hilarity

i got an email from my friend cj a few days ago referring me to a youtube clip from the show "flight of the conchords".  i didn't get to watch it until this morning...and haven't even finished it yet (my students are extra needy at the end of the semester, so there has been a constant stream through my door and waiting in the hall). the short bit i have gotten to watch had me in tears.

here is how cj set the clip up for me:

A little background:  This was done as part of a fundraiser for Cure the Kids foundation.  There is a 15 min version of the video but I thought it better to just provide the 8 and summarize the other 7 minutes.

Bret and Jermaine are charged with the last minute task of coming up with a charity song for kids. They decided to do a little research by going straight to the source.  The interviews with the kids set up the song at the end. It’s worth the wait. Bret actually wrote the music for the latest Muppet movie. 

mono vs stereo

when i saw this post on DesignSponge, i got instantly excited about our record player...not because it's cool all of a sudden, but because we don't have to buy something new to get the old retro look. we already HAVE the old!

when we got married, someone in brian's family (his dad's uncle) gave us a bunch of furniture when his father passed away. we have been using the end tables and tv stand since the beginning, but we never had room for the record player. (my mother tells me it's called a stereo, but my stereo growing up looked much different) It has been in brian's parent's garage for five years. now that we finally have the room, it has a home in our dining room.

inside the stereo were tons of records...bing crosby, engelbert humperdink, the kingston trio, etc.... not our parent's music but our grandparent's music. there are also at least 10 christmas records. bing crosby songs of christmas is my favorite so far. i plan on popping on some records, making some hot chocolate, and decorating a christmas tree this weekend! christmas music just sounds better with a little crackle behind it.

thanksgiving break...

...was wonderful and BUSY! we got to spend time with both of our families. brian's whole family stayed with his parents...8 adults and 5 kids...it was a blast and extremely loud and exactly what my tired-self needed.

we officially moved in to our house on saturday, the start of break. then we made a trip to ikea on monday (my birfday!!) and purchased a bed, a bookshelf to be used as a pantry in the kitchen, and a desk.  we got everything put together except for the hutch on the desk, thus completing our swedish engineering degree. 

the joy of home ownership hit us like a freight train. we have....
- replaced a broken L-shaped shower curtain rod in the bathroom (so that we can finally take a shower)
- fixed the garbage disposal
- rewired the laundry room so we could use our dryer
- bought a new refrigerator because the one in the house wasn't working (yay for no more ice trays!!)
- ran a water line from the basement to the refrigerator for water and ice
- put a new lock on the back door so that we have a key for at least one dead bolt rather than just a storm door
- sanded down the threshold of the back door so that it would actually close
- reattached the loose soffit outside
- removed most of the ivy from the front porch
- fixed the latch on the fence so boo can't get out of the yard
- fixed the latch on the fence where the garbage cans are stored
- changed practically every light bulb in the house because they were almost all burnt out
- fixed the bulging plaster walls in the living and dining rooms
....and i'm sure the list could keep going.  but when i say "we", i really mean "our dads". they know how to do everything...and are teaching us along the way!

in the meantime, i am 15 weeks, growing one gnarly belly, and can no longer button my pants! we will likely find out the gender of baby webb at our appointment right before christmas! YAY!!! hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!

Almost there

the hardwood floors are finally finished. brian, my parents, trey, and brian's parents worked tirelessly over the weekend to get them done. here's the bedroom and dining room (thank you vana!)

 

my dad's best friend roger also laid new tile in our bathroom. this is a picture mid-project...it looks fantastic finished. and we got a new toilet (with a #1 and #2 button HA!...it's awesome).

 

we also discovered while roger was there that he knows how to fix plaster. we had been trying to find a plaster guy for weeks...who knew that a guy i see at least three times a week could handle the job! SO, the water-damaged living room and dining room walls are almost fixed as well!

we are moving in this weekend!!! (three exclamation points)

learning to plan ahead

brian and trey finished sanding the living room floor and decided to stain it before we went home. (it looks fantastic!!!) they started at the far end of the living room and worked their way to the dining room....and then realized they hadn't locked the front door or closed the window.  we are slowly learning to think these things through a little more thoroughly.  locking the door and closing the window required some acrobatics that were too funny not to document....

crazy week

last weekend we took a trip to the wv mountains with our charlottesville friends. it was exactly what we needed....time with them and time to relax. the standing requirement when we hang out with these folks is that you wear pants with an elastic waistband. how awesome is that! the weather was foggy and rainy, but we didn't care. it was fantastic! robin has tons of beautiful pictures over in her little slice of blogland...check it out.... Robin's Song (i really need to get a camera...beside the fact that she's a professional....her pictures are amazing. my ipod is not going to cut it for much longer)

photo courtesy of Robin's Song

when we returned home sunday, we started preparing for frankenstorm, which was originally predicted to dump inches of rain on us. brian spent the afternoon (in the rain) on our new roof fixing missing shingles....

inches of rain eventually turned in to about a foot of snow in buckhannon! other than monday, brian has had the whole week off.  he has spent every day chauffeuring me around working on the house. almost all of the carpet has been torn up. today, he is starting the process of sanding the floors. tomorrow we will start staining and sealing our beautiful (hopefully) hardwoods!