ryanandbernadette.com

Hey all, I know, I know, you’ve been eagerly awaiting pictures and I’ve been slacking.  Well, not anymore!  I’ve finally posted some pix from Easter and of our completed basement.  It looks wonderful down there, Ryan did a fantastic job!  And we got the carpet installed just in time for his parents to stay, they are officially our first basement guests.    Ryan is eagerly finishing up his MBA, well not exactly eagerly, but he is eager to be done.  Very soon, I keep telling him.  I’m not sure what he’ll do with all his free time now that the basement and school are almost done!  It’s nice that it’s summer, and we’ll be able to drive and see some of Colorado that we haven’t been to yet.  I don’t have any deep thoughts for this evening, I’m too tired for that.  I’m going to have to start thinking deep thoughts and do more self-actualization to keep up with my friend mumsy!  But for now, I’m going to read a magazine and go to bed after watching the finale of Celebrity Apprentice. 

It was a nice day.  Ryan gave me the whole day off, he told me to leave the house during his normal workday hours. Of course I’m not crazy so I didn’t leave at 6:45!  I left a little after 9 and didn’t get home until just after 5.  It was lovely.  I got to go a few places I’d been wanting to go and just spend some time by myself.  I don’t always remember what that is like anymore.  And it makes me appreciate my family that much more when I get home!  Ryan and Ethan had a good day hanging out just the two of them too.

I promise, I will get pictures up soon!  I just haven’t had the time to go through them yet.

It has been a full day.  Ryan’s parents are here hanging out with us, mostly for Ethan, but some for us.    We went to the Aquarium in Denver today; it was crazy full of kids on a field trip.  I think next time I’ll call ahead and pick a day that doesn’t have a field trip.  It was very loud.  Ethan did enjoy the fish.  He really took interest in the ones closer to the floor since he could see those a bit easier from his stroller.  He also liked the flash flood section, that was fascinating.  He had a nap while we were waiting to be seated for lunch and slept for a little while in the booth.  He learned to drink from a straw today, it was messy.  He also likes french fries.  Before you yell at me, you should know it was his grandma that gave them to him! 

We also relearned today about craigslist scammers.  If you ever get an email listing from Stan Sherwood in Liverpool London requesting shipping through Royal Mail, it’s a scam.  Ryan found a macbook listing from him and contacted him, we got a suspicious email, and found the exact same email on another webpage listing him as a scammer.  Of course Ryan already knew that, it was just funny to see he’d tried the same thing with others.  Long story short, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  Anyway, we found a good one on ebay.

Now we’re (they’re) watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  I’m going down to my nicely finished basement.  Ryan and John moved the couch down there for me yesterday, which sounds easy but actually isn’t since they had to remove 2 entire doorframes to get it down there.  I’m talking the entire frame!  It was very nice of them and now we don’t have to buy 2 couches, only 1.    I’ll post pictures soon, I don’t feel like it right now.

I finished the Shopaholic Ties the Knot last night, it cracked me up!  It’s the third Shopaholic book I’ve read and they’ve all made me laugh.  She makes me feel better about myself because at least I’m not spending thousands on crazy things.  Just smaller amounts on “necessities”.    Sorry Kate, I know you had wedding planning problems but you have nothing on this girl!    I think just about any girl would love to read these, shopaholic or not.

We finally finished the basement today!!!!!!!!!!  The carpet guys finished up this morning, and I moved all the stuff down there this afternoon, with some help from my father-in-law.  I must say it looks great.  Ryan did a wonderful job and now we have a great usable space.  I am so excited to have project done!  But I don’t think anyone’s as happy as Ryan is, now he doesn’t have to spend all his free time down there!  Working, anyway.  I’m really excited to get some furniture down there and really put it to good use.  I’ve already started space for my quilting stuff, it’ll be nice to be able to spread out.

I posted Ethan and the patio pictures, the basement will have to wait until I finish the paint touch ups and we put the closet doors back on.  Try again in a few days. 

I think we are gluttons for punishment.  We finished up the polyurethane coats on the molding in the basement today, finally our part is done!!!  Then we went outside to enjoy some sunshine and let the cats have a little bit of supervised outdoor time.  We started picking at the porch, and voila almost an hour later it’s about half destroyed.  Our patio is flagstone, which sounds nice but really isn’t.  I guess it could have been if it was installed correctly, but alas it was not.  The mortar didn’t actually bond the stones to the concrete so most of the stones have loosened up on their own.  I was able to pick up a bunch of stones on my own without help of tools.  We did have to pry some up with a crowbar, but they were pretty easy to remove.  We’ll just leave it alone for a while and let nature remove most of the mortar since it dissolves in the presence of water.  So that’s our next project: to get a functioning nice porch that I won’t be afraid to let Ethan go near.  Right now it’s just disasterously dangerous.

I have quite a few pictures to post this evening.  I’ll have some of Ethan, the basement, and the patio.  Ethan’s will be in his folder, the basement will be in that folder, and the patio will be in a new folder that I have to remember how to make.    Have a great evening, I’m going to bed soon, I’m beat!

It’s official, Ethan’s favorite show is Wheel of Fortune.    I’m not sure if it’s the wheel, the money, the cool puzzles or Pat himself, but Ethan really likes the show.  I’m counting myself lucky that I don’t have an Elmo fan.  Of course, he’s never seen Elmo, but that’s beside the point.  We watch it during his dinner time, which is not the same as ours, and he loves it.  I hear you now, “you shouldn’t watch tv during dinner” but oh well, it’s on and we like it. 

The poly is half done.  Ryan spent hours doing that today and he’ll do the same thing tomorrow for the second coat.  We ordered the carpet today, it will be installed on Friday, yeah!  I’m hoping for our last inspection next Monday.  Then we’ll have a nice functional, usable space.

Prayer request: I have an interview on Wednesday, pray it goes well!

Sorry it’s been a few days, I’ve been visiting my family.  The weather in Wisconsin was actually really nice, very strange for the Midwest in March!  Ethan had a good time with his cousins, though he was slightly overwhelmed by all the attention.  It was hard to explain to my nieces that although they know how to share, he doesn’t and therefore doesn’t understand when they take away his toys. It was nice to see my family, and my dad cooked a ton of great food!  Ethan’s other grandparents are coming up in a week to visit. Airport travel wasn’t too difficult with him by myself.  I got a nice umbrella stroller and kept him in that.  I checked his carseat at the counter and it worked out just fine. That thing is too much to lug around anyway. Both flights were crazy full, who knew that many people commuted between Denver and Milwaukee?!

He is now lifting his arms for me to pick him up, I think it’s just about his most adorable trick yet!    We show that one off for company. We think he might be getting teeth, he’s super fussy and chewing on anything he can get into his mouth (and some things he can’t).  It makes sleeping more difficult when you have to wake up to chew on things.  I think he’s adorable being toothless so I’m fine with him not getting any teeth for a while.

His baby dedication was this morning at church, and he looked very dapper.  He did very well.  He was really tired since he wasn’t put down for his nap in the nursery but he didn’t cry, he did fall asleep though.  I’ll post some pictures soon, I have to find them first. We had a party at the Tsai’s afterwards (thanks guys!) to celebrate with his little friend Anita. Great food, great conversation, what more could you want?

We have two carpet appointments tomorrow so hopefully that will be installed this week for a nice spare bedroom this coming week. Ryan finished the staining so we just have to get two coats of polyurethane on the molding prior to the installation.  Plus some paint touch ups since he wasn’t exactly mister careful.  I will be so happy to have that done!  Ryan only has 7 more weeks of his classes left, hooray!  He will be happy to have both those projects done.  And since he’s exploring some business opportunities that will help free up some time.  I should go, it’s after 9 now and we’re just starting to eat dinner.  I hate daylight savings.