From a 1 bdrm to a studio

I must admit I am getting increasingly frustrated with this mold situation at our apartment. Landlord says a carpenter will be coming in tomorrow morning to pull off some of the boards around the window/fire escape to look to find the source/mold. As I was doing some housekeeping in the living room tonight I realized that the OTHER window (the one in the living room) that also leaked earlier this month also smells of mold. Yay.

So, what was our small but spacious 1 bedroom apartment has quickly turned into a studio apartment with a less than comfortable bed (the futon). At least we still have each other, right?

I don't think my family is going to be able to come this weekend. I can't imagine entertaining anyone in this apartment regardless of if we had space to put everyone. It's hard enough to find enough room for me, Tm, Hershey, and all our stuff, much less 2 more adults and 2 nephews. Oh, this just sucks. Really, really sucks.

Moldy Bedroom?!?

Our bedroom is currently un-liveable, and not because it's a mess (although it is a mess) but because of a strong, permeating moldy smell. If you look at the message archives, we had a pretty big leak along the edge of the window / fire escape in that room a few weeks ago. Now, it is my fear that mold is growing in the wall. I took the trash out this morning and looked at the back of the building, to see a large quantity of green growing on the outside of the building, and I wonder if that is contributing to the smell. All I know is that to enter the room I have to wear a particulate respirator mask otherwise a headache is immediately forthcoming. Last night we camped out in the living room, and the bedroom door is closed until this is resolved. When we got home from doing the laundry last night the whole apartment smelled! Now, after airing out the entire apartment and closing the bedroom door, we can confidently say that the smell is coming from the bedroom. I guess the good news is that part of our apartment is liveable. The bad news is that we are expecting out-of-town family guests this weekend!!! I just hope and pray that this will be resolved by Friday and I don't have to call them and say "don't come."

Happy 4th of July, everyone. Hope yours is better than it looks like ours is going to be!

Hungry like a Hobbit

Well, I'm now almost 16 weeks along in this twin pregnancy. The sickness is subsiding, as long as I eat whenever my body says "EAT!" which, seems like all the time! They say that newborns need to eat every 2-4 hours, but I think it's the same in-utero! I'm sure all of you have seen Lord of the Rings - remember in the first movie, when "Strider" is leading the hobbits, and they start to break down their gear for "2nd breakfast", and "Strider" freaks out?!? One of the hobbits says "I don't think he's heard of 2nd breakfast, Pip." I feel like a hobbit! Between full meals, small meals, and snacks, I've been covering just about all the "Hobbit" meals: breakfast, 2nd breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, and supper. But, I don't have feet like a hobbit! Maybe we'll have to start calling the twins "Pip" and "Merry" in-utero until we come up with real names for them! (on that note, in 2 more weeks we hope to find out the sexes of the babies at my 18 week ultrasound). :)

Let the knitting RE-commence!

I started this project (a baby blanket) a while back.. with just one skein of yarn. Oops! I figured I'd be able to go pick more up at Michael's next time I went to the store. But it looks like they're not carrying this yarn anymore! So, it's been sitting around doing nothing and since this is currently my only set of knitting needles, I haven't done much other knitting (except when RL was kind enough to lend me her needles to make baby hats).

Well, I finally did some searching online and found the yarn I need, and it arrived yesterday! YAY! Now I can let the knitting re-commence! I'm planning to learn how to crochet a scalloped border around the whole thing (in a different color/pattern yarn) when it is complete.
 

Gotta love Dilbert

I subscribe to "Daily Dilbert" which means I get the new Dilbert comic in my email every morning (I don't get the Sunday comic). I just had to share this one!!

Freecycle is awesome

I am so thankful to MH & LH for telling me about Freecycle. Have you heard of it? It is a yahoo group where you can offer up to others the things you don't want anymore, and of course try to get things that others no longer want. Sometimes you can even post a "wanted" ad so if someone has an item that they didn't even remember they had sitting around in their basement, you can take it off their hands. Here's an excerpt from the main page:

" Boston, Massachusetts Freecycle(TM) is open to all who want to "recycle" that special something rather than throw it away. Whether a chair, a fax machine, or an old door, feel free to post it. Maybe you're looking to acquire something yourself! Everything posted must be FREE, legal and appropriate for all ages. Freecycle is a movement of people interested in keeping stuff out of landfills while building a sense of community."

I wanted to share about Freecycle because I was so immensely blessed today by another Freecycle member. Timo and I took a short, 2/3 mile walk today to go pick up some maternity clothes. Another member had offered this lot of clothes and I hadn't "won" it, but a few weeks later she wrote me to say that the original person who had contacted her apparently didn't want the stuff, was I still interested? I replied in the affirmative and arranged to pick them up. Well, I just got done sorting through the two huge trash bags full of clothes, and I really hit the motherlode!!! I can't even count the number of tops - long sleeve, 3/4 sleeve, 1/2 sleeve, short sleeve, no sleeve - some t-shirt style, some dressier. Also some dresses and skirts, a nightgown, and a pair of shorts. Wow.

Completely, amazedly blessed.

Let's Get Crafty: Scrapbooking!!

Today was the "Let's Get Crafty: Scrapbooking" event, hosted by yours truly. We met together for a potluck breakfast - yummy pancakes with fresh fruit, scrambled cheesy eggs, everything bagels, cut up watermelon, and Dunkin muffins. Yum! I went through a short talk about the basics of scrapbooking, and we quickly got to work! As always, I forgot to take out my camera until nearly the very end, but here are some shots of everyone who finished a project today.. KR made some beautiful cards..
PM made an intro page for her Ireland photos..

WS made the first page for her wedding album! Great job, ladies! I hope you all had fun!

My Science Fair Project

So, this is what I have been working on for the past few hours for the Welcome Table at church.


I have had this project in my "To Do" list for months.. It's on a folding board like what you see at science fairs. I've never actually DONE a display for a science fair, so this is my first time making such a thing. Not all of the seams are in ideal locations, and I just hope this thing will last for some period of time, with being folded and re-folded, and being stored in the back store room at the hotel, getting beat up on, etc. Anyway, it's done. 

Drip... drip... drip...

So, two of our windows are leaking at the moulding around the top of the window, the moulding above the window and fire escape door in the bedroom and the window by the kitty tower. Rain is expected to continue through Saturday. We called the management company - apparently they are getting a lot of these calls and can't do anything about it until the rain stops. Oh, yay. I wonder if we'll have any clean towels by the end of this..

Desperately Hungry Pregnant Lady Food

I guess I have been blogging a lot about food lately, but I think that's understandable from someone who's pregnant.It's 11:50pm and I haven't eaten dinner yet. Now, don't scold me yet - when I got home I was feeling awful - Tm got home and I made him feed me a salad (I felt the need for veggies of some kind). We immediately fell asleep and I didn't wake up until 10pm. For the last 2 hours I've been writing email, reading blogs, and trying to figure out what I am going to eat. What do I feel like eating? What is easy to make? What do we have in the house? Sometimes I feel so much a need for PROTEIN that all I can think about are SCRAMBLED EGGS. This is the 2nd time I have made this particular version for myself - scrambled eggs with cheese and ketchup on buttered toast. And, that's water in the purple glass. People keep asking me, are you craving any foods? And I never have an answer, cause I don't feel like I do crave certain foods but I do certainly crave foods - usually vegetables and eggs (not together!) although I could go for some green beans right now. Um, I gotta go..