Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I feel like I say this every year, but I just love that we Americans get a national holiday devoted to being grateful, regardless of race, creed, religion, or country of origin. I’m glad we can all join forces to eat and be merry!!

We’ve been making a ton of progress on the bathroom – it’s starting to look like something other than a workzone…and I am thankful for that. I’m also thankful for the little growing baby I’ve got…that I will hopefully take a picture of soon! (Well, at least my belly, that is) :)

And I’m thankful for all my friends starting the celebration of Hanukkah today! I’m grateful that someone created this menurkey – for all of our enjoyment :)

Here’s the story of the kid who created the menurkey!

http://www.3ders.org/articles/20131005-9-year-old-boy-created-the-menurkey-with-3d-printer-to-celebrate-thanksgivukkah.html

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Typhoon Haiyan

Thanks to those who have checked in with me or my mom about our family in the Philippines.

My aunt was able to talk to my uncle and some other family members before communications went down, and we've been able to talk to them since, and they're all fine.  They were so lucky to all be just south of the typhoon's path.

Map of Typhoon Haiyan from NYTimes.com

Most of our family is in Bacolod and Iloilo, so besides a lot of extra rain, they were pretty much unscathed. My heart does go out to all the families and people who were affected by this incredible storm.

So thank you again for checking in with us, and if you're looking for ways to help, please donate to the relief fund at the American Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders.

They Tell Us It’s a Boy!

This is slightly old news, but I thought I’d share the fun of finding out that our baby’s going to be a boy!

Brian and I went in for the ultrasound on a Monday morning. Since there was no way the clinic was going to let our whole family into the ultrasound room to find out with us, we wanted to do something special to let them in on the surprise…you know, especially for the moms/future grandmas, :) so we invited them over for dinner that night.

When the ultrasound tech told us that our little baby is a boy, we kept our traps shut as I rushed home to bake a blue cake.  It’s not a new concept, but I figured our moms could cut into the cake to see what kind of kid their new grandbaby would be. :)

So here’s the play-by-play :)  I thought this was cute: future grandmas.

A family “before” picture.

I made them cut the cake together like it was their wedding cake.

And…the excitement begins! I wish we had this part on video. There was a lot of screaming and laughing and not knowing whether to cry or keep laughing :)

So funny, right? :) I love these ladies.

Here’s the blue cake:

And it was delicious!

We had more family over than just our moms, but I forgot to make them all take a group photo. What a bad memory-maker I am!

And finally, Brian and me with our boy-cake. :)

Now we’re in the process of getting prepared for this little guy with trucks and worms and other things boys are supposed to like. :)  It’s all pretty exciting! I can’t wait to start the nursery – and share it all with you!

(PS – while I really have no doubt that the baby is a boy and the ultrasound pictures are correct, I’ll really be convinced this little baby’s a boy when it comes out and I can see it myself!) :)

What fun surprises have you had lately?

The Bathroom Has Drywall!

The bathroom is about 90% drywalled (only 90% due to some snafus) and it has been for about a month now.

To do the ceiling, Brian and his stepdad rented a drywall lift from our local Menards, and they said it was worth every penny!  (Call around when you’re renting tools. We’ve rented lots of tools from Home Depot and our local rental place, but for some reason renting this drywall lift was half the price at Menards than anywhere else!)

This amazing contraption holds the drywall up in the air so you don’t have to! You can use it to hang high vertical sheets as well, but we just used it for the ceiling. Having it was like having a third set of tireless hands and arms on your side and gave us the opportunity to make the many many cut outs we needed for all the lights/fans/etc.

This isn’t a terribly big room, but all those cut outs took time – and we’re no pros! The ceiling took about 5ish hours including breaks and mess-ups :) and only cost about $20 in drywall-lift-rental.

All in all, most of the drywall installation has been straightforward and quick. The mudding is a pain as always, but it’s coming along…if only there were some magical tool for mudding and sanding the ceiling, I’d be set!

The shower installation is becoming a dramatic saga, and that’s what’s currently been holding this project up. Ah, the joys of home improvement and DIY. Once we actually get near a “finished” stage on that, I will tell you all about it!

Thank You Cards

Oh my goodness...so many things to post, and so long since I've posted last!

So a quick post for now: look at the cute  thank you notes I made! They were sort of a pain (aren't so many projects?) ;) but I am so happy with them!

I used Cricut's Country Life cartridge with its cute banner font and my trusty Gypsy!

What projects have you been crafting?