baby WALKER

So, we've made the official announcement.  We're expecting a baby!

In case you missed it on the all so public Facebook, here's how we let everyone know...

I will briefly somewhat briefly go into a little bit of some personal information about our journey in the process of becoming pregnant.  Some may think its not appropriate to share, but I've always said that I'm an open book.  For goodness sake I have a blog about all the things that David and I do in our free time.  And if it helps anyone, then all the better.

It wasn't easy.  But by no means was it as hard as some women go through.  I feel blessed that we didn't have to go to any extremes.  We started this whole process back in May of 2012.  And after about 6 months, I figured I would go to the doctor and see what was going on.  I'm the type of person that doesn't sit around and wait for things to happen to me.  I question and I ask, and I am proactive.  Call it impatient, call it meddling in life's plan, but I'm glad I made a move because otherwise we would not be where we are today.

All in all I found out I had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome in March after a couple of months working with my regular OBGYN without any success and then moving on to Texas Fertility. 

Side note:  I am no expert... And I'm not going to give you a WebMD definition, but this is how I explain PCOS.  Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is super common and it just means that you have some kind of insulin resistance which messes with your hormones which gets them all out of wack and never tells your body to ovulate.  (Many women have other side effects, but I'm lucky that I did not.)  So I wasn't ovulating.  That was it.   The solution.  Clomid.

Side note:  Again, I'm not an expert, this is just how my mind has chosen to understand how Clomid works.  Clomid is a fertility drug, but its probably the most common one out there.  It sends some kind of message to your brain that one hormone or the other is depleted, I think estrogen.  So the body then says, hmm.  I need to ovulate.  So, other hormones kick into gear and start the process.  Side effect.  Multiple follicles, that potentially mean multiple eggs "hatching", and therefore multiple babies.  Percentage:  about 10% chance you'll have multiples. (We are not having multiples.)

Clomid was the original plan for my OBGYN, but she wasn't comfortable going past a certain dosage, 150 mg.  So, when I started going to Texas Fertility, the plan was still Clomid, but to kick it up to 200 mg.  And after about 3 months, we started seeing results.  Results being follicles.  Follicles in your ovaries that potentially "hatch" the egg, which is ovulation.

And that's what finally worked.  It took some time, but by no means did it take multiple years, which I can't even imagine.  I know friends and friends of friends who have gone through much worse and I commend them for their grace, hope, and bravery through the whole process. 

For me, it felt like it would never happen.  I wasn't hopeless, but it seemed as if it were one of those things that you've always wanted to do, but was so out of reach, it would take a lot of time, a lot of money, the world shifting on its axis, and a lot of hard work.  But I had very supportive friends and family.  Friends who always asked how things were going.  And I wanted to talk about it when asked so that meant a lot.  It was kind of a therapeutic thing really. 

And David was amazing.  Always making me laugh when I'd have a bad day, and definitely amazing during the past 2 months with our little Bowie, who just sucked the life out of me after a day of nausea and work.

So now that we are past that part, I'm ready to have fun with it.  And all my other friends that are pregnant right now.  Because there are a lot, and I'm so excited.  More to come on Baby Walker and our house projects and nursery projects too.

Katie

chalkboards

So, the new "it" thing is chalkboard art.  If you frequent Pinterest as much as I do, then you've seen some pretty cool chalkboard art.  Well... I wanted to get in on the fun, so I bought some chalkboard paint pens, chalkboard contact paper, and an A-frame decorative framed chalkboard on Amazon.  {By the way, Amazon is really great for EVERYTHING you would ever want to buy.}

Here were my purchases.

Kittrich Corporation Chalkboard Contact Paper

 

 

LIquid Chalkers in White

 

 

NeoChalk Liquid Chalk in White

 

Large A-frame Chalkboard from Etsy-MintageDesigns

{This one hasn't arrived yet, so I started without it}

 

The day these arrived I was so excited, but I waited until the weekend to play with them.  And the first thing I did was transform our pantry cabinet, and created a chalkboard on the inside of our pantry doors. 

 

The contact paper is super easy to cut.  I used a metal ruler and a rotary blade.  (The rotary blade is awesome I just found out, especially with the straightedge ruler.  And, you can cut right on the granite and it doesn't scratch at all.)

 

 

This was the pantry door before. 

 

After contact paper.  Smooth out with a credit card or similarly rigid flat thing-a-ma-jig.

 

After chalk paint! 

{I couldn't think of any groceries at the moment.}

 

{and this will be full by next weekend ;)}

 

And it washes off with water, so it super easy to re-write, erase, and start another list!

 

Then I got really adventurous and found some inspirational chalkboard images on Pinterest, and copied one by looking at it.  This is in our utility room :)

 

 

 

Here are some of my chalkboard art inspirations that I found on Pinterest.  I have tried to cite my sources as best I could.

 

 



(I can't find the source, my apologies.)

Etsy - LilyandVal

http://chalkboardhouse.blogspot.com/

 

Etsy - LilyandVal

DesignerDigitals.com

Pen N' Paperflowers Studio and Design

Etsy - LilyandVal

Etsy - LilyandVal

More fun projects from Katie and David coming soon!

Do I have wrinkles?

No. Hopefully not for awhile. Because I've started a "regimen". 

I've never really had that habitual process of washing my face, putting on face cream or serum or anti aging miracle cream. I just wash my face with a drugstore soap and then put on the tried and true Oil of Olay. That's what I've always done. 

But then I was invited to an Arbonne party. And thought. Well this is fairly well priced, I'm impressed by their practices and commitment to healthy natural products, and I don't know the first thing about anti aging lotions. (Did you know you should start using anti aging creams/serums at the age of 25?? There goes 4 years of preventing wrinkles.)

It's great for me. I can tell a difference in my skin tone, the way my skin feels and I know I'm helping to prevent aging and all that bad stuff. They also have all kinds of other stuff like shampoo, dietary stuff, makeup etc. 

I won't ramble on about Arbonne. If you're interested here is their website.  Enjoy!

Oh and if you're interested, I know someone who sells it! (Not me, the BFF)

http://www.arbonne.com/international.asp 

5 things I've learned about having a dog.

Five things I've learned about having a dog.

1.  Your life has changed 180 degrees.
I used to be able to come home and just do nothing.  Or do whatever the hell I wanted.  Or not come home at all, and go to happy hour with friends, or shopping.  But with a dog, you cannot forget the fact that he is waiting on YOU to come home so he can go do his business.  To have someone depend on you that much is scary.  And when they are puppies, they want to be all over you, or your shoes, or the cat.  So there is no peace and quiet, lounging on the couch with your people magazine watching Real Housewives of *insert your fave here*.   There is utter chaos at all times.

2.  Teaching them obedience will be the hardest thing you'll ever do.
It takes so much time, and repetition, and time.  And to get to an end goal, like "leave it", starts with the most mundane and small exercise.  And then you build.  This is for everything.  Going to their "place" in the living room, here, walking, fetch, the list goes on. 

3.  They are so damn cute.
Even when you are so mad at them, and they are all over you and so annoying, they can look up at you with those puppy dog eyes, and you just have to smile........ And then you pin them down on their backs until they know you are the boss.  (I don't do this a lot, but Bowie has a lot of aggression, and this is actually helping a lot.)

4.  I spend a lot more time outside than I ever have.
The only place where he can't get into any trouble, is outside.  I mean, he can... but its less than inside.  And, he's not all over you.  There are so many other cool things outside to keep his attention and discover.  So, as I write this post, I'm sitting outside on our back porch enjoying the mid morning cool air.  And the mosquitos :(  Nope, I'm back in again.   Dogs are also very indecisive.

5.  You think you'll never be able to take a trip again.
Bowie is really good in the car.  However, in 3 weeks we are going to Port Aransas with friends, and I really want to take him.  1. because I don't want to board him and 2. because I don't want anyone to have to take the burden of him for 3 days.  This 4 hour trip seems insurmountable.  So I'm going to try the portable crate this weekend, and see how he does.  The only time I have not had him in our laps driving, was the first day we got  him, and we were driving home from the animal shelter.  I put him in the crate in the back.  Within 2 minutes he had pee'd and poo'd.  So, here goes!

As much as Bowie has changed our lives, its for the better.  He helps me to stay patient.  I'm learning to love and nurture someone that needs me.  And, its great practice for the real thing. 

bowie walker

We have a new member to the Walker family.  Meet Bowie.  Please excuse the onslaught of puppy pictures.

We got Bowie from Austin Pets Alive on my birthday :) and I'm so grateful to have him. His birthday is April 29th. So, he is just over 13 weeks old. He is a lab/shepherd mix and came from a litter of 11. Yes, 11. His momma is a black lab. So we'll see how big he eventually gets.

He's been pretty good with shoes. LOVES  my UGG moccasins. Knows now to "sit" and come "here" pretty well. He also is doing a great job at trying to ring the bell at the back door to let us know he needs to go to the bathroom.  Knock on wood we haven't had any accidents recently. And he hasn't had an accident yet in his crate, which he sometimes will go into on his own if he's tired enough. He doesn't whine much in his crate. (We are crate training. I don't know how else you would do it and still have a balanced dog.) My mom comes over during the day to let him out and he loves her and she is in love with him. She also helps train him.

He is a sweetheart, except for when he thinks your fingers are sausage treats. We've went from whimpering like puppies when he bites, to grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and laying him down on his side with pressure from the other hand/arm for about a minute.  If you we're a fly on the wall, it would be pretty hysterical.

We have been to our first puppy preschool and all in all it wears him out.  I don't really know how much obedience its teaching him, because he still has issues with aggression.  But that's probably more training sessions/a professional.  I'm sure everything we've been doing thus far is actually the wrong thing to do... That would be my luck.

Hope you enjoyed. More blog posts to come about fun new projects David and I, well mostly David is completing.

front yard landscaping

We did it.  We finished the entire front flower bed plantings in one weekend.  1.5 days to be exact.

I'll be honest.  It took a lot of sweat equity to get this operation complete.  And we are not gardening experts  so it was a little bit of "fly by the seat of your pants" and "take the knowledge that dad gave you" type of thing.  And, David has an interesting ability to just know how to get things done.  Have I mentioned he's amazing?

Either way, we finished.  David did the post-hole digging for each plant and I planted and fertilized right behind him, then we mulched.  {Mulch is rule #1 in gardening 101}.  You need mulch to protect against weeds and keep the moisture in. My hamstrings are killing me.   He has blisters on his hands.  All in a days work.


We started at 8am prepping the soil.  David's dad has every tool known to man a gas powered tiller.  It mixes up the dirt and stuff.  It helps.  Our soil seemed pretty good.  Not too dry, really what do we know?  Seemed good to us, so we decided not to add any soil...  Just another step and more time.  

Then we went to The Great Outdoors which was amazing.  A young kid, Taylor, helped us find everything on our list.  (Prepared by me, in excel from the plans that Catherine made for us. Just call me Type A.) Everything we planted is native Texas, they can endure and actually love the sun.  And, we're pretty lucky in that the 100+ trees we have on our lot provide a lot of shade help.

Not everything on the list suited our fancy.  In particular, we opted to not buy as many "japanese yew" plants or "columbine", but substituted with other items that we liked a lot.  It ended up working out really well, and improvise is key to any plan, right?  We walked out of there for a decent price, what we expected, and it was only 11:00 am.

We laid out everything according to the plan, and started digging, planting, fertilizing, and watering.  Its pretty simple, but multiply that by about 100 plants and it gets overwhelming.  But we finished about 2/3 of the planting by 5:30 pm on Saturday, and hit the showers for a fancy shindig at the Four Seasons.  

{Shout out to Kathryn and Rick Ary on their beautiful nuptials last night.  It was such a fun night and Kathryn was so beautiful and the smile on Rick's face! priceless. }

We woke up nursing "the beverly flu"/hangover (thats another post), popped some advil and hydrated and got right back to work on the remaining 1/3 of planting.  

Here is the final product.  We are pretty proud of ourselves and the value that we added to our house.  And, have I mentioned that its scary how well David and I work together?  Go here for the BEFORE.

Dolly in the grass. {they love their home} and it makes me so happy.

All in all, life is good.  We are done with house stuff for at least a year ;)  But of course we've got some ideas in our back pocket.  They include:

- painting the brick

- back yard deck/arbor/built-in grilling station

- back yard landscaping

- pool.  just kidding  (there's no room in our backyard because our septic tank holds all the real estate.)

I'd love to hear what everyone else has been doing to their house/home to ring in Spring/Summer!

we've been busy, doing other stuff

We've been busy lately, with our lives, and not projects.  Unfortunately.

However, we have been doing a little planning.  Of the garden variety.

My best friend Morgan (I'll have to do a post about us/her, its a story.) has an aunt, Catherine Dunne, (catherinedunne@att.net) who is a landscape designer. (That whole family is creativity grand central station.)  And we had her come and give us her opinion on what to do with out front yard and that space in the back that is a blank blah expanse.

See the before's...

Back of house.  Barron wasteland.

Front of house left.  That is all cut down now and another wasteland.

Front of house right.  All cut down and ready for help!

I am so excited to say that little by little we will be planting an entire landscaping menagerie of items this summer.  Its going to be brutal, its going to be a lot of work, and a lot of water, but we are up for the challenge.  Our water bill currently sits at about $12 a month, so we can handle a little uptick in that to support some curb appeal.

Here is Catherine's design she delivered to us a couple of weeks ago.  A fully developed plan relating to our house, sidewalk, driveway and gate to backyard.  

And she gives detailed names of what to plant, and the size, and the plan shows the quantity.

All in all, this was totally worth the investment we made in paying her for her services.  As some may know my dad is a connoisseur of all things outdoors and garden.  But he's really only into his own yard/garden, and not others.  Even if others means his dearly beloved daughter and son and law.  And, anyway, we don't really have the same taste.  He's a little more natural, I'm a little more structured.  

So, there we have it.   I've asked "It's About Thyme" to create a quote for me of all the plants and hopefully we can go pick them up on Saturday morning and make a day of it!  And another day.  Because its going to take all weekend and maybe next.  

Happy gardening!