All Ready for Another Baby!

We finally made the big switch of bedrooms! This project took more time then we anticipated, but now that it is done, I LOVE it! I have said it before, but I so admire how my husband can make my visions come to life!

We completely overhauled the closet. Steve told me to design what I wanted and so on  notebook paper with various markers I created this and he made it.  I love how each has their own bar and shelf.

The only thing missing from this pic is the shelf and wall decor. That made it up today. Check out all my fancy diapers for two kids. I love cloth.

There were two things I always hated about our room. 1) We had a thermostat and never a heater. It was weird. But I HAD to have a heater in a room with babies. So Steve installed one. 2) We never had a wall mounted light. We used to have to plug in a lamp in one outlet only and that worked with the switch. (thats in the other bedroom too, maybe an 80's house design thing?) Either way, Steve added a wall light and it's pretty much amazing to not have to worry about Grace and that lamp. :)

And below is our room. Well soon to be. We are currently squished in the old nursery until this is dried in and we knock the wall down. It's a tight squeeze for now for sure. The further along this addition goes the more I can really envision our house. I am so excited!!

And on to the baby - and all the false hope I had this week. I went in for my 38 week appt on Tuesday and the midwife said she had a "strong feeling" it would be within the next 48 hours. I am just waddling around nearly 4cm and was having contractions while there. Soo, since Tuesday I have had off and on contractions and various forms of pain and will get somewhat excited, then....it stops. So now Im 38w3d, contractions get stronger each day, then stop when I rest. Let me vent- WHO walks around 4cm for weeks? Seriously?!!? I know that means less work at the end but Im ready to be done! Okay, done whining....the next post will hopefully be about little man. :)

Moving Along

Our addition is finally starting to really move along now! The foundation sure took a long time with the two sets of forms, inspections, concrete...but ahhh, it's done and the floor joists are waiting on an inspection this week and then it's go time! (well go until roof time, then the county will hold us up again.) Here is a picture I took the other day with the floor partially done.

* The wall with the window will come out - that is a current bedroom and will extend out. The chimney will be coming out too. A master bath will be added in the area closest in the photo. I CANT WAIT for a second bathroom!!!

36 weeks now.

I am ready to meet our little man. Well I am, the house is far from ready (their new room currently has no carpet, half finsihed closet, and us still in it. - But as my MIL reminded me, Jesus was born in a manger.) Adding an addition AND remodeling right now...I'm learning ultimate patience!

I wish I could be one of those moms who has a baby early, but let's face reality - I most likely wont. So Im just trying to make it through each day waiting for another 4 weeks. I can analyze and research every little sign and symptom (as if I havent dont this before..) but really, he will come when he's done and ready.



Now All We Need is a Baby

~Before & After~

I have to admit I am a little embarrassed to post the "before" pictures online. Yikes! This was our spare room/dog room/guitar room/throw all our extra crap room. We had some serious work to do when we found out a baby was on the way!

Notice all the old gross carpet. And the brown walls. And all the junk!

                                                                              

And done! The bookcase is full of mine and my siblings childhood books. Steve's mom made Grace pretty pink curtains. Grandpa and Nana Corrigan bought Grace and I the glider. I see many late nights ahead there!

My husband was busy repainting the walls, installing hardwood and trim. So much more cheery for a baby!

My Dad bought us the crib as soon as he could! He wanted to make sure he was the one to give Grace her bed. :o)

I have a bit of an organization problem. All of her clothes (look at them all!!!) are sorted by size and labeled in bins. I was worried about how to make this little closet work and Steve creatively built in all the shelving for me. He is so handy! He makes all my visions come to life!

Toys that grandparents couldn't resist!

Less than a month until my due date! We will see if she lasts that long. Momma has a feeling she will surprise us all a bit early. :o)

Summer Projects and Fun

There is never a dull moment in our house! Steve's buddy gave him and old canoe and he is custom making it for me! Here it is all sanded and put back together for the most part. It was originally about 16-17 feet long...way to big for me to be solo. So he cut out the middle and now it is about 10 feet long and a lot lighter!
Here's the nice chunck still in the back that was cut out. Its in our dump-run pile. but I wonder if they'll take it?

As soon as the roof was done we purchased Steve's dream. A Liquidlogic kayak. He is in love!

Speaking of roof, we did finish that over the Memorial Day Weekend.

Like I said, we are always busy and up to something around here!

Roofing - Day 1

Goodmorning! The Martinsen household are early birds and it WASN'T raining. I made him wait till 8am to start making noise, so at 7 am he was up there prepping the roof and tearing off this skylight. He patched it all up and completely got rid of it. It was placed in a valley on our roof its leak was impossible to get rid off, so we just decided to board it up. Really bad design in the first place, putting a a skylight where water can stand. Anyways by 8am I am loving this hole in my ceiling... This definately made me cringe! But to my wonderful surprise, he came in and cleaned it all up before I even managed to get there. Sweet!
The before picture. He's patching that skylight.

Another before picture. Goodbye old roof! By this point I am also participating on the roof. I have to say it was my first time up on a roof and it took some getting used to. My job was to open the shingles and set them up for him so he just had to nail them down. We cruised pretty fast once we got started!

This is the normal skylight. (above the bathroom) We were almost done flashing and laying shingles here. I am learning so much about roofing!

And the after picture. All in a days work! I must say, we work as a great team!

Tomorrow we begin by "capping" this section of the roof and beginning on the other section. Hopefully the weather holds out and we can complete the other section in a day as well!

Gardening

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." ~ Galatians 5:22

These are my strawberry plants growing strong. We are starting to have lots of little berries on them, sometime soon they will explode with fruit! This is the very first berry and the only one that is now almost ripe. I am so excited!


My green onions. Still a long way to go, but they are getting big.

Lettuce, spinach and carrots

My garden.

I surround it with smashed eggshells. This prevents slugs & snails from entering.

Jalapeno plant. I am praying it will live so Steve can have at least one pepper. That is all he wanted!

One of the clusters of radishes. They should be the first crop that I can enjoy. Steve built this gate for me this weekend. I love it! It keeps my beagle from seeing out front and barking all the time and it allows me more privacy when I'm out in the garden. He is so talented!

I planted these out front. They are the only flowers I have this year. Maybe I will plant more... Ive been so focused on my vegetables that I havent cared too much about flowers.

Well my garden - and gardening skills - have come a long way so far! It is so relaxing to work in the garden, especially in the early morning or evening. I completely understand now why Jesus liked to pray in a garden! The solitude is peaceful. If all vegetables fail, it is still worth it. More pictures to come later!

I Believe That Getting Your Hands Dirty, Cleanses Your Mind

"He who plants a seed beneath the sod and waits to see a plant, believes in God."

My garden is finally planted! It will all look much bigger when everything starts to grow. My cucumber plants ( I planted 3 and will leave the strongest 2) look so tiny outside now!
It's hard to see but there are 4 hills here. Today I planted 2 hills with lettuce, 2 with spinach and then carrots inbetween the hills. The little green plants at the top right are the jalapenos.

Out of all those seedlings I transplanted the strongest 3 of cucumbers, jalapenos and bell peppers. Hopefully at least one from each will produce for us. Also planted today in between each of the other plants were more carrots, radishes, and green onions. More pics to come when they all start to spout and it looks like a garden, not like dirt with a few green things. :o)

Regardless, I am happy that I have a garden this year. And happy that I have my kitchen back too!

The Garden is Moving Outside

These are my little green onions. They take about 120 days to mature, but Im so excited to eat them come, oh, August! Strawberries, Green Onions and some Radishes

I bought one set of already started strawberries, just in case the others from just roots dont make it.

These are the stawberry roots. In a few weeks they should turn into a plant (I hope!) This is all very new and a little strange to me...

Im hardening off all the plants I started inside. Sometime this week they will be transplanted into the garden on the side of our house.

If all goes well and I can keep critters away, this summer we will be enjoying:

Lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, jalapenos, bell peppers, green onions, spinach, radishes and strawberries.
May God please bless my garden!

Garden Update

Here is a little update on my seedlings. They are 4 weeks along.
The heartiest of the plants is definately the cucumber plant. They are way taller than all the others.

Here is most of the plants. They have taken over my kitchen. This is the only place in the house that gets direct sunlight for a longer period of the day. I am looking forward to transplanting them outside so I can have my space back! I also have green onions in a pot outside and radishes in a pot on the other side of the kitchen! ahh!

Experienced gardeners help me out! The seedling on the right is the odd one out. It came out of the bell pepper packet, but looks nothing like any of my other plants. The plant on the left is a bell pepper (the jalapenos look the same) so Im curious to know what this rounded leaf little plant is. I hope it survives to be big enough for me to tell. It is a mystery plant.