The Martin

He did it. They were successful. D has a shiny new guitar.

I expect to be a guitar widow for the next few weeks.

Decisions, Decisions

We have a dusty house. I'm feeling good and productive this morning because I got up and straightened the house - but as I look around, I can see the dust everywhere. And frankly, after straightening, doing dishes and folding laundry, the last thing I want to do it pull out a dust rag and a vacuum. I can't keep up with our crumbly old house. Some days I might want to, but not today.

It's a gorgeous day. It feels like summer. It's in the upper 70s and humid, and between bursts of steamy sunshine, little rain showers and thunderstorms are passing over us. I'm sitting in a tank top and flip flops, wondering just what to do with myself today. David is in Chicago with Steve, getting into trouble... er... looking at guitars. So I've got the day to myself. I need to go to the grocery store (and I really ought to go to Target, but I'm not sure I want to), and I'd like to go over to Geneva to wander through a shoe store. But I sat down at my desk to make the grocery list, and then suddenly discovered myself perusing www.estatesales.net. And I found out there's an estate sale in a town about 5 minutes from here, and another one about two minutes from here. So now what do I do? Ought I be responsible, or do I give in to temptation? Estate sale shopping by yourself is not as fun, but...

!!!

It is 81 and sunny right now! Glorious, glorious day!

Oh Blah Di...

There's nothing like starting a blog to make you realize how mundane your life really is. Stuff happens to us, but is it really worth publishing and making you read it?

Here's an updated photo of Baby Yeager in utero. I'll be 31 weeks on Saturday. She's moving around a lot, and making me feel rather sluggish and out of shape. We have some nice weather the next few days, and I am going to find every excuse possible to be outside, getting some sunshine on my arms, and some exercise.

Here are some recent headlines from the Chicago Branch of the Yeager Family:

1. David and I are waiting with baited breath for Mat's return from Japan so that he can okay the final mixes of the album. David's been working this week on creating a design outline for DiscMakers. All that means that we might actually have a finished CD by mid-May? (Yeah, we were shooting for the end of March, but... life happens.)

2. It costs too much money to hire our friend to paint neat murals on our nursery wall, so I may have to go hunt down some stencils. I'm looking for a Frog Prince type theme. Suggestions on where to find such things would be helpful... I'm not exactly crafty.

3. Yesterday we had a mallard and hen napping in our grass, while a little brown bunny munched the renegade daffodils that have leaked from our garden and started growing in the middle of our lawn. I love spring.

4. It's funny how much better life seems in general once the weather turns warm in Chicago. I'm back in West Chicago once a week, teaching our abstinence curriculum to a group of junior high and high school girls in an after-school program. (The program is located literally across the street from my old elementary school.) It's been good so far - good for my Spanish, and a good break from the office for me. There are only about 7-10 girls participating, some of whom were former students. I figure it's got to be awkward for them to have their 3rd grade teacher sitting across the room from them, talking about sex and abstinence. But they seem to be handling it well, and seem happy to see me. All the students at the center (big and little) are very interested in my pregnancy and always have their hands all over my belly. Anyway, as I left that group last night and headed home, my windows were down, the breeze was balmy, the sun was still bright in the sky... and I marveled at how great everything was. I tell you, winter in Chicago depresses me more than anything. I'm so glad it's warming up. After baby is born, I've decided I'm celebrating summer with a margarita.

On Thursday night David announced he had an unexpected day off on Friday. Good Friday usually isn't a holiday at the bank for him, but last week, his boss was feeling benevolent. D said he'd stay home and work on house stuff. (We're still in the process of getting stuff back to the basement.) So, I went to work, and he puttered at the house.
Look what I found when I got home! Isn't my honeyman great? There are a few finishing touches we want to make (painting the closet, getting a rug, hanging a valance and some stuff on the walls, for example), but for the most part, the nursery is set up. This made my week. I have the best husband in the world.

Ta-dah!

For those of you who actually KNOW how to do home improvement projects, or maybe really just love plumbing disasters, here's what we spent all our money on:

Thrilling, no? Sorry the pics are leaning to one side... so is our basement. And me, with 21 lbs of baby weight on me, I might occasionally list to one side, too.

It's funny. D and I are really pleased this project is done, but it's sort of anticlimactic. I mean, it's not a project you drag your friends to your house to see. "Look at our new pipes! Look at that concrete! Isn't is great?" I assume that when we get our first whopper storm and our basement stays dry that we will send up shouts of praise to the good Lord above. But right now... it's just kind of... there. After weeks and weeks of the wettest weather ever, we've had tons of sun and dry weather. Which means I'm still fervently praying, "Lord, please keep our basement dry. Please show us that this project accomplished what it was supposed to."

The basement bathroom looks exactly the same as before. We've got some work to do there.

Speaking of, it's sort of sad how often David and I utter those words. I never thought our cute little house would offer us so many problems. I calculated how much money we've spent in home repair (exterminator for the carpenter ants, central AC, new windows, new front door, insulation in the attic, attic fan, redecorated bathroom, overhead sewer, new sump pump) in the 10 months we've been here. Let's just say we could have been paying off a LOT of our mortgage with that cash.

But those problems existed, so thank goodness the Lord provided the money to pay for it all. I am grateful. No more house stories for a while, I promise.

On another note entirely, Baby Girl Yeager appears to be training for the Olympics while she passes time in the womb. I'm midway though week 28 and getting bigger every day. It's really fun to feel her move about - it makes me wonder what the little person inside me is like. More on her later.

Friday AM

The basement is done! Pictures coming soon. (Lots of new pipes and concrete... oh boy!)

It's a little overwhelming - our finished basement is basically unfinished now, and we need to rebuild shelves and install a few new electrical boxes to make space for the sewer/pump plugs, but... at least we can use our washer and dryer again!

Now we need to move everything back downstairs...