Remodeling Continued

Tearing out the bathroom sink and vanity...

 

And J's bathroom upstairs...

His comment last night when getting ready for bed..."something's different in here."   Yep, no door kiddo!!

Turning things white

One door with trim is in and we love it!  It just makes the space look bigger, brighter, and more modern already. Can't wait to get the baseboards started. 

Winter Project beginnings...

Just changing the color of the door has made the kitchen look bigger and brighter!  

We're going to replace all the interior doors and baseboards and change it to white.  Getting rid of the original, beat-up brown and making it look cleaner. Can't wait to see the results!!

Fully Functional Again

Countertops?     Check.

Sink?     Check.

Plumbing hooked up?     Check.  (thanks, hubby!)

PEOPLE, we are now back to a fully functional kitchen!!!!!

Can I get a "wee-haw!"?  (as our little munchkin would say)

The crew still has the crown molding to put up and we will be doing the backsplash, a bit of painting, and finding the right window covering, but...

...we don't have to wash the dishes in the bathroom sink anymore!

Woot, woot!!

the peninsula/eating area

 Chris was also the electrician for this light.

 He's a pretty awesome handyman to have around!!

New beginnings

A couple weeks ago before we left to go camping, we had a new roof put on the house; our little guy loved seeing all the trucks that the men brought with them.  He and Daddy watched them unload the shingles.

Okay, so Daddy has his eyes closed, but J's smile is so sweet and excited I had to post this picture!

The guys starting to tear off the old shingles.

I didn't get any more pictures from this day because we were out quite a bit so we didn't hear all the stomping on the roof.  And they stomped and dropped shingles so hard that one of my glass dolphins dove off its shelf and broke a fin off.  Chris has glued it back on so well, though, you can't even tell where it broke...thanks, honey!

This week we will also be having a new garage door put up.  Not by choice, but because our old one fell apart, literally, as we were leaving for work last Thursday.  I had to wake Chris up when I was leaving because I couldn't get it closed and one side had a couple of wheels off the track.  He fixed that, but when he tried to close it when he left for work with J, it fell off even worse!  The only funny thing about it was that he told me he heard J say from his car seat: "Uh-oh!"  Yeah, baby, "uh-oh" is right!!

And one final picture, this one of Jinx, our first fur-baby together:

Smoking her corncob pipe!

(that's a plastic corncob she picked up from J's kitchen set.  too funny!)

It's been a while!

So much going on and so little time to get to the blog these days!  I am back at work, which means J has started at the sitter's house.  I would give anything to be home with my son every day, but that is not feasible at this time.  :(  I know Chris has a hard time dropping J off because the. kid. is. smart.  The first day, he started crying only once Chris put him down inside the house and started leaving.  Now, after only 7 days going there (and they are sporadic, usually only twice a week and not the same days), he is starting to cry and shake his head as Chris pulls into their driveway!  Smart boy, but it's breaking Daddy's heart.  Note: our day care lady has said he is getting into playing quicker each day, which helps to know.

J turned 17 months old last week!  We can't believe it!!  He's still only saying a few things in English (uh-oh, hi, and I think he's starting to say "up"), but we can tell that he's understanding a whole lot more, so it's just a matter of time before his babble turns into actual words.  I cannot wait!!!!!  I asked him to open his mouth yesterday and then showed him what I meant, and he mimicked me right away, down to saying "ahhhhh!"  It was absolutely adorable!  And he giggles afterwards each time.  I love that boy.

My mom came up and stayed with us last week, as Chris was out of town for work.  J loved having his grandma here...on the second day, she started getting big hugs in the morning, which was amazing for me to see.  I have waited years to see my mom with my children and it's finally here.  And she was so excited too that I'm not sure who had more tears in her eyes!  Anyway, we had a great time with Grandma here, but were also very excited that Daddy came back a night early and was here when J woke up on Saturday.

Speaking of waking up (and I really really hope I'm not jinxing ourselves!), J has been sleeping through the night for the past 3-4 nights, maybe waking once to have his diaper changed but going back to sleep right away.  And then the earliest he's woken up for good has been 7.  One day I even got to sleep in until 8am; mind you, I had been sleeping on his floor since about 5:30 that morning, but who cares...8AM!!!!!

Now for the pictures and some video:

Day 2 at the sitter's, his binky and blanket at the ready.

"Maybe I'll feel more comfortable if I can hold J's hand."  Our sitter's older boy; her younger one is a week younger than our J!

Day 4: his big brother buddy.  Such a sweet picture!!

We tore out our old front porch and had a new, bigger one added.  We absolutely love it and wish we would have done this years ago!  We can even put the baby gate across the opening and let the dogs come out.  They love that!

Spent July 4-5 at Chris' extended family.  J was so taken with their cat and vice versa.  I think it's the first time he's seen one.  He was sooo gentle with it!  Can you see the one pointer finger reaching out?!

"Here kitty kitty!"

He was giggling uncontrollably.  He thought that cat was the best play thing!

Spent some time at a lake they have...

...looks like he's just floating in deep water...

...surprise!  Not even waist deep.  He was liking it for the most part until he went under backwards (by accident, people! I was right there, but he was slippery!) and then wanted nothing more to do with being in the water by himself.  He rested on my shoulder for probably close to an hour after that.

Getting to sit in the driver's seat of the ski boat.  Daddy kept a close eye on him so he didn't push that oh-so-interesting throttle forward that's on his right side!

And then great-uncle Donald let him help steer the boat back to the dock.  Wonderful, wonderful day!

This first video I can't get to turn vertically, so sorry about that!  But oh, so, cute dancing.  We went to a Jazz Fest in town and found out our boy likes jazz as well...although he will start dancing to almost any song with a good beat.

And this one was just a cute moment between Daddy and J.

Tomorrow, Chris' parents are coming for the day, so J will get to spend time with them.  I am putting together a small picture album for J of his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins so that we can look at it frequently and he can at least get to know their faces.  I'm hoping this will help make him more comfortable with them when we all get together; I only have a couple more pictures to get and it will be complete.  He already likes to flip through the pages, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.  

I'll try not to let as much time go past before my next post, but you never know!  Hope you've enjoyed this one and didn't get bored.

A new nephew, birthday cake, gift, house update, and video try

While typing this post, I received word (and a picture!) that I have a new nephew!! My sister and baby are doing well...as is her husband, I suppose...they didn't say anything about him! This is son #2 for them. So, my parents now have 3 grandsons...what will Brenda deliver next month?!!?

So, this post is going to be a mish-mash of things. Wednesday I made a cake for Baby J's birthday...it turned out very yummy, but I'll have to take Chris' word as I still cannot taste much and definitely couldn't that day!! I can vouch that it looked good, though!

We still have plenty left over if anyone wants to come continue the celebration with us!!

Last week, I went to an event where first-time mamas can buy gently used children's items (toys, clothes, strollers, cribs, books, etc) for their little ones. I got about 7-8 outfits, some large plastic connecting blocks, and a possible Halloween costume for Baby J. I also bought him his first, and probably only, horse!

Won't he look cute in this with some dark brown pants?! A friend of mine also got the cutest little pumpkin costume with orange and green striped leggings for her little boy...they're going to be the cutest boys out for candy, I assure you!!

This horse might be a little big for him now, but he'll definitely be able to grow into it.

Chris just finished another project on the back deck that has been waiting for a few months until it got warmer out. We had to replace the deck wall along one side and of course, the kind we wanted did not come in the exact length he needed, so he had to do some cutting and rebuilding (kind of like a puzzle). Well, it turned out amazing!!! You can't even tell that they weren't bought at the store like this. I've got such a handy guy for a husband. I forgot to get a before picture, but I took some during the project and at the end.

Measure twice, cut once...

...and it will turn out perfect!!!

Now to stain it all for the summer. :(

Okay, trying to figure out how to get our videos uploaded from the camera to the blog. I am trying with a short one first that Chris took of Lexi giving Jinx a bath the other day. This is common, especially after they come in when it's been raining outside. The picture isn't the best, but this is just a test run.

I had to revert to the old settings in my blogger to insert this, then reset it to the new ones, so I can't wait to see what it's done to all my other posts!! Holding my breath as I post this...

What a week!

What a week this past 7 days have been!!!  Had some big ups and downs at work that I'm not even going to get into here; suffice it to say, yesterday I kept telling myself that I just needed to get through the day because now I have EIGHT DAYS OFF!!  Very excited about that.  :)

We finally got our dining room table and chairs in...after almost 3 months!  We ordered them December 31, since the tax rate was going up the next day and, at that time, the furniture store told us it would take 4-6 weeks for it to come in.  We were fine with that, as we didn't need it for any certain time. At 5 weeks, I called just to see if they knew when it would be delivered and they told me that it wasn't in and that it would probably take the full 6 weeks.  Okay, fine, still not a problem.  At 8 weeks, we hadn't heard from them and a phone call from me registered some surprise with the person that answered that we hadn't gotten our table yet.  So they called the warehouse: the table and four of the six chairs were in; they were waiting until all the chairs were there before sending it to the store for us to pick up.  O-kay, fine, getting a bit upset by this time, but still not a huge problem.  At 10 weeks, we were told that they had all the chairs, but not the table...what?!?!  How did they "not have" the table now, when they had it two weeks ago?!  Not fine, what the heck is going on, we want our dining room set!!  By this time, the guys at the store were getting impatient with the warehouse and told us that our table and chairs would be delivered to our house for free, to make up for our inconvenience.  After calling them daily, we finally got it delivered during week 11...in boxes!!!!!!  Maybe this is how dining room tables and chairs are received normally, but not having bought one before (we've only had small kitchen tables), we just assumed it would either come assembled or they would do it for us.  ha!  So then we had to spend the evening putting together the table and four of the chairs.  Never going back to that store again.  Although we've had bad luck with almost all of the furniture stores in town now, so if we ever buy furniture again, I have no clue where we will actually want to get it from!  But we really really like our new table and chairs; it makes the dining room look like, well, a dining room.  Here's a picture of our awesome table:

If all the above wasn't enough for one week, someone dented my driver's side car door when they were getting out of their car last Thursday.  It was such a windy day that the door probably got pulled out of her hand, so I don't blame her at all for it actually happening, but dang it, take responsibility!  I had just gotten back to my car when the people next to me were getting out, so I stood back to wait for them and didn't see it happen.  Luckily, there was someone in the car facing mine who did see it happen and told me about it when the other people went into the store...the person who did it didn't even say anything to me!  How lame.  So I went back in the store and asked them about it; the driver completely denied it, but he obviously didn't see it happen.  When I specifically asked the woman, she just stared at me mutely and then looked back at the guy, who again denied it.  Long story short, after seeing the dents (and the white paint from my car door on the edge of the dark car he was driving), he grudgingly admitted that it could have been them...after calling his friend who he borrowed the car from to tell her what happened!  I feel sorry for that woman having to pay to repair the damage done by her friends, but she was also a bit aggravated to hear that they had denied it so long.  Thankfully, the two big dents in my car door are going to be repaired soon!  It's kinda funny, though, my car got hit and I was the one who had to do all the work in order for it to be repaired.  This is actually the first time, yes, I said the first time, that I have ever had something happen to a car I'm driving!  Pretty good record, huh?

Chris and I are sending another and, we're hoping, final care package over to Korea this month with a family who is traveling to meet their son.  Thanks, M!!!  Next time, we're hoping it's us who is carrying over the packages for other families!  There hasn't been much movement, but the woman in charge of the Korean program is going over in April to visit and talk with the agency there.  That's great news and hopefully that will kind of start nudging things along again.  Baby J's birthday is two weeks from tomorrow, on April 14, and the family carrying the package for us is leaving on the 16th, so this will ultimately be his birthday gift from us.  I can't believe that we are still waiting for him to come home and are missing this milestone, rather than celebrating it with him.  If we knew back in January that we still wouldn't have him by now, we would have found some way for me to have gone over with B. and L. that month when they went to visit their sons.  (Both of their referrals were about a month before ours and they're still waiting as well!)  Leaving Baby J behind at that time would have been so so heartwrenching, but at least he would have met his mama and maybe remembered me when we go to get him and not be as anxious as he is bound to be.  And Chris and I would have had pictures of me with our son when he was still a baby; we could have had those precious memories.  I could have held him, kissed him, played with him, and smelled him (don't you just love the smell of babies?!).  Now the agency in Korea has said that they cannot accommodate adoptive parents visiting their children prior to travel calls because it places a lot more work on their shoulders, to set up visiting times and have the SW present.  I understand, and want them to have as much time as possible to work on getting the babies home instead of coordinating visits, but didn't they understand when they issued the invitation for parents to come visit that they would be inundated with requests, especially as the wait time between referral and travel call is getting longer and our babies are getting older?!!?  Friday will be six months since we saw our sweet baby's face for the first time and realized that our dream to become parents was finally coming true...now, if it would only turn into reality for us!  Here are some pictures of the birthday package:

His first Illini outfit, a nice birthday outfit (how handsome he will be in it!), a book where he can push the pictures on the side and it says the word (so he may learn some simple English words), and a stacking toy.  Can you believe I could not find those small plastic cups that stack inside each other?!  I remember those from growing up and wanted to send Baby J a set; he could practice hand-eye coordination and begin to learn that even though you can't see something, it's still there...like his mama and papa right now!  We're here waiting for you!

I'm also sending a disposable camera and a thank you gift for the foster family, for caring for and loving our son for the past 10 months.  I really like these statues and hope they will also!

Some shots of our "kids" over the past couple of weeks:

Lexi was buried beneath the blanket before Jinx laid down in the bed with her.  I pulled the blanket away to get this picture.  They have NEVER laid in the same bed to sleep!!!

One day last week, the dogs were rough-housing like usual so I wasn't paying much attention to them.  That is, until I heard this very. pathetic. whining coming from Lexi (the beagle).  Now mind you, she is (just a little bit) spoiled and whines a lot when she wants something, usually attention, not unlike a child, or so I've been told.  But she was no where near me and it continued, so I went to investigate.  Here is what I found:

I started laughing so hard because she looked so funny just sitting there, her head caught in a hole in the blanket they'd been ripping apart.  And Jinx just standing there like, "what's the problem, mom?"  I had to take some pictures!  Of course, I first made sure that my little one was not suffocating, which she wasn't.  My little wonderdog looks like she's got her very own homemade cape!!

Last, but certainly not least, I finished a baby blanket for my sister's baby shower mid-March.  I think it turned out well and am hoping my niece or nephew enjoys it for many years to come!!

Project updates

Chris and I both had Sunday and Monday off of work and we got a lot of projects completed.  I left him a "honey-do" list on Saturday when I went to work and we got most everything crossed off by last evening.  Let's see, we lowered the springs on Baby J's crib, got the shower doors taken out (we're switching to a shower curtain while J's young, so we don't have only half the tub to work with when bathing him) and a new shower rod up.  I bought the new shower curtains on-line and they should be here by the time of my baby shower at the end of the month when we're going to have family staying at the house.  At least, I hope it gets here in time!!  I finished up the other half of the closet organizer and cleaned out the spare bedroom closet to put the organizer in there.  We bought a ceiling fan/light for J's room, which Chris is going to put up (he's a pro at this; I do love my ceiling fans!).  We finally decided on a car seat...yeah!!!  Can't believe what a decision that was to make, but you know, it's our baby's safety.  We did find out that there is no one car seat that everyone likes; that would make things too easy.  Chris got his work bench in the garage cleaned up and put up a bigger shelf in his "man cave."  And I finally started on the quilt!!!!!!  I got all the squares cut (only slightly messing up once) as well as the sashing that will go between each one and am ready to start sewing.  I can't believe it!  I'm hoping to have a good start on the top of the quilt by the shower so I can show it off.  I will definitely be posting pictures of that.  We also have the letter to our foster family translated; I just need to print it off on some nice paper.  Chris has a Korean friend from college and he was able to translate our letter almost over night...thanks so much, Sang!  I still have a few areas of the house that I need to clean out and get organized; start getting gifts for the trip to give the foster family and any other people who help us out; check to see if I can upload video from a video camera Chris' aunt/uncle are loaning us for the trip; and maybe start getting lists together for what to pack for our trip!  Unbelievable that I am actually, finally writing that!!  We have NOT heard anything, but I want to be prepared in case things start going quickly (which I am hoping and praying for with all my heart).  Oh, I'd also like to get our bedroom painted before we bring him home, but that's at the bottom of my list right now.  That's all for now.

9 MONTHS OLD TODAY!

Happy 9 month birthday to our sweet Baby J!!  We are thinking about you today (and every day).  I did get one of my projects completed yesterday; installing a closet organizer in J's closet.  I only put the bottom half in, but it will give us extra shelves and another rack closer to the floor so that he can reach his own clothes when he gets older!  Plus, we have the sliding doors on that closet and this will help us be able to use one half for his stuff and the other half for storage.  I did all this myself, including drilling it into the wall.  That puppy is not moving!!

full-length of that side of the closet

close-up of the unit and lower bar

We also found this Willow*Tree statue at, of all places, Cracker Barrel.  We had some gift certificates to use there (thanks, Mom and Dad!) and had money left over after lunch.  We were looking around the store and I found this statue:

the statue is called "Child of my Heart"

The card that comes with it reads: "Child of the world, Into my heart you came - Bringing sun into my life, Making family our name."  How very appropriate.  Happy 9 months, our child of the world!  We love you!!

Busy Week

Chris and I have been very busy this past week! We have been wanting to get our driveway extended to the side of the garage in order to put our camper there. That way, we wouldn't have to worry about getting it out over muddy/wet ground and we could get rid of the awful rock "stuff" that was in front of our fence. We got around to calling contractors to see how much money they would want for it and the bids weren't nearly as much as we were fearing, so....



...two weeks ago we decided to go for it and it looks so much nicer (just wait until the grass grows in)!! We did take out the fence ourselves, which took about an hour, and the concrete guys did the rest. They even hauled away all that old rock for us! We still have to put up a new fence and gate behind the camper so that the dogs have free run of the backyard. Yesterday while I was at work, Chris spread out the pile of dirt they left behind and today we planted grass seed. The camper is now sitting in its new spot and we can use our whole garage again for our cars. Yeah!!



Last weekend, we went camping on our land in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and had a great time. We did nearly freeze a couple of nights when it got down in the high 30's...brrrr!! Good thing we can now hook up to the electric we got put in this spring and were able to run the little electric heater we bought. It was nice weather for the most part while we were there, though. Here is our camper all popped up and Chris relaxing by the awesome fire we had the first night there. We also put together a picnic table that we bought to have up there, but I forgot to take a picture of it assembled. :(



The fire just looks so beautiful at night. Wish we could do that every night!



This is our last day camping. Chris wanted to cut down a tree near our campsite as we were leaving because it was pretty rotten and would probably have fallen soon anyway. This view is from our campsite looking out, so you can see how close it is to us. He didn't want it falling while we were gone and blocking our site, or, God forbid, falling across the campsite while we are there!! He loves using his power tools (especially the chainsaw, which he doesn't really get to use at home!) and is getting very good at placing where he wants a tree to fall. My very own lumberjack!!



So that has been our busy past few weeks. Gearing up for more summer vacations and fun; it's gonna fly past!! Maybe more work on the house as well?!