Lead Poisoning

Remember me saying that we were working Franks? Well, I just went to an Interior Design continuing education class this morning that discussed sustainability and the environment. She started talking about Lead poisoning and its harmfulness.

I started thinking about the cute little rocking chair that used to be Matt's when he was a baby in the late 70's. Matt has spent probably close to 10-15 hours removing paint from it so we can re-sand it and put it in Roman's room. I started panicking! Anything from 1978 and earlier could have a very high chance of containing lead paint! I've been on the phone with the Environmental Protection Agency getting more details. Long story short is that we have to chip off a portion of the remaining paint and send it to a lab to be tested for Lead.

I am normally not this much of a freak, but if it does contain lead, I have not only exposed my husband and toddler, but my growing fetus! Apparently the sawdust from sanding the paint that is currently all over our garage could be extremely dangerous! If this test comes back positive, we will have to rent a Hepa vacuum cleaner for the entire home because we probably tracked in the dust into our carpet. Disaster!

I'm writing this for the few people that do read my blog to be aware! It's always to fun to re-use old furniture or buy an older home, but it can also be extremely dangerous. Let's just pray our test comes back negative.

Names

Why does picking out a baby name have to be so incredibly hard for us?! We can not decide on a final name for our little girl! Here are our top contenders. By the way, Dale was my dad's name and Carmen is my middle name. If you have a second, take a vote:

Carmen Dale Franks

Gwyneth Dale Franks

Capri Dale Franks

Navy Carmen Franks

Charlotte Dale Franks

Roman and Chloe

Hard to believe this picture was taken a year ago!

One year later and these buddies are still going strong!

We asked them to kiss each other in the bath. I'm not going to lie, there was tongue involved!

Roman loved having Chloe help him put his jammies on. No one else was allowed to help but her!

They had so much fun playing together last Friday night. We enjoyed having the Longs over for some yummy fish tacos and homemade chocolate chip cookies while the kids played!

Working Franks

Last weekend we were complete 'working' Franks! Between working out and painting the nursery and nursery furniture, we accomplished a lot! I keep telling myself that I need to slow down, but that never seems to happen. I think it's good to keep moving while being pregnant, though. There is plenty of research out there that it even helps the baby when I exercise and stay active. How could I not?! Now that I'm almost 30 weeks pregnant, I might need to slow down on the P90x legs and back video, though! I'll stick to family walks in the park in the future!

Working my legs with the P90X folks on the big screen during naptime!

Here's a preview of the baby's room. We painted it a dark color called "warm stone". Yes, I ordered low VOC paint. I can't wait for the final product!

A little work in progress!!

It's official!

I had a meeting at work today and I am officially quitting my job! As of May 26th, I will be a stay at home mom. This is so crazy to me! If you know me at all, you know this has been a bitter sweet decision.

Reason that I have enjoyed working and made this decision harder are:

• I secretly love being busy. I thrive on stress.
• I love having extra spending money! No more lunch shopping sprees. No more shoe purchases or online clothing purchases because I'm bored at work. More importantly, no more trips to Europe or Mexico for a long time!
• I love getting dressed and putting on makeup once in a while for a reason
• I love being a certified Interior Designer
• I love Roman's Montessori school and will miss his teachers so much!
• I love having child free lunch dates

Obviously I can't wait to not work! I'm thrilled to have the extra stress of commuting, deadlines, and projects out of the way. I can't wait to get more involved in church with MOP's and join a weekly morning bible study. I can't wait to devote more time to teaching Roman his letters, numbers, and colors every day. I'm so thrilled to join Lifetime fitness and take the kids there while I enjoy long daily workouts. Most importantly, I'm so excited to be with my babies every single day! I know it's going to be hard at times and very chaotic! I just have to remember the simple moments and soak them up. I can't stress about the house not always being clean or get annoyed that we're coloring footballs over and over again with crayons. I truly feel like this is going to somewhat change me as a person for the good!

To be continued!

27 weeks pregnant

Baby girl and me at my lovely workstation. Isn't it so inviting?! I know, you're jealous!

I am now 27 weeks pregnant and growing fast! I had my check up yesterday and here are the latest facts:

• This Friday starts the infamous 3rd trimester! Wow!
• She is measuring a week early. Doesn't mean much, she could slow down or speed up in growth
• We still do not have a name for this little girl! Thanks to my husband's busy schedule and indecisive mind, we have not 100% agreed on a name yet. If you know me at all, you know this is completely stressing me out! I gave him the deadline of April 15th. Considering he hasn't finished our taxes yet, he can knock both out by that date!
• I gained 7lbs last month! Wow! Too many homemade chocolate chip cookies every night! It's okay, though. I'm still weighing in less than I did with Roman at this time. Crazy! Doctor still says that chasing a toddler this time around changes everything and I completely agree! So I'm in for a total weight gain of 14lbs.
• I have braxton hicks every single day, multiple times a day. It's crazy! The doctor says that it's completely normal to have more in the 2nd pregnancy because it's just my body knowing what to do.
• I took the glucose test yesterday. Haven't found out if I passed. I sure hope so because I completely forgot about it and indulged in apple pie and chocolate chip cookies the day before!
• I am a walking emotional time bomb waiting to explode. I'm so sorry if I have cried to you about nothing or raised my voice at you. I simply am going crazy! Never knew my emotions could be this crazy! I always thought it was silly to blame something like this on being pregnant, but I don't know what else it could be. I think it's the extra estrogen from little girl. Sorry friends!
• One day I'll be starving and eat tons and the next, I'll just eat normal. No big changes.
• We can't wait to meet little sister, but also can. She can just hang on and cook as long as she needs. We've got so much to do in her room and so much planning! I'm just trying to enjoy these days of being pregnant and having one very active child. Things are going to be CRAZY when she gets here. I'm also enjoying my 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep! I am not quite ready for middle of the night feedings again! On the other hand, I'm so excited to hold our precious little girl and bond with her during those feedings. Soon!

Baby girl nursery "before" pictures

This bedroom used to be one of our guest bedrooms. We moved the queen size bed out and brought in the crib.

The crib and the changing table are hand-me-downs from the triplets. We are so grateful to have them both! Roman is still happy in his crib and I didn't want to force him into a big boy bed yet, but didn't want to purchase a new crib too!

The furniture is mine from when I was a baby, so it is very sentimental to me. I thought that by using my old furniture that designing her room would be a simple breeze. Not so much! I decided that all of the furniture needs to be repainted white because it's been scuffed so many times. So we are in the process of sanding and re-painting the desk, changing table, and dresser. I am also repainting the existing hardware on the drawers to a bronze to match the new curtain rod.

Speaking of painting, we also are going to paint the walls of the room. No stripes this time! I'm still deciding on a color. The crib bedding was ordered 7 weeks ago! I am waiting until I receive it sometime next week to pick the final wall color. We plan to use the chocolate brown rocking chair and ottoman that is in Roman's room now, so somehow I have to tie in chocolate brown to the color scheme. The bedding is all mostly white with hints of pink.

We also already had the white window sheers. I love so much that they tie in bow! So feminine! I plan to change the curtain rod to a double rod and add light pink black-out draperies that I found from RH baby and Child. I am obsessed with the black out draperies in Roman's room. Anything to have the baby sleep longer, right!

I'm in the process of painting two different flower pictures for her room. Below is the first painting. I still am working on the second. I plan to frame them in a white frame.

The room is such a work in progress, but it's so exciting!! This is my passion!!! Hope it turns out just like I want! Ha! Yes, just like Roman's room, I have drawn many 3-d renderings of what the finished project will look like!

I AM A DORK!!