Thursday: book giveaway

I was contacted to read another book!  Who can resist?

This time it was Sonoma Rose by Jennifer Chiaverini.

I'll give you an abbreviated summary of the front cover...because otherwise you'll stop reading this post:  prohibition era, bad husband, wife runs away, new old love, children mysteriously sick since being toddlers, vineyard, evil Prohibition agent.

I enjoyed the book.  I liked it much better than the other book.  There were some things about the plot that were very easy to guess, but enough things that I wasn't really expecting to make it interesting.  And the best part?  The blocks for the patterns that are mentioned in the book are in the front cover.

Like last time, I'm supposed to pass this book on so someone else can enjoy it.  Let me know if you're interested!

Wednesday: work

I know...it's the subject on everyone's mind.  How did Amanda's first day back at work go?  Did Isaac enjoy day care?  Did Ben's day go well?

The answer to all of those is...ok-ish.

I dropped Isaac off and only got a little choked up in the car...not bad at all.  I actually enjoyed the morning at work.  It was the part of my job that I like.  I fed Isaac over lunch.  Again, it was nice to see how everything in the room works.  And of course see Isaac, although I didn't get any smiles.  Then the afternoon.  It didn't go all that bad, but I'm not excited about some of the projects I'm going to work on.  And somehow I was getting all the meeting notices and accepts/declines for meetings for my manager...which meant that I had received over 700 emails while I was gone and 675 of them were unimportant.  But I still had to go through all of them and figure out which were which.  It got old in the afternoon.

Then I went to pick up Isaac.  I realized I had no clue what he did during the day and that saddened me.  The "story time" and "tummy time" boxes where checked, but I don't know how long they were for or how engaged he was in story time or if he managed to actually hold his head up during tummy time or if he just cried.  I do know that he didn't nap very well compared to how well he has been.  The smiley boxes were checked for morning and afternoon, but that isn't very helpful either.

So, stay tuned.  We'll see what happens in the future.

Tuesday: daycare and toys

This morning Isaac and I went to the daycare for a few hours.  We did it to time our morning routine and to bring all the supplies that he'll need.  And to just hang out and observe for a little bit.  I'm glad we went.

Also, Isaac scored a bunch of toys yesterday after going to Dad and Pat's house.  (Side note: I have decided to call everyone by their relationship to me.  So if I talk about Dad and Issac doing something, it is my dad, not Isaac's dad.  It gets a little confusing.)

A puzzle!

A whole bunch of rattles that Nathan and I must have used.  They all sound different.

Look at how strong Isaac is!  He can lift the dumbbell rattle!  (Actually, he held this one quite a bit.  I had to put it in his hand but I was proud that he kept hold of it.  He also tried to eat it.)

 More toys from our childhood.

This is Isaac with the rattle that I made him.  He can't hold it, but it makes a lot of different sounds, which makes it more interesting for Ben and me.

While unpacking I also found the sippy cup and utensils that I must have used as a child.  Needless to say, Isaac may be using them too because they don't do any good sitting in a box.

Monday: date night

Tonight was date night!  Ben and I went out to eat and then walked around the mall for a little bit.  Nothing super exciting, but it was nice to get out with just the two of us.

I also got a good nap in today.  It was very exciting.  Since tomorrow is my last day of not working, I'm hoping to get another good one in tomorrow. :)

Sunday: headaches

So remember those weird short but painful headaches I was getting a year ago?  They're back.  I remember them starting about a month before we moved and then they lasted through maybe part of April.  I'm wondering if it is an allergy of sorts.  The other times I remember them we were in Florida, and so that could have been in the March (or December) time frame.

Here is a picture of Isaac today.  We were trying to get Flurry to come close so Isaac could practice his petting, but it didn't work.

Tutorial: how to make a picture wall

Since this was my second time putting up a picture wall, I thought I'd share how I did it.  I learned a lot after doing it the first time.

.5) Obtain picture frames.  I would suggest getting more of each size than you expect to use in case you want to expand in the future or end up using more of one size than expected.  You can also optionally get the pictures, and again you might want to get more than you plan on using and then remove some if the shape doesn't fit well.

1) Get a large piece of paper or cardboard.  If you have a huge piece of graph paper that would be easiest, but I really liked using cardboard in the end.  It should be at least as big as the area you want to put pictures on.

 2) (No picture)  Figure out how to arrange the pictures.  It took Ben and I about three hours to do this the first time.  The closer you get the positioning to how you actually want it the better.  (For example, don't arrange the pictures with .5" spacing but then plan on putting 1" spacing between them.  It'll look different.)  TAKE A PICTURE when you're happy with it.  I didn't take a picture because I had the old wall picture that I worked from, but I referenced it a lot.  So I'll say it again.  TAKE A PICTURE OF THE ARRANGEMENT.

3) Draw the nail and picture locations on the cardboard.  This also takes a while.  Try to find a good place to start from.  Maybe somewhere in the middle.  Use a square to make sure that your lines are all straight and perpendicular.  Having good lines is going to be essential, so take the time to make sure they're square.  I started with one picture and then drew lines as required to find out where to put the nail for the next picture in relation to the previous picture(s).  Put the pictures back often to make sure everything looks correct.  I did the lines in pencil and then made little circles with marker where the cross hairs were for the nails.  I also did quick large boxes in marker to show about where the pictures would go, but didn't use the marker lines for any measurements.

This is the end result:

 This is a close up.  You can see all the pencil lines.

4) Hang the template on the wall.  MAKE SURE IT'S LEVEL!  We put one nail in and then used a laser level on some of the pencil lines to make sure it was level before putting a second nail in.

5) Put all the nails in the template.  Keep in mind that you'll be taking all the nails out to remove the template (although if it paper you might be able to rip it down).  The nails don't need to go all the way in.

6) Remove the template and put the nails back in the wall.

7) Hang the pictures!  You might want to refer back to your picture of where everything goes or template because it can be hard to tell...there seem to just be a lot of random nails in the wall.

Saturday: bedroom and picture wall

Our bedroom is cleaned up and we finally got our new bed lamps, so I can show you pictures of another room!  Bed lamps have been on our "to buy" list for about five years now.  We finally got some because the lamp Ben was using is ugly and Isaac took the one I was using.  (Which, when I thought about it, used to be Nathan's.  I traded him a desk chair for it right before I left for college.)  They are three-way touch lamps and we're quite happy with them.

The yellow wall is the bathroom.  It is all cleaned up to, but nothing too special.  A toilet, a shower, two sinks, and cabinets.

I put the picture wall back up!  I missed it.  Issac got featured predominantly in it...in fact, if someone in our immediate family wasn't in the picture, it got replaced.  (Flurry counts as a family member.) (Except for some elephants, and I expect to replace them shortly.)

I would like to get a few more pictures with our extended families, but don't have any recent ones.  There is also one of Ben jumping into a pool that I want to get, but couldn't find the disc when I was ready to order.

(BTW, how do you distinguish the family that we grew up with from the family that includes aunts, uncles, and cousins?  Because now I'd say that our immediate family is Ben/Amanda/Isaac/Flurry.  That would make, for example, Dad, Pat, Nathan, and Liz our extended family.  But then how to easily specify the next level of family...i.e., my aunts/uncles/cousins?)