Monthly Archives: March 2008

Taking Shape

Hell week is officially over. We are back at work and daycare, away from the noise and enjoying the thrill of returning home to a house that looks a little bit different every day (and the dust that goes with it).

You can actually see the shape of our house as they start framing it up. Click on the pic for a larger view.

Our contractor told us this morning that everything is moving along very quickly and we may even be able to move some things earlier on the schedule (yippee!). Must be the cold, wet, snowy weather we have been enjoying lately. The crew has to move quickly to keep their appendages from freezing.

In other developing news – this baby is coming along quite nicely too. He’s definitely a lively little thing. It’s like he’s trying to remind me that he is in there on a regular basis with a good swift kick to the ribs. Good thing he does though because with so much going on I often forget that I am pregnant. That is until I try to bend over and realize that I have no flexibility in my mid section or I walk more than a few feet and find myself out of breath or I park too closely to the car next to me and find myself unable to squeeze out of the drivers’ side door.

This is about where I am right now…

 

I have been terrible about taking belly pics but I may ask Kei to take a couple tonight. Of course I will try and erase the stretch marks before I post. Nobody needs to see that.

Nicole

 

P365 Day 90 – March 30th 2008

We went in search of bathroom fixtures today. Once we had narrowed down the brand it wasn’t as daunting as I had feared. I mean, it’s not like we have an unlimited budget with unlimited options.

Decisions made today – Bathroom sink faucet, shower fixture, sink (somewhat – still deciding on a vanity to put it in) and a toilet. Our main concern… good flush. Apparently there’s only one brand name to consider when you want good flush – who knew? The only decision left to make is whether we go with the more modern looking toilet that has dual flush, or go for the more classic look (which I like better) without the dual flush option. Every new toilet in Australia has dual flush so if I was at home I wouldn’t have to make this sacrifice. Sigh!

So is that more than you wanted to know about toilets? Yes, me too.

P365 Day 89 – March 29th 2008

We attended a birthday party yesterday for one of Thomas’ friends from daycare. Thomas had so much fun. I think he was mainly just relieved to have some friends to play with after spending a whole week with me and Kei, being shuffled between different houses.

They had a clown at this party which was fun and she did very well to entertain a bunch of mainly three year olds. That’s a tough crowd. The clown asked for volunteers during the show and much to my surprise Thomas decided to stand up and help. I think he was motivated by the stickers she kept giving to the volunteers. He didn’t jump up, just stood up and walked slowly to the front. A little tentative but he definitely knew what he was doing. It was so cute! His job was to wave a wand over a magic colouring book and, yes, he did get his sticker… and I got my photo, so everyone was happy.

We got home at about 1:30 and Thomas fell asleep for three hours. I think they call it a sugar coma.

P365 Day 88 – March 28th 2008

This is Thomas’ friend Ethan – son of my friend Laurie. How cute is he? The other kid is Thomas trying not to be in the photo. 🙂

Today was the last day of our nomadic existence. Daycare is back next week and I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to go back to the office. We hung out at Laurie and Ethan’s house today so that I could do some work, Thomas could burn some energy playing and we could use a bed for naptime (Thomas, not me, although I really did need a nap by about 10am).

I sure owe a lot of favours after this week. We have such great friends and are so fortunate that we had some options beyond spending the week in our car. Thank you doesn’t seem enough when you are invading someone else’s space for long periods of time.

This has quite possibly been the craziest and longest week of my life. The good news is that our new addition is quickly taking shape. We can now see where the windows will go and how big our closet will be. I know there is a long way to go yet but I am so excited by how far we’ve come after just two weeks. I’ll post more photos on the weekend when it stops snowing and hailing. The weather is having a crazy week too.

P365 Day 87 – March 27th 2008

It’s 10pm, the end of a very long day and you haven’t taken your 365 photo yet. So what do you do? You take a photo of your dessert. Your yummy, chocolate, shouldn’t really be eating it this late at night, dessert.

We had dinner with our Aussie friends – a quick visit thanks to a nasty stomach bug (them, not us) but I was so glad we were able to at least catch up for a little while.

I was so proud of Thomas. I thought for sure he would melt down at the restaurant after a VERY long day but he was so good. Sat in the highchair and kept himself occupied through the whole meal. Paper over tablecloths at nice restaurants is the best invention EVER when you need colouring space for a toddler. That, and husbands who think to bring a pre-dinner snack in the form of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Less is more

I kept trying to add more to this LO but it just didn’t seem right. As my photos get better, the less I feel like I need to add lots of embellishments to my scrapbook pages. I just love this photo. It brings a sense of calm to my crazy life.

Click on the image for credits.

Ummmmm – Wow!

I was prepared. Well, I told myself I was prepared. “They are going to rip off the roof of our house” is a good punchline (and a good excuse). Of course it’s all fun and games until someone (or something) get’s hurt.

This is how our house looked before…

And this is how it looks this morning.

And this is the big mud pile that was once our backyard. Good thing we put off all that landscaping. 🙂

The only thing more shocking than the way it looks is the noise. Thankfully we have been able to avoid it most of the week but I can sense that Thomas is getting a little tired of our nomadic lifestyle. Kei is with him today and I am actually a little grateful to be back at work where I can concentrate for extended periods of time.

The good (actually great) news is that they start framing today. The little demolition project is over and we are now officially in the rebuilding stage. Good thing too because the Portland weather just isn’t cooperating. There was actually snow in some parts of the city today. Yes, snow. And we’re almost in April.

Oh, and I should mention that our Aussie friends did arrive yesterday but brought a nasty stomach bug with them so they chose to check into a hotel instead. Probably best for everyone involved – especially me and my weak pregnant stomach. We hope to catch up with them today if they’re feeling better. I guess when it rains it really does pour.

Holding On

This is me this week.

Photobucket

 

Starting to feel a little overwhelmed.

Our out of town guests are due to arrive any moment, the roof is currently being ripped off our house, I am working and Thomas is sitting at my feet watching TV. And what I really need is a long nap.

I wish one work person in particular was more understanding. And this person really SHOULD understand being in a similar stuation herself. I just need a couple more days for people to cut me some slack and then I’ll be good until maternity leave. In fact, I will be glad to go to work if ony to get away from the noise and dust at home.

Thomas has been really good and I have managed to get some work done but with everything going on this week I am counting down the days to the weekend. I plan to sleep then – A LOT.

Well that was a downer post… Let’s finish it off with memories of better times in the form of my Hump Day lift LO.

Hope YOU have a better day than mine.

Nicole

P365 Day 85 – March 25th 2008

A stark contrast to yesterday’s photo… It is very rare that I get photos of Thomas sleeping, mainly because he likes the room to be very dark before he will take a nap.

We are nomads this Spring Break week – hanging out our friends’ house during the day. Daycare is closed, Kei and I still need to work and our house is too noisy and dusty for us to stay. Is this what they call the perfect storm? Oh, and we have some friends from Australia coming to visit for a couple of days starting tomorrow. Anyone hear thunder?

So Thomas has no choice but to sleep in a very light room. And he’s been doing very well despite the fact that he asked me to turn off the sun. It does mean I am able to take a photo of him sleeping – on a very sweet patchwork quilt against a gorgeous green wall. Great photo opp. OK, I may have lost focus of the chaos in my life but when you look at a photo this peaceful then that is easy to do.

And this pic was taken about 90 seconds later, after Thomas woke up and just before the crakiness set in. Back to reality.