All About Iain

Iain, who will be two at the end of this month, has recently developed a preference for nakedness (diaper excepted, thankfully!) Right now it is a frigid, though cloudless and beautiful, 1 degree and Iain is prancing around the first floor in only his night diaper which is sagging it's way down to his knees. Granted, I do have the electric fireplace on and he occasionally stops in front of the heat-blower and stands there for a moment warming himself before running off to grab another Cheerio.

Iain has quite an extensive vocabularly these days, though he has yet to string words together into sentences. He loves to learn the word for anything and everything and will frequently point to something and speak jibberish until we tell him the correct word. Other times, it's just a guessing game to try and figure out what he is trying to say to us, and we frequently find ourselves listing off possible words that sound vaguely like what he is saying, until he says "yeah" or "yeth" and nodds that we've landed on the word he was trying to say. The problem with this is that Iain is a yes man. I could ask him if he wants to eat cement for lunch or sleep in a big blue balloon and he will say "yeah!" Pretty much the only things he consistently says "no" to are getting dressed, diaper changes and nap/bed time (unless he's tired, in which case he readily agrees).

He is also trying to master on/off and up/down which he frequently mixes up. For instances, this morning he was trying to unzip his pajamas and repeating "on"....

Oh my! He just came over to me, patted his diaper, said "poop" and then faked a grunt - clearly not actually pooping. What a ham. I love this kid!

He has mastered "Mommy, Daddy, baby" however, he refuses to even attempt "Lydia." I know he can't say the L sound, so that's not too much of a surprise. I suppose "baby" will have to do for now.

Speaking of which, when Mark and I picked him up from childcare at the Y the other day, there was my little guy's guy giving a baby doll a toy bottle. When I called him over, he looked at me and reluctantly put down the doll and put the bottle in the play microwave.

He loves to keep me posted on all the various vehicles that drive past our house. With the snow we've been getting, this includes large snowplows, which he calls tractors, or "tah-tet." All large trucks and buses are "bus," as is any vehicle he doesn't know the name of. Occasionally he will substitute "ruuuuuum" (his version of a vroom noise) for "bus."

This has been a fun post to write; I don't think I do this enough, even if all you faithful readers find it a bit boring to read about my son. Thankfully for you, that night diaper is now sagging its way closer to his ankles and desperately needs to be changed. Poor Iain will soon be clothed and miserable. :)

Staying Warm In 2010

Eight hours after arriving, the heating company is finally pulling out of our driveway. They spent the day installing our new (and did I mention FREE!!! - I love my county!) 95% efficient furnace. "Buh bye," as Iain would say.

Today was a relatively warm Minnesotan day, hitting a high of 15 degrees (feels like 6). It was a good day to have no furnace for 8 hours, wouldn't you agree? So, one might ask, how do you stay warm for 8 hours with no heat when a temperature somewhere between 6 and 15 degrees is trying to creep its way into your home? Why, bake of course! Yes, turn on the trusty (electric) oven and bake your heart out. Apparently I have a small heart for baking, since I only baked one item, though admittedly, brownies almost made an appearance during the 7th hour since I was getting cold, again. Mark dissuaded me by explaining that I could simply turn on the oven and not actually bake anything. I still think anything - esp. no heat - is a good excuse for brownies, but perhaps another day. ...I should also give ample props to our electric fireplace which was our other main heat source for the day.

Back to the one item I did bake - I'm afraid I may have made a stomach or two grumble as I fried up bacon and onions for some DELICIOUS cheese, bacon, onion quick bread. Yes, bacon, cheese and bread. What more could you want? Mark was nearly speechless with delight and wanted to know how in the world I came up with such a brilliant idea - well, first I had the idea and then I looked it up in my cookbook and followed the recipe. Sneaky, I know. As for the poor grumbly stomachs [of the furnace guys], no, I didn't offer them any. Maybe I should've...and maybe I should've also offered some to the officers in the 2 police cars sitting in the church parking lot driveway directly opposite our house. A speed trap, no doubt. Mark suggested that perhaps they were staking out our house, but something tells me even with 3 heating company vans parked at our house, we're just not that interesting...perhaps its the "pumpkin people" next door (that a story for another day). The police left as soon as the children came out for recess, or as I put it: "Make the cops go away, send the children out to play." Thank you, please hold your applause until the end.

On a completely different note, you may have noticed that the title of this post is "Staying Warm In 2010." I'm guessing that if you're like me, when you read, you "hear" what you're reading - so, what did 2010 sound like as you read it?

Poll:

Is this year, 2010, pronouced:

A. Two-thousand-ten

or

B. Twenty-ten

Please let me know. My mother is adamant that it is B, and while I have to admit that twenty-ten is what my brain tells me when I read it, I still think that 9 years of saying Two-thosand -xx can't just instantly morph into Twenty-xx....can it?

Thank you, YMCA!

Thanks to my frequent visits to the fitness center of our local YMCA, I managed to shovel our front sidewalk, 2 private sidewalks, front steps and our driveway. I must give credit to our mystery neighbor who gave me a HUGE leg up by snowblowing most of those areas, giving me only about 1/3 as much snow as I might otherwise have had to shovel. The packed down areas on the driveway and the mounds of packed snow from the snowplows gave me some grief, but those back exercises I've been doing really paid off!

Did I mention I did this all during naptime and, miraculously, the kids are still sleeping. One cup of coffee later, I'm nearly thawed out (the temp is in the single digits). Oh yeah, and dinner is staying warm in the crockpot - butternut squash soup - easily made thanks to my new Cuisinart 11 cup food processor! (Thanks Mom, Dad and Mark) It was a birthday/Christmas present that I've wanted for over 4 years now, but was always scared off by the price tag.

Feelin' Blessed

As many of you might already know, Mark has recently become a "MacHEAD" (to quote a documentary I just dorkily watched). :) Anyway, the point of that is that I have inherited his Dell laptop and as a result I am able to write this post from my kitchen counter inbetween reheating leftovers for dinner. Yes, it's one of those nights. Iain is kneeling on a 2-step ladder by the counter while absent-mindedly eating a rice cake and playing with the top of one of my water bottles. Lydia just woke up from her nap and started crying. I guess this will be a short post.

For those of you with a YMCA in close proximity, I thought I'd share how much I love the Y!!! We are eligible for a discount which, combined with our Health Insurance discount means that if both Mark and I go 12 times a month, we pay a whopping $8 a month for our family. Yes, $8. Now, in reality, Mark doesn't go, but that's still just $28 a month for our family...and did I mention free childcare for up to 2 hours a day? Yep. Free. Wow.

If I'm not in stellar shape by my next birthday, I have NO excuse. ...don't quote me. ;)

Ok, hungry baby calls.

Some days are good days

I've been making it through each day. Not exactly words that make you smile, are they? I've realized this pattern in my life and I take full responsibility. I recently realized that I live each day looking forward to something, but that something isn't a date or time or event. In fact, I don't think it actually exists, but in the meantime I have been just trying to make it until then. The problem with this philosophy is that I have been missing the joys of each moment. The "now" if you will. In an effort to change this pattern, I'm trying so hard to find the joy of each moment.

Today, that has helped me particularly productive. I would also like to thank my children who have napped well and in fact are napping at the moment.

Today I:
-Ate breakfast before anyone under the age of 28 woke up. Hurray!
-Managed to feed, change and dress Lydia without waking Iain
-Got Lydia down for her nap
-Managed to get Iain fed, changed and dressed without any tantrums. Hurray!
-Took a prayer time with Iain, in which we looked through his Bible and thanked Jesus for everything he pointed to.
-Prepped a large picture frame and a larger mirror for spray painting
-Spray painted 2 coats on the picture frame (I'm afraid this sucker will need quite a few, darn oak!)
-Fed Iain lunch
-Got Iain down for a nap without him so much as tossing his pacifiers overboard in disgust
-Made "Peanutbutter chewies" with the gobs of ingredients that we have on hand (thank you WIC for the jars and jars of peanutbutter you bestow upon us.)
-Emptied the dishdrainer and washed all the "chewie" and breakfast dishes
-Cleaned out the refridgerator - who knew mold came in pink? well apparently it does, at least on zucchini.
-Somehow even managed to get in a blog post before heading off to do some laundry.
-Did I mention that it's only 1:30 in the afternoon? This might be a record for me (sorry if that sounds pathetic to you; perhaps you need a vacation!)

Special thanks to Lydia for helping me stay on top of laundry - last night was her 2nd blow-out-poop-in-the-armpit diaper. To be quite frank, there was about 1/4 as much IN the diaper as there was up her back. I'm not sure how she managed it, as it all happened while she was lying horizontal in my arms. You would think it would all go in the general direction in which the force was proppeling it, no?

Really?

Thanks for your contributions to my "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" poll. For those of you wondering, Mark grew up with the "heads and..." version. Yes, I told Mark that we only have one head, but he claims it's a group song, so there are multiple heads. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. But how to raise the children... ;)

Ok, on to the meat of this post...tunics and leggings - Really? Again? WHY?!

Are you with me, or am I just fashionably-challenged?

I know there must be legging-lovers out there somewhere. Someone has to be buying them. Are you a legging-lover? I really would love to hear from you.

If you don't happen to have an opinion on tunics and leggings, how about this one: Where do you buy your clothes? I'm looking (seemingly in vain) for clothes that are classy while trendy, comfortable while feminine and don't require at least 2 layers just to be modest. Is it just me or have clothes become disposable (ie, so thin they won't last more than a year, and even if they did they'd be horribly out of fashion by the 2nd year anyway.) I'd love some help in my quest for (oh yeah, affordable) items.

Attached

Having been permanently scarred by the removal of my security blanket at a young age, I was determined that I would not go forth and do likewise to my own children...

The best laid plans, right?

Iain appears to have developed a ridiculous attachment to BABY WIPES of all things! Yes, those disposable wet wipes with which you clean off little bums. He carries a baby wipe around with him at all times, occasionally wiping his nose. Sometimes he gets a bit carried away with the nose wiping and he starts to look like Rudolph (the red-nosed-reindeer).

Needless to say, I'm not willing to let him go to bed with a wipe clutched in his pudgy little fist. Sure, they're strong enough to hold up to multiple wipings (of bums and noses...never one after the other!) but I've also seen him pull them to bits, wad them up and place them in his ears. So, the idea of where that wipe might be in the morning: ears, mouth, trachea... well, it's more than enough for me to cruelly pry it out of his fingers. But oh, the tears! I can't believe this is really me doing exactly what I've said I'd never do. Honestly though, who would've thought of wipes?!

Perhaps if I can brainwash him into believing that receiving blankets are really just big wipes...

Wish me luck.

Now, on to the really important stuff...

POLL:

Do the lyrics to a familar children's song go:
1. Head, shoulders, knees and toes...
or
2. Heads, and shoulders, knees and toes

God, thank you for...

...the invention of the Neti Pot.

I am one of those people that tries (and surely fails more than not) to not take good health for granted. For example, having a near-hatred for the nose-so-stuffy-that-I-can't-breathe-and-therefore-can't-sleep side effect of colds, I find myself thanking the Lord for clear nasal passages on nights when I'm perfectly healthy. I tend to do the same with headaches, nausea, etc. It's not that I have any of these conditions frequently, but for me they tend to be debilatating when they do occur and the experience of good health is such a gift that it shouldn't be taken for granted.

Try it. Take a moment and just sit and think about everything that could be wrong with you (within reason, of course) and then compare how you could be feeling to how you are currently feeling. It makes you feel pretty great, doesn't it? Then thank God for your good health! :)

As you might suspect, I am not in a state of good health at the moment, rather I am in the clutches of a raging cold. Last night, having lost a couple hours of needed sleep due to the aforementioned stuffy state the previous night, I couldn't bear the thought of another bad night. Fortunately, having mentioned my bad night to a friend, she reminded me of the wonders of the Neti Pot. I happen to own one of these little contraptions but had forgotten about it until she mentioned her love of the thing. So just before bed, being unable to breathe even while upright, I pulled out my pot and set about cleansing my sinuses...or, as Mark put it, engaging in Chinese water torture (he had a bad experience; I blame poor technique). Well, when I was done my head felt 10 pounds lighter and I could breathe perfectly. I nearly cried, I was so happy.

I had a much better night thanks to my clear nasal passages!

If you're unfamilar with the Neti Pot, I HIGHLY recommend educating (and supplying) yourself before your next cold strikes. Unless you're Mark, you will be VERY glad you did! (Note: when using the Neti Pot, be sure to breathe continuously through your open mouth; I'm guessing that's where Mark went wrong, but I doubt he's up for giving it another chance.)

Iain stories

First of all, I'm too tired to post pictures here right now, but if you're my friend on Facebook, or have access to my winkflash account, check out the ones that I just posted.

Now, for your amusement, here are some Iain stories:

(Washable) nursing pads apparently have multiple uses, esp. in the eyes of a darling 20 month old who hasn't a clue what they're really for.
- A tissue. He blows his nose with it and drops it in the kitchen garbage. I don't know how many I have rescued from there.
- A coaster. He put it on the end table and placed his sippy cup on top of it. Hey, a mom can't complain, right?
- A hat. Apparently we're rediscovering our Jewish roots - it's been placed on Lydia's head, Iain's head and my head.

Other things I have rescued from the kitchen garbage:
- toys
- sippy cups
- $20 that I cleverly put on the table so I could quickly grab it for the boy mowing our lawn.

Things that we suspect have not been rescued from the kitchen garbage:
- an entire package of new socks for Mark. We found the package...empty, hours after Mark had taken out the trash. Praise the Lord for Wal-Mart, we're only out $4.

Iain's favorite word: "Happy." We don't think he knows what it means, but he loves to repeat it whenever it's said.

We went to a birthday party for a 3 year old girl, last week. Us parental types were all chatting in the living room when the 3 year old and Iain decided it was time to get to know each other a little better. They started hugging and kissing...over and over and over. We weren't sure who started it; from the looks of it, it really could have been either of them. Needless to say, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Hey, I have to laugh about things like this while I still can.

Lydia Catherine

I hope to post some pictures in the not-too-distant future. For the time being, I hope it's enough to just let you know that our daughter has arrived!

Lydia Catherine was born at 10:16 am on Thursday, August 13th (my parents' 32nd wedding anniversary, coincidentally). She was 7 lb 15 oz, 21 inches long. She was born at 38 weeks and 2 days gestation, after my water broke at 8 pm, on the 12th. She's doing GREAT!

We are all home as of Friday afternoon, and despite a sleepless night last night, we're all happy, healthy and excited to be together as a family. Thank you so much for all your prayers throughout this pregnancy, labor and delivery. Please continue to pray for us as I recover, Lydia adjusts to life on the outside, Iain adjusts to so many adjustments and Mark tries to take care of all of us and work on the side. ;)

I must be pregnant

If only I could bottle up exhaustion and energy and take a dose of either when desired. All day on Monday I thought I was going to die of sheer exhaustion and went to bed in tears because I was completely wiped out...and yes, that was after a day of doing nothing. Tuesday was 180 degrees in the other direction, and here I am in the wee hours of Wednesday morning wishing that I could join the rest of my family on that fun adventure called sleep. It doesn't look likely. I won't bore you with the details of how I spent the last day breaking every bedrest rule in the book. Let's just say, 7 weeks of bottled-up nesting exploded in our house today. Well, I'm still pregnant and, at 12:45 am, feeling like a million bucks, but wishing I was tired because I know that I'm getting down to the wire with that precious commodity called sleep and I'd really love to take full advantage.

Milestone!

Baby #2 has officially made it further than Iain. 35 weeks 3 days today and at 11:11 am I was still pregnant...and still am, for that matter.

My parents left for MI this afternoon. We already miss them. It was a tremendous blessing to have them here with us, and Iain just blossomed with all the attention with which he was showered.

I'm afraid there's not much left to report.

The finishing touches are quickly being put into place around the house. Mom did an amazing job with the downstairs curtains - trimming and sewing them to the necessary sizes for each window. Thank you!!! I look forward to Mark putting in the curtain rods and officially being done with yet another "touch". They really do cozy up the place. :)

Well, Iain's (finally) asleep for the night and Mark has just returned from picking up a movie (or someone has broken into our home and is walking around upstairs...) So, this pregnant mama, who is eagerly awaiting the experience of the ninth month of pregnancy, is going to go. Ciao.

Glimpses

- Much to Mark's chagrin (and with no blessing of his!!!) I'm slowly converting my "bedrest" into "house arrest". Truly, nurses are the worst patients. Thankfully, I haven't been having contractions, or I wouldn't be so liberal - though I admit that the stakes being what they are, undoubtedly I should be more careful than I am. I'm trying...sort of...sometimes.

- Kate was in town for a few days before heading off on what we all pray is her final military deployment. God deploys us all in different ways, so I'm not discounting His plans for her... who knows. :)

- My parents are here which is a great blessing to us. They hauled their trailer out to MN and are living in our driveway. I have no doubt that we've been the talk of the neighborhood since March when work on our house began, and though the giant dumpster and 80 million workmen are gone, we've found new ways to keep folks talking...not to mention the 4 vehicles parked along the street in front of our house (Kate's Jeep, parent's truck, our car and the van of a friend of ours.)

- Tomorrow is week 34 of this pregnancy. I have high hopes that a week and half from now, which is when Iain made his appearance, I will still be pregnant. Perhaps if I'm obedient about bedrest that's more likely to be the case. C'mon Betsy, you can do it!

- Speaking of baby, I finally came to terms with the reality that this baby is going to arrive soon, even if "soon" is 6 weeks away - that does sound soon, doesn't it?! I started packing my hospital bag and ordered an infant car seat (the one we had for Iain has since expired). Hopefully both with be ready to go by the time baby is.

- You know what I want more than anything right now? To go for a nice long walk after which I would sit outside and sip a delicious alcoholic beverage. But why go on, I'm only torturing myself. ;)

What bedrest means to me

Tomorrow is the BIG MOVE! Made possible by countless people who have given their time, talents, sweat, food, love and friendship to us during these past months and in particular in the past week and a half.

After the move, when pre-move-in to-do lists and reminders aren't spinning through my brain, I think I will have time to consider this bedrest predicament the Lord has put me in, and what this means to me. In the mean time, all I have to say is these are the Facts About Betsy (before she got stuck on bedrest in the middle of finishing construction on her house and packing for the big move):
1) I have a phobia of inconveniencing people - a fear which isn't conducive to asking for or accepting help.
2) This is connected semi-consciously to feeling a need to compensate for people who I've seen callously inconveniencing others right and left - I'm sure unaware of it. I think I just have a giant fear of being one of those people. I want to have friends, not servants. I want them to be refreshed by my presence, not wrung out and hung to dry til needed again.
3) I avoid asking for help at nearly all costs and if it's offered I prefer to politely decline, even if I really need it.
4) I feel incredibly awkward when being helped/served and prefer to work along side if help must be accepted. (Note: bedrest has made even this impossible!)
5) Any attempt at requesting help that is met with rejection, annoyance or anything other that positivity is chalked up as another reason to avoid needing help in the future. - I happen to remember these instances quite vividly and they have framed themselves prominently in the chapter of my brain called Why I Prefer To Be Self-Sufficient - unless it's Mark, from whom I willingly and happily accept help.
6) We recently watched a movie called The Edge. It starred Anthony Hopkins in the Alaskan wilderness waiting for rescue. His character says: "Most people lost in the wild die of shame. They didn't do the one thing that could save their lives-- thinking."
That stuck in my head; well, more the concept than anything else. Little did I know I'd be in my own wilderness soon enough.
Tangent: I'm no movie reviewer, but I have to say, I could have told you the whole movie from the first second it started. Yes, it was that predictable. Having said that, it probably still wasn't a good choice for a pregnant woman who needed less stress in her life (though we didn't know to what extent at the time).

Well, I can only guess this is the Lord's master plan. I whine, I stress, but when it boils down, I have to just point to the Big Guy and give him a wry smile because I know exactly what He's up to in the midst of all this, and that is this: trying to make me holy, if I just let him. We're not called "the Body of Christ" because it sounds cool, and I guess I just need to learn to live that reality. So, I guess I should give it all up. And I'm trying to. I have been asking for help - and help has been given, and I am overcome with gratitude for it, perhaps to a ridiculous extent because I am continuously surprised by people's generosity and joy in helping me! But even so that hasn't changed me, yet.

Perhaps it is I who have a great distaste for being inconvenienced? Now there's a thought.

Do you suppose it was a coincidence that this week marked 40 days until I'm ok with Baby arriving (37 wks). Biblical, anyone?

Bedrest update

Hi there faithful followers. I've officially survived one week of bedrest, or more accurately, couchrest, and I have good news! I had another Dr. appt. today and the findings are: no change! In fact, I may even be about a 1/2 cm. less dilated than last week!!! We like this news. 31 weeks and going strong. Please continue to pray; I'd love love love to keep this baby in until at least 37 weeks - that seems a bit much to hope for, but hey, shoot for the moon, right?


Our moving date has been changed from Saturday to Sunday, due to the lack of available rental trucks on Saturday. Apparently the end of the month on a Saturday in early Summer is everyone's day to move. Well, Sunday it is.


We bought an amazingly comfortable reclining wingback chair on craigslist a few months back. Mark just moved it into the living room of our house, today (it had been in the utility room while floors and walls were being finished). I've already planned that as my "bedrest" spot on move-in day. I can't wait!


One of my favorite things that Iain has been doing recently is peek-a-boo, Iain-style. He makes his hands into little fists, with his thumbs tucked in, and presses his fists into his eyes. Then he slowly pulls his fists away and out to the side and waits for us to say "peek-a-boo". He's even tried to say it himself a few times. It's usually something like "boo" or "pee". Boy is he a cutie!


Speaking of Iain, one of the hardest parts of bedrest is not being able to hold him. I can't believe how much I miss just sitting and snuggling with my little man. I was the only one home when he woke up from his nap today, so I broke the rules and got him out of his crib. Those few moments were so sweet, just holding him. I knew it wasn't good for his sister, so I had to put him down and return to the couch. If I make it to 37 weeks, I might just have to celebrate with an Iain snuggle-a-thon. I guess if I don't make it to 37 weeks, I can snuggle with him sooner...as much as I miss him, I can't say I'm rooting for that scenario.


Mark has been keeping me posted on the progress at the house by taking lots of pictures for me. I'd love to share them with you, but unfortunately, that requires sitting at my computer, which I can't do. (I'm laying down, using Mark's laptop, right now). Despite that restriction, I did manage to upload the pictures from the camera to the computer by sneakily multi-tasking: On my way to the bathroom, I plugged in the camera. On my way from the bathroom to the kitchen to grab a snack, I pressed the button make the pics upload. I then obediently waited a couple of hours until Mark got home and could move the couch closer to the computer before I looked at them. Everything looks so much nicer on the "big screen" than on the itsy-bitsy camera screen.

I hope you haven't fallen asleep and started drooling on your keyboard while trying to read through this post. I'm afraid this may have given you a glimpse into how very exciting life is for me, these days. :) Did I mention how wonderful it was to go to the dr. today? First time out in a week! So many beautiful trees and sky and rain and fresh air and, well, you get the point.

Speaking of sleep, it's 3:10 am and I think I'm finally getting sleepy. I didn't mean to take a 3 hour nap today, it just happened. Well, I learned my lesson!

Baby #2 Update

I've been put on bedrest as a result of being in early preterm labor. Given my history with Iain (born at 35 week, 3 days) my doctor didn't want to mess around. Please keep us in your prayers. I'm 30 weeks along, 90% effaced and 1.5 cm dilated. I'm also taking some medication to help halt any further progress.

What to pray for:
- Health and safety of Baby #2
- Iain; he didn't take too well to me being on the couch all day today - I compromised by laying on the floor while he played around me. This seemed to make him pretty happy.
- Helpers, especially for packing and moving which we will be doing this coming week with the big move on the 27th. Obviously I'm pretty much useless as a packer or a mover now, and that's kinda frustrating.
- Mark, because he has to be mom, dad, husband, house-do-it-all guy, not to mention his "real" job! He's absolutely amazing!

Ahhh Summer!...ahem

Summer is here, the dorm is empty and life is, well, interesting. Since the students have moved out, I think maintenance forgot that there are still 4 souls residing in this hall. In the last week alien invaders, aka workers wearing head-enclosing welding masks have set up scaffolding and spent the entirety of the last week, so far, drilling away at the concrete trim around the building. Oh the noise and the smell. Think dentist drill and tooth dust, only worse. Thankfully our house has kept us incredibly busy and aside from the daily rude awakenings, I miss most of their activity.

Secondly, I tried to take a shower the other day after a full morning of chasing a crazy toddler around our small-and-impossible-to-baby-proof apartment. Needless to say, that shower was the carrot in front of me as I set him down for a nap. I stepped into the shower, turned on the water and waited for it to get hot (now that the students are gone, that can take a little longer than usual). Well, it got hot all right, and then hotter and hotter. I turned it down and it was still boiling hot. I turned it to full-cold...still boiling hot.

I got out of the shower and turned on the cold water at the sink. Hot. A bit later, the "facilities" were used by a certain someone I happen to be married to. Shortly thereafter, pregnant lady that I am, it was my turn and I discovered that our toilet had converted itself into a mini-sauna. As you might imagine, this was a somewhat odd and disconcerting experience.

Mark made a phone call and an hour or so later we once again had cold water flowing out of the cold tap...and hot from the hot.

It was nice while it lasted... I just tried to wash a pot, only to discover that our hot water has been (temporarily, I hope) turned off. Fortunately, we still have cold water, and though I wouldn't normally settle for washing a pot in cold water, the plan is to make pasta, which requires boiling water, which will hopefully sanitize it well enough. Unfortunately, unless I plan on going third-world (which I don't) my dreams of a shower will have to wait...again.

Cabinets!

More progress

Ok, I obviously watch entirely too much HGTV which has left me with a strange desire to only post our house's before pictures and then wait until all the exciting stuff has been installed so I can post pictures of THE BIG REVEAL. Well, for the sake of those who are interested in the progress and not just the before/after, and because I'm sure the final product will still be very exciting, I will continue posting as we go along. This week has been so exciting, as you will see...

But first, for all you Iain fans, here's the cute boy in his newest outfit (picked out by Mark).
As always, he's such a trooper. Here, he's just woken up from a nap. I had been hard at work for hours, putting together our cabinets in the other half of the room. God really knew what He was doing when he gave us such a content firstborn!

Much to my pride's chagrin, this picture makes it look like Mark (rather than I) has just successfully completed our cabinet construction. To Mark's credit, he and I make an excellent team. He was able to assess and fix a few problems here and there that enabled the entire process to be a success. For any of you cabinet afficionado's, they are chocolate-glazed solid birch faces on plywood box/birch ply veneered - for the price, this is impressive considering typical cabinets are particle board boxes. If I haven't already mentioned this, we ordered them quite inexpensively (relatively speaking, of course) from a Christian company at www.easykitchencabinets.com as you might guess, we're big fans! :)On Memorial Day, our hardwood maple floor was installed in our kitchen/dining room. The first coat of sealant was applied to protect it, but it will be buffed and resealed before move-in.

In the above picture, you can also see that our existing oak floor was sanded and 2 test patches of sealant were applied. The left is oil-based and the right is water-based. We decided on the water-based, as it is a lighter finish and doesn't amber with age as does the oil-based. Below is a closer picture of our maple floor.

Moving right along, this is a picture of our newly-tiled tub-surround (minus the grout). :)

The other end of the tub, minus the faucet fixtures....oops, apparently I just deleted the other 2 pictures of the bathroom. Well, you'll just have to wait for those. Sorry.

I haven't seen this for myself, so you're seeing what I've seen in the following pictures. Mark took these for me this morning when he stopped by the house. Our kitchen cabinets, in the process of being installed!!! This is the north wall of the kitchen. In the west corner end will go our fridge and in the center space will be our stove and microwave.

Below is another view of the kitchen. In the southwest corner is our lazy susan. As an aside, we were originally going to buy 2 of those, one for each corner of the south wall, however we changed our minds about how we wanted to utilize the space on the "peninsula" and opted for a 3-drawer base cabinet that will face the dining space. Having assembled all the cabinets myself, I'm SO glad we only had 1 lazy susan. Two might have required a hospitalization for the sake of my sanity...though I still highly recommend the cabinet company!

(One reason) why eavesdropping isn't a good idea

Ok, here's the accurate background to this story: Today I was sitting in the backseat of our parked car, feeding Iain breakfast. Mark was on his cell phone talking with a friend "Joe" who was in our house, checking on something for us. Apparently, while Mark was on the phone with Joe, some other guy walked into our house and started talking with Joe. Joe, not knowing who this guy was, asked Mark if he knew who this was. This is Mark's side of the conversation that I (mis)overheard:

Mark to Joe: "A foreign guy? He must be someone with our contractor"

- Betsy's thought: this makes some sense to me, as many of the people employed by our contractor come from Mexico and Russia. Therefore, the reference to "a foreign guy" just makes me think that it's probably the drywall guy we've run into a couple times when we've stopped by the house.

(Joe says something)

Mark to Joe: "Sure, put him on..."

(Apparently Joe gives the phone to Foreign guy)

Mark, to Foreign guy: "Oh, no thanks, we already have a foreign guy."

- Betsy's thought: "we already have a foreign guy"??? That seems a little tactless. I must be misunderstanding this. Now I'm a little confused and definitely curious about what's going on at our house - and glad Joe is there.

(Apparently Foreign guy gives phone back to Joe and leaves)

Mark to Joe: "Yeah, yeah, "Rob" is doing that for us"

- Betsy's thought: OOOooooooooh. I get it.

Turns out "Foreign guy" was actually "Flooring guy." I had a good laugh about that and shared it with Mark, later. He explained that apparently Flooring guy lives in the neighborhood and has seen all the work going on at the house and was just stopping by to offer his services. However, we already have a friend, "Rob" lined up to do our floors for us.