Come one, come all!

Last Saturday, Rachael came downstairs and said “I have a crazy idea, let’s host a ball to raise money for Haiti.” It only took a few hours of brainstorming and phone calls for us to cross the line from wondering to planning. Rachael called her boss John and pitched the idea and the two of them have totally run with it. Now, one week later, we have an event. She has over twenty corporate sponsors, a location booked, gourmet desert spread ordered, a website published (thanks Dan!), performers committed, media sponsors, billboards designed (thanks Todd!) and printed (look for them on I-15) and of course, a Facebook page.

So yeah, sometimes we think that life is going to slow down. Then we embark on some crazy quest like this. Anyway, we are really excited about it. Our charity is Healing Hands for Haiti. They have been in Haiti for over ten years providing prosthetics and orthopedic devices for disabled Haitians. The thing I like most about them is that they are helping Haitians to help themselves. They use their clinics as training centers for locals to be able to do the work that they do, as well as starting a facility to produce the prosthetics that their patients need, staffed by local Haitians.

The lack of medical care available in the days after the recent earthquake is going to mean a lot of emergency amputations, and a lot of disabled Haitians. They are already the poorest country on this side of the globe – this just makes it way worse. In a month or two, the attention of the world is going to turn from Haiti to something else, and the people with life changing disabilities will have to find a way to support their families. And Healing Hands for Haiti will be right there with them.

So yeah, you should all come to the ball. Get your tickets at our website: haitiball.org. If you can’t come, you can also just donate on the site, but it is going to be a great night, and we would love to have you.

So many pictures, so little time

We got family pictures taken in December. We also got a new camera for Christmas, so the next few posts (if they ever happen) will be picture heavy. We think our kid is super cute. If this bores you, we understand.

Oh, and an old friend from my Bridal Fair days took the pictures. Photographybymckenzie.com. She is terrific.

Apple’s Christmas Present to Me

Have you ever been to an Apple store? The real Apple store? It is truly amazing. I have never had reason to go, and in truth have tried to stay away for fear of leaving with a more expensive toy than I can afford. I was glad to have a reason to finally go so I could bask in the iGlory. The metal bezel that wraps around my iPhone looked like it was starting to come apart, and I really didn’t want it to break permanently, so having some time available, I took it to the iStore.

Having made an appointment online, I arrived at the store and checked in with the concierge. He took me to the Genius Bar where, after a brief wait, I spoke with a Genius who spent about 17 seconds with my phone before he said “Yeah, looks like it is separating; we’ll just swap it for you.” About a minute and 2 signatures later, I walked away from the genius bar with a new (and activated) iPhone. I know they design it to be better than expected, but that’s what I love about it. It was just awesome.

Being the iNerd that I am, I asked one of the iWorkers to show me how they check people out when they are buying something. It is super cool – they have an iPod touch with a rigged-up case that has a bar code scanner and credit card reader built in. You can scan, swipe, sign and leave without ever having to go to a cash register. I know other stores do that too, but they don’t do it with as much style.

Anyway, so yeah, I have a new iPhone. Thanks Apple, I love you. It’s probably a refurb, but hey, it sure is nice to not have all the wear that my last one had.

The One and Only

Annual Halloween Costume Guessing Contest: late edition.  If you already know, no cheating.

Good luck!

See, it is red

For Caryn

Animania

I had paint leftover from my last furniture improvement scheme, and I am prone to impulsive projects, so Aaron now has a green room. 1/3 of a green room, actually, because I didn’t have enough paint   But a few bucks at Big Lots for animal borders and decals and it all looks intentional.

In the morning when Aaron wakes up he spends 15 minutes just staring wide-eyed at each of the animals, one at a time. It’s very cute, and it keeps him content for an extra 15 minutes every morning. Thank you Big Lots.

Final Product

I took this using our panoramic stitch-together feature on our camera, so try not to let the Escer-esque walls weird you out.

Props to Kari for the fine couch. (Do people say “props” anymore?)

We love our kitchen.

More to come.

At Last!

It’s amazing how quickly time passes when you are too busy to breathe. Here are the highlights from the past 2 months.

Big Numero Uno – We finished our house and moved in on Labor Day weekend! WOOOO! Thank you very VERY much to everyone who helped us install floors, clean, babysit, move, borrow trucks, unpack, etc. We couldn’t have done it without you and we appreciate it so much. We love you!

Favorite things? SPACE! More than one bathroom. Garage. More kitchen storage and closet space than I can handle. Cushy new carpet. Walk in closet. Brand new beautiful appliances (learning how to use them has been a challenge, though, I’m not gonna lie). Brand new everything! And the list continues. We love it! Pictures to come soon.

As much as we love our home, we love being done with the construction process just as much. Since we decided to build a custom home that meant every teeny little decision was ours to make and every problem was ours to solve. None of this a, b, or c business – we spent countless hours shopping online, at building supply stores, plumbing stores, hardware stores, door stores, flooring stores, ETC researching products and comparing prices and bargain hunting and matching colors….and then we spent countless hours at the lot going over things with the subcontractors and giving Aaron screaming fits from all the banging and sawing and hammering…..and then we spent countless hours going over the invoices and talking to the bank and writing checks….and then we spent countless hours freaking out and trying to come up with solutions every time a subcontractor broke a sink, or installed the wrong toilet or the wrong countertops or the wrong windows, or destroyed our new cabinets, or broke our window screens, or forgot to install outlets, or hung the doors at the wrong height, or put the wrong locks on, or installed cracked baseboards, or our light switches didn’t work, or our coaxial wiring was not connected to the circuit box (yes, all of these things happened)… and now we don’t have to do any of those things ever again. Hallelujah!  And – our home got finished on time and under budget. It’s a miracle! Those were not highlights, that was just me whining. And now I have an awesome house. Don’t you feel sorry for me? Now I am done.

Moving along, Aaron has many new tricks. He rolls over, eats cereal, and has started sleeping 12 hours at night with only one feeding in the middle (I’m going to qualify that with a 65% of the time rating, knock on wood). He also talks and squeals and babbles constantly, much to the delight of his overly reinforcing parents. Other big news: we finally got the poor kid a crib. He outgrew his playpen weeks ago but we didn’t have space for a crib until we moved. Aah. He is a much happier sleeper now (see above), and I am a much happier in general. We also got him a baby bathtub, and suddenly he enjoys his baths instead of screaming the whole time. This is magical. If I had known 4 months ago that the key to bath time success was a blue whale baby tub, I’d have had a much cleaner baby all this time. Take note, ye mothers to be, that $20 bathtub is totally worth it.

I think that pretty much covers it. On the job front – Adam graduates from his Management Training program tomorrow – congratulations! He loves his work and his company and is excited to be an official top dawg now We don’t know what the future holds for him – he has worked in almost every department of the company during the last 2 years and there seems to be no permanent resting place in sight. Luckily, he has enjoyed everything they’ve thrown at him so far, and he’s up for the adventure. I have cut back to 30 hours/week, a lot of which I do from home, and as long as I have child care when I need to go in to the office, life is grand. Days when Aaron comes to work with me = insanely stressful waste of time. Shameless plug (perhaps plea is more appropriate): I am looking for a daytime babysitter for a few hours a week if anyone wants to watch the cutest blue-eyed redhead ever. I want to get a few people so I always have a backup. Pretty please leave a comment if you’re interested.

And that, dear friends, is a wrap.

Quick house shots

Looks like we are finishing up this week. These are not the most recent pictures, but we will show it all off soon.

Sneaking in Some House Stuff

Rachael thinks that I am boring the world with my home building updates. But I am going to do it anyway. We have started the exterior, drywall is almost done, and we start flooring tomorrow. We will probably start the finish work on Monday. It is going by so quickly!