So, this will be short.
So far, everything has been going well. I'm sick to my stomach a lot still but not so much that I've ended up worshiping the porcelain gods. Glamorous, I know. Anyway, last night I had a bit of a wake up call as to this entire pregnancy thing. I came out of the bathroom after brushing my teeth and stuff (you know, the usual routine for getting ready for bed) and Joe was working on his quantum physics test. He got up to tuck me in (he's such a sweetie) and gave me a hug. I started to cry. Yes, this was the wake up. I don't like crying. I don't cry for no reason. Granted, I wasn't crying my eyes out or anything, but there were tears. I have no idea why other than that I told him that I loved him. If that is all it's going to take to make me cry for the next seven months or so, I'm screwed. This hormone imbalance that causes tears is not a good thing.
Anyway, that's really about it as far as that's concerned. We did get to hear the baby's heartbeat on the 12th. It was really neat.
The carpet got repaired in our front room and so it all looks so pretty now. We're really happy with the work. Joe did such a great job with the tile. He's finishing up his last semester for his bachelor's degree in physics where he will graduate with a 3.9 GPA (smarty pants that he is).
That's about it for today. Short and sweet.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Monday, March 11, 2013
New tile!
So, Joe has been pretty awesome lately.
Why you ask?
He's been putting down new tile in our living room as a new front entry.
You see, a few years ago, our dear puppy Paige took offense to the carpet by the front door. So, she decided it, and some of the pad, needed to be punished. Here's what happened.
So, for the last few years, we've just had the carpet flopped in with a rug over the top because we didn't think we could afford to fix the problem. We were originally thinking about just putting down new carpet in that room and the master bedroom (can be seen along the right edge of the picture). We recently decided that tile would be good and probably not too expensive. We just had to make sure the carpet could be repaired. We were right and a guy I work with (We'll call him F) is able to do the carpet repair. So, we got to work.
For about $9.00 each at Home Depot, we bought 1/4" cement board. We have a very solid, old floor underneath the carpet so we didn't have to go with the 1/2". Thinner, less stable (bouncier?) floors would probably need 1/2". For example, our laundry room was added onto the back of the house and has a storage room dug out beneath it. The floor is a bit flimsy and shakes when the washer is on spin cycle. If we were to put tile in there, we'd have to use the 1/2".
Anyway, here's Joe using a utility knife to cut the cement board down to size. The genius that he is, he did all the math and only had to cut each board once. I'd be measuring and cutting for an hour. I'm just that bad with math. Anyway, once the board was scored, he was just able to snap it to the right size.
We then pulled the carpet back out of the way and cut the damaged pad out, just larger than the area where the tile would go. We did this so there was room for new tack strip for when we have the carpet relayed tomorrow. So, once the pad was out of the way, Joe swept and vacuumed the area...
Then started adding premixed thinset mortar directly to the plywood.We picked up the premixed mortar (for porcelain tile) from Home Depot for about $27.00 for a gallon bucket. We ended up needing 2. Some people don't do this step and that's okay. We want to make sure that NOTHING short of a jackhammer will remove the tile.
So after putting down the thinset, he used a 1/4"x1/4"x1/4" trowel to put grooves in it. I'm not sure why this is done, it's just what the instructions and my dad told us to do. It turned out to have just a few lumps and you can see them, but that's okay. It doesn't make a difference as far as we know.
Then we put the cement board down on top and pushed it into place.
Once both pieces of cement board were down, we took screws specifically designed for the task (about $10.00 at Home Depot for more than enough screws and found next to the cement board) and screwed the cement board down to the subfloor.
It looked a bit silly, but so worth it. We had to leave it like this for 24 hours.
When we got to put the tile down! Yay! What isn't shown here is the process of putting the tile down, mostly because it's almost identical to putting down the cement board. The tile was the most expensive part. We went to a local store and bought some of their clearance for around $2.00 a square foot so that came out to around $60.00 for the 3'x9' area we tiled. We also added a bronze trim piece (about $1.00 a lineal foot) around the edge as a sort of transition from the tile to the carpet. Joe measured, cut, bent it to the right size, and then used roofing nails to tack it down to the cement board. He put down more thinset right on top of the cement board and then ran grooves through it again, this time with a 1/4"x3/8"x1/4" trowel which is the correct size trowel to use for 14" porcelain tiles with a 3/8" space for grout. We used 3/8" spacers between the tiles (the little white dots you can see). We then had to stay off the tile (it was kind of fun jumping over it) for 24 hours before we could fill in all the area between the tiles with...
Grout! Joe did this while I was at work, the sneaky man, not that I could really help with much anyway. He put the grout into and on the cracks and used a grout float to push the grout into the cracks. The grout float cost about $10.00. The grout was premixed and cost about $10.00 for the pint we needed. After all the spaces were filled in, Joe wiped it down with a tile sponge (Dad had one so we didn't have to buy it) until the tile was nice and clean. It took a few times (5 or 6 I think) but it worked out really well. I got home as he was cleaning the grout off the tile. Again, we had to stay off it for 24 hours, but it was worth it in the end.
This is the finished product. We are getting the carpet fixed tomorrow. All in all, we spent probably about $150.00 for the entire project and that's all we'll spend as F will do the carpet for free because it's such a small area. So, that's our adventure for the past week. So, did Joe do a great job or what?
I have the best husband ever.
Why you ask?
He's been putting down new tile in our living room as a new front entry.
You see, a few years ago, our dear puppy Paige took offense to the carpet by the front door. So, she decided it, and some of the pad, needed to be punished. Here's what happened.
Anyway, here's Joe using a utility knife to cut the cement board down to size. The genius that he is, he did all the math and only had to cut each board once. I'd be measuring and cutting for an hour. I'm just that bad with math. Anyway, once the board was scored, he was just able to snap it to the right size.
I have the best husband ever.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Big Changes in the Future
Well, it's been almost 2 years since one of us posted here, so let's do a quick catch up.
Joe graduates from college with a Bachelor's of Science in Physics with a minor in Mathematics in April. He takes the Physics GRE a week or so later that month. Then we start to look for gradschools to attend starting in Fall 2014.
I'm still working for All American Cleaning and Restoration still. Not much new there.
Our Coon Hound puppy Paige (now 3? years old) has turned out to be as large as our Boarder Collie Alex. She finally did stop growing and she hasn't eaten a pair of my shoes since she got my hiking boots (thank goodness). She's still super hyper and tries to jump on us constantly. This is now a bad thing. I will elaborate in a bit.
My older brother has 2 children now, a boy and girl. Joe's older brother has 6 children, 2 girls and 4 boys. No one else has children. My sister and brother are both married. I guess you could say my sister has children though, now that I think about it. She has a step-son and step-daughter. Both are pretty awesome. My other brother (the older of the 2) has 2 boxers. They're enough like children for them for now, as Alex and Paige were for Joe and I.
My mother has retired (should I feel old or should she?). My dad still works. They paid off their house recently and their cars. They are now debt free. I'm rather jealous. Then again, our debt consists of our house only so I can't complain too much.
The only really big change in our lives is that I am now pregnant! Yay! As of today, I am 7 weeks along (according to the ultrasound I had a little over a week ago) and am due October 9th, 2013. I'm hoping for a healthy child with all its limbs and fingers and toes and facial features and etc.
That's also why I'm starting this blog again. My brother-in-law (we'll call him D) suggested I start using it as a way to document how the pregnancy goes. So, here it goes.
When I found out I was pregnant, I told Joe by giving him a card and a teddy bear and mentioned in the card something about our children loving their "Papa bear." He kind of stared at the card for a minute before looking up at me and asking if I was pregnant. He couldn't seem to believe it at first but he quickly came to terms and then trapped me in a hug for the next hour or two.
After that, I called my sister (who we will call J) and told her, knowing that if I didn't, she'd probably kill me at the first opportunity. After that, we kept it pretty hush, hush, telling only a few people as I tried to find an OB and asking who they went through (I'm one of the very few people I grew up with that hasn't had a child yet). After we decided on one, we found that we could get an ultrasound done before Valentine's Day and we decided that would be a good opportunity to tell our parents. We went in thinking I was just shy of 8 weeks pregnant. We were wrong. I was only 5 weeks and 6 days pregnant. The baby barely has a heartbeat and was about the size of a grain of rice (it's a bit bigger now, obviously. Crazy how fast they grow...). Anyway, we still got the ultrasound, made copies (thanks Joe!), put them in frames, and gave them to our mothers for Valentine's Day. My mom, bless her heart, opened the package so she was looking at the back and said, "It's a picture frame!" My sister, who was Skyping with her, asked "What's it a picture of?" So my mom turns the picture around and goes speechless (rare occurrence in my family) while my dad who was standing next to my mom says "J's pregnant!" So I look at my sister and say "You are? You didn't tell me!" Bless my dad, he always gets our names wrong. There's only 4 of us too. I guess it could be worse. His mom had to go through all the grandchildren and the dogs to get to me. Anyway, they were excited and all went well there. For Joe's mom, we got a picture of her other grandchildren (from D so he knew before everyone else too) and pit it in one half of the picture frame and a picture of the ultrasound in the other (really there were 2 pictures frames that were just connected by some metal artwork...). When she opened her picture said, "Are we announcing a new grandchild?" She was pretty excited. Now everyone in our families know because we called them all the next day.
To start on the personal stuff, let's just say that I'm scared out of my wits. I'm the youngest of four children and have 0 experience with children. I did very little babysitting and the kids were almost always older. I've never even changed a diaper. I'm also really excited. Joe and I decided we wanted to start our family when he graduated from college. Or rather, we wanted to have a child soon after he graduated so we're actually pretty well where we wanted to be.
Oh, I forgot something! Joe went on an internship to University of Texas this summer and was gone for 10 weeks. It was awful for me being home by myself. I also know it was awful for him as well. Anyway, while he was gone I went to see my older sister (who lived in Filer, ID at the time. That's near Twin Falls). While I was with her, we went garage sale digging. We found most of the furniture I need for a baby in one day. We found a highchair, a crib with all the fixings, a car seat, and a toy. Now all I need is a changing table/dresser and a bassinet. I actually have a friend that has said she'll give me her bassinet so we're covered there too. Makes things a lot easier, especially because I spent less than $100.00 for all the stuff.
Anyway, now for the other stuff. I'm tired all the time. I have to get up 2-4 times a night to use the bathroom (glamorous, I know) and that means I don't sleep well at all so I'm dragging when I get to work. Weekends are nice. I can sleep in then. I'm sick to my stomach a lot. I haven't thrown up, mind you, but I sure feel like it might make me feel better some times. Instead, I drink ginger ale and eat pickles (don't ask me why, but pickles settle my stomach). I'm not sick in the mornings or in the evenings. Just from about 11:00 to 5:00, so for most of the work day. Good thing my job isn't too strenuous. It just means I probably don't eat as much as I should. I try to. Yesterday, I discovered that if I eat a pickle about five minutes before I eat lunch, I don't feel all that sick for about 45 minutes. Don't ask me why. It just worked yesterday so I'll be repeating the experiment today. I really want to eat my Pad see-ew from Thai Kitchen that's sitting in my lunch box and going "Eat me! I taste good!" Maybe I should be alarmed that my food talks to me...
As for emotions... I think I'm pretty status quo other than I cry at EVERYTHING remotely sad on television and I would probably cry over sad stuff in books too. Like the other day, Joe and I were watching Doctor Who. I cried. Before that, we watched Downton Abbey. I cried then too. I HATE crying. We'll leave it at that.
So yeah, Joe and I are in for a big change come October. We're both excited. We're also looking forward to him being done with school for a year before we have to worry about moving somewhere for gradschool. Anyway, that's stuff for another day.
Joe graduates from college with a Bachelor's of Science in Physics with a minor in Mathematics in April. He takes the Physics GRE a week or so later that month. Then we start to look for gradschools to attend starting in Fall 2014.
I'm still working for All American Cleaning and Restoration still. Not much new there.
Our Coon Hound puppy Paige (now 3? years old) has turned out to be as large as our Boarder Collie Alex. She finally did stop growing and she hasn't eaten a pair of my shoes since she got my hiking boots (thank goodness). She's still super hyper and tries to jump on us constantly. This is now a bad thing. I will elaborate in a bit.
My older brother has 2 children now, a boy and girl. Joe's older brother has 6 children, 2 girls and 4 boys. No one else has children. My sister and brother are both married. I guess you could say my sister has children though, now that I think about it. She has a step-son and step-daughter. Both are pretty awesome. My other brother (the older of the 2) has 2 boxers. They're enough like children for them for now, as Alex and Paige were for Joe and I.
My mother has retired (should I feel old or should she?). My dad still works. They paid off their house recently and their cars. They are now debt free. I'm rather jealous. Then again, our debt consists of our house only so I can't complain too much.
The only really big change in our lives is that I am now pregnant! Yay! As of today, I am 7 weeks along (according to the ultrasound I had a little over a week ago) and am due October 9th, 2013. I'm hoping for a healthy child with all its limbs and fingers and toes and facial features and etc.
That's also why I'm starting this blog again. My brother-in-law (we'll call him D) suggested I start using it as a way to document how the pregnancy goes. So, here it goes.
When I found out I was pregnant, I told Joe by giving him a card and a teddy bear and mentioned in the card something about our children loving their "Papa bear." He kind of stared at the card for a minute before looking up at me and asking if I was pregnant. He couldn't seem to believe it at first but he quickly came to terms and then trapped me in a hug for the next hour or two.
After that, I called my sister (who we will call J) and told her, knowing that if I didn't, she'd probably kill me at the first opportunity. After that, we kept it pretty hush, hush, telling only a few people as I tried to find an OB and asking who they went through (I'm one of the very few people I grew up with that hasn't had a child yet). After we decided on one, we found that we could get an ultrasound done before Valentine's Day and we decided that would be a good opportunity to tell our parents. We went in thinking I was just shy of 8 weeks pregnant. We were wrong. I was only 5 weeks and 6 days pregnant. The baby barely has a heartbeat and was about the size of a grain of rice (it's a bit bigger now, obviously. Crazy how fast they grow...). Anyway, we still got the ultrasound, made copies (thanks Joe!), put them in frames, and gave them to our mothers for Valentine's Day. My mom, bless her heart, opened the package so she was looking at the back and said, "It's a picture frame!" My sister, who was Skyping with her, asked "What's it a picture of?" So my mom turns the picture around and goes speechless (rare occurrence in my family) while my dad who was standing next to my mom says "J's pregnant!" So I look at my sister and say "You are? You didn't tell me!" Bless my dad, he always gets our names wrong. There's only 4 of us too. I guess it could be worse. His mom had to go through all the grandchildren and the dogs to get to me. Anyway, they were excited and all went well there. For Joe's mom, we got a picture of her other grandchildren (from D so he knew before everyone else too) and pit it in one half of the picture frame and a picture of the ultrasound in the other (really there were 2 pictures frames that were just connected by some metal artwork...). When she opened her picture said, "Are we announcing a new grandchild?" She was pretty excited. Now everyone in our families know because we called them all the next day.
To start on the personal stuff, let's just say that I'm scared out of my wits. I'm the youngest of four children and have 0 experience with children. I did very little babysitting and the kids were almost always older. I've never even changed a diaper. I'm also really excited. Joe and I decided we wanted to start our family when he graduated from college. Or rather, we wanted to have a child soon after he graduated so we're actually pretty well where we wanted to be.
Oh, I forgot something! Joe went on an internship to University of Texas this summer and was gone for 10 weeks. It was awful for me being home by myself. I also know it was awful for him as well. Anyway, while he was gone I went to see my older sister (who lived in Filer, ID at the time. That's near Twin Falls). While I was with her, we went garage sale digging. We found most of the furniture I need for a baby in one day. We found a highchair, a crib with all the fixings, a car seat, and a toy. Now all I need is a changing table/dresser and a bassinet. I actually have a friend that has said she'll give me her bassinet so we're covered there too. Makes things a lot easier, especially because I spent less than $100.00 for all the stuff.
Anyway, now for the other stuff. I'm tired all the time. I have to get up 2-4 times a night to use the bathroom (glamorous, I know) and that means I don't sleep well at all so I'm dragging when I get to work. Weekends are nice. I can sleep in then. I'm sick to my stomach a lot. I haven't thrown up, mind you, but I sure feel like it might make me feel better some times. Instead, I drink ginger ale and eat pickles (don't ask me why, but pickles settle my stomach). I'm not sick in the mornings or in the evenings. Just from about 11:00 to 5:00, so for most of the work day. Good thing my job isn't too strenuous. It just means I probably don't eat as much as I should. I try to. Yesterday, I discovered that if I eat a pickle about five minutes before I eat lunch, I don't feel all that sick for about 45 minutes. Don't ask me why. It just worked yesterday so I'll be repeating the experiment today. I really want to eat my Pad see-ew from Thai Kitchen that's sitting in my lunch box and going "Eat me! I taste good!" Maybe I should be alarmed that my food talks to me...
As for emotions... I think I'm pretty status quo other than I cry at EVERYTHING remotely sad on television and I would probably cry over sad stuff in books too. Like the other day, Joe and I were watching Doctor Who. I cried. Before that, we watched Downton Abbey. I cried then too. I HATE crying. We'll leave it at that.
So yeah, Joe and I are in for a big change come October. We're both excited. We're also looking forward to him being done with school for a year before we have to worry about moving somewhere for gradschool. Anyway, that's stuff for another day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)