A Good Kick In The Behind

Last night when Matt came home we frantically got dinner ready and eaten so that he could run off to handbell practice at church. About 15 minutes later I heard the garage door open and the fit return to it's parking spot. He walks in and said that there was no handbells practice that night (we had gotten the information, but it had slipped by both of us that night).

So with it being about 6:30, no real plans for the evening, a dirty house, and a new vacuum....Matt gave me the kick in the behind that I needed. In my previous blog I mentioned that I wanted to give this house a good cleaning, Grace has successfully kept me from completing that. So Matt began what he loves to call "scorched earth" cleaning.

EVERYTHING, and I mean everything (except for the entertainment system) in our living room was moved either away from the walls or completely out of the room so that we could vacuum, do edging, and yes...I even dusted! We did the same for the dining room. And to top it all off, we managed to clean up some dark spots in the carpet.

During this time of moving everything, we threw away enough trash to fill up a 13 gallon trash bag. We also placed many items in our "to go to yard sale" box. Not all items are back where they belong in the two rooms, but I must say that the living room and the dining room look amazing! I just have to wonder how long they will stay like this.

And we learned one lesson that we already knew but it was taught to us again:
EVERYTHING TAKES LONGER WITH A BABY

photoshoot

With the snow piling up outside, and us going a little stir crazy...

We began to take pictures :) To all of the grandparents, you are welcome!

This one is my personal favorite. Her all snuggled up and sleeping on the couch.


Sue, you said that you wanted to see the "Daddy's Girl" dress. This is the other onesie dress that I got from Chris and Katie.

Kind of an odd picture, she looks like she is not sure what to think. However, I think that it is cute and it shows off a little of her legs (you are welcome mom). Look at that red hair!

Ok, so that is enough for now. I hope that you enjoyed the pictures.

New Purchase

I am so excited....I have a new vacuum!

This might sound like a strange comment (especially coming from me, since vacuuming is not one of my favorite chores to do) however, I have been singing that statement for the past few days...since we bought it on Thursday.

Matt brought his old vacuum to the marriage. It was a wonderful vacuum and put in a great tour of duty for 12 years. It was a hard worker and we had no disciplinary issues with it, until it picked up a smoking habit. We do not like smoking in our house....especially from the appliances.

Four weeks ago my sister, Carol, tried to vacuum our upstairs carpets and we thought nothing of it, till all of the upstairs smoke detectors went off. The culprit? Yes, you got it...The Vacuum that took to smoking. Matt and I decided that our idea of buying a new vacuum eventually would have to be bumped up to buying a new vacuum soon.

So with the snow storm coming I decided that this might be a good time to buy it and not be cooped up in a house with very dirty carpets for a week or so. So....we bought a new vacuum, well not just a vacuum, we bought a...

DYSON!

I have been wanting this kind of vacuum for the past couple of years but I thought it was far out of reach. Matt told me of his desire to also own a Dyson, so we started to price them. We found some a Target that we wanted and began to save up for it.

Fast forward about two or three months and here we are with a beautiful yellow and gray machine sitting in my living room just waiting for the next huge project that I have for it. And that it will get, I am planning on moving all of the furniture and giving this house a GOOD cleaning finally :)

A Good Cat

As I open the door I expect to hear a frantic "Meow" as a beautiful dark, striped cat walks quickly across the road to greet me and look for some affection.

As I walk to the trash can I expect to hear a quiet "Meow" as I am startled by the same pretty cat "hiding out" in our bushes or next to our garage.

As I open the garage door on a very cold or rainy day I half expect to see a dark figure zoom into our garage to find new shelter from the elements. (one night we accidentally left the garage door open and we could hear "Meow" at the door that led from the kitchen to the garage. I am sure that he was having a great time protecting our garage and staying out of the elements in a new location)

As I look across the street I expect to see a cat sitting royally by our neighbor's front door, as if he owned this area and everything around it.

But I am sad to say that my expectations will never happen again, Scooter died this past week. Scooter was a wonderful cat that adopted us a while back, loved to say hello, and we think that he even took it upon himself to protect us from the other animals in the neighborhood.

Grace was able to meet/get sniffed by Scooter twice, I am very sad that she will not have the chance to play/chase Scooter as she grows up.

Scooter (or Tooter, as my nephew called him) will be greatly missed.

Suggestions?

In accordance to our tradition of celebrating Valentine's day we are planning on making a "fancy" meal. Usually we go through our Food and Wine magazines that I had gotten one year. We are coming up very close to Valentine's day and Matt and I have not come up with a menu yet, in fact we have not really even discussed options for the meal.

So I was wondering if anyone had a suggestion for an "elaborate", "special occasion" recipe that we could consider. Usually we have a main course, two sides, maybe a bread, and a dessert.

So if you have a recipe that you have always wanted to try but it is too labor or skill intensive, or if you have a recipe that you love to make but you don't because it just takes too much time and energy...that is the kind of thing we are looking for.

What do you think? Can you help?

Good News!

Grace has finally passed her birth weight!

She was born at 7lb 1oz then dropped down to 6lb 1oz.
Today at the doctor office she weighed in at 7lb 12oz.

She was a slow starter on gaining weight (as the doctor commented) but she is doing much better now.

Since her birth we have had one or two doctor visits or blood labs done each week. So the other big news is that she has no more doctor visits this week, and none for next week :)
And the only reason that she has to go for the following week is for her 2 month well baby visit.

I am so happy she is gaining, and that all involved can take a deep sigh of relief.

Last Weekend

Last weekend Matt, Grace and I all piled into the Murano to attempt a 2 hour drive north to Harrisonburg. This was the longest that Grace had been in the car and prior to this, she has not really liked the car...How would this go?

Well, with me sitting in the backseat with Grace, a full bottle of food, and other items to entertain her, the trip was wonderful. She was eating or sleeping or playing the whole time, almost no crying at all!One of the reasons we went north was so that Matt and I could meet with our lawyer to draw up a will. Now that we have a little one it seems much more important that we know what will happen if anything ever does happen to us. After meeting with our lawyer we then had dinner at Cracker Barrel with some friends from an old school that I taught at in Staunton. We had invited many of my friends from there, but most could not make it. However, Mark and Sandy were able to make it (along with Sandy's kids) and she was a very good photographer. She is the one to thank for all of the pictures on this post.
After Cracker Barrel we went to Harrisonburg where Grace was loved on and cared for by many family members. I do not know if I held her at all unless I was nursing her.
It was a long trip, the first of many. But it was very good, and it will only get better!