Hello, Blog. It's me, Keri.

So apparently having a baby puts a cramp in blogging...a year-long cramp as it so happens. Well, here's my attempt at reviving the blog. Where to start? Well, we last left off with me being 38 weeks pregnant. That's no longer the case. Clara joined our family in November 2010 and has been making us smile ever since! We can't imagine life without her, nor would we ever want to. Clara's now an active, adorable (if I may say so myself) 14 month old who roams our abode like she owns the place.

Clara also put a bit of a cramp in our house renovations, imagine that. But slowly and surely we've been getting back into the swing of things. This past summer (2011), we rebuilt our garage. Yes, I said REBUILT.

Do you all remember the hottest week of July last summer? When the weatherman said to stay inside in the cool unless absolutely necessary? Yeah, that's when we (along with many helpers) were stripping the roof, laying new roof, tearing the rest of the garage to the studs, sheathing, framing in new sets of windows and two side entry doors and residing the entire two car garage. In one week. SEVEN days. But that was SO much work that it deserves it's own post another time. We also repainted the front hall/stairs and reworked the balusters and banister/railing to code.

Apparently, babies falling through wide-spaced balusters is frowned upon and having a banister that is as tall as your knees is not very helpful.

We've been doing other little improvements here and there. We finally hung our kitchen artwork...after living here for almost two and a half years. I finally caved to putting a nail hole in the wall and Chris went crazy and hung about 11 things in 20 minutes. Give him an inch...and, you know. But, the kitchen now looks like we live here. For real. I swear I put more holes in the walls of all our apartments than in this house. Which I'm realizing is just plain ridiculous. You know what else makes it look like we live here for real? Little People and Megablocks scattered around just waiting to be stepped on. I know some of you can relate. Ouch. We seem to have been rearranging furniture a lot recently due to the little munchkin, trying to find the best layout where most things are still safe from little fingers. Anyone remember that cream couch we bought after moving in? We found out just last week that the Ikea Extorp slipcovers wash very nicely after being doused with lukewarm coffee thanks to said little fingers.

Well, that's the quick version of the past year. Chris and I once again are getting the "project itch" so you never know what's coming next. Hopefully, the next post won't take a year.

38 weeks and ready...

38 weeks and still growing. 

Another week has made it's way by and the desire to be done being pregnant officially trumped the anxiety about becoming a parent. We are both quite ready to meet our little lady.

Things are still moving along around here. Pictures were hung in the nursery, closet curtains were sewn, car seat was installed and baby clothes were washed. Speaking of baby clothes...how in the world are you supposed to fold something so little and make it look nice? Oh well. We even put up the Christmas tree this afternoon...just in case she comes a bit early.

People have been asking if we are ready and have everything ready and Chris' response has been "We are probably as ready as we are going to be."

I concur.

37 weeks and counting...

Well, things are sure changing around these here parts...and now we are officially at the full-term mark. 37 weeks. Crazy. It's amazing to believe that she is almost here!

Apparently, the fiesty kickboxer is now the size of a watermelon. Really, a watermelon? Are we talking a huge, full-of-seeds watermelon or the smallish, seedless variety? According to the doctor everything looks good and she is "not too small, not too big."

In other news, the nursery is finally coming along. Pictures soon!

33 weeks and counting...

It's hard to believe it's already been 33 weeks and that Baby Girl Buma is about 7 weeks away from entry to the "real" world.

We've been working on little things around the house...like trying to pick up after ourselves, getting things organized and packing away things that used to live in the future nursery. It's all a work in progress and it's moving slowly.

After taking the childbirth class last weekend, we are now fully aware that it's really a crap-shoot trying to plan when Baby Girl will actually show up. A week or so early? A week or so late? On time? Who knows. But in reality, we have most of the basics...crib, clothing, etc. and Buy Buy Baby is on the way home from the hospital if necessary. Plus, Baby Girl isn't going to care how messy the home she comes home to is. Just that it's home.

What can a little paint do?

When we had our original home inspection before closing on our house last year, the inspector told us that we'd want to paint the solid wood garage door before winter (last winter) since the paint was chipping and we didn't want the door to rot.

Well...we didn't get to it last Fall. With weekends filling up with birth classes and baby showers, the clock was winding down to colder weather (not to mention the arrival of a baby) so Chris and Craig, his dad, tackled the job last Thursday.

Chris and I had picked up paint chips on Monday but hadn't gotten around to picking the color to match the house trim before I had to leave for work on Thursday morning. My control freak personality was having a hard time not having input on the color choice...but I let it go. And Chris picked the perfect match - Dutch Boy's Antique White. How fitting, Dutch paint for a couple of Hollanders.

The "before"...

Craig cutting in the panels...

Half done...the new color is quite a bit creamier.

Can't forget the trim...which Chris can paint easily from a 4 ft. ladder...it helps to be tall!

Looks like a brand-spanking new door! All for about $35. Nice on the budget and necessary!

Labor Day Weekend...Operation TV.

Projects have been moving slow around here...kind of like me. And they've been even slower getting on the blog. I've been a slacker. My brother even called me out on it.  

Over the Labor Day weekend, we...finally got TV. We have a TV...it just hadn't been hooked up to cable or an anntena since we moved in (over a year ago). Instead, we got by watching shows and a limited amount of sporting events online (insert frustrated husband here). We really wanted to avoid paying for cable so Chris researched the best options for anntenas based on our location/direction from Chicago and order all the parts for about $150.

So all the parts and my parents arrived just in time for the Labor Day weekend. Last Labor Day weekend, we were sanding and refinishing the living/dining room floors all weekend. This project proved to be a "bit" less work.



1. Get up on the roof...with all the parts.



2. Assemble antenna without falling off roof.

3. Run antenna cable down roof, seal around fasteners and run through basement window.

4. Run antenna cable to TV and enjoy...football. (Lions/Bears game)

We even had time to check out the Kane County Flea Market over the weekend...after we watched some TV.  

 

Baby meet IKEA...

All parents and parents-to-be can probably relate to how kid's stuff tends to take OVER. If not, I envy you. I feel like - actually, I'm well aware - we're losing the battle I'm not quite sure it's possible to win anyway and she's not even here yet. Since Chris started painting the nursery all the things that were stored in there plus all the baby stuff we have been acquiring are now consuming our bedroom and office...driving me a bit crazy. Not a far drive some days but that's another matter. 

Solution to our storage problem? One word. HEMNES. Don't speak IKEA? Let me translate. HEMNES is the traditional looking furniture line from the great Swedish store. A couple months ago, Chris and I got two white HEMNES 8 drawer dressers for our bedroom and love them...someday I might blog about them.  Continuing the theme, my parents bought us (really, the baby) a white HEMNES dresser for the nursery as an early baby gift along with baby's crib from IKEA.

After picking up the dresser and the crib yesterday morning with the help of Chris' family's van and muscles, I begged Chris to put the dresser together...after he was in class all day. Knowing he's still got a lot of painting to do in there, we decided the dresser could just move to the center of the room while  painting was being wrapped up. And it can hold most of the smaller baby things and clothes at the same time. 


If you didn't know, most of IKEA furniture comes "flat-pack" which means you can get it home easily but have to put it together at home. Just think of it like a "big-kid" lego project. Pretty fun. Chris seemed to enjoy himself...and I enjoyed watching and taking pictures.

Step 1. Open box, read instructions and sort pieces...all while smiling. 

Step 2. Start assembling dresser frame.

Step 3. Continue smiling while assembling frame, wonder when your wife is going to stop taking your picture.

Step 4. Frame mostly assembled, consult instructions.

Step 5. Assemble dresser top.

Step 6. Nail backing on dresser, avoid thumbs.

Step 7. Put drawers together, end is in sight.

Step 8. Finished. Assembled. Happy.

*Optional* Step 9. Add organizers to hold baby's little things.

The dresser is going to have a changing pad on top so we can skip the traditional changing table. Bonus for us tall folk? Upon putting it together, we discovered that it's higher than some of the other changing tables/dressers. Nice. 

We decided to wait to put the crib together until the painting is actually done so Chris will have room to move while working in the nursery. Guess I'll actually have to start sewing the quilt now...