Projects Revealed

As if you didn't all know, we've been doing a good bit of work around the house. We say it was in preparation for the party, but really, it was stuff that we just wanted done.

I'm sad to say that I thought for sure I had 'before' pictures, but apparently I do not. I guess at the time I took a series of before photos I stopped with just the upstairs... bummer.

But alas. You can probably imagine what it looked like before. The walls were white, there were holes int he drywall from where Ryan did some wire pulls and the storage you'll see below was not there.


So, here it goes...

The toy storage unit that Ryan (and his dad) built. I still haven't found the 'perfect' ones, but I plan to get some canvas totes or baskets for underneath to store blocks, cars, etc in. Also, on the wall above the storage unit I'll be hanging some pictures from Jude's first birthday photo shoot (and possibly some that I took).

Being that there's no real furniture in the room, there was lots of blank walls. I love pictures and have hundreds (thousands!) on my computer that I never do anything with, so I decided to start a collage on one wall. I plan to add more, but this is the beginning.

Another shot look out from the storage shelf. We hung little hooks on the walls for whatever... if his friends come over they'll have a place for coats or something... maybe eventually more toy storage, depending. We also added a baby gate. The gate is specifically to keep the dog out when we're not in the room so that we won't have to clean up all the time (and he can't chew toys)

Ryan got these posters as a gift from a friend (he loves comics) and had the opportunity to have them signed by the artist when he came to Delaware a few years ago. In our old house, Ryan had them proudly displayed in the living room... in this house, I won out and they did not make it into the living room. At one point they were going in Jude's room, or even in the basement when it was finished, but we both agreed this was the perfect place for them.

All in all, we were very pleased with the way the room turned out. We still have a few finishing touches to make... but that won't be happening for a little while. I'm pretty done right now. Eventually we want to extend the bookshelf up the wall, add a nice couch and some chairs and turn it into a more formal living room... or a reading room... but for now, it's the perfect play room for Jude.

It shouldn't be this hard...

For a project we're working on around the house (more on that later), I got a little over a dozen frames to hang.

At the time I specifically wanted picture of Jude. Not just him alone, but him with friends, family, etc. Now, I'm opening that up to pictures of our family in general (hey, my mind can change again). This has by far been the hardest part of this project!

There are so many pictures I love!

I told myself I should try to pick pictures that maybe people haven't seen yet. Some that didn't make it to the blog, etc. But I'm pretty sure there will be plenty of repeats.

I've Gone Missing

Sorry blog world. I've gone missing.

With this great weather we've had, I've been taking advantage and getting out of the house!

Come to find out, Jude LOVES playing outside! So, by letting him roam the yard eating dirt and much more I'm able to tackle some of my projects.

But have no fear... I will soon have some posts! We're getting a lot done around the house and I can't wait to share!

In his arms...

This morning has been a busy morning. Spring has given me a new spirit to "get shit done".

For example: the other day, for no apparent reason, I decided to paint the laundry room. You might be wondering why I chose the laundry room, when there are so many more important rooms to paint/decorate. The only reason: I already had everything I needed to do it. I had glossy white paint (to cover the pea green/yellow cabinets and touch up the trim), flat white paint (for the walls and ceiling), and a collection of other colors left over from other rooms in the house (to add an 'accent wall' behind the washer and dryer). So, probably two-three days ago now, I began painting this 4x5 (ish) sized room.

From previous painting experience, this should have taken 4-5 hours of one day... start to finish. But as I said, here we are days later... and it's still not done. I'm pretty sure I've spent just as much time cleaning brushes and setting up as I have actually painting.

This morning though, I woke up with the drive to finish it today. So, I throw on some old clothes, put Jude in his high chair, put breakfast on the tray and got to work. Well of course by the time I got the supplies back out, paint poured into the tray and washer moved out of the way, Jude was ready to get down. So, I stopped what I was doing, cleaned him up and made sure there wasn't anything he could get into - and set him free.

I thought for sure I'd need to stop at least a hundred times to redirect him from one object to another, but I was wrong. He played all by himself for a good 1.5 to 2 hours! I kept peeking out at him and he was just as busy as can be. He'd look up at me, smile and get right back to what he was doing. I'm pretty sure a good 30 minutes of this was spent with him crawling through my laundry pile.

Before long, I found a good stopping point and decided to put him down for a nap. I washed up and walk into the living room where he was busy playing a reached down for him. Then it happened. The best hug a mother could ever ask for. He wrapped his legs around me, held onto my neck a squeezed. After a good thirty seconds or so of squeezing, he let go, stuck his thumb in his mouth and cuddled close. Now, I've had plenty of Jude hugs before, but this one was just so special. Just when I thought to myself "look, he's perfectly fine playing all alone", he reassures me that "no, I still need you mom".

Ahh... the simple things in life.

Friday Evening...

As in most families, I'm sure, since Jude came along, Buddy has taken a back seat. The bathroom that was once his bathing room was ripped apart and never put back together. He has been reduced to taking very infrequent showers in our bathroom (which actually proves to be much easier). He doesn't see the vet quite as often as he should. His nails are always just a little too long, doesn't have enough toys and we often are scraping the bottom of his food tub for a meal. It's pathetic and he is starting to let us know.

We are beginning to find little Buddy droppings in the dining room, he is taking up more and more space in the bed and he is in your face any chance he can. Lately, he's been growing really antsy. This is not just because of Jude, but because of the weather too. So, we decided to take him to the dog park. We've been saying we need to, and tonight, we just did. We made the decision in a matter of like 2 minutes. Hoping into the car, you could tell Buddy was thrilled to be going somewhere... anywhere!

When we pulled into the park, he was pulling on his leash with excitement and marking his way all the way into the fence. When we let him off his leash, he just took off. He could care less about Ryan, Jude and I. He was free! He was free to run! To make friends! To yelp (embarrassingly) at the little dog on the other side of the fence! It made me both happy and sad to see him having such a great time! Happy, because he deserved it... Sad, that we don't do it more often.

After a few minutes, Jude was losing his patience, so I took him over to the jungle gym while Ryan made sure Buddy was well behaved. For the first time, I put Jude in a swing (one of those round rubber onces with the legs cut out) and pushed. HE LOVED IT! He had this look on his face that just screamed to me "this is so much better than that baby swing you tried to get me into". He giggled. He laughed. He threw his head back as he weightlessly fell back and forth with each push. Then of course, as with all things, he began to lose interest just as Buddy was also running out of energy.

We loaded up our boys and headed home. I look forward to this Spring and hope that as the weather warms up I'll take some afternoons to not only get Jude out and about, but also to let Buddy get some exercise.

Following the dog park, I was thrilled when Ryan told me he was going to start some work on the house. A couple months back, we had bought a lot of the things we needed to re-wire the house. Once all the wire is run and holes are patched, I can finally begin doing some of the things to make the house 'pretty', so this is huge for me! After we got home, Ryan cut all the holes for the new receptacles, figured out placement for lights and basically mapped out his plan for tomorrow.

Last but not least... I got to spend some much needed time with my Feghan love. When I was working full time, Meghan and I's schedules constantly conflicted. She worked mostly nights and weekends while I worked during the day. As luck would have it, as I made the transition to night and weekend hours, she got a job working during the day - in addition to some pretty demanding evening hours. We don't see each other nearly as much as we should, so we got to catch up and go out for a nice dinner together. I left Ryan on baby duty and had an oh-so-wonderful time...

The weekend has only just begun and it's already a great start.

Weekend

I am one of the few people who look forward to the middle parts of the week (as opposed to the weekends). Typically we have a variety of things to do during the weekend, maybe I have to work, etc and so Monday is usually the day that marks my five days of rest. Don't get me wrong, we have our share of errands and such, but for the most part we're in no rush for any of these.

This weekend was no different in that we were busy, busy, busy.

We started the weekend on Friday with a little quality family time. My brother Bryan was watching my younger brother Scott and so them and Katy came over for a little fire pit action. I don't see my brother Scott too frequently, so when I do, it's always nice to catch up (on things such as school, girlfriends, etc). This time though he kept telling me how 'grandma' I was :(





Either way, it was a good time. At one point one of our neighbors came over and complained about the fire. He didn't think it was a 'good idea' to have it and since he hadn't seen anyone with a fire pit before he assumed they weren't allowed? It bothered him so much, that he decided to call the cops... who showed up and told us we were fine.

After a wonderful evening, we woke up bright and early. I was invited to go to a "whale of a sale" in Wilmington with Meghan. I really didn't know what to expect, so brought a little cash a long just in case I came along something. When we got there, there was a huge line (that moved quickly) just to get in. When we got in though, we quickly determined that it was nothing more than a one day goodwill. However, others were unaware of this. There were people staking out huge piles of goods. I specifically was checking out one little item in a stack of goods and was advised that the entire pile belong to one woman. WOW.

Between the three of us (me, meghan and her mom) we found maybe 10 dollars worth of stuff and as we headed to the end of the line we decided it wasn't worth it. We would have had to waited in about 45 minutes worth of a line... so we just put our goods back and headed home.

After arriving home, I decided to make some 'homemade' spaghetti. A couple of weeks ago, I made meatballs for the Halloween party. Unfortunately most of them went to waste and so Ryan has been asking me to make more. I figured if I'd be making meatballs, why not do the whole she-bang. Once in the past I tried this and it was a huge failure. This time I seemed to get the double thumbs up (for any one who cares to know, 3 cans of tomato paste, 2 cans of crushed tomatoes, 1 can of tomato puree, 7 cloves of garlic, a bundle of oregano, salt, pepper, basil and parsley gave it the perfect flavor. Meatballs were a blend of the same spices, about 3 pounds of ground beef and 2 cups of Italian style breadcrumbs fried in veggie oil, then added to the sauce).

In addition to making a fancy little dinner, we had a birthday party to go to that afternoon. Our little buddy Trent was turning one! It was a lovely party at the Woodland's. There was delicious cake, oodles of presents and plenty 'o food (unfortunately I think I ate too much considering the big pot of spaghetti sitting at home).

Jude and the b-day boy.

Trent (as with any 1 year old I'm sure) was very easily distracted during present time.

Yummmm

One of the cutest cakes I've ever seen

I was a HUGE fan of the doggy ears.

and so was Ryan...

After spending some time, we headed home to do a little yard work (blah). ALL of our neighbors rake their leaves... we never did last year, and used the "we just moved in" excuse to get away with it. This year, it was really on Ryan as to whether or not to do it. We did. Not exactly the whole front yard, but we cleaned up the driveway a little and some of the leaves around a tree in the front yard. Lucky for me, this allowed me to mark another item off my list! Jude and I did a little leaf playing/jumping!! I put items like this on my list of 101, not specifically to do it just ONCE, but to hopefully make these things part of our lives... I'm very eager to do such little things like this with Jude as he gets older and can do them on his own.

I can't really tell if he loved it or hated it. I was a new feeling, he was hungry and it was noisy...

but he sure thought they were delicious...(no I didn't let him eat them... but he sure got close)

Here I am "jumping" with Jude:

So, a birthday party, leaves, and yummm spaghetti dinner!

Finally came Sunday. I had to go to work and so Ryan was left to tackle some projects around the house. A few weeks ago we picked up some electrical goods and so he was attacking those projects today. I was glad I wasn't here, because these projects require a NUMBER of holes to be cut in the walls. Basically to get wires into our first floor walls, we need to come up from the basement. So, to get to the ceiling we need to cut holes to get there. I came home to a swiss cheese house. However, the good part of this is we will soon have hardwired smoke detectors, new receptacles, possibly some new lighting and much more. Even more exciting is that one of the main reasons I have not decorated most of the rooms in our house is because I knew these holes were coming. So, once the rewiring is done, we'll be able to patch the holes and I can begin picking out paints and decorating! I don't see it all being finished at once, but we're headed in the right direction!

In conclusion: it was a busy/lovely weekend mostly spent with the loves of my life and some dear friends.

Ventanas

We are in the perfect neighborhood for those door-to-door men trying to sell everything from new windows and sidings to driveways and lawn care. You name it, they try to sell it to us.

A few months back we were propositioned to have a new driveway poured. A lot of our neighbors seemed to have one company laying black top for them and so they were going door to door to see how much more business they could get. They had their trucks out and materials and said they could offer us an "amazing deal!" if we did it that day. I believe it was like a $3,000 job. I was amazed that these people seriously thought we'd just go for it... but I guess some people have 3 grand (or a credit card) just laying around for those random purchases.

Either way, it never happened. So, yesterday when I was bumming around the house, there was a knock on the door. It was someone from Power Windows and Siding offering to give us a free estimate on our windows. I told them we didn't have the money for it now hoping they'd leave me a lone, but they didn't. He told me that they quote was good for X amount of time and that it was no hassle, etc.

Not having the heart to say no (he seemed like a nice enough guy) I told him he was more then welcome to come up with a quote. At that point he explains that he doesn't do the quote, he has to send someone out (ugh.). So, I agreed and told him that night was my only free time in the next week or so. He gets someone on the line and makes the arrangements. Ryan of course was "thrilled".

Now, our house is in desperate need of new windows, siding, doors, etc. It's old and inefficient. When the gentleman came out he said that the smartest place to start is windows. It wouldn't mess up any of our interior walls (one of my biggest concerns) and it's cheaper than siding (and saves more in energy bills). In addition, the windows go in from outside and so they trim, sills, etc would all stay in tact). He gave us the full scoop, discussed style options, got measurements and presented us with a number. OUCH.

It wasn't as high as we'd expected and with the payment option, it was totally reasonable. But of course, he wanted an answer that night. Seriously? Someone knocked on my door that afternoon, came to our house a matter of hours later and expected us to make a decision to buy windows in less than 24 hours. The biggest perk is that they guarantee something like a 30% saving on energy bills once they're installed... I mean when you calculate that into the monthly payments... it's even more reasonable.

We didn't give them an answer... and probably won't be doing it in January like they were pushing for, but we're happy to see that new windows (and eventually siding) are not as far off as we'd expected. Perhaps within the next year or two we'll start to transformation on the outside of our house.

It's Beautiful... and it's mine.

As most of you know, we tore out bathroom apart a few months ago. The plan was to have it finished for Jude to have a nice shiny bathroom to come home to. Well, one thing lead to another and it never happened.

Well, we determined that this week we would, without a doubt be working on the bathroom this weekend. Excited, on my break at work today I decided to wander around and check out some stuff we would be needing.

Somehow I ended up in the appliance department. It was fate.

I had been telling Ryan for quite some time now that my 'dream kitchen' would consist of a double in-the-wall oven and some sort of a cook top. Now when you price these items up individually, it's usually an insane price that he just laughs at. Tonight however, I came across this wonderful cook top that retails for over a thousand dollars. It was marked down to just under $700 and I told myself... "if only...".

Well, around the time I was practically drolling over this stainless steel, 36", 5 burner cook top, the appliance gentleman comes over to chat. He jokingly asks if I'd like to purchase a fridge and I tell him "sadly no, but I would love this little guy". He mentions being able to get the price lower and I perk up. HE WAS ABLE TO TAKE AN EXTRA 50% OFF OF THE SALE PRICE!!!

I called Ryan excited and was told "go for it"!

Unfortunately I don't have a kitchen to put it in... and will not have a kitchen to put it in for quite a while, but this will be the centerpiece which I design my future dream kitchen around and I can not be more thrilled!



Now I just need to find a similar deal for my double over, cabinets, counter tops flooring, lighting, etc and we'll be set!

All my hard work...

Alright! For those of you who care, he's my progress on our front yard:

The whole reason I started working out there this week:

What remains of the holly bushes that were once in front of our house:

Where above holly bushes once were (stones, roots and pavers still need to be removed, but that's man's work)

What's left of the azalea bushes that were once in our front yard - one more stump to go and of course that whole crap load of underbrush by the drive way needs to be pulled up

The flower bed I maintained all summer.

And now for the heavy work... You can't see it too clearly int his picture, but this is the top of a three tier flower bed/garden area that was once COVERED in under brush, plants, and whatever else...

The bottom tier (still needs to be cleared some more) and the waste at the bottom that Ryan will be cleaning up

so much yard waste...

looking up from the bottom of the flower bed (those are my berry plants on the right)

I hope they like their new home...

I MIGHT try to keep that plant... it has some pretty flowers... but need to clean around it.

It's Been Roughly a Year...

Roughly a year ago Ryan and I moved into our current home!

I'll admit that I really had hoped we'd have more done around the house by now, but considering we plan to be here forever, we have plenty of time!

Through this year we have pretty much finished our family room, Jude's room and have started on one bathroom and are slowly working our way through the front yard.

There is still plenty to do... and I can't wait to see the house continue to come together!

Flower Bed #2

Every day so far this week I have been spending a good bit of time working in our front yard.

We began ripping apart the bushes, flower beds, etc at the beginning of the summer and it has been a VERY slow progress ever sense. Mostly because the roots for the large bushes are so embedded in the earth that it's difficult to get them out.

Unfortunately the houses on either side of us are for sale/going to be up for sale. Being that we recently became friendly with the old man to the left, we thought it'd be nice for us to get our yard looking nice to help sell his house more quickly (in my mind, no one wants to live in a house next to slobs). Granted, I'm not trying to give us too much credit, but it's just the motivation I needed to get going a little.

I finally finished the flower bed under our garage window that was previously covered in white stones and weeds and then started to chop down the holly bushes under our large front window and tried to attack the mess of an over-grown-whatever next to our drive way. Neither of which I'll be able to finish on my own.

Finally I began to clear out my future garden. On the side of our house, kind of behind our drive way are 2-3 tiers of garden space. I'd say they are roughly 5' deep and who knows how wide (at least 10'?). Each tier is framed our in large 6x6 logs and couldn't be more perfect for a little garden.

Next spring I plan to start a vegetable garden and am very excited for it. So excited that while at work the other night I saw some berry plants on sale and just HAD to get them. After talking to a few people I came to the conclusion they would survive through the winter and with a little TLC in the spring/summer, I'd have berries in bloom.

In addition, clearing out the garden area also plays a small role into the halloween party, because no one will be coming in the front entrance. Instead I'll be creating a path of some sort to usher them through our back door!

It's so nice to be finishing even the smallest projects!

Let the decorating begin!!!!

After a lovely little gathering at Michele's today, I came home to a surprisingly motivated hubby.

We decided earlier on that our Halloween party this year would be held in our basement. Last year, the party felt so spread out across our first floor that it was a little impersonal. Also, the further we get into decorating (ok, ok, there's not THAT much done... but the living room's looking good) the more I dread having to break down the every day and setting up for the holidays. Finally, I wanted to go all out and get an early start, so in order to be able to do WHATEVER I wanted, I needed a raw surface... so alas, we're having it in the basement.

So, taking advantage of Ryan's ready and able mood we attacked the basement.

Since we moved in, we had been using the basement as storage. Even though I had been trying to keep it semi-organized, of course over time things start to break down a little. In addition, we have a small "room" in our basement that was previously our "train" room that we decided would be come the only storage space in the house. So, we moved all of the kitchen storage, holiday storage and the very little general storage we had into the train room and organized it for permanent storing on some shelving we had.

I must say I'm very pleased with the way it turned out!

So now, the basement is organized and ready for some decorating!!!

I have a few new props, our old Halloween decorations and a mind full of ideas to take advantage of through the week and next month. I just can not wait!!

Home is where my heart is...

Question: What are your favorite parts of being off work during the day? Least favorite?

Answer:

When I made the leap into working part time, I was oh so excited! I still am more than thrilled that I can be home with Jude all day, but as with ANY THING there's obviously it's ups and downs.

There are the obvious perks of being a stay-at-home-mom (do I really fit in that category since I work at night? I'm not sure exactly what I'm considered...) such as spending ooddles of quality time with your little one - and the obvious down sides of minimal adult interaction and too much free time. But here are a few of the ups and downs I've found:


Favorite...

- Quality Jude time!!! (with out a doubt the best part! I just can't get enough of him!)
- Being able to make appointments for ANY time I want (everyone else is trying to get in before work, during lunch or after work)
- Not having to wake up and rush out the door (but there are plenty of mornings I wake up early)
- Not having to pay day care (even though things work out roughly the same, at least I'm not working certain hours to specifically pay for day care)
- Not having to pump regularly (I really did NOT like doing it regularly, but stuck through it for little man)
- Not having to work every day ('nuf said) and the ability to request more (or less hours) depending on present needs.

Not so favorite...

- Being off when everyone else is working (or working when everyone else is off - or not having a set schedule). So, you're either bored at one point or another or everyone's having fun without you.
- My new ability to want to spend money every day (when we don't always have it to spend). It's not easy when you're bored to want to walk through the mall, browse online, go grocery shopping (i grocery shop more now than ever), etc. It's easy to say you'll do other things, but even a fun trip to Milburn or a museum will cost you money to some degree.
- Not feeling like I 'contribute' enough (financially that is...)
- On the very rare occasion that Jude wakes up in the middle of the night or early in the morning, I am without a doubt the one to wake up with him (most of the time Ryan will wake up to get him out of the crib, but he then comes to me and I get him back to sleep). I know that he will eventually fall back asleep and I'll get my rest then. Being that Ryan has work I would feel 'bad' asking him to wake up instead.
- Feeling 'bad' if the house work doesn't get done. It's much easier to say "with working full time and a baby, things just get behind". Obviously I'm busy with Jude-Man, but I sometimes wonder why I can get SO behind if I'm home most of the day (see bullet number 2 in the 'not so favorite' section on what I'm doing the rest of the time). However, a day or two focusing on attacking little things around the house usually gets me right back on track.

Some people will tell you "being a mother is the hardest job there is". I personally think that's bull sh*t (but my son is only 4 months old and pretty well behaved in comparison to some of the horror stories we've heard - my opinion may change). I have enjoyed every minute of it and try to very rarely complain about anything. I think giving my little guy all the love, patience and attention he needs is one of the EASIEST things I have ever had to do.

I would however agree, that it's probably one of the most important things you can do. Whether you're home full time, part time, see your kids on weekend or every other week, every second spent with your child should be helping to shape them into stable, loving, intelligent and compassionate people. Without a doubt every moment spent with him or her will affect them to some degree in the future. So, it's not about quantity, it's quality.

But I'm all about wanting tons of both!!!

In conclusion, I love our current situation and look forward to him getting older and being able to teach him much more!

#19 - check!

A few months ago, we started a little yard work.

At our old house, we spent more money than I'd like to admit trying to get our front yard looking great! We bought stones, bushes, flowers and pavers to line the side of the sidewalk leading to our house. After it was done it looked nice, but not exactly as wonderful as I'd hoped.

It didn't take us too long into the summer to realize that we are NOT the type of people who like to maintain their yard. Getting Ryan to cut the grass is difficult enough... without adding in pulling weeds and trimming bushes.

When we bought our current house, I knew that the bushes and flowers all over the yard were going to be ripped out for fear of over growth. However, there's on little "island" style flower bed int he middle of the yard that I didn't mind. I didn't picture large beautiful flowers in there, but I liked the tree/rock/bush-thing combo that was currently there. So, when Ryan started pulling out bushes, I decided to work on my flower bed.

It took me less than a day to weed it, and re-mulch it to get it ready for the summer. I vowed that I would not just let it go and turn into a big mess like our previus attempts at landscaping.

Throughout the summer (usually if Jude was asleep in the back seat) I would stop at the top of my driveway and pull what weeds were popping up to keep it looking special.

Now that fall's here, I'm eager for the cool weather to set in and stop the growth... but I do plan to keep weeding as needed. Currently our old man next door is selling his house, so we told him we'd do our best at finishing making our front yard looking nice so that he can get out quickly.

Also, since I have one season of maintaining under my belt, I hope that next year I'll be able to rip up all of the bushes in our side flower bed area for my own little garden! yea!

My Lovely Long Weekend

After Thursday’s concert, I took the day off to sit at home and relax with the Jude-man. I had really missed all of our quality time at home together, so it was wonderful to just sit around and play with him, nap with him and just enjoy him.

After a nice and relaxing Friday, we had a birthday party to hit up on Saturday for our friend Milenko’s son. I had not seen this little boy since our company picnic last year. It was amazing to see how much he’s grown in less than a year! He was no longer a little baby, but looked like a person! We spent the greater part of Saturday hanging out around the party and just enjoying ourselves.

It’s always interesting going to Milenko’s because he’s not from the US and the majority of his family is from Europe as well, so it’s never your typical hotdog and hamburger type of picnic. For example when we walked up to his house on Saturday, there was a full lamb being pulled off the large barbeque grill (skull and hooves still in tact). It’s very interesting to be introduced to different cultures.

After our Saturday out I had plans to go dress shopping with Katy, but that got foiled rather quickly. Once we determined that no bridal salons are open on Sunday, I headed home. On my way, I decided to make a pit stop at Babies R Us.

As I had said before, Jude is starting to play with his toys a little. Even if he totally doesn’t understand their purpose, he looks at them, reaches for them and seems to appreciate that they’re there. So, I wanted to see what other goodies I could get for him. I ended up getting him another Lamaze plush toy shaped like a horse (when you move it, it makes galloping sounds – so cute) and a baby Einstein toy that helps teach colors. I think the two of us stood in the toy section or a good 30 minutes as I showed him each toy to see which one he seemed to like the best. He didn’t seem to understand that he could have had ANY of them if he showed interest. It’s exciting to think one day he’ll be really excited when put in front of a huge display of toys (I’m sure when the time comes I’ll be dreading walking into a toy store).

Finally, we headed home to meet up with Ryan who was doing some work around the house! Quite awhile ago we painted and decorated our living room. Ryan never got around to finishing the receptacles in there though, so considering we had all the materials needed to do this project he decided to tackle it this weekend. He got about 90% of the work done and plans to wrap it up this evening. Now, once Jude starts crawling and moving around he won’t be able to get his fingers zapped because we’re putting in tamper resistant receptacles through the whole house.

A busy and enjoyable weekend!

101 List Update

So Blogger is being a pain and won't let me edit my original 101 List - so here it is reposted with some updates

I adjusted #21 slightly (see note below)

I also adjust #79 slightly - for the sake of making it reasonably attainable.

ALSO - Last night while laying in bed I drew very rough outlines for what I wanted to do for each of the rooms/areas in our "house goals" section. I've made a "summer to-do list" of projects that are already started and need to be finished. My hope is that by the end of this summer we will have finished our misc. to-do's and will be able to start tackling a whole new room by the beginning of September. Currently I hope to start our dining room next (I have a VERY exciting plan in mind for that). However, that could easily change to our formal living room or our master bedroom - all of which I want done equally.

green = done (20)

Italics = In progress (11)

Regular = still need to done (70)

Personal/Self Improvement Goals:
1. Start my 'career' (whatever that may be)
2. Go back to school to study something new - whether I plan to do anything with it or just am interested in learning - even if it doesn't result in a degree, take classes that interest me.
3. Photograph someone and get paid for it.
4. Start a better morning routine - i.e. waking up before I have to, in an effort to make the mornings less hectic.- I am starting to wake up earlier with Jude. When I return to work, I plan to continue waking up when Ryan does to be out of the house on time - if not early!
5. Read a book a month for 6 months straight - 3 months down (April - June), 3 more to go.
6. Take a walk during the fall simply to take pictures of the trees
7. Pull over while driving and take a picture when I see something beautiful
8. Try 6 different beers (at home or at a bar - can be on different days) to say that I've given drinking beer an honest try. (2 down - 4 to go)
9. Make a quilt
10. Go one full day without getting online/on a computer/watching TV/ talking on the phone.
11. Go 1 month without eating meat to see if I could be a vegetarian.
12. Go out of my way to be nice to someone who annoys me. 5/2009
13. Make a seasonal dessert each season for one year (4 desserts total) that I have never made before.
14. Complete a "handy" project around the house on my own.
15. Go 1 month without eating fast-food (anything with a drive-thru is fast food) - 5/200-6/2009.
16. Take a day off of work and sit at home and do nothing.
17. Buy a watch or fix one I have and wear it regularly
18. Get a massage
19. Maintain a flower bed for a whole season
20. Mail out Christmas cards
21. Meet all of our immediate neighbors (house directly to the right, left and in front) - I'm crossing this off, because I'm beginning to think our neighbors to the right do not exist. We were originally told they come back every summer and stay, but it's almost the end of June and I have yet to see them, so I think they just own the house and are letting it rot.
22. Sell something I made/did for money (could be a photo, a service or a craft of some sort)
23. Have Ryan help ME hang a light or ceiling fan in the house.
24. Make putting on make-up part of my morning routine

House Goals:
25. Remodel our kitchen
26. Start and finish decorating our baby's nursery to have a special place to welcome him/her into the world.
27. Remodel and decorate our living room - still need to finish the receptacles
28. Remodel and decorate the general areas of our home (hallway, entrance ways, etc)
29. Remodel the three bathrooms in our home (1 started)
30. Unpack all of our boxes.
31. Remodel and decorate master bedroom
32. Remodel and decorate guest room
33. Be able to park my car in the garage
34. Find a way to display our shot glasses (plan: build a wall unit in the dining room!!! exciting idea!! - AKA "remodel dining room")


Fitness:
35. Run a marathon (hopefully with Ryan)
36. Run a 5K in less than 25 minutes
37. Walk through the mall one morning with the "mall walkers"
38. Get back to my pre-baby weight (or less) post baby - I weighed myself and was RIGHT at 150 - granted it was early AM, but I'll take it.

Donate/Giving to Others/Environmental:
39. Donate my hair to Locks of Love again - hopefully more than last time (if running a marathon w/Ryan shave head for donation per agreement with Ryan)
40. Skip celebrating Christmas one year and donate any money we would have spent on the holidays to poor children who otherwise wouldn't have a Christmas - go as far as telling anyone who would have bought us a gift to donate to a charity instead of gifting to us (any gifts we receive should be packed up and donated accordingly)
41. Volunteer - at least 40 hours total
42. Plant a tree
43. Try donating blood again
44. Grow vegetables at home - plan: turn the flower bed on the side of our house into veggie gardens
45. Encourage someone to recycle (they actually have to start doing it for it to count!)

Family Growth:
46. Get another dog

Traveling/Site Seeing/Family Activities:
47. See the Northern Lights!
48. Go on my much anticipated trip to Washington D.C.
49. Take a road trip (to count as a road trip I have to be in the car for 3+ days making more than 5 stops along the way)
50. Go to the "please touch" museum in Philly
51. Go to the New Mexico Hot Air Balloon festival - and ride in a hot air balloon
52. Go to an art museum and truely appreciate the art
53. See a show on Broadway
54. Take Buddy to the dog park
55. Go skiing
56. Host a holiday gathering at our house for our families
57. Take a ladies trip for myself and any female friends (to count as a trip it must be over night)
58. Take a trip on a train
59. Take our first "family vacation" - 6/2009 (NC)
60. Make a snow man
61. Jump in a pile of leaves
62. Sprinkle some of Zoey's ashes somewhere I know she'd love to be
63. Go strawberry picking
64. Star Gaze on a camping trip - stay at a camp site "in the middle of no where" for a great view of the stars.
65. Have a candle light dinner
66. Take Ryan to see the Daily Show or Colbert Report (his choice) - going to the daily show in august!
67. Walk through a professionally maintained garden on a spring day.
68. Lay on my back and watch the clouds
69. Play in the rain
70. Get Buddy's picture taken with Santa
71. Go cherry picking
72. See the Statue of Liberty - up close (with the whole Ellis Island Experience)
73. Go fishing
74. Go to a Holiday party that I have to get dressed up for (christmas or new years)
75. Go to a carnival/fair
76. Go to the circus
77. Eat the 1 piece of wedding cake left in the freezer on our anniversary
78. Go on a fabulous trip to one (or more) of the following places: Egypt, Tahiti, Hawaii, Victoria Falls, Ireland, African Safari, London, Machu Picchu

Financial:
79. Be out of debt (everything except mortgage payments and car payments)
80. Organize our finances/bills on our computer and go paperless for as many bills as we can.

Organization:
81. Find a way to display more of the thousands of images I have stored on my computer (and be creative about it!) - currently doing scrapbooks for each year, but still need to do something with some of the others - some sort of collage.
82. Organize our office in a way to make it easier to find important papers and maximize space.
83. Get rid of something that I really don't need but hold on to for some reason or another (aka junk) - got rid of a purse Kathy had made for me. It was white with a green "AW" on the front. I haven't used it in years, but kept it for one reason or another every time I cleaned out my closet.
84. REALLY clean out my closet and dresser and give away anything I don't wear (no matter how much I tell myself I'll wear it) - 6/2009

Becoming a Mom:
85. Throw a successful kiddy-party
86. Find a daycare for baby
87. Make and decorate a birthday cake for our baby

Misc.:
88. Win something on the radio
89. Get another tattoo - another one with meaning
90. Get a new passport with the right name
91. Blog about each task as it's completed (or as I realize I did something that was on the list as sometimes it may not dawn on me until days later)
92. Encourage someone else to make a 101 list of their own
93. Buy a 'flashy' pair of heals
94. Get a desk-top computer
95. Order something out of a cataloge
96. Help Ryan and Ryan make another movie in any way I can
97. Buy an argyle sweater
98. Mail someone a card on a special occasion (anniversary, b-day, etc)
99. Support Ryan in getting another tattoo - or start his "sleeve"
100. Sing Kareokee
101. Sell something on e-bay

Strawberry Fields Forever

1 Month (and check up)

June 5th Jude was one month! It's crazy how quickly time is flying by and how big he's getting!

Today we went to the doctor for his one month visit. He got one shot and in general just got checked out. He was 10 lbs 3.5 ounces and 22 inches long. When he was born, he was in the 25th percential and today he was weighing in the 50th. So, he's growing well.

What was interesting to me is that the nurse prac. told me that Jude should be on vitamins. I mentioned that he's exclusively breast fed, and should be getting everything he needs. Apparently though, the one thing breast milk doesn't provide is vitamin D.

However, she said that 'when' he's on formula he won't need vitamins. She assumed when I went back to work I'd be switching to formula. I mentioned I planned to pump and she just shrugged and continued. I asked if I should then supplement with one bottle of formula a day and she said he should be fine with just the vitamins. (anyone out there giving their infant vitamins??)

He had a hard time sitting up in the middle of the chair:

So we went with the side of the chair instead:

A New Cousin

Last week - June 3rd - my brother Kevin's wife had her baby. Jude now has his first cousin: Olivia. I believe she was about 6 lbs 4 ounces. Later this month we plan to make a trip down to NC. Originally it was for Jude to visit his mom-mom and pop-pop, but it looks like we'll be letting the kiddies meet.

A Party at Uncle Bryan's

This past weekend we went to a party at Bryan and Katy's house. Party was complete with moonbounce, slip n' slide and more!

Hypospadias Update

Today was a busy doctor day. We started early this morning with a visit to A.I. for Jude's hypospadias. Just yesterday I saw the last little piece of stitches fall off so was hopeful that he'd be able to check out was going on a little better.

Once all stripped down, he checked him out and said he does NOT have a hypospadias (insert confused 'why are we here' look)! I asked why they put him through the semi-circ, stitches and two doctor's visits if he doesn't have a hypospadias and he said it's not uncommon. Apparently sometimes the foreskin is so tight that when they pull back the skin it makes the hole look slightly off center. I wasn't entirely convinced, but was relieved that he was not going to need the surgery!

Then I was advised that in order to continue with the circumcision he'd need to be put under because of his age. I told Ryan it was his decision whether we were going to leave him uncircumsized or go through with the 'surgery' (circumcision) this November. His immediate response was 'go for it', but the thought of putting Jude under is just too much for me to make it that easy of a decision.

Our Final Decision on Vaccines

As you probably determined from the section above, we went forward with part two of the Hep B vaccine today. Basically I did some research on which vaccines are required for school and we will be getting those - without a doubt. Some I may be delaying, but obviously I'll need to get them. Since the Hep B was the only one scheduled for today we went with that one on time - I figured it made sense, since he was already 1/3 of the way there.

Some of the others, I've read, it's possible to spread out over a longer period of time and so over the next month I plan to research the shots on track for next month and determine if I'll postpone any.

Pretty much, as with almost anything else, there are a list of side effects for each vaccine. According to Dr Sear's book, spreading some of these out can reduce side effects which is something we're considering. I'm really wishing I had looked into this all BEFORE I had a child instead of making it up as I go.

Strawberry Picking (another 101 down!)

Today I went Strawberry picking with Katy and Bryan. Jude of course slept through the whole event. It was on my list of things to do so I recently went online to farm that offered pick your own. We went to Filasky's Produce in Middletown. It seemed to be a little early in the season, so there weren't A LOT to chose from, but we ended up with a decent bag full.

Uncle Bryan - Getting Married??

As I may or may not have mentioned, Bryan and Katy have been tossing around the "m" word a lot lately. Ideally I think they're looking for a 2010 fall wedding with a rustic edge and just a casual laid back good time. Originally Katy said she could really see them getting married at Milburn orchard. They hold weddings and it would fit their Fall decor ideas.

While looking around online one day I found the "figure 8 barn". Katy and Bryan seemed to think it was the perfect location and so they set up an appointment to go look at it. They asked me to go and I of course said yes!

I must say it's a pretty cool property!! It's not at all your typical wedding venue, but I'm sure with the ideas that Bryan and Katy are throwing out it could be an awesome spot for sure!!

Work Around the House:

Now that Ryan is done at Lowes, we have the opportunity to do some work around the house. This past Sunday I decided to fix up our front yard a little. I didn't want to put a lot of money into it and just wanted to clean up some of the over growth.

I mentioned to my brother that I wanted to pull up the azalea bushes across the front of the house and his face light up. He asked if he could do it and I said he was more than welcome to. I found out the reason he wanted to do it is because he wasn't going to just dig it out or cut them down, he wanted to pull them out by the root. How you might ask did he want to do that?? With Ryan's jeep of course.

While we were busy out front Ryan did a little work on the bathroom - wrapping up some electricity. There are so many projects in the works right now, but I'm excited that we're getting back at 'em.

Before:

Flower bed in the front yard:

Front of the house with all 4 bushes:

After:

Slightly manicured flower bed (I didn't want to get into flowers, just make it look a little more well-kept)

One bush gone, 3 to go.

Bath Time

About a month before Jude was born, Ryan and I decided to rip apart our only bathroom with an actual tub (our master bath has a large shower). Our original plan saw the bathroom taking minimal time to do, so we assumed it'd be done well before Jude arrived. Well, Lowes and some overtime came along (gotta make the money to PAY for the new bathroom) for Ryan and the bathroom got put on hold. In addition to it being upsetting that we don't have a finished bathroom for Jude, I feel terrible for my cousin Michael who lives with us. His showering is now in part dictated by our morning routine (which is currently very unpredictable being that I typically don't have anywhere I have to be in the AM).

Well - on with the purpose of this whole post. When we first brought Jude home from the hospital it wasn't even an issue. As long as his umbilical cord was still healing, he couldn't be submerged in water anyway. Fast forward a little less than two weeks in and it then became a small issue. I told myself I could continue with the sponge baths or I could take his infant tub downstairs and give him a good cleaning in the kitchen like our grandmothers did their children. I opted for a nice heavy sponge bath. Every other day I would fill a large bowl with warm water and baby wash and scrub him down. At first of course he hated it, but after about two time he caught on that it wasn't that bad.

About a week ago though I was tired of the sponge baths. I was worried he wasn't getting clean enough (not that he really did anything to get too 'dirty') and wanted him to get a good hose down. On one particular morning when I was in the shower Jude started throwing a fit. I of course started to rush my shower (even though I knew he was fine - I still hate when he has to cry) and before hopping out I thought "today's a bath day for Jude, this boy's getting in the shower".

Now I'll say that not once in my life did I ever imagine showering with my son. It seemed bizarre, weird and with the tile floor in our shower stall, just... unsafe. But I went for it anyway. I quickly hopped out of the shower, grabbed one of Jude's towels, a wash cloth and his baby wash and stripped him down. For about the first 15 seconds he did not like it. What was this liquid being sprayed on me? Why is she making it worse with that gosh darn wash cloth?? (all questions running through his head, I'm sure). But within less than a minute he realized it was warm (not too warm!) and comforting. He calmed down and just looked at me with this look like "what are you doing to me now?? hasn't the last month brought enough changes??"

After he was all cleaned up I wrapped him up tightly in his towel. His hair felt softer and smoother and he just seemed cleaner than a sponge bath could get.

Now, this isn't to say I'd prefer this over giving him a bath. I want my peaceful shower back, but for right now it's working well for us.

I called Ryan that afternoon and told him "I did the first of many things you may disapprove of me doing as a mother". He just laughed.

Homemade

It's been my personal observation (and I could be wrong) that more and more people seem to be regressing to some of the practices of the past. While we have so much technology, I still feel like there are some things that people seem to be going "old school" on.

I for one am catching on to this little trend (is it a trend? i don't know...). For example with our child I plan to breast feed (something that for awhile was fairly uncommon), use cloth diapers and make my own baby food. Recently Barbie mentioned that she had found a recipe to make homemade laundry detergent and I was all about trying it out!

Yesterday we met at her house and gave it a shot. For about $10.00 (well, $10.00 for the first batch - about $2.00 every time after) we will have TEN GALLONS of laundry between the two of us! It seriously only took like... 10 minutes?

After we were done, it needed to sit overnight to thicken and then we will add water to the mixture to get our ten gallons. I'm very eager to see how it turned out! I'm even more excited to actually use it to see how it works. I still have a good bit of my store bought detergent to use but I'll be sure to post on how it worked out!