Flower Bed Makeover

So we have this lamp post with a cute tiny flower bed around it that needed some attention.  Last year we planted holy basil, a cucumber vine and some different annual flowers in it.  This year we decided to plant a bunch of different flower seeds (wildflowers, zinnias among others) along with a few chamomile plants Kyle grew from seed in the greenhouse.  It was so much fun attacking the weeds! There are little green sprouts coming up which is so exciting, especially after having a few freezing, threatening nights.  I am looking forward to the colorful blooms to welcome us and everyone else who visits the farm as we pull down the drive!

My Belly is HUGE

Kyle and I cannot believe it is already September and that will be meeting our son or daughter so soon! We are getting more and more excited to meet our lil one and more and more anxious to know if they will be a he or a she! It is crazy that the baby really could come anytime from now or 6 weeks from now, it is really up to them and when they are ready to come out.  After our 36 week appointment we will be having appointments every week until the baby comes. We have three more classes for our Bradley Birth class.  We have met twice with our friend Kellay Raye aka our doula and are so excited about her being a part of our child's birth, not to mention thankful!  Her knowledge and passion for childbirth is such a blessing to us.  Check out her website if you are curious about what a doula is or if you live in the triangle area and are in need of a doula... ohbabydoula.weebly.com I have started thinking about packing our bag for the Birth Center and getting together some things that we may need in the car for our 40 minute drive.  I have been trying to picture us in labor and picture what the heck a contraction will be like and I honestly have no clue...I guess I will know soon enough.  I feel great assurance, confidence and comfort knowing that Kyle will be with me the whole time and that Kellay will be there to help us too.  Not to mention that I am completely out of control as to how labor will go and that I constantly have to commit my trust in Jesus and rest in the Truth that He will be with us the entire time and that He cares for us.  I receive peace only after committing my worries and fears to Him throughout the days whenever they rise up. His peace is so good.

I've added some pictures of the baby's room thus far.  I have had fun working in there and getting the room arranged just right.  The room used to be our guest bedroom and will now act as both baby room and guest room (I am thankful for how big of a room it is).  There are still some plans I have for what I want above the crib and not to mention actual bedding for the crib and a bunch of other knick knacks we still need to get.  But overall the room has come a long way and is ready to welcome babe.  We also have a wooden cradle in our bedroom where newborn babe will sleep.  My grandfather, aunt, uncle, mother, sister and myself have all slept in the cradle (maybe some cousins too).  It's really amazing that our baby will now sleep in it, I love stuff like that!

Friends I know from college, Caroline and Danielle came to the farm to visit not long ago and we had such a sweet time together.  It was so good to get to catch up with them and to get to visit with them face to face.  I am thankful Raleigh isn't so far from here and allows for such times.  We had fun checking out the pigs who are now huge (like someone else I know) and aren't so cute and cuddly anymore.  Pigs are pretty hilarious to watch, they really remind me of fat dogs and are so aggressive when it comes to eating.  When Kyle was feeding them two ran through his legs, knocked him off his feet and he landed sitting on their backs! They also nibble at his feet every time he goes in to feed them.

I hope you are enjoying September as much as I am and I hope you enjoy the pictures!

This is made using a piece of a burlap bag that once held blue potatoes that were planted on the farm (and were delicious)!

The fabric hanging in the window pane has blue flowers on it and the giraffe guy on the crib plays different sounds for play time and sleeping

Kyle made the "S" blacksmithing and we made the ribbon board from a canvas (with a failed attempt at a painting on it), an old towel for batting, fabric, ribbon and buttons!

A Story of Unlikely Events

Imagine coming home from a four-day weekend trip visiting family.  You walk in the door, the heat from inside blasts you in the face since you had the temperature turned way up to save a few bucks. You go and turn the heat down.  Despite the heat, it is good to be home after the eight hour car ride driving through torrential rain and playing word feud with your husband on your parents' high tech phones even though you felt car sick most of the time looking at the screen (how do they have high tech phones and we don't?).  Oh and you are pregnant and had a hard time sitting in one spot with your huge abdomen for eight hours straight.  Thankfully the car was air-conditioned.  Okay, so you walk in, turn down the heat, plop your bags in the library as you walk to the kitchen for some water.  There is bright blue and green glass shattered on the ground.  Your glass fish you loved is now non recognizable. The cobalt blue, glass circle of a puffin with the words "Bar Harbor" printed on it is shattered in the sink (among the pile of dirty silverware that was left for you to clean when you return because you don't have a dishwasher and didn't want to wash them before you left).  Everything is fallen from the window sills.  The TV is still in its place in the living room, nothing is stolen from the house.  Your only hypothesis is that there was a terrible storm that shook the windows so bad that everything fell (not to mention that the windows have outer storm windows and they are the sturdiest, built in the forties, not going anywhere windows).  So naturally you get your husband to call your friend/neighbor because he grew up here and may have a more likely guess for what happened.  And he does-rats.  Not what you wanted to hear?  You immediately pick your feet up into your chair (that will save you from the rats) as you hear that word repeatedly being exchanged over the line.  So then you and your husband proceed to look for rat turds.  Yes, rat turds on your kitchen counter.  Thankfully you don't find any but disappointingly the mystery is unsolved and you aren't sure if you will be able to sleep tonight wondering what's lurking in your house.

You both cannot even talk to one another out of shear exhaustion from the car ride.  You pop in a movie and sit down to eat dinner/veg in front of the TV.  Eh, forty minutes goes by and you hear something to your left in the dining room.  You look over and don't see a person in there and so the sound goes unmentioned between the two of you.  Eh, another twenty minutes goes by and another distinct, clear, clanking sound from the dining room.  You both look at each other as your husband pauses the movie.  You stay right where you are, safe on the couch, tucking your legs under you.  Armed with a flashlight, your husband sneakily walks into the dining room and within seconds you hear the words "I see his tail."  What?! HIS TAIL?! Oh yeah, on the buffet table, behind the typewriter.  A tail. At your husbands coaxing, you walk across the room to see the tail for yourself.  He was right, it is a tail.  Not skinny and hairless like a rat's but not huge and bushy like a squirrel's either.  Kind of cute and smaller with a similar likeness to a squirrel's, yes cute.  Okay, so it is time for action. You suggest that the flashlight may not be necessary as you do have an overhead light that would make it easier to see the thing.  Your husband goes to get a T-shirt to use to catch it and the camera to capture this strange situation you both find yourself in while you close the door to the kitchen and the door from the living room to the hallway leaving the creature somewhat trapped in the dining room and living room. You wonder if it has rabies or poses any other harmful threat besides the one that he might get close to you or even touch you!  You get the camera ready as you stand on a chair in the living room and your husband grabs a yard stick.  Then begins the chase.

Off the buffet table, on the floor, around the table, in the corner, across the room (toward you), he turns around (your scream scares him back), around the table, under the buffet, in the living room (you move to a chair in the dining room and instruct your husband to open the door to the porch- you are really good at giving orders right now), around the TV, in the fireplace (maybe showing us how he got in?), under the chair, behind the couch, ON the couch, soaring across the room from the arm of the couch to the TV (did he just fly?!), back under the couch where he stays for a while.  After many failed dives from your husband with the red T-shirt/net and after many little turds have been dropped your husband picks up the yard stick again and you are wondering if he is going to try to kill it with that! Instead, with frustration he throws off all the couch cushions explaining that the squirrel may be IN the pull-out couch and uses the yard stick to prod and poke around in the couch.  Then, there he is, on the back of the couch, he runs across the back cushions the entire length of the couch dodging your husbands grabs and gives an impressive leap off the arm of the chair as his arm flaps/wings open and he lands on the porch! Your husband screams "No way! A flying squirrel!" You order your husband to "close the door, close the door" (duh).  And he proceeds to go on the porch while you remain safe behind the glass panes, among the disaster you have of a living room.  After a few soars on the part of the squirrel and a leap to your husband's arm and off again, the little guy is caught with the red T-shirt by his hind leg and your husband holds him close to the window for you to see before he takes him outside to throw him in the yard! Your home is once again free from creepy/cute animal invaders and you can now finish what is left of a really sad ending of a movie (even after all that happened it is still easy to get sucked back into the film and sob like a baby) and then you go to sleep in peace. The end.