Work work work

Waking up at 5:45, on the road by 7, in the office by 8. Leaving at 4:30, home by 5:30. Dinner, dishes, packing lunches, ironing clothes, bed time. Oh yes, so this is what it's like to have a day job.

Is it over yet?

I'm not sure what's wrong with me, but there is some kind of chemical imbalance in my brain that just does not make me suitable for a typical office job. Maybe it's the 50 minute commute? More likely that I've been doing my exact same job from home that I'm now required to do in the office. That probably has something to do with it. Oh well, it's a paycheck, right?

Travis also started his new job as the custodian of our new office. His hours are 9-whenever he finishes. He's been getting home about 8 every night. The first day we rode in together - and that was the only day we did that. I hate being in the office until 4:30, so I was extremely unenthusiastic about being there until after 7. No thank you. So I go in early and he drives himself in. Not the most cost-friendly, but we have a feeling his hours will be changing to be more like 12-8.

Actually, we're in for a lot of changes. We got a shocking call yesterday morning that the owner of our company passed away suddenly on Friday night. He was in his early 70's, but it is always tragic when someone passes so unexpectedly. I had talked to him a lot on Friday and he was in a great mood, and seemed to be in good health. He had just stepped back into the role of CEO, so I'm not sure what will happen with the structure of our company. I'm also not really sure what will happen with my new position and if that will stay the same.

So hug your loved ones extra tight today.

Oh baby it's cold outside!

Ah yes, January in Minnesota. How quickly I forgot from last year. I was just saying to Travis the other day "it's the end of January! Pretty soon Spring will be here!" And then we were blessed with a week of barely zero degree temperatures. More like negative temps. Oh joy!

So the hubster and I haven't been doing a whole lot of outdoor activities lately. One good thing from this: our shower is now grouted! It looks fantastic. Travis isn't officially done with it, as he still has to seal it all, sand down the ceiling and paint the ceiling. I don't want to show you any pictures until it's done, so you'll just have to take my word for it - it looks great!

Since we've been trapped indoors, I came up with a project for us this weekend. Naturally. See, we ordered our crib and dresser/changing table last weekend and we should be getting them sometime this week. Because it's being shipped, I wanted to take them out of the box and set them up so that we can check for damages and/or missing parts. Our plan is to turn our office, which is right next to our room, into the nursery. So my plan for this weekend was to clean out the office, and move the desk and computer to the family room.

The actual moving part of it all was short and simple. We're only talking about a desk, computer, chair and a few filing cabinets. The very involved part of the process was going through all the junk that we had accumulated that I didn't want to be visible in our family room all the time. So here we are on Sunday evening finally finished with our project. The nursery is ready for furniture!

Here's my 14 week picture:
Still not a whole lot of change, but I think we're finally seeing "bump" instead of "bloat"! Haha! My monthly appointment is on Tuesday, so send good thoughts and prayers our way!

Tomorrow Travis and I begin our new jobs at the new office. For some reason we have to be there from 9-6, which is a very long day for me. I'm bringing a ton of food and snacks because my biggest worry is getting hungry and not having food available to me! We're thinking that as of Tuesday, Travis will be working at night while I'm on days. This would be great if baby were here now and I could keep working from home. That's not the case, but lots of things can change from now until then. So we're just waiting to see what happens!

That's all from the Iron Range for now. I'll leave you with some pictures of our snow mountains in the front yard. Have a great week!
I guess we'll be "those" neighbors who leave their Christmas decorations out until Spring.

Vacation!

I finally got around to getting all our vacation pictures on the computer. I won't bore you with all of them, just the high-lights.

We left around 6:30pm on Monday night and drove straight through the night and Tuesday until we got just south of Atlanta where we stayed for the night. Driving crazy hours like this used to be no big deal, but I have a feeling that we're getting too old for those kind of shenanigans. After spending the night in Atlanta, we awoke bright eyed and bushy tailed Wednesday morning and drove the rest of the way home.

Along the way we stopped in Gainesville, FL. Go Gators! You may think we were stopping to see old college friends, or take a quick peek at the campus, but no. Travis wanted to stop for lunch at Mi Apa Cafe, home to some of the best Cuban food ever! We got our food to go and ate it at the rest stop so Maya could stretch her legs.
For New Years Eve, Mom and Dad took us on a dinner cruise on the Intercoastal Waterway. This was so much fun! I couldn't take advantage of the open bar, but I did enjoy my chocolate cake dessert!
Here we are waiting to get on the boat, which is behind us. It had 3 levels, the very top being all open with tables to hang out at. We ate dinner on the first level. We were even provided with New Year's hats!
After dinner we spent the rest of the evening on the top deck viewing small homes like this:
The rest of our days were spent at the pool, or shopping, or at the beach. And of course we had to go to world famous "Boston's on the Beach". If you go, you have to get the fish dip!
I'm not sure what was going on in this picture, but I look excited about something!
The view from Boston's patio, where we enjoyed 2 fish dips, and a plethora of other seafood dishes. Yum yum!

After lots of hugs and tears, and setting my parents up with Skype so we can video talk with them, we left earlier than intended. Our original plan was to leave very early Wednesday morning and drive straight through to St. Louis. After our previous 24 hrs in the car plus another day driving, I nixed this idea. So we left on Tuesday and drove to Atlanta, staying in the same hotel as when we drove down. Wednesday was an easy drive to St. Louis then.

I have to say this: even though we spent 2 years in St. Louis, 2 days is just not enough time to fit everything in! We had a great time even though the weather wasn't so hot while we were there. My sister in law took us to the art museum, which we actually had never been to before. It was really cool! They had a huge Waterlilies by Monet, and mummies! Travis took pictures of some of the Oceanic art but they turned out pretty dark. So the only pictures we have of our time in St. Louis is of us outside the museum.
We left Saturday morning and drove all day, getting home around 10:30 that night. We were greeted by this:
This was after Travis shoveled out our driveway, front porch and sidewalk. Then a few days later, we got another 4 or 5 inches. He is not a happy camper with Mother Nature this week. Hopefully next year we'll have a snow blower, or better yet - a 4 wheeler with a snow plow!

And just for fun, here's my 13 weeks picture:
Here's hoping for an early spring!

Surprise!

We're pregnant! I'm actually about 12 weeks along, but we've been keeping it to ourselves until we could tell all our family in person. Best decision ever! I'm due on 7/21, only 6 short months from now! As of now, I'm feeling good and getting some energy back. I had some nausea and food aversions, but those are getting a lot better.

I'll have to do another post to update about our vacation, I don't have the pictures uploaded yet. I just wanted to let you all in on our special news. Visiting our family was awesome. I am so greatful that God has blessed us with such wonderful, supportive family. Everyone has been very excited for us!

More pictures to come!

Happy Holidays!

Here I am, dear blogger. I know you thought I forgot about you. Life has been hectic and crazy as per usual around the Christmas holiday. We've had parties to go to, presents to wrap, and of course, our never-ending shower renovation.

No, the shower is not done yet. It's close though! Travis has put up almost all the tile. Unfortunately, Christmas festivities put a halt on tile installation and we will likely not finish it until we get back from our vacation. But I'm ok with that, and I think Travis is ready for a break.

We have been nothing but blessed this holiday season. I had to work a half day on Christmas Eve, and my boss called me first thing that morning. We had talked earlier that week about a new (but sort of old) position for me, working as a junior rep for the company again as well as doing my current job. We played phone tag for awhile, but he eventually got a hold of me so that I could accept and negotiate a $10K pay raise. Sweet! He also offered Travis a job as the custodian at the new office that we'll be moving into in January. Not the most glamorous job, but just a starting off point until something else comes open for him. It pays great, and is full time with benefits. He accepted!

Christmas Eve was spent at Bear River Lutheran Church, where most of the pews of the small church were filled by our family. Afterward we went for dinner at Grandma Fran's house and got to spend time with family from all over Minnesota. Christmas day saw us going back to Bear River to spend the day with Trav's parents and family. His brother took a shift on Christmas day for another coworker with kids, so they waited until he got home at 4:00 to open presents. We received lots of wonderful presents this year, the big ones include a circular saw, a wooden folding table with 2 chairs, a new set of silverware (much needed!), a vacuum, steam mop, and a beautiful new peacoat for me!

As I write this, we are currently waiting to head out on our trip to Florida. We're driving the entire 30 hour trek, taking about 2 and 1/2 days. We plan on leaving tonight around 8 and driving through the night and tomorrow until we stop tomorrow night. We're hoping to make it to Dalton, GA which is just an hour north of Atlanta. If we don't make good time, we'll power through until we get to Chattanooga, TN. Then we'll finish the rest of the trip on Wednesday. I am so looking forward to see my parents! So far our plans include mani/pedi's with my mom, a New Year's Eve dinner cruise, and dinner at a Japanese steak house on New Year's Day. Let's not forget lots of shopping! We'll be there for a week, and then take a day to drive to St. Louis to visit my brother's and their families. I'm ready to get a move on!

So naturally I will be neglecting my blog while on vacation. But I hope to have lots of pictures to make up for my disappearance! Stay tuned!

Shower, week 2

I'm so very glad that my husband has the Mr. Fix-It aptitude that I so obviously lack. Here I thought that we'd have the new shower installed and tiled in a week. I am so naive.

In the words of my brother, "Every home improvement job takes at least 3 trip to Lowe's." In our case, Lowe's has been a daily occurrence. We need more screws, more cement, more stuff that I don't even know why we need it but it goes in the shower somewhere. But hubby has been trucking along, slowly making progress.
Here is it is after putting up the tar paper and putting in one layer of cement. Apparently that stuff has to dry for at least a day. Notice also the little step out that will be tiled and hopefully act as a water barrier.
Here is most of the cement board up and taped. Once we've water tested the pan liner and added another layer of cement to the bottom, Travis will fill in the bottom areas with more cement board. Then we'll be ready to tile. Which is a whole other story. Of course we can't agree on a tile we like. I think it comes down to good taste (me) and not so good taste (hubby). Hopefully we'll eventually compromise. I'd like to have my bathroom back by Christmas!

I also have to include a picture of our new lined curtains for our weird family room window. It is extremely long and short.

You'll notice our Diva Dog on her new favorite blanket. That's the electric blanket we got on sale on Black Friday. I believe that I have used it a handful of times, and Travis has used it a handful of times. Maya? She sleeps on it every day and every night. She will no longer sleep in her crate because she believes her rightful place is on her electric blanket on the couch. It's not on, but we're in trouble if she figures out how to operate the hand held control. She'll be nice and toasty all the time!

I guess Maya has a good idea though. As I write this it is currently -6 degrees. We're expected to have a low tonight of -27. Our Florida trip can't come soon enough! 14 days until we leave!

I love my house, I love my house...

Really, I really do. But sometimes I want to throw something at it. Or give it a good, swift kick. You know?

We have lots of projects planned for this house, but nothing that is super urgent or needs to be done right now. Or, at least, until this past weekend. While most families are preparing for Christmas, decorating their homes and shopping for gifts, we are dealing with this:
What is this, you ask? Well, this my dear readers, is my 2nd floor shower. Sure not looking like a shower right at the moment, right? So let me tell you why it looks like this right now.

Friday morning I'm quietly taking my shower, minding my own business, when I hear a small little "crack" under my feet. Hmm, not so good. Ever since we bought this house, our shower floor has always felt like you were standing on un-solid ground. The previous owners put in a fiberglass shower surround and floor. Lo and behold, we discover that they bought the cheapest one that has foam underneath it. Foam!??! What good is foam!?!? Maybe if I weighed 50 lbs then this wouldn't be a problem. While I will not disclose my actual weight on a public forum such as this, I can tell you that it's not anywhere close to 50 lbs. So my big fat butt broke our shower floor.

We do have a full bathroom on our first floor, thank goodness. We really did not need to attack this problem right before Christmas. However, I hope to have an employed husband come January, so we're utilizing his free time now. So now I'm sure you're thinking "has Travis ever replaced a shower before?" Well, umm, no. But this is a learning experience! He's already doing a great job.

After looking at our shower options, we decided to put tile in instead of another fiberglass surround. The reasoning is that a surround cost just as much, if not a little more than doing tile. Surprising, right? So far Travis has ripped out the old shower, and the drywall they put up. Honestly, whoever put it in was an idiot. They used plain old drywall instead of the cement board that won't get wet and moldy. We also discovered that they used regular insulation behind that, instead of the plastic protected insulation which we replaced and you can see in the picture. (That was my idea! Hey, I watch HGTV - I know what I'm talking about!)

The biggest surprise so far? The sub-floor actually had a hole in it right underneath where it cracked. No wonder it always felt like you were standing in a hole! Today he got the new sub-floor in, and put in a new drain. Tomorrow is cement board and hopefully cement over the sub-floor. Somewhere in there goes a water proof membrane too, but at this point that's all up to hubby dearest. He's pretty ambitious, that man I married!

Hopefully by early next week we will have the tile laid. Please pray for us.