Bathroom Update: January 2010

Ray's work project is finally starting to wind down, though it's not finished yet. Regardless, he took New Year's weekend mostly off and him and his dad accomplished this:

Of course, he refused to be photographed with his work, so I was sent in to pose. I actually painted the bathroom a very pale blue in October. Ray and his dad put the Corian surround up last weekend. It looks great! Plus, I am so glad to have the surround off the guest room floor, where it's been for the last 2+ years.

As I type, Ray currently looks like this:

It took a lot of pleading to get this picture! The white stuff is pieces of the Corian surround. Ray is using his brand-new router (yay!) to even the edges out. Then, he'll caulk it and the glass blocks are next!

Brothers

My brothers at the Packer game last weekend. It's fun to see them all hang out together, especially because the oldest is 28 and the youngest is 17! From left to right: Neil, Noah, Nathan, Mark. Aren't they handsome boys?!

Blizzard Allison, 2009

Like just about everyone else in Wisconsin, Ray and I woke up to about a foot of snow on the ground this morning. I hopped in the shower and Ray hopped into some snow boots to shovel out our driveway.

When Ray comes in, he lets me know that we won't be going anywhere until the snow plow comes through (what with our little cars and lack of 4-wheel drive and all that). "No problem," I think, "they'll be coming along any minute now."

At 7:30am, my boss texts me and tells me to not bother coming in until about noon. I let him know that sounds good since we haven't been plowed out yet.

11:30am and no plow. I call my boss and tell him if we're plowed by 1:30, I'll be in. If it's later than that, it just wouldn't be worth the hassle. Boss agrees.

After lunch, Ray and I (Ray worked from home all day) go out to brush the snow off our poor arborvitae and shovel again. The neighbor across the street tries unsuccessfully to get his little car out of his driveway. Ray and another neighbor end up just pushing the car right back into the driveway again. None of us are going anywhere!

While outside, I had Ray take a picture of us to send to the children we sponsor through Compassion International. They live in South America and Africa, so I'm sure they'll love the picture!!!


We go back inside and I give up on making it into work today. Ray thinks the plow crew has forgotten our road exists.

At about 3pm, I see a broken-down plow go past our house being pulled by a large front-end loader (wish I had gotten a pic!). Not a good sign.

Then, at 4:10pm, it happens!

And that, my friends, is the story of Blizzard Allison.

Orthodontic Update, November 2009

I really should have posted an update after my last trip to the orthodontist, since that's when the interesting things happened. So, I will recap both trips.

I went into my October ortho visit hoping that Dr. Olsen would finally tell me I was ready for oral surgery. So, imagine my surprise when, after looking at my teeth and chart for awhile, he instead tells me he wants to try something that could keep me from needing surgery at all!

Of course, I said, "Let's go for it!"

So, Dr. Olsen gave me some rubber bands that go from my back upper teeth to my front lower teeth to try to convince my top teeth to "hop" over my lowers.

Last week, my uppers did in fact start "hopping". I was cautiously excited going into today's appointment. I had no idea what my teeth would need to look like in order for Dr. Olsen to think that this could work.

When Dr. Olsen saw me today, he was really happy with how my teeth are looking. Whew! He's still not ready to say that the surgery is off, but he did say, "If your teeth keeping moving like this, we shouldn't need to do the surgery." I'm going to keep praying!

Being An Aunt is Fun!

My little niece, Malia, is now over a year old and she's been walking for a few months now. She is getting to be so much fun!

Yesterday, Ray taught Malia a new game that made her squeal with excitement:


The dog, Phoebe, does not like this game nearly as much as Malia does. Lol!

On another exciting note, my second niece/nephew is on his/her way. We found out a couple of weeks ago that Ray's brother, Steve, and his wife, Keri, are expecting their first child! Yay!

New Shoe Shelf

I keep Ray's project list pretty full, so I think he was glad to cross this one off!

There was a shelf in the closet before, but the shelves were narrower and at a steeper angle, so all of my shoes were always sliding right off of it. The new shelves are still at an angle for easier viewing/grabbing, but it's just a slight angle. Nothing has fallen off, so I'm happy :)

Yay for handy husbands!

The Fruits of My (Lack of) Labor

Our raspberry bushes are ever-bearing, meaning that they give us berries twice a year. Our first crop of berries came pretty late this year, so I figured that our second crop would be really small. Boy was I wrong! This second crop of berries is bigger and more plentiful than the first crop. I'm guessing that some of it is the huge number of bees we've had buzzing around the bushes. For once, I'm glad to have bees around!


My cucumber plants never got very happy this year. I'm not sure exactly what the trouble is, but I've only gotten 4 or 5 cucumbers so far. There are a few more growing now, so they will definitely be worth the (small amount of) time invested, but I'm hoping for a better outcome next year.

The tomatoes, on the other hand, seem to be pretty content. I snapped a quick picture of what I picked this afternoon. They are now in my belly!


Delicious!