Blue, here is a shell for you...A foggy lullaby

Today I helped here and there whilst the DH painted the nursery. He came through like a champ. I had borrowed a ladder from my sister, because he had to paint the ceiling. My husband is about 6'7". He just reached up and rolled it on. It always amazes me what he can do with such height...because I am 5'2".

The walls and ceiling are a robin's egg blue. I know that is not normally a color you would think of for a girl, but I was totally against painting it pink. I think assigning a color to a gender is ridiculous.
Another reason it is blue is because it is only the background. I have been a big fan of clouds (one of those girls with cloud pants, a cloud loft in college, cloud boxes, anything you can think of). So my Mom and I are going to paint clouds on the ceiling next weekend (we will DEFINITELY need the ladder LOL).

Also, my mom is really artistic, so she will be helping me to paint other odds and ends onto the walls from all of the MaryE Decorating books I checked out from the library - some flowers and quotes, maybe a tree, bumblebees, little whimsical things.

One more thing I wanted to mention that I don't think I had. This week we had a new revelation. Little Z is kicking. I think before all those movements were her hands punching, but now she is kicking high and it is visible from the outside. It was so weird! I felt my stomach lurch, and then I waited and it happened again and I watched it. It was so cool! I also got DH to be patient enough so he saw her give me a big kick. It is so funny. It must be the way I sit on the couch becuase it is always visible on the same side when I am sitting in this particular spot.

***Title is quoted from the song 'Blue' by Joni Mitchell

Glider

Well, I said I couldn't wait to re-cover the glider, and I really meant it. Last night as I listened to the Presidential Debate (I still am not sure who I want to vote for) I worked on stripping the fabric off of the cushions and getting it done. It isn't the greatest job in the world, but I think it will suffice. I think it looks too cute. I bought three yards of fabric, but I could have used an extra yard. I had to strategically place ribbons in the folds underneath and in the back to make sure there was enough fabric to cover, and I had to take trimmings from one piece and sew it to another for the last cushion because there wasn't enough of the bulk left over.
Here is where I got the goods on how best to recover the cushions.
I still have to put the ribbons in the back to fasten the cushions to the chair. I think big ribboned bows will be so much cuter than velcro. And, I think I might add a few snaps on those creases with the ribbons because they are sort of puckering and I don't want the cushion in the back exposed.
I didn't actually sew at all, I used the stitch-witchery and ironed it all together. I don't own a sewing machine or I would have definitely done that. At least with the stitchwitch I could make sure it was tight and straight - something I am not great at when sewing by hand. I only took one home ec class my whole schooling. I mean really - I am SEW not a home ec queen, but I can get something done if I put my mind to it!
PS Please excuse the messy house! And the flash does not work on my camera, so when I get a better camera or a brighter environment I will take a better picture. :)

24 Week OB and 25 week Pic

I normally would have posted last Friday after my 24 week OB appt, but I was in sort of a fog and I just waited.

The appointment went well. Heartbeat 150 bpm.
Woo hoo! 24 weeks! (Actually 25 now!) We are in the sixth month! yay!
I have a little creature that does flips and kicks. On Saturday I got up at 4am to go to the bathroom and she woke up. She kept on kicking me and I couldn't go back to sleep. I tried to poke her back, but I don't think she could tell. LOL

Above is a 25 week belly pic taken yesterday. I look like a troll...but it is the first and only belly pic I have managed to take, so I figured I better put it up. I have been saying I would put one up for months!

I finally decided on a theme for the nursery. She will have a little Mary Engelbreit themed room. If you don't know Mary E, check out her website at Maryengelbreit.com. My Mom is going to come up in a few weeks and we will do some painting for the room. Not actually painting the room, I think I will make the DH and my brother do that, but we will be painting some accents. I am really excited about the room. I think it will be adorable. I ordered some ME prints, posters and fabric. A friend is making a quilt and bumpers. If I hadn't mentioned before, we got our crib at ikea, and it is royal blue. I bought a nice old dresser at our community garage sale a few weekends ago and last weekend we painted it a kermit the frog green. I am turning it into a changing station. I also got a glider for the baby's room for 25 bucks. I can't wait to get it recovered and get all the furniture and painting and fun stuff into the room.

I think my shower will be in November. Probably after thanksgiving. We are most likely going to have it right here at our house. It is a good central location and it means we won't have to move stuff back to the house. I will have to have help doing a deep cleaning beforehand - two long-haired dogs and three cats ensures that there is always a need for a deep cleaning prior to guests.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but since the beginning of the pregnancy I have developed allergies. Have any of you had a similar experience? I never had allergies before, they moved in to my nose somewhere around the time that the baby moved into the Ut. Now I sneeze several times every day. (Interesting feeling my body change its reaction to sneezing - from a deep diaphramic sneeze to everything occuring above my belly). This whole thing doesn't help my weak bladder. I don't think I should be needing Depends by six months, sheesh! Do you think they will go away when I have the kid? Or am I stuck with these sneezes for teh rest of my life? Oh brother!

That is about all I can think of today. I hope you all have a great day!

Sue

This weekend something changed in the world, something changed in how I see the future, and how I treasure the past.

My dear friend and mentor lost a brief battle with cancer.

It is hard for me to give you a description of this women, both for my lack of brilliance and her indescribableness.

Imagine the strongest and biggest tree in the forest, providing shelter to so many creatures.

Consider the most beautiful field of flowers, no that isn't quite right, because she wold be the one knowing the beauty of specific seeds, providing the field to spread the seeds, fertilizing the ground to promote growth...watering, cultivating....creating the beautiful field of flowers.

She is the one that helped you to figure out how to grow, the one that saw what you could become, and then marveled as it happened.

Sister Sue Pietrus left our world suddenly this past weekend. She was the chorale and madrigal director at St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, among many other things.

I went to the Woods for an education and I found a family. She kept me on my toes and always made sure I knew I was loved.

It will take some time for me to believe there is a future without her. You see, she was supposed to meet my little girl next year. And I do not think I will ever be able to do her justice. Little Z needs to know what Sue was like, because she should want to be like her.

I always did.

I always wanted to be like her and I wanted to make her proud.

UPDATED
A beautiful description of Sue written by her best friend - Sister Dawn, and read at the vigil service this past week....