Happy 4th of July.

We moved in a week ago. I'm still exhausted and have been too busy to take any pictures. I'm not going to promise a meaningful post anytime soon... but I would like to thank everyone who helped us move in! We assembled at the old house at 9 am, had all our stuff out by noon, I was the last to arrive at the new house (pizzas in hand) at 1 pm, and the truck/cars were unloaded and all our helpers gone by 3 pm. It was incredible. And only one thing broke: the lid to a loose leaf tea brewing cup that we never use anyway. There are only a few projects that remain unfinished, as far as the contractors go; there are plenty of unfinished projects on my end! I'm off to mull those over as I drift off to sleep.

It's MOVING DAY!!!

See you on the other side...

Tell us about your grill!

Your gas grill, as in barbecue. We're looking for one to do all the basic things with maybe a few added features. So, here are our requirements. We'd love to hear about what kind of grill you have and if you like it or not.

• at least 3 burners
• under $400
• rust resistant
• no hot spots/frequent flare-ups
• decent grill/warming rack area
• side burner not necessary
• actual wheels, not just casters

Well, we move in the day after tomorrow. I'm already exhausted. The plumber's coming tomorrow to finish up, as is the water filter guy (synopsis of long story: Adam threatened to have the filters finished by someone else in a voicemail, and he called us back finally. Completely unapologetic, but full of excuses, he promised to get at least a temporary filter on our system before we move in. So unprofessional, I don't even know where to start.) Anyway, we have internet service, but our phone will take another week. The preliminary final inspection went pretty smoothly, with only a few little surprises.

I am typing like a LOLcat, so I think it's time to go to bed. This may just be my last post as a Eureka resident... we'll see.

I swore I was going to post tonight if it killed me...

...and it just might. It's been WAY too long since my last post, especially considering everything that's been happening at the house! Maybe that's why I haven't posted, I can't keep up, and we've been incredibly busy. There are SO many pictures to post, I just can't do it. Perhaps I'll get a bigger account on flickr and dump all of the house pictures there.

Everything is nearly done, final inspection is on Wednesday and WE'RE MOVING IN ON SATURDAY!!! There's one little problem... the water filter guy still hasn't installed the filter. So, we have water running through the house, but it's straight out of the well, and not good for drinking or washing things. We've been calling him everyday for the past few weeks, and nobody can get a hold of him. Ridiculous. I will be calling him once every hour until he calls me back starting at 8 a.m. tomorrow. We'll see what kind of response I get.

Mike, Sara and Sasha came over to help us pack tonight. What a huge help! We were so unmotivated, but having someone else around who can just put things in boxes (without emotional attachment to every little thing) was great. Sasha and Ava ran around like wild animals and now Ava is sleeping soundly. No problems getting that one to bed tonight!

I wonder how much of an adjustment it's going to be, living in Blue Lake. We won't be spending so much time driving, the weather will be better, these are obvious differences... but what about all the little things? Here are some reasons I'm going to miss our little house in Eureka:

Established roses in the front yard.
Being close to friends.
Being close to shopping, police, fire and hospitals.
The vintage charm of our house.
The small, yet still unmanageable, yard.

And some reasons I'm not going to miss our little house in Eureka:
It has very little insulation and is drafty.
There's not that much storage and we have too much stuff.
The layout of the rooms with the bathroom as the "hallway" between the two bedrooms. (Helpful when walking a newborn to sleep, otherwise annoying.)
Neighbors with loud Harleys and diesel trucks.
No off-street parking.
Noisy appliances right next to our bedroom.
The small, yet still unmanageable, yard.

Oh man. We're moving in on Saturday. I should probably get some sleep and try to relax, considering the migraine that showed up during the last moving session.

Press moving weekend

Everything went as smoothly as expected, with the exception of a migraine that knocked me out for a good portion of the day Saturday. I was rendered useless at the start of the second run to the storage unit and Adam even had to pull over to side of the freeway so I could puke on the way back to the house. (Thank goodness for that though, there are few things as awful as throwing up in someone's car.)

A HUGE thanks to everyone who showed up to help us move my printing equipment into the garage over the weekend! Whether you lifted heavy objects, cleaned something or watched babies, we couldn't have done it without you! A special thanks to Adam, Tony, Art, Shawn and Andy for filling in while I was out of commission. Here are a few pics from the first moving adventure:

Adam running the forklift, putting the last piece of equipment into the garage; an 1891 Chandler & Price treadle press. They moved it in like a 1-ton piece of butter.

There's Foreman Ava, on the job again, late in the day after I could stand to be outside in the daylight with dark glasses and a hat on. Adam looks like he's really concentrating, and I appreciate the fact that he didn't drop my cast iron baby.

Here's the print shop all set up. There are more type cabinets on the wall to the left, just outside the frame. And now there are boxes of stuff piled all over the cabinets, desk and floor, but that's just temporary while we finish up other projects around the house.

Today the kitchen sink went in, the molds were finished up for the stretch of countertop around the sink, the marble for the other countertop was test-polished, the garage door finally went in and probably a bunch of other things happened. More pictures when I can manage...

More Ava-Bird.

I don't think it's possible to get enough of this girl, but she gets cranky when I try to keep her awake so I can bask in her cuteness. (Though she's just as adorable when she's asleep, just quieter.) Here's a video, taken yesterday at Grandma & Grandpa's house.

The Ava-Bird is up and running.

In the evening, she falls and gets upset. Going outside usually calms her down. The roses in our front yard are bursting with blooms at the moment, mostly because we haven't done any yard maintenance in months.


For the three-day weekend, we drove down to GG's house and went to IKEA to pick up some things for the house. When it's time for Ava to change from clothes to pajamas (or vice versa) or get in or out of the bath, she likes to show off her new walking/running/stumbling skills while naked. This photo is the last we saw of that 'A' from the fridge. Who knows where she put it.



3 generations.


I wouldn't be thrilled if my mom posted my first real zit on the Internet for all the world to see either. Oh well, gotta document all the firsts, kid.


I love this picture. Andy took it during the zit photo shoot. She had been upset after a long day of awkward naps, so I was feeding her applesauce on my lap. She instantly perked up and gave us a little smile. Wherever I take her, people always comment on her beautiful eyes, but I still can't figure out why. :)