Custom Home: Paint Colors

Today they started painting the interior of our home. Finallyyyyyyy!! I hated choosing paint colors, hired two interior designers (which wasn't really helpful), and still have lots of doubts. I can pretty much guarantee that I'll be painting again once we buy some furniture and start living in the home. So if anyone out there is trying to pick paint, here are some that I liked...

Most of the interior of my home will be Smooth Stone (Glidden WN49). I like cooler colors and wanted something in the gray family.

My family room looked better with a warmer color and I needed something to go with my brick fireplace. The cold gray wasn't really doing it. I decided on Edgecomb Gray (Benjamin Moore HC-173).

Penguin wanted turquoise/teal/blue kind of color and BOY OH BOY she got it! Her room is Winter Escape (Dunn Edwards DE5750). It's a bit much for me, but I'm hoping her white bedroom furniture helps tone down the color a bit.

Peacock is my purple girl! Her bedrooms is Shimmering Sky (Dunn Edwards DE5960). I can handle her room a bit better but it's still very purple. I think we should've done a 50% of these colors to make them a bit lighter.

Because I'm a pink girl and my girls are obviously not, I needed to get my pink in somewhere. The girls' bathroom is mostly my Smooth Stone grey color, but on one wall (the wall with their cupboards & mirrors), we had it painted Spring Azalea (Benjamin Moore 2077-40)

Most homes have a paint color called Swiss Coffee for their trim. Too yellowish for me. I wanted a cleaner, crisper white. I chose Pure White (Sherwin Williams 7005). My kitchen cupboards, laundry room cupboards, master bathroom cupboards, girls' bathroom cupboards, interior doors, and all trim are in this color. I love how it turned out. (The photo below is not very accurate.)

Another color that I might add later but only liked it in rooms on the north side of my house is Revere Pewter (Benjamin Moore HC-172).  It matches well with the smooth stone & edge comb gray.  I'd say it's a richer color with more gray than the edge comb gray.

Spirit of Thanksgiving

This year I have so much to be thankful for.  A sweet, healthy, & thriving baby.  My family & friends.  A ward family that went above & beyond to take care of me this past year when I had some hard struggles.  A beautiful home, that I never dreamed possible, in the works.  A healthy body.  And so much more but especially and most importantly my faithful husband and four bright & beautiful children!  Very humbling.

Counting Down

The countdown is on!!  Just wish I knew what day & hour I am counting down to!!

Early Monday morning I had a dream that I was in a large building ... it had an elevator ... each floor of the building had a different type of food.  One floor was Mexican, another floor Italian, etc but the floor I was trying hard to reach was the one that had mashed potatoes, stuffing, and other Thanksgiving type food.  

Early Tuesday morning, I was dreaming that Doc took away a can of Diet Coke from me.  He was teasing me in my dream, but I started crying (which isn't hard to do these days), but I woke up right away and was really crying.  Weird.  Especially since I don't even like Diet Coke.

Yesterday I had contractions all day.  Consistent and getting stronger, but not close enough together or painful enough to make me think it was time to go to the hospital.  Last night they did get closer together for about an hour.  I actually packed-up my sewing project and starting picking-up the house because I feared that sometime soon I'd be calling someone to come sleep at the house.  But by the time I went to bed, contractions for the day seemed to abruptly end.  Boo!

I'm kinda stressing because the baby was measuring large at my appointment about a week ago and I'm supposed to have an ultrasound in the morning to check the size of the baby.  I don't want to hear, "The baby is looking big.  We should induce."  I am very scared of being induced and all the extra risks that come along with not letting the body naturally let things happen.  So ... today or tonight would be a nice time for this baby to make an appearance.

Time to Blossom

Penguin attended an all girls church-type camp called Time to Blossom last week.  It's for girls 11-18 years old and she attended Monday-Friday for 12 hours a day.  The girls are divided-up by age into smaller groups and then there's a fun female counselor over each group of about 8 girls.  Penguin invited one of her best friends from school to attend with her and the two of them had a blast together.

They had lots of outstanding speakers, crafts, a service project, talent show, performers, food, and other fun stuff that teenage girls like to do or want to learn about.  Penguin got together with some of the attendees before the actual camp started and worked on some musical numbers that she was able to perform during the week of camp.  She played a hymn in a violin quartet and sang songs (she had solo parts in both songs) with some of the girls.  She even found some Russian adoptees like herself - I think she can sniff them out.

I'm so thankful that Penguin could go spend a week of her summer being uplifted, growing friendships, and just doing something out-of-the-ordinary.  She's already begging to go back next summer and hoping that I'll let her do the over-night option.

Here is a video with highlights from her week:

Happy 4th of June!!

I have officially been pregnant for 250 DAYS!!!  That sounds so long and sometimes it feels like it's been so long yet sometimes it feels like things are happening too fast & like I'll never be ready enough for this baby.  The kids are home for summer break, my house often feels like a dumpy mess, I haven't sewed or made anything for this baby, and the list goes on.

I went to the Dr yesterday at 35 weeks + 4 days.  I am 50% effaced & dilated to 1cm, which I know means pretty much nothing but it's a lot better than any news I ever got with Turkey.  Everything was closed up pretty tight at 40 weeks with him, so some progress is better than nothing.   And I HATE getting checked.  I've googled this "checking" business and it sounds like there's no rhyme or reason as to why is doesn't bother some women and then can be extremely painful for other women.  For me,  getting checked burns & stings like CrAzY!  I was good & didn't scream or cry but I was definitely breathing hard ... it all kinda seems like a blur a day later. 

I am having a lot of contractions - some days more than others.  Nothing that I can't walk or breathe through, but they are often painful, not just uncomfortable.  The swelling and my feet/ankles are reeee-diculous!  I'm swollen up into my thighs and my feet and ankles are so tight it feels like my skin it going to rip open & start bleeding.  Yesterday I started getting burning heat rash on my feet & lower legs too.  I went & sat in my mom's pool for a little while - I think that was, by far, the best part of my day!

My blood pressure has gone up, but not enough to alarm my Dr.  Towards the end of Turkey's pregnancy, I had to go to the Dr every other day to get my BP & swelling checked, but for now a weekly visit until this baby comes is the plan.  Dr says he's not going to do anything to stop labor at this point but I'm hoping this baby cooks another couple weeks.  Let's see ... oh, I've been gaining a lovely 2lbs/week since about 20 weeks with this baby.  I lost a decent amount of weight during the 1st trimester and then eventually got back to my normal weight & hung out there for a while.  I really don't want to gain another 8-10 lbs with this baby, but I'm hoping a lot of the weight disappears when my body decides it no longer has to hold onto all this extra water & fluid and I'm also counting on the baby being another champion eater and sucking a lot of fat out of me. :)

Yesterday I was feeling the need to buy some things for baby so I dragged my family to Wal-mart and another local store ... Baby Town ... which by the way has very competitive prices ... while in the store I compared prices to Amazon & some other online sights.   I got some personal-after-baby-comes items for myself, the cloth diapers I like to use as changing pads, a few nursing supplies, baby blankets, hooded towels, a cup holder for my new stroller, baby nail clippers, etc.  Babies are expensive.

One other worry ... how big is this baby going to be???  People have been looking at me funny since March.  My stomach just sticks straight out like a bullet or big basketball.  Last Friday, while out running errands,  I was asked twice if I was having twins ... nope & I still  have another month ... thanks for asking!  I really don't want to birth another  8+lb baby ... 7 to 7-1/2 lbs would be good. :)

100 Prayers

The days seems to be dragging a little bit, but I feel good, so I'm trying to take advantage of the fact that I'm not in bed, barfing, or sleeping the day away.  So far in the last month, I've lost about 5 pounds, but not in the tummy area ... I mostly notice that my pants are fitting a little better.  I can't suck in my tummy anymore.  I saw that Target sells some little panel things that I can insert into my regular pants, which I might have to check out because I despised just about every maternity pair of pants/shorts the last time I was pregnant.  Nothing stayed up or fitted very well.  I mostly stuck to dresses which were more comfy anyways.

This morning Turkey crawled into bed with us and did lots of chatting before we finally got out of bed.  He's still talking about praying and asking for a baby brother ... this wasn't just a whim for him. It's something he's talking about several times a day and has yet to forget about it.  At one point he placed his hands on my tummy to kinda inspect and declared that no baby brother was growing yet, so he'd have to start saying a 100 prayers.  We had a family prayer before everyone left the house this morning and that was pretty much the only thing Turkey prayed for....

5 Weeks & 2 Days

Exciting News
:  I'm due on the 4th of July!! Very fitting for our family.  Doc's birthday often falls on Martin Luther King Day, my birthday & Penguin's birthdays are both a few days before Christmas, Peacock's birthday is on Halloween, and Turkey was born about an hour before Labor Day and so his birthday sometimes falls on Labor Day.  I'm kinda hoping that the 4th of July is the big day or maybe the 3rd would be fun...just not the 1st of July cause that's my sister's birthday.  A patriotic name will definitely be considered ... let me know if you have any ideas!

Someone {nosy} at church asked me if we plan to adopt or have more kids.  I just said, "Oh, I don't know.  We talk about it.  I guess we'll see."  Today we saw all our extended families at various times.  Doc's family was an easy get-away.  We showed-up to see his brother bless his new baby and then snuck out the door right after the blessing.  My mom had planned a little birthday dinner for Peacock.  I felt myself getting kinda grouchy as soon as we arrived.  Too many desserts including frying of doughnuts going on which did not interest me in the least bit.  There was a fire going in the backyard that smelled extra bad to me and I had just washed & curled my hair that morning and I wasn't in the mood to wash my hair again because it smelled like smoke.  Dinner was OK but the fresh, raw veggies tasted unbelievable to me ... like I was eating a cuke & cherry tomato for the first time in my life!  I tried to grill myself a s'more but the chocolate was as hard as a rock ... grouchy feelings again. Then Doc started talking to my sister about maternity insurance ... I don't think she suspected anything but I just felt like I wanted to cut his tongue out. Argh!

I kinda feel like I want to tell one person that I'm pregnant.  One person that won't blab to anyone else but that I can talk to.  In some ways it's fun having a secret and maybe I'm not far enough along to start telling a bunch of people, but I'm also feeling a little lonely and like I have no one to talk to.

When I got home around 7pm, I just wanted to cozy up in my blankets and relax for the evening.  I've noticed that I like to be usually warm these days ... sleeping with extra blankets and waking up too-hot feels good for some reason.  I played a round of Skip-Bo with Penguin, helped get the kids in bed, and then tried to relax.  Doc made me a very small scoop of vanilla ice cream with some egg nog poured over it.  It tasted really good.  Then I played a round of Skip-Bo with Doc ... I am the Skip-Bo champ of the family.