Round Two

Well, here we go again. Nora got another stomach virus on Monday night. She stayed home on Tues and Wed. She was fine Wed, but had to stay home 24 hrs after her fever went away. Kris was already planning on staying home Wed because I had a momentary lapse of good judgement when I made Charlotte's checkup appt for 9am. I realized a few days later that it wasn't particularly nice of me to take her to get shots in the morning and then dump her off at daycare. So K volunteered to stay home that day. Then Charlotte got a fever that evening (most likely from the shots) and couldn't go to school all the rest of that week. So from now on, checkups will take place as late as possible on Thursdays (our doctor isn't in the office on Fridays.)

So Kris and Nora went to Oceans of Fun by themselves on Friday. I was REALLY disappointed, not only for having so much money go to waste (I bought the tickets in advance to get a good deal), but because Nora was SOOO excited about going and I really wanted to experience her happiness first-hand. This was her "prize" for doing a good job of going to bed 10 days in a row. So that is why I have no pictures of this event-- Mom, the picture taker, stayed home with a fussy baby. Kris said Nora had an absolute ball and went on tons of water slides, even going under water a few times. Of course, the ones that she went under water on, she never went down again. Anyway, the important thing is that she had a great time. I'm sure we'll go again next year.

Done!

Well, here are photos of my favorite windows (sorry about the color, I'm on Kris's computer so I don't have my fancy-schmancy Photoshop and can't adjust the colors. The close-up photo is the closest to the real thing). These are the only "woodgrain" windows we got because these are the only windows in the house that don't have painted trim. We like these so much that I kinda wish we'd gotten them for the dining room too. It would've been worth it to strip the trim there. Oh well. We'll have enough to do with painting the new trim pieces they put on some of the windows (since the new windows are square, but most of the window holes weren't, there were gaps on many of the windows). You can see what I'm talking about in these photos-- we'll have to stain the light-colored trim. But the important part is done, and as I said before, we LOVE them!

Going, going... gone

Well, our windows were installed on Friday. So far, ... we LOVE them! As Kris pointed out on Sunday, "it's 95 degrees at noon on a sunny day, we don't have any curtains up, the house is comfortable and the air conditioner is not running!" It was a very exciting moment. We've even decided not to put curtains back up in the dining room. Previously, if we didn't have the curtains closed by noon, it became an absolute oven in there. Now, the sun streams in during the afternoon and we don't notice a change in temperature. I'm going to try to find the most minimal window covering I can find-- some kind of nice roller shade perhaps-- so we have something for privacy when we want it (and to keep the rug from fading too much).

The installation went really smoothly, I thought. They did have some major trouble with the bay windows-- cracked one of the new window frames, as a matter of fact-- because the openings were so slanted. They ordered a new frame for that one. It was a really hot day (August, what else can you expect?) and I got quite a workout running from room to room taking down curtains, moving things from in front of the windows, etc. Why we didn't do more beforehand, I don't know. I did manage to take some photos-- it was kinda cool because they took all the windows out on one floor before they started installing. So in our dining room and "parlor," it seemed almost like we didn't have any walls (each wall is mostly a bay window.) It was also fun to stick my head out of the huge holes in the walls.





And then I spent most of the day Saturday and a half day Sunday vacuuming & wiping down as much as I could manage. Major dusty mess.

Good times

We spent what seemed like a good portion of the weekend at Marissa (Kris's sister) & Gary's new house. They now have a pool, so I think we'll be spending a lot of time over there, at least until the end of the summer. Good thing for them that summer's almost over, so hopefully they won't get sick of us. We all had a great time, especially Nora. Spending time with Dominic (Marissa's son, whom Nora adores), swimming, playing with their dart game-- all add up to FUN for Nora.



Also, we're excited (and a bit nervous) that we get our new windows on Friday. I'm anxious about the possible mess (dust...possible lead paint??? I need to do some research on how to clean up) and a little sad about losing the old windows, but overall it will be good as long as everything goes smoothly. I even found some new homes for the old windows. Several people at work have asked for some for decorating projects. I was originally worried about finding homes for the 15 or so panes that have the original glass, but those are all spoken for, as well as about 15 of the old frames with newer glass. Wish I'd thought to charge a couple dollars each!

1st Birthday!

Yesterday was Charlotte's first birthday and we went to Kris's parents for dinner to celebrate. She got a TON of clothes and some toys that she just loves. Doesn't it look like she's amazed at all the cool stuff?



Charlotte also discovered a new place to sit-- the bottom of a shelf in Grandma & Grandpa's sunporch. She was on and off of it more times than I can count:


We all had a blast.


I got a bunch of great photos, but don't want to post them all here. So click on one of the above photos and then on "joannac5950's Photo Stream" to see more (birthday pics are in the "July 07" set, but feel free to look around).

Jamaican Jam

Have I said before that I love being within walking distance of downtown LS? We walked to the Jamaican Jam reggae festival last night and Nora had a blast playing in the squirty things (with colored lights, no lesss) that they have in front of city hall. Who knew they had those? If we had, she'd have worn her swimsuit. The city hall is a nice place to have these kinds of things because people can sit on the steps (there are many) AND in the street. So we're thinking they'll start to have these kinds of events in front of city hall, instead of on Main where they usually have them. (Some of the downtown streets are under constructions right now.) This is unfortunate for us, because it makes for a longer walk, and I'm sure the businesses on Main are going to miss out on some profits. In any case, we may have Nora wear her swimsuit next time. Luckily, she has the best dad in the world-- Kris took his shirt off so Nora could take her wet clothes off and wear his shirt home. Walking shirtless through downtown during an event was probably not at the top of his list of things he'd like to do someday, but he did it anyway. Such a good dad.

Ahh... Love

Background: A couple of months ago, we bought a Dyson. I totally love it and raved about it for weeks. (Hey, our other vacuum was 10 years old. A new one was definitely reason to celebrate...Can you believe I'm old enough to have such a grown-up thing for 10 years? I can't.) I even took to using it as a verb, as in "I'm going to Dyson."

It was obvious that Nora had picked up on my enthusiasm for the Dyson when she told me "I gave that to Charlotte. It was on the floor, but it was clean because you just Dysoned." And last night when we were eating our (deliciously addictive) burrito bowls from Chipotle, Kris asked Nora how she liked her burrito bowl. Nora replied "I love it as much as Mommy loves her Dyson." I kid you not.