Evolution of a Playroom

I am just LOVING how the "fun wall" in the playroom is turning out!!! Check out how this wall has evolved so far:

Earlier this month - drywall just getting installed

Last Friday - "Fun Wall" is primed, chalkboard is taped off, first coat of Sleepover Sky is going on!

Saturday - 2nd coat of paint is done, Polka Dots are traced out and labelled!

Tonight - Yellow & green dots all have first coat, Chalkboard has two coats

Tonight - The blue dots all get their first coat!

I am really excited to see how this whole room is going to come together once all the dots have their final coats of paint, the chalkboard gets its green frame, and the carpet is installed. It's going to be really cool and I'm thrilled with how it is turning out. Evan was very anti-lime green at first, but he's come around to it!!

Afternoon Delight

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you..........the 30th Anniversary Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory. This dessert masterpiece that I brought home from my amazing birthday dinner with my sister in law was waiting for me in the fridge and finally, the time was right. Combine this sinfully perfect dessert with a tall glass of milk, a comfy couch, an episode of Gilmore Girls, and a sleeping toddler.....and you've got yourself one perfect hour. Ah, bliss. Thank you Cheesecake Factory.

One Year

What a difference a year makes. As I find the month of August flying by me at lightning speed, I thought today about how much has happened in the last year. Last August, my son looked like this: And now today he is the darling, energetic, yet exhausting toddler I love to pieces that looks like this: A year ago, we were finally getting used to the idea of being a family of three and thought, "Hey, we've got a pretty good handle on this. Why not add another one?" It took some patience and prayer, but now here we are a year later about to welcome a second little blessing into our family:

Wow. Of course, I can't forget about what a difference a year has made in our basement! With all the time, blood, and sweat my husband, family and friends have put into this space, I am AMAZED at how far we have some. We are still plugging away at it and still hope to have it 90% complete before the baby arrives, but check out what a difference a year makes. After the flooding of 2008, our basement looked like this:

And here we are a year later with new walls, new electric, new drywall.....painting. On Friday, the carpet gets installed. In only a couple short weeks, I will be able to bring my toddler son downstairs to play in his brand new playroom and he will be able to show his baby brother all their toys! How exciting is that?? Thank you, from the bottom of both Evan's and my heart, for all the hard work so many of you have already put in to help us make this project a reality. When I was spending hours upon hours cleaning up the flood waters that had seeped in, I never thought we would get here.

There's going to be a lot of big, new changes for our family this September. Stay tuned....it's going to be exciting!!

Still Pregnant

I went to the doctor this morning to follow up on my elevated blood pressure from Monday and things did not start off well. My blood pressure had stayed about the same and I did have protein in my urine. Super. I could just hear the words "induction" floating around in my head! I had blood drawn and my doc is running all the tests to "leave no leaf unturned" as far as checking for the symptoms of preeclampsia and then I did a non-stress test (NST), just like I had with Isaiah. The baby's heartrate wasn't incredibly variable, but it wasn't bad enough that we needed to be concerned. So, here's what we're left with. I need to weigh myself every day to watch out for a sudden weight gain and I need to watch out for headaches. Both are signs of preeclampsia. I'm probably going to be calling it quits a week early at work since I'm supposed to really "watch it" until the baby comes. I have to go back in to the doctor on Monday and then again on Wednesday - twice a week until it's baby time.

Overall though, the good news is that I can stay pregnant a while longer yet! Woohoo! I bought the paint for the basement today and we will be ready to rock and roll at the painting party on Friday. And by "we," I mean Evan and his crew of helpers. I am not allowed to paint anything except the polka dots in the playroom. What would they do without me? :)

Talking to Deer

My son said his first three word sentence today!! Up to this point I have been super-impressed with the linguistic skills required to create such masterpieces as "Bye Bubba!" and "Hi Daddy!" Nothing could prepare me for the sheer joy of hearing him say "There you go" as he fed corn to the deer at the Peck's Deer Farm this afternoon.(Sorry for the poor quality photo - all I had was my cellphone!) I showed him how to hold out a few kernels of corn in the palm of my hand and the deer would eat them, but he didn't really like to do it that way. He went back and forth to the corn dispenser for one kernel at a time and would hold it out between his fingers and say, "There you go" as he let the deer eat it out of his hand. Not only was I amazed at the sudden sentence construction, but I continued to marvel at how Isaiah shows absolutely no fear. Not once did he shy away from an animal, be it furry or feathered. He would walk by every single pen and wave and yell "Hi!!" as he checked everything out. Not bad fun for something to do to kill time on a Tuesday afternoon!

Favre Goat?

Now this is just weird. I'm as annoyed as the next guy about the whole Brett Favre being a Viking thing, but making a "Favre Goat" and then preparing it for slaughter? That just takes it to a whole new level of psychosis. I'm not making this up!!! Click HERE to read about the woman who took her car in to be serviced with a live goat in the trunk all decked out in purple with a number 4 shaved into its hair. Perhaps this is connected to the series of goat thefts across Wisconsin lately.....coincidence? I think not.

Check-Up and Scrub Down

I went in to see the doctor this morning for my routine 36 week check up. (FYI - I am officially at 36 weeks, 4 days) After chit chatting with the nurse about my Kindle (we like to talk books), I was quickly transported into a major flash of deja vu when she took my blood pressure. Just like when I went in at 38 weeks with Isaiah, my blood pressure had spiked. I have been a pretty consistant 102-106 over 70s for my entire pregnancy, but this morning I was 118 over 85. The last time this happened, I was hooked up to an NST machine and two days later I had a baby! So, they took a urine sample to test for protein and Dr. Baker asked me to come back in on Wednesday to check on things. As for the rest of the check-up, I am actually measuring small this time around, so we pretty sure we're cooking up a small baby in there. I'm ok with that! I only gained 3 pounds in the past 4 weeks so I avoided a scolding, and the baby's head is down and in the "ready for launch" position! I'll know more about what to expect after I go back in on Wednesday, but there is definitely a nagging part in the back of my brain that is screaming "Please not yet!!! We're not ready yet!!!!" Realistically though....I'm thinking we've got some time.

I headed home after my appointment and got right to my project for the day - scrubbing down the nasty old refrigerator in the basement. The previous owners so graciously left it for us with a note saying that it worked fine, but needed a "good cleaning." They weren't kidding. This thing was NASTY!!! There was even a very old box of baking soda sitting in one of the shelves in the door in a pool of I don't know what kind of liquid. Ewwwww. It took me a good 2 hours to get it cleaned, but I just finished! I am now feeling about as nasty as that fridge orginially was, but I still have a lot of cleaning on tap for the afternoon. There is plaster dust EVERYWHERE due to the drywall sanding sessions over the past couple days, so it is my goal to at least get the kitchen, dining room, and living room scrubbed down before hitting the showers. I understand that there is going to be more dust spread about as Evan goes up and down the steps while trying to sweep up and get things ready for paint and carpet, but I need to do this initial cleaning or I'm going to go crazy. And that's saying something, considering I am hardly the meticulous housekeeper!

Oh yes....he's hoping to have the walls and ceilings primed and ready for paint by Friday! To keep to his ambitious schedule, I am heading to Menards on Wednesday to drop a couple hundred dollars on the paint, but I am so thrilled to be getting this close. We're shooting for the first week of September for the carpet to get installed. I can't wait until the paint and carpet are in because that is going to make such a HUGE difference! After that, all we'll have left to do is to paint and install the crown moulding (molding??) and baseboards and to move everything in. It's coming together!

Ok, enough stalling. Time to grab a bite to eat and get back to cleaning! At least I get to reward myself with a haircut tonight. Last one before baby comes!

Portrait of a Toddler and FREE shoes!

Ah, toddlers. Smiling, giggling, playing....making you laugh and feel all warm in fuzzy inside because they're just so darn cute! I get lots of photos of Isaiah like this - for example:

See what I mean? How cute is that? However, I hate to be the one to let the cat out of the bag for those of you who either don't have kids or whose baby has not yet reached this age, but.....

......toddlers have a dark side. Oh yes. You experienced mommies can spend the next few minutes laughing at me as you read on and enjoy the following photos. Isaiah launched himself into an absolute fit of hysterics last night and it was full on tantrum time. I couldn't even tell you what he was so mad about, but he was just that....MAD! There were tears, screams, kicking, flailing of limbs, incoherent babblings that probably translated to "I hate you Mommy!!" Before I put him in time-out, I decided to document my child's "other side." Enjoy!

Now that we've all had a good laugh, I can let you know about a little giveaway one of my Mommy Blog friends is having! She is giving away a pair of cute little See Kai Run shoes on her blog, RaisingMy4Sons. If you have a little one who is either walking or will be soon, go check it out and try to win a pair! I know I entered to win! Maybe someday I will be able to give away free stuff on my blog, but for now I can just refer you to those that are!

36 Weeks!

As of today, I have reached "the point of no return," meaning that if I were to go into labor at this point, my doctor wouldn't try to stop it. 4 weeks to go until my official due date, but I suppose I could technically have this baby any time now! It's so weird how different my perspective is this time. With Isaiah, I was ready to go and be DONE as soon as possible, but with our basement project still in the works, I am ok with this kid taking his time a little bit. Now, let's be clear....I am not interested in being OVER-due, but I'm just not in a hurry. That being said, I am very uncomfortable now and I do have some pretty strong contractions on a frequent basis. I'm anxious for the next couple weeks to proceed without any complications or problems and I am hoping to avoid an induction this time around, but I guess that is all up to the little guy. My next check-up is Monday morning!

Money Management

I have been very stressed about money this week. There were just more bills than there were funds and I found myself without enough money to buy groceries, diapers, and the other things we needed this week. How did this happen? Typically I am really good about managing our family's finances, but I messed up. Not sure how....not sure why. Add up a couple impulse buys I blame on the pregnancy, one or two too many meals "out" versus at home, and some poorly timed bill payments and our account was running on empty. This is something that sends me into stressed out mode faster than anything else.

So, what's to do be done? I'm going on maternity leave in just a couple weeks and I am scared to death about how we are going to make it during those two months I am off work. Here is my plan for our financial survival:

1. PRAY - I need to pray for guidance, patience, wisdom, and for the courage we need to trust that God will see us through this. With all the money we are throwing at the basement right now, every purchase matters and I need all the help I can get. It's hard to keep things straight when you're spending a lot of money on a project (the basement) at the same time that you're trying to manage your daily expenses AND pay off debt. Please pray for us.

2. CELEBRATE THE SMALL VICTORIES - Going through our debt balances the other day (one of my favorite things to do), I got really excited to find out how close we actually are to paying off a couple things. The car payment will go away in January and one of our credit cards will officially be paid off in September! It's easy for me to get discouraged by looking at how much we still have to go, but I need to re-focus on celebrating what we have already accomplished.

3. LEARN TO SPEND SMARTER - I have no idea how to use coupons. I don't know where to look for them, how to organize them, or how to design my shopping lists around them. I don't meal plan, so making grocery lists is always difficult and I always seem to be throwing away food that we didn't use before it got bad. I need to change this and I need help. If you have any tips or advice on how to meal plan and/or grocery shop using coupons, please tell me. I am at a total loss here and I really want to learn how to spend smarter. I was pretty proud of myself for saving about $16 by using coupons at Target today!

4. SAVE MORE - Right now, $20 every week is automatically removed from my checking account and dropped into our "secondary checking," which is the account we use to try to save up money for emergencies. Right now it is the account where all our basement money is sitting, so it's kind of doing double-duty, but you get the picture. The problem is that every time I find myself short (like this week), I dip into this account so we don't go overdrawn in our regular checking. It becomes hard to save when you're taking back the money you're supposed to be saving! Do you have any strategies for how I can save more?

I am hoping that those of you who read this blog will be willing to help us out with this. If you have any words of advice or just encouragement, please post them or email me. This week's struggle really got me freaked out about the next couple months and I could really use your help. Thanks in advance.

Support your Quarterback!

I don't care if he said he's done. I won't believe 100% that Favre is actually retired until he has driven his John Deere lawnmower to the local retirement home and checked himself in. There is already a news story out by Jay Glazer about how Minnesota is STILL all buzzing about the possibilitiy of Favre un-retiring yet again to come play in purple. Meanwhile, we enjoyed our first Packers preseason victory Saturday night and tried to instill in our son the importance of supporting your quarterback! Welcome to Mr. Rodger's neighborhood!

It's game time!!

Now, let's see. What channel are the Packers on?

See ya Grandma! Time for the game to start! Go Pack Go!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Today is my 26th birthday! Even though I am a tiny bit freaked at edging that much closer to the big 3-0, I have had an awesome birthday. Evan spoiled me rotten this year and got a bunch of family together to go in on getting me the Kindle for my present!! I would have never guessed that I would actually get it and I have been just loving messing around with it. To top it all off, he whipped up a massive match of his famous molasses cookies for me to bring to work with me today. My parents came over for dinner and we had such fun playing around with Isaiah. I am truly a blessed woman and a birthday like this really reminds me of that. Thank you so very much to everyone who makes every year of my life special and know that you mean the world to me.

Oh, and the first preseason Packers game is on! Happy birthday to me! GO PACK GO!!!

Size Matters!

I am officially in a nesting phase of pregnancy and I spent a pretty good deal of time the other night stocking the changing table to make sure I have a home base of sorts for the baby, if he were to arrive before his room is ready. So, there's a changing table in our dining room that has all the essentials: onesies & pants in one basket, sleepers in another basket, burp cloths in another basket, Desitin, nuks, gas drops, wipes, and.....DIAPERS. I opened up the package of newborn sized Pampers Swaddlers and I almost swallowed my tongue. Evan was working down in the basement at the time and I silently carried a diaper downstairs and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around to see me holding up this TINY little diaper and his eyes got huge.

It suddenly became very clear how small this baby is going to be and how different it will be in comparison to the tank of a kid we've grown accustomed to. It was a very strange moment for us, standing there in the basement absolutely terrified by a diaper. I guess size does, in fact, matter.

Christian Sex Week

One of the blogs I follow (see my list over at the right) by Jessica Turner is really great and I love reading about her striking a balance between being a career woman, a mom, and a Christian wife. I have also been reading her husband Matthew's blog for several days now as he has been featuring a Sex Week in anticipation of the release of his new book: "What You Didn't Learn from Your Parents About Sex." Visit Matthew's blog HERE to see what I mean. He's conducted interviews with Rob Bell, a noted pastor, as well as several others who might be considered to be "Christian sexperts." In addition, there are videos and other articles about how sex is discussed (or not discussed) in the Christian community and how we can have open conversations with our spouses about sex within our marriages. Let's face it....sex is a crucial part of a marriage and God created it that way on purpose. I've been really getting a lot out of reading this blog and I encourage you to do the same!


FREE BOOK!!! Starting at 9:00 am Central today, August 13, NavPress is giving away for FREE (including shipping) 200 copies of Matthew Turner's book. Visit his blog, Jesus Needs New PR, for all the details and to get yours! I had mine at 9:01!

Wet & Wild!

First things first. Howie and Sandy: Thank you from the bottom of my heart for providing Isaiah and I with such a super-fun day on Tuesday. Goodness knows that with everything we have going on right now, there is no way we could have done something like this without you and I want you to know how much Evan and I (and Isaiah) truly appreciated it!!

Isaiah and I got to spend the day at Mount Olympus Waterpark in Wisconsin Dells yesterday on an absolutely PERFECT (mid 80s, low humidity, sunny) day with some fabulous people: the in-laws!! Not everyone is blessed to have in-laws that they truly love, but I certainly am. My mother and father in-law are like a second set of parents to me and my sister in-law is certainly as dear to my heart as my own. In celebration of Howie & Sandy's anniversary and both my and Ashley's birthday, we all spent the day frolicking in the water and oooing and ahhhing at how cute Isaiah is. I managed to not get sunburned and had an absolute blast watching my son have an absolute blast. Here are some of my favorite photos from our day....hard to choose considering I took 246 photos!!

Nothing like the SPLASH!! at the bottom of a waterslide to make a fabulous photo!

Just because I am yawning and can barely keep my eyes open does NOT mean I am tired!

Post-nap and ready to run through cascades of water! Woohoo!

Like I mentioned, I took a TON more photos than this, but this is just a taste. Once again I am convinced that some of the best money we ever spent was on that Nikon D40 because I do love it so!

Wisconsin State Fair

This was the first time, in my memory, going to the State Fair and I had high expectations. I wanted to show my little boy a good time, complete with Giant Slides, food on a stick, cotton candy, horses, cows, the whole nine yards. What I didn't count on was the WEATHER. The entire drive to the fairgrounds, it was pouring. As we walked from our parking spot on the race track into the grounds, it was just coming down in buckets and we (me, Isaiah, my mom, Erica, and Chris) were getting soaked! Apparantly Isaiah was loving it and was having a ball splashing in the water that was collecting in his stroller tray, but I was NOT pleased. What do you get when you add rain to a very pregnant woman with curly hair and a hormonal problem? The answer: a very cranky (and frizzy) Mommy!! I could just see my fabulous fair day going right down the drain. I was prepared to deal with the heat and humidity, but not this.

We headed straight into the Exhibition Hall once we finally made it to the grounds. Of course, everyone else who was there had the same idea and it was plenty packed. While Erica wiped down Isaiah, I went to the bathroom and called Evan. After a tearful explosion of hormones and crabbiness, I composed myself and rejoined the group. We wrangled Isaiah into his stroller against his will and started to wander the seemingly miles of booths, selling everything from Shammy cloths and gaudy jewelry to roof shingles and shower heads. Erica and I managed to talk our mother out of buying a Yorkie purse, thank goodness! It took a little while, but Isaiah finally passed out and we peeked outside to find the rain had stopped. So, we headed out to check out the food!

Isaiah slept the whole time we were in the Central Mall area. Mom and I split one of the famous cream puffs and, I must admit, it was pretty darn good. I did decide against bring a 6 pack home with me though. The last thing Evan and I needed was a box of cream puffs on the counter. We really enjoyed seeing the Clydesdales in the Livestock Barn, but again.....Isaiah was completely out. He woke up pretty much right after we were done looking at the horses and then it was time for lunch!

Mom paid way too much for a gyro that was way too small, Erica and Chris scored some overpriced cheese curds and Isaiah and I shared some super-expensive chicken tenders and a very reasonable hot dog ($1). He ate the entire hot dog and a lot of the chicken, so this kid was ready to go with a full tummy by the time we headed out.

Our next adventure was the Giant Slide! I was all ready to bring Isaiah down that thing myself, but there was a sign clearly posted that advised expectant mothers against going down the slide. If I hadn't been as pregnant as I am, I probably would have still done it, but I didn't want my water breaking halfway down that thing. So, Aunt Erica stepped up to the plate and took Isaiah on the Giant Slide. She said she just caught air on every bump and was so scared of either losing her lunch or losing Isaiah! At the bottom, Isaiah stood up and squealed while clapping his hands and looked at Erica like, "Let's do that again!!" She, however, shook her head and the painful look on her face said, "No way, kiddo." I appreciate you taking one for the team, Erica. Thanks for doing that for him.

Things were really looking up. The rain had long since stopped so we were able to really enjoy ourselves. Isaiah alternated between riding in the stroller, walking, being carried, or riding on someone's shoulders - usually mine and sometimes Chris's. He was on my shoulders as we went through the animal barns and saw sheep, goats, and cows. He squealed in delight and clapped at them all. He just loved it! I even heard him say "Moo" in the cow barn! I did get some funny looks from people seeing a very pregnant lady carrying a toddler on her shoulder, but oh well! He enjoyed trying to cover my eyes too. Fun game!

In the 4H Discovery Barn, Isaiah got to see some more animals close up. Now, I realize that the sign in this photo clearly states that he should NOT be touching the horse. However, there was an attendant right night to the horse's pen that I asked about it and she said that as long as he washed his hands after he left the barn, it was just fine. So, he got to pet the horse!

As for my favorite part of the fair (FOOD!!!), I regret to report that we kept things pretty tame. Chris chickened out on trying the chocolate covered bacon on a stick and I decided against the chocolate covered cookie dough on a stick with sprinkles. I manged to stick to sharing the one cream puff, lunch with Isaiah, Blue Moon ice cream (my fave!), roasted corn on the cob, and a corn dog. Not too bad for a pregnant lady with food everywhere, right??

Once it started to rain again, Erica and Chris decided to head on home. Mom and I headed back to the Exhibition Hall to finish up our tour of the "useless crap for sale" under the cover of a building. However, we cut it short once my body started to quit on me. My feet had really started to hurt and my back and hips were exceptionally sore. So, we called it a day around 2:30. The rain let up just long enough for us to get about halfway to our car and then the heavens opened up and it came down in sheets!!! By the time we were safely strapped in to the car, all three of us were just drenched and Isaiah was certainly the better spirited of us.

Even though my ankles had swollen to the size of tree trunks by the time I walked in my front door, I am glad that we ended up with a good day at the fair. Isaiah had a blast and was as well behaved as I could have asked for. I hope Mom, Erica, and Chris has as good of a time as I did and I'm sorry for being cranky at the beginning. Frizzy hair will do that to me.

Book Review: The Help

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

If you are looking for a powerful, emotional, character-driven novel, then look no further than The Help. Set in Jackson, Mississippi in the middle of the Civil Rights movement (1962-1964ish), Stockett's novel paints a magnificiant portrait of three main characters: Miss Skeeter - the wealthy young white woman, Aibeleen - the experienced, yet bold black maid, Minny - the strong black maid with the amazing cooking and smart mouth. The narration in this novel is shared by these three women and Stockett truly excells at giving each woman a unique voice, complete with different speech patterns and spellings of words to indicate accent and vocal variety. By showing the events from three different points of view, the reader gets a complete picture of the volatile environment in which these characters exist and really feel their anger, embarrassment, shame, and fear right along with them.

At the same time that other white members of her Junior League are building separate bathrooms in the carport for the colored help to use so they don't pick up any "Nigra diseases," Miss Skeeter is a white woman who finds herself asking questions about why the black men and women of Jackson are treated they way they are and why they have to continue to just accept it as the norm. She begins on a quest to share the stories of "the help," the hired maids of Jackson, through a series of interviews with women. You will find yourself cheering for your three champions and relishing in their victories over their "white women" and crying at their defeats, fears, and tragedies.

The Help discusses common human decency and the question of why we treat one another the way we do, whether it is based on the color of our skin, the money in our bank account, the level of our education, or the brand name on our clothes. The question the author raises is if we have, in fact, moved beyond the days of Jackson in the 1960s or if the same prejudices continue under another name. Great book!

Teaser

The weather was not my friend today, but we did make it to the State Fair down in West Allis. Believe it or not, I am far too tired to even stay up any longer to be able to tell the whole story of our day right now, so I'm just going to leave you with a small teaser photo. I promise to blog about the whole day and our wet & wild experience tomorrow when I get back from work....or Monday when Isaiah takes a nap. One of the two. Promise!!

And yes...there is a story behind why Isaiah is petting the horse in clear violation of the sign. I just love this picture!

33 Weeks!

So, it's been about 6 weeks since I last braved the belly photo, so I figured it was about time. That, and I needed to take one this week for the scrapbook layout, so I really didn't have much of a choice. I was very grateful for the cool July, let me tell you! It made life so much more bearable! I am absolutely DREADING the return of the 90 degree mark, as it is predicted to hit on Saturday when I take my son to the Wisconsin State Fair. Figures. Anyway, without futher ado....here is my very pregnant self at 33 weeks!

"It's ok, Mommy."

I'm the first to admit that I get a little emotional these days from the tiniest things. Tonight, a commercial showed a little girl getting ready to go to school for the first time and there were little butterflies fluttering around her stomach as she boarded the bus. She looked out the window and waved goodbye to her mom and then found a card her mom had put in her backpack to reassure her that she would be wonderful and that Mommy loved her. Those butterflies flew out the window.

Yup. I cried. Tears started falling down my face as I pictured putting my little boy on the bus for the first time and I immediately hid my face from Evan and said, "Come on Sarah! Get a grip!" So, my husband is over there chuckling at me because I'm crying over this commercial, but my little boy....my sweet little boy.....climbs up into my lap, wraps his arms around me, puts his head on my shoulder and starts patting my back, as if to say, "It's ok, Mommy. I won't be going to school for a while yet."

I only cried harder, but it was one of the sweetest moments with Isaiah I have had in recent memory. He held me and comforted me for a solid couple of minutes and I was in Mommy Heaven.

Babysitter Needed: August 18th

Evan and I have tickets to go see Henry V at American Players Theater on the evening of Tuesday, August 18th so we are looking for a sitter. It would be from about to 5:00 to LATE. We probably wouldn't be getting home until 10:30 or so.

Any takers???

Weekend Warrior

While the rest of his family was off frolicking in the river somewhere in Michigan, Evan was hard at work down in our basement this weekend. I brought Isaiah to the babysitter on Saturday so Evan and Fran could work down there pretty much all day and it paid off. Suddenly, there are actual ROOMS down there!! They got almost all the drywall hung and then Evan finished hanging and screwing them in tonight.

Family Room

Office / Scraproom

Playroom

Thank you very much to those of you who have already sacrificed your time and sweat to come lend a hand: Mom, Dad, Chris, and Fran. You have no idea how much we appreciate it. Now comes the long, tedious process of the mudding and sanding and mudding and sanding and mudding and sanding and on and on. My goal for the week is to start talking to people about flooring to get an idea of what we want and how much it's going to cost us. If we can get the flooring all installed before the baby arrives, I will be thrilled. We can always paint while there is stuff in the room, but I can't put anything in there until after the flooring is down.

6 1/2 weeks to go.....