Nesting!

No new pictures to share today but I wanted to update anyway. We had a VERY productive Easter weekend! We had our ducts cleaned out on Friday. This is something we've been meaning to do for awhile and decided to take a little tax return money and DO it! We've lived in our house 5 years and had no idea if the previous owners had ever cleaned the ducts. Our house was built in 1966. The duct company removed an 8 POUND bag of dirt and dust from our ducts! YUCK!!!! I'm so glad we got this done! Hopefully, it will help with allergies and keeping my house clean! While we were at it, we also had the carpets cleaned in every room except for my scrap room. The carpet should finally be dry so tonight when I get home from work, I'll be putting my house back together.

My mom and dad came for the weekend so we worked on a lot of little projects. I did some major purging, organizing and cleaning. I still have quite a bit to do in our basement but I feel so much better about what I did get accomplished! The babies' room is really close to being ready. I need to hang the curtains and that's about it. I don't have anything on the walls but I won't mess with that until they are here.

The b-mom is now 34 1/2 weeks! We're trying not to wait by the phone but it has me on edge every time it rings! :) We could get a call at any time although I am hoping that we'll get another weekend to work on things around the house!

I posted some new mini kits in my Etsy shop if you're looking for anything themed for family, wedding or Christmas photos! :)

Well, all for now. I better get some more done! Have a great Wednesday!

A little toot to share!

Wow! I was so surprised to learn I'll be guest designing for GCD Studios! Their paper collections are beautiful! I'm so thrilled for this opportunity!

We've accomplished quite a bit more since I last blogged. We found a great deal on a set of dressers at Homemaker's over the weekend and brought them home with us Sunday. I've been busy washing little girl clothes and putting them away. We registered at Babies "R" Us on Monday night. That was really fun! Ironically, it was my hubby who kept wanting to add clothes and toys to the registry. (I tried to stick to the basics). *wink* We're hoping to hit Target sometime soon and register there as well. Our big meeting is tonight with the birth mom and adoption agency. Last night I baked some chocolate chip cookies to go in a care package filled with some pampering fun for our birth mom. I'll put the rest of it together before we leave. I want her to know how much we care about her and are thinking about her the next few weeks. Maybe we'll get a better idea of how much longer it will be tonight too as I think she had a doctor appointment on Friday?!

Well, I best be getting busy. Much to do! I will say I am just itching for some creative time. I think it's been at least a month since I spent any time in my craft room and it's high time for me create! It's definitely a big stress reliever for me! :)

An exciting time in my life!

You're probably wondering where I went to?! Since my last post, I have been sick the majority of that time. I had a bad migraine for about 3 days and then got a bad cold. It went away for a week and I've been sick all this past week. I finally went to the doctor yesterday because I was coughing a lot, had tightness in my chest and a little shortness of breath. It's not bronchitis, thankfully, but I do have croup so I'm on steroids for the next week or so to help with the inflammation in my chest. This is definitely the worst time for me to be sick, but hopefully I will be over it by the time the babies arrive.

We had a week long visit from Glen's parents. They bought a condo in West Des Moines and will be moving up here the end of April/first part of May. We're very excited to have them just 10 minutes away and it will be wonderful to have their help with the girls.

I have decided to resign from Rusty Pickle's design team as well. It was a fun two years on the team! I really learned a lot, made some great projects and developed friendships that I will treasure forever. I will never forget my Amazing Race experience, that's for sure. The two weeks were crazy and very sleep deprived but I know I did some of my best work. Rusty Pickle has another Amazing Race planned and more information is on the RP blog.

Other than being sick, we have been focusing the majority of our time getting ready for our babies! The photo above is what we chose for bedding in the nursery. We painted the walls a light brown color and I wanted very feminine, shabby bedding to go in the room. What we found is perfect and just what I was looking for! We now have one crib all set up and are holding off on the 2nd crib for a little while. We're going to keep them in one crib until they start wiggling around more. I also have a bassinet that has been in our family for over 50 years. My mom, aunts, uncles, sisters and cousins have all slept in that bassinet. We have also bought our double stroller, car seats and a glider rocker and ottoman. I still really want to find a dresser and changing table sooner rather than later so I can get some clothes washed up and put away. We have a few other little things to buy before they arrive. We have had to buy the necessities because we're not having baby showers until after the girls are here. Our friends have been so generous by letting us borrow pack n' plays, exersaucers, bouncy seats, swings, etc. We're still working through names but won't be announcing what we have chosen until they arrive! That's all part of the fun! :)

We have several things you can be praying about over the next few weeks:
1) Please pray for the health and emotional well being of our birth mother.
2) Please pray for a safe delivery and healthy babies!
3) Please pray that we would both get/stay healthy and also for our emotions! (This is all very overwhelming!)
4) Please pray God would provide remaining finances we need to finalize the adoption.
5) Please pray that Glen and I would be able to spend some quality time together before the girls arrive.
6) Please pray for our next meeting with the birth mother and adoption agency to go over the hospital plan and openness after placement. We meet this Wednesday evening.

Thanks for your prayers! I'll try to update again soon! :)

Treasured Scrapbooking March Card Kit Reveal

Life has been so, so crazy the past few weeks that my blog has just taken a back burner to everything else going in my world. Here are my cards created with the March Card Kit at Treasured Scrapbooking. This is also my last kit as part of the team. I had to make a tough decision to resign from the team. The countdown is on for the arrival of our twins and I have much to do to prepare. I also resigned from the Cardalicious team. I would show you my last card but it was picked up for publication. I do have another card to share from a previous week that I haven't posted yet but I will do that another day.

I've been doing a lot of cleaning, organizing and purging around my house. Yep, I'm officially nesting! I've hit up a few garage sales and had some luck finding a few outfits. I have also bought a few little outfits for the girls. Target clearance is seriously awesome! We bought the bedding and curtains for the girls' room and it's all painted. We're working on putting in new outlets. I've been trying to clean my house using flylady.net and it's been wonderful! It is very, very likely that the twins will arrive in 3-4 weeks. Our birth mom had another ultrasound yesterday and things are looking good. She's only 30 weeks but measuring at 37 weeks. She did have a few contractions a couple weeks ago and stopped those with medication. The babies are still really small 3 lbs. 1 oz. and 3 lbs 2 oz. Please pray that they still in her tummy for a while longer. We're ferverntly praying that they are strong and healthy even though I'm sure they will be in the hospital for a while.

I've been really sick the past few days with some sort of cold/flu virus. I just ache from my head to my toes and spent most of the day in bed yesterday. I'm feeling a little better today but am hoping to be back to my old self soon.

Enjoy your day! :)

Etsy Special!

I have much to update you on regarding the Adoption Celebration and new projects but until my next post...I'm running a special in my etsy shop. (Thank you for the sales, by the way)! From now until all the cards are gone (there are 26 left), you can choose ANY 7 cards for just $20 (including first class shipping)!!!! That's less than $3.00 per card! To purchase your cards, just visit my etsy shop http://jillcornell.etsy.com and e-mail the names of the cards you want - cornellgj@yahoo.com. I'll send you a paypal invoice to pay for them. It's first come, first serve! And, remember all proceeds from card sales go to adoption costs!

Happy Shopping! :)

My Etsy Shop

I spent some time last night and this morning loading 40 of my hand crafted cards into my etsy shop. Please stop by and check it out! All of the proceeds from my cards will go towards our adoption costs. The link and a preview are on the side of my blog.

Have a great day! :)

Life is busy

I took a brief hiatus from my blog to mourn the loss of my Grandma Kathryn. I had a very, very close relationship with her and will miss her very much. Her visitation and funeral were last week so I spent a lot of time with my family. I lived just 5 minutes from my grandma and grandpa growing up so much time was spent with them on their farm. I think we saw them at least once a week and talked on the phone at least every other day while I still lived at home. Grandma and Grandpa made a point of coming to all of our school activities. For a long time, my sisters and I were the only grandchildren. I was 15 when my oldest cousin was born. He and his brothers live in Marshalltown so we were still the closest proximity to grandma and grandpa. I know what I experienced with my grandparents was very rare. It will be very important to me to have my own children spend a lot of time with their grandparents. Grandma spent the last two weeks of her life in hospice care at a nursing home. She was very, very sick with cancer and I'm so thankful she is no longer sufferring. I have many treasured memories of my last few visits with her and I was able to share with her that she was going to be a great-grandma. Our twin girls would have been her first great-grandchildren. I know I will have many difficult moments to come but now I'm busy preparing for our upcoming fundraiser this Sunday and getting ready for two baby girls to join our lives!

I'll have more projects to come soon! :)