Natalie & Ryan: Tick-Tock

I'm SO excited to be writing this post. It means I was successful in pulling off one of the hardest Pinterest projects I've taken on yet. My friend Kelly and her husband Ben came over to hang out, so we decided that while the boys gamed, Kelly and I would attempt a Pinterest project. I've been wanting to dabble with Modge Podge. I've seen a lot of stuff on Pinterest that I want to do, but I shied away because I've never used Modge Podge. Kelly talked me into giving it a try. I picked out the hardest project I saw and we dared to try it together. It's a custom 16X16" clock. It took a bit more tech knowledge than I would have thought. I had to get the pixels right, make sure the clock numbers were in the right place...I was proud of myself for figuring it out, using a computer program that I have never used before. When I went to Costco to pick up the pictures, I prayed that they turned out okay. Nothing would have been worse than getting to step 1 and already failing. But they were perfect! Kelly and I ran out to Hobby Lobby to get the clock mechanism, Modge Podge, and paint brushes, and then ran to Lowes to have board cut. That was my favorite part. She's so stinkin' funny and out-spoken. We looked so beyond out of place in the lumber section. A very friendly salesman asked us if we needed help. Pssh, heck yeah we need help! I told him what we needed and he directed us to HUGE 8' X 10' boards that cost $45. Kelly and I just looked at each other like "uh, what would we do with the rest of the board?" She was brilliant and started negotiating with him. She was able to talk him into cutting 4 clocks worth of wood for $10! Go Kelly! The BEST part was when he was cutting the wood, I turned to Kelly and said "Do you think he thinks were 'together'? Like, that we're a couple?" He came back over to give us the wood, and she cuts him off mid sentence and says "we're not lesbians." (sorry for language) He just started laughing. Oh, Kelly, you're so funny. My clock turned out perfectly! In all, it cost about $25 to put together, but I had a gift card to Hobby Lobby, so I literally didn't spend a cent. I'm going to start selling these too, so if you're interested, let me know!

After our afternoon with friends, we ran to Denver Mattress to buy a bed. Oh yeah, we moved up the move date. We're now moving on September 8th. I'm so relieved about that too. I hate sitting around in a packed up house, just waiting for D-day. Anyway, we bought the most amazing bed. It's a king-size pillow top that has separate sides that we can control with remotes. So if I want my feet up and my head slightly elevated, I can do that, without forcing Ryan into the same position. The biggest selling point for us was that they say it helps with acid reflux a ton. Ryan's reflux is so bad, but when the doctors say "elevate your mattress," it's kind of hard to prop up an entire mattress. I personally was sold on a different point. The salesman was showing us how our legs would elevate, and he goes "okay, notice how when I lower your legs back down, how all of the pressure goes back into your hips..." When he did that, the pressure in my hips was crazy intense. The first thing that came to mind was how extremely nice this bed will be when I'm pregnant again and can relieve the pressure. My hips suffered so badly this last time. Can you believe our surprise when the salesman coyly says "oh, and since you bought this bed, you get a free 50" Samsung LCD TV." Say that again? Yep! We got a FREE 50" TV on top of that. Like we need anymore TVs. What a deal!

Tomorrow will be our last day in our ward. A real bummer, since Ryan just got a calling and hasn't even gotten to serve in his capacity yet. Oh well, the Lord has more in store for us.