Wednesday, September 27, 2006

The moral of the story is...

...measure twice and cut once. OK, that moral applies only in my quilting class, but a similar thing should apply when buying appliances for a new/old house. When my father remodeled the kitchen in the new/old house several years ago, he placed the cabinets a little lower than normal so that my mother could reach the top shelf. I knew this, once upon a time. My mother knew this, once upon a time. Neither one of us remembered this when I bought an over the range microwave at an incredible discount (reg. price $509 - I got it for $124!!) I did think through everything I could imagine before I bought it, calling Brad, calling my mom, who eventually came to see it before I bought it. It was stainless steel, and I had no other appliances that matched. However, we needed to buy a new fridge, so I checked out all the fridges to make sure that my bargain microwave wasn't going to require me to spend an extra $100-$200 on a stainless steel fridge.
Anyway, I bought the microwave and brought it to my new/old home. This is the part of the story when my mom walked into her former kitchen and remembered the deal about the cabinets being lower than normal. So, I can't put a microwave over my oven with the current cabinet in place, so we're tossing ideas around.
Part 2 in the story... I will spare you the details surrounding the purchase of my new fridge and all the trouble that Brad went through getting it to the house (who wants to pay $60 for delivery??). Remember the title of the post... the moral of the story is, measure, measure, measure!!! Of course, I had called my father before I bought the fridge and had him measure their fridge, since it was the same one we had when we lived there before. I really did think ahead... sort of. The fridge I wanted was a few inches taller, but they have a few inches to spare under their cabinet above the fridge and so do we. No problem, right? Ah yes, the part about the cabinets being lower... Can I scream now?
So, we have a fridge in our house with the doors taken off (because it wouldn't fit through the door) and I'm guessing that we will have to remove the beautiful cabinet above the fridge space because, well, I didn't actually MEASURE IT! Either that or we can return the fridge, which got a bit of a scratch on one side during the trip home. To make matters worse, Brad discovered when he got it home that it has a big dent in the top corner, the one that we will see every time we enter the kitchen. We DID NOT make that dent. So, I'm back to Sears... again... to discuss the dent. They really won't like me after this. Maybe they don't like me already... oh well, Lowe's LOVES us! (new dishwasher, dehumidifier and lawnmower) Maybe some day I'll record the rest of the story about the purchasing of the fridge, but not now. I need to soak in the tub and take my wonderful sleeping pill and go to SLEEP! Good night!

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Back into the swing of things...

Brad and I just came back from a wonderful weekend at Fairmount Campgrouds - yes, Fairmount is wonderful, but it's even better at Married Couples Retreat! We had a very restful weekend, and now it's back to "real life." Tomorrow I give my first test to my Exploring Chemistry students, which also means I have to grade the test. (That's the downside.)
I'm still packing, just one box at a time, and getting stuff out of this house and into the other. After our new carpet estimate came in way too high, we have picked out different carpet to install, and we decided not to do the upstairs. It doesn't seem so bad once we've been in the house, and there's plenty of other things to spend our money on. Brad spent several hours today trying to remove the carpet and vinyl in the kitchen in preparation for the ceramic tile that we are having installed. He thinks he pulled a muscle or two. Ouch.
I did make myself a pan of chocolate chip cookie bars tonight, and I even shared with the family. Daniel loved it. I must say that the cookies were as close to perfect as they could be - very helpful when I'm feeling out of sorts. :)
So, life continues... Daniel is waking up several times a night and we're working on "crying it out" a bit. Then we'll move and it will all be for naught. I'm hopeful that we'll get one or two good nights of sleep between now and the move. He is saying some words that seem to make sense, like "ack" for Jack, and something that sounds like "all done." Very cute. He also just sprouted two more teeth, for a total of six.
Rachel is learning how to add and spell. She reads very well, although she doesn't think so. She actually has homework now that she's a big first grader. Her latest thing was to put her fake grass skirt on her head and style it like it was her hair. She actually did a really good job with it! She figured out how to put it in pigtails all by herself.
I have some wallpaper to remove and paint to put in its place in the new house. I think the mold is mostly gone from the kitchen and bathroom, but we still have cleaning to do! I'm just trying to keep things in perspective and in order in my brain. Enough for now...it's time for bed!

Thursday, September 14, 2006

New/old house!




We finally closed on our new house, which is also my old house, last Monday. We have been busy this week getting the water turned on and then cleaning, cleaning, removing some wallpaper, and cleaning some more. Brad's parents are here visiting and they are helping get our current house ready to put on the market and they are enjoying their grandchildren. Here are some pics of the new place...

Friday, September 08, 2006

Ways to save time in blogworld...

I have discovered one way to save a little time, and that is to have comments e-mailed to me when they appear on my blog. Too cool! That way I'm only obsessing about checking my e-mail and not my blog, too. Any other ideas about saving a little time? I want to keep up with people, but my house is a wreck!
That brings me to another point... we finally have a closing date on our new/old house! We close on Monday and get immediate possession. We are buying the house that I grew up in - my family lived there for 19 years. My parents sold it when I was a freshman in college. Now Brad will be working with YFC in that county, so we are moving there. I need to be better at managing my time and $$ so that we can get moved! We have a lot of work to do at the new/old house and at this one. Ugh. It makes me tired to think about it. That's why I need your time-saving tips!
(It's taking me forever to write this because my poor puppy-dog Jack has been deprived of attention today, and is insisting that I play fetch with him and his Kong.)

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Daniel's first haircut




Grrrr to blogger for not letting me post more pictures! OK I probably could have posted more, but by the 4th try, I was tired of it. In the middle of all of these tries, Anon stopped by my front door to pick up a bag from me. It's such a small world! OK ... Back to the haircut.
He was too cute in his little cape. Kathleen gave him several things to play with, including but not limited to picks, clips, and pieces of tape. He really enjoyed it when she shaved his neck. He looks like a little man! Gotta run... I'm spending WAY too much time on the internet!

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

First day of class


So my students all probably think I talk WAY too much... (I know, I really DO talk too much, but that's why teaching is such a great profession - I get PAID to talk!) I'm used to teaching a lab course, not a lecture! (BTW Holly, I've actually been teaching at IWU since 2001. Sometimes I teach at Ivy Tech, also, but I like IWU better!) Now several of the professors use Power Point for their lectures, and I am grateful that they pass those presentations on to me when I teach their classes... makes my life a lot easier! All I have to do is change a few details, like putting in the picture of my family (see above) instead of Dr. Brinkman's, and I'm all set! It was a great class today. I have 39 students - about half are freshman, and most are elementary education majors. By the way, if you haven't been on campus lately, you really ought to visit - just don't get lost!!
Tomorrow is a day to catch up on laundry and clean this place up a bit. You know what it's like to come home from a trip and everything's a wreck, the baby won't sleep, and you can't find anything you're looking for? That's my life at the moment, but we need to move on to other things... like real estate. Anyone know anyone else who wants to buy a nice house in north Marion? We are going to be listing our house soon, but it needs a bit of straightening up and a good cleaning first. We are buying a house in Hartford City, the same house that I grew up in - too weird! We don't have a closing date yet, so please be praying that all goes well with the deed and anything else they're having problems with.
Daniel had a really hard time taking a nap today - I finally gave up, and then he fell asleep in his "Command Center" as Keetha dubbed it, while eating some toast. I had to take a picture, of course. Tomorrow he will be getting his first haircut, so I'll be sure to let you all in on that.

Monday, September 04, 2006

It's not about winning, Mommy

After a very long drive from Albany, New York (Happy Labor Day to us!), we have finally made it home. Kevin and Tara stuck around to spend time with family before we all went our separate directions, and we had a very nice time with them and all of my extended family on Sunday before starting the trip home.
I was trying to keep Rachel occupied during the last couple of hours on the road by playing a BINGO game we found at McDonald's (It was actually only the second time we ate at McDonald's on the entire trip!) We had to find several things along the road, like stop signs, other road signs, mail boxes, etc. She didn't stay interested for very long, and I tried to keep her interested by telling her that I was going to win. That's when she very politely informed me that "It's not about winning, Mommy." Rachel is very good at playing the Mommy role when she feels it's necessary.
I start teaching "Exploring Chemistry" this week at IWU and then an Introduction to Chemistry lab next week. So, I'll spend Tuesday at IWU getting ready for students Wed. Rachel is back to school Tuesday, and then we're getting together with Brad's parents and all of his dad's siblings. Should be a fun day! So far this evening, Daniel has absolutely no interest in going to bed... it's 11:05. Ugh. He was such a good baby on our trip, so I can't complain... too much. :)

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Mr. and Mrs. Kevin Newell


Well, it was a beautiful wedding, although Ernesto showed up and the garden wedding was held indoors. They were still able to get pictures outdoors. Rachel was a beautiful flower girl and she did a great job. :) It will be another long day tomorrow, and I need to get to bed! Here are some pictures of the bride and groom, and the extended Newell family.

Friday, September 01, 2006

My baby brother is getting married...


Tomorrow there will be a new "Mrs. Newell" in the world... Kevin is getting married! I will be sure to post some pictures of the wedding, but here's a picture of the happy couple, soon to be Kevin and Tara Newell. Rachel will be the flower girl, along with Tara's neices. We enjoyed a nice time with Mom's side of the family, shopping, eating and doing fun, brainless things like that. Daniel is entertaining everyone, of course.