WOW! Tai Chi rocks!

The Hubby joined me and we are calling our 1 hour of tai chi on Saturday mornings a date! I enjoyed that hour so much I am not sure if I can put it into words. One of the funny things is that the form (Chinese word for routine) that we are learning is the form I posted here as an axample of Tai Chi. We spent the first class learning the first 6 moves. Needless to say, I am no where as graceful or coordinated as the beautiful woman in pink in the video (see here) but I have started. K and I will enjoy being able to practice together at home. I want to spend 10-20 minutes each day doing this. It takes so much concentration to control the movements of both arms, both legs, the crossing motions, and your breathing that there is a wonderful zen state that is easily achieved. I was at such peace while we were moving! Even just repeating one move to each side back and forth as we traversed the room was beautiful. I am excited to learn more of this form and to practice peace from within. Since K has 15 years of off and on martial arts experience he is familiar with the type of movements and I really enjoyed watching him. He also told me that tai chi is the hardest of all martial arts to learn. I am pretty proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone and trying something so new, especially something like this when I am such a desperately clutzy ungraceful person!

One more decision to make (sigh...).

So now I am having issues getting the grains of oak to match between the old wood and the new wood. The body of the wood is matching ok, but not the grains...it's just too obvious of a difference. So, next I am going to try a new wood dye and after that if we are still not thrilled, we will try the other extreme--to see how light we can get the cabinets. I would love to just clear seal the cabinets, and we can with the doors, but I have to get the existing cabinets *much* lighter to make that a possibility. Fortunately, I have old doors to experiment on. I talked to my dad tonite and bot the low down on the best ways to accomplish that. Unfortunately, it involves wood stripper, which, even when using a respirator and an open room, CANNOT be used by pregnant women. Argghh! So, I will have K try it on a door (if the new dye doesn't work) and if the new "light" wood will work, I will have to see about calling in some favors and then leave the house. If you know me, you know how much this will kill me! Should be an interesting weekend of decision making...

About that Rant! blog last week

A generous poster educated me last week on my Rant! blog (you can read it all here). I mistakenly stated that the HMO I belonged to was a for profit organization. Turns out, it is not. It is officially a "not for profit" in the state of Minnesota. Here is the definition of not for profit: "An incorporated organization in which stockholders and trustees do not share in profits. Nonprofits are usually established to accomplish some charitable, humanitarian, or educational purpose. See also 501(c)(3)." I still have some research to do on this topic. There are too many unanswered questions for me...Tina also found some great links which are also in the comments section of "Rant!" that you can read here.

Tai Chi!

The link above is to a beautiful example of Tai Chi. Here is a wikipedia definition of it. It's pretty much a slow, healthful, balanced form of martial arts. It's not a fighting or defensive martial art. I start my first tai chi class on Saturday morning and I am sooo excited! This will be wonderful, meditative, relaxing and so great to do during (and after) pregnancy. I can't wait to tell you how it all goes!

soooo cuuuuute!

My friend, bloggy inspiration and "dealer" (in all wonderful scrapbooking things!) gave me this today for our Baby's room. We are going to do a light jungle theme (light means we aren't going over the top with matchy-matchy stuff and all). Both K and I realize that nursery decor is really for the parents, except for pictures Baby will not remember anything about their room. But, Tina gave us this gorgeous little faux animal fur rug that is beyond words! When I showed it to K tonite, he was just blown away at how amazing it is! He loves it...and, so does Baxter. Good thing we taught him the "leave it" command. I had to use it more than a few times already...poor puppy.

And the kitchen remodel goes on (and on and on and on...)

Yep, that's The Mess. Good thing I am not much into cooking!

This is starting to get old. I feel like we are just making a bigger mess every day rather than making progress. Friday I got all the wood parts of the railing system stained, and Saturday they all received 2-3 coats of polyurethane. Naturally, I wore my respirator the whole time, had the windows all over the house open and ran a commercial air scrubber too (thanks to work for letting me bring it home). Saturday we finished taking the carpet *carefully* off the stairs so we can re-cut and install it later, got the edges where the wall meets the stairs mudded (the carpet staples chewed it up pretty nicely), I emptied all the upper cabinets in the kitchen, drew a layout of the kitchen and labeled all the doors and drawers accordingly. The Hubby will use that layout and the doors to make the new doors and the drawings with labels will make it LOTS easier to get each door back to where it needs to hang. Sunday will bring sanding of the cabinet boxes and face frames (the fronts). I also played around with stain options for the cabinets. We want to go lots darker and I am having trouble getting the new wood, which will be used for the doors and drawers, to match the sanded "old wood" of the cabinet boxes. I am using a combo of wood dye and stain and am still not happy. So, off to the wood working store tomorrow to see what else I can find. I would love to get these things stained this week and polyed, but without a viable color option I am stuck. And no, I can't paint them, they're oak and I would get put in jail for painting oak. It's ok to paint woods like pine, ash, poplar. But it's NEVER, EVER, EVER ok to paint woods like, oak, cherry, hickory, maple. It's just wrong.

The stairs, (my mud job) ready for a new look!

Above, stain matching that is just NOT working. On the left is the old wood sample that I am trying to get to match the new wood sample on the right.

Every woman should have a good knife & know how to use it!

I *love* this mud knife! It's my 10" sheetrock mudding knife. I have 6", 8" and 14" ones also. I had to do a little sheetrock patching tonight along the stairs that we are changing up a little as a part of the kitchen remodel. Mudding sheetrock (rock) is one of those cathartic house projects for me. (unless it's mudding a ceiling, ick! too hard on the neck!) Taking a gouge out of a wall and making it smooth as silk or bringing a new wall with all the sheetrock seams to a finished wall without any seams, bumps, or divots makes me happy. It's pretty instantly rewarding and it's obvious to all if the job was well done or not. I splurged a few years ago and bought my new mud knives - they all have padded handles and WOW do they make it easier! My old ones had wooden grips and they just didn't feel right in my hands.

This month's midwife appt & a moment (or 2) of panic!

We had a great appointment on Wednesday with our midwife! Some of you have asked if Kyle has gone to some of the appointments. Actually, he's gone to ALL of our appointments, fibroid, baby, me, if one of the three are involved he's there. I am so blessed to have a hubby who wants to be involved! I got reprimanded for being on my dad's roof doing roofing work a little last weekend, and for doing so much physical stuff. I really wrecked up my lower back, which is connected to the pelvis which is connected to the uterus, which is baby's home. Ya, you see the problem with that, huh? I have promised to stop trying to do "everything" as is my nature. It bites, but I know it's the right thing for me and Baby to be as healthy as we can be. It's really hard to ask for help when it's something that I know I can do. We got to hear Baby's heart rate and hear the little one squirm around; heart rate was in the 140's to 150's and was fluctuating with movements which is wonderful! My uterus measured at 22 weeks, even though I am at 21 weeks, but a little variation is normal. Other than that, not much new. I did (and am still) freaking out a little bit about one thing. Our next appointment is October 29th, our midwife told me that at that point I will be at the start of the 3rd trimester. What?!?!?!? Third tri?!?!?! No! I am sooo not ready for that! That's only 4 weeks away! I am panicking a little (ok, maybe a lot) and I am not sure I can go into all the reasons why...please just say a little prayer for me to be calm and to accept that everything will be ok.

RANT!

Grrr! I am so stinkin' frustrated with our "health care" system. What a joke! Don't get me wrong, the next to last thing I want is a national health care program. That would take away too much control and choices from parents and individuals for their own health care. Really, we don't have health insurance. We have surgical insurance. There is little to no coverage for true health and wellness. Chiropractic care is limited for most of us on the HMO plans, if covered all, same for acupuncture and nautropathic medicine. I called my HMO today to ask if they cover the cost of birthing classes. (In some states they do.) But no, paying for a $250 class is taking money from these FOR PROFIT organizations. It's like they'd rather be stuck with a much higher bill for the drugs a woman may need because she didn't learn in a birth class other ways to deal with pain. I just get so frustrated with it. The average cost of a "normal" birth in a Minnesota hospital last year was $14,000. The cost of a home birth, including all pre-natal care, at home visits after baby is born total just under $3500. And, none of that is covered by health insurance. Midwifery is legal, home birthing is legal, it's covered in other states but not here and not by HealthPartners. It's frustrating.

Mmm, a re-found simple pleasure!

Above, Paul Potts singing for the first time on national tv in Great Britian...you'll be amazed at Simon Cowell's response at the end!

I absolutely love Paul Potts voice and the backstory to his new fame. He was a cell phone salesman in great Britian with a love for opera. He appeared in many community productions and enrolled in an opera course when he was hit by a car while riding his bike to the class. Due to his injuries he never was able to complete the class. At the urging of his wife, he tried out for Britian's Got Talent and the rest is history. He won last year and from the moment I first heard his voice I was on the quest for his CD. It's beautiful! It's a mix of opera numbers that just move me. I had been looking all over the house for it and today, I was listening to a CD in my car when I hit the wrong button on the disc changer, and the Paul Potts CD started to play! I was thrilled! It just made my day to hear that clear voice again! Hhhmmmmmmm...beware, it's dangerous to drive to. I just want to crank the sound, close my eyes and let the music take control of me...Another wonderful thing here is the growth paul has had personally. The feelings of self confidence can really change change your life.

Below, Paul singing in the finale of the show...