longest blog post yet?

• I'm expecting this to be my longest blog post yet and I haven't even started yet... the reason? I have completed my major projects for the summer and want to share pictures of all the fun stuff I've been up to...
• These first few pictures are of our house. The main project with this was repainting the bottom white on the outside basement cement blocks. This meant hosing, scraping, caulking and then painting. Phil and I tag teamed this project.
  
  

• This next picture shows more of the basement cement that got painted, as well as, the back porch that needed repainted. It had been painted brown but we chose to go with grey so it'd match the house better. These steps also needed cleaned, scraped, a few fix ups and then paint (they should have been replaced but we're not spending money on that right now).
  

• And the "fun" projects. Phil painted Harlie's room, I hung up the bug stickers and we both arranged it. We're not sure this is how it will stay but it's a good start. It's a bit crowded in there but for now it works.

• This next picture shows the very cute curtain that my mom made. The yellow part has ladybugs on it and the purple is just a solid color. I must admit the curtain turned out very nice.. thanks mom!

• This is just another picture of the room. I'm not sure if you can zoom in and look at the stickers but I think they're really cute.

• This next project was getting Wendell's room rearranged. We are considering repainting his room to a more regular blue instead of the baby blue but we'll wait and see what happens. I was going to put up some car stickers (like in Harlie's room) but now that everything is up, I think it's already "busy" enough so I might not add all the stickers, just a few.

• This is just another picture of Wendell's room.
  
  

• And here is a picture of the cute little bug in his new bed. Over the weekend, he did pretty good with staying in bed but I think now that Phil's back to work then I'll have more of a challenge during nap time. But once he's asleep, he's does pretty good so it'll just be getting him to lay down long enough to fall asleep.

• So I am now closing up all major projects for myself. So far, Phil and/or I have washed windows/blinds/curtains, painted the outside basement of the house, painted Harlie's room, rearranged/organized the upstairs, cleaned out the garage, painted the back steps, and organized the basement. In the past few weeks we've sent well over $200 worth of donations to Goodwill. I told Phil that I feel like we've weeded our home but not pruned it yet, so we have more work but nothing immediate.

• Also, I have made my list of things I need to buy before Harlie comes - like diapers, wipes, diaper bag, etc., but I still need to write down my list of things that I need to take to the hospital, fill out paperwork for leave of absence at work, and I have a few minor sewing projects to do. Phil still needs to clean the carpets, a little bit of painting and maintain the garden. He also wants to do some landscaping so we'll see what happens. Whuuffiie.. I think that's enough for now. I'm ready for summer vacation!

• And this last picture is of me at 31 weeks. It doesn't seem like I'm getting much bigger but I'm definitely gaining weight. Luckily, I haven't had any swelling yet and it hasn't been too hot out. We haven't had to turn our air on but I do run the ceiling fans quite often. I'm sure once it hits 80 degrees then I'll have to turn the air on. My back has been hurting (probably due to all the work I've done) so I've had to slow down on my exercising. Today, I went for a 20 minute walk and called it good. I think I'm just going to get slower and slower (remember I'm a turtle now, not a bunny anymore) .. only 2 months left though and then I'll be up and running again.
  
  

• Just a few other updates on our life. After a long discussion, Phil and I agreed to eat a "planned" dessert yesterday. We had been invited to our Aunt Mary Lou and Janice's for lunch and we knew (before going) that she'd make a delicious homemade dessert. We decided that the whole point of our 30 days of no sweet desserts is to break our habit of ice cream runs and making homemade cookies/desserts. Going to visit family isn't something we do all that often so we felt it was a special treat.... so with being good company we both agreed to indulge in guilt free dessert. And as we assumed, we were served a delicious homemade upside down rhubarb cake with whip cream and ice cream. Now before you say, ahh, enjoy and have some fun.. you need to know that we both had 2 servings of dessert which later we regretted. One serving would have been "allowed" but later we both agreed that 2 servings was unnecessary (yet very tasty!). So Phil and I both have some work to do. Our goal is to eventually have a treat once in awhile, and at that, it needs to be one serving.

• On another note, last week I accomplished a goal that I have been working on for almost 1 1/2 years now. I have completely word for word read the entire Bible. In the beginning, I had decided that my goal was to read the Bible in order to get an overview, not to memorize or understand it all. I'm really glad that I set that goal because there is a lot to chew on when reading through this great book. So now, I'm reading a book about the Bible that simplifies some of the meaning/stories and I must say it helps fill in the blanks. Reading the Bible has been a huge struggle with me because it seems so pessimistic and negative. It seems like every story is about sin, death, and/or rules but I think as I grow and learn more then I'll understand that this book is primarily about God's love for us even when we sin, cause death, and break rules. Basically we cause these things to happen and God cleans up our mess.

• One of these days, I might actually start blogging about my struggles/thoughts as a christian but these deep thoughts are very personal (which means sensitive) so I'm not ready to share with the world. But I have so many thoughts that Phil simply can't keep up with them and they can be quite long winded so I'm not always able to talk with friends about it (especially with young children running around and getting into things). I've had mentors in the past to help me through things but they're always short term.. and for me, studying the Bible and growing as a christian are life long commitments.. not short term.

• Did I not say this would be one of my longest blog post yet?

• Well, I think that's enough for one day, I'm off to check on Wendell, we'll see if he's going to nap today in his "big boy" bed. He's been quiet but I think he's playing up there, we'll see what happens. (sorry if there are grammar errors, I'm too tired to read through it again).