Shower!

Last night I got an odd call from Brian. He was at a mutual activity with the Priests so I expected that he needed something he forgot at home. Our conversation went something like this:

Brian - Are you respectable?
Me- What?
Brian- Are you wearing respectable clothes?
Me- I guess. Why.
Brian- Something to do with the Young Women. I think they are coming over.

Luckily I had cleaned earlier that day so I wasn't worried, but I was wearing basketball shorts and a shirt that didn't entirely cover my belly. So I went upstairs and changed and by the time I was ready a Young Women, Kelcie, was at my door with Sister Walsh. They had a totally convincing story about how I needed to come to the church. So sneaky. So I willingly went.

In the car another young woman, Madison, was waiting and looked annoyed to be there. She gave us a story about how some guy friend punched her that day. I was quite alarmed about the whole situation but no one else in the car seemed to think it was a big deal. This too was a fake story, however I totally fell for it.

Finally we entered the church and wouldn't you know it, nearly every single young women and their moms! were waiting to throw me a surprise baby shower in the relief society room which had balloons and all sorts of decorations. This was truly a surprise. I can't believe they kept it a secret! 20 plus young women and half their mothers all managed not to say anything about it for apparently at least the last month or so! Kudos to you girls. I would have never thought you were all capable of holding a secret for so long.

So here is some of the gear that I took away from the night. I combined all the gifts into a few pics.

Special thanks to the Mia Maids for planning it!

Amazingly enough, there were no repeats of lotions or shampoos!

Thank you Beehives for my baby tub and goodies!!!
Thank you Beehives for all the sweet painted toys! I am using them as Christmas ornaments!

The Laurels did an awesome job with the diaper cake (I've always wanted a diaper cake ever since I saw my mom make them for her friends. It has been a life long dream really.)

All the cute clothes!!!

Paint Trials

I have a few goals to get through before the baby comes. Brian and I had a very productive weekend in terms of these goals. We painted our bathroom and the baby's room. Bathroom- looks great, a much needed improvement to the previously bland yellow walls. Baby's room- umm better, but not great. It is no longer a dark green cave. I would say it is now a neon green cave with one beautifully brown wall.

We have now painted the family room, living room, kitchen, stairwell/hallway, master bedroom, master bathroom, and baby's room. We have used three different brands of paint, painted six rooms, and only used four basic colors: green, brown, blue, and orange. Aside from re-painting the baby's neon room, I think I am content with the rest of the colors in the house. Though the downstairs bathroom is a nice color, it is an old paint job and may need to be fixed soon!

During the last few months of painting experiments I have learned:
1. Always use a drop cloth
2. If you are picky about a precise shade, get the little tester cans and see what a big swatch looks like.
3. Tape everything off you can and press the tape down hard with your nail.
4. Buy a tester of trim colored paint so you can fix ceiling and trim bumps with the roller.
5. Paints with a glossy appearance may look nice, but they are the hardest to roll and you can ALWAYS see where you touched up the paint. The flatest/cheapest paints may look cool and modern but they marks the easiest and the marks will not come off. Go for an in between. All touch ups blend in very nicely on semi flat or eggshell finishes.
6. Finishes vary brand to brand, so look at the samples and get the finish down from what you think you want. The samples are less shiny in the store and way more shiny on your walls.

Behr Paint in Satin (Master Bath blues) - thick, shiny, harder to roll, shows brush strokes veeery well, good thick coverage but paint is so thick you have to be careful to get down in the grooves.
Glidden Paint in Satin (Baby's room brown & green) - thinner, semi shiny, easy to roll, easy to paint with a brush, good coverage goes on smooth, beware of drips.
Valspar Satin, Eggshell, and Flat (Master bedroom blues & grays) - My fave is the "flat" finish which is on all but the stripped wall is not fully "flat" in finish, medium thickness, medium easiness in rolling, easy to paint with a brush, great coverage.

In the end I will get Glidden for any future jobs because I think it is a little cheaper than Valspar.

But as I am hugely cheap, I am using the left over neon green paint and mixing it with other left over brown paints to make a darker color for the baby's room. I'm sure that professional painters would be horrified a the thought. But the Glidden paint covered so quickly without a second coat that I have plenty of paint left over for another round!

If it is successful... pictures will follow.

Goodbye Grandpas

September thus far has been a very very busy month for me. Sadly, Brian and I each have had a Grandpa pass away this month. Both grandparents were in poor heath and so it wasn't un-expected. But that doesn't take away the sadness from missing them.
I'm sure my sister will read this and laugh. I have a way of attending funerals and not crying through the whole thing, whereas I'm sure Heidi could attend a complete stranger's funeral and use a whole box of tissues. But just because I can get through two funerals with the use of one tissue doesn't mean I'm not sad and don't miss them. ;-) I think that having an eternal perspective helps me not be super super sad because I know. I know that families can be together forever. Though it is sad that I cannot see and talk to my grandpas (Brian and I have no more living grandpas!), I have so much more joy with the knowledge that I can see them again and spend the rest of eternity with them as a family. What is sad about that!

On the plus side, I got to see both my families!! For the last few months I've been feeling like Georgia is on the other side of the world from Oregon, and I had such a big desire to see my family again one more time before the baby comes. I don't know why. I just wanted to see them. I am so lucky that I was able to attend both funerals and even get to see all of Brian's extended family. I find such comfort in having family around, and feeling the love that is present when everyone gets together. Both sides of my family have this quality about them. Even though I was only able to stay a day in Colorado, visiting with Brian's whole family, the love and support that is there feels exactly like it does in my own family. I am so lucky.

This is my Grandpa Earl Asmussen last Christmas

This is Brian's Grandpa Pony Saponas a few years ago.
(I stole this from Scott's website, I don't have any pics of him on this computer.)

And this is me, two weeks ago. 8 weeks to go.

Nothing Really

I know I haven't posted in a while. When this happens it is usually because I'm too busy, or nothing interesting is happening. I feel like both have been the case.

On the too busy side, my Grandpa Asmussen passed away a few weeks ago and so I went to Oregon for little while. It was a little hectic organizing all the dog stuff and travel stuff, but it was fine in the end. I have great friends and family.

Then there is the rest of the month where I spent my time growing a baby and fixing up the house.

I have entered the third trimester and am officially pregnant. Every month I can't imagine myself getting more pregnant. Then after that month has passed I can't imagine what it was like to be any less pregnant. This month we have progressed to the "uncomfortable" stage. Where there are no comfy positions, and the baby's new fave place to hang out is under my ribs. (I'm super looking forward to riding in the car for our next trip to visit my sister in Pennsylvania.)

The only other exciting happening is Brian's new calling as Young Men's President. Which, as most callings go, means that I get to be very involved in his busy-ness. I think it is so much fun though, he is doing a great job.

But otherwise, still not busy, and still pregnant.

Oh, I finally made a friend in my neighborhood. She knows my name and everything.

Fresh Paint

Ever since we moved in and started changing the house to fit our style I find it very hard to actually make decisions. Partly because really cool stuff is expensive and I know that when I do purchase something it will be a while before I can purchase something else. Which is why we have chosen to do lots of things our self.
For instance, a month or so after we moved in we purchased a king size mattress with the idea that we would make the bed frame and headboard our self. While this did save us lots of money, I think we spent under $100 total, it took lots of time and many iterations. But I must say the final product is beautiful and worth it.
Painting is another thing we like to do ourselves. We like color and lots of it. Those who lived here before us like the same yellow color for pretty much everything. So we feel the need to paint most everything. So far we have the kitchen, family room, living room, stairway, hallway and now master bedroom done! I only have the bathroom and baby's room left on my "must finish before baby comes" list.

I found this pic online and liked the idea. Cool huh. I think our bedroom turned out very well.

Inspiration Pic

My secret to super crisp lines... Acrylic Gel Medium. You put on the edges of the tape and it seals in the cracks. It is cheap, and literally guarantees crisp lines.

Done! We have a bed frame! We have a headboard! And we have stripes on the wall!! Brian did a great job with the bed frame and headboard. I did the stripes on the wall, but he helped me finish painting the rest of the room. I only have the bathroom and baby's room to go before the baby comes. Then my nesting will be complete. I don't really think it is nesting though, just procrastination till now. Now I just need window treatments, nice lamps, and some artwork for the walls. Oh and I may re-furnish the furniture not in the picture.

Baby-Moon

Let me start by saying that blogger has to have the absolute worst GUI for uploading images. Please enjoy the pictures, because they took me a better part of a half hour to upload.

In the past months, Steph and I have been told literally 100's of times, "Make sure you take a vacation, because you'll never get to again after the baby comes." While I'm confident that Steph and I will find a way to take vacations post-baby (since we love getting away), it will be a long time before we can enjoy a private couples get away again. Certainly, our days of eating in nice resturants and swimming far into the ocean together are numbered for a while.

So... we took a trip the Florida panhandle. We started our trip in Pensacola. Really, the only reason we went to Pensacola was so I could go to the Nationa Naval Avation Air Museum. It was trully amazing. One of the best air museums I've ever been to.

Me in front of the F-18 on a stick in front of the museum.

Us in front of an old Blue Angle A-4

While on the Navy base, we also climbed around the old Spanish fort, Barrancas.

We also drove out Pensacola beach and enjoyed the beautiful water.

To our surprise, the Blue Angles were practicing the upcoming airshow out on the beach. So we sat back on the beach, had some lunch, and watched F-18's scream overhead.

Fat Albert, the C-130 that travels with Blue's kicked things off.

F-18's are so cool!

After a couple of nights in Pensacola, we set off down the coast to Destin for some fun on the beach.

We went to the local aquirum, which had some fun Sea Lion and Dolfin shows.

We ate a lot of good seafood next to the ocean!

Our pretty hotel. We stayed in the uglier building not shown in this picture. :-)

Oh, and we visited one more air museum! The air force's armament museum at Eglin Air Force base. I have a very patient wife.

Fourth Weekend!

Apparently we live really close to this huge lake. The map makes it look deceivingly far away, like at least 30 min or so. And I guess it is such a big lake that you could take awhile getting around to the other side.... or you could drive up the road, turn right, turn left and just go play in the lake.

So, on the third, we packed lunch, took the dog and some towels, and drove the under 10 min drive to go play in the lake for a few hours. It was so much fun!
Portland is a big wimp though, and wouldn't venture in very deep. Brian had to pick her up and walk her out to the deep water so we could see her swim. She was not happy about this the first or second time it happened. Otherwise, Brian and I had fun swimming in the warm lake, eating our picnic, and taking a walk around the little park.






The fourth was full with exhausting social events. I say exhausting because it literally took me till Tuesday to recover my energy after all the fun.
We spent the majority of the day doing chores around the house- Brian cleaned the fridge!!!! Later that night we went to a BBQ with friends of approximately our age. In any other ward I would consider most of the people there "older" than me only because there would in fact be other young couples equal to my age. But since no other such couple exists in this ward, the people we hang out with are close to our age, but beat us by two kids. It was fun to talk and watch the kids run around like monkeys.

Our second social event was Fireworks at the Depew Farm. This was also a fun event, but with less talking and more explosions. Someone threw down for some pretty impressive, slightly illegal, fireworks. It was fun, it has been a few years since we have experience fireworks first hand.

The last part of our Fourth weekend was spent preparing a Family Home Evening lesson.
Normally yes, you just have FHE on Monday night with your own family. Scripture reading, lesson, games, dessert, and what have-you are all done with your own family. But our ward has put together a few groups of Family FHE's both so we can get to know the other families in the ward, and so that investigators can come and see what real weirdos mormons are. Who gets together every monday night, learns a "lesson," sings songs and plays a game? Mormons, duh. Now we have lots of families in one small room, with the Sister Missionaries and an investigator or two who is either highly amused by the antics, or still confused about why they are there. Either way, it is entertaining.

This was the first FHE lesson that Brian and I were in charge of. So we had to take most of sunday planning our game. Who cares about the lesson, we all know the game determines how awesome or lame an FHE is. If you didn't know it, Brian is really good at teaching. So he came up with a lesson on Temples and making our homes more like temples. Half taken from the lesson he taught in Sunday School that day.

I pretty much think this is the coolest game ever. "The Game of Life Mormon Style" is shockingly similar to the game, "The Game of Life." But instead of going to college or choosing a career, you choose to go on a mission or get married. You collect mini Books of Mormon along the way when you land on yellow squares, blue squares and every kid you collect (12 possible) is also worth a BOM. Person with the most BOMs wins! Pretty much the best game ever.


Okay so this happened two weeks ago, but Brian won "Best Nut Pie" in our ward's pie contest: So You Think You Can Bake. I'm so proud, he is the best.