The Finishing Touch

Well, we put up our new shower curtain this morning to complete the bathroom remodel project!!!! I LOVE it! It's so bright and happy! I picked out the shower curtain while Mark was out of town so I took him out to see it yesterday. He said it was "fine" ; we got it home though and it worked perfectly!! We still need to add little things like white accent towels and the soap dispenser / toothbrush holder set and maybe a couple of rugs.. but at least now we are able to take a shower in there again! (I was getting tired of going downstairs!)

Many thanks to my wonderful husband who put many hours of hard work into that room! You did a great job, hun!

Addendum: Thanks Jenn. It's nice to have hard work rewarded. I'm so glad this project is done. It was one of those deals that takes twice as long and twice as much to finish. I also ran into a number of hang ups. When I pulled all the tile off around the tub/shower area, I realized that whoever put it up before didn't use cement board for a tile backer, and it caused a lot of water damage. I ended up ripping out all the walls around the shower/tub area down to the wood slats. Put up 5/16" cement board. Since I was going over the existing linoleum on the floor, I put down cement board there to0. I decided on 6x6 gleaming white tile for the walls/shower and 12x12 Venetian beige for the floor. The walls were a dark lavender, they are now the Irish green that you see. All the cabinets/door/trim were also lavender, they got 2 coats of brilliant white, as did the ceiling. Putting in the new exhaust fan and running new wiring for the 2nd switch required help. GME Construction did a fine job (thanks Mark Eschbach!)

When I pulled the toilet on day 1 (of 13 - I'm slow, and I have to work it around my work schedule), it was in perfect working order. When I put it back in, the tank would not fill (and I realized I needed a longer piece of pipe to go from the floor to the toilet since I raised the floor 3/4".)That was depressing. It caused issues with connecting the hardware in the shower too, since I brought the walls out another 1/2". Got that all dealt with, but the toilet for whatever reason would not fill. After an hour, I got mad and pulled out all the floats/levers out of the inside of the toilet and went back to the hardware store. So, we basically have a brand new toilet now too. Just stuff like that.

We're happy with the end result. It's really green, but we think it looks pretty cool.

And it's root, root, root for the CARDINALS!!!

So, this past Friday we were absolutely blessed, by some friends, with tickets to the Cardinals vs. Giants game at Busch Stadium! It was our friend's birthday and he and Mark are both huge Cards fans so I knew they would both have a great time!

Let me first start off by saying that we have never been to a game where the Cardinals won so we were hoping for a victory. Go Cards - they WON 11 to 1 over the Giants! They had 6 runs in the 4th inning alone! Awesome. Plus we got to see Pujols hit that home run out into Big Mac Land. Apparently anytime this week we can take our ticket stub to any McDonalds and get a free Big Mac (except that we don't like McDonalds!)

It did rain almost the entire way down to St. Louis and it pretty much rained up until game time! Mark was a little bummed because he and "J" didn't get to see batting practice and none of the players came out for autographs before the game. That reminds me - we've never been to a game where we've witnessed batting practice either! It's either been raining or the team was up late the night before with a long game and they canceled the batting practice. Bummer!

The coolest part of the night (besides the 53 degree weather) was our seats! We were sitting in the first section behind home plate (not counting the couple rows of 'champion' seats) and we were 14 rows up. Our view was amazing! Mark and I got to actually read the names on the back of the players' jerseys! Ha! We were also sitting behind a couple of guys that had speed guns and they were clocking pitches and taking stats. It was neat!

Great Seats! Great Friends! Great Game!

Many thanks to our friends! We hope you had a great birthday!!!!
















The first pic is the first pitch and the second pic was the view from our seats.

Trip to West Virginia

What a crazy couple of days.
I was asked to go to West Virginia with the sales manager of UIC to set up 8 new accounts that we were awarded. Reluctantly I went as I don't like to be away from the family for 4 days. They needed the expertise, so I agreed.

We got all of our travel plans set last week, got the hotels all set, rental cars etc. I left the house 730 Sunday morning. Drove to O'Hare airport. I cut it a little close, as I walked up to the terminal after I got there and got onto the plane, they shut the door and we took off.
Landed in beautiful Charleston, West Virginia. Nice 80 degrees, sunny. Everyone was in a good mood. Frank, my colleague went to get the rental car at the desk, and after 10 minutes, he looks over at me and yells, Mark! and waves me over. I'm like, cool, we're good to go.

I walk up and he has these wide eyes, and says, we're in Charleston, SOUTH CAROLINA. My jaw literally hits the floor. Our travel company totally messed up. I start to laugh, and he starts to freak out. We have an 8:00 am appointment the next day. I have no idea how I didn't notice that we were being flown to the wrong state! I looked at all my travel plans, and they just say, Charleston, never a state. UIC booked my travel, I guess I just assumed they knew where we were supposed to go. I didn't personally book the plane.

We try to get a flight to West Virginia, but it's going to be $1000 and we don't get in till 11:30 pm, and we can't afford for it to get cancelled or something. We have no choice but to get the rental car and drive 500 miles (8 hours) to West Virginia. What's hilarious is that Jenn and I are coming to Charleston, South Carolina on vacation with Mads in May. Frank thought it was hilarious that he came here with me before Jenn and I did.

We drive an exhausting drive (I drove 160 miles to O'Hare, 2 hours in a cramped puddle jumper) earlier in the day. Got in at 11:25pm. We had to return the rental car by 11:30 at the airport we were supposed to arrive in, and pick up the new one. We did, found the hotel (we always stay at Marriott, as we have their rewards points set up), and it was a DIVE! Worst hotel I've stayed at in their organization. We were going to stay there everynight, but decided against it once we got there.

Monday am, we got up early, did 2 inservices, and ended up driving a little over 400 miles again today. We have officially driven extensively on this trip through: South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and tonight we are staying in Hagerstown, Maryland, as we've driven through MD most the afternoon. Ugh. We'll drive about 400 miles again tomorrow and do 2 more inservices for new clients. I'll leave Wed morn. Frank is staying till Friday.

Yesterday, when we were driving, we thought there was an accident on the left hand side, as all these cars were getting over. We saw the cop cars, but when we passed, 2 cops were rigged behind their open doors, with both pistols drawn and pointed at this guy standing by his car in front of them. We floored it and got out of there. We didn't want bullets on our tail too. We've seen it all. Some of the most depressed areas in WV in all of the US. It was a eye-opening day.

Addendum: I just got home, it's Wednesday morning. Since I left on Sunday morning, I've driven a little over 1600 miles, did 4 new client inservices (anyone see the movie "Deliverance" it was like that most the time.) Tomorrow, my colleague has to go down an UNPAVED road for 40 miles to get to that client. I can't make this up. And I had to deal with O'Hare going and coming. Ugh. Glad to be home.

Prayer...

Mark and I are going through a situation right now where we'd like to ask for prayer from all of our friends. I won't go in to all of the details but as most of you know we've been looking at houses as we're hoping to move this summer. We've got a buyer for our house so we've started to look around to see what's out there. Unfortunately for us, we found a house that we absolutely LOVE. We can't make a move right now though as there is a line of events that has to happen first. We'd just like the Lord to lead us in this situation. He knows our desires and how much we love the house and we're just trusting Him for the outcome. If it's His will that we should have that particular house, then we pray that it'll still be on the market when we're able to buy. It's just hard, for me especially, to sit and wait. But, I know the Lord is teaching me patience, among other things, through this process. So, I just ask that you'd pray that the Lord would lead us in this situation. I pray for His peace in our lives and that He would give us wisdom to make the right choices for our future home and our family.

Thanks :)

A little rennovation of the bathroom never hurt anyone...

Well, It hasn't hurt us yet... except for that small minor detail --- we have to go use the bathroom in the basement because we tore up the toilet. That may not sound too hard (and it's not when it's during the day) but night time is a different story. By the time I find my way, in the dark, to the very farthest corner of the basement to use the restroom, I'm fully awake! And, because it's in the basement, the bathroom is freezing cold! Oh well... a little sacrifice for a gorgeous new bathroom is do-able :)

A week ago, on Sunday night, I decided to run to Michael's to go shopping :) I came home and found Mark pulling tiles off of the wall. I was a little surprised as he had been sick with a fever the entire week. (God healed him that afternoon after a wonderful time of prayer at church!) Anyway, he was running around like a little kid with a new toy... he was excited to be starting on the bathroom as we have been wanting to update it since we moved in (in 2005!) It was funny to watch him. Mady wasn't too sure what to think though as she curiously watched Daddy the entire time!

The next few days, Mark gutting the bathroom. We also had someone from church come and install a light/exhaust fan. Because we have an older home, the work for the exhaust fan was a little more challenging than expected.

I'm so PROUD of my husband! He's so good at getting in and doing different jobs around the house - and he does a GREAT job! He took all the existing tile off of the walls and the inside of the shower. He is ripping up the old linoleum floor and laying new tile, he put in new *board (i can't remember what's it's called) inside the shower to protect against water, and he's putting up nice white tile where there used to be ugly green! Oh, and he's painting! Did I mention that I have a wonderful husband!??

Currently, we're almost finished (I say "we're" but you all know who's doing the work!) with the bathroom. He's got it all painted and is finishing up the tile on the walls as we speak (it's 10:00pm!) So, he'll just have the floor left and then voila! we'll be done!

I love it! It's looking great. The color was a stretch for us - we thought we were going for a different shade but we ended up liking the one we picked. If you've been to our house, you know that we love color and we're not afraid to use it!!!!

Here are a couple of pictures of the process. The first is the bathroom when we moved in (angry bathroom as we called it!), the 2nd is what we did to it (2 days after we moved in - we wanted to get it painted quickly has we had guests coming!), and then there are a couple of current picts of what we're doing now... For more pics, check out: http://community.webshots.com/user/jmlbettinger

A baby brother or a baby sister?

NOPE, we're not pregnant! Let me just first start off by stating that simple fact.

This morning we decided to head over to the Assembly Hall to go to the Home & Garden Show. On the way over we somehow got on the subject of the difference between having a baby boy versus having a baby girl.

Mark turned around and said "Mady, would you like a baby brother or a baby sister?" He wasn't expecting her to say anything. Neither was I. Much to our surprise she replied "thi-thter." It was hilarious. It was "sister" plain as day (in her little girl speech, anyway." We both looked at each other and laughed! Mark thought maybe she was saying "sister" because that was the last word she heard. So, I decided to mix it up and I asked her if she wanted a "baby sister or a baby brother." She still replied "thi-thter." Now Mark can't argue with me... Madalyn wants a sister!

Note: We've been asked a lot recently if we were thinking about #2. Every time someone asks us that Mark always turns and asks Madalyn the brother / sister question. Apparently she's heard it a bunch and she's finally starting to voice her opinion!!!

Let me out!!!!

Mark and I have started a new tactic this week... Let me begin by giving a little background. Ever since Mady was a few months old we've tried to give her "downtime" in her room by not picking her up immediately when she wakes or by putting her in her crib with toys or books when she was getting fussy and overstimulated. We always appreciated these times. I also really think that it taught her that when she wakes up from sleeping, she doesn't need to cry. She knows that crying won't make us come in and get her. This is nice because (1) she hardly cries now when it comes to naps and sleeping and (2) she'll sit in her crib playing or talking until Mom or Dad decide it's time for her to get up. We don't let her decide when she wants to get up by crying.

Anyway, lately she's been getting really grouchy around dinner time. According to my friends who have toddlers, this is pretty typical. It's apparently a well known fact! Usually the time that I start making dinner for the evening is the time when Madalyn decides she wants held or she wants me to read a book to her. I get really frustrated when I have a toddler trying to climb up my leg while I'm making dinner... or when she's standing in front of me signing "please" while holding her favorite book. As much as I'd love to stop what I'm doing and spend time with her, I can't... or else the husband gets really grouchy because he's hungry!

Yesterday I decided to take the advice of a friend (Thanks Liz!) and my husband. Liz has given me great advice from the time Madalyn was born. Mark really liked her idea of using a gate to keep Madalyn in her room to play. At first I wasn't so sure. I mean, she plays in her room all the time during the day without having to have a gate up so I wasn't too excited about locking her in her room.

Now, I LOVE the idea! The last two days have been great. Yesterday around 4pm I put her in her room and put up the gate. She cried for a couple of minutes but then I heard her in her room plunking away on her piano! (Watch out Mozart!) I was able to get dinner made and even sit a few minutes on the couch without her pulling on my pants leg. It was so nice. I was a little nervous though when I went in 35 minutes later as I wasn't sure what her room was going to look like! She didn't make too much of a mess!

Today I put her in her room for about 45 minutes and it was great! She did much better, only crying for about 30 seconds. (Although today she decided to empty the contents of her dresser drawers! Fun for mom!)

I really think that kids need that downtime during the day. As they get older, I think it's important to alter the ways that the parents make that possible. It seems that after only these two days, her attitude is so much better when I let her out. She seems rejuvenated! I also think that this will lead to great habits as she gets older. I know many teenagers who still, on their own, want that downtime that they had growing up as kids. I think we're on to something good!!!

I thrive on good deals!!!

So, I got a call this week (Thursday night) from my cousin in Tuscola. She was calling to let me know that the Osh Kosh outlet was doing a BIG sale. Apparently they had too much clearance that hadn't sold and they were going to reduce it greatly in price to get rid of it. The clearance started out around $3.99 then moved to $2.99, and Thursday morning it had dropped down to $1.99 (per item). Wow! Everything is $1.99 and under - You can't beat that!!! Look out, here I come!!! I called my friend Nicole and after talking to our husbands they decided that if we wanted to go we should probably go together (so that they didn't have to go!) We headed out at 6:30 and hit the store. I hit the jackpot!! I mostly got things for Madalyn for next winter... I think I got 17 articles of clothing, 2 hats, a pair of tights, and some adorable slippers! I added up the prices on the tags and I ended up with $422.00 worth of clothing FOR $36.00!!!!! What a deal! Apparently the Carters store in Tuscola is doing the same thing - Nicole and I are going back as we hope to get some more goodies! I am hoping to get my hands on a winter coat for Madalyn (we missed out on the coats at Osh Kosh by a few hours!)