Decorating my house this last week!

Saturday to Saturday was very busy for us, and that's just how we like it. So far I have managed to finish painting my boys' rooms and get their hallway decorated. It doesn't look great, so I'm desperate for ideas. One thing I have learned though, I am terrible and choosing paint. TERRIBLE.

Baby boy C's room:

This actually turned out much much brighter than I thought and the picture doesn't do it justice. Let's just say that during the day, the hallway glows. But I still really love it. When else do you get to paint an impossibly bright color.

The Boys' Hallway:

The quote says "Prince- son of a Heavenly King". I think it would all look much better painted, but I had to make a compromise with D. It was either don't paint the upper hallway, or the lower hallway. One is still orange, so no brainer. It looks kind of bare but don't forget the glow! Each picture is matted w/ scrapbook paper and ribbon. I'm waiting on pics of Baby C for the middle one. I couldn't really put much else there since my boys'll probably destroy it:(

P's Dinosaur Room:

I was so disappointed when I was finished because the paint turned out much darker than I wanted. True I want him to be able to grow into it, but I still wanted something brighter. Once I get his accessories up, it will look better. I'm especially excited to get a full-sized bed b/c his dinosaur bedding is to die for. Then we'll make a headboard and toybox. Please forgive my child's mess. It takes him all of 2 seconds.

And FINALLY, Fall is my favorite season. I love everything about it. The weather, the smell of leaves, clothes, EVERYTHING. So since the weather has cooled off and Fall is too short, I went and bought some candles that are making my house smell like Fall Heaven (*sigh).

Summer Fun-ness

Look at me! I'm posting pictures! So we did just a couple of things this summer other than moving and being pregnant. We decided to not go on any big vacations since we bought a house and wanted to take it easy.

We went to the zoo with D's sister and her husband and 4-month old. LOVE HIM. P was so much fun this time around because he knows all of the animals and made all the noises when we saw them. We had an especially good time in "Ape Land". The zoo has a lot of new kids parts and it was Fisher Price Day where they had a bunch of toys to play with and gave you promotional DVD's.
Next we went to Missouri for a family reunion for D's Dad's family. We only stayed a couple of days, but it was fun to meet lots of new people. P loved playing with the other kids his age. He and I spent lots of time at the lake and it was so nice to play with him. My MIL got lots of great pictures. I'll have to get them from her sometime so you can tell I actually was there (and at the zoo, too. My SIL too much better pics than me too.) Anyway, D's grandparents have a lot of land so the boys all spent most of their time on the mule carting around. P also loved the horses. Unfortunately I could not convince him to stop calling them cows *sigh*.

Oh, Update on the 'reassessment of my placental location'. It's called Placenta Previa. All it means is that part of the placenta is blocking the baby from cervix which means he'd have to be born via c-section. BUT, only 10% of women that it's noticed in still have the problem at the time of birth. Best case scenario, it goes away, no problems. Worst case, I get put on bed rest and have a c-section at 37 weeks. No worries though, it was just nice to figure out what it was all about!

Reassessing the Placental Location

Does anyone know what that means, exactly? We had our 6 month doctor's appointment yesterday and everything went great. Weight-good. Blood pressure-good. Baby's heartbeat-good. So far I've gained 12 pounds (since I started going to the doc anyway, haha) and I'm measuring at 23cm which is perfect.

I have to go in and get my gestational diabetes test done in about a week and a half and at 28 weeks they want me to go in for another ultrasound. They want to "reassess my Placental Location". They said that during my 20 week ultrasound the placenta was 2 cm away from the uterus and usually they want it to be less than one. If it doesn't fix itself I could have some "bleeding during labor", but that was all that they would tell me.

The doctor skirted around my 'what if' questions and therefore couldn't really explain much about the reassessment. I imagine a lot of moms would freak out at the 'what if'. It's just a normal reaction question. I'm not really worried about anything, because they noticed it a month ago and I won't get it rechecked for another month. Obviously it's not too big a deal, especially at this point.

Really all I know is that the placenta and uterus are attached. As the uterus moves up, obviously, the placenta moves up too. All I can figure is that my placenta hadn't moved up as fast as my uterus as of last month anyway.

But has anyone else ever had their placental location reassessed? What a mouthful. Google isn't too helpful.

P went to my appointment with D and me and was very good, uh, very loud. But that's just how he is. His face was so funny listening to the heartbeat. Then he tried lifting up everyone else's shirt to see their bellies.

Oh, but the baby is kicking around more and my mother in law felt him squirm. I'm absolutely delighted at the additional movement. I love feeling him playing around in there. Soon the hiccups will come! But he definitely has his own personality and I love him. I'm getting more and more excited for December to roll around. So is D, but that's probably because I seem to be getting pretty darn cranky...

Being a Woman- I never noticed until now...

In my family and religion, women have always been honored. In our church, a man wont' be called into a position with a lot of responsibility (such as the Bishopric) without the permission/ support of his wife. My husband lets me know almost daily how much he appreciates what I do with our home and family and that he recognizes how hard I work and that it's something only I could do. My dad was always the same with my mother.

So growing up and hearing about women's rights or how they still aren't treated the same even today, it never stuck with me. I figured that those old times were past. I'm a strong woman. Surely those things wouldn't happen to someone like me. But lately, fully entering the grown up world, I've noticed that that is not always the case.

When my husband and I first came to look at this house, the people showing it TOTALLY ignored me. Until it came to the kitchen and what kind of sink it had. Joke was on them, D was more interested in that than I was. Then there was our mortgage broker who never did really talk to me. Every bit of information, every question was directed at my husband.

Then today, I met with our landlord to return our keys and he tried to bully me and take advantage of me. He told me to agree to his terms or he'd find more things to charge me. He told me I needed to just agree to it already because my little boy was hot and hungry. Now I know better, having been a property manager and in the business for the last six years. So I know what is a legal charge and what's not. But then! After having come to an agreement about touch up paint, he said that I needed to agree to it or he'd charge me more, I told him that wasn't honest. Then he told me I was suspicious and that I wasn't honest.

You might be wondering what that little story has to do with being a woman. Well, my husband called later to clarify a few things and the landlords told my husband that I kept threatening a lawsuit (did not, small claims is a pain) AND they treated D totally differently. They were pleasant and wanted to try and work with him. They didn't treat me like that at all. Calling me dishonest and trying to pressure by making insinuations about my baby? That would ONLY happen to a woman.

Now I'm not quick to jump on any women's lib bandwagons. So I don't go arounding calling foul or throwing tantrums every time something happens to not go my way. But I was very angry and in uncharted territory. How am I supposed to be a strong woman when I have to rely on my husband so much? How do I make certain people (because it's not everyone) take me seriously? I don't know the answers to that. There may not be a solution. D agrees with me though and hates it when I get treated that way. He always tries and makes them listen to me or tells them that they need to get my opinion first. I love that about him. They say behind every good man is a good woman. I'm also willing to say that behind every strong woman is a strong man.

So as far as those landlords go, I'll just wait to see if they try and pull anything. And while I don't threaten to sue people left and right, I sure won't hesitate if they try and do something wrong. It is my money afterall.

All in all, because this a long blog, I don't wan to be a man. I'm happy being a woman. Even a woman who is a stay at home mom. I find a lot of strength and there are lots of lessons in that. I'm very blessed with these men in my life. From that big one who is a bed hog to that little one who is a bed hog. And to that even smaller one who kicked me for a good half hour this morning and will probably ALSO be a bed hog.

And the winner is...!

So I appreciate everyone giving me ideas for baby names. Over the weekend we finally made a decision, and to my surprise, it is the simplest most common of names:

Cole Michael

Thursday I talked to my Grandma for a long time about the world, and she just said, "I sure hope D talks you out of Paxton. I like Cole myself." I love the way she is. No sugar-coating, but she's never rude.
Then on the drive to Missouri (pics to come), my father-in-law decided that Cole was a perfect name because it's "tough" and a 'Cole' can be anything he wants. I almost was going to NOT name our baby Cole to spite him, but I really do like it.
Anyway, Michael happens to be the name of our fathers, my daddy and D's dad and Pops, who has always taken care of us, kind of like a second dad to my husband. And, I really like that it's simple.
So there's a very long explanation of my second son's name. And wow, it's weird to say I have sons. See him in December!

Did I mention an update?

Here's what happens when your baby thinks he's hilarious and you ask him to "Say Cheese and Smile! We're in our new house!" King of funny faces...

I'll post pictures soon. We don't have too much to do and our house will be finished with painting and arranging, etc. I'm still trying to decide what to do for my boys' rooms. I'm looking for a cheap dinosaur mural for P's wall. Anyone know of where I can find one?

Baby #2 is still called New Baby... My husband like the name Gabriel for a few days, but got sick of it. Then he liked the name Korben for all of 2 seconds. Right up until I told him we absolutely would NOT use the middle name Dallas. Which is the name of the character from the movie 5th Element, btw.

I fell in love with the name Paxton. But one friend said it sounds like a prescription (paxil) and D HATES it. He's still waiting for the lightning that will hit him and scream "THIS IS THE ONE".

I'm still taking suggestions even though you all have been great :)

I also like Decker and we only kind of like Christian. I seem to have a thing for -er names and -an names.

We're visiting family this weekend in Missouri which is a 12 hour ride. Hopefully in that time we can come up with something. Meanwhile, I keep searching website after website and reading all the credits to every movie I watch. It's a good thing we're starting so early!

I skipped my last dr appointment because I had an ultrasound around that time and our baby was doing great. I've never had any problems. So my next one comes next Friday. I've only gained one pound in two months, so I wonder if they'll say anything about that. Believe me though. I'm eating. I actually bought dozen donuts on Saturday. ME. Well, they're still in the fridge. Maybe I'll go eat one for lunch...