Water, Closing, Lights, Baby, and Snow

WATER: Yesterday evening, around 5:15, I decided to refill the water jug and found that there was no water coming out of the faucet. Hmmmm....slight problem. I called both girls over to the valve for the water and asked if either of them had played with it. No, and no again. And, when I cranked it, it was already turned "on". Hmmmmm again. So, I did what any good sensible wife would do. I called my husband. Josh informed me that, upon the direction from the realtor of the buyers of our current house, the new buyers would be converting the city utilities bill to their names as of Feb. 28. Josh had cancelled our service as of Feb. 28, and unfortuantely, the new buyers DIDN'T take over the account. (There was slight miscommunication between the buyers and their realtor and the realtor and us. It's all straightened out now.) That left prego me and two small children without any water. I called the city, and they are supposed to be here today between 1:00 and 4:00 to turn the water back on. We all packed up and headed to my parents' house. Thanks for letting us crash at your house Mom and Dad! ...as an update, while I was typing up my blog the water guy came and we officially have water...praise the Lord!

CLOSING: The good news is that we closed on our current house this morning with no problems! Yay! Big step in the right direction. We'll be officially moving March 15-16.

LIGHTS: We have permanent lights in the new house! All of the can lights are installed in the kitchen, and there are several other lights installed as well. Josh and a guy from work spent several hours installing last night. Josh didn't get to my parents' house until after 1:00AM. But, there is light, and it is good!

BABY: I had an OB appointment today, and all was well. I have an appointment set up with my c-section doc on March 12, and we will officially schedule the c-section date during that appointment. My OB said that it may even be April 7 or 8. We'll see!

SNOW: It has snowed a lot here this week. The beginning of the week snow was outstanding for making snowmen....so we made one. The girls really enjoyed playing outside, and I even joined in the fun. Claire and I made the snowman while Meredith went sledding down the hill. Here are some pictures of the fun:

What a Baby!

How sweet is this? This is a picture of a baby (not ours of course, and it was already labeled from the site where I found it!) in the womb at 32 weeks. We are 34 weeks this Thursday. Our baby looks just like this (hopefully with the penis and everything!). We'll adore her even if she arrives without the "extras"! I can't believe this baby will be here in about 5 weeks. I have an OB appointment this Friday, and I think we'll be scheduling the c-section soon. I'm guessing it will be around April 3rd or 4th. Yay for our baby! Yay for all babies! What an absolute miracle.

Flooring Pics

The girls and I headed out to the house this evening to check out the new flooring, the tile, and the bathroom. Although, as usual, on the trip over Meredith fell asleep. She does this about 90% of the time. When we get back home, she begins to get weepy and says, "I thought we were going to the new house." It's kind of funny. Thankfully, tonight she didn't get weepy because I just brought her home and put her to bed. I had a cute picture of her sleeping that I was going to include, but she had slobber all over her face. I thought she might be embarrassed by it :)

Back to the flooring...it looks so great! Josh has just done a fabulous job on everything so far. He's such a great asset; I'm going to hang on to him :) Anyway, here are some pictures of the hallway and the office. (On a side note...I thought Josh said they did the dining room yesterday too, but they didn't. It will be started once the cabinets are installed.) I'm sorry for the slightly fuzzy pictures. I'm convinced that there is so much dust in the air that it is reflecting into my pictures, and there are actually dirty footprints all over the floor.

I've included two pictures with labels. I'm certainly not a "paint" expert, so I don't know the best way to label pictures. I did my best with what I could figure out. The first one, I'm standing in the family room/kitchen area taking the picture. The second one, I'm standing in the living room area taking the picture. You can click on either of them to see the "up close" version. Enjoy!

Front Entryway and Bathroom

Here are some pictures from the weekend! Yay!

The entryway and both bathrooms have tile. Again, the grout isn't completed, but Josh just laid the master bath tile Saturday. I think he's planning on grouting all of the tile at once. That will most likely take place sometime this week.





Yesterday, my parents were over helping work (thanks!), and my dad and Josh were able to install the vanity, sink, and linen cabinet in the main bathroom. Here are a couple of pics of the project...

Vanity with sink:

Linen cabinet beside the vanity/sink:

The combo (not a great picture...sorry):

Today, my dad and Josh laid the laminate floor in the dining room, hallway, closet, and office! I'm sooooo excited :) I will hopefully get out there sometime this week and take more pictures. I can't wait to see everything in person. I'm thrilled about the laminate. Josh was so excited about how quickly and easily the laminate went in. He said it couldn't have gone better, and they barely had any scrap! The kitchen floor will be done next week after the kitchen cabinets arrive and are installed. They are supposed to be in next Sunday.

Update on the furnace...we've now learned that we won't have to put the furnace in the coat closet. We can put it in the attic. That being said....you may again bring your coats!

Birthday Pics and House Update

Here are a few pictures from Meredith's birthday party (Sunday's celebration). Notice her choices: Strawberry Shortcake for the hats, Dora on the cake. She's a fun kid! She had a really fun time with the fam, and we're looking forward to celebrating with all of the fam on the other side Thursday night! Here are a few of the highlights...



Meredith insisted that everyone wear a hat, so we thought it was only appropriate that the baby wore one as well:

Meredith opening presents:

Claire having a hard time NOT opening presents:

Meredith twirling in her new purple dress:

Update on the house:
I wish I had pictures, but my hubby forgot to take the camera with him tonight. I set it out to send with him, but being prego, I just can't remember everything! (I can barely remember anything actually.) Anyway, since he won't be out at the house until Saturday, I will give a "wordy" update instead. The tile has been laid in the entryway and in the main bathroom. It hasn't been grouted, but it will be soon.

We found out today that we have to put a new furnace on the main floor of the house (not in the attic like the old one). Unfortunately, that means we need to have a 4x4 space for this new furnace. The only space that will work is my front coat closet...sniff, sniff. So, when you come to our house for a visit, please leave your coat in the car because we won't have a place to hang it. It will also take up additional space in our office. It's not the way we would have chosen it, but we'll work with what we have! I've always thought that coat closets and office spaces were overrated anyway :) Who needs 'em?

Valentines and Burp Cloths

The girls decided to make Valentines for their cousins, Grandmas and Grandpas, and a few of their friends. These are just a few examples of the ones that they made. I think they ended up making about 20. They turned out really cute! I, of course, cut out the hearts and shapes, and the girls glued them to the papers. They also had a few stickers. One of Claire's valentines ended up having about 15 stickers on it. Anyway, it was a lot of fun!

Here is Claire with a few of her valentines:

Here is Meredith with a couple of her valentines:
(note the summer attire and "dancing shoes")

Now...on to the infamous burp cloths...
I started setting up the sewing machine on Friday night while Josh was installing the new water heater in our current house (it is in our contract with the new buyers). He didn't need my help, so I thought I would tackle the burp cloths. Thankfully, I had the sewing manual in front of me because I know I wouldn't have succeeded with out it. (I barely succeeded with it!) Anyway, so I threaded my bobbin, threaded the upper spool of thread through the sewing machine and the needle, and figured out how to get the lower thread to come up through the sewing machine in the right place. Doing well so far. Now comes the hard part...the actual sewing.

I get my first burp cloth up on the sewing machine, press my foot on the pedal, and begin to sew....or not. All of a sudden, there was a ton of string under my burp cloth, no string in any of the holes being made by my needle, and the string was broken. Hmmmmmm....something must be wrong. I looked through the manual again to make sure I did things right. The exact same thing happened again...and again....and again....and again. At this point, I was getting a tad bit frustrated! If I was a girl who used profanity, I would have used a few choice words! I seriously could not figure out what I was doing wrong.

So, I decided to start over....something must not be set up correctly. I rethreaded the top spool of thread. While I was doing that, I decided that might have solved the problem. I thought I may have missed one of the loops earlier. I began sewing again....yeah! SUCCESS AT LAST! I was actually sewing this time (professionals would probably disagree), but I was at least doing what I set out to do! Josh calls out from the other room, "Is that domestication I hear?" And it was. And here is a photo of my 4 finished products:

Ahhh yes....sweet victory over the sewing machine. I'm inspired to tackle more projects in the future!

Happy Birthday Meredith

My favorite Meredith in the whole wide world is 3 years old today! What a sweet pea! We will be celebrating her birthday with my family tomorrow and with Josh's family on Thursday. She is so excited to be "fwee" years old. She's been practicing with her fingers for weeks! She wants a "rocking horse, a turtle (Littlest Pet Shop), a guitar, a toy cup, and a pick for her guitar." I'm not sure if she really wants all of those things, but that's what she just told me! Currently, she loves dressing up in summer clothes (despite the cold weather), and dresses are her absolute favorite. Yesterday, Grandma took her to the mall to ride the merry-go-round, eat ice cream, and get new sun glasses. What fun it must be to be three! So, happy birthday to my baby girl!


By the way, this picture is Meredith in her truest form (three left hand fingers in the mouth/elephant in the other hand)...classic Meredith! We love you baby girl!

From Priming to Painting

Josh has been priming the house since Tuesday evening. All of the rooms and ceilings are complete except for one wall in the living room. He ran out of primer with one wall to go :( He only needs about 1/3 of a gallon of primer to finish up, so he'll finish tonight! Yay! Then, he will begin painting the ceilings tonight which will allow him to begin putting up the lights!! How exciting!! I think I'll be able to get out there sometime this weekend and take some updated pictures to post.

Becoming Domesticated

Ok, well, I'm officially trying to become more domesticated! It's kind of working :) I'm taking a few steps in the right direction. With Josh at the new house so many hours of the evening, it gives me time to browse the internet. I stumbled across a blog that I love! It has inspired me to craft a few simple projects. My attempt is this adorable little burp cloth. There are actually 4 of them. I took the template that the blogger had included, and I made it my own. Her template was a "peanut" shape, and I've recently been looking at some new burp cloths on Babies-R-Us' website that are a kidney shape. I altered it a bit, and the result is the cute little burp cloth shape to the right! I've only measured, cut the fabric, and pinned it. I think the hard part will come when I plug in the sewing machine! My mom said I could borrow hers which could prove scarier than it sounds. The last time I sewed something on her machine, I broke three needles....it was the fabric (and the operator!). Anyway, I'll update you on the results of the burp cloths once they are complete (good or bad). I may be finished as early as Friday.

Regarding the house: The primer arrived today, and Josh was going to begin priming this evening. Progress, progress, progress....love it!

Sample Kitchen

The countertops are ordered, and I've decided to include a couple of pictures to give you an idea of the look of our kitchen. The cabinet designers offer a "kitchen visualizer" for your benefit, although 95% of us don't have kitchens that look even close to their samples! However, they are still nice to give you an idea of coloring. They let you pick out everything from your floor to your countertop to your appliance colors and more. So, keep in mind that our kitchen won't have the massive island in the middle of it...or the beautiful beams running through the ceiling (although we do have one beam!)...or the humongous office area....or the vegetable washing sink....you get the idea! I've also included a sample of our countertop and our flooring.

Kitchen (read above remarks if you haven't already!):

Countertop:

Flooring:

The drywallers are departing!

The drywallers will be COMPLETELY FINISHED by Sunday at noon! That is a whole week sooner than we thought! The Spanish laced ceilings are finished, and I was able to go see them today. They look great! Josh is going to begin hanging doors tomorrow afternoon, and he will begin priming the walls next week.

We are ordering our countertop tomorrow. Josh gave me two options, and unfortunately, I chose the more expensive option (he wasn't surprised!). Honestly, I chose the one I liked better...what's a girl supposed to do? :) We also ordered our dishwasher and range today! Yay!

It's Official

It's official! After reading blogs for so long, I've FINALLY decided to start my own! My big motivation is everyone asking about the house. We are so very excited about it (most of the time!), and I just wanted to share the latest pics with everyone. We actually have walls! Enjoy...

This is a picture of the kitchen as of last week.

This is a pic of the kitchen as of this week! Thank you drywallers!

This is our family room last week.

This is our family room this week!

This is our dining room this week! Sorry, I didn't have a "before" picture.

Anyway, I know everyone may not be as excited as I am about all of the new drywall, but the house has been down to the studs for SO LONG that this feels like such a huge step in the right direction!