Watch out Bob Ross

I'm not exactly sure what possessed me, but I recently decided that it would be a good idea to paint a very large tree on the wall of our nursery. No, I have never actually painted anything, but I do have a deep and abiding love for Bob Ross and all the happy little trees he painted playing in the sunshine.

So how did someone so un-artistic as myself manage to paint an 8-foot tree on the wall? Well, I found this picture online:

Then I drew a grid on the picture and Justin helped me draw one on the wall. With the grid in place, I just had to go block by block and plot some points of the outline of the tree. Then I connected the dots and started painting:


Trying to blend the colors was the trickiest part. Here's the final product:


For an extra special touch, I "carved" our initials on he trunk. I did this because we are in love.


Here's the final comparison:










You may notice that my tree is a perfect reflection of the model tree. I decided that the big part should be on the left. Why? I don't know. It just seemed like that's how it should be. Anyway, the idea is that I will eventually gather pictures of our immediate families and hang them in the branches. Get it? It's a family tree. I'll post the final pictures of the nursery when I get it done. It's kind of still a storage room at this point, butI still have seven whole weeks...

Oh how lovely was the weekend...

There's nothing like breaking the end of pregnancy up into manageable chunks. Hawaii was obviously a major event that we were looking forward to. Thankfully, our dear friends Jen and Matt Pierson decided to get married last weekend, which provided another lovely event to break up the baby count-down.

Since Jen grew up in Rochester, the wedding was held in the Palmyra temple. Due to the fact that my camera was out of batteries, I don't actually have any pictures of the happy couple or their nuptual celebrations. It was quite a perfect weekend. Between the sealing and the reception, we were able to visit the church sites.

We were also fortunate enough to be able to hang out with the Fronces for the rest of the weekend--and they were smart enough to A) plan activities for us to do, and B) bring a camera to commemorate the festivities. On Sunday, we headed up to Niagara Falls to take in the splendor of nature. Too bad it is surrounded by a freaky fun-town. I'm kind of scared of Canada now. Also, since my last boating experience was less than ideal, I decided not to go on the Maid of the Mist. Justin and I got ice cream instead. I could be wrong, but I think we made a good choice. (Next time you're in Upstate New York, you must get some Perry's ice cream. It's all over the place, and delicious.) You can tell my belly has grown a lot in the past two weeks!


On Monday we discovered an amazing gem of a state park called Watkins Glen. I'll be honest, it was cooler than Niagara Falls. Anyone going up to the greater Palmyra area should definitely check it out.


Next major milestones: Two weeks and we finish the year of teaching seminary. Three weeks after that and I officially end my consulting career (woot!). Then I will lie by the pool for a few weeks until the baby comes.

A Snorkler's Paradise...ish

As part of our Hawaiian adventure, we decided to spend three days on Hawaii's Big Island. We hiked to waterfalls, watched the volcano erupt, and explored some of Volcano National Park. We also spent an entire day snorkeling...

We heard about a bay that is great for snorkeling, but only accessible by boat. When we called the boat company, we discovered that they also do a night snorkeling adventure with Manta Rays...and if you sign up for both, you get a crazy discount. So we of course signed up for both. It was well worth the money. We did a morning snorkel at Kealakekua Bay. It was about a 45 minute boat ride. On the way out, they served breakfast, and then once we were secured at the bay, they had a barbeque on the boat. We snorkeled for a while, at lunch, snorkeled some more. It was fantastic.

Now, I'm always the littlest bit queezy on boats, and this was no exception. Usually by closing my eyes and breathing deeply, I get over it. However, this time, it didn't seem to matter how many deep breaths I took...as we headed back to the dock, it seemed to get worse and worse. Just as we neared the end of our journey, they stopped the boat and announced that we were being followed by dolphins--which is truly wonderful, unless you think you are going to throw up, in which case, you simply want the stupid boat to go back to dock. As everyone rushed to the edge of the boat to watch the dolphins, I sat on the bench breathing deeply and trying to identify the best place to puke. Fortunately for the people down below, I had already noted that puking over the side of the ship would actually only land on the people below, so when I passed the point of no return, I headed for a large garbage can. It was a little awkward as I started wretching next to some excited Asian tourists madly taking pictures of the dolphins, but there wasn't really that much I could do about it.

I felt much better after puking, and we arrived at the dock shortly thereafter, so all seemed fine. We headed to our car for a nice afternoon nap (since we'd gotten up at 5:15 am in order to drive from Volcano to Kona) and prepare ourselves for the night snorkel. I was optimistic that things would be fine, since the night experience only involved a 5 minute boat ride. Oh, how I was mistaken.

First let me say that snorkeling with Manta Rays was amazing. It was worth the puking that was to come. They literally swam within an inch of you with their huge mouths open wide. We were lucky in that seven gigantic manta rays actually showed up that night, so we were totally surrounded by them.

But let me continue my tragic tale of sea sickness. We rode the five minutes to the spot where the mantas come, and I felt fine. Then we had to wait for it to get dark (because they come out at night to eat plankton). So we sat there for about 30 minutes waiting for the sun to set. Meanwhile, the boat was just parked in the bay rocking back and forth. As everyone lined up to jump in the water, I headed to the edge of the boat to throw up. Yup, right into the ocean. The crew kindly offered me some water and suggested that I might feel better in the water. This probably would have been true if we weren't just floating on top...because after about 30 minutes of watching the mantas, I started to get that feeling that told me I should probably swim away from the rest of the group. Sure enough, I got ten feet away and threw up right there in the ocean.

At this point, I seriously considered just swimming back to the dock because getting back on the boat didn't sound like a great idea, but I got back on the boat anyway, wrapped my towel around myself, closed my eyes and started breathing deeply. Everyone else continued snorkeling for about 10 minutes, and then we headed back to the dock. Just for good measure, I went ahead and puked one more time over the edge, just to make sure that the fish got every last bit of my dinner.

It's hard to explain how truly terrible I felt--especially knowing we had a 2 1/2 hour car ride back to Volcano that night on windy roads. Even though we were off the boat, I couldn't seem to get the ground to stop rocking. I also thought that I should probably try to at least re-hydrate myself, so I had Justin stop and get me some Gatorade. I took one small swig...and that was enough. Good thing I'd told Justin to get a plastic bag just in case! What an exciting day. I will say that despite all the motion sickness and throwing up, it was still a very fun day, and quite the adventure. I think I will just avoid boats for the rest of my pregnancy, and maybe a little beyond as well.

Aloha!

I think everyone should get to spend ten days a year in Hawaii. I'm having a devil of a time thinking of a witty way to present this vacation (probably because the snorkeling pictures haven't been developed yet...and will involve another post with "vomit" in the title), so I think I'll just stick to the facts:

1. Spending time with the Bradshaw's is one of my most favorite things to do! Especially when it involves burrying Sam in the sand, building a sweet beach shack out of drift wood, getting shaved ice from Matsumoto's Grocery store, or snorkeling in six inch waters with my sister (tragically, we didn't get a photo of that, but the people watching the ridiculous site will probably have it engraved in their memories forever).

2. Sam and Colin are both experts with a light saber. Colin makes a great Batman. Jane can belly dance, play the violin, and climb like a pro. Charlie can take 13 steps at a time.

3. Justin has officially replaced me as the favorite. How can I compete when he is the ultimate tickle monster, can pick the kids up and play them like a guitar, and can match any of them at climbing trees? Although I think I may have proven myself in both red rover and colored eggs. The big bad wolf seemed to really like calling out my color.

4. Volcanoes are cool. We watched one erupt, explored through a dark lava tube, and climbed to the top of one. (Not bad for 6 months pregnant!)

5. Waterfalls are also cool.
6. Snorkeling is fun.
7. I should not ever go on a boat (ironic that I married a sailor--more to come on this particular topic).
8. Napping in the car is a good way to rejuvenate.
9. Mangos are free in Hawaii if you park next to the right tree.
10. Hanging out with Justin is never boring.

Em and Dan--thanks for providing us with food, shelter, edited videos, and lots of fun!

Justin Has Taken Up Smoking

Even though I am the star of this blog, every once in a while I'm willing to step out of the spotlight so that I can feature the handiwork of my crazy (and by crazy I mean incredibly motivated, capable, and talented) husband. So this is an ode to Justin.

His most recent project: a smoker. No, he's not violating the Word of Wisdom (although it may encourage us to eat meat more than just "sparingly"). He found a foodie blog for engineers that showed how to build a ceramic smoker for less than a hundred bucks (compared to $800 for a big green egg) using terracotta flower pots and a hot plate. He seemed very excited about this construction project, so I only laughed quietly to myself when he brought home all the supplies. I laughed a little less quietly and not entirely to myself when I discovered that he could have purchased an electric smoker for the same price as the supplies for the one he was building himself. Apparently, there is some satisfaction to be had in making something yourself...

He started by getting out all the tools he possibly could. Okay, maybe just the power drill and set of masonry drill bits, but it seemed like a lot of tools.

Then he drilled holes in the bottom of a 14" flower pot (for the hot plate connectors to go through). It made the weirdest ringing noise. I'm sure that our neighbors hate us.

Next up, he had to take the hot plate apart and rewire it so the element was inside the pot and the controls outside the pot.

Like so.

Then you add a cast-iron wood chip holder box (where you put hickory wood or mesquite wood or apple wood, depending on how you would like to flavor your meat) and a grill thingy for the meat to sit on.

Put a lid on it, and the smoker is done. I'd like to point out, that Justin is standing in his official "summit" pose. I think he's pretty proud of his handy work.

And when he pulled this hickory smoked chicken out of that thing, I must admit that I was pretty proud of him too. (We'd also like to give a special thanks to Em and Dan for the Chuck Norris t-shirt.)

And what was I doing all this time? I was making a lovely Quiche Lorraine for dinner. It was exceedingly delicious.

Mmmm... Bacon...

Welcome Home (Part II)

When we found out that we would soon be joined by a new little friend (we're assuming the baby will be friendly), we began considering our options:

1. Allow the baby the middle portion of our walk-in closet. Babies are small and can't possibly take up that much space.
2. Put padding in the bathtub to double as a crib and use that for the baby's room.
3. Move to a bigger apartment.

After I pointed out to Justin that there is a lot of paraphernalia associated with having a baby, and I reminded him of his tendency to not be able to handle clutter, we decided that option 3 was probably the best choice. To ease our transition, we thought it best not to move too far. So we have moved downstairs in the exact same building.

It only took four of us about 8 hours to paint the whole place (thanks Jen and Matt!!!!), and since we realized the hellish nature of painting apartments back to white, we have decided we will stay here for the rest of our lives (or until we are rich enough to pay someone else to paint it back). Here's your virtual tour:

This is the view when you first walk in. It's a very LONG apartment. The baby's room/bathroom is immediately to the left from where I'm standing.

The laundry room was just to the right. I had to include this so you could see what a great job we've done of maximizing storage space in here. Justin added two extra rows of shelves. He's so tough and manly.

One feature we really like is that there's a built in desk with a big vent right next to it. The vent actually works perfectly as a bulletin board. Aren't we so clever?

And here is our kitchen. Yes, it looks exactly the same as the old kitchen, although that is not surfer blue. It's something like bayside. It is quite lovely.

This is the view from the kitchen into the dining/family room. Note the orange flowers on the table. Justin got those for me just for fun.

Here's a closer shot of the dining room.

And here is our cute new media stand! Actually, we already had the two side pieces, so we just added something to put the TV on. My favorite part, if you look closely, is the apple we have sitting on top of two books about Eve.

Here is our bedroom. We finally decided to break out the new duvet cover we got for our wedding. Again, you make think the bedroom is the same color as before, but it is clearly a much different shade of green.

More orange flowers! Justin is so sweet. (Okay, so they're the same flowers, but matched the orange on the bed, so I brought them in for the picture.)

Here is our closet. The average human being would not be able to reach a row of shirts hung up so high, but fortunately, I am no average human being. Which is really good because otherwise I don't know how we would have fit the dress AND my shirts in the closet. Justin also added another row of shelves in here.

Here's the view looking back from the bedroom into the family/dining area.

And last, but not least our garden. Justin just received a packet of seeds in the mail, so hopefully we will get enough sun down in our little corner of the courtyard to actually grow something!

As you can see, we have a comfy little place, with lots of room for friends to come and visit!!!

Results Are In!!!

And the verdict is...a BOY!!! He was none to shy in showing off his manhood. We plan on working with him on modesty when he comes out of the womb.