sewing room

The third car garage of our house had been converted into a work room of sorts by the previous owners.  We thought it was a meth lab.  It had special ventilation, all sorts of pipes and computer-monitored mixing systems, and water filter systems, plus it smelled really weird.  I'm sure it was all the Breaking Bad watching we had been doing, but we worried it was a meth lab.  Turns out it was a dark room.  The previous owner was a photographer.  Oh.

Anyway, the "meth lab" became our dumping room.  It held all the boxes and things we didn't want to deal with when we moved in.  It was nasty.  

Fast forward to school being over, me being 8.5 months pregnant, and I wanted to start sewing.  I love to sew!  My poor sewing machine had been packed away forever, and I was ready to get it out.  Babies were coming, and I needed to get creating!  The only problem was, was I needed a space to do it.  Enter nasty meth lab.  

I wish I got a true before with all the boxes and junk still in this little room. 

 But let me tell you, this room was DIRTY!  The matte black walls were just covered in dust of some sort.  

 So these pictures are after I've already cleared out the room and started painting those lower cabinets.  I promise, it already looks 58x better.  

And after:

 I still need to get a real table to sew on since this card table shakes every time I start up my machine, but hey, it's a surface!  

Bernina love!

 And I want to paint the floor...

 and still need to take care of the lower wall area, but I can sew!!

I made these shoes and onesies for Tara's baby.

 And these gender neutralish wannabe Vans for our baby.  

I love my meth lab-turned sewing room!

men love power tools

This is a sad story.

We have a huge tree in the front yard, and I LOVE it!

It is one of the reasons I really loved this house when we were looking for houses.

But the HOA apparently doesn't love it.

Because it hangs over the road.

Give me a break!

So we got some tree trimming quotes.

$500.

Seriously!?  To trim a tree?!!?

So Ryan set out to do it himself.  He shimmied up the tree, tied him and the chainsaw to a branch, and tried to cut off some branches.  

But it was hot, and he was really high, and next thing I know, he almost passes out.

willow before

 So instead of passing out and falling out of a tree, Ryan got a bucket truck.

Exhibit A: Ryan in bucket truck

 This handy bucket truck Ryan could control from the bucket and raise himself to wherever he needed to be to cut the poor tree limbs.  

Exhibit B: Ryan about to cut tree limb

 Ryan was out there for 5 hours cutting this thing!

Because once he got the limbs down, he needed to cut and pile those so the city pick-up would come and get the branches.

 Oh, and I was in the house, doing my Saturday chores, and Ryan kept having me come outside to see what I thought about what branch to cut, bring him water, etc.  The funny thing is, is I was wearing this:

for your viewing pleasure

 You see, I have some pretty funny girlfriends who gave me a birthing baby gift.  It included  things like stool softeners, hemorrhoid cream, nipple cream, etc.; and this lovely little number.  They may have thought this gorgeous pink cherry nightgown was a joke, but once I tried it on, it was no joke!  I was wearing it all day on the tree trimming day.  So each time I went outside to observe/help Ryan, at least one neighbor would catch  me in this.  

Fortunately my neighbors are awesome, and they'd say it was cute (lie), or say "you're 9 months pregnant, wear whatever you want!" (truth).  

I love this nightgown.

And that's the story about how Ryan appeased the HOA, and saved us $500, and I gave my neighbors something to laugh about.  

Willow after.

Ryan rules.

babies are coming... 37 weeks

My sister, Tara, and I had our boys on the same day 7 years ago.  Since then, she had two more, and we thought our baby years were behind us.  So it was a super surprise when we found out that we were pregnant together again, our estimated due dates only three days apart!

She's having a girl, we're having a surprise!  I wanted to be surprised with Gwen and Drake, but Ryan wanted to know, so I agreed.  This time, I'm taking the reigns.  This might be our last baby, so why not do it the way I want to?  Luckily, Ryan eventually got on board and is down for a surprise.

Anyhow, Tara needed a last trip before the baby comes.  We try to have a mom/sisters trip every summer, but that stupid bar got in the way.  So we planned a last minute one, right before these bellies burst.

While it was not well documented with pictures, we had a ton of fun.  Pool, pedis, eating, talking, laughing... all things a girls weekend should be.

Tara's baby is going to be like 10 pounds!!

Now, because her baby is gigantic, she's scheduled to be induced on Friday.  I don't think I'll be going that early, so our babies won't share a birthday again.  :(

But let me tell you about my Drakey boy.  He is the sweetest thing.  He loves this baby so much, and he insists on taking care of me.  If I need to pick up anything, he says, "no mom, let me get that, you're pregnant".  If I need something from upstairs, he says, "I'll get it for you mom, you're pregnant".  He's my water boy, always refilling my water cup, and he's always wanting to touch and kiss my belly, and talks to the baby.  I love it.  

36 weeks

 A week ago, it was raining really hard here.  (it was awesome!!)  Well I was on my way to go get a facial my girlfriends gave me for graduation, and was going down the stairs to the girl's studio, when I slipped and fell down a few stairs.  It was scary, but more embarrassing since she heard me.  Anyway, since then, Drake reminds me before he goes to school each day to "wear your belly band, and hold on to the hand rails when you're going down stairs."  What a sweet heart.

Also... nesting.  This baby doesn't have any clothes yet.  I have three onesies, that need to be washed, no blankets, burp cloths, bottles, stroller, etc.  I started to panic the other day, and decided that maybe we should do a shower before the baby comes.  We were going to wait until after the birth so we know if it's a boy or girl, but we'll go ahead anyway.
But I do have a cute crib my friend Jen gave me, and I did buy and wash the crib sheet!  See, I'm getting ready.  ;)

 And here I am.  37 weeks pregnant.  Full term.  And I promise, I do put on clothes and make up most days.  But apparently I don't take pictures on those days to prove it.  

You can see that the baby's dropped.  Which means I have more room to eat more!  But I do pee about every 14 minutes.

37 weeks

I have a good friend who's been doing a weekly update on her blog about her pregnancy.  It's so cute, and now I wish I had been more diligent about documenting this.  I was fine doing without taking belly pictures, until I was looking for pictures of me pregnant with Gwen and Drake, and only found one picture of my belly with Gwen, and none with Drake!  So even though I feel extremely unattractive, I will take some pictures anyway so when I look for pregnant pictures in 7 or 17 years, I will have some.  

And still, just about everyday, Ryan and I will look at each other and say, "I can't believe we're having a baby!"  Still shocking.  Still exciting.  Can't wait to meet this baby!