2006 September archive at Filtering Life

Archive for September, 2006

Before and Afters Part Trey

Published by Kelly September 29th, 2006 in Life Changes. 8 Comments

I know you are all feeling more and more at home in my house with all these gah-niffty photos I am posting. I figured I would formally welcome you into my house. I am making it really hard for rapist, murders, and thieves to come find us. They would be bitterly disappointed with our 19 inch TV…although they would get a killer Mac and a buttload of photography equipment. None the less, here is the before and after of our little abode.

BEFORE SHOT
No color or life…ugly plastic green flower boxes with dead petunias…gotta love it!

Our New Home

Here is the standard boring angle. We in no way are trying to pass our house off as having “landscape”. These are the pathetic excuses for shrubs and mulch that we were left with. Ryan is trading out services with a landscaper so hopefully next year that huge wailing wall on the left will have shrubs or at least an ounce of aesthetic presence. Focus more on the fire engine red door, new flower boxes, plants and rod-iron set.

More interesting angle of the porch.

Come on up the stairs….let the red call you.

You may want to take a break after traversing all 10 stairs. Have a look around at some of our sketchy neighbors who take NO pride in their homes.

We even have a super sweet door knocker. I am probably inside watching Prices Right or Family Feud because we only get 15 channels.

By the way…for those of you tracking the “Pyrex Incident”, I had a lovely chat with Debbie at Pyrex who let me know it wasn’t my fault (as if I didnt know this!) and I will receive my new 9 X 13 casserole dish within a week! That is all I was looking for. Thank you Debbie….A+ on customer service.

What the….

Published by Kelly September 27th, 2006 in Life in General. 8 Comments

Last night I was being a dutiful wife, I had chicken thawing and was preparing a yummy side…scalloped potatoes. I put them in my wonderful wedding gift, a Pyrex casserole dish and let them bake away while I finished up some painting in Chloe’s room. I asked Ryan to start the chicken on the stove. We were both standing in the kitchen when we heard a loud explosion in the oven. When we opened the oven door…this is what our eyes beheld.

SO SO SO SO mad. First of all, total waste of really good potatoes. Second of all…you are PYREX….this is your job to be a casserole dish. Just so you don’t ask….the glass was not cold when I put it in, yes I have used it many many times in the last year…it just stinking exploded.
My dear husband graciously cleaned it all up after the oven cooled and I made instant mashed potatoes instead.

Yesterday I went to the quilt store with my mother-in-law to pick out the last of the material for Chloe’s room. Here are all the yummy fabrics that will go in her quilt, bumper, bed skirt, curtains, basket liners, sheets, etc….

This is the pattern for the inside of the quilt:

and this is the pattern for the edge of the quilt…the scallop part. She is combining the two together.

She has more talent in her pinkie then I do in my whole body. I can’t wait to see the finished product, it is going to be so beautiful. Her room is really coming together now and I just stand in there and turn around in a slow 360 about 10 times a day picturing a real baby occupying the space. I still can’t believe it….I AM HAVING A BABY GIRL!!!!!

Merging of Genes

Published by Kelly September 26th, 2006 in Adventures in Pregnancy. 6 Comments

If you have seen the movie “How to lose a guy in 10 days” then you know the part where she makes up this crazy photo album of what their children “could” look like. I wish I had the ability in Photoshop to make up some messed up versions of Ryan and I to see what Chloe could potentially look like. I am sure it would only reinforce my screwy dreams I have been having about Chloe being so pale, she is clear. Chloe being the size of a one year old at birth, bald and really not pretty. There is just NO WAY to predict what your child will look like. I keep picturing a little girl with lots of black hair and hopefully will get Ryan’s pretty big green eyes and curly eyelashes. I have to say, I am a sucker for petite babies with nice ruddy coloring. For all I know she could be hairless with blue eyes and I know we will think she is the cutest thing God ever made. We have all hair colors and eye colors represented on both sides of our families. I took one of the gene eye color website tests and my results said 50% brown eyes, 49% green, 1 % blue. So basically it gave me jack crap to hang my hat on. I thought I would let you all have your say on Ryan and I. Looking at these pictures of us at around age 3-4 and see what you think. I apologize for the photo quality…these are scanned in.

Awww…here is little Ry Ry (he hates that so naturally I will call him that)

Let’s see…I’ll take the eyes, eyelashes, lips, and hair. We will leave the ears to me.

Now here is little Kelly after a long day at Martha’s Vineyard

Dimples…can you beat dimples?

So what do you think? Our baby pictures aren’t the best…so I am choosing a much cuter stage to exploit. Ryan was bald for 2 years and looked like Dwight Eisenhower and my brother-in–laws so kindly call me the down syndrome baby because my brown eyes were droopy as a baby….big meanies.
I have to show this one picture of my brother and I when we were little. When I showed Ryan I said, “We were playing dress-up on the porch.” He looked at me and said, “You aren’t very good at it!” I thought that was hilarious. Yeah, well, my modesty grew with age.

My dog has superhero powers

Published by Kelly September 24th, 2006 in Charlotte Tails. 5 Comments

So what can your dog do? Well maybe she’s not a superhero, but I think her teeth are made of titanium. She was always a toy-chewer since we got her, but then she developed an insatiable appetite for plastic. She doesn’t chew it and spit it out, she chews and swallows. LARGE pieces I might add. There are times she has made herself incredibly sick. This is another reason why we call her our little dumpster dog. I am convinced we can not buy her anything nice.

Exhibit A- her crate (her third crate!)

We can’t even latch it on the top anymore because there is no top. Not one shred of plastic has been found laying around. She EATS it. She lost her privileges on the golf balls she used to play with because she peeled them bare. It is amazing to me that her gums don’t bleed or her stomach explode.

Anyone else have a pet with an iron stomach and steel teeth?

Little bit of this, little bit of that post

Published by Kelly September 20th, 2006 in Life in General. 12 Comments

I decided that everybody doesn’t enjoy devoting 10 minutes to reading any of my text heavy posts, but everyone loves pictures and seeing as I am getting quite savvy with this uploading process, I decided to give you a little snippet of my last 24 hours. This will save me a lot of typing as I am quite tired today.

Last night for dinner I made a kick-butt bacon and cheddar quiche…..mmmmmmmm….it was so stinking good I was sad it didn’t last long. What is not to like about bacon, cheese, egg and crust….yes please!

I also wanted to re-do my 33 week belly shots. The angle was not accurate on my last post. PLEASE do not feel like you have to affirm me. I don’t put up shots for affirmation, just keeping everyone posted on my “growings and groanings”. I appreciate your kind words, but I don’t have a knife to my wrist, nor am I depressed at my ever growing waistline, although it is fairly shocking some mornings.
Tonight I had Ryan re-shoot with me turned completely to the side and front. I think you can see my true basketball belly now. What can I say…I am 5′2″ and need some place to put this baby and all my organs.

I also wanted to post a crafty project I have been working on the last few days. It was all in my head and when I described it to my husband he gave me that look of “I trust you, but I don’t see it.” Well it came out exactly how I hoped. I wanted to do something more unique with the letters of Chloe’s name. I know everyone is putting their baby names on the wall, which I totally dig…but I didn’t want to present her name in the same way. I love the typeface of the letters I found and they were only a buck each and the frames were a dollar too. I painted them white, painted a shelf I found for $1.00 in the celery green, then took one of the fabrics that will be in Chloe’s bed set and put it as the background. The ribbon was added for fabric contrast and keep it feminine and “French country”. The whole thing cost me $15.00 and some elbow grease. Once we get the crib this weekend, I can hang the shelf and the letters centered above….this is why you get to view them on the floor!

The last two pictures are for my amusement only. I stinking love my dog. She is hilarious. The whole time I was working on the nursery today she just sniffed and sniffed and dug around trying to figure out what everything is. I was talking to her about needing a rug for Chloe’s room and this is her impression of a bear skin rug. I am not sure how this is more comfortable to her, but she loves to chill her girl parts on the cold floor in this oh-so-lady-like-manner, all the time.

This is my favorite Charlotte feature…the killer under bite. Sometimes her upper lip gets caught up on her snaggletooth on her front tooth and then we have a very goofy looking dog. Let’s just say she won’t be winning any dog shows in her lifetime. This picture looks like a senior picture.