Ready for a quick round of "Where's C"?
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| Hmmm...where could she be hiding? |
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| Ah ha! Found you! |
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| (nevermind the ragamuffin hair and crazy jammies...it was a lazy morning at home) |
I dare you to find a cuter baby. I DARE YOU!!!!
somewords
Hmmm, only 5 weeks left in school with three research papers to write and a large stack of books still to read...time to do some home improvement! Because I would rather chew off my own leg than do homework. For reals.
There are only 3 spaces in my house that still have the paint from the previous owner. Only 3!! One is this little pass-way that goes from the great room into the master bedroom (soon to be the same Silver Birch as the kitchen area) and the two bathrooms. I'm a wee bit stumped on what to do with these spaces since a) they are itty bitty and b) we don't have the moolah to do the major projects we would like to do (including ripping out the linoleum floors and builder-grade vanities and replacing them with tile and something more custom.)
I've put up some shower curtains and thrown down some bath mats, but other than that I just haven't been able to wrap my mind around putting any work into a room that we want to overhaul within the next 2-3 years. I mean, isn't that just throwing money away? Maybe?
Anyway, I still don't know what I'm going to do in the guest room, but the master bath has been going through some transitions lately. Here is the quick breakdown:
1. Find cute towel at World Market--ooh! This is what I want to base the bathroom scheme on!
2. Oh joy! I have seeeeveral "tester pots" of paint that totally match the colors of the inspiration towel! I will use these pots to paint a mural that mimics the floral pattern on the towel but in a LARGE scale that will take up a whole wall!
3. Duh! I HATE murals!! And floral patterns!!
4. 3 weeks pass with crappy mural (oh yeah, I can't paint stuff like that freehand) still on bathroom wall, mocking me every time I look at it, laughing at me while I shower, talking some smack while I do my hair in the morning...I. Hate. Mural.
5. Solution! I will just paint over mural with blue-ish, green-ish color I have! Brilliant!
6. Blarg, this color looks like chlorine. If chlorine had a color. Just as bad as mural.
7. I find some frames I bought two years ago...these are good frames and they have a nice peacock color in them. Hmmmm...
8. At Home Depot I color-match peacock color to paint. Should I just buy a sample to try it out? NOPE! I will take a quart please!
9. Get home. Start painting. Good hell...this is a mighty, mighty color. Am afraid.
10. First coat is drying...is not making fun of me...okay, maybe it's not so bad.
11. Second coat is going on. This is looking good...
12. TV is calling me. No third coat tonight. Shutup.
Anyone else ditching homework (or housework?) to throw paint on the walls all willy-nilly?
***EDIT: Just kidding, TV failed me and after Biggest Loser nothing else worth watching was on, soooo I finished the third coat. There are some spots that need touch-ups, the edges need to be cut in, and that bald spot is where a nail is stuck in the wall and I can't find my hammer to pull it out, but other than that I think I'm done! Woot! And the color isn't really true in my pictures, but it is most like the color in the bottom picture (taken from the bedroom looking into the bathroom.)***
I bought a baby pool for C today and since the weather has been in the upper 90's (blech!) we took it for a spin this afternoon. It was a HUGE hit with C and I have a feeling we'll be getting our $6 worth out of this thing. Also, I don't know how to turn this video the right way...
Monday, May 23, 2011
You Can't See Me If I Can't See You!
Let there be light!
Gary and I have this list of everything we want to do to our house before we sell it and move on. It's our "put sweat equity into this place but also love what we end up with in case we get stuck here for 10 years intstead of 5" list. And this list is like eight pages long. Yikes.
But last week we got to cross off two of those items. One was the hot tub, and the second item was replacing the builder-grade track lighting in our kitchen with some pendant lights. You guys, I can't even tell you how happy I was to have this done. See, we have our stuff listed in a general order of priority so we know where to put our money first, and lighting was so far down on the list it wasn't even funny. But when Jordan and Trevor took the hot tub out, Trevor very generously offered to pay the electrician (who was already tying up the electric lines to the now-absent hot tub) to do some extra work on our house. Um, ok!
The lights are from Ikea, and though they aren't on the website they should be in your local store if you are interested, and the best part is that they are only $30 a pop! I looked around the interweb and not even HD or Lowes had something comparable at that price point. Sweet. They add just the right touch of outdoorsy-industrialness to the kitchen and my ONLY complaint is that the halogen light bulbs in them are waaaay too bright. I just need to track down some nice warm, soft CFLs and they will be complete perfection.
Up next in the kitchen? Butcherblock countertops and a white subway tile backsplash!
But last week we got to cross off two of those items. One was the hot tub, and the second item was replacing the builder-grade track lighting in our kitchen with some pendant lights. You guys, I can't even tell you how happy I was to have this done. See, we have our stuff listed in a general order of priority so we know where to put our money first, and lighting was so far down on the list it wasn't even funny. But when Jordan and Trevor took the hot tub out, Trevor very generously offered to pay the electrician (who was already tying up the electric lines to the now-absent hot tub) to do some extra work on our house. Um, ok!
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| See the old lights there at the tippy-top? So gross. |
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| Excuse the general mess and the sheet on the island. This was right after installation! So in love. |
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| Stainless steel echoes the nickel hardware on the cabinets (and the someday hopefully stainless steel appliances!) |
The lights are from Ikea, and though they aren't on the website they should be in your local store if you are interested, and the best part is that they are only $30 a pop! I looked around the interweb and not even HD or Lowes had something comparable at that price point. Sweet. They add just the right touch of outdoorsy-industrialness to the kitchen and my ONLY complaint is that the halogen light bulbs in them are waaaay too bright. I just need to track down some nice warm, soft CFLs and they will be complete perfection.
Up next in the kitchen? Butcherblock countertops and a white subway tile backsplash!
Hot Tub, Hot Mess
So for those of you who followed my last blog or who have been to our home, you may recall that a large portion of our *very* modest yard was dedicated to one very large hot tub. One very large, very nice hot tub. That we used once.
I really think that we would have used it more except that by the time it was cool enough to get in, I was pregnant and told that hot tubbing was a no-go plus, to be perfectly honest, I am not really a hot-tubbing kind of girl. It just smacks of communal bath to me, and that? That totally skeeves me out. Also there is the whole kid-safety issue...so. It had to go.
About a month or so ago I mentioned to my brother that he and his significant other should totally take it and that if they paid for an electrician to tie off the power to the behemoth, it was all his. Honestly though, I seriously didn't think they would take me up on my offer. But they did. I was floored. And ecstatic. See, they are super social. They will use it. This crazy-nice hot tub deserves a home like theirs. I'm so happy for the three of them.
There really isn't much to say about seeing it go except this:
a) The slogan for the crane company? "We Get It Up Fast Every Time" I. Love. This. Seriously hilarious. Especially because the owner is like a thousand years old. And super nice, in a grandfatherly way.
b) We all gathered outside to watch the crane lift the hot tub out of our yard like total nerds. I'm pretty sure that the kids next door were out watching too, but Gary was more excited and impressed than any of them. It's the manchild within.
c) Underneath the hot tub was a perfectly GORGEOUS slab just begging us to build a playhouse on top of it. Be patient sweet slab, your time will come.
About a month or so ago I mentioned to my brother that he and his significant other should totally take it and that if they paid for an electrician to tie off the power to the behemoth, it was all his. Honestly though, I seriously didn't think they would take me up on my offer. But they did. I was floored. And ecstatic. See, they are super social. They will use it. This crazy-nice hot tub deserves a home like theirs. I'm so happy for the three of them.
There really isn't much to say about seeing it go except this:
a) The slogan for the crane company? "We Get It Up Fast Every Time" I. Love. This. Seriously hilarious. Especially because the owner is like a thousand years old. And super nice, in a grandfatherly way.
b) We all gathered outside to watch the crane lift the hot tub out of our yard like total nerds. I'm pretty sure that the kids next door were out watching too, but Gary was more excited and impressed than any of them. It's the manchild within.
c) Underneath the hot tub was a perfectly GORGEOUS slab just begging us to build a playhouse on top of it. Be patient sweet slab, your time will come.
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| Going... |
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| going... |
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| gone! |
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No Time Like the Present
I am so very, very behind on blogging. For reals.
School and finals wrapped up the second week of May and things around the house have been non-stop ever since. Gary had a week off right after school let out and we spent some time working around the house and even went out on a totally legit, 100% real grown-up date. Like, there was dinner and everything! So fancy. Then he used the second half of his week off on a boys-only weekend in California with his brother and brother-in-law while I stayed home, spent an evening talking shop and cutting out a quilt with my sister Amy, did what felt like too much yard work and generally tried to maintain my sanity while I had C for an ENTIRE weekend by myself. We both survived AND I got a little bit of a tan, so I'm going to call is a huge success.
Unfortunately, the last several weeks (months?) of school we were both too pooped to cook (or apparently to choose subway over Mcdonalds) and we ate waaaaay too much fast food. Needless to say, I've put on a bit of weight. Well, even more weight...I'm working on it people. Just so you know, I'm not too keen on being photographed in all of my Ruebenesque glory, so for now the blog updates will focus on what's happening around the house and on my increasingly adorable baby. Trust me, you're totally winning in this scenario.
And so, let the marathon of posts commence!
School and finals wrapped up the second week of May and things around the house have been non-stop ever since. Gary had a week off right after school let out and we spent some time working around the house and even went out on a totally legit, 100% real grown-up date. Like, there was dinner and everything! So fancy. Then he used the second half of his week off on a boys-only weekend in California with his brother and brother-in-law while I stayed home, spent an evening talking shop and cutting out a quilt with my sister Amy, did what felt like too much yard work and generally tried to maintain my sanity while I had C for an ENTIRE weekend by myself. We both survived AND I got a little bit of a tan, so I'm going to call is a huge success.
Unfortunately, the last several weeks (months?) of school we were both too pooped to cook (or apparently to choose subway over Mcdonalds) and we ate waaaaay too much fast food. Needless to say, I've put on a bit of weight. Well, even more weight...I'm working on it people. Just so you know, I'm not too keen on being photographed in all of my Ruebenesque glory, so for now the blog updates will focus on what's happening around the house and on my increasingly adorable baby. Trust me, you're totally winning in this scenario.
And so, let the marathon of posts commence!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
It's that time of the year...
There are only 3 spaces in my house that still have the paint from the previous owner. Only 3!! One is this little pass-way that goes from the great room into the master bedroom (soon to be the same Silver Birch as the kitchen area) and the two bathrooms. I'm a wee bit stumped on what to do with these spaces since a) they are itty bitty and b) we don't have the moolah to do the major projects we would like to do (including ripping out the linoleum floors and builder-grade vanities and replacing them with tile and something more custom.)
I've put up some shower curtains and thrown down some bath mats, but other than that I just haven't been able to wrap my mind around putting any work into a room that we want to overhaul within the next 2-3 years. I mean, isn't that just throwing money away? Maybe?
Anyway, I still don't know what I'm going to do in the guest room, but the master bath has been going through some transitions lately. Here is the quick breakdown:
2. Oh joy! I have seeeeveral "tester pots" of paint that totally match the colors of the inspiration towel! I will use these pots to paint a mural that mimics the floral pattern on the towel but in a LARGE scale that will take up a whole wall!
3. Duh! I HATE murals!! And floral patterns!!
4. 3 weeks pass with crappy mural (oh yeah, I can't paint stuff like that freehand) still on bathroom wall, mocking me every time I look at it, laughing at me while I shower, talking some smack while I do my hair in the morning...I. Hate. Mural.
5. Solution! I will just paint over mural with blue-ish, green-ish color I have! Brilliant!
6. Blarg, this color looks like chlorine. If chlorine had a color. Just as bad as mural.
8. At Home Depot I color-match peacock color to paint. Should I just buy a sample to try it out? NOPE! I will take a quart please!
10. First coat is drying...is not making fun of me...okay, maybe it's not so bad.
11. Second coat is going on. This is looking good...
12. TV is calling me. No third coat tonight. Shutup.
Anyone else ditching homework (or housework?) to throw paint on the walls all willy-nilly?
***EDIT: Just kidding, TV failed me and after Biggest Loser nothing else worth watching was on, soooo I finished the third coat. There are some spots that need touch-ups, the edges need to be cut in, and that bald spot is where a nail is stuck in the wall and I can't find my hammer to pull it out, but other than that I think I'm done! Woot! And the color isn't really true in my pictures, but it is most like the color in the bottom picture (taken from the bedroom looking into the bathroom.)***
Saturday, April 2, 2011
C goes swimming
I bought a baby pool for C today and since the weather has been in the upper 90's (blech!) we took it for a spin this afternoon. It was a HUGE hit with C and I have a feeling we'll be getting our $6 worth out of this thing. Also, I don't know how to turn this video the right way...
Also, is there anything more adorable than a baby girl with a swimsuit wedgie? I don't think so.
Dear C
I looked through my past posts and it looks like I completely forgot to do a six-month letter! One of these days I am going to get my act together and my pre-baby brain is going to start working again (right? RIGHT?!!) but for now here is C in all of her 7 month glory!
Dear C,
Last week you turned seven months old and you really hit the ground running! Almost overnight it seems like you have gone from a "mostly-still-baby" to an "I'm-practically-ready-for-my-driver's-license-little-girl"!
On March 19th the Reid family was gathered together at Aunt Amy and Uncle Jason's to celebrate your cousin Tucker's baptism. I set you on the floor with a few toys and all of a sudden you popped up on your hands and knees and started crawling!! We were crazy excited but super surprised because before this all you had done was roll around the living room. I mean, you were REALLY good at rolling, but you hadn't really tried crawling at all yet. I guess you were tired of not being able to get exactly where you wanted to go! We get such a kick out of watching you zip around the living room, and apparently you do too because you often crack up laughing while you crawl!
Just a few days later I went into your room to get you up from a nap and you had pulled yourself up in your bed and you were standing! Now you pull yourself up on chairs, on the couch, on the dresser in our living room and on mommy and daddy. You can "walk" yourself down the length of the tv dresser (about 7 feet) and across the couch...I wouldn't be surprised if you were walking by 9 months, especially because although you like to crawl, you often seem frustrated that you can't move faster or reach high enough.
You continue to talk away (not surprising given how chatty your daddy and I are) and you are working hard on consonants: bababababa, dadadadada, mummm-mummm are some newer sounds, and you like to "whisper" to yourself (this is my favorite!) You aren't screaming for fun as much but you do talk LOUDLY!
You are a champ at eating solids and you are sloooowly getting used to "chunkier" foods. You love sweet potatoes the most, and you like pretty much any veggie and some of the fruits but you H-A-T-E bananas! Just today you have figured out how to "chew" the rice puffs and you really seem to like smacking the pieces around in your mouth. You are down to just 4 bottles a day and you drink water out of a sippy cup with our help.
Yesterday we found that you had cut your first tooth! Hooray! Without extra crying/drooling/fussing/fevers/rashes it popped through and we are so excited! Hopefully the rest of your teething is just as easy for both of us (ha! we'll keep our fingers crossed anyway...)
Other things worth mentioning: we are still cloth diapering and I love it! You don't seem to care but I'm sure you appreciate diapers that don't leak and absorb more damp away from your cute little tush :) Today I bought you a little play pool for the backyard and you had so much fun! You laughed and splashed and crawled around in the water giggling, and I may be biased, but I don't know that I have ever seen anything cuter than your chubby little rolls in a swimsuit! Your hair is still pretty red, although I guess it looks more auburn now, and your eyes are still blue blue blue! You are tall and chunky: at your 6 month checkup you weighed 18.5 lbs (90th percentile) and you were something like 28.5 inches tall (97th percentile). The doctor said you were "very advanced" and was extremely impressed by how well you sit up on your own. I think she would be blown away by how much progress you have made in just the last 3 weeks.
You continue to be a happy happy girl. You still sleep through the night like a champ and you let us know when you need a nap (although Grammy says you are not a good at sleeping for her.) You are still very clingy sometimes and you do not like us to be out of your sight. Sometimes you are not happy unless we are playing with you, but as soon as we do you start talking and laughing. This makes it hard to get anything done (like housework or homework) but there is something extremely gratifying about how much you love us, and that usually makes it worth it. You love to see other children and babies. Other than your mommy and daddy, your favorite people in the world are: Pokey, Grammy, Aunt Carly and Aunt Abbie, Aunt Amy and Auntie April (pretty much in that order). You are getting much better about not crying when Gramma Reid picks you up and the last few times you have seen her you smile and let her hold you. I think you just need to visit with her more :) I don't know that you have any favorite toys, but every night and for every nap you like to have your sleepy-time bunny. I will lay you down to sleep and you put your thumb in your mouth and with the other hand you use sleepy-time bunny to cover your face (we love how sweet this is!) You usually sleep on your side now, and sometimes on your tummy.
Every month I think to myself "this is my favorite age" and I keep worrying that soon that is going to end...that it couldn't possibly get better than this, and each month I am wrong. We love you so much and I am endlessly fascinated watching your personality develop. I can't wait to meet the little girl you turn into but at the same time I hope you stop growing so fast because I am not quite ready to move on from this stage. We love you C-Saw! Happy 7 month birthday!
Love,
Mommy
Dear C,
Last week you turned seven months old and you really hit the ground running! Almost overnight it seems like you have gone from a "mostly-still-baby" to an "I'm-practically-ready-for-my-driver's-license-little-girl"!
On March 19th the Reid family was gathered together at Aunt Amy and Uncle Jason's to celebrate your cousin Tucker's baptism. I set you on the floor with a few toys and all of a sudden you popped up on your hands and knees and started crawling!! We were crazy excited but super surprised because before this all you had done was roll around the living room. I mean, you were REALLY good at rolling, but you hadn't really tried crawling at all yet. I guess you were tired of not being able to get exactly where you wanted to go! We get such a kick out of watching you zip around the living room, and apparently you do too because you often crack up laughing while you crawl!
Just a few days later I went into your room to get you up from a nap and you had pulled yourself up in your bed and you were standing! Now you pull yourself up on chairs, on the couch, on the dresser in our living room and on mommy and daddy. You can "walk" yourself down the length of the tv dresser (about 7 feet) and across the couch...I wouldn't be surprised if you were walking by 9 months, especially because although you like to crawl, you often seem frustrated that you can't move faster or reach high enough.
You continue to talk away (not surprising given how chatty your daddy and I are) and you are working hard on consonants: bababababa, dadadadada, mummm-mummm are some newer sounds, and you like to "whisper" to yourself (this is my favorite!) You aren't screaming for fun as much but you do talk LOUDLY!
You are a champ at eating solids and you are sloooowly getting used to "chunkier" foods. You love sweet potatoes the most, and you like pretty much any veggie and some of the fruits but you H-A-T-E bananas! Just today you have figured out how to "chew" the rice puffs and you really seem to like smacking the pieces around in your mouth. You are down to just 4 bottles a day and you drink water out of a sippy cup with our help.
You continue to be a happy happy girl. You still sleep through the night like a champ and you let us know when you need a nap (although Grammy says you are not a good at sleeping for her.) You are still very clingy sometimes and you do not like us to be out of your sight. Sometimes you are not happy unless we are playing with you, but as soon as we do you start talking and laughing. This makes it hard to get anything done (like housework or homework) but there is something extremely gratifying about how much you love us, and that usually makes it worth it. You love to see other children and babies. Other than your mommy and daddy, your favorite people in the world are: Pokey, Grammy, Aunt Carly and Aunt Abbie, Aunt Amy and Auntie April (pretty much in that order). You are getting much better about not crying when Gramma Reid picks you up and the last few times you have seen her you smile and let her hold you. I think you just need to visit with her more :) I don't know that you have any favorite toys, but every night and for every nap you like to have your sleepy-time bunny. I will lay you down to sleep and you put your thumb in your mouth and with the other hand you use sleepy-time bunny to cover your face (we love how sweet this is!) You usually sleep on your side now, and sometimes on your tummy.
Every month I think to myself "this is my favorite age" and I keep worrying that soon that is going to end...that it couldn't possibly get better than this, and each month I am wrong. We love you so much and I am endlessly fascinated watching your personality develop. I can't wait to meet the little girl you turn into but at the same time I hope you stop growing so fast because I am not quite ready to move on from this stage. We love you C-Saw! Happy 7 month birthday!
Love,
Mommy
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