Pregnancy: Week 32

I realized I have not updated in far too long. We have been very busy prepping for Xander's arrival and attending the usual Summer parties and reunions. Pregnancy has been fairly uneventful... thankfully.

Soapbox Derby

My favorite news is not baby related. It's a moment of auntie pride. My niece, Mackenzie, surprised a whole lot of people when she won the regional soapbox derby race. It was her very first time racing and she beat out kids and teens who had been participating for years. She ended up at the world championship in Ohio! She didn't win there, but she did very well and we are so proud of her and how far she got. Some practice and she just may win next time!

Completed Family Room

The flooring project in the family room stretched into a full-fledged remodel. Everything got painted, polished and redone. You would barely recognize the room from its original look. It is so much brighter and prettier! (I wish I had taken some before shots. All I have is in-progress pictures.) It has come a long way from dirty, 20-year-old brown carpet and badly painted, yellowed walls. The place looked (and smelled!) like a dungeon when we started.

Doors

The before and after photos of the door should give a pretty good idea of the change. This is one of the five doors we did... and each took three coats. All of the trim and window frames were painted white as well. We went with two shades of a sage green for the walls.

Dresser Before

Another project has been a dresser Ross' mom gave us. We had intended to buy the dresser that matched the crib, but Kris told us to save our money because she had a dresser for us. "It'll probably just need a coat of paint." Translation: "Better roll up your sleeves, invest in Home Depot stock, and get ready for a few headaches!" We figured we'd strip and stain it to match. It turned out to be constructed of some mysterious pressed cardboard-like material. It was stained, strongly smoke-scented and pretty beat up. It also had a fold-down top to be used as a changing table, which Kris showed us was a bit of a tipping hazard. There was even a nest of some kind in the bottom under the lowest drawer!

Dresser In Progress

We are not ones to shy away from a challenge... and Ross likes to save a buck when he can, so we came up with a game plan and went to work. It is not quite finished, but it has come a long way. I suspect that Kris will not even recognize her dresser when she sees it! It now has three coats of primer, two coats of paint and the first of two coats of polyurethane. (The picture shows what it looked like before the poly.) We removed the fold down part for safety and aesthetic reasons. The changing table pad fits within the indent on the top of the dresser, so we still have that function if we find we need it. I'm quite proud of how it looks and amazed we got such a close match to the crib.

The baby shower was pushed back two weeks because of Mackenzie's derby... it was scheduled for the same day. It has given Ross and I time to finish off some projects that we wanted done before the party. This will be the first time many people see our home. I'm looking forward to getting the shower over with so we know what we have and can tackle the list of what we still need. I really hope the whole co-ed BBQ idea goes over well and everyone has fun.