The Nursery

The stripes are done and I think it turned out really well. We have some touching up to do where the colors bled into eachother but not too bad. And have to touch up some of the trim paint that came off while pulling the tape off of that. So here is the painted room:



On the bonus room side of things, EZ has been slaving away at building closets and a bench seat and is just about complete. We have picked a paint color for the bonus room too but probably won't actually paint until the weekend after next since I am headed to MI to visit my family this weekend while EZ has decided to start the next daunting project of building the patio off the deck. I think he hopes to work on getting the patio level and stuff this weekend but not actually laying the stones yet (but what do I know).

Here is a picture of the new closets and bench though (obviously the doors still have to be attached):



And last but not least, an updated photo of the belly bump which seems to be growing at exponential growth these days and she is quite the acrobat but particularly likes my right side and tends to be there most of the time.

One of those days

You know those days when everything seems to be getting to you and just not going right...

Something isn't agreeing with your stomach which makes you feel blah...

When you get yelled at by people for things that are out of your hands and everything you seemed to do just doesn't help...

And you are constantly thinking about people you love fighting to get better...

And all those things stress you out more and more which you don't like...

So your friend suggests going out for ice cream after work and then you come home and take a nice bath...which hopefully leads to a peaceful end to a day.

Weight bearing Running

I have been doing a little bit of running each week, maybe 3x per week, and in the past couple weeks running has become a bit more difficult. One side is my feet. I got some new shoes a couple weeks ago thinking that I needed new ones but I really think my feet hurt because of the added weight. I feel like the bottoms of my feet are practically bruised and don't know if I should buy another totally new pair of shoes (super cushiony) or not.

Some days I am able to run 30-35min without stopping and other than my feet killing me, I feel fine, just slow. But some days I have to do a nice run-walk combo of run a little walk a little, run a little more walk a little more. All in all, it still feels good to get out and do something and since the weather has been so nice the past few days I have also been able to get out and go for some hour long walks too which has been nice.

I might have to go back to the elliptical as it might not hurt my feet as much and the bike. I don't want to sit on my road bike as I know that won't be comfortable and leaves me with the gym and the stationary bikes. So just as it is starting to get nice out, I might be forced to go inside to work out. Although I know that come June and July I will be happier and more comfortable indoors.

Salsa Dancing

My yoga studio offered beginning Salsa dancing lessons last Friday so I asked EZ if he wanted to go and he said sure. One of the instructors is dating a guy from a salsa dancing country so they came to teach us. It was quite interesting and actually pretty fun. I think EZ and I did a pretty good job with the basic steps and some turns, but I didn't do a very good job with the whole hip thing. I can only focus on so much as once so just getting the steps down and the few turns was enough for me then to try and get my hips to do what they were suppose to do too.

I must say if they offer more classes, I think it would be fun to go back and keep learning, or learn some new dance steps, but I know that all that will shortly come to a halt for a little while when BZ arrives this summer. :) Either way I had fun and am glad we both are trying new things(part of our goals!) even if we looked nothing like the dancers in the photo above!

Green

Green is such a hard color to pick for a room to paint. There are like a million shades of green out there. It took us months before we decided on a green/yellow color for our living room. And we debated back and forth as to what color to paint the nursery. I didn't want pink that is all I knew. And EZ said he didn't want to have to paint the room again-meaning in case we have a second child and it is a boy we wanted something neutral enough. So green was decided.

At first I wanted to do an accent wall a different color-pink/purple/yellow. Then I wanted to do 2 walls opposite colors. Then maybe put in a chair rail and do the top half one color and the bottom half another. Then I got an idea for a stripe around the room-just one. And it was going to just be one color-pink/purple/yellow. That way if there is a second and it is a boy we could just change the stripe. Then my mom suggested brown. And so that is where I ended up...the room is green and we are going to do either a big brown stripe with a little pink stripe inside of it, or a brown stripe with a pink stripe on top of it. Something like that. Either way, I am glad we got the room finally painted yesterday which didn't take too long and now it is on to pick out the right color brown and pink and decide where and what type of stripe to make. Once we finish, I will post pics.

BZ is moving around a bit and this morning as I was laying in bed I could feel her with my hand so I told EZ and he got to feel a little kick or something. I am doing great otherwise and have no complaints other than the fact that my week off from teaching for spring break ends today and will be heading back to work tomorrow.

The Smokies

I am off this week on spring break and EZ and I had decided we wanted a little mini vacation so we headed to Gatlinburg, TN for a few days which is on the TN border of Smokey Mountain National Park. I would say Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge is like Myrtle Beach of the mountains, there are mini golf places and go kart places every block and tons of show things. I don't know what I was expecting but it was much different than I thought.

We left Friday and were suppose to arrive Friday night and we were about 25 miles from Gatlinburg on the NC side of the Smokies when we arrived at a closed road due to ice/snow. The detour was 3 1/2 hours around. It was already 9pm at this point so we started to drive back the way we came and stayed the night in Asheville. It started as a very long start to our trip. We did a little shopping and eating and some hiking. We did not end up skiing as there really wasn't a lot of snow on the ground-actually none in Gastlinburg-only snow up the mountain a bit, and the ski place in Gatlinburg is pretty small.

On one of our hikes up Chimney Tops Mountain, the trail was covered in snow. It made our 4 mile roundtrip hike take a total of 3 hours. There were parts that were really steep and take that covered in packed down snow makes it really slippery. On the way down, it made so that we were practically skiing on the trail just on our shoes sliding our way down the mountain. Quite an adventurous hike. I must say that it would be beautiful here in the fall when all the trees are changing colors...as it was practically all the trees are bare. We came back a day early so that we could enjoy some down time at home and went and saw Avatar in 3D yesterday which was really good.

Here are a couple photos from our trip:


A short hike to a waterfall our first day.


The view from our balcony where we stayed.


At the start of the hike up Chimney Tops


Me sliding down the trail trying to stay balanced!

This and That

I need a break...mentally, physically, etc. Not sure what is going on this semester, maybe it is always like this. Maybe BZ is draining me more than I think so it is more difficult to get stuff done. It seems like I just have so much going on. I am really excited for a little mini vacation over spring break to the Smokey Mountains. Might even do a little skiing (yes I know, oh my I might ski.) But for those of you who have seen me ski, I only do easy runs because the other ones are too scary for me and I go down the hill at turtle speed, so I am pretty sure I will be fine. Although I am a little bummed that for the few days we will be gone the weather forecast is in the mid 60's. Man on man, I have been waiting for these days. (Did I mentioned it snow again on Tuesday). I live in the south for a reason!

I have read a few books lately. I finished Elegance of the Hedgehog, which I thought was ok. I wasn't a fan of the writers style and I am not sure I could really explain what the book it about. It was rather dull for me in the beginning but it did get better as the story went on. And then yesterday I finished Outliers-the story of success, which I really enjoyed. What a great book about how a lot of times, what it takes to be successful is opportunities, hard work and cultural background, and perhaps a little luck. It was a very interesting book and I would recommend it to anyone. I am still reading A Brave New World as well. It is just ok to me, and I am almost 2/3 through.