Our Home Makeover

Never before would I have described myself as someone who is passionate about home decorating, but this pregnancy has done something very strange to me and gotten me interested in things I never pursued before. Case in point: decorating our house. I have always enjoyed having things neat and tidy and over the years I have bought some cheap decorative things to make our space pretty and stylish, but I would never go so far as to say that I knew what I was doing in that department.

Now I am obsessed. It’s all I can think about, and many of my internet surfing time these days is spent looking at home decor and decorating tips. I visit this blog every day, I can’t get enough of it.

Which brings us to the decorating nightmare I like to call my “living room project”.

It all started with me wanting to “prettify” our living room. I thought I had a photo to demonstrate the dire circumstances of this room only two months ago, but alas, I cannot find it. Let’s just say the carpet was brown, the couches were black leather with holes in them, the walls were tan, and the rest of the room consisted of Mark’s ode to watching television (aka 7 speakers, a subwoofer, and a 42″ TV). It was a “man room”. It bothered me somewhat before but now in my pregnant nesting state it became an eyesore I could no longer bear. So Mark and I had “the talk” and I convinced him of my need for some femininity in that room, stat.

So I went to work. Of course we do not have oodles of money to throw at such a project, so the possibilities were not endless. I surfed craigslist, I enlisted the help of my good friend Elena, and I started dreaming of a room that I would love and feel comfortable and beautiful to spent a large quantity of time it during the upcoming months of confinement after the baby arrives.

Phase 1- We bought a used bookcase, something we needed since moving in- our old one did not fit. Only after we got it home did I realize that it was an antiqued white that looked awfully yellow next to our tan walls. So then I started the arduous project of refinishing them in pure white. They look great but man, what a project!

Next, I bought a blue rug for a great price that I thought I loved. Mark and I had both loved our old rug but it just didn’t work with our black couches (try explaining that to your hubby though, mine just did not get it). The plan was to relocate the brown rug to our bedroom since I couldn’t bear to part with it. After a week with the blue rug Mark and I agreed that it just didn’t work. I loved the colors, but not the pattern and it just didn’t feel like “us”:

Phase 2-So we resold the rug on craigslist (at a huge profit mind you), and took the plunge- selling our black couches and ottoman as well and buying a used couch to match a brown leather recliner we already had. The room finally started to take on the feel I had hoped for. I was starting to see the possibilities. Unfortunately, Mark was not happy with the level of comfort with our new furniture since he requires the utmost reclining, relaxing, comfyness to make his evenings enjoyable. Can you blame the guy? He sits at a computer all day! I had finally gotten my dream couch and it just wasn’t satisfying knowing that the hubs couldn’t chill out, max, and relax the way he had hoped. Bummer.

So at this point we were at a loss for what to do. Does anyone else struggle with having such different styles as their spouse? I never realized before how differently I would decorate our home than Mark would. I never bothered to ask him what he liked before, and now I see that we do not have the same style at all! It’s frustrating but at the same time I am enjoying getting to know this side of Mark I didn’t know before.

I would describe my own decorating style as casual and eclectic. I like brown leather, “pops” of color and interesting and bold patterns and prints. I like large photos, mostly of our family, for the walls. I like a room that feels “lived-in” and practical, but with my own loud personality evident. Mark tends toward the side of comfort and practicality. He wants things to be as comfortable as possible and doesn’t like things that don’t serve a purpose.

We threw around the idea of reselling the couch and moving the recliner back to it’s spot in the den, but what to replace it with? We tried to find a couch that meets Mark’s need for reclining and my need for stylish appearance but I tell you- such a couch does not exist! We did find a sectional we both could live with, but it was massive and would not fit in our space. I kept feeling like there was something important I was missing. Like the magic solution was right under my nose and I wasn’t seeing it.

Then my friend Elena came up with a brilliant idea. Why are we pushing so hard to have everything in that one small living room? We have two living spaces. Our other living space is currently a den that we use mostly for our computers and nothing else. It’s off the kitchen, further from the bedrooms and it it not being used to the fullest extent we should be using it. Why not give Mark his “man room” by moving all the TV equipment to the den and buying a reclining couch that Mark loves? It can be as casual and comfortable a room as Mark likes and we can spend many a relaxing evening watching movies together on our comfy cozy couch. I won’t feel the need to decorate it since it’s not the first room you see when you walk into our house. Then, the living room can become my “girlie room” where my home office will be and I can feel free to decorate as much as I want and even toss a few throw pillows on the couch without fear of ruining the comfort of my hubby. Brilliant.

So we went to work yet again. This time, though, I had a renewed excitement about the project. I finally felt like we had stumbled upon the perfect solution. Even though it saddens me a bit that Mark and my styles cannot really co-exist in one room, I am happy that we found a solution that we can both live with. So last month, while our houseguests were in town, we made the switch. We then lived for another few weeks with the rooms unfinished as we awaited the arrival of Mark’s “man cave couch” (think dark brown leather with built-in recliners). Now we have put the finishing touches on our spaces and while I’m not sure that my room will ever feel “completed”, I am really happy with it. Reese and I spend so much time in it every day and I love that she has the space to pull out her toys and play on the floor nearby while I work at my computer. I also love that the furniture I worked so hard on allows me to easily ans quickly clean up the room and hide away my desk. So if you ever stop by at a moment’s notice and are impressed with the cleanliness of my front room, know that I was probably madly tossing toys in baskets moments before you knocked on the door. It feels farmiliar, warm, and stylish. Best of all, it feels like home.

Here is the result, and we love it!

For the record, pretty much everything you see was a craigslist find. I am especially proud of the computer armoire which I found of craigslist for $40 and persuaded Mark to go pick up for me. It was off-white and needed a little TLC, so I refinished it last month in the rich red it is now. I love that I can hide away my desktop by simply closing the doors and yet I spend much of my time working on my computer and it’s nice to have it in this room where Reese and I spend most of our days. The bookcases also were a craigslist find and I refinished them as well. I got some tips on styling the bookcase from this YHL post.

Another refinishing project I completed in the last month was this dresser for the baby’s room. I found it on craigslist and it has some scratches and gouges in it so I sanded it down and repainted it the same color.

The makeover is almost complete. I still have a few things to hang on the walls and a few room arrangement changes to make but it feels so nice to be on the other side of things now and just in time for the nesting instinct to wear off. I love walking into our home now and feeling that homey feel I so love. It was a lot of work but I am happy with the result.

Now who wants to come over and visit?

Due

It’s the 22nd of November.

I should be at the hospital having a baby.

I have been patient for 9 months now. There is a limit to how long that patience will last.

Baby, we had an agreement. For the last 40 weeks I have given you a nice cozy oven to bake in. I gave in to your “need” for ice cream, Halloween candy, and other sweet and fattening foods. I made sure you had plenty of water even though it meant I had to visit the bathroom multiple times during each night. I gained weight for you. I vomited because of you. I had to buy new clothes to wear to fit you here in my belly. I did all this because I love you and I wanted you to grow and be ready to join our family.

We had a deal. 40 weeks. Then I get my body back. 40 weeks. That’s all you get!

Yet, here we are. 40 weeks to the day and you have made no indication that you plan on vacating the premises any time soon. What gives? Haven’t I kept up my end of the bargain?

Today I am supposed to be having a baby. Instead I….

Cleaned both bathrooms. I mean- spic and span, on my hands and knees scrubbing the floors- cleaned the bathrooms.

While Mark cleaned and organized his side of the closet.

I cleaned Reese’s room.

I cleaned our room, including stripping the bed and moving it with Mark, vacuuming under it, then rolling out our new rug, putting the bed back together and making the bed and vacuuming the rug.

I got baby things ready like moving the bassinet into our room.

I readied the guest room for my sister Kellee and her husband Jared who will be arriving tonight to help us out for the next week.

I deep-cleaned the kitchen including pulling everything off the counters and wiping behind and under them.

I dusted and helped Mark clean the “man cave”.

And to top it all off, I made this from scratch:

It’s eggpant parmesan. My friend Wendee’s hypnobirthing instructor swears by this recipe. Supposedly it will make you go into labor within 48 hours. It’s been 24 hours and I have had three helpings and I still no baby. Oh well, it was worth a shot.

And what, you may ask, has the soon-to-be big sister of the house been doing today?

If only we could all be so easily amused today.

Well, I think my plans for being home in time for Thanksgiving are out the window. Hey Baby? You wanna give me a rough estimate how much longer you want to stay in there?

Then and Now

Lately I have been acutely aware of how much my little girl is growing up. Maybe it is the fact that we are about to have a newborn around again (weird!) but I keep realizing that Reese is getting older and smarter every day and I feel like it is all going so fast. She is terribly excited to be a “big stister” and talks every day about “baby stister” and how she wants to give her a “baba milk” and that she is going to go over to grandma’s house when “baby stister” is born. She often puts her hands on my belly and asks in whispers if the baby is sleeping. I am not as afraid anymore about having a toddler and a newborn because Reese is so much easier these days. I just know she will be a good helper.

For all those who did not hear, I do not have to have a C-section. My placenta finally moved enough by my 36-week appointment that I have been cleared at this point for a normal delivery. I had mixed feelings when I got this news. Part of me was glad to not have the recovery and scars that come with C-sections. The other part of me was a bit disappointed that it will not all be as easy as scheduling a date for the baby to be born and waltzing into the hospital for a quick and relatively easy delivery. However, we would have had the c-section this week if that had been the case, and I am grateful that I still have another 11 days to accomplish a few things considering I am still training my replacement at SmugMug AND designing a wedding album that needs to be ordered before baby girl comes into my life and makes me a sleepless zombie.

Mark has been cracking me up lately with his nervousness about another labor and delivery. He brought up the need for us to pack our hospital bags when I was only 33 weeks along. He also suggested that if I go into labor in the middle of the night, even if It’s not time to go to the hospital, we should wake up Reese and all go over to his parent’’s house because they live so close to the hospital. Hello! We only live 15 minutes from the hospital ourselves and last time I was in labor for 63 hours. I am pretty sure we can make it to the hospital from our house when the time comes, with more than enough time to spare. I love that he is so worried though. It makes me feel cared for and safe.

I am still nervous about giving birth again and the only thing that makes it worth it at this point is to get rid of this discomfort. The only thing that makes giving birth a little more appealing at this point is the knowledge that I won’t have to be pregnant anymore. I am uncomfortable about 90% of the time and the other 10% I am probably asleep and still uncomfortable but don’t know it. Man I can’t wait to not be pregnant anymore!

So in honor of the soon to be “Big Stister” of the house, I have a little photo comparison for you since I seem to be much better at taking photos of my child around this time of year for some reason…

Reese with the bunnies at the pumpkin patch her first Halloween:

Reese at the pumpkin patch with the bunnies last year:

Reese at the pumpkin patch with the chickies (the bunnies were all caged) this year:

Reese on the tractor last year:

Reese on the tractor this year:

Reese with her buddy Luke at the pumpkin patch last year:

Reese with her buddy Luke this year at the pumpkin patch:

Reese at the orchard with Luke last year:

Reese with Luke at the orchard this year:

Can you believe the hair growth on this little one?

It’s raining, it’s pouring…

Well, lately my life has been a perfect illustration of the saying “when it rains, it pours”. How ironic that the last week has been rainy and wet. Reese seems to enjoy the rain though, it gives her a reason to wear her kitty raincoat and boots and stomp around in the puddles. I, on the other hand, have been using the rain as an excuse to hibernate and drink obscene amounts of hot chocolate. Can you believe Mark took Reese shopping last spring while I was out of town on one of my many business trips and bought her this cute rain get-up? He is such a super-dad!

Last weekend we had not one, not two, but four house guests all at the same time. Mark’s roommate from college who works for SmugMug remotely from Utah now comes out and stays with us for work about once a month. It just happened that this month his visit coincided with the visit of my sister and her husband who came to visit for the weekend before heading to Disneyland. We also had an additional unexpected visitor-Mark’s old mission companion drove out for a wedding and needed a place to stay. It was quite the party at the MacAskill abode, that’s for sure.

To top off the chaos, Mark took advantage of having some men around to help and enlisted our house guests for our big room swap in which we moved all the entertainment equipment into the den in preparation for Mark’s “Man Cave” transformation. I have a big post in the works about the crazy results of my nesting this pregnancy, so I will leave the details for that post, but let’s just summarize by saying that Mark and I recently decided that his entertainment equipment and my throw pillows and decorative knick-knacks could not happily coexist in the same room any longer. Our house guests were very understanding and helpful with our project but I have a feeling they left thinking we have gone absolutely mad as the weekend included mounting our TV on the wall above the fireplace, me successfully convincing Mark and Dustin to pick up a computer armoire I found on craigslist for only $40, cleaning out the garage, and me finding a perfect chair for my new computer armoire at a garage sale around the corner from our house as we were driving home and immediately walking over to buy it for only $10. Maybe we are crazy, or maybe I’m the one that’s gone crazy and Mark’s just along for the ride because he knows better than to argue with his crazy pregnant nesting wife. Who cares? If being crazy means my house will be cute and in order for the arrival of this baby, I’ll take it. I have already painted the armoire red and started planning where to put things in my stylin’ family room.

The Saturday we were hosting this random group of people also happened to be the day of my baby shower. I am incredibly blessed and lucky to have some amazing friends and family who put together a beautiful and fun shower for me even though I am expecting for the second time and with another girl no less. It was so nice to see so many of my friends together at the same time. I am also really glad my sister Kellee got to attend and meet so many of my close friends. The food was delicious, and the company was divine. Thanks so much for putting on such a great party Kim, Jen, and Tiffanie! I feel so special and loved. Your friendship means so much to me and I’m so lucky to have you girls in my life! (And a special thanks to Jen for thinking to take pictures. I love having the reminders of this special day.)

Left to right: My pregnant self, Tiffanie, Kim, and Jen- the hostesses of this rockin’ party.

My good friend Elena who drove all the way from Walnut Creek to come to the party.

Left to right: Whitney, Lindsey, and Kim- all of whom recently had babies of their own who will probably be fun playmates for our little one.

left to right: Julianne and Mikila

Can you believe Tiffanie made this beautiful diaper cake? Um, yeah- amazing! I have very talented friends. You should see the quilt Jen is making for baby girl, it’s going to be stunning.

How fun is that? My sister-in-law Kim and my sister Kellee having a good laugh together. Love it.

As soon as the last out-of-towner had left there was no time to rest and recharge my batteries, I was scheduled to host my friends for our monthly Bunco night and being the perfectionist I have become lately, I had to get it just right. I made all my favorite holiday foods, bought prizes that were perfect for getting into the Fall spirit, and cleaned my house within an inch of it’s life. The day of Bunco I realized 15 minutes before people started to arrive that I had not sat down or eaten since first thing in the morning. This is just one example of the many ways I have become OCD lately. I become obsessed with a project until it’s complete and it’s hard to see past the blinders. Luckily Bunco was a success and I won’t be hosting again for a year, at which point I hope to be normal again.

I am still editing the last of my photo shoots. I am looking forward to the long sabbatical I will be taking from shooting anything other than my own little girls. I am a bit burnt out to be honest and I hope that when I start shooting again it will be fresh and new and I will have my creative juices flowing again. It’s very exciting to me to think about only having to worry about being a mom for a short while and there may be days that I will get bored, but at least I will feel like I am not stretching myself too thin.

I have one more ultrasound in a week that will determine whether or not I still have placenta previa and need a c-section. As of my 34-week ultrasound my placenta still has not moved enough. Apparently, your placenta must be 3 cm away from your cervix to be cleared for normal delivery. Mine is 1.8 cm away from my cervix. Yeah. That’s right. I might have to have a c-section because of a lousy 1.2 cm. Bummer.

Baby X is still active and healthy. I am 35 weeks along. I’m large, uncomfortable and pretty much ready to not be pregnant any more. On the flip side though-I am not ready to have a newborn yet. When Mark and I walked out of our ultrasound on Monday realizing that we may have a c-section at 38 weeks, I asked Mark how he felt about having a baby in just 4 weeks instead of 6 weeks. His response? ” Sure, bring it on!”. My response? “NO! No, no no. I’m not ready yet. I have a list of things to accomplish before this baby arrives and I need those extra two weeks. This baby is not allowed to come until then. She will just have to wait.”

The rain has actually been a blessing in disguise. I loved all the chaos but now that it’s over, I am using the weather as a reason to stay home and check things off of my to do list. Besides, hanging out in my sweats all day is the only way I’m even remotely comfortable anyways. So if you are wondering why I haven’t been around lately, I’m being a slug. Sorry to disappoint. I’m sure I will come out of my shell a few more times before the baby arrives. Until then, let it pour!

For Posterity…

…and not because I necessarily want to remember what it’s like to put on 20 lbs.

Some of you may remember this post when my dear friend Jackie took photos of me and I had only two weeks to go until Reese was born.

Yeah, sad that I am as big now as I was then and I still have 9 weeks to go. Yay for second babies!!!!

In all seriousness though, I didn’t want to have my photo taken all that much this time around, but I thought that baby #2 would feel snubbed if she didn’t have even one good photo of me while I was pregnant with her. So baby girl, this one is for you. It didn’t hurt that Jackie insisted and she has amazing skillz with a camera! I mean really– who else could make me look like this after a full day at Gilroy Gardens with 20lbs of extra weight to lug around in the 90 degree weather?! Yeah. SKILLZ.

A Full Summer

To say that life has been crazy lately would be a big understatement. There have been days that I dread, and few that I have looked forward to. I thought it was time for a nitty-gritty update, and sadly I have neither the time nor the creativity at the moment to write a flowery or poetic post. This makes me sad. I have always loved blogging. It makes me feel like I have returned a bit to my high school days when I used to keep notebooks full of my thoughts and writing. I love coming up with witty phrases, interesting titles, and epic ending lines. Somehow that has been lost to me in the last few months (possibly because this baby insists on sucking every ounce of creative energy out of me). So boring me will be updating you all today in a scattered-sort of way.  Welcome to my brain these days!

Girlfriends

Tonight I couldn’t go to bed without first writing a small note about how lucky I am to have such great friends. I feel so overwhelmed this week with the amazing women in my life who have chosen me for a friend. I am all to often surrounded by some of the most talented, smart, warm, generous, and put-together friends and in that moment I think- “Why in the world would these women want to spend their time with me?!”. They are fabulous in too many ways to name and I feel lucky to have so much support and advice from people in my life I know will always be there for me. I love this time in my life and the friendships that have come of it. I’m so blessed.

Thanks girls; for listening to me chatter on, for inviting me out, for making me feel important and for liking me despite all my obvious flaws. I don’t know what I would do without you!