October

As the month of October comes to a close, we’re feeling a little scared—seasonally appropriate, yes? (at which point we turn to candy—a tried and true coping mechanism). Our pre-baby days are seriously numbered. The last couple of weeks have been crazy so I’ll try to do a quick summary:

*Some of you may know that Avery doesn’t do well at the traditional photography studios. Sitting still is not her forte’, and we haven’t yet found a photographer that we’ve been pleased with. Enter Connie Tameling—WOW. Now she’s talented, and ENJOYS a challenge. I’ll be posting a link to these pictures soon. Like us, I’ll think you’ll love what you see. Speaking of pictures, here's a new family shot that my mom took of us:















*Dan and his boss traveled to Colorado Springs to visit Focus on the Family. I don’t quite get what they were there to do, but I do know it was Avery-free time for Dan, including decadent meals, and cool sightseeing. I’m really quite delighted for him.

Dan at Pike's Peak

















*Dan and I took a Great Expectations Refresher course at Central DuPage Hospital—a sort of labor and delivery course. It was a good class with a lot of helpful information. What was kind of cool was that from where we were sitting we could see couples leaving the hospital with their newborns. It seems like yesterday that we were bringing Avery home from the hospital. And it feels as though it will be tomorrow when we'll bringing this next little girl home.

*Speaking of this next little girl, we followed up our class with a 3D/4D ultrasound. Dan and I are feeling that we’re a two-kid family, so thought an ultrasound would be a fun way to cap off our “child-bearing” years. It was a neat experience, and it was cool to “catch a glimpse" (use your imagination with the picture).



















*We celebrated Octoberfest with some friends at Schnitzel Platz. This is Octoberfest-style fun like I’ve never seen before. For me, I think it was a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience (I’m not interested in going back), and for Dan it is a “once-a-year" type of experience (meaning he’ll need reliable transportation). Schnitzel Platz serves a two-liter (yep, you read right) boot of beer. That’s a lot of beer, yes? And yes, Dan drank his all by himself.

Dan, his two-liter beer, and his designated driver


































*Many of you know that we treat having another child like a storm is coming. We load the freezer, buy tons of food and supplies, finish projects, etc. One of our big pre-baby projects that we’ve been contemplating for months has been replacing our sixteen-year-old, peel n’ stick vinyl tile that is in our entryway, hall, kitchen, and bathrooms. And so, we finally chose a tile, made the purchase, and are awaiting our installation appointment (Monday, 10/29). The pre-installation work has been rough. We’re required to pull up the old tile, stain base shoe, move appliances, toilets, etc. Early in the project Dan had said, “Pulling up this tile will be cake; I might actually enjoy it!” Ha! Enter “The Stripper”—a piece of equipment that’s specialty is removing tile. What a godsend this tool proved to be (thanks, mom!). With luck, we’ll have finished floors by the end of next week. It’s like a domino affect; the floors get finished, which will bring on a massive cleaning effort, followed by carpet cleaners, etc. Then I suppose it will be time to put sheets on the crib ;)

Dan and "The Stripper"



















All in all, we’re doing great. A little stressed, but we’ll figure it out (this is self-induced stress). Hopefully we’ll enjoy a little calm before RJN appears on the scene.

Happy “early” Halloween!