And it has been even longer since I posted, but with the upgrade the wordpress iPhone app actually works – promise my next one will actually have some substance, but just wanted to test it out.
Anyway, go Yankees!
We had a pretty good weekend. We had planned on doing some spring cleaning but after working out, watching basketball, the sunny weather yesterday and Chuck’s baseball draft we didn’t get much done. We only got our room cleaned up and then decided we deserved to go out to dinner (again).
We are really the worst about going out on the weekends. We keep saying we are going to only go out once to save money and eat better but inevitably come Friday we are ready for a treat. Then Saturday just feels like a night you should go out, so we succumb and it is fun. The boys are always so great when we go out to dinner it is hard not to want to go.
We have been good about working out though so hopefully that will offset it a bit. I joined LA Fitness, yes I am a sell out to the big chain, because they have great childcare. I can drop them off any time for one monthly fee. Plus they love it. I have been working out about 5 times a week, bring the boys about 3 times a week. I feel much better since I started about a month ago. Chuck has also been getting up early in the morning to go to the gym or go running.
Boys update: Colin was really into playing baseball over the weekend. He has a great swing. We were in the backyard yesterday using 4 real softballs and a wiffle ball. He would connect with the softballs but they wouldn’t go far, however when I pitched him a wiffle ball and he hit it, it would fly. He almost knocked me over and did knock my glasses off one time. Holden also has a great stance but has a little more trouble hitting the ball, but he sure is cute when he tries.
Holden has been trying to speak a lot more now and is getting better I think. He uses tone and inflection all the time. He is starting to get really mad at me when I don’t understand him. He is so cute when you aren’t watching because he plays with his little animals and makes them talk to each other. I found him in his room the other day with his puppy who was tucked in with a blanket and pillow and Holden was reading him a story. Adorable.
Both Colin and Holden love to tell jokes at dinner. Virtually all of them knock-knock jokes and none of them make any sense. Especially Holdens – but he laughs so hard afterwords it his hilarious. I took a video of it:
BTW..Holden tried to crawl out of his crib for the first time and also decided (for the first time) he wasn’t going to take a nap today. It figures because just yesterday we said how easy he was to put down for his nap…always happens that way.
(I meant to post this on Wed but time slipped away from me and I didn’t get around to it…getting the pictures up is always the problem)
We were all very excited about the election on Tuesday. Chuck voted absentee but I took both Colin and Holden to vote with me. A risky move but they were little angels. I got my ballot, went over to the booth and both of them sat under the booth in their matching blue coats eating fruit leathers while I voted. They sat quietly for the whole 10 minutes it took me to vote (so many props and charter amendments, etc). They had found my extra Obama stickers so the both had them all over them. I didn’t get a picture of them sitting under there which I really regret now.
We had had a little election night party with the Dotens which was fun, albeit a little hard to hear the TV with all the boys running around. The boys stayed up until 8 when they announced Obama would be our new president. I am sure all of you who are Obama supporters felt the same way we did, elated, proud, excited, relieved. I am sure I will probably get made fun of for saying this but I even cried a bit. For the first time in a long time I feel very proud of the United States and even though things aren’t so great I am much more optimistic about the future.
The next day every one at Colin’s school was in such a good mood. As you can imagine most people at his school and around Seattle in general are Democrats. I think literally only saw 1 or 2 McCain signs during the entire campagin.
Alright, enough of my political talk…I have to run to the dentist. I have a Halloween post almost done, so I will put that up tomorrow complete with pictures.
My 5 or 6 days of making Colin write (for about 15 minutes each day) paid off and today he wrote the whole alphabet, well first he wrote “Holden” and then the alphabet. He got a few things mixed up but did a good job – a bit sloppy at the end, but I will let that slide. The best thing is that he is enjoying it, which helps. He was being so cute while he was sitting on my lap, talking to himself “Hum…what’s next, F … wait, wait…no E first. One line down, then over.”
I also asked him to write zoo – without telling him how to spell it – see the bottom:
The other night he asked for some crayons and paper so he could write in his room before bed. He produced the following:
Which I thought was great until I went into his room and saw that he had been “practicing” all over his walls. The crayons have been removed from his room for the time being.
Sunday we went to the Microsoft company picnic. It was crazy. I cannot even explain how much was going on there, food, games, about 40 bouncy tent things, pony rides, hay rides, beer gardens, bands, casino, rock climbing, etc and it was all free. It was held on a farm about a half hour east of Seattle, right under Mt. Si. Beautiful, really fun and huge – Chuck didn’t even see one person he recognized all day. We spend over 5 hours there and as a bonus Colin was wearing underwear and was accident free all day!
Here are some pics:
Mount Si in the background:
Ice cream boy:
Ice cream boy #2:
The crazy motorcross expo:
I just had to do a quick blog to post the forecast for Seattle:
After months of rain, this is what we live here for – summer sunshine. We have been out and about enjoying the weather. Just went down to the block for a little happy hour with some of our neighbors, including one of Colin’s preschool friends. The boys had a great time running around, while we had a couple beers and ordered some pizza.
We don’t have any plans for the weekend other than being outside to enjoy the weather and of course there are always house projects to be finished. We are almost completely done with the sandbox, patio and planters, although I am now questioning my logic on having a huge sandbox so close to the house – it is like living at the beach. More sand ends up on the patio, grass and in the house than anywhere else.
Tidbits:
Over Memorial Day Weekend I went away for the first time since Colin was born. It has been almost 4 years since I have slept someplace without kids waking me up in the middle of the night. I have never left Holden for more than 5-6 hours and Colin was only apart from me while I was in the hospital having Holden plus one night while in Arizona. So it was well deserved I would say.
I left on Thursday night and flew down to San Francisco. I was meeting friends (Colleen, Tracy and Emily – friends from college) the next day but I wanted one night all to myself. I almost started to cry when Chuck dropped me off at the airport – and actually missed the boys when I saw other kids on the plane, although I didn’t miss having to entertain a one year old on a flight. I stayed in a hotel downtown, ordered room service, took a bath – but still had a hard time sleeping because it was kinda noisy. I also woke up at 6 AM anyway – the whole weekend actually. It stinks when you don’t have to get up at 6 AM but you still wake up.
Friday I met Tsinclair downtown and we shopped a bit and got lunch while we waited for Colleen and Emily to arrive. Once they go there we drove north to Healdsburg in Sonoma. The traffic was really bad and it took over 3 hours. We unpacked at our rental house and went out for a drink and to dinner at Scopa, a new italian resturant in Healdsburg. It was great to all hang out together without kids, etc.
On Saturday we hung around town in the morning and then we had hired a driver to take us to the wineries in the afternoon. Our driver “Jay” arrived at 1 PM and the tasting began. Colleen had the map and a plan. She kept us on a tight schedule, trying to fit as many tastings in as possible. As a result we went to 7 wineries in 4 hours – tasting about 5 wines at each one. You do the math – anyway you calculate it equals three sheets to the wind by 5 PM.
We had brought some bread, cheese and olives to eat along the way but never had any of it, so when we got home we sat outside and finished it all. We had dinner reservations at 9:15 at this really nice restaurant. We made it but never should have gone. I don’t think we said more than 3 words to each other, no one finished their drinks and barely ate the meal.
Sunday we had spa appointments and then went to one other winery on our way to a little hike in the redwoods. It was a beautiful day, the spa was great and the hike was nice. We went out to dinner again and afterwords we had to get a little pool in for old times sake.
We all went home on Monday afternoon. I had a great time, I missed the boys but it was a nice break. I have to say time goes much faster when I am with Colin and Holden.
When I got back Chuck and the boys picked me up at the airport and even had flowers for me. Holden didn’t know who I was for the first minute or two, until I picked him up and then he wouldn’t let go. Colin took it all in stride. Chuck did a great job with them over the weekend. It is nice to know that they don’t need me all the time and I can go away without worrying. You will have to ask Chuck how things went while I was gone and what he thinks of watching them full time for 4 days.
Hello loyal blog fans. Apologies for our absence, it has been a trying few weeks on the health/wellness front for Holden, but I’ll leave that for another posting.
For this one, I wanted to ask a small favor. I signed on to run the Beat the Bridge 8K in May, and as the race has as its core purpose the raising of money to fight juvenile diabetes, I’m coming to you hat in hand to see if you might chip in a few bucks toward the cause. If you’re feeling charitable, please make a donation here.
I’ll be sure to post pics after the race – for background on the name, there’s a bridge at the 2 mile mark of the race, and it gets raised 20 minutes after the starting flag goes up. Go slower than a 10 minute mile pace, and you get to sit and wait for a few minutes while it goes up and down (and people laugh and taunt you – that’s probably not true, it’s just how I imagine it would go down).
Thanks for the support!
I finally finished my built in bookshelves (minus the cabinet doors) in the living room. They turned out better than expected and since we got everything set up our living room has been a joy 
Here is a quick before and after:
Another view:
After looking at the pictures, seems like they don’t do it justice. The whole feel of the living room is different – I guess that could also be because it is clean now too.
When I began this project I had no idea where to start. I searched online to find some examples of built in cabinets and it was really hard to find anything. Therefore I am going to summarize what I did so if anyone else is searching for examples hopefully they will find mine.
I started designing the cabinet just on paper. We knew we wanted to be able to fit our TV inside. We also needed a place for the electronic equipment below the TV. We only have one bookshelf in our whole house so we definitely needed bookshelves too. I measured all the parts, figured out the largest of our books and the average size and made the design around those measurements. The cabinet ended up being 30″ high and 20″ wide. Each bookshelf is 11″ wide (due to what boards you can buy). The bookshelves vary between 11″ high and 13″ high.
I first framed the bottom cabinet using 2×4s. I put the 2×4s together with deck screws (they don’t strip) and then attached the 2×4s to the wall where I could find studs. The bottom, sides, shelves and top of the cabinet are all made of MDF. I used MDF because it comes in large sizes, is smooth and inexpensive. The only downside is that it isn’t very strong and tends to chip out. I just left the 2×4s exposed on the inside of the cabinet because I knew I was going to paint them anyway.
The shelves on top of the cabinet are all made of MDF boards. The lumber yard ended up giving me pre-primed wood even though I didn’t ask for it – but it was nice to have. I used a router to route out part of the counter top to hold the vertical boards and then routed out a place for each shelf. I decided to make the shelves permanent (instead of adjustable) because it looked nicer and matched the rest of the house better. I glued all the shelves together and screwed the vertical boards into the wall. I had to do a lot of shimming due to bowed walls.
Then I put trim up on everything. The crown molding was a TOTAL pain. I had to buy a new piece because we couldn’t get the old trim off. The new piece was just slightly off so it was hard to figure out the angles. Plus on the one side I had to shape it to fit the existing molding that was already up on the wall. I was glad when I got that done, but then the ceiling (not to mention every wall) was not square. I used an entire can of spackle to finish things off.
Chuck and I both painted it – Chuck probably did the majority of the painting. On Valentines day while Chuck was working, I managed to get the whole living room cleaned, mount the TV on the wall myself (that was HEAVY) and get the new carpet in. It was a long day.
I still have to finish the doors. We got some antique glass from a second use center, but making it work might be tough so I haven’t started the doors yet.
Overall it came out better than I thought – I am sure in part because I bought a new miter saw and a new router. You have to have the right tools for the job as they say. See Dad and Ed – remember a long time ago when I asked for tools for Christmas? I meant serious tools Now it is on to the patio in the backyard.
Here are some more pictures of the whole thing in progress – along with the boys “helping”
Me outside with the router:
Colin helping put the base cabinet together:
Alright we stink at posting on the blog lately – but I have a good reason. Colin hasn’t been taking naps and the computer is in the basement, which flooded and is messy and cold, so I haven’t had much time down here.
Colin and Holden have been getting along great lately, even with Holden into all Colin’s stuff. Yesterday we went to the zoo and Colin said “Holden sits right next to me mom” and last night Colin said “Holden is my best friend.” It was very sweet although I have to admit that Colin has a different “best friend” every day.
Holden turned 11 months yesterday. I can’t believe he is almost a year, it went so fast. He is still cruising, not walking yet. Babbling, mostly saying “dada”. He loves to brush his hair, mostly with the brush but also with a spatula yesterday. He is a pretty good climber, up on to top of the train table and a couple weeks ago I found him up on top of the toilet. He is a good eater, although he doesn’t really like us to feed him with a spoon much anymore. He also does this super cute thing when you ask if he is cozy he will lay his head down on something soft and go “awwwwwwh”. He got pretty sick over the weekend, had a fever of 104.3 and we basically held him for 72 hours straight. I felt so bad for him, he was moaning and everything. When the fever would come down he would get down and play but over all it was rough.
Colin is doing well. Very much into preschool now and loves to go. He has made lots of friends and is always asking to have people over – everyday he tries to arrange something. He goes up to his friends parents and tells them he is going to come over to their house. He is also such a funny guy at home. The things he says and does just make us laugh. He sings all the time. A couple of days ago he wasn’t listening to me so I said no TV all day. He kept begging, but I said no, so at lunch he started singing to himself all sad “I wanna watch TV….but mom said no….daddy would say yes….” I said are you singing blues?
As far as Chuck and I go, Chuck has been hard at work, although I have to admit, I don’t know at what Seems like he gets home, we eat, play with the kids, get them to bed, clean up and then we go to sleep. I never get a chance to talk to him about work – so here I publicly apologize. We have a babysitter this weekend so hopefully we can catch up then – having kids is a bit time consuming.
I have been working on a built in shelf in our living room. I have the bottom base cabinet in and hopefully will get started on the bookshelves/TV unit this weekend. It takes a long time when Colin is “helping” me. Chuck and I have agreed that we feel like a lot of the home organization hinges on getting this thing done. We have no bookshelves or good storage places right now so we can’t wait to get this settled.
Alright before I go I will just leave a few tidbits over the past month or so since we haven’t blogged in so long:
Hello faithful blog followers – we know it has been a while since our last post, but with the move and me out of town and people coming into town this weekend…well, you get the idea. Plus we didn’t have internet access for a few days there, so Jess at least has that excuse.
But things are beginning to settle down. Boxes are getting unpacked and removed (although not all), and the house is starting to take shape. Now if we could just get a bigger kitchen, but I suppose that will have to wait.
To make up for the galley-style kitchen with little storage space, we put pot racks up along one wall to store big items and to hang our pots and pans from. It’s a huge space saver. In the course of putting up the shelves, Colin was inevitably ‘helping’ us, mostly by playing with the hooks that hold the pans and asking questions. While playing with said hooks, he asked Jess “What do you do with these hookers?” You can’t make this stuff up. Anyway, we’ll be back to full blogging strength shortly.