from a Walmart.com review

I was just looking at reviews for a crib mattress at Walmart.com. It's super cheap, and I wanted to see if it was no good or one of those inexpensive things that's acutally going to be useful. I checked the reviews to see if people were saying that it retained its firmness and lasted a significant length of time. Out of 80 reviews, 56 are 5 stars and only 5 reviews are 2 stars or less. And 2 of the 1 & 2 star reviews are low because the mattress isn't soft...aren't you supposed to put infants on firm mattresses? Isn't that the point? I'm going to consider those 5 stars. Now 58-5 star reviews and 3-2 stars and under. That's encouraging.

 

Anyway, to the point. A sentence in one of the reviews strikes me as absurd: "I even stand in my son's crib almost on a daily basis (to hang his quilt back on the wall, because he rips it down everyday)."

 

Would you not think, rather than climbing into the crib every day to replace the quilt hanging over it because your child rips it off the wall constantly, it might be better to a) move the quilt to a different wall, or b) don't hang it on the wall anymore? Who, in their right mind, re-hangs a quilt on the wall every single day? She must be crazy! Still, good to know that the mattress withstands constant standing-on by a full grown woman.

 

As a bonus, here's the greatest review, a 3 star one: "didn't wont it to hard ,, its just right ,,"

 

This one brings a fun mental image: "It is very bouncy. My baby seemed to like it however. I just worried that he would bounce himself onto his side or belly while asleep." I'm picturing a sleeping infant who spontaneously starts bouncing, kind of like Tigger. I've been around a lot of sleeping infants and have never seen this happen, but maybe those weren't on bouncy mattresses.

 

With reviews like this, maybe I shouldn't trust other consumers to tell me whether or not a product is good quality.

POLL!

We will be having our anatomy ultrasound on August 11. We hope to find out the sex of the baby at that time. But, in the meantime, we have a poll at the top of this blog, where you may vote what you think we'll find out!

I think it will be a girl; Rodgers thinks it will be a boy.

nursery

We're planning on having our nursery in African animal prints. Mom's got some patterns to make bedding/storage/other stuff for the nursery in our theme. But, we won't do it like this. [I'm emailing this post in, so we'll see if the picture actually shows up...] Change the red to a slightly more subtle color, and don't cover the walls in animal print. Then it might be bearable. I like the trees with the monkey and the swinging elephant in them - those are cute. The giraffe print hat box is a keeper. But what is that in the lower right hand corner?

We're accenting animal print in beiges and turquoise. It is a bright turquoise, but used somewhat minimally, and it doesn't burn the retinas like that red does. Our walls will remain white, with some animal pictures on them.

I can't stop looking at the picture! Its hideousness draws me in. This is a prime example of what shows like Trading Spaces are doing to the average homeowner. Everyone thinks they're an interior designer.

child's play

We've begun collecting things for our baby. S/he won't be born until January, but we came into some good deals, so we've got a crate of baby stuff and various large items as well.

This week, I decided to pull out the crocheted booties and bonnet that I had as a baby. So, I took my keepsake crate down from the top of the closet and found them. There's a pair of red and white booties, some that look like white sandals with brown soles, and a pair of blue booties with a matching bonnet. After I found them and replaced the rest of the contents of the crate, it was time to leave for my haircut. So, I left the crate on the ottoman, to put it back in the closet when I returned.

As I walked in the door, this is what I saw:

Peeking out from under the lid are the fingers of one of my dolls, as if she's trying to get out.


A close up.

I've watched enough horror movies to be seriously creeped out. I wanted to just poke her fingers back into the box, and press the lid down. But images in my mind of the lid flying open and a demon doll attacking me prevented this.

So I rationally took the lid off, made sure the doll was not actually possessed and trying to escape the crate, repositioned her, and closed the lid. As far as I know, she's still in there...

moving...

Currently, we live in a 650 square foot one bedroom apartment. It's plenty of space for the two of us, even though we seem to have a ridiculous amount of possessions. Closet space is adequate, and they are all well used.

But, there's nowhere to put a baby! No room for all the stuff that comes with a baby, either. Therefore, we will be moving when our lease is up. There is a nice 2 bedroom apartment that will be available at the beginning of October, and our lease ends at the end of October, so it's just about perfect.

I've heard that pregnancy hormones cause more vivid dreams. This is definitely true for me. Last night, I dreamed that Rodgers and one of the ladies from the office took me to the apartment that will be available so I could look at it and start planning how we'll arrange our stuff there.

It was an amazing apartment. The entry had a huge coat closet, which the current tenants had full of junk, but we would use for our 35 coats (now, tell me, why do we need so many coats? We only have like 10 coat weather days per year!). The living room was about the size of our current apartment (not our living room, our whole apartment), and had hard wood floors. It was down a couple of steps from the entry, with a vaulted ceiling. To the right was the kitchen, up a couple of steps, with a lovely breakfast nook. Next to that, towards the back of the apartment, was a glamorous formal dining room. There was also a doorway from the kitchen towards the front of the apartment, which led to the master suite. (This tells you how important food is to me right now, my dream bedroom opens into the kitchen!) The outside wall was all windows, which were open. The bed had a mosquito net over it, which was blowing in the breeze. The bedroom was very large, but there was hardly anything in it besides the bed and an antique oak dresser. I don't remember the bathroom, but there was one in there. Then, we went back to the entry, which had a door to a child's room, which I had not noticed before. There were 3 closets in the child's room. They were all full of toys. Next to that room was another bathroom. When we came out of the child's room, I noticed that on the other side of the living room, there was a hallway. I asked about it and the office lady said that there was another bedroom, bathroom, and an office down there. At this point, I became quite confused because Rodgers had told me that we were getting a 2 bedroom apartment. I got very upset. I was reasonably sure that this apartment would cost significantly more than the 2 bedroom that I thought we'd be moving into. It was a beautiful apartment. I loved it, and I wanted it. But I thought it was the 2 bedroom that's only $100/month more than our current place. Rodgers would have known that I'd love it. But he should have told me the truth about how big it was and how much it cost. I mean, I'd figure out sooner or later that there were extra rooms. And I'd figure out the price the first time I went to pay rent.

I was so upset with him that I woke myself up. Now, after seeing that impossibly huge, beautiful apartment, I think the place we move into will seem like a dump.

Why I love airline food:

It's not the taste that I love, nor the inevitable indigestion that follows eating a meal on an airplane. What I love about airline food is how organized it is.

 

Everyone gets a tray that is put together like a puzzle: a little cup in one corner, with a mini thing of water or juice; fork, spoon, knife, napkin, wet wipe, salt, pepper, creamer, and sugar in a little baggy on the side with a tiny tub of margarine or soft cheese; dessert and fruit courses in their own little bowls at the top; and the main course in its bowl. All those foods have plastic or foil seals on top of the bowls. Then, they give you a roll out of a basket, so you feel like the bread is fresh.

 

I have little appetite when I'm flying. Mostly, I just want to drink gallons of water and, if there's complimentary champagne, some of that, too. But I get such a kick out of the organized meal trays that I must eat at least a little bit of each item. And when I'm done, I put the tray back together in a slightly different order - never put anything back the way it was.

I just had a Lunchables. Usually, I like to bring leftovers or a frozen dinner and have a hot lunch, but we don't have a microwave right now, so I'm stuck with either cold lunches or lunches that can be cooked with nothing but boiled water (I have an electric kettle at my desk). Getting tired of those lunches, I decided to go with Lunchables this week. I enjoyed the Lunchables box much like I enjoy airline food - the little bitty drink on the side and tray with several tiny compartments in it: one for a stack of crackers, one for turkey, one for cheese, and one for a mini snack pack and little red spoon. It's like everything you need for lunch, right here in this box, and nothing extra.

 

I also love first aid kits.

a new partnership

Since Rodgers and I started attending our church last November, we haven't seen much ministry happening beyond the walls of the church building. This was very discouraging to us, and we shared our discouragement with a couple who has been there longer. They suggested that there may be a way to change this, if we stick around and are willing to do something. But, for several months nothing really happened. We were focused on planning the wedding, then being newlyweds, then dealing with morning sickness, fatigue, and all that comes with the wondrous first trimester.

A couple of weeks ago, something exciting happened. Rodgers called me at work and asked me if we could spend the evening at Richard and Georgia's (that's our Bible study group leaders). So we did.

Another couple from church met us at their house. We had coffee and desserts and discussed an idea that the four of them had earlier in the week. It was something that Rodgers and I had been waiting for!

They asked if we could set up some sort of partnership between our Bible study group and Rodgers' home church in Kenya, Revival Baptist Church. In doing this, we could take a more active role in ministry overseas. We wanted to do this, and actually Rodgers' pastor had commissioned him to this very thing, but we felt that it wouldn't be quite right for us to introduce the concept ourselves. We needed to have someone else come to the point of wanting to be involved first. I don't know if that makes sense, but it's the way we felt.

Friday, we made a presentation to our Bible study group. We thought that our group would be receptive, but we didn't know how enthusiastic they would be about our proposal. After our presentation, people brought up different concerns that they had about the partnership, reasons it would be difficult, reasons it might not work out. Then, a man who hasn't been in the group very long stood up and basically said, "We've all already made up our minds that we're going to do this, so, rather than discussing reasons why we shouldn't, let's just figure out what our priorities are and where we go from here." That excited everyone, and we were able to start working out our plans.

There was one couple who have only visited the group once or twice. They are still church shopping and don't know whether they'll wind up staying with us or not. I was surprised that they came Friday night. Even more surprising was that, on their way out, they told us that, whatever church they wind up at, they want to be involved in this partnership with us.

We stayed at the church longer than we'd planned to that night. Finally, as I was dragging Rodgers out to the car, we were intercepted by the man who inspired everyone and his soon-to-be-wife. We talked with them forever. Though it was past my bedtime, and I was struggling to stay awake, it was great getting to know them better. It was sort of a brainstorming, mixed with them sharing bits of their past with us. Their enthusiasm for the partnership blows my mind!

Our first projects: connect couples/families in our group with families at RBC, to be pen pals and get to know each other a little more personally; raise funds to build a bathroom for RBC; work out the details of how we're going to do this.

FYI

It's true!

I think most of our readers know this already, but for those who are out of the loop - we're having a baby! I am 14 weeks pregnant, due Jan 7. We will find out the sex of the baby on Aug 11. We have names picked out, but until we find out which one it is, we call it Kibuyu.

I haven't been shopping for Kibuyu much. Mom and I shopped for some fabric for the nursery this week while she was staying with Rodgers and me. She's going to make a bedding set in animal prints. Today while Rodgers and I were out, I decided that I wanted to buy one thing for Kibuyu. We looked through some baby clothes - all very cute, but hardly any gender neutral. Then, we saw this one little sleeper. I love the giraffe heads on the feet:

On the newlywed side of things: since we got the original sized photos from our photographer (Trey), I was able to make us a photo memory book. We used Walmart.com since it's super cheap. The quality of the prints is acceptable, but not great. I would assume that the places that charge twice as much are significantly better. BUT, I ordered the book on Tuesday, and it arrived today! That's super fast, and I'm more than satisfied. I could flip through it all day long. I will say, though, that for the hardback books, it would be better to add extra pages of pictures. It looks kind of silly with only 20 pages.