DMV fun

I'm tired!   I had a doctor appointment this morning-that was fine.  My mom watched Connor so I could go to the appointment without him.  Later on my mom came over and painted some baseboards.  After lunch we took a nap-had I not gotten in a nap I'm sure I would've fallen apart this afternoon. Then this afternoon I had an appointment at the DMV...that wasn't so fun.   My appointment was at 3:50, I made it about 2 weeks ago knowing that my registration was about to expire and I hadn't received the new information because of our move and the fact that the car is registered under my maiden name and therefore we didn't have that mail forwarded.   Okay, yes I know, my bad-but seriously I went in a year ago to get a new drivers license and apparently they couldn't change the address on the registration then.  Why you ask?  I don't know, but I could today...well sort of.   Okay so I went in knowing that today is the last day of the month and therefore my registration will not be good as of tomorrow.   The lady tells me that my registration expired on July 28th....what?   Apparently I have been driving illegally since then...oh joy!   Then she continues to give me more good news...my car needs to be smogged AND it has a recall item that needs to be fixed before they can finish the registration paperwork and give me a new sticker.   Lucky me!   I pay the registration fee, she gives me the info so I can get the recall fixed and sets me up with the next available DMV appointment time-August 5th.   She also gives me a paper that I have to fill out that allows me to legally drive my car for one day.   The date must be filled out in the event that I get pulled over, otherwise I could get a hefty ticket.   Seriously I only get one day?!   So with my 3:50 appointment, I didn't leave the DMV until close to 5pm, cause an appointment just allows you to stand in a smaller line to wait for your turn.   I rushed over to the nearest smog shop that I could think of.   I get there at 4:49pm, they take me in and then close the door.   I barely made it in time.   Then knowing full well that it was after 5pm I tried my luck at the Toyota dealership services area.   I was thrilled to find out they were open until 6pm.   However, the recall item on my car takes more than an hour to service, so they have to keep my car overnight.   I said that was fine and then called Peter to come pick me up.   So now I am carless and only have one day that I can legally drive my car, which I'm going to have to use up tomorrow when I pick up my car.   Peter suggested I fill out the paperwork with everything except the actual date I would be driving it and then he'll stay close behind me so it would be unlikely for me to be pulled over.   Then I could fill in the date for August 5th when my next appointment is to turn in the paperwork and receive my sticker. I'm glad I took a nap today, but I'm exhausted nonetheless.

Dust Dust Everywhere!

Last weekend Frank started the tile.  He had to grind the floor a little bit which caused a lovely dust storm.  Well today he worked on the dining room area.  He and Peter taped off the kitchen cupboards so to keep the dust to a minimum...well the dust got through the plastic or something because I just spent the last 3 hours cleaning my kitchen and I only did the fronts of everything.  I thought for sure if I put stuff in cupboards it would be safe....HA, I was wrong.

 The plastics cupboard covered in dust

 The corningware and the block of knives that I placed in the cupboard so they wouldn't get dusty...so much for that idea.

 

 When they were through making the mess, they took the plastic down and wiped down everything with a wet sponge...my poor fridge.

 So yes, I spent the last three hours cleaning only the tops of counters, fronts of cabinets and drawers and all the appliances.  I'll start the insides of some of the cabinets maybe tomorrow or Monday.  This is what a clean fridge looks like.

 When done I took a picture of my foot/leg that I had already brushed dust off of.

This week is going to be a whirlwind of activity.  More tile is going in tomorrow and possibly Monday, carpet on Tuesday, baseboards on Wednesday...who knows what else?  It's starting to look like the house will get finished before the baby arrives. :)

Tile has started/Connorisms

This weekend Frank tackled the stairs. 

 Look at the detail that he added to the trim.

 This is what it currently looks like without the handrails and spindles.  We'll leave those off and install carpet and move furniture without worrying about avoiding them.  Then we'll put them back in.  The trim on the stairs will be painted white before carpet is installed.

 So on Saturday Frank told us we had to make up our mind about tile.  We had a ton of samples and differing opinions of what we wanted.  Peter wanted something that would hide dirt easily and looked like stone.  I wanted something that didn't look dirty and was quite basic.  We finally agreed upon a tile and Peter and my dad went out and bought several boxes of that tile knowing that Frank wanted to tile the entryway.  Sunday morning rolls around and Frank shows up with a box of tile.  He tried calling Peter but Peter's phone wasn't on him.  Frank opens his box up and we take a look at the tile...we loved it!  I don't know how we missed this one-we had like one of everything that Home Depot carries.  Long story short, we head off to church, Frank picks up every box of tile that was in stock and starts working on the entryway.

 We came home from church and opened the doors to our bedroom and you could see dust in the air.  Oh bummer!  They had to grind the floor to prepare for the tiles.  What a mess!  We cleaned the room, washed sheets, vacuumed and dusted everything.  There's still a pretty thick layer of dust all over everything in the living room, but I'm not cleaning that up until all the dust making is done.  They still have to grind up the floor in the kitchen area and the downstairs bathroom = More mess!

 There's a light at the end of the tunnel though.  Do I realistically think it will be done before the baby arrives?  Let's just say time is running out and I'm trying not to be pessimistic.  It's also really hard to nest when everything is covered in dust.

Connorisms

Connor's vocabulary has really taken off.  He's like the energizer bunny now.  I understand 85-90% of what he says.  A couple days ago daddy made this trash truck for Connor, he plays with it nonstop.  Today we watched the trash truck pick up our cans, then promptly went in to play with our trash truck.  Here's a cute video from this evening.

A little while back people started asking me if Connor was aware that he was getting a little sister.  At the time I said I didn't think he understood.  The last few weeks as he gives me a hug and kiss goodnight, he also hugs and kisses my belly.  As of this morning I know he understands.

"Chloe moving in there."

Is she going to be your little sister?  "No, baby."  Oh she's going to be your baby sister.  "mmmm."

Are you feeling for her?  "With one hand."

"Chloe big move!"

"Move again Chloe, up here."  She responded.  "Woah Chloe move again."

 

When daddy got home from work today he asked Connor where Chloe was.  "In mommy."

Yes he understands.

All things PINK baby shower

Last weekend my co-workers threw a baby shower for Denise and I.  Denise is due in October.  We are both expecting girls so this was an all pink party.  The theme was a tea party.  Karin-our host, really outdid herself and nearly everyone pitched in to help. 

As I walked up to the front door there were two teddy bears enjoying a tea party.  Inside Karin had made an assortment of teas-hot, cold, decaf, I was told they were really good.

 

 I went with a blood orange soda-yummy.  We also had little cucumber sandwiches, quiche, scones, cookies, basically all things yummy.  There was also a table with lots of candy to take home in goody bags.  I brought home a bunch of miniature gummy bears...Connor was thrilled! 

For all special occasions my work orders these princess cakes-and boy are they amazing!

 We played the baby game where we get a clothespin and we can't say the word baby for the whole shower.  I'm generally lousy at this game, but I caught two people and that was enough to win the game.  It was hilarious when I caught Denise-she had like 5 clips and had to give them all to me.  We played a game where you guess the total price of all the items in a basket.  At the end Denise and I were told to share the items.  Well given that I still have a child in diapers at home I already had the butt paste, wipes, baby shampoo, powder, lotion, nose sucker outer thing, and I just recently bought a package of newborn diapers and a Costco sized package of size 1 diapers.  So really I didn't need anything.  The only item in the basket that I could use were the pacifiers.  So I took that and told Denise to keep everything else.  She said she doesn't use baby powder at home....and that's where I caught her saying the word baby.  It was pretty funny.

 

The gift table-after all the gifts were opened. Denise and I got a lot of girl clothes.

A really pretty centerpiece.  I took this one home. It looks great on my kitchen table.

Denise, Karin and Me

Enjoying a yummy piece of cake.

 Estella (co-worker) took all of these pictures and emailed them to me.

A friend from church told me she had a bag of girl clothes that her 5 month old had outgrown and she had some boy clothes too that she wanted to get rid of.  I took her up on the offer and to my surprise she brought over 5 bags and a box!  The box and one bag was all boy clothes mostly 3T-6.  A bag and a half were all baby blankets-Lots and Lots of baby blankets.  Then the rest were baby clothes ranging from newborn to 24 months.  I enjoyed going through it all and picking out favorites.  I could tell that they lived in Utah before moving here.  Many of the clothes were for cold weather-which won't work for my summer baby.  My mom and I went shopping before all of this and got several cute outfits as well.  And Sean and Amy are moving here and bringing with them all the girl clothes that Amy and Mary have accumulated from their kids.  Mary also kept some of her favorites and passed them on to me as she doesn't plan on having any more kids after her little boy, which is due in December.  I think this little girl is going to be well dressed.  With Connor, a family gave us a ton of hand me down toys so we didn't have to buy toys for a LONG time-we still don't have to, but we do anyway.  Looks like I'll have the same situation here except with girl clothes.  I'm really excited about it all.

An excavator in action!

Connor has recently taken a strong fascination to large machines.  His favorites are garbage trucks and back hoes.  Today we stopped by my work to see the demolition process of the building I used to work in.  At first all Connor wanted to do was play, but then we stood on top of a play structure and got these awesome shots.

 This wall is all that is left standing of the building.

 The demolition workers were carefully going through the debris, pulling out wood and rock materials that could be reused.

 All of the reusable material is going to Mexico to be used in building homes.  How awesome is that?

 After visiting with co-workers for a little bit and watching the big machine, we started heading to the parkinglot for home....then we noticed the excavator was moving...so we went back out to the playground and watched for quite some time.  Connor kept wanting to stay and watch more.

Digging up debris...and a look of the whole area that used to be a "house" for primary and elementary students.  The new building will consist of lower and upper elementary students.

Going into a hole to dig up the sidewalk

Digging up the sidewalk

A new building will be built starting in September.

You reap what you sow

Our harvest today 

Not included because already consumed by a happy 2 year old-cherry tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes, 1 large tomato, and a dozen or so strawberries.

Our neighbor gave us this tomato plant.  Connor has enjoyed plucking and eating these as if they were cherry tomatoes.  There are many green tomatoes on the vine waiting to ripen.

Yellow squash ready to be picked

Bell peppers-we have a lot of these!  These are supposed to be sweet small orange peppers-we'll see if they change color.  We have green, red, orange and purple pepper plants.

Sugar baby watermelons-they stay small

We have several of them

Yellow pear tomatoes

This weekend we'll pick more green beans and I'm sure the tomatoes will be ready.  We also have another zucchini that should be ready by then as well.

I love having a garden!

HOA joys, Super Connor and the Island

 Yesterday we got the following letter in the mail from our HOA with the Condo.  "It was noted on a recent property inspection that there is a blue umbrella that must be changed to a neutral color.  You may not be aware that this is in non-compliance with your Association's governing documents."  Seriously????!!!  Oh dear, not a blue umbrella!  Don't the HOA people have more important things to do than go snooping around people's balconies...sheesh!  Peter wrote an email to our property manager telling him how stupid the rule is, but unfortunately the umbrella has to be removed or else we get charged penalties for the non-compliance.

 This morning Connor decided to be Super Connor and run around the house with his super cape on.  He now insists that all showers be followed up with a super towel.

Friday morning we ran to the granite place to order granite for the island and the corner cabinet that will house the trash and recycling cans.  When asked when we wanted it installed, we said we were ready anytime.  The lady then says, "How about today?"  So Friday we ordered, and had the granite installed.  I love the island.  This week Frank will be by to do the little back splash and finish the island and hopefully finish the stairs as well.  He took this weekend off as his daughter and grandson were in town.

Saturday we went and ordered the carpet.  My mom has been working on the upstairs linen closet which is almost complete.  Peter bought some supplies to put in closet organizers.  Next on our list of to do is to order baseboards and paint them, finish the stairs, paint and stain the stair railings and then install the carpet.  Things are coming along nicely.

Big Ball

Yesterday we did a BBQ with my mom and then went to watch the fireworks.  The area that we live in does fireworks on the third of July.   We went to Hilltop Park to watch the fireworks that were launched by the local high school.  Unfortunately, there was a thick cloud cover and no wind so we saw the first couple of fireworks and then the smoke and the cloud cover were so thick that we got tiny glimpses of the fireworks after that.  Basically only saw the bottom portion.  It was a bit of a bummer. 

This morning Connor helped daddy paint the broom closet downstairs.  He did a good job, so well in fact, he got paint primer all over his hands, arms and in his hair.  He had a great time!

In the afternoon we went to Chris and Mary's for BBQ ribs, salads and homemade ice cream.  The kids played in a kiddy pool and had a great time.  At about 8 we packed up to head over to RB to watch the fireworks from the church lawn.  At 9:00 we could hear the fireworks going off at Poway High School, but there was a big mountain in the way.  At 9:05 we were still waiting for the RB High fireworks to go off....we waited and waited and waited.  At about 9:15 the fireworks finally started.  They were awesome!  We had a perfect viewing spot on the grass.  At some point David leans over to Connor and asks him what his favorite color is.  He responds, "big ball."  Why yes they were big balls of color.  It was really cute.  After the finale...which by the way was well done, Connor made the sign for more.  He really liked the show.