Hello – it’s July.
I know, I know. it’s been way too long since I’ve posted to my little blog. But I have a perfect excuse – we had our baby on May 4. It’s taken me 8 weeks to finally get the hang of motherhood.
Lucy Margaret joined our family on May 4, 2009 at 9:37 PM. She weighed in at 9 lbs, 3 oz, and was 21″ long.
Labor lasted about 22 hours. I was tired, and I’m still tired. But she was worth every gosh-darn minute of pregnancy and labor.
I know it’s April, but here’s a nursery update from last month, which I think was March. I’m getting grief for not posting lately, but listen, people, I’m 4 weeks away from my due date, and a little more focused on growing a human! Seriously! Give me a break!
But overall, time is flying by in the domino world of Pam and Robert and future baby. The countdown is on to the big day, and we can’t wait.
Meanwhile, we’re hard at work on the nursery. Well, when I say “we”, I mean “Robert” because the only thing I can do at this point is point.
Robert installed the nursery closet – we went with an IKEA closet – the Stolmen. It was super-easy to install, and it is modular, so we can add to it as the baby grows into a kid into a teenager.
Here’s a lovely photo:
The closet turned out great, and so did the bright green carpet.
Here’s a photo that shows the wall and trim colors, along with the carpet. This is a photo of the baby’s room corner – “nobody puts Baby in the corner.”
Overall, the nursery is coming along very nicely. We now have a crib, so the baby will have a place to lay its little head, and we have diapers, so we can change the baby, and a car seat, so we can bring the baby home. Now all we need is the baby!
The baby’s room ceiling is finished!
Here’s a series of pictures of the progress Robert made in undertaking this giant task:
First, the demolition:
Robert ripped out the ceiling over two days, and discovered the insulation was old and bunched up, and some of it was moldy. Gross. He also discovered that the ceiling fan in the room wasn’t actually attached to anything (not to the studs up above) and was just hanging from the drywall. Fixed that problem too. Good thing, because that would have been right above the crib – not so good for a baby if a ceiling fan falls on it.
Second, the new insulation was put into the ceiling so the baby can be nice and warm during the frigid Chicago winters:
You can see the giant drywall sheets stacked against the wall.
And last, the completed, beautiful, finished ceiling!
It’s now been primed and painted, and the walls are now painted white. I can’t wait until the nursery is close to being finished and the baby arrives! More pictures to come – it’s going to be beautiful!
Hi Internet.
I’m so proud of my husband, dear Robert. The baby’s nursery room ceiling is almost finished!
If you’ll recall, over the summer, we had a leaking roof in our library, which has now been specified for the baby’s room.
The roof leaked, the water dripping ensued, and the drywall turned into a moldy mess, along with the insulation above the drywall.
Robert undertook the endeavor of ripping out the ceiling, pitching the drywall, and installing new insulation. Our very good friend Wes came over last week and they put up the new drywall. I’m currently in Philadelphia on a show, and when I come home, Robert says the drywall will be finished and ready to paint!
So the dominoes are getting knocked down one by one. We’re two weeks away from the third trimester, so the countdown is on! I can’t wait to share with you the photos of the finished nursery in hopefully a month or so – it’s going to be beautiful. Hooray Robert!
I’m happy to report we are finally liking, nay loving our basement.
As you may have read here or possibly here on this little blog, we have been plagued with basement troubles starting just a couple months after we moved into this little house.
Flooding, mold, losing carpet, flooding again, losing more carpet, finally installation and lots of cash spent on a drain tile and sump pump system, and I’m happy to say our basement is DRY. Completely DRY!
We had a giant snow melt over the weekend, where after 10″ of snow falling in December, the weather turned warm to the 60’s and all the snow melted. So confident were we in our basement and the sump pump that we left and went out of town. I will say we were a little nervous coming back on Sunday afternoon, but our sump pump works GREAT! Basement doesn’t flood anymore, although the backyard was full of water. No ducks yet, though.
Now, we have made basement progress. Official, verified, notarized progress. We’ve repainted the room, installed new carpet, and Robert just finished installing the last step – the new pretty baseboards. Now we get to decorate and put the room back together! Pictures coming soon!
I love our sump pump. I didn’t even know what a sump pump was until about a year ago, and now I can’t imagine life without it! Well, I can, and it would involve lots of flooding, mold and an unusable basement.
Now that we have a deadline – officially set by the coming, future baby – we’re beginning to be more ambitious with our house projects.
Currently, the house projects are stacked up like a line of dominoes…each project hinging upon another project. For example, we want to work on the baby’s nursery, but we can’t start the nursery until we move my giant book collection to the basement, and we can’t move the books to the basement until we finish the basement floorboards, and we can’t finish the basement floorboards until we have time enough in the day to do it. It’s a house of cards, stacked up. Ok, maybe not a house of cards, but a complicated, interconnected puzzle with multiple, tiny, perplexing pieces, some of which have been lost or are stuck to the bottom of someone’s shoe.
I’m feeling a little holiday stress, can you tell?
Robert and I are having a baby! Good thing we moved into a house with a yard. I’m 20 weeks along, and due May 2, 2009.
We are beyond thrilled – now that we’re well into the second trimester, we feel really good and have had very positive results from the blood work and ultrasounds, baby looks awesome. I’m starting to feel it move around, which is the weirdest thing I’ve ever experienced, and the coolest. I feel pretty good, although I usually have to go to bed by 8:30 PM.
We’re not going to find out if it’s a boy or a girl – we love surprises and suspense. We have 9 nieces and nephews between the two of us – 4 boys and 5 girls, and they are all amazing people, so we would be happy with either kind of kid.
We’re also not telling anyone our name selection because we aren’t interested in a lot of unwanted advice – although we are leaning towards the name Shecky, which works for either a boy or a girl.
It’s official. I’m growing a human. Hooray!
We recently acquired a new appliance for our kitchen. Now, usually, I’m not much for extra appliances lining the countertops – I prefer uncluttered space in the kitchen.
But lately, I’ve been thinking about sandwiches. Thinking a lot about them. So my dear husband Robert went to the Target and purchased A PANINI MAKER.
Ladies and Gentlemen – the Panini Maker is the evolution of the perfect sandwich. I’m a fan of grilled cheese, but this takes the humble grilled cheese to a whole new level. And it’s so easy to use!
We’ve had paninis three nights in a row, going for the fourth. Turkey and swiss on rye, with tomato, yum.
Panini makers would make the perfect holiday gift. That’s my holiday tip for the day as the holidays are rapidly approaching.
It’s raining here in Chicago. And when I say raining, I mean that the Hurricane Ike has made it all the way up here and is pouring its anger and tropical storm rage down on Chicago.
The rain is now coming in our house, it’s raining so much.
Our upstairs guest bedroom (which has a flat, but slightly sloped roof) is leaking. At first, it was just a small leak, a singular drip out of the ceiling fan. Next, it became a steady drip. Then, a stream. Next, a raging current of rain.
The rain has decided that it’s not satisfied with only coming in through the hole of the ceiling fan. Water has begun dripping from about 12 places in the ceiling. I think we’re going to lose the drywall ceiling.
And yes, we’ve had the roofing guy out, apparently it’s a flashing problem that will be fixed this week, of course, after Ike is long gone and the sun is out.
Stupid rain.
Basement, you may ask? Basement is bone dry.
Monday night Chicago was plagued with scary storms, including a series of tornado warnings that even caused the fair city to blare it’s warning tornado sirens.
Out in the western suburbs, we were quietly enjoying some tivo, but keeping one eye turned towards the sky, which was an unnatural, otherworldly color. Suddenly, the tornado warning sirens went off and our adrenaline started surging. TO THE BASEMENT, we shouted, and grabbed what we could as we ran downstairs – computers, i-phones, and for some strange reason, I grabbed Robert’s wallet. In case we needed to buy something down there, I guess.
We discovered we’re woefully unprepared for any type of emergency. The basement is still in a state of disrepair, and the flashlights were no where to be found. No bottled water, no emergency radio, no ponchos, no umbrellas, no first-aid kit, no nothing.
We used our wireless internet on our laptop to track the thunderstorm from the basement.
The first warning we saw on weather.com was for a tornado in our area and possible nickel-sized hail.
About 10 minutes later, after refreshing the page, the warning was changed. No tornado, and the hail size reduced from nickel-sized hail to penny-sized hail.
Robert turns to me, and without missing a beat, says “Recession”.
I couldn’t stop laughing. Luckily, we didn’t get hit by a tornado, and the Mini didn’t get hit by either nickel- or penny-sized hail. We lost our cable but not our power, but all of our neighbors across the street were without power for a day. I’m glad we weren’t swept away by any tornado or pelted with any type of money-sized hail.
I have a book addiction. It all started when I was a child, reading was a comfort and my favorite activity, and then in high school, I worked at Waldenbooks in the White Oaks Mall, which was my dream job. That job enabled me to support my addiction – to buy books, and I haven’t stopped since!
This picture was taken a few weeks ago when I reorganized my bookshelves in our “library / guest room” upstairs. Yes, it’s a lot of books, I know. The books just multiply up there, left on their own.
But, I donate the books that are ready to leave the collection. You can always tell the books that want to leave – they grumble around, look shifty-eyed, and fall off the shelves. There’s a new great literacy charity in Chicago that we support:
Open Books. They will take most any books for donation, and then they sell them to support literacy programs. They are always looking for donations and volunteers, check it out!
My new, favorite summertime pastime is going to used book sales, and rescuing poor, lonely books to add to my ever-growing addiction – I mean collection. This upcoming weekend is my favorite used book sale in Chicago – the Newberry Library Book Fair. If you live in Chicago and have a chance to go, it’s an amazing, weekend-long event where the books are all cheap, and there’s over a 100,000 to choose from! Even the squirrels are into it.
It’s a book-addicts dream – I can’t wait.
We aren’t prone to paranoia, usually. We review all sides of the issue, and often come up with rational reasons of why things are happening, instead of using our vivid imaginations.
Except when it comes to the mail. I think our mailperson hates us.
It all started out when we moved into our new house. The first time our new mailbox was left open, in the rain, we figured it was just an accident – oops, the mail person left the mailbox open – too bad.
The second time it happened, again, left open during the rain, we began to get suspicious.
Now, like clockwork, if the clouds are emitting precipitation, if raindrops are falling, if there’s a dense fog surrounding the house that has moisture in it, if there’s a heavy snow falling, then the mailbox top will be left open and the mail will be soaking wet by the time we get home.
We figured – well, maybe there’s something wrong with the mailbox. But it’s NEVER left open on a day with no rain. Never.
Last week, we came home to this:
Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow will prevent the mail from being delivered, but I guess the phrase doesn’t suggest what condition your mail will be in. We need to make friends with the mailperson. Maybe I can bribe with cookies.
After the basement re-do, we decided it was Dumpster Time.
We called a local company who was able to drop off the dumpster that same day in our driveway.
It became the neighborhood conversation piece. Strangers were coming up, asking us what we were doing with a dumpster, and could they put something in it. Neighbor friends were curious too.
It was very convenient to toss the things we couldn’t throw in the garbage, like this:
This was an old, non-working, ugly, spider-infested electric fireplace that has been an eyesore in the basement since we moved in. I’m so glad it’s gone!
We also were able to toss things like the old, rotten, carpenter-ant-infested wood from around one of our trees, the moldy, flooded carpet, and scary garage items from the deep recesses of the garage.
I know a dumpster is not very environmentally friendly, but we tried to be eco-conscious, and not throw away toxic things like paint.
I wish we could have a dumpster in our driveway all the time.
At last, the basement is officially dry.
Robert supervised the installation of the drain tile on a fine Monday morning. The truck arrived with 7 folks to do the work, which they accomplished in just one day. When giant chunks of foundation concrete are removed from your home, that makes you feel like a real homeowner.
After much ruckus, the drain tile was installed and the sump pump operational. It’s strange to think that we’ve installed a system where the water is welcomed into the house, invited in to stay for a while, then sucked into pipes, and then thrown right out of the house. The new sump pump is like our house’s bouncer.
The post-sump-pump-and-drain-tile-installation-clean-up was significant, with much scrubbing of mud, removal of concrete dust, and mopping of floors. Don’t let anyone tell you that it’s not messy. It is. Messy and muddy, especially when it rains on the day of installation.
Happily, this weekend was the restore of the basement laundry room to a much prettier state:
Look how ice blue the new painted floor is! Such an improvement. My Mom and Dad (thanks Mom & Dad!) came up and helped us put the basement back together. We painted, installed wall paneling, and painted some more, with very exciting results. The laundry room is nice now! Now, we just need a huge rainfall to really test the system to verify that it won’t leak. I’ll go check the weather.
Tomorrow is the basement re-do. The Big Day. The Finish Line. The Super Time. The Event. Finally, the End of Basement Flooding (in capital letters, fingers crossed).
They are expected to arrive at around 8 AM, at which time jackhammers will be used, concrete will be broken up, workers will work, dust will fly, drainage systems will be installed, sump pump holes dug, yard destroyed, concrete poured, and hopefully signifying the end to all the water entering the basement. I hope those jackhammers don’t shake the whole house down.
We like to do things the hard way, so we’ve waited lo these many months to make a decision about our basement flooding, and then even more weeks to actually get them to come out here and do the work (8 weeks of waiting).
The past two weeks we’ve been busy with the setting up and preparations – our good friend Wes came over to help Robert uninstall and move the washer and dryer, and figure out what to do with the utility sink, and Robert and I have been busy wrapping everything we own in the basement with plastic (to prevent dusty items), removing baseboards, taking important items upstairs to prevent ruin. I got out of 4 days of work since I was on a show, but Robert has been doing a lot while I was away. It’s been quite a big prep work project, I’m a little frightened of what the post-clean up will be like.
But for now, fear not, because the time has come. Dry basement tomorrow!
My newest pet peeve is the question that every retail sales person asks me now, when completing a transaction at a store:
“Would you like your receipt with you or in the bag?”
Every salesperson asks. Could be at the grocery store, could be at the gas station, could be Target, could be anywhere where money is exchanged to receive goods. Since when did this become an option that must be communicated every time we buy something? Are we really that attached to our receipts that we need to know where they are at all times?
It irritates me to no end. It’s like nails on a chalkboard to me. People don’t ask “How are you today?” or “Did you find everything you were looking for?” Instead, it’s “Would you like your receipt with you or in the bag?” Can’t you just put the receipt in the bag, and if I’m that anxious to have it, I could actually reach into the bag and get it out? Is this really the only thing we have to say to each other?
In the old days, oh, two or three years ago – only every once in a while were you asked this question. I’m fine with every once in a while. But every time? In every store? Maybe it’s just me, and the universe is trying to tell me something. See if you notice it and let’s compare notes.
I’ve decided I’m going to start replying with a smart alec comment in response to that question. Like this:
Salesperson: “Would you like your receipt with you or in the bag?”
Me: “The bag feels lonely – put the receipt in the bag to keep it company.”
or
Me: “What’s a receipt?”
or
Me: “Yes.”
We’ve all been walking around Chicagoland lately, all cocky, with a spring in our step, sunshine on our backs and a “Spring is finally here!” feeling in our hearts.
Mother Nature’s about to put us back in our place. Tonight, 6″ to 8″ of snow expected, with a huge red flashing winter storm warning on the weather.com. No one believes the weather report though, because the sunshine is beaming here right now and the sky is as blue as a pair of Dutchman’s pants. We’re pretending that we don’t hear them.
I’m sick about it. I thought today was the first official day of spring?
I guess I’ll be put back in my place of being bummed about winter.
We’re VERY new to the neighbor stuff. We don’t know a lot of people here, and are unsure of how the whole having-neighbors-thing works. We’re used to living in the city, where you ignore everyone and pretend that they don’t exist. In the suburbs, it’s not like that. People are nice. They say hello. They look out their windows to see what you are up to. And now, we look out of OUR windows to see what THEY are up to.
Before a recent trip, we decided to leave a note for our neighbor with a request to please call us if the house burned down, or got hit by a tornado, or squashed by the foot of Godzilla.
I left a friendly note in their mailbox, and right before we left, saw our neighbor out on his front step.
“Hey there,” I said “I left a note in your mailbox. We’re going out of town for a few days, would you mind keeping an eye on our house for us?”
“I’ve been keeping an eye on that house for 20 years” he said.
I didn’t really know how to take that.
Last week , we were able to witness the Lunar Eclipse – pretty amazing.
My little camera doesn’t do it justice. If you missed it, because it was cloudy where you are, or because you don’t live in North America, or because you’re one of those eclipse-haters, I am sad to report that it won’t happen again until December 2010.
There’s nothing more incredible than a full eclipse of the moon. I loved it. It was super cold in the Chicago-land area, so we could only stay outside for about 10 minutes at a time. But every minute was worth it.
Robert and I were married 8 years ago today, March 3, 2000. Happy Anniversary Robert – these past 10 years together have been the best of my life, and each year gets better. Thank you for being the best husband ever, and my best friend.
I love you!
Everyone, turn to your significant other and tell them how much they mean to you! Spread the love around, on this happy day!
Not only has our basement flooded three times since we’ve moved in (and dear readers, for those of you who may have lost count, that’s three times in nine months, THREE TIMES in not even a year yet) but the water plague is following me to my place of employment, too.
Last week, while working downtown in the loop at my job, we heard a terrible commotion in the hall. We looked down the hall, and saw some water dripping from the ceiling – we’re on the top floor of a 6 story building. Suddenly, the water turned into a veritable flood, like someone above us on the roof had turned on a fire hydrant.
The water quickly began to fill the hall. Burst pipe! It was a frozen and burst pipe in the fire sprinkler system. We were very lucky where I work, because no water got into our office. Across the hall and all five floors below us, not so lucky. A lot of damage. The water even got down to the basement – it’s amazing how fast the water found it’s way downstairs. The fire department came and shut off the water – they said they’d been responding to frozen pipes all over the city.
Anyway, water seems to be following me wherever I go. I need to do a non-rain dance or something.
Last weekend, we went to the Chicago Auto Show, here in Chicagoland. I’m on the search for a new car, but haven’t had much success.
We were hopeful that the new car would just find us – like in 2003 when we bought Robert’s car. We went to the Auto Show and we had never even seen the Honda Element, but Robert loved it and we bought it. And now, it’s my turn. I currently drive a car I love, let me emphasize that – love. It’s a blue beetle bug that we bought it in 1999. It’s been all over the country on road trips, has moved us from Chicago to Atlanta and back to Chicago, and has been a faithful friend. If you’re looking for a new car, trust me – the beetle bug is the way to go.
Now fast forward to 2008 and us walking through the Auto Show, uninspired. You may think this post is going to a positive place – of “and then we found the car of my dreams!” but it’s not. There’s no happy ending yet. Sometimes happy endings take time!
I liked this advertising though:
Fun to Drive at the Volkswagen booth. Maybe I need a new Beetle Bug. Perhaps a convertible.
We went to the Auto Show on a Saturday night – and it was crowded. There were tons of people, and we often had to wait to get into the cars. But it was fun and interesting to see the new cars for 2008. We sat in a lot of cars, and the most surprising button was this one:
I didn’t know a button on a random car could turn my own Extra-Sensory Perception off. What does this button do?
The only car I really loved was the new Mini Cooper Clubman S. I liked the giant illuminated sign:
And I also liked the advertising:
But most of all, I liked the tiny car. Even though it’s smaller than the Beetle Bug, it’s zippier. But I’m not in love with it. I think it’s just infatuation right now. The next step is to drive one, and see if the infatuation turns into real love.
This is a valentine for all the world to see
to my dear husband,
Robert
I love you with all my heart.
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Hope your day is full of love and sappy valentine’s wishes.
The weekend after Christmas we journeyed to visit Robert’s family for the holidays. The day we left, the state had freezing fog – the trees were otherworldly and kind of spooky, but beautiful at the same time:
We loved it.
Now that it’s well into January, and totally past the appropriate time for posting this, we thought we’d share a little Holiday Recap of our festivities from 2007. Our celebrations were quiet – with our own tree and presents in our new house, and we even dined on some Christmas ham!
.
Our tree was adorned with ornaments and adored by both of us. It’s a fake tree, and I don’t think I’ll ever get a real tree, ever since my friend Lauren told me the story of a snake in a Christmas tree she bought and took into her home. INTO HER HOME! WITH A SNAKE! We took our lovely, safe-from-snakes fake tree down recently, and now the living room seems much less festive and much less crowded at the same time.
My favorite present from Robert was my new Tiger Pen:
It punches. And it looks angry. That’s why I like it. Thanks Robert!
We made a delicious ham because nothing says holiday like pork, but we didn’t really read the label when we bought the ham. We were certainly surprised to discover that the ham was meant to serve 15 – 20 people. We still have ham leftovers, and I’m sick of ham omelettes and ham and cheese sandwiches.
We also made cookies and decorated them – look how pretty:
And then we ate them.
That’s the brief 2007 holiday recap from Yobots New House – hope your holiday seasons were joyous and peaceful, and cheers for a fabulous 2008! I could have said “great 2008″ but I’m tired of the 08 rhymes already.
Sorry, dear internet, for my lack of writing. Our basement has flooded again and we’re swamped over here. It sucks. More soon!
Remember when I talked about Green Dimes, our mail issues and the huge amount of junk mail we were receiving? I thought it best to illustrate this point visually:
On the left side of the picture – this was our junk mail in a typical week, before the Green Dimes service kicked in. One week of mail, measuring a foot tall. One week of catalogs we’d never ordered from, like Topdeq office furniture, or Wine Country Gift baskets, or Hickory Farms, or thirty-seven Pottery Barn catalogs and twenty-six Garnet Hill catalogs. One week out of 52 of the year where we were contributing heavily to the destruction of the forests.
On the right side of the picture – this was our mail this week. Happily, please notice the reduction – mail is so much more manageable, and less overwhelming, less likely to cause depression while tackling. There were even some holiday cards in there! Mail issues = solved! Green Dimes, we love you!
The squirrels are acting in tandem in the yard today. I watched these two red squirrels as they emerged from their nest, traveled around the tops of the trees and then landed under the bird feeder, all together. It was warmer today instead of frigid cold, perhaps that’s why they were out and about. It was surprising though, because neither climbed the bird feeder pole to pry the top off with their greedy little paws. Maybe the steel was too cold.
It’s icy at the new house. We’ve discovered that when it’s cold and icy, and because our front door faces east, the ice accumulates and makes the door impossible to open.
We get iced in. The front door won’t even budge.
So we just use the back door.
I’m a little worried about the poor, cold squirrels so I bought some whole nuts in the shells and sprinkled them out in the snow-covered yard – we’ll see if any of the nuts were eaten.
It’s winter here in the Chicagoland region. Officially winter because now we have snow – we got about 5″ of snow the other day, with another 4″ expected tonight, if the weatherpeople aren’t lying.
Here’s our little tiny garage covered in snow:
Notice the shoveled paths, courtesy of early-morning Robert. It makes me cold just looking at it.
