VACA!

Day three of Martin's vacation is more than half over already. Our weekend was fabulous, thanks to the discovery of our wood floor. We worked hard on it for two days and now it's completely done, with all the furniture back in place. The only thing left to do for that room is putting down the doorway pieces, which need to be painted first. That should be simple.

Yesterday, thanks to Caitie, I played at a 50th anniversary party on the West side for some people I don't know. I was hired to play 3 Irish songs. It started out being a little bit weird... but in the end, it turned out to be really fun and kind of a blessing for Martin! We went over earlier in the afternoon to set up my sound stuff, and after I was finished playing (about 7 minutes) I left my equipment and later in the evening (after ice cream at the Cook's) Martin went back for it. He ended up hanging out there for awhile with the old people, eating a sandwich and drinking beer with them! Hahaha! But the man whose anniversary it was turned out to be really nice and Martin enjoyed talking to him--and enjoyed it even more when they started talking about police work and the man asked Martin if he'd ever applied for the West Lafayette police--because he's on the merit commission!!!! That is Martin's most worrisome part of the process!! So that was a funny thing to happen.

When he got home we got a phone call from Mrs. Watson saying that Sr. Mary Grace was in town and could they come by and see Anja? Aw, shucks, Anja was asleep. But they said they'd come by anyway. Good thing I didn't insist that they stay away from our junkpile of a house--Joannie was with them!!!!!!! Surprise!!!!! Not only that, but she doesn't start her job until AUGUST, so she's got a summer vacation as well. This will definitely be a good summer. I wish that our house had been put back together before they'd arrive though, because I think my house looks cute most of the time (especially now with the hardwood floors) but when they came all our furniture was piled in the dining room and the front room was almost empty.

After the Watsons left, Tara came over and we sat in our fresh, new living room and talked for awhile. I really like it when Tara gets to come over after all the kiddies (including Anja) are in bed. We are so lucky to have the Cooks next door to us. Especially in a neighborhood like this, it's such a fabulous thing to be able to be such good friends with our neighbors!

This morning Anja and I woke up closer to 5:00. She's having a hard time sleeping upstairs for the heat, and I think as a result, we're going to be moving rooms this week instead of whenever another baby comes along, which is what my plan had been. Martin said it's silly to be running the air conditioner when it doesn't even go upstairs anyway, and that everyone would be happier and sleep better if we were downstairs. So it looks like that's the new plan. It'll be kind of a lot of work and a bit of a trick in the organization department, but I think we can do it. I may have to borrow my mom's vacuum again though if we're going to have our bedroom back here...

So anyway, once Martino woke up we all took a nice morning walk up to Vienna for coffee and scones. We were hoping Anja would fall asleep, but she didn't until we were almost back home, and then when we came inside the dog started licking her toes and she woke up. Oh well, she was beautifully behaved, so it didn't matter at all. I got a quick shower while Martin took the dog for her walk, we walked to the bank to deposit some checks, then went to the grocery. It's great to go to the grocery during the day when nobody is there!

Tonight Bella is being baptized! We are going to go down to St. Michael's later and find something special for her, and I've made tabouleh for the after party. I have the stuff to make hummus too, so if I get time I'll whip up some of that.

We're so happy to have the floors finished up front. The room looks so many millions of times less trashy than it did. I'll no longer feel embarrassed to have people over. I only made a few little furniture changes, but with the money I made from playing yesterday I'm going to buy a few little oriental trees!

So far, this vacation is tops!

The Wood is Good!

Oh. My. Gosh.


Remember how we hit the jackpot with our garden already having been a garden so the soil was already rich and wonderful? Well, well, well! If hardwood floors were soil, we'd be just as golden!!! In fact--WE ARE!!

I swear, we are sitting on a goldmine here. Some people move into "fixer uppers." We moved into a house that had been "fixed up" only to find out that the way it had been was a million times better--and that beneath the layers of cheap improvements, it's still that wonderful!

We set our alarm for 6:30 but it was so dreary and dark still that we pulled Anja into bed with us and we all snuggled up until 8:00. I made eggs and toast for breakfast and we got right to work. I held my breath as Martin cut into the carpet and pulled it back to reveal: nearly perfect wood flooring underneath! He hauled it all out to the curb and we got right to work pulling up staples, pulling up that weird tack board stuff along the walls, scraping off any paint spots on the floor, sweeping it up and cleaning the wood with wood cleaner. We're 3/4 done already. We've saved the worst for last, but it's hardly anything, so it'll go quickly tomorrow. I'm going to do some rearranging too... I've already started putting stuff back into the finished half of the room, and I'm going to keep some stuff out, like a small side table that would be a PERFECT little kids table, and Martin's cute canoe shelves which have been pretty much buried under coats and baby gear. While we're rearranging the house, we're thinking of what we could do with our rooms, as in making the Big Back Room into our bedroom, making our current bedroom into a playroom... I just don't know. I feel like I've just gotten our bedroom the way I like it--but it could make SUCH a cute playroom too. And if we slept downstairs, Anja could have her own room. Also if we slept downstairs, any other babies would have much more room to stay in our bedroom for awhile, and no matter what time of year they are born, they will be either warm enough or cool enough during their early days. I worry about the complete lack of temperature control upstairs.

I'm totally rambling here, I know. Martin pointed out that the upstairs closet would be a perfect closet for dress-up clothes...

So much to think about!! So many options!!

I will definitely post before and after pictures when we're finished!

Can You Even Believe It?

It's pretty hard to believe these are the same baby!

What I was going to say about sleep is that I don't understand why we can't get the nighttime routine down. She is AWESOME about her naps. Every day at 11:00 she starts rubbing her eyes, I take her upstairs and nurse her to sleep on our bed and she sleeps for 2 or 3 hours straight, then wakes up happy. Today I took her up at 11:00 and put her on the bed where she immediately rolled onto her side, closed her eyes and opened her mouth! I don't mind nursing her to sleep, especially when it works. But it never works at night. Oh well, it's nice that at least her naps are 100% predictable.

Wow, this has been a long week. Is it the weekend yet???

Have Snails, Will Share

We didn't realize when we put the mulch down out front that it was a kind of two-for-one deal! I took this picture yesterday morning when Anja and I came home from our walk. Later that night Martin and I were drinking coffee out on the porch and we watched one slither across the porch floor into the mulch while another was up on a hanging flower pot. What a cutie! My niece Angelica would be in heaven.

The other thing that happened last night was that we tried to go to the CC graduation. Nevermind that it was actually two weeks ago. We were VERY confused. We ate a quick leftovers dinner, got all dressed up and headed out to CC, where the doors were locked and all that was going on was a t-ball practice out front. We didn't know what to do so we went out to Barnes & Noble for a favorite date (where Martin bought me some VERY CUTE note cards!) before heading home. When we got back to our house, Mrs. Schap was standing outside and we finally found out that it wasn't the CC graduation we'd been invited to, it was the Lafayette Police Citizens Academy graduation. Whoops. Evidently Aunt Anna May was there for it too! I was kind of bummed. High school graduations are long and hot and boring, but Citizens Academy graduations are fun and full of crazy people and last time we got a tour of the police station. Martin took that picture of Anja and me all dressed up before we left--to show off my new haircut!

I adore my haircut. Mostly because it could've been a buzz cut and I'd be happy to have it off my neck. I had had just about enough of the long stringy mess of hair that my head had become. Now I have a cute short summer cut. Hooray! I took Anja along with me and she just sat in her carseat happily chewing on her frog and looking around at everything there was to see. She didn't make a peep. She's funny though... a lot of times when we go out someplace she'll be perfectly quiet, and then as soon as we get in the car she starts jabbering away! It's like she's telling me all about what she saw. Very cute! This picture is of her smiling. The one below is of her at knitting night... she is the youngest knitter in the club, but look how passionate she is about her yarn!!! By the way, all those hands you see all over her belong to her grandmothers. Imagine that!

And here are some more pictures to share. Anja with her mountain lion pet, Theodore.; Anja wearing the Ergo weather hood when we walked to church last Sunday.; SITTING UP in her jungle crib!

In other news, I made hummus this morning and it's delicious, although still pretty chunky since I mashed it myself. I tried doing it in the blender, but it freaked me out too much. I am easily scared by common household appliances. And inspired by Anne, I mopped my kitchen floor! Also, before the hummus making adventure, Anja and I walked up to K.Dees for my morning coffee. It was really nice because it wasn't even 9:00 yet so nobody was out (unlike on our busy lunchtime walks) and it wasn't too hot yet! Lots of morning fun and now she's asleep, but I'll talk about that in my next post, coming right up.

With a Snip-Snip Here, and a Snip-Snip There

I'm getting my hair cut today. Hallelujah. The last time I got my hair cut was the day before Anja was born, and she'll be seven months old on Monday, which means a haircut is loooooong overdue. I am planning to get it absolutely chopped. I'm so sick of my long, stringy, thin hair. All I do is wear it up and even that looks bad because I'm sort of balding on the sides of my head. I am looking for something short, cute, and low maintenance. I will not be too picky.

I actually had ants in my pants today, believe it or not. Real live ants, the biting kind. I went out to the jungle to take some cuttings of ivy and when I pulled back one of the pieces I uncovered an ant nest. Those suckers must be fast because a few minutes later, I was feeling some tiny little bites inside my jeans! Yikes!

Yesterday after dinner Martin ordered me to take a nap on the couch while he took care of Anja. What a treat! They went for a long walk together and I snoozed away until it was time to go to knitting. What a treat!

I can't even put into words how thrilled I am about my garden. Remember how I thought my cliantro pot was just coming up weeds? WRONG!!! I actually have a zillion little cilantro stems coming up! And my cherry tomato plants are absolutely overloaded with flower buds, as is my zucchini plant. My hostas from last year look gorgeous out front and all of my hanging pots are thriving. Now that I know I can grow things, I'm definitely going to expand my garden next year. And by expand I mean cut down on tomato plants and add in some other useful things, like maybe yellow squash and green beans. But for this first year my garden is PERFECT and I wouldn't change a thing. With all those tomatoes and my cute basil plants though, I'm afraid we're going to be eating a loooooot of tomato-basil pasta.

Anja and I went for a walk this morning a little before 10:00. We could've gone on an aimless walk, or gone up the hill to the mediterrenean market for tahini, or we could've gone to a coffee shop, but in the end we chose to take a stroll through Rubia and ended up with a dozen roses for less than $5. They were in the half off section AND they were the special! Not too shabby. And I had a five dollar bill in my purse. Perfect!

Anja is awake upstairs and talking to herself. She has perfect timing. My haircut is at 2:00. Just enough time to feed her and go!

Sleep Situations

I know I've posted a thousand times about the sleeping situation here at the Schap house. How Anja's room is downstairs and our room is upstairs so we have made a little bed for her in our room because her room is too far away from us. Now I need some opinions.

Anja's little bed is a twin-sized wool blanket folded up to be her size with a folded quilt on top of that. It's not a huge space, but it makes a nice little mat for her. It's firmness is between a bassinet (hard as a rock) and a crib (softer.) I thought it would be a good fit for a little baby. The problem is that she's not so little anymore. She's practically crawling, and I NEED her to stay asleep at night, because when she wakes up she is not contained, so she is able to roll all over the room. But she just doesn't sleep well on her little bed, and I'm wondering now if it's because it isn't soft enough. But they always tell you not to make baby beds soft because they can suffocate. But isn't she big enough to not suffocate in her soft bed now?

Okay, here's the point, and the question: Anja sleeps like a corpse in our bed. Our bed is AMAAAAAZING. A comfy mattress with a down blanket used as a featherbed under the sheet and lots of quilts. Now this is not an argument for or against co-sleeping... she doesn't sleep there when we are in it, she takes her naps there and when I wake up in the morning, I move her to our bed. I have a twin-sized down featherbed from my single days. Should I have her sleep on it? I think she would sleep better, but I don't want to do something stupid. I know, I know, she should've started sleeping in her crib when she outgrew her bassinet, but it's just not going to happen.

So what does everyone think?

I just went out to check on my garden. My tomato plants are getting huge!!!! Talk about exciting. I've got flowers on everything but my Big Boys. Martin saved a bunch of the very straight branches from the weed trees he cut down this weekend. We'll cut and strip them and use them as stakes to hold up our ginormous vegetable plants.

In other news, it's a dark and stormy day which means I should be able to get ALL of my housework done! And maybe in the afternoon we'll sit out on the porch and watch the rain.

It's More Than Fun--It's Superfun

I'm in love with my new banner. Cows! And rolling hills! It gives me goosebumps every time I visit my blog.

Yesterday was deliciously productive. We tend to find ourselves every weekend saying things like "It's great to be us" and "We've got it so good." It's so true! And I'm so glad that this summer we're finally able to appreciate being homeowners. We are making great improvements on both the front AND the back of the house, and yesterday we finally started tackling the jungle along the west side. (the east side jungle will probably have to wait until next year.) We finally got back to 7:30 mass and Anja took a good solid nap in the early afternoon. Martin spent the whole day mowing , cutting down tree-sized weeds (not kidding,) and clearing out our huge brush/trash pile from the backyard. I spent the day inside the jungle, liberating a zillion hostas, ferns, and rambling rose bushes from the vines that have completely taken over in only a week. They've taken over so much and so fast that I actually didn't get all I wanted. I know there are a lot of ferns in there, but I could only find one. I know there are more hostas too, and it took me a really long time to locate the rose bush. This viney stuff we have is amazing. Seriously, you can't stand still too long or it will eat you. Not even kidding.

We also went to the hardware store and got some more flowers. Martin's mom gave me a nice old wooden box the other day and I decided to make it into a planter. I transplanted some petunias from a pot (where they weren't doing very well) to the box, and added a cute little pink plant I bought, a Thyme plant (hooray for fresh herbs!) and the rest of the little yellow flowers I have all over the place, which were in the same pot as the petunias. We bought two hanging baskets of flowers for the porch, and Martin put hooks in so they hang nicely now. The biggest accomplishment of the day, however, came from our awesome brother-in-law, Andrew, who brought over two loads of mulch for our front areas. It looks GREAT! And if that wasn't enough, later that night he and Sarah brought us over some pavers to use as stepping stones through the porch planter area since we walk right through that to get to the car. The front of our house is looking really good. Amazingly less trashy. I'm pretty sure our neighbors appreciate all our effort too. We have the Cooks beside us who are fixing up their house for when they sell it, (as if it didn't always look adorable) and through the yards we have Dave & Dawn who are obsessed with their yard and it is amazing. They live in that cute yellow house on 6th street. SOOOOOO cute!! They didn't used to talk to us but now they are very friendly! I think it's because we've started working on our yards. I kind of can't put into words how trashy it was last summer compared to this summer.

So anyway, that's what we did all day yesterday. We've put Anja on one of Martin's "hard routines." When she starts to act sleepy in the evening around 7:30, it's bath, jammies, stories, bed. We're hoping this will teach her to go to sleep. So far no luck. I know it must seem from my posts like she sleeps all the time, but it's not true... in fact, she hardly sleeps at all. It's weird.

Next week is Martin's vacation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited. We're going to tear up the carpet in the front room and we're going to take a ton of long walks and we're going to make delicious meals to eat outside on our pretty patio. Then at the end of the week he'll leave for 9 days to be a chaperone at Hoosier Boys State, which is completely barferific, but oh well. At least we'll have a week of fun before he goes!