break is over!

well, it is my third week back at school.  so far it has been great, the best winter quarter that i've had. i'm taking microbiology of viruses and nutrition.  the schedule works out perfectly, and although these classes are in the weird and convoluted health sciences building, there are multiple cafeterias and the lecture rooms have electrical outlets at every seat so that i can plug in my rapidly charge draining phone during class. and it's close to the bus stop so that's good.  z is with our friend for two days during the week again which is wonderful and then we have him at a daycare one day a week so that he can be around other kids and learn new things from the teachers there like how to sit and eat family style at a table and how to take a nap on his own.  he did well the first week back away from momma considering he was still getting over his cold and was pretty clingy and cranky.  i am glad to be back on a normal schedule, hectic as it is.  we are managing.  man, how do parents to it; work all day, make dinner, clean up, keep up with laundry, spend time with their kids and maintain sanity.  anyway, we got some house projects done while on break, had 3 big trees cut down, i finished my kitchen shelf project, the ikea cart makeover, was able to organize and clean out our pantry (it was a mess), hubs built a console table for behind the couch (more about that in a later post), we mounted our tv on the wall and i created a little gallery wall around it, hung some curtains in Z's room, installed a shelf above our 'coffee bar' area, stuff like that. it was great.  oh and we had to have a new French drainage system installed in our yard because it turns out the previous drainage was not connected in a logical manner and was completely clogged, which was causing water pooling in our crawl space.  ah, homeownership.  oh and i also worked on the website for my photography business, finishing it all up so i'll launch it soon, more about that on a later post, too.  as hectic as the days are, it's great to be back to some normalcy and routine, and i think this quarter at school is going to be great, my microbiology of viruses professor is the chair of the microbiology department, is crazy smart and accomplished and loves what he does.  he has been teaching this class for 42 years, and it is evident that he loves it, he is always smiling, gets excited about teaching us the material, and is on top of it.  i have lots of respect for these kinds of professors, they empower students to learn/understand more and make the experience so much better.  and the nutrition class is great, too. haha already i am making some changes in our diet, not that we have a lot of unhealthy eating habits, just that sometimes i get a little off track and need reminding.  so one of the things is making half our plate fruits and veggies.  i need to do a better job at incorporating lots more fruits and veg in a creative way so that we don't get bored eating the same things and so that z eats it with no problems.  oh and i am starting to incorporate and swap in brown rice and whole wheat pasta.  hubs and i both like brown rice and the bite that it has, same with whole wheat pasta, so we need to eat more of it.  anyway, that's about it for this post.  how is your new year starting out?

re-organized the coffee station by adding a shelf 

the console table, unfinished 

the stairs i take to the health sciences building, the last time i used to walk up these stairs to class in this crazy building, i looked like this (see below)

this was me at 36 weeks pregnant, which was my last week of school, 4 weeks before z was born.  can you imagine this waddling across campus? hahaha

mounted the tv on the wall, put the cords in the cord hiding kit we bought at lowe's and then i put a gallery wall together above the tv.  this area of the living room is improving, but still needs work.  i need to figure out how to keep the drawers of the entertainment center locked somehow so that z doesn't get into them.  and the white that you see around the top part of the entertainment center is velcro which is attached to screen material (like for screen doors) so that z doesn't get to the receiver and stuff.  but it looks kinda tacky so i might switch it out for black velcro.  but it seems to be holding up well.  

we have the chairs around the entertainment center because they are blocking weak spots that z attacks, the backs of the speakers and the plugs, and the floor lamp.  i need to figure out a better way to block access to these things, because this is driving me insane.  i'm so close to just getting a new entertainment center and getting rid of all the floor lamps.  

hung some curtains up in z's room.  these used to be in our bedroom and then i upgraded to some thicker ones in our room and these nice light ones in z's room.  curtains really complete a room, in my opinion.

so much wood to chop, but hubs is getting through it.  and now our backyard is much more open, which is good in that it lets more light in and not good in that there is less privacy from our neighbors, but we planted some little trees around that will grow to anywhere between 15-30 feet in a few years.  we bought a few maples, some rhodies, and a dogwood, so they will provide some privacy, look pretty, and not grow super tall like the evergreens all around us.  slowly but surely, we are getting the yards in line with our vision!