New Stuff to Blog About

So, with my travel schedule, and my new de-prioritization of blogging on Sunday, I've discovered that I don't ever have pictures with me to upload and blog about. Enter Megan. I asked my wonderful wife if she wouldn't mind uploading a few pictures that we took last week, and I would go ahead and blog about them. Let's take a look at what she's provided:

Hmm.

Well...I'll give it a try.

Um, on the top picture you'll see some really cool cards that I could never make and which use some interesting colors and stamps and you have to be pretty good to make. The second picture is what Megan is making for her Scrapin' Open House at our house this weekend.

Wait. Maybe I'm supposed to talk about the tile. Notice how the tile is square. Oh well. I guess if you want to find out more about whatever I was supposed to write about you can visit Megan's stampin' website: http://www.meganisstampin.stampinup.net/

It's still a work-in-progress. She's still getting over scoring the winning run in the stake YW/Relief Society softball tournament. Yep. She's a champ.

Ali started first grade at her new school. It's been traumatic. She was home all summer. I was home all summer. But, I'm getting through it OK, and I think after a few more weeks I'll be just fine. Ali, on the other hand, is excited about her new teacher and making new friends and everything that has to do with school.

I can't believe I'm old enough to have a first grader.

Kaitlyn is really getting into playing house. Or as she calls it, "playing baby." It consists of going down to the basement, laying down on a blanket she has laid out on the floor, and pretending to sleep. Then she says, "Honey...it's time to wake up." We pretend to go the store and push around her dolls in the stroller. Then, Kaitlyn says something like, "My babies are crying. I need to go. Sorry!" to an imaginary store clerk. Then you have to lay back down on the blanket and start all over again. Do this for 3 hours. Straight.

And...she loves wearing her night gowns all day long. Here is Kaitlyn's new night gown I mentioned in the last post.


Max getting cuter and cuter and more and more grown up and functional. He's able to stand on his own for a second or two, but then he freaks out and immediately sits down or tries to grab on to something. He also has several new teeth coming in, which will help him to actually chew his Cherrios ©.


And, as for me, I'm learning that getting on the earlier flight doesn't necessarily mean you get home much sooner than you had planned originally if you have to sit on the runway in Newark for 2 hours while tornado warnings in Manhattan ground all planes.

A Consultant's Daughter

Alison and I now share a special bond: we both spend hours in front of PowerPoint. Ali's cousin Grant introduced her to it a month or two ago and showed her how to do a few simple tasks. She's since learned how to change the background color, use word art, add clip art, change fonts and colors and many other things that I'm sure I don't know how to do and will have to ask Ali for help with.

This past week I was able to work from home and not travel to the client site since I'm just starting a new project. On more than one occasion Ali came downstairs to my office and saw me working on PowerPoint. She just smiles, nods and says something like, "You're working on your PowerPoint, huh Dad?" She apparently sees no distinction between my work and hers. Maybe I can outsource some of my PowerPoint work to a low cost region like Ali's room and pay her in trips to the pool.

So, without further ado, I present Ali's PowerPoint:

In other news, Megan and Kaitlyn had some great bonding time this weekend. They went shopping--just the two of them--and Kaitlyn picked out a new dress and a new night gown (which she wears around the house all day long like a dress). Kaitlyn was in heaven!

Ali got to go "shopping online with Mom" because she turned down the chance to accompany Megan and Kaitlyn to the store. She was also in heaven.

Max and I have also had some good bonding time at church. We've learned that it is between 220 and 250 paces to circle the entire church hallway during sacrament meeting, Sunday School or Elders Quorum--depending on how fussy he is and how many people are in the hallway.

So, to close, I was informed by Alison that she took the best pictures she could with the camera today. Let's have a look:

How to Repair Drywall

Step 1: Have spouse run into garage wall with mini-van so you have drywall to repair. (See Figure 1 below.)

Figure 1

Step 2: Avoid expletives 1, 2, and 3; substitute phrases like, "I think the wall is a little closer than you thought it was."

Step 3: Wonder if any 2x4's were cracked or damaged.

Step 4: Call father (who is an architect) for advice.

Step 5: Speak with father-in-law. Have father-in-law over for second visual opinion of damage assessment.

Step 6: Notice that the dining room wall (the opposite side of the wall shown in Figure 1) is bulging.

Step 7: Repeat Step 2.

Step 8: Cut the wall open enough to determine that no 2x4's are damaged. (See Figure 2 below.)

Figure 2

Step 9: Notice that one of the 2x4's is no longer flush with the edge of the base, but has been pushed in about 1/4" or so--which explains the bulging wall. (See Figure 3 below and enlargement in Figure 4.)

Figure 3

Figure 4

Step 10: Take hammer, towel and spare piece of wood and pound base of dining room wall until baseboard appears to start cracking in order to drive displaced 2x4 back into place. When 2x4 is back in it's correct position, it should appear something like Figure 5 below.

Figure 5

Step 11: Measure an exact rectangular piece of the wall to cut out so you can go to Home Depot and buy a piece of replacement drywall. (See Figure 6 below.)

Figure 6

Step 12: Clean up your mess so you feel like things are more under control than they really are. (See Figure 7 below.)

Figure 7

Step 13: Assess the probabilities of the wall being hit again. (If the probability is determined to be high, install hanging tennis ball mechanism. If the probability is deemed low, forget about it.)

Step 14: Install hanging tennis ball mechanism. (see Figure 8 below.)

Figure 8

Step 15: Go to Home Depot. Convince attendant to let you cut a rectangular piece of replacement drywall off of a new, clean sheet and charge you only $1.50.

Step 16: Make sure to cut piece of drywall exactly 1-inch too short.

Step 17: Return to Home Depot.

Step 18: Convince different attendant to sell you for only $1.00 the rest of that entire huge piece of drywall that "somebody has cut a big rectangular piece out of." Now you will have plenty of drywall should you measure wrong again.

Step 19: Borrow drywall compound (a.k.a "mud"), drywall knife, drywall tin thingee, book about repairing drywall, drywall "tape" and drywall screws from father-in-law.

Step 20: Cut drywall to correct shape. Attach to wall with borrowed box of drywall screws. (See Figure 10 below.)

Figure 10

Step 20: Apply mud and tape.

Step 21: Be sure the mud has plenty of time to dry before continuing to work on it. Take businses trip to Chicago to ensure one-week drying time.

Step 22: Sand all seams. Reapply mud.

Step 23: Go to Washington D.C. for 4 days.

Step 24: Repeats steps 22 and 23.

Step 25: Sand. Determine that it's not going to look any better and that "hey, it's only the garage anyway." (See Figure Whatever-Number-We're-On)

Figure Whatever-Number-We're-On

Step 26: Paint wall and let dry...

Total cost to repair drywall: $2.50 + labor.

I've Been Waiting

A little over a month ago I commented, in passing, about "1 general home repair to be blogged about later." Well...this was it. I've mentally written this post a dozen times. I'm glad it's all over and now I'm on to the next item on my "cantaloupe" (i.e. not "honey-do") list.

A Little Slice of Heaven (cameo by Megan)

Aaaaahhhh, July 30th finally arrived! I had seriously been counting down the days until July 30th. Why, you ask? Because Nathan would be home from a business trip? Nope, that's not until tonight. Because the new Stampin' Up catalog made it's debut? Nope, that's not until next week. Because it was the Kenny Chesney concert? Nope, that's still a few weeks away. I had been waiting for July 30th because on July 30th The Cheesecake Factory was selling slices of cheesecake for only $1.50!! Sure, it's limited to 1 slice per customer, but I have 3 kids--so that's 4 slices of cheesecake. You better believe I was going to take my kids and have them each choose a different kind of cheesecake.

Alison chose the Oreo cheesecake. She LOVED it! (Although when she ate the leftovers today she commented "It tasted better when it was standing up." I thought it was alright, but I won't ever order it at full price. It was too much cheesecake, too little Oreo.

Kaitlyn chose the Brownie Sundae cheesecake, and it was DIVINE!!!! I loved, loved, loved it. That's right "I." Apparently, Kaitlyn didn't love it too much. I think she was expecting just a brownie. So, this cheesecake was pretty much fabulous, and I will certainly order it in the future (hopefully in the near future:).

And I ordered "Adam's Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple" cheesecake, as suggested by the all-knowing-about-cheesecake Michelle McCullough. It was, of course, incredible; and I will purchase it again, but not before I get the Brownie Sundae cheesecake again.

Now, I'm sure you're wondering if I got Max a cheesecake. Well, I didn't. I couldn't keep a straight face long enough to order my 10-month-old an entire slice of cheesecake. But, I really should have, because I think he ate more cheesecake than anyone else. He especially loved the whipped cream.
I invited my friend Tiffany to come with us, and she ordered the Banana Cream cheesecake. It was okay, but I really have a difficult time mixing fruit with dessert: if I'm going to spend my calories on dessert, it's going to have chocolate in it, preferably, a ton of chocolate...but this idea could really be a whole different post in itself.
Anyways, this was our cheesecake experience. Although, none of you got to experience it in real life, I hope you felt a special love of cheesecake while you read this post.

Mrs. Incredible

Megan was busy while I was gone last week. Very busy.

In the mornings she goes walking with her mom. Occasionally, in the afternoon, she goes walking with her sister. During walks with each of them last week, comments were made insinuating, suggesting, giving the idea to Megan that our front yard landscaping might look better if some of the plants were rearranged, moved, relocated. So, Megan, always one to leap, spent hours digging up plants and hefting them into new holes. What's more, she loaded our three kids into the car and drove to Home Depot and then loaded three kids plus plants and flowers into the car and drove home. On Friday, my help was solicited to finish the job.

Behold the "before":


Behold, the finished product:

To follow up on my SPF post, this wasn't even on my radar as a possible house project. Not even on my radar.

As if that wasn't enough, somehow Megan also managed to tape, fully paint, and clean-up the girls' room! She moved Ali and Kaitlyn to our bedroom for sleeping purposes and painted their whole room. She meant to keep it a total secret in order to witness my surprise when I got home, but let it slip.

Behold this finished product (or at least part of it):

In previous posts I had ranted about how I ought to be called Mr. Incredible because of my superior (albeit short-lived) driving prowess. However, how Megan was able to accomplish all this this past week while taking care of three small kids is totally beyond me. I hereby grant title, claim and ownership of the "Incredible" name over to Megan. It looks like I'll just have to settle for the title "Mr. Changing-My-Regular-Blogging-Day-to-Monday-Because-I-Don't-Want-to-Sit-in-Front-of-the-Computer-on-Sunday-When-I'm-at-Home-and-Not-Away-on-Business."

Now, let's wrap up with some hilarious comments from the kids:

Alison: Dad, is this England or is it North Dakota?

I don't know. They're pretty close.

Alison: Dad, let's play a game. Let's play "I'm Thinking of an Animal." Here's how you play: you think of an animal.

I thought I understood from the name of the game, but I'm glad she explained the rules to me anyway.

Me: Kaitlyn, thanks for letting me go with you guys to the pool today. I had a fun time.

Kaitlyn: No problem Dad!

I'm pretty sure I'm the luckiest husband slash father in the world. Slice out.

Happy Birthday Megan!

It's true. Megan is getting older (read "more attractive"). I know what you're thinking. You're saying (aloud), "Nathan, that's great and all, but what's in it for me?" Well, faithful readers and blog stalkers alike, let me answer your question: that just means that Megan is now even more fun to hang out with and more fun to talk to since there are now more things to talk about than ever before. I know you can hardly believe it, but it's true. Megan is better than ever.

This past weekend I took a whirlwind trip from Indiana to Arizona to see my brother's farewell talk, er, last sacrament meeting speaking assignment before leaving on his mission to Taiwan. Let me define "whirlwind":

First, get up at 6:30 a.m. ET on Saturday morning to be ready to leave by 7:15 a.m. in order to be at the airport at 8:15 a.m. for a 9:00 a.m. flight. Fly for 6 hours and arrive in Arizona at 12:30 p.m. MT. Laugh at what happened to your sister's luggage from her flight earlier in the day; her suitcase looks like a piece of cardstock that got stuck going through a paper shredder. Rehearse musical number for the non-farewell program at church the next day. Eat lunch with the family. Go bowling with the family. Play Mormon bridge with the family until 12:30 a.m. MT--which is 3:30 a.m. ET. Oh, and by the way, do all this with Max with you since he's a lap child and could travel for free and enable Megan to get a small reprieve.

Next, wake up at 7:00 a.m. to get ready to leave for church at 8:20 a.m. so you get there in time to rehearse the musical number one more time. Realize you don't have keys to the car to get to church. Miraculously, have a family friend who came down from Phoenix arrive at your house just in time to pick you all up and take you to church. Sing in the program. Listen to Craig give a very impressive not-a-farewell-but-just-a-regular-speaking-assignment talk. (Did I mention it's not a "farewell"?) Leave church early so you can go home, change, eat and load up your bags. Go to the airport. Fly to Houston. Have a 3-hour layover in Houston with no other flights leaving for Indiana until the one you're booked on. Have your flight delayed 1.5 hours due to mechanical problems. Arrive in Indiana at 1:15 a.m. ET. Drive home and get in bed by 2:30 a.m. Oh, and by the way, do all this with Max with you since he's a lap child and could travel for free and enable Megan to get a small reprieve.

Then, wake up less than 3 hours later before 5:00 a.m. to catch a 7:00 a.m. flight to D.C. for work. Drive back to the airport and park in the exact same parking spot you left just 3.5 hours earlier. Use the flight time to D.C. to prepare for a meeting you have at 1:00 p.m. with a VP at your client.

So, let's recap. 1) Megan is awesome. Happy Birthday! 2) Max and I had some good father/son bonding time. 3) Mr. Webster apparently defined "whirlwind" incorrectly. 4) I had a great time with my family in Arizona. 5) I'm so tired...so very tired...