Xmas Card 2010

Ornament Bubbles Christmas

Personalize your Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Lightning!

It's been a while since our last post. Time has gone by fast because we've been so busy. The house is complete and we are in and pretty much settled, for the most part. Of course, there are always things to work on, as well as things that need fixing--even in a new house. We had lightning strike the marsh right behind our house a few weeks ago. Jackson & I were home and it felt to us like it actually hit the house--it was such a loud CRACK and we could just FEEL it. As a result of that, our main TV in the family room was fried, as were the two direct TV receivers, and our internet modem. All of it were on surge protectors. We were using two different brands of surge protectors--Belkin and Prime. What we noticed was that everything hooked up to the Belkin protectors survived, and the things plugged in to the Prime protectors got fried. Draw your own conclusions!! We are communicating with Prime, trying to get them to reimburse us for some of this stuff; we'll see what happens. We had to send in the surge protectors so they could test them and they were supposed to send us replacements in the mean time, which they did, but they were the wrong models! Again, draw your own conclusions. Would I personally buy Prime surge protectors again? Draw your own conclusions, just kidding, the answer is "NO!"

Another House Update -- The Punch List

So we are in the house, getting it set up and making it into a home, when we start to notice little things. Like nail pops in the walls and ceiling, some botched paint, a few places where the countertop needs to be buffed...okay, that's all to be expected. Little boo-boo's like that are what the contractor's "punch list" is for. However, how about this: the outside lights on our back deck were installed upside down! Huh??? Weren't these put in by professional electricians? What the heck? Seriously, they didn't notice? I really have to wonder if they did it on purpose as some kind of joke. What makes it even weirder is that the exact same light fixture is on the side of the house by the door coming from the garage, and that one was installed correctly. Go figure. By the way, they also "forgot" to install our doorbell! So if you stop by, be sure to knock loudly!

Books, Books, Books

Last year I read about 60 books. I am trying to beat that for this year; that's one of the reasons I keep my reading log on this blog. Some of my favorite things to read are series, so if anyone has suggestions on good series, I'd like to hear them. I've read all of Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody Emerson series. I've read all the Sookie Stackhouses (so far) and the Twilight Series. I read about 5 or 6 books in the Anita Blake series and then got sick of it. I've read all the Harry Potters, I keep up with the Septimus Heap series, I have read books 1-3 in the Pendragon series, and am soon to finish the Percy Jackson series. So I'm ready for a new reading adventure!

Speaking of reading, I was surprised by and proud of Jackson yesterday. He earned a $25 Visa gift card from being one of the top popcorn-sellers in his cub scout pack. We went to Target and looked at just about everything in the store, and he decided to buy himself 5 Magic Tree House books (he apparently likes series, too). He actually had some other things picked out and in the cart, and he put them back after he found the books! So he spent his entire gift card on books, with no encouragement from me. And he's very excited about them and has been reading! Wow!

We're In!

We are in the new house! We are not settled in yet, but we are in. It is great to finally be living here and to finally be out of that yucky little place we were renting. Right now our great room is filled with boxes. We've made progress though; at first, we had a mountain of boxes in there and now we are down to a couple of hills. There's lots of work to do getting everything put away, but it's all good!

A Few Thoughts from Jackson - Snow!

It snowed last night, and we live in Richmond Hill. It's so weird that it snowed! Me and my mom went out and played in the snow last night. It's fun playing in the snow. We had a snowball fight. And I catched the snowflakes on my tongue. They taste really good. And I put some snow in the freezer and saved it! Then the snow melted this morning and there's no more snow outside. I wish it snowed more. I'm mad that there's no more snow.

I've seen snow four times in my life. Once when I was a baby, then once at Grandma's, and once at Grandma's again, and then last night. I love snow.

House Update

Well, we're getting closer. The hard flooring is pretty much done, so the carpet should be laid next. The bathroom countertops have been put in, and the plumbing fixtures should be going in soon. I'm looking forward to seeing the how the faucets we picked will look. We need to pick out some mirrors this weekend. Then the screen porches need to be installed on the decks outside...that seems to be about it. Hopefully just a few more weeks.
It is almost surreal when we walk through the house now, with it almost looking complete. I can't believe that soon we will actually be living there. I try to imagine what our furniture will look like in the rooms.
I had a dream the other night that I was unpacking some boxes and I found our casserole dishes. I was so excited (in my dream) and thought, wow, I can finally cook something! The meaning of the dream: we've been living with much of our stuff packed up for too long and need to finally move and unpack!

A Few Thoughts from Jackson - Moving

Moving isn't fun. It isn't fun because you have to pack everything. And it's hard work. And you know from "Chores," I hate work. I really just don't like doing it. And you have to unpack everything. I really just hate moving.

A Few Thoughts from Jackson - Chores

I hate chores. When your mom makes you fold clothes that aren't yours, I don't like it. Because they're not mine. I fold my clothes, but a lot of times I don't like folding other people's. Because they can do it. But my mom says, "We're a family and we help each other." I hate all chores, especially folding and vacuuming and putting stuff away. My room doesn't have any clothes on the floor. And it is clean.

A Few Thoughts from Jackson - SpongeBob

I like SpongeBob Squarepants. It would be cool if he came to life. And if he came to my house. Patrick and Squidward too. Sandy and Mr. Crabs, cuz Mr. Crabs is rich and Sandy knows karate. And Gary, because he's slimy. And they all would drive my parents crazy. Bye.

New House

You know that building our new house has been taking up most of our time, energy, and ideas for the past several months. Happily, the end is in sight! Just a few more weeks to go. It certainly has been an exciting experience, but also very stressful. I sure don't want to look at flooring, cabinets, hardware, faucets, light fixtures, or any other items of that type for a long time!

The yard got fixed up this week. It was graded, and sod and plants were put in. We were impressed with how quickly the landscaping crew worked and what a good job they did. We are excited that they planted two pindo palm trees for us. I've always wanted a palm tree in our yard! We also had them put in hydrangeas and azaleas, two of my favorite flowering shrubs, along with a crepe myrtle. There are some other plants, too, but I don't know what they are.

On the interior, we're still waiting for the flooring to be completed. The tile guy seems to be very slow. He's been working on the tile for over a week and it's not completed yet; I really don't understand why it's taking him so long, because we don't have a whole lot of space being tiled. After the tile is finished, I suppose they can then put in the rest of the flooring (hopefully) and also the bathroom fixtures. Then the remaining lights need to be hung and the screens installed on the back porches, and I think that's it!

The progress that's been made can be seen on a slideshow we continually update on photoshop.com. It has kind of turned into a photojournal of the whole process. I'll put in a link.

http://www.photoshop.com/accounts/363f8c48030648d1b8646795edcdba3a/px-assets/72ce4441081a42c0a027240bb8588181