Out With The Old...

Once upon a time, a young couple bought their first couch.  They were young (did I mention that?), just married, far away from family and fancy-free (except for the gallant gentleman who was studying for the Bar Exam and the fair maiden who was preparing to student teach). 

 

This young couple lived on the third floor of a nice little apartment and since neither of them was technically working during that summer immediately after their wedding, they were living on a small stipend from the husband's soon-to-be-pending-passage-of-said-bar-exam.  As such, although they had bedroom furniture and a second-hand kitchen table, they had nothing but two lawn chairs upon which to sit in their living room. 

 

After a few months, the lawn chairs were, well....getting old....and uncomfy, so the couple went off in desperate search of a couch.  (I believe that Andrew was gainfully employed by that time.)  We were in a bit of a hurry because we were tired of sitting on the lawn chairs, so we opted to choose an in-stock (probably floor model, if I recall) couch and have it delivered as soon as possible.  We chose a dark blue dual reclining La-Z-Boy couch and loveseat and comfort (if not style) was had by all.

 

I would include a picture of said couch, but that was before we had a digital camera (remember, this was 12 and a half years ago), and you've probably seen it in the background of countless other posts. 

 

The couch was comfy and held up well, but alas, it could not last forever....particularly when a certain 8 year old and 3 year old who shall remain nameless, liked to jump and fly onto and sit on the backs and arms of the reclining couch.  And so it was, that a few weeks ago, Andrew came home from a particularly long day at work and found that when he sat down in "his" seat, he was no longer sitting upright, but laying back and leaning off to the left.  Thus, the old blue couch had breathed it's last.  (Of course, if you ask either of the unnamed children in this story, they will swear to you that they had nothing to do with the couch's demise.)

 

So, after once again searching for a new couch, this time with the firm belief that a neutral color was a must, a couch was found, and after much deliberation and measurements and visitations, ultimately purchased.

 

And then it was delivered....and holy cow, it's a big brown beast of couch, but it is the most comfy delightful piece of furniture ever (in my humble and completely biased opinion)!

 

 

Here she is!  As you look straight at the couch from this angle, there are two recliners, then a wedge piece, a single chair and closest to you, a chaise lounger which will also fully recline.

 

 

We call the chaise section "Carlos" because Andrew thinks that "Chaise" is a dumb word.  And he's claimed it as his own.  It's big enough to easily hold him and both kids or two adults.

 

 

I took this picture from one of the recliners that has become "my" seat.  This is how far away I am from Andrew when he's sitting on "Carlos".  Next to me (between the two recliners) and next to "Carlos" are two arm rests that open up for storage and have two cupholders built in.  We won't make any style magazines, but it works great for us!

 

And here is the view from "my" seat of the other side of the living room.  We had to completely flip-flop the layout of the room to fit the sectional.  So the tv now sits where the couch has always sat and the new couch sits where a whole lot of other things used to be!  It took a few days to get used to the new set-up after 8+ years of the same layout, but I have come to enjoy it very much.  Sometimes it's good to shake things up and get a new perspective....and new furniture!

A Distraction from Hurricane Sandy

 

Since my family (out east on the Delmarva Peninsula) is hunkered down in an attempt to safely ride out Hurricane Sandy, I thought I'd provide a little distraction in the form of pictures.

 

 

 

 Arghhh Matey!  Pirate Ethan dressed as Jake from "Jake and the Neverland Pirates".  This will be his Halloween costume.

 

 

The kids wanted to play in the leaves on Saturday, so I raked a little pile and here's what they did:

 



 

 

Yesterday afternoon, we carved pumpkins.  These would be the second round of pumpkins as the ones that we hand-picked at the pumpkin patch rotted.

 

Ethan rather enjoyed scooping out the pumpkin guts.  Emily...not so much.

 

 

 

 

The kids with their pumpkins.

 

 

The finished product...a bat and a cat!

Before and After

There's been some creativity here lately.  Exhibit #1:  A certain three-year-old who shall remain nameless got creative during "naptime" and found a small manicure set with scissors.  And he used them...on his hair.  Nice bald spot, buddy!

 

Here he is after his hair cut.  Yep, still has a bald spot, but his hair all over is A LOT shorter.  It'll grow back...eventually.  Until then,  he can wear a lot of hats.  The only good thing was that we had just taken his official three year pictures the week before. 

 



 

Exhibit #2 is a little project I took on.  Emily needed a space for her homework and supplies, so I'd been on the lookout for a very inexpensive and not too huge desk.  I happened to find one in a thrift store for $19.95.  It was just the right size and real wood, just old.  I neglected to take a true "before" picture, but this is what it looked like after I sanded off the honey oak finish and removed the old-fashioned, tarnished and stripped hardware.

 



And here is the finished product:  a couple of coats of black paint and some new hardware....voila....a new and more modern desk!

 



Lots of Pictures, Few Words

 

Prepare yourself:  This post is full of pictures.  I won't bother to describe them all, so here's the quick over-view. 

 

As a final fling before summer was over, we made an impromptu trip to Chicago.  Most of the pictures are of that.  Ethan made his first train ride (we took the train in to Chicago, or "Sickago" as Ethan calls it).  We left early in the morning and rode for about 3 hours, then walked to our hotel, dropped off our bags and headed to the Museum of Science and Industry.  The kids enjoyed it and liked some of the hands-on exhibits.  Andrew and I enjoyed getting to tour a real captured German submarine.  It was suffocatingly tiny and so hard to believe that men actually lived in it for months at a time.  Heck....they were probably sort of glad to be captured!  (Kidding, I think!)

We went to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner and then all crashed for the night.

 

The next day we headed to the Shedd Aquarium.  We spent several hours looking at the fish and sea life, watched a dolphin show that included a couple of Beluga whales and just enjoyed the day together.  After that, we took a boat ride from the aquarium across the water to Navy Pier, where we ate dinner at Bubba Gump's and spent the rest of the lovely evening looking in shops and walking up and down the pier.  All in all, it was a lovely little getaway.

 

Oh, and the first few pictures are just some random kid pictures.  The first two with face paint were from the day we accidently went to Chick-fil-a on their birthday.  They had free face painting, free food, free birthday cake and free prizes.  The kids had a great time.

 

And then there's Ethan.  Clearly, potty training hasn't quite clicked yet, if the placement of underwear is any indicator!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catching Up...Look Who's Three!

I'm about a month or so behind, but here are a few pictures from the little man's 3rd birthday party

Ethan loves "Cowboody" (Cowboy Woody) and Buzz from Toystory, so his cake was a VERY bright one this year.

 



 

The birthday boy waiting to open his presents.

 



 

 

A big hit was his Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster dart gun.

 



He also got a tricycle, however the one he ended up with is not the same one here.  He's so short that he was having trouble with this one.  Still...he looks so cute with his blaster on his bike! 

 

Grandma and Pa got this cute little ride-on turtle.  He likes to zoom around on it.

 

 

Happy Third Birthday, little buddy!



Back to School 2012

Emily, this morning, on the first day of
second grade.

Emily, one year ago today, on the first day of
first grade.

Note how much higher up her knees are in the picture from today!


 

Ethan, one year ago today.

This morning.  He looks a bit more dignified today.
He's also grown more than it seems.



I apologize for the crazy formatting.  There must be an easier/better way, but I can't figure it out right now.  This is as good as it gets for today!

Greenish Thumb?

I believe I've mentioned here before that I'm not really a gardener.  In fact, I really never liked to play in the dirt or get sweaty and I HATE spiders.  We have lots of spiders in our enormous flower beds, by the way, one of which dared to crawl across my flip-flopped foot.  It almost made me quit....but I didn't and I must say, it almost looks like I might have a green-ish thumb.   

When you look at this first picture, keep in mind that before I started this summer, there were only the four green and white hostas along the sidewalk and the clump of daylilies at the edge of the picture.  Oh, and tons of weeds.  And spiders.  And bugs.

And now....let there be green and color and far fewer weeds.

This is the other side of the step.  Before there was one lone hosta.  Now, there are 6. 





This is looking down the sidewalk.  Doesn't look too impressive from this angle.  Lots of new stuff, but it's been so hot and dry that a lot of it is still in the newly-planted-still-struggling stage.

The end of flower bed.  My hydrangea bush suffered major frost damage because of the crazy hot-then-cold spell this spring.  I was hoping it would survive.  It did and it's huge and full of pink, purple and blue blossoms.

My lilies are blooming!  I think I planted two a few years ago and they have multiplied.  They don't last too long, but they're gorgeous while they're here.



Looking back down towards the step.  I like this section of the garden a lot now.