Last week while my grandpa and I were in my bathroom rescuing the shower from a drywall nightmare, 3G got in some holding time. I think she was relived because so many other people had gotten in some good holding time recently.  Sue and Chaya stopped by last week along with my friends Rayna and T.

When we told my grandparents that I was pregnant my grandma said that she’d have to start making the Holding Chart and that she might let some other people on it. Her comment was overshadowed by my grandpa’s comment that he was ‘worried we didn’t know how to do that’ and was glad for us.

Well,  3G and Grandpa came to visit Maggie in the hospital and my grandma came prancing in, or maybe she was floating out of sheer pride, waving above her head The Holding Chart. She quickly exchanged The Holding Chart for the sweet bundle of joy in my arms and I opened it to check it out.

I’ve never claimed to have strong Math skills, but I’m nearly certain that 3G has a lot more smiley faces and Holding Time than anyone else on the chart. After the bathroom-drywall extravaganza last week, I think she put in her fair share and her face was way more smiley than any of those on the Holding Chart.

Yesterday I found myself listening to talk radio and attempting to re-caulk our bathtub.

It didn’t go as planned and now we have no shower.

We are now missing a chunk of drywall.

I called my grandpa to come and rescue me from this construction project/problem. He loves house repairs…or at least he acts like he does.

I hope we have a shower soon.

As Barry mentioned our camera card has been rescued from the depths of our trusty computer. I had forgotten that Barry got a new camera just yesterday. Here are some stills from this sunny afternoon at HBHQ.

Enjoy.

The first blooms on one of several rhododendron bushes are starting to show at HBHQ. It’s beginning to look like spring around here.

We moved a bed, discarded a desk,assembled a new one,  removed a dresser, made plans to pick up the new one, organized a closet, hauled a car load to Value Village, painted a room, and still our house looks like a tornado came through and disruputed the peace.

At least we’re the eye of the storm.

A couple weeks ago we were in need of some new shampoo and I found myself staring at a bottle of shampoo and body wash that looked like it was dough in a bottle ready to pour on a skillet. After I grabbed the bottle off the shelf and sniffed the contents, my mind had been made up: I was going to buy Belgian Waffle shampoo. Oi.

The votes are in, folks!

The shampoo bubbles and cleans just as good as it smells. I’ve found myself washing my hair twice these past few days just so I can have that delicious smell fill up the shower one more time. Luckily, the bottle came with a recipe on it so I can bake some actual waffles when I’m done washing my hair. Genius.

I started building some outdoor chairs with the Littlejohns this summer, but the completion of the project ended up getting postponed for various reasons.  Unfortunately, this meant that the unfinished chairs were sitting in our garage taking up space that should have been occupied by a car (or some obscenely amazing outdoor gear).  Thanks to some help from my Dad, and several weekends of painting later this isn’t the case anymore.

What would have taken a normal craftsman a weekend managed to take me about 3 months, but they’re finished.  A pessimist might point out that it’s just in time for the rainy season, but I’m choosing to ignore that. I’m actually reasonably happy with them, and glad to have the garage back.  One of these days the rain storms will hold off, and I’ll enjoy an outdoor fire while sitting in the new chairs. So what if it’s May by the time it happens.

I love this time of year when all the leaves on the trees begin to make their descent to the ground. The colors are magnificent. Looking out our windows our yard is filled with rich copper colors and deep tones. We’ve got one tree that looks like somebody lost their hairpiece and another that went from such a bright green to red I’m wondering if somebody came and changed out the tree in the middle of the night.I know in a short time our trees will no longer boast these brilliant colors, but right now I celebrate their transition.

We have had a day. A DAY, I tell you. Turned out our garbage disposal decided to break and work with the dishwasher to flood our kitchen and spew bile-like water in our sink.

Disgusting.

Really disgusting.

I might have mentioned before that I don’t pride myself on being super handy, but today I helped install a spankin’ new disposal.  I also made delicious Chex Party Mix using Pioneer Woman‘s recipe for a super fun football party we were planning on attending. We didn’t go because we were combating chopped up food and weird smells.

It was sad.

Really sad.

Now Barry and I are busy eating as much Chex Mix as our bellies will handle while rehashing our electrical melt down and disheveled kitchen.

We’re glad today is over.

Really glad.

Flip came down and gave our wall a final touch up.

He soaked the rocks with a special acid wash recipe.

It is hard to imagine, but our wall looks even more beautiful now. Yippie!