Parasite of the Womb

I warned you that as a teacher, you would only get sporadic updates...

So much has happened in the last few months.  Did you see that awesome bench project I posted about????  Yeah, that was the last productive thing I did all summer!  Mostly because out of nowhere I was just TIRED all the time!  After a couple weeks of feeling like too tired to do anything, I found out that I was pregnant!!!

This pregnancy has been interesting to say the least!  I don't know what they are supposed to be like, so maybe this is normal.  All I can say is that I truly am grateful for this baby!  Even though I had morning sickness until week 22 and occasionally still have it, at least that means my hormones are good right?!  Even though I haven't been able to sleep through the night in over 4 months, that means this growth is good right?! Even though I have so much back pain that it hurts to breath and she likes doing cannon balls in my womb, that means she is active and healthy right?!  Even though I am an emotional basket case who cries over nothing that means I'm a healthy pregnant woman, right?!  And even though I am sooooo tired I can barely function, that means she is getting all my energy right?!

In all honesty, Pregnancy is hard!  Making a human is tiring!  But then I think about being a mommy!  I think about holding this little spit-fire baby in my arms as I rock her to sleep.  I think about having a child who wants ME when she is not feeling good.  I think of a little girl going with ME to mother-daughter activities.  I think going to parent teacher conferences as the PARENT!  I think of her fighting with ME as a teen...and then I think back to that cute baby image and move on!  And I think, "this is really it!  I am going to be a MOM!"  I feel like being an aunt, a sister, a missionary, and a teacher have just been little glimpses into what I am about to embark on.  I love this baby!  She is a dream come true!  I get to be her mommy...no pressure!

I still have a few weeks left in this pregnancy (6).  There is so much to do that I am ok with the idea that I have 6 weeks.  However, this is starting to feel real!  I talk to her and she moves.  Her dad comes home from work and she does this kicking thing in my ribs that she never does any other time.  I read to her and she calms down.  I play her music and she wiggles what I think is either her knee or her bum.  I am so excited to meet her!

As a separate tangent, I am soooo grateful for my AMAZING husband!  John has been my support through all of this.  He gets me to laugh even when I don't want to.  He tells me I'm beautiful even when I feel fat and ugly...and you know what, I think he means it!  He wakes up in the middle of the night when I stir to make sure I am ok.  He runs upstairs and downstairs all the time to fetch things I have forgotten.  He listens to me talk WAY too much about this baby and not enough about us.  I could not have asked for a better support through this pregnancy!  And I am so excited for him to be a daddy!  When we started dating, it was not uncommon for us to speak about our future families...not realizing that it would be our future family.  I knew then that he was going to be a great father!  That is part of the reason why I loved him so much so quickly.  He is not sappy or sentimental, but there is a look he gets on his face when he rubs my tummy and says "There's a baaaabbbyyyy!" that melts my heart and makes me excited for him to be her dad.

Well, wish me luck in the next 2 months!  It will truly be life changing!  Who knows when I will post more, hopefully before her 1st birthday!

Wooden Bench

My sister just gave me this bench when she moved.  It is old and warped and unvarnished.  I decided to paint it and put it in my house instead of outside.  

This is the beginning product:

This is after I brushed off all of the excess dust, leaves, and debris:

I found a blog online that said that there is a concoction that you can use to clean unvarnished wood.  After looking at the ingredients, the only ones I had were Hot water and olive oil.  So I got a bucket of hot water and added a splash of olive oil.  This is what it looked like after the cleaning.  I know it doesn't look much different, but believe me, there was  A TON of dirt that I scrubbed off of it!

And to prove it, the pile of dirt was a portion that was swept off of the bench.  The bucket used to have clear clean water, but it is now black from all the dirt.

Here is a picture of the freshly spray painted bench:

And these pictures are of the bench after it dried and is in it's home!

It is right in our entryway!  I love it and only hope that it doesn't become a magnet for stacks of paper!

All in all, I am pretty impressed with myself.  I have never done a project like that by myself before!

And so it begins...

When my good friend suggested that I name this blog, Katie's Garden, I immediately thought of this picture with that title.  Unfortunately, there is some random Katie that actually gardens who has that as her title of her blog about gardening--go figure.  So Della, thank you for reminding me of a sweet picture from my childhood (my grandma got me this print for my 8th birthday--never realizing that I would eventually be Katie Gardner).

Ergo, the winner of my blog naming contests of sorts is Greg who came up with "Diary of a Grateful Gardner".  I find that this is actually very fitting as I am going to utilize this blog as a diary of sorts.  Also, I am hoping that the title will encourage to make the words I post here positive and full of gratitude, because when I take the time to reflect, I truly am grateful.  Even the woes of my life now are blessings.  I never would have guessed 1 year ago that I would be in the spot I am now...and for that I am grateful.

Ok, now off the sappy stuff!  You may be wondering, "why is she even starting a blog?"  Well my friends, I am a teacher, and it is summer and I am trying new things.  This means I will probably post a couple times before August, and then be MIA until Christmas break, but I am wanting to try this whole thing out.

If you continue to read, please know that even though I am an educator, I don't really believe that spelling, punctuation, etc matter...(don't tell my students).  Hopefully you can keep up on the happenings of the Gardners through this blog... Happy reading....