Merry Christmas!

The presents are wrapped and the stockings are up...we're ready for Christmas! We'll be driving to Chillicothe tomorrow to see our families. I'm sure there will be lots of stories and pictures to post when we get back. We hope you have a very merry Christmas with the ones you love.

Another Post by Steve!

I understand not everyone appreciates what I'm here to do: Educate

That's okay though.  I know there's a minority of you out there that tolerate what I have to say. At length.  About important stuff.  In that light, I just thought you might enjoy hearing a bit about **Mortgages!**

Today was "everybody refinances today" day.  Everyone I know under 30 refinanced.  Interest rates (already very low) dipped after the fed dropped the funds rate yesterday.  The fed "rate" isn't directly tied to fixed mortgage rates, but interest rates sometimes move in concert like this.  The rate is tied most closely to the 10yr bond rate.  If you're still reading and that's not true, go ahead and correct me in the comments.  No one is reading?  Moving on.

Anyway, the point is that we had an ARM, which is fixed for a # of years (7 in our case) before it goes variable. We thought we'd move for sure by then... but we've looked around recently and we're not so sure. It's not so much that we like our house; it's that we dislike other houses. So we think it's worth it to spend the little it costs (closing costs) to be able to stay as long as we'd like.

Week 24

Here's the much awaited baby bump picture. Everything is still going great. I had my monthly doctor's appointment today and she gave me an A+ for blood pressure, weight gain, etc. It is going by so fast. I'm more than halfway done! My doctor said weeks 24-28 are the most weight gain because the baby is growing so much. I am already noticing an increase in my appetite. I've started feeling hungry all the time just like I did in the first trimester. I'm taking a prenatal yoga class with Sarah this month and we've also signed up to do a childbirth class through my hospital.

Worst: I'd say the worst part of pregnancy so far is just feeling like I'm walking around with an inner tube of fat around my waist. I can do all the things I normally do, but it slows me down a bit! My four-square game has suffered. You know how you have fantasy dreams of flying sometimes? I have fantasy dreams of running without being out of breath.

Best: As far as pregnancies go, I have it pretty good. I still haven't felt too many bad pregnancy side effects (although when I say this everyone says "just wait, it gets so much worse"). The one "bad" side effect that I've been really looking forward to is increased body temperature. I don't mind being too hot, but I hate being too cold. So far, though, I'm still wearing my sweaters. Even right now I'm wearing two pairs of socks. Anyway, the best thing by far is feeling her move. I can feel it the most after I eat, right when I get into bed, and when the band plays music at church (she really likes the drums). Also, it doesn't hurt to have the best husband. Steve has been great about fixing me supper, helping out around the house, and putting up with my emotional outbursts. Most of the outbursts are about food. One time I almost cried because my sandwich bun was too moist and I declared the sandwich inedible. He assured me cutting it up and eating it with a fork would make it okay, and it did. Crisis averted. For now...

Lawrence

Steve wanted to go to Lawrence to look for bikes, so we took a day trip on Saturday. We went out for breakfast here in KC, then hit the road. We bought a bike (as previously mentioned in Steve's post), then headed to Mass Street to do some shopping. It was such a nice day that we didn't have to wear coats, which is pretty awesome for December. Lawrence has lots of neat shops and we found some good Christmas gifts. We also bought some things for ourselves, mainly baby clothes. We ate lunch at Free State for Steve and then went to the art museum for me. It was pretty much the perfect Saturday. Steve and I always have such a good time together. I'm looking forward to starting a family, but I will miss the just-the-two-of-us days like Saturday.

Green Bathroom Update

We broke up the tub. I need someplace to haul all the heavy debris. Until then we're a bit stalled. So the only progress we made this week was to start picking out the tub and tile color.

E-Bike Update (For the enginerds in the house)

Bike #10
I convinced Megan to go to Lawrence today to look at bikes. I've sent people to the Re-cyclery before, but I've never actually been there myself. It was fantastic. The guys there are mechanics, not salespeople, so it's very low pressure, but the main attraction are lots of very cheap very decent bikes. The bike I ended up with at the recyclery (maybe it's a specialized stumpjumper - but it's hard to tell under the rattlecan paintjob) was fantastically cheap and most importantly, it's a very good frame that's built like a tank.

Batteries
I went with Ping's batteries. They have a very good rep. They'll be shipped from China. It'll take 2ish weeks. They're LiFePO4 tech. This is the chemistry used in A123 type battery dewalt cordless tools. No 'memory'. Tons of power for the weight/size. PO (phosphate) cathode is stabler than earlier Li Ion tech batteries and doesn't have the same propensity for thermal runaway. The price was nice due to Microsoft. In case you're not an internet deals connoisseur (and I'm not really either, but I have friends.. ) Microsoft Live has been doing a promotion with certain % off at certain stores. Ebay is one. Purchasing through their system (and I have no idea how this benefits them) gives you 20% back on the day I ordered the batteries. $500 shipped - 20% = $400 batteries.

ebikes.ca
I bought the rest of the big stuff here. Nice guys. I went with the Crystalyte motor (also by way of China). It's a Brushless DC hub motor just in case you didn't already look that up. I also used them for the controller, a twist throttle, and a torque arm. So far I passed on their battery/bike computer, which (today) is the best there is "cycle analyst". I'm hoping in the future someone will mass-produce something like this.

Nashbar
I use Nashbar for just about all my commodity bike needs. In this case tires and tubes.

E-Bike

Thanks for the Memories

For awhile now I've been thinking of selling my 1980 Honda CB750. It's a great bike, and working on it taught me A LOT. But I'm not the guy doing weekend touring. I'm the guy who wants to commute to work during the summer on a motorcycle (megan takes me to work most days in the winter).

Problems

The 750 with it's 4 carbs and 80's tech is a pain to maintain such that everything is running spot-on. It also requires a good 5 minutes warm-up time before you can really take it on the road. I have a 3 mile commute. I also roll out of bed 20 minutes before I sit down at my desk at work. Perhaps my schedule will change someday, but right now a 5 minute warm-up doesn't inspire me to ride often. Neither does it treat the bike like it should be treated (10 minutes of stop and go at a time).

Dual-Sport Motorcycle?

So I spent a lot of time looking at smaller bikes. Because I'd also like something dirt-able to ride with my cousins back in chilli I gravitated to dual-sport. For a long while I checked craigslist for Suzuki DRs. Nothing ever came up that I loved. Recently I've commited to selling the 750 no matter what in spring 09. That gave me a budget of around $1500. So I starting hitting up craigslist more and I came up with a 1985 XR350. A little big for my purposes and not something I'd looked at before due to the very small # of these bikes out there compared to the DRs. Nevertheless I was pretty impressed with what people think of these bikes. Also maybe Charlie runs an XR350? Today I came close to buying it and wimped out at the last second. I decided to instead throw the same $1500 at an Ebike.

E-Bike vs. Motorcycle

Pros: No license/registration fees, no insurance, no changing the oil / less maintenance overall, no warm-up time whatsoever, fun and bloggable project.

Cons: Nowhere near as fast, I'll be left motorcycless for the first time since HS, I have no experience with DC motors/controllers at all, it's definitely just as expensive upfront.

E-Bike Research:

Here's what I've come up with for the major components:

• Crystalyte hub motor for a rear 26" wheel: $280 (15lbs)
  
• 48V 12AH LiFePO4 Batteries/Charger: $470 (13lbs)
  
• Crystalyte 35A Controller: $220
  
• Twist Throttle: $10
  
• Torque Arms/Freewheel/Tires/misc: $100
  

That leaves me about $3-400 for the bike. I've got two mountain bikes, one that Megan claims as her own and one that I use for running to ACE or other quick errands. I picked both those up on large item trash days so neither are quality... so probably back to craigslist. I'm sure Megan will be super happy about adding (not kidding here) the 10th bicycle to my basement rack.

Before you flame me about batteries...

I'm guessing people are going to tell me I'm retarded for buying $500 worth of batteries. And due to the cost I'm not sure about that part either. So if you're into figuring it out let me know a better option. 48V 12AH gets me the range/speed I want. Bonus for coming up with a system that's convertible to 72V later - which the motor and controller will handle. Looks like SLA AGMs are ~$100, but heavy and BIG. I'm open to suggestions. And since I know my mom is concerned about battery recycling... Here you go.

Research links/Sourcing:

http://www.ebikes.ca/index.shtml

http://visforvoltage.org/

http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/

http://ampedbikes.com/

http://www.pingbattery.com/servlet/StoreFront

http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/e-bent/default.htm

First Snow

Today was the first snow of the season. It wasn't much, but it was still fun. The kids had a ball at recess. They asked me if they could make mini snowmen and igloos. It's days like today when I most love being a teacher. And the day got even better because when I went out to my car after school I saw that my windshield was already wiped off. Some kind soul had taken pity on the pregnant girl.

Two Christmas Parties and a Tree

We had a Christmas party weekend. Friday night was the staff holiday party for Westwood View. As usual, by the end of the night the girls started a dance party. Of course I broke out my moves. Melissa (the other pregnant teacher) and I danced with our babies. I read that the baby can feel me dancing and hear music now, so that is pretty cool. I hope she likes Beyonce's Robot Hand Song. The close up picture is of me and Diane, the other 2nd grade teacher. It's a small school with only two teachers per grade level. She is very similar to my mom- same sense of humor and personality...except she is more liberal. She even has a son the same age as Justin and a daughter the same age as Marissa. Also like my mom, she is already buying gifts for the baby. I think she is the official KC grandma. If Diane ever retired I think I might change grade levels.

Saturday night was our church Christmas party. We didn't have any dancing, but we did a white elephant gift exchange. We have lots of junk around our house, so choosing good gag gifts was hard. We ended up bringing a big box full of hardware that we've been collecting since we started remodeling and a hideous ceramic box. We did pretty well in the exchange. Steve got a "How to deal with kid disasters" book and some miniature wrenches. I was able to lock the yoga ball up on it's third (final) trade and argued my way into a She-Ra Princess of Power book. For the baby. It's a must-read.

After much hauling and unpacking and placing, the tree is finally up. Steve's tolerance of Christmas music gets shorter every year. Maybe I shouldn't listen to White Christmas on repeat.

Aunt Peggy's Holiday Survey

Steve's Aunt Peggy sent us a holiday survey that looked like fun. I made Steve do it in hopes of getting in the holiday spirit and finding out some more about his Christmas memories. As you'll see, he doesn't have many. It was a lost cause.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate for both of us.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or sit them under the tree?
S- It was about 50/50. Santa did a little of both.
M- Mom always said Santa doesn’t have time to wrap. You know, he travels all over the world. I think he has enough on his plate.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? white

4. Do you hang mistletoe? no

5. When do you put your decorations up? As soon as we can after Thanksgiving. Usually it doesn't happen until the first weekend in December.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding desserts?)
S- Turkey
M- Lasagna? Oops. That's not a holiday dish. Yeah, I don't really love traditional holiday food. Turkey is okay I guess.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:
S- Drinking extra water Christmas Eve to make myself wake up in the middle of the night and sneak peaks.
M- Justin always woke up first. He would wake up the rest of the family. We'd wait at the top of the stairs until everyone was ready. Then we'd all go in the living room at the same time.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
S- I don't remember.
M- I was probably in third or fourth grade. We were in the car when I asked my mom point blank. She told me and I was crushed. But then I remembered that at least the Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny were real and I said something about that. More bad news.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
S- I don't remember.
M- Yes. Usually it is a gag gift.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? We have our old ornaments from when we were little plus new ones that kids have given me. This year I bought some new blue and silver ornaments. There are disco balls. :)

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
S- Not a fan.
M- Love it. I remember not letting Justin and Marissa play in the snow in the front yard because I wanted to keep it perfect. Some might call me a perfectionist.... But seriously. How can you not love snow? It's beautiful.

12. Can you ice skate?
S- I tried it once. Not a fan.
M- Not very well, but it was fun.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
S- The Atari was really good. I'm sure I'm forgetting something.
M- One year it was a She-Ra sleeping bag. One time a pink and purple ten-speed bike. One time a stereo.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
S- Fudge.
M- Being around my immediate family and playing lots of board games. Seeing extended family that I don't usually see.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
S- The aforementioned fudge.
M- Scotcheroos that Grandpa makes.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
S- Are you kidding me? Can this go on any longer? Oh, I do have one. Beating Charlie at chess.
M- Going to the Christmas Eve service at the church I grew up in and singing Silent Night. Also, it's a new tradition, but the white elephant exchange with the Meneelys/Schads is very fun. I have some really good presents for Uncle Dennis this year. :)

17. What tops your tree? Silver star. Our first Christmas together it was a star made of tin foil.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving?
S- Giving. Don't give me any gifts, thanks.
M- Giving. Especially to kids.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?
S- That one with the drums that's not Little Drummer Boy.
M- Silent Night, but White Christmas is a close second. And all the songs off the Mixed Nuts soundtrack are Meneely favorites.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
S- Fudge.
M- Mostly yuck unless they are the new flavored kind.

SketchUp

I'm a procrastinator.  Right now I'm supposed to be working on the bathroom.  Instead, I decided I'd use this week to learn SketchUp.  SketchUp is a 3d modeling program that Google now owns.  It's a fantastically powerful but stupid-easy tool.  I downloaded it (free), listened to the tutorials (free) and got going.  If you know me, you know I love doing this kind of stuff - "Renderings" as Megan likes to call them to belittle me  :)   Anyway, I started with the 1st floor and mostly finished it (and a cut of what the space would look like without the center wall) in about 4 hours.  All the furniture is downloaded from the library of stuff people have posted online.  It's all a very slick process. I'm blown away by how much the world has changed due to the internet... I still remember my family getting our first computer.

Thanksgiving 2008

Turkey Day 2008 (Thursday)- We went to Steve's Grandma Alice's house in Trenton for Thanksgiving lunch. Most of his mom's side of the family was there. Alice just moved into a new place that is within walking distance of a park, so we took his cousin's kids over to play. Trent, the oldest, was the ringbearer in our wedding. He's now a sixth-grader. Connor is in pre-school. They were pretty impressed that we played on the equipment with them, although pregnant Megan is not quite as fun as non-pregnant Megan. I've noticed I get worn out pretty easily now. We went to my parents house for dinner and my great-uncle and great-aunt (on my mom's side) came over. After dinner we decided we would kick it old school with the original Nintendo. Marissa's boyfriend Casey had never witnessed the awesomeness that is playing World Class Track Meet on the PowerPad. The fetus slowed me down again, and I came in last place. We hit up the Nintendo throughout the weekend with competitions in Duck Hunt and Dr. Mario featuring prominently. Casey was pretty bad at Dr. Mario, but after intense coaching from Steve and Justin, he might turn out to be a contender.

Friday- We had lunch with Steve's mom at the new Italian place in Chillicothe, Napolis. It's hard to catch new restaurants in Chillicothe before they go out of business. :) In the afternoon, we visited Steve's grandma Velma (an avid blog reader) then that night was the Meneely Thanksgiving at my Uncle John and Aunt Marilyn's house. Most of my dad's side was there minus some notable exceptions: Amanda and Jason, who were undoubtedly on a tight schedule with Jason back in the States on leave. Look at Amanda's blog for more information about her flat husband...and her 3-D husband, too.

Saturday- We had dinner at Steve's parents and then went over to the Palmer's to see Brooke and Ted. They are living in Milwaukee right now, but everyone is working hard to convince them to move back to KC.

Sunday (Blogday)- We drove home and got ready for work. It's going to be tough adjusting to our old 'work' schedule. We got a little too used to our 'stay-up-until-2-and-play-video-games' schedule. Steve did some more work on the bathroom. See the 'green bathroom' post below for details.

Turkey Fry

When Steve lived at the Runners' House they had an annual Turkey Fry at the end of the cross country season.  Walter loved it, but once he and some of the older runners graduated the tradition died.  Since Walter comes to stay with us the weekend before Thanksgiving on his way to visit his family in Missouri and go deer hunting, we thought it was time to bring the tradition back.  The first annual Turkey Fry was born.  We furnished the turkey and fried potatoes and friends brought all the other sides and deserts.  Per Walter's request, we ate on our fine china. Present at the historic event were the Vroomans, the newly-married Baileys, and Joffroi.  We had lots of fun playing board games and telling Walter stories.  I was laughing so hard I was crying at one point.  Sorry we don't have more pictures to share.  Next time someone really needs to remember the camera.

Interview with a Walter

A "Walter" is a grizzly species that roams free in Colorado. It is a hairy animal that eats mainly road kill, but ocassionally bakes cookies. Walters love turkey. So much so that they make a yearly migration across states to celebrate Thanksgiving. We lured one to our house this weekend with the promise of a Turkey Fry. Here is his story:    

Megan: Not all of our readers know that you were on the cross country team with Steve in college and you also lived with him in the Runners' House.  Can you tell us a little about yourself?  What are your hobbies?

Walter: I enjoy pretty much anything outdoors: running, biking, swimming, spelunking.  I also brew my own beer. 

Megan: Interesting.  So we know you like to hunt.  How many wild animals have you eaten over the years?

Walter: Number or types?  The types are fish, crayfish, deer, elk, turkey, rabbits, squirrels, and antelope. 

Megan: Squirrels?  Really? 

Megan: How did you like the Turkey Fry?  We know you've eaten turkey that you've run over in your truck.  Hopefully it was better than that.

Walter: It was awesome.  Meals are best when all the courses can be fried.  It was nice to see all my old Rolla friends and their wives.  Also, it was funny to push Tyler to the point where he throws down his cards in a board game.  

(Steve's Note: The "friends" comment generates argument between Walter/Megan, pretty much all of it isn't fit to blog.  Megan finally gets to the the question she really likes to bug Walter with)

Megan: Walter, when are you going to get married?

Walter: When I find a girl that can put up with all my ways...

Megan: Your backward ways?

Walter: My different ways.

Walter: (edited)

Megan: We can't put that on the blog.

Megan: Moving on.  Walter, what do you think our baby is going to be like?

Walter: I think it'll be a cute kid, but having known both of you in your teens...

Megan: You actually didnt.

Walter: Well, close enough.  Anyway, I think the child will go through an awkward stage. From maybe 4-25 it's probably going to be a little weird.

Megan: Do you feel displaced by our child. Like we'll love you less?

Walter: Yes.  However, I was happy to find out I can at least keep my room here.

Walter: Why are we doing this interview, again?

Megan: Tell us a bit about living with Steve during college.

Walter: Well, it's a good thing Steve got married right after college. Given no supervision, he'd probably just pile dishes up in the kitchen. (Steve's note: Just so you know both sides of the story, Walter once got so ticked off at me not washing my dish - I'm pretty sure I only used the one - that he took all the dishes off the counter in the kitchen and "cleaned them up" by moving them to his bedroom, where he broke some of them in a rage.)

Walter: How long does this stuff stay on the blog?

Megan: That's not important.

Megan: We've talked a bit about seeing a movie today. What's your favorite movie?

Walter: Schindler's List

Megan: That's depressing.

Walter: Pff, Well.  It's a great story about a man who despite his shortcomings can do good for the world.

Megan: Interesting.  Walter, we know you like to travel.  I believe everyone knows the story of you driving to Wichita in the 110 degree Kansas heat with your truck heater on -so the engine wouldn't blow- and nothing to eat but fried chicken and warm chocolate milk.  But, where would you like to travel if you didn't have to get there in your non-cruise controlled truck?

Walter: Way up the Amazon. Somewhere remote.  Where no one asks any questions.

Megan: Very subtle.  Walter, would you care to share the painful story of your addiction with our readers?

Walter: It started off harmless. I was just a high school sophomore, you know. A friend offered me a little bit. It was good. I mean real good.  From there it grew. When I was 17 I started buying it on my own. Now I have stashed in the house, in the car, and I even have to keep it in my pocket. I can't go anywhere without my Carmex.  (Steve's note: For those that don't know though, Carmex is really just chapstick in a tin instead of a push-up stick.  Don't tell Walter that though.  I think he actually gets physical pleasure from the imagined illicitness of it all.)

Megan: Okay.  I can't think of any more questions.  Steve?  

Steve: I'm not really set up for both questioning and typing here.

Megan: I guess we're done then.  I hope we've educated the public a little on the enigma that is Walter.  

It's a Lady

From Steve: Megan is 20wks and we had our first ultrasound today. Prognosis: Girl. Since Megan is a first-born girl and I'm a first-born boy (and we both turned out awesome) we were going to be thrilled either way. The best thing about a girl is that she already has great playmates; our friends Sarah and Tyler are having a girl about one month before us, and her cousin Ainslyn is only a year and half older than her.

From Megan: This is my favorite picture! I like how she's all curled up. I can't believe that I'm halfway through the pregnancy. It is flying by! I'm still feeling great. Now that we know it's a girl we can start thinking of names, decorating the nursery, and buying cute little pairs of shoes. The kids at school were very excited to find out it was a girl and see the picture. One of them asked me how I knew it was a girl because "it really just looks like a whale". Then they all started giving me possible girl names...mostly their own names, although one told me I should name her after a Hawaiian goddess! The other teachers were very excited, too. I got lots of congratulations and hugs. Some said they were happy it was a girl because first born girls were best (although I have my suspicions that I would have heard first born boys were the best if it had been a boy).

I'll be your Best Man for the evening.

I've been worried about this weekend for a long time. One of my best friends from college, Dan Bailey, married Wendy Moore, another great friend from college. I had the honor of acting as Best Man. It was a job I knew years ago I wasn't prepared for so I've been dreading it for years. If you knew me before you wouldn't even recognize me now.. I'm way less tense. I think the problem is that, to me, Dan is the quintessential Best Man. (By the way, I'm capitalizing Best Man because I think it totally deserves it). Anyway, I think people that make good Maids of Honor/Best Men are inherently hard to work for. I knew before I even got the position that pretty much the whole time I'd think about how Dan could probably do this better. Lucky for me, I think I did a passable job and unrelatedly, the Wedding was one of the best I've been to.

Highlights of the weekend:

• McGuires/Vroomans/Kerrs. Awesome when separate, 10 x Awesomer than Awesome when together. The McGuires rolled into town Friday night (kidless) and stayed with us. We all caught up with the Vroomans on Saturday for the wedding. The Vroomans finally paid up on that bet we had about who would be "with child" first.
  
• Sawzall. Dan presented me with probably the best groomsman gift I've ever seen, a milwaukee sawzall. I've needed one for awhile but put it off. This last summer when Dan moved to Brookside we went garage-saling and found some saws. We each bought one. Neither one worked. I've had them in the basement trying to make one working frankensaw out of the two unworking ones.. but I hit some snags and hadn't been able to finish the job yet. It was an amazing gift and I needed it so bad that I had all but broke down and bought one just last week to help out with the bathroom remodel. Timely AND awesome.
  
• Pirates. This is a little-known fact to my family I think, but Dan and I rocked out pirate-style all through college. When we went on the annual runner float trips we flew the "Jolly Walken" high (sorry, no pic - just imagine the skull and bones but with a walken face where the skull would be - way scarier) and threw cannonballs (bowling ball on rope for retrieval) out of our ship/canoe. The entire day was in pirate-talk. Wendy was cool enough to have a rehearsal dinner pirate ship cake and allow an 11' tall inflatable pirate santa (a gift from a couple of the runners) to be inflated at the reception.
  
• Dan busting his face 1hr before the wedding. Yeah. Slick shoes, bad walking, slick parking lot. It was bleeding. We had to get his mom to come down and work some make-up magic. In the end you couldn't even tell but it made for some awesome pictures and a great story. Plus after a couple touch-ups his step-dad busted out the line, "I think he's starting to like it!"
• Sheep. Sunday we ran errands. One of them was getting a gift for my niece, Ainslyn. It's her 1'st birthday this coming week. Megan and I went to US Toy to pick something out. They have great stuff there that's really unique. I was pretty overly-excited about this sheep puppet that looks like a stuffed animal but is also a puppet and Megan said we should get a sheep book too. I'm pretty sure I'm more excited about it than Ainslyn will be. Anyway, if you see her this week, don't tell her what we got her.

So tomorrow is the big day when we find out what kind of baby we got. I've seen the polls. I know that tomorrow evening about half of us are going to be disappointed. All I can say is that no matter who wins, Megan and I will do our best, going forward, to work for the good of our Family. Boy... Girl... I say it doesn't matter. We're all Kerrs here in this house.

Too cheesy? Yeah, I know.. that's why Megan doesn't let me write these much. -Steve

Goodbye Green Bathroom

We got bored this weekend so we decided to demolish our bathroom off the hallway. The hallway bathroom and the upstairs bathroom are really the only two rooms left to do in the house. Well, I'd like to get new carpet for all the rooms, but that's another story. Back to the bathroom. So I got to thinking about our baby using our nasty old bathtub (the one I won't even use), and I knew it was time to get started. We'll have all winter to put in a new tub and re-tile it. Plenty of time to get it finished. Plus it gives Steve a project to do so he won't keep bugging me about tearing out the walkway that he just put in last year. So Steve started knocking out the tile and I removed the wallpaper. Yes, I know it doesn't look like wallpaper in the picture. They painted over it. That's really fun because moisture gets behind the wallpaper and then there are big bubbles in the wall. Word to the wise: don't wallpaper your bathroom.

11/30/08 Update: Workday #3 on the bathroom. On workday #2 I moved the toilet to the baby room and started ripping up the floor. Tonight I was able to finish the floor and haul all the debris down to the garage. Last week we set out two buckets and they took them so I guess we'll keep that up until everything is gone. One pic of the wire mesh/mortar bed/tile included below. Here's a problem for you to email me about.. our sink/cabinet is custom-built and it's 67". The preformed double vanities are 61". Also, turning it into a double vanity with the existing cabinet means we'd have to rework the drawers since as they are now, they'd be in the way of the sinks.

Fetal Progress

This is what happens when you eat too many cheeseburgers.

Halloween Weekend

Halloween being on a Friday is pretty awesome for teachers. We had the party at the end of the day and then sent them on their way. Before the party we have a school wide parade through the classrooms and then outside the school for all the parents. The teachers walk in it, too. I feel like I'm walking the red carpet with everyone staring at me. And as weird as I feel about everyone looking at me, it's even weirder when I'm dressed as a kangaroo. The parents all thought it was cute, though, that I had a little joey. The kids didn't get the joke as much. They just thought I dressed as a kangaroo because we're studying Australia.

So since it was our last Halloween without any kids and we never get an trick-or-treaters anyway because we live on a busy street, we decided to go out and do something fun. We got tickets to the Lion King (click on the words to see video highlights of the show) at the Music Hall. We were able to get seats in the fifth row right up front because who else goes to a play on Halloween night? The puppets were amazing! We would definitely recommend it to everyone. Steve's favorite character was Rafiki. We didn't even remember the character at first because it has been so long since we've watched the movie. I liked all the animal puppets during the Circle of Life scene at the beginning and the end. There were people on stilts to make giraffes and they also made a life-size elephant.

Saturday Steve went to a bachelor party for a UMR alumni runner who lives in Kansas City now. It was an all day event that included paintball. He was really looking forward to that. He used to play in high school and still has his own gun. While the guys were shooting each other, Sarah and I decided to take a walk and go to The Secret Life of Bees. We had a very memorable experience. First of all, two pregnant girls watching a movie where somebody dies is not a pretty sight. I was crying at even the happy parts. To add to the ambiance, we could hear a rock band playing outside the theater, a baby crying behind us, and the man beside us talking loudly to the screen. But the best part was the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate the theater! After waiting about 15 minutes they finally turned off the flashing lights and started the movie. Then the fire alarm went off again! At least we got free tickets out of the ordeal and I still enjoyed the movie.

Oh yeah, I forgot. Steve didn't dress up for Halloween, but he did shave his hair into a mohawk. He threatens to do this periodically, and this time he actually did it. He promised me it will be gone by Monday.

WaterFire

Marissa was in town to see The Lion King with her friend Amy. She called to see if we wanted to meet up at Brush Creek by the Plaza. They were having WaterFire that night. It's an installation art piece with floating bonfires, music, and live performances. I was glad she called because I had no idea it was going on. After having huge parking issues, we finally made it. It was much more fun than our previous Saturday night plans of sitting on the couch and watching SNL. Amy even hooked us up with free food and drinks. So it was a good night in KC. Marissa has Steve talked into seeing The Lion King now!

Week 17

From Megan:

Finally the blog is up and running! This is your one stop shop to get important baby news.

So if you didn't already know, I'm 17 weeks pregnant. Yea us! I'm due April 4th. (Steve likes to change it and say April 1st because he thinks that would be cool. Don't believe him. He can't be trusted. Come to me to get the facts.) We don't know if it's a boy or girl yet, but we are going to find out in November. Those were your two big burning questions, right? But the question I hear most often is "How are you feeling?" I'm in my second trimester so I'm feeling great! Although even my first trimester wasn't that bad. I think I inherited some good genes from Mom because she never got sick either. We haven't bought any baby furniture or clothes because we are waiting on the ultrasound. I painted the nursery mint green this summer. We knew we wanted to have a baby this school year and I like to be prepared. :) It will either be green and pink or green and blue. We've heard the heartbeat twice. I took a video of it at my appointment this week. See the previous post if you are interested.

In regular (non-baby) news, we had a busy week. I was staying late every night to do conference forms. Thursday and Friday I met with parents all day for conferences. Steve drove to Topeka Thursday to take his professional engineering test on Friday. It was an eight hour test. He needs to pass it to be a "real" engineer and sign off on drawings. He'll find out how he did in January. He said the morning session went well, but the afternoon session was harder. Both of us are very happy that conferences and the test are over and things can get back to normal.

Our First Baby Video (Watch It)

We've watched some proud parents' fetus videos in the past.  Boring.  Luckily, now we're the parents.  Watch our video*  

*Please note: Fetus included but not shown.  

Our First Baby Video

FAQ

Steve answers your important questions:

Q. How did you come up with the stupid name?

A. I don't like your tone. We put an embarrassing amount of thought into our name. We ran through several different options that mostly centered around puns of Kerr. Kerr puns were Megan's idea - I'm basically not on board with it at all. Anyway in the end we decided to go with House of Kerrs even though it implies all the wrong things just because it sounds cool. And because I thought Kerr-Tales was too cutsy. Woo-Hoo.


Q. Why can't I find your blog from google? What if I didn't (immediately) add the address to favorites when you sent it? Of course I did.. I'm just saying... hypothetically... how would I find this place again?

A. House of Kerr(s) is a top secret blog. We don't want just anyone finding out what we do in life or even what our real names are. People at work actually know me by my top secret name: Pete. Count yourself lucky we want you to know what we're really like.

Rest assured that if, in the future, you forget the address of the blog, you can email us and we'll let you know how to find us again with only minor ridiculing.  As per usual for these sorts of things, we'll be following the "two strikes and we break your knees" rule.  You should probably just forget once.


Q. Who is your intended audience?

A. Thanks for the excellent question. Over the past couple years we've had some fun adventures. We expect to have some more. Basically, we're looking for an easy way to communicate with the people that we regularly send emails to (family) while also attempting to write entertainingly enough to keep the attention of the possible few-and-far-in-between friends that might visit. I wouldn't be so presumptuous to believe anyone would read the crap I write except my mother... but I know Megan actively reads some of our friends' blogs - You people are out there, Welcome to our Blog.