our little corner of the world

One of the projects on our homeowner to-do list was to beef up the insulation in our attic. From what we can tell, our home has had just one little layer of padding over the past 50 years separating the outdoor temperatures of the attic from its occupants below. Not good enough, we said! Our heat shouldn't be running so often; our energy bills shouldn't be so high! So after much debate and research (and resolve from my great husband), we made the effort to blow in lots and lots of cellulose insulation. Forty bags, to be exact.

Scott was amazing, facing what I now believe to be every homeowners most dreaded task. Our attic in particular is quite cramped, as the pitch of our roof is so flat. Scott, however, maneuvered the beams and joists, never once sticking his Dutch feet through the drywall (read: making a hole in our ceiling below). The poor guy was up there for hours discovering eaten mice bait, Christmas ornaments circa 1970, and a rather large roof antennae among the dust and cobwebs. Meanwhile, I fed the bales of cellulose into the hopper outside in the sunny front yard. Still a rather messy job, but not quite what Scott endured.

While we did enjoy a substantial savings from doing the project ourselves, it's more than safe to say that neither of us enjoyed the project. The job wasn't exactly easy, and will never provide a visual high at every glance the way a newly painted wall might.

In the end, however, we know that this was a task worth completing. The R-Value has jumped from just eleven to 41. And we hope to see fruits of our labor in the dead of winter when the heat in our home will actually stay put.

This cute photo from Lowe's website is a dream compared to our project. Look at the great light, the ease with which this model is standing, the perspiration-free clothes and not a hint of dust!

This is how it really works. Getting ready to go in...

If you look closely, you can see Scott laying down, trying to attach those baffle things as protection for the vents in the eaves.

This is what the attic looked like afterwards...

And these are my 40 bags of cellulose insulation that Scott is prepping me for in this shot.

Scott and I spent Thanksgiving with his parents and brother this year. It was a beautiful day. So beautiful, in fact, that the boys helped their dad put out all the Christmas lights! After a couple hours out doors, snacking and another Lion's loss, dinner was served. Here's our pictures from the day.

This afternoon, Scott and I went to the doctor's office to have our "big ultrasound". Some highlights of the visit?

• The technician saying, "Wow, what a great profile!" Think she says that to everyone? I'll just keep thinking we're special with a special little baby.
• Scott saying, "Don't you wish we could just sit here all afternoon and watch it?" Yes, I could have stared at that screen for quite a while.
• And the baby saying something completely unheard, but looking right at us, opening it's mouth and then closing it again and turning away.

Here's the profile view photo. The callout message reads "Hi Mom and Dad" and is courtesy of our ultrasound technician.

To celebrate Mom's birthday, we headed to Grand Rapids last weekend. Here's some of my favorite pictures. Happy Birthday, Mom!

I can't believe we're half-way there; today is the 20-week mark. The big ultrasound is next week (and no, still no gender-revealing).

In the August primary election, I was voter number 37.
This morning, I was voter number 37.
The fascinating part of it all?
In August I voted at 6pm; today at 7:15am.
Happy election day!

At 6:00 sharp last night, the porch and garage lights were turned on, and the counting started. Trick or treating had begun, and we were armed with 300 pieces of candy to distribute. In years past we've had 60-70 kids, and therefore, thinking we had gone a little overboard with our candy shopping, we opted to hand out four, yes four, pieces of candy to each costumed kiddie. Little did we know that our estimates would be incorrect!

As we watched the basket of candy dwindle down to the least of our favorites (Banana Laffy-Taffys and Nestle Crunch bars), we realized we better slow down. By 6:45, Scott advised me to hand out only two pieces, and then by 6:50, he had changed his tune to just one piece! We were running low very rapidly. And Scott wasn't about to dip into the personal Zip-Lock reserves we had set aside for our lunches for the next two weeks, oh no.

By 7:10, we decided to cut the lights with just five pieces of candy left in the basket. In that short time, we had counted 99 trick-or-treaters that had stepped onto our porch. Amazing! Next year, we'll be sure to change our giveaway plan.