7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 48)

1) Countdown to my due date: t - 4weeks 5 days (assuming I go into labor on my due date). I can't believe how close I am. I remember counting the days with Joseph, but with this pregnancy it seems like the whole thing has flown by. I've barely managed to keep up with my bi-weekly pregnancy photos (I actually missed my picture holding "the sign" yesterday, but I did get a quick shot with photo booth). I have an inkling that this baby is going to come early - although I'm not sure how early I think he'll come. But I also thought our boy was a girl, so we'll see how this prediction pans out.

ready to go down the big slide

2) My patience has been somewhere along the lines of non-existent lately. I'm not sure why. Probably because I haven't been getting as much sleep. Joseph has been waking up early and I haven't been resting at all during the day because I feel the need to get stuff done. I'm going to try to take it a little more easy for a few days to see if my patience improves.

3) Nesting is in full force. I'm really glad I've been able to get a lot of things checked off my to-do list. And I'm starting to feel prepared for the baby, which is good just in case my early-arrival prediction is correct. Unfortunately, all the baby-related tasks have taken precedence over my regular cleaning schedule. I'm hoping to remedy that and do somewhat of a "deep clean" this coming week.

4) Does all the bickering about attachment parenting vs. non attachment parenting drive you nuts? It drives. me. crazy. Why can't people just parent however they like and move on with their lives? This goes for a lot of parenting stuff. All families aren't the same. There isn't a one-size-fits-all way to parent. I do enjoy a good, respectful discussion, but please no judging or assuming.

giving the Great Goofini a kiss

5) I'm going on a retreat February 1-3 before the baby arrives (assuming he doesn't make his appearance before then), and I can't wait! I'm really looking forward to having some time to relax and work on my spiritual life before the craziness of two kids hits. It will also be a good "trial run" for Joseph being away from me for a couple days. Not to mention it'll be good father-son bonding time.

6) I recently stumbled upon this blog and wanted to pass it along. I am Kristy's aide for Kindergarten CCD and I've really enjoyed getting to know her and her family this year. They're currently trying to adopt a second child, but are stuck until they can raise about $20,000. You can check out their website to find out more about them. Even if you can't contribute financially would you please join me in praying for them?

7) I can't believe Joseph is already 18 months old! He continues to grow at a crazy pace and amaze me with all the new things he learns every day. Happy 18 months little man!

Thanks Jen for hosting this week even though you're under the weather!

See? See?

We're in full nesting mode over here. There are lists. Lots and lots of lists. And there is organizing, purging, reorganizing, ideas and the rehashing of said ideas with the hubs.

It all started right around the new year when I realized that #2 would be here in less than 2 months and I didn't even have Joseph's new room ready yet. Actually, I hadn't even started working on his room. Oh, I had talked about what I would do - what I needed to do. I had talked a lot about that, but I hadn't actually done anything. Then we got home from Christmas vacation and I realized we needed a little more action and a little less talk.

I ordered the crib and started searching for dressers online. Once those two items were taken care of I moved on to organizing aaaaaaall the baby clothes. So far Joseph and I have spent two afternoons organizing everything. I think one more afternoon and I'll have everything sorted into its appropriate bin and stored in its proper place.

The crib came yesterday afternoon which made me crazy happy. The store said it was going to take 2-3 weeks to come in then another 1-2 weeks to be delivered. That time line made me a little nervous because I want to transition Joseph into his new room before #2 arrives. Now all I have to do is assemble Joseph's new crib and move his clothes into his new room. We should be able to start the transition this weekend once all the essential stuff is done (the crib is the final piece of "essentials"). I can't wait!

35 weeks

In other news Joseph's vocabulary is exploding. I won't even try to list all the words he knows now (or will I?). It's really nice that he's learning so many words so quickly. It makes communicating with him much easier. I do a lot less guessing to figure out what he wants because he can (generally) verbalize his wants.

One of his favorite things to ask for/do lately is "See? See?" whenever I'm in the kitchen and especially when I'm cooking. It was really cute at first, but it's pretty impossible to actually cook while holding him so he can See? See? everything. And I'm afraid to show him how to pull up a chair to the counter so he can watch because I'm pretty sure he'd do more than just watch and we'd end up in the ER. So, for now I've whipped out the trusty old high chair (which had been retired until recently) in order for him to have a better look at what I'm doing. It usually buys me a solid 5 minutes (and sometimes even up to 15 or 20 minutes!!!) to get things done without having to constantly pick him up or hear him say See? See? a million times in a row.

A couple other cute words he's picked up are melmo (Elmo), fway (tray), pway (pray), cahm down (calm down), and pweece (please).

He can also climb in and out of his booster seat without any help now which is a huge relief for my back/ginganto stomach. So, whenever he wants to eat he just climbs in and asks for his fway (or fwoot (fruit) or whatever food it is that he wants).

Sorry guys, but I'm starting to feel the nesting itch again, so I'm off to get stuff done. Have a lovely afternoon!

7 Quick Takes (Vol. 47)

 

I've been trying to do an "update on life" post all week. Luckily, it's Friday which means I can just stuff everything neatly into 7 little snippets :)

1) Last week we headed to TN to visit my family for Thanksgiving. We left on Tuesday in an attempt to avoid traffic. We were mostly successful. Our biggest worry was having to stop a bunch because Joseph was sick (with diarrhea). Luckily, we only had one major blowout on the trip down. (Sorry if that was TMI.)

2) Wednesday, Will and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary. We kept it simple and went out to lunch at a nice restaurant with Joseph. AND we got dessert - score!
Joseph also seemed to finally have his appetite back after nearly a week of eating hardly anything. I think that was his anniversary present to us (because he's much more well behaved in restaurants when he's hungry/eating).

3) Thursday we went to mass in the morning then had a nice late Thanksgiving lunch. My dad's turkey, stuffing and gravy were delicious as usual. But, I think my favorite part of Thanksgiving is the sides.

4) Friday we celebrated birthdays. Four of them to be exact - Will's, my sister, Alyse's, my mom's, and mine. We went out to lunch at one of my favorite restaurants then went bowling. Joseph really enjoyed watching us bowl and running all over the place. Luckily, we were the only people there for the first half of bowling (then people started trickling in).

After bowling we had a delicious cookie cake. MMMMmmmmm. If you don't have a Great American Cookie Company near you, I'm sorry. Their cookie cakes are to-die-for (or maybe my family is just weirdly obsessed with them). The closest one to me here in MD is nearly an hour away, so I try to get my fill when I'm back home in TN.

5) We attempted to take some family photos on Thanksgiving, but that was a major fail. I realized after Joseph refused to cooperate that he was probably hungry. Lesson learned: make sure Joseph is well-fed before attempting a photo session.

6) Saturday was Will's birthday. He wanted to watch the Ohio State vs. Michigan game for his birthday. So, I packed while he watched the game. Then we left to come home late that afternoon (again, to avoid Thanksgiving traffic).

7) Unrelated to last week - I'm so excited the Christmas season is upon us. I'm hoping to decorate the house tomorrow. I've already started playing Christmas music. It makes me so happy and calm and happy. We're sticking with our little 4-foot tree again this year, but I can't wait to bring out the nativity sets and Christmas lights. And I especially can't wait to see Joseph's reactions to it all.

That's all for now in Casa de Rayel. I hope you have a lovely weekend. For more quick takes go visit Jen at Conversion Diary.

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 45)

1) I taped all the flaps in our lift the flap books last week. I was tired of the flaps ripping and decided there had to be a better way. So, I took packing tape and taped the front and back of every. single. flap. This included the repair of a couple flaps that had already been ripped off, but that I had saved to fix. So far, so good. We haven't had any flap mishaps since the taping.

2) We bought a couch over Labor Day weekend and it finally arrived last Friday. I love it! It's so nice to have somewhere to sit/lay while Joseph is playing in the play room.

3) This is Joseph's favorite use of the couch...

...watching people and cars go by. He waves at them when they drive by. Maybe one day someone will wave back.

4) This past weekend Will and I attended the Indian Summer Ball to support The Northwest Center - a crisis pregnancy center and maternity home in DC. This is the second year we've gone and we have really enjoyed the event both years. I'm hoping it will become a tradition for us - especially since it's one of our favorite charities to donate to.

5) My mom also came up this past weekend to watch Joseph for us while we attended the ball. We are so thankful that she was able to make the trip up. We spent the day Saturday up in Mt. Airy at a craft fair. She was even kind enough to buy Joseph an adorable rocking chair. It's still a tiny bit too big for him to rock himself, but he really enjoys sitting in it. And he loved hanging out with his grandma!

6) I hit 22 weeks in the pregnancy on Wednesday. The documentation:

7) Joseph is starting to try and mimic what we're saying now. He's gained a few new words in the past week or so including: moo, hiss, two and three (we're still working on "one"). And just today he tried to say "meow" buuut, it still needs a little work.

Have a lovely weekend and go see Jen at Conversion Diary for more quick takes.

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 39)

1) We recently bought a freezer to replace the ancient refrigerator in our basement. I've been researching freezers for almost a year now and I finally decided what I wanted then waited for it to go on sale. I'm so excited to finally have space to be able to make (more than just one or two) meals to freeze. I'm also really excited to be able to stock up on staples when they go on sale now. So far I've only got blueberries and blueberry muffins in there, but I have big plans for filling it up.

2) Now that we have the freezer space, I've been contemplating buying half a cow from a local farmer. I don't have any farmers in particular that I'm thinking about I just like the idea. Although, I'm not sure where to go or how to figure out how much of each cut of meat to buy. When I think about it we seem to mainly use ground beef and beef tips, but I'd like to explore cooking with other cuts of beef. Do you have any tips for buying large amounts of meat from a farmer?

3) Joseph has a fetish for crawling into things...and these are only the times I've caught him on camera! It makes me smile every time I see him in a basket or container of sorts.

4) I started doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred a couple weeks ago in an attempt to lose these pesky 5 pounds that are keeping me from getting back to my pre-pregnancy weight. And, more importantly, I'd like to finally fit back into my pre-pregnancy clothes. It's going well so far, but I don't seem to have lost any weight. My clothes are fitting a little better though, but I'm still not quite where I was pre-pregnancy. Hopefully I'll see even more of a difference once I'm completely through the 30 days (or shortly thereafter).

5) Joseph likes that I've been working out, too. He especially enjoys playing with my massive 2-lb weights.

6) After poking around Jen Fulwiler's pins on Pinterest I decided to follow through on one of the pins. She pinned this idea for "Blessing Bags" where you put together bags of useful items for homeless people. You keep them in your car for any time you come across someone who is homeless and asking for money. I love this idea because I always feel like I need to do something, but don't really like to just give them money. I can't wait to hand them out, and I look forward to one day making these with Joseph.

7) Head on over to conversiondiary.com for more quick takes. Have a great weekend!!

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 24)

1) I made a to-do list this week. I know that sounds insignificant, but it's the first time I've actually made a list of things to do since Joseph was born. It's the first time I've felt like I can actually get things done with any kind regularity. So, although I have hardly touched my to-do list this week, the very fact that I made a to-do list is a step in the right direction.

2) I was able to follow my laundry schedule this week. Similar to #1, this hasn't happened since Joseph was born. It was nice not having to worry about laundry every single day. I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things - yay!

3) I realize this commercial has been around for a while, but it gets me every time.

4) Joseph went to the doctor this week. At six and a half weeks he weighed 12lbs 8oz and was 23in long - 90th percentile for weight and somewhere between 75th and 90th for height. At least I can be assured that - now that I'm spacing his feedings a little more - he isn't going hungry :)

5) This has been the week for wacky happenings here in MD. First the earthquake and now hurricane Irene. Hopefully we won't get hit too bad with the hurricane - if the forecast is bad enough I'll likely head to my parents house with Joseph for a while. It's weird that we even need to think about where to go and what to do in the event of a natural disaster.

6) Ever since Joseph was born, priority parking for me means a space right next to the cart return. As I drive into a parking lot I'm scanning for any spaces that are open next to the cart return. It's just easier to put my groceries (or whatever I've bought) into my car along with Joseph and not have to walk far away to return the cart. If I didn't get a space close enough I would have to take Joseph with me to the cart return, then haul him back to the car (and he's getting heavy to carry in his carseat).

7) Joseph makes some adorable faces. This one is my favorite. His eyes get really wide (although they aren't super wide in this pic) and he makes a perfect circle with his little mouth. Too cute!

A Trip Down Memory Lane

I meant to write this post several days ago, but...life happened. Anyway, August 17 marked one year from the day I started this blog. (Woohoo!) So, I figured I'd take a minute to remember why I even decided to start blogging in the first place. It all started with this fiasco - my first clear sign that I have no idea how to run a house. Seeing as how I had only been at home full time for a couple months at that point I was sure there would be many more incidences like it, and it was just too hilarious not to share. Luckily, everything got cleared up fairly quickly, and I haven't really had any more incidences like that again.
There is (of course) a lot that goes in to running a house and home ownership in general, and I've documented some of my attempts at these tasks. Over the past year I have learned about gardening (whether I like yard work or not), a little about cooking (I have particularly enjoyed trying out new recipes and sharing some of my favorites), a lot about pregnancy (and it's perks!), and now parenting. It's been fun being able to document so much, and I particularly enjoy being able to document my experiences with Joseph. It seems to much easier for me to document his milestones virtually than by keeping a journal (although I am attempting to keep a journal as well), and I love being able to share the fun (and cute!) times with all of you. Here's to another fun year blogging!

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 21)

1) I've had a pretty chill week. My to-do list was fairly minimal and most of the items on the list are things that I don't care when they get done. But, I did get through most of the items so that's good.

2) I got my hair cut this week. It's short. Very short. It's the shortest I've ever had, and I'm not sure how I feel about this. Walking out of the salon I felt pretty good - I liked the cut. Now? Well, I keep trying to run my fingers through it and there just isn't any hair for them to run through. And it'll be a while before I can have any semblance of a ponytail. If I tuck my hair behind my ears it looks....meh. Maybe I just need some time to adjust, but I have a feeling I won't ever be cutting my hair this short again.

3) All that hair I cut off? I donated it to Locks of Love, so at least it'll be going to a good cause! This is my fourth time donating, and they say it takes four "bunches" of hair (at least 10" long) to create one wig (on average). So, I guess I've officially donated one wig worth of hair in my life.

4) I have recently concluded that the best way to make sure produce doesn't go to waste is to cut it up as soon as you get home from the grocery store. This might seem obvious to some people, but I have let so much produce rot because I don't get around to using it. I find that I'm much more likely to use the produce if it's already cut up. This is particularly true for fruit in general. I'm much more likely to eat fruit that's already cut up and ready to eat rather than take the time to wash and prepare fruit every time I want some.

5) Five trees + one bush were cut down/removed this week, and my husband was ecstatic. It was actually pretty cute how happy he was. We had them cut down on Monday, and Will was working from home but didn't realize the trees were being taken down that day. He almost never comes out of his home "office" during the day except for lunch or to go to the bathroom, so I was a bit surprised when he found me and was like "did you see? they're cutting the trees down!" And he said it in the same voice you would expect from a 5 year old on Christmas morning saying "did you see? Santa brought me presents!!!" If I had known taking those trees down was going to make him so darn happy I would have done it a long time ago.

6) Two sets of curtains were hung this week. Woohoo! This was an accomplishment because I not only had to hang the curtains, but I had to install the curtain rods as well. Which took a little extra time and energy, but I'm glad I got it done.

A sneak peek at the baby's room :)

7) My favorite Facebook post of the week goes to Mary. As a fellow math major (and teacher) I got a kick out of this.
"Thank god this is a spoof. (eerily believeable though...)"

Miss USA 2011 — Should Math Be Taught In Schools?

www.youtube.com

Watch the original Miss USA evolution video here:http://youtu.be/UkBmhM0R2A0 Video by @mackenzief, @kevgot, Leslie Collins, @gracehelbig, @lorrainecink, @je...

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 20)

1) I love my pampered chef "cool and serve tray." It rocks my socks off. I love how versatile it is. I love that it keeps food cool. I love everything about it. I've only had it for a few months now and have already used it a bunch. I have used it to serve fruit, deviled eggs and store/transport cup cakes. And the fact that it's dishwasher safe ain't too shabby either :)

www.pamperedchef.com

2) I learned this week to never let fruit juices sit for a period of days enclosed in a serving container on your counter. When I finally got around to washing my "cool and serve tray" after taking fruit to a dinner this past weekend, I was greeted by quite an unpleasant smell not to mention some weird growths. You can be sure I won't make that mistake again!

3) I have a newfound drive to go out and do some yard work after getting an estimate for how much it would cost to have a landscaper come in and clean up our yard. And we're not talking anything fancy - just weeding, trimming bushes, and various other basic yard maintenance things. The estimate was easily three times what I would be willing to pay, so...yea. I guess that leaves me with a lot of work to do! Although, I am considering offering to pay the neighbor's kids to come over and weed a bit. We'll see how that pans out.

4) The car seat has been installed and checked. That means we're officially ready for baby Joseph. Yay!

5) I've been working on putting together this TV stand for a couple weeks now. It's taking a while because I can only do so much at once before I get winded/exhausted. Assembling this thing is taking more squatting and crouching than I anticipated. Hopefully it'll be done before Joesph gets here so the extra TV in the living room can finally be moved.

6) Does anyone else get frustrated/overwhelmed with the sheer number of papers that come into your home? I feel like this is something my mother used to make comments about, and she was always ready to toss any papers that she deemed useless. I think I'm beginning to understand her sentiments. We get so much junk mail. And even the papers I need or want to keep for whatever reason seem to pile up. I just don't understand where they all come from. And speaking of random papers - let's talk about getting put on mailing lists you never signed up for. I've been getting all this stuff from Enfamil and I don't even plan on using formula for Joseph. I get something in the mail from them about 2-3 times a week. Talk about useless papers. Sheesh! This is a battle I will continue to fight, and one day I will WIN!

7) My favorite Facebook post of the week goes to Emily. If you'll just take a quick glance at #6 you'll know that I can understand where she's coming from - minus the exhausted part. I doubt I'm nearly as exhausted as her seeing how she has two kids to deal with every day.
"organized, and exhausted. i wish i had the energy to purge 90% of my stuff!"

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 19)

1) I reorganized all our gift wrap this week. I sorted through all the bags and boxes we have and threw away anything that I would think twice about reusing. (And if you're going to ask if I reuse gift bags the answer is heck yea!!) I also sorted the bags according to occasion. So, now we have four main sets of bags: wedding, baby, Christmas, other. Who knew organizing all that gift wrap would be so satisfying?

2) Finding a pediatrician that meets my requirements (there are only two!) is harder than I anticipated. I don't feel like I'm really all that picky. The hardest part so far has been finding a group that has both male and female doctors. I want my kids to have the opportunity to see a doctor of the same sex if they prefer when they get older - is that too much to ask? Who would have thought this small criteria would be such a limiting factor in choosing a doctor/practice? Two of the practices I've looked at were all female. One other doctor who was recommended to me is a male, but he works alone and really only does pediatrics on the side (he specializes in food allergies or something). Another group that was recommended to me has one male doctor and four or five female doctors. This group would seem to work except the one male doctor is older which probably means he'll be retiring soon and I'm not convinced they would hire another male doctor in his place when he leaves given the makeup of most of the other practices I've looked at. I have an appointment with a practice next week that seems to have a decent mix of male and female doctors and was recommended to me by a friend. Hopefully this practice will meet my one other criteria: offering Pediarix as an alternative to Pentacel (you can read about why I want this in #6 here).

3) I've recently been searching for curtain rods for both the nursery and one of our guest rooms. I've been sorely disappointed with the selection available. Everything I find seems to be made of metal. I would really like a wooden rod - I would even go for faux wood. Do they just not make those any more? I don't understand. I finally caved this week and just bought a couple rods from Target, but I'm still holding out hope that I'll find something I like better and will be able to return those rods. Maybe I'm just too uneducated in the world of interior decorating to know where to look.

4) Now that the baby is almost here, I have a serious itch to go on a vacation. Every time I get one of those Living Social or Groupon emails that features a trip I take the time to actually look at it - as if we're actually going to be traveling in the near future. To a warm, sunny place. A foreign country perhaps? Yea, right. A girl can dream :)

5) I will be chaperoning a middle school field trip for our parish youth group today. This should be fun...and interesting. I love that middle school kids are so quirky. Here's to hoping I don't topple the canoe.

6) Did I mention the field trip is outdoors? Yea. Not sure how that's going to go over. My goal will be not to die of heat exhaustion, but luckily it's only a high of 84. So, the "short hike" should be the worst part because I'm going to have to exert myself physically outdoors and wear tennis shoes. I haven't worn tennis shoes for several months now - it's just been too hot. Regardless, it *should* be a fun day :)

7) My favorite Facebook post of the week goes to my cousin, Melissa. She has three adorable sons. George in their middle son - he's 3 years old (I think). This status made me a little bit nostalgic and want to go home to good 'ol Rocky Top!
"George where do you live? : Tennessee. Good, what city? : Rocky Top! ; )"

7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 18)

1) I'm officially due one month from today! That's a little crazy to think about. But Will and I are excited and ready to meet our son whenever it is he decides to make his grand appearance.

2) My Fuzzi Bunz came in this week! I waffled back and forth with whether I really wanted to go with cloth diapers for a while, but my thrifty side eventually took over and I decided we're just going to dive in head first. My sister uses Fuzzi Bunz and loves them. And I was able to get some experience with them when I watched my nephew for a week, so I'm not too worried about whether I'm going to like cloth diapering or not. Plus, the long-term savings seriously spoke to my heart.
Joseph is going to have the most stylin' diapers on the block. I'm so excited to get started using them. How will I decide which color to put on him first? ...I guess I shouldn't agonize over that too much as I'm sure he'll have the opportunity to try out each and every color on a daily basis for a while :)

3) I told you about our dusty vent earlier this week, but what I didn't mention is that I also got around to dusting our baseboards. You see...it never really occurred to me that baseboards needed dusting on any kind of regular basis. Sure, I dust the baseboards in the bathrooms when I clean the bathroom floor. But none of the other baseboards in our house had been touched - until last weekend, that is (except for maybe a quick wipe down in preparation for painting). Needless to say, they were pretty gross. I'm glad I got around to cleaning them before the baby arrives, sticks his little hands all over those dust/dirt covered baseboards and then sticks those same adorable hands in his mouth! I also decided while in the midst of crouching down to clean all those blasted baseboards that this would be a great chore for little people, and may very well be Joseph's first assigned chore when he gets older.

4) This is the first week in nearly a year that I didn't babysit little Alexis. It was a little weird. My days were all thrown off, and I miss her adorable self. But, I did get a fair amount done around the house and had extra time to relax. I also was able to finally schedule those appointments with pediatricians and run some long distance-ish errands. Although, I have yet to find the energy to put together that TV stand for the basement....maybe next week.

5) Last weekend Will and I got together with some friends and had a Greek feast. Each couple contributed a dish. We (read "I") decided to bring stuffed grape leaves. Until Saturday I had never in my life made stuffed grape leaves. It was an experience to say the least (in a good way!). Keep your eye out for a post detailing this adventure soon!

6) I had my first pediatric/prenatal consultation yesterday. The visit went well. I really liked the doctor and the practice. During my "consultation" I brought up some concerns I have regarding vaccines - most of which I have already talked over with my dad (also a pediatrician). I thought some of you might be interested in an article my dad wrote regarding the connections between four vaccines our children get and abortion (4 standard vaccines given to children are grown on aborted fetal lung cell tissue). In the article he discusses an ethical alternative for one of these vaccines. For a more complete explanation you can check out his article here.

7) My favorite Facebook post of the week goes to Dave. I liked this post for a couple reasons: 1) "Do the Right Thing" was filmed in Bed-Stuy where I lived for a year while volunteering with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, so I *heart* that movie, and 2) he's totally right, the heat has been insane this week.
"Man, that is some Do The Right Thing type heat out there..."

Our Dusty Vent

I've been trying to clean the house in anticipation of baby Joseph's arrival. Nesting instinct? Well, I wouldn't say I'm gung ho with this whole process but it is constantly on my mind. So, I figured I should at least do some random things as far as cleaning goes. One particular cleaning task my mother pointed out when she was here for my baby shower was that the return air vent upstairs needed some serious TLC. Ever since she mentioned it I have noticed that disgusting vent every single time I walk up the stairs.
Yesterday I had my husband help me take down that large ceiling vent so I could clean it. It was in pretty bad shape. It's a return air vent, so there was ALL KINDS of dust and dirt on it....

That picture doesn't do it justice. It almost looks clean there compared to what I remember it looking like...you'll just have to trust me when I say there was dust literally just hanging off it.
The first step in the cleaning process involved me simply running water and my hand over the vent to remove the large chunks of dust - blech! I then took a rag to it and quickly realized that I needed to actually get in between every single vent hole. So, I broke out the q-tips.
While the q-tips did a great job cleaning, it was taking forever and making quite a mess in the tub. Even though I was making progress I just didn't have that kind of patience and my back and legs just weren't going to let me continue much longer. You can see the "before" and "after" cleaning with q-tips in the picture below.

In order to spare my back from crouching/kneeling and leaning over the tub any longer I decided to whip out the pressure washer to clean the vent. Why didn't I think of this sooner?

I wish I had thought to take a picture of the cleaned vent before I uploaded this series of pictures. Alas. I did not. Perhaps I'll post one later once I get a chance to put the vent back up.
Until then I need to clean the tub....

At long last...

After many days of searching. After many days of me asking my husband if he knew where they were, and him consistently replying that he, in fact, did not know where they were. After lots of thought and searching through every room in our house multiple times. I finally decided to do a "thorough search" through the house going room by room, drawer by drawer, cushion by cushion until I found them.
I searched the den. Nothing.
I searched the kitchen. Nothing.
And then....I searched the dining room. It is here that I found them.

My scissors! My mind is now at ease. I knew they had to be somewhere. Who knew "somewhere" would be on the dining room table between the diaper bag and a basket full of baby toys?
Now I can go clip those coupons that have just been waiting to be clipped. Now my week can go on without that nagging thought - where could they possibly be!? - constantly running through my head. Now I can stop asking my husband if he knows where they are. Now I can get a move on preparing for baby Joseph's arrival.

7 Quick Takes Friday...err... Saturday! (Vol. 14)

Before I jump into my 7 quick takes I would just like to say this is only late because Blogger was down all of Thursday evening through most of Friday. I even had this thing written ahead of time (minus the pictures being inserted)! 
Also, I decided to deviate from how I normally do my 7 quick takes and go with a theme this time since much of my week has been filled with getting the closet organizer in the nursery installed. So, without further ado I present to you:

The 7 Steps of Installing a Closet Ogranizer

Step 1: Get excited. You've just bought a beautiful new closet organizer that's going to make your life so easy - and organized! 

Step 2: Brace yourself. You actually have to install this thing, but before you can do that you must first remove the old shelf + clothing rod. Be sure you rip off some paint and drywall in this process - remember you're always looking for opportunities to give yourself more work.

Step 3: Open the box and begin to read the directions. After reading steps 1 and 2 you can take a break because you just realized that you need a 1/2" drill bit and a step stool. And by "take a break" I mean put off installing the closet organizer for a couple weeks. During this brief hiatus you can also ponder where the studs are and how this is going to impact the installation process. Go to your local hardware store and purchase said items.

Step 4: Now that you have all your stuff in order, begin the installation process. When you get stuck trying to get the toggle bolts through the 1/2" holes you just drilled take another 2 day break to ponder how you're going to overcome this hurdle.

1/2" holes that toggle bolts wouldn't fit through

Step 5: Don't fee like an idiot. The directions didn't tell you the hole would need to be slightly larger than 1/2". Expand drilled holes as necessary to accommodate the toggle bolts then finish installing the closet organizer.

The horizontal and vertical tracks on the right
side of the closet have been installed.

The (almost) completed project.

All that's left to do is have my husband finish screwing in
this bolt and fill those extra holes I drilled. Oh yea - and fix
the paint/drywall.

Step 6: Admire the work you've just done, and start planning your next shopping spree. You know, the one for the cute baskets that will go on the shelves you just installed in order to complete this organization endeavor. Don't forget to prepare your husband for this upcoming shopping expense :)

Step 7: Celebrate all your hard work and do-it-yourself skillz by making yourself a delicious smoothie.

Yumm!