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The last month or so has been a wild ride at our house. Dan’s mom (Nana to Joe) moved out here about the third week of July in the midst of a crazy hot and long heat wave. At the end of the month, we took Joe to the Dragon Boat races on a blistering hot Sunday and ate snowcones while hovering under a lone sparse tree on the opposite side of the lake. (Can you tell it wasn’t my favorite day?) Then, in the middle of August, Dan and I flew with Joe to Reno, rented a car, and drove to Twin Lakes (just outside of Bridgeport) to go camping with my family, where the heat continued unabated. (Global warming sucks.)
In between these adventures, we’ve been working (frantically) on the basement because Dan’s stepmom (Grammie Lo to Joe) was planning to come out for a visit shortly after we returned from our camping trip. Well, the good news is that the guest room was livable by the time she arrived (it had a floor, baseboards, and a bed).
Laura’s visit was nice. She was such a trooper and dragged Joe all around town, to the park, the zoo, and the local deli around the corner. (Rumor has it that Al Gore was spotted in front of the flower shop around the corner from our house while she and Joe were across the street at the park. Unfortunately, they missed him! If that was him… It could have been. There are some muckety-mucks in our ‘hood — well, the nicer part, a few blocks away — including the mayor and an ambassador, maybe? I see those international limos with all the flags every now and then.)
Laura even jumped on the bus to downtown with Joe and ran the gauntlet of security at the Pepsi Center so that she could get a photo of them in front of the “08 DNC” signs (with her local paper). Grammie Lo also taught Joe that the half-dozen stuffed elephants he acquired when he was born (because mommy went on a random elephant hunt — it’s over now) are called “Republicans.” She also threatened to buy him a donkey! He he he. We still can’t understand him, so it will be interesting to see what he calls elephants when he does talk. I can only imagine the looks of bewildered strangers at the zoo when he does make sense!
The last few weeks have been spent helping Nana get situated in her new condo, helping Noni P sell her two houses in California (so far, both are under contract — woo hoo!), and continuing to work on our house. (In addition to finishing the basement, we’ve had a historic window restoration guy tuning up our disfunctional-but-in-good-condition-windows and building new storms, so hopefully we won’t freeze this winter!) Dan had to go to Indianapolis for a few days for a conference a couple of weeks ago. And today, his new boss started at the office! He’s got several more conferences (most local) in the next couple of months. Joe and I will probably accompany him to Breckenridge in early October to see the fall trees. We’re looking forward to that!
Debbie came out for a visit this past weekend and brought some warm California weather with her. It was in the 70s on Saturday (bliss!) and felt (and looked) like spring. Then, in typical Colorado fashion, by the early hours of Sunday morning, we had a good snowfall and a low of 22 degrees. (This is the cherry tree in our backyard about 18 hours after a high of 73 degrees.)
As usual, Deb was incredibly helpful and took care of Joe the entire time. She even stayed in his room and dealt with him in the middle of the night, which means that she didn’t get much rest. (I’m not sure if he’s teething or if this ear infection is resistant to the new antibiotics, but he’s been abnormally fussy at night, getting up about every hour.)
Having Deb here left Dan and I free to work on the house. We rented an airless sprayer and Dan (resplendent in his disposable snow-camouflage Oompa-Loompa stylings) primed the basement and painted the ceilings. Now we just have to roll the walls. We’re hoping to get to it next weekend. Slowly but surely, we’re getting there!
Since Grandma* Debbie left, Joe’s been exhibiting some new behaviors, namely temper tantrums every time I leave the room, turn my back, or try to put him to bed. It’s the typical tantrum: bloodcurdling screams, hysterical crying, and he’s even started the back arching. Oh joy. I’m hoping it’s a combination of a disrupted schedule and being sick. If not, well, we’re prepared for anything…especially since G-ma and Noni P are headed out here tomorrow!
*I’m not wild about the name “Grandma” Debbie. She’s young (only 11 years older than me, for goodness sake), hip, fit, and needs a more representative moniker than “grandma.” I’m sure Joe will come up with something on his own, but it never hurts to have ideas. Got any?
It’s been far too long since we’ve posted a blog entry. So, here’s the rundown of the last three months of life with the Lawrences.
Christmas in the Mountains. My family planned a last-minute vacation to the Rocky Mountains. Dad, Deb, four siblings, and Nonie flew out and met us at a cabin in Winter Park. I’ve been moaning about having a white Christmas tucked away in a cabin for years…since I was a teenager, and this year, I got my wish. You don’t know how BIG this is, since my family is all about tradition, and tradition with the Nuttalls means Christmas morning at Dad’s house with Nonie there, then we nap, then we go to Aunt Marlane’s house for dinner. It’s been that way…well, as long as I can remember. (Of course, I’ve been the black sheep for missing the occasional Christmas.) So we stayed in the mountains and it snowed, brilliantly. I relished in the quietude of the cabin for 4 days; Dan, Billy, and Daniel went snowboarding; it was Dan’s first time and he came back a bit tender. All of the kids (and Dad) went tubing on the last day. Fun! Joe loved the snow and got to wear his uber cute snow suit (thanks Plo!).
The Move. As soon as Christmas was over, we hustled back home to prepare for the move (the next day). But, we have a knack for poor planning when it comes to moves. We had a blizzard on our scheduled move date, so that threw life into a tizzy. Not to mention that we weren’t anywhere close to packed and the new house wasn’t ready to move into. The movers came a few days later. We still weren’t very ready. Dan’s bruised tailbone was bugging him too. We managed to get our bedroom and Joe’s room set up, but we were up to our eyeballs (literally) with boxes in the living room and dining room. We went back on the 31st to clear out the dregs of our stuff. Thank goodness we had a Uhaul trailer because it, the truck, and my car were full to the brim. We caravaned home like the Beverly Hillbillys and barely made it to the new house to see the ball drop. I definitely don’t recommended moving in the winter with an infant.
Visit with the G-mas. Right after we moved, Dan’s mom (Germom) and grandma (Noni P) came out for a visit for a few days. Really, they were here to look at assisted living homes for Noni P. We looked at a few and managed to squeeze in an evening at Zoo Lights, which is really cool (the zoo is entirely lit with colored lights). Good news: Noni P is moving out here! She’s working on selling her properties and relocating. We’re so excited to have her close by!
Health Setbacks. The day Germom and Noni P left, Dan threw out his back…badly. We went to urgent care the next day. They medicated him and told him to rest for a few days. Well, a few days later, Dan felt better, bent over to pick up something off the ground, and –wham!– he completely threw out his back. We got him to bed and there he stayed for about a week. He wasn’t much improved for a couple of weeks after that. It was rough. He’s been going to physically therapy and is now back at work, but he’s not supposed to bend or lift anything (not even Joe). In the middle of all of that, both Joe and I got really sick with the “4 week” virus that’s been going around. It lasted two solid weeks, then lingered. Joe also got an ear infection. He’s better now; so am I. We’re not sure about Dan, who might be coming down with something right now.
The House, Unpacking, and Remodeling. Well, all of the above set us back with the house. After a few weeks, I finally unpacked what I could and got all boxes into the dining room, so that at least the living room was set up. Thankfully our neighbors (angels that they are) had helped us paint. No, they painted, most of the rooms in our house before we moved in. We just have the mud room, the hallway, the sun room, the living room, and all the trim to do. At my dad’s urging, we hired someone to frame and drywall the basement. We probably couldn’t have managed it on our own even in stellar health, so that was a good call. It’s taken longer than expected, partly because we weren’t able to do all the prep work we had planned before hiring the job out, so the drywall guy has had to do a lot of our work (like moving a bunch of junk out of the basement, finishing projects we had started, and dealing with all the quirks and mysteries of a 90-year-old house). But that, along with other projects (plumbing, roof, appliances, etc.) drained our budget, so the remodel is coming to somewhat of a screeching halt…very soon. The drywall is a day or so away from being finished, then we can paint. We can probably do the trim, too, but the bathroom and floors downstairs will have to wait. Ditto with the kitchen and the major wood/room divider project in the entryway. Not to mention that Dan can’t really do much. His tools are in Greeley and he can’t load or unload them given his back situation. I’ve been trying to do little things, mostly electrical, when I can. Dan’s been doing some of that too, but there’s only so much we can do at the moment.
Joe’s New Playmate. My work situation is in flux and I knew I was losing my bennies, so we found a family with whom we could share nanny costs. That started in January. The socialization is great for Joe, even if the 11-month-old girl he’s in daycare with kind of bullies him around and steals his binky and toys. Ha! I figure they’ll work it out on their own. Unfortunately, the other family needs more hours than the nanny can’t provide, so we got two weeks of notice this past weekend and we’re frantically looking for a new family to share nanny costs. So far, no luck because the hours are a bit weird (I only work about 15+ hours a week with the cutbacks). Keep your fingers crossed for us!
The Weed in General. Thankfully, Joe’s slowing down in the growth department. He’s 28 inches long and still just 18 pounds, 11-3/4 ounces (as of January 31st). The 12-month clothes fit perfectly even if we have a hard time finding big (wide) enough socks and shoes for his little Flintstone feet (he’s between a size 3 and size 4 in toddler shoes). Joe’s really close to being fully mobile. He’s almost crawling…definitely scooting and rolling to get to a desired destination. He’s pulling himself up to a sitting or kneeling position (we had to lower his crib). I also just ordered a slew of gates to install around the house and we’re frantically trying to childproof everything before the little guy really gets mobile. I think we have a week or so. The extra physical activity is probably keeping him stable, if not slimming him down a bit. We’ve also finally got Joe on a schedule both for feeding (three meals a day plus bottles) and sleeping in his crib — in his room — at night. But between the cold, the ear infection, and teething (but none have broken through yet), he’s a bit fussy at night and only sleeps in 4-hour stretches…after a diaper change, new binky, or sometimes a bottle, he goes right back down. So far, the transition has been relatively easy….certainly easier than I expected.
Progress on the Adoption. Several folks have asked if it’s “official” yet, so thought I’d set the record straight. We should have finalized in late November or early December, but that didn’t happen because of several delays (I won’t go into the blame game this time). But no worries, just an annoyance. In mid-January, our social worker came over for another visit (she had to update our homestudy because of the new house, and we had to sign some documents requesting a court date). She submitted the court documents and we finally got our date: April 25th. Yeah, it’s way out there. Apparently that’s the best that they could do. Joe will be 11 months old on that day. But then it’ll all be official. We’re quite excited. For those not familiar with the whole adoption thing, many adoptive families celebrate this date annually as “Gotcha Day,” the day it becomes official. It can be a pretty big deal. Stay tuned…we may be throwing a little shindig on the Saturday following his finalization.
That’s it for now. I’ll try to post more regularly in the near future.
Sorry that we haven’t posted in awhile, folks. Life has been crazy beyond belief. I won’t go into the gory details, but I’ve been sick as a dog for about two weeks. I still can’t kick the cough. Thankfully, Joe hasn’t shown the same symptoms (fingers crossed). Dan hasn’t been feeling great either, but that hasn’t stopped him (or me) from trying to beat the clock working on the new house. The good news is that the upstairs is almost complete! The hardwood floors will be dry enough for us to get in the house on Sunday and we can finish painting in the early part of the week. Then, it’s time to move in. Woo hoo! We’ll still have tons of finish work to do (the entire basement, moldings, and — ugh — the outside), but we’re finally getting there.
In the meantime, Joe has been having some great adventures… Grammie Lo and Grandpa Jim visited for a week at Thanksgiving. Grammie Lo had a great time taking Joe shopping, to the park, and even to meet Santa Claus for the first time (pictures forthcoming). Joe met Santa a second time a week later and apparently had a lot to say!
Well, the warm welcome we received the day we took possession of our new home was clearly just the tip of the iceberg. I don’t know where to begin to explain…
The previous owner visits regularly, which just tickles me pink. She stopped by today while I was consulting with a cabinet guy. She’s one groovy lady. And our realtor who lives around the corner from us has checked in regularly and offered to introduce me to the slew of new moms on her block. I’m really excited about Joe meeting new friends too!
This is not only an awesome neighborhood, but I’m convinced that we live on one of the coolest blocks around. On Halloween night, we went door-to-door to introduce ourselves and show off Joe in his penguin costume. One neighbor ran out of her house when we first got there and insisted that we introduce Joe to her mom who was visiting from the east coast. After a long chat, we went house to house up one side of the block and down the other. Everyone was friendly and welcoming and thrilled that we decided to stop by. Those who had already met us invited us in and several toured us around their homes. One family (with a gorgeous daughter the same age as Joe, but dressed as the ultimate skunk) invited us in for a beer (eh, trick-or-treat, trick-or-drink, same thing). What we thought would take about a half-hour ended up being a three-hour venture altogether. And we’ve met nearly every person on the block. How cool is that?!
Then, the other day, when mentioning my wallpaper dilemma, one neighbor donated a bottle of wallpaper remover to the cause AND had us over for a super yummy home-cooked dinner! 
(I had almost forgotten what those tasted like…)
But the topper has to be the fact that our next-door neighbor has been coming over a few nights a week and on weekends to help us with random tasks in the basement. She’s really interested in the remodel process and Dan even had her parging walls one night (all for the small price of beer and brownies).
I feel so incredibly blessed right now. And when I do get discouraged or down (like today when I found out that I’m losing my bennies for Joe and I), I just think of the awesome life we’re going to have in our new home and neighborhood and everything seems just right.
Well, after a long weekend of electrical work, we’ve decided to push back our move-in date. New target: Christmas in the new house. My dad and brother are coming back in a couple of weeks to finish up the electrical, but before then we’ve got soooo much more prep work to do. If anyone local is available this Saturday, November 3rd, we’re doing more demo (kitchen, yikes) and prep work. And/or if anyone is willing to make dump runs with your pickups or trailers, we’ll be doing that too. As always, yummies provided. Please let us know if you can make it. We may be starting a bit later in the morning…
This year, we did something special for Shannon’s birthday…we destroyed our house. Her birthday cake read “Home Sweat Home / Happy Birthday Shannon.”
Shannon’s stepmom came out and watched Joe while we threw our little party. We had three folks show up Saturday (thanks to Annie, Jerry, and Martin…4 librarians with sledge hammers and crow bars is a scary sight!), 2 new neighbors helping Sunday, and 3 day laborers helped me to finish it all off on Monday.
In all, we filled a 20 yard dumpster with lathe and plaster and the remains of the moldy downstairs bathroom (there was also a half ton of bricks and mortar left over from the garage repair…never believe a mason when they say they’ll be leaving a “small pile.”)
Next up is electrical. Shannon’s dad and brother will be here through the upcoming weekend to help us get the place wired.
So here’s a quick glimpse of Shannon’s birthday week…
Today, we worked for 13 hours straight at the house. (Joe was awesome, and we brought a bunch of his stuff over to the house to make it more comfy…) It was a wallpaper removal day. We finished one room (thanks to a handy steamer rental) and got a good start on the other three. There was a layer of original wallpaper in the kitchen. It looked like linen or some kind of fabric on the back and we were able to peel it off (dry) just by peeling the corner. Cool beans! But I can hardly move my arms. Ugh.
We also figured out that a previous owner completely altered the woodwork in the house, removing most of the specific “mission/arts & crafts” styling (we’ll explain in photos at a later date), but we’re going to do our best to restore it to it’s original beauty.
The seller came by again today to see our progress. It’s pretty cool to have this kind of relationship with a home’s previous owner. Dan likened it to open adoption. I hope she visits often.
Photos soon!
Locals, if you haven’t already heard from us, we’re having a demo party on Saturday, Oct. 20. It starts at 9am and goes until the basement is free of funky 70s “wood” paneling. Come on by and have fun ripping into walls. (If you have them, bring a prybar and safety glasses; if not, we’ll have extras.) We’ll keep you refreshed and well fed all day. Call or email for directions.
Or, feel free to stop by any weekend to keep us company. Dan will also be working many Fridays and Mondays too. Drop by, have a beer (or soda), and come check out the new digs. We’d love the company and don’t mind looky-loos. Things are definitely in a “before” state!
We fell in love with our new neighborhood at first sight. Ditto with our new house. (Did we mention previously that we had the showing in the dark and made an offer that night…after I ran — literally — through the house skipping with joy and chanting “This is the ONE. This is the ONE. Pssst, Dan, this is the ONE…”) Sometimes you just have to trust your gut. And this time, it paid off.
The day we closed, we met the seller in person at the walk-through. We hit it off right away. Definitely a feel-good situation. And we had a lot in common too. The close went smoothly. And truthfully, I felt a little sorry that the seller wasn’t going to be one of our neighbors. She’s really cool. We invited her to visit anytime…and we meant it.
We took possession of the house today at noon. When we arrived in work clothes with buckets full of tools and miscellaneous odds-and-ends, the seller was still there, hauling the last bit of stuff out — but we didn’t mind. In fact, we spent the better part of the afternoon chatting with the seller, the next door neighbors, a few of the across the street neighbors, and a young couple with a daughter about Joe’s age (I think Joe may have a regular playdate (hey, maybe even a prom date — wink, wink). We learned a bit more about our house and the history of the folks who made their lives there. We exchanged contact info with several of the neighbors, and got to tour two of the neighbors’ homes (great idea fodder). We were invited to tea and cookies, and had a beer with another couple.
Our workday was a bust, but what an incredibly warm welcome to the neighborhood. In fact, it couldn’t have been more perfect. I think we’re going to fit right in.
Now, if we can just get started on those house projects…
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