Back from Christmas in Ohio

The road trip wasn't so bad. When we left here, Bob and I road together until we reached Pittsburg. That's when I pulled over and he got into his Brother's car and they went on up to Erie to meet up with Bob's relatives and I continued on to Ohio to see mine. I won't bore you with words. I'll just share the photos I took. Bob was so nice and bought me a new zoom lens for my 35mm camera and the grandkids were great subjects to photogragh.

Isaac is so full of expression and he and Deydra look so good together!! Isaac will be one year old on January 4th. His little suit that my Daughter bought for him so I could take their pictures makes him look so grown up. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Road Trip

Tonight Bob and I are celebrating our Christmas together. We are both leaving shortly after the crack of dawn tomorrow to go our seperate ways to see family members in 2 different states. With Bob working till midnight all next week, he doesn't have time to go to both Ohio and Pennsylvania. I promised my daughter that I would be there this weekend to help out with the kids since daycare is closed. Bob has to be back Tuesday afternoon to be downtown DC by 4pm and I'm not leaving Ohio until Wednesday morning.

I'm looking forward to a nice quiet evening with him tonight. I sure hope he likes the gifts I have for him. He's a hard man to buy for. Mainly because he says "don't get me anything, there's nothing I need". He's very particular with the tools he uses, so one has to be very careful purchasing anything for him in that department. I think I did good though, by keeping my ears peeled when he mentions something he'd like to have or when he's swearing because he really could use a certain tool for something he's trying to do and doesn't have. I like to purchase gifts for people based on their personality as well as whether or not the gift is useful for them. I just had to purchase a few "novelty" items for Bob this year. Like a T-shirt that has his name on it and a saying under it. This is what the T-shirt says.......... BOB...the man, the myth, the legand. It's so fitting, I had to get it. ( let's not forget the giant cookie jar with his name on it )

For anyone out there traveling this holiday, please becareful. I'm not looking forward to driving 6 hours in the rain...BUT...it's better than driving 6 hours in snow!!!!

HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!!!!!!!!

Santa came a little early today.

I have been expecting a package from UPS with my little shipment of Nestle Toll House chocolate and mint swirled morsels (since no store around here has them yet) so I can bake this really cool recipe. To my surprise, there was also a huge package of styrofoam from Omaha Steaks on the porch too. Seems Bob's Brother ordered us this great gift for Christmas. There are 2 lobster tails, stir fry vegetables, stuffed baked potatoes, a gourmet cheesecake and 2 filet mignons!!!! I love Omaha Steaks...they have to be the best ever!! He did good. That was a great surprise. Now to find room in the freezer for them.



Oh....and by the way...it's 73 degrees and sunny here today just one week before Christmas!!!!!

Does it look and feel like it's almost Christmas???

It doesn't sem like Christmas around here by the weather that's for sure. Bob and I went on another shopping trip this morning. We went to Bowie Town Center. I liek this outside mall shopping experience. Today with the weather at 60 degrees and sunny, we saw people on motorcycles and driving with the tops down on their cars. I happened to see a woman wearing flip flops too. I made a remark to Bob that "you don't see anyone Christmas shopping in flip flops back home in Ohio". I did happen to notice the weather in Ohio today was in the 50's so they weren't too far behind our nice day here. With Christmas being only 8 days from now, it sure doesn't look like it. Feels rather weird if you ask me. I see that tomorrow it's supposed to get up to a high of near 70!!! That's unheard of to me. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for not having to deal with the slush and snow and idiot drivers that have no clue what it's like to drive in bad weather. We get enough of the idiot drivers as it is on a daily basis around here. I'm leaving in 6 days to go back to Ohio for the Holiday weekend and so far, it just doesn't seem like Christmas. If it were about 40 degrees colder, I'm sure I'd feel different. Probably just a hell of a lot colder so I'll stop complaining about it now. If Ohio is predictable, I'll be driving through some yucky snow before Christmas is over.

Does it seem like Christmas is next week to you?

ERAGON

Since bob has been working all these evenings so far this month, I have way too much "alone" time on my hands to know what to do with. Well, Since today is Friday and movies open up on Friday, it was a no brainer what I was going to do. Eragon opened up today so I took myself to an early show. I was not disappointed. My son has read both books to this saga and I have started reading Eragon. I'm not a good reader and get lost in the words after awhile. I was looking forward to seeing this movie after I read the book. Not being able to get passed chapter 4, I gave up that thought. For anyone that hasn't seen any previews to this movie yet or that has absolutely no clue what I'm talking about, check this out. ( Eragon movie trailer ). My son loves fantasy books and movies and I guess I enjoy them also (to a point). It's great to have an imagination. I recommend this movie.

What I've been working on................

It was raining here yesterday so I took the day off. Since the area I'm working in is #1 outside and #2 under the side deck with minimal space (you'll see), working in the rain was not appealling at all. On Monday I got started on the window by removing the caulk and what have you around the outside of the window. I even got 4 bricks removed and stopped for fear the window would just fall out and crash onto the basement floor. Well here, let me show you the window I'm speaking about.

This is the inside view and you can see the underside of the little side deck I'm sitting under while working.

This is the outside view before I removed the brick but had already removed the caulk and framing.

Not much head room as you can see!! It's amazing how much bricks shatter when you hit them....good thing they made those silly ass goggles or I could have put my eye out.

Here's as far as I went on Monday for fear the window would fall out once I had that row of bricks removed. Through that hole, you can look right into the basement.

Here is the inside view looking out under the side deck after I removed the window this morning.

This is the outside view looking into the basement after removing the window this morning. The next thing I did was to finish removing that bottom row of bricks and old cement. Then it was time to start bricking in the hole. What an experience let me tell you. Bob had alot of patience with me this morning. (He's my teacher).

Here is the finished view from the outside. I'm not completely finish though. Tomorrow I go on the inside and finish cementing. There are cracks on the inside that need covered and it needs smoothed out (as you'll see in the next photo).

There is going to be a recessed shelf built in this space. That's going to be fun too since I get to learn how to build properly. I don't know when this step is going to be started though. My guess is not until after I'm done installing the waterproofing system. I'm nearly all ready for that process too.

So yeah, even though I'm not getting a paycheck with taxes and social security coming out of it, I'm busting my ass and getting paid for it. I'm loving it too!!!

Do you know what the greatest thing in life is???

For me today it's waking up knowing I have the best man in my life. Knowing he loves me for who I am (unconditionally). Knowing he wants me in his life to grow old with.

There are so many things that are great in my life (too many to list), but for me right now, this is the greatest thing. Knowing I'm loved , wanted and needed in his life. I don't have a mountain top to shout it from, but I do have my blog!

I love you Bob. Thank you for being so supportive of me in so many ways!

Is it really morning already???

I'm so tired today. I really didn't want to get out of bed.

So out of curiousity last night, I created a google account and moved my blog. Looks the same for now. There are new templates and crap if I feel like being creative one night when I'm really bored.

I didn't work on the basement window yesterday like I thought I was going to. Instead I worked on cementing a gapping crack around the basement door to keep cold air out. I didn't take a before photo and I should have. I had my camera with me too. For never having worked with cement before, I think I'm doing a heck of a good job. I'm using a pointer trowl (sp) which that alone is hard to work with. I'm enjoying it though. I'm hoping to get started on that window today. I'll be sure to take before and after and probably some during photos too. Before long, I'll have the basement ready to "rebuild". It's going to be fun working on framing walls and creating a room. I'm really enjoying doing all of this.

I guess since it's nearly 9am, I better get off of here and get going so I can get paid...hehehe.

It's Monday.........

I had a good weekend so I'm not complaining at all that it's Monday and I'm going to work. Today at work I'm going to be learning how to brick in an exsisiting window in the basement I'm working in. The bathroom window is coming out and I'm bricking it in so we can build a recessed shelf where the window was. Sounds like a fun challenge to me.

We recieved an email from Bob's son letting us know he made it back to Okinawa safely. That is a very long flight and it's good to know he made it back ok. Okinawa is 13 hours ahead of us so it confuses me sometimes as to what time it really is there. That has to be quite the adjustment for time zone travel.

I don't have much else to say this morning, so I'm off.

Photo Scavenger Hunt

For some unknown reason I'm not able to put the code up for the Scavenger Hunt. I'll have to investigate this when I'm more awake. (I hate that everything I want is now stuck on our hard drive from the broken computer).

Today's theme is RED. With it being the Christmas Holiday Season, I have chosen to take a photo of one of the little guys sitting around here to help us celebrate. He's a little blurry but you can still see he likes those RED pants and scarf. Hopefully I'll be able to participate in the HUNT each week again. (and get all the codes back on here that I need).

It's December 8th already!!

I can't complain at all about the weather here in Maryland. NO SNOW is always a good thing in December. It was only 24 degrees this morning when Bob had to run his Son Bill back to the airport (at 4:45am). Bill is leaving to go back to Okinawa, Japan today. His layover is in Chicago. I'm sure hoping he doesn't have any flight delays there due to the weather. He sure does have a long day of nothing but flying and sitting around at airports to look forward to today. I'm sure praying he has a safe return back.

It was good to see Bill again. He arrived back at our place on Wednesday afternoon. Bob is now working (temperarily) at the house of Representatives as a painter until after the first of the year. I hate that he's working 4pm to midnight, but the pay is awesome and it is only temperary. I got to spend some time with Bill while Bob was at work. Wednesday night we ventured over to Best Buy and purchased this new computer and Bill hooked it up for us. Yesterday he and I rode into DC with Bob early and we walked around so Bob could show us the "House" buildings he's working in. Each night different crews of painters split up into the 3 different buildings and paint the suites. They have to be all done before they take office in January. I didn't take any photos of the "House" buildings but I guess I should have. We walked over to see the front of the Caitol though and that is the only picture I have to share today.















Lastnight Bill and I watched the movie "Click" with Adam Sandler. It was really good. Much better than I thought it was going to be. I made some fudge too. I get the urges to bake something now and then and lastnight was no exception. I share my baking with Bob's Brother and his friend John. Otherwise this shit would sit in my house and I'd eat it all. They like getting little packages when they come home from work. I even made enough for Bob to take to work tonight to share with the crew of painters he works with.

Today though, it's back to Steven's basement for more work. It's really coming along. Today I'm hanging plastic over the walls I've painted with "drylock". I'm told the plastic will act as a vapor barrier. It's all part of the water proofing that I'm working on for Steven. I'll be glad when it's time to rebuild the walls and the "theater room" starts to take effect. I'd post pictures of my progress, but they are temperarily "gone". All of our photos are "trapped" in the hard drive of the broken computer. Bill says they are retrievable so we aren't too worried...yet. So, I guess I better quit yapping and get dressed and head on out of here and make some money.

I'm Back!!!

Well, we lost our computer the other day. It finally died. There won't be a ceremony as the piece of shit has been pissing us off for a long time now!! I went to Best Buy today with Bob's son and we purchased a new one. He hooked it up for us and I get to play with it first!!!!

I'll post more tomorrow and then try to get my lazy butt on here more often. I have plenty of time to post, I just haven't.