Elena's 1st Thanksgiving

It's my first Thanksgiving!


That flash always gets me.
I know Kung Fu!

There's Turkey?

What?!? I have to wait for my Turkey?

Why can't this camera do a faster shutter at medium lights? This would have been my best picture!

MMMmmm. Turkey...

What's going on?

What have we been up to? I have been scheduling things. The fireplace gets installed Wednesday, Nov. 28th. Insulation is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 6th, and drywall Wednesday, Dec. 12th. So Eric has his work cut out for him. He's been working on getting his framing-for-later list checked off. He's also is working on HVAC. We now have propane service and a working garage heater! Yea! My parents and 2/3 of Team Gemo are coming up this weekend to help finish the electric rough in. I have also been doing a little more than my usual dance with the Shopvac. Last week, I combed the stores for the best price on good but inexpensive tile and came up successful. Now, Eric and I just have to hash out the details. I also have been painting exterior trim in the garage at the Cheddar Haus. I get 1-2 hour sessions between baby time. Last Saturday, I even got to insulate the first 8 feet of the fireplace chase. I used the kraft faced fiberglass bats, but if I did it again I'd use the unfaced with the 4 mil poly vapor barrier. That's what the insulation company uses. We decided not to go for the "green" UltraTouch cotton bat insulation which I've had my heart set on since before we started. But we did opt for hiring the insulation out and going with Certainteed's MemBrain vapor barrier. If the wall cavity gets too much moisture the molecular structure of the plastic changes and becomes permeable to dry out the wall cavity. We'll see if that was worth it in 20 years... Elena has been becoming even more aware of her environment and the people and animals in it. Here she's showing off her pink diaper. Here's hoping we make our Dec. 12th drywall deadline! Happy Thanksgiving! Oh and I forgot it snowed big wet flakes last night. The kind that make you crazy when you are driving with your brights on (I picked a good time to go to the store for cheesecake ingredients) Here's a picture of the front yard this morning.

What about Ben?

We've seen Eric, Rita, Kodi and Elena, but what about little Benny? How has he spent his last year at the Cheddar Haus back in his homeland? We adopted him from the Green County Humane society in February '03. He, his mom and a sibling were brought in to the Green County Humane Society in pretty rough shape. Both the mom and the sibling didn't make it, but Ben did. If you've ever been in the TV room when he is banging on the sidelight (He knows it makes more noise than the door) you can get an idea why. Ben is very persistant, lucky and relatively fearless.


He and Cheddar have taken to Ultimate Fighting Kitty Style. When we move out, we will have to bring Ben back for rematches.

Curious Ben inspects everything. Here, he is inspecting the siding trim I'm painting in the garage. You'd think after getting his paw smashed in a door when he was being fostered as a kitten (He's missing one digit from that incidence) would have made him shy away from doors. Nope not Ben. He has made darting through exterior doors a science in which he has earned a PhD with honors. Once perfecting his escape skills, he moved on to hunting skills. I can't help but feel a little bit of pride when he comes back with a little mole or mouse swinging from his mouth...along with a whole lot of "Eww gross Ben. Did you have to..."

Post #42

I feel like it's been forever for a house update. It's been on my to do list for weeks. Since the last update, Eric did a little more work on the porch. The electrician and his assistant (my mom and dad) have been up twice and have most of the wires run, though I still need to put in half of the ceiling fixture boxes.

Eric has finished up some of the interior we'll-get-that-later framing. The ceilings in the stairwells, the master bath tub surround, the master bath door, the sink wall and I'm sure one or two more other things I've forgotten about have all come off the to do list. Here's the peninsula in the kitchen where the sink goes.

We also finished the kitchen! What more do you need than a microwave, plasticware, and microwavable packaging? We even had Stoffer's microwave lasagna to celebrate the finished kitchen. It was pretty good.

Eric also has been working on the soffit. Here is where Eric started. I've actually been helping with the soffit when I can. I cut the pieces on the saw and then bring the panels up to him. Gus and Nate were up this weekend and helped Eric get quite a bit more soffit done. Lately, it has been too windy to get back up on the lift, so he's been doing heat runs with his dad.

The mason came out Saturday and got the porch brick done. We picked out the brick in the showroom in less than 5 minutes, since they were closing. We didn't even have the siding color with us because I had to send my only color chip to the siding company to match the paint. A few days before the brick was delivered I was starting to wonder/worry that maybe I should double checked it, but luckily the brick is perfect. Props to Eric for spotting this one.

And of course I continue to take the same picture of Elena in her carseat. She is starting to do a lot of crunches trying to pick her head up to sitting. She also started grabbing a toy with her hands repeatedly today. She's definitely getting older quickly!