Deal or Disaster?

Mutti (my grandmother) and I made scarves for a few family members for Christmas this year.  I have been wanting to spend more time with Mutti ever since we moved back to ATX, and sewing seems to be the perfect fit!  That said, after we finished the scarves, I decided that we needed another project to get to work on...CURTAINS! One of my 30 Before 30 goals is to have curtains for our the entire downstairs of our house.  I went ahead and bought some Target curtains for our dining room as the whole world can just peak right in if they are curious, so that one was a need.  

However, I want to flex my creative muscles for the kitchen and the living room.  For the kitchen, I simply decided to create a straight valance for each of the three windows.  The tutorial I found is simple, so I went ahead and dove in for some fabric!  I found this little number 50% off at Joanne's Fabric, had a 10% off coupon, and the last part was a remnant so that 7/8 of a yard was another 50% off!  With the rings and the fabric it came out to $34.67!  I told the lady at the register that this could either be a super deal or a disaster!  She said she had good feelings about my project, so hopefully she is right!  

Window #1.  This one may be a little difficult because the window is wider than the width of the fabric, so we may sew on some blocks of solid fabric on either side.  That was Mutti's idea.

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Windows #2 and 3.  I love these windows and I can't wait for them to be dressed!

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*I would apologize for the mess in our kitchen, but I'm not going to.  I am, as the Pioneer Woman says, "keeping it real."

30 Before 30 Update #1: Go into my 31st year with no back pain.

Chiropractor.  Did nothing.

Acupuncture.  Did more nothing.

Spine Clinic.  Told me to come back when I need pain management (ie: shots/surgery)

X-Rays. This was my second round just to make sure there were no broken bones, which their weren't

Physical Therapy- I have been going since September!  We have been going at the problem like it's a disc that had slipped.  Today, my therapist was working with me and she tried something new!  It sure did tweak my hip/back pain and now I have a new exercise.  We are now working toward relief of nerve pain.  It's not quite sciatica, but we think there is a nerve out of line in my back and hip.  I have to do my new exercise four times a day for 4-6 weeks!  I just made myself a check list to make sure I check it off everyday.  I hadn't been super motivated before because I hadn't seen any results from any other exercises they gave me.  So I would do the work for about four or five days and then quit.  I am really hoping that since I really notice the work that I'm doing this time, maybe I can stick with the program.

I'm supposed to keep exercising, lifting Kai, and doing all my normal chores (can't I get out of those?).  I did tell my therapist that it is on my list of goals to have this figured out by my 30th birthday (July 25th) so she does have a deadline.  She laughed.  She did tell me however, to not stress too much about getting pregnant (which is always something in the back of my mind, we are waiting a few years, but you never know people!) Also, she said to try not to think about my future with back pain like the expense of an MRI, shots in my back, and or surgery.  My problems are not to the point that she is super worried about me. I guess that is easy for her to say, but it at least made me feel a little better for now.

Status updates

Scott bought some new bibs for Kai and this one made me think, "If Kai had Facebook/twitter/instagram what would his status updates be like?"  

• Hey peeps, just eatin some cheerios.  Don't hate.
• Mommy and Daddy just put me to bed, they think I'm asleep, but I'm sitting here making my plot to rule the world from my crib.
• Bath time? More like splash time!
• Where's your nose?  Where's your ears?  I'll show YOU where my ears are!
• khjbkjyg.  Learning to type is hard, especially when my fingers only reach to the letters, GHTYJ and K.
• My fingers taste like bananas.  My hair tastes like bananas.  It's probably just a coincidence.
• Mommy said 3 cuss words today. She doesn't know that I know.  For shame!

Kaaaaaaaai, siiiiiiiiiit down

The kid is learning to climb!  So, in our home we are now saying, "Kaaaaaaaai, siiiiiiiiiiiit down." quite frequently.  Otherwise, he just stands on something, takes a step backward and collapses an extra 8 inches downward onto the floor.  Luckily, his big boy chair is on carpet...

on the other hand...

The bottom stair that was left over past our baby gate is a great place upon which our dude likes to climb. I caught him standing straight up holding on today and said the requisite, "Kaaaaaaaai, siiiiiiiiit down."  He looked at me, and just slowly squatted down like the example below.  He did not turn around slowly onto his bum as I was hoping for, but just into a nice squat.  What did you say?  My toddler isn't a drone just waiting to comply to mommy's every wish?  

Way to test your limits, child.  I'm bracing myself for your inevitable future of falls and bruises from climbing up to much higher and much more dangerous feats.

Happy 2013!

Last night, we welcomed in 2013 with our friends Cecily and Marcelo!  They just returned from 100 days of backpacking around South America.  How fun are they?  They even camped out on the beach one night in Columbia.  I'm just glad they made it home after that decision.  : )

We had a fun night hearing about their travels, meeting some new people, and toasting the new year.  I pray that 2013 is as fun as my past 29 years have been, as I shall be turning the big three-oh this year!  yikes.  I'm assuming it will be pretty great, as we have an amazing son, a trip to Vegas in the early planning stages, and lots of other adventures just waiting to be had!

CHEERS!

A few more pics (Credit to Cecily, Marcelo, and Karen too!)

Ready to Shop!

The amount of bright TCU purple t-shirts I have been wearing lately has been a little over the top.  You know that your family has an affinity for a school when you can fill an entire load of laundry in the color of your alma mater.  We can do that with all of our purple shirts, sweaters, sweatshirts, blankets etc.

I have been following a few great blogs lately and though I am not going to do any closet challenges like my friend Jen (see her cute blog here) I do want to make my wardrobe a little more than just purple pre-shrunk cotton!  Jen is trying to wear everything in her wardrobe and donate items that she doesn't need any more, what a great idea!  I really liked the part about turing the hangers around, so simple, so brilliant!  I stood in front of all my clothes a few weeks ago after I read her post and thought, "I maybe wear about 15% of this regularly, why do I need all this to just sit here and mock me and why can't I donate plenty of great items to Goodwill or even trade with friends?"

As a stay at home mama, I look in the closet and peruse and then, with a big old sigh, end up just wearing....whatever.  Usually, with a sweatshirt or large sweater on top.  Somedays, I'm super happy with that situation and somedays, I realize I should put on real clothes before my husband comes home or I will have just been in jammies since my workout at 9am.  Not that I'm trying to just be cute for my husband...I am cute/put together for me, darn it!  Such the feminist at heart. Plus, I see staying at home with Kai as my job for now, so I feel like if I put myself together a little better on a daily basis then that is one more way that I can also maintain my own identity/self-expression. I have heard many mamas say that it is easy to lose your self when you stay at home and become consumed with such a precious kiddo.

I received a few gift cards and some cash for Christmas...time to shop!

Yesterday...

Scott and I are so sad to say that we had to give up our sweet pup, Juno, yesterday.

We contacted the place that we adopted her from five years ago and their policy is that pups adopted from them, return to them.   There is a story here, but the lady was none too happy to take her back, in the sense that she made us feel as if we were abandoning Juno... which I understand, but sometimes you just have to make REALLY hard decisions.  There was a LOT of guilt involved, but she did take her because her first priority is the dogs that she adopts out.  I really wish the situation had been more amicable, but she never wanted to understand our side of the story.

Our first priority is our family and our son, Kai.  Juno made us nervous on a daily basis around Kai and we tried to train her to obey but had little luck.  I had a long phone conversation with a friend's dog trainer and came to the realization that there are just a lot of dog breeds out there that are not compatible with children.  We could have done more training, however, it would be very time consuming, expensive and guarantee no results as to her ever getting along with one baby (let alone two in the future!!)

Juno was a stray when we adopted her so we do not know her background as far as her breed goes or even if she suffered abuse at the hand of a previous owner.  She had some pretty skittish moments and was skeptical of many adults which made me think something happened in her past.

Scott took the horrible responsibility of driving Juno back up toward DFW to meet the lady and drop her off.  We all thought it was best that I didn't go as I had some choice words for our guilt trippy lady, and my emotions would have been off the charts.

We will miss you sweet girl, and we hope you find a new home with no kiddos and parents that will love you, play with you, and treasure your wonderful personality.  Thank you for a fun 5 years, girl.

Here are some of Juno's greatest hits:


as a pup....

In the snow...

Just being cute...

Getting muddy in the backyard, there was a time I came home to this on a daily basis. 

 I had to pick her up and bathe her after work!!

Love.

p.s. if you want to comment on this story, please be kind with my heart.  I'm so torn up about this, and I just wanted to share about this because I'm sad and needed to let a teensy part of it go.  Give your sweet doggies a big hug for me today!