#2

yep, that's right... #2 is on the way for our fam, expected to come 4.10.12!  we're thankful and excited about the timing and having a brother or sister for Beck.  still seems far off, but I'm sure it will be here faster than we think... just praying for a healthy pregnancy right now.  and we will be finding out what we're having for sure - very much looking forward to that.  not sure how some people do the surprise when the baby's born... I'm much too curious!

here's a pic from my last ultrasound.  I always think it's hard to tell what's going on in these things, but in this one you can see the baby's little arms and legs and it was actually dancing around. :)

10 weeks

tomato harvest

Despite growing up in a family that always had one or even two large gardens, and of course helping work in the garden, I didn't absorb much of the details and feel a little lost when it comes to gardening.

This year we decided to make one of our flower beds a small garden and I planted a few things - a cherry tomato plant, two other tomato plants, some hot peppers, some fruit plants, and several herbs.  I found that it was more fun than I thought it would be to water the plants, watch them grow, and start to produce!

Despite having fun with my garden, it didn't really do that well.  The herbs all did fine - the basil and mint being the best.  Two of the fruit plants died and the other won't produce anything this year.  The jalapeno plant did great and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all of those... my aunt said they're easy to can without a pressure cooker?  I actually thought I had bought a bell pepper plant, but ended up with hot peppers... oops.

My very best plant was the cherry tomato plant.  It grew and grew and took over everything.  The wire stand I put in it for support is doing very little and has been outgrown.  My two other tomato plants were doing ok until this thing took off, but now they look rather sickly - not sure if the two events are related?

Here it is overtaking everything:

So I could tell that one day, all of a sudden there were going to be gobs of cherry tomatoes ready to eat.  Now is that time!  And I love it.  They are so good and the best snack.

So my verdict on my small taste of gardening?  I think it has made want to continue to learn more about it (mom?!) and take on a bigger garden in the future with more unique plants.  Chad thinks it's fun too.... so we'll see how ambitious we are next year.  :)

neti pot

This past weekend I got attacked with hay fever and it's been much worse than I ever remember it being.  Usually I just sneeze, blow my nose a lot, and want to poke out my eyeballs because they itch so bad.  Nothing horrible.

Well this year was different.  More congestion.  Painful.  A weird headache feeling that didn't go away all day long.  I was desperate for a remedy!

I had read a little about neti pots online.  They seemed a little weird.  I mean really, do I want to pour water through my nose, making it run out the other side?  Maybe if things got Really bad. 

I guess last night it came to the point were things were Really bad and I was miserable.  Plus I didn't want it to turn into a sinus infection.  So I went to CVS and got myself a neti pot.

Sorry... I didn't have Chad take a picture of me using it :)

So if you are new to neti pots,  you pretty much just fill this thing with salt water (it gives you packets of the salt mixture to mix with water), put the spout in one nostril, tilt your head, slowly pour the water, and the water goes through your nose and runs out the other side, flushing out your sinuses and all the junk that's in there.  Sounds fun right?!

It took a little bit to get the hang of it, getting the water to flow right.  And one side of my nose was more blocked and it didn't work right at first so I had to try the other side.  At first it definitely felt like when you go underwater and get a bunch of water in your nose and can't breath.. not a fun sensation..  but it did get a little better once I got the hang of it a little more.

The verdict?  It definitely helped rinse out the junk and I felt better right after doing it, but I was still pretty stuffy and congested when I sent to bed.  A little disappointed.

However, after a night of sleep with a humidifier and some strip thing on my nose to help my nasal passages, I feel 100% better today!  No congestion and just back my normal sniffles and sneezes!  I'm just hoping that it lasts through the whole work day. :)

So I'm not sure if it was all the neti pot that made me feel better, I just needed some time to feel the effects, but I definitely think it helped and I will for sure be using this thing again, no matter how weird it feels.

bath time

Beck hadn't been a big fan of baths lately... until he discovered how much fun his squishy cars and trucks are.  Now he says "baf" and actually suggests taking one.  As long as he can play with all of his toys at the same time he's good to go...

Lined up and ready to go!  I love how if you look closely his little eyebrows are furrowed and lips are pursed, showing how serious about the boat noise he is making.  :)  Forget about trying to get him to look up for a picture!

need a new home?

We've decided to put our house on the market in hopes of moving closer to Chad's work, into a house with a little more space... and we're ready to experience a new part of Indy... well, south of Indy really.

Are we sad about the thought of moving?  Not really... neither one of us are too attached to our home, although we do really like it.  We are more excited about the thought of change than disappointed about leaving the little house we've called home for the last 4 years.  Of course it's never fun to move farther away from friends, but we'll still be close to them in relative terms... we won't be moving hours away - more like 30 minutes.  

The good news is that we aren't in a rush to move and don't Have to move if for some reason our house isn't very interesting to anyone else!  However, we have started looking at houses in Greenwood and already and found one we're Very fond of.... patience, patience!

Wow - our grass is bad, huh?!  hopefully it won't take too long to replace this with a 'sold' sign :)

our cute little house!  when we moved here the white trim and garage door was weird purple color?!  we also painted the front door and shutters black.  

our view out back

I did find a couple 'before' pictures of our living room and kitchen - it wasn't very pretty to say the least:

And here are some 'after' ones:

fresh paint, new appliances, beadboarding, new trim, and acid staining the floor were the main changes to the kitchen

we painted the living room the same color as the kitchen, put in new trim here too and switched out the carpet for laminate wood flooring

So if you know someone moving to Indy or within Indy - send them our way!

a weekend of fun

We had the privilege of spending a weekend at Lake Wawasee with Bryan and Ash and Brett and Liv.  Having the kiddos there made for a chaotic but entertaining weekend... good thing we had a pool to give them something to do with all their energy!
I failed to get great pics that captured much of anything besides a little pool time.  Obie won the award for being the bravest in the pool and would do big jumps off the side, going underwater.  Poppy was a pretty close second and was daring in the pool as well, especially being the dainty little girl she is. :)  Beck, the kid who doesn't like water in his eyes, was of course the safest in the pool and wouldn't go underwater or even float around on his own... hum, I think we're going to need some swimming lessons to teach him a few things.  He did, however, like to be tossed up in the air...

I like this one b/c if you look close, Beck is making the sign for 'more'... indicating he's ready for another toss. :)

Obie - looking like he might have just dunked his head under the water!

Poppy getting to chill and take a little shoulder ride.  Gotta love her teeny tiny striped bikini!

summertime

It's been a hot summer (I'll just state the obvious)... what else is a little boy to do but play (and drink!) out of the hose?!  He kept going in for a drink but popping right back up once the water splashed in his face - he's a bit picky about getting water in his eyes... not so tough in that area.