I can see the light

I am sure all of you at one point or another have taken on a project that involves painting. Well my husband and I decided last year we were going to finish off our basement so we can have a family/tv room, a mudroom, playroom, and to my excitement a Bathroom, plus storage.

Well this weekend we are finally to the point of painting colors on the walls. We both were mad men on a mission to get as much done as possible since we want to be painting the floors next weekend (maybe). I will walk you through the project from sort of beginning to where we are now :) Mind you these are not fabulous photos ....

This is our basement before we fully started adding walls, it was a wide open space with a bar room for couches and a giant old school Ping Pong table (if I am lucky that will be going when we are done).  

This is a look from the entrance wall into the basement space. PS those are not pot pants! The concrete floor you see in the bottom left did have the pingpong table.

This picture shows the 1st hiccup of our Basement Finishing Project. We had leaks in our concrete wall where the re bar was. I am told this is normal but I will say I was very freaked out thinking we would never be able to finish the basement, my thoughts were running wild with possibilities of derailment from the final goal. also in the picture is our kitty Jones who looks so tiny there and that was only 2 months ago. He is now twice that size and a holy terror.

 The walls have finally started to go up beginning of February

 More walls have gone up...

 My Hubby and his father discussing the walls for the stairwell. Sorry for the crooked photo.

 One wall of studs in ;)

 If you cant tell Dry wall has started to go up on March 3rd

 Looking from the bottom of stairs towards the mudroom and main entrance aka walk out basement

  looking down from the kitchen to the basement = :)

Looking from the corner of the entrance wall towards family/tv room and storage under the stairs








As you can see that is alot of work and there has been more work but I will leave the to another posting sometime soon... The next few posting will be picture heavy as well :)

April Birthdays

So today I wish all of you who have April Birthdays and very Happy Birthday!!!

This month is a month of birthdays for lots of kiddos that Justin and I know. It started with Jasmine (our niece) who turned the big 5 then we had Grayson (friends son) turned the big 1 today really but it was celebrated yesterday; it was a baseball theme and he was so cute with Red Sox outfit and his butt scooting instead of walking...
Next is a birthday for one of my dear friends Kate Lewis and my younger brother Thomas on the 17th :) Thomas is the big 21 and I sent him a care package with nip lollipops in a Drunk Bucket with a hangover kit just in case. I then have a Grandmother aka Grammy who has a birthday later this month and will have to send her a cutesy little card since I don't see her as often as I should. It is also the month that has birthdays for a few friends, Kara and Miranda; one who is the sweetest and most gentle girl I know and they other is one of the most family oriented, best mother a boy could ask for.

Here is the to all the April Birthdays! April is the month of Diamonds and all of you shine and sparkle like one too!

Its poping up babies

This morning I have found it hard to look at facebook, the news, twitter or even pinterest. The reason being that babies are coming out of the wood works, so to speak. Today, I logged on to facebook and I see three people that had their little darling babies and three more that are announcing their bundles of joy being due in the fall. I know its like who cares but I do! It is hard enough to watch everyone get pregnant and have their own little cuties but knowing that Justin and I are struggling to have one of our own is wearing me down.

I am truly happy for all of my friends and acquaintances and random people I meet that have the proverbial "bun in the oven" but man oh man do I wish I could have that too. I know sometime it will happen with the right cocktail of drugs and stress free time, but the longer the wait the more stressed and down I feel about myself. I know many people go through this and I am not alone but I think when it happens it doesn't matter how many people go through infertility it still makes you feel awful and like there is something wrong with you. I have read many blogs about peoples struggles and how far they are willing to go to have that beautiful baby but for myself and Justin we only have two options and that is Glucophage and/or Clomid since they are the cheapest and possibly covered by our insurance. We are not a lucky couple who has a bajillion dollars to sink into IVF or I think its IUF either way those are both out of our ballpark. adoption has been in the back of our minds but that is a decision that will come well after we have tried with Glucophage and Clomid.

Well that was my rant and way of relieving stress! I still wish everyone that is pregnant the best during the length of this journey and those that have had their babies enjoy the time it seems to go by fast.

Easter

So yesterday was Easter. I am not a huge Easter fan, in fact I find that its one holiday I can do without. With saying that I am not a super religious person, and I can not claim I know much about Jesus and his rising again but what i can say for me its time to spend with the family, doing the things I or we love to do.

Well as for what I did on Easter, I helped my husband paint part of the basement, which really means I did the edging and around the windows with a paint brush he did all the rolling. We are getting closer to having our basement finished :) Other then that I was planning on planting my peas however it started to sleet in the afternoon, so that went right out the window along with my hopes of a warm week.

The other thing that happened this past weekend was my nieces Birthday she turned 5 years old and is still a spunky as she was the day I first met her. Although now she is much more vocal and not afraid to tell you whats up. My husband and I got her a swing that was painted like a ladybug it was so cute, I heard of Easter that she was able to get on and off it and swing herself, it warmed my heart knowing it will be able to grow with her.

Jasmine before opening her gift from Justin and I

 Jasmine after opening her gift from Justin and I

Well that was my Easter and my nieces birthday in a small nutshell :)

updates keep coming

So I had my follow up appointment after the ultra sound and numerous blood tests. It was confirmed that I had a rather large cyst in my ovary. However that is somewhat normal for women my age and since it had no weird markers they say it should go down in 4-6 weeks. This means another one of those awful pelvic ultrasounds where I have to have a full bladder then release it and hope that I have released enough and that my bladder doesn't fill up to quickly either. Grr!! What a process it is just to check that area.

In the mean time I was told to stay away from Fumes, do yoga or something to release stress and just keep doing the "dirty" yes my Doctor used that phrase. I was rather shocked and yet it made me feel oddly comfortable. So since that appointment I have made a gallant effort to replace my breakfast with a protein, spinach, and banana fortified shake/smoothie; I have started a work out, and let me tell you it hurts and I am only on days 3. I hope to keep this up and hope that I can start to run soon, but this is VT and the snow keeps coming even if its only a flake or two.

In the mean time I have to try and relax and look forward to May 4th my next appointment!

Beer Dinner

Last night my Husband took me to a Beer dinner at this amazing little restaurant called the Perfect Pear. If you have never been to dinner there you should definitely go, its a divine little spot that has some great beers and the owner brews himself :) This is the website check it out http://theperfectpearcafe.com/

 

We had a 4 course meal that each course was "peared" with a beer that Adam (the owner) brewed himself. The first course was a baby spinach salad with a fried ball of goat cheese on top with a grapefruit vinaigrette, it was paired with a Double Citra IPA. I was a fan of the Salad but not of the IPA and I love Citra hops to death but it left me feeling like there was something missing, plus it didn't nearly have the aroma that it should have had.

The next course was a Lo Mien and Grilled shrimp dish that had Wasabi drizzle, it was fabulous and it went well with the Pale Wheat Ale (it came in a cute mason jar). I wasn't a huge fan of the beer again it lacked something, but none the less the food was fantastic so far.

The Main course was Caribbean Jerk Steak Tenderloins with a fried plantation and black beans, man this was like spicy and sweet melt in your mouth heaven. This course had two beers with it and they were both Rye's however they lacked body for me but did have a great nose although one you could tell was high in alcohol.

The Desert was a decedent chocolate stout bread pudding with a whiskey Carmel sauce, talk about being in heaven. It was one dish I would love to learn how to make, but I know Adam (the owner) would not give up the recipe to someone he just met... None the less I will work on it :)

That's it for now :)