PROJECT: BABY'S ROOM

PROJECT BABY'S ROOM:

The baby's room started as our spare bedroom downstairs in what used to be the basement. This room wasn't totally finished when we moved in several years ago. It had 4 walls, but two of the walls were painted concrete, while the other two were framed drywall. So the first step in creating the perfect baby environment was to frame and drywall the concrete walls. This required installing furring strips with a gun that shot nails into the concrete using gun powder. That was exciting. For anyone in the Portland area, Bob's Rental on Stark just west of 148th has great deals on rental equipment- everything from ski's, snowboards, and rafts, to any construction equipment needed.

Next step was to drywall. I'd like to give a special shout-out to Jesse Larimer and David Hendrix for the help. I couldn't have done it without them. Then it came time for mudding, now I see why it is such an art. We learned two things: mudding corner tools are fantastic, and drywall dust gets EVERYWHERE, including Elisabeth's closet full of nice clothes- oops. By the end of that week the basement windows were framed, the mudding was done, and the walls were ready to paint.

Then we decided to finish the ceiling too. Since the room was originally a basement, the ceiling is essentially the sub flooring. To top it all off, there is a heating duct that runs in the middle that fed both that room and the room above (seen in the far left picture below). So to make it look better we decided to enclose the whole thing. That sucked. Another few days, some cursing, two more pieces of drywall, two recess lights, and some not-so-fancy mudding later it was finished. We finished just in time for Elisabeth's mom, Ann to arrive two weeks ago.

Picture on the left shows the cement walls, unfinished roof, and heating duct. The boards on the floor are the firring strips used to frame for the drywall.








As the construction finished, the painting and clean up began. We painted the room "wicker", and the ceiling white. While waiting for the paint to dry we cleaned out Elisabeth's closet and washed ALL of her clothes. I say "we", I really mean Elisabeth and her mom.
After the room painting was finished it was time to do the trim. Baseboards along the bottom, quarter round along the top, and molding around the windows gave the room a finished look. Carpet shampooing completed that phase of the project.









In between coats of paint, clothes washing, sleeping, shopping, and meals, we were busy. We sanded, primed and painted the baby's furniture. This included the crib, changing table, side table, and a small chair.











Finally it was time to assemble the baby furniture (I was very excited- this is such a daddy thing to do). The glider rocker went together without a hitch- and may I say that I LOVE IT. We weren't so lucky when it came to crib assembly. We learned quickly that the craigslist crib we had been storing for over a year was missing a few parts- UGH! Thankfully home depot had some of what we needed. The rest of the furniture was placed inside the room. Elisabeth and Ann washed all the baby clothes that we have been accumulating from garage sales, organized, and stored them.

The room is now ready to receive it's occupant. In the meantime it's Magnums favorite place to hang out, and our favorite place to relax in the glider rocker. A great big thanks to Ann for her help.








So what's next?.... Well Elisabeth mentioned painting the rest of the house. I quickly vetoed that idea. Maybe we should turn our focus onto the huge pile of dirty laundry that has been accumulating, the dust bunnies all over the floor, and oh yes... school and work.

Josh

Catch-up

So, we were really busy the month of July. Here are the highlights.

- Josh got "new eyes" on July 3rd via lasik surgery. All went well and he now has 20/15 vision in both eyes. He's loving not having to use contacts or glasses anymore!

- Magnum and Zena were both traumatized by fireworks/Fourth of July, which really lasted for about 2 weeks of near daily valium pills. None for me though. :)

- Zena learned that apples closely resemble tennis balls and she can easily pluck these from our apple trees. She's also found that they're tasty to munch on. I am not a fan of this new trick and scold her because I want to eat my apples when they're ripe! She has made off with more apples than any other predator and I'm thisclose to spraying the ones within her reach with pepper spray just to teach her a lesson.

- Zena has also perfected the art of fly assassignation. She is the world's best fly swatter. 5 minutes inside our house and it's a dead fly. She stalks them around the house; jumps off furniture in her pursuit to get them when they're up high and then bites them and spits them out or slaps them on the floor with her paw. Magnum is generally mystified by this behavior. Below is a picture of Zena looking at her most recent victim.

- We went fishing and tried out our new raft a couple of weeks ago. It's been a cold summer so far, so we've only gotten out on the lake one time. Josh caught some little fish, but nothing big enough to keep yet. Below are some pictures of me fishing at Trillium complete with huge stomach and outie bellybutton and Josh enjoying the new raft.

- Josh has been hard at work on the baby's room. So far he's gotten drywall up on all remaining walls, mudded and sanded them, soffited the ceiling, installed recessed lighting and framed the windows. He's just got a little more mudding and sanding before we can paint and then he'll do the trim. We're so excited! Pictures will be posted at the end of the project. It's been a lot of hard work for him and I'm so grateful he's handy!

Those are all the major things that have happened so far in July. We'll keep you posted!

I've been tagged...

So I have to leave 6 facts/habits about myself. I'm supposed to then tag 6 people, but I like to be one of those rebels who breaks the chain. So here's my facts:

1. I twirl my hair when I'm sorting out a problem.

2. If I come home to dirty dishes, there will be no dinner. Impossible! I only have enough energy to clean the kitchen or make dinner, not both. It's a very sad fact.

3. I can't eat just one ice cream sandwich. It would be lonely in my tummy by itself, so I sneak another one. If no one sees you eat it, it doesn't really count!

4. I am a compulsive list maker and post-it user. I have a list for just about anything. I make lists of what to buy, chores that should be done, what to do with my weekend. Sometimes if something wasn't on the list and I completed it, I feel compelled to write it on the list and cross it off. It just feels good.

5. When I get home from work, I always give Magnum love and attention by himself before releasing the beast (I mean Zena). I let them both out to go potty and then Zena gets her love. It's the same show every day.

6. I love to read. I usually read 1-2 books a week. We'll see how long I keep this pace up. And I read everything from kid's books, classics, modern fiction, textbooks on various subjects and how-to books. It just depends on my mood.

Elisabeth

Pregnancy Update- I will soon be outnumbered

We had our big ultrasound appointment yesterday. The baby is healthy, and growing well. And it's a GIRL!! This totally caught us by surprise. We both were thinking it was a boy, for no good reason, that's just what we thought. So now we need a name... oh boy. I am so excited to have a daddy's little girl. I am already feeling all protective. So in preparation for a girl, I need to polish my shotgun, practice my interrogation techniques, and purchase a dead bolt and an electric fence. I am really in for it now.

We also wanted to put some belly shots online for you all to see. I have had a blast playing with the camera. There will more creative shots to come.

A bad month for a dog

Zena is having a bad month. To start with, a few weeks ago we awoke around 11pm to the sound of chewing and ripping. I stumbled into the room where she was supposed to be fast asleep in her crate. I caught her chewing on the sheet that was covering the pillow in her crate. She was literally eating it. I disciplined her and removed the sheet and went back to bed. A few minutes later she was chewing on her pillow. I once again disciplined her and removed the pillow. As I directed her back into her crate after removing the pillow I noticed she was acting funny. She seemed very agitated, she tried to lick anything she could including the air, and she was trying to eat whatever she could. She also felt really hot. I thought she needed to throw up, so I directed her outside. Outback she went nuts eating grass. I thought she had a tummy ache, and decided to let nature do it's thing and let her eat grass. BAD idea. Elisabeth recognized some of her symptoms... she then asked me to feel her stomach... it was REALLY round. Zena had bloat. We rushed her to the vet where they inserted a tube to get rid of the built up gas. For those of you who don't know, bloat is very dangerous. It kills animals, usually livestock and horses, and it's a very painful death. It occurs because the intestines spasm and the valves that usually allow gas to escape the stomach in the form of burping and farting (which Zena does a lot of usually) have shut down. So gas simply accumulates... it's like the worst cramps and gas pains you can imagine, followed by death an hour later. The vet was able to release the gas and I spent the rest of the night watching her, the recurrence rate for bloat in the next 7 days is really high apparently. Yay.
A few days later she developed allergies. Yes, that's right, my dog has allergies. She sneezed and shook her head a lot. So much so that we had to take her back to the vet thinking she might of had an ear infection. No ear infection, just allergies. Apparently this is also "dangerous"- if they continuously shake their head for an extended period, dogs can get a hematoma. So she got some allergy medication.
Moving onto a few days later, while walking her she tried to scratch the haltie around her nose and caught her upper eyebrow with her defore claw. She bled and of course, now has a scar on her eyebrow where hair used to be.
She also suffers chronically from alopecia X- which is a fancy way of saying she loses her hair for no good reason. This month, she is in her cycle of losing her hair. The vet thinks it's due to hormones. It started when she was fixed. And every few months she loses most of her hair and then grows it back. So she has some bald spots this month, and she has gone from all black to, some black, and some gray where she has lost most of her hair. She looks SO PATHETIC.
And yesterday... we let her out of her crate upon returning home from shopping to discover that she had hurt her tail somehow. She cried and whined like she was about to die for a little bit. Now her tail just won't stay straight. She is having problems keeping it up. She must have strained it, I don't think it's broken... but what do I know.








Notice the gray on the back of the legs in the first picture. That's where she loses her hair to start with. In the middle picture see her tail, which is in an arc pointing down. This is usually pointing up and going a mile a minute. The far right picture is of her eye. Notice the grey scar on her eyelid. We are just so glad she didn't get her eye.

-Josh

New Toys and Good Neighbors

With the arrival of the baby in mind, we've started making plans and completing projects which we've been meaning to get done. Actually, I gave Josh fair warning that I feel great and will happily work on projects until mid to late August, and I make no guarantees about working on projects (usually construction related) after that date. :) So, this summer will be all about enjoying those last few camping/fishing sessions sans bebe, and getting our house projects done! The "making plans" comment references the major purchases (if any) that need to be made prior to the kiddo. One we decided was definitely needed is a camera upgrade. We love our little digital, but we wanted to be able to take great portrait type shots too, so we bought a Canon digital SLR. It's fabulous.

We practiced taking action shots on Miss Zena (because kids never sit still... much like Zena). I think that 3 frames a second will work out fine. Here's a couple of my favorites.


As you can see, Mags gets some camera time too.

Josh is also working to get some good belly shots. So far, he's not happy with the way the silhouette pictures are turning out, but you can see my little pot belly in the pics below. And things will be a lot easier now that we have a tripod. ($4 garage sale find!)

The other toy purchase was a Wii. I finally caved. If we can't play all the fun sports we like outside, we might as well try to simulate them. Besides, how else could I kick Josh's butt at boxing while being 4.5 months pregnant. :) (JOSH'S Disclaimer: I in no way advocate using physical violence toward your spouse be it video game or otherwise. But boy is it fun. And for some reason I just don't mind being beat by a girl, especially one hopped up on pregnancy hormones.)

Josh kicked project completion into high gear last weekend, we he decided that it doesn't matter if it's cold and rainy in June, he was going to get that fence up anyways. So Sunday afternoon we went to Lowe's, purchased our supplies and two hours later we had a lovely fence separating us from our neighbors with the help of our good friend Jason. Yay! Not only does it make our yard look bigger, but it keeps their gas leaking truck off our side lawn and guarantees that Josh will actually be able to use our side gate to bring the lawn mower through. Also, it appears to keep the adults from smoking outside our guest room window and leaving the butts in the flower bed. Now we're set to be good neighbors. Still on the list for this summer: (which I- Josh- am sure you don't care too much about, but we are going to tell you about it anyway cuz we have a captive audience)- replacing the window well fence out front, downstairs bathroom touch ups, drywalling the baby's room, painting the baby's room, painting the living room, dining room, upstairs hall, and kitchen. (Side note: after 2 weeks of Mai Tia red on the kitchen walls, I decided that I do not like it. Oopsie.) So if anyone wants to come for a visit, work on a project, feel free. We will supply the food, lodging, entertainment, Chiropractic care (via the outpatient clinic at Josh's school) and LOVE!

Till next time,
Elisabeth (with Josh's two cents thrown in... can he get change?)

Here comes another McMillon...

We're so excited to announce (to everyone who hasn't heard yet) that we're expecting a little miracle baby in November! We've been enjoying our little surprise for a few months now. Here's the scoop: Baby McMillon is due 11/17/08 (the day after Josh's final national board exam to be a licensed chiropractor, nothing ever comes easy) and YES we want to find out if baby is a she or a he. Hopefully, we'll know on 6/24. We don't have a great ultrasound picture to post yet. He was only 6 weeks old for the first ultrasound, so there wasn't much to see. BUT, we do have the little guy's heartbeat recorded from our last midwife appointment and it's one of the sweetest sounds we've ever heard. Click on the link below to hear for yourself.
http://www.box.net/shared/4hrfpmw0g0

Elisabeth is finally past the sick phase. She has "popped" so to speak. You can barely make out a baby bump in the picture below, it's awesome.

As luck would have it, I am taking an obstetrics class right now. It's great to learn about the whole thing while my wife is going through it. To get a reaction, I told her I could just deliver the baby here to save us some time and money... that brought on a look of horror as she said"HECK NO!"- which is good cuz I didn't want to anyway (scary!). Last week in class we covered the last few days up through birth, I had to call my wife and thank her for what she is going to through- all you dads out there give your wife a hug cuz- OUCH!! Birth is amazing!

We thank all of you who have been praying for us. God has brought us a long way in a short time. We are just so excited. We look forward to what God has in store for us and our baby.

California for a surprise visit

During my last break Elisabeth and I decided to take an impromptu trip to visit the family in California. We worked in out with my dad so we can surprise my mom. We rented a car, loaded the dogs in the back, and headed down. We headed out Friday night, starting around 8pm. We made it to Medford and stayed in a motel 6. That's when the dog trouble started. Zena was just too freaked out and anxious to sleep, so she paced and whined. We were on the 2nd floor in motel and every time someone walked outside our room or came up the stairs she barked. I am sure the neighbors loved us. Needless to say we didn't get much sleep that night. Regardless, when 7am rolled around we were up and at em. The second part of the journey was much longer, but we made good time. With multiple potty stops for dogs and Elisabeth, and gas fill ups we were able to arrive in Whittier around 7pm that night.

To the left- Elisabeth walking the dogs at a rest stop. To the right- our rental car. That was the best money we spent on the trip. Definitely worth any extra cost and still cheaper than plane tickets, especially with unlimited mileage and good gas mileage.


Dad had arranged for them to be gone when we arrived. So we got to the house and tried to settle in. Once again the dogs decided to make things interesting. I let them both in the backyard so they can run around a bit. Well they ran all right, they ran straight for Ben (my parents cat) who was laying in the rose bush bed. What happened next was kind of a blur, there was a lot of noise, mainly from Ben, and a lot of fur flying, also from Ben. I think Ben did a good job of fighting off the dogs. I ran over to stop the fight and Ben, thinking that I was also a dog, used my leg as a scratching post. I momentarily freed him from the dogs, but the chase was not over. As Ben ran away, both dogs got loose from me (yeah YOU try holding Magnum with two fingers). They chased Ben around the yard and caught up to him just as he was trying to climb a tree. Magnum grabbed him off the tree and pinned him to the ground. I ran over and separated them again. As I lead the dogs away from the scene I looked back at Ben who just laid there in the grass groaning, I had no idea how badly he was hurt. Naturally I was thinking the dogs just killed my parent's cat. Seconds later, when I returned Ben was gone. UH oh! Just then, my parents pulled up. UH OH!


We rushed out to surprise my mom, it worked. She about fell over when she got out of the car and saw us standing in the drive way. I love it when a plan comes together. We greeted them with hugs and smiles and news of Ben's disappearance and possible demise. After searching all the usual places, Ben was no where to be found. My parents took it in stride though- God bless em. We looked over the dogs, and discovered Magnum had several bloody scratches on his face, most likely from Ben, and probably some from the rose bush. Both Mags and Zena smelled of cat urine, apparently Ben peed on their faces. Ew! I had to check my leg.


On Sunday we awoke to a beautiful sunny day- despite the weather prediction of rain. We went to church and then we spent the rest of the day with the extended family. I tell you what, you can't buy that kind of entertainment. I only stopped laughing long enough to give my stomach muscles a break and to eat. We had a great time catching up. But Zena was a bit freaked out with all the people around. She started nipping at the heels of those who walked close to her- the vet calls it herding and says it's natural because she is part Border-Collie. I don't care how natural it is. At one point she ripped a hole in my mom's pants while nipping at her heels. I think almost everyone got nipped, Zena got dad several times. They just shrugged it off, God bless 'em. We were so embarrassed.


That night we awoke to a peculiar sound. It sounded like a small bucket of water being poured onto the kitchen floor. It was... kinda. The "bucket" was Magnum, and the "water" was from his... um... butt. Yup that's right, he was sick as a dog. We spent the next two nights taking him out every 3 hours so he can do his thing. On a few occasions, we didn't catch him in time and my parents carpet suffered the wrath. But my parents just shrugged it off and cleaned it up. God bless em! During the day, however it was harder. On Tuesday we left for a day trip to the lake with my dad's boat. We left magnum and Zena in the kitchen so it would be easy to clean up his mess. That night, when we returned it was a war zone with liquid land mines all over the floor. No harm done though, a mop and a few buckets of water later it was all clean. My mom said this was the cleanest the floor had been in a long time. $120 later, we found out Magnum either had dysentery from Ben peeing on his face during the fight (you gotta admit, Ben went out with a bang), or he had eaten some bird feed that had fallen in my parent's back yard that had made him really sick. The treatment was the same for either scenario. Antibiotics and a special diet.


The trip to the lake was the highlight of the vacation. Dad worked tirelessly on Sunday and Monday to get the boat ready for the trip. He is the greatest dad a guy could ask for. While we relaxed in the sun on Monday he slaved away to rebuild his carburetor. By Tuesday it was good to go. The best part of the lake trip was that Elisabeth caught her first fish ever!! It was a good size. She and my dad were the only ones to catch anything all day. That's okay we kept ourselves busy, we each got to drive the boat. I even had a chance to attempt to dock it at the S.S. relief station- a porta-potty in the middle of the lake (seen below). That proved to be difficult because the lake was rough and the wind was blowing strong. I finally docked it on my 4th try, but not before I scratched the bow and broke a vent cover off the side. My dad just shrugged it off. God bless him. I told him I would make it up to him and buy him a new boat eventually. He said he would hold his breath.


On Thursday we said our good-byes. We left sunny Southern California and came back to cold rainy Portland with a renewed appreciation for the sun. Our damage for the weekend was pretty bad: one dead cat (or so we thought), pet stains on the carpet, scratched boat, broken vent cover, ripped pants courtesy of Zena, and the stress of having to constantly watch Zena anytime you walked around her. I wouldn't be surprised if my parents never invited us back.


Update: Ben showed up a week after we had left. Dad said he had a few minor scratches but was just fine. So my dogs aren't murderers. Whew!



-Josh-

Chiropractic News!

We've had some chiropractic updates around here in the last month. On April 10th, Josh was pinned at a Western States pinning ceremony for 10th quarter students. The ceremony marks their transition from treating students at the student clinic to becoming student interns treating the public in the outpatient clinic. Josh had already been in the outpatient clinic for 5 or 6 weeks, he was one of the 12 out of 60 that they moved up early. At the ceremony, their clinicians who supervised them in the student clinic spoke about the great strides they had made. The Dean of Clinics and a Vice-President spoke as well. Then the student doctors lined up and came to the front when their name was called and the Vice-President put the Western States pin on their white coat lapel. That pin is a right of passage, it is the only one that they are allowed to wear on their white coat while working in the clinic. It signifies that everyone who wears it has passed all the requirements and was promoted to the outpatient clinic. It's kind of like a mini-graduation ceremony 9 months before they have the full graduation. Josh knew that the ceremony was coming up, but didn't have a date until we got back from California and found the invitation in our mailbox for the next Thursday. I had a great time and was so proud to see him up there! Below is a picture of Josh with his student clinic supervising clinician, Dr. Ginter.

Last Friday, we got Josh's part two and part three national board results. HE PASSED!!! We're so excited. Now, he's only got one part left, which he'll take in November. I'm so proud! Josh has passed all of his boards on the first try and hasn't even come close to failing one. So, Josh is completely on track to graduate in December and have his liscense in January to start practicing!! We're getting really excited that the end is near, but still don't have any answers about where we'll be on what kind of practicing situation Josh will be in. Of course, we'll keep you posted!

The In-Laws, gotta luv em!

My wonderful in-laws decided to come visit us towards the end of January. So once again we strapped on our snow shoes and drove up to clear lake- we should own some property up there with as much as we are there. This time, the weather was great. The sun was out at times, a light snow sprinkle at other times. The snow was not deep but the lake was still frozen. We walked a different 3 mile loop, enjoying the weather and the company. The dogs behaved, and walk was nice. We walked out onto the middle of the lake and decided to snap some pictures.

1st picture- Tom and Ann stop for a quick photo in the middle of clear lake. We walked on water!

















2nd Picture - Tom and I decided to "strike a pose". Notice my attitude... oh yeah, I am too sexy for my snow shoes. Those are my gloves in my jacket pockets, my stomach isn't that big... I swear! If only I had an excuse to explain the ghetto booty... You can barely make out dots on the lake in the background. Those are snowmobilers- a group of 7 or so, using the lake as their race track. I WANNA DO THAT!






3rd Picture- Ann and Zena at the clear lake sign. Our dog was told to come several times before the picture was taken. She stood there and stared at us with the look you see here. She listens so well! Brat!















After a day in the snow we wanted to show Tom and Ann the other side of Oregon. So the next day, we drove out to the coast, it's KITE FLYING TIME!


























We had a great time at the coast. Elisabeth got the bright idea to grab some drift wood and bring it home, hoping to prove the myth that while it burns, the fire turns several different colors- or something like that. So we all carried an armfull of sandfilled, wet driftwood to the car to take home. When we got it home I made a nice fire, got it burning hot, and threw on the driftwood. It was amazing, the wood burned a deep... blackish gray. Did you know that damp wood doesn't burn much, it really just smokes. Yeah, so did we, but we tried it anyway. The few flames we got from it were the normal fire color. So we now have some very sandy firewood that really just smokes. I love my wife.





-Josh

Another snow trip - Jan 08

Since we are a glutton for punishment we decided to take another snow shoe trip back up to clear lake. This time David and Ginni Hendrix came along- some friends from our small group. The weather was rough and the temperature low. Naturally the dogs came along. The snow was very deep. We trekked 3 miles around the lake. The first mile wasn't bad, we were going down hill and we were able to walk in some tracks a snow mobile had made. When we reached the lake, we encountered a group of snowmobilers (is that a word?). One of them, probably in an attempt to show off, decided to make a series of several tight turns at a very high speed while on the frozen lake. Unfortunatley for him, the turn was too tight, the edge of the snowmobile track dug into the ice cutting a nice oval shaped hole for his snowmobile to fall into. Fortunately for him we was very close to shore so the water level was only up to his knee. It happened in an instant, and a few seconds later he was out of the water and back on his snowmobile like nothing had happened. Lesson learned, I'd say. Too bad I didn't have the where-with-all to snap a picture. But you can use your imagination.

The last couple of miles were rough. As you can see in the next picture the snow level was up to our knees even with the snow shoes on. Zena was barely visible in fresh snow, but was smart enough follow behind us. For the last 2 miles we walked single file switching leaders from time to time. We slowly made our way out into the middle of the lake (a very cool feeling) and up around into the camping area. At one point Zena thought it was a be a good idea to jump over an embankment, she didn't know there was a steep drop off on the other side. Luckily Elisabeth saw it and was able to scramble over to pull her to safety before she got too far down the embankment.

The last mile was hard, but we made it back to the car. I gotta hit the cardio. Nothing makes you feel more out of shape than walking in deep snow.

-Josh