February 26, 2009

Well, I missed both Abraham Lincoln's birthday and President's Day for this photo opportunity! Better late than never. The kids posed in front of Abe's bust in our foyer to commemorate the holiday - late! I think I need to get a birthday hat for Abe to wear every February 12. Then, that leads to bunny ears for Easter and a Santa hat for Christmas. :)

The drywallers were done at 11:30am with hanging the drywall. They "cleaned," which consisted of quickly sweeping everything into one big, messy pile. Mark and I spent 4 hours re-cleaning: re-sweeping, then shop-vac'ing all the surfaces and organizing the drywall scraps by size and length. Mark hung some of the extra pieces of drywall to the interior of the furnace/hot water heater room that we did not have the contractors drywall. Mark figures we have about 1,500 sq. ft. of "finished" space down there. I have a feeling we'll be spending many more evenings "re-cleaning" during the course of the drywall installation.

February 25, 2009

About 90% of the drywall was hung today. I expected a mess, especially when we get to the sanding. But, it is a disaster already! I keep thinking back to how much time Mark & I spent cleaning and sealing the concrete. :) The drywallers said they will clean up tomorrow, but I don't expect it to be spotless. I believe I will skip Ladies Night Out tomorrow night, to sweep, vacuum, and mop down there just to try to keep up with it.

There are also more pictures in our online basement album here.

Until tomorrow...

February 24, 2009

First off, I forgot to mention yesterday that I won a free photo editing class on www.jessicasprague.com over the weekend. The class starts tonight, so I'm excited to have the opportunity to take it.

Jacob and Kendall had school this morning and I ran lots of errands: Kroger, Sherwin-Williams, Big Lots, and Wal-Mart. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I usually drive another neighbor boy, Frankie, to and from school. Today, he didn't come home for lunch with us like he usually does. Good thing! During lunch Kendall said something silly and Jacob replied, "What the h**l!" I asked him to repeat it and he said it again, plain as day. We had a conversation about the literal meaning of the word (which lead Jacob to tell me all about the devil which was also pretty interesting to hear) and how we don't use the word otherwise. He now knows he may say the word in the bathroom, but if I hear it, he'll have soap in the mouth.

We also talked about school at lunch. He forgot all about playing checkers and played basketball instead. He said he'll try checkers tomorrow. He also said he lead the Pledge of Allegiance, holding the flag, in class today and really liked that job. So, I recorded his rendition below.

The drywall was delivered to the basement today. It took two men 1.5 hours to carry it all. I'm so glad it wasn't Mark trying to handle that job himself. However, one of the men had muddy shoes and tracked mud through the house and down the carpeted stairs. I vacuumed the stairs, but they are now dirty in the middle. I guess I was going to have them cleaned anyway after all this "construction" is done. The actual drywall hangers will be here tomorrow. Until then...

February 23, 2009

It was our typical Monday morning: take Jacob to school, come home and throw a meal in the crockpot, head out to the neighborhood playgroup with Kendall, pick Jacob up from school, make lunch, etc. After lunch, I took the foosball table top off our game table for air hockey. Kendall and Jacob had fun with that. In order to change the table over to air hockey, I also had to remove a top with a checkerboard and backgammon board on it. That tweaked Jacob's interest. I guess some kids at school play checkers with the teacher and he didn't know how. So, most of the afternoon was spent playing checkers, checkers, checkers. He also played with Mark after dinner and with me again after showers. He might be obsessed! However, he cries when I beat him at the game (yeah, I know, it's bad to be beat by ol' mom). I just can't let him win (well, maybe once I did). He'll learn the game better that way and learn that you don't always win, right? It will be interesting to see if he plays checkers at school tomorrow.

February 22, 2009

It was a slow morning...just hanging out. Mark snuck out and surprised us with some donuts from a local shop down the street. He did say their prices have gone up $2/doz. in the last year. Just a sign of the times, I'm afraid, and it will only get worse with inflation coming our way.

Grandma & Grandpa P stopped by for the afternoon. Of course, one of Kendall's favorite things to do is have grandma style her hair. Oh, and she usually tells them at some point, "I have something to show you in my room." She will then lead an unsuspecting visitor to her room, shut the door, and have a captive playmate - no sharing with Jacob! :)

February 21, 2009

Wouldn't you know! Kim K. and I went to Annette's house early in the morning to catch up with each other, have some coffee and treats - and I didn't bring my camera! Ugh! It is good to see my friends and learn what is new with them and their families. While we were visiting, a snow storm started and we got some heavy snow. Kim was taking her two kids out to Stryker (I think) after leaving Annette's to pick up their steers for a 4-H project - I hope they made it safely in the weather! Mark and I were going to go to Adrian, MI to a carpet warehouse, but the weather forced us just to go to Lowe's on the way to pick up the kids from the grandparents.

Here are just some random photos of the basement today.....new cold air return (yes, very exciting, I know!) and all Mark's speaker wire bundled up. He has his speakers stored away until the messy drywall is done.

Oh, and I am totally stoked (that word is much too hip for me! LOL). I discovered tonight that the Sherwin-Williams' website gives you the hex# and RGB values of all their paint colors! If you work in photoshop, you can see where this is leading. If not, well....I can recolor anything to those exact coordinates, creating a perfect match. Imagine the possibilities! Custom wall art matched to our paint colors! I explained it to Mark this way: I can custom make beer signs for the basement to match whatever colors we pick out. Ahhh! Then get them printed poster-sized (possible at 300 dpi) or, heck, even on canvas! Whoa! This is very exciting for me! :)

February 20, 2009

Our Brazilian neighbor, Adriana, and her husband, Marcio, invited a bunch of us over for dinner to celebrate her birthday. It was also the kick off to Carnival in Brazil. Adriana said she had never gone to Rio de Janiero for it because it is much too dangerous. Our dinner party was on the tamer side of Carnival celebrations, but it was very nice. Mark met some other neighborhood men and I hung out with playgroup and bunko women - without children running around. It was a very enjoyable evening.

Earlier in the day, Kendall and I went to the library while Jacob was in school. We picked Jacob up from school and I headed out to the grandparent's to drop the kids off for an overnight stay. Aunt Bev and Kelsie stopped by while we were there - that was nice to see them!

Well, I've been very lax on my photo taking. I must get back in the swing of it! We will see what tomorrow brings.

February 18, 2009

Not a very exciting photo for today, but it is our toy box, unorganized. It gets a lot of use and I am looking forward to moving it down to the basement. The HVAC guys came today. Mark is kicking himself for hiring someone to drop 3 heating ducts, a cold air return, and install a vent. After seeing the work they did, he thinks he could've done the job himself and he would have positioned a couple things differently. Live and learn, I guess. On a positive note, they serviced our furnace and the job is DONE.

I spent the evening at bunko. It is always a good time and great food....this time Brazilian fare since Adriana hosted. Yum! And, most conversation was about suspicious people in the neighborhood lately and other shinanigans going on in the Toledo area. One friend even called the sheriff yesterday. Hmmm...I guess it's a reminder to never completely let your guard down.

February 17, 2009

Mark wired his screen tonight and is quite proud. He is thinking of repositioning the screen a bit, but is wondering if it's worth unmounting and remounting the entire housing. He thinks he could've gone with a bigger screen (just like a man, right?). Now he is antsy to get a projector...can you imagine us watching a movie amidst the construction? Tomorrow the HVAC guys come to do a couple things. Then we are good to go for drywall. We'll see what tomorrow brings....

February 16, 2009

Jacob needed a friend today, on his day off from school. We went to playgroup in the morning, but that just wasn't enough. We called Anna across the street, but she couldn't come over. Then, Jacob and Kendall watched a Noggin program called, "Little Bear." Well, Little Bear's mother sewed/knitted a "friend" for Little Bear. Jacob asked if I could do that. I admitted to him that I couldn't sew or knit as well as Little Bear's mother, but there was something else I could do. So, he watched in amazement as I stuffed an old shirt and pants with towels and socks and banded the arms and legs with rubber bands. I poked the head of his Yoda out the top and voila!: he had his own friend. We then played a couple board games with "Friend" (that's his name). Jacob showed him how to play some computer games. "Friend" also slept with Jacob tonight. Hmmm...maybe I should invite some of Jacob's real friends over?

February 15, 2009

We spent the day hopping from Home Depot to Lowe's to Andersons looking at stuff for the basement. We did pick up a stainless steel sink on clearance for $37, marked down from $150. That's about it. The HVAC guys are coming on Wednesday, then we are free and clear to start the drywall. I need to pick out paint/carpet/countertop colors and get going on that stuff. Once the drywall is done, the finish work can start!
I'm experimenting today....here is a VIDEO of Kendall dancing - she's got rhythm!

February 14, 2009

We were lucky enough to celebrate Carter's birthday in person today. Kim, Joe and kids spent the weekend at Joe's parent's house in Hanover, Michigan. It was great to spend the day there - Rita is always so gracious and welcoming.