under the tree with care

now it was time to get down to business: opening gifts!  we did a name exchange this year and had a lot of fun passing the gifts around and enjoying what the family had gotten.  diana and barbara got a few extra gifts too, which is only fair, its their family!  as the evening wound down, we all sat around the living room and watched an old classic: a muppet christmas carol!  it is one of barbara's favorites, so she brought it for us all to enjoy.  i think she said that this was her third time watching it just this year!
as night time drew near, we realized that this was a really full house!  with denny and gayle taking the guest bedroom, diana and i dragged an extra mattress into the living room to sleep.  we even talked barbara in to spending the night so we could have more fun in the morning!
the next day we had a great time of doing a whole lot of not much.  we just enjoyed the day off and milled about, talking, laughing, and having a great time!  by late afternoon, diana and i packed it in with our stinky dog, and headed home.  the car was filled with gifts received to replace the gifts given and we were filled with great times and lovely memories!
(more pics: 1, 2)

christmas, part 2

it was christmas morning, and time for diana, our stinky dog, and i to hit the road!  we were on our way to her family for the rest of the weekend, and we were expected there for christmas dinner.  the trip went well and we arrived to a warm, full house with delicious smells in the air!  mom and david welcomed us in and were soon greeted by barbara, aunt gayle, uncle denny, grandma, bill, barbara, and diana's dad.  we got to sit back and enjoy the time with family.  but first, it was dinner time! david cooked up a feast, as usual, and we had a great time talking and laughing around the table.

get the phone

in the midst of all the gift giving and opening, we got a phone call.  mom almost flew out of her seat as soon as she heard that ringer!  it was chad, my brother in the military who wasn't able to join us for the festivities.  he had, though, sent gifts for all of us that we were able to open that night.  we put a stop to all the prizes for a while so that we could chat with him and help him feel included on all the christmas fun.  the phone was passed around so that we all got to say hi and thank you and hear what he was up to.  the best part is seeing the kids talking on the phone to him- its just so cute!  we were so thankful to hear from him and hear that everything is going well over there.  mom and papa were thrilled, as always, to talk to him and mom was especially pleased that he was able to call when all of us were there.  we all certainly missed him this year and hope he will be able to join us next year!

prizes!

after dinner was all cleaned up, we were ready for the main event: prizes!  (just so you know, in my family we dont call them gifts, we go with my dad's strange tendency to call them prizes instead.  just go with my on this one...)  we picked our spots and got rollin!  the kids were very excited, to say the least, and all the rest of us were pretty geared up for it too!  we did a pretty good job of spacing it out so that the excitement could last for a couple hours, allowing the kids to stop and play with some of their new toys, and give us adults enough time to saunter back over to the kitchen and grab another snack or two...  we got some pretty nice stuff, and everyone enjoyed the prizes we got for them.  bubba was all about the legos this year (as usual!), tweets was loving all the pink girly stuff she got, and aves was rockin out with her girlyish stuff too (she likes the girly pink stuff too, but i'm guessing its partly because her big sister likes it...).  diana and i got a bunch of fun baby stuff to fill the nursery drawers with, which made diana very pleased.
as usual, the family went overboard and got everyone too much stuff!  afterward we always say that we shouldn't have had so much, but we all secretly love it...
(more pics: 1, 2)

wings and eggs

by late afternoon jill, tim, and the kids came by for the christmas fun!  bubba and i hung out in the living room, he showed me some of the games and stuff he got already for christmas, and the girls headed up with diana into the toy room.  they always seem to have so much fun up there making up games and laughing!  last time we were in town diana came across these cute butterfly wings for the girls, we didnt get a chance to give them to the girls then, so we pulled them out for them to play with while they waited for the gifts. (i recognize the ridiculousness of giving the girls gifts as they wait for more gifts, but choose to ignore it).  in no time at all we were being called over to the dinning room for dinner.  i know mom made a great meal, but i cant remember any of it, mostly because there was a plate of deviled eggs- and with my single-mindedness, all the rest of the food faded into a forgotten haze...

wrap it up!

everyone planned on coming over on christmas eve for the gift giving fun, so diana and i made sure we had everything (we did not, but fortunately mom came through with some help!), and got about preparing for the fun!  diana and i feverishly wrapped all the gifts that we had brought, taking advantage of mom's always plentiful supply of gift wrap, and put them around the tree for the big night.  this is always one of my favorite parts of giving gifts at christmas!  i'm not a very good wrapper (well, i'm quite a bit better than my brother, but i think he does it poorly on purpose...), but i always love looking over the gifts i get to give and excitedly anticipate how they will react to the different prizes picked out especially for them!  as a general rule, i always try to avoid gift cards.  partly because its not as fun to wrap, but mostly because i like to challenge myself with thinking of interesting gifts.  i always like to get someone something they didnt even realize they wanted!  i rarely ask people what they want, i usually try to figure out an idea for myself.  granted, that may sometimes turn out with them not actually getting what they want, but thats the price they pay...

beltline family

with christmas break coming up, diana and i made plans for visiting everyone we could in the small amount of time we had.  friday afternoon the two of us, and one stinky dog, packed up and headed up to grand rapids for the first leg of our christmas tour!  we got there just in time too, the whole family was planning on going out for dinner and diana and i got to join them at beltline for some mexican food.  it felt like forever since we had last seen them, so it was really nice to enjoy some time with everyone! the kids were in fine form, as always, being extra silly and excited about their aunt and uncle coming in to town!  bubba and i got a chance to catch up and i got to hear all about his new hobbies and stuff.  diana sat down by aves and she got an earful of hilarious conversation from that little one!  after dinner we headed back to the house and got ready for the rest of the night.  our plans to hang out with the guys and see a concert fell through, so mom pulled out the games and the three of us had a great time playing games for a couple hours!

pregnancy: week 25

as the second trimester draws to a close, diana has been feeling really great!  she's having a blast feeling our little guy kick and wiggle around- he gets most excited and active when mom is eating (looks like he's going to be taking after his mom and dad in that regard...).  i still havent been able to feel him, but i'm not too worried, it will come.  diana has been doing really well with the pregnancy, but the thing that annoys her the most is how hard it is to bend down to put on her shoes!  i think that will get much worse before it gets better...

finishing touches

diana has been keeping her eyes peeled for the past month or two for decorations for the nursery.  she's really good at finding cool objects and artwork that goes with her nautical theme for the nursery.  well, she finally decided that she had enough pieces to put on the wall, so i pulled out the hammer and nails and put them up how she wanted them.  and boy, does it look good!  we lucked out with the paint color in the nursery- last time i painted that room i used a beautiful sky blue which works perfect for the nautical theme and for the fact that we are having a boy!  diana is very pleased with the results, and so am i.  i'm sure we will find more things to put in the room, but for now, its finished!  now we just have to wait for the baby that goes with it!
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wrestling?!?

i love teaching and i love my students!  earlier this year i had a couple students come and visit me who had graduated the year before.  this is a common occurrence, i often get visits from former students sharing what they are up to these days.  well, one in particular, who i had nicknamed chuck, came and chatted with me for a while.  he said that he is on the wrestling team at illiana.  this was such a shock to me- he was such a quite, mild mannered boy!  the thought of seeing him in combat with another person was so strange to me!  so told him to let me know when he would be having a tournament and i would try to go and cheer him on!  well, he let me know that one was going to be coming up, so i made sure to stop by the high school and watch.  it was quite a strange thing, wrestling.  we did not have wrestling at my high school so i had never witnessed it for myself before.  it was quite a shock when the guys got out on the mat- they really go at it!  i was able to watch and cheer for a couple other former students who were on the team as well.  unfortunately chuck did not get to wrestle that time, the other team didnt have an opponent in his weight class, so i did not get to see him wrestle, but the experience was really something else!

ultrasound 2

its finally time for our ultrasound to see how our little munchkin in doing!  i tell ya what, i am so glad that we went and had one already to find out its gender- there's no way we could have waited until now to find out if we were having a boy or girl!  we just aren't that patient!  we got there and went to the ultrasound room.  the nurse put that clear goop on diana's belly and then the wand.  suddenly there he was in black and white for us to see!  he's gotten much bigger since our last ultrasound.  its much easier to see the different parts of him.  last time we could make out bits and pieces, but we mostly just took the nurse's word for it!  now, it was very obvious when we saw his arm or leg or face!  for about an hour we got to watch him squirm around in there as the nurse took pictures and made measurements of him.  she said that he was looking healthy and active in there, which is a huge answer to prayer!  it was awesome to see him again- diana and i couldn't wipe the smiles from our faces!  we are going to have to work on that patience of ours, we've still got 15 weeks yet till we get to see him for real!
(more pics)

pregnancy: week 24

the belly is getting bigger and bigger!  diana has been feeling great this past week, she is enjoying this second trimester of her pregnancy.  she is trying to make the most of it because everything we read about pregnancy shows that the third trimester is even worse than the first one.  i dont envy her that!  the little man has been making a habit of waking her up bright and early, kicking around eager for something to eat!  its been kind of nice for me too, the past couple days diana has been getting up with me for work- now i've got someone to chat with while i get ready!

new phone!

for the past year diana has had an iphone.  she totally loves it.  so do i.  all the fun apps and games you can get are great to play with.  this usually resulted in my stealing of her phone almost every night!  diana was starting to get annoyed by this, so i knew it was time for me to get one for myself.  i had to wait until the contract expired on my old phone before i could get a new one.  in anticipation of a check that i knew would be coming for me, i declared a couple months ago that when it arrived i was going to get myself my own iphone for christmas.  diana didnt bat an eye, in fact she was thankful that i wouldnt be confiscating hers each night anymore!  when that check finally came, we went directly to the phone place and got me my very own iphone!  and i have been loving it ever since!

bowl me over

diana's work had a christmas party this year and we were both very eager to go.  it was at the local bowling alley.  we were both looking forward to it because she works with some really great women, and fortunately i really like their husbands too!  one thing that was kind of fun was that the bowling alley is pretty old school: there were no computers to keep score for us!  if you have ever tried to keep score in bowling you will understand that it can be a bit tricky!  at first someone asked if we should look for an app that would keep score for us, but fortunately, thanks to all the time i spent going with my dad to his bowling league back in the late 80's, i actually know how to keep score!  we were having a great time, and then came all the food (which is what diana was really there for anyway...), tons of greasy bowling alley food!  it was a virtual fried feast!
we had a great time hanging out with everyone and doing a little bowling.  we were there for almost three hours and only got in one game- we were too busy having fun and talking!
(more pics)

pregnancy: week 23

diana decided that its time to start taking pictures of her as her belly grows.  its been getting bigger and bigger by the week, and now we are going to make sure we get photographic proof of its expanding!  she has some fun iphone apps that let her know what is going on each week and we love to read through what we can expect as the weeks come and go.  the excitement for us during week 23 is that diana can, for the first time, really feel our little man in there!  the movements are still to small for me to feel, but i'm sure i'll be able to feel him soon too!

first snow

man, that took forever!  this year the first snow fall came really late.  i'm not one of those people who hates the winter and gets frustrated when there is snow on the ground- i rather like it!  this year, though, has been decidedly warm.  we had fifty degree days all the way into december!  for the first time this year i walked out in the morning and saw that beautiful white site: snow all over the ground.  it was good to see, in my opinion, though i know of many people who did not feel the same way as me.  namely, my wife...  snow means the start of something else, too.  each year i have a tradition: when we get the first snow fall i grow a beard!  sadly, this usually elicits the same response from my wife as the snow fall itself...  well, i'll keep growing it for as long as she will let me.  my guess is that wont be long.

snake mug

there is one show on tv that i am obsessed with: the late late show with craig ferguson.  ive been watching it for years- never missing an episode!  in fact, for the past four years i've been writing about the show on my other blog 'the scottish king'.  ive had the opportunity to even go to a taping of the show when i visited my friend adam in l.a. a few years ago.  well, craig ferguson has a mug that he has been using for a few years now.  its a big rattlesnake ceramic mug.  ive always wanted one of my own and i finally did something about it.  i talked with the nice woman who owns the website house of tasso, the only distributor in the country that sells them online, and got myself one of those famous rattlesnake mugs!  it recently arrived and is pretty cool!  i talked about it a bit and put some pictures on my other blog which you can check out here.  my wife is even cool enough to let me display it in our living room!

contained

we have been doing up the nursery in preparation for our little one's arrival.  i put up some shelves so that we would have enough space for all the baby stuff that is to come.  ever since we got the shelves diana has been really excited to get containers to put on the shelves to keep everything organized.  we finally made a trip to the store and picked up a dozen or so containers for the shelves and it looks really good!  we went back and forth about getting wicker ones, but then diana found these with the cool ivy type design and some stripy ones that match the color scheme of the room.  diana was quite pleased!  now we will be ready and organized- and quite fashionable too!
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free clothes!

on sunday, when we got back from visiting with my family, we were welcomed home by a huge package at our door step.  it must have come while we were gone!  well, we brought it in and examined it- it was a package from diana's step-sister alanna!  she is moving and in the process of packing realized that a bunch of the clothes that her son wore as an infant no longer fit him.  so she decided to send them our way- score!  the big box was jam packed with tons of cute boys clothes for our little one to use when he is born.  wow!  thank you so much alanna, we will certainly put those clothes to good use!
it sure is nice having thoughtful family members, huh?

brink thanksgiving

friday afternoon diana and i headed up to grand rapids to visit my family for thanksgiving.  we had already had two thanksgiving meals, so we were ok with the fact that mom said she wasnt going to have any turkey while we were there.  no problem at all!  friday night we got there around six in the evening.  enough time to chat with mom and dad for a while and play a couple games of cards with mom (which is, of course, the real reason mom wants us to come and visit...).  saturday was nice and relaxed.  we had a little bit of shopping to do, so we went all four of us.  it was nice to spend the time with mom and papa.  papa and i went to home depot to get a few things i needed for the house while diana and mom shopped for some clothes that would fit diana during her pregnancy.  then we splurged on a fancy lunch at arby's, which is always a favorite!  later in the day we went to baker bookhouse and i finally got to spend my gift certificate money that i had gotten last christmas for that place!  it was a great gift, but diana and i are just never in grand rapids when the place is open!  well, i got myself a couple of cool cds, so i'm set for a while on good music again.
sunday morning we were up and off to church.  its always a highlight to go to mom and papa's church because jill, tim, and the kids go there too!  since we hadnt seen the kids yet, diana and i were especially eager to sit with them during church.  one problem arose from this eagerness though, i got in trouble from jill and mom because i kept trying to talk to the bubba during the service, distracting him.  pretty bad when an 8 year old's uncle behaves worse than he does in church, huh?  by noon everyone was over at mom and papa's for a good old fashioned sunday dinner!  the food was delicious, as always, and after the meal we played around with the kids for an hour or two.  the girls always love to take diana up to the toy room and play games with her, so bubba and i were able to have some time with just the two of us, no girls interrupting us or anything!  as the afternoon drew to a close, we said our goodbyes and eagerly look forward to seeing them again at christmas.
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keenan thanksgiving

diana and i had an extra long thanksgiving break this year- which was awesome!  for some reason i actually had wednesday off of work along with thursday and friday.  diana had thursday, friday, and saturday off (she always has wednesday off), so the two of us were able to go and see family for a longer visit than usual.  we arrived at diana's mom and david's on wednesday afternoon.  i had offered to work a bit that day on the bathroom so i got to work and diana and her mom headed out to go shopping.  david and i got a little bit done, cleaning up the house a bit and installing the shower curtain rod (it was one of those bowed out ones, so it needed to be set and screwed in and everything).  that night we were able to just unwind with mom and david and just enjoy the relaxing time together.
for thanksgiving we headed over to the allen family gathering.  it was good to see the extended family again, it had been pretty recent since we had last gotten together: diana's cousin stanley got married just a couple months ago.  it is always a highlight to visit with the allen family!  diana's uncles are quite funny and her cousins are really nice and easy to talk to.  i always love chatting with her uncle arnold.  he is a retired pastor and such a cool guy!  he's very wise and smart, and always has an interesting story for just about everything!  i wish they lived closer because i could definitely see meeting up with him for breakfast or something and chatting for hours every week!
friday morning diana and i got up and helped get the place ready for the big feast: set up extra chairs, make the table bigger, set the places at the table, etc.  all the while the place was smelling better and better as the day went on!  david made two turkeys for the big group, this means that i got to double up on my favorite part of thanksgiving: carving the turkey!
it was a great time, diana's whole family was there: mom, david, barbara, dad, grandma, bill, uncle denny, aunt gayle, even a friend of grandma's came along!  (she didnt have anywhere else to go for thanksgiving, so grandma invited her to come with us for the day).  we had so much food and a great time!  after all the food was packed away and the dishes were in the sink (because the dishwasher was already full...), diana and i had to say our goodbyes and head up to see my family for the rest of our extended thanksgiving break.
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dressed for success

the wife and i were recently in meijers getting a few things and, as has been happening more and more recently, diana just 'happened' to find herself in the baby clothes section! 'what? how did we get here? oh well, guess we better check it out...' its her new favorite pastime! she mostly goes around and giggles at all the tiny shoes and socks... usually i humor her and let her get one item, but this time i spotted something that i knew our little boy needed. check it out here!

down to the last sock

its never a fun job, but somebody has to do it! we had worked our way down to the bottom of the drawers and now the last of our clothes were worn and dirty! we held out for as long as we could, but it was finally time: its laundry day. i packed up the four or five clothes baskets, changed the sheets, grabbed the towels, and headed off to the laundry mat for a much needed washing. i dont know why we wait so long- it just makes it more annoying. i think i did about eight loads (a new record for our household!). diana came over when she got out of work but i was already hip-deep in washing, so she headed back to the house and took the dog for his daily walk. one nice part about doing laundry is that i get a chance to just sit and read my book for a while. well, at least until the crazies at the laundry mat decide that they are your new best friend and want to talk your ear off about nothing! diana is always pestered by people there, i think she just looks like she wants to chat (which she doesnt), but for the most part they tend to leave me alone, thankfully!

kitchen handled

it took a while, but the kitchen cabinets are finally done! while diana was away recently i repainted the cabinets so that they all matched. the problem now was that the hinges and handles didn't match. i had gotten a bunch of them when i got the paint, but soon realized that the hinges were not going to fit the holes and the handles didn't match. oops. well, diana and i finally got around to picking up the right ones we needed and the handles that she liked. now, once and for all, our little kitchen looks pretty good! no more mix and match hodgepodge for us- now we're fancy!

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lion art

as diana and i wandered through the framed artwork at old time pottery, we came across this little gem. it left me speechless. i knew i couldn't keep this wonder all to myself, so here it is for your enjoyment. you're welcome.

shelf the idea

there is a lot involved in turning an office into a nursery! first, i had to get rid of all the extra stuff (or as diana thinks of it: junk) out of there. goodbye shelves full of movies! goodbye transformers! goodbye random knicknacks i've accumulated over the years! its hard to pack up all that stuff or throw it out, but there's a pretty big change happening soon, so i had to make peace with it. i got some cd boxes and sleeves for all the movies and packed up all the dvd cases, sending them to the shed. one of the requirements i made diana agree to before i packed up the movie collection was that one day, when we get a real sized house, she would allow me to bring them back inside and put them back on shelves. reluctantly she agreed (thankfully!). as we were looking around the newly empty room we realized that we would not have enough shelf space for all the things that a child requires! so, i got to work and came up with this solution: five adjustable shelves on the wall, with room for more if necessary. perfect! except now diana thinks that we need to have a bunch of matching baskets to fill them all up. yeesh!

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crib in pieces

a year or two ago, my sister and brother in law gave us their old crib. the last of their three kids had outgrown it and they didn't really want to throw it out! well, we were more than happy- incredibly thankful even- to take their old cast-offs! the problem though, was that over the past two years i had misplaced the nuts and bolts that came with it. oops! now that diana and i are going to need the crib, i had to try and fix that problem. i thought for sure i would come across the bag of hardware when i cleaned up the office or when i cleaned up the shed, but unfortunately they never showed up. time for plan B: i packed up a couple of pieces of the crib and headed on over to home depot! i scavenged through the bolts and washers and nuts and screws for hours finding just the right ones to fit. it took forever to find the bits that fix just right, like a puzzle with missing pieces! i cracked the code when i realized that the parts needed were metric, not standard. i got all the parts i needed and diana and i spent the night assembling the crib (which is not very easy when you don't have any directions...). now that its all put together, the room is really starting to look like a nursery!

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broken smiles

dang, that's two cameras in less than one year! it turns out that the camera that had been acting funny this summer finally called it quits. that camera, though not a top of the line model by any means, was a good replacement for the one that had been broken this past spring. i'm almost hesitant to get another one- who knows how long that would last! i'm sure i could just use the camera on my phone instead, its handier than lugging around an extra camera anyway. but with a baby coming i'm sure we should have a real camera so we can take good quality photos and videos, right? maybe that's something that will have to go on the baby registry...

my desk experiment

in the process of cleaning out the office we realized that we had a computer desk that we no longer needed- it was just in the way! but then the question arose: how do we get rid of it? i had an interesting idea. in the past, when we wanted to get rid of something we would simply put it by the curb and before we knew it it would be gone. i was always curious how long the different items lasted before they were taken away. with my little experiment, this time i was going to find out! so i carried the cheap bulsa wood desk out to the curb and put a 'free' sign on it. i took a look at the clock: 1:18pm. and then i waited... i peered out there every five to ten minutes to see if it had gone yet. i had high hopes that it would be gone quickly, but i also feared that there wasnt much traffic on our road and so my little experiment might not yield that impressive of results. well, it didnt take long, by 2:01pm it was gone! unfortunately no matter how hard i tried, i was not able to see the mysterious stranger who is now one desk richer. oh well, i was still pretty impressed with how fast it was gone, and happy to know that someone was going to get some use out of it!

a welcoming B

pretty inviting, huh? the wife and i recently wandered around old time pottery for a couple hours and found some fun little house things. (she is definitely in her 'nesting' stage...) she was looking for anything she could find for the baby's room, and i was busy checking out everything at the store. i came across this little gem: a doormat with our initial on it! i haven't had a door mat around here for years, but i thought it was pretty cool and cheap, so we now have a new welcoming mat at our front door. guests welcome!

she's back

finally, after all those days of boredom, my lovely bride returned to me! she had gone on a surprise visit to florida with a few friends. miranda's mom had planned to take her to go to florida and she secretly invited diana, barbara, and lissa as a surprise! all went well and miranda was totally amazed that they all got to come. the plan was to visit the harry potter amusement park, but due to the weather, diana and the girls werent able to go during their short visit. fortunately miranda and her mom, who were staying longer than the girls, were able to go the next day. good for them, but diana was a little disappointed. anyway, i was thrilled to finally have my beautiful wife back! i tell you what, five days alone gets pretty lonely without her around. and that dog of ours is not much fun when he's missing his mommy! like a good husband i welcomed her back with flowers, a cleaned up extra bedroom, and painted cabinets. she was very pleased, mostly by the flowers...

seven year repaint

another project i had planned to do while the wife was away was the cabinets. years ago, when i first bought this place, i had big plans to repaint everything and make it look really nice. well, i did repaint a lot of things: the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom. i even painted the cabinets. the only problem was that i painted the top cabinets and never quite got around to painting the bottom cabinets. oops. so for the past six or seven years i have had one set of cabinets that were white, and another set that were some sort of gross faded yellowy kind of color. over time i just got used to it and hardly noticed anymore! turns out, its been bugging diana ever since we got married! we picked up some paint and stuff to fix it a month or so ago, but then realized that we really shouldnt have paint fumes around a pregnant person! so i figured i would take care of it while she was away and that way the fumes would be gone by the time she got back. it worked pretty well, got the bottom cabinets looking the proper color, put a fresh coat on the top ones too. i guess i didnt plan it out very well because i realized that i didnt have the correct hardware (hinges and handles and stuff), so i wasnt able to put the cabinet doors back on before she got home. even with out the doors thought, it still looked a ton better than it had!

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office no more

with diana going to florida with a couple girlfriends for the long weekend, i knew i needed to make some progress on house work while she was gone. the biggest project i had while she was gone was to clean up the office. the whole room needed to be gutted and transformed. it was no longer going to be an office- now its going to be a nursery! that takes a lot of work though, especially considering what shape the place was currently in... well, i gathered up some empty boxes and got to work. i knew everything needed to be put out in the shed, almost nothing that is in there gets to stay! it took a couple of busy afternoons and a whole lot of trips back and forth to the shed, but the room really started to take shape! the real bother was that i needed to clean out the shed even before i got to work on the office. with all the new junk getting thrown in there i needed to play box tetris to find some room for all of it out there. the time went pretty quickly because i listened to a bunch of podcasts (yes, i am that nerdy) on my mp3 player while i worked. i think the wife will be quite pleased when she gets home and sees the huge transformation from hoarder to clean!

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boy, what a meal!

after we finished with the ultrasound, i still couldnt wipe the huge grin off my face!  we were both really hungry, so we decided to go out for dinner.  diana suggested that we go eat at leona's restaurant.  i had taken her there once before while we were dating and she always remembered it as being so romantic.  in honor of the day's exciting events, we headed over there.  i dont know if it was because of our thrilled mood or what, but that may have been the best food i've eaten in years!  we got some calamari, bread, salad, and lasagna.  we were so busy eating and talking about our future and the excitement of the baby news that we didn't even realize that we had been there for over two hours!  finally we wrapped it up- not because we were done talking, but because we wanted to get home and start dreaming up plans for the nursery!

barky

before going to the ultrasound place, Diana and i checked out their website.  one of the things that they offer there is a stuffed animal with a recording of your baby's heart.  what?!?  that is just too awesome to pass up!  i got really excited about it and stated that we definitely needed to get one.  i reasoned that we needed it to be able to share the heartbeat with our parents since they live so far away and wouldn't be able to come for an ultrasound, but in reality- i just think its really cool!  of the animal selection they had there, we both decided that we liked the husky dog.  ever since then i have been squeezing him to hear our little guy's heartbeat several times a day- i am one proud daddy!  as someone who needs to name everything, i tried to find the perfect name for this stuffed animal and decided on calling him 'barky'.  the name makes sense since its a dog, but i gave him that name because, knowing our baby is going to be a boy, called this little animal 'baby marky'- or barky!  i know, i know, Diana rolled her eyes at that one too...
(hear barky's recording of the heartbeat here!)

its (going to be) a boy!

recently diana and i went in to the doctor to hear the heartbeat of our little baby. while there we asked how long it would be till we got to have an ultrasound and find out the gender of our baby. not until 22 weeks, she said. we were only fifteen weeks along by then. she did tell us about a place called goldenview where we could go and get an early ultrasound for pretty inexpensive and find out now. not being the patient type, we opted for that. within days we had an appointment! we drove up to goldenview (its in north chicago, so it was about an hour long trip) and eagerly awaited our appointment time. the whole way up we talked about baby stuff- what we would do if it was a boy or a girl, narrowed down some names, and were just generally giddy to find out what lay ahead for us! we got there and got diana ready for the ultrasound.  the nurse put that cold goop on her belly and within about half a second of putting the machine on her she asked 'so, do you want to know what you are having?'  hmm, it she knew that quickly then there is only one option:  we are having a boy!!!  immediately i became super giddy- diana started laughing because i was grinning ear to ear!  i would have been super excited either way, i think just knowing the gender finally made it real- we are actually going to have a baby!
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almost done

it was back to south bend with me for another round of finishing touches at the rental property that diana's mom and david have been fixing up. now with all the amazing cabinetry in the kitchen, david and i installed the microwave and got it working just right. we build some edging around the master shower, and i even installed a toilet! this place is certainly looking good. i'm sure david will have it done and rented in no time! its been fun to work on it over the summer and turn this old house into a beautiful new home!

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autumn decor

i am not really known as someone who decorates for the holidays. in fact, i am kind of known as quite the opposite: someone who gets really mad at other people who decorate for the holidays. now, i think my annoyance is well placed, i dont get mad at everyone who decorates, just those who decorate way way way too early! i get really annoyed with people who start putting up halloween decorations in september, and those who put up christmas stuff in october. i think that is a pretty fair gripe! with all this decorating frustration, my wife diana, bless her heart, has tried to melt mine. she insisted that we do a little decorating for the seasonal change. she is enjoying the fall season, and wanted to have some sort of decoration in honor of that change. so, being the good husband, i allowed my pregnant wife to have her way and we got a pumpkin to put on our front porch. it also helped that we found a pretty big pumpkin for about four bucks at aldi...

boat storage

going over to help out at diana's mom and david's place was quite fun recently!  with the weather changing and winter coming, david made plans to have a friend come over with his boat trailer and get their pontoon out of the water.  the two of them went to drive the truck around to the boat launch and i got the fun job of taking the boat from the dock to the launch!  it was pretty cool- the weather was perfect and i got to enjoy a nice relaxing trip around the lake all by myself.  i took full advantage of my new role as boat captain!  i even walked around the boat as it was going- unmanned!  good thing there werent any icebergs or i would have been sunk! (terrible pun intended...)  we go the boat out with only a couple scrapes, and drove it over to the rental house's garage.  the whole boat needs a bit of work over the winter, so david figured that would be the perfect place to store it so that we can work on it even while theres snow falling.  we did a bit of work on the house as well, carrying the appliances from the garage back in to the house.  one fun thing we got to do was switch the doors of the fridge!  i've always seen the bits and holes in fridges that allow you to switch the side it opens on, but i've never done it to a fridge- until now!  oh, how i take such joy in the stupid little things...
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diy mcbreakfast

every once in a while on saturday morning before diana heads off to work, she will ask me to go get some breakfast from the fast food place. its always really yummy, but i recently decided to try and make one of their breakfast sandwiches myself! we had the eggs, cheese, sausages, and english muffins, so i figured i would give it a go. diana doesnt care for this type of breakfast sandwich, so it was something just for me. turns out its harder to do that i thought it would be! the making of the different items is easy enough, the challenge comes from trying to time it all right. i was trying to coordinate the microwave for the sausage, the stove for the egg, and the toaster for the muffin to all finish at the same time. for the most part it worked and the cheese even melted just right! it was an especially delicious morning for me! diana didnt seem to be as pleased as i was by it, but maybe thats because she was heading out the door for a days work and i was starting a day of doing nothing at all!

treadmill

last summer our treadmill fizzled out on us. the motor died, leaving diana with no opportunity to work out. she was really annoyed! we gave that treadmill to my sister and brother-in-law because they said they might know someone who could look at the motor and fix it. they couldnt, so we were out of luck. well, a new pawn shop opened up in town and i went to check it out a few times (i know pawn shops can have a bit of a stigma attached to them, but this one isnt shady at all, it actually seems more like a used cd shop and its actually really nice!) everything in there is fairly new and in really good repair. i've actually found a bunch of good movies and cd's there for cheap. well, diana asked if i ever see a treadmill i should check it out to replace our old one. last time i went they had a couple on the floor so i quickly called diana and she quickly exclaimed 'buy it!' so i did. i wasnt sure which one of the two she would want so i put down a hold on one and diana and i came in the next day to take a look at them. she was really excited about one so we got it! its temporary home is now in the living room where diana uses it almost every night. once the baby comes we agreed that we will need to find a better place for it, but until then she is very pleased- and walking up a storm!

details work

while i was at mom and davids i might as well do a little bit of work, no? over the weekend we did some of the detail work around the rental house. now that all the kitchen cabinets are in and the counter top has been installed, we put in the overhead microwave. it wasnt too difficult, but we did end up with a few extra pieces- not usually a good sign... also there was some track lighting over the counter bar that i put some finishing touches on. i installed a toilet and we put some edging on the shower to make it look less like a blindfolded child installed it... all in all we did a few projects that helped make the whole place a little bit better and one step closer to finishing!

3 for the show

when we go to the teacher convention in south bend on thursday and friday, a lot of the coworkers get a hotel room for the night. not me! i just drive on over to diana's mom and david's place! they live only about 15 minutes from the convention center so it works out really well. by late afternoon all the convention stuff wrapped up for the day on thursday, so i headed up to one of my favorite places: the movie theater in niles, michigan! its called wonderland theater and it is amazing! what makes it amazing? well, movies are only 4 bucks, popcorn is $1.50, and soda is 1.50- thats what makes it so amazing! since everything was so cheap i decided to make a day of it and see more than one movie (ok, three). there is nothing in the world quite as fun as back to back to back movie going! what also helped is that the movies were really good! i know that diana would be bored to death doing that, so i'm glad i got to have this fun evening to just sit back and enjoy the darkened theater!

teachers assemble!

each year i head out to south bend for the annual teacher convention. its usually a bit of fun because i get to see some old friends i went to college with and catch up with them. its also kind of strange because i also see all the teachers that taught me in high school. now as a peer i call them by their first names. i dont think that will ever feel normal! this year's speaker was father joseph krupp. he was amazing- a very funny man (which makes sense, he was a stand-up comedian before becoming a priest) and shared some very inspiring and encouraging words. i also got to chat for a bit with my favorite teacher ever: mrs. jager! immediately after talking with her i texted my fellow junior high classmate adam and he was terribly jealous that i got to see her! there was a lot of cool stuff there this year and i look forward to next year!

more poco!

you asked for it, so you get it! (i fully realize that no one actually asked for it, but i am going to do this anyway...) here are some more cute pictures of our little bundle of gross: poco the wonder dog!

check out pictures here, here, and here.

macs rock

the other day diana and i were running errands around town. we were both hungry, but didnt want to waste too much time eating, so we stopped in at mcdonalds for a quick dinner. little did we know what amazing scene we stumbled upon! this mcdonalds, styled as a 50's dinner, was currently the scene of an amazing concert! there was an old guy up front playing a synthesizer and covering all the oldie hits! and let me tell you, the place was packed! we were lucky to even find a seat! the place was crowded with cute elderly couples there for a 'big night out'. they were loving it- singing along, even getting up and dancing! it was really adorable. diana and i didnt participate in the dancing (though, in hindsight, we really should have!). i guess that guy comes in there and plays every week. me thinks we will have to go back one of these days and get up on that mcdonalds dance floor and really cut a rug!

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bathroom work

and it was back to mom and davids for some more work around the house! this time, though, i worked on the bathroom at their house instead of the rental. david had been busy since last i was there, putting in a new tub and surround, painting the walls, etc. we spent the day putting up bead board, getting the lighting working, and putting some finishing touches on the whole room. we brought in the vanity and sink (which looked amazing!) and cleaned up after ourselves. all in all, that room is looking pretty cool! i think one more day of work in that room and it will be ready to use. i tell ya what, it sure does give one a sense of accomplishment to finish a project. i didnt finish this one yet, but i bet i will feel that sense one of these days...

bye bye movies

now with the impending arrival of our little one, i knew it was time to bite the bullet: it was time to pack away my movies. being a collector at heart, and a huge movie geek, i am really proud of my little movie collection. i love to have it on display, but i also know we've got a kid coming and we live in a really small place! so, into the boxes they went! i went out and got some cd sleeves and boxes to put them into and began the process of taking the discs out of their cases and putting them into the sleeves. it was a long arduous task, i'm secure enough to admit there may have been tears shed... but finally i made peace with it and packed them away. one of the promises i demanded from diana was that when we moved into a real house i would be able to take them back out and display them once more. i know this will happen someday, but my fear is that when i am finally able to do that, no one will really remember what dvds were...

a picture (frame) worth a thousand words

after first finding out from diana that she was pregnant and telling her mom and david, we made plans to go up and visit my mom and papa to let them know of our good news. it worked pretty smoothly: they were planning on coming down to visit us that week but it turned out papa couldnt get the day off. we had left it at that the week before, but now we knew that we really needed to see them! so i played it off cool and called mom and said that since they couldnt come down then we would come up and visit them for the day instead! they didnt suspect a thing! we got up there at sandy pines late afternoon and it just so happened that papa got out of work early so he was there too.

diana and i had this whole plan: she had been having fun decorating picture frames lately, so we made a picture frame for mom to tell her the news. in order to play it off i also made a picture frame for tim and jill that was sandy pines themed. we sat down out on the deck with mom and papa and were talking for 15-20 minutes when i steered the conversation to diana's newest craft project. i said we had made them a frame, so i went to the car to get the frames. i showed them tim and jills frame first and they thought it was really cute. after enough time had past i asked if they wanted to see the frame diana had made them. 'sure'. i pulled it out of the bag and immediately mom was in tears! it took papa a couple seconds to realize what it said, he took a double take, and he too was grinning before long! they were so excited! then the hard part came: mom, you cant tell anyone until labor day weekend. 'what?!?' i'm sure it was two of the most difficult weeks of her life! but true to her word, she stayed tight lipped! eventually we let everyone at sandy pines know about it and mom and papa were beaming with joy!

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telling work

now that diana and i have told our families about the pregnancy, we figured it was time to tell my coworkers as well. at my job we have a tradition of making important announcements with food. when ever anyone is getting married or having a baby they bring in some baked good and put it in the lounge and leave some sort of cryptic message that the rest of the staff gets to try and decipher. i did it once when diana and i were engaged, and now it was time to do it again! back when diana and i first announced our pregnancy to my mom and papa, we immediately went out baby shopping! we wandered the baby isles and fawned over all the cute stuff we were soon going to be getting. we couldnt leave without getting something baby related, so we got these cute baby booties. we didnt know if we would have a boy or girl, so we got both! since then we have had both pair on display at the house as a reminder of what was to come. so, i grabbed the two pair of booties and got some cookies and put it on the table at school. i made sure to get to school really early so no one would see me set it up. it was really fun watching all the teachers go around whispering to each other 'do you know who it is? do you know who it is?' at one point that morning i was standing next to the math teacher and another teacher came up and asked her if it was her, she said no, and the teacher walked away- she didnt even think to ask me! ha! eventually, after about a half hour, someone finally came up to me and asked. i played dumb, but couldnt hold it for long before i began grinning ear to ear! everyone was so happy for us! what fun, huh?