Nesting & Projects

In all my efforts to organize, sort, catch up, declutter, clean, etc., my list of "things I want to accomplish before baby comes" still feels a mile long!

We shuffled all the rooms around to make the best use of our space - the nursery stayed as is, but now it's filled with everything pink.  That means Andrew got "kicked out" and is now rocking a big boy bed in Rachel's old room.  We moved Rachel's room to the toy room/office, which meant the toys got split between the kid's rooms and the office moved to our master bedroom.  We technically could have kids sharing rooms, but while they are young, I'd prefer they not wake each other up or keep each other up.

While decluttering, we sold the love sac that I bought Brandon as a wedding/birthday gift for $270.  I think I bought it for $275 seven years ago, so that was pretty good.  We have debated on selling it for a long time - just because it's huge and we don't have the room to store it.  We'd love to have one when we have a basement family room when our kids our teenagers - which is a long ways away - so adios, love sac.  It went to a loving new home and now belongs to a man who lives in a trailer and legally grows marijuana.  :)  And shockingly he was worried about how it smelt when Brandon delivered it to him!  Gotta love craigslist.  

And since Brandon bought me a new camera body for my birthday, I sold my old one for $150.  This one was sold to a hard working father who bought it for his irresponsible teenage daughter who broke hers and needed a new one for a photography class.  They brought her old one with her lens to make sure everything would fit right, and the body was exposed with no cover and so was the lens - no wonder why the first one broke.  Yikes!  After this sale, I called my parents to tell them how grateful I am for all the things that they paid for while I was a teenager (I'm fairly certain I was not as irresponsible as this young girl, but still, they paid for all my extra curricular activities, which was not cheap).

In September, my mom came for a visit and the kids and I enjoyed her company.  She did pedicures with Rachel and she teased Andrew and they called each other "dookie-bye" names all week.  The kids showered her with lots of hugs and love her and think she's a very special Nana.  She also bought a little something for our home.  She insisted we needed a recliner, so she found one on craigslist and before I knew it, there was a new piece of furniture in our home.  We're still not sure about this new addition, although we'll store it for awhile in our front living room (we're just not recliner people).  My mom and dad have matching his and her recliners in their living room - so did my grandma & grandpa Thompson and my great-grandma and grandpa Wittwer.  Maybe it runs in the family?  Brandon's not sold on the idea of matching recliners yet, but only time will tell.  :)

Brandon has been "nesting" too, but I think it's also just his personality to get super focused on projects and work on them until they are done (just like his dad).  And he knows that there's a lot I want to get done, so he's helping out wherever he can.  Brandon finished building Andrew's bed, and it turned out amazing (here's the link to the one I told him I liked, and I think it did a phenomenal job replicating it).  Then I told him it would be nice to have a matching shelf, and just like magic, it was done in just a few nights.  Perhaps I was pushing my luck when I asked for one more shelf for baby's room, but he was happy to do it and made it in one night.  It's such a fantastic hobby that he loves, but he's getting so good at it that I think it more qualifies as a talent than just a hobby.  And as a special bonus, I happen to be a terrible painter, so I am not allowed to help with the painting projects in the house - he does them all.  Not a bad deal if I do say so myself.

Nana visits sunny Arizona!  Only sorry I didn't take more pictures!

Brandon's recent wood working creations!!