June 2003 Archives

The drywall is hung, now we need to figure out how to mud.

Us hiking to Donut Falls View more pictures from the office remodel View pictures from Donut Falls

06-24-03

This week started with a fun Family Home Evening excursion. We had been having such nice weather that we thought we'd go up in the canyon and go for a little hike. We hiked up to Donut Falls (a short and pleasant hike). On the trail we spotted a fairly tame Moose (we got quite close to it, since it was practically standing on the trail) and enjoyed the beautiful wild flowers. The falls themselves were nice. I decided to stay on dry ground since my balance is a little off due to the baby, but James and Jenni and John all trooped across the stream on conveniently placed logs to get a better look at the falls. They are called Donut falls because the water has carved a circular hole in the solid rock which it falls through. Unfortunately, there is no easy access to the top of the falls and it's hard to get a really good look at the "Donut" part of it. While we were hiking John was inspired to choose doughnuts as our treat for the evening, so we drove directly over to Krispy Kreme after the hike and bought ourselves some. I had a coupon for a free dozen doughnuts with the purchase of a dozen, needless to say two dozen doughnuts for four people is a lot, but we managed to finish them off fairly quickly over the next few days.

James and John were very diligent this week and hung all the drywall in the office. It's starting to look like a room again. Apparently the hanging is the easy part and we have our work cut out for us with the taping and mudding. We are ready to give it a try though, how else are we going to understand why no one likes to do drywall themselves... If all goes well we are hoping to have the mudding done this weekend and move on to paint and carpet the next week. I think James is looking forward to having a dedicated space for his computers and having all the extra desk space he can handle.

On Friday James attended a rally/protest in Utah County. View pictures or the official protest site. A company there is claiming that they own the rights for the Unix operating system and that everyone who uses the Linux operating system is using an illegal version of Unix. Since James uses Linux exclusively in his work he felt the need to go and support the protest. Here are a few pictures that he took of the event. I guess they got some news coverage and some acclaim on the internet, it was a pretty big deal since it was the first protest ever held in the city of Lindon where the company is located.

Sunday, we went up to Logan to Grandma and Grandpa Baerwaldt's, they served us a massive dinner and we spent the afternoon talking and reading. Jenni and John also had some stuff that they wanted to bring to our house so they spent part of the day gathering their belongings.

Yesterday, James and I went to a carpet outlet and began our search for cheap, nice carpet. Luckily the office is a small enough room that we can buy a remnant for it and get a good deal. We found a few carpets that would work, but nothing was perfect so we will continue to look until we are actually ready to buy and install the carpet.

We also had a plumbing issue come up yesterday, Jenni and I walked down into laundry room to find that water was leaking somewhere and the floors were quiet wet. We traced the problem to the drain for the kitchen sink, the water was backing up and then coming out of the washing machine drain. James bought a drain snake and went to work, we had to snake the drain 3 times before it began to drain again. Hopefully we got it all cleared out because our kitchen sink, the dishwasher and the washing machine all drain into that pipe and that much water could do some real damage if it started backing up again.

So that's the excitement for this week. We love you all.

Love, Miekka and James

The office is wired up for phone, network and electricity...

We are using recessed lighting in the office View more pictures from the office remodel View pictures from memorial day

06-16-03

These past few weeks have flown by. We've continued working on our basement office project, which now encompasses two rooms instead of one. I should say the office doesn't encompass two rooms, but the project does. We finished all of the electrical work, framed up the remaining walls and finally figured out an economical solution to getting heat and A/C down there. Yesterday James and John went and bought 28 sheets of drywall, so our next step is learning how to install and tape drywall, I'm sure we'll be experts when we're done. This project seems to be taking a long time for some reasonmaybe it's cause we are on a deadline. We are hoping to have it done by the end of this month so we can move James' office down and paint the baby's room. Cross your fingers for us.

We have two new additions to our household this summer. John moved in at the end of May. He just signed his contract for the National Guard and will be leaving in January for Basic training and then he'll spend a year and a half at DLI learning Arabic. In the meantime he's actively looking for a job and working on getting his Bachelors Degree finished. We enjoy having John with us, my dishes have never been done so quickly and James loves having someone to pal around and play video games with. (I don't like to play fighting games, but James and John make a pretty good team!)

Jenni moved in just this last week, she needed a place to stay as she starts her new job. So far I think she really likes what she's been doing. She gets to interact with young girls who need a lot of help and encouragement, I think it's a perfect job for her. We are happy to be blessed to have so much room in our house so that we can help both her and John out as they are making these transitions in their lives.

Last weekend James and I attended a Childbirth preparation class. It was interesting, I think that James learned quite a bit about what the birth process involves. He got pretty grossed out when we watched a birth movie and they showed the placenta afterbirth. I have to say that I didn't really learn much that I didn't already know through reading books and talking to other women who have had children, but it was good to be able to take a tour of the hospital and to have a down-to-earth run down of what actually happens. I figure that there is no possible way for a class to teach me what it will be like, since every birth is so different. We only have about 6 weeks left so it's starting to become more real as each week passes.

On Friday the 13th, James and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary. To celebrate we treated ourselves to a nice steak dinner and went to watch the movie Finding Nemo. We also made a romantic trip to the Home Depot and bought lumber so we could frame up the rest of the basement walls. We enjoyed the evening together and figured it would be the last really expensive date that we go on for a while. Speaking of anniversaries... Congratulations to Grandma Jean and Grandpa Lynn on your 50th anniversary. We are only 48 years behind you, and are looking forward to each one.

Well, that wraps up this letter. I hope you are all well and happy. We love you all and think about you often.

Love, Miekka and James