Friday, July 31, 2009

Fact or Fiction

Monday night one of my friend, Roxie, from Minnesota was in town. We got together with our mom's and meet for dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. Roxie was telling my a story about her father and how he thinks the world is going to end in 2012. There are three main reasons for his thoughts: 1)The Mayan calendar ends in the year 2012, 2)Nostradamus had a prophecy the world would end in 2012, 3)the planets will align in 2012 and cause the world to end or cause mass destruction. This sparked a small discussion amongst the table which has kept me thinking throughout the week about the subject and do a little research on-line.

There are two scenarios that I have found that "could" happen on Dec. 21, 2012: 1) Massive worldwide disaster occurs and ends all human life and/or civilization OR 2) December 21, 2012 marks the "Death of the Current World" and the beginning of a "New World" that is radically different and improved from our world today.

The Mayan Calendar- There is a 6 month period between the Spring and Fall equinoxes, after that period comes the Winter Solstice on Dec. 21, 2012. They Maya has numerous calendars with which they tracked the movements of the planets and the rotation of the Earth around the Sun, two calendars which draw our attention to Dec. 12, 2012.A fascinating astronomical occurrence will take place that day. The sun will be seen in a conjunction with the crossing point of the galactic equator and the ecliptic which is referred by the Mayans as the Sacred Tree. Since this is due to take place on the winter solstice, this should provide clear evidence that the proper end day of the Mayan calendar is December 21, 2012. Some say December 22, 23rd or even other dates. However, the solstice was an important day to the Mayans and it is logical to think that they would conclude their calendar cycle on this day, coupled with the fact of the rare astronomical occurrence set to take place that day. Overall, the Mayan calendar system is amazing and complex. It is the most accurate calendar system ever invented by anyone.

The most famous doomsday prophet is Nostradamus. Many of his prophecies dealt with disaster such as plagues, earthquakes, wars, floods and the coming of three Antichrist's. However his predictions are vague and people tend to apply his words to many situations. His prediction includes that gravitational waves causes earthquakes both on the Sun and Earth and its frequency increases dramatically as we approach closer to 2012, starting late 1990's. Near massive objects and meteorites may occur due to the weakening of the Van Allen Belts, where people who do not experience flooding, they will experience fire and burning from solar flares and fire, where high areas are risk, and low areas at risk from flooding. Interestingly, Nostradamus points the entry of the Age of Aquarius, after 21, December 2012.

There are a TON of websites and links bout this subject on the Internet. There are so many different viewpoints, ideas, thoughts, and explanations to weed through. No wonder everyone is paranoid! There is so much crap out there for people to make up or over exaggerate about. And apparently there even a movie coming out about this!! Although it is pretty interesting to read through it and see what people are saying. Now I don't believe any of this. But if the world is going to end so be it, we won't be around to figure out what happened or why it happened. There will always be natural disasters that will occur and causalities will come with them be from earthquakes, fires, tornado's, hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, etc. As well as from meteorites, rocks, space junk, etc falling from the sky. Seriously, like 200 people died last year from something falling from the sky!!! It's on Nasa's website. Makes you think the sky really is falling ;)

References: http://mayancalendar2012.org/ http://www.2012endofdays.org/ http://www.24timepass.com/

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Word of the Day

Today's Word of the Day...

Weenis:

It's actually the skin on your elbow.

Ow, I hit my weenis on the refrigerator.

Thanks you Urban Dictionary, you made my day!

Preparing

Well the big move is only days away and I have been busy, okay more like anxiously getting things ready. I reorganized everything we have at the in-laws place, washed all the sheets, towels and curtains I've gotten and packed them all up. The pups and I went over to my parents house last night to go through the things we have stored over there to pull everything out of the closets and organize them. I think we are pretty much ready to go! Unfortunately the majority of our belongings are in storage and that isn't getting delivered until next week. So we won't have very much in the house or much to do the first few days.

We had our first gas leak at the house yesterday! Luckily it was outside the house and one of the workers were there to smell it and called the energy company to fix it. The carpet started getting installed yesterday as well. Most of all the padding is down and the carpets are cut, they just have to actually install it, so it should be finished today. Other than that there's not a whole lot left to do. The painters do have to come back and do touch-ups. I plan on taking a sticky note pad out there today to go around the entire house and point out what needs fixed! Gotta make sure it ALL gets done right! We are back to debating on whether or not to sod or seed. Sod or seed, sod or seed??? Either way we won't have grass for a while. If we seed, it obviously will take a while to start growing in and if we sod we won't be able to lay it until September. On the decisions!

Friday, July 24, 2009

Updated house pics

The washer and dryer arrived this week...The bar is all finished being stained, it looks awesome. Looking forward to many great nights down here... Living is completely painted:
Red dining and kitchen:
The appliance have arrived!! We decided to go with black since white shows dirt more and stainless shows fingure prints!

One Week

Our one week countdown is about to begin!!!

We move in one week from tomorrow! This is sooo exciting. Our bar stools arrived yesterday, Dave put one together to see how difficult/easy it would be, only 6 more to go but we will wait until we're in the house since it will be easier to move in a box. The washer/dryer were delivered on Tuesday by Lowe's, they look great. I stopped by the house last night and talked to Tom, our contractor, who updated us on everything that will be taking place today and next week.

As of yesterday, all the hardware on the interior doors were installed. The garage door opener was installed. We have house address numbers! The shelves for the bar and trophy case were finished and installed. Cabinet hardware was being installed, although the wrong kind was being put on, they had brushed nickel and it was suppose to be oiled bronze. So that is being fixed and the right knobs will arrive today to be put on. The vanity mirrors have been installed as well as the sliding glass door screen doors and locks. All the painting and staining has been finished. I have to say it looks awesome. I have gotten a few comments already about how it looks so good. One of Dave's friends came out yesterday to check the house and said he had never seen a red in a house that he liked before but thought it looked sweet! :)

Today our appliances are being delivered (hopefully as we speak!), and its a good thing because the plumbers will be out there today to install the dishwasher as well as finish installing the master bath/shower fixtures and a few other things that need to be done. Once the plumbing is done, the bathroom tile can be grouted today. The exterior doors will be hung and hardware/locks installed, window screens will be installed, as well as the gutters, down spouts, and shutters.

It's almost a complete house!! I'll post pictures once I get them off my camera.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Oh Hogwarts!

We went to dinner and a movie last night and saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last night. Dave and I have made it a tradition since we starting dating to see every new Harry Potter movie opening weekend. Unfortunately this time we have been far too busy to go on opening weekend but it's only been out a week. Trust me Dave has been letting me know how we've missed it! I was never really into Harry Potter before I met him and he sure loves it! He got me into it and I really have started to enjoy the series. The special effects are amazing!! Although the movie was good, I have to say I was a little disappointed with the ending. I'm not going to give anything away but I have to say it just ended and left me saying "Is that it?!?". I know they are suppose to keep you hanging but seriously, I guess the point is to have you wanting more and keep you waiting. I just hope we don't have to wait

On another note of disappointment, at work Brittany and I had read about how is certain locations the trailer for New Moon was being shown in the previews to Harry Potter. Dave and I were really hoping it would be played (YES Dave has become a huge fan of Twilight!! hehe). I think Dave was slightly irritated when I told him they were showing the trailer in select areas and not in all theaters. Why are the previews different in certain theaters? The start of each preview we would hold our breath.....but NO, NOTHING, NO EDWARD, NOT EVEN A GLIMPSE! So very disappointed!! I would have loved to see Edward on the big screen...can't wait for Nov. 20th!

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Baby Shower

Yesterday was my sister-in-laws baby shower. Her sister did all the planning and organizing and I helped out as best I could. Her sister has much more experience with baby showers, babies, etc. than do I. Mollie did a fantastic job. It was such a lovely day and everything was so beautiful! The shower was held at Palmer College's Student Union which was a perfect space to fit everyone. We had a great turn out, about 35-40 people showed up from both sides of her family. A few of my aunts and cousins came and brought my grandmother which was wonderful!! It was so good to see everyone. Steph got so many wonderful things for the baby. He going to be one stylish dude that's for sure. There were some of he cutest outfits, socks, and little shoes...so adorable. Can't wait to see him in all of them :) The cake as you can see is a mock up of the shower invitations, it was such a cute cake and delicious I must say. The color scheme came from the invite also, everything was orange and green, not your average baby boy blue which I thought looks great.

Close up of the beautiful cake!

Centerpieces consisted of Gerber daisies, a little bucket with snacks and diaper pins. Steph's head table also had a cute little martini glass decorated with baby boy items and baby's first piggy bank from his great grandma. The piggy bank was also sent around the room to be filled up with everyone's loose change to help start his college fund up early! It was also used as a game, we had to guess how much money was collected which was $25, I was no where near that .

Isn't she adorable, just love it!

Here is the outfit my husband picked out for his nephew. He was very excited about this purchase and actually got it a few months ago for the shower. He is one excited soon-to-be uncle!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Ask And You Shall Receive...

As I finished my latest scrapbook, I asked the question "Whose will be next?" Well last night my suspicions were confirmed and I would like to send out a BIG Congrats to our friends Megan and Aaron who are indeed PREGNANT!!! YEAH! They kept it a secret for 3 long months and have now announced they will be expecting the arrival of their first baby in January! They will be finding out the sex of the baby in September so this gives me a little bit of a break until I can start working on album #3. I am so happy and excited for them and can't wait to watch the baby bump grow.

CONGRATULATIONS MEGAN & AARON!!!!!!!

Sub-state

Congrats to Davenport West last night, they won their game in the first round of the sub-state tournament. West won 1-0 against North. It was a very good game to watch. West's pitcher did an excellent job with 10 strikeouts and allowing only 2 hits. This is the first time West's Varsity baseball time has won in the first round in quite a few years, so congrats to Dave and the other two coaches for their big win!! Their next game will be on Monday against North Scott, let's hope they can keep this momentum up and make it another round!!

Friday, July 17, 2009

Baby Scrapbook

Here are some of the other pages I made for my sister-in-laws scrapbook. This is just for the First Year, so it includes everything from the birth, in the hospital, all the first holiday's, and up until baby's 1st Birthday. I got 2 albums under my belt, now whose will be next? Only time will tell. If anyone would like me to make them a scrapbook, please let me know and we can discuss.
At the Hospital
Play Time
1st Birthday!
I really look forward to her filling the book out and watching my little nephew grow!!! Hope she likes it!

August 1st Here We Come!

We meet with our contractor this afternoon and have confirmed we will be able to move into the house on August 1st! YEAH!!! If we really wanted to push them they could probably get it done by next weekend but that would be pushing it. It would be awesome, however, I don't want anyone rushing and making any mistakes, so we will survive another week at the in-laws house. But I will be giving them our 2 week notice tonight :)

Updates with the house:
All our closet shelving is in throughout the entire house. The master closet looks phenomenal, more than enough room. Actually, I think I might have to go on a little shopping spree to fill up all that space! The painters are on their last week of painting. They finished up spraying all the trim and baseboards throughout the main floor. Yesterday they started painting the red in the kitchen and dining area as well as the sauteed mushroom in the living area and laundry room. It's looking fantastic and I cannot wait to see it after they are all finished, which should be today! Then all they will have to do is go through and do any last minute touch ups.
Also I would like to say Happy Birthday to my husband! He turns 29 today!!! Happy Birthday David!
Mid-painting of Burning Bush in the Kitchen
Mid-painting in the dining area
The Pantry Shelves
Dave's side of the master closet
My side of the master closet....
...my other side of the master closet :)
The Hawkeye bathroom has it's stripes and looking so much better
The fireplace mid-paint

The bedroom closets

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

All Done

Scrapbook #2 for by soon-to-be-nephew is finished!! Phew! This one took much longer than I expected. My first one I got done in no time at all. But this time around I was scattered across 3 different tables since we have been living with Dave's parents, which made it harder to keep my rhythm. After all the hard work and time put into it , I have to say, I am pretty proud of it! I think since it was my second scrapbook and I kind of knew what I was doing this time around, I was a little more of a perfectionist. I sure hope my sister-in-law likes it!! I will post more pictures of the album after her baby shower this weekend! So excited to rub the baby bump :)

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

8 Things

8 THINGS I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO IN THE NEXT YEAR:

  • Watching our house being built
  • Moving into our new house
  • Becoming an Aunt for the first time
  • Having holiday's at our house!
  • Purchasing a new car
  • New Moon coming out Nov. 20th
  • Starting a family
  • Finish my Mater's degree (or at least getting closer to finishing)

8 THINGS I DID YESTERDAY:

  • Worked
  • Purchased all our new appliances
  • Bought our dining room table
  • Filled out paperwork for our loan
  • Went out to dinner with my in-laws
  • Went to check the progress of the house
  • Took the dogs for a car ride
  • Watched TV
8 THINGS I WISH I COULD DO:
  • Lose weight by not exercising and eating whatever I wanted
  • Win the lottery
  • Go sky diving
  • Find a job I love
  • Travel around the world
  • Go scuba diving
  • Invent something
  • Get LASIK done

8 SHOWS I WATCH:

  • The Office
  • 90210
  • The Hills
  • HGTV
  • Chelsey Lately
  • Road Rules/Real World Challange
  • Young and the Restless
  • The Soup
8 FAVORITE FOODS:
  • Mashed potatoes
  • Sushi
  • McDonald's french fries
  • Soft pretzels with cheese
  • Chocolate
  • Mexican
  • Pizza
  • Crab Rangoon
8 PLACES I’D LIKE TO TRAVEL:
  • Italy
  • Greece
  • Australia
  • Tahiti
  • Ireland
  • Africa
  • New York City
  • Hawaii
8 PLACES I’VE LIVED:
  • Davenport, IA
  • Cedar Falls, IA
  • That's sad I can only list 2 cities :(

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Approx. 2 weeks to go!

Well I talked to John tonight when I went to check out the house. John is our contractors' brother who does all the woodwork. He was working late on the shelves to the bar area. It really is taking shape and looking good by the way. He's been doing awesome work! Anyways, he said he thought they would be done in another 2 weeks!!! That sounds crazy to me. I can't believe we are so close.

The painters are finished with the basement, except for the basement bathroom. The Hawkeye bathroom...what to say...its shocking...blinding...holy crap...its bright...speechless. Boy is it bright! The painters still have to paint the stripes but they needed the yellow to dry another day so the tape wouldn't take the paint off. There will be one thick black stripe with a small white stripe on either side in the middle of the wall going all the way around. Hoping it will look better once those are up. Hoping it will look toned down once we get all the signs and things up on the walls...it will come together and it will look good. So the painters also started edging around the trim upstairs in the hallway and around the stairs to the basement with the sauteed mushroom paint color and it looks soooo good! Can't wait for that to be done.

The best news of all......the flooring is done! The flooring company came in today, tore out all the wood laminate that was down and laid all the new stuff. And it looks Fabulous! There really isn't that much of a difference between the two. The new stuff is just a little bit lighter but I am so very happy with it and it looks beautiful.

Dining Area
Kitchen
Entry way flooring
Other things going on in the house: Master bath tile is all set and they are still tiling the master shower. Installed the ceiling fans in all the bedrooms. 2 of the 3 bathrooms have the vanity lights installed. Outside flood lights have been installed along with one of the front lanterns. The pendant light we picked out for the entry way is too long so we have to go back to the store and pick out a new one. I think that's it for now! More later...

Master bedroom

Spare Me

A big group of about nine of us went bowling last night. Now I am not the best bowler but I thought I actually did pretty well! I used the "big kids" ball, the hot pink 8 pounder, because of my massive muscles of course. The first game I tied Chad for 4th place with a score of 102, which he was NOT happy about. The second game I did a little better and got a few strikes and spares to get 111. For the third game, while I only got a 107 Dave kicked butt with 4, yes FOUR, strikes to end the 9th and 10th frames!! Dave throws the ball so hard I swore he was going to break something. The screens show how fast you throw the ball each time and Dave's ball was at a steady 26mph throughout each game! I was right behind him with my 13 mph, as my top speed :) Our fourth game was by far the best, for Dave and I at least. Dave got either a spare or a strike in every frame except two and I ended with my top score of 120, yeah! It had been a long time since we were last bowling, it was a nice change and lot of fun.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Curtain Possibility

Turns out our flooring place cannot find the same lot number for the flooring we picked out, bummer. That means they will be tearing out ALL the laminate they already put down, which is 3/4 of it, and laying the new stuff. Thankfully they do have plenty of the new stuff so this situation should not have to happen twice, hopefully. As for the painters, they got started in the basement and stairway! They must have moved fast yesterday because they already sprayed the first coat of white on all the trim, baseboards and doors down there. On another note, I've been pondering curtains for the living room the last few days. I found some I loved at Pier One on-line on sale, however when I went to the store this afternoon they do not have them anymore. The closest store from Davenport is Coraville or Peoria for me to check. They did have some other curtains with the exact same pattern but just different colors, pictured to the right. What do you think about them. The flowers are red, in the picture the flowers look more orange than red. They are kind of a more ketchup red but fairly close to the red we are painting the kitchen and dining area so they could work. I bought them anyways to look at them outside of the package and to get some opinions from others, so let me know what you think. I still really love the other ones though (1st picture below) so I'll have to see if I can hunt them down at an other store some how.

This is another pair at Pier One also that I found, also on sale

Babies!

I would like to say Congratulation's to a friend of mine, Joslyn, who is expecting!! Joslyn was my RA in college at UNI my freshman and sophomore years. They are expecting the arrival of their little bundle of joy at the beginning of January. Congrats to them both!! I am so excited for them!!!!

Monday, July 6, 2009

Setbacks

Some minor setbacks with the house this past week. Setback #1: They started laying the wood laminate floors last week but ran out of flooring when they were almost finished, not enough had been ordered, minor miscommunication. The flooring was re-ordered and delivered late in the week but the flooring that came in was a few shades lighter than what we ordered. Now the hunt has begun to find the same color flooring we originally picked out. No luck as of this morning, but fingers crossed. If that doesn't happen they have to tear out all the flooring already laid down and put down the new stuff. This could be a disaster since our carpenter has already put up all the baseboards and shoe molding around the areas the flooring had been finished. Setback #2: The two kitchen cabinets we have been waiting on for two weeks are finally in!!! Yeah! The workers got those hung and now all of our kitchen cabinets are in, that's a good thing. The bad thing is someone had to have measured wrong or forgot to remeasure when we had to change the layout of the kitchen cabinets. The space for the oven is suppose to measure the standard 30 inches but it is 1/4 inch short. Now the carpenters have to figure out some way to fix this and will be trying to shave off 1/4 inch from the countertop. I don't think there is a whole 1/4 of an inch to shave off here, so we'll have to wait and see what happens. It might be a VERY tight fit for the stove we picked out!! Other than that things went well last week. The painters are held up right now waiting for all the woodwork to be finished in the bar area so they can get downstairs to start filling nail holes, caulking seams, and painting the trim and walls. Over the weekend we picked out the mirrors for the bathrooms and the shower doors at Steve's Mirror and Glass, and also picked out all the shelving for ALL the closets from Comfort Concepts. Now we are waiting for the estimates to come in from both places and the designs for the master closet!!

Sunday, July 5, 2009

4th of July

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!! Happy 4th of July Everyone!...Belated Yesterday we celebrated the holiday weekend at our friend's Dan and Katie's house for a BBQ. Baby Anna got to host her first 4th of July party! And what a great hostess she was...she practically slept through the entire party :) Unfortunately the weatherman was wrong, dead wrong about the weather clearing up in the morning. It rained ALL morning and the majority of the afternoon. But rain or shine the party must go on! There was great company, wonderful food (and lots of it), tons of kids, games, and entertaining fireworks. Once the rain cleared up later in the afternoon, a badminton tournament ensued. Dan had mowed a court into the lawn so there were out-of-bounds lines, therefore it was much harder for some people to cheat (my husband included). We all went down to the Bettendorf fireworks that night for a great 25 minute firework display. Then headed back to Dan and Katie's for a round of "Who can blow the highest on the breathalyser" and an after hours firework display brought to us by the pyro himself, Greg. Later we all ended up going to Pints, a bar in Bettendorf, to finish off the night and meet a few other friends. Thanks to Dan, Katie and Anna for throwing a great 4th of July party. Dave and I had a great time this holiday weekend. It was so great to see all of our friends this weekend and the new additions to some of their families! We must do it more often!!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Have You Laughed Today?

This was forwarded to me today at work. It was a good laugh so I thought I would share it!!!
The Good Wife's Guide From Housekeeping Monthly, 13 May, 1955.
  • Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you have be thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they get home and the prospect of a good meal is part of the warm welcome needed.
  • Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you'll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.
  • Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.
  • Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives. Run a dustcloth over the tables.
  • During the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering to his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.
  • Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer or vacuum. Encourage the children to be quiet.
  • Be happy to see him.
  • Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him. Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first - remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours.
  • Don't greet him with complaints and problems.
  • Don't complain if he's late for dinner or even if he stays out all night. Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through at work.
  • Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or lie him down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.
  • Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice.
  • Don't ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or integrity. Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him.
  • A good wife always knows her place.

Ok when you girls stop laughing long enough to pick yourself off the floor, forward this to all the women you know so they can have a good laugh too.