Attempts at a Christmas Picture

We spent Thanksgiving this year at my parents' house just outside of Houston. The weather was nice and fall-y, and my Dad has a new DSLR that he loves to use, so we took the opportunity to attempt a nicely-posed Christmas picture of me and Jeremy. 


While we did eventually get a couple of good ones, the bloopers were more fun :)

Dad said "Quick, hide behind that tree!" Sure, poke fun at the one with the belly...

Captain Morgan, anyone?

Cheeseball smile

We ALMOST send this one out with the caption "Beeee Merry".  Then realized that was lame and didn't.

More (Belated) House Before-and-Afters

Well renovations have been finished (for now) for a couple of months, and I'm FINALLY getting around to posting a few more of our before and after pics. Click here for the first set of house photos.


One of the rooms that changed the most was our living room:


Before:

We had tons of friends and family helping out constantly to help us paint and get everything ready for move-in!

After:

Jeremy's baby in this house was definitely the fireplace. We had a vision of a beautiful stone fireplace and concrete hearth, and this is what the house came with:

So for two months Jeremy demolished the old fireplace...

Framed out a symmetrical one (who makes a fireplace weirdly unsymmetrical?!)...

Carved a new mantle out of cedar...

Poured a concrete base for a hearth...

Complete with our names in the concrete :)

And layered moisture barrier, metal lathe, mud, stone, and grout...

Which was the messiest project I've EVER seen!

And finally, voila!

After:

We have some dreams for the kitchen, but so most we've done so far is paint and replace this stove that was older than me and burned EVERYTHING:

With this one:

My yoga room was originally the only room in the house with carpet (and it was nasty!). My FANTASTIC brother-in-law and father-in-law laid gorgeous wood flooring for me:

And Jeremy built me shelves for all my teaching equipment. I love having this little space!

Still to come (Eventually) - master bathroom renovations are on hold for quite a while, but the baby room will be ready in a couple of months. It's currently our office/music room and a disaster :)

Thanks for peeking in!

K

Humorous Thoughts on Pregnancy

First of all, because it would be stereotypically un-pregnant of me not to, here's the bump picture:

A couple of weekends ago at my parents' new house in Houston - 14 weeks 

On to the funny stuff. 


In the past few months I've noticed that pregnancy not only does weird things to your body and mind, but makes people around you act weird as well. Here are some things I've found humorous.




- Pregnancy seems to be the only time people think it's ok to show the world pictures of their internal organs. While this is weird to me, I still have a picture of my uterus on my fridge. Of course the cute part of the picture is the teddy-graham baby. 


- It's the first time in my life that family, friends, co-workers and strangers have felt it's ok to say "You're getting so big!!" (If you're one of the dozens who have said this, fret not. I've embraced that this is also the only time it's socially acceptable to GET really big ;)


- I'm keenly aware that someone else's teeth, brain, and elbows are inside my body. It's miraculous and a little freaky. It's even more miraculous and freaky to feel that someone else moving.


- I'm constantly tempted to be more sarcastic than ever. Each time someone looks at my belly and asks "Are you pregnant?" I want to respond with a straight-faced "No, I just ate a really big burrito for lunch" or "No, I'm just one of those rare people who gains weight in the shape of a fetus."


- It's odd that most pregnancy books and websites relay the baby's weekly size in produce of comparable length. Why not something that the baby actually resembles, like "raw shrimp baby", "tiny alien baby", "a little less tiny alien baby", etc.? 


- This produce analogy is also intimidating. I made the mistake of looking ahead a few weeks. Turns out by Christmas I'll have a "large eggplant" baby. Umm, excuse me, I don't think that will fit in there.


- Hormones have made my dreams a little bizarre. A few examples:


          - I thought I was pregnant, but after my mom gave birth to the baby, I realized it was her that was pregnant all along.


          - I gave birth to a full-term baby at 20 weeks, and panicked because we had no baby equipment. So to remedy the problem, my family AND Jeremy's family went shopping for us, then all 25 family members proceeded to live with us for 4 months.


          - I had lunch with Sheldon Cooper (from The Big Bang Theory) and Agent Kimble Cho (from The Mentalist). It was the best lunch date ever.


          - I flew to France with a very random assortment of friends from various stages of my life, but made the plane turn around when I realized I'd forgotten my jacket and shoes.






Despite the humorous aspects of pregnancy, I've realized more everyday how miraculous it is that God is growing this little life. I'm very aware that this is the most significant thing I've done in my life thus far, and I'm not even in charge of it. What a commentary on how God is really the author of life. 


If you got this far, thanks for reading :)


K

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes...

Baby Irwin.

We figured that was a much cuter way to share our news than "guess what we're growing?" 

Our little blessing will arrive March 2012!

I hereby promise that I will not bombard you with endless pregnancy commentary. If you're interested in a couple of updates over the next few months, just check this site :)

Thanks for sharing in our exciting news!

Love, 

J + K

The First Few Before-and-Afters

Well - we bought a house! We closed on April 29th, worked on renovations for 3 weeks while living in our rent house, Jeremy broke his foot the week before we moved, and we've spent the past 6 weeks living in the new house and slowly trying to finish up renovations. We still have some work to do, but here are some pictures of the first few "completely" (a relative term when renovating) finished rooms:

Front of the house on closing day - front yard landscaping happens this weekend :)

Master bedroom - Before

The french doors are beautiful, but had no blinds or curtains. We were confused why the previous owners didn't mind having transparent doors when guests were in town... We certainly minded!

The closet paint was as old as I was. We had just a few flimsy wire shelves and the trim was the color of lima beans - yummy.

Master Bedroom - During

My sister and mom helped me paint the master - I'm sure they'll both love me for posting these.

Every nook and external corner in the house got the trim ripped off, the metal 90 degree corner removed, and retextured as a rounded, bullnose corner. 

Note to self for future project houses: Drywall takes weeeeeks (WEEKS!) to settle and clean off every surface in the house!

Mr. Aaron Power helping us start over on the closet storage. Jeremy built shelves from a plan I drew to maximize the space.

Master Bedroom - After

I sewed curtains for the master doors 

Jeremy built me this gorgeous platform bed, and I painted the canvases above the bed. The project made for great stress-relieving breaks while I was finishing my master's thesis :)

It took us weeks to find just the right fabric to upholster the headboard

This picture is just so I can brag about my husband's craftsmanship - I'm so impressed he made this bed!

Project closet end product. We fit everything we needed to in this small space!

Entryway - After

Bar - Before

Living room and kitchen projects are still underway, so no pictures of those yet!

Bar - After 

The sitting area between the kitchen and the yoga room

Guest Bath - Before

Before, there was a curtain hiding the wire shelving in the linen closet, and an unnecessary cabinet on the wall that made the already-tiny bathroom feel even smaller. 

Guest Bath - After

We ripped out the wire shelving, added painted wood shelves and organized the closet to look nice without needing to be covered with curtains. This gave enough storage space to lose the bulky cabinet on the wall.

Guest Bedroom - Before

Guest Bedroom - After

We're starting to feel somewhat settled, but have a few projects planned for this month. I'll post more pictures soon!

- K