpaper and then one without the wallpaper (note the faux marble sink...oooooh). Below that is a pic of how things have progressed--new vanity and sink, new toilet, tiled flooring (buh-bye linoleum!), new baseboards and shoe and a spiffy new cafe au lait paint job! A little stark right now, but once we put up the mirror, decide which of two IKEA lights to install and then put in the towel/toilet paper holders and some accessories, then that room will be smokin'!

Before:

Progressing...

And so far:

Next is the kitchen--I've included two pictures of "what once was" when we bought the joint as well as some pics on where we are now. I'm still waiting on 2 cabinets ordered from H-Depot (note the gaps--yeah, that's where they go), but Ron and friend have come by to work on the cabinets a bit more, install the dishwasher and install the tall cabinets. There weren't cabinets in that one spot before (you can see them on the left of the 4th photo down), but we think they tie in well with the rest! The countertop is on order and the sink will come with it, so we can hook up the d-washer, insinkerator and faucet when that arrives. What is left to do is to install the toe-kick, the handles (nice long sleek stainless handles a la IKEA), maybe do a tiled backsplash, put all of the stuff back in the cabinets and then cook us up a nice meal in our brand new kitchen! Can't wait! (tonight for dinner I had a microwaved baked sweet potato, peas, and cottage cheese--I usually eat whatever I can combine without needing an oven or a sink or a dishwasher! I need a casserole or even a stir fry! Ah well, sometime soon!)

Before:

Before:

As we stand now! New Dishwasher (stainless--the white part is just the protective plastic) and nicely tiled floors with new cabinets!

The full view below--note the table/work bench/countertop/junk collector/catch all table. Oh yeah, see that white kind of nook-y looking cabinet by the doorway to the dining room? That WAS the plan for the 9-inch gaps where the H-Depot cabs are going by the stove (top and bottom). That would have looked dumb, hence the plan for the special ordered cabs. They look just like the IKEA cabs (but at 3 times the cost...interesting, hey?) IKEA really needs more options for that type of predicament... Oh, we're changing the lighting in the kitchen too...the fan is outta there! And the other light, too. The plan is to have one more cabinet installed on the wall between the window and the sliding door (there's space there, it doesn't look like it from this angle) and then install a wood valance over the window and have lighting come from underneath the valance. We also have a plan to put under cab lighting in the corner areas and then find a nice light fixture or two to replace these hideous ones. :)

A close up view of a sample of our countertop below. White with white and brown flecks. It's a corion type countertop.

And now the bedroom. This past weekend was devoted to patching, masking, priming, painting and trimming the bedroom. Below are some pics: a 'before' (Yellow and pink. Nice) and then 'progressing' and then 'after' pics. Our plan is to return the bedroom to a neutral colour and then spruce it up with some colourful accessories. It looks stark right now, but it's still airing out (I'm sleeping on the pull-out couch this week so I'm not inundated with paint fumes). All along the wall opposite the bed (you can see this wall best in the first picture where I stood to take the photo all the way to the black chair) we are going to install IKEA (love IKEA can't you tell?) wardrobes. That's next weekend's job.

Oh an FYI as you look at this first photo--through the bathroom (which is the doorway by the black chair) is our walk-in closet and soon-to-be baby's room! (...hence the wardrobes mentioned above--we need somewhere to put all of our clothes!) It's about 8' x 11' with a nice bright window over-looking our courtyard and will be a good size for baby and handy being so close to the bathroom--ha! We can just hose him/her down when needed! Anyway, there's lots of work to be done on that room. Stay tuned for THAT post...

Before:

Priming:

Painting the baseboards:

And the end result--there are actually two shades that we used. Three walls are light ("Muslin" from Martha Stewart's collection) and the one wall behind the bed is a darker shade ("Homespun").

The fan is also on its way out. We'll get something that looks funkier.

And there we be! Phew! I'm tired just going through the last couple of weeks in photos! I think it's time to post this puppy and kick back and watch some TV.

Before I go, here's a quick update on the rest of the familia--Scott is in Portland this week, testing and working hard as always--which leads to winning!, but he'll be back on Friday for a good few weeks (nice!) and baby (26 weeks today--about 2 pounds and 14 inches of baby!) is doing well--kicking up a storm. We have our check up on Wednesday this week, and our "Childbirth Preparation Class" on Mother's Day weekend--awwww! :) and we are almost in the third trimester! Fun times! I'm doing fine--belly is growing, stretching and gradually taking up more room, but it's fun and everyone smiles at a pregnant woman! It's great! I'm taking a new prenatal aquafit class and it's awesome!

Hope all is well with everyone!

love

b