Memorial Day- Monday

To start off, I am so thankful for all the men and women who serve in the armed forces, and for the sacrifice of their families.  I honestly can't comprehend what it would be like to have one of my loved ones overseas, but I do know that without that sacrifice from others, my life would be very, very different.  I am so thankful for those who serve.

Rob and I joked that Memorial Day really should have been "Labor" day around our house.  A few weeks ago we realized that we had a couple of home issues we needed to address- most pressing was a leak in the wall where the washing machine was hooked up.  The drywall back there was a little squishy, and I was just imagine the mold colony that we were growing.  Also, our deck was rotting and I would cringe when more than Rob and I were outside-- I felt like there was a good possibility that someone would fall through.  Less pressing was some siding that needed to be replaced and a fence that was leaning.

The week before Memorial Day, we decided to (hire someone to) address these issues. 

The deck came out pretty quick, and Rob and I were pleased to find a cobblestone patio in good shape underneath.  I was imaging a mud pit outside our back door until we put in a patio later this year, so I was pleasantly surprised.

The laundry room was a different story.  It took them WAY longer to do than they said, and I was without washing machine for the whole time.  I was actually conserving Drew's clothes.  

By Monday, the laundry room was done and I had new drywall that needed paint.  And since I hate to make things easy for myself, I decided to repaint the entire room a new color.  So Monday I got up close and personal with Sherwin William's Uncertain Gray.  Which is lovely.  After two coats of that, I decided the small hallway outside the laundry room also needed a different color, so that changed, too.  Then I washed off the outdoor furniture and put it on the newly-found patio.  Then I washed the dog.

How do you entertain a baby while you paint?  Set him outside the door, give him lots of toys,
and tell his favorite toy, his dog, to "stay."

Then I collapsed on the floor while Rob created a pretty awesome recipe for spaghetti and meatballs.  Have I mentioned that he is an amazing cook?  I am so thankful for that weekend- we had great fun as a family, got to see good friends, and made some excellent progress on the house!

Thoughts for the End of the Week

It's been a long time since I put pen to paper (or hands to keyboard, as it may be).  It's been a quiet week around here since we were dealing with subarctic temps yet again.  Drew and I spent the week hibernating.  So here are some random thoughts.

1. It only took me 3 months and 3 weeks to figure out my child, but he has been a DOLL this entire week.  He has been eating much better and taking more naps and going to sleep earlier and that combo seems to be working with him.  He is the smiliest, happiest, chattiest baby when he is awake.  And every so often we catch a laugh, and it just brings a smile to my face.  He has reverted to waking up a couple of times a night (what's that all about?), but he goes back down really easily, so I won't complain.

2.  We went to visit our CPA this morning to look at our 2010 taxes.  Traditionally I have been the accountant in our house, thanks to South Texas College of Law requiring each and every student to take Federal Income Tax, but between a new dependent, tax credits for energy efficient appliances, and Rob buying and selling stock, I decided our taxes moved out of my league.  So the whole family went to the CPA, and there I was, standing and bouncing a baby on my hip while wearing heels and answering questions about amortizing points and such.  Guess I should get used to that.

(Foreshadowing?  Yup.)

3. The rage in home blogs right now is stenciling walls, and I wanted to get in on that action.  I started stenciling our TINY bathroom downstairs, and got half way through before Rob told me that he felt like he fell down the rabbit hole and might end up dizzy if he visited that room for any length of time.  And honestly, he could be right.  I think I know what I'm going to do to fix it.  Check back for an update on the psychedelic bathroom.

Wow, seriously quiet week, huh?  I am volunteering tomorrow for JLA and then we may go look at cars and then install some elfa shelving in a tiny closet.  How domestic are we?  But I'm looking forward to a low-key weekend!

Have a good one!

When it rains, it pours.

The rain got us into this mess, and now the idiom is proving to be true.

So I posted about the Great Flood of 2010, and how that led to us needing to replace the back french doors and a couple of planks of hardwood flooring.  That lead to getting an estimate and bid on some kitchen work.  That lead to purchasing new granite countertops for the kitchen.  That to a need for a new cooktop.  That lead to the "well, might as well do this once" mentality, which lead to new ovens and a new microwave.  And the "might as well do this once" mentality also led us to re-do the 1/2 bathroom downstairs.  Typical home remodel story.

So the appliances are on the truck, the granite is being fabricated for the kitchen and 1/2 bath, and I have paint waiting for pick up at Sherwin Williams.  We start ripping everything out bright and early tomorrow morning.

But as fate would have it, it's not enough to just make our 32-year-old house pretty on the surface. 

Sunday before Rob got home I took a shower and noticed it was a little cold, but chalked it up to the fact the bathroom doors were open, the fan in the bedroom was still on, and the AC was still set to"subartic" (Thanks, pregnancy hormones).  But Sunday night I went to take another shower and realized it just wasn't warm.  At all.  We tried every sink in the house- no hot water.

Apparently, our hot water heater went out.  Luckily it didn't go out by busting a hole and spilling 50 gallons of water into my garage, but it still meant an ice cold shower this morning.  And probably tomorrow.

If you are counting, that means, since May, we have purchased a new AC system, double ovens, microwave, cooktop and now water heater.

One more good rainstorm and we might just put the house on the market.

The Great Flood of 2010

When Rita came through Houston in 2005, I "fled" to Austin.  By "fled" I meant I took a long weekend to go see my fiance since I had a great excuse to do it.  If you think people in Houston are bad about hurricanes, people in the hill country are even worse.  When I got to Austin the talking weather heads were starting to forecast lots and lots of rain up here, and there wasn't a can of Spaghetti-Os or a case of bottled water to be found at H-E-B.  Everyone was preparing to live in utter chaos for several days.  Not to miss out on the fun of purchasing emergency supplies, I bought 2 large bottles of lemon flavored Perrier and some canned veggies.  It rained about 4 drops and I drank my Perrier while everyone made fun of me for my "emergency supplies."  But hey, water is water, and if we needed it, Perrier would have worked as well as Ozarka.

So that was the flood we were prepared for that never happened.  A couple of years later, my house had the flood we were NOT prepared for thanks to tropical storm Hermine (horrible name, worse storm).  It sat over the hill country for about 27 hours, raining off an on.  But for about 5 hours, from 10PM to 3AM on September 7th, the heavens opened up above my house and the rains came down.

About 10PM I was in bed watching Rachel Zoe and Rob came in to watch the end (he secretly loves that show, I swear).  Rob said the water was almost to the porch.  At 10:30 he went to check again and opened the door to a lake.  It was about 1.5 inches from coming in the house through the front door.  We had noticed some water spots on our new wood floors earlier in the week, so we went to check the back french doors and noticed that if you smushed down on the board, water came up between the boards.  Not good.  So Rob took a push broom and started pushing water away from the front door for the next 3 hours, while I used towels to soak up the water coming in the back and occasionally went to sweep water away from the outside of those doors. 

Water never did come in the front door (thank God), but the french doors and a couple of hardwood boards near them need to be replaced.  The upside is while we were calling contractors about replacing the doors we decided to get them to bid out renovating our kitchen, so we should start that in the next week or two.

What, you wouldn't renovate a kitchen at 33 weeks pregnant?

It's A Boy!

But everyone reading this blog probably already knew that, since we found out almost a month ago.  Is this blog thing ever really going to take off for me?

Yes, a happy, healthy, BIG (measuring about 2 weeks large) little boy.  He was a sight to see on that screen, but cooperated nicely with the sonogram tech.  We got to see and count all the tiny fingers and toes, look at his brain, his heart, his ribs..... looking good!

The best part about the top picture in this post is apparently, based on this picture, he looks EXACTLY like either Rob or I, depending on if the person you are asking knows Rob or I better.  Seriously, we've both had at least 3 people tell us that he looks just like one or the other.  Which I think goes to prove that you see what you want to! :)

We are currently working on names and a nursery.  Seeing as though I am 24 weeks along, it is probably time to get started on both of those things.  I think we *may* have a name, but we'll keep trying it out this week and see if it sticks.

In other news, home remodel is coming along nicely.  Rob and I decided to build some cafe shelves for our dining room, so I think that is the project for the week (my e-decorator Holly told me I am crazy to be doing that at 24 weeks along and she is probably right, but that was the best I could come up with!)

The Road Goes On Forever

And the painting never ends.......

LOVE all the changes in the new house. Expected to want/need to paint the walls. Didn't think about how much time (and precision) it takes to paint all the new trim work. And it is so much less rewarding!!!

Rob was out of town this weekend, so I decided I was going to get a lot accomplished. Baby Callegari agreed the first day, but then decided I had done too much and I should really just laze around on Sunday. Good compromise, I think. I am in LOVE with my new dining room/breakfast room. It just looks so much better. Both Rob and I remarked we would rather spend time in there than the living room right now. I guess this means I better get Holly started on the living room! I need to post some new pictures, but I always tend to blog from work where I don't have any pictures handy.

In other news, all activities are wrapping up for the end of the year. Tonight I have my Junior League Provisional End-of-Year Celebration. Hard to believe it was about 18 months ago that I was listening to the spiel about joining. It was a really fun experience, and I look forward to next year. My placement will be with Con Mi Madre, which was started by a JLA member many years ago. Excited about seeing what I can do with that organization.

The Young Women's Alliance Membership Appreciation Party is Wednesday, which is always a good time. Sad I won't be able to use my drink tickets this year, but it will be worth it. YWA board stuff will slowly start picking up in June, but it should be a slow start. I may actually get some house stuff done in June!

We find out the sex of the bambino on June 23. It seems so far away, but then again I feel like I JUST had an appointment where I heard that beautiful heartbeat, and my next appointment is a week from today. Time is flying, and my clothes are starting to get too tight. I'm ready for this stage to be over-- right now I feel like I just look a little fat and not pregnant. I'm ready to get to that obviously pregnant stage!

Well, that's all I have to report right now. Looking forward to a great 16th week!

Big Changes!

In both body and home.

This week has been a huge week of growth for me. I have been a lot more hungry this week, and I have seen the baby bump grow exponentially. While it used to only show up after a long day, this morning I woke up and it was already there! I give my pants about 2 more weeks before I become a skirt-only person. I have ordered a collection of 6 stretchy skirts from Old Navy, and fully intend to use that as my summer wardrobe, so be prepared.

On the home front, the remodel is almost complete. The tile is going in the laundry room right now, and the wood guys are supposed to be here in an hour to start laying the floor. Hopefully everyone is out by noon tomorrow and I'm just left with my e-designer, Holly Mathis, to put the finishing touches on the decor. I'm excited about that, but really I'm more excited to have my washer and dryer back. It's the little things, I guess.

I would post pictures of the house, but I'm doing this from work. Hope everyone has a lovely Friday!

The time has come.....

9 weeks old!

to start a blog. I'm not sure I like certain elements of this, so watch for changes to come over time, but I'm tired of messing with it.

If you are here, you likely know our latest news that Baby Callegari will be here in early November! We are very, very excited, and I'm still having a hard time believing it. I just started my second trimester, and I'm seeing some new "symptoms" pop up--- mostly that my brain seems to have gone on hiatus. I hope things won't be this way for the next 6 months. Today I found myself standing in the supply room for 5 minutes wondering why I was there, and then I realized I had actually gone to get some documents from our war room. I skipped morning sickness entirely, so maybe this will be my "bad" symptom. In my mind that is better than throwing up for 12 weeks, but my bosses may beg do differ.

We are also right in the middle of a remodel of our house. When we bought the house we immediately started planning a remodel, and after about 50 different versions of that plan (and 2 alternate plans that included just finding a new house), we are finally doing something about it. It has been 10 days of living in squalor, and I'm getting tired of it. But we should have our floors back in by Friday and be getting back to normal, and if everything stays on track I promise not to complain.

So there- 5/4/2010- my first blog post. Probably would have been more entertaining if I hadn't spent an hour trying to clean sawdust out of my stove, but I do what I can.