Kitchen Demolition

We took down one of our kitchen cabinets with the help of a friend. Here are the before and after shots.

Chelsie, with child.

Happy New Year!

2008 is here!

Well, it has been some time since I have updated the blog, but never fear. I haven't given up. The holiday season was extremely busy and put a kink in my efforts. I suppose it is old news now, but the extreme flooding in western Washington state this winter had an effect on everyone in some way. 12-14 inches of rain in 2 days can do a lot of damage. We were blessed to have only some minor flooding damage that was caused by a blocked storm drain at the back of the house. It taught us to be more careful about putting things down the kitchen sink, and taking more time to maintain and keep our draining system clear. It could have been much worse. We were luckily home on the morning of the second big day of rain and noticed water coming into the garage before I left for work. Aaron worked fervently all day to keep the water at bay with a small pump and sandbags before the plumbers arrived to clean out the drain.

All in all, we had to tear out our basement carpet which had planned to do anyway. We were fortunate to not have any noticeable damage to our foundation or any basement wall structures. Aaron did such a fine job of drying everything out with high heat, a de-humidifier and shop vac, that we don't seem to have any mold growth problems either.

We keep our prayers with those who have suffered severe and ongoing damage due to the flooding here.

Christmas was delightful and we were able to see most of our family with a round trip to Bozeman, Montana with a stop in Spokane for a few days. We had lots of get-togethers, the traditional white elephant gift exchange, and our first baby shower. We are so thankful for the generosity shown by our family and friends to help us prepare for our little one.

Nursery update:

On a lighter note, we are making headway on our baby's nursery. The painting has been completed and now it has become a storage room for all of the baby gear that we have received.

We were excited to go pick up the crib that we ordered last night and it is all put together. The next big step is for Aaron to make the closet a workable baby closet with shelves for baskets and multiple clothing rails.

All in all, we are happy with the color choices, but I will say that orange is not a typical baby color and there are not many options for bedding. I will probably take on the challenge of sewing a baby quilt instead. I'm going to "The Island Quilter" on Vashon island this Saturday to pick out fabric.

Pregnancy update:

Everything is great. I am 24 weeks along and feeling fairly well. I'm not as energetic as I was before the holidays, but I think I just wore myself out and came down with a couple of infections to recover from.

We had an ultrasound last week that reassured us the baby is growing like a weed and looked perfectly healthy. My weight gain has been average at 14-15lbs and the baby is a little ahead of schedule at almost 1.5lbs. That would put my due date at April 20th, but there hasn't been an official change, so we are still shooting for May 1st with a big, healthy baby.

And Bode is just wondering what all the fuss has been about!