Something You May Not Have Known

I am an avid audiobook reader.Completely and totally obsessed.

There, I said it. Maybe it's really nerdy, but I don't care. I'm so enthusiastic about it that if I start talking about it I can go on and on. Maybe that's why I haven't mentioned it on the blog - I knew it would turn into a long post.

I have always loved reading ever since I can remember, but sometimes I feel like I never have time for it.  When I'm home there are always too many things to do to just cuddle up on the couch and read.

My job is great and everything, but let's just say that it doesn't occupy my full attention or use my entire brain most of the time. I also work in a room by myself for a majority of the day. After a few months of doing this job I asked if it would be OK for me to wear my iPod. No one at work had a problem with it, so I started doing that. I listened to music for a few months, but after a while that started to seem repetitive and boring. My friend Hayley (who gets all of the credit for starting this obsession of mine) had given me a few audiobooks. I loaded those onto my iPod and decided to try those and see if I could pay enough attention to them and still get my work done. Turns out I can. I just wear one earbud so I can still hear the phone ringing, etc. and if anyone comes into the room to talk to me I just pause it.

My life was so much better after that wonderful discovery. I didn't dread going to work as much anymore. I found myself even wearing my iPod around the house. I listen to books when I'm doing the dishes, grouting new tiling projects, vacuuming, painting rooms, or working out. Scooter teases me because I seem to always have an earbud in.

I began by listening to the entire Harry Potter series followed by the entire Amelia Peabody series. Those were so much fun! I listened to other novels I have been wanting to read.

I became quite a connoisseur of audiobooks. I discovered that the narrator makes all the difference. I once read book 5 in a 19 part series that was performed by a different narrator than I normally listen to. I really didn't like it and thought it was the worst book in the series. I decided to go back and read it with the original narrator - turns out it wasn't the book I didn't like - it was the narrator. So, now I read "Audiofile, The Magazine For People Who Love Audiobooks." I check reviews to find the best narrator for each book I read. 

After many months of just listening to fun books I somehow (Facebook, blog - I can't remember) got a list of 100 great books to read from my cousin, Lindsay. I have a few lists like this filed away somewhere in my house, but they always seem so daunting because every single one of the books looks like some huge tome that you would read for a literature class like War and Peace. I liked this list because, while it was mostly great classics from a literature class, there were also a few really realistic books on there. For example, one of the entries was "the entire Harry Potter series." I thought that this list looked more realistic. War and Peace and Crime and Punishment are both on the list, but so are Memoirs of a Geisha, Life of Pi, and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. A good mix of books that are hard to get through and some that are just fun.

I made the goal in January to try and read all 100 entries by the years end. Kinda lofty, I know. Audiobooks obviously take a lot longer to read than if you were able to sit down with the actual book in front of you. But, I figured that I was averaging at least 2 a week at that point so I might be able to do it. I had also read quite a few on the list already (Harry Potter series, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Crime and Punishment, Pride and Prejudice, etc.) but I decided that I would re-read all of them because it had been a long time since I had read some of them.

I didn't know I was pregnant at the time, so I didn't take into account all the other books I would want to read this year on nursing, taking care of your baby, pregnancy, sleeping, etc. I also didn't take into account that the average length of book on this list is a lot longer than the ones I had previously been reading. There are also other books that just sound fun that I'll randomly read that aren't on the list as well, which slows me down.

Taking all those factors into consideration it doesn't look like I'll finish all 100 by the end of the year, but I'm having a lot of fun trying. As of today I have finished 31 and 1/2 of the 100. I feel like it has really stretched my brain and interests. Some of the books have been out of the "comfort zone" that I normally read in.

So, thanks to Hayley and Lindsay for their (probably unwitting) roles in this fun project!

 See! I really do everything with my iPod on. Grouting and reading at the same time! What could be better?

To Find Out or Not To Find Out - That Is the Question

To find out or not to find out our baby's gender? I feel like this question has been plaguing me for weeks! Why do I feel like we are the only people that have had trouble deciding this? It seems like most people just KNEW that they wanted to know the gender. We didn't.

Initially, we were sure that we wanted to wait to find out the gender until the baby was born. It seemed like it would be so exciting and add even more anticipation to the birth. During the 13 week sono the ultrasound tech told us that she could tell us the gender of the baby. We asked her not to tell us - we didn't want to know.

Then we got home and had this picture in our hands. We looked at it and noticed something...

It looks like there is some evidence of tiny boy parts there, doesn't it? That's when I started having doubts about our decision.

Suddenly we were starting to slip and refer to the baby as "he" and "him" instead of just "the baby." When we discussed names they were never girl names. 

Now I'm starting to worry that we will both go for the entire pregnancy fully convinced that our baby is a boy. If on delivery day the doctor holds up our baby and exclaims "It's a girl!" I'm afraid of what we will be feeling at that point. Shock, probably. Now I'm all for excitement on that day and everything, but shock is one thing I'm hoping not to have. Any tiny feelings of disappointment that it turned out not to be a boy are not allowed on that day. I've decided (and I'm the mom and so I can say so).

If I thought we could really go the entire pregnancy feeling 50/50 about the baby's gender I think we could wait, but that little photo has us feeling more like 80/20. We didn't mind being surprised about the gender, but just aren't thrilled about potentially being shocked.  And really, if you are already 80% sure it is a boy, what's the point of waiting 'til delivery day just to have that confirmed?

While I've been having these nagging feelings I've also been trying to start planning my shopping and nursery. Has anyone else looked for truly gender neutral stuff recently? Pretty hard to find.

All of this has just been making me feel really stressed. Finally my mom made me use the time-tested decision-making method of telling her the pros and cons of each choice. There were a whole list of pros for finding out and really only one pro for not finding out. Who can argue with those numbers?

So, our next ultrasound is Tuesday, and if baby cooperates with us, we will find out if our little one is the boy variety or the girl variety - we can hardly wait!

Happy Birthday JJ!

I've successfully hacked into my sister Jessica's blog 2 years in a row now to wish her a happy birthday!

Jess, when are you going to stop giving me your password?

This is a photo of my beautiful sister Jessica from last summer when she came to visit me in Washington D.C.  She came to meet my new baby and help me with all of my postpartum craziness.  You see, Jessica and I live 1,083 miles apart, and we usually only get to see each other a few times a year, so we really cherish the time when we are together.  I miss her every day.  I wish she lived 1,083 feet from me, not 1,083 miles.  Boo.

Jessica is the kindest, most caring, thoughtful, fun, bubbly, crazy, beautiful girl you will ever meet.  She is the kind of person that lights up a room when she walks in.  She is the kind of person that makes everyone she's talking to feel like they're the most important person in the world.  I have never met a single person that doesn't love Jessica.  I really look up to her (she's my only big sister, after all).  I can hardly wait to see her become a mom this October!

I love you, Jessica, and hope this coming year is your best yet!  Happy Birthday!!!

I'm kind of obsessed with you (but not in a creepy way),
Andi

P.S. Update your blog more often!!!  We're all dying to see pictures of that cute baby bump!

Our Newest Project

Scooter and I like working on projects.  So far, we've refinished our kitchen cabinets, painted multiple bedrooms, remodeled a guest bathroom, rewired for new lighting fixtures, installed shelves and flooring in the storage room, tiled the t.v. room, remodeled the fireplace, hung drywall in the front room, installed recessed lighting all over the house, painted the family room, and done tons of yardwork and general sprucing-up.

Our latest project will have the most impact on our home.  When we first started working on it, Scooter was really into it and involved.  He was really excited!  After his initial contribution, however, the burden of the project has fallen on me.  I've been working so hard on it that it's literally been making me sick and exhausted.

Baby Plowman

Due October 1, 2011

We can't wait to show you the finished project!

 

Fireplace Remodel

This past summer we redid our fireplace. It was brick and we thought it was pretty outdated. We had already done some tiling projects and felt fairly confident that we could cover up the brick with slate. Note that I said "fairly confident"  - doing this stuff is scary sometimes. We decided that the worst that could happen would be that we'd have to pay someone to fix/finish the project (awful, but not inconceivable) so we jumped right in.

Here's the original fireplace. 

 First problem to tackle was this arch. The bricks stuck out about an inch -we needed a flat surface. How do you cut through brick? Well, we (translate: Scooter) used an angle grinder.

 The angle grinder worked pretty well, but the vibrations made some of the bricks fall out. Well, no backing out at this point since we've basically destroyed our fireplace so time to get creative.

 This is Skeeter, Scooter's little brother. He was visiting us and was a huge help for the first couple days of this project.

 Here's the creative bit. Using a combo of mortar, wood, screws and drywall, the boys evened out the fallen archway.

 Next step - decide which pieces of stone are the prettiest. We decided to use Chinese slate. It is gray with some reddish and purple swirls in it that reminded me of the red rocks back home in St. George. We spent a long time laying them out and deciding which pieces looked best next to each other.

 Then we used some really heavy-duty premixed mortar to hold those huge pieces of stone up. The large pieces probably weighed 15 pounds each.

 Like I mentioned - the big pieces had a tendency to slide down, so we had to prop them up until the mortar set. I was actually impressed with how little they slid considering their weight.

 A few days later we had installed all the big pieces.

 This is why I never put photos up of myself helping with these kind of projects. I'm always filthy. I had been using the wet tile saw to cut the stone and was covered in mud, water, and tiny flecks of slate. A vision of loveliness.

 We had to make sure to do all the angles including some pieces that were hanging upside down under the old arch.

 Then we started on the bench part. This was actually a lot harder than it looks because slate, unlike tile is not a uniform thickness. Some pieces were twice as thick as others. To make the surface level we had to adjust the amount of mortar under each piece individually, often pulling the pieces up after we placed them to add more mortar.

 We finished the top section.

 Now time for the front section. Again, the thickness of the stone was an annoyance.

 Finished. Notice the shims under each piece. Another tediously annoying detail.

When it was all dry a week or so later it was time to seal the slate. Slate always looks like it is covered by a dull layer of dust until it is sealed. The sealant penetrates the stone so that nothing that is spilled on it later will ever stain it. It also brings out the colors and makes it look gorgeous. See the difference?

Then I grouted it. I'm not going to post a picture of that part of the project - trust me, you don't want to see what I looked like during that. Choosing grout for this project was a nightmare. I actually grouted a large section and we hated the color. We hoped that as it dried the grout would lighten, but it didn't so we chiseled it out and I bought color number two. It was a keeper. 

We added some molding to cover the ugly mantel that looked like a white-painted log, and it was done.

It looks nice, but the wood paneling painted red looked like a barn and needed to go.

Since then we have done some other updates to the front room (drywall, tape, mud, paint, etc.) and we think the fireplace looks even better now that it isn't competing with the glaring red wall. We still need to finish decorating and putting up the bookcases, etc, but it is a huge improvement.

 

So to recap:

Before

After

 We love the new fireplace and think it really helps make the front room look more modern. The best part is how much money we saved. We got a few bids from professionals on this and they all told us between $1000-$2000. We spent just over $200! Updating our house while saving money is pretty much our version of bliss!

Husband of the Year

Meet the winner of the Husband of the Year!

Who is lucky enough to be married to this guy? Me!

Recently he did something so amazing that it really sealed the deal. (OK, it's not so recent anymore, but I half wrote the post months ago so I thought I should finish it.)

It is a really complicated story, but I've edited it slightly to make it shorter. If you don't want to read all of it, just scroll down for the pictures - you'll probably still figure out what happened.

A while ago Scooter's younger brother Skipper was coming into town for a medical school interview. We had been doing the regular pre-houseguest things that week: cleaning, grocery shopping, menu planning, making up the guest bed, and planning a full schedule of activities. On Friday Scooter picked me up from work and we headed to the airport to pick up Skipper.

As we were turning into the terminal Scooter asked me get a paper from the glove box which was a list that was headed "People Who Know." I was not only confused by the heading, but also by the people on the list. They seemed to be completely and utterly random with no connections. They included people from both of my jobs, some people from church, students and professors from the medical school, friends from other states and countries, and some people I didn't know. I was obviously puzzled, but I didn't have a chance to ask for an explanation because by the time I had finished reading it we had stopped at the curb and Skipper was waiting for us.

I hugged Skipper and as I did so it occurred to me that it was odd that he was wearing a hat because he was also wearing a suit, but stranger things have happened and I was given little time to dwell on it because I was trying to help get his bags into our car. The trunk was opened and I was confused to find suitcases already in there. Scooter also acted surprised and confused and then said "well, we better move these." He proceeded to remove them from the trunk and give them to a waiting skycap. When I started to protest he insisted that I better check the glove box again.

There was an envelope labeled "Top Secret." When I was told to open it I found a sheaf of papers. The top sheet was a flight itinerary. As I scanned it I did a double take on the dates. They were for that day. That's when I started shaking. He told me to check the next page. It was a cruise itinerary. We were going on a cruise to Jamaica and Grand Cayman. I was utterly befuddled and incredulous. As realization hit me in waves I started feeling overwhelmed. So many little seemingly inconsequential things from the previous months started making sense. The "People Who Know List" started making sense. I started feeling kinda faint and since I don't have the best track record for fainting in the last few years (stories for another time) I decided I better sit down. By the time I sat on the bumper of the car the bags that Scooter had taken out of the car were checked and gone. I looked up at Skipper and realized that his hat said "Jamaica." Scooter had sent it to him and told him to wear it. So much planning had gone into this incredible surprise!

Even after the boys had tried to clarify what was happening I was still struggling to wrap my mind around it. We couldn't be leaving, I told myself. Skipper was staying with us that weekend. I had already worked out what we were going to do, where we were going to eat, etc. But even as my mind reeled, Scooter explained that we needed to hurry to security because our flight was starting to board really soon. Then my amazing husband whipped my purse that I travel with out, gave me my camera, a copy of "The Caribbean" by my favorite travel guide book brand, transferred me to a bench and told me to call my mom. He turned our car keys over to Skipper and showed him how to use the GPS (that we had conveniently and un-coincidentally recently purchased) to get to our house.

I called my mom and my sister Andrea answered her phone. As soon as I heard her voice I burst into tears, yelled "I'm going on a cruise!" and then confused her with the most garbled phone call in the history of our relationship. Poor Andrea had not been told about this in advance and was just as confused as I felt. I kept sobbing incoherent run-on sentences like "I read the list and was confused... (sob-sob)...and then Skipper was there...(sob)... and Scooter sent him his hat...(sob)... and then the bags were there...(sob-sob-sob)... and then they were gone...(laughing and sobbing)... and I opened the envelope...(more sobbing)... and we are leaving right now!...(really hard sobbing)..." While she tried to extract some sensible information out of me Scooter waved goodbye to Skipper and then we went inside.

Scooter had arranged the whole thing months ago. He had secretly requested work off at both of my jobs, found me a substitute for my Sunday School class, and arranged countless other things. He had completely packed for me. He had not forgotten a single thing - makeup, contacts and solution, sunglasses, a beach bag, nice dress and shoes, beach cover-ups, sports bra for working out, etc. I daresay that most men could not do this for their wives. I was honestly a little worried during the flight and until I had a chance to check what was in my bag.

In his excitement Scooter had checked the bags without giving me the outfit he had picked out for the flight, so I flew to Florida in my scrubs that I was still wearing from work.

He had arranged to stay the night with our friends Christopher and Kimberly who live near Miami. We hung out with them that night and the next day they drove us to the port. We boarded the cruise ship and we were off! During the next five days I kept looking at Scooter in amazement and saying, "I can't believe we are here! I can't believe you did this!" For the entire cruise Scooter kept thinking of details of the intricate planning process to tell me. I could have suspected so many times, but I never did. I think the secret to his success was to tell almost no one that we were actually doing it. He told my mom, but she didn't tell any of my sisters or even my dad. When we got back I had numerous voicemails from my poor sister, Rachelle, who was never told at all and was confused about why I wasn't calling her back.

 

Needless to say, it was a wonderful week and a most-deserved break for my hard-working husband of the year!