Happy Easter Everyone!

Hope you are all having a nice long weekend! I took of Monday as well so it's a 4 day weekend for me :)

Our basement is all cleared out and ready to be put back together. I'm happy we decided to do it now because 1. I have a feeling it would have been quite a while that we would get to it after the baby comes and 2. Drywall is so dusty..better to get it over with!

(photo captions are above the photos)

Stairs coming from upstairs are on the left. We are planning on putting stone or tile over the existing fireplace. There will be bookshelves to the left of the fireplace and a walk up wet bar to the left of the photo. This area will be seperated by the main area by a wall with french doors. We're thinking of cork flooring here!



The walk up bar will be against this wall with a door to the storage area on the left. We're going to check out Ikea for cabinets.



View of Main area from the fireplace/bar area. This will be the TV room (aka Man-land) and my dad is giving us his pool table. Brent want's a low shag carpet!! I guess it's the new thing!


This room is to the left at the end of the previous picture. It will be a small work out area. We have an eliptical machine and a weight machine. It will be a tight squeeze. We took out a wall that was separating this room from the main area.


This room is at the opposite end of the main room. It will be a play room for the kidlet. Then one day probably his bedroom. I'm looking forward to decorating this room. But for now we'll just paint and put down soft flooring since he won't be using it right away.


View from the far end of the main room. Work out room is to the right, play room straight ahead and the french doors will be in that opening at the far right.


So those are our grand plans for the basement. It looks like a lot but after what we went through with upstairs it feels like a piece of cake. We are hiring someone to drywall (worst job on earth!). All the framing was existing, so Brent really just has to do the electrical work and paint. He might install the cork flooring too since we heard it's easy.

And last but not least, a baby bump shot. This was a few weeks ago, and after a day of work, so not exactly my best time of day! I don't really enjoy getting my photo taken these days so it's a rare shot :)

Dear Mr. Prime Minister

I'm not one to get involved in politics, or heated debates about policy. I did vote in the provincial election. My view is that we have the right to vote, so I should. Although, after voting and watching the election results come in, I did wonder why I even bothered.

Last night we were watching the news and a story came on that really bothered me. Last December a man drove his cement truck into a car waiting at a red light and killed all 5 people inside (2 adults, 3 kids). Impaired driving is suspected, however he refused to take a breathalyzer. He has 5 counts of manslaughter and 5 counts of criminal negligence causing death against him. To keep a long story short, he pleaded guilty and is now out on bail. The kicker is that his trial date is set for March 2009!!! He will be living free for an entire year. That just seems so wrong to me.

Only in Canada could someone kill 5 people and not go straight to jail. It infuriated me, and so I wrote my first ever letter to the Prime Minister. I asked Brent who I should complain to, and he said to go straight to the top! They are the ones who make the criminal code after all. I can't believe how lenient our system is. Brent's line of work has also opened my eyes to how slack our system is. I told him, I may as well rob a bank and sit at home and bask in my riches while on house arrest. (being sarcastic of course)

So, Mr. Prime Minister, whether you read my letter or not, I hope that you are working on changing a few things. My suggestions are: making breathalyzers mandatory if police suspect impaired driving and tougher bail criteria.

There...my first ever political rant!

Home sweet Home

We're back from California and survived a trip with the fam (all 13 of them!). It was a busy week between Disneyland, Universal Studios, Sea World and a tour of Los Angeles. I went on quite a few rides, although no rollercoasters or ones with big drops. I think it's impossible not to have fun at Disneyland, even if you are 6 months pregnant. I found the warning signs on the rides to be overly cautious for sure. I also must have done the "restroom tour of Disneyland" since I think I was standing in line in the bathroom as often as I was standing in line for a ride!!

I love the landscaping in Anaheim and Disney. Everything is so perfect and they can grow such neat plants! I almost went into Botany instead of geology, I still love plants even though I really don't know anything about them.

One thing that I really noticed was how good the service was. I hadn't realized how accustomed to bad service and waiting in resteraunts I had become here in Calgary. Down there, we didn't have to wait to get our drinks, or wait for the bill. The food was so good, and the service was amazing. That's how it should be! There were no help wanted signs in the windows. It was a refreshing change.

Here are some photo's from the trip:

Frozen Chocolate Covered Bananas. YUM.



The gang outside of the Pirates Adventure Dinner:


Set from War of the Worlds movie at Universal Studios. It was so cool!


The Budweiser Clydesdales. They live at Sea World SanDiego. They were beautiful and gigantic!


One of the many stroller parkinglots at Disneyland:


Beluga whale at Sea World. I hadn't ever seen one before.


Ugly but cute?


I don't recommend buying resort property here:

Vacation !!

We are off to California for a week. I'm SOOO happy to be going on vacation. I'm feeling the need to not be at work for a bit. Things have been so busy and I need to take a breather.

There are 15 of us going down from Brent's side of the family. We have a 5 day Disney pass, plus are planning to see Universal Studios. Brent and I are also sneaking off to take a road trip to SanDiego to go to Sea World for a day (neither of us have been there). We are also going to a Pirate dinner one night as a group.

Amidst all of that I'm hoping to get some rest. I'm taking one day as a sleep in, lounging day for sure.

Thanks to Mom, Michael and Ellen for taking the boys while we are away. I hope they are well behaved for you! Other than trying to steal your bed, they should be pretty easy.

Bon Voyage!

Katie's Favorite Team

Giants are Superbowl Champions!!

I KNEW I should have put money on them! Giants won the superbowl in the last 2 mins of the game. It was tense, stressful and very exciting. I love it when the underdogs win!

I went out to buy face paint at the dollar store and they only had green glow in the dark. No blue. I was very disappointed.

Brent set up the basement so that there wasn't a bad seat in the house (the pics also give you some decent "before" shots of our basement since we are attempting to have it mostly done before baby Chmil arrives):



The tense Patriots fans:



The Giant's fans:


The celebration hugs:


Even Winston was giving high fives!:

Main Bathroom

Here are the latest main bath pictures. It's really hard to get good shots since it's such a small room. I'm loving the heated floor in this cold weather. Nothing like warm toes when you are ...well you know.

I still have not tried out the shower since we are waiting on the final spout for the tub. Right now, if you were to take a shower the tub spout would shoot off and water would spray everywhere. Brent is not happy with the tub skirt since it squeeks and wants to tile the skirt area instead. That's about #1432 on my priority list at the moment!

BEFORE:



AFTER:

View from the hallway, hmmm, the shower bar is crooked.


Tile detail:


Floor tile:


Vanity:


Vanity backsplash detail:


Vanity - hard to see


My secret drawer:



As for the ensuite bathroom, we are just waiting on the shower glass door. I haven't posted any pics of that bathroom so you'll just get to see the final result. We have also decided to drywall the basement before our bundle of joy arrives. It's such a dusty job we'd rather have it done before. We have been scheduled in for April with the drywaller so that gives Brent a few months to get his electrical and insulation in. I'll be sure to take some before pictures. The carpet down there is nasty (stains and cigarette burns) so I'm excited to get that replaced.

On the non reno front, we are going to Disneyland in February. I'm looking forward to escaping winter for a week. My mom, Michael and Ellen have agreed to watch the boys for us (Paul and Winston) which we really appreciate. THANKS MOM! I hope I can last a whole day of walking around the park, but if not, our hotel is pretty close by for naps.

I had coffee with the "coffee girls" that I worked with at Conoco this morning. It was great to see you girls!!! I think I'm going to have to join them more often. Especially when I'm off work ;)