blue lake bungalow

How cute is this guy?

2012-01-12T14:56:00.000-08:00

He got his first tooth on Dec. 23, and the second tooth a week later. He really is a fantastic kid.

Mojo is 3 months old!

2011-09-06T09:08:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, we had a baby. 3 months ago. I'm really on the ball this time around...

Louis Morgan Jones
June 3, 2011
8lb. 6 oz.
20 in.

Morgan and Uncle Bob
September 3, 2011
15-16 lbs.

Hello?

2011-05-28T06:11:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a year since I last posted here... probably thanks to Facebook and plenty of other things keeping me busy/wasting my time.

If you are reading this post, please leave a comment so I know that anyone might still read this blog. We'll have big baby news soon... I'm due a week from tomorrow!

Ava shakes it

2010-07-07T08:33:00.001-07:00

Ava shakes it
Originally uploaded by lynnerd707

Let's just say she definitely has an interest in music and dance.

Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, live at the Warfield 6/25/10

2010-06-28T17:10:00.001-07:00

Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, live at the Warfield 6/25/10
Originally uploaded by lynnerd707

Prince, front row at the Oakland Coliseum was the best show I've ever been to. This was a very close second. Sharon Jones has more energy than a fireball -- it never waned for more than 2 hours. Amazing! (Andy had a really good time too.)

birthday 2 cake

2010-04-11T15:26:00.001-07:00

birthday 2 cake
Originally uploaded by lynnerd707

Ava and Dada sing "Happy Birthday."

birthday 2 scream

2010-04-11T15:23:00.001-07:00

birthday 2 scream
Originally uploaded by lynnerd707

Ava and Sylvia calling all the other kids in Blue Lake during Ava's second birthday party.

Ava's 2nd birthday in pictures.

2010-04-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

Gymnastics with GG and Uncle Bob, Dada and Mama.

Hestitant with "big Super Why" at the library.

Naptime on the ride home.

Cake time was much neater this year than last year.

Ava got many wonderful gifts this year, including a Dora helmet and a tricycle!

She loves the leotard that Sasha gave her, and has to ride the bike no matter what she's wearing at the time.

A few Thanksgiving 2009 pics.

2010-02-06T18:48:00.000-08:00

A couple of pics from the Halloween Housewarming.

2010-02-06T18:43:00.000-08:00

Adam = Lynn
Deanna = Andy
Lynn = Adam
Ava = Koa
Andy = Steve

Presentation of commemorative prints to our 3 main guys: Adam, Dustin & Aaron.

Our happy child and Santa - Christmas 2009.

2010-02-06T18:28:00.001-08:00

AVA santa 2009
Originally uploaded by lynnerd707

Ava's happy dance.

2009-10-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

Because blogger changed the way photos and video get placed into a blog, I haven't figured out how to post a video. So, here's a link to the video on our flickr site.

Blogger changed things mostly for the better--it's much easier to see how your blog post will look before posting it. But video, I don't know.

I shouldn't be blogging at work...

2009-10-06T10:22:00.000-07:00

...especially on a Tuesday, but this is just too much. I had to share. Ava and Grandma Jones had a little fun with makeup yesterday.

A party is in the works!

2009-10-04T12:12:00.000-07:00

We've moved in, final inspection will take place tomorrow morning and we're finally planning a housewarming party! Everyone whoever listened to us complain about the lot split and house building process is invited. Consider this party a thank you for letting us vent about it all. :) Click on the image above to see the full-size invitation.

So, final inspection means that we finally got the county to see things our way about the eave soffits. It took 3 months to convince them that we meet the intent of the code and putting up the soffits would only be a waste of time, resources, money and materials, just to meet the code requirements as they are currently written. It's a long story, and I'm done bitching about house building. Really, I am.

Here's our remaining house to-dos:
prime & paint main bath cabinet
arrange studio (get paper from Art & Ann's!)
hang orange room closet rods, shelves & curtains
finish master bath tile
glass door for master bath shower
paint pump house
pump cover
gravel walk around house
clean up chicken coop
carport
master bedroom window curtains (almost done!)
master bedroom door curtain
orange bedroom roman shade
clean up orange bedroom (currently holding many unpacked items)
find a dining room table
bar stools
plant oak tree (redwoods are in the ground, yay!)
learn to program thermostat
move piano
wire for sound
hang artwork in hallway (most of it has already been hung through the rest of the house, yay!)
stained glass in cabinet doors
permanent shelving in hall closet
repair dings in American Clay Plaster

A few things were removed from the list, and a couple were added. Please do not bring this list to the housewarming party to see what we're still behind on... :)

It's been 2 months. Geez.

2009-10-04T11:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took part in my 14th consecutive Pastels on the Plaza. My sponsor was Nancy Diamond, Attorney at Law. I've never heard of her, but it gave me the opportunity to draw whatever I wanted. I searched through my iPhoto library of recent pictures, and found one of Jane's koi pond in Redmond, WA from our vacation in August. It only took about 3 hours, (I was going for simplicity, since Andy was watching Ava and he had other things to do) but I think it turned out rather well.

Have you had enough adorableness yet?

2009-08-03T23:36:00.000-07:00

In mid-July we traveled to Fort Bragg and Mendocino for a friend's wedding. We had a great time. (Mama was even a bit hungover the next day, as it was her first time drinking since the end of nursing!)

Ava with Erin, the glowing bride. They're both so purdy!

The day after the wedding, we rode the Skunk Train with Heidi and Mike. Ava liked the train a lot, but the rocking was just too much for her and she took 2 naps. It was heaven. :)

Ava likes to party, too.

2009-08-03T23:28:00.000-07:00

That's Rowan at her and Tatum's birthday party, Ava stuffing a chocolate cupcake in her mouth at Rowan & Tatum's birthday party and Sylvia diving face first into her cupcake at her birthday. Yes, this was two first birthday parties on the same day! Madness!

Ava loves the water now...

2009-08-03T23:19:00.000-07:00

Some of these are a bit old... the two of Andy and Ava are from yesterday.

What gives?

2009-08-03T23:18:00.000-07:00

I don't like the way blogger/flicker are messing with the photo size... I'm going to keep trying...

Trying again, from flickr.

2009-08-03T23:15:00.000-07:00

Ava couldn't get enough of my measuring tape. Maybe she'll be a tailor when she grows up.

Ava ripping apart my peat pots.

2009-08-03T23:10:00.001-07:00

ava-pot-ripper
Originally uploaded by lynnerd707

I'm posting this directly from flickr just to see how it works. I'm not sure I like it yet... seems like you can only do 1 photo per post. Hmmm.

Ava eats dirt.

2009-08-03T22:44:00.000-07:00

Trying this a different way, still through flickr.

OMG, it's been a month.

2009-08-03T22:39:00.000-07:00

That's ridiculous and inexcusable. I have tons of photos to upload, and maybe not all of them will have captions. Sorry.

Here's that list of things that need to be done around the house, not in any particular order:
prime & paint main bath cabinet
finish putting up peg board in attic
build bench seat over bathroom fans in attic
arrange studio (get paper from Art & Ann's!)
hang kids' rooms closet rods, shelves & curtains
finish master bath tile
glass door for master bath shower
put desk in attic or orange room
paint pump house
pump cover
recycling bins
clean up chicken coop
carport
master bedroom window curtains
master bedroom door curtain
orange bedroom roman shade
clean up orange bedroom (currently holding many unpacked items)
dining room table
bar stools
entertainment center rearrange
plant bulbs by driveway entry
plant trees
learn to program thermostat
move piano
wire for sound
clerestory lights for living room
hang artwork
stained glass in cabinet doors
permanent shelving in hall closet
repair dings in American Clay Plaster

Yikes.

Happy 4th of July.

2009-07-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2009-06-27T08:29:00.000-07:00

See you on the other side...

Tell us about your grill!

2009-06-25T22:20:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-06-22T21:08:00.000-07:00

...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

2009-06-01T21:43:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-06-01T21:30:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-05-28T22:25:00.000-07:00

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. :)

So many things going on.

2009-05-28T21:50:00.000-07:00

On May 10th, I posted the following list of things left to do:
- Clean and dry concrete floors.
- Seal concrete floors.
- Install interior doors.
- Install baseboard and door trim.
- Coat all trim with polyurethane.
- Move in.

Since then, the gas & electric have been hooked up, the heat is on, the floor has been cleaned, dried and sealed. The interior doors and baseboard started going in on Wednesday. We are seriously in the homestretch. Looks like we'll be moving in the weekend of June 27th!

Now, if only I had enough time to sew quilt squares, create birthday and thank-you gifts for 5 people, finish the stained glass cabinet doors project, update the blogs, dye & sew curtains, stain and poly the shelves and desktop for the office nook, finish the tile in the bathroom, tile the kitchen backsplash, the master shower, entertainment center countertop and master bathroom vanity countertop, work 30-40 hours per week, care for a 13-month-old and maintain a relationship. Something's gotta give, and it sure as hell ain't gonna be one of the last 3 things I mentioned.

<< Deep breath. >>

We're moving all of my printing equipment into the garage on Saturday! Hooray! I'll be able to print again on my own press. I am really excited, and I hope this will be the smoothest press moving experience to date.

Here are some little random things that have happened lately:
Adam created the wrap for the front post. It has since been painted by Art. I like it, but it's not exactly what I had envisioned. I'll get used to it.

These are the pendant lights in the kitchen... 2 over the island and one over the sink. I'd love to show you what they look like when they're on, but that switch hasn't been wired in yet. Trust me, they look very different when illuminated. These were handblown by Mirador Glass just for us.

This light and the hall sconces were made for us by Old Town Antique Lighting. They look so good! More pics of these to come...

The floors are finished! They look pretty good, but unfortunately, there's evidence of some spills and dropped tools/wood/something in spots, but that seemed fairly unavoidable. I'm not upset about these--we're bound to add our own "character" to the floors sooner or later.

So, tomorrow the kitchen sink gets delivered and the guys clear out the garage. Saturday, we move in printing stuff. Sunday, the doors will get put on the kitchen/great room cabinets. Monday, the garage door should be installed. (We'll see about that... It's been weeks since they said it would be here.) There's something happening out at the house everyday now, and it's all good.

A nice day.

2009-05-18T22:30:00.000-07:00

It was a gorgeous day in Blue Lake, too bad we were at work in foggy Arcata. Here's Andy and Ava when we were there to pick her up from Grandma & Grandpa's. (Looks like the back yard could use a little landscaping help.)

This is the bar countertop. The buffet and long wall in the kitchen will have similar tops. Adam and Dustin made them from colored concrete. They placed torn paper into the molds before pouring the concrete to give it that ragged effect running down the length of the top. Unfortunately, the paper bubbled and swelled more than they expected, and it left the surface pretty lumpy. Adam says he has a way to fix it.

I haven't posted an exterior pic for awhile now because all the work has been happening on the inside, and there have been few, if any, changes to the outside. Over the last week, though, Art primed and now has begun to paint the outside of the house. I'm excited, I think it's going to look really good.

I think the garage door may be installed tomorrow and I'm planning on moving my print shop in over the last weekend in May. Exciting!

Adorable now, blackmail later.

2009-05-15T23:35:00.000-07:00

This is how Ava eats O's: shoved into her mouth by the fistful. Really, how do you get a 13-month old to take it easy? She eats like she'll never see food again.

Bathtime! We have successfully transitioned to baths without Mommy being in the tub, too. It's so much easier this way!

Ava's pants were off after a diaper change, so she decided to put them on her head. The first few times, she created a pretty good hat out of them, but then she saw that she was making us laugh and her technique got sloppy. Still cute though.

Photo dump.

2009-05-15T22:08:00.000-07:00

The location of the electric and gas meters in relation to the house.

The new electricity meter. How many people have seen that reading on their meters?

The hatch from the master closet to the attic. Even that's pretty.

The blue concrete floor in the master bath along with the blue concrete caps on the half wall and curb. You can see the slate tile resting against the half wall there. Those pieces are a little more rust-colored than the rest of the batch—I hope.

The kitchen is SO getting there! The appliances are out of their boxes, the floor is in except for the edging, and the cabinets are in except for the doors and drawer fronts.

Progress has been made on the tile in the main bathroom... Over three sessions so far, I have completed the two end walls. Getting around the plumbing wasn't that bad. Now it's time to tackle the big back wall and window.

Foreman Ava is back! I think I've passed the preliminary inspection for the tilework and I think she approves of the wood choices for the interior trim. (Which, by the way, got its first coats of polyurethane this week and looks KILLER! It smells awful in the house, but it was raining outside and the garage is too dirty. Oh well, it'll air out soon enough.)

We got gas.

2009-05-14T21:49:00.000-07:00

PG&E almost didn't hook up our gas line today because 2 drops of rain threatened to fall from the sky at the same time. But, they managed to struggle through the drizzle (if that) and connect us to the gas main. Tomorrow Alchemy comes back out to hook up the boiler to the gas line. Then we can start the floor-drying process. Very exciting!

Posts with pictures coming soon, I promise.

text message from Adam

2009-05-12T12:57:00.000-07:00

"We just cut the umbilicle [sic] cord. Your house is its own being."
May 12, 2009, 12:53 pm

Hooray! 40 Buckley Road now has its own power supply from PG&E and is no longer leeching off Art & Ann's house. This also means we can get a P.O. Box in Blue Lake since we'll have a power bill, thus proof of residency.

We're so close now, I can taste it!

more finishing work.

2009-05-10T21:37:00.001-07:00

All the interior painting is done. (With the exception of touching up some little accidents.) The electricians are putting cover plates, switches, outlets and light fixtures up. Cabinetry is going in. Things are moving right along, kind of... Here's the timeline, minus some unrelated things:
- Clean and dry concrete floors.
- Seal concrete floors.
- Install interior doors.
- Install baseboard and door trim.
- Coat all trim with polyurethane.
- Move in.

It seems like all of those things could be done in a timely fashion, but no. A few more interior things need to be finished before the floors are cleaned. Then the floors have to dry out for at least a week. But we can't dry the floors until the gas and electricity are hooked up and the radiant is running, which won't be until the end of this week. (Thanks, PG&E.) Then 2-3 coats of the sealer should take at least another week. Installing the interior doors shouldn't take that long, but coating all the woodwork in poly? That's going to take forever. We might as well find a way to dip the whole house in it. It seems like the easiest way.

And then there are things like me tiling at a snail's pace that are holding up the finish plumbing work... It's not hard, it's just time consuming. I started the subway tile in the main bath and got about 10 sq. ft. done in 3 hours. And that bathtub has 75 sq. ft. alone. Then there's the master shower, the entertainment center countertop and the kitchen backsplash. And somehow, we still are trying to move in within the month of June.

Here are the entertainment center cabinets. Base cabinets with doors and open bookshelves above.

There's the kitchen. Doors will go on all those cabinets. The fridge and stove are temporarily off to the left. Flooring for the kitchen has been delivered--it's Australian Cypress--and it's luscious.

Here's the master bath. The blue concrete shower pan has been poured, along with the caps for the curb and pony-wall.

In other news, the house is finally sealed up. Hopefully we won't be finding anymore mystery puddles or #2's in the middle of the house. HSU's softball team was knocked out of the playoffs, so no repeat National Championship this year. That will allow Art to get back to working on our house. I think he's all lined up to start on the exterior paint. Let's hope the weather stays nice.

trim and paint.

2009-04-26T22:03:00.000-07:00

Okay. Seriously. You may have thought that our house already looked good. But it's going to look ridiculously good, because finishing work is where these guys excel. I mean blow the competition away. These window and door trims are so gorgeous that I want to spend time with them. Eat from them. Use them as pillows. Okay, I exaggerate a little, but they are SOOOOO beautiful. And, they're not really even done yet.

The window trim is a little different from the door trim, but it's all out of the same wood, so it coordinates without being matchy-matchy. The window trim is kind of Adam's "signature trim" and I came up with the door trim after seeing one of Adam's idea sketches and changing it a bit.

The scaffolding was still up in our master bedroom, so I climbed up there to take this photo.

And here are the paint colors. Yes, paint colors! I was finally able to move past primer white and ceilings in cream. The orange (guest) room is done, but the bathroom and Ava's room still need another coat each.

This is Ava's room. It's a really cute, bright, girly blue. It doesn't look it here, but the ceiling is cream colored.

This is the other back bedroom. Kind of a pumpkin color... Andy doesn't really like it, but once the whole room comes together, he'll come around. Plus, how much time is he really going to be spending in the guest bedroom?

This is the main bathroom color. It's very similar to Ava's room color, but lighter with a touch more green-gray.

The adventures of the Ava-Bird!

2009-04-25T22:03:00.000-07:00

Since turning 1, Ava has decided she's a big girl. She took her first steps on Friday, April 17 at Cousin Ellen's house. Second Cousin Emily and her son Ben were visiting from Truckee, so we all had dinner together.
(Funny story: Andy and I were on vacation only a couple of weeks into my pregnancy with Ava when we visited Emily, Tim and Ben in Truckee. Emily asked us about our plans for having kids and we had to skirt the question carefully because it was way too soon to tell anyone were we expecting. She was pretty much the first person we had to "lie to" about it.)

Last week was spent bent over, holding Ava's hands, while she walked everywhere. The most steps she's taken in a row is still about 6, but it increases almost everyday. Of course, she wants to walk the most when she's tired, which causes her to fall over and hit things. It's a learning period, for sure. (The dress was a gift from Auntie Britt, thank you!!)

Ava visited me at work on Tuesday evening. (We wear Hawaiian shirts in Production to lighten the mood on our most hectic day of the week.) She had a great time, I think.

Today, we went to Owen's 6th birthday party! It was held at a gymnastics facility just around the corner from our house. Ava got to walk, crawl, climb, fall down and it was all good. Except when she was frightened by the rambunctious older kids...

...or got brain freeze from sticking a tennis ball-sized glob of ice cream in her mouth. Now that she tasted ice cream on her own birthday, she can't get enough of it. So, we don't eat it around her, we wait until she's asleep. :)

All in all, it was a great time.

Zeke, Owen's dad, took this one with his nice big camera. I like it a lot. Thanks for inviting us, Smiths!

So busy. So tired. So many things to blog about.

2009-04-25T21:40:00.000-07:00

Man, oh man. I am so behind. The last two weeks or so have flown by again, and I wish I had blogged more and taken more pictures.

It's crunch time for me at work - our busiest time of year, with the exception of Christmas - so I've been working a lot and not been able to visit the house and work on it much. Here's an abridged list of what has gone on recently:

- The plaster is done. Thank goodness! It really does look good, though.
- The ceiling is complete and it looks really nice. (Pics below.)
- Painting in the bathrooms and kid/guest bedrooms continues.
- Trim is being put up around the interior windows.
- Interior doors have been ordered.
- Cabinets have been ordered and the boxes may arrive sometime this coming week.
- Appliances have been delivered and await cabinets for installation.
- We found a set of 2 teak chairs and matching table at an estate sale and ate our first meal out on our deck last Wednesday night. It was heaven until the fog rolled in and nearly froze us.
- Tile has been ordered for the two bathrooms. Some serious design changes have happened there due to budget constraints, but it'll still look good.
- Exterior paint has been purchased and Art will start on that soon, if he hasn't already.

I'm sure there are other things to tell, but I just can't think of them at the moment. Here are those pics:

Ava's still on the job and should be walking around on her own, barking orders, before too long.

This is the ceiling in the dormer window in the living room. We are so thankful for Art and all the work he puts in around our house, even when he may not agree with our choices. :)

This is the ceiling in the master bedroom. It's going to be such a calming and cozy space, I can't wait to wake up on our first morning in that house, in that room, knowing that we're in our "forever house." (Let's attribute that quote to Mike D. Thanks!)

Last week's progress.

2009-04-13T20:59:00.000-07:00

I took last week off work so I could work on the house. Thank goodness the guys were able to get stuff done, because all I did was prime. Regular primer, then sanded primer. Ugh. All prep so the guys could put on the American Clay Plaster.
This is what the walls looked like after a coat of regular primer and sanded primer.

Adam, Aaron and Andy are doing all the plastering. Here's what that entails:
- 1 coat of regular primer.
- 1 coat of sanded primer.
- Scratching off the loose sand.
- Applying the first coat of clay plaster with a trowel.
- Scratching off the loose plaster.
- Applying the second coat of clay plaster with a trowel.
- Spraying down the walls with water and burnishing the plaster with a clean trowel.
This is turning out to be a crazy labor intensive process. They really like the way it looks, so they seem to be happy doing it, but it's driving me crazier. There's just so much of it, it feels like it's holding up progress on the rest of the house. It would have been a fine DIY project for a smallish room with 8' ceilings, but we're doing it in the master bedroom, closet, main hallway and great room/kitchen. The biggest spaces in those areas have vaulted ceilings close to 16' at the ridge.

This is in the master closet. The weather on Monday, when we were all working outside was HOT! It got up to 85, which I certainly wasn't prepared for. The rest of the week was crap; overcast, raining and cold. We set up a kerosene heater in the house to help dry the plaster. We are waiting to have the boiler, electricity and gas hooked up, so it was pretty cold in the house as we worked last week.

Well, I guess I did accomplish more than just priming... On Monday I finished up my rock post. Once Bob was in town on Friday, he helped me finish priming and we moved on to colored paint; cream colored paint. Maybe tomorrow or Thursday I'll actually be able to put some teal, orange and mint colors on the walls. (Those are really basic names for the colors I've chosen; they actually look a lot better than they sound. Somehow, Sprout 01, Petal 01 and Water 01 aren't very descriptive.)

I'm headed out there right now to drop off Ava with Grandma and take pictures of the plaster at a more completed state. :)

Ava is ONE YEAR OLD!

2009-04-13T20:32:00.000-07:00

This year has passed by so quickly! I imagine it goes just as fast for first-time parents who don't have a million and one other things going on, but it seemed like Ava and everything else kept us so busy that we didn't realize how fast it actually was speeding by. (I also imagine I'll say something like this every year around Ava's birthday... OMG, she's 14! Where does the time go?!)

This is her latest funny face. She squishes it up like a pirate and squirms from left to right. It's hilarious. She also eats anything, but especially wants what's on our plates. She's got Grandpa's mashed potatoes here.

Here's the three of us after she finished her first cake and ice cream. She loved the chocolate cupcake and vanilla ice cream. We're going to have to make sure we eat our dessert after she goes to bed from now on...

A tree on Art & Ann's property died recently, so they thought it would be nice to replace it with a tree for Ava. We (Art, Ann, Barb, Bob, Ava & I) planted this morning in our backyard by the other apple trees. I really hope it survives. I had kept the placenta from Ava's birth until now, and we put it in the hole just before putting the tree in. I hope it nourishes the tree as well as it nourished our girl.

Two things of note.

2009-04-08T22:02:00.000-07:00

1) I've missed the last 3 weeks of LOST. I have some serious catching up to do, but I'm way too tired to stay up and watch old episodes on the computer.

2) Andy and I just had a conversation that wasn't about babies or houses. Incredible! We discussed the difference between mono and stereo recordings. It was riveting.

The Internet: the refrigerator of the 21st century.

2009-04-06T21:11:00.000-07:00

Every parent puts their kids' stuff on the refrigerator so that everyone can see it. Apparently, I'm not putting photos of Adam, our contractor's work on the Internet often enough for his Dad. Hi, Craig! This one's especially for you. :)

So much has happened lately! Siding is done, Ava's still making sure everyone stays in line, exterior details are beautiful, insulation has been put or sprayed in, the deck has been built, trenchs have been dug and filled, then more have been dug, the water tank is finally set up, along with a hydrant and the drywall is just hours away from being finished.

I have several projects of my own going on... in addition to the usual quilting/sewing/crocheting/etc. I'm working on replacing the pieces of colored glass in some old stained glass windows that I bought years ago. They'll be put into the buffet cabinet doors when I'm done. They came in broken wooden frames, and I popped them out of those by painstakingly chipping out the old putty. I broke one pane. :( Then, I desoldered the joints around the outer lead so the glass panes are exposed around the perimeter. The next step is removing more crusty putty and desoldering more joints to release the areas with color. Don't know when I'm going to get to that.

I am on "vacation" this week. Ha. I'm not at my regular job this week, I'm working on the house. Don't get me wrong, it's fun, but I am soooo tired. It's very different from the usual sitting-on-my-butt-in-front-of-a-computer-for-8-hours tired. Last Wednesday, Saturday and today I worked on surrounding the post at the entry of the house with rocks from the creek. Today I got to work on it without having a squirmy 22+ lb. baby on my back. That was nice. In the pics, make sure to check out the beautiful work Dustin did, carefully scribing around the contour of the rocks and fitting the deck around them. So pretty. This house is turning out so well thanks to Adam, Dustin and Aaron; it makes me want to cry. But that's not my style, so I won't.

Speaking of the squirmy baby; she'll be ONE YEAR OLD on Sunday!!! Amazing! It's really flown by. I need sleep, so I'll post the pics and be off to bed. Good night!

Craft it forward.

2009-03-28T20:01:00.000-07:00

I first heard about this on Facebook, but then a friend had this in her blog, which makes it seem more official somehow. :) This is how it works: the first 3 people who comment on this post receive something handmade by me. The only catches are: you must be able to "pay it forward" yourself (i.e., have a blog, post the image and continue the giving) and I'll need your mailing address so I can mail you the whatever-it-is.

Here's a link to my crafty blog, just in case you were worried I might send you a total piece of junk: lynnerdhandmade.blogspot.com I think I make pretty good stuff.

Good luck!

The Baby Animal Exchange.

2009-03-23T04:38:00.000-07:00

This idea got its start more than a year ago. It seems that the young transients in Arcata always have puppies, not full-grown dogs. I figured they must need puppies so that they have the cuteness factor when they panhandle, because the young Arcata transient usually isn't all that cute on his/her own. So, there must be a puppy exchange somewhere... like an animal shelter, but they take the older dogs back when they've outgrown the adorable stage and give the dirty, penniless 20-something a new puppy.

Now, I like puppies as much (no, maybe more) than the next person, but I'm more than happy to have an adult dog, too. There are a few animals that I would love to have as babies, but I'm not so sure about owning an adult one. The Exchange started as The Baby Cow Exchange, but then we realized that there were others that should be included. Example: I would LOVE to have a calf, but what do you do with a full-grown cow? It's not quite as cute as it once was, but I'm certainly not going to sell it for meat. (I couldn't do that to a friend.) So, what do you do? You exchange it for a new calf. Since The Baby Cow Exchange was dreamed up, we've also added pigs, sheep, horses and a whole fleet of specialty non-domesticated animals. We're open to suggestion. Granted, there are a whole lot of details that need to be worked out, so this remains a fantasy of ours.

Goats, dogs, cats and chickens fall into the category of not needing to be exchanged. Look for them on the Jones acre in the future. In the meantime, we'll just have to talk to our friendly neighbor cow, who now has a buddy: a goat! They really like each other and were playing in the yard when we visited on Friday.

Yesterday, Andy and I drove up to Crescent City to order our cabinets and pick up the insulation for the house. We had some time to kill, so we drove around for a bit. The weather on the way up was 2 minutes of rain, 3 minutes of fog, 5 minutes of clear, 30 seconds of hail, etc. all the way there. In the afternoon, though, it was gorgeous. This photo was taken from Point St. George, looking north toward Oregon. This photo doesn't really show it, but it was SUPER windy and pretty cold.

Yay Spring!

2009-03-19T23:00:00.000-07:00

We have just had the two nicest days ever, weather-wise. Adam said it was beyond gorgeous all day out in Blue Lake today. He said they were even seeking out shady spots to work in, it was so warm. Well, I was in Arcata all day, where it was nice for Arcata. (Which means sunny, but not really all that warm.) He's right, it's going to be nice to live a little bit inland.

Andy spotted this field with lambies in it yesterday and I had to go check them out. I had to do my "baby animal squeal" on the inside since Ava was asleep in the back seat.

Here's the house as of this morning... They're siding like crazy and it looks SOOOO good! We still haven't decided what colors to paint it. Good thing we have all summer to do that.

A wider shot gives a better feel for the Craftsman feel of the house. Seeing shingles on there instead of Tyvek house wrap makes a big difference!

I made plans to take some time off work so I can do some of the plastering, painting and tile work myself. (That'll be April 4-10 for anyone who wants to help. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.)

Other than exterior colors...

2009-03-15T22:35:00.000-07:00

... the house is progressing quite nicely. Every time we see Adam, we have the tendency to talk his ear off about the house. It's easy to; there are just so many decisions that need to be made. Even though I thought that I had finalized everything, more things pop up everyday. Here are some of the latest things that needed our input:

Here's the house as of March 12, 2009.

Here's a closeup shot of the corbels we settled on. (I LOVE THEM!) Adam and crew put up a typical bracket, and decided they didn't look quite right, so they suggested just horizontal posts without the diagonal and Adam gave us a few houses in Eureka to look at for examples. As we drove around town to look at the ones he had mentioned, I wasn't totally sold. However, when I saw the ones they made for our house the next morning, I was blown away. These are so much nicer than any of the ones we saw in Eureka. (I don't know if Adam, Dustin or Aaron came up with the design for ours, so I'll give credit to all of them until I find out.)

They started putting up the HardiePlank siding material, and actually finished the north wall complete with corbels on Friday. I haven't been out to see it yet, but I'll make sure I get out there tomorrow morning.

My girlfriends and I have formed a quilting group... The guys are pretty good at patchwork, maybe they should join! (This is a very thin plywood covering and protecting our floors from falling tools, plaster, paint, etc.)

Ava needs our input constantly! This picture was taken on her 11-month birthday. It has all gone so fast! The plumbers are done with the rough-ins, the electricians are getting there, the county inspector (grumble, grumble) is expected soon, then the guys can put in insulation and the drywall contractor can come. Andy took a class on American Clay Plaster this weekend, so we're planning on doing that rather than having the drywaller plaster and then we'd paint over that. Anyway, that's another story for another post. We're going to be in this house before we know it!

...all through the town.

2009-03-15T17:57:00.000-07:00

The wheels on our car went round and round earlier today as we drove up and down the streets of Eureka looking at house colors and taking pictures. Ava slept through most of the outing, luckily. If the sun is shining in some of these pics, it's because they were taken at an earlier date. It rained most of the day today, but that means we didn't have the bright sun and dark shadows to contend with while taking the pictures... just raindrops. Here are the highlights. We'll be messing around in Photoshop to play with these colors on our house before we settle on anything.

I love the Japanese Maple in this front yard.

I think some really cool people must live in this cute house. :)

It's hard to tell from this picture, but the trim on this house is really a very muted purple.

We both really liked this one... We'll have to see how it looks on our house.

I'm not so sure about this one, but Andy liked it. We've decided that many of the color combinations we saw in town wouldn't work on our house, which is more our in the open.

I've liked this house for a long time, but always found it funny that the chimney doesn't continue past the roof.

Adam had us drive by this one the other night to look at its corbels (the faux beam extensions that are a Craftsman style hallmark.) Turned out the colors were pretty nice, too.

Thanks, Valerie!

2009-03-06T21:41:00.000-08:00

Ava is watched by Valerie two days of the week. Valerie has her own little girl, Sylvia, who is 2 months younger than Ava. Those two get along like peanut butter and jelly. Valerie took these pictures recently and shared them with me. I just have to share them with the world. The world could use a smile about now.

Today's house news. (Really. Too tired to think of a better title.)

2009-03-06T21:20:00.000-08:00

Here's the house. The roof is complete except for that south side of the garage. We were planning on plumbing for solar hot water and solar panels in the future, but now it looks as if just the plumbing will be too expensive.

The guys built the exterior window trim in the comfort of their shop at home, then installed them today. I like them a lot. The notches mimic the notches in the headers on the dormers and the rafter tails. (We're apparently still fighting the county on having to enclose the eaves, but that's a story I don't want to get into.)

This is the backside of the house, this time with window trim, roof and skylights installed. The house is dry inside! That means that the guys laid down a layer of protection over the floor, and the subcontractors can come in on Monday. That'll be electrical and the spray foam insulation for the ceilings. Once that's done, the drywall can be put up. Exterior siding was ordered today and should arrive sometime next week. Things are really cooking now!

This is the garage/laundry room/my future printing studio. We'd like to build a carport on the side of the garage so that both cars and my printing equipment have dry places to live.

Spring is springing! That's Art & Ann's house in the background.

I'm pretty sure our neighbor will be happy to see some warmer weather.

slacking a little

2009-02-27T20:55:00.000-08:00

Me, with posting, not the guys on the house. They're still tearing right along. We're expecting up to 6" of rain by Monday, and it won't stop through the better part of next week. Today the roofers came out and put the metal roofs on the dormers. They also stacked the shingles on the ridge, but have to wait to install them. The *lovely* county has to set a precedence with our project on roof venting. If I wasn't ready to go postal on them before...

A small four-legged friend left us a present the other night. Before the windows and doors were installed, it just walked right in and took a dump in our living room. Thank goodness it was on a piece of scrap plywood — it might have stained the concrete floor. My boss seems to think it was a fox. She says raccoons and others will poop anywhere, but foxes like to poop on things. Good to know. :)

The rough plumbing is done and the bathtub in the main bathroom has been installed.

Hey, Mom! Those are 2 of your windows being put to good use! (The bay window in our master bedroom and the large window in the attic, above the two little bathroom windows.)

The master bedroom windows from the inside.

The living room windows (and Adam on the phone) from the inside.

Here's the house as it stood on Thursday (2/26/09) morning. So exciting!!!

pics from Andy's cell phone.

2009-02-27T20:31:00.000-08:00

Some of these date back to November 2007. Yikes!

preparing for foul weather

2009-02-20T20:09:00.001-08:00

This is the house yesterday evening... They finished covering the roof with plywood and cut the window and skylight holes out.

All these pictures of the front of the house and none of the back. Well, the rear is neglected no more. There are two beautiful apple trees inside the fence, lots of big trees and a year-round creek beyond the fence.

Andy climbed up the wall studs to get into the attic and get a feel for how big our storage/hobby space is going to be up there. As you can see, Andy's nearly 6' tall and having no problem standing up straight. (I'm so excited to have a crafting attic! Though it won't look anything like Martha Stewart's...)

Ann watched Ava while I took some photos. Ava didn't like the cold concrete floor too much, but we told her it would be warm once we move in and she found a piece of wood to put in her mouth, so she decided it would do for now.

Here's the house as of this evening. We're expecting close to a week of rain, so the guys got this roof liner stuff. Hopefully the roof won't be soggy when the roofers come out to put on the shingles and metal roofing.

2009-02-18T20:18:00.000-08:00

This is how the house looked this morning.

It was cold out there!

The grass seed that I spread has begun to sprout. (It took longer than I thought, but it's all good.)

Hopefully, this is the last time we have standing water in our living room. I just couldn't pass up taking a picture of the reflection. It was such a nice, bright morning.

Here's the house as they wrapped up work on it today. The windows in the dormers are covered over with plywood at the moment, but they'll get cut out soon.

Ava and friends.

2009-02-17T21:37:00.000-08:00

Ava amazes us everyday. When she is in a good mood, which is often, she's just a perfect little angel and we can't smile and laugh with her enough. Here are some of the most recent happenings.

She pulled herself up to standing in her pack 'n' play on Feb. 11. This photo was literally the first time she did it, and she's just standing there, holding on with one hand like she's always been able to stand.

Andy's former contact at Chicago Public Radio, now current co-worker at StreamGuys, came out to visit. We had Shiow over for dinner and she and Ava got on famously.

Andy thinks Ava is the "Jimi Hendrix of the kiddie keyboard." She's playing it with her mouth.

On the morning of Valentine's Day, we went to the Humboldt Poultry Fanciers' Winter Show. She seemed to appreciate all the birds (except the crazy loud geese) as long as she didn't have to touch them, as seen here.

In the evening on Valentine's Day, we attended the first birthday party of Ava's buddy, Susannah. She's just about to dig into the cute frog cupcake that her mom, Kathryn, made.

Our friends April and Larry came to visit last weekend, too. This is Ava and April at Susannah's party. It was great to see them, even if it was a short visit--this was the first time they met Ava and Susannah!

After Susannah's party, we relocated to Kristen & Shawn's for Zeke's surprise birthday party, complete with poetry slam. There's video of one of the performances, but we'll let Zeke post that.

I don't know what we have planned for this weekend, but it had better include several naps for all 3 of us. Seriously.

The rain is back.

2009-02-17T21:13:00.000-08:00

It feels like not a whole lot has happened with the house since my last post, but I know that's not the case. Stuff has been done in between rainstorms, hurt backs and crew members being out of town, so progress has been a little slower for the last two weeks. That's okay though, the guys really kicked ass while the weather was good. So here are some not-totally-recent photos... I'll try to take some more when I'm out there tomorrow morning.

That's Dustin under the hat, cutting rafters for Adam and Aaron who are putting them up over the garage.

This is the house as it looked on Feb. 4, 2009.

Adam suggested a notched detail for the rafter tails and the headers over the dormers. He's chiseling out the extra wood in one of the headers here.

This is the house with all of the raftertails sistered on. Originally, we had planned to have the rafters create the eaves, but they ended up being too short. So, Adam contacted the various authorities to see what our options were, and of course, each agency had a different story. Luckily, it came down to the fire marshal, and he gave us the answer we wanted: a 4"x6" sistered on to every other rafter and fire-rated plywood over the overhangs. That's instead of sistering on 2"x12" rafters on every rafter and enclosing it all with Hardisoffit, which would have been more expensive, laborious and ugly.

Here's a closer pic of the notched rafter tails and headers.

Super.

2009-02-01T22:15:00.000-08:00

We were hoping for a different outcome, but oh well. The Cardinals were doing fine while Ava was wearing her dress with cardinals on it, but it impeded her crawling so it had to go.

Who needs football? We have the entertainment taken care of.

moving right along.

2009-02-01T21:34:00.001-08:00

I'm going to try to keep all of these captions short and let the photos speak for themselves. (Not that the photos are all that spectacular, I'm just incredibly tired.) Things are "zooming right along," as my dad used to say. It's amazing to watch the frame of the house go up so quickly after waiting so long to get to this point. Here's what's happened since the last post:

Looking at the front door from the driveway.

Looking from the great room toward the hallway leading to bedrooms and bathrooms.

From the living room through the kitchen wall to the back yard.

From the kitchen through the living room to the front yard.

Adam and Dustin putting up joists. They are working so hard out there—taking full advantage of the non-rainy weather.

Andy and Ava standing in the hole where the big sliding door will go.

Andy and Ava standing in the kitchen area.

A ridge beam with rafters attached. Andy asked if we really have to put a roof on... or if we could have a convertible roof for days like today. (It was really nice out there today, especially considering it is Feb. 1.)

This is looking toward the hallway from the great room again. The great room ceilings will be vaulted to match the rafters seen in the photo, as will the bedrooms. The only flat-ceiling rooms will be closets, bathrooms and the hallway. This leaves a nice big attic space for storage and crafting. :)

Faithful BLB readers may notice I've been taking photos from this angle every so often. I wanted to have one set reference point so I could really track the process of construction. I wish I had taken the photos at regular time intervals as well, oops.

Ava approves.

OMG! It's really going to be a house!

2009-01-23T19:49:00.000-08:00

Keep in mind, this has all happened since last Friday. We've had a lucky streak of gorgeous weather, and our contractors pulled together and really kicked ass!

By the end of last week, the foundation was filled in and the PEX tubing was laid.

The PEX tubing will carry warm water and heat the whole house and garage through the floor. The garage won't actually house cars for awhile... it will hold my printing equipment, so it will be nice to have a warm, dry place to print.

On Monday, Alchemy had the brown concrete pumped in over the PEX. They finished it to a nice smooth surface. (Thanks, Amy, for these brown concrete pics! I'm charging my camera battery more often now.)

That afternoon, they topped it with a cure mat and finished up the foundation in the garage.

Here's a closeup of the concrete color. Of course, it will look different on your computer monitor than it does in real life, but it gives you an idea. I think it looks like chocolate pudding.

On Wednesday morning, the regular old gray concrete floor was poured in the garage. I apologize for not getting Art, Eric and Mike's best sides, but they were hard at work and I didn't want to bother them anymore than I had to.

We put our hands in the concrete in the corner of the garage. Andy went first...

Then it was Ava's turn. She wouldn't flatten out her hand, so she left a paw print in the concrete. It's still pretty darn cute. (Thanks, Steve, for taking these photos while we wrestled the baby!)

I'd SO rather have my picture taken than touch this cold goopy stuff! Cheese!

I went last. It was fun, and it really gave me a sense of ownership. (That, and one of the guys called me "Boss" as I walked out there last week.)

The final prints. Set in stone. Yikes!

Dustin is happy to be working on the job site again...

...and so is Koa! Thursday, lumber was delivered and Adam and Dustin framed the south wall.

Today Adam and Dustin continued to frame, and as far as I could tell, they got the rest of the perimeter walls put up.

It's amazing how the feeling of the house has changed from stage to stage. When it was just a slab, it felt small. When the PEX was laid out, the wall layout had been spray painted on the floor and the house felt small. Now the real floor is in, some of the walls are up with doors and windows roughed in, and it feels bigger and livable. It's really going to start looking like our house soon! :)

9-month check-in.

2009-01-19T21:10:00.000-08:00

That's right. Ava is a whopping 9 months old. It's hard to believe that she's already spent more time outside breathing air than she spent inside me. The pregnancy seemed to go so slowly, but infancy has just blown by.

She's still a bit big for her age, but her growth is starting slow a bit, as babies do around this age. We bought a bigger car seat and we'll probably have to switch to it soon. Ava hasn't yet pulled herself up to sitting in her co-sleeper, though there's nothing stopping her. She can do it on the floor rather easily. So, we're shopping around for a crib. Next week I go back to work 4 days a week, so we're also looking for a Thursday-Friday care provider. It is not an easy process. There are lots of things going on these days.

In the two weeks following Christmas, Ava figured out how to:
- wave (at everything and everyone)
- clap (often after waving because she's so proud of herself for waving)
- play peekaboo (she holds the blanket up and down in front of her own face)
- pick up and eat solid food (with fingers, not utensils)
- notice her shadow
- crawl! (truly, on all fours, and she gets faster everyday)
- say lots of fun babbly things (dat, dot, dis, ath, ma, da, ba, ga, na and more)
- trill her R's (see video for clarification, it's hilarious)

PROGRESS!

2009-01-14T18:38:00.000-08:00

Ava's been on the job site again, this time, she made sure Alchemy was doing everything according to her liking. They're doing the foundation, radiant heat and colored concrete floor.

As you can see, the weather was still nasty when they poured the concrete for the stem wall. (That's the perimeter of the foundation.)

I spread grass seed and then Art and I sprinkled straw over the whole front yard area. Erosion control. Silly, since the lot is almost flat, but it's what the county requires...

The concrete set overnight, and they pulled the forms off and began to fill in the foundation with various sizes of gravel.

Then they covered that gravel with plastic sheeting, and the plastic got covered with sand.

They used two little Bobcat tractors to help backfill and infill. After the sand, a layer of rigid foam insulation went on, then rebar, then they'll attach the PEX tubing to the rebar. The PEX tubing is where the warm water will flow to heat the house. Then Monday they'll pour brown colored concrete on top and finish it until it's nice and smooth ,and that will be the finished floor surface inside the house. All I have to say is, "hallelujah, the weather has been so nice all week and should be good enough to finish the foundation off on Monday!"

Ava and Art are pretty happy about it, too.

Ava and dogs.

2009-01-14T18:15:00.000-08:00

My friend Kerri's dog, Sofie Lou, is a sweetheart, but she's not sure what to make of Ava.

Kerri and I went shopping and found this adorable and super friendly Italian Greyhound in a little clothing boutique.

This Boston Terrier puppy wanted to nibble on Ava's toes. I'm sure Ava would have nibbled on the puppy's toes if it had stayed still long enough.

Oh, and Ava likes cats, too. Likes to grab them and yank on their fur. So they usually don't stick around for pictures.

Selected Christmas photos.

2009-01-14T17:55:00.000-08:00

This is going to have to be a "mostly pics post" because there are lots of photos, not much time to write captions, and my fingers are too cold to type! For lots of Christmas pics, visit our Flickr site.

This is just before my mom and brother ended their Christmas visit with us. (The restaurant was out of high chairs.) We were all really glad they came up for the holiday and glad Cal won their bowl game.

My good friend, Wendy, lives in Germany. She sent these adorable tights and the cutest hat over for Ava. Thanks, Wenner!

Art got a kick out of Ava enjoying the wrapping paper more than the gift. :)

Ava and Aunt Sheri finally met!

Getting up to speed.

2008-12-29T21:43:00.000-08:00

Ann says it's rained more than 16 inches since we started construction. That, paired with difficulties with bank draws and the holidays, have made for not much progress on the job site. Here's a photo of what we've got so far:

That picture was taken a week ago, and it looks the same today. You may notice it's a little blurry... I took it from inside the car. What?! It's cold and wet here! (Andy did buy me a pair of work galoshes for Christmas so I can get out there and help build the house in my free time. Ha! Free time! That's funny.) So yeah, those are forms, and they're ready to pour the exterior wall of the foundation when it stops raining for enough days in a row.

Speaking of Christmas, we had a good one, and we hope anyone reading this did as well. I've used up my quota on our flickr site this month, so there will be Christmas photos coming in 2009. (That makes it sound so far off... maybe it's just me. I am still dating checks 2007.) And, right on time as usual, I have our "New Year cards" ready to go out, just need to get around to doing it. Too many things to do, not enough time. It's going to be rough when I go back to work full time. (Nothing's for certain yet, but it will happen sometime in 2009.)

the latest.

2008-12-08T23:13:00.000-08:00

There are more adorable photos of me on my flickr site.

We are now a two-car family. We bought this '03 Toyota Rav4 from a nice guy here in Eureka. It was a deal!

This is the best built pump house ever. We know this is an indication of building to come, and we are thrilled for what this means for the rest of our house. We're meeting with a couple of the subcontractors tomorrow to discuss things. We anticipate them starting the septic system tomorrow, too.

I went walking with my co-worker, Heidi, last week and captured this with my cell phone. Now imagine it looking 1,000 times more awesome in real life. We walked a few yards further and a flock of little shorebirds flew right at us, split around us and then reconvened just past us. It was so cool to hear them chirping and flapping their wings as they realized we were standing there in their path.

Ground has been broken!

2008-11-19T23:41:00.001-08:00

Nothing says "construction zone" like orange fencing. (Hooray! We have a construction zone!)

The full length of our driveway was scraped and covered with gravel on Monday, Nov. 17, 2008.

This is the end of the driveway, and the dirt rectangle is where the house will go.

On Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008 Adam and Dustin (our general contractors) built the concrete forms for our pump house/tool shed. The first concrete on the job site was poured on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008.

Ava, the foreman on the job, makes sure they're completing the work properly.

Looks good to me...

Adam's dog, Koa, and the cow next door decide that good fences really do make good neighbors.

More to come as progress is made!

7 months.

2008-11-19T23:36:00.001-08:00

It's hard to believe, but Ava is already 7 months old. The other photos are me at six months and Andy at 9.5 months. What a bunch of cute kids.

Halloween 2008.

2008-10-31T22:24:00.000-07:00

October 31, 2008. Halloween. A good day to sign your life away to the bank? We hope so.

We did it. We now have a mortgage. We went to the bank with our adorable ladybug and signed all the papers. We'll start construction as soon as it stops raining... there's supposed to be a break in the weather sometime next week. Forgive me for not being more excited, but I'm actually terrified. With all of the awful things that are happening with the economy right now, I can't help but worry.

Halloween evening, we went trick-or-treating on the Plaza. We didn't collect any candy because we already had too much at home. We dressed Ava as Flava Flav from Public Enemy, and we were two S1Ws, lesser-known members of the same 80s rap group. Not many people got our costumes, but that's okay. We got plenty of looks anyway. Here are our inspiration photos:

We had a good time showing off "Ava Flav." There are more photos of us and some of our friends on our flickr site. (Click the animated rectangle on the right.)

100th percentile for cuteness.

2008-10-30T15:14:00.000-07:00

This morning was Ava's 6-1/2 month well baby checkup. Excuse me, she feels like typing... I must oblige or feel her wrath:
qwzlhh,m nyh v a MNJK KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKJZKESIU87 JMHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRYRDF C B.

Okay that's enough.

She's over the 100th percentile foe height, at the 100th percentile for head circumference and 90th for weight. She's a big girl for her age, but since it's all proportional, she's all good.

As far as percentiles go, I've had it explained to me like this. Someone took a random sampling of 100 female babies every month for X months. They made graphs of the height, weight and head circumference data. 0 was the smallest baby, 100 was the largest. So, in the case of height, Ava would be taller than all 100 other 6-month-old baby girls.

We're glad she's healthy. Period.

Saying goodbye.

2008-10-24T10:54:00.000-07:00

Just thinking about what I'm going to say is causing me to tear up and see things all blurry. Ugh. My dad passed away on October 14, 2008. It was much more sudden than any of us expected. We all knew he had been sick for about six months, but the final decline only took a day or two.

Vasculitis is a chronic condition, and he was going to battle flare-ups for the rest of his life. On his third flare-up battle, he got a massive infection and it basically shut everything down. He was in bad shape at the very end and we made it to his bedside just in time to shut off the life support machines. It was awful to see him in that condition—the ventilator artificially pumping his lungs full of air—it was just his body at that point, not my dad.

I think I get most upset when I think of all the things that he won't get to do with Ava. He was never comfortable around her as a baby—during their visit in July we had to force him to sit down and hold her. Make no mistake, he thought she was an angel, I think he was just nervous about hurting her or not keeping her content. As I look back on my relationship with my dad, it was the years between toddler and kindergarten that I remember most fondly. We would roughhouse and sing songs and laugh a lot. I was beyond the fragile baby stage and too young for school, maybe things were just so much more innocent at that stage. After that though, Dad worked a lot. It seemed like he was only there for us financially; family vacations consisted of Mom, me and Bob, and usually included a soccer tournament. Anyway, I'm not upset about my own relationship with him... it's that Ava is turning into a little person, and my dad is missing it.

Just a quickie

2008-10-13T06:55:00.000-07:00

Ava's second tooth popped through on Saturday.
Her 6 month birthday was yesterday and we celebrated by driving 1.75 hours each way to our nearest Home Depot to price stuff for our house.
My dad is doing worse, so we might be headed down to the Bay Area later this week.

Happy Monday!

The ramblings of an insomniac.

2008-10-11T04:16:00.000-07:00

Ava is cutting her second tooth. It made the hours at home pretty interesting yesterday. She always seems to behave better when we're out; I think it's because she gets distracted by all the new things happening around her. At home, she just gets bored with me and her toys. Two days ago, my back pain started again, the same back pain that put me out of commission and started early labor a month before Ava was born. It's a bit better now, but it is still difficult to lug around a 17-pound teething 6-month old. (Yes! She'll be 6 months old on Sunday!!!)

My dad is back in the hospital again. This is the third time since Ava was born. They say he's got vasculitis, but he's not responding to the typical vasculitis treatment: chemo. (Vasculitis is not a cancer, but chemo is the recommended treatment.) Apparently it's a chronic condition and he'll have to deal with flare-ups until it eventually gets him. It has now caused a pulmonary embolism--a blood clot in the lung--which could move and cause stroke, heart attack, etc. They have put him on blood thinners and expect to do some kind of surgery in a few days. I don't watch the show "House," but I feel like my dad's case may be perfect for an episode plot.

We got the appraisal for our project back earlier this week... it came back $35,000 to $100,000 less than we thought it might appraise for. It just figures that our construction project would be appraised on the worst financial week since the Great Depression. Anyway, we found a way of scraping $30,000 of stuff from our construction costs, and that may make things a bit better. Still, our monthly payments may be too high and the bank may decide to not give us anything. If we wait until Spring to start this, could things be worse? If they do get better, could they be significantly better or will we have wasted another 6 months? It's such a game and I'm really tired of playing it.

I'm really tired in general, but I can't sleep. My back hurts, my allergies are giving me problems, I can't stop thinking about my dad, SIDS, illegal street races, the dumb song playing over and over in my head, PG&E bills, our house, the cardigan I'm crocheting for Ava and 37 other craft projects in the works... I could go on...

First tooth!

2008-09-19T07:58:00.001-07:00

At 5 months and 6 days old, Ava has cut her first tooth. It's the bottom front left one, and it came in without too much of a problem. We dealt with daily fussiness and discomfort with her gas, and this tooth hasn't been much worse than that.

Well, we're on our way out the door... Headed down to the Bay Area again for another wedding. I'll have more to post when we get back, I'm sure.
:)

a fresh new look

2008-09-12T20:31:00.000-07:00

This is my new haircut. Andy says it reminds him of my hair when we first started dating.

You may notice the blog has a new look, too. I felt that the old look was hard to read and it was difficult to tell when one post ended and the next began. I hope it doesn't throw you off too much. :)

We applied for our loan yesterday. (sob sob)

2008-09-12T19:58:00.001-07:00

If we had been able to build this house 2 years ago, it probably would have cost $100,000 less. Since we started the whole process, materials costs have gone way up and property values have dropped; not a good combination when building a house.

As the bank lady was looking through all of our numbers, she didn't have a really positive look on her face. I knew that the number that we gave her for the estimated cost of building the house was higher than we expected (much higher, in fact) but she said she'd have the people upstairs look at it and see if they'd recommend it for approval. Thank goodness we have "premium" credit scores and hardly any debt... if we had any debt besides the home loan, we'd be over the 55% debt to income ratio, and they wouldn't approve the loan. Then we'd really be back at square one.

As it is, we're looking at areas to cut back our estimated construction costs. We can't really cut back the major costs, such as all the work for the foundation, septic and water systems and I'm not willing to sacrifice the radiant heating system. It looks like we'll have to tighten our belts in places like cabinetry, tile, trim and appliances.

We'll figure it out even if we have to live in an unpainted (but warm and dry) shell of a house for awhile.

On turning 30...

2008-09-11T18:17:00.000-07:00

About 2 years ago, it seemed to me that just about every milestone birthday had some traditional event that went with it:
16= sweet sixteen party
18= buy yourself a lottery ticket
21= go out drinking
25= rent a car without paying extra fees
...but 30 was totally lacking. I figure that's mostly due to the fact that by the time most people turn 30 they are married with kids and partying is kind of out of the question. Last week I thought about how different my 30th birthday celebration was going to be from some of my other friends. They had adult dinners at fancy restaurants and I had friends over for a casual kid-friendly barbecue. Not that either party is better than the other, they're just different. (Ha. If our regular gang of friends were to go out for an adult dinner at a nice restaurant, we'd employ just about every babysitter in Humboldt County.)

I needed some sort of rite of passage activity, so I decided to chop my hair off and donate it. I've done it before, and I'm not particularly attached to my hair, so I think I'll do it every 10 years on my birthday. I don't have any pics of the new 'do yet, but I'll post one soon.

30's not so bad. I've decided to start wearing makeup. (We'll see how long that lasts!)

Our trip to the Mad River Fish Hatchery in Blue Lake.

2008-09-11T18:00:00.000-07:00

These pics are from our trip to the Mad River Fish Hatchery in Blue Lake. I guess it wasn't the right time of year for little fishies to be in the long "tanks" they've got out there because not only were there no fish, but there was hardly any water in them either. No matter, it was a beautiful day and we were pretty much there to enjoy the sunshine and the river anyway. By "we" I mean myself, Ava, Marina and her two kids, Owen and Ruby.
The weather was ideal... we found a warm spot in the shade on a gravel bar and just hung out. Owen played with his lizards and caught a strange bug in the water and Ruby ate any rocks, leaves and twigs within grabbing distance. Ava enjoyed the fresh air and didn't mind standing in the river with my help.

lots of posts coming your way!

2008-09-11T17:50:00.000-07:00

I have a few different things to post about, and I'm going to try to get them all done this evening. They'll probably all be short and sweet. Here's a link to more pics of Ava on our flickr site.

4-1/2 months!

2008-08-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

Ava had her 4-1/2 month well-baby checkup on Thursday. As you can see from the chart above, she's growing like a weed! She's literally off the charts in height, which would explain why she's wearing 9 month size onesies (or any other clothes that go over her shoulders and snap at the crotch).

OMG! We have an address!

2008-08-22T17:31:00.000-07:00

One of these days, we'll live at 40 Buckley Road. (But don't try to send us anything there, we won't get mail delivery. We'll announce our P.O. Box number out there when we get one.)

We're still collecting estimates from the subcontractors so we can give the bank an idea of how much money we'll need for the loan. Once the loan goes through, we can start building! I'm trying to not get too excited... a lot of things still have to go right for us to start building before October 15. October 15 is when the county declares the rainy season has begun, and that can mean all kinds of expensive problems for construction.

Ava's first Bay Area visit

2008-08-20T19:49:00.000-07:00

This video pretty much sums it up... Ava talked to her goat and we spent a lot of time in the car. Pretty much every time Ava woke up she was in a new place, meeting new people. It was a lot to ask of a 4-month old and she ended up getting a snarfly runny nose.

We drove down to the Bay Area on Wednesday. It was incredibly hot. It took 7 hours this time; it normally takes us 5-1/2 to 6 hours. We had dinner with the Parodis as soon as we got there, then visited my dad in the hospital. (The Parodis' 2-month old daughter is SO cute and mellow! Her uncle made her a onesie that says "James Brown is my godfather" on it. Adorable!) Ava didn't nap between 5 and 11 p.m. so she was super tired and super cranky by the time we made it back to my parents' house. She then proceeded to sleep 7 hours straight, which made us pretty nervous since we're used to only 3 hour stretches.

Thursday morning we visited my dad at the hospital, then met Janessa and her 2-month old daughter, Jenna, in Walnut Creek for lunch. We had a diaper blowout (all over Ava and me) and then a meltdown at the restaurant. That was not fun. Then we went shopping at Whole Foods and then back to my folks' house. Jenna is a doll, despite being fussy due to colic and reflux. Janessa is a great mom and has the patience of a saint. :) That evening we had the Horvaths over for dinner, and their almost-2-year old son, Julian, is a ball of energy. It was nice to make dinner, visit with them and not have to worry about going anywhere for the evening.

On Friday, we took Andy to the BART station so he could get to SF State in order to take an exam to get back into the graduate program there. Then my mom and I visited my dad in the hospital. (Of course Ava was there, too. She went everywhere I went.) He received 2 doses of chemo that day. Then Mom and I went shopping at Macy's to find a dress for Jules' wedding. None of my old dresses fit quite right anymore, even though I have reached my pre-pregnancy weight. I guess the weight has just rearranged itself. Then we picked Andy up at the BART station, got food from Los Panchos (mmm!) and went over to Heidi's house for dinner. It was nice to see Heids and her dogs, Madison and Reuss, but we're sorry we missed her husband, Mike, who was out of town.

Saturday morning found us driving again, this time to Fremont to see Andy's family. It was his Grandma Pauline's 90th birthday, so we had a little party at her retirement village. People in attendance included Roger and Louise (Andy's uncle and aunt), their daughter-in-law, Miho and her 3-year old daughter, Kiarra. Their son Matthew was there, but their son Randy was in San Diego (thanks to the Navy) and daughter Darcy had a wedding to attend. They all had plans to drive to San Diego to see Randy the following day. After that birthday party, we drove over the bay to see my family in San Mateo. At Mary Ellen's condo, we celebrated Rich's 60th birthday with those two and Marcia and Joanne, all of who are my dad's cousins. We gave my mom a call from there and found out that my dad had been discharged from the hospital--good news I guess. It seemed silly for him to be discharged so soon after 2 doses of chemo, but hey, I'm not his doctor. Then we drove to Mountain View, where we had dinner and spent the night with my friend Elizabeth, her husband, Brian and their 19- (or so) month old daughter, Adriana. She's as sharp as a tack and has a pretty wide vocabulary in sign language.

Sunday morning we drove back to my parents' house in Martinez. Then we drove across town to see my Grandma Bev's best friend, Ruth. She's the closest thing Ava has to a great-grandparent on my side of the family. Then we went to a different part of Martinez to see my brother's new house. It's a big newer house and he has 3 roommates to help him with the mortgage. After Bob's house, we drove home to get ready for Jules and Sean's wedding, which was later that evening. For some reason, I had it in my head that the wedding started at 6:30... it actually started at 6. Had it started at 6:30, we would have been there in plenty of time, but as it was, we just barely made it as Jules and her parents were walking in. We took a seat near the back once the processional was over. Good thing we made it when we did, because the whole ceremony lasted about 5 minutes. During the reception I was able to catch up with some junior high/high school friends: Sara Bonner, Steve Cox, Matt Smart, Mike Davis and Allie Rostkowski. That was nice. We left early because of Miss Ava's bedtime... in our childless days, we would have stayed and cut a rug all night.

On Monday, we packed up and left my folks' house a little before noon. We stopped at Los Panchos again for lunch, and ran into an old junior high/high school friend there: Erika Raun-Linde. Then we headed north. It took us NINE hours to get home! Part of the reason it took so long was we were stopped for construction in Laytonville for at least 45 minutes. Ava screamed all the way home from Scotia. (That's usually a 45 minute drive without stopping.) We stopped often to try to soothe her, but nothing worked. It was a nightmare. We finally made it home around 9 p.m. Halfway through Eureka we stopped to quell Ava's shrieking. I walked her for a few blocks, and Andy called our friend Sara then. She came over while I was putting Ava to bed after we had made it home, and she brought tasty chocolate-mint ice cream sandwiches. That was our dinner that night.

All in all, it was a good extended weekend. I'm not calling it a vacation because no part of this trip resembled a vacation except for the fact that we weren't at work. There were some trying times, but I'm glad we got to introduce Ava to friends and relatives. I don't know when we'll do it again... maybe on a smaller scale next time. A few more pictures can be found on our flickr site.

photos from our weekend of fun!

2008-08-10T22:07:00.000-07:00

This will be a short post. Lots of stress surrounding the house and family lately. More than usual--I think I'm just about at my limit.

This last weekend, we attended the Humboldt County Fair and took a cruise on Humboldt Bay on the oldest continually running boat in the U.S.: the Madaket. (It also has the smallest licensed bar in the state.) Photos can be found here.

August 1st: a good day.

2008-08-01T14:04:00.000-07:00

August 1, 2007: The first faint pink line appears on a home pregnancy test. A good day.

August 1, 2008: We go to the offices of First American Title company where Art & Ann sign over the deed for Parcel 2 to Andy. Then we head up to the County Recorder's office, and right at 10 a.m., the lot gets recorded in Andy's name. Next, we go to the bank and, amazingly, the lady we had talked to before had 15 free minutes to talk to us again and really get our loan process started. Another good day.

Found at the Hum. Co. Recorder's office: a beautiful view, gorgeous weather and REALLY old maps.

We'll see what August 1, 2009 holds in store. (Hopefully we'll be living in our new house by then!)

Not much actual jumping happening yet...

2008-07-31T22:20:00.000-07:00

...but she does like to bop around and make the battery operated part light up and make sound. Andy and I enjoyed a quiet Christmas last year and realized it would probably be our last for a very long time.

Well, this was my first attempt at editing video and then posting it. Even though it views the right way up on our computer, it loaded sideways for the blog. This time, tilt your head to the left and I'll remember to not turn the camera when I'm shooting video next time. :)

New photos and a house update.

2008-07-31T22:01:00.001-07:00

A few new photos on our flickr site. Ava's first Annie & Mary Day, bouncy swing and hanging out with Grandma.

The house update is this: tomorrow morning Art & Ann sign the deed for Parcel 2 over to Andy. Then we take that new deed to the County Recorder's office to be re-recorded in Andy's name rather than Art & Ann's. Hopefully, that will only take a few days, and we can take the new deed to the bank next week and get a loan. Who knows how long it will take to get a loan approved, but as soon as it is, we should be able to pull our building permits and start construction. That's right! It's going to happen this year! After FIVE AND A HALF YEARS of just trying to split the lot, it's finally coming to completion. We could be living in beautiful Blue Lake by this time next year! (There's still a part of me that doesn't want to get excited about this yet, after having been through so many ups and downs already. We're SO close, I don't want to get crushed again.)

R.I.P. Toof

2008-07-31T21:47:00.001-07:00

He wasn't the one we expected to go belly up first, but oh well. He was a good fish, even if he was mean. He was a big fish in a little fish's body and beat up on the bigger fish in the tank. We're not sure what killed him. (Don't tell the other two fish, but we're kind of waiting for them all to die so we won't have to deal with the tanks anymore.) There's just not much time for fish care when you're changing diapers, feeding and getting spat up on all the time.
(BTW, that's not Toof in the picture, but it looks just like him. I don't know who the guy in the background is.)

I think she's part cat.

2008-07-25T08:22:00.001-07:00

Ava DOES NOT like the water. Last night we took a dip in the Dronks' warm hot tub, and you can see the result above. I bought that adorable swimsuit while I was still pregnant, and had to make sure Ava wore it before outgrowing it. Unfortunately, I don't think she'll be wearing it again.

P.S.- Bath time at our house is usually just as unpleasant. She is fine as soon as she isn't touching the water anymore. Poor girl. She'll grow out of it.

AUUUGGGH!

2008-07-25T08:12:00.001-07:00

It has been two weeks since Art & Ann have been home from vacation, and the deed is still in the same place: sitting in the county recorder's office. As soon as the parcel is recorded, the deed can be written up, then we can take it to the bank, get our loan and start building. The county recorder's office seemed to be a well organized place when Andy and I went there to get our marriage license 3 years ago... I think what has happened with our project is that it has been red-flagged and each county employee knows that it has to sit on their desk for a few weeks before they process it. (There aren't enough curse words available to express how frustrated I am right now.) Every day that passes by is another day that we don't have available to build this year. At some point, our contractor will say that there aren't enough days left in the non-rainy season to get the house to a weather tight stage, and we're screwed again, having to wait until next April to start construction.

3 months old!

2008-07-11T21:13:00.000-07:00

Yep, Ava hits the 3 month mark tomorrow. We can hardly believe how much she's transformed from the helpless little grub we brought home from the hospital! She's babbling quite a bit, is enamored with our ceiling fan and loves standing up with a little balancing help. She's still the spit-up queen and has started drooling a lot. She's fighting sleep these days, which should be interesting when I go back to work in a week and she has to stay with Grandma and Grandpa on Mondays and Tuesdays. Overall, she's just the greatest thing ever, and it gets better everyday.

Another thing I love: GoogleReader. (Thanks, Mike, for telling me about it!) If there's something you want the internet to do, there's a good chance that Google is working on it. And it could be my friend, Brian doing all the nutso programming stuff behind it, but he's sworn to secrecy, so who knows. Anyway, I like to read my friends' blogs. However, I don't like to check each of them everyday on the off chance that they've posted something new. That's where GoogleReader comes in. It tell it which blogs to check, and it lets me know when there's something new to read. I love it! Thank you GoogleReader for saving me precious time.

Art & Ann got back from their month-long vacation yesterday, and I ran into Art in the grocery store parking lot today. He said something along the lines of: the deed is at the title company today or early next week. I'm pretty sure that means that our deed, for our 1 acre, will be written at the title company in the immediate future. That means that next week we may have a lot to take to the bank. Things may be moving forward after all! (But I'm still not holding my breath.)

I've been tagged by Kerri.

2008-06-28T16:50:00.000-07:00

What was I doing 10 yrs ago... Let's see. I think that was the summer that I stayed in Arcata between my Sophomore and Junior years of college. I worked for a month at Eureka Printing Co., took Beginning Photography at College of the Redwoods and drank a lot of Budweiser with the rugby crowd.

5 yrs ago... 2003. Hmmm. Andy and I were living in Oakland, so I was probably sweating either in our upstairs apartment or behind the espresso machine at Peet's Coffee.

1 yr ago... Working at the Journal, living in Arcata, trying to get pregnant. :)

Yesterday... Not much...Took care of the baby and did some crafting.

5 snacks I enjoy... chips, cookies, nuts, popcorn and ice cream. I know, I'm bad.

5 favorite books... (currently) The Cat in the Hat, The Little Engine That Could, Tikki Tikki Tembo, The Baby Book and Operating Instructions.

5 places to run... I haven't gone on a run in a LONG time.

5 pet peeves... the overuse of the word "unprecedented" since 9/11, dumb word contractions like "staycation", people that don't take responsibility for their actions, people that talk too much, not having enough time or money to do everything I would like to do.

5 things I enjoy... thoughtful movies, sweets, driving, animals, adhesive tape

5 favorite TV shows... LOST, America's Next Top Model, The Cosby Show reruns, Jeopardy! and 30 Rock

5 people to tag... Sorry, I'm not going to tag anyone.

more new pics

2008-06-27T22:24:00.000-07:00

She's growing so fast! I thought it would be at least baseball playoffs before she fit in the cute little A's onesies we were given, but I decided to go through her bigger clothes again, just in case. I'm glad I did! The A's onesies are only a little too big lengthwise. Widthwise, she's got plenty of room. Check out our little baseball fan on our flickr site. (I think there may be some slightly older pics that I just uploaded before the A's outfit pics.)

Ava's latest thing is shoving fabric in her mouth. She especially likes a soft bear head that has a square of fabric instead of a body. The head also has a jingle bell in it, which she likes very much. She enjoys "talking" as she gnaws and drools all over the bear's head and edges of the square. I'll have to take and post some video of this soon.

baby BOOM!

2008-06-25T12:01:00.000-07:00

Between May 29 and June 22, we've had 6 friends have their babies! Super congratulations to:

Charlotte Jane Baker
Kellen Jeffrey Dunning (the only boy in the bunch!)
Mia Campora Parodi
Mia Isela Villanueva
Jenna Elizabeth Oriol
Tatum Fei Dick

We look forward to meeting all of you!

video from today (2 of 2)

2008-06-19T20:08:00.000-07:00

(Today is still June 19, 2008.)

video from today (1 of 2)

2008-06-19T19:48:00.000-07:00

(Today is June 19, 2008.)

video!

2008-06-19T19:39:00.000-07:00

Ava is so cute that we know most people would be willing to sit through a long loading time to watch video of her. This one's from June 5. Enjoy!

new family photo

2008-06-12T17:51:00.000-07:00

More pics of Ava coming soon to our Flickr page. This one is available at a larger file size on our Flickr page. Friends and family should feel free to download and print the higher-quality image from Flickr by clicking on "all sizes" and then "download the large size."

:)

2-month well baby check up

2008-06-12T17:39:00.000-07:00

Today is Ava's 2-month birthday, and we celebrated by visiting the pediatrician. Ava is a happy, healthy girl. Here are her stats, compared to her 2-week check up... click on the image to actually be able to read it:

This was also the appointment when most babies start their immunizations. Personally, I'd rather reveal how I vote than say if we vaccinated or not. It's that controversial. All I can say is that we are succeeding as parents so far and we make every choice in Ava's best interest.

turnout completed!

2008-06-04T12:07:00.001-07:00

That's right! The turnout/driveway apron construction is finished. It's just one little step closer to having our own lot and approved building plans. The top photo is looking at the new curb and driveway apron. The driveway to the house will go between those two redwoods. Teh second picture is looking over the driveway apron toward Art & Ann's house. (Thanks, Art, for putting the fence back up!) The third photo shows the turnout, the lovely fence and the neighbor's house. Our driveway is between the neihbor's house and the end of the fence.

The short version of the latest news is this: The county survey department and the title company are having trouble talking to each other in order to reconcile the original deed for the property purchased around 1975. Apparently, there is no deed for Art & Ann's property, only a deed for the larger original parcel minus their parcel. Ugh. How can things be so convoluted?

That was the latest for the lot split. The latest for the building plans is that they were waiting on an erosion control plan, but now they have it. Had our project been submitted and approved in a timely manner based on when we started this whole fiasco, we wouldn't have had to have an erosion control plan nor a soils report. The county has since passed codes requiring just about everyone to have these expensive tests and reports done. We have to have erosion control (even though we are building on a flat lot) because we're next to a creek. The soils report had to be done because Humboldt County is so seimically active. I hate to think of all the extras for those located in a coastal zone--thank goodness we're inland.

more firsts

2008-06-02T19:22:00.000-07:00

- We ran several errands this morning without a meltdown. It was awesome. We dropped Andy off at work, visited the insurance agency, chiropractor, storage unit and went shopping at Target. Then I mowed the lawn with Ava sleeping in the sling. (We have a push mower, not a noisy smelly gas mower.)

- I found my first grey hair. I figure it was about 7 weeks and 2 days long.