Monthly Archive

Christmas last year was a pretty sad affair .  We were still using our guest bedroom as a temporary living room, our tree was a Charlie Brown reject, and the angel on top was an insult to the holiday.

This year things are looking a whole lot brighter.  Maybe it’s because we have an actual, somewhat complete living room to gather in.  Maybe it’s because the two feet of snow prevented us from searching the back forty (really, the back one-and-a-half) for a tree and we instead purchased one from the high school music boosters.  Or maybe it was because Cherie went ahead and got lights so that we could have more than 50 sad little red lights wrapped around the trunk.  Maybe the stockings hung on the make-shift banister with care add the proper ambiance.

Or perhaps it was the extra decorating assistance that we had.

Whatever the reason, the tree looks much better this year.

Especially because you’ll notice that Cherie put her foot down about the angel.

She utterly refused to put that cheap plastic angel up.  It was a bit lonely up top there, however.

So Michael put on his crafty hat and made us a star.

Anyone else want one?  We’re taking orders.

Annabel had her two-week check-up yesterday and we are proud to tell you that we have managed to keep her alive and healthy so far.  She is making great strides in keeping her eyes open for more than five minutes at a time and we hold out great hope for smiling soon.  Because after that comes head control and between that and helping daddy finish the kitchen cabinets are a few mere moments.

Meanwhile, in the "why does this always happen to us" department, we are less proud to tell you that the troublesome  dormer  is once again proving troublesome:

Can you even believe that this thing is leaking again?  We were so sure that we had fixed this problem last year by drilling through the rafters to allow for air flow, but here it is, leaking again from condensation.  We are at a loss about what to do here.  Our current plan is to just remove the bottom pieces of beadboard to keep it from getting ruined and then figure something out in the summer. 

We can do that because this particular problem only happens in the late fall, when the nights are below freezing and the days are warmer.  And considering that our backyard currently looks like this:

We are thinking that we may be beyond that "late fall" point for this year at least.  And, heck, we were going to repaint that room anyway.