Holidays!

Jesse and I had an extra long weekend. I got Monday off for President's Day and Jesse just took some comp time that he had built up! It was so nice to have an extra day off!!

Just a little side note... I think when I lived in Oregon and had Presidents Day off... I think I started buying flowers and making my deck spring-like! Ha! Could never do that here in Wisconsin! The snow is still flying the temps are still way too cold! Although... we did go to Mendards on Sunday (home improvement store - our new favorite place) and I busted out my spring yellow jacket (that I can no longer button over my belly) and pretended that it was spring!!!

Holiday #1 - Valentines!

Jesse's parents had signed us up for a marriage seminar at their church. (They signed the whole family up - not just us.) It was called, Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage. Our friends went a couple years ago and loved it - so I was really looking forward to it. It was Friday night and Saturday morning. It seriously was so funny!!! And we didn't even get to see it live... we were watching it off a DVD that they played on a big screen. I'm sure it is way more fun live! I was laughing so hard that everything hurt when we got home. My belly hurt, my neck hurt because for some crazy reason my head falls backwards when I laugh too hard, my cheeks hurt!! This is a traveling seminar - so watch for him in your area and GO!!

After the seminar we stopped to visit my parents before we headed back to our house. Oh my - I was giggling all over again. My parents were so doing the stuff that this guy was talking about at the seminar! My Dad was in his 'nothing box' - watching 6 different channels and my Mom was talking to me and she said something and my Dad says "You never told me that!" Oh man! Jesse and I both started laughing so hard and they just stared at us like we were off our rocker! So I had to tell them why we were laughing and I could hardly do it because I was still laughing so hard. Anyway... I'll stop because you don't have a clue what I am talking about unless you have seen this guy.

That was our highlight for Valentines day. We really don't do Valentines. In the past we usually make a fancy supper that we cook together and that is it. This year... we were driving back to our house and

Jesse says: You hungry?

Me: Starving!!

I look at the clock in the truck (we are in Jesse's Dad's truck because we have to go pick up lumber for the builder and our truck is too whimpy... I mean little...) and it says it is almost 8! Lately as soon as my eyes see that it is 8 my body starts to shut down and I am ready to sleep!

Jesse: What do we have to eat at the house?

Me: Um.... I don't know.

Jesse: You want to stop somewhere and grab something first?

Me: Not really.

All we have for options is McDonalds or A&W... not a fan of either. Another 5 minutes go by.

Jesse: So what are you going to eat at home?

Me: Um... probably cereal.

Jesse: I can't stop thinking about cheeseburgers.

Me: Okay, lets go to McDonalds and get cheeseburgers. I'll choke one down.

We got home with our McDonalds and it was really only 7. The clock was an hour fast in the truck and we didn't know it! We were so exhausted that we cheered our burgers to Valentines, ate them quickly, and climbed onto the couch to take a nap before we actually went to bed. Do y'all do that? Have to sleep on the couch first before you actually go to bed? I love that!!

Holiday #2 - Presidents Day!

The builder came and started working on our bathroom more today! Here is what it looked like last time:

Now we needed to plot and plan how we want it laid out so the builder knew what to do when he got here. Guys brains and girls brains work totally different. I took a couple pictures to show you.

Here is how Jesse plots and plans:

At first I thought - Oh this will be fun! I always wanted to do this! I tried taking a class in high school but they wouldn't let me have it because I would of been the only girl in an all guy class. Why that was a problem, I still don't know... anyway they must of knew I would of failed. Jesse and I sit down at the computer to do this and we're plotting, planning and drawing away. Then it came to the technical stuff... our tub needs to set into a 'platform' and we're trying to figure out how big of ledge we want around the tub. Then we have to figure out this and that - and Jesse busts out the geometry!! Seriously! He is trying to calculate angles and all this garbage! I looked at him and said - in high school I aced every math class - but they put me in geometry one year and I failed!! I can't do geometry for some reason. You give me a formula a mile long with x, y, z and I can tell you exactly what x, y, and z should be. But you throw shapes and angles... can't do it! Which drives me crazy that my brain can't do those. It also can't do math word problems. Anyway, when he started busting out the angles, and what shape is this, and if I have a 90 degree angle here... I stood up and said, I'm going to go eat some ice cream and watch Greys Anatomy and Private Practice!! I was out of there and never returned!!

Here is how I plot and plan:

Pictures baby!!! Guys love this! Not! When we first had our builder (who is actually my cousin's husband) come over and I started pulling out my pictures and he says in a totally joking way "Are you Connie's daughter?" My Mom does the same thing to him when she has him do stuff! Jesse looks at my picture and says crazy stuff like "Well, we can't do an angled ceiling like that. And we can't do windows like that either because we are in the basement and we don't have room for double sinks." DUH!! I am just looking at the colors and the inset tub and the shelving in the wall and the vanity! Sheesh! Don't these boys know anything about pictures!!

They are still pounding and working hard down there, but I snuck down and took a quick picture while they were outside cutting boards. Then I fed them some of these gotta keep the workers full of energy! Being that it is Presidents Day the builders son didn't have school today and he is here helping out. Well he got bored and started playing his video game - I took him a cookie and he ate it and has been helping the guys ever since! See... a little chocolate helps motivate anyone!!

They took out that back wall. The little helper (I believe he is a 4th grader) got to have the first swing at knocking the wall down. He thought that was pretty cool and was so excited to tear a wall down!

Jesse just came up by me and I said, I hear pounding inside and I hear a saw outside. He says, yeah 'little helper' is running the saw! What?! Really!? Oh man! Does his Mother know that he is running a saw?!!? Then I hear builder yell measurements like 9 and 7/8ths to little helper and little helper repeats the measurement... goes outside... cuts the board. Oh my! He is only a 4th grader!!

A new wall is going up and lots of progress is in the works right now! I'll post more pictures later I don't want to be the crazy lady that keeps taking pictures of every little thing... so I'll wait until they go home! : ) Plus I need to get to the grocery store before all the fun afternoon talk shows come on... because that is really how you are suppose to spend your day off!!

Bathroom - Phase 1

Saturday we started our biggest home improvement project. I shouldn't really say "we" because I just took pictures and sat upstairs with butterflies in my stomach. I grew up in a house that was forever changing and being remodeled... but for some reason it was different to have people here ripping out walls and chattering. It was a good feeling... because I am so excited to have a real bathroom!!! Our home has two bathrooms... two very tiny bathrooms. So small that it is hard for both of us to brush our teeth at night. Actually we had to stop brushing our teeth together because one morning we were and Jesse spit... and for some crazy reason I looked down and saw his spit and it sent me over the edge. I was instantly gagging and couldn't stop. I ran to the kitchen sink and well... lost it! Jesse started laughing at me and wanted to know why that grossed me out? I have no idea... I'm extra gaggy in the mornings and have a hard enough time not losing it when I am by myself brushing my teeth and then to see his spit! Ick! I think it may have a little something to do with Blueberry... but I'm not sure. Anyone else have trouble brushing their teeth while pregnant?

Sorry... I get side tracked real easy these days. Back to the bathroom!!

We eventually want to gut both bathrooms but we decided to start with the downstairs bathroom first. It was the worst out of the two. Now I will confess that I never even cleaned this bathroom when we moved in because I was too grossed out. And it wasn't really dirty gross... it was just old and felt like a campground bathroom to me. Like if I ever used the shower I would wear my flip flops because I wouldn't want my feet to touch the cement.... a campground bathroom!! I just closed the door and ignored it. Oh and there was a big spider in there!!! And Jesse would not kill it!!!!! So I was for real was not going in there and keeping the door shut! The only person who ever used this bathroom was Jesse's brother Jerry. Why? I have no idea - he is a boy and doesn't really care what a bathroom looks like!!

Jesse called up his Dad and our neighbor, Dwayne, to come over for a little demolition Saturday morning. Here are some before pictures:

The hallway... bathroom door on the left and closet door on the right. Check out my lovely carpet!! Don't you love it!!? I know you are jealous! And I know you are jealous of my wood walls and wood doors... it is almost like one of those hidden rooms. ; )
Bathroom door and closet door... we want to merge these two rooms into one big bathroom. The white cable running through these pictures is my internet cable. Of course a house this old would only have 2 phone jacks... one on each floor. The jacks are both placed in the middle of the house! Hopefully during the remodel some one will work some magic and run this cable so I don't look like I'm living in my college apartment. You know what I am talking about. Those college apartments where cables and wires are running all over the place and taped to the floor.

The lovely bathroom. Now... all this stuff in here is original, because like I said... I never touched the room. Even the shower curtain is from the previous owners. Don't you love the walls and ceiling! They were smooth and shiny - almost like paneling... but for bathrooms! See my cement shower stall!!!!!!

Here is another view. We started using this shower to give Maggy a bath. We couldn't get her to hop into our shower/tub upstairs... so this was a walk in and we tricked her with Rachael Ray treats!!! Yes, even Maggy knows about Rachael Ray!! I can't help it!

Amazingly it did not take the 3 guys very long at all to demo this! The whole time they are ripping stuff out (I am sitting upstairs pretending to read... but actually listening in on their conversations) they are just a chattering. They were way too funny! They were saying things like "this guy just used what ever scrap piece of wood he had lying around to build these walls" and they would all chuckle. Then someone would comment "This wall over here is so crocked! Come see this - you won't believe it!" More chuckles! "Jesse you want to keep these fixtures?" More chuckles! "OH! He used a real piece of drywall over here on this wall!" Oh man! They were cracking me up!

I eventually had to leave but I took a quick picture as I was running out the door...

The two rooms became one! Jesse and I are still uncertain if this is big enough. We can still push that wall, on the right, out some more if we want it bigger.

Here is looking down the "hallway". They took out that end wall because it wasn't even with the other wall, this way when the builder comes in he can make the wall even. You can see my messy office way back there and part of our downstairs living room. The guy in this picture is our awesome neighbor, Dwayne, he loves this kind of work. And he has 3 garages full of tools!!

When I came home... I saw this!! It feels very funny having this all open and a toilet sitting there. All part of remodeling... functioning toilets randomly placed around.

Yesterday we went and picked out lighting, shower, tub, faucets... all the fun stuff. The store was having a sale where everything you could fit in a bag you would get 15% off. And we each could have our own bag! We were stuffing and stuffing. Then we went to pick out our shower and they didn't have it in stock and had to print me off a piece of paper and I put it in my bag and said "Jesse! I just got our shower in my bag!!" I got to the check out line and put my bag up on the belt and she's pulling stuff out and we were chatting and she pulls out my "shower" and says "You know I can't give you 15% off of this?" I started laughing and told her, but it is in my bag! Dang it... I tried!

Next phase is getting Jesse's brother in here to do some plumbing work for us. I'm going to bribe him with some Mexican food and beer... hopefully that puts us higher up on his to-do list and gets him out here quickly so we don't keep our builder waiting!!

Bad Dog!

Just in case any of you are thinking about adopting a puppy/dog into your family. I want to warn you that it isn't all sunshine and roses! Let's just take a peek into what our weekend was like with our little furry friend, Maggy!


Maggy was never really around people when she was with her previous owners. The only human contact she really had was with her owners. So now that we have her... and we have people stop over and see us. She gets extremely excited and can't control her bladder!!! Now, when we were in our "trial period" with Maggy, she never did this!! Yes she got extremely over excited but she never lost bladder control! She just started doing this within the last week! It is extremely embarrassing!!


My Mom stopped over last week really quick on a lunch break. Now... she is not an animal person at all! I had all intentions of putting Maggy in her room before she got here, but my Mom just showed up - so Maggy didn't get in her room in time. Of course Maggy was so excited and Jesse and I are trying to get her to settle down and she lost bladder control!! Ugh!! Not a very good impression - especially to someone who doesn't like animals!!


Yesterday, we had a super bowl party here, at our house. We realize Maggy is having this issue so we are going to keep her in her room. My sister and her kids were the first to show up and Shannon was going to do some laundry here... well Maggy stays in the laundry room. Shannon doesn't mind dogs... she's use to them, as she had one. So I show her to the laundry room and I am teaching her the tricks of my washer/dryer and we are getting ready to leave and I tell her the command is to point your finger and say "Maggy Stay!" and she usually listens. We get to the door we both say "Maggy Stay" and Maggy weasels her way out the door and up the stairs towards the living room. Now in the living room we have left baby Garrett laying on a blanket on the floor. Elly is up there reading books to Jesse to keep him from falling asleep in the warm sunshine that is shining in on the couch. I yell... Maggy's out!!! Hoping that Jesse will wake up and grab Garrett off the floor by the time Maggy reaches them!


Shannon and I get upstairs and Maggy is still checking things out and is kind of hyper and running around smelling every thing. Garrett is still on the floor and Elly is on the couch hopping from one couch cushion to the other. Jesse is trying to simmer Maggy. I go sit down by Garrett and he is looking back at me and one second he is smiling and the next he gets this horrible pouty look on his face and is on the verge of tears. Maggy comes over and starts licking his head... I do not licking!!! I don't allow licking... now if I could only get Jesse to follow that rule! I grab Garrett because Maggy won't stop licking his poor little head. Like I said Shannon and her kids are use to dogs as they had one, and their dog was much, much bigger then Maggy. So as I am freaking out about the licking Shannon is saying... he is fine, Louie licked him all the time. But the pouty look on his face did not tell me he was fine!! Plus I am the Auntie... so I get to spoil and comfort, right!

Thankfully Maggy has full bladder control this whole time! We were very impressed!!! So we thought we would leave her be, but we wanted her to stay on her own blanket. She wouldn't have anything to do with it. So Jesse would say "okay Maggy downstairs." Maggy would instantly (and I mean instantly) go lay down her blanket!! We both started laughing and thought okay maybe now she wants to listen. We let her be. She doesn't last 30 seconds and she is up again... downstairs Maggy.... she goes back to her blanket and lays down. Not falling for her tricks this time! We eventually get her downstairs and put her in her room.


More guests starts arriving and then my cousin comes and they come in threw the back door, where Maggy's room is! Oh no! Maggy gets out again!! This time there are far more people here and she can't remember how to control that bladder anymore! By the 5th or 6th time of someone saying "Oh! She peed over here now!" I was on my hands and knees cleaning up one spot yelling "Maggy! I'm going to beat you in front of God and everyone!!!" As Jesse is chasing her around the house trying to catch her! She was uncatchable! Jesse seriously had to pick her up and carry her out!!! Then, he had to go change his shirt... because the bladder loss was still at a loss!! Thank goodness everyone there was family and I promised them that our children would have much better behavior and they would not pee on the floor!!! Of course everyone thought this Maggy episode was super funny and they were all laughing... I think they were laughing because um... they get to go home to house that doesn't have a dog with bladder issues!


We did let Maggy out when there were only a few people left and she did totally fine!! Why she is fine one minute and not the next I will never know!


Oh and my cousin who came in the back door... called me later that night and said that their dog just had 3 puppies!!!! Then I got a call this morning that said she had 10 puppies!!!! And if I wanted 5 to call her! Believe me I didn't call her!!! : ) But I did give a good hearty giggle as I listened to the message!! So if my story doesn't scare you enough and you want a little fur ball of your own... she has lots of puppies! They are little black labs and I think she said there is a yellow one. You could have you very own Maggy!!! Wouldn't that be fun!!!?