nesting...or something....

the home office organization continues. i have a bunch of other stuff that really needs to be done. like finish some house plans for a friend's remodeing project, make dinner, sweep floors, put away laundry, make bread, etc. but i have an uncontrollable urge to clean and organize and i just can't help it! every chance i get, i'm in here purging.

last night we got some shelves at lowe's and put them in the office closet and tada! it's amazing. i was so excited, i stayed up till midnight last night (even though i had to be up at 5:30 today) just so i could clean and put stuff on my new shelves. i only went to bed when i started having painful abdominal cramps. i figured that was my body's / baby's way of telling me to GO TO BED. felt a lot better this morning, thankfully.

anyways, it's like all of a sudden late last week a veil was lifted from my eyes and i see what is wrong with the office, what is holding it back from being a really nice, relaxing, organized space. one thing that i've realized is that we have been hoarders. no offense to either of our families REALLY (please!! don't take offense) but i think that hoarding is a trait that we get honestly. it is really, really hard to not be that way. it is our natural tendency. i have to consciously decide on a daily basis whether i'm going to toss things immediately or hang onto them forever. in the past, i've not always been as discriminating in what i keep around. and as a result, i've spent hours and hours and hours the past few days sifting thru 5-15 year old paperwork.

here's an example of some stuff i've thrown away...not that it is not kind of fun to look at and not that there aren't sentimental things about each little thing, but the point is, neither of us knew we had any of this crammed in our office closet, we've been shifting it around this house for 7 years, and we just can't save everything...if we do, then our house will look like the peoples' homes on that new hoarding TV show.

• paystubs, lots and lots of paystubs...dating as far back as dave's first job in indy at UPS in 2000-2001, from my first job in indy at HNTB in 2001, from dave's internship at Voss Village in 2001 all the way up until my job at ASP ending last April and about 400 paystubs from dave's time thus far at dreyer. i consulted several legitimate online sources and we shouldn't have kept any of these paystubs past the end of their respective years when we got the W-2's and made sure they reconciled (hmmm...not that we ever did that...) so they are headed to the burn pile...
• Modern Language Association handbooks from high school english. threw mine away last week. threw dave's away when i found it in a folder today.
• Brad & Tamara's wedding invitation from June 2001...no offense guys, but i think that we have to let go of this...
• A thank you card from Mrs. Sparks for when I gave a speech my senior year of high school to little kids at the Breakfast of Champions
• A thank you card from Jessie from an unknown date for letting her use my Artistry hair repair masque, etc. so sweet, but i don't think i need to keep it...sorry...
• some sort of Women in Engineering Merit Award certificate for good grades at Purdue...can't recall really when or why I received it...
• notes from Urban Hydraulics and Transportation Engineering classes...who needs those!

so, i'm having lots and lots of fun organizing. i would have taken a before pic but still haven't located the camera. maybe someday, i'll take an after pic for all of you.

the cloth diaper demonstration was spectacular on Friday night. before the guy was even done, we both decided we want to use cloth diapers. we were already leaning that way, anyways, but seeing the options in real life just solidified the decision. and we set up a registry for them at toastybaby.com...there are so many options these days, and they are really not that much more complicated than disposable diapers. other than the laundry part of it...but, hey, i'm prepared for more laundry anyways, whether we use cloth diapers or not. i've received 100s of warnings on the subject... and for some reason, human waste really doesn't bother me that much. in my career and college years, i designed and toured wastewater treatment plants after all. and i've spent much time in the past year cleaning up other people's children's human waste. even when battling morning sickness...so i figure i'll be able to handle my own child's.

i have also all of a sudden started caring about decorating. and i'm eager to decorate our entire house and surround ourselves with things that i actually enjoy looking at. this is both good and bad. bad for our finances. good for our house. but...a lot of the decorating will have to wait until the house is done. and who knows...then maybe we will be moving. but anyways, i've been inspired by thenester.com....a website about decorating, etc. she talks about decorating on a budget and not making dumb excuses about why you don't make your house look nice. she also had a post about making slipcovers. which makes me think, if i get rid of enough stuff in the office, we might even have room for a chair...with a slipcover on it to read on. all i need is a chair...and a slipcover...i also found these interesting slipcovers on target.com that are stretchy. interesting idea i thought....so, do any of my awesome relatives have any chairs they want to get rid of? :) or how about any 2 drawer filing cabinets to trade for a 4 drawer filing cabinet? just another thing about the office re-organization...

and another awesome thing...a couple from our FPU small group gave us 2 giant bags of maternity clothing last night. what's so awesome is it is exactly my size and definitely all my style of clothing. wow!