Getting there…

For about 2 years now we’ve been slowly re-doing our ENTIRE house. Inside and out. Inside is done (will post those photos soon), and we’re in the middle of the exterior project right now. Below is a photo of our progress so far (click on photo for larger image). It’s getting there. I’m guessing I’ll have some final comparisons by end of November.

What’s left?
Carport, black shutters, red door, side yard basketball court, fence in the side yard, and general landscaping.

11 Months & Vocab

Lots of new photos from August are on our photo-share website. Click on the image above to visit the site.

This summer has been a lot of fun. Julia LOVES the water. She’s not afraid of it. In fact, she tries to push our hands away. She’s a little dare-devil. She’s very close to walking. She’s been taking a couple of steps on her own since late last week. Moving from a table to a person, for example.

Her vocabulary is pretty big for her age…
mum, mummy
daddy
nun, nanna
pow (paul)
wahsat? (what’s that?)
uh-oh
book
duck
quack
moo
row, row, row (your boat)
e i e i oh (old mc donald)
emo (elmo)
up

YEESSS!

I had the BEST night since before I can remember. Best sleep since probably mid-August. Julia fell asleep around 9pm, but was due for a bottle around 10:30pm. She was passed out, but I woke her up by changing her diaper around 10:50pm. I roused her enough to take the bottle. I got her back to sleep by 11:15pm. She didn’t wake up until 5:20am for her next bottle!! 6 straight hours!!! If that type of schedule can somewhat continue or get consistent, it will rule!

On a side, I just noticed a new “polling” feature available. So, I’m going to try it out.

YearbookYourself.com

So a friend of mine at work may have found the greatest Internet gadget that I’ve fooled with in a while… http://www.yearbookyourself.com/

Here’s a sampling of photos of Dave and I from “past” yearbooks:

Decided to have a bit more fun… here’s Paul:

NOTE: I created some additional versions of these “high school” photos for other family members. You can see them in our photo gallery: http://gauthierphotos.shutterfly.com/ (open the album “Random”)

Before & Afters

Now that Valley Street has been “lived in” for a while, I wanted to put together some new Before & After samples of the work we’ve done at the house. Unfortunately I didn’t get true before photos (as in, before we started working on it), but the photos are still pretty impressive. I think anyways…

http://gauthierphotos.site.shutterfly.com/387

Names

With the sad news of George Carlin’s passing, many folks spent some time yesterday remembering his genious. Anyways, Dave sent me this YouTube link about “Names” – since we are figuring out what to do with Lil’ Miss Gauthier. Dave agrees with George – http://youtube.com/watch?v=k2NEzmzfXho

TURKEY?

So Dave called me this morning… we had a friendly lil’ visitor in our yard today…

Weekend Highlights

So there was an EXTREMELY old refridgerator in our basement that had the smell of death pouring out of it. For fear of what was inside – and to reduce the odor – it was taped up and sealed (for nearly 2 years). Saturday, Dave and I decided that it was time to remove this toxic hazard. I can’t even begin to tell you how old, heavy, and large the refridgerator is… I was able to help a little in getting it through the basement to the door, but then Richard came to the rescue for the remainder of the job. Once outside, Richard ran away as fast as he could because even sealed, the smell was making him gag.

Once outside in the driveway, Dave got out his razor and unsealed… inside were jars of various foods and beverages, which we couldn’t really identify. And worst of all was the freezer, which was filled of ziplock bags containing rotting, soupy deer (yes the animal) meat. BARF!

My mother came to the rescue next and helped us get the rotting foods and whatnot in to triple-bagged trash bags. Materials involved in the cleanout were face-masks, gloves, bleach, and a hose. It was a pretty horrible experience, but I’m psyched that the situation is resolved. No more hazard!

On a lighter note, earlier that day, Dave and I saved a turtle’s life. We were driving down Highland Ave and I spotted a little turtle running down the sidewalk. I pointed it out to Dave and he pulled over. I ran over and picked up the little fella – who promptly peed on me. I knew of a pond nearby, so we drove over to it, tromped through the woods for a bit, and released it back in to the water.

Sunday was an interesting day because of the weather. 95 degrees. UCK. Poor Dave had to catch two games of softball in that heat. I think he got a little heat stroke (plus his sinus infection). Luckilly we put in the air conditioner on Saturday, so all of last night we were able to chill out in the cool.

Ouch!!!

So I tripped coming down the last few stairs in my house last night and totally jammed my big toe. Horrible pain. Iced it for about 20 minutes. Today though it’s still swollen and all black-and-blue on the top of my foot. And it’s constantly throbbing pain. I don’t have time for the doctor though… so hopefully it’s not serious… We’ll see how it feels over the upcoming weekend.

Gross

I was super hungry this morning and on my way to work I decided to pick up something… bagel at Dunkin Donuts or Sausage McMuffin from McDonalds. I have no idea what my brain was thinking, but I got the Sausage McMuffin — and now I feel totally gross! Not sure why I’m sharing this, but I haven’t posted anything in a while… ~

Should be finding out the sex of the baby next Tuesday… so check back.