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  • Yesterday was our annual crew girl holiday party. Note to the casual reader: I call them crew girls because we were all on the Oregon State Crew team together (rowing). In addition to our evening festivities this year we had a joint baby shower for Tracy and I, who are due on the same day (we know!). I took no pictures of that event (of course, terrible Amber), but I do have a picture of the hostess with myself:
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    Sciarrino and I are determined to get more pictures together! After hanging out at her place for a couple of hours and playing little games (like guess whose baby picture, which is so hard!) we went out to Mexican food for an early dinner. While there Settlemeyer got a dreaded citizen citation.

    Picture-1

    Ah hahaha. Turns out she did not do such a great job parking.

    So we headed over to my place which I thought would either be a complete disaster (how I left the house to run out the door to the shower) or might be cleaned up a bit if Bj got my message. Turns out not only did Bj get the message but he rocked my world, putting away bits of wrapping paper and supplies that I left on the floor, cleaning the kitchen, vacuuming, putting the extra leaves in the table, and shopping for the supplies I was missing to make the super easy frosting. He is the best husband ever! I was going to have everyone over anyway to check out the remodel but I figured if it was a disaster we'd go back over to Sciarrino's. But we partied here. The girls were happy to let me show off the upstairs, which was fun because it is almost done! The we had our gift exchange. I ended up with a super soft blanket (stolen from another guest, hey that's the fun part). Then we got out the candy and made our houses.
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    We all are actually pretty bad at this, despite years of practice.
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    But of course that's not why we do it, at least that's what we tell ourselves. A few girls were missing, but they were in Hawaii and New Zealand, so we tried not to be too sad, except for the one who is in middle of nowhere Canada ๐Ÿ™‚ I have been getting lots of cute stuff by the way at these showers, I think once the room is painted and I can get it all out together I'll show you pictures. Let me just tempt you with this: Canadian rocking moose, that's right.

    It was a great night and one I had to go to bed early to recover from. When I got up this morning there was snow on the ground. The only sensible thing to do was take a nice warm bath and knit (not at the same time, hmmm I should try that though). The snow cleared before I finished this:
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    That's supposed to be the front.
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    And that's supposed to be the back. I might switch it around though. I put details up on Ravelry.

    Here is a conversation I had with Bj earlier this month:
    Me: "oh my goodness look at these little hangers, they are just like our hangers only miniature!"
    Bj: "uh huh."
    Me: "oh Bj don't you think we need these, they are so so so so cute!"
    Bj: "I think that's the last thing we need. Promise me you won't get those."
    Me: "okay"

    Here is a conversation we had today:
    Bj: "that's so cute."
    Me: "thanks I love how it turned out."
    Bj: "but where did we get that?"
    Me: "what?"
    Bj: "that, the hanger."
    Me: "that's one of our hangers" (bad lie since the sweater is only 8 inches across on the bottom)
    Bj: "no that's a tiny hanger."
    Me: "um onlyhangers.com"
    Bj: silence

    But really I think he's over it I mean look how cute they are! They are so cute! I also got ones with little clips on the bottom for miniature pants. Ah miniature pants how I love you. Oh and another funny comment I got today. Our builder came over so we could go over the list of things to get done before inspection. I showed him the sweater and he said, "you knit too, I thought you just bought and sold yarn." Haha, he was here when I got my Sundara and spazzed. Now what to knit next?

    13 comments on Crew girl fun times
  • Better-1

    Ahhhh I feel so much better. I even waited yesterday to post about the fiasco hours after it happened and I was still so upset (as you might have read). This morning I had a talk with my builder and he was very apologetic and just wanted to make it right. I did end up letting him paint it. My mom came over as well and cleaned for 8 hours! If cleanliness is next to godliness surely she is an angel. Tomorrow I will get curtains back in the dining room, the table centered, put leaves in it and welcome my crew friends over for our annual holiday fun times. I can't wait. Thanks for all your lovely words, I definitely did have that break down coming, and I definitely did need that bath I took at my mom's this morning ๐Ÿ™‚

    7 comments on All I have to say is
  • Sometimes it's the little things and this afternoon I finally got the straw that broke my back.
     
    I had been down in the basement working when the guys came to clean up (at 3:30, not a long enough work day if you ask me). I had gotten one of them to put a second coat on the new wall down there in one spot, despite them saying that it didn't need a second coat. People paint almost always needs a second coat if you want it to look good. So the guy goes to clean out the paint tray and there is tons of paint in it and I can't see that just go to waste so I said, "give it to me" and whipped out one of my brushes. I touched up a bunch of spots that have been DRIVING ME CRAZY. Yes, I know, I shouldn't be painting. I could not help it, there was no way I was letting that paint go down the drain. So I'm working away, everyone is gone, I clean up and head upstairs to pee before finishing up with my orders. I walk right into this:
    Broke-1

    Notice anything wrong with the bathroom? Besides being super messy? Ya, it's the wrong color. The cupboards and the wall are the same color. Now mind you the painter only had to hit up one wall and patch a small section, but what does he do? He paints the whole freaking thing (minus some still taped sections. Now I ask you, how the hell do you keep painting when it is quite clearly NOT the right color?
    Paint-1

    Oh and see that white section? Ya, I guess he just decided not to paint that at all. I was fuming at this point so I called the builder and was like, "this is so NOT COOL. He left it a mess, he painted it the wrong color." I had to explain why. To be fair I did give the painter the wrong color. I had a bit of the can of the old stuff and took it to the paint shop to get more. They saw the color code but not the bit underneath that said, "30% of colorbook" So I gave the painter the bit left over, told him to use it first and then the new. BUT STILL, come on, they are not even close!!!! So the builder says, "get new paint, we'll fix it tomorrow." Meanwhile I still haven't peed because I don't even want to deal with trying to clean this up.

    So I start to sob, and sob, and sob, and sob some more. I call Bj and of course he doesn't answer his phone. But luckily my mom did, and though she could barely understand me until I calmed down (I was EXTREMELY worked up), she did manage to get out of me that it was a painting fiasco and said she would come tomorrow to help me. Which is awesome, because she paints so well (and not only is this painted the wrong color but it is done badly). So I called back up the builder and told him (I'll admit, through tears) that I didn't want the painter painting any more, my mom was going to do it. He said, no, no, he'd do it himself, but I refused, and told him I did not want them to paint. I want them to keep doing all the other stuff so we can get this remodel finished already (supposed to be done on Friday, so NOT going to be done).

    I keep crying, because hey pregnancy hormones, why stop now? And head to the paint store, puffy faced. Luckily they know me in there, so not so horrible. I explained what they had done, and wouldn't you know it they made me a new gallon for free (I was still sniffling, so the odds were in my favor here). I picked up a large Frozen Coke from Burger King and drove the rest of the way home with it sitting on my belly wallowing. The crazy thing is I had been doing great. Just yesterday the doctor told me I was, "an above average pregnant woman with a very healthy baby that weighs about six pounds." Today I felt like a below average human being caught in some kind of experimental hidden camera show.

    I did recover a bit when I got home and channeled my negative energy into a "I can do anything better than them anyway" mindset. I swept, followed that with vacuuming, and then actually got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed a big section of the Ribbon Jar floor. While I waited for all of that to dry I tore apart all the components on my desk, the cutting table, and under the ribbon racks; deep cleaned every morsel and put it back together. Then I got all the orders packed (I feel terrible but they were half done when I had to go to the paint store). I put covers on all the outlets and switches, and figured out how to get my phones plugged in again down there. Then when it was dry I got out the primmer and painted a section that my desk is supposed to sit on. I immediately cleaned up and got out of there (unfortunately unlike all the paint I'm using now, this is not low VOC).

    I'm not even sure what the moral of this story is supposed to be. I mean we are going thousands of dollars over budget with this water heater fiasco, but this bathroom thing, man it did me in. And yes I had caffeine, and then inhaled paint fumes, and am probably the worst mother ever. At least I didn't try and climb on something to get the shower rod back up. So if you see me tomorrow with a three day old blow out, please give me a little pity. Hey I guess it's a good thing it will be a couple more days before I get a mirror back in the bathroom.

    5 comments on What finally broke me

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