Grayson Michael

Born Friday September 23rd, 2011

6:11 AM 7 lbs 11 oz 20.5 inches long

The love of our lives- for sure.

Nursery Reveal!

Well yesterday was my due date- apparently little man didn't get the memo, cause I'm still on the knocked up side of things and not the Mommy side. He better decide to come soon, otherwise I will have to move him from the top of my favorite kids list to spot numero uno on the children that drive me crazy list.

Annywhooo~ at least Daddy finished his nursery on time!

First- some befores:

Our house was built in 1890. Its a big old place, with 10 foot ceelings, large rooms and zippo closet space. But it's ours, and we love it. His room was a blue guest room to start, with linoleum floors and a rug from Lowes to cover the floor.

There was a beautiful hand carved fireplace here, there is one in almost every room. However, the previous owner ripped it out and sold it leaving this beauty behind. They also replaced the orignal tiles with some random 4x4 blue squares and left large gaps in the woodwork. Thanks for that, folks.

We started by painting the walls Tiggers Tummy from the Disney Line at Home Depot that we had color matched to Behr Premium Plus Ultra. The trim was looking a little wonky, and since only about 1/2 of it was orignial we decided to just paint the trim Bitter Chocolate from Behr, and it honestly doesnt look like painted trim but rather stained woodwork.

Next came the carpet, wall to wall thick wonderful shag it was, and thanks to Remanant City in Pittsburgh we got a 20x17 piece WITH padding for $279. Score!!

Daddy and Grandpa took the old tile off of the fireplace and put new tile and a new mantle on that fits with the jungle theme we have going on. The bedding is Lambs and Ivy Papagayo.

We bought his crib new from USA Baby, but I scored the rest of the furnature off of craigslist for super cheap then we painted it a really deep, rich green. Yes, there is a tv and dvd collection in his room- please don't judge me, but we have a fouton in there that will be used for guests so we decided to keep the tv in there for that purpose...not so he can watch cartoons from his crib!!

A shot of the new mantle. It may not be original to the house, but I love how it fits the theme of his room.

How cute is this bathrobe holder? This is one of my favorite parts of his room, I'll be honest.

So many books. The bins at the bottom are for his little toys and things and the basket on the top has his stuffed animals and soft toys.

Last up is little man's closet...stuffed full of clothes. Everything on the top bar is newborn-6 months, and everything on the bottom is 6-12 months all seporated out by the little dividers I made a few months ago. The diaper stacker is full of his cloth dipes, and crammed in there as well is his musical table, jeep travel stroller, a bumboo, and a play mat. Momma can cram ALOT into a tiny closet ;)

Now all thats missing is little man- come on out, Buddy!

Mommy and Daddy really want to meet you!

The girl behind the crazy

Its a long, crazy road that got me to where I am today.

Growing up I never realized that it wasn't normal to have a crazy life. Im the daughter of a single Momma who worked three jobs, who lived with my grandparents and had my dad around 24/7. (Seriously, my parents had the best divorce ever, they got along so great once they didnt live together anymore that my Dad still came for dinner every night and had a key to our house.)

I grew up in a super small town, with family on every single street. My Dad has 11 brothers and sisters- most of whom live in the town. I have more cousins than I know what to do with. We swam in the river, played on the railroad tracks, rode quads and played capture the flag. Yeah, I should have been a boy. I managed to grow up and graduate high school, then college, then I went on to get my Masters in Education. Thats right, I was going to spend 7 years in college to go back to high school.

On Sunday December 13th, 2009 Patrick changed my life. While decorating our Christmas tree he had his little cousin hand me a box and say "Here Besamy, this is for you". When I opened the box I realized- pigs were flying, he was asking me to marry him. I knew we'd get there someday, of course, but he typically avoided that subject like the plague. He wanted to have a job to support me, a house for us to live in, and life for me to join into...and once he did all of that he (cough, cough, FINALLY) put a ring on it. (Please forgive the crazy unbrushed, unkept look of me in this photo- I had no idea or I would have spiffed up a bit!)

I graduated in May and got hired to teach 9th grade science in August- which is really a miracle when you look at the job market these days. I am that teacher- the one who climbs on desks, tells horribly bad jokes, sings, dances, decorates her room (LOVE that Cricut!), and dresses up on spirit day. I have fun at work, and my kids have fun in class. We laugh, we argue, and we learn. I like to tell them that if I sneak the learning in with the fun it keeps the natives from getting restless. Do they think I'm crazy? Yes. Do they love it? Most of them, yes. As I prepare to go out for maternity leave Ive had more than one ask me not to leave because they'll miss me- from 14 year olds that's a pretty big complement.

On October 30th, 2010 there was a gorgeous boy with the most amazing blue eyes waiting for me in a tux and Nike Shoxx at the end of the aisle of the church I grew up in. He said I do, and so did I and we became husband and wife.

I DIY-ed everything I could with the wedding, and you can read more about that here- being cheap as I am. We went back to the place we met to take our pictures, and had so many personal touches that really made it our wedding. I couldn't have asked for a better day, or a better husband.

Just as we were settling into being newlyweds on January 12th, 2011 we found out we were expecting. We were not trying to have a baby...but God had another plan. I found out when the doctor called with the results of my physical and said "Why didn't you tell us you were pregnant?" and I responded "You've got someone elses blood, lady!". Well, she didn't and here I am two days from my due date with our first (non-doggie) child.

So that's my life- and to some people its not much but I think its pretty darn perfect.

Happy Birthday!

Today is my hubby's birthday- he's officially old! We're really the same age, but he gets "old" five months before me, so I rub that in every single year haha! This year is a little different, because Im also three days from my due date with our baby boy. This week when he asked what the plans were for his birthday I kept telling him "Im not going to the mall to buy you a birthday present, Im having this baby on your birthday."

Well its still early, but no signs of the bean yet. Come on baby- Momma didn't go shopping!

So Happy Birthday my Love, I can't wait to spend the rest of our birthdays together!

The VMA's

Ohhh MTV- do you even play music videos anymore?

I do not know, but I do know that I owe the VMA's alot.

In 2004 I invited a friend from college over to watch them and pig out with me- it was my tradtion back then. He had just returned from Tennessee for sophomore year of college and was hungry for real food so he came. As we sat and watched Jessica Simpson and OutKast preform and eating pizza and wings and catching up on everything that had happened over the summer, something happened. Before he left that night he asked me if I thought I was ready to date again (high school boyfriend dumped me during spring semester), and I joked back "Why, do you know any nice single guys who arent total jerks?" He said, "Give me a few days and I will." I assumed he meant he would check around on campus and find me a nice guy...I didnt realize he was going home to finally break it off with his on-again/off-again casual dating girlfriend from home and would ask me out to a movie that weekend. Where he would open my car door for the first time, pay for my dinner for the first time, and hold my hand and tell me I was the most beautiful person he had ever known before he kissed me.

This picture is from the next weekend, when he took me to my first Pirates game.

A little over six years later, I married him.

So tonight as I watch the VMA's and wonder what in the hell some of these people are on....I realize I owe a heck of alot to MTV. But goodness what I wouldn't give for some Jessica Simpson- at least I knew the words to her songs!

All Star Baby Shower

Wow- so I've totally managed to suck at blogging. I figured I have a bit of an excuse, with a baby bump that has reduced me to having to hold onto something to put on pants, a renovation on Mr. Man's room, and trying to prep to go back to school only to leave again after 3 weeks- its a bit hectic over here. So tonight as the hubs is out of town for work (3 weeks before I deliver, thanks boss man...not. This year for Christmas, you get nothing.) I figured Id sit down and relax and share some images from the baby shower.

I knew I wanted my husband to be there- he's so beyond excited for his little man it wouldn't be right if it was just my shower. Don't tell him I told you this, but he talks to my belly every night and sleeps with his hand on my bump to feel the baby moving as much as he can...which is super cute and WAY un-expected for this tough guy. So, knowing I wanted to have him there we decided that we were going to go with a co-ed All Star Sports theme- think 'babys first party' rather than 'cutesy baby shower'.

We went with a red, white and blue baseball, basketball and football All-Star theme- because the plates, napkins and the like were 75% off at the party store- score!! Food was what you would find at a tailgate party...hot dogs, nachos, hot sausage, friend chicken, salads, fruit salad, pasta, chips, cookies, iced tea, pop, and even some beer for the men folk who braved the party. The invites encouraged sports attire and we had paper footballs and baseballs hanging from the ceiling. The corn hole boards were set up outside in the parking lot, giving the guys a place to retreat to with their beer and food. Games were not the norm either. I came up with two games the first was called Famous Sons a matching game that had people matching the names of famous TV sons with the shows they were on (that was a good hour of Google time to come up with shows from all eras, but it was a huge hit) and Mommy, Daddy or Both where I had facts listed and the guests had to figure out who we were talking about. I.E. Who had more cravings during the pregnancy? (Daddy, totally), or Who had to bring a bucket on any car ride until age 10 because they suffered from horrible motion sickness? (that'd be the mama- and that outgrown habit re-reared its ugly head in pregnancy too!). Our favors were sugar cookie baseballs on a stick, and we had napkin diapers filled with things like sour patch kids and chocolate covered raisins on the tables along with the wish cards for the little man that allowed people to recall favorite memories with mommy and daddy as well as give predictions for the bean and their well wishes.

I was a little worried that inviting 70+ women and 20 some men to a shower like this would result in strange looks- but ya'll they LOVED it. People told me it was the best baby shower they had been to in a long, long time. Even the men had a good time (but the beer probably really helped them out!) Sure we had some traditional baby shower things, like the pictures of Mommy and Daddy and a coming soon shot of our little guy. Check out Daddy's FAB comb over and Mommy's cue ball....hopefully this kid pops out somewhere in the middle lol.

Quick shot of the food table...drool.

My sweet friend Julie made the cake- shes not a professional baker, but goodness she could be!

This was my single favorite part of the shower, I cried when I saw it...and drool whenever I think of how good it tasted. It was a vanilla cake with fresh strawberry and butter cream filling. And no, I know what you all are thinking- we didnt eat the baby...I couldn't bare to cut into him (he even had a belly button for goodness sakes!). I left him for my dad and his poker buddies to cut into later that night- but even they couldn't do it.

We had so many generous gifts...it was insane to us how much this little man is loved. It seriously took two of us over an hour to open them all. I couldn't believe how generous and amazing all of our friends and family were. We even ended up with 15 BumGenius cloth diapers that people brought instead of cases of disposables....I have no words for how grateful we were.

Me and the hubs, hes so cute, if this kid looks like him I'm screwed. He was sweet enough to help plan this shower with my Mom and his cousin to make sure it was exactly what he wanted for his little guy and to make sure it was a fun party. We totally didnt try to match, it just worked out that way. Actually, when I tried the dress on at the store my darling Momma said 'Holy Cow, you're huge!'...I so hope her grandson pees on her the first chance he gets for that one.

I think my other favorite part of the shower was taking this picture with my childhood best friend. We always did everything together growing up, and even though we were not trying we both wound up being pregnant at the same time. Seriously, shes due today-three weeks apart- with her little girl, Marley.

Call me crazy, but I'm sensing an arranged marriage in my little guy's future ;)

DIY Closet Size Dividers

When I was over at a friends house looking at her baby's nursery I saw in the closet clothing size dividers. She told me she got them at Babies R Us for $10- so I checked...sold out in blue AND green. Well, not to be discouraged I figured it was something I could make myself on the cheap- and I did! I picked up my supplies- blank closet size dividers (eBay seller, $5 for 20 of them plus free shipping!), scrapbook paper (5 for $1), vinyl sheet for the letters (already on hand), Mod Podge, some scrap cardboard, and a foam brush.

I started by tracing one of the blank dividers onto the cardboard to make a template. The edges are raised, so I wanted the scrapbook paper to fit down into the insert. By making my cardboard piece to fit, all I had to do was trace it 16 times to make the set. This took some trimming of the cardboard to get a perfect fit...and I may or may not have wanted to chuck the whole thing out the window and just cough up the $10...but I'm too proud and far too cheap for that, so on I pressed.

Once it was a perfect fit I traced and cut out my scrapbook paper. I made a bunch of them, and I made sure to flip my template over so that the animals on the paper were right side up on each side of the divider.

Once they were all cut out I busted out the Mod Podge and painted on a thick layer. Then I adjusted the paper to fit the opening and let it dry. Note- in 90 degree heat and high humidity Mod Podge dries QUICK. Like, I wasted a circle because I took the time to pick up the camera to take this action shot and it dried in place- insert curse word *here*.

Then I busted out my Cricut and cut out the labels for the dividers...I chose to go with Newborn, 0-3, 3-6, 6-9, 9-12, 12, 18 and 24 months.

Yes. I'm anal retentive and ridiculous.

The pre-packaged ones come with 5, and I wanted more so I made more. We have not even had the baby shower yet and already I have two Rubbermaid totes of clothes for our little guy- I want to be able to see what we have and what we need quickly. It only took one 12x12 sheet of vinyl (a 12x24 sheet is $1.89 at Expressions Vinyl) to make all of my labels, and about 20 minutes of cutting time. Once they were cut off, I peeled them off and stuck them on. I made my letters one inch in size, so you could easily see the sizes inside of the closet. Because they were vinyl and self stick, I didn't need to worry about gluing them down. Then I added a coat of Mod Podge at the top to seal everything in and they were done! Now, we just need to get hubs to clear his junk out of the Bean's closet, and I can get to work painting and organizing. Here's hoping it won't wait until after the little guy arrives??