Woo-hoo!

I haven't yet done a panorama-type shot of the kitchen yet so I thought I'd show you the whole room. We painted the walls a rich chocolate color that I was really worried about, but seeing it now I think I chose well. Things are starting to come together and I'm so excited. The cabinetry still has crown molding and molding below the hung cabinets still to be installed and hardware. The sink is going on the slant in the corner so we can look out the windows as we do the dishes (which wont be many because do you see that brand new dishwasher on the left!?).

Here's the view of the kitchen I've been showing each time I've posted. We have new cabinetry. We have a counter top. We have an island. We have a dishwasher. I'm so excited. The island still needs to have the back and corner pieces installed.
I have a microwave!
Pantry and fridge spot. We still have to finish the wainscoting and paint it.
This is the view from the sink to the door to the hallway. The part to the left is where the fridge will go.
More wall. The white part is eventually going to be wainscoting with raised molding and a shelf along part of the wall.
This is further on the wall.

This is the light fixture we have hanging in the middle of the room. It hangs over the butcher block island. I like how the wall color matches the metal.

The front side of the island, which faces the other cabinetry. More storage space and more counter space! YEAH! Daniel really wanted the butcher block top for this island and I didn't really care, but it looks so awesome that I wouldn't want to change it.

This is the tile for the back splash. The little squares (on top) will be cut into strips for a decorative strip in the 6" tiles (below) in the boxes.

So, what do you think? Exciting, huh?

True Love

I have found Whiting Family Heaven, and it involves a cat. Our friends that are going out of town for five weeks and are letting us stay in their place if we have to also own a cat, Von (or is it Vaughn?) which we agreed to watch for them. He came over to our place last night after Charlotte had gone to bed, but when she woke up this morning and discovered him she squealed with delight! Then she proceeded to follow him around the house all morning long (saying "Daw! Daw! Daw!" until we finally convinced her it was a, "Cah! Cah! Cah!"). He more or less ignored her. Another member of the family who is in love with this cat-Daniel. The cat is 12% leopard so he's kinda big and he's AWESOME at jumping and Dan wants one just like him. Vaughn (I think that's how it's spelled) wanted to jump on our mantel this morning and instead of just telling him no and not letting him do it (which was pretty much my idea) Dan went and cleared all our stuff off the mantel. The cat jumped from a crouching positing right up on the mantel and became the king of the room, surveying his subjects. I'm pretty sure that this cat could start on the ground and land on my head if he wanted to. Since we're moving and the mantel isn't ours I didn't care one way or the other.

This cat has pretty much convinced most of the family that Charlotte might be getting a kitty for Christmas. I'm not so sure about it yet, but then again Daniel has 6 months to convince me. Also cats are pretty easy to take care of usually. If we do get one, I want to start with a little kitty though, and I'm not so sure about getting a cat that's 12% leopard. Vaughn is HUGE, not fat, but just a big cat.

PS. Our friends put Vaughn on a leash and walk him around the neighborhood. I've never seen anyone walk a cat before and I've never seen a cat that will be walked.

To Market

I love the Soulard Farmer's Market. Today I bought a week and a bit's worth of produce for around $13. It all looks so great! Hopefully this will make it so that we will be able to afford healthy eating! If you live in the St. Louis area, you should go. It's open Wednesday through Saturday, but I wouldn't suggest trying to get a whole lot of shopping done on Saturday. Mindy says it's mostly a great day for people watching because there are so many people there. On the menu tonight: tomatillo and black bean quesadillas. Yumm!

Stressors

This fixing up a house stuff is pretty difficult. So is food poisoning. So is my 15 month old girl. On the plus side I've really learned a whole lot, almost none of which actually has anything to do with fixing up a house. If you want to fix up a house I recommend surrounding yourself with supportive family and friends! It was so great to have Dan's parents and then my parents in town and then when they left all our friends have so very graciously offered to help out. They just showed up! There's nothing like being in a hard spot to make you realize how much help is out there. And also that "out there" isn't as far as you'd think. The medical school student community is composed of such a wonderful and supportive group of people. I'm ever so grateful to be a part of it. I also sincerely hope that I will be able to touch some of them and lift them up as much as they have done for me. They are so SO generous! It's so funny because none of us have a whole lot. We're all strapped for money, time, energy, and resources, but everywhere I turn I seem to be the recipient of so many gifts given to me freely. Everything from manpower and babysitting to some friends offering to let us live in their home while they're gone. We have to be out of our apartment on the 1st and we probably wont be ready to pass the occupancy permit inspection until the second week of July. Our friends are going to be out of town for five weeks starting this Saturday so they just offered. What a stress reliever.

Also, I've learned that it's important to communicate with Daniel clearly and unemotionally. A lot of our disagreements aren't actually disagreements after we talk about them. I've found that if I just tell Dan what would make me happy he works to do it (even if he does think it's silly) and I know that I try my best to do that for him as well. I have a great husband. We're both learning how to navigate things so much more right now.

Learning means we make mistakes. I've found it's important to be kind to myself and to my husband when either of us makes mistakes. They happen. The important part is to figure out what to do from there.

Finally I've learned that it's stinking exhausting to take care of our baby and our apartment in the midst of all this. It's so easy to just give in to every whim she has right now so that I can get back to getting the house done. I know that wont help me long term and it usually doesn't even help me in the short term either. Specific issues I'm working on: mommy gets to shower alone, no you can't have chocolate cookies for breakfast, naps can be taken in other places than your crib.

Here's the update as to what's happened. We got the plumbing in the bathroom fixed (again) and the sub floor down (again), the porch is stripped (thanks Piersons and Gilkeys), the spindles on part of the banister are in the process of being stripped (thanks Gilkeys). Dan is hopefully getting the counter top on and the dishwasher in tonight. That is if his drill battery will work long enough for him to actually cut the support pieces.

Wrong Again

Last night, starting at around 11, I got sick too. Just as bad as Daniel, only I barfed more. Probably that's because I ate a huge dinner that evening. I never ate any of the tomato so I was wrong about that one. Now the two of us are taking turns trying to keep Charlotte entertained. We go in waves of sickness so which ever person is more sick at that moment gets to have a break and the other one watches Charlotte. All I can say is thank goodness for Disney movies, saltine crackers, and powerade.

Happy Father's Day

My poor, poor husband. Last night he ate a raw tomato slice at the restaurant we went to. Then today, in the afternoon, a full blown case of food poisoning hit him, and hit him hard. I hope he gets better soon. I read on the CDC website that it could take 4 days for him to recover! Right now I'm doing all I can to help him. Happy Father's Day!

Dante

He had it wrong. The final circle of hell isn't ice. It's a Missouri summer night without air conditioning. When people used to say "it's not the heat, it's the humidity that'll kill ya," I used to think they were totally full of it. I have changed my tune. A complete 180. Our AC (and fridge and dryer) went out yesterday and last night, after sweating it out all day in the new house without AC, we had to try and sleep through a night without that wonderful invention. It was as I lay ontop of my bed, without even a sheet to cover me, sweating from every pore of my body I realized that this could be hell.

I'm glad that the AC in our apartment was fixed today and sleeping tonight wont be so hard. I'm also elated that the new AC was installed in our new house today!!!!! Maybe time over there wont be so sticky anymore.

Grandma to the Rescue

So after I published the last post Mom told me that she took photos with her new camera at the house so here's the progress from her perspective.

Front entry sanded. For some reason Daniel thought we needed to vacuum after every sanding. I'm sure he has his reasons, but it was a whole lot of vacuuming.

Now turn to the left from the entry and you see the front/living room.The dark part on the floor was where they must have had a big rug for a long time. We got most of that out, but not all and isn't that the charm of old wood floors? You can see their history.

Walk through the living room into the dining room. Here you see Daniel staining the dining room floor. The color is gunstock for those of you familiar with minwax stains. It looks beautiful.

Here's Dan staining the kitchen floor. That corner area is where our cabinets are going so we didn't worry so much about sanding it down all the way.








Next we have the bathroom demo. It's upstairs from all the photos I've shown you so far. Here are the before photos. They don't show much, but it's all I've got:

This is the yucky black ringed shower surround. Do you see the black in the corner? Gross.

Mostly this photo showcases the lovely blue wallpaper. The white dots you see on it are really fleur d'lis. Very St. Louis. The inside of the vanity is the reverse.

The lovely blue stone top of the vanity. It's going.

Original built in medicine cabinet. It's really deep and great. It's pretty much the only thing that's staying in the room (if you don't count the tub and the toilet).

And now, poof! It's all gone. (Don't you just love that little magic of the Internet? You didn't have to experience the sweltering heat and humidity to get this change. It's just comes to you.)

What you don't see is that since Mom took these photos the vanity is out, the surround is out. We had a minor water leakage spill and lead pipe scare. Also the toilet is out for now. Everything is moving along nicely.

PS. Can you tell the difference in quality of digital cameras? I sure can. My mom's camera rocks!

Take 2

So I tried to post these photos yesterday and it didn't work. They were a few days old yesterday so everything is completely different today, but here's the floor progress anyway:

Kitchen floor sanded.
Kitchen to hall sanded.
Front entry sanded.

The changes that have happened since is that Daniel has stained and sealed the kitchen, dining room, and hall. We can't walk on them today. My mom and dad are in town this week helping so after making them sweat it out sanding, we put my dad to work on the bathroom upstairs. He tore out the shower surround and fixed the plumbing. Turns out there were no shut off valves for the sink so he installed those and then he and Dan found lead pipe that they need to replace. The floor is being ripped up and Mom and I found some really nice tiles that were on super good sale at Lowe's. Also the bath will have bead board around the walls. I think it's going to be really pretty.

Mom and I found a nice round rug for the entry and big rug for under the table in the dining room on clearance at TJMaxx. They are beautiful and will look great on the newly finished floor!

Sorry this post is short and lame, but our apartment's electrical is going funky. The AC wont work, the dryer wont work, half the lights in the house don't work and the fridge and microwave also don't work. To add another little quirk to the mix the dining room lights wont turn off. We've tried. I went to the basement and flipped all the circut breakers. Nothing changed. It's going to be a hot day. I don't want our food to go bad so I called our landlord. I got a busy signal. Great.

The Comeback Kid

When Charlotte was 4 months old Grandpa Greg thought that the summer sun was too much for her little eyes so he bought her sunglasses. ("They have UVA and UVB protection. Shee needs that.") They were huge. Here she is wearing them the day she got them:

For a long time they were too big and then she never wanted them on. She thought she couldn't see I think because whenever she had them on she closed her eyes. Then today her little friend came over wearing a pair of purple sunglasses and she wanted them. So I went in her room and dug out her pink sunglasses to wear. Now she loves them! Here she is today.

Oddly enough her mouth has the same open expression in both photos. What a big girl!

Kitchen Light

With 45 seconds left we won our kitchen light on ebay:

A New Baby

Dan's friend Buzz and his wife just had a baby! A little boy. Here's the photo of the blanket I made for them:

It turned out just exactly how I wanted it to. At 48" square it's a little smaller than I planned, but I figure it's still big enough to use on Charlotte. The minky on the back is also the border so it should be really good to snuggle with. Now I just have to get it to the post office.

Once was lost, now found

Yeah! I have no idea where the cord was, but I let Charlotte play in the front room today and magically the cord appeared. So here's the progress report:

Here's the same corner in the kitchen without the upper cabinets. Today we've started to change the plumbing so the sink can go in the corner.

Here's what was once the flooring in the kitchen. It was under the cabinetry so at one point the countertop wasn't in that corner. It came up after this photo.

I know I didn't ever take a before photo of the ceiling, but this is after it was ripped out. I really like how at one point the walls were green, peach, and light peach.

This was my attempt to show you how many stinking staples there were in the floor. Notice how I say were, they're all out now.

The beautiful new cabinets that are currently residing in the dining room waiting to be installed.

Our new fridge and range! BEAUTIFUL!
Here's the front entry without the blue carpet. Next step-sanding. The before photo doesn't show much of the floor, but here it is anyway:

Progress

I've been wanting to post photos so badly since I took them, but unfortunately the cord from the camera to the computer is lost at the moment. I'm blaming it on Charlotte. She's figured out how to climb up on chairs now. The first time she did it by herself it was so exciting. Now it's just another elevation in the house that I need to baby proof.

Here's what's happened since last I posted photos:

• Took the blue carpet out of the entryway.
• Took the linoleum tiles up that were under the carpet (olive and cream set on point-it was totally awesome)
• Used the heat gun to get most of the adhesive up under the tiles
• Finished taking all the cabinetry downstairs
• Ripped out the acoustic tile dropped ceiling in the kitchen (including the fluorescent light)
• Figured out the wiring to get a new fixture in there
• Had the plumber come and replace all the copper pipes that got stolen

And this next one I'm most proud of because I did it all myself:

• Removed all the staples in the kitchen floor

There was slight drama today when Daniel thought he had ruined all the lights for the first floor of the house. At that point I thought it best that Charlotte and I go on an errand so as to let him fume in peace. We got electricians tape at Home Depot and by the time we got back he'd figured out what he did wrong and how to fix it and was again his happy self. (He was so mad I think I heard a "Darn" muttered under his breath.)

Our next steps are to patch up the holes in the walls and ceiling in the kitchen and then finish the floors. Then we'll be ready for my mom and dad to help with the kitchen installation and the bathroom work as well. It will be so great this time next week when my kitchen is all in!

PS. As soon as I find that cord there will be a whole lot of photos to post.

Busy Bees

Sorry for the lack of progress updates on our work on the house. Charlotte got a pretty bad cold very suddenly Thursday night so the two of us have been staying away from the house. Dan's been working on it all morning while I:

• made our one week menu + (It really should last us two weeks, but sometimes my plans don't stretch as far as I want)
• went to Schnuck's (For groceries)
• went to Sam's Club (For items we buy in bulk, like milk)
• went to Jackman's Fabrics (For fabric for Buzz and Lindsey's baby blanket)
• filled up the Honda ($45 made me want to throw up)
• Copied our reciepts at FedEx Kinkos (I'm keep track of everything we spend on the house, in duplicate)

Needless to say it's been a very busy day. Also Charlotte and I have been jetting around town in the Civic instead of the Matrix so that Dan can use the room in the Matrix for hauling things if he has to. I'd be totally fine with it if the AC worked. We figured yesterday that it must need to be recharged or something. Since that's not a necessity it's put right at the very bottom of our list. Looks like the baby and I will be sweating it out this weekend.

Grins and Giggles

Because it's been awhile since I posted photos of my baby here they are for your pleasure: Thank you Grandma Denise. Daddy thought the dress looked great at church.
Here is Charlotte eating breakfast with her best friend sitting right next to her. This is her prefered way to eat breakfast.
Playing in the fountain at Tower Grove Park.
She found the bin under the sink in the bathroom and thought it would make a great seat. Climbing on the lion at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.Peaking through the lion's mane.

Kitchen Progress

Before our work:

Sorry this is the only one I could find that we took of the kitchen. It doesn't show much, but it does show some important parts. My favorite part is the parrot hanging in the corner. We decided that he needed to greet everyone while we're remodeling and is now hanging on our porch.

After day two of work:

This is the same angle as the one above. Dan seems to be inspecting that huge hole in the wall used to plumb the sink. If you'll notice the lower cabinets are gone. I'm proud to say that I'm the one that helped Dan take them down to the basement. It was tricky getting it down the hole to the back door, but we managed.

Here we see the wall further on. The wood pannelling has been taken of the bottom half of the walls. That's why it looks so funky right now.

Further down the wall to the corner we see the door to the pantry and the spot where the new LG fridge (that was delivered today!!!) will eventually reside.

This shot is taken from where Dan is standing in the photo above looking back to the hall.

This is the hardwood we exposed after ripping up the linoleum. You can't see it in the photo, but there's staples in the floor about every 3 inches. Who thought they needed to do that? They are really hard to get out. Guess who's project that is?

Looking at these pictures a few days later things don't even look the same anymore. The old stove was taken away when Slyman Bro's delivered our new stove and the wall cabinetry is also gone. Things are really moving around here!

Yeah! We Have Our House!

The closing was last Friday. And so was Dan's last final. It seems like all our stress has just melted away. What added to the wonderful weekend was that we had was Dan's parents coming into town. Not only did the stress go away, but we also go to have a real holiday. It was tons of fun. We went to the Samuel Cupples house, the St. Louis Art Museum (which had a quilt exhibition right then), the zoo, and a few really great restaurants in town. My favorite dinner was at Kabob International. It has excellent food. It really was stupendous having them here and Dan done and our house all wrapped into one great weekend. Dan's parents loved Charlotte and she loved them right back. She told them jokes and sang songs and just generally enjoyed all the wonderful attention she got to have all weekend. She fell asleep on the way to the airport when we dropped them off Monday and then when she woke up and they were gone she seemed as though she thought she'd lost her two best friends in the whole wide world. It was pretty funny.

Another great gift is that Dan is taking today off from work. Yeah! He wanted to give the woman in charge of him a day to get all his papers together so he can really jump right in when he goes in. That means that today he spent the morning being the most wonderful husband/father in the whole world. He cleaned the kitchen, did the dishes, and even swept the floors. He picked up the front room. He gave Charlotte a bath and played with her so that I could get all my work done. I got to clean the bathroom, change the sheets on the beds, do laundry, and pick up both bedrooms all in peace! We got two or three days worth of work done before he left to help some friends pack up for their move to residency. Charlotte is taking a nap now and I'm basking in the greatness that is my family.

Yesterday, after dropping off Dan's parents we went back to our new house and tore up the kitchen flooring to expose the hardwood underneath. The sheet of linoleum was on top of plywood that had been stapled to the floor so it wasn't too hard to get it up. Now it'll just take a few days to get all the staples out of the floor. Who thought you needed to put them 3-4 inches apart? That person was crazy. It's going to take us a while. We have a lot of work to complete before my parents get here in a week and a half. I'll take photos today while I'm over there to post so everyone can see our progress.

Update

Just an update on our house. For those of you who can count, you may be wondering why I didn't post something like, "Yeah, we have our house!" last Tuesday. That's because we don't actually have it yet. The stinking day we were supposed to close the selling agent decided it would be a good time to tell us that he found out 10 days previous that the copper pipes and electrical had been stolen out of the basement! We didn't close Tuesday. We're closing tomorrow with $1000 knocked off the price. It's fair and the people who matter are OK with it so I don't really care. In fact I don't have it in me to care about that right now. Tomorrow is also Dan's last final for the first year of medical school. I haven't really talked to him in about a week now and when I asked if he wanted Charlotte and I to bring him lunch today he said he was sorry, but didn't really have the time. Also, I've been scrambling trying to get all the stuff we were going to have delivered to the house re-routed and find new delivery times. Also I've changed all the utilities into our names as of tomorrow. And finally I have a 14 month old baby that's pretty much wanting to play all the time. Turns out that copper piping isn't that high on my list at the moment. I'm sure it'll sift up there when I want to, I don't know, take a bath, wash my hands, turn on a light, or flush a tiolett in the new place, but until then I'm just letting it go.

Fresh Fruit

Today I went to the Soulard market for the first time. I stinkin love St. Louis! There are some major awesome perks to living in a metropolitain area. Today I bought:

A watermellon
A pineapple
7 bananas
A bunch of grapes

They were all great quality and I had absolutely awesome customer service. I only spent $8.

Yellow

Sometimes I wonder how on earth such an assertive woman like my mother and a confident man like my father ever raised such a wimpy woman like myself.

One of the guys that lives below us came to our door at the beginning of winter asking us if he could pay us to use our washer and dryer in the basement. He only has a bike and it was a snowy winter so we said, sure. Our arrangement was that he would use the washer and dryer on Sundays so that all my stuff would be out of there and that he would pay us $5 for each time he used them. Well, he didn't really pay $5 every time, but that wasn't a big deal to me. It's not like we're doing this to make money. We were doing him a favor. He's still using them now, even though it's spring, but again, not a big deal. Then the past couple of weeks he's been using them on days other than Sunday. He's left his stuff in the washer and dryer and I've had to move it over in order to use my own machines. It was annoying, but I didn't say anything. Then, today, a Tuesday mind you, he moved my clothing over from the washer to the dryer in order to use the machines.

I found my nice Anthropologie dress with the silk trim in the pile on top of the dryer. He did not look at the tag on that rather expensive dress before just throwing it into the dryer. And it's not even his day to use it! I called my mom so, so mad and she told me I had to go talk to the boy and ask what he was going to do about it. That's an expensive dress and it's not like I can afford to replace it.

I gathered up all my courage and outrage and walked down to the front door. I rang. The other roommate answered the door. This threw me off. I was expecting to talk to the perpetrator of the "crime." Instead I told the roommate the situation and asked if he would please tell Andrew that I needed to talk to him when he got home. Then the roommate said, "Oh! I moved the laundry over for him. I'm so sorry!" I had no idea what to say to this turn of events so then I said (and this is where I totally let myself down), "Well, accidents happen." Then I started to cry just a little bit from frustration, and confusion, and surprise. So then he said, "Let me give you a hug." So the guy that just ruined my dress gave me a hug. A hug! I had no idea how to get the conversation back in the right direction so I left. Ack! I'm such a big wimp.

PS. Luckily I came back upstairs and worked a little on the dress and it looks like it'll still be OK. The silk isn't as pretty as it used to be, but it's not really "ruined" anymore. Man I'm such a wimp.

The Countdown

6 days until we close on our house
9 days until Dan's done with his first year of med school

I'm not sure which he's more excited about. I'm certainly excited for both! Since Dan's doing summer research it's not like he'll really have a great summer break, which makes the being-done-with-the-first-year-of-med-school a little less exciting. Don't get me wrong though, we'll be 1/4 of the way through the first phase. Yippee! Also, I realized the other night that I'll be in the neighborhood of 32 by the time we're done with this whole thing so that put a damper on my enthusiasm.

As for the house Dan has planned out everything as far as he possibly can without acutally getting inside and doing some work. Last night he was ruminating over countertops and wall color for the kitchen. We can't chose those until we know if we're going to be able to salvage the hardwood floors in there or put in tiles. This didn't stop him from trying to chose anyway. Finally I had to look him in the eyes and tell him to stop. He realized that he's gone as far as he can go right now.

I'm not sure if he really can be excited about either prospect right now though because he has so much studying and learning left to do. He has 5 hours of lecture today. He's gonna come home exhausted.

Red Hot

So the common idea about red heads is that they also have a red hot temper. Do I believe this? I don't know. Is it right about me? Again, the jury is still out. I'd like to think that it isn't the case. I'd like to think that I'm a fairly mellow person. Then something comes along to disturb my calm. It is then that I am confronted with what I will do.

I've learned that even though I may feel unable to control my anger, I can completely control my actions and words. Past experience has displayed in detail the shattering consequences my angry words can create. It is much harder to pick up the pieces of a negative situation gone much worse thanks to me, than it is to just let the dust settle and look at the picture as a whole.

My mom always told me to ask myself, "What do I want the result to be from this action or these words?" I know I'm angry when the answer to that is to just zing the other person. In the end that doesn't get me anywhere near where I'd like to be in any situation.

That's the little lecture I give to myself whenever I feel myself wanting to respond to anyone in anger. I may end up saying the exact same thing to them later I may decide to say something completely different or even nothing at all. But, when I do it with a level head I get much better results 100% of the time.

Which makes me curious, do most people consider themselves level headed? Do most people I know consider me level headed? (Please don't answer that one. It would be embarrassing either way you answered.) Does my pep talk make me have less of a temper or merely help me to control the temper that I do have? What are some other things people tell themselves to keep from saying things they'll regret?

Stormy Weather

Yesterday I got all the laundry done. I cleaned the house. I changed the sheets on the bed. I went to bed with the confidence that I would be able to go to play group today without anything weighing on my mind. I got up this morning ready to go walk Grant's Trail.


Now we're in the middle of a thunder storm.


How am I going to fill Charlotte's day now? I got everything done yesterday! I'm taking this as a lesson for the future. Never get everything done in one day. You must save some for tomorrow. Just in case.

Gross. No, Really Gross

Charlotte sometimes grosses me out.

Her new favorite toy is the plunger.

Not the new, unused plunger.

The old, used gross plunger.



So if you come over to our home and are greeted by the plunger at the top of the stairs just realize it's the only place I can keep it away from her single minded pursuit to carry it everywhere.

Gross.

A True Mother's Day

My husband is awesome! I got the best gift for Mother's Day. He made a special breakfast, lunch and dinner and did all the dishes. He also did the dishes from our little get together Saturday night. I was pampered all day.

You know who else was pampered all day? Charlotte. She had a little cold Saturday night, but then woke up Sunday with a full blown double barrel snot nose, cough and ickiness. Right after breakfast I was holding her and she barfed down the side of my arm, dress and nylons. We decided not to take her to church.

She ended up feeling much better by the end of the day so all in all it was a great Mother's Day.

Recommend

Dear City of St. Louis,

Your building inspector Shar0n is AMAZING! She gave me all the information I need to know so that we can do the work on our house and get into it and get an occupancy permit. She was SUPER helpful. She also said that she wouldn't do an inspection right now, since we're not actually occupying our house until a month or so after the closing date. That means we could get a refund! When I called City Hall yesterday to try and get the paperwork started on the refund guess what? She had already done it for me! A city employee that went above and beyond! I'm so greatful! Thank you so much Shar0n and St. Louis!

Thanks,
A Happy Citizen

Complaint

Dear Insurance Company,

If someone calls you to get an insurance quote that means they are a potnential customer. If you treat them like they're an idiot you wont get their business. If you patiently let them explain their situation to the fullest and do not interrupt them mid sentence when they're trying to explain something the said future customer will be much happier. Future customers can always find somewhere else to take their business.

On top of that, if said future customer's father is an insurance salesman then she will know something of what you're trying to get at. She may be trying to help get herself a discount that she knows she might qualify for if you enter it in right. If you don't let her answer your questions to the fullest and call her, "honey" like she's an idiot then she wont be giving you the business that you want.

Other insurance agents know all this. Other agencies are very helpful when potnetial customers call on the phone. They will get my upmost attention!

Sincerely,
Your ex-future customer

Tagged: House Edition

So Heather tagged me to fill this out for the house that we're going to have so here goes.....

My favorite things around the house….

My favorite thing about my kitchen is the new cabinetry that we're going to put in! We just purchased it and it's coming the Friday after we close on the house! Also we bought a new stainless steel fridge that was on an awesome deal! The kitchen is going to be awesome.

My favorite thing about my family room is hmm... well there isn't a favorite thing about it yet. I guess I could say the fireplace, but it's got this weird surround. We did find out that the fireplaces in the house were coal burning, not wood burning which is why they're all so shallow. Interesting little fact.

My favorite thing about my living room is… we don’t have one. So I'll do my favorite thing about our foyer. It has this awesome built in bench that is part of the banister going down the stairs. It's super cool and really beautiful. Well, it will be beautiful when we're done with it.

My favorite thing about our dining room is the bay window over the backyard. Also I really love the fireplace in that room.

My favorite thing about my laundry room is well, we don't technically have a laundry room. The washer/dryer hook-ups are in the basement. But they're right next to this funny bathroom in the basement. There's a shower surround (not inside a room mind you, just the surround sitting out on it's own) that works, but who takes a shower in the dirty basement? Also next to the shower is a room with a toilet and sink. So weird, but also pretty funny.

My favorite thing about my bedroom is... also nothing favorite about it yet.

My favorite thing about my bathroom is the new tile we're putting up on the floor and in the shower surround. It's gonna be awesome.

My most favorite thing about my house is that it is ours and we can paint or decorate however we want.

Also something cool we found out about the house is it has a great slate roof. I like that. A Lot.

A Good Friend

I always hear, "If you want to have a good friend then you need to be a good friend." I have found that to be true more and more as I'm experiencing life. Mostly I realize that if I want to have social interaction I need to invite, I need to contact, and I need to go out of my way to meet with people. Most people don't really want to be the ones to do that. To be honest, I don't really want to be the one to do it either. In a perfect (read lazy) world everyone would call me up and invite me over. Turns out that would be pretty lame for everyone else.

Confession: I'm super slow at making friends. I feel like I've started my little group of close friends since we moved here. I have a few that I feel comfortable just calling up and asking what they're doing, but, honestly not many. Don't misunderstand, I love my little circle of close friends. And I'm super happy to know that they're there, but more to the point the women I feel closest to are the ones that really truly did call me up! My friend Mindy is awesome at this. Totally 100% awesome at being there for people. She has tons of friends. Perhaps I should be more like her. More giving, more willing to reach out. I decided this past week that I need to go beyond my comfort zone. Events at our last med wives lady's night were sort of.....illuminating as to my situation here. Really most of the women that I meet are pretty much in my same position. They are wives and they've moved away from their family and old support system. They need a new one just as much as I do. But in the back of my mind I'm thinking to myself, "But really, do they? Haven't most of them already found close friends? Would they really like it if I called and invited them over just to play scrabble? They're probably too busy."

If I want to be a good friend I have to go out of my comfort zone. Who really wants to do that? I sure don't. But what I don't want even more is to feel like there's nobody I could call just to say, "I have to escape my house! Can I come over there for a while?" Currently it would take a whole lot of courage to do that. No, not courage. Just a comfort level that I don't yet have. Comfortable knowing that the impostion I would have on the other person would be overlooked. I'd also really, really like to have a friend that would feel comfortable doing that with me. Come, invite yourself over. I'll make room. I'd love it. I promise.

Don't Ever Grow Up

A few days ago I took Charlotte to the park. She was so cute I couldn't believe it! I was taking photos of her while she tried to climb the steps of the big toy. There were two older girls on the big toy. My guess is they were probably in the 7-8 range. One girl was clearly the leader of the two. Right in front of me she asked the other girl, "Do you think that baby's cute?" Typed out that seems like a very innocent question, but let me tell you that girl was just inviting the other one to say, "No she's totally ugly." I was instantly furious! I just waited to see what would be said. The other girl was in a jam. She knew I could hear her, but I could also tell she didn't want the other girl to think badly of her. I wanted to say to the girls, "Of course she's cute! She's the cutest little girl that you'll ever see and don't you go saying otherwise!" I didn't. The second little girl decided that since none of the answers she could think of would be good she would just say nothing. Then the leader girl asked the other one, "Do you think her shoes are cute?" (The expected response was a resounding, "No.") Again no response. The leader girl finally said to the other, "You should go spy on them." This the follower obediently tried to do. It was at that moment I decided that we should just move. Charlotte is only one so she doesn't care what other little girls say about her, but I sure do. I got mad when I realized that the mom there watching the girls was just sitting there on her cell phone not even paying attention to what they were doing.

I don't want my precious little baby girl who is smart and beautiful and funny and awesome to go outside of our house. Inevitably she's going to run into this type of situation again and then she might be old enough to really understand what's being said. And then I might not be there to protect her. It makes me so sad and so mad at the same time. I can't wait to see her ride her first bike, or drive, or go on her first date, but then again, maybe I can.

Decisions, Decisions

Which class would you rather take?

The Art of Fresh Flower Arranging

or

Woodworking for Women

Carnivore

Today Charlotte had her iron tested. Surprisingly the most traumatic part of the whole ordeal for her was having to keep the Dora Bandaid on after the poke. Once I took it off she was fine. She was also mad that a stranger actually had to touch her to do the thing, but that's a whole different story. The results came back that she has GREAT iron levels. Then we were talking about her eating habits and what she will and wont eat. She's not a picky eater at all, so I'm especially grateful for that. (Now that I say this, she wont eat anything but graham crackers for a week.) Anyway, I realized that the reason her iron levels are so high is that she has not run into any type of meat that she doesn't like. In fact for most dishes she'll root around all the other stuff just to find the meat. Don't get me wrong, she eats a fair share of everything else, but her clear favorite in the food category is meat. Does anyone else think that's 100% strange?

A Great Weekend

Friday night Dan and I went out on a date. We went to Charlie Gitto's On the Hill. It's AWESOME! I loved the entire experience. I wore my new dress that I just received in the mail a few days ago and did my hair and make-up and felt really girly and pretty. Did I have to dress up? No. Did I enjoy every minute of it? Yes. Since we are swapping babysitting with another couple we decided we didn't have to rush home. To do something entertaining that didn't cost money we decided to go "window shopping" at the Home Depot. (You can all see which half of the night was for me and which half was for Dan, but I still enjoyed it.) It was kinda funny to walk through Home Depot all dressed up.

Saturday was the Grand South Grand home tour that we wanted to go to. Unfortunately we didn't go. Fortunately Dan did spend the day at school preparing for his test this coming weekend. Charlotte and I ran away from home, to our two doors down neighbors to sit and chat. Also, because Charlotte has been desperately wanting to meet their three dogs. She absolutely loves dogs. They have two little dogs and one big one. As soon as the dogs calmed down she got off my lap and started petting them. Sometimes whit her hands, sometimes with her head. It was super funny. Dan came home and we went to Lowe's to see about getting an estimate for the kitchen cabinets. Turns out the guy from Lowe's was inept. It took him almost 2 hours to get the cabinetry up on the computer and then the quote that he gave us was, oh, a good 4K higher than it should have been. We decided to give up on Lowe's and went to Home Depot, where the excellent service was done in about a half hour and the quote was 6K lower for the same merchandise. (I think we might be spending a lot of time at the Home Depot store in the next three years.)

Then Sunday was a glorious day! Sunny, warm, beautiful. After church we walked from our apartment to the house and looked around. Then we walked back. It was a great day for being outside, but I forgot sunscreen. Good thing it was in the late afternoon. You can be sure I didn't forget it today.

Big News

We got the house. Dan didn't go to bed last night until 1 AM. (He blamed it on the Dr. Pepper he drank, but I didn't mention to him that I drank about 1/4 of that Dr. Pepper in between all his sipping and I was out by 9:30.) He was thinking and planning and improvising how our kitchen would work best. I think he came up with a superb layout that I think will work really well. It's a whole lot of problem solving when you have a small space to work with, but I think his plan really maximized the space.

Now I can't wait until Dan's parents come out! It's gonna be so much fun to show them the new house. Also, Dan's sister is going to drop of his nephew for wrestling camp this early summer so she'll get to see it too! Plus, my dad's already starting to plan his trip out here.

Yesterday Charlotte recieved "Christmas in April" from Grandma Denise. She got new books, which she loves, a new dress, and most of all, a new dancing duck and a little tykes piano. Guess which two she loves the most? You guessed it, the two that make sound. Right now they're both still pretty cute, but I can see that these two presents will be both a blessing and a way to teach me patience. Thanks mom!

PS. We had an earthquake here early this morning. Here's how it went in our house:

Me: Is that storm shaking the bed? (There was a pretty big storm going outside. It was rattling the windows.)

Dan: No, go back to bed.

Jump to breakfast:

Me: Did our bed shake in the night?

Dan: No.

Turns out there was a 5.2 earthquake in southern Illinois.

Delayed Response

Sorry for the no posts lately. There were a number of factors why. The first being that Dan and I are trying to buy a house that we're really excited about. We put the offer in and I was going to wait until the offer came back to post anything (I don't want to jinx it), but the bank hasn't said anything about it yet. We're buying a house that was foreclosed on and apparently it isn't the bank's top priority. Go figure. Anyway, the house is awesome and a fun project for the next three years. The only big things that need to be done can get done during Dan's down time this summer. Plus, my dad and mom are so excited to come out and help. And Dan's parents are coming out for Memorial Day and they'll see the place. It's great to have such awesome support. Other than the biggies all the stuff is totally do-able projects that can be spread out over the next three years here. We're both pretty excited about the whole thing. (Dan keeps getting out his orange Home 1-2-3 book from Home Depot just to peruse.) I wish I had news to tell right now, but I don't. We put the offer in and now we just have to wait.

The other reason is that Charlotte was pretty sick last weekend and it scared the crap out of me. She had a fever that came in the afternoon every day for about three days. Then she was pretty dehydrated and would not eat or drink anything. We were super worried that we would have to take her to the hospital, but the amount of fluids we forced into her kept her at home. We were just both really worried about her and I didn't really have anything to say except, "My baby's sick and I'm so worried I might throw up."

And the last reason I didn't realize until a few days ago. For about two weeks I was walking around being totally angry at Dan and totally sad and frustrated. Dan is an amazing husband and he didn't do anything wrong so I never brought it up because I knew that it was unfair to be mad at him. Whenever he asked, "Are you OK?" I just said, "I'm super tired," which isn't a lie because I was also super tired. It wasn't until I was talking with my mom about it that she asked if I felt a little overwhelmed with everything and I just started to break down and cry. So I guess that was the answer to everything, feeling overwhelmed. After thinking about it all the rest of the day I figured it wasn't fair of me to walk around feeling this way without telling Dan. Plus, I figured I was in a situation that needed fixing, and he happens to be pretty good at fixing things. Turns out that was the best thing I could have done. It was hard to tell him because I feel very responsible about everything that happens in our home. He has never acted like the running of the house and the raising of our daughter is my responsibility alone, but that's how I felt. (Why do I take on more responsibility than I need to? Something to answer someday.) After I told him this he asked what exactly made me feel overwhelmed to see if that was a task that he could take from me. Turns out that there is no one task he can take completely away from me. What he did say he wanted to do was take some tasks away from me partially. So our new plan: when Dan comes home from school, after he unwinds a bit, he and Charlotte have time just the two of them where they go for a walk or go to Home Depot, or go, well, I guess it really doesn't matter where they go. I then will be home. Alone. For half an hour. We've done this the past two days and it has been amazing how much better I feel. I don't have to get anything done when they're gone, but if I want to I can be that much more productive.

And also, he's taking me out to dinner tomorrow night! We've got reservations, and someone to watch Charlotte and we're going to use the gift card my sister and brother-in-law got us for Christmas. I can't wait! I've already planned what I'm gonna wear. (I've also planned what Dan's gonna wear, but don't tell him that.)

Spoiled

I started yesterday. When it didn't happen yesterday I knew I needed to start earlier in the day. So today I started the moment he got home from school.

Right after he kisses Charlotte and me: "Brownies would be great."

Just before dinner: "There's not very much milk. You need to go get some."

After putting Charlotte to bed: "How about some chocolate cake?"

Sitting on the couch while watching TV: "Don't you think some goodies would be nice?"

And then came the rather unexpected clincher: "I need the ward phone directory. Would you get it from the car for me?"

The golden response: "Well, since I'll be in the car anyway I might as well go get us some goodies. You wanted chocolate cake right?"

He is so awesome.

The Up-shot

I feel like I've been complaining about my baby a lot this past week and it's really not giving the whole picture. I LOVE how much she's learning right now. She seems to have exploded in the growth and development this past week. Here are somethings she's learned:

• If you ask for a kiss she will lean in and say, "Mmmmmm-wah" right along with you. It started with her leaning in with a fully opened mouth, but then she figured out that we're not doing that so she adapted.
• She blows on her own hot food. It's so cute because she hasn't quite figured out the direction of her blowing. She'll do it just above the food. But she knows to test the food with her fingers and if it's too hot she'll blow on it.
• She knows jokes, well, toddler jokes. She thinks it's so funny to do something unusual with the items we use in our house every day. She uses the hamper and puts it over her head. Then we put it over both our heads and laugh and laugh.
• She understands pretty much everything we tell her. She doesn't always pay attention, but she understands what we're saying and that's so fun.
• She's figured out how to flush the toilet, which is pretty funny. She will walk up and just flush the toilet and then walk away.
• When I say, "Do you want to help me with the laundry?" She'll run to the door to the basement and wait for me to take her down. Then she'll help me turn on the light in the basement by pulling the string. She's also learned to shut the dryer door for me.

So I have actually been having loads of fun with my toddler too!

Hip and Urban

Today I had errands to run. Instead of going out of the city limits to a big shopping area I decided to see if I could get everything done in my own neighborhood/area. I totally got everything done without once going on the interstate! I felt so hip and urban walking down the busy road to get my stuff done. What's even better is that one of the houses we're looking at to buy is only a block and a half away from the street where I did all my errands today. I wouldn't even have to drive if I didn't want to. That's kinda cool.

Grawwwh!

Translation:

Charlotte is now off the pacifier. (For two whole days now) She's teething. She's got a cold. She wants things that she has no words to tell me. She's very VERY busy. She thinks she runs our house. (She so doesn't.) My brain might implode.

That's my excuse for posting photos only of our California trip.

There's loads more, but I'm not putting them on here (see above excuse).

FOR SALE

Have you ever thought, "I'm just way too productive. I need something that will help me work harder and also slow down and lower my productivity." If you have, well, then I have just the thing for you! In a one time offer I am willing to practically give away the

UNDO-ER 1.0f

This creative product will both push you to do more and work harder while simultaneously slowing down your productivity! I know what you're saying, "Maggie! That can't possibly be true! That's the product of my dreams! How does it work?" First it pushes you to work harder and faster because it follows you around the house and as soon as you slow down it will attach itself to your leg and WILL NOT LET GO. If you want to be free from the amazing Undo-er 1.0f you must keep working. Another great feature to the 1.0f version is it's ability to walk behind you and say , "me me me me me me me me..." This will push you to work harder and faster. If you don't believe me, just give it a try.

So now you're saying, "I can see how that would make me work harder and faster, but how would this creative product possibly slow down my ability to get things done?" Well, I'll let you in on a little secret that's built right into the name. The Undo-er 1.0f will follow behind you and actually undo all the work that you're doing. For example, let's say you wanted to put the dirty dishes into the dishwasher. You would rinse each dish and then place it in the washer and then reach for the second one. As you rinse the second dish the amazing Undo-er 1.0f will take the first dish out of the dishwasher and put it on the floor.

What if you're trying to put away the clothing. In this instance not only will the Undo-er 1.0f take out the clothing you're putting in the drawer, but it will also take out all the clothing already in the drawer. Amazing right? There are two special features to this particular model. The first feature to special to the 1.0f version is it's ability to open the little girl hair bands and throw them all over the floor so you have to clean them up. Multiple times. The second feature is that when you have a special day that you would particularly want to have the house clean it is smart enough to know that and will work twice as fast as regularly. That way you will have to work much harder on those special days.

Finally, I know you're saying, "How can I get my hands on that?" Well, I'm selling it very cheaply. All you have to give me is your sanity. I seem to have lost mine.

Blowing It

My spending money philosophy makes me feel like a tiny mouse that searches and stores up all the seeds it finds all summer. Then went I feel like I have enough I will spend it all at once. I've been saving since before Christmas. Yesterday I decided it was time to let the money flow. Those few days of guilt free spending are such a delight I will be saving for months in order to have them. Today I went shopping with two friends and I purchased:
These jeans (from gap) are super cute, but no I can't bring myself to wear high heels with jeans. My jeans are for comfort, not dress up.

These pants (also gap) are so cute and perfect for summer! They were the first ones I tried on and they fit perfectly! None of the other white pants I even tried on fit me right. In an unexpected turn of events I'm back down to my pre-baby pant size! I don't really feel like I'm back to my pre baby pant size, but the numbers don't lie. I kept picking out a size bigger for myself, but then they didn't fit and I had to go down a size.

So I still have money to spend after that! I'm thinking of getting new undershirts from Shade clothing and perhaps a new spring dress. I love when it comes time to blow my spending money! It feels good to get something for myself without worry about bills, my daughter, or, well, food. After today I'll be back to my regular thriftiness, but today felt oh so good.

Happy Birthday

Charlotte is one year old today! Hip-hip-hooray! Am I a bad mom because I'm not planning on doing a big party for her? I was going to make her a cake yesterday, but since were were both sick and I'm not totally 100% yet, I didn't and I don't think she'll worry. In fact she didn't even open any presents today (she's already received TONS of gifts from grandparents, aunts/uncles, and other family). I think I might invite some of our friends over for dessert Saturday, but nothing big. We spent about 45 minutes today reading ALL her books because we were just going to read her new books from both grandmas (THANKS! We both love them!) and then she kept bringing me all her old books too. We ended up reading all her board books and she was in heaven. Charlotte really likes her new Spot's First Easter book. And, I'll admit it, I cried while reading her I Love You, Little One. Luckily I'll get over that before she remembers anything. I think when she gets up it would be fun to make homemade thank you notes with her. She likes crayons, markers, and anything she can make marks with.

In other news I just wanted to tell everyone how awesome it is to have good friends here in St. Louis. I was so sick and we had no food yesterday. I knew it would be a good idea if I had 7up and soda crackers. I just couldn't think of getting myself off the floor (that's where I was laying so Charlotte wouldn't think she needed me to pick her up on the sofa) and dressed to take the little one to the grocery store to get it. In comes my guardian angel! I called Mindy and she went and picked it up for me and delivered it. That was all I ate yesterday and it saved me. She is such an awesome friend. I hope that I can help her when she needs it in the future.

Also, Daniel came home at 3 yesterday! Isn't he so awesome! He knew I was sick and since it was the first day of classes for this term (pharmacology and pathology) he knew he could take an afternoon off. He went to the grocery store to pick up a few essentials (milk, bread, dinner for himself) and helped me with Charlotte. Isn't he great? Also, by that time I was starting to feel a little better so when he asked, if I wanted to go out with him and Charlotte for a while I said yes. Turns out that was a good idea, but I pushed it a little too far. We went to look at a house we want to buy and Dan is all fire up about it. We went to go see inside it and at first I was fine, but then as we kept moving around I got all sick again so we didn't get to see the detached garage/carriage house in the back. Anyway, before we looked at it he liked the idea of buying a house, but after looking at it he got super excited. He spent 6 hours looking things up on the computer last night after we put Charlotte to bed. That's right. He was so excited he couldn't sleep until 2 AM. I woke up around 1:30 to go to the bathroom and saw the light on in our front room. In my clouded state I figured we had forgotten to turn it off when we went to bed. So I walked to the front and turned it off and walked back to bed. After crawling in bed I saw a person move out in the hall. That completely woke me up and I reached for Dan to wake him up and realized that Dan was the person in the hall. I had turned the light in the front room off on him while he was reading his home improvement encyclopedia! He was still so excited about this new house he was up in the front room reading his home improvement book! Isn't he cute?!

Saturday afternoon we were in Grand Junction, CO. My daughter woke up from her nap by barfing all over herself and filling her diaper with watery poop. Then we drove to Denver. She had the stinkiest farts the whole way there. Then yesterday she had diarrhea for the 14 hour trip home from Denver to St. Louis. She was so happy the whole time though. We gave her tons of water and juice and tried to help her as much as possible. She didn't really want to eat anything though, and I didn't blame her. She's not up yet today, but hopefully she's better. If not, I'd better call her doctor.



Turns out that a lot of whatever she has I eventually get. This is no exception. As Dan was heading off for class today he said that it's probably viral or some toxin we ate working it's way through so there's nothing we can do but wait it out. Then he left. Now I've got to get it together to take care of myself and my baby. Man, being a mom sometimes stinks!

I'm Ba-ack

Well, Charlotte and I made it back from vacation! It sure was fun. (And also the longest and hardest week I've had yet with the baby.) I haven't caught up quite yet and we're leaving Wednesday for Colorado. Dan's Spring Break is this week so I'm spending time with him. Also, his grandma had a stroke so we're going to go see them in the big CO. All this is my excuse for not posting any of the fun stuff that happened as of late. I would just post photos of the trip, but my sister took 169 photos on my camera the first three days of the trip so I've got a LOT of sorting, tossing and editing to do. She's so much better at taking photos than I am. I always enjoy the moments and forget to click the camera. The batteries ran out four days into the trip so the sum total of photos that I took is 3. I wish I had taken our video camera. She did so many funny things on the trip. Then again, I probably wouldn't have wanted to get the video camera out anyway.

Lost

My daughter loves to play with my cell phone. LOVES. She likes to hear the little beeps and see it light up and it gives her pure joy. I only let her play with it supervised so that she doesn't call 911 or something. She does however manage to call anyone on my speed dial. Mostly she loves to call my brother-in-law, the ear doctor. I tried locking the keys but then they don't make noise and beep and it makes her mad.

Then I thought of a genius new solution: put the phone on airplane mode. It's still on and the keys still beep, but it wont call anyone. In fact it cuts of the whole signal. Brilliant. She can play to her hearts content and not call anyone.


Now if I could just find where she dropped it last......

Exciting News

Today I was holding Charlotte on my lap while reading some blogs. I clicked on my friend Heather's blog. Charlotte pointed to the photo of Ezra at the top and said, "Baby?"! Can you believe it! Then I said, "Can you say baby?" and she said it again! Then I showed her pictures of babies in her board books and pointed to them and said baby and she said "baby?" right back to me! Isn't this exciting?!

Poll the Audience

What do you do to get happy when you're sad on a cold rainy day?

A Trend

Question: Why is it that I think two days is enough to establish a new trend?

Answer: I'm crazy.


To clarify, Charlotte is still on the two nap a day schedule. She was just thrown off for a few days. Thanks for the insight on that one. LeAnn was right, she was probably having trouble with teething and all. I'm glad. I like the two nap a day routine. I can tell that she's going to be switching to one nap a day soon though. Her second nap of the day is always a quickie. Plus, if we're out doing something out of the house she's fine skipping a nap and then just taking one long one when we get home. This is super nice.



In other Charlotte news she has decided that the whole world is funny the past two days. After we picked Daniel up from school yesterday we took a walk. As we walked and talked Charlotte sat in the stroller just laughing away. We have no idea why. She kept looking at me and laughing yesterday after I put on my glasses. I guess she thinks they're funny looking. Then this morning I was feeding her baby oatmeal for breakfast and after every bite she took she would laugh. We had tons of fun at breakfast.