Bump Alert

Last weekend, we went to west Alabama with Daniel and Lacy to their hunting camp. Jon and Daniel had lots to do on their agenda. 

Lacy and I...not so much! 

That has a little to do with we were in the middle of no where and a lot to do with the fact that we are both big, ginormous preggos at the moment! Me more so than her. 

This was my first time out there, but I imagine it is the perfect place when you just want to relax and drink wine and pretend to watch football. Not entirely an option when you are in this state! 

Lacy did take me and the pups on quite an adventurous cruise on the Kubota ( I think that's what it's called. I prefer "Komodo", but it's not that for sure).

I know they look right at home in this pic with their friend, Shug, but we decided that they are a special breed of "city lab". Lolly refused to jump up in there, so she had to be hoisted up in there by Heath. 

She rode back there down to the pond for a little swim, which was more challenging than she prefers, because of the lilly pads.

 After her cardio she was not getting back in there for anything; and Lacy and I were not about to hoist all 75lbs of her anywhere! So she got to ride under my legs in the front. That worked out well, until we got back to the house and went over a bump...Lolly shot out of the Kubota like a rocket! She rolled into a bush, but popped back up and acted like she was fine.

Both she and Gunny failed at dove hunting too. Gunny kinda wanted to nibble the birds a little too hard and Lolly was just confused to whole time. When the boys were shooting skeet later they both jumped in the car to hide. Shug of course wanted to retrieve the skeet, just like she did the birds. She wins the "best farm dog" contest for sure. We lose.

Poor pups had to go to the vet this week too and get their shots. Lolly hated every second of it and pouted the rest of the night. She did however, find this comfy bump to rest her precious face on.

Baby kicked her the whole time, but she wasn't budging!

and yes, I am aware that it looks as though I am about 60 weeks pregnant with quintuplets in this pic, but 

I swear there's only one in there and doctor says it's not a mini sumo wrestler. 

We'll see about that, I guess.

What? I just want to chat!?

This is a note that Miss Pinky got from one hilarious/ridiculous/super smart/very difficult little first grader. She is a handful to say the least and I'm so glad I get to just enjoy her from a distance.

She wrote this during "writer's workshop" time, which is not supposed to "write a note to your pal" time. She knows this, but she just wants to chat!

This same little girl had a suspicious stain on the back of her white pants yesterday; guess she is not aware labor day has come and gone. 

Anyway, Miss Pinky asked her about that stain and she very nonchalantly said "well, I was pooting at stations and a little pee came out". 

Miss Pinky informed her that what "came out" was not "pee". It was "poopoo! liquid poopoo"!  Little girl was not really bothered by this.

You should also know that she noticed the stain around 2:15, on the way out to recess, and we go to "stations" around 9 a.m.! Gross!

Since Baby Pate's nursery has taken on a fox theme, I thought this little story that one of my boys wrote was pretty cute. 

Does he know that foxes are so in?

*"loot"="looked" and "wot"="walked"

We'll work on that...I think you can figure out the rest though!

back to the kids!

I got a little carried away there for a minute with nursery updates. 

I know y'all want to see some funny kid stuff.

A first grader wrote about this lovely memory a week or so ago. I've been saving it for when I didn't have anything to say...

I remember when Jared kissed me and he gave me a rose.

Well, I should have known better because this little girl has since told Miss Pinky that she broke up with that boyfriend and is working on getting a new BF.  

She has one picked out and she I think it's going well. She wasn't really that into him until he got this cool new faux hawk, but now I guess she thinks he's dreamy! 

Pippa has a cooler room than I do...

Remember how Jon tore up these closets? 

It scared you, didn't it? Kinda scared me...

But it was okay because then I had all these shelves!

Jon's parents were so kind to build these beautiful doors for little Baby Pate's closets. Mr. Pate is becoming quite the woodworker! This is one of the doors in their basement where they made them.

Then they worked hard all morning on Sunday installing them. Jon was stressing out the whole time, because he was soooo scared he wouldn't make his soccer game. It was kinda an issue...

But they got them put up and aren't they fabulous!

Our house is really crooked so that's what those little pieces of wood are about up top. Some kind of molding will go up there soon.

We have some handles to put on the doors as well.

They slide on the track perfectly behind the crib. We won't be able to open both closets at the same time, but I don't know why that would be a problem.

I just couldn't wait to show you!

Keeping it Real

In the spirit of keeping things real, I have some "as of now" pics of the nursery for you. 

These are as of Sunday, September 25. We have until November 18th to have this room completely finished. I think exposing our progress to you may keep me motivated. That and knowing that the strangers from Southern Lady magazine will be coming in to photograph it...yikes!

I kinda can't even think about it!

Yes, this corner is a mess. The chest of drawers will be out of there soon enough and the dresser and mirror will be painted light gray with cream pulls. The bed needs a fresh coat of paint, as well.

The chair won't live there permanently.

I have since traded cribs with Jon's mom, but I know you aren't looking at the crib because  you are spying those beautiful doors.

Well, those beautiful closet doors deserve their own post, so stay turned and I'll tell you all about how they came to be!

We have SO much left to do! Hopefully, the serious "nesting" thing will kick in soon!

Before and After: "Glider"

I spent part of this past summer pining away over lots of beautiful gliders that I "had to have". 

These are a few...

Nurseryworks Empire Rocker

$800.00

DwellStudio Furniture Savoy Glider

$1,090.00

Layla Grayce Adelaide Rocker $1,382.00

Funny thing is...Jon Pate says "they are not in the budget".

But this little lady was in the budget! 

That's because she cost $12 at the Jimmy Hale Mission Thrift Store! 

 

Gross, I know.

Well,  really she was $24 and then when I was paying for her, they told me that she was %50 off so I figured it was meant to be! She smelled pretty bad, so she had to hang out on the deck for a while and air out, but I just kept telling myself if it doesn't work out I've only invested $12 so far!

She swivels and rocks and I do like her shape. She is pretty darn comfy too, which I'm sure will prove important.

A friend told me about a nice old lady named Geneva who recovers things way out in the middle of nowhere, Alabama (which actually happens to be pretty close to my school). She is super cheap, so it would be worth the drive anyway.

She recovered it, added fluff to the arm rests, and replaced the nasty cushion and viola!

She's no Layla Grace Rocker, but I have a feeling Baby Pate won't mind!

Tots and Chicken

Miss Pinky's class is writing about places in their writing station this week. 

What places do these kids think about first? Wal-Mart and Sonic, duh?

After Wal-Mart, she likes to hit up Sonic for some tots!

If you were told to write about a place in first grade, what place do you think that would be? 

There is no telling what I would have chosen!

Pitty Party

It rained all day long here. Did it rain where you are, 19 followers? 

Well, all day rain has some kind of effect on kids, and by "some kind of" I mean "bad".  It's like they were seriously playing a joke on me. None of my kids were even trying to act like civilized humans today. They DO NOT feel bad for their pregnant teacher in the least! Except for Gloria; she was still sweet and perfect. Elvis was pretty ridiculous.

I asked one little girl to pick up a piece of trash on our way out of the lunchroom and she looked at me and told me "unh-uh". I'm not real sure how to spell that because it is, of course, not a word but are you kidding me Miss Priss?

When we chatted later, she later told me that she said that because it "wudn't her trash" and then, oh boy... she got an ear full. 

I won't go into too much detail, but I definitely reminded her that this hugeness that is her teacher spends lots of afternoons picking up trash that isn't hers and cleaning up messes she did not make! I think I really took the high road on that one!

One little boy did manage to make me laugh when we had our indoor recess. He is super country and so cute. His name can be "Bobby". I was explaining to them that we were doing some exercises along with a video. 

This what we work out to in case you are wondering. It's pretty awesome.

Since this is the first time we've done it this year, I asked if they had ever seen mom or grandma workout in front of the TV and we talked about going to gyms to exercise. 

Bobby chimed in with this tid-bit...

 "Momma and Pop just signed up for exercise classes at that new exercise store. You know the new one by the  Wal-Mart? My momma is going to tan and Pop is going to exercise!"

Thanks for sharing Bobby!

You may be saying "wow, what a pregosaurus!?".

Well, I failed to mention the lovely gas station lady started it this morning with her unsolictied comments!

 She says "when are you due?"

 and I say, "December"

and then gave me a weird look at me and says "do you think you're going to make it to December?"

I say, "I don't know! I hope so..."

and she says "I don't think you're going to make it...."

Thank you gas station attendant! I'll be on my way now!

The moral of the story is...
1. Teach your kids to clean up and not to sass their teachers!
2. If you are going to ask when someone is "due", you'd better have a nice comment ready. Like "oh you look great!"

Jon and I are off to baby school (a.k.a "Preparing for Childbirth" class) at the hospital tonight, where I'm sure we will learn tons and then I will come home to have some more nightmares!

"I hat you"

Both of these amazing pieces of first grade writing came from my friend's classroom. Her class is pretty hilarious this year and it's not just because she has Harry in there. I feel like she needs a name because I may be talking about her class more than mine! He name will now be, "Mrs. Pinky". 

I'm sure my class will step it up soon enough.

The first is a very thoughtful invitation. I really wish I didn't have to blur out the little one's name, because it's pretty awesome. Check out how she spelled "apartments" at the bottom! 

Okay, this next one is even better. Miss Pinky confiscated this note during writing time. This little boy was trying to get his recess plans together and he's quite passionate!

Just in case you're not really good at deciphering kid spelling/handwriting, it says:

"Do you want to play with me? Do you want to play King and Princess?" 

Then he signed his name(which I blurred out) and went on to say "Pick yes or pick no".

She picked "no".

So he said, "I hate you".

I love it! 

It's like the more realistic version of that old George Strait song.

You know the one:

Love ya, Lee! and a little Harry update!

I'm loving tropical storm Lee right now, because my school doesn't have power so I have the day off! I have power at home, which is just one of the many plus sides of living twenty minutes away from the district in which you teach. This is just ridiculously convenient for me, since Jon and I woke up at 3:45 am yesterday to drive a Uhaul truck back from VA. Yes, that really happened. 

We got such an early start for a number of reasons,  one being that I thought if we got to Bham at a decent time, I would unpack, maybe do some laundry and get ready for the week. That did not happen! We got into town at 4, but neither of us felt like being productive. Jon cleaned his new guns that my dad gave him and I fell asleep in the couch... shocking!

Anyway, I know you've been anxiously waiting to hear all about the new class. The thing is they are kinds boring.... That's not nice of me to say and don't start boring equals easy, but I just don't have that many crazy hilarious kids this year! I did however start out with 23 of them which is one reason I didn't feel like blogging about them! 23 first graders is not okay! However, I had 2 kids withdraw last week. They both moved and I swear I didn't do anything to them! That kind of luck kind of makes me nervous...

I do have Pepe's cousin in my class this year and she is super sweet. Her name will be..."Gloria"! That name just popped in my head because she is a very pretty little girl and then I thought of Gloria from Modern Family, random I know! 

She is very sweet and very into me being preggo. I was moving a desk the other day and she dramatically put her hands up to her face and said "oh no Miss Pate, you going to hurt your baby!" She was seriously worried and did not approve of what I was doing. None of my other kids cared.

I have another hispanic student that I love. His name is going to be Elvis.  He is a little too proficient in English if you ask me! JK, he just never ever stops talking! I asked him the other day if anyone in his house speaks Spanish and he said "yeh, sometimes my dad does...like when he talks with his friends and when he drinks". I believe it Elvis! If you have children, let this be a lesson for you. They ALL go to school and tell their teacher EVERYTHING!

Lastly, I want to let you all know that Harry is doing well this year. He is in the classroom next door to me, so I see him a lot. He's not really very into me this year, but I'm trying not to take this personally! His teacher is one and my friends and she gives me updates frequently. One of his new habitats is getting into her desk and tearing up pads of post-its. I have witnessed the after math of these post-it explosions and I'm just glad he didn't do this last year! He has also used his scissors to cut up a library book! Now you may be wondering "when does this kid have time to do these things?" It's when she is dealing with the other 20 kids in her class. If you focus on getting a kid like Harry to sit down/focus all day you won't get anything else accomplished! I'm sure he is occasionally roaming around the room a little, and if it's a quiet roam, you just let him do it! 

Today would have only been the 20th day of school, so hopefully Harry will chill out soon. At this point last in my class he was still cocooning himself in the bottom shelf of a bookcase....

Remember me?

Where have I been?

Well for one thing, there has been a lot going on around here. Not that I have been participating in much of it, but this picture proves that I did help paint a little. 

 I thought I was going to be able to use the "preggos can't paint" excuse forever, but Jon squashed that with his ridiculous gas mask!

I really shouldn't make fun of him because he sure has been one productive "pops-to-be"!

First he gutted the closets in the pip's room. They were not very "user friendly".

(In case you don't know, this baby has lots of nicknames because "baby" gets old. Pippa is the most frequently used even though some say it's name gender neutral. That started during the royal wedding weekend when my sister and cousins thought it would be great to name it Pippa Pate! They were drinking champagne and I was not of, course, but I think it's a great fetus name. I hope we can stop though and call it by it's real name when he/she arrives!)

Also, notice the pretty window in there. He installed new windows in this room as well. He "salvaged" them from an old abandoned/condemned house in Bessemer that had the same style windows our house originally had. If that means nothing to you, I'll just remind you that that is where Mr. Gip lives. Remember him from this post. I thought he was a little crazy, but when I reminded myself of the $15,000 estimate we got to replace all the windows I was on board for sure!

Anyway, then the closets looked like this.

Closet #1

Closet #2

Yikes! I know.

But no worries, because now they look like this!

Closet #1

Closet #2
I bet you are saying "are those stripes I'm seeing?"Why yes they are! Courtesy of the husband again!

Look at him striping away!

I'm obsessed with how they turned out.

We still have a long way to go, but I figured I better do an update before blogger.com gets rid of my account due to a lack of recent activity. Oh and did I mention, he planted three trees somewhere in between all of this!? 

If you're wondering about the first day of school, you'll have to stay tuned. It's way too much of a fresh wound for me to discuss right now... There are no Harry's this year, but I'm thinking I'd take him back any day!

Paletas de Pay de Limon

You want to eat those don't you? 

I do...even though I had no idea what they were when I first saw them. 

They are "Lime Pie Ice Pops" and I think that's all I need to know. 

I love limes. 

I love pie. 

I love graham crackers. 

I love cold things these days. 

Sold!

I stole this link from Brianne Twilley, so some of you may have seen it already, but I didn't think the rest of you should be left out of the loop just because you don't have a clue who Miss Twilley is!

Click here for the recipe!

HMK

I know I promised this was not going to become a "baby blog", but I need to show you this little dress because I'm kinda impressed with myself (and I don't have much else to tell you!).

It's getting the "sewing" label, so this doesn't count as a baby post anyway.

I made this dress for my friend Lainey, who is having a 

little girl in October. It's pretty dang cute if I do say so myself.

 My sewing machine and I were not getting along very well around buttonhole time, so Jon's mom kindly intervened a bit. 

I used Blakeley's monogram machine to add little Henley's initials. 

Obviously, I'm going to need one of these machines...

ummmm this may be long....

I know it has been like half a year since I last blogged. Let me tell you, I came down with a terrible case of bloggers block! That's a real thing, I think. It started with a little spring fever and then only got worse after I found out about the little human growing inside me. That news was distracting and it somehow made all of my once "cute and hilarious" kiddies, seem not so "cute" or "hilarious" at all! AND then....it got even worse when I started actually feeling the side effects of having a little human grow inside of you. That was a little rough. But it didn't last that long (thank the heavens!), so my other excuse is that the "bloggers block" had gone on for SO long that coming back was an intimidating task! That was really long excuse, but I think it is a pretty good one! No one gets mad at pregnant women do they!?!

Okay, now that that is done, I need to tell you something totally baby related; but I promise this will not turn into an annoying baby blog! Don't you want to know want to know why I'm so inspired to blog today?

Jon's mom called me and told me that she met with the peeps from Southern Lady magazine today about the next six projects she will do for the magazine and.....they are going to use the nursery as one of them! That may have been confusing. Jon's mom, Leigh, and her partner, Catarina are the talented curtain/anything having to do with fabric ladies from Pate-Meadows Designs! They make and sell patterns for curtains and have pre-made "curtains to go" line.

Now go click on that link above and look around, but then come back here! They do a project in each issue of Southern Lady magazine. On the website, you can check it all out if you click on the "press" tab. SO, the Baby Pate's nursery will be in the March/April issue, which means they do the shoot in November. Are y'all feeling this pressure to make it perfect that I'm feeling? Luckily, Jon is ridiculously handy and his mother may be even more so. I have faith that it will be BEAUTIFUL. I have a picture in my head so I'm super anxious to get started, but trying to stay sane and not rush the process!

I'm going to try and be a good blogger and take good before and after pics. I could show the before pics now, but I don't know how long it will be before we make any progress and I don't want those images marinating in your heads too long!

I will let you marinate on this little guy for a while, who came 

down from the Pate's attic. I love his little fro!

true story

In second grade they have been reading some story about chimps. This little girl raised her hand and said,

"Ms. B, now is the these the chimps we eat...

or the like chimps that live in Africa?" 

She was totally serious and just trying to get that cleared up before they moved on.

Mrs. B figured she was thinking of "chips" and set her straight, but whoa!

Now, I would expect this from our friend Pepe, who as you, is working with a bit of a language barrier. You may remember this from our little mix up with "goose" and "ghost". 

Not real sure what this one's excuse is and I'm pretty sure Jane Goodall may not find it funny, but it made me giggle. 

How about you? 

Maybe, just a little?

every blog needs some before and after...

Jon's mom sent me some of the "before and after" pictures that she has of our house today.

I figured this would be really bloggerish of me to share. 

This is Jon's house when he bought it in 2007. Yikes! 

Who buys stuff like that?!? 

Jon does! 

And then he rips the siding off and tears the inside to pieces and makes a big mess every single weekend, but thank god, because now it looks like this:

Still a work in progress (as always), but this was good for me to see today. 

I am really bad about forgetting about how far it has actually come. 

Patience. I'm working on it.

copycat

Yes. I admit it. I am a copycat.

 I needed curtains for the guest bedroom, and I needed them fast. We don't need little Riley waking up any earlier than usual! So, I copied some other bloggers like, Katie Beth at The Good Stuff and Laurel-Dawn at Abode Love and decided to make drop cloth curtains.

First, let me tell you that this is not another DIY design blog by any means! It never will be. But you know, I don't have anything else to tell you this week.

They are 6' x 9', so I got two and cut them in half to make 4 panels that would be roughly 3' wide.

Next, I needed to hem to edges that I cut. Now let me tell you, I don't know that much about sewing, but I do know that a good iron should be you best friend when sewing. 

I folded over the hem and ironed it real well before sewing it.

Got it? Ok, and the second thing I know about sewing is: Thank God sweet Aunt Ruth kept her instruction manual! I feel like every single time I sit down at this machine to do anything I have to re-read parts of it. This time I had to review how to make the bobbin. Very important!

Got that figured out and hemmed the edges. Then I had to girly it up and sew on some trim.

and then more ironing...

I just folded the top over about 4 inches and ironed it with starch. I love starch.

Had to get a little creative with the rings. I decided to use shower hooks because they were so pretty.

it works...

And bam! Riley has curtains! Not the prettiest thing I've ever seen, but for $40 and probably an hours worth of work, I'll take it for now. 

I can't wait for the day to come when I am so rich that I will laugh hysterically at the fact that I made curtains out of drop cloths from Home Depot!

don't be jelly

hehe, not really y'all! 

But, I am spring breaking! 

Just thought I'd let you know where your beloved blogger has been. 

The problem with Spring Break is...no funny little sidekicks for a week, which means no funnies to share with you! 

Summer's going to be rough for the ole' blog!

However, I do have this little sidekick, who can be quite funny himself, on the way to see me right now.

Are you so jelly? 

(That means jealous. I've been trying to start that. Not really catching on like I planned.)