Tuesday, July 31, 2007

backyard living






So we planted our garden just about 2 months ago. ( 1st pic)I have to say- its doing great!!! As you can see everything is growing like crazy. So far our crop has consisted of 7 cucumbers. There are going to be tons of tomatoes and there are several peppers that will be ready soon.

In other news- we fertilized our lawn ( no clue what we were doing really) and it turned out very lush and green- just like a golf course. :o)

scenes from today




We really are the most boring people.... here are some pics from today- Keira in her bouncy seat while I make dinner, Keira and I hanging out outside-Keira obviously found it boring enough to fall asleep, and mike weed wacking.... Enjoy. HAHA :o)

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Keira's new habit









Keira discovered her fingers the past few days and as you can see they are her new favorite toy.... The other pic is mike trying to feed her sausage..." I am just letting her lick it" he assured me as threatened to kill him.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

A day at the lake



So since Mike was busy at work and then going to his parents house to continue working on the wall he is building over there. Keira and I headed to Lake Sunapee with Uncle Peter. It was a balmy 92 degrees out with super high sticky humidity. I stuck Keira's feet in the water and she wasn't very impressed. She immediately started fussing- The water was warm but not quiet as warm as bath water. So she hung out on my beach towel smiling, talking and looking around. After the lake we went over to my dad's house for dinner.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

rolls and chubs...





Since its already 90 degrees out at 930 am... I stripped Keira down to her diaper.. she immediately got excited and started laughing and smiling.. and then she spit up all over me not once, not twice, but 3 times... in very large amounts... luckily I haven't showered yet... and she wasn't wearing any clothes so I don't have to change her!

Monday, July 23, 2007

Picture Mania

So...we received some pics from our friend who is much better at taking pics than us.

Check out the pics at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mvigneau/PictureMania

Friday, July 20, 2007

rights to babyhood






Here she is.. in her first pair of oshkosh overalls.... Admit it- you wish you could still wear overalls too!! Overalls aren't really in style unless you are a baby though....

Thursday, July 19, 2007

images from wed and thurs






Yesterday we took Keira to our church's praise and worship concert- It was supposed to be outside but it was raining so it was inside. Keira was quiet and hung out and listened to the music.
Today...... I was very brave and went back to work for a few hours. Only 4- Mike's mom babysat and I worked from 1-5. I called work last week and told them I wanted to work a few hours in the afternoon 1-2 days a week for the next month or so b/c mike's mom is available to babysit. I missed my baby like crazy but it was good to get out and feel useful again. I am soo glad that I am not returning to work fulltime. I can't imagine not seeing my baby for 8 hours everyday.
Tanya

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The Difficult way to sell a car.

I am sure that you are thinking that this blog has turned out to be Tanya’s blog…Well, I have decided to post something. The “Little” story of me selling my car.

So I have been trying to sell my car since April. Put the sign in the car window…parked in WalMart parking lot…nothing. Posted it on Craigslist…one potential but nothing came of it. Put it on Cars.com and in the Boston Globe - $70 and not even one lead!! Finally, receive an e-mail from eBay saying that they are having a $1 automobile listing fee (instead of the normal $40), so I jump on the chance and post it on eBay for $19,000. Within 3 days, the listing has received over 300 hits and probably 5 questions or leads. Finally one guy (from Canada) makes me an offer of $18,300 and I accept. He puts in a PayPal deposit of $500, but they take $20 of that for “fees” – jerks since they are owned by eBay now and eBay is soaking me for $50 for actually selling the car… So, we start talking on a daily basis trying to finalize everything. There is A LOT of paperwork and stuff needed to import a vehicle into Canada. What I needed to give:

1.) 3 Copies of the Deposit Bill of Sale and 3 Copies of the Title at the Customs office 3 days before he planned on going through.
2.) Need Recall Maintenance Letter from Subaru stating all recalls have been done.
3.) DRL – I had to reenable for him.

That was the easy part ;). We try to decide on the most secure way to get me money. I figure cashier’s check, but I tell him that he needs to fax me a copy so I can verify the funds. He does so and I call the bank he created it on…They tell me “it appears to be a valid check”…Hmm. So I call the issuing bank and they say that it is a valid account but can’t tell me anymore information…Hmm. So I bring it to my bank and they tell me it can take up to 9 days to clear and the bank can put a stop payment…NO DICE. I call him back and tell him what I have done and that I will need CASH in hand to complete the sale as that it the only way to guarantee. So he says, let me check on what I can do since I don’t want to carry a huge amount of cash over the border (claim it at customs and all that). I say, Cash in hand or no dice. He would have title and car and I would have bupkiss…So he calls me back and says that because of the exchange rate change, it is going to cost him $350 to get the cashier’s check converted to traveler’s checks. We decide to split the difference as an escrow service would cost $200 and either party could cause the money to be stuck in Escrow…no thanks.

He is an honest guy because when we meet finally he says that they didn’t charge him to convert the check so I don’t owe him $175…nice guy. In the meantime, I have recently noticed that the car steering wheel vibrated when braking, so I mention that I need to replace the rotors because they are warped. I tell him I can do cross-drilled or OEM and that from experience cross-drilled rotors make a minor humming noise at high speeds from the air going through. He says OEM (which is fine because he would be arriving within a week and it is cutting it close to order the cross-drilled off of eBay and get them here and installed in time).
I go to Pepboys, AutoZone, VIP, etc…nobody has them!!! So I have to go to the dealer to purchase them at $90/each!!! I purchase front and rears just in case replacing the fronts doesn’t fix the problem. I pick up new front pads at PepBoys and new rear pads at AutoZone (neither had both sets J)…So he is scheduled to arrive on July 5th and so on June 22nd, Hip and I start the process of replacing the rotors. We take off the wheel and put the new rotor up to the old rotor and NO DICE…wrong one…SUBARU gave me the wrong one!! So I have to wait until Saturday to go to Subaru and get the right rotors… After getting the right rotors, we start working on replacing them again. We replace the rotor on the passenger side and 30 minutes later, new pads and rotors on that side. We move to the driver’s side…get the wheel off, the caliper off…but we can’t get the bolt off the caliper bracket…someone torque it to like 200-300 ft lbs (spec is 65 ft lbs!!). Mike and I are jumping on the breaker bar and nothing and then FINALLY it moves, but alas, the bolt has broken off!!! WTF…so luckily we can still get the bracket off and head to the dealer for a new bolt and hopefully a new bracket.

Dealer charges $5/bolt for a 1.25x12mm bolt with a lock washer!!! Get 2 just in case, Dealer says that there are 0 brackets in the country…NOOOO, so Mike and I decide that we will drill out the old bolt as close to the old threads as possible and tap out the old thread and hopefully it will work. We are able to get the threads out this way and the new bolt works like a champ…put the thing back together 4 hours later and the car no longer vibrates. Replace the rear pads and the car brakes like a sports car. Return the rotors to Subaru who says that they normally charge 15% restocking but since they screwed up, they won’t charge us. I am like, “Thank you” buddy because nowhere on any paper does it say that there is a restocking fee!!

Well when I was picking up the rotors at Subaru, I noticed that they had a hail team there to take care of the cars with hail damage on them. We had hail on June 2nd. I didn’t think I had hail damage, but after seeing this team here, I decide to take a second look (closer) and found hundreds of marks on the roof and sides of the car from it (nothing major, but annoying none the less). I figured that I should get it taken care of because the guy I am selling the car to is picking it up next Friday and this is a week and a half before he arrives.

So, I called Progressive on Monday since it is covered under comprehensive. They told me to bring it to Dobles so they can get an estimate and timeframe. When I brought it to Dobles, knowing that I needed the car back by next week, I said that if they couldn’t get it done in a wednesday to let me know since I NEED the car next week and maybe we can reschedule or whatever (figuring to myself that I would just let it be since the guy was getting such a good price anyway) and the insurance company could just cut me a check. Well, on Tuesday, the appraiser calls me back and says there is $3500 (I have a $100 deductible) in damage from the hail and that it won’t be done until the 12th. I say that is unacceptable as I NEED the car next week and I told Dobles this. He tells me that they have already started on the work. I tell him if they can’t guarantee it by next Wednesday then I need the car back, will pay Dobles for work finished and we can figure out the rest of the payment or another location or whatnot. He calls them and then calls me back and says they have a dedicated guy working on it but can’t guarantee anything. I say no…I NEED it by next Wednesday…this is not negotiable and I told them. He tells me they don’t remember me telling them. I say, they can say I didn’t but I know that I did because I NEED it by next Wednesday. He calls them back and then calls me back and says that they are guaranteeing it for next Tuesday.

Now I am SCARED because I NEED the car back to give to the guy on Thursday (he is coming in Thursday evening to look at the car and we will complete transaction on Friday). This is not negotiable! The guy bought his plane ticket already. I don’t want to lose this large sale…I have heard guarantee’s before and they can mean nothing. So I ask Matt Forest because his dad works at Dobles. His dad checks on it and says it will be done in time and the guy working on it is the best they have there.

So I get the car back on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I inspect the work done and verify everything is in order for when the guy arrives. Overall very well done for the time constraint. Of course, because I am a perfectionist, I have some complaints. I could tell that he had to rush through the job and probably would have complained if I wasn't selling the car because it wasn't perfect.
1- He clear coated Over the clear bra on the fenders – this is probably the worst of all. If the whole car had a clear bra, then it would be super strong, but it looked kind of weird having just this section (Fenders with a clear bra) and then running your hand over it and noticing that it was clear coated over.
2- When he sprayed over the scuff on the bumper, it looked like he just quickly went over the spot with the paint sprayer because it was a little rough and different color than the rest of the bumper.
3- I can tell they took off the front bumper, because it didn't line up like it had previously as I could see where the bumper should have clipped in near the headlights.
4- They took off the rear bumper and when they put it back on, they couldn't get it as snug because it was not forming as tightly to the body of the vehicle.
5- When they painted the rear bumper, they over sprayed on to the muffler.
6- The spoiler light was loose (I tightened it with a Phillips screwdriver in 2 seconds, but come on).
7- There was a nut rolling around in the trunk lid that I was able to remove. It made a clinking sound when opening/closing the trunk which is not good when trying to sell the vehicle.. 8- They took off the trunk rug because it was sitting kind of loose in the back. I pulled it tight and put some of the clips back in.
9- The driver's side door had some bumps on it below the paint and clear coat (as it felt smooth) when you looked at it in the light.
10- The places he painted had noticeable orange peel – worse than from factory.
11- The rear glass must have been removed because there was glue visible when the trunk was open.

But because these were minor and they detailed the car, the car sale went really well (Also because the car was in such good condition). It took us from 8:30AM to 1:30PM to complete the whole thing. We went to Meineke on Elm St. (he chose the place) to have them look at the car. They REALLY liked the car and said there was absolutely nothing wrong with the vehicle. Although they did notice that the caliper bracket had a new bolt in it. I told them that the front rotors were replaced because there was vibration in the steering wheel while braking and that when we tried taking the bolt out of the driver side bracket, it was so torqued down that it broke off and we had to drill out the pieces and tap the threads to clean them out and that we purchased the bolt from Subaru. Then after leaving the mechanics, we went to TD BankNorth with his 178 traveler's checks so he could cash them. We waited about 3 hours there for them to cash all of the checks after he signed them all. Then we went to my bank with the Cash and deposited it. Then we went to the DMV for the 20-day in-transit plates and we were done.

So that is my vehicle sale story ;)

LIFT and peanut butter choc bars





Yesterday we took Keira to LIFT in Boston.. LIFT is another name for worship for a new generation. It combines Adoration, praise and worship music and an inspirational speaker into an interesting evening experience. Anyways so we wanted to check it out so we brought Keira with us --Unfortunately the music was SO loud that I was afraid for my little monkey's ears so we had to take her outside during the music. We could still hear the music outside so we didn't really miss anything and it was a beautiful night so Keira laid on her blanket and looked around and laughed and smiled and I listened to the music.. a friend of ours joined us outside and text messaged a pic of us hanging out outside to Mike who was inside.. apparently he felt guilty so he came outside and joined us! :o) Uncle Matt was kind enough to take Keira during Adoration so Mike and I where able to enjoy that. I did remember to bring my camera this time but it was too dark inside to take pictures. Keira was a very well behaved little girl- the pics are of Mike putting her in her car seat- she was laughing. We didn't end up going to bed until 1130 pm and I figured Keira's self set schedule was all messed up so I expected her to wake me up a few times- instead she slept till 6 30 am.... :o) It was lovely.

In other news- Mike has decided to help me out with my post partum weight loss my buying and making decadent desserts... b/c if he makes them I of course have to eat them!!! Reeses peanut butter choc bars are low calorie snacks right???

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

wiggling Keira





Keira is getting a little wiggly- This morning when we woke up we found her sleeping on her stomach- We always put her on her side to sleep b/c she hates sleeping flat on her back. Apparently she had rolled onto her stomach- not an easy feat since she is swaddled from the neck down!! She also can scoot over the boppy. I usually put her on it face down and arms hanging over so she can do "tummy time"- yesterday we figured out that if we put our hand behind her feet she sill push off your hand and scoot herself up and over the boppy.

why can't I remember to bring my camera...


So I really haven't been meaning to neglect the blog- and we actually have gone and done things problem is- I ALWAYS forget to bring the camera... and half the fun of reading and posting blogs is the pictures!!!

Here is a quick update on whats going on with everyone

In Tanya news- I decided to pick up a few hours at work since Mike's mom has some extra time to babysit b/c its summer... I am starting off SLOW- very slow..... Thursday I am going to go back to work for 3-4 hours in the afternoon... :o) nothing profitable to the family income really but it will give me an excuse to get out and see if there is any intelligence left after childbirth. We will be sure to let everyone know how that goes. Yesterday I had my 6 week post partum checkup and I have healed from all my stitches... YAH :o) that is always a good thing I guess. OHhhh- I had originally refused to give in and buy "transitional" clothing- I still can't fit in my regular pre-pregnancy clothes and I didn't want to buy any new ones in hopes that if I just wear my maternity pants for a few more weeks then by then I can wear my regular stuff.... RIGHT.. My ob said to give it at least 6 months ... so I went out and bought some "transitional" clothing.... its nice to have some new stuff and I now officially have clothing in size 4-12 and everything in between. Too bad I don't really have a closet to store it all...

In Mike news- Mike is in the middle of 2 projects as usual and he has about another 10-15 planned out in his head. He did install my laundry sink in the basement so now I have some place to scrub the occasional poop stains from Keira's clothes- so I am pretty excited about that.... He is currently working on building a wall at his parents house and on putting up our new fence which is half up.... (see pic)

In Keira news....- well Keira gets her own personal blog entry...

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Don't buy this onesie....





So lately my little monkey usually goes to bed between 9 and 10 pm and has been sleeping normally until about 3-4 am when she wakes up to eat. She normally sleeps in just a onesie b/c we swaddle her very tightly. They have these really cute onesies at Target that have cute little sayings on them. We got several for gifts at my baby shower. Some of the phrases are "Tax Deduction", "Does this outfit make my butt look big" and "Party in my crib at 2 am"- Well last night I put the "Party in my crib at 2 am" onesie on her b/c it was on top in the drawer. Well of course the little stinker woke up at 1:30... I tried to ignore her grunts and whines b/c sometimes she just goes back to sleep- well she just got louder and louder and I had to give in and feed her. Then when I was changing her diaper she started laughing and smiling.... and then as soon as I put the clean diaper on her and started swaddling her so I could put her back in her bassinet she proceeded to fill up her diaper so I had to unswaddle her and change her again- But this time I was wide awake.. so apparently she thought last night was party night!!!
Tanya

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

staying at home..




Well next Monday would have been my return to work date had I been returning to work full time b/c Keira will be 6 weeks old on Friday. At this point I will probably return some time to work "per Diem" which is working an occasional shift or half a shift whenever I feel like it. I can't imagine going back to work full time this quickly. Keira still feels so young to me and I have yet to fully catch up on sleep and regain my "old self." I do feel lucky to be staying at home with her although I feel slighty useless. At the end of the day I look back and think- hmmm what did I do all day?? Definitely nothing exciting- fed Keira about 2o times, changed her diaper an equal number of times, washed dishes, did laundry and made dinner- oh yeah and an occasional trip to Target or Wal-Mart and a daily walk- It is fun to be with Keira all day- although I would be lying to say that it wasn't a tad bit boring every now and then. I have joined a mom's group and that has been fin to meet other local moms. Thankfully Mike comes home for lunch everyday and gives me an excuse for some adult conversation.
Any how- The far right pics are of Keira doing the dreaded 'tummy time" she isn't a big fan and while usually whine quite loudly... This morning I got on the floor with her on my belly and looked right at her... she looked right back .. as if to say.. " Come on mom- this is boring... who needs to develope their neck muscles anyway??"
Tanya

Saturday, July 07, 2007

bathtime For Ari



Don't you wish you enjoyed your bath this much???

Grandpa and the babies...




Dominic and Keira- 4 days apart!!!