Nesting?? Who's Nesting??

Pinterest is something that reminds you how unorganized your life is how many great ideas are out there!  Lately I've seen all of these organized closets in people's homes, and it made me want to tackle two of my nemeses here at our house-the pantry and the linen closet.  There are some Cool Labels  that you can print for FREE to help you get started.  I LOVE ALL OF THESE!!  The first closet I worked on is the linen closet.  Of course, I forgot to take the "before" picture.  But here's the after picture.

I had each of our things stored in separate baskets so I knew where to find stuff, which made it a lot easier.  But we had stuff that didn't fit, stuff that was in a "random" basket, and stuff that was just in the wrong place.  I used some baskets I had left from school and reorganized all of that stuff.  We had a Greg, Laurel, Emmett, first aid, hand soap, and wallflower basket.  

The stuff was in there neat, and then I had to scrounge looking for the rectal thermometer for Emmett, which happened to be in something downstairs and not in his designated basket.  See, still not a perfect system.  :)  I also made separate piles for the different size sheets and labeled all of those.  This is to help find the stuff, but also to help us remember where to put it back.  

We'll see if this system lasts.  :)  It has made me feel more organized for about a week, which is an improvement.  I did essentially the same thing with the pantry, but I'm not still not completely happy with it.  It is still very jumbled, but it's better than it was.

Has anyone has luck with plastic containers for flour, sugar, etc.?  I always worry about getting air or bugs into those containers.  I'd love to hear any suggestions for fixing this up!

I miss sleep

I have had the hardest time sleeping lately.  Emmett being sick hasn't helped matters, but most of it is solely me.  I keep having really strange dreams about school stuff, and I'm not really even that stressed about school.  It's just WEIRD stuff, like how I am grouping my students or which student I'm seeing for X.  I cannot figure out what is causing this, if it's something I'm eating or drinking or if I'm too warm.  It's IRRITATING.  I just can't seem to turn my brain off.  Any suggestions?

But I NEED it!

So I went in for my glucola (sp?) test the other day during my 27/28 week checkup.  You know it's not the news you want when the nurse says to give her a call back instead of her just leaving you a message.  The acceptable range for your blood sugar is at its limit around 138 or so, and mine was 153.  NICE!  Leave it to me to go above and beyond on the test that you don't want to overachieve.  I go back Monday morning for the super exciting 3-hour test to see if I have gestational diabetes.  The thought of not being able to devour some mac and cheese makes me CRINGE.  Greg said, "Yeah, low carbs is not really your thing, is it?"  That's the understatement of the century.  Anyway, I have found myself craving every food high in carbs or sugar this weekend.  And I'm torn between "better not overdo it before Monday" and "this is the last meal I'll enjoy for awhile".  Cereal bars, check.  Mac and cheese, YES PLEASE!  Crunch Berries cereal, um, HELLO?!?  Is there even a question?!  Tomorrow I am going to TRY to take it easy, but we'll see how it goes.  Hopefully Thursday will have just been a fluke and I can continue on my Peanut Butter Fusion cereal road to May.

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, New Fish Baby Shower!

Today I threw a baby shower for my sister-in-law who is due in February.  I went with a One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish/New Fish theme because I saw a bunch of cute ideas online, AND it's a fun children's book.   :)  When guests arrived, they had three tasks.  The first was signing the mat for a framed baby picture (once baby arrives).  The second was to choose a date on the calendar when they predicted the baby would arrive.  Guests stamped the little footprints on their chosen date and signed their name.  The third task was to write a wish to Kara and her new baby fish and hang it on the tree.  I looked for an indoor potted plant, but time of year, the pickings were slim.  :)  So we got a small Christmas tree that she could plant outside if she chose.  

Food consisted of pasta salad, ham sandwiches, Swedish Fish, goldfish, fruit, chicken salad in little shells, cheese and crackers, and cucumber sandwiches.  Here's the recipe for the cucumber sandwiches.

1 package of softened cream cheese

1 packet of dry italian seasoning

Mix those together and spread on your choice of bread.  Sprinkle with dill weed and serve.  

My favorite part was the cake.  I had someone make it to go with the theme of the shower.

I made little life savers pacifiers with jelly beans to go with the cake.  They're really easy to make.  Just use icing to "glue" two life savers perpendicular to each other.  Once that sets, use icing to "glue" a jelly bean to the other side.  

She got a lot of wonderful things for the baby!  One of the things I liked the best about her wedding shower and this baby shower is that we set out the gifts for everyone to see.  It's hard to appreciate all of the nice stuff people get at showers because you see it for 10 seconds when she opens it and then it goes back in the bag.  By setting it out, you can go look at all of the cute stuff they've received and fully appreciate everyone's generosity.  Here's her loot: 

On the right, you can see the little tree with the wishes.  The diaper cake in the middle was provided by my other wonderful sister-in-law! :)  It was adorable!

All in all, it was a great shower!  :)

New Emmett Pictures

Between our new camera and the pictures we got taken from a friend, I wanted to post a few.  :)

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!

Greg and I got a new camera yesterday!!  WOOO!! :)  There wasn't much wrong with our last one, but I wanted one a little more sophisticated and that I didn't have to wait 3 seconds for it to take the picture.  I also wanted one that took fancier pictures.  The one we had is still great for point and shoot times, but we figured since Emmett is growing up and we have another one on the way, we might as well invest in one that takes super great pictures.  They're only young once, after all! :)  We got the Canon Rebel T2i, and I LOVE IT!  Here's a few of my favorites from the first day.

I need to play with the settings because I'm still using the basic features.  Hopefully I'll have a few more to show later.  :)

Events of the Past Two Months (well, 1.5)

It's been a loooong time since I've posted on my blog.  Sorry to the three people who read this.  :)  Let's just recap what's been happening...

We went to pumpkin patch #1...no pumpkins actually growing on the vine, but placed out in the field.  It's okay, it still looked pretty.

We also took the annual trip to Carter Mountain with the Starkeys and had a great time!

 
And our most recent development...

Well, not really most RECENT, but probably the most substantial.  :)  I'm about 12.5 weeks along, and I got to hear the heartbeat today.  It's hard to believe that when I went in about 3 weeks ago, all we saw was the little blob with nubs for arms and legs.  Today we got a beautiful baby profile, complete with "regular-sized" arms and legs moving and hiccups.  :)  The whole process is simply fascinating to me.  I can't wait to meet this little person!! :)