On the road to family life?

So we have made one more step in family-dom and away from being DINKs. Behold...our first minivan. Noooooooooooo!!!!

(Actually, I total dig the van - a Mazda5 - even though it means we are transitioning into yuppie soccer mom status. And....we now have three vehicles...how un-green is that???)

I can do it myself

There really isn't much explanation needed for these pictures. It is amazing to me, that in just over a year, a little critter, I mean kid, can go from a squirmy, helpless, mushy, "being" to a VERY independent, temperamental, giggly, person. I wonder what can of worms we have opened...

Can't Retire Yet

So my friend Jessica and I went to the Antiques Roadshow last Saturday. Wow - it was soo cool. We saw lots of people and lots of stuff and some of the Roadshow "regulars." Even "the twins" were there!!! Sadly though, neither Jess nor I could retire on the wealth from our old stuff.

PS. I looked at Jessica's blog and I was kind enough to crop my fat arms out of my picture...for the full flab view, you'll have to read her entry.

Splish-Splash

I can't help but think of the line from "Flight of the Conchords'" song, Foux du Fafa when I wrote "splish-splash." It is a good description though....

These snapshots were taken on the 4th of July and were too good not to post. The little guy is taking a few steps now and transitioning into total toddler-dom. Giggles, tantrums, molars, trucks, 100% boy.

I'm surprised, with his mouth open like that, that he doesn't down a few gallons of water each time he goes swimming.

Funny kid.

Seven-Seven

My little bro, John, just had a baby girl! She is three months premature but very healthy and strong!

Here is what my dad sent:

Name: Elinor Ora Love

Born: 07/07/08 at 1:00 a.m.

Weight: 1035 grams (a little over 1 kg, or about 2 lbs)

Where: Dunedin Hospital

Size: about the length of my forearm from wrist to elbow. Her head is about the size of a small orange.

Both Eli and Sara appear to be doing fine, although Eli is in the Natal ICU in an incubator and is wired for sound.

Sara was flown by helicopter from Kew hospital in Invercargill last Friday about 2:00 a.m. John drove up, fighting with an overheating car on the way.

He called us at our conference in Auckland and we were back in Dunedin by 6:00 p.m. Friday. Sara would stabilize during the day, then be back in the birthing room every night. Finally, last night she went all the way.

John had come back to our house about 9 p.m. Sunday and got a call from Sara about midnight. I drove him to the hospital and dropped him off. Eli popped out (literally) at 1:00 this morning. Karen and I were back at the hospital by 1:30 and got to see Eli about 4:00 this morning.

She is fully formed, but thin. She looks more like a little teenager than a baby, with her thin legs and arms. She is breathing on her own. Sara and John got to reach in and touch her. What a thrill! She appears to be in very good hands.

We're all very glad.

Dad

Convalescing

A week ago today I had surgery on my back. It was a long time coming and I am already so happy that I had it done. A monster ruptured disk had been running my life for the last nine months.

(it should be pretty obvious in the picture what is NOT supposed to be there)




I do have to say that being at home for a week now has opened my eyes to a few things:

1. Daytime TV is horrible
2. I can improve my sewing techniques by watching PBS
3. The baby should learn to take longer naps
4. One doesn't really need a shower everyday if one doesn't get up off the couch all day
5. I miss the office in my own sick way


Anywho...I plan to get back to work next week...but I promise to take it easy (to everyone who has been nagging me).

Bub's new toy

So one of our cats - Typhoon - has this "bond" with the baby. She is the dumber of the two kitties. The older one - Tsunami - is a wee bit smarter and actually times her feeding bathroom breaks to the baby's nap times.

Anywho, enjoy the clip.

Giggles

Happy Mudder's Day

I know I'm a week late on this, but here is how my first Mother's Day went. ha, ha!!!

My first trip to the Zoo was...

...a little scary at first - where did that dead whale come from?? - , and




...beary interesting, and


...a great way to work up an apatite, and



... exhausting, and


... better with a friend, and




... extremely educational, and


... a really interesting dinner theater concept, and


.... a five-star comedy gorilla comedy routine


... for the birds, and


... really, I said "for the birds already," and


a chance to get a souvenir!

Building walls

The insulation is all in and we have sheetrock on the north and south wall. Now for the mudding. And sanding. And mudding. And sanding. Etc.


I have a couple of coats of mud on the south wall...in places. I'll need at least another coat on those spots and quite a few on all the wonky corners in the room. Hopefully I don't goober up the walls too bad. There are only a couple of spots in the previous remodel where I wish I had given the walls one more coat. Also, I'm not too concerned about how smooth I get the ceiling. We are going to hang textured wallpaper on the horizontal portion of the ceiling. The wallpaper looks like old tin ceiling tiles.


Why do I bother asking him to smile for a picture????


I have the first coat of mud up on the north wall. It is nice to get the old , original wall covered back up and stop the influx of blown insulation from wafting in from the attic.


I would have loved to have gotten all the sheet-rocking done this weekend, but it didn't play out. We'll see how much we can piece in during the work week.

Its like it always was there or something...

I can't tell you how rockin'-awesome our contractor was - if anyone in the greater Wichita area is thinking about a remodel job, you should totally look into Heartland Home Improvements. Not only was the job wonderful (due to our wonky old house, everything was stick-built with a lot of cut and fit), but the clean up job - Holy Cats! It is like no one was here, only better. It was like Mr. Clean was here. Okay, I'll stop raving.


Here is what we have so far. Now Pat and I will start working on the sheetrock, closets, and fun stuff like painting and building cool built-in shelf thingys. Trust me, it'll turn out okay! I mean - look how well the office turned out a couple of years ago and it is still standing!

We'll keep you posted as we slog through the mudding. (Wish we had sweet, sweet Josh - our carpenter. Dude does a mean mud-job!)

Its looking like a house!

Recap from a soggy week

The week started out with a bang...well lots and lots of little ones......


But the crew kept plugging on:

It is taking shape

Rain is forecast for the rest of the week. The crew focused on the roof sheeting while the weather was still nice.That roof is scary-steep!!!! I'm so impressed that they are able to match the style of dormer on the windows.
He, he, he - it looks like the house is wearing a bib. I think I've been hanging around the baby too long.

Remodel Continues...

Here are some pics of the progress!!!!

Remodel Begins

We are off on the journey of adding on a new bedroom to our old house. We went to a contractor for this one as it is a big job to get it framed out. Our contractor is Heartland Home Improvement and their customer service is spectacular! They were one of a fraction of companies that were willing to work on the cut and fit of an old house.

Here is the "before" of the single story that was added on in the 1950's.


As of tonight, they have the old roof off and the new floor on - it was A LOT of piece work.


I'm so excited for the extra space!!

Celtic Braid Sock

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Originally uploaded by WATERCenter

I mistakenly knit the Cobblestone Pullover sweater for my hubby last holiday. Duh. He only wears t-shirts and is always hot. Sweet man though - he refuses to let me pass it on to anyone else because it is "special."

So, in an effort to force more hand-knits on the man, I am making him socks. One down, one to go. This is the "Celtic Braid Socks" pattern designed by Lynda Gemmell. I am knitting it in Sisu superwash merino yarn in a dark olive color. Both the pattern and the yarn were purchased at Twist.

He better wear 'em!

A Beautiful Quilt

After the NAI conference last fall, I pledged to make my grad school friend, Liz, a pair of socks. She, in turn, said she would send something made by hand back to me.

OMG.

Let me just start by saying that to me knitting is fairly simple and although a pair of socks may have between 21,000 and 25,000 stitches in them, I really don't think about that. I actually had to stop and break out a calculator to estimate that stitch number for this blog entry. Other types of hand made items - especially those connected to sewing - boggle my mind.

I can sew, however I do it as fast as possible and get away from the sewing machine as quick as I can. Weird, huh?

So when I got home last night there was a package from NY from Ms. Liz. I really have no words. This quilt was done by hand...by hand....pieced, everything. My hubby and I kept turning it over and over looking at the patterning in the stitches - the quilting was sewn in the shapes of snails, ladybugs, dragonflies, caterpillars, etc.

We posed the little bubbi on the quilt for the blog pic but I'm afraid he doesn't get to use it until he gets over his barfing stage and can use a blanket in bed. Sorry little guy. I just refuse to toss this in the wash. (you can see the cute little flannel quilt that Jess and the god-kids made underneath - that one is "wash n' go" blankie right now)

After I put the baby to bed, I laid the quilt over the banister upstairs. I just sat there and stared at it. All the blocks of material, all the stitching, the colors. I am so in awe of what people can create.

The socks go global

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Originally uploaded by WATERCenter

Holy cats. I never would have guessed that my humble pair of garter-rib socks would go global. Sweet sweet Liz - a classmate of mine - has given the socks their own blog. I cannot tell you how freakin' cool that is.

http://sockandsock.blogspot.com