What do I do with my spare time? (Alternate title: Why I don’t watch T.V.)

People take vacations to relax…not me.  I am not obsessive-compulsive or any other stupid “ailment” that armchair doctors like to throw around, but rather just a busy person who would rather live than sit around and waste time.  I make lists of  “to do” items and hold myself to them.  This, coupled with no fear of screwing things up, allows me to get a lot done when compared to the average joe…Counted my “to do” bullets and came in with a little more than 200 activities that I have been putting off until now while I have the time off from work.  Stuff like selling items on ebay, donating old clothes, attend director meetings at the Rifle club, replace timing belts on cars, rotate tires, take our loose change to the bank, finish landscaping the back yard, read a couple of books, host a couple of dinner parties, paint a couple of walls, finish wiring the alarm system, and on, and on…

The one that I am most proud of is the minor remodel of our kitchen involving a paint job and a full size, floor to ceiling, pantry.  The materials list was$195.  It took 18 hours to bust out the wall, cut the floor, rewire, re plumb, frame, finish, and paint the thing. It added a LOT of value to our house.  This will be the last real stretch of time I will have before the baby arrives.

Here is the before picture with the refrigerator slid over and the wallpaper removed (I HATE wallpaper)

Before

Here is the after picture with the shelves loaded…this cleared up 3/4 of the cabinets in our kitchen.  The only problem I have now is what to do with all that empty space.

After

This week I intend to finish all the painting, remove christmas stuff, organize the baby room, and begin working on the bathroom.  It was a mixed blessing that most of our Christmas activities happened at other people’s houses this year in that I can do stuff like this to our kitchen with little bother.  The downside is the thin, while layer of dust that is now covering everything in our house.

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Sometimes a “Blue” Christmas Isn’t So Bad

Well we just went in for our 19 week ultrasound.  We have a healthy baby and Richell is doing very well in her pregnancy.  We are over HALF way there!!!!  The most exciting part of the visit was that we found out that we are going to have a little boy.  I was impartial at first, but after visiting the toy section at Wal-Mart the other day I am beginning to be a little relieved with the news that there will not be any pink dolls in the house for at least another couple of years.  The bad thing is that we will not be able to use much of Olivia’s leftover wardrobe.

So now we can finally start picking colors for the room, furniture, registries, and most importantly…names.  This will be a lot of fun and I am extremely blessed and thankful that all is going well.

With that being said I believe that I will go back to doing laundry, painting, making phone calls, and generally straitening up the house until I have to go back to work on Friday.  Have been off for 3 weeks.  Does not take very long on my own time to figure out how much better I am at carpentry, painting, cooking, auto mechanics, teaching, and landscaping than I am at cost accounting…Having that much time off more than makes up for it.

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16 week appointment

Yesterday, Matt and I went to the doctor and I measured at 16 weeks and 3 days.  We got to hear the baby’s heartbeat, it was in the 140’s and the doctor said that was really good. We also got to hear the baby moving around, and the doctor said the baby was very active! Everything looked really good, so my next appointment is on December 29th and we will have an ultrasound at that appointment, and hopefully find out what the baby is…boy or girl. We do not care either way, just as long as the baby is healthy. Once we find out what it is, then we can start getting ideas for how to decorate the nursery. Fun stuff. Right now, I am making a red velvet cake, with some buttercream icing, and I am going to sprinkle Christmas colored Nerds on the top…I am going to call it a Nerd cake. I am bringing it to a get together tonight, so hopefully it will be tasty. It sure does smell good!

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I need some chocolate!

Hey everybody! Thought I would write a quick post. My doctor’s appointment was canceled yesterday, and it has been rescheduled for Monday December 8th. I am pretty confident that I have felt movements from the little pumpkin. They have not been constant, but it seems mostly when I eat the baby will move. I have not felt any really forceful movements, but one time it did feel like I felt the baby do a flip or two. Yesterday, I watched a bunch of TLC, I watched Bringing home Baby, and a little more of Jon and Kate Plus 8. Even though it was a little unnerving to watch some of the delivery parts on the show, I think it kind of helped me out a little. On a funnier note, I was getting ready to go to Target today, just to get out of the house, and my toilet started to make a funny noise, and the bowl filled up with water…so I had to plunge it. Luckliy it only took about ten minutes for me to get it unclogged. I guess from all the use it got the other night, it just could not take anymore. Ha! I will probably go out today to Wal-mart and the dollar store, and Target. I have to pick up some cleaning stuff. Most of the chemicals in the cleaning agents give me a sore throat, and I can’t stand the smell of them. I started using Green Works by Clorox, but I think Matt suggested that we get Simple Green. So, I will probably go look for that stuff, and I desperately need a new shower curtain liner, the one I have is getting moldy. Oh, and a couple of month ago, I bought this tablet for my toilet at Wal-mart, it is called The Works, and let me tell you it is The Works. I have not had to scrub my toilet bowl for like 2 months. The only thing is you have to be very careful when putting it in your toilet, you cannot touch it, you just have to lift the lid cut open the package, drop it in and run! Just kidding you don’t have to run, but I did. I can be such a pansy. Not much going on this weekend, except that I am watching my mom’s dog for the weekend. I guess it will give me some baby practice, because I have to give it pills and stuff. Ha! I have tons of stuff to do to the house, because Kim, Michael, and Richie are going to be here in 2 weeks. I have not put up my Christmas tree as of yet, but it is in the basement, and is too heavy for me to carry. Heck, I still have my scarecrow on my front porch. I am so scatter brained it is not funny. I am just glad that it is Friday, and that I will have Matt here for two whole days.

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What have I been doing lately?

I have been watching a lot of Jon and Kate plus Eight, while getting over the virus thing. Matt went back to work on Tuesday, and he got over the virus much quicker than I did. He has been doing laundry, and I have been doing some cleaning. My appetite has got much better, than it was yesterday, which I am very excited over! I go to the Dr. tommorrow at 1:00 for my 16 week appointment, so we are excited  about that. I will write more tommorrow…

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