86'n It

As some of you dedicated, long-time readers might know, we have had some tub draining issues in the past. I used a trick I learned from Handyman magazine and have been loyally unclogging the drain chemical-free for quite a while. If you want to know how, leave me a comment or email me with your email, and I'll send you the info. Well, this unclogging is quite a disgusting thing to do and that is saying a lot considering I now wipe butts on a daily basis and enjoy watching my husband get stitches.

There are a ton of GREAT things about being pregnant, but one unexpected thing this that your hair stops falling out. I'm not sure of the biological/scientific reason why, but I think it has something to do with the fact that it is just the universe throwing all of the fat-faced, swollen footed, heartburn-having, pants-splitting mommas-to-be a bone. Look: you may be the size of a house, but your hair is thick and lustrous!

Don't you know that a little while after you give birth and you find yourself unshowered, covered in spit up, and wearing last week's sweatpants that THEN your hair not only starts to fall out again, but it falls out with a vengeance. It is like all that hair that was clinging on for 9 months suddenly all comes tumbling down and into your tub drain.

It is worse for those of us with curly hair, because unlike our (lucky) straight-haired friends, our hair doesn't fall out throughout the day (say into your neighbor's soup or as we stand in the elevator). No, curly hair gets all tangled up in the mess that is curly hair only to be released when we shower.

This is a long way of saying that last time I did the tub unclogging, I'm pretty sure I pulled out a wet black chinchilla. The baby was sleeping, so I could only scream on the inside. I may have shattered a kidney.

About an hour later, a light bulb appeared over my head. I promptly headed to Target. $1.79 and one of these later:

...and our tub drain is to remain hair-free. Now, you still have to clean this thing off after a shower, but it is less wet chinchilla and more random stray hair extension. Which having lived in Philadelphia, I can live with.

My husband is really good looking.

I'm not going to lie, that is why we started dating. I was 21. He was older and hot.

Those are the things that you care about when you are just of drinking age, in college, and living in a city so hot you can't wear that many clothes (Tucson, AZ).

As our relationship progressed I liked him because he was stable. He had solid opinions on everything. He worked hard. He was honest and no-nonsense.... and because he had six-pack abs and a truck. (Again, not gonna lie!)

Fast forward thru six years of us braking up and making up about a million times. (I STILL can't believe we were that couple. I hate that couple.) We were married in an art museum by a dear friend four years ago today.

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I remember walking down the aisle and seeing Marc ahead and thinking that I got really, really lucky. It's not like I didn't have my doubts because I did and I'm sure he did. Did I love him enough? Was he too overbearing? But all I'd have to think about was how he called me on the solo trip to Spain for no reason (it was like 3am and he woke me up). I could tell he just wanted to hear my voice. Or how, during one of the times when we had broken up and I was actually doing ok, I'd still think: 'Wow, I wish I could tell Marc about this'.

He had become part of me.

Now it's been four years of marriage. Four years of a really great marriage, even though three of those years have been spent sweating in, and arguing over this crappy house.

In this fourth year, we made something together. Something so sweet and beautiful and goofy and hilarious and amazing and perfect that I still feel like we went to the hospital and they just gave us the best one they had.

We did this? -->

Hard to believe.

And Marc's hotness? Still there. Getting better actually.

Marc's stability? Like a rock.

His love for me? Unshakable.

Little did I know that these qualities would be like drops in the ocean that is him as a father.

In this life I feel truly blessed. This weird guy I made buy me lunch because he was the cutest in architecture school, turns out to be not only the husband I never dreamed I deserved, but also the father every kid does.

Happy Anniversary Marc.

We finally have a fully functional kitchen with countertops!

(No, I did not make that number up, it is the actual # of days that we’ve owned the house, courtesy of Elapsed Time Calculator.)

Finally, the kitchen is not done, but who cares! We have all the appliances in and working! When we bought the house, the kitchen was disgusting and the oven didn’t work.

This is what it looked like:

And here are some pretty ‘after’ shots:

Now, we can finally begin the trim work! First up is the wood wall. Marc is in charge of building the cabinet boxes (one where you see the small long photo and one in the lower right) and I’m in charge of sanding and cleaning the old wood. Exciting!

Stay tuned!

So Marc and I made this policy last year? two years ago? that we don't kill spiders. We don't like spiders, but they killed other bugs, so we thought: "ehh, let's let them live."

Well, I think word got out in the spider community because we have A TON of spiders. Not so many inside the house, probably because it's been so hot inside, but a good number on our exterior. 

This morning I was looking at the kitchen window sash, which I might remove and start scraping today, and I noticed this guy:

I'm in the process of getting a real URL (www.86nIt.com) and adding some features, so please bear with me for the next two days. If you get frustrated, just look at this image:

All better right?