Tile all weekend

I know that sometimes on here I go on and on about how awesome my husband is because he is so talented with the remodeling. But I just can't help myself! I know it embarrasses him a little, but really, he does so much! When I was dating I made a rule that I would not marry someone unless they could drive my car (and I drive a stick, clearly I dated SEVERAL boys who could not drive it, which um...was a problem for me, and them), and what a good rule this turned out to be! Because not only can he drive my car, he can fix it, and he can fix just about anything in our house, and even when he's not exactly sure what to do, he figures it out (thank goodness for youtube!). So I decided before starting this post raving about the tiling that Bryce accomplished this weekend that if he had a blog I am sure he would write about how awesome I am. How I make seafood alfredo for dinner, and these awesome pizzas for lunch:

so that he can take a break from working to eat something (for once). He would also write about how I take care of this little guy all day:
Who by the way decided to get a tooth over the weekend. Bryce took last Friday off to start tiling. Our wonderful neighbor came over to give us a few pointers, and so that we could make sure we knew what we were doing (okay so that I knew that Bryce knew what he was doing). He tiled for 10 hours on Friday and 13 on Saturday. I cannot believe just how hard he can work. No way could I go all day the way he does. On Monday night he came home from work and did the grout in the shower until after 10:00. I am in love with the glass tile in the shower and I am really glad that we decided to do this pattern with the tile.
We also got a great deal on these shelves that we put in the corner. We paid for three and got one for free! So we were able to put two in the front and two in the back, no more crazy hanging thing that falls on your head during every shower.
On Saturday, Bryce was getting ready to start the floor and asked me if I wanted him to do accents with the glass tile like my mom has in her bathroom. I told him I had not planned on it so he could decide. I took a nap and when I got up, he had started the floor and had decided to do the glass tile accents. It made way more work and took much longer, but I think the floor is BEAUTIFUL!
Bryce is busy with Church stuff tonight so he is taking a break from the bathroom. Tomorrow he plans to grout the floor. Next week we should have it sealed and ready for an actual shower! We also put in a new light/fan and will be getting new towel racks and a new paint job, so as soon as I make some more decisions on those things I will have more pictures to show you!

Shower progress

Remodeling is so hard sometimes. There are way too many decisions to make, what color tile, what style, which way to we put it in, do we make the cuts at the top or the bottom of the shower? The ceiling and the floor are not level, so um...how does that work? And then where do you want the border and the shelves and what kind of layout are we doing with these tiles?

Sometimes I really struggle trying to make all of these decisions. Especially because whatever decision I make is usually the most difficult way to do the project. And then my amazing husband figures it out and does it the way I request, even though I'm sure he's thinking the whole time how if he just wouldn't ask me how I want it he could do it the easier way. Here's a cute picture of Dietrich in the bathroom. He had to help Daddy while I went to the grocery store.

Dietrich learning how to mud and tape the sheet rock. This will come in very handy in his life because clearly as soon as the kid can move he will be helping us remodel. This totally reminds me of how my friend Shawna came to town last night and her sister Sarah came too. Sarah was here once before, last January when we were working on the kitchen cabinets and had just finished the lower bedroom and laundry room. As Bryce worked away until 10:00 last night we all sat in the living room visiting. Poor guy has to go clear down to the garage to cut the tile because those water tile cutters are very messy. We all felt pretty bad watching him run up and down the stairs, and Sarah says to me "when will you be done with house projects?" "I'm pretty sure never."
And after finally making a zillion decisions on what color tile, which direction to lay it, what pattern to use, what to use for a border, and picking out shelves, Bryce could finally start tiling the shower yesterday.
Close up of the glass tile border.
Two walls done!
So far I can say that I totally LOVE IT! I was so worried about picking out something that I would walk in and just be kinda "meh" about. But I love this tile, and I love the glass tile boarder. I love that my husband took a day "off" of work to spend 12 hours working on the bathroom. And most of all I love that during this long project we have a SECOND BATHROOM!!!

Life Changes...

It was a road-trip weekend! We headed out on Friday night for Helena, this weekend was Carroll's Homecoming and we decided to participate. Dietrich was a trooper with the long car ride both ways. Here he is sleeping away while Thisbe watches closely over him:

He did wake up about two hours from Helena. He did pretty good for the first hour but we spent the second hour singing an interesting rendition of "Old MacDonald." This particular farm included a lion, cougar, chinchilla, and of course, a sperm whale. Bryce and I laughed at how we once bought two 30's of beer, stacked them all in the fridge and admired how beautiful they were, before throwing a party and drinking them all. Now we sing "Old MacDonald" to try to keep the baby from crying. How life has changed...

Here we are at the Saint's Football game. We like to sit on the hill by the Library, that way we don't have to buy a ticket, and if the game is boring (which they usually are because Carroll kills the other team) we can take a nap. We used to especially prefer this view because you can sit on the hill and continue drinking the beer you brought in your cooler, they don't let you do that in the stadium.
Here's Dietrich sporting his new Carroll hat:
He also decided to taste grass for the first time, I don't think he liked it much.
Here are our good friends Shawna and Bob hanging out with Dietrich.
Oh look, nap time (Carroll won 31-13).
He even slept through the canon that goes off every time Carroll scores.
Again we laughed about the many years that we spent Homecoming out late partying at the bar. This year we went straight home, had an amazing dinner prepared by Shawna and Bob, made homemade ice-cream, and we were all in bed by 11:30 (which was late!). How life has changed...

The pretty girl

Most women have felt this way at some point, and maybe guys do to. You know that feeling when you're feeling pretty good about yourself, you look alright, have on your favorite outfit and your make-up is done (haha not if you have a new baby!!!) and you're not covering up your crazy curly hair with a pony-tail and a baseball hat? And then you see that girl, you know the one. The one whose everyday outfit makes your favorite outfit look like a gunny sack, her make-up looks like someone at the Macy's cosmetic counter applied it for her and she clearly just had her hair done? Then you feel like BLAH BLAH BLAH, I might as well just never leave my house. Anyway, I now sometimes feel that way about my house. I feel so good about it, we are doing great, things are painted and clean and I'm loving my house! And I do love my house, I love everything about it, I even love the things I hate. Remember the hole in the bathroom closet door? I loved that hole, it cracked me up. But we got rid of that door and will be replacing it soon with a new pretty door, which I will also love of course.

Today my new friend "the walking mom" invited me into her house because I am borrowing a super cute giraffe costume for Dietrich for Halloween. Her house is so nice, with these really beautiful dark stained doors. And new carpet that is not stained or has burn holes. And she has curtains. I know CURTAINS! Last night I was mowing the lawn while Dietrich hung out with Grandma Laurel and since it was getting dark I looked up and could see Dietrich and Grandma Laurel playing on the floor. As well as every piece of furniture and the pictures on the wall. Seeing her beautiful house just made me think of how far we still have to go. I still love my house and everything about it and just like with the pretty girl I can hate the things about her house that make it not as great as my house, like that fact that I have huge windows that everyone walking by can see clearly in too.

Because everyone needs another project around here...

Look at this...

That's right, it's an old car...
But not just any old car. This car was purchased BRAND NEW in 1949 by Bryce's Great-Grandpa August Eschenbacher. He had to drive all the way to...(there is debate on this but it might have been Fargo) from Froid Montana. Several years ago Bryce's Dad went to Froid to pick it up. It had been garaged after they quit driving it until the cousin's who now own the farm decided it was in the way and they moved it out under a tree. Bryce's Dad decided to sell it to cousin Eric (pictured below) and when he didn't do anything with it Bryce offered to buy it from Eric. And then I married Bryce, so I guess that makes us the proud owners of this awesome old car.
Since Bryce lived in an apartment when he bought it his nice friend Jesse (below) let him store it at his house. But now he is married and his wife was ready for it to move on down the road. So last weekend we picked it up. Our amazing mechanic John Vandervert (Vandervert's Auto Repair, we highly recommend them) let us borrow his very nice car trailer so that we could move it home. Check this out these old tires actually HOLD air!
Look who gets to drive the car onto the trailer. Of course it's me! Because that is always my job. Someone needs a car on a trailer, let's call Keely! She'll do it!
Here's a picture of the steering wheel, since I was in here for a while during the car loading process. I think it's really cool.
Apparently Great-Grandpa August used this car like a truck. Why he didn't buy a truck? Who knows! But he bought this car. And when a new calf was born he would throw it in the back seat. Need to move some hay out to cows? Throw it on the back seat of the Packard! Inside is dirty? We'll just hose 'er down!



Look how happy these boys are to bring this car home!
Dietrich is helping Daddy make sure the car is on there nice a secure. Look Mom! I'm ready, I've got my keys and everything. (Dude, your son is in a pink flowery car seat. Shhh...don't tell him, it was on sale.)
And here she is. Parked lovingly next to our house. Bryce is very excited to tinker on this in his spare time (yeah right, like there is any of that around here), and I am excited to take the finished product to a car show someday...like when we are 50.

Walking Mom's

You know that movie about the girl who wants to be in the "cool" group but always does something embarrassing or trips and they laugh at her? I was feeling kind of like that girl. There is this mom in my neighborhood, she has a double stroller and I see her walk by everyday. So I knew she must live on my street. I walk every day too, and a couple of times we have passed each other and said good morning. I wanted to run up to her and say "will you be my friend so we can walk together!?" But I refrained.

One day her and a couple of other moms went walking by with their strollers full of kids just as I came tripping over dogs and my stroller trying to get out of the back yard (insert embarrassing tripping moment in front of cool crowd laughter here). But then one day while I was walking alone with my jogging stroller and two dogs (apparently this looks funny, people comment on it all the time when they see me) she came up to me! She said "you live on my street don't you? we should walk together!" YAY!!! I jumped up and down on the inside. And then in my totally cool calm voice said, that would be great!

So for a couple of weeks now we have been walking together, not everyday but close to it. She has two little ones who are 4 and 2 and then Dietrich, me and the dogs. I feel like I have officially been accepted into the "Mom" club. Yesterday we walked with another friend of her's who has FOUR kids. She only brought two along for the walk. It is pretty hilarious watching us three strollers and two dogs wide walk down the street. Usually one of the kids is screaming (although so far Dietrich has not participated in this game), but we just keep talking. About Mom stuff of course. A lot of which I can't really participate in just yet since my mom duties only involve diapers and nursing, they both have moved on to the school and sports aspects, which apparently take up a whole lotta time. I'm feeling pretty special about my entry into this new club and my fun morning walks with the neighborhood Mama's!

"People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one..."

The newest challenge with our bathroom remodeling project is this:

A sleeping baby. He likes to take a little nap around dinner time, which of course crosses over a bit into working on the bathroom time. We have a slight lack of interest in this project, seeing how we didn't even want to do it in the first place. So it's taking a little longer to get moving than usual. However, Bryce is very quietly putting up sheet rock right now. So as soon as we are back to this:

we can really get loud and productive with the remodeling!