4.20.2009

house project













here we go.


we're in the thick of our latest housing project. i love projects and all, don't get me wrong, but the mess is killin' me. i know it will all be worth it, though.

so a couple of weeks ago ben busted out and put recessed lighting in our living room. it looks so nice! he was able to complete the whole project in about a half a day. i love when he's motivated.

after that he painted one wall (he had a little help from jakey).














































at first we didn't like it. it felt too dark compared to the white that we've had for the last 3 years. we left it that way for about a week, and now we love it. i'm so glad we didn't change it right away. the color is sort of a grey/green/brown i guess, but that sounds hideous. it's not hideous! it is not very dark but a nice tone. ben has painted almost all the walls. there is one wall that is yet unpainted because our giant wall unit is impossible to move, but once that's done the painting part will be finished. then onto the molding!

we picked out some crown and baseboard from home depot that we really like. i guess that project will be next. then ben is going to trim out the fireplace, then we're contemplating slip covers for the couches and new curtains. i'm so excited - i think it will look fantastic when all is said and done. i'm so glad and lucky to have such a crafty boy living here :) i think i'll keep him.

4.15.2009

happy easter!


i started this entry tonight because i have been looking through my picasa folders for about an hour now looking for a picture of my family, just the 4 of us. what's really sad is the most recent one i have is the one we had done at picture people for christmas, and the only one before that is of us 4 in the hospital! this is terrible! i have photos of everyone with my kids and husband but me! i guess that's kind of typical, though. anyway, that wasn't very exciting so i thought i'd talk about easter. we had the most eventful easter ever! saturday we spent the day with our in-laws. ben's sister and her family were in town for the weekend, so we all got to spend a lot of time together saturday. it was so much fun seeing the three little cousins together. they did an egg hunt in karen and steve's beautiful and huge backyard. they had a blast. they all tolerated the photo op very well, too. sunday morning we had our own egg hunt here and i actually mentioned to ben that we should get a photo of the 4 of us before we left, but we were out of time. we went over to the shacklefords' for the most delicious brunch. after stuffing ourselves we headed over to uncle chris & aunt koleen's to stuff ourselves some more. such phenomenal food, as always!! the kids had so much fun, as did we. we have nicknamed uncle chris the baby whisperer. he calms annabelle right down every time. it's amazing. anyway, 4 egg hunts and LOTS of candy later, easter is over for another year. i love easter.

love and (lack of) money

well my good friend, jessica, is a writer for the bay area news group. she and i go way back, back to 1992 in fact. maybe even earlier. we met in high school after both dating the same guy. she and i forged a very strong bond back then and remained close for several years. as things go, we parted ways at some point in college and just lost touch. when i was pregnant with jacob we met up for dinner at a mexican restaurant in danville. we had such a great time, but managed to lose touch yet again. i suppose me having a new baby and her getting seriously ahead in her career had just a little to do with it.

then came
facebook.

ahh, facebook. i have a love/hate relationship with facebook, but one thing it did do for me was put me back in touch with jess! we met up again at a place in danville she was reviewing for her paper called
Easy 925. (neat atmosphere and fabulous drinks, in my opinion... though it has been years since i've been out for cocktails!)

that's a lot of unnecessary information for the real story here. jess and i got to talking about the economy and marriage and how the economy is affecting our relationship. it started out as casual chatter, but then i made a comment about occasionally (and i truly do mean occasionally, ben!) sneaking a new t-shirt into my target purchases. she liked that line and apparently her editor did, as well, so the next thing we knew we were having our photo taken for the paper! our photo was on the front page of the TIMEOUT section of the contra costa times and the first few paragraphs of her article were about us! it felt a little silly being photographed in our pajamas with a glass of wine and a movie on (that we were too nervous to actually watch), but that is honestly our idea of a good date night and i guess that's what they wanted for the article! the man who came to take our photos took them of us putting the kids to bed, hanging out on the couch, opening the wine, etc. we didn't get to see any of them (and i'm assuming we never will) until we saw the photo on the paper. lucky for me my friend gina let me know the article had run, and even luckier was that my mother-in-law, karen, was able to run out and nab a few copies!

like i said, we felt a little silly, but it was also nice to know that she liked our story and thought we were relatable enough to put in the paper. enjoy the
article.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_12118210?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com

4.02.2009

leapfrog

I actually wrote this post about 2 weeks ago and just never got around to publishing it or posting photos. so here we go!



Thursday, April 2, 2009

today jacob had a little video shoot for leapfrog! we went for a casting call last week and it was right during his nap time. i was sure he'd have a meltdown or just not be in the mood to do what they asked. i was wrong. he was so good, talkative, singing... he was terrific. so much so, i guess, that they decided to use him on their website! so today we drove into bernal heights to the house of one of the creative designers at leapfrog. his house was fantastic. one entire wall was a chalkboard. amazing. anyway, they took us upstairs and let jakey sit on the bed and play with some of their new products. he was having fun and i was just loving watching him. i was sort of hoping i would be able to sneak my camera out and get a photo of him in action, but there was just no way. so i'm standing there, watching, wanting to talk to him and get him doing some of the things the people were asking him to do. you know how it is, you feel like you have the right words and the right intonation that will really get him going. wrong! he will respond when he feels like responding. which wasn't too much at first. so they asked me to get in there with him, sit him on my lap, and play with him! me and my poufy hair, sloppy sweatshirt and all. but it was fun. a little nervewracking, but at least i could see all of this from jake's perspective. big camera right in your face, lights shining in your eyes, people telling you over and over what to do... it wasn't as bad as it sounds, but it definitely gave me some sympathy for when he just feels like he's done. anyway, it was interesting and fun. they said the videos should be up on the website in about a month, so keep your eyes out! i'll post the link as soon as i can find it. and we'll just wait to see if we get another call!

(here's a photo of jakey with the new toy he got for being in the video - this is the text & learn, i think)