07/17/2003 Newsletter

The office is done, and being used...

Miekka being showered... boy she needed it... View more pictures from the office remodel View pictures from Miekka's baby shower

07-13-2003

Hoorah! The office is finished... After much tribulation with our first taping and mudding experience, we were able to get the walls relatively smooth enough for painting. James has decided that mudding and taping is definitely not his favorite thing to do. I think it ranks up there with his hatred of plumbing... We painted the office and wired up all the outlets last week. On Thursday we had carpet installed and we moved all the furniture downstairs yesterday. James is so excited to have all the extra desk space. Now all he needs is another computer monitor and his dream office will be complete. Too bad we are out of money! I'm glad to be able to get working on the baby's room now. The due date is sneaking up on us quickly and we still have a lot to do. We should have the baby's room all painted by the end of this week, and that's really the biggest thing we have to do in the room itself. Then I have to refinish the crib my mom found at the DI and that will be a project in and of it's self. The crib might not get done until after the baby is born, but it's ok because we are borrowing my sister's cradle for the first few months anyway.

I had my baby shower on the 1st of this month. It was great to have all my friends and family gathered around me. (Thanks to all those who came or sent gifts). Jenni was the ringleader in charge of games and grossed everyone out with a diaper game. She melted different kinds of candy bars into diapers and then the participants had to look at and smell the diapers to figure out what kind of candy bar it was. Several people were so grossed out that they couldn't even look at the diapers. It was pretty funny. Look at the pictures of the shower for some of their reactions. I was loaded down with some great gifts for the baby. He will definitely have enough to wear for the first little while!

The 4th of July was spent with my family. We went to the parade in Kaysville again this year. Their parade starts out pretty boring, but at the end they basically have a community water fight. Marrisse and Aaron provided us with water balloons and my mom brought some little water guns. We kept ourselves cool by squirting each other throughout the parade. James, John and Aaron got completely soaked when a water truck went by and opened it's sprayers to full blast on them. After the parade we ate a light lunch at Marrisse's house and enjoyed her shady back yard. We had dinner of grilled hamburgers at our house later that evening and went to Murray Park to watch the fireworks. We finished off the day by lighting sparklers in our front yard.

Sunday the 6th was Sophia's blessing day. Marrisse and Aaron's church starts at 8:30 in the morning, so there was no sleeping in for us that day. The blessing was nice and Sophie was so adorable in her blessing dress. Sophie has the nickname of Sophie Sue (to follow her sister's nicknames Hannah Boo and Maggie Moo), so when Aaron gave her the name Sophia Nell Abbott, 4 year old Hannah was very concerned that he had given her the wrong name. Amy had to explain to Hannah that Sophie's middle name really was Nell and not Sue. We had a wonderful breakfast after the blessing and spent a few more hours lounging around in the shade of Marrisse's backyard. That evening we went up to Logan for Dinner at Gma and Gpa Baerwaldt's. Dinner was yummy and the company was nice.

With the office finally done, I am feeling much less stressed about the baby coming and not having a place to put him. The only necessity that we are missing is a car seat, but that should be taken care of this coming week. (It's an important piece of equipment since they won't let you take the baby home without one). I'm about ready for the baby to come too, I'm getting pretty tired of my belly sticking way out and my legs aching every time I move from a sitting to a standing position or vice versa. We are hoping the baby decides to come a little early so that James' mom will be able to see him while she is here on vacation, but we'll have to wait and see. I have been strictly forbidden to have the baby on the 4th of August because my cousin is getting married that day, so according to Murphy's Law I will have the baby on the 4th. We'll keep you all posted and I'm sure there will be pictures here on the website on the day the baby is born for all of you to see.

We hope everyone is doing well and love you all!

Love, Miekka and James