Another layout for Ronee Parsons, using the "Sky" kit and a template from "Scrapper's Muse 1," both available at Oscraps.




It's been a long week. Been working steadily towards end of project milestones at work, and I'm almost done with the 2nd project, which I'm leading. The STC nominating committee work is proceeding for the upcoming special election, and we are learning lessons that can be applied to the 2008 election. Notice how I really can't say specifics? :) Nothing is sacred out on the Internet...and you never know who is watching (or doing a Google alert).. :)

Here's a CT layout I did for the Ronee Parsons CT (creative team) I'm on:



I love the colors of the kit so much, I turned the photo b/w to make sure the photo stood out among the brightness. Plus you can't see my red cheeks from dancing (or that Long Island Iced tea drink I had... :))

Yippee! TGIF! :)

It seems like it has been a long week. Mostly work related, but some of it personal. I went to the dentist this week, because the filling on top of one tooth felt "open" - it turns out that the filling has a hairline crack, which needs to be replaced. There is also a very tiny cavity that needs a filling on the same tooth.

I can't wait for tomorrow. We are going to head to the Rose Festival and see if we can get in on a public tour of one of the tall ships in town. If we can't, we'll check out other stuff, like the dragon boat races. My friend Amy is a dragon boat racer, so that will be fun. Navy ships are in town too. One thing I won't be doing is going to the Grand Floral parade. That is going to be *interesting* with all the tape/reserving your spot frenzy going on.

I'm also heading to a friend's house to scrapbook, so that will be fun.

Aw man, they just found the missing 18 year old girl, dead. :(

I just don't get it. What possesses someone to do something like this?

Life sure can change in an instant....

A lightning strike hits a 110 foot Douglas Fir tree and only damages the roofs of three houses.

A teenager runs into Target to get a gift and is abducted as she puts her purchases into her car.

A woman smokes crack all day, then drives her car into a crowd of folks attending a festival, injuring at least 40 people.

Sometimes I think I read too much news, but I know I'm a news and information junkie, so it would be hard to give up the habit of checking the news.

Yeah, yeah, I know...it's been a while! :)

Here's a layout I did yesterday, my first digital layout in 2 months:



As you can tell, we went to the Oregon Coast last weekend. This time, we were joined by some friends from the Portland area.

Coming up next weekend, I'll be scrapping with a group of ladies at another house, after my husband and I go to see the tall ships in town for the Rose Festival.

It's been a really busy last three weeks or so!

Lots of tasks on my plate got accomplished, the last one just this afternoon. I also realized that I was way overcommitted this spring, and am taking baby steps to trim my obligations down to a manageable level. I'm learning how to say "no" which is something my husband has been saying I need to learn for months. :)

I found out that I will be receiving a service award at the STC conference in May. This award was totally unexpected - I didn't even find out until it was published in the monthly leadership newsletter. I hadn't even known I was nominated for it! :) And late last week, as I was looking at board meeting minutes for the last few months, I found out that my manager (who attended the last "in-person" board meeting in February) had known for 2 months, because he'd been at the board meeting where they granted the awards. Guess I better read those board meeting minutes a little bit sooner... :D

I'll be in Minneapolis in two weeks, attending the conference and taking pictures. I've been asked to post an "online diary with pics" on the Online SIG wiki, and also to take pictures that will be in the closing keynote session slide show.

Teaching is going well....now. I won't say anything more. :)

I'm attending one of Karen Russell's classes on National Scrapbook Day (May 5) where she is debuting a new class, "Snapshots of a Good Life"...looks like a fun mini-album project.

Well, Saturday at the coast started out rainy. :)

As I told my husband, it wouldn't be a vacation on the coast without rain....

Here's one of the pictures I took today, at Short Sands Beach in Oswald West State Park.

I've been tagged by Becky! :)

I'm sitting here at the beach, just relaxing.

- I hate being late. I hate it when others are late, because usually they've had plenty of time to get ready. I understand the occasional late thing, but both my sister and one of my friends are always late, and it's not always their kids who are the cause. My sister has even been late for Christmas morning at my folks house!

- I love reading. I don't think a day goes by that I don't read a book for at least 20 minutes (and I"m not talking work related stuff). For me, reading right before bed is my body's "cue" to my mind that it's time to stop whirring and shutdown for the night, instead of thinking and obsessing.

- I love it when I have short hair, but I also look too boyish, so once every year or two, I try to grow my hair. Right now, it's "long" to me, but it's not even shoulder length. This is the hardest part, getting past the point where I can do nothing with it (can't pull it back, must dry it to style, etc).

- I confess, I can't take a vacation without taking the laptop with me. :)

- I love naps. Naps were not made for the young. :D

- I can't sleep on soft beds - I won't sleep as deeply as I can sleeping on a firmer mattress.

- I almost always buy a book on vacation, even if I brought one with me.

I don't know who to tag, so I'll leave it at that....

Well now!

I am going to be teaching Adobe Creative Suite 2 at Portland State University, as of spring term! Starting April 2, every Monday night (except for Memorial Day and the day I'm at the STC conference) until June 11, I'll be teaching at least 16 students (3 undergrad, 13 grad so far) about Adobe CS2. Wow! If this works out, and the students want more classes, I could potentially have a sideline career. My manager, who recommended me to the university, heartily approves of this development, as he also teaches technical writing at the same university. We won't be teaching on the same nights, but at least I have a resource to talk to about grading and the "back end stuff" of the university system (dropping folks, adding grades, etc).

We are having movers come tomorrow and clean out our storage room to take the contents to our house. We are going too slow on getting stuff out of storage, and I want that "line item" off of our budget. Let's just say a 10x20 storage room is not cheap and is the equivalent of our car payment. Ouch! Means we can save more, or put more money towards an extra payment for the mortgage or vehicle.

BUSTED! Someone finally noticed (and commented) that I haven't posted for a while. Oops!

I've been a busy little beaver... :)

In case you're wondering, this is what I have on my schedule:

- Creative Team for two designers (Ronee Parsons & Marsha Zepeda)
- Creative Team for The Digi Chick
- Webmaster for the Willamette Valley Chapter STC website
- Judge for the STC International Tech Pubs Competition (lead judge of my team)
- Judge for the STC Newsletter Competition
- Judge for the STC Public Relations Competition
- Judge for the STC Community Achievement Award competition
- Member of the STC LCR
- Candidate for the 2007 STC election for one of two "Nominating Committee" positions

And just today, I got offered another opportunity - can't say much about it now, but after May I can...

Oh yeah, I work too...no wonder my creative energy seems a bit lost these days!

I promise, I'll be better about updating at least once a week! :D

My husband tells me I do too much. I know he's proud of me, but he's probably right. And he doesn't even know the half of what I do sometimes. I suppose it's part of the heritage my grandmother instilled in us - the spirit of volunteering. I've been involved in the Society for Technical Communication since 1998, and I wouldn't change a thing - I've learned a lot, and had lots of opportunities to manage and lead other people. That's not something I could have ever envisioned when I was 18 and fresh out of high school. I know I need to learn to say no...

Well, enough of the serious stuff! :)

My friend Becky T encouraged me to enter a contest with her, the Funk It Up! contest at scrapforums. She's doing the paper scrapping contest, I'm doing the digital contest. The first challenge is:

Use the lyrics of the song "Photograph" by Nickelback to inspire a fabulous layout!

With the following rules:

*You must use (at least) one complete line from the song somewhere (visible) on the layout. It can be the title, in your journaling or as an accent.

*At least one photo must be used.

*One or two page layouts are good and all size layouts are accepted.

*the layout must have journaling.

*The rest is up to you! Be creative, have fun and FUNK IT UP!

I think I know which lyrics to use, but I'm still hunting for the perfect picture. I guess it's a good excuse to finally hook up the scanner. :D

Bad bad blogger!

Life has been pretty busy in the last few weeks. On Monday nights, we go to ballroom dancing class, held through the parks and recreation district. It's pretty fun, even if we both feel like we have left feet (him more so than me). It gets us out of the house, and it's not too far away from home - we'll be able to easily bicycle there in the spring and summer.

On weekends, we've been kept busy unloading the storage room. We average at least 2 loads a weekend, but that's a glacial pace for someone who wants that storage room payment off the books. :) We can see the halfway mark - we're not there, but we can see it! We can also see the framed artwork boxes, and hopefully will get them out this weekend. That way we can put them up in time for our housewarming party on the 24th.

I'm also working on layouts for my creative teams. One of the designers I create layouts for is taking a breather, so that load will ease some. I survived all the way through the Amazing Digiscrapping Race, with the able help of my partner Dawn. We did not win the grand prize, but we completed the race - which was fun all the way around! :)

So much fun, that I decided to sign up for the Funk It Up contest on scrapforums.com. No idea if I will make it past round 1 there, but I at least entered. :)

The election I am running in has had some changes as well. First, I was one of two candidates for two positions. Then I was one of three candidates for two positions. And now I'm one of two candidates, which means unless we get a late petition entry, I'll be elected this year. Third time's the charm, right? :) I need to register for the conference in Minneapolis before the end of February, so I can take advantage of early bird rates.

Oh, and another thing...someone finally took on organizing the 20 year high school reunion. I missed out on the 10-year reunion, so I was determined to go to the 20-year this year. Of course, I don't think anyone but my two friends Lisa and Amy (we're still all friends) will remember me, but it will be fun!

I've been very very bad about updating my blog. I've been sick with bronchitis, and life has also been busy! I made it to week 3 of the Amazing Race, and have done two layouts this, for challenges #5 and #6.

Challenge #5 was to do a layout about books, in some form or fashion - no other requirements.



And challenge #6 was to scrap your partner's pictures. My partner is dawnmcd, and these are pictures of her daughter.

We are out of the apartment, at long last. No more Mr Stomper, no more constant road noise, no more Mr Cougher next door. Ah! That's a huge sigh of relief you hear... :)

Tomorrow, we'll be going to see Barry Manilow in concert. I've been a fan of Barry for a long time (probably since I heard "I Write the Songs" when I was a child), and I know I'd never want to pay the prices to see him at his show in Las Vegas, so this is the perfect compromise. He is doing a special concert to benefit cystic fibrosis, and I pretty much bought tickets the moment I got the email from K103 with the link to buy. My husband and I are sitting in the 20th row on the floor, those are pretty good seats at the Rose Garden Arena! :D

In return for my husband suffering through Manilow with me, we are going to see "A Night of Improv" in February, with the cast of Whose Line Is It Anyway (minus Drew Carey). The tickets sold out so fast, a 2nd show was added for later the same evening!

Ah the joys of being sick! NOT! I have stayed home all week long, trying to "rest" out this dang cold, and thought I was well on my way to recovery, until this morning. I was almost out the door, showered, dressed, keys in hand, when my energy level dipped below 0 and a coughing spasm started. I trudged back upstairs, sent an email to my boss, and crawled under the covers again. Sigh. I will go in on Monday, no matter how I feel. Dang cold!

In the meantime, during my periods of energy, I have been doing some digital scrapping for the Amazing Digiscrapping Race. Here's my 2nd challenge layout, which could only be done by one team member. It had to use a series of photos, and tell "the rest of the story" behind the series...you know, the story you wouldn't necessarily know just by looking at the photos. The twist? You could only use one item PER designer. Yeah, that stretched my horizons a bit, I'm one of those "stay within the kit" type folks, but I managed to do it. Good thing I have lots of designers on my external hard drive storage.

Here's the layout:

Here's the first layout for the Amazing Digiscrapping Race, challenge #1:




I completed the layout using Rachael Giallongo's Sketch Challenge #20 and the "Changes" collaboration kit from Oscraps.

Okay, okay, it's been a while since I posted. I admit it! :)

First, we moved into the new house on Dec 22. We were .....um.....loitering in the sales office as the agent called to see if she could give us our keys. And we weren't the only ones...um....loitering... :)

We spent the night on our queen size Aerobed (bought from Costco months ago, for guests), which feels a lot like sleeping on not quite so firm Jello. :D

On the 23rd, I headed to the apartment while my husband stayed at the new house. He got "Verizon" and "appliance" duty, while I got "movers" duty. I packed several more boxes waiting for the movers, then got out of their way while they moved our boxes and furniture onto the moving truck. We got to the house, and Verizon and the appliance folks still had not shown up...turns out the Verizon guy had a problem install before us, and shows up around 2 p.m. The appliance guys show up around 1 p.m., just as the moving guys start moving our stuff inside.

Did I mention it was raining? Did I tell you we bought a stainless steel refrigerator? Um yeah, that was fun to wipe off the prints. :D Especially since the appliance guys had to remove the doors of the refrigerator just to get it inside the house. They tried removing just the door handles (they were sticking out and the reason it was too wide), but it wasn't working, so they removed the doors.

Finally, we had our new fridge, washer, and dryer. Wow! That new washer and dryer have some interesting noises....so much so that Cleo (who was in my arms) spooked when the washer changed cycle and left a couple of nice long (and deep) gouges on my chest when trying to run off. No v-neck shirts for me for a couple of weeks! :)

Christmas Eve we just unpacked a little, rested a little, and had a nice pasta dinner. We usually go for something that isn't turkey or ham related, since we have to eat both on Christmas Day at two different meals.

Oh, before I forget, I started getting a cold on the day we moved our stuff (12/23). You'll see why this is important later. :)

Christmas Day we do our normal two step drive. Drive to my parents, open presents, have an early dinner. Drive to my husband's parents' house, open presents, eat dinner. Drive home.

On 12/26, I'm not feeling too good, but it's time for a niece's birthday party that has already been rescheduled twice. Yes, I still have a cold. *sniff* It probably didn't help that I went shopping for a few hours first thing in the morning.

The rest of the week, I'm miserable with a cold, and waiting for contractors to show up to finish some exterior stuff and some carpet cleaning. Oh yeah, my husband's office furniture, which should have showed up on 12/26 AT THE HOUSE, got sent to our mailing address at the UPS store. How stupid is that? Six boxes of "put it together yourself" furniture goes to the wrong address, so I have to go pick it up, but I can't unload it on the other end because I'm not strong enough (nor are my arms wide enough to wrap around some of these boxes). I go straight to Office Depot afterwards and get my "delivery" fee back - it turns out it was their screwup. They had put in both addresses (our mailing address is also our billing address), but had forgotten to "check the box" to indicate it should go to the house address, so it defaulted to the billing address. Good thing the UPS store employees know me and accepted the delivery, despite the fact it was against their policy.

Another niece has a birthday party on 12/29. Yep, still feeling miserable, but now I look like I'm miserable. Friday night at the cheap pizza joint favored for kids' parties, and oh crap, it's also karaoke night. There's nothing worse than being sick and having to hear peopl sing karaoke who shouldn't be anywhere NEAR a mike. Enough said. *shudder*

Quiet weekend for us, although we went to dinner on 12/30 with several friends. Nice place to find, we may go back there again someday.

A good friend of ours comes over on 12/31 to ring in the New Year. We had a nice dinner, and then sat in front of our widescreen TV to watch several episodes of Firefly. During the 2nd episode, we toasted the new year, but went straight back to Mal and his crew. :)

By 1/1/07, I'm still not feeling hot. Yep, I still have that pesky cold. I so didn't want to go back to work yet. I promise friends and family, yes, I will call the doctor Tuesday morning.

Back to work! 1/2/07 arrives and I'm back at my desk. Coughing, sneezing, and blowing my nose like there's no tomorrow. Get in to the doctor around 10:30. Turns out it is nothing more than a viral infection (aka the common cold), but she gives me a prescription cold drug to kick this cold out. I head back to work, where I take my medication. Taking the pill causes a coughing jag, which ends up with me being sent home to "rest" and keep my germs away from everyone else.

So here I am, 1/3/07, still at home. Sick with a cold. But at least I'm "resting"....and actually, I have been sleeping most of the time.

Woohoo! Final signoff has occurred!

By the time we pick up our keys tomorrow, paint touchups will be done, the fence will be installed, the lawn will be rolled out, and the A/C unit will be installed.

Here's a couple of final shots of the finished kitchen (the fridge is arriving Friday - not through the homebuilder, but we bought it separate).





And the dining room:

:(

That would be because the field manager called us at 5 p.m. to reschedule our final signoff from 8 a.m. tomorrow to 4 p.m. tomorrow. :( That means we definitely won't get keys tomorrow (a faint hope anyway). It means that the loan won't fund until Thursday, and the county has to record the deed by 1:30 p.m. on Thursday or we won't get our keys until Friday. Please, keep your fingers crossed that we get our keys on Thursday - I'd hate to reschedule appliance and furniture delivery.

I'm trying to be happy....at least it isn't delayed until Thursday...but close enough.

Well, the granite slab wasn't quite installed when we got there this morning. Apparently, it arrived yesterday, but wasn't installed. The guy was working on it while we were there looking at the house. He said he was working on two houses at once - while one was drying in place, he was working on the other. I sure hope they get done today.





They did install the microwave/hood, but still no cooktop, oven, or dishwasher until the counter is installed.



They also have set up the concrete forms for the back patio.



And they've installed the blinds!

I have the cashier's check in my hot little hands! :) We got a call at about 9:55 this morning, saying the title company had received our loan documents, and they were ready when we were. We set the appointment for 4 p.m. this afternoon.

I promptly rushed to the bank and had our cashier's check drawn up. Wow....a lot of money in one place, but it's for a good cause: HOUSING! :)

We cannot wait to move. Here are the things we *WON'T* miss from the apartment:

- Not enough space (1000 sq feet doesn't cut it with two humans and three cats)
- Being 20 feet from a major thoroughfare (which is less than a mile from the closest municipal airport, and traffic is constant on day and night)
- Mr Stomper upstairs (who has "heavy" feet and stomps all around his apartment)
- Guaranteed parking for only one car (carport) and potluck parking on the other....
- The cougher next door, whose bedroom is on the other side of our bedroom wall...

Here's what I'll miss:

- Being 2 miles from work (10 minute commute during worst traffic)
- 2 blocks from the nearest Starbucks

The "Heart and Soul" kit is now available here: Heart and Soul kit for a cause

Just 7 days and counting now....as long as the paperwork comes together! :)

Rachel

We had the blue tape inspection/walkthrough this morning. In addition to minor paint and drywall issues, they have the following items to complete before next Wednesday morning, when we have the signoff.

1) Left side cabinet door above refrigerator rubs on wall
2) Back patio pour and fix siding
3) Can light burned out
4) Finish trim on left and right of fireplace
5) Adjust handle on den door (it sticks)
6) Install window blinds
7) Pour fence posts inside concrete on back patio
8) Chirping smoke detector (needs new battery)
9) Set sinks
10) Cabinet touch up end panel hall bath upstairs
11) Light bulb over shower & mirror
12) Finish carpeting stairs (bottom half)
13) Receive and install granite slab, then install appliances

One more thing needs to get completed, but not before signoff: landscaping and irrigation. Unfortunately, the wettest November on record played havoc with pouring concrete or doing any yardwork.

And the technology guys are coming on Monday the 18th to hook up the wiring and install the plates for all the structured wiring.

All in all, it was a good inspection. I just hope it is ALL finished before we come back next time.

Just a quick sneak peek! This kit will be a fundraiser at the Digi Chick this coming Thursday. This charity kit was created by the Digi Chick designers and Valerie Fowler to help raise funds for a member of Valerie's church who lost their child to SIDS. Please consider helping out by purchasing this kit! 100% of proceeds go to funeral expenses.

Okay, okay, my patience ran out! We went to the house today before going shopping with friends. What a shock to pull around the corner and see our house had been painted. COOOL!






Gotta a little closer, and you can see the front door color (it's not very apparent in the previous photo):



And yes! They fixed the fireplace! Although most of you probably didn't notice that the fireplace was not centered (therefore the tile wasn't centered), we did. The field manager agreed - it looked horrible. It's been fixed, now there is an evenly spaced gap on either side of the tile, rather than the pushed up against the right side look.

Cool, heh? :)

Just arranged to have movers come on 12/23 to move our stuff. No packing, just moving the furniture and boxes. I get to be at the apartment to meet the movers, while my husband gets to meet with Verizon at the house to install the fiber optic service. Fun fun fun! :)

Yes! I just got off the phone with the field manager for our house. Preliminary walk through (buyer orientation, blue tape inspection) is scheduled for 12/13 at 8 a.m., and final signoff from the inspection (after they've fixed stuff found in the first walk through) is on 12/20 at 8 a.m.

That means we'll get our keys, at the latest, by the end of day on 12/21.

WOOHOO!

What a Christmas present! :)

Rachel

It's hard to visualize that in exactly three weeks, it will be Christmas Eve, and we'll be in our new home! We took our traditional Sunday trip to the house, and took new pictures.

We now have hardwood flooring in the kitchen and dining room, but they aren't done installing hardwoods - it still needs to go in the half bath, entryway, and hallway from the front door to the kitchen.





They've also installed the vinyl flooring in the master bathroom, guest bathroom, and utility room. We could have chosen different vinyl for each, but I used the same pattern for all three. Looks pretty gorgeous to me. :)

23 days and counting, almost 22! :)

We met with the mortgage guy today, at the subdivision sales office (a whole half block away from our new house), so we took the camera with us and snagged a couple photos. He also realized that our "closing" date was the business day (friday) before Christmas, so he's going to move up the closing date to 12/20 or 12/21, to give the documents time to record. So, it is looking like we'll be signing documents by the 15th, at the latest! And the blue tape inspection should be coming up the same week we sign, so they can fix issues ASAP.

The fireplace tile surround!


The master bathroom tile counter (no grout)

26 days and counting!

We went to the house today, but nothing has been done since the contractors left on Wednesday. We admit it, we went to the house on both Wednesday AND Friday, plus today......the interior walls have been painted, and all but one cabinet has been installed (and the crown molding above the kitchen cabinets is installed).

Today, we went to Fry's, Delta Park, Jantzen Beach, and the World's Largest Christmas Bazaar (at the Expo Center). Phew! I'm almost as tired as I was on Friday after all that shopping. Gym? Who needs a gym? :)

No pictures today. Next week, I promise there will be pictures... :)

28 days and counting!

I admit it, I'm one of "those" Black Friday shoppers.... :)

I was up at 4:15 this morning, and at Fred Meyer's by 5 a.m., meeting up with my friend Dana. We started there, hit the scrapbook store shortly after 6:15, whirled through Michael's, breezed through Macy's, and tag teamed Joann's. By far, the longest we waited in line was at Joann's. As soon as we got to the store, we got in the line (not quite out the door, but all the way around the store). I stood in line with the cart while Dana shopped, and then she stood in line while I shopped. I think it took us an hour to get up to the cash register, but the time flies when you talk with the others in line.

After shopping was over (at 9:30 a.m.), we picked up my husband and went to breakfast at IHOP. We dropped Dana back off at her vehicle, then drove over to the house to check it out.

They've painted the walls since last Sunday...they've also installed all but one cabinet (the one over the fridge). Once that cabinet is installed, I think they start the flooring and the countertops.

We'll take pictures on Sunday! Have a good weekend!

32 days and counting! :)

Here's the kitchen cabinets:





And a look at the loft (and woodwork trim that has been installed):

I love this week's sketch challenge by Rachael Giallongo at the Digi Chick. I was inspired to create this layout from pictures at the Rose Garden from August. I used Marsha Zepeda's "Cranberry Blush" kit.

We went to the house today! We have to use a key now, they've installed a temporary front door lock and the garage. Our interior doors and our woodwork trim are stored in the garage. The walls are finished and textured, but not painted.

The front view, now that the pillars are there:


The interior doors:


The back view, with garage door installed:


View of the craft room doors (entrance and closet doors):


The living room fireplace and alcove:

Wow!

I was just asked to become a member of the Creative Team for The DigiChick.
I was thrilled and honored to be asked. I hope I can live up to their expectations. :)

Progress is a bit slow on the house, but that is to be expected now that we've hit the drywall stage. Everyone warned me, so now I"m warning you. I will updates with pictures every Sunday. :)

Here's the front porch - we have our pillars now! :) We also have our garage floor.







And oh yeah, I won 3rd place in the CK layout contest at CKC Bellevue this past weekend. :) That is, I won 3rd place in a contest at a scrapbooking convention in Bellevue, Washington. :)

Okay, okay, I've been negligent in updating the blog! :) Trust me, I haven't wanted to bore you.

They started drywalling on 10/25. Almost all the drywall is up, but the seams are not mudded and it's definitely not textured yet. :) Some of the light fixtures downstairs need to have drywall removed (they are marked to remove, except for one - we emailed the field manager on that one).

In 2 weeks, we'll need to have a key to get in. So in the next two weeks, we'll see the following happen:

- garage floor (cement) poured
- drywall, texture, and paint completed
- garage door installed
- locks installed
- hardwood flooring installed downstairs (i think)

What happens in two weeks, you ask? Well, that's when the cabinets arrive (kitchen, bathrooms, laundry), so the garage has to have a garage door that closes AND locks, so someone can't just drive up and steal all of our cabinets. And after that, all of the sinks and other fixtures start coming in, so it will be "secure time"...

Here's a couple of pictures from 10/29/06!

From the master bedroom, looking at the entry double doors (left) and the master bathroom door (right):



And from the larger lots/houses part of the subdivision, this is the model's home carpet and wood flooring. We didn't realize until a month ago that we'd picked the EXACT same carpet/color and wood flooring, so here's a sneak preview of what ours will look like:

Ah, quizzes....

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 90% Green Lantern 65% Hulk 45% Superman 40% Batman 35% Wonder Woman 30% Iron Man 30% Robin 20% Catwoman 20% Supergirl 20% The Flash 10%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

The siding on the front of the house is finished! Also on both sides, but not on the back of the house. The siding on the back won't be finished until all the drywall for the 2nd floor has been delivered through the craft room window (which still doesn't have a window installed because it's a delivery point). Once the drywall has been delivered, the window will be installed, and then the siding will be finished.

This is the standard non-painted color - we do have paint colors picked, but it will be a couple of weeks or more before it's painted.

We have a front door! :) It has been installed at long last!

We briefly chatted with a worker packing up (notice those two guys on top of our roof in the 2nd picture), and they said that the garage floor will be poured on Friday. They also said the siding probably won't be finished until they get all the sheetrock inside, which won't happen until after our "pre-drywall" inspection on Friday. This is where we basically approve all the outlet and jack locations before they put the drywall up.



And the front, with siding on the side and halfway up the front:

It's really starting to look like a house! :) We have siding on one side of the house, and they poured our front porch yesterday. We have our pre-drywall meeting with the field manager on Friday morning. After that, drywall baby! :) Then the serious interior work starts. And once they install the front door (hopefully this week), it will only be a matter of time before we'll need a key to see our house.

When my husband talked to the field manager yesterday, he said it sounded like the manager just got my email yesterday (I sent it last Thursday), and had not been aware that our front door (and our patio door) had not been installed. He's also going to get one of the extra ports moved, it was installed in the wrong place.

We might even get a garage floor this week - all the houses around us got one poured yesterday, but our garage was full of "stuff"....like they'd emptied out all the garages around us into OUR garage! Of course, our patio door is still in the garage as well, so the concrete pouring may be tied to getting that door installed first.

More appliance info:

Cooktop
Oven
Dishwasher
Microwave

:)

By special request, here's a couple views of the front of the house, both straight on and at a slight angle:

So, we finally ordered our refrigerator, washer, and dryer.

We went to Standard TV and Appliance (we visited them in late August to get an idea of products and prices) on Saturday.

This is the washer.
This is the current dryer, although that may change because of changes at Maytag. If we can't get that dryer, we'll get this one.
This is the refrigerator.

It will be so hard to live with the appliances in this apartment. I know, I'm whining, but I can't believe how used to our old fridge we were...and the fridge in this apartment is like going from "premium" to "subpar"....yecch!

That darn Valgal...

She tagged me!

I have to list 5 weird things about me and tag 5 other people...

1. Only my head peeks out from the covers when I'm sleeping. Especially in the winter, I tend to "cocoon" and tuck the covers around my shoulders. That's because...
2. I'm a stomach sleeper. At least, I can only fall asleep that way.
3. I have a routine for drying off after I step out of the shower. *blush*
4. I *like* fruitcake. :)
5. I still eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on a regular basis.

Okay, now to tag folks:

Becky
Diana
Shirley
Meghan
Trudi

"Remember" by Josh Groban, soundtrack of Troy

Remember
I will still be here
As long as you hold me,
in your memory

Remember
when your dreams have ended
Time can be transcended
Just remember me

I am the one star that keeps burning
so brightly
It is the last light
to fade into the rising sun

I'm with you
Whenever you tell
my story
For I am all I've done

Remember, I will still be here
As long as you hold me
in your memory

Remember me
I am the one voice in the cold wind
that whispers

And if you listen
you'll hear me call across the sky
As long as I still can reach out
and touch you
Then I will never die

Remember
I'll never leave you
If you will only
Remember me
Remember me...

Remember
I will still be here
As long as you hold me
In your memory

Remember
when your dreams have ended
Time can be transcended
I live forever

Remember me
Remember me
Remember... me...

Here's a look at my guy. He hated wearing the hard hat, but it was required to do the "structured wiring" around the house today, because folks were working on the house while we were there (normally we show up after they are gone for the day). :)

That was then (09/14/06):



This is now:



Don't know if you can tell the difference, but in the bottom picture, the door frame is wider. My husband and I realized this weekend that there was NO way there were going to be able to do the front door with our "upgrade" with the way it was framed, they had done it wrong. We promptly talked with the sales agent, who sent an email off to the field manager (on a Sunday, no less). Monday morning, when the field manager saw our email, he took a look and promptly had it dealt with. Of course, we also saw our front door (with the upgrade) sitting in the garage - I think they might have realized they had a problem when that arrived if we hadn't noticed it. :)

This is what our front door looks like. The old "frame" job was for just the door, and not the windows around it.

We have a ROOF! :)

No real good vantage point, but I tried! :)