multiple species of mold.....

Mike thought everyone would want to see the variety of mold that was growing on the drywall behind the paneling in our basement. This was not from this years flooding- we are guessing its from last year's May ( think our wedding weekend) flood. Thankfully- it was only on the drywall and paneling- NOT on the concrete- so now that Mike has removed the last of it - its all GONE!!!!!! No more mold!!!We are going to pain the concrete a light color in that Drylock stuff so its prettier to look at..... :o)

Well we are off to our last baby shower. :o) We will post more pics soon.

Its rather funny b/c on Monday I told my OB that Keira had me a little worried because she had ceased moving as much for the prior several days- The doc said she was probably running out of room in there and since her heartbeat was strong she said not to worry- Well starting on Tuesday she seems to have either woke up or been on a constant sugar high- She has been moving around tons and constantly kicking me in the ribcage!!! Its almost like she heard me say she was being to quiet and said " HA- they think I am docile!!I'll show them!!" As I write this she is kicking me.....

Tanya

YAHHH its Friday!!

Gotta love fridays. Its always nice to have 2 days ahead of you where you don't have to think about getting to work on time and dealing with co-workers, etc. Its supposed to be nice weather this weekend too so that makes me excited!! Its been gloriously sunny, although a bit cool in the 60's. At night its been about 32 so I had to bring some of my flowers inside and cover the rest of them with towels at night.
Nothing to exciting on tap for this weekend. We have our second baby shower with my side of the family. Its at my Dad's house in Warner so we will be doing that tomorrow. Other than that we hope to continue house projects...basement work, second floor dry wall, yard work. I wish we could both take a week off and get some things done but Mike has zero vacation time and I don't get a paid maternity leave except for what vacation time I have saved up- so I best leave that alone. I have about 3 weeks saved up so far.
Well I should probably get back to writing thank you nots for all the cool baby gifts we received at our shower last weekend. Happy Friday to all.... :o)
Tanya

to do list and our new house guests :o(

Keira just had her first professional photo.. ( in utereo of course). Ste Marie's is doing one of those church directories. So we went to have our photo done for the church directory and the guy wanted to take some preggo pics of just me.... Anyways Mike loved one of the pics he took so we ended up being suckers and buying one of their over priced pictures. It was the only one out of the like 12 that he took that was half way decent. We aren't photogenic people I guess... :o)

I went for a walk today to see if it would give me any contractions- No such luck. :o(

We have been busy trying to get things done before Keira shows up. We got our life insurance all squared away so we can check that off our list to things to do before Keira shows up- Now we need to do our will- Trying to pick a guardian ( in the event of the death of both of us) for a child that we haven't met has got to be one of the hardest things to do!!! We have had the paperwork to do the will sitting on our coffee table for weeks and have yet to fill it out because we can't decide on a guardian for little Keira.

hmmm the most exciting news of the day is that some lovely teeny tiny ants have decided to take up residence with us and without even asking us have moved right into our kitchen. The are the most annoying guests ever and Mike has promptly gone to work to speed up their demise.. We will keep you posted.

The sugar monster has struck Mike and he said if I find a dessert recipe for him to make he will do the dishes.. :o) so I better find a dessert recipe since he is almost done with the dishes. Personally I think he should wait until we have at least confirmation that the ants are dead and gone before we go spreading the sugar around but apparently the sugar cravings are to much to bear...... I am trying to stay away from the sugar as I have gained 39 pounds as of today with this little alien growing in my belly. Mike constantly making desserts isn't helping!!!

Baby shower!!!

Yesterday we had a baby shower with Mike's family. Mike's Aunt Kim hosted a great party with TONS of yummy food. We got so many beautiful gifts. Keira has way more clothes than me for sure!! The gift that was the biggest hit was the baby swing- everyone said. " OHHH you need that for sure- those things really work!" So I guess its a good thing we have a swing... :o)

The first pic is a picture of the Awesome cake they had.

In less exciting news- At my 35 week doctors appointment today my blood pressure has starting to go up and my weight/water gain the past to weeks is a little high. Since my mother had pre-eclampisa pretty badly with Greg and apparently it can be genetic they are going to watch things closely- and I have to weight myself everyday as well. SOOOOO ready for this baby to show up!!

Spring flower pics

The mailbox garden was actually alot of work- although it probably doesn't look it!! I didn't think I had the strength to use a regular shovel so I dug out all the grass around it with a teeny tiny hand shovel!! It was good exercise though. Of course the flower bed will look alot nicer once the flowers fill out and grow a bit. I am going to add some sort of climbing plant to the mailbox garden- that way it will grow up the mailbox post. The nurseries out here still don't have much yet in terms of options b/c its still a bit early to plant anything. The plants in the containers on on the front porch.

EARLY EARLY am thoughts.. :o)

I'm obviously feeling a lack of words this week- as you can tell due to my lack of blog posts. I guess life has been pretty standard around here this week.

Well now its really early- 5 :45 am- and this time its Mike's fault that I am awake. He is supposed to meet his dad and friends at 6 30 am to drive down to MA to do some handyman projects for a group of Franciscan Monks so of course he woke me up.. and once I wake up I gotta feed the belly or else!!! So anyways I am munching on goldfish crackers again and trying to think of things to do all by my lonesome today. I have a nice long list of chores for myself- clean the bathroom, mop the floors, laundry- Funny thing is I don't feel like doing any of them!!! Maybe it has something to do with my big gut!!

Oh well the gut is just going to get bigger- one of Mike's friends just showed up with Donuts!! I know Keira likes donuts...... :o)

I wanted to work on the yard this weekend- I am waiting for Mike to dig the stumps of those bushes we torn down out of the ground- so until he does that I can't plant anything there. We did however go to Lowe's last night and I bought a few flowers- Mike spray potted my ugly green planting pots (think 70ish pukey green) to a flat black so I going to put some flowers in those- its cloudy and rainy outside but oh well- I have to get out of the house!!

I will be back later to posts some pics of my flowers!!!! :o)

early am thoughts....

Wow- Its Wednesday already- I guess I have been neglecting the blog lately. Oooops. We haven't had much that is "blogworthy" to write about- although I am not sure what the rules are that makes things "blogworthy"
Its shortly after 6 am and regardless of the fact that I am tired- I had to drag myself out of bed because my stomach is screaming to be fed- and when that happens its best to feed it or ELSE risk throwing up!! So here I am sitting on the couch trying not to fall back asleep, munching on goldfish crackers. Mike is of course sleeping...... everytime I get up in the middle of the night to go the bathroom- which is pretty much every 2 hours I get so envious of his uninterrupted sleep!!!! I don't even remember what uninterrupted sleep feels like- and I am sure its only going to get worse.
So anyways- Last night I realized that at 34 weeks we are getting really close to meeting this stranger who has been residing in my uterus for far to long. Last night I asked Mike if he knew what he is supposed to do to help me out during labor and he gives me that- "how should I know? " look. I could throw some books at him to read but I don't think he would read them as he isn't much of the reading type. Most of the time he researches anything he needs info on via the Internet. I try to suggest that maybe he should Google labor and delivery and the whole birth process so maybe he has a vague clue about what is going on but he doesn't seem to interested and all the bloody- gorey details. Hmmmm maybe this decision NOT to take childbirth classes wasn't such a good one. We being cheap did not want to pay for the classes, and I myself have seen about 5 births so I feel like I have a good idea about what is going to happen. Not so sure in Mike's case!!!!
Tomorrow we are taking the maternity ward tour- although I will be delivering at the hospital that I worked at for 3 years- My OB insists I should take a tour of the maternity ward and learn about the admission process, procedures, etc. So we are doing that tomorrow evening. Other than Keira being head down and nestled really low in my pelvis and my uterus feeling so stretched that I am surprised it doesn't explode- I am not sure how anxious she is to get out of there. I have not so much as had one contraction so I dunno. I on the other hand am VERY anxious to get her out of there!!!!! I feel like I have been pregnant forever.
In other news the truck has proved very useful lately- We used it sat to load up our donated swing set. We used it Sunday to pick up a patio set my dad said we could have. Monday we loaded all that moldy drywall into it so we can take it to the dump as our curbside pick- up does not pick up construction waste.
It gave us a little scare Monday night as the truck was making a "funny" noise. Mike called Hippert over to look at it and within 2 min of looking under the hood they determined it was the alternator. When they told me that I thought (uh no!!! - here we go- Old cars and their constant repairs) Mike and Hippert headed to the auto store that is 2 min down the road and returned about 10 min later with an "alternator" . 10 min later it was all fixed and they declared the truck good as new. Wow that was alot easier than I thought!!!
Anyways- time to get ready for work- Happy Hump day to you all!
Tanya

Spring cleaning

The first 2 pics are the before and after pics of the bushes ( of course we still need to dig out the stumps)
The third pic is the pile of moldy paneling removed from the basement.
The fourth pic is the old pathetic excuse for a clothesline that we torn apart.
The fifth pic is the pieces of the swing set that we will put together.

The nice warm weather continues to today we went to 8 AM mass ( which typically is the old folks mass) so we could get some other things done. Mike's parents came over to help us with some projects. Mike and his dad have been extremely hard at work tearing down all the old paneling on the walls. When the water leaked in our basement this week from the FLOOD we realized behind the paneling was the dreaded MOLD... thank goodness its only on the paneling so once that is gone so is the MOLD. So mike and his dad have been removing paneling all day. Mike's mom and I went and did some shoppping and now she is attacking my bushes out front. In place on the bushes are going to be flower beds!!!!! :o)

a glimpse of spring..

We have had amazingly beautiful weather this weekend so we have been super busy trying to cram everything that we have wanted to do lately into the 2 day weekend. Sat am we drove to a friends house to pick up a swing set- ( yes I know its a little early for a swing set) Our friends son had outgrown it and they gave it to us for free. So Mike dismantled it and we loaded it into the truck and brought it home. I scrubbed all the dirt off of it and it looks great. Now Mike just has to put it back together. Hey I figure I can attach a baby swing to it and by fall Keira should be big enough to sit in a swing so its not really that premature in getting one....
The first picture is of mike washing his car ( more on that further on) the second of a rake and our yard waste bucket ( just the fact that there is a rake leaning up next to the house where normally there is a snow shovel is amazing!!) and the third picture is my load of jeans drying in the sun. ( more on that further on)

Sat afternoon Mike spent three and 1/2 hours washing and sprucing up his car. I wandered around our yard raking up leaves and sprucing things up.

My favorite part of this weather though - is being able to hang laundry out to dry. I LOVE hanging clothes out to dry in the sun- We always had a clothesline growing up and I just love the smell of clothes that have dried in the sun. The previous owner of our house had one of those teeny- tiny metal tree type of clothes lines- I set out to use it yesterday and realized that the lines we all moldy and the metal part all rusty- So we took it apart and Mike promised to build me a real clothes line someday soon. In the meantime the deck works as a clothesline some what. :o)

Hmm Not sure why the 80's night videos aren't there... I will have Mike look into that- They are hysterical to listen to and watch!!!!
Tomorrow I hit the 34 week mark with this pregnancy- Thank God this is almost over!!!!! For some reason I am back to throwing up again which is NOOO fun. :o(

It's a miracle!!!

Wow- the sun does still shine in NH!!! After 1 week of rain anf clouds the sun has finally returned!!! I was starting to think I might crawl into bed and hibernate till spring!! And the weather man just said that yesterday we hit 60 degrees for the first time in almost 3 weeks.... Lets hope winter decides to leave us and bother someone else.... :o)

Who's the pregnant one???

Sooo there is that phenomenon that men have backaches, cravings etc along with their pregnant wives. Well, even before I got pregnant, Mike definitely outdid me with the sugar cravings- Lately he has been getting the baking "itch". He will just randomly decide that he needs to make dessert. I make dinner every night but I am not much in to baking so I don't usually make dessert. Well, at 8 pm, he decided "we need a dessert" and wanders into the kitchen to whip up a sugary concoction. He makes not only one, but two desserts... I wonder if I can blame my 37 lb pregnancy weight gain on him!!!

P.S. IT IS OVER...SANJAY MALAKAR HAS FINALLY GOTTEN WHAT HE DESERVED AND WAS VOTED OFF AMERICAN IDOL LAST NIGHT!!! YEAH!!!

P.P.S If you want to see more pics or a video from 80s Night check out: http://picasaweb.google.com/SMYAMevents/80SNight

Hydraulic Cement = GODSEND

Thanks to Doris and Imo for their suggestion of using Water Stop (Hydraulic Cement)...it has otherwise saved us from hours and hours of emptying our shop vac (we were getting 12 gallons an hour)...

 

Anyways...I am tired - physically and mentally.  For the last 2 days I have been chipping and filling and mixing and chipping and filling and mixing.  It all started with the exorbitant amount of rain that we received last May...It raised the water table and it has never had a chance to go down...so this year, when we receive days and days of rain, it adds to the already saturated water table.  Then it finds any crack/hole it can and comes through the foundation.  Which is the problem that we have, we were getting water in about 10 different places...

 

7AM Monday morning, Tanya and I get up, make breakfast and then I mention that with the rain of the last 2 days, we should go check the basement and see if we have water.  She goes down to check and I hear her yell "Mike...you need to come down here"...at which point, I think "I guess that means we have water" ;)  So I go downstairs and see about 12 gallons of water by the bulkhead...and I quickly take a look around the rest of the basement and don't see any water.  We vacuum up the water and empty the Shop Vac and notice that there are 2 pinholes around the door jam where the water is coming in.  Well...I don't know what to do except that we could keep vacuuming it until it stops in the next week or so and then repair the holes when the foundation is dry, so I call my dad because maybe he has a better idea.  He comes over and tells me to call Imo because Imo had mentioned to him of a product that could be applied while there is water coming out...at which point I am very interested and immediately call.  He tells me it is called Water Stop (aka Hydraulic Cement).  I pick some up as well as a masonry chisel because you have to have a hole that it as least 1/4".

 

We also get some sandbags to keep the water from going into the rest of the basement.  I test the hydraulic cement on a crack that I have found behind one of the tool racks that was dripping water slowly.  It works great but I put it on too wet and so it is good I tested it on a spot that wasn't really squirting out.

 

So I chisel out the spots that are the source of major flow and of course when you chisel, it opens the hole and more water starts flowing...luckily hydraulic cement is fully cured in 5 minutes.  So I fill in the cracks and push the cement as far in as it can go because when it dries it expands.  It takes awhile but the flow stops!!  So I fill in the second one and that's when we find out that there is a 3rd spot under the sink.  We remove the sink and there is a constant flow coming from where the sewer pipe goes into the concrete...fill that in and the water is really slowing down.  That's when you see the other spots that are letting water in- either because they already were but not able to be seen with the other water coming in or the stop of the flow has caused new weak spots to appear. 

 

So we continued chipping and filling the rest of the day, and by the end of the night we had stopped a lot of flow, but there was still probably 6 gallons every 4 hours coming in.  So luckily Tanya was nice enough to get up 2 times during the night to vacuum up the water as I was too exhausted to do it.  The next day, I tell work that I have to continue chipping and filling in so I wouldn't be able to come in.  So I continued filling and chipping the rest of the next day and finally got the water to stop flowing in and now we just have 2 spots behind some walls (to be taken down this weekend) to fill in which is flowing about 1 pint every 8 hours which is a MIRACLE.

 

After filling in the cracks, I wired up a new light in the hall upstairs (lower on the stairs) and replaced one of the old cables as it didn't have a full jacket on the wiring and they didn't use wire nuts (it was just electrical tape) so it should be A LOT SAFER now.

 

Anyways...that was my exciting 4 days :(

Spring 2006 all OVER AGAIN.....

Those of you who came to our wedding ( from outside NH) will probably remember how it rained nonstop the whole weekend. For those of us that live in NH we remember how it it rained and rained and rained some more the entire month of May last year- But it was particularly bad mothers day weekend or the weekend of our wedding with lots of flooding everywhere and everyone complaining of water in their basements. Well its like Deja Vu !!!
Its supposed to be springtime in NH and of course its flooding again. What the weather forecasters predicted as a Nor'easter has turning into a Monsoon. Its rained Non stop for over 24 hours and very heavily at times- Leaving us with several inches of rain to contend with-
This morning when we woke up it was still raining heavily- we checked our basement as this is the first "major ' storm since we have owned our house and we found some water in our basement- Not alot- just one corner with about 1/2 inch of water- We vacuumed it up and thought we were doing pretty good- Low and behold it has finally stopped raining and now there is water coming in in the basement in 3 spots- 2 of them heavily-. Mike and his dad have been down in the basement vacuuming up water and plugging up areas of the concrete ALL day...
The joys of home ownership.... :o( Luckily nothing is ruined b/c everything down in the basement is either up on wooden blocks or in waterproof containiners- Thank goodness for Rubbermaid containers.
The east coast weather is really starting to bother me... maybe its time to think about moving somewhere warm and dry- like southern California maybe or New Mexico...
Both Mike and I took the day off today- Our last day off together was several months ago..... What a way to enjoy your day off!! Hope everyone else's day is better than ours...
:o) Tanya

80's night.. :o)

I think the pics speak for themselves!!! We obviously went to an 80's /kareoke party last night- yes we were in costume- no we don't dress like this normally!!!!!!

Home projects...

Well we finally hit 50 degrees again- but they are calling for another nor'eastioner for tomorrow into Monday so I guess that means I still can't tackle my front yard landscaping "project." We have some very boring square bushes out front that I am hoping to replace with something more exciting - such as maybe a perennial garden. So I am stuck inside planning my flower gardens on paper until its finally warm enough to actually plant things in the ground.
Mike wanted to tear down our falling part wooden fence in the back yard but since the ground is still to cold to be digging in the ground and putting in a new vinyl fence we figured we would leave it alone for another few weeks.

Sooooo in the meantime- Mike is back working at the stubborn drywall upstairs and I am thumbing through my landscaping and garden plan magazines trying to piece together the perfect flower garden for our front yard.

The pics are of the walls in the stairway going to the second floor where the guest room and office are. Once the new dry wall is up and primed etc- we are going to paint the walls a light yellow and get some new stair rugs to put on the wooden stairs. So yes we are still working on our own version of "Flip this house" Its likely to continue for years....:o)
Tanya

Not Again!!!!!!!!

I have nothing to say except I HATE SNOW!!!! :O((((

Happy Hump Day

Happy Wednesday to you all- There really isn't anything at all that is happy about Wednesdays except that they closer to fridays than Mondays!!!

On our list of things to do before Keira arrives is to write out our will and get life insurance. Well we finally got on the ball and ordered life insurance- so the lady just came to check our blood pressure and weight- and of course we had to give blood and urine samples so they can make sure we aren't on drugs or have a cholesterol of 900.

Mike and Hippert were working on the truck this evening- Mike took it to get inspected and the guy said it was in beautful condition- there was one 40 dollar part that needed to be replaced so Mike and Hippert were working on that- they have since finished and moved on to trying to fix our snow blower as the forecast is calling for 6 inches on snow tonight!!!!!!!! (Mike won't be happy if we have to shovel tomorrow AM before work) I actually like shoveling snow- unless of course its that heavy half melted watery stuff- that is wayyyyyy to heavy to shovel. After 2 weeks of winter like temps again-today we finally hit 50 degrees and had a beautiful sunny day and its all back to winter tomorrow. AHHH -losing patience with this winter weather in spring!! Makes me grumpy. :o(

Here are some shots of Mike and Mike Hippert working on the truck....

It's true what they say about the DMV

DMV
So...yesterday I embarked on registering and getting plates for my new truck...since it is more than 15 years old (1989), I don't need a title or previous registration (which I don't have).

So I went to register the vehicle and was told that in addition to the Bill of Sale, I need a VIN Verification form filled out by an inspection station in which they have to physically look at the VIN on the truck and sign a piece of paper confirming it hasn't been altered or such. But in order to do that, I need to bring the truck to the inspection station...but I need plates to do that..."oh you can buy temporary plates from the DMV for $10"...then you can fill out the VIN verification form...then you can register...then you can get plates...then you can get it inspected. What a convoluted process...oh well, it is at the inspection place getting inspected and I have the form filled out so I can register it today (hopefully)...if it passes inspection, I will be able to drive it on the road...but then I want to insure it before I drive it...mostly in case I hit someone else, not too worried about damage to the truck since it has a "real" bumper...not a plastic one...

But now I need to figure out a vanity plate because an anonymous donor has graciously agreed to pay the $25 for the vanity plate...

Easter
Well...Easter has come and gone but once again the Easter Vigil was AMAZING. It amazes me that every year Ste. Marie's packs in a full house for major holidays, but even on a weekly 11:30AM mass, the church is usually full or nearly full. It is not only a testament to what the pastor has done with the place, but of the devoted nature of the parishioners. Back to the Vigil - I was graciously honored to be one of the lecters that Ste. Marie's used. We had to bring flashlights since they had the lights in the church turned off. It is amazing when they have all of the lights off and you just see the glow from the candles that all of the parishioners hold; candles that were lit from the new fire of the Paschal candle. The music ministry ( http://www.hiscovenant.com/) alternates with the choir every other year and this year was their year to perform. Personally I enjoy the Charismatic music more than the classical church music and this year did not let me down. I could feel the Holy Spirit moving in the church while we sang during the Baptisms and Confirmations and then during Communion, the music ministry sang Agnus Dei. It was this that brought me to the culmination of the mass during the reception of communion...and just like everytime the Spirit moves within me, it caused me to display outward emotion, which anybody that knows me, knows that I do not do very well...And although I get emotional at this time, it brings me the most fulfilling joy that is inexplicable unless you have experienced yourself.

So anytime people ask me why I go to the Easter Vigil - "That's a 3-hour mass" - I tell them that it is one of the most amazing masses of the year...So I anxiously await the Pentecost Vigil...and get their early because you will never get a seat otherwise ;0

trucks and dry wall

Hello all- Oops we didn't post yesterday. Yesterday was a crazy, busy day for both Mike and I- at work and at home. We went to Mike's parents house after dinner to celebrate his mom's birthday and we were both so drained that we came home and went right to bed....
Anyways- So as alot of you know Mike is trying to come up with a unique word for his personalized license plate for the truck- He was going to do mantown because that is what he calls his area of the basement where all his tools and his "workshop " is but apparently there is some radio or TV show called that -- that is vulgar and derogatory to woman so he doesn't want that on there. So if anyone has a unique word to put on the license plate of a 'man" truck send your suggestion our way....
We have both lost patience with trying to tear off the 4 layers of wallpaper on the walls in the stairway and the upstairs bedrooms. Despite using wall paper remover we have to do so much scraping that the wall is sort of crumbling off with the wallpaper so Mike has decided to tear down the walls and put up all new dry wall. So once again our house is under major construction- only thankfully this time its not our general living
space- the upstairs currently houses our guest bedroom and the office/computer room.
Well that is all the exciting thoughts of the day I can think of at the moment-
Tanya

Easter Images.. 07

Here are some random Easter pics from the Kalpakgian Easter..... Ignore the date on the pics- its wrong as usual- We keep forgetting to change it.

New Truck - 4MNTOWN

So...I got the new truck...and it is MANLY (ARR...ARR...ARRRR)
Anyways...here are some pics. I wanted to get vanity plates, but apparently it isn't in the budget- I don't know why ;)...

Holy Saturday-

One dedicated blogger reader has informed me that it has been several days since my last post so I figured I had better get blogging....
So our snow is still hanging around b/c our highs have only been in the high 30's low 40's- Please no comments about how you are enjoying spring, watching flowers bloom, etc- they aren't welcome!!!
We have been rather busy with holy week activities hence the lack of posts- also Neither Mike nor I had good Friday off so its been a busy couple of days. Thurs eve was mass, washing of the feet- and then our parish has this really awsome tradition where they process through the streets of manch vegas with the Eucharist and a couple hundred people singing with candles- Its very moving and beautiful. The local newspaper claims we walked 2 miles but in reality its really less than a mile I believe. This year it was very cold not quiet as enjoyable as last year where it was warm and balmy.
Last night was the good Friday celebration and then a bunch of our friends came over to watch Mel Gibson's Passion movie- its become a yearly good Friday tradition to watch that movie.
Anyways- so 2 hours of church Thurs night, Friday night, and tonight we are going to the vigil which is sooooooo cool and beautiful but also a full three hours long. Mike is lecturing so he will be up on the alter and I will probably be in the back trying to stay awake. :o) I normally start falling asleep on the couch around 8ish and last night we were up late watching the movie so this should be interesting!
In other news- we are picking up the truck today- so we will post pics so you can all see our "man truck" as mike likes to call it. For whoever that asked- the truck has a second row seat or back seat so we will be able to throw Keira's car seat in the back in the rare occasion that we all ride in it- its mostly to haul stuff from Home Depot and Lowe's. We have had 2 people interested in the Jetta- one was a complete scam from some guy in the UK who offered to send us a "check" for 18,000 ( we are selling the jetta for 10,000) and then he wanted us to send him a check for 8,000- how he was going to pick the car up being that he lives in the UK is beyond us.... We told him to get lost......
Tomorrow we are headed to my dad's house for Easter breakfast and lunch and to hang out with my family and then to Mike's aunt's house for Easter dinner. We will post some pics of our siblings cute munchkins enjoying Easter... :o)
Stay tuned for truck pictures!!!!
Tanya

WHY! WHY! WHY! DO I have to wakeup to this!!

So...it is April 5th...Puxatawny Phil stated that spring would be coming sooner...yeah so much for that you stupid rodent!!! It has SNOWED!!!!!!!!!!
Anyways...it looks just like the first snow of the season...and I thought I would bring you pictures before we head to work...

Ugly Snow!!!!

OK- I really don't have anything to say.. but I do have to whine. It's April 4th and all the snow had FINALLY melted from our yard. I was starting to put together my landscaping plans and was envisioning blooming flowers... and now it's snowing and snowing and not stopping. It's been snowing since about 2:30 pm and it's really beginning to collect now. Oh and in case you didn't already figure it out- IT'S also COLD!!!! GRRRRRR. yes snow really isn't ugly- it's really beautiful- but in Dec not in April.

Ohhhh and while I am whining and complaining I might as well get a few other things off my chest. My least favorite chore of all time is grocery shopping- If you ever think you have alot of money you should go grocery shopping- I have never seen 150 dollars disappear so fast!!!!! And that is without buying anything organic or anything really yummy or junk foodish!! Can you tell I just went grocery shopping??? Lately I have been making Mike go with me so it's not quite so painful and Mike grocery shopping = more $$$ spent and more unneccesary food bought- like 10 boxes of fruit snacks...(Mike's reasoning- they were Buy 1 Get One Free!!!!)

Ohh ok last whine of the day- Anyone else watching American Idol???- yes we are lame and boring and yes we watch American Idol every tues/wed night... there is nothing else on basic TV...Anyways for anyone that watches it- the WORST singer of all time has yet to get voted off the show.. what on earth is wrong with Amercia???? Seriously!!!!!! He is soooo bad that Simon claims he will quit doing the show if Sanjaya Malakar wins!! Not to mention Sanjaya Malakar has the worst hair of all time!!!!

Ok I promise I am done whining for now.... but be warned- If the sun doesn't decide to come out soon I am going to turn into a very cranky woman- no sunshine + toxic levels of estrogen= not a happy person. :o)

Nothing like a little Catholic Guilt to depress you on a Dreary Wednesday.

Tanya and I have tried to do our best to fulfill what we had stated at the beginning of Lent we would do (nothing big...just an hour of adoration per week). Ok...we need to stop kidding ourselves because no matter how many times we say "we tried" or whatever, something always came up that took over that time we should have set aside...I could use Tanya's pregnancy as an excuse because she is often tired and needs to eat constantly, can't get comfortable (sitting, standing, lying down), her back is hurting from the extra weight (and she already had back problems) but that shouldn't have stopped ME from going to Adoration!! Even though we made the commitment to go to adoration once a week for an hour; we probably have gone a cumulative 2 hours during Lent :(

Our only saving grace is that Tanya also wanted us to read the daily readings and use the Magnificat as well as a book by Fr. Benedict's on meditations during Lent. We were more successful with this, but still far from where we should have been. When we were engaged, it seemed that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was prevalent and it was easy to pray the rosary on a daily basis, go to daily mass and go to adoration 2-3 times a week. But now that we are married and need the grace as much as when we were single, it seems that the house, work, baby, life all take precedence over God. We constantly maintain that we will do better when the baby is born or whatever but there is no time like the present.

On a lighter subject, we babysat the Allain Children last night, ended up being just Dominic because Nick and Noah had a Boy Scout meeting. Dominic is SO smart for his age and, if you didn't already know, he LOVES Blue's Clues and constantly dances and sings the Blue's Clues songs as well as quotes the show. We were sitting on the couch watching TV and Dominic comes up to me and points at my 5 o' clock shadow and says "Sprinkles" which cracks Tanya and I up!!

On a sad note, the windmill is gone :( My uncle picked it up last night. Now if only we could get someone to take away our "pristine" fence...Our basement (on the side opposite man town) is empty. We gave Brian our washer and dryer and Family Outfitters our "sweet" wooden couch and loveseat. Manton has started creeping over to the other side of the basement as now their is a broken down snow blower down there with probably a crudded up carburetor...

Well the Jetta is on Craigslist for all to see...hopefully we can sell it. http://nh.craigslist.org/car/304731718.html

WHAT HAPPENED TO SPRING!!

WE ARE SUPPOSED TO GET 2-6 inches of snow tonight into tomorrow and the snow blower is broken in the basement. I also have to drive to Worcester tomorrow for the Monthly IT meeting :(

Now I have something for our dedicated reader to comment on.............................A little over a month from now is our 1-year anniversary (May 12, 2006 we were married) and being the typical guy, I can't think of anything to do for it...so if you can help out...that would be great...and PLEASE bring something creative to the table as flowers is NOT creative ;)

rainy monday.. :o(

Hmm- its definitely Monday. And definitely one of those days where you just want to stay in bed forever. Its horribly cold, gloomy and cloudy out today- not my idea of a April spring day. Our alarm goes off at 7 am each morning and for some reason ( I think b/c Mike despises getting out of bed) I usually have to get up first and then drag him out of bed. I don't have as hard of time getting up b/c either I HAVE to go to the bathroom ( courtesy of 3lb Keira sitting on my bladder) or I HAVE to eat something or throw-up ( again thanks for 3 lb Keira who is managing to control my life already). Well today I didn't have it in me- The alarm goes off and we both completely ignore it and go back to sleep- 15 min later I wake up and realize we are both still in bed- I tell Mike its about time he gets up first and he just mumbles- Well I decide that he needs to be the first to get up for once- So I push him out of the bed and he stands up and promptly falls back into bed... I am not about to be outdone so I push him out of the bed so I can steal 1 last min of lying in bed in his spot which is always so much warmer than my side of the bed. Finally he stands up and sleep walks to the bathroom and I move over and snuggle into his warm side of the bed!! HA HA I won!! ( Its the little things ya know???)

So after I finally managed to get out of bed I headed to the doctors office my my usual checkup- the doctor was running 30 min behind we were told but it was actually about 1 hour we waited for my 5 min visit. Everything checked out just fine and the doctor conformed my suspicions that Keira had indeed turned and was now in the head down position. So now instead of having to go to the bathroom every 10 min its more like every 5 min!!!

Anyways Mike has just informed me that he is not in the mood for eating leftovers - I guess its time to figure what to do about dinner...
Tanya

Is the Weekend already over :(

Well...tomorrow is another day, but this week is Holy Week so it will be unlike any other week during the year...the greatest and worst week of Jesus' life. This week is really the culmination of everything the Catholic Church stands for and the largest events that we celebrate every week was instituted this week. Holy Thursday institutes the reason why I am Catholic - The Eucharist where Jesus decides to humble himself to our lowly level EVERY DAY. Good Friday is "good" because Jesus takes upon himself all the sins of the human race and lays them on the cross when he dies. In my opinion, the Easter Vigil is the most beautiful mass of the year (followed close 2nd by the Pentecost Vigil) because we get to experience the excitement of Baptism and Confirmation as well as the anticipation of Jesus' rising!

If you don't know, I am a lector at Ste. Marie's parish and today was my day to lecter. I have an amazing love for the Eucharist and the greatest part of being a lecter is being so close to God. Where we sit, the lectors are able to see the entire altar and, unless you are a priest, it is the closest that I will ever get to experience during the consecration. Sometimes the Holy Spirit moves me during mass and sometimes I am far away from God (because of my humanity, not because of God). Well, today I could feel the Spirit moving during the song that Covenant" was singing during Communion. So, if the Spirit was moving me before Confession, I am excited and scared to see what happens, now that I have gone to Confession, later this week.

On Good Friday, something that we have established is to watch "The Passion of the Christ" and we will be doing so after the 7:00PM services at Ste. Marie's. Guaranteed to be emotional and depressing and uplifting at the same time.

So...in other news as Tanya mentioned, we bought a truck...well not actually bought it yet, but we have created a verbal agreement to purchase it and pick it up next week; so this week I will have to get it registered as well as get plates for the 1989 Chevrolet 1500 Extended Cab pickup in Mint Condition...which is why I bought it from the person I bought it from. They take better care of their cars than I do (which is pretty difficult to do!).

But yeah...next week we will own a new old truck. We have posted Tanya's car on Craigslist. So, that is all the news that's fit to print for today...the day before MONDAY :(

Palm Sunday

Happy Palm sunday to you all!! We went to a very beautiful (and long) Palm Sunday mass this morning and are going to a confession service thingy this evening so we are all geared up for holy week. :o)

In other news- Mike has been wanting a truck for a while now. We usually end up borrowing his parents trailer every other weekend so we can haul things from Home Depot or Lowe's for home projects or to help someone move. Well Mike's friends dad is selling his truck... Its a pretty old truck but in good condition and once I quit work to stay at home with the baby we really don't need two nice cars anyways. So yeah today we bought a truck. We don't pick it up till next weekend but I think Mike is pretty excited to have his "man truck" as he calls it. Its an extended cab chevy truck. We will be sure to post some pics when we get the truck.So if you know anyone that wants to buy a VW Jetta.... send them our way.

I just found out one of my best friends is pregnant. Its pretty funny b/c me and 2 of my best friends have been friends for years ( since like grade school)- and this past year we all got married within a year of each other and now we are all pregnant at the same time!!!!!! Its always better to be in the miserable pregnant club with familiar faces.

Well - I need to go put the finishing touches on dinner.
Tanya