Move-in ready!

As of today, the house is done except for a fence. We did the "final walk-through" and we can start moving things in. But Saturday is our official furniture-move day. Here's some photos from earlier this week.

We have grass (and shrubbery which isn't shown here):

The finished kitchen:
(when we get money we'll have to purchase a refrigerator. In the meantime, we can live on bananas)

Bathrooms:
(Rychen P. thinks he gets his own bathroom, since Dad has claimed the master toilet as his own, that Bub is not allowed to use! So the hallway bathroom is mine and Bub's. I am special, I get to pee wherever I want.)

The only thing I would change is put the tub in the master bath (rather than shower). Oh well. Birthing only comes once every 3 years 'eh...

Living Room:

Hallway (cabinet at end of hallway now has shelves and doors):

Pictures with Santa

This man is Santa 365 days a year. How awesome is that!

Grow into her eyes

A stranger was oogling over Elisabeth today and made the comment, "Maybe she'll grow into her eyes."  I laughed--what a funny thing to say! I have just never heard that expression in regards to eyes.

his and hers

Rychen P. loves taping things. Taping envelopes shut or taping random objects to the walls, mostly. But what happens when the tape runs out? So we went to the store to buy more tape, and decided to buy one exclusively for myself so that he couldn't waste all the tape in the house, in addition to his. We bought two 49 cent rolls of tape (well, we could only afford one, but thanks to Cindy Alldredge, we now have His and Hers tape dispensers).

Classic and wholesome

While we're on the subject of TV, I'll throw this in too. Lately I am obsessed with watching The Cosby Show re-runs from the 80's. Rychen and I went through a phase where we watched all the Everybody Loves Raymond episodes, and now it's Cosby I can't get enough of. It's really funny and--get this--WHOLESOME... which you don't get very often now-a-days. There are two aspects I'm really attracted to: (1) The clever parenting tactics, which I strive to emulate, and (2) The fact that the husband and wife actually love and respect each other. - Can you think of any other sitcom (in color) where there is a nuclear family, let alone the parents loving each other? How strange that this is the case. How strange that we think it's funny when spouses yell and make fun of each other. Seriously, isn't that the case with every sitcom on now? Til Death, Yes Dear, Everybody Loves Raymond, the list goes on. Now, Rychen and I adore Raymond and Debra. We relate to them a LOT. But there is something disturbing in how we are entertained by watching them yell at each other. There is not a good spirit in our home when we watch that show. So we are being more selective about the shows we watch now.... Any thoughts?

I really like this movie

I was expecting something stupidly cheesy, like Johnny English (yawn) or Pink Panther... We chose this movie when nothing else seemed appealing only because of my recent fascination with Steve Carrell. Anyway can I just say, this is the first time in LONG time that I have been thoroughly entertained with a movie, especially both the comedy and action sequences. I enjoy watching movies a lot, for instance Stranger Than Fiction is a great movie, as well as Dan in Real Life. But those movies I could walk away from to get a drink of water... Not so with Get Smart. I love it!! And I'm not sure why. All I can say is that it is very entertaining.

This post is a bit funny because, to be honest, I am totally out of touch with pop culture and what's showing in theaters at any given time. In fact, I had not even heard of this movie until we found it upon browsing, and I hadn't heard of Steve Carrell before about a month ago! So tell me now, what other new releases did you like?

Birthday book memories

Rychen P. and I have been reading through his Birthday Book, which is a book of letters I have written to his throughout the year, presented at his birthday. This series was from before he turned 2. It is so sweet to review these stories, I am so glad I wrote them down! It's ironic that I am up in the nighttime with a giggly, awake baby because I was reading about being up with Rychen P. (when he would wake up crying, and we'd have to go driving to get him back to sleep). When I told him this memory, he got teary and told me "I wish we could do that more." Wish we could do what? "Go for drives in the nighttime if I wake up." Ummm, yeah. Good times.

Here is one of my favorite stories. When Rychen was about 1 1/2, he went through a phase where he would randomly take objects and bring them to the trash can. Once I was missing my book of checks. I got the idea that he might have thrown them away. To test my theory, I took a blank check and lay it on the desk top. I said "Hey Bubba, look!" and sure enough, he picked it up and went straight to deposit it in the garbage can. Some time later, I was missing my keys. I didn't make the connection as quickly. Days went by. Then it occured to me--Where else would they be? They have got to be in the trash, Darn it! So I went through all the food scraps and junk that is our trash can. Nothing. Well, it had been long enough that we probably took the trash out. So I went out to our apartment building dumpster and found our previous bag of garbage. Brought it inside, tore it open, and had my way with it...and at the very bottom of that nasty, old rubbish - I FOUND MY KEYS!

2 a.m.

Just one way having kids keeps you on your toes. If you don't have kids and you're up at 2 a.m., you are probably partying. Hooray for you! It's my birthday but I am not partying here.