September Update

As usual, we have been busy around here!
There are a few projects that I haven't written about yet... although some of them happened a while back! (Time flies in the fall as a teacher... so busy!)

Here are a few things we have done lately:

1. Painted the exterior garage and front door.
In case you forgot, when we moved in the doors and garage were painted in a 'lovely' rusty brown.

Summer 2012

I had originally planned on painting the front door a fun colour. However, it was quicker and easier (for now) to just pick one colour. I also found it hard to choose a colour to go with the odd greyish-white brick that we have. I opted for a greige (grey-beige) colour, and I am pretty happy with the result! It really modernized the house. Here she is! (I also pruned the shrubs and got rid of some weeds and rose bushes in the front...). I just need something to decorate the front door!

(Note: The pretty fall leaves in the background! I love fall!)

The pretty fall planter my Aunt Nancy bought us. Unfortunately it got neglected during the first 2 weeks of school and the mums turned brown. I am hoping they come back!

2. Waaaay back in June, Joe and I ordered some awesome Canadian-made furniture at a store called Shreiters in Kitchener. Little did we know that it would take over 2 months for the furniture to be made and brought to our house! We were a little disappointed, but LOVE the furniture now that it is finally here. We put it in our fireplace room and it is ready for some fall decorating. It is looking a little blah.. we are in the process of finding some nice accessories (ex. pillows!) to liven it up and tie it all in. (These pictures are not the greatest...oops!) Oh, and we got a new rug, too! And new curtains... I guess we've done more than I realized.

 

Our awesome and massive couch...it needs some pillows!

3. Remember the special fountain from our backyard?

That we removed and turned into a pile of dirt?

Well, I finally got around to seeding it. And it is getting there! After 2 weeks of watering (and loving any rain we get!) it is starting to fill in. I'm pretty excited about it and can't wait to have a regular, dirt-pile-free lawn!

 

4. Still growing a baby! Only 18 weeks to go. I have been having some crazy preggo dreams though. In my most recent, I had a baby that looked just like Joe...but baby sized. It was sooo creepy! 

5. We have been busy with other things, too. But I'm not ready to show you just yet :) We've painted the nursery, replaced the blinds in all of the bedrooms, and bought paint for them. And we've been cooking up a storm. Stews have been on the menu lately :) 

Ok, that is all for now! Hopefully life will be a little less busy in the upcoming weeks so I have more time for updating. Have a good week! 

20 Weeks!

Well, we officially hit the half-way mark of our pregnancy yesterday. 20 weeks!
It is starting to feel real that we're having a baby!
Today we went for our 20 week ultrasound, which was super exciting. Baby Barlen was apparently moving around like crazy, but the ultrasound tech managed to get a few good shots. We stayed strong and didn't find out the gender. There is something so fun about guessing!

Here are some photos of myself and baby for your enjoyment :)
(Thanks to my good friend, Kate, for lending me this cute maternity dress!)

And the super-cute ultrasound shots :) Is it weird that I already think it looks like Joe?

Foot

A hand!

 Here's hoping that the next 20 weeks go by fairly quickly, because I'm getting antsy to meet this little munchkin!

Random Updates

Time has flown since I've really posted on here. As seen in my previous post, life has been busy with getting ready for school next week. So, here are some random updates on the other stuff that is new!

1. Pregnancy update:

• I am 18 weeks 5 days along! It's hard to believe that I'm almost half way there! I had someone ask me today when I'm due! It was very exciting. 
• I felt Baby Barlen moving this week for the first time! Now I feel him/her all of the time. Things are starting to become real! 
• We have decided not to find out the gender of the baby. I think it's going to make the birth that much more exciting! But it'll be hard to wait!
• Don't worry, Pamela...I'll post some belly photos soon... that is, whenever my belly becomes a little more obvious!

2. Remember this post, where I talked about a Mourning Dove that has taken residence in our front hanging basket? Well... we were worried she was injured. We even gave her a name: Odette! Then, the other day, it became visible why she was there. There are 2 reasons :) Babies! But now we can't water the plant, or move the planter...so it will just die and look funny on our house... Oh well!

3. I've been loving Pinterest for recipes lately, especially as I've been having cravings for strange ingredients. (High on the list: Avocado and Cilantro...) I pinned this recipe for Black Bean Fritters with a Cilantro dipping sauce.

I had to have them! And we just happened to have most of the ingredients on hand. So, we gave it a shot. However, the recipe wasn't perfect, and they needed much more flour/egg than the recipe called for in order to stick together. They ended up being so-so. But the dipping sauce was good! I wouldn't make them again, though.

4. We got together at my Mum and Rick's place to celebrate their wedding with extended family last weekend with a Pig Roast. It was good times, and great to catch up with people.

5. We've been trying our best to enjoy our last few days of summer. Last night we walked through McLennon Park (aka Mount Trashmore) to watch the beautiful sunset.

6. I've been reading the book "Reading with Meaning" by Debbie Miller, as suggested by a coworker. It is a great read for any Primary teacher, and I'll definitely be using many of the ideas in there in my reading program.

That's all for now!

Getting Ready for Back To School

It has been a busy week as I was finally allowed into my school on Monday.
I'm starting to get very excited for school to start, and to meet my new group of kiddos! However, getting into my class on Monday was a little bit stressful. I chose to change classrooms this year, and then there was construction all summer so we weren't allowed in the school. When I came back, it looked like this:

After a few days of labour, it is starting to look like a classroom again! All I need is to add something on the walls, and maybe some students :) It's been great catching up with my colleagues, too!

My classroom library

The reading nook

It's hard to believe that it is September, and school starts in a few short days! I'm looking forward to it!

Hallways and other ramblings

While painting our house, Joe and I have definitely been sticking to the neutrals on the walls. It makes everything easier to decorate, and I think it looks pretty good.

However, I did want at least one statement colour in the house. I've been intrigued lately by images of darkly painted walls, like this:

I thought, why not just go for it? I had also seen an article in House & Home magazine about how a dark teal is a "new neutral". So, a couple of months ago, Joe and I went out and bought a can of "Plumage" paint by Martha Stewert.

From House & Home found here

Plumage by Martha Stewart

As soon as we got it home, I began to question my idea. Would it really be a good thing to paint the hallway such a dark colour??!

After some hesitation, we went for it. It was a seriously challenging feat considering the height of the walls over the stairway, but we managed. And I couldn't be happier! It looks amazing! Here are a few shots from a few different angles:

I'm pretty pleased at how well it seems to tie everything together. One more project down! Many, many more to go.

On a completely unrelated note, we have a mourning dove living in our front planter! It is very tame...I even touched it's tail feathers today. And I was in it's face taking pictures. It didn't budge! I'm worried it may be injured or ill?! Has anyone else ever experienced something like this?

Cuteness!

I just spent a couple of days up at the cottage.
I have bronchitis (yuck!) so it was pretty low-key, but I still did manage to get a few cute pictures of my adorable nephews, Braden and Spencer!

Aren't they the cutest?!

I can't believe how fast this summer is winding down. I'm definitely getting back into school-mode and have been busy preparing for my year. If only my bronchitis would go away so I can enjoy these last two weeks...

Dirty Work

Since Joe and I were in Europe for the first two and a half weeks of our summer, we never seemed to get back on top of our gardening.

We pretended we were by keeping the front of the house acceptable...

But we were hiding our secret: the backyard was a disaster!

Point 1: Remember the 'lovely' fountain that graced our yard when we moved in?

Well, back in June, we posted it free on Kijiji and it was taken away, leaving us with a pile of dirt and rocks in the middle of our yard.

Yep, it has been like that since June. Ugh.

Point #2: The hedges in the back are out of control!!!!

Oh my!
The lawn was also starting to get out of control because of recent rain.
So, we decided to get down to business. Joe mowed the lawn while I pruned the hedges.
Don't they look pretty?

Then, we spent the afternoon moving the dirt pile. This was no small feat...it was huge!

It took over 30 wheelbarrow loads which we had to roll up the hill to the back of our yard. Joe kept me motivated by giving me some eye candy :)

And finally, we have it ready for some grass seed! Although Joe wants to plant a tree...and Mira thinks it's her own private kitty litter, so we have some figuring out to do.

Next on the list: Tackling the overgrown, wild garden. But it does feel good to have a few things done! Although this pregnant lady is paying for it today!