13Dec |
Christmas / Holiday Season 2009
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Wow! We must have an older child now, we are getting our cards and letters out in the month of December. We know a few of you in Australia might not get them until after the holidays, but it is closer than last year! 2009 has been a year of growing, learning, experiencing and such joy. Lauren is growing like a weed, and she has such a little personality on her.
Just after arriving home in January we got news that Casey’s mom and step-dad were moving to Wichita, KS. Jon got a fantastic job there, and while it was sad for everyone to move so far away we understood. The Inauguration of President Obama excited everyone in the house. Nathan even completed his citizenship paperwork while we watched the ceremony. The end of January, just after her 4th month checkup we started Lauren on her first “solids”. It was rice cereal, and we weren’t sure how something that could be sucked through a straw can be called solid, but none the less, solid it is labeled. She wasn’t so sure at first, and then she went to town, couldn’t get enough of it. At four months Lauren weighed in at 16lbs, 9oz and she was 26.625″ tall.
At the beginning of February we boarded Sydney for the first time. We weren’t sure how she was going to do, but we had a meeting in Sequim and didn’t have any scheduled guests at the inn and couldn’t find anyone to house sit for us, so we decided it was time. We went with a recommendation from fellow innkeepers and friends and Sydney had a great time! No issues what so ever. We thought for sure we were going to hear about “issues” at playtime but they said she was great.
Valentine’s day was a huge success for the Inn and the Day Spa. If we could have weekends like that every weekend we would be set! It was really amazing. We even had a last minute cancellation in the spa (as in the 10pm the night before), but we posted it on our website to call at 10am the next day to book, and exactly at 10am the phone rang and the time slot was filled.
Lauren was scooting and rolling and even pulled herself to a semi-standing position, but as any parent knows they do things on their own time and true crawling and walking were still a ways off for us. We did have a scare with Lauren’s Angelcare monitor, the alarm went off one night in late February, but with all the noise we were making trying to scramble to get in there and the light coming on she stirred and the alarm turned off. What a scary feeling. On February 24th Lauren got her first tooth! Quickly followed by her second tooth on February 27th.
On March 1st, Lauren celebrated her 6 month birthday, and we were working on sending out our cards and birth announcements from 2008. We hadn’t really thought it was going to take us that long, but we really liked the way her birth announcements looked in the end. Also in the beginning of March grandma took Lauren for an evening and we had a date night and went to see Lucy at the Pacific Science Center. The history of Ethiopia was amazing. The whole exhibit was really well done. It was good for Lauren to spend time with Grandma before she left for Kansas.
Lauren’s official 6 month measurement still had her in the 90th percentile. She was continuing her trend of being above average. We started attending book babies at the library, which she loved, anything involving books she just gets so excited about.
April brought Lauren yet another tooth and working on words, mostly just babble, and no signs yet although we were working on sign language. For Casey’s birthday grandma came down and we had another grown up night out and went to the movies and out to dinner. The next day we had Easter lunch before grandma had to head home so she could go into work the next day. The time was slowly ticking down for grandma to be heading to Kansas.
April is when Olympia really comes back to life. The farmers market reopens, and everyone is out and about enjoying the spring weather, including us. We started walking everywhere. If it was within a reasonable distance and we weren’t getting anything huge we walked there. Lauren and Casey were very much enjoying momma baby yoga downtown, and the walk before and after was perfect. By the end of April Lauren had her front four teeth and was still growing like a weed and grandma had moved to Wichita. It was sad to see her go.
In May we were focusing on outdoor projects. We started a lot of seeds indoors and transplanted those as well as eating lots of fresh fruit and vegetables from the local co-op and the farmers market. Lauren said her first sign (milk), and Nathan and I celebrated our 3rd Wedding Anniversary. The 3rd anniversary is leather and we both had the same idea, but Nathan was faster, he got us a leather bound album of our wedding photos. It is beautiful. Lauren was commando crawling everywhere. Definitely mobile, but still not what some would say “crawling”. It got her where she needed to go though.
Then came June and our busy busy season along with it. We started having issues with the tile in the shower in the day spa. The built in bench tile was started with one cracked tile, but then quickly became several cracked tile and lifting tiles. We kept trying to get in touch with the tile guy who installed it but our calls went largely unanswered. At the beginning of June we also started Casey’s birthday present, ballroom dance lessons. It was a lot of fun, a couple hours once a week. We haven’t put them to good use as of yet, but we know they will come in handy some day.
Lauren was pulling herself up to standing. Sometimes she would let go for a couple of seconds but would quickly grab back on or fall. She also had an onslaught of words, from babbling to dada, dog, cat, good, and if she is upset, momma. The biggest thing that happened in June was that Hayden came for a long overdue visit, and boy did we have a lot to pack into her two week visit.
We went kayaking, walking, painted pottery downtown, camping at Mt Rainier, Wolf Haven, the cider mill, the zoo, had family portraits taken, with our own tie dye creations, lots of cooking, gardening, went to the 4th of July celebration in Tumwater, and just enjoying the family time. Lauren and Hayden got along very well and Lauren was even saying Hayden by the time she left. Two weeks went by way too quick and we all wish we could see her more often.
After Hayden left we got stuck into paving our Rose Garden. Casey was sick with bronchitis (who gets bronchitis in July) so Nathan set to the dirty task of pulling up the sod and getting the ground mostly level. Not easy work. On the good side, not too far under the sod was a nice layer of gravel so we didn’t have to have any brought in. It also explains why that grass probably died every year, not enough ground to hold water, the drainage was too good. Next we made a temporary and level frame around the perimeter and started bringing in sand. During this time the temperatures were 100 degrees plus. It was grueling. Every morning we would go out ant try and accomplish as much as we could until the sun came around the corner of the house and then we would go back out late in the evening to work on it more. In the end it came out beautiful and just in time for the wedding we had scheduled. While just the sand base was in Lauren also started crawling properly. She was wearing just a diaper and didn’t like the feeling of the sand on her belly. She was so cute, wagging her tail as she crawled along. With the oppressive heat Lauren also got her first pool, a really cute inflatable pool with a built in shade. We filled it up and let it sit in the sun for two days and the water was still ice cold! It felt great. Lauren didn’t like it as much, but she had fun walking around the outside.
August brought plums ready to harvest, so many plums. TOO many plums. I think it was over 100lbs of plums that Casey either made sorbet out of, or turned into plum butter, or plum puddings. Anything Casey could find to make with plums it was made. August also brought a dilemma. What to do with our vehicles? We liked the van but it was too big to drive around all the time. Lauren’s new car seat and the recommendations that she remain rear facing until at least 2 years old meant that we couldn’t use Casey’s bug, and well Nathan’s Miata only seats two, which isn’t very practical for a family of three. Then the government announced the Cash for Clunkers deal. We looked and if we got the Toyota Prius we would get $4500 for our van. We didn’t really want to see it crushed, but we had to do something. We listed Snow White for sale for $4500 with the reasons why we were selling and why the price was non-negotiable and everything we knew that was right and wrong with her. We sold her for $4500 to an Australian living in Canada saving her from the crusher and giving us a $4500 down payment on Sandy the Spaceship. We are very happy with our new car purchase. It fits the three of us easily, and gets amazing gas mileage and has so much storage. So far the largest purchase we have made in it is a 4-burner gas grill already assembled. The sales people said there was no way it would fit, but it did!
To stretch Sandy’s legs we took a trip to the beach, Seabrook near Pacific Beach. It was Lauren’s first real time she could play on the beach and she loved it. She was completely muddy and gross from all the sand but she slept like no ones business that night, she was exhausted! We also had our first repair at the end of August when one of our tires was slashed in of all places the local food co-op! Not sure what happened there, but it was definitely slashed. We had to wait a week for a new tire to come in because the car was so new the dealership hadn’t stocked the new tires for it yet.
September was a great month. It started with Lauren’s first birthday! Yea! She had a lot of fun at her party and it was great to see everyone. Those of you who couldn’t make it were missed. At one year she weighed in at 22lbs, and was 31.25 inches tall. Advanced in size and verbal skills. Doctor would swear she was 18 months if she didn’t know when her birthday was. She has so many words, learns more every day. We had contemplated a road trip to Kansas, but we really didn’t have that much time, about 7 days, we could be away from the inn, so it would have been a real stress to get there and back. We would have loved to go, but the more we thought about it the crazier we thought we were. In the end we took a nice break and went to Leavenworth and then San Juan Island (via the North Cascades Hwy) and had a wonderful time away. While we were in Leavenworth, staying in a friend’s B&B, Lauren stood up on her own for the first time (not pulling herself up). Casey shouted to get Nathan’s attention and Lauren promptly sat down and refused to do it again.
October saw a slight slow down at the inn, but not as great as past years. We started a new group, Baby Dinners. Every Thursday one family from the group hosts dinner and we don’t have to bring anything. It turns out that pretty much we only have to worry about cooking dinner on a Thursday once a month! Having a set scheduled thing works really well, and we like knowing that Lauren will get to see some of her little friends at least once a week and interact.
Our grapes on all three of our vines were ripe and they were definitely hefty producers this year. Casey made raisins out of a lot of the seedless ones, after trying to give them away and serving them to guests and Lauren. The concord grapes this year Casey made into grape juice, thanks to her food mill. There are lots and lots of grape concentrate in the pantry. We even invited friends over to pick grapes and we still had a lot that just fell to the ground.
Nathan went to a travel writers conference on behalf of the Washington Bed and Breakfast Guild so for a couple of days Lauren and Casey were on their own with a full house! Don’t worry everyone survived just fine. For her first aware Halloween, (last year seeing as she was almost two months old), she was a dog. Seemed appropriate, everything on four legs is a dog, woof woof. Not that it is the only animal she knows, if you ask her what sounds a cow makes, she moos, and a sheep she baaahs, and a duck she quacks, but everything is a dog, even birds flying in the air. So Lauren was a dog, and we took her trick or treating downtown and then to the Governors Mansion for a photo op and a chocolate bar. She was so happy, saying HI to everyone and barking like a dog…until we got to the governor. Then she cried. We still had a great evening.
At the beginning of November we took a trip to Eugene, OR. It was a fabulous trip. The innkeeper that we stayed with was so welcoming and there were some uncanny similarities between their inn and ours. You would never guess, another inn and another first for Lauren, she took her first steps! We really liked the area, had some great meals, and got to visit Pacific Yurts, which we have wanted to do for years. Of course it gave us a lot more ideas, that yurt village may still happen one day. Just after we got back from that trip we had a meeting in Seattle for the bed and breakfast guild. Lauren and I missed most of the meeting but we had a lovely stroll through Volunteer Park and the neighborhood and a really great meal at the end of the day.
By mid-November, Lauren was walking unassisted, and quickly went from a few steps to walking across the room. It is amazing. To see her little head bopping along as she explores is fantastic. We will miss the wagging your tail crawl, but the tipsy walking it pretty cute too. We took a break before Nathan’s birthday and went to Seabrook for a couple of days, and they were really relaxing days on the beach, with record setting waves, it was incredible. In some spots on the beach drive up there was sea foam at the highway and no beach whatsoever! We really like Seabrook, if we had the extra cash we would look into purchasing one of their smaller properties.
On November 15th we had very exciting news at our house. We found out Casey is expecting again! We couldn’t be more excited. The expected due date is July 10th, which means that the baby (just one) will either arrive on July 1st (for a boy), or July 4th (for a girl) as Casey’s family trend is for Boys to be born on the 1st of the month and Girls to be born on a holiday. Lauren was born on both! Now the great name debate has begun. Again we are going to keep the name to ourselves, it is just easier that way. For Nathan’s birthday we just celebrated at home as we had a full house and a wedding the following day. Casey and Lauren bought him a very nice Chinese Elm bonsai and again it was a complete surprise!
The last week in November brought some bad news. After winning our judgment against the tile contractor (not that we have seen the check from his insurance yet), and thinking we would be able to get a few of the guest room windows replaced, our downstairs furnace kicked the can. What a pain. So we were left with what to do. Buy a furnace we didn’t want, or heat the downstairs alternatively (gas fireplace, and heaters) until we can afford to do what we want. After dealing with the salesiest salesman, we decided we were going without a furnace, and we are still that way.
Our final goal with heating is to install radiant floor heating on the first floor with a semi-commercial gas instant hot water heater. We really want to eliminate our hot water tanks, we currently have three, and one is dedicated to one bathroom so when that room isn’t rented it just keeps running even though none of the water is being used. This will eliminate any hot water issues we currently have, plus give the downstairs a nice gentle heat source and we can have zones so our personal area doesn’t get too hot which it did on the previous furnace. We are staying warm with the use of our eco-heaters (they are wonderful things) and a few electric ceramic heaters, plus we purchased an electric fireplace with heat that will eventually go into the Astoria room. So far we are staying fairly warm, even with the cold snap that December brought us.
December is here, and the weather is below frigid. We are still managing quite well, but we are really looking forward to the high of the day being above freezing. We had holiday photos taken with Lauren in front of our decorated tree, and are getting ready for the big holiday that is just a few weeks away. We took Lauren downtown to see Santa for photos and she was not having any of it! She was fine while we were waiting, and then Nathan walked up to Santa with her and she just exploded in tears. So we let a few other people go while she watched Santa, and she was a little better, she let Santa hold her, but she was still crying. Then Santa got up and was being silly and she even smiled and waved at him, but she wouldn’t let him hold her. The one photo we got with no tears was her sitting in his chair looking up at Santa who was standing behind the chair. Casey is kind of hoping that the photographer sends us one of the crying photos too, lest we forget that she cried!
So this Holiday season we hope all is well in your family and you have a happy holiday and an exciting new year full of joy and happiness.
Christmas / Holiday Season 2009!
Wow! We must have an older child now, we are getting our cards and letters out in the month of December. We know a few of you in Australia might not get them until after the holidays, but it is closer than last year! 2009 has been a year of growing, learning, experiencing and such joy. Lauren is growing like a weed, and she has such a little personality on her.
Just after arriving home in January we got news that Casey’s mom and step-dad were moving to Wichita, KS. Jon got a fantastic job there, and while it was sad for everyone to move so far away we understood. The Inauguration of President Obama excited everyone in the house. Nathan even completed his citizenship paperwork while we watched the ceremony. The end of January, just after her 4th month checkup we started Lauren on her first “solids”. It was rice cereal, and we weren’t sure how something that could be sucked through a straw can be called solid, but none the less, solid it is labeled. She wasn’t so sure at first, and then she went to town, couldn’t get enough of it. At four months Lauren weighed in at 16lbs, 9oz and she was 26.625″ tall.
At the beginning of February we boarded Sydney for the first time. We weren’t sure how she was going to do, but we had a meeting in Sequim and didn’t have any scheduled guests at the inn and couldn’t find anyone to house sit for us, so we decided it was time. We went with a recommendation from fellow innkeepers and friends and Sydney had a great time! No issues what so ever. We thought for sure we were going to hear about “issues” at playtime but they said she was great.
Valentine’s day was a huge success for the Inn and the Day Spa. If we could have weekends like that every weekend we would be set! It was really amazing. We even had a last minute cancellation in the spa (as in the 10pm the night before), but we posted it on our website to call at 10am the next day to book, and exactly at 10am the phone rang and the time slot was filled.
Lauren was scooting and rolling and even pulled herself to a semi-standing position, but as any parent knows they do things on their own time and true crawling and walking were still a ways off for us. We did have a scare with Lauren’s Angelcare monitor, the alarm went off one night in late February, but with all the noise we were making trying to scramble to get in there and the light coming on she stirred and the alarm turned off. What a scary feeling. On February 24th Lauren got her first tooth! Quickly followed by her second tooth on February 27th.
On March 1st, Lauren celebrated her 6 month birthday, and we were working on sending out our cards and birth announcements from 2008. We hadn’t really thought it was going to take us that long, but we really liked the way her birth announcements looked in the end. Also in the beginning of March grandma took Lauren for an evening and we had a date night and went to see Lucy at the Pacific Science Center. The history of Ethiopia was amazing. The whole exhibit was really well done. It was good for Lauren to spend time with Grandma before she left for Kansas.
Lauren’s official 6 month measurement still had her in the 90th percentile. She was continuing her trend of being above average. We started attending book babies at the library, which she loved, anything involving books she just gets so excited about.
April brought Lauren yet another tooth and working on words, mostly just babble, and no signs yet although we were working on sign language. For Casey’s birthday grandma came down and we had another grown up night out and went to the movies and out to dinner. The next day we had Easter lunch before grandma had to head home so she could go into work the next day. The time was slowly ticking down for grandma to be heading to Kansas.
April is when Olympia really comes back to life. The farmers market reopens, and everyone is out and about enjoying the spring weather, including us. We started walking everywhere. If it was within a reasonable distance and we weren’t getting anything huge we walked there. Lauren and Casey were very much enjoying momma baby yoga downtown, and the walk before and after was perfect. By the end of April Lauren had her front four teeth and was still growing like a weed and grandma had moved to Wichita. It was sad to see her go.
In May we were focusing on outdoor projects. We started a lot of seeds indoors and transplanted those as well as eating lots of fresh fruit and vegetables from the local co-op and the farmers market. Lauren said her first sign (milk), and Nathan and I celebrated our 3rd Wedding Anniversary. The 3rd anniversary is leather and we both had the same idea, but Nathan was faster, he got us a leather bound album of our wedding photos. It is beautiful. Lauren was commando crawling everywhere. Definitely mobile, but still not what some would say “crawling”. It got her where she needed to go though.
Then came June and our busy busy season along with it. We started having issues with the tile in the shower in the day spa. The built in bench tile was started with one cracked tile, but then quickly became several cracked tile and lifting tiles. We kept trying to get in touch with the tile guy who installed it but our calls went largely unanswered. At the beginning of June we also started Casey’s birthday present, ballroom dance lessons. It was a lot of fun, a couple hours once a week. We haven’t put them to good use as of yet, but we know they will come in handy some day.
Lauren was pulling herself up to standing. Sometimes she would let go for a couple of seconds but would quickly grab back on or fall. She also had an onslaught of words, from babbling to dada, dog, cat, good, and if she is upset, momma. The biggest thing that happened in June was that Hayden came for a long overdue visit, and boy did we have a lot to pack into her two week visit.
We went kayaking, walking, painted pottery downtown, camping at Mt Rainier, Wolf Haven, the cider mill, the zoo, had family portraits taken, with our own tie dye creations, lots of cooking, gardening, went to the 4th of July celebration in Tumwater, and just enjoying the family time. Lauren and Hayden got along very well and Lauren was even saying Hayden by the time she left. Two weeks went by way too quick and we all wish we could see her more often.
After Hayden left we got stuck into paving our Rose Garden. Casey was sick with bronchitis (who gets bronchitis in July) so Nathan set to the dirty task of pulling up the sod and getting the ground mostly level. Not easy work. On the good side, not too far under the sod was a nice layer of gravel so we didn’t have to have any brought in. It also explains why that grass probably died every year, not enough ground to hold water, the drainage was too good. Next we made a temporary and level frame around the perimeter and started bringing in sand. During this time the temperatures were 100 degrees plus. It was grueling. Every morning we would go out ant try and accomplish as much as we could until the sun came around the corner of the house and then we would go back out late in the evening to work on it more. In the end it came out beautiful and just in time for the wedding we had scheduled. While just the sand base was in Lauren also started crawling properly. She was wearing just a diaper and didn’t like the feeling of the sand on her belly. She was so cute, wagging her tail as she crawled along. With the oppressive heat Lauren also got her first pool, a really cute inflatable pool with a built in shade. We filled it up and let it sit in the sun for two days and the water was still ice cold! It felt great. Lauren didn’t like it as much, but she had fun walking around the outside.
August brought plums ready to harvest, so many plums. TOO many plums. I think it was over 100lbs of plums that Casey either made sorbet out of, or turned into plum butter, or plum puddings. Anything Casey could find to make with plums it was made. August also brought a dilemma. What to do with our vehicles? We liked the van but it was too big to drive around all the time. Lauren’s new car seat and the recommendations that she remain rear facing until at least 2 years old meant that we couldn’t use Casey’s bug, and well Nathan’s Miata only seats two, which isn’t very practical for a family of three. Then the government announced the Cash for Clunkers deal. We looked and if we got the Toyota Prius we would get $4500 for our van. We didn’t really want to see it crushed, but we had to do something. We listed Snow White for sale for $4500 with the reasons why we were selling and why the price was non-negotiable and everything we knew that was right and wrong with her. We sold her for $4500 to an Australian living in Canada saving her from the crusher and giving us a $4500 down payment on Sandy the Spaceship. We are very happy with our new car purchase. It fits the three of us easily, and gets amazing gas mileage and has so much storage. So far the largest purchase we have made in it is a 4-burner gas grill already assembled. The sales people said there was no way it would fit, but it did!
To stretch Sandy’s legs we took a trip to the beach, Seabrook near Pacific Beach. It was Lauren’s first real time she could play on the beach and she loved it. She was completely muddy and gross from all the sand but she slept like no ones business that night, she was exhausted! We also had our first repair at the end of August when one of our tires was slashed in of all places the local food co-op! Not sure what happened there, but it was definitely slashed. We had to wait a week for a new tire to come in because the car was so new the dealership hadn’t stocked the new tires for it yet.
September was a great month. It started with Lauren’s first birthday! Yea! She had a lot of fun at her party and it was great to see everyone. Those of you who couldn’t make it were missed. At one year she weighed in at 22lbs, and was 31.25 inches tall. Advanced in size and verbal skills. Doctor would swear she was 18 months if she didn’t know when her birthday was. She has so many words, learns more every day. We had contemplated a road trip to Kansas, but we really didn’t have that much time, about 7 days, we could be away from the inn, so it would have been a real stress to get there and back. We would have loved to go, but the more we thought about it the crazier we thought we were. In the end we took a nice break and went to Leavenworth and then San Juan Island (via the North Cascades Hwy) and had a wonderful time away. While we were in Leavenworth, staying in a friend’s B&B, Lauren stood up on her own for the first time (not pulling herself up). Casey shouted to get Nathan’s attention and Lauren promptly sat down and refused to do it again.
October saw a slight slow down at the inn, but not as great as past years. We started a new group, Baby Dinners. Every Thursday one family from the group hosts dinner and we don’t have to bring anything. It turns out that pretty much we only have to worry about cooking dinner on a Thursday once a month! Having a set scheduled thing works really well, and we like knowing that Lauren will get to see some of her little friends at least once a week and interact.
Our grapes on all three of our vines were ripe and they were definitely hefty producers this year. Casey made raisins out of a lot of the seedless ones, after trying to give them away and serving them to guests and Lauren. The concord grapes this year Casey made into grape juice, thanks to her food mill. There are lots and lots of grape concentrate in the pantry. We even invited friends over to pick grapes and we still had a lot that just fell to the ground.
Nathan went to a travel writers conference on behalf of the Washington Bed and Breakfast Guild so for a couple of days Lauren and Casey were on their own with a full house! Don’t worry everyone survived just fine. For her first aware Halloween, (last year seeing as she was almost two months old), she was a dog. Seemed appropriate, everything on four legs is a dog, woof woof. Not that it is the only animal she knows, if you ask her what sounds a cow makes, she moos, and a sheep she baaahs, and a duck she quacks, but everything is a dog, even birds flying in the air. So Lauren was a dog, and we took her trick or treating downtown and then to the Governors Mansion for a photo op and a chocolate bar. She was so happy, saying HI to everyone and barking like a dog…until we got to the governor. Then she cried. We still had a great evening.
At the beginning of November we took a trip to Eugene, OR. It was a fabulous trip. The innkeeper that we stayed with was so welcoming and there were some uncanny similarities between their inn and ours. You would never guess, another inn and another first for Lauren, she took her first steps! We really liked the area, had some great meals, and got to visit Pacific Yurts, which we have wanted to do for years. Of course it gave us a lot more ideas, that yurt village may still happen one day. Just after we got back from that trip we had a meeting in Seattle for the bed and breakfast guild. Lauren and I missed most of the meeting but we had a lovely stroll through Volunteer Park and the neighborhood and a really great meal at the end of the day.
By mid-November, Lauren was walking unassisted, and quickly went from a few steps to walking across the room. It is amazing. To see her little head bopping along as she explores is fantastic. We will miss the wagging your tail crawl, but the tipsy walking it pretty cute too. We took a break before Nathan’s birthday and went to Seabrook for a couple of days, and they were really relaxing days on the beach, with record setting waves, it was incredible. In some spots on the beach drive up there was sea foam at the highway and no beach whatsoever! We really like Seabrook, if we had the extra cash we would look into purchasing one of their smaller properties.
On November 15th we had very exciting news at our house. We found out Casey is expecting again! We couldn’t be more excited. The expected due date is July 10th, which means that the baby (just one) will either arrive on July 1st (for a boy), or July 4th (for a girl) as Casey’s family trend is for Boys to be born on the 1st of the month and Girls to be born on a holiday. Lauren was born on both! Now the great name debate has begun. Again we are going to keep the name to ourselves, it is just easier that way. For Nathan’s birthday we just celebrated at home as we had a full house and a wedding the following day. Casey and Lauren bought him a very nice Chinese Elm bonsai and again it was a complete surprise!
The last week in November brought some bad news. After winning our judgment against the tile contractor (not that we have seen the check from his insurance yet), and thinking we would be able to get a few of the guest room windows replaced, our downstairs furnace kicked the can. What a pain. So we were left with what to do. Buy a furnace we didn’t want, or heat the downstairs alternatively (gas fireplace, and heaters) until we can afford to do what we want. After dealing with the salesiest salesman, we decided we were going without a furnace, and we are still that way.
Our final goal with heating is to install radiant floor heating on the first floor with a semi-commercial gas instant hot water heater. We really want to eliminate our hot water tanks, we currently have three, and one is dedicated to one bathroom so when that room isn’t rented it just keeps running even though none of the water is being used. This will eliminate any hot water issues we currently have, plus give the downstairs a nice gentle heat source and we can have zones so our personal area doesn’t get too hot which it did on the previous furnace. We are staying warm with the use of our eco-heaters (they are wonderful things) and a few electric ceramic heaters, plus we purchased an electric fireplace with heat that will eventually go into the Astoria room. So far we are staying fairly warm, even with the cold snap that December brought us.
December is here, and the weather is below frigid. We are still managing quite well, but we are really looking forward to the high of the day being above freezing. We had holiday photos taken with Lauren in front of our decorated tree, and are getting ready for the big holiday that is just a few weeks away. We took Lauren downtown to see Santa for photos and she was not having any of it! She was fine while we were waiting, and then Nathan walked up to Santa with her and she just exploded in tears. So we let a few other people go while she watched Santa, and she was a little better, she let Santa hold her, but she was still crying. Then Santa got up and was being silly and she even smiled and waved at him, but she wouldn’t let him hold her. The one photo we got with no tears was her sitting in his chair looking up at Santa who was standing behind the chair. Casey is kind of hoping that the photographer sends us one of the crying photos too, lest we forget that she cried!
So this Holiday season we hope all is well in your family and you have a happy holiday and an exciting new year full of joy and happiness.
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congrats on the baby news! that’s wonderful.