The Countdown is On…6 Weeks To Go

Who am I kidding? The countdown has been on since I found out I was going to have another baby! But, now that I only have 6 weeks or less until Olive arrives I am really counting down the days. Mostly because of exhaustion and readiness to have this baby out of me, so my body can go back to normal. And then I remind myself that I’m only going to get bigger and more uncomfortable, experience more symptoms of pregnancy, and then have to go through labor and give birth! I’m really not complaining here because I know that it is truly a blessing to experience pregnancy and have a healthy baby at the end of it all. I guess I would just say that I’m ready…to be not pregnant and be able to breathe, walk normally, sit normally, run (or at least have a skip in my step), not have to pee all the time, and many many other things that you get to do when you’re not pregnant.

This pregnancy has been very different from my first. With Noah, of course, I didn’t have any other children to tend to, so I did a lot of relaxing, reading, watching movies…really, whatever I wanted to- and I wasn’t working. Basically, I just sat around- which I think made the time go by really slowly. I felt like I was pregnant with him forever! And this time around it has been totally opposite. I can’t believe how fast the time has flown by! Contributing to that is my full time job of motherhood, wifehood, and my business which has been busier than ever.  I spend a lot more time on my feet which, I think, has caused a lot more ailments with this pregnancy. I’ll spare you all the gory details…

I just read my little weekly email update that I get about the baby’s growth and development, and it said that “now is the time to slow down.” Yeah, right! Now is the time for me to hurry up and finish all my orders that my customers are waiting on before Olive arrives and the real exhaustion sets in! I’m at a crossroads here because, on the one hand, I am so ready to be done being pregnant, but on the other hand I still need some time to finish my orders. So, my sweet little Olive, I guess you will come when you are ready, but my customers will be really happy if I can get them their stuff on time. Oh well, I know it will all work out in the end. Thankfully, I have already had the so called “nesting” instinct- it’s either that or my obsession with organization- and I have already gotten Olive’s little clothes all put away and even went ahead and packed her bag for the hospital- just in case.

A Tid-bit on Architecture

I’ve been meaning to post some architectural design work on here for a while now, so this is at least a start.  Now in my fifth and final year of architecture school I’m currently working on my “thesis” project — “thesis” is in quotations because it is a little different from what it is in other professions.  It is basically an idea/understanding that arises through our investigations on a particular architectural subject matter.  Mine, so far, is about the intentional manipulation of light and perception through boundary (more on that some other time).

The medium of investigation is the design of a building in downtown Montgomery, a once thriving city devastated, like so many, by the advent of the car.  With the car came glorified suburbia, and out went people.  As pedestrians disappeared so did storefronts… empty buildings were torn down for parking lots/garages, and streets were widened to speed traffic.  This left the urban fabric in shambles and pretty unsuitable for pedestrian use.

You can see in this figure ground map of downtown how sparse the street frontage is– pretty much all the blank space (other than the streets of course) is parking.  I color coded the heights of buildings to show the lack of density: the lightest shade represents 1 and 2 story buildings while darker is taller.  Thankfully, now that people are beginning to realize these flaws and the beauty of good urbanism, the city is working hard to revitalize through proper planning.

 In small groups we researched the city and their overarching planning proposals to make our own proposals to revitalize specific portions of the urban fabric.  Out of these proposals came our individual building projects that we are working on for the rest of the year.

Mine (represented by the small orange dot on the map) is basically an observation tower that serves as a terminus for a major street and the backdrop of a new public park/plaza a classmate and I are designing across from the baseball stadium.  Above are  just a couple little images from earlier this semester.

Growing Up

This post is dedicated to my husband. We have been “together” for  7 years now! We started dating in 10th grade in high school, got engaged on November 25th of our freshman year in college, got married the summer after our freshman year (yes, we were only 19), had our sweet baby boy Noah a little over a year later, and will now have our baby girl before Nick is done with his bachelor’s degree! Praise the Lord he graduates this coming May!

We both feel so blessed by God that we were able to get married young. We have learned so much together, and I think that has really created a bond in us that is like no other. Unlike a lot of couples today we literally began our lives together. We didn’t already have careers or jobs or even college degrees. When we got married we were still wondering what we were going to be when we grow up. I mean, Nick knew he wanted to be an architect, but he’d just finished his first year of school. And now, here we are, still just babies in the eyes of many, with babies of our own, but we finally feel like we’re almost there- like we’re almost all grown up! But the thing is, we’ve done it all together, he and I-with God’s hand on us the whole way guiding us.

I thank God so much for my Nicholas. I know this might sound corny, but he’s truly my hero. I can’t imagine what my life would be like without him. I don’t want to imagine it because I’m so incredibly happy and blessed.

We’re so excited about where we’re going next- we don’t know yet, but we’re just excited to be on this journey through life together.

Featured!

As many of you know, the front page of Etsy always features a set of twelve “handpicked items” chosen from treasuries curated by members of the site.  Our crib set made it to the front on November 1st (this post is obviously a little overdue).  Treasuries are usually based on a theme or color… in this case it was the term “linen.”  The fabric we use is not linen, it is cotton, but fortunately its name “optic blossom in linen” helped us to become part of this set.

Delightful Daddy-Time

A couple Sundays ago, when we had some fantastic fall weather, Noah and I (Nick) got some of our occasional alone-time while Brooke attended our friend’s baby shower for a couple hours.  We thought about staying indoors sword-fighting and such, but the weather beckoned us to swing on the porch for a while and then to finally take a stroll to the nearby pond.  We took our dog Bella along with us to hang out, admire creation, and, of course, gather acorns and throw some sweet sticks into the water.

Noah even got to climb on the fence as we left.  Luckily I thought to bring the camera along to get some handsome pics of little boy.

Cool Threads

This is just a quick little post to mention a brand new online shop for fantastic fabrics and patterns! They used to have a shop on Etsy, but have just opened their own shop now atHawthorneThreads.com. I have ordered from them numerous times while they had their shop on Etsy and they are great. They have always answered my questions quickly and shipped orders very fast! And, I always refer my customers who are looking for great fabric for a crib set to them because they have an enormous selection of fabric! All in all, they are wonderful. Their new site has some great features too- like how you can search by color or theme or look for great fabric combinations in the bundles section. Their tiered pricing is fantastic if you’ve got a larger order. So, shop Hawthorne Threads!

Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater

Noah’s favorite movie right now (which could change in the next week) is Peter Pan. So, naturally, we thought it would be cute to make him a Peter Pan costume for our church’s annual trunk-or-treat as well as the school of arch’s annual Pumpkin Carve.

The first thing we found was an old belt from a thrift store that Nick cut down and punched a new hole in so it would fit Noah. We got some green felt material and searched Hobby Lobby for a red feather for the hat. We ended up using the tail feather from a fake bird- it was the perfect size for a tiny little Pan hat. We already had some green pajama pants, and for some last-minute shoes Nick cut up some of his dark brown dress socks to slip over Noah’s brown sandals… and a Peter Pan costume wouldn’t be complete without a sword, so Nick cut one out of cardboard for Noah to stick in his belt.

Pumpkin Carve was a blast… Nick carved the wartiest pumpkin he could find, and Noah had so much fun being Peter Pan that he didn’t want to take his outfit off! He ended up sleeping in it the second night, so I had to hide it from him and be careful not to mention it or I’m sure he would have wanted to wear it to church on Sunday!