Baby Willis' Room

We had a lot of fun putting together this room for our baby boy. Well, I guess I can't speak for Greg, he probably wanted to kill me a few times ;) It was especially fun to include some items of special significance to our little family. Here are some of the details:

(Excuse the crazy spacing - Blogger was being highly uncooperative)

We wrapped styrofoam balls with yarn for the mobile.

The blank canvas above the crib will be used to document baby's growing footprints over time.

My Mom and I made the crib sheet from twin sheets I found.

I made the crib "skirt."

I made the cover for the pillow on the rocking chair.

The green bags hanging on the dresser are for cloth diapering - call me crazy if you must ;)

The dresser once belonged to my great-grandparents. Greg painted it and the drawer pulls.

I gifted Greg the "typestaches" poster for his birthday last year.

When we are 100% sure on baby's name, the small frame in the upper right will be replaced with a green canvas with his first and middle names on it in white.

The ribbons are mine from various races (running) over the years.

The pirate poster is from one of Greg's favorite bands- he's had it for years.

I bought the wooden "W" and painted it orange (for Willis :)

Greg made the stencil from a photo of me from our wedding.

We bought the map poster at a concert we went to this fall.

The frame with the blue paper is a placeholder - I will replace the strip of paper with baby's hospital bracelet.

I've collected bottlecaps for a number of years now - it was good to finally have a use for some of them.

I gave Greg the bicycle letterpress print as a gift a few years ago.

You can barely see the tiny red heart I placed on the map of Ogden to note where our house is.

The medals are (left to right): Mine from the State Games of America 1999 (soccer), my finisher medal from the 2007 Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay, and Greg's finisher medal from the 2011 Boise Half Ironman.

The cardboard painting was done by my great-grandfather - he was a little eccentric ;)

The piggy bank was a sweet gift from my Grandma. I collect piggy banks and she thoughtfully bought baby his first one.

pop!

Confession: I have been in love with Bubble Wrap my whole life. It's just satisfying to hear those little bubbles pop. I know I'm not alone here...

Growing up with a salesman Dad meant receiving lots of samples in big boxes = Bubble Wrap. Growing up with 5 brothers meant we occasionally fought over who got the Bubble Wrap. I usually won. When I was feeling nice I shared with my little brother. I may not have felt nice as often as I should.

I would lay the Bubble Wrap carefully on the floor and run up and down the sheet until the 'popping' stopped. Then, I would methodically scan each row for unpopped bubbles to squish with my fingers.

That being said, you must understand why I need this calendar:

A bubble to pop for every day of the year? Genius.

I'm contemplating making my own. Now I just need Bubble Wrap. Who drew my name for Christmas again?

Isn't sealed air great?

leap

Last night marked the beginning of our grand new adventure called Graduate School. As I sent Greg off with a kiss, pb&j, and string cheese for the road, I had a "mom moment." At least I think that's what it was. I'm not a mom so I can't be completely sure, but it felt like other moments I've had...my nursery kids getting excited about going to the bathroom all by themselves or my cub scouts grinning proudly because they've hammered together a lopsided wooden toolbox. I felt like I should have been taking pictures as he drove down our driveway.

I was proud.

He's mine. He's taking the next big leap into his (our) future. I was reminded of the scene in Little Women when Laurie is leaving for college and Jo says, "You'll come back knowing all sorts of things I don't know and then I'll hate you." I certainly won't hate Greg for the things he learns but I don't want to be left behind. I guess you could say...

I'm hoping to leap with him.

I'm formulating my own "Graduate School" of sorts to be completed while Greg does his. I don't want to look back 14 months from now (fingers crossed it will only take that long) at Greg's graduation and wonder what I've been doing. Some of the things I've added to my list are mundane tasks like creating organizational systems for virtually every aspect of my existence, while others are more challenging like finally learning to play the guitar. Greg will walk away with a diploma, experience and opportunity. I'm hoping to walk away with something too.

What would be on your list?

reveal

Here is my Kimball in all his glory. He's obviously missing his "covers" in these photos but it's fun to see the guts. (Wow, that sentence is funny out of context.) You can see we have a lot of work ahead of us, thus the lovely floral "drop cloth."

A peek under Kimball's lid reveals... (we will leave this intact)

Did I mention Kimball didn't come with a bench? Enter improv:

kimball

Our 1969* Kimball piano made it safely home last night. No pictures yet; our camera batteries were dead. The previous owner had started to strip the finish for an update so we have a big project ahead of us. It needs to be tuned but is still playable and has one key that sticks. Overall, not too shabby.

I thoroughly enjoyed playing it last night although I need to snag more of my old piano books from Mom's stash :)

Thanks Greg, Dad, Bob, and Mom for your help getting my baby home.



*This is my best estimate with the research I've done so far.

A long time coming...

I've been meaning to post a picture of this AWESOME mural Greg helped paint for a looooong time now (they finished it in October). It's on the side of a pre-school in South Ogden (40th and Washington for those in the neighborhood). It was really fun to see it come together and people driving by would stop and ask about it when Greg and his friends were working on it. Enjoy!

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is frying my brain. I have been in the process of creating THIS PAGE for a little while now and it's what I would call "reasonably complicated." It's a good thing you can look at the formatting for other pages; otherwise I never would have figured out how to format the columns. It's definitely been a good brain stretching exercise.

On an unrelated note, I had a Reese's Crispy Crunchy Bar today. Kind of weird.

As of late

I've had a seemingly unquenchable craving for CRAFTS. That's right. I bet you thought I was going to say cucumbers (for those that know me well) or chocolate (for those that know the natural food preferences of women in general - including me). I don't know why I've been having these cravings, but they have manifested themselves in a multitude of exciting projects. Everything from crepe paper decorating and cupcake frosting to quilt sewing and Halloween costume fashioning (for a giant inflatable man no less). Because that's what I've been craving as of late.

PICTURES COMING SOON.

What's in the coffee table?

We (somewhat) recently purchased this coffee table:

Part of our attraction to it was that we could display things in it. So, what's in the coffee table right now?

Old spraypaint cans.

We plan on switching things up every now and then (we already know we want to do Christmas ornaments come the holiday season). Any ideas for cool display items?

Bitesize Update(s)

• Leigh (Greg's oldest brother) and his wife Jamie had their baby girl (Quincy) Saturday (08.16). She's beautiful. I'm convinced the only reason she cried when I held her was because she needed a good burp :)

• We love the Olympics. But, Bela Karolyi is right-it was a "rip off" in the individual vault competition and the Chinese gymnasts are certainly not 16. As he said, "They are using half-people."

• I'm still on the hunt for a new job. I had a good interview yesterday (08.18) but the job's a bit far away. There's potential for what seems to be the best situation so far--I should hear the verdict by the end of the week.

• We love pasta salad.

• Greg's team - "Liechtenstein" - won the company Olympics at the Bank of Utah picnic Saturday (08.16). Pictures soon to come of Greg competing in such events as synchronized swimming (giggle) and sculling. He also brought home a $50 gas card from the drawing, which we promptly used. They haven't chosen the winner of the flag contest yet but someone dared to say (to our faces I might add) that Greg's masterpiece won't win. Bah!

• We love fresh vegetables from our very own little garden.

• I got stung by a bee the night of the opening ceremonies (08.08.08) and had a crazy allergic reaction. Sorry, there's no pictures but I assure you it was disgusting. The swelling didn't go away until Tuesday/Wednesday (4-5 days later). I literally couldn't fit in regular shoes come time for church that Sunday. Lovely.

• We love the show Heroes. We had never seen it until last week and now we're hooked.

• Greg is helping paint a mural for the exterior of a South Ogden preschool. Check out the progress if you're in the neighborhood (40th and Washington)! We'll post pictures soon.

• We love going for a good run right at sunset.

• Some of our basement walls are merely painted concrete which makes for a cool delight on these hot summer days. We're thinking that won't be the case come winter but we have a wood burning stove we're eager to heat up.

"Girls only want [husbands] who have great skills."

It just so happens that my husband does have great skills! As evidence I will now post a recent project he tackled, nay, mastered for an upcoming work event. Each department designed a flag to represent them and I dare say you are about to view the winner of the contest. Who knew stencils could be this cool?

Disclaimer: I didn't get any pictures of the actual making of the stencils for the flag BUT it took a good 8 hours to make them as well as 2 more hours to paint. I wasn't much help for most of it so I served as cheerleader.

And now for the flag painting... (see the slideshow below)

Impressive, eh? Good work honey!

Click here for slideshow!