it's beginning to look a (little bit) like Christmas

not happy to have to wait for the lights to be strung


finished! a real team effort.

Turkey Day practice run

I had to post these for Grams & Pops (Scott's parents). Sunday they hosted an early 'Thanksgiving' meal for us, Scott's sister & Rick, and Scott's grandparents.
While we were there I noticed a huge stack of papers - copies of our blog that "Pops" prints to take home, since they don't have internet access at their house.
I figured if they are going through that much trouble to keep up with our page, I should take a few new photos to post just for them!

After dinner, playing a hanging monkey game - the adults got a little carried away with strategising over a kids game!




And for my friend Diana, one of the rare recent photos of ME (Julie), taken by Evyn as I was posting last night's post-dinner blog entry:

runnin' on (paint) fumes

Whew! The house smells of paint. I don't remember it bothering me this much during any of our previous renovation projects. Evyn's "new room" has a new, dreamy sky blue ceiling. Our office, meanwhile, is in bits and pieces, scattered between several rooms and the hallway.



Here's the wall we're going to be painting pink stripes on. Any suggestions on how wide the pink stripes should be, or how far apart? It's not quite 9 ft overall, including the closet doors (which will be white). So a couple stripes on either side of the doors, and then the same pattern repeated on the interior of the closet.



Pictures below from Saturday's painting session - Scott priming and painting, Evyn patching and dancing to Joe Jackson (her favorite), and other silliness - including the photo she captured of her Daddy (who will kill me when he finds out I posted it).

nostalgia

I went looking for more before & after house pictures, and came across some old favorites. For no particular reason, and in no particular order, take a walk down memory lane with us:


Jamaica - July 1999 or 2000?








Nieces Elisabeth & Emily C., way back when...








Scott & Julie, Feb 2004 - 7+ months pregnant. We were both very grumpy that night, can you tell?!





Bahamas, January 2004 - 6 months pregnant. What was I thinking?? A resort employee apparently thought I had a beer belly, and tried to recruit me for a booze cruise (sigh)




Little miss Evyn Frances, 4 months old