Moving! (Kind of...)

I hate moving. Hate it. What other words do I have that could express to the world how I feel about moving. Loathing, despise, an abomination, filled with disgust, and if you so desire go look it up in a thesaurus and every synonym will apply. I've moved WAY too many times in our 5 years of marriage. And with each move we have more things to move.

When we first were married I moved to California, then to Washington, then to Philadelphia, then to Utah, then to Idaho and now we're moving again. Staying within Idaho, but still moving. Plus, there is the eventual move that comes in May when we are, most likely, moving to D.C. And, since I've expressed to my Chris (on multiple occasions) that I'm only committing to two years in D.C., we will have another move then. Insert the biggest sigh possible rriiiiiiiiiiiggghhhhht <here>.

And this time is annoying in a different way since I'm moving everything two weeks before I will actually be living there. Plus, this move was especially painful since Chris is, luckily, still in D.C. and didn't have to participate. Luckily, a pregnant sister-in-law is pathetic enough to incur the sympathy of her brother-in-laws and I had myself a moving crew.

So this last week, while I was (successfully) building my bookshelf, I was also rounding up all of our stuff and attempting to pack it up. Although a lot of procrastination was necessary for sanity to continue, I did manage to pack everything and disassemble several items of furniture. One of them, my bed, tried to kill me in the process but the idea that my obituary would state that I was smothered by a mattress was incentive enough to live.

Oh, let's add in the fact that I'm in the basement and discovered several dead spiders throughout the process. And while a dead spider is better than a live spider, the difference is so slight that you couldn't tell the difference through my reactions.

Well, moving day came yesterday and we got the U-haul loaded up. Luckily I pulled out the big bucks (10 dollars) and got the bigger truck because we needed it.

 

I also advise a better packing job at the entrance to your truck because when I opened it at the apartment things preceded to try and kill me. 

Unpacking went much quicker and I found out that we are going to have awesome neighbors. When we arrived they moved both their cars so we could back to truck up so it was directly in front of our apartment. Then they offered us several water bottles and helped move all the stuff in. By the way, when I say "we" moved everything you can subtract "me" from that equation. I realized with two weeks left til Chris gets back and three weeks until the baby is due, I better not make myself go into labor by handling heavy loads. So, I was more of a director than a participator. And honestly, I'm OOOOOOOOOOOOK with that.

After everything was unloaded we are left with the handy dandy moving crew tired and worn out.

Thank-you Meg, Greg, Jeff, Jon and Braden for being such great sports and helping out. And thank-you Sawyer for not being too difficult.

Then it was off to dinner at the Chinese restaurant around the corner. I have to admit, I was hesitant but Jon and Braden insisted it was really good. And it was.

I'm just still trying to figure out how Sawyer knew what to do with chopsticks. No one has ever used them in front of him before but he managed to pick up on the concept. Well, chopsticks plus a few fingers.

All finished!

I am FINISHED!!! I thought it would take me longer but with yesterday and today I completed it in four days! I actually didn't have many other options as I'm loading up a Uhaul on Saturday and moving down to Pocatello. And since all the equipment to do this project is at my mother-in-laws, if I hadn't finished it this week it never would've got done.

So, I know you must be SUPER curious on how things went these past two days so let me fill you in.

 First off, I had to put the wheels on. I thought it would be more difficult than it was but I got them attached in less than 10 minutes. Then after that, we moved on to paint... let's just say I was hesitant to do so with a 2 year old. Not that I had any other choice.

At first my thinking was, "I'll just give Sawyer a cup and a little foam brush, he can't do much damage with that, right?" I was pretty proud of myself for this idea. Even if he painted on the cart, I could just use my paint brush to even it all out. Plus, we were outside... nothing he can hurt with paint, right? Wrong on all accounts.

First off, Sawyer was more than excited to paint the side of the cart for a little bit. He was actually, beyond thrilled since he NEVER gets to paint. This whole summer I've been painting and it's always been NO! However, he quickly realized that there was a lot more to paint. The picnic table, the house, the trees, the dog. Yes, the dog. Sawyer was adamant that Iris needed to be a healthy shade of baby blue instead of her white. Luckily, the dog is faster than him and I was quick to spot him heading off to paint the dog.

So, as if it wasn't enough that he wanted to paint the dog, the part of the cart he did paint dried much faster than I thought it would. Is that a problem? Yes, when your son has left large globs all over the side of the cart. Luckily (If you can call this luck) I was able to sand it out before I did the next layer. It's not perfect but it's not to the point that it would ever bother me.

I had meant to take a picture of Sawyer in all his painted glory but I kind of forgot in the race to clean him up before he started touching furniture.

Next step, the letters.  Which, I thought would be the easiest step but I forgot that I had a 2 year old.

 Those letters, literally, gave me heart palpitations. After spending way too much time at the craft store I settled on a pack of these letters. I didn't even pause to think that they were the last ones in case I needed another pack.

After painting them, while Sawyer watched in sheer agony that he wasn't allowed to paint these, I did the annoying task of spacing them just right. Once I was done with that I got the glue.... curse you glue and all your stick glory. Everything was going just fine, great, actually. Then my mother-in-law called me over to help her out on a project of her own.

Did it even cross my mind that leaving my 2 year old with my one and only set of letters and a bottle of glue would turn out disastrous? Obviously from my line of questioning, I did not.

After a couple of minutes I turned around to see Sawyer pouring out the glue all over the letters, even the ones I had already glued on. Glue was EVERYWHERE!!! After racing the un-glued letters to the sink, I was able to wash off the glue, and most of the paint (sigh). Thankfully, Meg was able to get most of the glue off of the letters already on the cart and with the help of a few q-tips I was able to get it all cleaned up.

After that I decided that even though Sawyer had not had dinner yet, it was time for a popsicle.

Then, with a few more q-tips, I was able to, painstakingly, repaint the letters and get the rest glued on. And, as we can see from the finished project, it looks quite nice.

A few books, a couple baskets, a stuffed animal and a posing child makes it look even better.

 Is it wrong to be in love with a craft project?

Day 2 of Project

Well, I'm really glad that Sunday was yesterday because I needed a day off. Saturday night I got really sick - headache, pains, runny nose, sore throat, coughing... you know, the works. I am not really sure if Sunday actually happened because I don't really remember it. I think I remember my mother-in-law, Meg, coming downstairs to tell me they were headed off to church. Yeah, that wasn't happening for me. Thank goodness Sawyer decided to sleep in a little bit and give me some time off.

Waking up today I have to admit I still felt pretty sick but if we refer to a previous post... I have difficulty being in situations where I "shouldn't" be doing something. I think that when I'm sick I feel the desire to get things done even more so than when I'm well. That's probably because when I'm feeling fine I know I can do it whenever I want and then procrastinate it. So, even though I shouldn't have worked on my project today, I did. Thank goodness I'm absolutely amazing and can still work a power tool in a haze.

Here we are, just finished the next step of the project - that little ledge there. Sawyer is showing you guys how awesomely level he is. I've never met a baby who could center the bubbles quite like he can. I guess I can thank genetics for producing a level baby.

The next step was constructing the top shelf. I was a little displeased with this step as I had a mishap and got wood glue all over the place. I'd like to blame Sawyer but in reality, he was on the trampoline ignoring me since I wouldn't let him use the jigsaw.

You like that shadow in the picture? That's about the closest you'll get of a pregnancy picture of me. I mean... look how swollen my shadow is. You don't want to see the real thing.
 
And here we have the "finished" project!!!!! (insert every smiley face you can think of here, maybe even one crying tears of joy and you'll get my feelings at the moment. You could actually insert a face of pain here too because at this moment the baby decided to do a high kick to my upper ribs.)

I have to admit I've been staring at this picture for a few moments amazed with myself. I think I'm getting a little full of myself. Is it wrong to think that I should be receiving calls of congratulations from everybody I know? Look at that thing! That is one amazing, working, bookshelf. I even made Sawyer sit on it to test out the top shelf. If that sounds cruel, don't worry, he was already trying to climb it. Which, makes me wonder if putting wheels on this thing is a wise idea. But what's a library cart without wheels? Not a cart, that's for sure.

Now, I would've kept going but I had to go back to the store for the wheels. I even got showered and dressed (in white pants.... don't wear white pants to a home improvement store) only to find Sawyer asleep on the couch. Normally he doesn't take very long naps but he slept for about three hours. He wasn't feeling well either so I wasn't going to wake him up to tell him he had to go sit in his car seat.

I did eventually make it to the store and I now have paint and the wheels. I even went to Walmart to get the letters for the "Library" sign but I was distracted by the candy section. Therefore, instead of buying the letters I bought chocolate. I could spell Library out in M&M's but that strikes me as silly. Especially when, in a desperate situation, you might find me licking them for a source of sugar. You laugh, but I wouldn't put it past me.

Day 1 of Pinterest Project (Well, technically day 2 since I did do some stuff yesterday but... let's not dwell on that.)

Even though I had thought I had everything I needed I found out during my prep work that, sadly, it was not the case. So, first thing I did this morning was make a stop at home depot to pick up a few things. I'm pretty sure this is the pregnancy talking but whenever somebody stopped to help me I think they had their doubts about me and my 9 page long project.

I've noticed during this pregnancy, that I tend to do things that people tell me I shouldn't or think that I can't. For example, I was walking down some steps the other day carrying the stroller (Sawyer was not in it before you even begin to imagine that the pregnancy has ruined me completely). Of course somebody stopped and offered to carry it down for me. I mean... I would do it, so why shouldn't somebody else? But... I stubbornly refused and laughed the person off. Why? If Chris had been there you can bet that I would be laying it on thick that I'm pregnant and can't do anything. So why not let somebody else do it? I'm pretty sure it has to do with pride but that sounds so negative so let's just say it was a temporary lack in judgement. But I digress...

So upon arriving home I gathered everything I needed and laid it out for you all to see.

I have to admit that the only thing I've used out of these is the sander. So, this was somewhat intimidating for me and therefore I practiced on the scrap wood quite a bit. Okay, looking at the picture I realize that I have used glue. You got me on that one. Oh, I see there's a pencil there too. I've never used one of those.

After practice and measuring, lots of measuring, I successfully completed the ends of the bookshelf.

I must admit, I am puh-rettty proud of myself for this. I mean... look at those handles! Sorry, did you look? No? Look again. And, one more time. Are they perfect? Of course not. I was not aiming for perfection (at least I'll never admit I was aiming for perfection) but I think for a first time wood cutter... I deserve a few pats on the back for those ones. Yes, they need to be sanded a bit, especially the corners, but that can wait. I have to put a bottom on this thing.

And... here's a bottom for you. A pretty amazing bottom if I do say so myself.

Woah! Do you see that square in there? How did that get there? I mean, I didn't even know what a square was until yesterday. And now, it's in my picture? I think the square wanted to show you how amazingly, almost, perfect this is. What's the broom doing there? I'm not actually sure about that one.

Up to this point Sawyer was, thankfully, asleep. I don't know if anything would've been done to any degree of success if he was awake. But at this point he woke up. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with the circular saw, the jigsaw, the sander, the drill, or the screwdriver outside his window... but that may have been why he woke up.

However, as we can see, Sawyer was more than happy to be awake and helping me. And before you judge, yes I do put clothes on my son. But prior to helping he had been playing in the sprinkler and had successfully stripped to his diaper. The diaper would have come off but I distracted him with a screwdriver.

By the way, it was very hot outside. And I mean, HOT. Basically, any sane person would have to be naked to do this project outside on a day like today. I thought about it but, since there are one million and ten reasons why a 8 month pregnant woman using power tools should not be naked in a not very private backyard,  I kept them on.

Luckily, Sawyer figured out that we had an easily accessible water fountain for our use.

After a quick run through the sprinkler, a few popsicles and a lot of procrastinating I got back to work. Now in this next picture it may not look like I did a lot, or anything at all, but do you see those bars at the bottom? Well, basically, they sucked.

 

Looking at the picture you might say to yourself that they look easy. Well, in theory, yes, they should be easy. However, they were the wrong length. Wouldn't have been so bad if they were the wrong length by a full inch and then I could've used the jigsaw to cut them but no, they had to be off by centimeters. Therefore, as inexperienced as I am, I feared using the saw in case I cut off too much. Instead, I used the sander to shave a few millimeters at a time. It was annoying to say the least. But Sawyer seems to know that I'm building something for him and is enjoying the project.

At this point I ran out of screws. And, as much as I thought screws were an accessory, they're really a main part to this project and I can't do anything without them. 

Did I have time to go to the store? No, but I do have time to go get a snow cone which is right next to the store. Are my priorities in the right order? Let me check.... snow cone or screws? Sugar or metal? Fun or work? Colorful concoctions or wood? Cold treat or baking in the hot sun? Um, yes, I have my priorities in order.

Pinterest I think will end up being the death of everybody's crafty side. On one end there's the hope that it will inspire people into action. However, I feel the reality is that people spend most of their time creating a list of things they want to do. Then, when they go to look for a project they are so overwhelmed they instead choose to grab an ice cream carton and watch reruns of some show they've seen a million times. I don't blame you, I've done this already.

But, I'm going to venture into the unknown and actually attempt to complete a project. You would think it wise to try something small. Maybe one of the 20 wreaths I've pinned? Maybe a fun picture frame. No, no. Instead, in my 8 months of pregnancy and sheer boredom I decided to take on the task of a wood working project. Oh, let's throw in that my husband is, literally, on the other side of the country for the next two weeks and will have no ability to help me.

Crazy? Insane? Yes. But, I'm 8 months pregnant so those descriptions have applied to me for awhile.

Here's the project I'm attempting courtesy of Ana White.

I've done a few of the things already but for the entertainment of my husband and my mother I will try posting pictures of my progress. Unless of course the circular saw gets the better of me and I lose all my fingers. Then blog posts will no longer be an option.