Tile and Tattoos

Yesterday my good friend, Laura and I ventured to the shady side of Des Moines to investigate the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. She had told me about it last week and I was intrigued! Apparently you can get some ridiculous deals there. It's all donated goods and for whatever reason Habitat for Humanity is unable to use them in their homes, so they sell it for super cheap! There's anything from sinks and hot tubs, to door knobs/hardware, to cabinets, to area rugs (I saw a delightful moose one...), to flooring.

As we pulled up to the building, it was pretty apparent that we were going to stick out like sore thumbs in the crowd of people we saw coming and going. We walked in, wiped down a couple carts and proceeded on our adventure. I have to say, it was horribly unorganized! They just seemed to throw like donations in a room. It looked like you walked into someones garage; a hodge podge of goods were randomly thrown on shelves and in boxes. We were both fairly disappointed until we reached the last leg of the journey. The flooring room. This room harbored some treasures if you are wanting to tile your floors. I found porcelain tile, twelve inch squares, for $11 a box and in each box there was eleven square feet. There were also bigger tiles -not sure of the size- for $17 a box for about seventeen square feet. Not to be cheesy, but I was floored! ;) I grabbed a couple to bring home!

:: Poor Roman fell backwards and hit his head on one of the wooden planks holding up some cabinets. I didn't notice how bad it was until we went to lunch. He wouldn't put his head back in his car seat and kept saying 'ow'. When we sat down for lunch in Ankeny, I noticed he had a huge scratch on the back of his head! :(  Even today he doesn't want to lay one the back of his head. Diaper changing is a bit of a challenge. ::

For lunch we ate some Mexican. I. Love. Mexican. Food. And I know that Roman is my child because he too loves rice and beans. Especially when mixed together. Yum. We ordered, ate and on our way out I noticed a tattoo vending machine. Yes, a tattoo vending machine in the Mexican restaurant. Jeff and I had been talking about how Roman needed one, and my heart fluttered when I saw it. I popped in the 50 cents it asked for and out came Roman's first ever tattoo. One of many for that boy. It couldn't have been more appropriate either. A guitar with a snake wrapped around it.

He thinks he's so awesome with it. And he is.

xoxo
-s

And We're Back

Whoa, it's been a while. We've just been  too busy playing outside, loading up on play dates and doing crafts lazy and un-inspired. But I'm ready to snap out of it. :)

Yesterday and today we busted out our two new sprinklers and our awesome new fish pool. Today was magnificent pool weather. We are sun-kissed and worn out, thank goodness, because a certain little man decided not to nap today. .

In other news, Roman sweets is now addicted to Finding Nemo. He requests to watch it every day and unless you distract him with something else -ie. going outside- he will not stop. And to his hearts delight last week there was a gloomy morning and I let him watch it then, plus it was date night, and my precious mom watched it with him not just once, but twice. What a treat for that boy!

He is growing like a weed, too! It breaks my heart and amazes me at the same time. I can't believe he's a year and a half. He is putting two, if not three words together and there are times when it sounds like jibberish, but he knows exactly what he's trying to say. It's too cute. I wish we had our own reality show sometimes. Not ever to be aired on TV, but just our lives taped in this special, magical time so I don't forget anything! I'm going to try to investigate ways to remember these moments better. I'm thinking a yearly book for both boys will be a good start. Anyone have other suggestions?

Switching gears, before our connection group ended for the summer, I volunteered to create some sort of 'get together' schedule because we don't hang out near enough in the summer. I guess I better get on that.

I'll leave you with some fantastic unedited photos. I have to confess, I'm depressed about the lack of editing. Not because I'm too busy lazy to, but because my free trial ran out and we can't afford to buy one yet. Here they are, nonetheless.

xoxo

-s

::My Favorite Things:: Web Edition

Okay, there are several websites I could mention for this post, but I'll narrow it down to just two. When I was revamping my blog via help from this creative genius, I came across some websites she recommended and fell in love. Now, I'm not computer savvy like many bloggers, but with help from these sites I was pretty smitten with my skills.

It all started when I wanted to round out the edges of my photos for my header. This is the website for that. It turns this

into this

I love it. A fun way to spice things up.

The only thing is your image has to be less than 1 Mb, and mine weren't, which posed another obstacle for me. So I Googled 'image resizers' and found this! I needed a super easy website to use, where I didn't have to do any thinking or researching and it just did everything for me. Wha La! You just upload your image, reduce the image size by how much you need, do any special effects you'd like, click 'resize' and boom. If you need to do any advanced edits (like make it even smaller, sharpen, contrast etc) you can do that too. I was a happy lady.

I just transfered the new image to the first website and it worked instantly.

And there you have it. Two of my favorite websites. I hope this helps you if you should ever need it!

xoxo,
 Sarah

Get Ready...

....this is going to be a semi-long one! I would have done this sooner but one of my most least favorite side affects of pregnancy is loss of a memory that was in critical condition to begin with. In other words, I misplaced my cute pink flash drive that holds the treasure of all of our photos of everything on it. Where did I find it? might you ask. At the bottom of the camera bag after three days of searching the house for it. Lovely. And for the record, I had already checked the camera bag twice.

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Last Saturday I was privileged to co-host my SIL a baby shower. It was so much fun. Windy, but fun. Brittney had picked an outdoor shelter in Pleasant Hill and the rest was up to me and another friend of hers, Kelli. There were tissue paper pom poms, lilacs, and delicious food. We had a great time!

On the menu: Antipasto Pasta Salad, Mini Italian Club Sandwiches, Cake (from Hy-Vee- by far the best cake ever, that I know of), and assorted beverages. Yum!

For Brittney, although sweet baby Sophia will get more use out of them, I did my very first diy project! Burp cloths. Love them.

I found the tutorial here. They were so easy to make. This was also my first experience with a sewing machine and thanks be to a good friend for showing me the basics of sewing. I'm so pleased with the way they turned out that I'm going to be making some for Baby Barton too!

As for my next DIY, see how I transform this lovely piece of furniture. I found this dresser on craigslist shortly after Jeff and I sold our bed frame and dresser we bought a couple years ago from IKEA. It's going to be for the boys' room once we get a room for them. :)

I've got the DIY and the nesting bug. Watch out.
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In pregnancy news, I've hit the 28th week. Woot! Seven months down, three to go. July will be here before we know it. So far Baby and I have gained 30lbs, and he's a lot more wiggly than I remember Roman being. Makes me wonder if he'll be more independent and not as laid back as Rome. Otherwise I'm feeling wonderful! Just anxiously awaiting his arrival.

I've begun reading this

 I really am looking for a different experience this time. I want a non-medicated delivery and have heard from several friends that the Bradley Method is by far superior, so I'm pumped. I still need to come up with a birth plan and several other accommodations, mostly Roman related, but we're getting there.

That's all my brain can come up with at this late normal hour. I'll leave you with some recent photos of splendid days past.