Home Building For TBA

TBA Shomo has a lot of fun in his current home. He is very active, and Cheryl feels bumps and jabs and spins and knocks and anything else you can imagine. We can only assume he's taking after his mother, seeking to perfect his home...we speculate that he's fixing things, painting, laying contact paper, and so forth...though by the time he's done with all these renovations, it will be time to make his first big move into the real world.

Since Cheryl's been so busy around this house, and TBA so busy around his place, I figured I better get busy in order to make them both happy -- so I put together TBA's crib. The project started Saturday...



...and ended last night, at about 11:30 pm.


Looks pretty simple, huh? Norm would've had this done before it was out the door of the store, but I take a little longer. Actually, it was more complicated than it looks. And the directions, while pretty impressive overall, did contain one blunder (it seems) that made life difficult.

But there it is. Move in ready!

* * *

NOTES: Thanks, all, for the crib! And to those of you who are horrified to see crib parts on the nice rug, I can only say, look carefully and you'll see the nice carboard piece protecting the rug... we also didn't want to scratch the floor. So many considerations!

With a little help...

Last Saturday we made waffles with our new gadget:


Sorry his back is turned to you.

Waffle Maker (as we like to call him) was a going away present from Aijing and Amy (Thanks!) - wow, those waffles tasted good!

We have independent verification also. Joel and Elizabeth came over for breakfast, prior to doing some yard work. Joel and I removed a sandbox from our backyard. Not a complicated task, but one that took a while... shoveling, bagging, dragging, shoveling, shoveling, etc.

Here's Joel, the gentleman gardener:


The reason he looks happy involves in part the feeling of accomplishment, but actually those waffles played a pretty big role.

Howie has been another helper... in fact, you wouldn't believe how much this guy has done. Howie has replaced light fixtures, installed new outlets, fixed other electrical problems, did some plumbing and installed a new sink, and today fixed (as much as possible) a dilapidated gate. This shot finds him about to chainsaw an unnecessary tree stump into oblivion, where it now resides (let this be a lesson for us all).


And since I'm on the subject of generosity, here is a picture (for those who haven't seen it yet) of our new rug. This is a very nice oriental that was given to us by Covenant Presbyterian Church as a going away present.


It looks better than the old one, which you may recall...


I am very thankful for all our friends.

Worth the Wait

Time flies, I didn't realize it had been so long since we've had a new post up here. Well, hopefully it's been worth the wait -- since I was able to obtain these hard-to-get photos of Cheryl and TBA. Oh, and a couple whippets thrown in for good measure.

Doesn't Cheryl look great?






Speaking of "worth the wait," hurry up, _____ _____!

Gardening 101

I don't known much about gardening, however I have taken an interest in what is in our new yard. We have some pretty plants! Above are a few from the front yard. I am particularly happy that we have some hydrangeas, as blue hydrangeas were prominent in our wedding. In the back yard, we have a grape vine growing along the top of the fence, and in the side yard by the driveway we have three peach trees! They are already full of tiny little peaches. I've been noticing that the squirrels really enjoy chowing down on the grapes.


We were given many little potted plants at the church dinner last weekend, and yesterday Brenda came over and helped me re-pot them. We were only able to do about half, so this will be an ongoing project. Brenda also gave me some gardening tips - which I desperately need if I am going to have any semblance of a cute yard.


And here is a photo of the house taken today, showing off the new windows. The front lawn is already looking a little better too (that is Ken's department). We have two dogwood trees in front, which were beautifully in bloom when we first visited the house this spring, and some sort of Japanese maple on the left corner. Unfortunately, we have a lot of volunteer oak trees as well...


I am hoping we can do some more extensive landscaping this fall!

Cheryl

Welcome!

Welcome to our home. Here is the view as you walk in:



Here's the view from the other side of the living room. We want to thank everyone who chipped in for the nice rug, we admit it's a little smaller than expected but very lush:



Actually, the real rug is forthcoming. So, proceeding to dining room...



Here's the view from the sliding doors off the dining room. If you look closely you'll notice that our other rug - the authentic whippetskin rug - has arrived:



And then the "three bedrooms" which make it a three bedroom house. If you look closely you'll see one of the bathrooms, too. Band practice meets just outside the master bedroom.



Oh, and here's the garage. We finally got it cleaned out today, to strict Cheryl standards. When we purchased the home it was already up to Ken standards. I think everyone's better off that she calls the shots when it comes to cleaning, except for her, because she works too hard! If you click to enlarge you'll see that this is actually so clean you can eat off it now.



Last but not least, a picture of some of Cheryl beautifying the front lawn with the ever-helpful Brenda. Brenda has helped out a lot since we arrived (thanks!) as have others (also thanks!). This is as much of Cheryl as she'll permit in a picture, and even this is pushing it... I'm banking on her not reading this far, actually. However, she looks beautiful - come see for yourself!

Greetings From V-I-R-G-I-N-I-A

Hello everyone! For those tracking the Shomos, we have made it to Virginia. Everything went remarkably well. The next time you move out of New Jersey, I highly recommend J.D. Carton & Sons - they moved us without a hitch or, more accurately, without a scratch. Great crew.

Speaking of which, we had a friendly and helpful crew from the church here in Virginia. People appeared suddenly to offer help and/or food, successfully preventing Cheryl from overdoing it.

In related news: The editors at the Virginia Pilot are upset that 12-year-old Rebecca Willett was knocked out of the Scripps National Spelling Bee after misspelling "gastrilegous." The paper argues that this word is not in most dictionaries and from now on the paper, whenever it has occasion to use the word, will spell it Rebecca Willett style: gastrilogous. You can show solidarity by doing the same.

What's quite funny is that those who organized the Bee didn't know how to spell a more common word. Take a look:



Not only did Rebecca get robbed, so did the entire state. Yes, there is another "I" in Virginia. In fact, there are several more of us here now.

Coming soon: the much awaited (by some) pics of the house. Stay tuned, and stay vigilant -- remember, it's now spelled gastrilogous.