I Would Call Her Susan

My plan for Joshua's birthday gift is that I am going to make him a felt playhouse, which is a very popular project online. I decided to start with the back, in case I mess up, which will have a doghouse and door that he can crawl through. I think every doghouse needs a dog so today I made this pug out of felt, which was way more work than I was planning on which makes me think finishing this house by his birthday is a huge task. But most of it won't be this level of detail so I am hoping it won't be that bad. Anyway, the pug came out slightly deformed, but mostly well. I will not name her (I think she definitely looks like a girl) because it's not my playhouse, but I think she definitely looks like a Susan.

Cabinet Explorer

Meghan's big project for the day was to work on the decor for the bathroom adjoining Joshua's room and the guest bedroom.  I got home and wanted to see what it looked like, and she and Joshua were putting the finishing touches on it.  Actually, Joshua wasn't so much contributing as just exploring the cabinets.  One of his favorite things right now is opening anything he can find to see what's inside.  Here he is in the middle of his exploration. 

A Happy Birthday

Today was my birthday and I had a good day. Jason and Joshua got me cards and gifts and Jason got me a cake and brought home dinner for us.

Finding New Resting Places

One of the highest priorities for our dogs is to lie in comfortable places.  Usually that involves sleeping on the couch right next to a person who's sitting on it.  Today I noticed Terrence lying somewhere he doesn't normally lie: on Meghan's shoulder.  It appeared that he was trying to help Meghan do her work on her laptop, except he couldn't keep his eyes open.  But I'm guessing he wasn't going to be a significant contributor anyway, so it's probably just as well that he slept.

The Cat in the Closet

We have a nice new corner walk-in pantry in our new house.  This morning I was getting something out of it. Alex saw it and was curious, as he'd never been in it before, so he walked inside.  When I was done, I gave him the opportunity to walk out, but he wanted to stay inside, so I shut the doors.  A couple minutes later, he realized he didn't want to be stuck alone in a dark closet and tried to get out.  The doors were too heavy for him to easily push, so at first all he could do was stick out one paw and feel around for a way.  Eventually he pushed his way through the doors to get out.  Not surprisingly, next time the doors were open, he stayed far away.  

A Birthday Dinner

Today Christine came over and took Jason and I out to dinner at Houlihan's to celebrate our birthdays and anniversary. The food was great and it was fun to catch up and we definitely appreciated her doing that.

Uproar Tour

Two of my current favorite bands are Seether and Three Days Grace.  So when I heard that they were playing together in a concert, I knew I had to go.  One of my friends, Nathan, is also a hard rock fan, so we decided to go together.  After waiting for weeks, today was finally the day, and we went to Sandstone and rocked out with 15,000 other fans to a great concert with a great lineup.

Surprise Treats

Tonight we went over to our friends the Hansons' house, and they surprised us with cake and ice cream to celebrate our birthdays and anniversary.  The cake was very very good, and according to Callie, not very good for you, so there was probably a correlation there, but whatever.  It was worth it.  Here we are enjoying our celebratory cake.

Joshua Sandwich

Joshua was crawling around and came across two pillows on the floor which were going to be moved to the basement.  Meghan decided to lay him on one of them and them put the other one on his tummy.  For some reason, he thought it was really funny.  So this morning I tried it, and he loved it again.  I tried to take a picture of him laughing, but I missed it and got this adorable face instead.

Picture Perfect

Today we finally unpacked the nails from the garage boxes so I was able to hang some pictures up. It had really been bothering me because that's really the last thing I had to do downstairs (well unless you count the garage or basement which I don't) so I was glad to get it done today.

Not Its Intended Purpose

We decided to get Joshua a Little Tykes picnic table to give him practice at a table as well as a surface he can use to play on and in the future for drawing, coloring, Play-Doh, etc.  We got a nice one for cheap off of Craigslist, and his first reaction was to try to climb on top of it and then stand up.  Since that's not really the safest plan in the world, we decided to encourage him to sit on the bench.  He wasn't all that interested until he realized he could then loudly bang things on the table top.  Hitting things against other things is one of his hobbies, if babies can have hobbies, so he enjoyed repeatedly slamming his plastic cups and looking up at us to see if we approved.  We did, because although it was really loud, it was safe and wasn't damaging anything, and when we can achieve both of those, we're happy parents.

Joshua Kart

The weather this time of year is perfect in the evening for spending time outside.  The mailbox in our new house is a shared one, and it's at the end of the road, so if we don't stop by in the car, we have to walk down to it.  Tonight I decided to take Joshua with me in his little trike.  I love it, because it's easy for me to steer, but also because it really reminds me of the Booster Seat vehicle that Baby Mario drives in Mario Kart Wii.

Cribbage

Since we moved in, Joshua's been sleeping in his Pack 'n Play, as we've been focusing on other rooms.  Today we worked on the his room, and as part of that, I put together his crib.  Fortunately we only took it just enough apart to move from one house to the other, so it wasn't so bad to put it together again.

First Birthday as a Daddy

Today was the uncommon occurrence where my birthday fell on a Saturday, which was nice because I didn't have to worry about work interfering.  In addition, we had no major plans, so we got to spend the day relaxing and hanging out in our new house.  As an added bonus, K-State played in the evening and thrashed Kent State 37-0.  For my birthday, Joshua got me a new wallet, and Meghan got me a new camera, which I needed because my old one could no longer zoom.  We still have our nice one for home use, but I need a smaller point-and-shoot one to take with me when I travel.

Meeting a New Arrival

Today I ate lunch with my friend Tricia and got to meet her new baby, Mason. It was fun to catch up with her and get to hold a tiny baby again. It's hard to believe Joshua was that small not so long ago.

Back to the Ohio Grind

Last year, Michigan and Ohio were added to my sales territory, and I ended up traveling to Ohio very frequently.  Early this year, the sales rep who had that territory left the company, and I pretty much stopped going there.  A couple months ago we brought on a new sales rep for that territory, and he's just now getting up to speed, so I suspect my travels to Ohio and Michigan will start to be more frequent.  Today was the first trip back to that territory, as I flew into Cleveland for a customer meeting tomorrow.  Hopefully it's not too many additional trips, as I already travel a fair amount. 

A New Playroom

Today we cleared out the room that would normally be the dining room and set it up as a playroom for Joshua. He seemed pleased and we were happy that he has a place for his toys that is more central to the kitchen and living room.

One-Man Crew

Although we got most items moved to their correct destinations on moving day, there were some pieces of furniture that didn't make it to their intended rooms.  As no one has ever suggested Meghan enter the World's Strongest Woman competition, that pretty much leaves me to move things by myself.  Fortunately, I'm fairly strong and have some tricks I learned from my moving and storage days.  Today I moved one of the heaviest pieces we have, the craft cabinet, from the garage up to the guest room.  There are still a few more challenges, but that was one of the biggest, and now it's done.   

11 Months

Today Joshua turned 11 months old. He is a little tired in these pictures because we had a big day with moving tasks and things like that. It's hard to believe he will be a year old next month.

New House

Today was our first full day in the new house.  We spent most of it unpacking and rearranging, trying to turn the chaos into order.  We're really happy with the house.  It's exciting and new, but it's also comfortable and seems like a place we could live in for a long time.

The Crew

Today was the big day. Jeff had helped me move the items from the storage unit last night, but the most of our possessions were still in the house. I assembled a crack team of movers: Nick, Andrew, David, and Jason Hanson (not pictured). It took us a full day, and it was a lot of work, but despite I-35 construction and tight deadlines, we managed to move everything from the old house to the new house in time to enjoy some pizza and beer at the new house when we were all done. I couldn't have done it without these guys. It was grueling, but we had fun and still got the job done.

Closing

Yesterday our buyer closed on our old house.  Today, we closed on our new house.  It was exciting, because it meant there are no more hurdles and that everything is done.  Here the three of us sit in our chairs as I sign the final papers.  After the meeting, our realtor handed us the key, and we had officially switched over to no longer owning our old house, but instead owning our new house.  We're a little sad to say good-bye to the only house we've ever lived in together, but we're also excited about our new house.

Boxing Day

Today was a big packing day for Jason and he got a lot done in the kitchen and bedrooms, so this is the first time our house has seemed packed to me. Previously he did the downstairs room, but I like to pretend that level of our house doesn't exist so it didn't impact me. He should finish up with packing tomorrow.

The Most Important Document in the World

Today was a crazy day. Our buyer is closing on our house tomorrow and so I get a call from our Realtor asking for our receipt from the roofer so the title company can know the work is paid for and will release the title. As far as I knew, the roofer had billed the insurance company and this would be no problem. Unfortunately, our roofer is apparently one of the few who really doesn't care when he gets paid so he hadn't billed anyone even though he completed work a month and a half ago. So then we had to get him to bill the insurance company and then I had to drive to his house to pay him to get a paid-in-full receipt. It really wasn't the best surprise to have to pay him out of our own checking account until we get the money from the insurance company, but the important thing is we now have this document so our buyer can close tomorrow.

Luxurious Legroom

Like all air travelers, I enjoy legroom.  Aside from bulkhead rows, exit rows are usually the best place for that.  There's a certain model of plane with a certain seating configuration that gives an amazing amount of legroom.  There are only two seats on the plane like this: the two window seats in the second exit row.  Until tonight, I'd only seen them on Frontier.  I flew Southwest tonight and was one of the first to board.  I noticed it had that configuration and one of the two was available, so I plopped down on the seat and enjoyed stretching my legs out as far as I wanted.   

An Uncommon Pleasure

Through my experience doing moving and storage as a summer job in high school and college, I've moved hundreds of families.  Ever since then, I've been excited about the time when someday I would be able to move myself and my family.  So now that we're moving, it's finally time!  We could have hired movers, but I would rather do it myself so I know it's done right.  Plus, I actually enjoy the entire process, from packing to loading to moving to unloading to unpacking.  This has caused several people to question my sanity, but that's okay.  I'm totally pumped about the whole thing, and the first of the many fun steps is packing.  Today was the first day of serious packing, and the entire downstairs is now done.  Thursday and Friday will be the biggest days, as I'm taking off from work so I can dedicate those days to moving.  I can't wait.  No, seriously.  I'm totally excited for Thursday to arrive.

Non-Airport Screener

Because the April hailstorm damaged all our screens on the West side of the house, I had it on my list to fix them at some point.  Now that we're moving, that time is now.  As mentioned in an earlier post, I'm not the handiest guy around, but I'm pretty good at the relatively simple task of re-screening screens.  I repaired all four shredded screens, and put them back within their respective window frames.  Our new house doesn't have any West-facing screens, so this should be the last time I have to do this for awhile, assuming we don't get any devastating hailstorms in the next six days.

Eight Years (Almost)

Even though our anniversary isn't until Wednesday, we celebrated today because it was the weekend and we never know if Jason will travel during the week. Jason did most of the planning for this and we saw the movie Horrible Bosses, did some browsing for furniture, and then went to dinner at the RowHouse. The movie and shopping were okay, but dinner was fabulous. I would have never guessed Topeka had such a good restaurant. It has a rotating tasting menu and some really interesting and fresh flavor combinations. It was a very enjoyable evening.

Mirror, Mirror, Not On the Wall

Although we've known about the move for awhile, we haven't started packing, because a lot of the stuff we don't use on a regular basis is already in the storage unit that we rented to clear up space while our house was on the market.  So aside from the things we did to stage the house for the sale, it still looks pretty much like it always has.  Well, until now.  We have a huge empty wall above our fireplace, and when we moved in we bought a large mirror to fill that space.  We have no such wall in our new house, so we knew we needed to sell the mirror.  So thanks to our friend Craig, and his List, we sold our mirror, leaving the giant, blank wall just as it was eight years ago.

Peek-A-Boo

One of the fun things about Joshua's age right now is he has developed a sense of humor. So he finds things that are silly or unexpected funny. Like he likes making silly faces and seeing people react to them or he finds unexpected noises funny. He also now likes peek-a-boo. This is him playing peek-a-boo.