Why the Numbers?
So why the numbers in the last post?  I am documenting the many gifts that I am given each and every day.  Inspired by a wonderful book that I have just started reading called, One Thousand Gifts, I am taking the dare to live fully in thankfulness for God's daily blessings.  I am calling it my journey of gratitude as I count my One Thousand Gifts.
Check out One Thousand Gifts by Ann VosKamp at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/One-Thousand-Gifts-Fully-Right/dp/0310321913

Day of Refreshing
Scott and I had the opportunity to spend the day in Napa visiting a very good friend and her son who recently moved to the east coast.  She has been like a sister to me, and her youngest son is nearly two and a pure joy!  Her two older twin boys stayed home with daddy, and while we missed them greatly, it was nice to have this one on one time with little "Ike". What a blessing it was to spend time with this lovely family, and we treasured the moments with I as he forms sentences and delights in the simple pleasures
of life.
#108: Curious Head watching "uncle gotty" mow the back yard

#110:  Big Yawn

#114: Smile

#117: Remembering how God spared this dear friend 2 years ago while giving life to the little one in her lap
#118: Baby Girl moving in mommy's tummy
#116: Jessica Hugs

Cheeeesssseeeee!

First Stage of Baby's Room, Completed!
We were blessed to have a professional decorator friend from church offer to help us decorate our long-awaited baby's room.  We spent all of Saturday painting, and Scott and I are both thrilled with the results.  We also received a beautiful white crib from our friends that goes well with the beautiful soft grey walls.  To the walls we added horizontal stripes in varying widths painted in high gloss of the same color to add subtle dimensions to the walls.  You can see some of the subtle dimensions in the picture, which are much easier to see in real life.

One Down, One to Go...

The Guest Bedroom has now officially become the Guest Bedroom/ Sewing Room.  Thanks to our friend and baby-room decorator who had the fabulous idea to put the sewing table in the closet, I now have a fully functional and surprisingly efficient sewing area with room for guests. 
Scott was able to spend a few hours helping with the painting, and we had a lot of fun working together... something we have not had much time for lately.  Despite what the following pictures might convey, we really did enjoy ourselves.

Goodbye Blue...

Hello New Room:

Now on to painting the baby's room...  I just need a nap first.

Day of Food
Yesterday I joined three other girlfriends for a day of food.  It was a cooking day in which we prepared a number of meals (13 to be exact) to freeze for future mealtimes.  This was my first experience with cooking day (my friend are all seasoned chefs), and thus I was the novice and "new recruit".  My first new recruit initiation was to pound out 12 chicken breasts for Cordon Bleu.  My arms were tired after, that is for sure.
It was such a great and fun day, and incredibly satisfying to bring home a large box of meals to put in the freezer for a later date.  Needless to say, Scott was incredibly thrilled to see all the food right there at his fingertips and ready for consumption at a moments notice.  In fact we sat down for a lovely meal of Beef Bourguignon (not Julie Childs recipe, but I am sure just as good... and on a side note if it was her recipe Beef would have been spelled "boeuf" and it would have taken the four of us the entire day to prepare the one meal... all that to say I do want to try Julia's Boeuf Bourguignon someday, just to say I made it.  But I hardly have enough time to read her detailed recipe let alone make it... just saying.)
Scott did love the meal, and I would say the day was a HUGE success, providing me with a wonderful day with friends and a huge amount of food savings!!  Thank you for initiating me into the group girls.  I am sincerely honored.

I also want to add that when I came home I do not think that I have ever smelled so terribly in my entire life!  When you mix lbs of onion, garlic, various spices, and all kinds of different meats and smells together it really turns into something less than appetizing on your clothes.  I quickly threw my clothes in the wash and my body in a hot bath.  And today while shopping I noticed the smell had returned.. where in the world is that smell coming from?  Could I possibly still smell??  Then I realized it was my purse stinkin' it up.  Thankfully that too is washable.

Rooms Make-over - Rooms Before

We are beginning to get a bit excited about the baby that God has for us.  We do not know when he/she will arrive.  It could be next month, it could be many months from now.  We just do not know.  But what we do know is that God has the perfect baby in His perfect timing.  We are good with that, and we are totally at peace with that.  Our peace is most likely due to the fact that we have so many praying for us, and we trust God for His perfect timing.  (Being really really busy helps too.) 
With that being said, we are starting to anticipate the arrival of our little one.  A dear friend from church has offered to help us decorate the nursery, and I couldn't be more thrilled and blessed!  In preparation for her to come over to paint in a couple of weeks I am reorganizing, de-cluttering, and painting, which is something that I have been putting off for far too long!
Before I can move the sewing room into the guest bedroom I need to repaint the guest bedroom.   Instead of paying for paint for the guest bedroom, I was able to concoct my own paint color using several different left over cans of paint from our garage and given to me from a friend.  I managed to create a gallon of a color that I think will work well for the sewing room/ guest bedroom.  I started cutting in the room today when I realized that I had not taken the before pictures... So here they are...
The current guest bedroom/ Mary Kay inventory room which I have already starting cutting in (currently painted dark blue and khaki and looking very tired- please ignore the mess):

The current sewing room in hideous-what-was-I-thinking-plum and cream...very cluttered and very much needs to become a pretty nursery: