storage solution

Ever since we moved into our townhouse, there has been an issue of "where in the world can we cram this?" We cut our square footage in half, so needless to say, lack of space is a major problem.  That problem got even bigger when we got a Kinect for Christmas, but have no space to move around to play it! Now, talk about sadness. To help with the situation, I decided we needed to get rid of our coffee table.  It's nothing special and it takes up a lot of space with minimal storage.  But that leaves us with another issue - no place to put drinks, plates when we want to eat in the living room (which happens quite often), etc. And we still have the issue of no storage. In comes the ottoman:

 

This thing has been stuffed in the corner for when we need it, which has been never since we moved in, simply because there was no space for it. Well, I decided to make it useful. It started out in one piece, so first thing was to separate the top from the bottom and strip it, which meant taking out no less than 200 staples..not kidding..whoever made it got way staple-happy. It literally took us three hours just to take them all out. 

And let me clarify that my husband helped me tremendously with this remodel. I could not have done it without his muscle power =) After stripping all the cloth and padding away, Tanner made a bottom to hold things in. 

Next step, re-cover:

 

Final step, make somewhere to set stuff like drink, plates, etc.:

And the thing I love the most, is it gives me a place to put blankets and pillows since we don't have a linen closet!

You + Me = 3

Whew. Now that it's out in the open (I've been waiting a while for this), I'll catch you up on our life lately! It's obviously been interesting. =) 

We are finally settled here in Bryan, TX.  We were able to find an amazing condo to rent for a wonderful price and the best part is it's within biking/walking distance of the church, our gym, walmart, and, my favorite, Chick-fil-a! Even though it took us a little while to get adjusted to the size (it's half of the size of our house in Hattiesburg), we are really enjoying it.  Although, with the new addition, we are going to have to get extremely creative on how to organize our one spare bedroom into a nursery/guest room/craft room! I'm welcome to ideas if you have any!

Our holidays were filled with traveling, family time, and more traveling.  My cousin got married Saturday the 17th in a BEAUTIFUL Christmas/winter wedding.  Isn't she the most beautiful bride you've ever seen?!

I was out of school the week before Christmas, so I rode back with my parents and stayed with them for a few days.  My grandmother isn't doing so well, so I wanted to spend as much time with her as possible while I had the chance. I had started having some nauseousness on the way to her wedding but I assumed it was just car sickness or something.  While at my parents, I continued to have the nauseousness but I also started having cramps.  Which is not a pregnancy symptom I'm familiar with so I thought nothing of it.  Then one day, I got dizzy all of a sudden and my dad said something about me being pregnant.  Again, I dismissed it, attributing it to standing up too quickly.  But, just for curiosity's sake, I looked up "early signs of pregnancy."  I still hadn't missed my period so I wasn't too concerned, BUT when I saw the list included: dizziness, menstrual-like cramps, nauseousness, and moodiness (which Tanner will affirm this one)...all of which I had been experiencing over the past 2 weeks, I freaked a little.  Finally, my friend Drew urged me to take a test.  Which I did. And it didn't work. So I took another...and it messed up too. So we went to buy more and finally, third times a charm, it immediately showed a plus sign. So, along with all the other symptoms, I added shortness of breath and freaking out to the list. Now, don't get me wrong, I was extremely excited, but I was nervous, too! I couldn't tell anyone because I wanted to tell Tanner first.  The next day, my dad drove me to the airport so I could fly back to Houston - try riding in a car with your dad for 2 hours having JUST found out you are pregnant and not having an emotional breakdown...it's nearly impossible.  And then try flying through a thunderstorm while experiencing 'morning sickness.' It's not on my to-do list again any time soon. I finally made it to my husband and boy was I shaking.  We had to drive an hour and a half to his parents house and I knew this was the only time I was going to have to tell him if we wanted to tell family during the holiday get-togethers. So, I begged him to drive (which gave away that I was hiding something because I NEVER volunteer for this duty) so he wouldn't kill us or someone else when he had a stroke and wrecked the car. Then when we were good and on our way, I told him I had an early Christmas present for him in my purse. He pulled out the green-tissue-wrapped tests, yes plural, and immediately starting feeling the package.  He figured out what they were before he even opened them! After he came out of his state of shock he smiled and started asking questions.  So we spent some time with his family and then drove back to Bryan to have Christmas Eve and Christmas services and then drove back to Hattiesburg to have my family's Christmas.  (Talk about tired of being in a car!) At every family gathering, we wrapped (the same) pack of diapers to let the parents and grandparents unwrap.  I was so glad we found out at a perfect time to be able to tell our families in person and for the most part, all at once! And my favorite was getting to capture the reactions to keep forever =)

As you can see, dad and grandpa were a little shell-shocked at first! ha.

And here we are at the present time and we had our first Dr. appointment this morning! He said everything looked good.  We are 5 1/2 weeks along with a due date of August 31. So far, my symptoms have been mild and sporadic, but he said around 6 weeks is when they could hit pretty strong, so I may be singing a different tune this time next week.  We struggled with whether or not to tell everyone until we had an ultrasound, but I just couldn't hold it in any longer! Everywhere around here won't even give us an appointment until I'm 8 weeks.  It's a running joke now that I may be having twins.  Well, I say joke, but it's an absolute possibility.  My dad's a twin so I have a higher chance of it and everyone seems to think I'm going to be the lucky one in the family to continue the tradition - so I'm extremely ready for an ultrasound!