Where Have I Been?

I started a new blog! Yes crazy but I am so excited about it! If you would like to continue along go over to Alex and Ally and check it out. I blog over there Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I have also moved all my bumpdates over there if you are interested in seeing the bump grow. See you there!

How to Start a Book Club

Have you ever wanted to start a book club? I recently started a book club with my friends and so I thought I would share a few tips about starting one of your own!

To start a book club you only need three things:

1. A book
2. People
3. A time and place to discuss said book.

I had reservations about starting a book club because I didn't want to commit to reading a specific book every month, but then I realized it doesn't have to be a monthly thing. My book club meets once every three months (that's only four times a year!) I pick two books to read during that time. This way if someone doesn't like one of the books then hopefully they will like the other one. I obviously want to pick books people like so they keep coming. Although, I make sure my friends know that they can read one, both or none of the books and still participate. I just enjoy getting together with them and the books provide a common topic of conversation for my friends who don't know each other as well.

Most authors have discussion questions for their books available on their websites. If you have attendees who have not read the book then make sure to ask a few questions that allows the conversation to spin onto a topic that everyone can participate in. For example one of the questions started our group on a discussion about whether our city has any food that is specific to our city. You always hear about New York cheesecake, Chicago style pizza etc. (it was determined that we don't) but it was fun to come up with ideas and it allowed everyone to take part in the conversation.

You don't even need to meet with people in person to talk about books. Maybe you and your best friend live in different places why not try reading the same book every once in awhile so that you can chat about it on your next phone date.

Have I convinced you yet? Are you going to start a book club? If so, here are my suggestions for some good books to get you started; all the links take you to Amazon.com if you'd like to learn more about the books there.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
The Book of Bright Ideas by Sandra Kring
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
The Things that Keep Us Here by Carla Buckley
The Life List by Lori Nelson Spielman

The last two books are what my book club is currently reading for our next meeting. And apparently I enjoy books that start with "the" but I did not realize this until I typed them all out here. But nevermind that, I hope you're fired up and ready to call all your friends to start a book group of your very own.

So You're Not Going To Find Out

Are you going to find out the sex of the baby?

I have heard this countless times through my pregnancy this far and at first I just went with it. When I got the question I just said yes but after giving it more thought this past week I will have a different answer from now on.

You may have realized that in my last bumpdate we are no longer finding out the gender. Jesse and I have decided to wait until the baby is here. This might be crazy especially with all the modern day technology...you can find out as early as 14 weeks! But for Jesse and I we are excited for the surprise.

To further explain, here is some of our reasoning behind the madness.

1. Although ultrasounds have come a looong way...3D anyone? They one we would get is your standard office ultrasound and I just don't think I could fully trust it. I know a few people personally and recently that have been told its a boy but have a girl or vice versa.

2. The surprise of it. I know it will be worth the wait!

3. We didn't plan to tell the names so why not the gender too?!

4. I do love me some pretty pink tutus or handsome sweater vest but would prefer not to get an overload of crazy pink or blue things. I'm a gender neutral type of girl

5. We will get what we need.

I couldn't be more excited about our decision and cant wait until May to meet our little one!

Big News!

What if I told you in this picture that we are a family of three...well its true. We are adding on to the family and although in my monthly goals for September I wanted a four-leg furry friend to add to our family, God had a bigger plan. On September 5th our lives changed...we found out we are PREGNANT!! We are beyond blessed and excited.

You may have noticed its been a little quiet around here and that's because I have been super tired. I thankfully haven't had any morning sickness but exhaustion and hunger has gotten the best of me this past month.

We had our first ultrasound yesterday. It was surreal to see our baby up on the screen moving around. I am 9 weeks and am due May 12, 2014!

The Big Reveal!

Our living room painting update is officially finished. Notice I said painting update. Our living room is nowhere near complete there is some serious decorating that is going to need to happen but painting the walls provided a huge update in its self...drum roll please...

Ta-Da! We have our self a new fresh living room. Big difference right?

You can see the process of the living room here, here and here.

Living Room Part 3: Baseboards

The last step to our living room project was the baseboards. Our hope is to paint all trim and doors white throughout the whole house but for starters we just did the living room. At first we thought it would be a challenge to paint baseboards next to carpet but ended up being very easy.

With light sanding first, we started out with a clear plastic drop cloth. Then cut in 6-8 inch strips. Take a putty knife and push the plastic under the baseboard.

I went along after Jesse tucked the plastic under the baseboard and taped the plastic to pull it tighter. This helped keep the plastic out of the way when painting.

It was super simple and a lot less of a headache than expected. Stay tuned for the before and after on Monday:)

Living Room Part 1: How To Paint Wood Paneling
Living Room Part 2: Painting The Walls

Living Room Part 2: Painting The Walls

After we primed everything we needed too it was time to paint. I was so excited to finally get color up on the walls and see it come together. 

I took on the fire place and painted two coats on it. It was kinda my little project. While I did that Jesse was off taping and trimming. I helped with the walls but he did it for the most part. I was too short for the job! ha!

One day I even came home to this...Hey at least he is having fun right?!

For our first time painting it wasn't terrible although at points I honestly thought it wasn't going to end. We used Behr for all the paint. Its not Benjamin Moore but it is good quality over some other box store paint options so we went with it. 

Living Room Part 1: How To Paint Wood Paneling