scary test

Babewatch has moved!

Dirty Baby

She's still the cutest baby in the world!

We're getting Close

All of the cabinets are in and looking great

The countertops are finished as well.

The soffits are gone so our kitchen looks twice as big as before.

At least we have our refrigerator back where it's supposed to be.

The desk area just needs the undercabinet lighting installed.

And the floors need some trim. Then, we need to find a tiler to do our backsplash, and I have to paint the trim and patch the walls and touch up the paint. Then our kitchen will be finished. The appliance guys are working right now on getting the appliances installed. I might be able to cook tomorrow!

Oh yeah, and our website is back up. Not that we post enough for people to know it's down! But it's working again.

Kichen Update

Our kitchen is beginning to look like a kitchen again, although it is still non-functional (note the lack of counter tops and appliances). The list of things to be completed is still huge, but we are starting to feel like things are coming together.

A brief visit

On Sunday my parents stopped by for a very brief visit.

Megan really warmed up to my dad when she figured out he could read

Plus she got some new garden tools. Megan was recently introduced to the wagon when I got mine out for the garden show. But Megan figured out pretty quickly that pulling a wagon is no fun - she'd rather be riding!

New plants

This weekend I was on call - a huge disappointment when I found out this was the same weekend as the Clackamas County Master Gardener Plant Sale. So I did what any plant crazed individual would do: I made a hugely disproportionate time swap to get someone to cover for me while I went up to Canby. In exchange for my six hours of freedom I got four more days of call (to be fair, my boss is having chemotherapy and needed someone to cover for her anyway).

But I didn't care - I got the opportunity to buy plants that I have never even heard of. And buy them I did - $195 and 36 plants later, I finally decided me and my jungle-like Corolla should head on home.

It's funny, but with nearly four acres I still am at a loss for where to plant all of my purchases. 14 plants are still in pots waiting for me to decide on the perfect spot.

Build it, and they will come

At least according to the Home Depot pond book in reference to local wildlife. And though I'd really like a couple of turtles and some crawdads in our pond, I was pretty excited when I saw the first frog.

This big guy can be found sitting in our iris almost every day. I have twice seen a second smaller frog, but it doesn't seem to have a regular hang-out.

I am keeping my fingers crossed for tadpoles!

Aging

I came across the following in a chart today:

"Social history: The patient is married and has two grown kids. He enjoys reading and going to the mailbox."

Reader Rabbit

As a parent, there is a barrage of information and pressure to read to your kid. With reasons like a better vocabulary and increased school success, we have been very active in making a young reader. But now I wonder, have we become too successful at this task?

You see, Megan LOVES books. I don't think she has touched any of her other toys in a month. She flips through pages, lifts the flaps, searches for kitties and moves on to the next book. Unfortunately, this is not a solo effort. Megan brings us book after book to read to her, and when the unread pile is exhausted she starts over again.

Our library is quite extensive and we have all the classics, and we have read them all many, many times. Wacky Goat is split at the seams; Goonight Gorilla has several bent pages; My First Body Book is now separated into volumes 1 and 2; The Eye Book got dropped into the bath. It doesn't matter - Megan still wants to read them and then read them again.

But the books aren't the only things worse for the wear. The prose from the books has moved into our precious brain real estate. We can narrate them all with barely a glimpse at the pages; we know the Dr. Seuss alphabet by heart. But worse, the characters of my youth are no longer so lovable: Winnie the Pooh has become detestable from repetition; the Hungry catepillar seems so gluttonous; I definitely don't want to tickle Elmo; and even that adorable little Snuggle Puppy has become quite grating. But we are pleased with Meagan's enthusiasm and so we read to her and try not to let her see us roll our eyes as she grabs My Dog Truffle for the 700th time.

outdoor fun

With this wonderful sunshine and low 70's temps (the ideal weather conditions for me) Meg has really been enjoying the outside play time.

She really loves to play in water. Maybe we'll borrow J.D.'s pool:)

I'm starting to get the photobg again, and I'm upgrading both my website and my moveabletype, so there might be some down time in the near future. Hopefully not.

One Week Down...

AND ONE WEEK BEHIND!

On Monday afternoon, Pam and I went to Lowes to finish the purchases for our new kitchen. They had a 10% off special when you open a new "Fashion Project" Card. Our "Fashion Project" is the kitchen, and you're only supposed to get the 10% off of the initial purchase on the day you open the account, but our salesman was nice and said we could come back and finish the purchase and still receive the 10% off at a later date. So we bought the recessed lighting for the ceiling, the kitchen faucet, the garbage disposal and air operated in the counter toggle switch, the instant hot water dispenser, the knobs and pulls for our cabinetry, and some patio furniture. We were gone for about three hours and when we returned, the soffit remover and drywaller had this strange look on his face. I walked in the door and said, "Hi!" Before I could finish the "How's it going" part of my greeting, he replied, "ummm...we have a little problem."

To make a long story a little shorter, there were wires running through all of the soffit spaces in the kitchen. A problem that Lowe's mentioned might be possible at the beginning of the project, but Pam and I never really gave much thought to. Since our new kitchen wasn't going to have soffits, the wires needed to be rerouted up through the walls. I called a bunch of electricians and found someone who could do it for us quickly. But that one day of delay basically set us back an entire week.

Here are the wires after they've been relocated; notice that they just cut pieces out of the 2X4 headers in the walls, making some space for the wires and then cover up the spaces with pieces of metal that they just hammer right into the wood. I forgot to take a before picture, but you're not missing much.

The soffits are now gone, and the wires are relocated, but the drywall was supposed to be finished by the end of tomorrow, we were supposed to paint this weekend, and the cabinets were supposed to go in on Monday. But since the drywall couldn't be finished by Friday, he's just going to wait until Monday, and the soonest the cabinet guy could get back out was the following Monday. So May 1 is now the date for the cabinet install and the floors go in on May 4th and 5th. Hopefully we won't have any more delays, but I'm not holding my breath!

In other news, the gas line was run up the side of the house, into the attic and down the inside wall so that I will have my first ever gas cook top! I'm totally excited about that, though the exterior gas line needs to be painted to match the house, it's an eyesore right now.

And, you can see that some of the drywall is in place. The flourescent bay is drywalled over and tomorrow, the recessed lighting goes in. Then, next week the drywaller will finish hanging the sheetrock, tape, mud, and sand so that we can paint next weekend! Hopefully!

Easter in Tacoma

Sounds so romantic doesn't it! The Smith Family Trio jaunted up to Tacoma this past Easter weekend to visit Bryan, Sarah, and "Peanut" Bogardus. Meg was great in the car--this was her first long drive since she's become a biped. She was so good on the way home that we had to stop for gas before we had to stop for Megan. On Saturday, our only full day up there, it rained a lot but during a break Sash and Pam got to test drive "Peanut's" new stroller while the boys went out in the truck and did manly things like research DVD recorders and buy running shoes.

Meg also got a ride on the swing

Easter Sunday was quite the event for our young "chocoholic." I don't think Megan had ever had any candy before Easter 2006, though Pam might argue the point. I hadn't ever given her any. I think the Easter Bunny arrived at our house around 5:30 AM and Meg woke up around 7:00 or so. She was dressed in a very special dress, one that my mom and my two sisters all wore on their first Easter. Meg was too small to wear it last year, but this year it fit great.

Anyway, soon after discovering the sweets in her basket, Pam and I decided to take our eyes off of her for a few minutes, and this is what happened!!!

And here's an even better one. It seems that someone forgot to tell Megan that A) you're only supposed to have 1 piece of candy in your mouth at a time, and B) you're supposed to remove the foil from the chocolate eggs before you eat them! Kids these days just don't have any common sense I tell 'ya!

So, about 2 hours into her first "real" Easter, Megan got to try on a second dress. I think this one came from the Siechert side of the family. I think Pam planned the whole deal, why else would she have brought two family heirloom dresses to Easter Sunday? The first dress cleaned up just fine in case you were wondering.

We had an early brunch and were on the road by about 11:00 on Sunday morning.