So Much...

I have too much to update you about. 

All my cleaning and organizing! 

We went Maple Tapping.

We went to Marquette, MI for Conference weekend.

Children's Museum.

Carnivorous plants.

Marley's fourth birthday was yesterday!
(Whaaaat!?!?!)

No. 

#2 (figgy pudding) hasn't made her grand entrance yet.
She is such a tease though!

Any day now. 

I always think it's funny when pregnant ladies are impatient before their due dates. 

Marley was three and a half weeks early, so I never got the chance to be impatient.

Since she was healthy and fine, I thought her timing was perfect. 

Well, figgy pudding is not due until the 18th.
(one week from today!)

But. really. any. day. now. 

She better not be over due. 

I'll die. 

(dramatized, don't worry)

I'll start with Easter....since....I don't know why. 

And maybe someday I'll get around to updating the other fun stuff. 

The weekend started off with Good Friday and it IS good because Nathan gets that day off every year.

We made breakfast bagels for breakfast...one of my favorites! 

We did laundry and worked in the yard...a little. 

The best part was just being together...the three of us.

Around 4:00 we took Marley to her friend Lil's house for her very first sleep over. 

This was a dry run for the big birthing event. 

Marley will stay at Lil's when we have the baby so we thought we'd make sure she was comfortable with sleeping over before. 

Success. 

No problems.

Never asked to go home.
Never asked about her parents.
She's not that attached to us.
(kidding.)
She just knows a good time when it comes along.

Nathan and I had a wonderful date. 

We went and saw the Hunger Games.

We were going to go out to eat after but neither one of us was hungry. 

So we took the long way home and enjoyed the sunset and talked about the movie.

We even saw our special sandhill cranes. 

There is a pair of sandhill cranes that live up here. 

Just two.
Actually, last year there were three, a mother, father and a baby.
We think the father got hit by a car and now it's the mother and child...though they look the same now.

Sandhill cranes hold a special place in our hearts because we lived in the midst of the sandhill cranes migration path when we lived in Lincoln.
We even went to their roosting grounds a couple of times and watched them land in droves.
It was amazing.

We often see these two on the side of the highway, just hanging out, waiting for us to pass so we can stare at each other. 

Sometimes Nathan and I make it a competition to see who will spot the cranes first. 

But, we had taken the long road home and they found us anyway. 

They love us.

And we love them. 

Someday I will get a picture of them.

Nathan and I danced in the living room.
Nathan hates to dance but he dances with me when we are alone.
He's a good dancer.
Slow dancing is wonderful when you are pregnant.
Wonderful!

The next morning we took our time getting ready and eating breakfast and just chatting without interruption.

Around 10:30 we sent a text to Lil's family and said we were on our way and would be there in about 30 minutes.

When we got there, Punkie did not want to leave. So we just stayed and visited with Robin and Eric.
They are good friends!

Marley finally relented around noon.

We went off to a garden center and bought 7, 40 lb. bags of bagged manure/compost.

We hit up Taco Bell for lunch and headed to the park to eat it.

Marley played at the park while Nathan and I sat on a bench, ate and talked some more.
I love talking to that guy.

When we got home the Easter Bunny had come!
He left a basket of goodies for Marley on the couch.

Then we colored eggs.

 If you want really weird eggs that end up with a thin layer of color instead of being dyed.
Then.
Don't read the directions and just put the dye pellets in pure vinegar.
We ended up wiping the layer of color off and dying them again.
It was weird.

Marley wrote down the directions on how to dye eggs properly, so we wouldn't forget for next year. 

"Dad? Ya know? You should read the directions before you start."

Her favorite way to start a conversation these days is with "Ya know?..."

In the picture below doesn't she look like she thinks she knows everything?

Then we had nap/quiet time.
Marley refuses to take naps, planned anyway.
Sometimes she passes out on the couch.
So, she went in her room for quiet time.

I took a nap.
I'm no dummy!

Nathan went and hid all the eggs real and plastic in the back yard.

After nap/quiet time Nathan went in and excitedly told Marley that he had went out to the garden to work and found somethings! He told her to come and that she had better bring her Easter basket!

She was SO excited!

 Yea, we're hill billies and have rusting metal chairs in our backyard.

 Can't reach.

 I'll jump.

 I'll climb.

Success!
She loved hunting.

Though she never looked for anything close to her.
She was always looking across the yard or in the distance.
So, she was running back and forth, back and forth.
It was funny!

Sunday morning we got ready for church and had a wonderful Sabbath Easter.

Our dinners lately have been light and easy.
Seriously, I think last week we had stove popped popcorn for dinner at least a couple of times.
Popcorn is a super food, did you know?
Just a few of it's magical powers.
It's filling.
NO acid re-flux.

Thankfully these light easy dinners have been satisfying and even appreciated by all three of us.

Our Easter feast was the Bisquick Strawberry Shortcake recipe.

It was light, delicious, easy and thus perfect!

And for dessert on Easter...what else....blue Robbin eggs.

HAPPY EASTER!

We love you all!

I Need Your Help!!!

I know what you are thinking:

Nothing can help you Becky.

OR you are thinking....

No, I can't help you.

But, I CAN be helped and YOU CAN help me!

I'm calling on all the help of my blog readers, comment-ers, lurkers....ALL OF YOU!

(not sure how many of you are out there...but, if you're there...please help!)

First, a little update:

Nearly 35 weeks pregnant. 

Little girl #2 is healthy and happy so far. 

Yeay!

I am getting nervous about labor and delivery. 

The Soo is like 20 years behind the rest of the US in their child birthing methods, so it's going to be....

FUN! 

At least that's the word I keep using to delude myself. 

I am of course uncomfortable but I am trying not to think about that or complain.

Because from here on out...it just gets more uncomfortable. 

I am always HOT!

Nathan agrees, both in temperature and especially in physical appearance.

Physical appearance is beside the point right now though.

This incubation period makes me SO hot at night. 

I push Nathan to the far reaches of his edge of the bed (only queen sized, can't have him too far away) because heat seems to stalk me.

As a result it is very hard to sleep at night, as of late. 

That's the end of the baby growing update. 

Oh, here are some pictures...because my mom and sisters keep hounding me.

Tell me, which lighting do you like better?  And which pose?

The warm lighting?

 Or the cold?

 

 Of course, this one below is my favorite pose. 

You know you ALL love it, and it's your favorite too.

Now, have you heard of the show:

I love Niecy. 

And you know I love organizing. 

I tried watching two different shows about Hoarding.

YUCK!

Those sad, poor, sick people. 

It's too hard to watch.

My sister said, you should watch Clean House! 

She was so right. 

Netflix has some seasons of Clean House so, I have been watching them. 

One night when I couldn't sleep I planned a yard sale for my WHOLE BLOCK.

Since we live out of town and one little itty bitty garage sale out of town isn't worth anyone's time and travel, I thought a whole block sale would be worth it! 

I pictured myself going door to door on our block (because we do live in a small town) to see if others where interested. 

Finding out what they might have to sell (for advertising).

Finding out what summer weekend would be best.

And advertising!

I'm probably not going to do that, too much work. 

But, it was a nice way to "count sheep" one night. 

Last night I spent those quiet hours, thinking about how I want to make my house cleaner. 

Our living spaces are clean and usually tidy. 

But, we have a "Project Room." 

I've mentioned it before. 

I work on it pretty regularly. 

But like all projects...they make messes. 

And since the Project Room continues to be THE Project...
I need to get past that so I can do some actual projects in the project room.

Does that make any sense? 

It is also a multi-purpose room.

Here is where your help comes in, so let me start by giving you a picture of what I want this room to be:

Food Storage - right now it's one corner and will get bigger along a short wall

Office - bill paying and filing

Crafting - making hair bows, and homemade cards, etc. 

Hobbying - Nathan is teaching himself basket weaving, that kind of stuff...

Sewing - sewing machine has a table and is out all the time.

Small Library

Nathan's closet

A little bit of storage

Guest Room

TALL ORDER, FOR ONE ROOM, huh?

I think the biggest problem is the "little bit of storage" and the filing. 

I have too many "memory" boxes. {storage}

I keep too much paperwork. {filing} 

I don't know what to keep because one day my kids might be interested in it.

I don't know what to keep because I might need that paperwork. 

But, with the inspiration from CLEAN HOUSE, that will be my mantra while I clean the Project Room.

{CLEAN HOUSE, CLEAN HOUSE, CLEAN HOUSE}

Now here is my game plan and a picture.

Game Plan: One section at a time.

First, I need this nice long table cleaned off so I can sort through the "storage" and get rid of stuff!

Some of the stuff will stay on the desk, in the end, when the room is DONE.

But, for now, I should clean it ALL off so I have maximum space to sort and organize.

Right?

Help!

What do you think? 

This is a "before" picture for this organizing project! Don't you want a small piece of the "after" picture? I need your help!

 I'm serious. 

Comment away about this mess. 

This is going to BE my blog for a little while, so you can help me get this organized. 

Help me make stupid decisions I should be able to make on my own.