Happy September!

I was really hoping that I would get to wish you all a Happy September on the first day of the month, but I am proud to report that I have been too busy to post! This is great if you consider the dance with boredom I had been doing in weeks past.
September is the beginning of fall and fall is definitely one of my favorite seasons if not my top favorite all together (I struggle to commit because Spring is so wonderful and I do love the holidays!). I go for a daily walk at my favorite park and sometimes I have to restrain myself from frolicking and twirling around the track. There are not many things more wonderful to me than a nice walk on a cool day (its been in the 70s here!) with the last smells of summer and the first smells of fall mingling together in the tree sap, cut grass and drying leaves. I love the wind on my face making me cool and the warmth of the sun keeping me at the perfect temperature (which is saying a lot when you are 8 months pregnant!). I love all the bright greens and blues of nature and can't wait for those greens to turn into red, orange and yellows. Mix all of that with a great song on the ipod and it is really really hard to restrain myself! I am sure people wonder at the pregnant lady out walking every day with a huge smile on her face... it is the time of day I feel the most blessed (well that and cuddling with Drew).
With this first week of fall also came our first official community group meeting of the semester. This is just the motivation I needed to tackle the overwhelming mess that was our house. With the stairs 99% done and the upstairs cleaned and organized (for the most part), there was just not excuse for not tackling the downstairs other than the fact that it was a little overwhelming and there was a lot of heavy lifting involved. My allergies have been acting up like crazy with ragweed at its peek and all the dust and nastiness in our house wasn't helping one bit... so that's the straw that pushed me over the edge and turned me into a cleaning, organizing whiz! I started with the kitchen since I spend a lot of time there and it gets the worst the fastest. I came up with the great idea to use the top of our cabinet for some decorative storage. I have a ton of cake plates that I love but do not use regularly that take up a lot of space on countertops and bookshelves and some really beautiful vases that I also wanted to display but wanted out of the way. We have so many books (even after sorting and giving many away) that we really need all our book shelf space for actual books and not cake plates and vases. So, I did a little step stool climbing and hobby lobby browsing and came up with a great solution that really perks up the kitchen at the same time! I am really pleased (and Drew likes it too...SCORE!) and so glad to have a season theme going on. It really makes the kitchen feel warmer to me to have these personal touches around.


With this stuff out of the way I was able to clean off the book shelves and put them in their rightful rooms in their rightful place and get all the books dusted and organized on them as well. I really love organizing books... I'm weird, I know. I just love to read and love books!
After all that was situated I vacuumed the floors... twice. I then mopped all the floors...twice. And the end result is beautiful shiny wood floors that barely show the marking of massive construction! As you will see in the pictures, there are still reminder of work left to be done... sheet rock against the wall (for finishing out Stella's closet) and a ladder to touch up that painting around the stairs... but if you had been to our house at all this summer you wouldn't even notice them... I don't. I keep telling Drew that I can't believe how BIG our rooms seem now with out a million saws and drills on the floor and boxes of things and furniture piled on itself. It's been a crazy summer. But I am so thankful for my wonderful husband and his talented friends who poured so much hard work into getting this done. Our next projects will be getting stuff on the walls (like frames and such) and painting the kitchen cabinets white.
When our Community Group came over they were all amazed. Most of them hadn't been over since May when the stairs were taken out and some hadn't even been since the early Spring. Every single person wanted to take a turn walking up the stairs. They all "oohed" and "aaahhed" over how nice and sturdy they are. It was so funny because they all said first thing, "can I walk on them?". I felt so blessed to be able to have these wonderful people back in our home and have it be a welcoming place that is clean and smells nice and has a place for you to sit... instead of a construction zone where everything has a layer of dust and every surface is piled high with stuff.


In baby news (will be brief for now since this is already long)... we have several friends who are due THIS weekend! I can't believe it and I am soo excited to meet their babies. It's a great perk to have other people's babies to play with in order not to get too anxious for my own to finish baking. A little distraction is just what the third trimester woman needs.
I am getting bigger (picture to come soon) and thus a little more uncomfortable... but most uncomfortable with my allergies that have kicked in for the first time since being pregnant. Please pray that no polyps develop so that I can nurse Stella for as long as we want with out having another surgery hanging over our heads. Having surgery with a baby in the house would be a whole new challenge... one that I would rather not have to tackle. In good news... (did I already say this?) she is head down and seems to be right on schedule for delivery!
I will say though, I got a huge compliment today when some one was referring to me and said, "can't you see she's like 4 months pregnant"....hahahahahaha... I said "you mean EIGHT months" and she said, "no way, you are so little... girl you look good!". This pretty much made my day since I hadn't showered or brushed my hair and had just woken up from a nap and was in a huge hurry to get brown sugar for some cookies I had to deliver within the hour... I won't think about the fact that she had no clue what she was talking about since most people aren't showing at all by four months... I'll take the compliment and repeat it to myself when I am faced with stretch marks and clothes that don't fit and a body that looks more alien to me every day. Only 6 weeks to go!