Harris Household As Of Late….

Well we’ve been keeping SUPER busy.  My last post was all about all the crafts I’ve been doing.  Then we had the birth of 6 new puppies.  Thanks goodness Jeff was here this time, so I didn’t have to do it all alone. Although after being up all night the night before and the night of the delivery.  It took a few days before I felt like doing much of anything…..

         

  

It’s kind of hard anyways to get much done with cute little puppies doing cute little things all day. Especially when your cute little toddler wants nothing more than to look in on them, and pet them and kiss them…..

   

  

here is a cute video of Kalvin interacting with a puppy…..

 

Kalvin saying “puppy” a new favorite word around here…..

Kalvin has become quite the criminal mastermind lately.  Jeff and I stepped out front for a few minutes. Jeff saw through the window that Kalvin was in the whelping box with the puppies.  So we run to the front door, which Kalvin had locked.  So then Jeff had to run through the garage, to rescue the puppies, all the while Kalvin sporting a huge smile.

A couple days later Jeff and I were in the kitchen.  We walked into the diningroom to find this…..

Kalvin was taking a bite out of all the donuts and throwing them…and decided to bring Rusty in on the action!

It may be hard to tell but Rusty is making his “NAUGHTY FACE” here.  He smiles and his eyes brows get all tight and slanted.

Just a few days ago I was getting ready to take Kalvin on a walk. He was at the top of the stairs and I called him down. Once he was about halfway down the stairs I ran to the kitchen to fill his sippy cup with water.  By the time I got back he was no longer on the stairs, in fact it appeared he had gone back up the stairs because I couldn’t see or hear him. So I called him again, and heard nothing. I run upstairs.  Looked in his room, my room, bathroom, closet….um “Kalvin where are you?” I go back downstairs, look all over the main floor for him, all the while calling his name- NOTHING!  So I go to the backyard (he likes to let himself out the doggy door and play out there) and look all over calling his name.  At this point I’m getting a little concerned. I go back inside, and figure I’ll start from the top of the house again, but I go to put his sippy cup in the stroller first, and what do I find?  Kalvin has been sitting in his stroller this entire time.  Completely silent, even though I was frantically running around, yelling his name.  Again his face graced a nice big grin.

New skill of Kalvin’s- he is now strong enough to open the exterior church doors.  He would occasionally open the interior exit doors and run around in the breezeway, but now can open the exterior doors.  Needless to say I’m very relieved he will be going into Nursery within the month.

So Kalvin has been keeping us on our toes and very entertained these days.  In fact just the other day: Rusty was licking Jeff’s shin. Jeff had a gash on his leg.  (dogs do this) So Jeff’s laying on the floor, I’m sitting on the couch and Rusty is licking Jeff’s shin; Kalvin comes over and starts licking Jeff’s other leg……so apparently babies do this too. Not so sure they have the same healing properties though.

                        

He sure is one cute kid….well at least we think so!

Jeff’s fiberglass business has been CRAZY lately.  I’m hoping that this will soon be remedied though.  A company in China wants to mass-produce his boxes.  Although since he’s been spending all of his time filling orders he hasn’t been able to get the samples ready to ship over there so they can start production.  I wouldn’t mind if I never see another speaker box ever again.  I’d much rather see my husband than hear him working away in the garage.

Jeff commutes to and from work on his bike.  A couple weeks ago he was on his way home and had a bee fly into his mouth and sting him.

  

Jeff came through the door and I immediately wondered what the freak had happened. He said “I was involved in a head on collision”, and then I said “seriously?!” (completely in shock) as Jeff answered …”yeah, with a bee”.  Luckily it was only a bee.

While we’re on the subject of Jeff. Let’s talk about his sick obsession with a spider residing on our back patio.  This spider, street name “cat-faced spider” technical name “orange horned orb spider” is Jeff’s little pride and joy.  Jeff tell ANYONE and EVERYONE about his cat'-faced spider. People who come to our house barely walk through the front door before they are ushered into the backyard to get a good LONG look at our cat-faced spider.  In fact when I talk to Jeff throughout the day he asks me how his spider is doing…..haha okay maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit, but he is definitely very intrigued by it. So here it is….

   

Can you see the cat face?  The horns are the “cat ears”.  Pretty cool looking spider, even though I’m creeped out by any and all bugs.

Well I guess that is all for now….

CRAFTING LIKE A MAD WOMAN….

So I love doing crafts and I have gotten the crafting bug lately.  Especially since I already have most of the materials that I hoard, and just never get to it.  Not to mention my dog is probably gonna give birth to her puppies tonight so I will be up to my eye-balls in little vizsla puppies and vizsla needs…. see http://idealvizsla.blogspot.com/ Then only a short month and a half after the puppies have gone to their new homes I too will be giving birth to-  A BABY GIRL!!! Which I am beyond thrilled about.

Well since we only have 3 bedrooms and one belongs to Jeff, myself and the dogs, the second is Kalvin’s nursery, and the third is of course a guest bedroom.  Well we don’t want to give up the luxury of having a nice room for our guests to stay and I figured Kalvin could share. He’s got to learn someday.  So his very boy themed nursery needed a makeover.  A more gender neutral makeover.  So you will now see the manifestation of my labors the past few days. I figured I should get as much done now as I can since time will be lacking in the future. Proactive me….

Colors for the new nursery. Yellow, Gray, and White….

CRAFT 1 & 2 done simultaneously.

5 pieces of word that I kept from a gate we built for a client of jeff’s years ago, figured it could go to better use than going in the trash. I lightly spraypainted these bad boys with yellow Rustoleum spray paint.

Home Depot $3

I then chose three to use, for CRAFT 1.

Used painters tape (which I already had) and some scrapbooking letter stickers (which I already had). Taped off border and cute lyrics….

Then…

Sprayed exposed area grey (which I already had)

which resulted in this….

and looks lovely mounted to the nursery wall and only $3!

CRAFT 2…

I took 8 picture frames from the dollar store $8

 

spray painted them with Rustoleum’s SATIN heirloom white Home Depot $3 and very lightly sanded the edges for a rough look.

I don’t know how well you can see the affect  on this frame

But I put 4 cute pictures of Kal. 1 by himself. 1 the entire familiy.1 with just daddy. 1 with just mommy.  Then hot glued them to one of the 2 remaining yellow painted boards. 

For the second painted board I just glued the empty frames, and will later enclose pictures of an adorable baby girl, same format.

and VOILA!

mounted on grey wall….

2 lovely individualized collages for $11 total

CRAFT 3….this I saw on pinterest!

I took 2 rectangular pieces of MDF (scraps from some ancient project) Painted them with the same heirloom white spray paint (which I already paid for)

I APOLOGIZE I can’t find the pictures of this on my camera, WILL ADD LATER….

Then used scrapbooking stickers, stencil and paint to put Kalvin’s name and birth information on. I obviously can’t complete baby girls yet considering I have no idea how much she’ll weigh, or when she’ll make her grand entrance….

but two plaques….for FREE.

CRAFT 4:

I used two frames that I upcycled from Kalvin’s previous nursery. Painted them the same heirloom white.  Cut 2 pieces of scrapbook paper Yellow and Gray then cut out the Letters K and T (paper I already had) .

Great now everyone knows that baby girl’s name starts with a T.

Tied a gray ribbon to the frame and hung it up.  2 more decorations completely FREE.

CRAFT 5:

I upcycled another item from Kalvin’s previous nursery.  a box shelf.  I painted the inside gray and the front and outside yellow. Found a little porcelin owl at MICHAELS for 79cents sprayed it the same heirloom white and just let it perch…..

Total cost 79 cents….ain’t too shabby.

CRAFT 6: also saw the same basic idea on Pinterest… the striped quilt. I will be making 2 of these. Matching one’s from Kal and Baby T.  Then I will replace existing crib bumper and crib skirt as well at make some accent pillows for rocker and changing table, and eventually curtains. but for now…..just the quilts.

I found a bunch of different yellow/grey fabrics at joann’s.

Totaling $40.00

I cut 8-4” strips 7-3” strips and 7-2” strips

Sewed them together in a pattern….

The sewed top piece to the quilt matting, and bottom piece is solid yellow.

Then I took some grey ribbon that I got on sale for $3 to edge the quilt.

So 2 quilts and future fabric projects $43.00

CRAFT 7:

Not really a craft, just lots of manual labor… I bought Grey paint and yellow paint about $30.00.

I painted all the walls Grey after LOTS of sanding to try to get rid of stripes that had be previously painted on the walls. Then used the yellow for a nice accent of chevron in the closet….

So a view of the nursery sooo far…

CRAFT 8:

Now this craft had nothing to do with the nursery…..

I had 4 pieces of wood that had been left by a dumpster from someone elses home improvement project back when we lived in the Condo, and I’ve been holding onto it ever since. 3 of the 4 pieces I stained (red mahogany which I already had from past projects) Then lightly spray painted and sanded the 4th piece with a blue spray paint (which I already had) Then painted the phrase “ Always kiss me Goodnight” with some cheap craft paint (that again I already had)  So completely free but here is the finished product…

This is now hanging above our bed in the master bedroom….

Easy Smeasy and FREE!

CRAFT 9: Lanterns I got the idea from Pinterest but took some liberties….

So I found mason jars at the dollar store. 9 to be exact. $9 I filled them with décor rocks/stones that I had previously bought at the dollar store $2 for 2 bags.  Then I put a tea light in each jar (which I already had) I bought a huge bag of these a long time ago for super cheap.  Then I tied  twine to each jar. 

‘

I then installed 9 hooks under our back patio. Hooks I bought in a pack at Home Depot for $4

Then I hung ‘em up.

Outdoor Rustic Lighting. $15

Well…The craftiness will continue so stay tuned for near future posts….

"Announcements! Announcements! Announcements! What a horrible way to die! What a horrible way to die...." 
Sorry that just popped into my head as I was about to make this blog post.  Forgive me....well I'm sure you can figure out what this announcement has to say for itself....

Yep you got it, we're expected another little one to join our family at the end of 2012.  We couldn't be more thrilled.  I won't be finding out girl or boy till July sometime. Anyways....the word is out.

Feeling Fit….

Who doesn’t get to a point in life whether it be a job, or you finally look in the mirror or even just reach a moment in a day and think to yourself…..” how did I end up in a job I hate sooo much? This isn’t what I wanted to do!”, or “ how did I get to this, this is not what I want to look like, this is not a happy person”, or “ how is it already 4pm and I’m still in my pajamas and my teeth aren’t brushed.  Well for me the looking in the mirror and seeing someone I didn’t know was the scenario that hit home. 
Infact it didn’t just hit home, it freakin smacked me in the face and hard!

     Prior to getting pregnant with Kal I was in pretty good shape. Good as in probably the best shape of my life….. infact I was working toward a “Fitness Competition Body” . I wasn’t planning on actually competing in any competitions but looking like I did and heck if I wanted to having the option.  I had a strict diet, and kept a food diary.  I also kept track of my daily calorie intake/ and calorie burn and I was burning substantially more than I took in.  I felt great!  My weight didn’t play a role at all.  After having struggles with eating disorders in my early youth I had always been careful about putting too much stock into that NUMBER on the scale. I didn’t want to strive for a certain number, my focus this time around was HEALTH.  And health to me meant FEELING and LOOKING great and the way to be healthy is in eating good portions of good foods, and getting plenty of sleep and exercise.  Well just as I was feeling like pretty hot stuff, I found out I was pregnant. 

    Whewee!  I was elated and soon INFLATED!! The first couple months I was good about what I ate and making it to theo gym regularly.  But the exhaustion of pregnancy was overwhelming.  I’ve heard it said you either get really bad morning sickness, or really bad exhaustion, or a little of both.  I had exhaustion in freaking OVER DRIVE and I let the exercise go by the way side.  Which started a domino effect, I wasn’t living an active lifestyle and what I was eating became less and less healthy, and I was taking the “Eating For Two” phrase LITERALLY.  Not keeping in mind that that second person I was eating for was like the size of a walnut…..Any way the pregnancy weight began to pack on in my second trimester.  I couldn’t believe the numbers at my appointments so I started evaluating my diet with the O.B. I asked her what I could do to slow this weight gain down.  She gave me some pointers. I became very strict and lowered my carb intake by quite a bit and really watched my portions.  My next appointment came around I still put on a substantial amount.  What the heck.  She asked if I was eating a lot of Salt. My circulation was horrid I woke up constantly at night because my arms were completely numb, and I had had to cut off my wedding ring because my hand swelled to twice it’s size one night.  My hands, and feet and face were ballooning up.  I told her I don’t really put salt on my food.  Well the next day I sat at the table working on crafts eating a handful of sunflower seeds!  I had been eating sunflower seeds like a handful a day!  Which are practically the saltiest things you can eat!  Gosh I’m dumb….So I cut out sunflower seeds all together.  Guess what I only gained 1 more lb. the remainder of my pregnancy.

(just a couple days before I gave birth)

  Although I was able to get smart at the end I had already done some damage amidst the pregnancy. Over all I gained a whopping 45-50lbs. during my pregnancy!  Yuck.  That’s almost double the healthy amount. I had Kalvin April 8, 2011.  By the end of that first week I had already lost 20 lbs.  I thought “This is awesome!!!  I’m one of those ladies who’s fat just gets sucked from their body while breastfeeding”  Well turns out that was probably just all that water weight I had put on.  because I platued after that.  This is about the time I looked in the mirror and was just DISGUSTED with myself.

(It’s hard for me to post this! It’s EMBARASSING!- This is 2 1/2 months after I had Kalvin and I still look pregnant!)

 

How did I get here? When I looked at myself in the mirror it wasn’t the person I wanted to see and it wasn’t the person I felt like I was on the inside.  So I had to  do what I had to do to become that person again.  So I worked my butt off.  Some days it seemed like I would never get there.  Some months I lost 10 lbs. Some were harder and I just coasted.  Although I can proudly say the number never increased on the scale.  And even more proudly I can say I have lost 70 lbs, that’s right 70 FREAKING POUNDS since I gave birth to Kalvin.  I am well under my pre-preg weight with Kal.  Although with the weight lifting and such I was doing before then I had some muscle weight, that I don’t have now.  and I think my fat to muscle ratio is still worse than before but I’m SOOO much happier and HEALTHIER!

(much better!  I can finally look at a picture of myself and feel  content and happy with how i look.  This is a year after giving birth to Kalvin)

Well just proud of how far I’ve come in the past year and thought I would share my good news of Health!

Making A House A Home….

Like a mentioned in a past post, we are living in the house of some friends while they are in Tennessee.  It has been such a blessing!  We are so grateful to the Walkers, and even more importantly to our Heavenly Father for being ever mindful of our needs.

So here is a tour of the house, and a look at my attempts to decorate.  I’m by no means am a professional, but I LOVE to decorate, and do DIY home improvement projects.

You walk in the front door and to the left is our front room!

Heather the home owner has great taste and had already painted the walls.  I love the Torquoise, and already had furniture and pillows and such to go with the color scheme.

Now if you continue in past the front room you enter our living room….

 

We spend a lot of our time in here.  Jeff picked out the couch and loveseat. I thought they looked very oriental, so I kind of went with that theme in here.  You can see the bamboo plant in the corner, and then the blind in the opposite corner.

The couch etc is SURPRISINGLY comfy!

As you can see from the living room you can see the casual dining area, and the kitchen.

Right off of the dining area is our main floor bathroom. Still toying with exactly how to decorate in here.

 

Here is a better shot of the kitchen….

Now turning to our right is the formal dining area, which is lacking a table I’m looking for a good deal.  The little hutch we got for free someone was throwing it out and I still need to give it some TLC.  And the dining chairs I got for $6 a piece at goodwill. 

As you can see this room doubles as our office, with the two file cabinets in the corner and our printer…

Now up the stairs….

Kids/Guest Bathroom…..

 

Spare Bedroom….This bedroom set was one that Jeff and I had when we first got married.  It was one he bought off his dad.  He wasn’t finished and I HATED.  But when we moved in here we put it in the garage for a while and Jeff ended up staining and sealing it.  We did a two-tone stain.  The drawers are darker than the main body.  I actually like this bedroom set now…

 

The Nursery…

Before we even had a definite house, I had decided on a giraffe theme for the nursery.  During conference Oct. 2010 I painted the mother baby giraffe painting and did all the other crafts to have them ready for when we DID have them when he came/when he had someone definite to stay.

Jeff’s sister Davina was soo awesome and got us our nursery furniture. Crib, rocker, dresser, changing table.  We love aunt Davina!

 

And now the Master Bedroom I’m still trying to find stuff to decorate. I’ve got a color sheme, and feel, but just haven’t found the right stuff to really finish it off.

You can see the Vanity and Bathroom off to the left and there is a Walk-In closet just around the corner. WHICH IS AWESOME!!!!

I’ve seen a few things on Pinterest that I’ve thought of throwing up above the head board….we’ll soo though.

Now the basement in unfinished, but it gets a lot of use!

Now to the right we have our entertainment area….

We’ve got a couch, and bed infront of it all for comfortable viewing of whatever we happen to being watching on the projector screen.  Dvd’s and keyboard in the corner.

Then scan right….

another bed, incase we have a housefull of guests… and the beginning of the kids play area, for when we have friends over.

Play area….complete with dress up station.

as we round the corner, we have my favorite area (sense my sarcasm)  The Laundry Station…

Food Storage ETC.

Craft Corner…

And the most important to my sanity and Self Image…my GYM away from the Gym.

Can’t wait for my bike trainer to here tomorrow!  I got such a good deal and would love to add cycling to my basement workout regimen.  Well that’s all folks!