You Can Never Have Too Many Volkswagens

Just ask Jay or his brother Clint. They have taken cross country trips in VW buses and I am pretty sure there has always been at least one Volkswagen laying around between the two of them. Let's see I think Clint is down to 3 right now: a bus; a buggie; and a beetle - two run, one doesn't. Jay has only had one since I have know him: a beetle he is turning into a baja bug. It doesn't run because the motor isn't in it, but he has it! And it has come a long way. Last week Jay got a call that someone he had met was selling his VW buggie and wanted to give Jay first dibs. We went to pick it up before work last Friday. It started...barely - it had to be jumped, and Jay drove it away. I was following him and we made it about 1 mile before I could hear it spluttering, we pulled over and that was it! HA! Jay says this is typical with Volkswagens. I thought it was funny. We had to go get the tow bar etc. to get it home. He got it running later that day and we went for a little cruise. I tried to drive it, but I am pretty sure I was just pushing the clutch in and letting it coast. It was harder than I thought! So now we have two Volkswagens.

Mommy 101

I forgot my camera so I apologize that I don't have any pictures to go along with this post. Especially since Alice is so stinkin' cute. Lindsey and Carl went to the Seahawks game on Sunday and asked if I could spend the day with Alice. OF COURSE. At 17 months she is a lot of fun and the only sign she is teething was all the drool, she was one happy baby! I hope Alice had as much fun as I did. Some highlights of our day together:

• 9:00 am naptime didn't exactly happen since Alice decided she wanted to stay awake. So I put her in the stroller instead to go for a run. Note to self: she fell asleep within 10 minutes!
• Everyone kept telling me it is so much more difficult to run with a baby in a stroller, especially as the babies get bigger and heavier. I am stubborn enough that I ignored them and went almost 2 miles up Badger Mountain Road. Did I say that is uphill? My quad muscles scream in protest every time I try and stand up today.
• I remembered to slather Alice in sunscreen and make sure she was shaded. Me? Not so much, I got a lovely sunburn.
• After our run it was time to feed Alice lunch...but I also desperately needed a shower. My solution? Roll her highchair down the hallway to outside the bathroom. As soon as she heard the water she kept saying "bath? bath?" Once she realized it wasn't for her she gave me a look that said "Lady are you crazy? Don't you know I eat lunch in the kitchen? What do you want me to do out here?" But it worked!
• We went to the park and met Desiree and Rylee to play. Rylee is 4 months older than Alice. They didn't interact a whole lot, but both enjoyed the time outside. Halfway to the park I realized I had forgotten the stroller and even though Alice ate, I didn't! Ummmm...maye this whole mom thing is more complicated than I thought???
• Once we got home it was time for my, oh I mean Alice's, afternoon nap...which she wasn't interested in. We played outside, read books, ate dinner, took a bath, watched Sesame Street and then FINALLY she fell asleep. :-)

Obviously those of you with children already know this...being a mom is hard work! I'm not sure who was more tired by the end of the day, me or Alice. It was lots of fun though and allows me to have baby time without hounding Jay for one of our own. Thanks for playing with me all day Alice.

Some People Get Flowers...

This is what I saw when I got home yesterday:

And I thought, "Oh no! Jay just replumbed the sink! What is going on now???" Then...I saw this:

A new dishwasher! Hip Hip Hooray and a little happy dance! I was beyond excited. I told Jay, "Some people get flowers and they think it is romantic, I get a dishwasher and think it is romantic and that I have the best hubby ever!" Ha ha.

This is ultimately where the dishwasher will go in the remodeled kitchen, but the fridge will be next to it, not the stove. The cabinet configuration will have to change a little obviously and countertops will go over it, but for now it is bolted to the floor so it doesn't move. It is a bit noisey, but I don't care. Now for the funny part: we went to Lowes, but ended up with the wrong size hoses. Because we were anxious to get it hooked up Jay went outside, cut a chunk of of our garden hose and used that! Oh man, are we red neck or what? This is only a tempory fix of course, but funny none the less.

Jay also trimmed out almost all of the windows so the outside of the house is really coming together. We have two more weekends of work left and then it is off to Italia!

Houses are a lot of work.

Jay has been a busy bee around our house lately and I pitch in when I can. We ordered all new windows and all of them are in except for the kitchen. That will go in when we rip out the old cabinets and put in the new incase it has to move a bit. The windows aren't trimmed out yet, but I think that is on the schedule for this weekend. I am stoked to have windows that open! They make the house look better and they will help with the cooling/heating since the windows were originally from 1945.

It looks small and lonely without any shutters. I think we will get more before we paint.

The rest of the windows are pretty similar so I won't bore you with each single before and after picture. :)

I (okay we) also finished the patio I decided would be a good idea about a month ago! Sometimes I don't have the best follow through...I get that from my Dad. So now that the summer/bbq season is almost over it is finished! Oh well, it will still be there next year. Our weekend wasn't very exciting, but we got a lot done!

Incase you forgot, this is what the area looked like when I decided I wanted a patio there.

After lots of plant and dirt moving, and concrete mixing/pouring it looks like this!

Travels

I got my new passport last night - I am stoked. Now we are anxiously awaiting Jay's. Then this morning I looked at these pictures my sister posted. I wonder if she needs a passport for Antarctica? Hmmm. Since she flys to New Zealand and then down I bet she does. She has been there for about a week now and it looks like so far so good. I love my crazy, adventerous sister. I am going to live vicariously through her while she spends 6 months at the South Pole.

Gina on the Military Transport C17 aircraft.

Home Sweet Home.

Lots and lots and lots of snow & ice.

Narceous Clouds. This picture is my favorite.