That's it. Happy Leap Day everyone. And a very Happy Leap Birthday to my Uncle Paul. I think he's officially 13 today? Have a great day Paul!
Friday, February 29, 2008
CRAZY STRIPPER!
Once upon a time, not all that long ago, a wonderful and devoted mother, me, woke up one morning and decided to make her 3 year-old son, Austin, a wonderful pancake breakfast. Austin can be quite picky about how he eats his food and/or has it served to him, and his desires can change on a whim. So whenever we have pancakes I always ask him if he wants butter on the pancakes or on the side. Syrup on the pancakes or on the side? Pancakes whole or cut up?
One day Austin decided he’d rather have his syrup on the side. Therefore I asked him if he wanted his pancakes cut into strips so he could more easily dunk the strips into the syrup, rather than trying to dip the whole pancake. He was very excited by this new proposition, so I proceeded to cut his pancakes into strips. Breakfast went very smoothly, cleanup proceeded just fine, and we were off on our day.
Much, much later that day, Austin became frustrated with me, about what I’ve long since forgotten. And because he doesn’t yet really know what real name-calling is, he often makes things up to call you when he gets mad. One of his favorite is “ipper.” I have no idea what an “ipper” is, but I’ve been accused of it more than once, as has Jason. Well on this particular day, Austin came up with what he considered a wonderfully new and derogatory insult. He was so frustrated with me he stomped his foot, looked me straight in the eye, and said,
“You crazy stripper!”
I was certain I had misunderstood him.
“What did you say?”
“I called you are a crazy stripper!”
“Where did you hear that?”
“From when you made my pancakes into strips this morning.”
Next came the gentle and calm explanation that we do not call people strippers or any other names for that matter, which, I might add, is a somewhat difficult conversation to have when you’re trying not to start laughing about the whole scene.
So there it is. My son thinks I’m a stripper, and as it turns out, I guess I am!
One day Austin decided he’d rather have his syrup on the side. Therefore I asked him if he wanted his pancakes cut into strips so he could more easily dunk the strips into the syrup, rather than trying to dip the whole pancake. He was very excited by this new proposition, so I proceeded to cut his pancakes into strips. Breakfast went very smoothly, cleanup proceeded just fine, and we were off on our day.
Much, much later that day, Austin became frustrated with me, about what I’ve long since forgotten. And because he doesn’t yet really know what real name-calling is, he often makes things up to call you when he gets mad. One of his favorite is “ipper.” I have no idea what an “ipper” is, but I’ve been accused of it more than once, as has Jason. Well on this particular day, Austin came up with what he considered a wonderfully new and derogatory insult. He was so frustrated with me he stomped his foot, looked me straight in the eye, and said,
“You crazy stripper!”
I was certain I had misunderstood him.
“What did you say?”
“I called you are a crazy stripper!”
“Where did you hear that?”
“From when you made my pancakes into strips this morning.”
Next came the gentle and calm explanation that we do not call people strippers or any other names for that matter, which, I might add, is a somewhat difficult conversation to have when you’re trying not to start laughing about the whole scene.
So there it is. My son thinks I’m a stripper, and as it turns out, I guess I am!
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Curved Shower Rod
So here’s the story of our Curved Shower Rod. I fear it may be somewhat of a let-down because it’s not all that great a story, but here goes anyway. By the way, the above picture is not actually of our bathroom, but does show the tremendous benefits afforded by having a curved shower rod.Our condo was sold and we had long since moved out of it. Angie and the boys were living in Longview with my parents while I was staying at Angie’s Uncle’s house in Renton. On weekends I’d go down and visit, then drive back up on Sunday night. When at last we heard from escrow that they had the papers on our house and were ready for us to come sign, we arranged to get a hotel in Federal Way (close to escrow) and have Angie and the boys come up the night before our early AM signing appointment. We found a hotel with an indoor swimming pool so we could take the boys swimming, and fun was had by all.
Well, our hotel room happened to have a curved shower rod in it, and Angie and I both commented on how wonderful it was to take a shower and not have the curtain hanging on you the whole time. Those extra few inches really make a huge difference!
So the other day we were at Lowes buying supplies for the many projects going on in our new house and we sought out the shower rods to see how much a curved rod would be. It ended up being about $40 but neither one of us flinched at that price. We both just knew it had to be part of our new bathroom. We got it, my Dad helped us install it, which was really quite simple, and we’ve been enjoying it for a couple weeks now.
Seriously, if you’ve not experienced the luxuries of the curved shower rod I would highly recommend booking a night at your local hotel. Be sure to call around and make sure they’ve got a room with one installed. After you try it, you’ll be headed out to get your own!
P.S. I have not been paid for endorsements by either the curved shower rod people or the hotel industry.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
A Home of Our Very Own
After what turned out to be 2 months of waiting to get into our house, we’re finally in. And by in I mean we have absolutely nothing stored in any storage units that we have to pay monthly rent on. After all, don’t we all have stuff stored at Mom and Dad’s house no matter how old we are? I know I do, and I know Angie does. But finally even that could be remedied soon. We actually have a real house with enough room to store everything we have in what would typically be considered storage areas, not stacked under the bed, not piled in the closets. A place for everything and everything in it’s place.
Okay, so we don’t yet have everything in it’s place, but it’s comforting knowing there is a place for it to eventually go. We are actually still living in some state of disarray. After we took possession of the house, but before we emptied the storage units, we undertook several projects upstairs. First of all, paint for every wall. Living room, dining room, kitchen, entryway (took some daredevil painting to complete that), hallway, both bathrooms and 3 bedrooms, all got painted. The main bathroom was subject to a much bigger makeover. Toilet taken up, vanity and mirror ripped out, new floor put down, toilet back in, new vanity in, new mirror up, electrical outlet put it (can you believe there was no outlet in the bathroom?), and new curtain rod put in. Actually, the curtain rod may be my favorite part, and there’s a little story about that too. Maybe I’ll save that for another day. We then commenced to rip out the carpet throughout the entire upstairs and haul it down to our newly designated garbage pile in the unfinished portion of the basement (everywhere except the dining room as we still have some work to complete in there). Underneath this nasty “who knows how many decades old” carpet was absolutely beautiful looking wood floors. We’re talking real wood floors here! The carpet was actually just taped down so removal was easy, but the best part is there’s no holes from nailing the carpet in and no messy glue from gluing it in. These floors literally need nothing more than sweeping and mopping and they look fantastic! We’re so excited about the floors.
We’ve since purchased new blinds that have been installed in the 3 bedrooms (way to go Angie)! Curtains have been put up in our room and the boys room. Fireplace insert has been removed and the entire outside chimney has been weatherized and sealed. Plans are still to redo all the baseboards throughout the upstairs, wainscot above the baseboards in the dining room (hence the carpet is still there), replace all the outlets (we have the really old style that have just two prongs instead of 3), and who knows what else. I’m sure Angie’s got a lot more plans. And don’t get me started on the half finished downstairs which currently has no heating. We’ll get to all that someday. Not to mention that as the weather heats up we’ve got some serious work to do in the yard to restore it to some semblance of life. That too, will come some day, probably sooner rather than later.
We’re just excited to finally be in our place and be doing some work on it. Things look great so far, and hopefully will keep getting better. HUGE THANKS to my Mom and Dad for coming up 2 weekends in a row to help do all that work. Couldn’t have done it without them. Not to mention the fact that Angie and boys lived with them for 2 months waiting to get into the house. We’ll have to do something big for them.
Good news, the digital camera is out of storage, so pics should be coming soon!
Okay, so we don’t yet have everything in it’s place, but it’s comforting knowing there is a place for it to eventually go. We are actually still living in some state of disarray. After we took possession of the house, but before we emptied the storage units, we undertook several projects upstairs. First of all, paint for every wall. Living room, dining room, kitchen, entryway (took some daredevil painting to complete that), hallway, both bathrooms and 3 bedrooms, all got painted. The main bathroom was subject to a much bigger makeover. Toilet taken up, vanity and mirror ripped out, new floor put down, toilet back in, new vanity in, new mirror up, electrical outlet put it (can you believe there was no outlet in the bathroom?), and new curtain rod put in. Actually, the curtain rod may be my favorite part, and there’s a little story about that too. Maybe I’ll save that for another day. We then commenced to rip out the carpet throughout the entire upstairs and haul it down to our newly designated garbage pile in the unfinished portion of the basement (everywhere except the dining room as we still have some work to complete in there). Underneath this nasty “who knows how many decades old” carpet was absolutely beautiful looking wood floors. We’re talking real wood floors here! The carpet was actually just taped down so removal was easy, but the best part is there’s no holes from nailing the carpet in and no messy glue from gluing it in. These floors literally need nothing more than sweeping and mopping and they look fantastic! We’re so excited about the floors.
We’ve since purchased new blinds that have been installed in the 3 bedrooms (way to go Angie)! Curtains have been put up in our room and the boys room. Fireplace insert has been removed and the entire outside chimney has been weatherized and sealed. Plans are still to redo all the baseboards throughout the upstairs, wainscot above the baseboards in the dining room (hence the carpet is still there), replace all the outlets (we have the really old style that have just two prongs instead of 3), and who knows what else. I’m sure Angie’s got a lot more plans. And don’t get me started on the half finished downstairs which currently has no heating. We’ll get to all that someday. Not to mention that as the weather heats up we’ve got some serious work to do in the yard to restore it to some semblance of life. That too, will come some day, probably sooner rather than later.
We’re just excited to finally be in our place and be doing some work on it. Things look great so far, and hopefully will keep getting better. HUGE THANKS to my Mom and Dad for coming up 2 weekends in a row to help do all that work. Couldn’t have done it without them. Not to mention the fact that Angie and boys lived with them for 2 months waiting to get into the house. We’ll have to do something big for them.
Good news, the digital camera is out of storage, so pics should be coming soon!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
50 Cent In Our House?
Last night we were sitting in the boy’s room watching TV, because we haven’t hooked up cable yet and so far we get the best reception in their room. So we’re all sitting on the floor, no furniture yet mind you, watching TV and Luke decides he wants to listen to the radio. He long ago figured out that on our little TV there’s a button you can push that will change it from TV to Radio and he loves hearing the music. So he goes over, pushes the button, what do we care it’s on commercial anyway, the music comes on and he starts dancing up a storm. So Angie and I start encouraging him by bobbing our heads and otherwise doing our best to “dance” from a seated position.
Next thing we know, here’s Austin putting words to the music:
“Go Lukie, it’s your Birthday!”
“Go Lukie, it’s your Birthday!”
“Go Lukie, it’s your Birthday!”
That’s when we lost it. We were literally rolling on the floor laughing, aided of course by the fact that we were already on the floor, but nevertheless, we were rolling. Don’t know where he heard it or where he picked it up from, but 50 Cent was definitely “in da house” last night!
Next thing we know, here’s Austin putting words to the music:
“Go Lukie, it’s your Birthday!”
“Go Lukie, it’s your Birthday!”
“Go Lukie, it’s your Birthday!”
That’s when we lost it. We were literally rolling on the floor laughing, aided of course by the fact that we were already on the floor, but nevertheless, we were rolling. Don’t know where he heard it or where he picked it up from, but 50 Cent was definitely “in da house” last night!
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Where have we been?
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! And for that matter, Happy Thanksgiving and Christmas too, since we seem to have missed the second half of November, all of December, and the first half of January. Boy has life been crazy. Let’s get started with some updates.
First of all, big thanks to our dear friend Myr for taking our plain old blog and jazzing it up for us. She’s so creative! Great job Myr. Now it’ll not only be an adventure for all of our friends to log in and see what’s going on, but for us as well.
Second, and partial explanation for the long hiatus, we’ve sold our condo in Kent. YEAH!!!!!! Or as Austin would once say, “Phew, Finally.” Actually it didn’t take that long really. Once we were on the market, we got an offer after 3 days. So it went quickly, but still takes some time to wrap everything up. So here’s what the wrap up process consisted of:
1. Oct. 31st (Yes, Halloween night) – We decided we were done with the condo and our Association. We’d just had enough and it was getting to be time to have a yard for the boys to run around in anyway.
2. All of November – We got ourselves a real estate agent and told her our plans. We started first by finding the house we wanted to buy. This we accomplished near the end of Nov. so our offer went in. Something went haywire in our brains though and we didn’t make our offer contingent on the sale of our condo b/c we really wanted this house. A day or two later we were informed that the seller had accepted our offer. Inspection on the place was great. It’s all but officially ours at this point. Seller just has a few legal things to wrap up on their end. Now we were really scared.
3. Early December – With the house we wanted secured, but not closed upon, we set our sites to selling the condo. Our agent wanted us out so she could use some of our stuff and some of her stuff to professionally stage it for showing. We got a storage unit and moved about half our stuff into it, at the discretion of our agent. Then, Dec. 3rd, Angie and the boys moved out of the condo and into my parent’s house down in Longview, WA (about a 2 hours drive from Kent). I alone remained in the condo because I’m almost never there anyway. By Friday, Dec. 7th, our condo was on the market to be sold.
4. Dec. 11th or 12th – I can’t remember which day it was, but we got an offer on the condo. It was way low so we countered and dropped our price just a little bit, and they accepted our counter-offer. Inspection went well on the condo as well, we touched up a few minor things, but that was all good. Then the Holidays hit and everything came to a standstill. I went down and joined my family at my family’s (I hope you followed that) and had a great Christmas and New Year. As the condo was all but closed, Angie and the boys accompanied me back home to get the rest of our stuff packed up. But where would we be moving it to?
5. Jan. 11th – We were informed that the target close date for the condo was the 11th and we would have to be out by 9 PM that night. No word yet from the seller of our house though so off we went to get another storage unit (by “we” I mean Angie took care of this while I was playing around at work all day). “We” packed up the rest of our stuff and with the help of my parents loaded it all into the second storage unit. By Jan. 7th Angie once again trooped off with the boys and moved in with my parents. I remained in the condo until the morning of the 11th, and spent my time at home running the rest of our stuff over to storage and making sure nothing was left. When I closed up shop to go to work that morning, we were officially done. Lock the door, leave the key, and drive away forever.
6. Today – And this is the situation we find ourselves in today, homeless, basically. Still no word from the seller of our home, although things are getting closer all the time. Angie and the boys are still with my parents in Longview. I’m staying with Angie’s uncle in Renton. We’re just one big happy family…living 2 hours apart!
We hope to be in our new home by the end of the month though, so shouldn’t have too much longer to wait. The killer is that I haven’t even been able to go down on weekends to visit because it’s year-end at work and I’ve been working every Saturday. Since I can’t go on Saturday, I figure I may as well stay and perform my Sunday duties too. And such is our life these days.
Soon we’ll be in the new house, and have lots of fun stuff to blog about. Until then, I just want to point out, that although our boys may not have any clothes, please take note that they are standing at the TV watching Jeopardy! They’re perhaps the smartest little nudists around.
First of all, big thanks to our dear friend Myr for taking our plain old blog and jazzing it up for us. She’s so creative! Great job Myr. Now it’ll not only be an adventure for all of our friends to log in and see what’s going on, but for us as well.
Second, and partial explanation for the long hiatus, we’ve sold our condo in Kent. YEAH!!!!!! Or as Austin would once say, “Phew, Finally.” Actually it didn’t take that long really. Once we were on the market, we got an offer after 3 days. So it went quickly, but still takes some time to wrap everything up. So here’s what the wrap up process consisted of:
1. Oct. 31st (Yes, Halloween night) – We decided we were done with the condo and our Association. We’d just had enough and it was getting to be time to have a yard for the boys to run around in anyway.
2. All of November – We got ourselves a real estate agent and told her our plans. We started first by finding the house we wanted to buy. This we accomplished near the end of Nov. so our offer went in. Something went haywire in our brains though and we didn’t make our offer contingent on the sale of our condo b/c we really wanted this house. A day or two later we were informed that the seller had accepted our offer. Inspection on the place was great. It’s all but officially ours at this point. Seller just has a few legal things to wrap up on their end. Now we were really scared.
3. Early December – With the house we wanted secured, but not closed upon, we set our sites to selling the condo. Our agent wanted us out so she could use some of our stuff and some of her stuff to professionally stage it for showing. We got a storage unit and moved about half our stuff into it, at the discretion of our agent. Then, Dec. 3rd, Angie and the boys moved out of the condo and into my parent’s house down in Longview, WA (about a 2 hours drive from Kent). I alone remained in the condo because I’m almost never there anyway. By Friday, Dec. 7th, our condo was on the market to be sold.
4. Dec. 11th or 12th – I can’t remember which day it was, but we got an offer on the condo. It was way low so we countered and dropped our price just a little bit, and they accepted our counter-offer. Inspection went well on the condo as well, we touched up a few minor things, but that was all good. Then the Holidays hit and everything came to a standstill. I went down and joined my family at my family’s (I hope you followed that) and had a great Christmas and New Year. As the condo was all but closed, Angie and the boys accompanied me back home to get the rest of our stuff packed up. But where would we be moving it to?
5. Jan. 11th – We were informed that the target close date for the condo was the 11th and we would have to be out by 9 PM that night. No word yet from the seller of our house though so off we went to get another storage unit (by “we” I mean Angie took care of this while I was playing around at work all day). “We” packed up the rest of our stuff and with the help of my parents loaded it all into the second storage unit. By Jan. 7th Angie once again trooped off with the boys and moved in with my parents. I remained in the condo until the morning of the 11th, and spent my time at home running the rest of our stuff over to storage and making sure nothing was left. When I closed up shop to go to work that morning, we were officially done. Lock the door, leave the key, and drive away forever.
6. Today – And this is the situation we find ourselves in today, homeless, basically. Still no word from the seller of our home, although things are getting closer all the time. Angie and the boys are still with my parents in Longview. I’m staying with Angie’s uncle in Renton. We’re just one big happy family…living 2 hours apart!
We hope to be in our new home by the end of the month though, so shouldn’t have too much longer to wait. The killer is that I haven’t even been able to go down on weekends to visit because it’s year-end at work and I’ve been working every Saturday. Since I can’t go on Saturday, I figure I may as well stay and perform my Sunday duties too. And such is our life these days.
Soon we’ll be in the new house, and have lots of fun stuff to blog about. Until then, I just want to point out, that although our boys may not have any clothes, please take note that they are standing at the TV watching Jeopardy! They’re perhaps the smartest little nudists around.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Halloween Pics!
Don't have time to write much, but wanted to post some Halloween pics. Enjoy!
Lightning McQueen and Mater Side View
Lightning McQueen and Mater Front View
I did take Austin out Trick-or-Treat'ing which he did fairly well at. He wouldn't say Trick or Treat, but he always said Thank you when prompted. Everyone loved his costume. Other kids would stop and stare as Lightning McQueen went by. We had lots of fun!
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