And doing crafts.
I saw this in Martha Stewart Living and wanted to give it a try. It is silhouettes of me, B, and Eli (guess who is who) and I really like the way they turned out. B was surprised at how well they did turn out (yay?).
So I present to you our latest home addition.
Our driveway. With all the snow we have been getting it is great to not have to worry about saving/finding a spot. In Medford, we started to follow our neighbor’s cues. If Dave saved his spot, we saved ours. If Dave stopped saving his spot, we stopped. We had an orange cone we used. Some days I was as worried that someone would steal the cone as well as still the spot.
I love this pictorial review of the items used to save spots on Boston.com
http://boston.com/realestate/gallery/parking_space_savers/
Also with all the snow we are running out of places to put it. We have mounds and mounds around the house. We had to shovel a path to the yard so Eli can get to the yard to do his business.
One of the spare rooms (the Jason Mulgrew Memorial Tribute Room) has a door that almost always closes behind you. Typically this is not an issue unless you are a dog. We first noticed that the back of the door had what looked like scratches on it. And then we found Eli behind the door once. Being the smarties that we are, we realized that Eli was getting stuck in the room and trying to scratch out. So we either propped it open or kept it close.
We had one incident where Mike came to pick up Eli for play group and Eli was no where to be found. Brendan and Mike searched and Brendan found Eli behind the closed door. However, last night takes the cake. I had gone to bed and Eli came with me. At some point during “16 and Pregnant” I fell asleep and Eli left the room. I awoke to what I think is Eli barking in the yard. After a minute or two, I begin to wonder why Brendan is not quieting the dog and I am annoyed. Finally I yell to Brendan and he comes upstairs. He thought he heard a dog barking in the neighbor’s yard. We meet in the hallway and hear the scratching…it was Eli barking in the room to get out. But because he was in the room it was muted and sounded like he was outside for me. Poor puppy. I hope he finally learned his lesson to stay out of that room.
Mostly pictures…
Fireplace.
Anteroom.
Dining room / living room.
Kitchen
Harry Potter Room
Basement
Plethora of pilfered pint glasses
Spare room
Spare room
Office complete with whiteboard wall
Bedroom
New china cabinet from front door to dining room to kitchen
This is before it got really bad. According to local news sources, our town got 4.2 inches of rain in 45 minutes.
This weekend was the one year anniversary of Eli joining the family. He got some extra treats and attention. I took some pictures and he was of course adorable. The only problem is that I can’t find the cord to download the pictures.
What this also means is that I can’t download the pictures of the house that were taken. We are officially unpacked and almost fully organized. Just in time for the BBQ Saturday. Now if I could just get ahead of the weeds that are growing in the yard…
Okay so June 25 came and went and Brendan and I were getting the house ready for the big move. Then July 11th came. Moving Day. Awesome. We had a large truck and a cast of movers including us, Kim, Kevin, Karen, Keith, Jen, Hugh, Alett, and Paul. We started around 9:30 and ended at 12:30. We couldn’t believe a) how hot it was and b) how quickly it went. Then the BBQ started. Then around 1:30 some people left and around 2:00, the rain started. We watched the rain fall and laughed at the fact that Jen and Keith had just gone for a run. Jen returned first and she was soaking. Then Keith came home. We continued the drinking until a knock on the door came. Turns out the street was flooding and Keith’s car was in danger of getting wet. We then watched the waters come down the street and laughed. I went down to check our basement and just some water was there from the bulkhead. We go back upstairs and more drinking ensues. About an hour later, we realized that there was about 2 inches of water in the basement. We just moved. And now water. So Jen, Keith, Kim, and I begin to bail out the basement while Brendan and Paul go to Home Depot for a Wet vac. 2 hours later Brendan returned. As he was leaving, he ran into our neighbor Bob. Turns out Bob had about 2 feet of water in his basement (Bob says it was the second worst he has seen it in the 25 years he has lived here. The streets were so badly flooded, traffic wasn’t moving. (We later learned that a tunnel got completely flooded and 2 people had to swim to safety). Once we had the wet vac and the water began to subside, it took a few more hours but it was dry. The next night it rained again and panic ensued. Brendan and I were afraid to see if water was coming in but it wasn’t and it hasn’t anytime it has rained since moving day.
We later found out that most of Somerville was experiencing bad flooding. The police station lost 3 cruisers to the water and had to chain motorcycles down for fear they would be taken with the water. They estimate the damage to residents and the city at $10 million so far.
As I told Brendan, we seem to get done with all the hardships earlier than expected – major illness 7 months into marriage, flood one month into home ownership. That is how we roll I guess.
Brendan got his grill – the grillmaster. The directions said 40 minutes to assemble. It took closer to 3 hours. But after much cursing, the grill was ready for use!
Here is Brendan with my lovingly made burgers.
Then Eli wanted to know what all the fuss was about.
Here is Brendan and Eli chilling on the deck in my new red, plastic, awesome adirondack chairs.
Then Eli wanted to try out the Heineken Premium Light. The dog has taste.
Here is Eli during the unpacking process.
Eli can be much like a 1-year-old child. He has an understanding of what certain words mean, he tries to talk but his language is not really understood, we have to take care of his poop, etc. You get the picture. Well yesterday we were over at the house doing things and there was this really big box (grillmaster grill!!!). Eli was having a grand ol’ time, not playing with his bone or his toys that were brought over but the box.
Here is Eli with a piece in his mouth, trying to run away from me.
Remember the saga of the blue bin? If not, read about it here. Well, the other day we put a ton of trash out that we knew people would take – couch, cushions, pillows, charcoal grill. What we didn’t bet on is someone taking our blue bin filled with paper for recycling. WTF? We put it all out Thursday night and Friday before the trash guys came by, it was gone.