Making a headboard

This was my second planned home project during my med school/ internship break and I'm happy to report that I completed it the day before orientation started!

How I did it:
1. 1/4" plywood cut at Lowes to my specified dimentions
2. 2-3" foam cut to size of plywood
3. Batting and then fabric layered on top and wrapped around plywood, stapled with gun to back
4. Flush mounted to wall with drywall anchors

So easy!

Before:



After:

Tiling the Kitchen

Since I'm in this weird period of time (just graduated, but with weeks off before work starts, and pregnant, but not so pregnant that I can't move around easily) I decided it was a great opportunity to take on a few home projects. Project #1: tiling the kitchen. According to various DIY (do-it-yourself) videos I watched on-line, this looked like it would be a simple task. Ha!

Here's a "before" photo, taken a few months ago:



The tile I bought came on 12"x12" mesh sheets. I measured how much I needed, cut the mesh and laid the tile out on the counter:



Next, I spread the adhesive to the wall and pressed the tile in. So easy! Wish I could've stopped with this step...



The grout. Let's just say grout is the bane of my existence. Ok, so it's my own fault. I didn't read enough about how to grout before attempting to grout the ENTIRE kitchen. Later, while researching how to fix the upcoming fatal flaw, I would discover that this is the step most newbies mess up. Awesome.

Mistake #1: mixing the grout to the wrong consistancy. Mistake #2: Don't mix an entire bag of grout and spread it over the entire kitchen otherwise it dries too quickly on the tile.



Mistake #3: Wipe the tile clean of the grout BEFORE it dries!



Result of mistakes 1-3: I spent an entire day using a putty knife to remove grout off of the tile and it looks a little worse for wear (though thankfully I chose a nice matching colored grout so at least it blends in well). Then I got sad and moped around for days, consulting various friends for second opinions, and staring at the tile while the kitchen remained in disarray.



Mistake #4: Note above how the outlets are now too deep to sit flush with the new wall plates I've purchased, an unforeseen, yet obvious, consequence of adding anything to a wall. I addressed this issue with 2 methods. A "box extender" elevated two outlets appropriately, but was not small enough for the others. So then I added nylon "spacers" to the screws behind the outlets, making them jut out more. Thank god I didn't tile over the outlet hardware...

Voila!


Troubling thought #1: I turned off the correct fuses and still managed to shock myself three times (how is that possible??). Luckily the only immediate complication was a stream of curses and mild toe tingling... long term complications TBD...

The home run: Caulking around the tile was simple enough since I re-caulked our bathroom tubs recently. Lastly, I painted a sealer on the tile and grout to protect it from water, mold, and food damage. Then, I installed the new wall plates and cleaned the whole place up.

Before


After


In summary: was saving $100-150 worth the days of labor, frustration, electric shocks, and slightly less-then-professional tiling job? I think so. Overall, I really enjoyed the process of learning something new, using my hands and getting dirty with adhesive, grout, and caulk. Did I wish I did a better job? Definitely. But now I feel like I could tile a bathroom or a floor with more confidence and skill. Lastly, I can walk into my kitchen and appreciate the difference I've made, thankful that the fridge and oven partially obscure a splattered mess of grout and adhesive...

Week 22 Baby Bump

It's growing!



Wearing my new awesome Wonder Woman t-shirt!

Some random stuff

Our cat Mayhem. We promise (or promise to try really, really hard) to not let this happen to our child. However, you have to admit, there's just so much more cat to love!



May's much trimmer sister Scout:



Kyle and I went to Athens, GA to watch some Ultimate:



The cool LEEDS certified hotel where we spent the night:




While in Athens, we roamed the downtown area, enjoyed sangria, had a couples massage, and Kyle got acquainted with one of the many decorated bulldogs (Mascot of UGA) in the city.




The End.

Graduation

Some graduation pics:

Week 21 (Sex revealed!)

We had our "anatomical ultrasound" during which the technician checks out various bodily structures, screening for deviations from normal. Our baby was quite active- even kicking hard enough that the technician could feel it through the probe. At some point, it was folded in half, with its feet up by its face and ankles crossed. There was also more hand sucking (I guess this child will take after its mother who sucked her thumb until she was 8!)

This was also the appointment during which inquiring parents can find out whether to prepare for a baby girl or a baby boy. Twice I referred to this as finding out the baby's gender and twice Kyle had to correct me: "It's the baby's sex, not necessarily their gender."

Touche.

I took the opportunity to look up the definitions of sex and gender and was surprised to discovered their lack of differentiation in the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

Sex: either of the two major forms of individuals that occur in many species and that are distinguished respectively as female or male especially on the basis of their reproductive organs and structures

Gender: a: sex b : the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex

Interestingly, the World Health Organization had a great break-down on their website which I will reproduce below:

What do we mean by "sex" and "gender"?

Sometimes it is hard to understand exactly what is meant by the term "gender", and how it differs from the closely related term "sex".

"Sex" refers to the biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women.

"Gender" refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.

To put it another way:

"Male" and "female" are sex categories, while "masculine" and "feminine" are gender categories.

Aspects of sex will not vary substantially between different human societies, while aspects of gender may vary greatly.

Some examples of sex characteristics :

Women menstruate while men do not
Men have testicles while women do not
Women have developed breasts that are usually capable of lactating, while men have not
Men generally have more massive bones than women
Some examples of gender characteristics :

In the United States (and most other countries), women earn significantly less money than men for similar work
In Viet Nam, many more men than women smoke, as female smoking has not traditionally been considered appropriate
In Saudi Arabia men are allowed to drive cars while women are not
In most of the world, women do more housework than men

****************SPOILER ALERT*****************

In summary and to be perfectly politically correct: today we discovered the sex, but not necessarily the gender, of our baby. See if you can guess from the photo below (there's a hint there for you):



We couldn't really see what was going on here till we were oriented either. It's like you're looking up at his bottom from underneath. So, his sex defining parts are just to the right of the label, in the center of the image.

An Epiphany of Mind and Body

So those of you have have spoken to me in the last, oh, 2-3 months or so have heard me lamenting the fact that I can no longer play Ultimate or run or do the physical things that I'm used to doing. Now, I'm aware that one can run for many months of pregnancy, but who wants to do that without chasing a plastic disc? I played goaltimate during my first trimester, but once I hit week 13 and was told to keep my heart rate below 140, I gave up contact sports and anything that makes me sweat or breathe too hard.

Not that I've had the energy to do sports much anyway. Just walking up the stairs or saying a run-on sentence can make me breathe heavily. It started with weeks 8-14 that were pretty rough on my physical stamina. Since then, despite the increasing energy levels of the second trimester, my naturally lazy personality has encourage a growing relationship with my couch.

So, the bitching was continuing and sick of myself, I started walking. My neighborhood is a fascinatingly diverse and strange world. Exploring it has been fun and a break from the boredom of pregnancy-sloth-life. But it still wasn't satisfying the athlete in me, the part of me that loves a challenge and wants to sweat and run and throw elbows.

Then I had an epiphany.

I was talking a few weeks ago to a friend who was days away from giving birth (Congrats to CJ and MA!). She started telling me about the prenatal yoga class she attended and made references to the birthing "moves" she was practicing on a yoga ball at home. As I listened to her, it was like something inside of me finally accepted the new state of my body. I thought to myself, "Duh, you're freaking pregnant. You have the biggest challenge before you- birth- and you want to run around and play with frisbees? A due date is not unlike a race day or a tournament. Labor has been compared to running a marathon a thousand times and athletes train for such events. Why would I not start training myself for birth?"

So I finally tried the yoga dvd that I had bought myself but had left on the shelf in its shrink-wrap. Within the first few minutes, I was in namaste when the video instructed me to "Place one hand on your heart and one hand on your growing baby." I was immediately in tears. It was the first time I had settled down, the first time I stopped to really feel what was happening in my body and to consider the profound miracle/weirdness that is pregnancy.

I'm now trying to do the dvd or part thereof daily. It not only helps my increasingly sore hips, but it gives me the meditative, reflective time that I need to promote a sense of calm. It's helped me think about breathing deeper, eating better, and relaxing more so that the baby will feel good. I'm not sure why I initially resisted this critical piece of pregnancy for so long; I'm just glad I found it when I did.

Namaste.