My Kenmore appliance repair man

wears All Stars.


Not only is he the best husband and most amazing Daddy to our babies, but he's a Gibson guru, lover of all things classic, (like 60s and 70s classic) which includes but is not limited to cars and music. He's a mechanical engineer by career, a beer connoisseur by hobby and the love of my life. Yes, I am in love with my Kenmore appliance repair man. :-)

And why you ask? Well besides for all the above mentioned, he fixed a broken dryer, a 3 year old  new, broken dryer that probably shouldn't have been broken since it's practically still a baby. And it only cost $16 for the part and a few ok several hours of his time spread over 2 nights. But it sure does beat the $129 charge we almost paid for the repair man, the one who probably doesn't wear All Stars,



to come out on Friday. Tell us we had a bad switch, charge us double for what we paid for the switch at the parts store, and then incur an hourly labor fee? All for a $16 part?! I love my Kenmore appliance repair man :-)



And for anyone out there that may run into the same problem:
Matt was able to diagnose this issue with a little help from Google and this computer tester thing that I think he uses for his car. I don't know what it does, but I'm pretty sure not every household would own one. If you really want specifics, I can ask him. Anyway, after several hours of diagnosing, he was able to determine that the switch, when you open and close the dryer, was permanently "stuck" in the open position. Basically the sensor and wiring of that switch had gone bad. So even when the dryer was closed, it would not run because it thought it was open. He determined a part number, sent me to the part store and Voila! our 3 year new dryer works again. Is there anything this guy can't do?!

Did I mention I love my Kenmore appliance repair man?

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My Spring Projects

Something about Spring makes me want to clean and organize. Maybe it's the renewal of life, the new buds forming on trees, the early spring flowers popping up through the ground, the new Spring styles waiting to be purchased off the rack. So my first project was organizing Lane's clothes from birth. When he grew out of stuff, I would just throw the clothes in tubs without any real organization. The tubs were solid colors so it was hard to see what was inside. I went out and purchased clear tubs so I can easily see what is stored away in there.
This is what it started out looking like...yikes!

                                           

And the end result! I only bought 7 clear tubs so I ended up needing the solid color ones. I used those for baby toys and maternity clothes.

 Then I printed out labels and taped them on. Ahhh! I love the feeling of organzation.

Next up: my drawers, I can barely open and close them.

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Date Night

On the Patio on our Pottery Barn Patio furniture, listening to some Tom Petty on Pandora eating some Porckchops, green beans, and mashed sweet Potatoes, drinking Pumpkin ale, enjoying our freshly Planted Pansies, and mum-filled Pumpkins. Yes! It's certainly starting to feel and look more like fall around here! I have been working on getting out some Fall decorations bit by bit. It's not so much for us because we leave soon and will be gone for 2 weeks and by the time we return it will be Halloween which means my favorite of favoritist month will almost be over.

But I figured I better make it Fall-like around here because Matt also enjoys this season full of pumpkins, pumpkin ale, colorful leaves, and football. And after-all he will be here for those 2 weeks and he is the one who gave us the ok to be gone for so long. He at least deserves some Fall festivity!

Here's a few pictures from our fall photo shoot.

It didn't so much turn out the way I had planned nor was it anything like last year's. (Although not much has changed...it seems as though I still like to wear inappropriate shoes to muddy places and I pretty much breastfeed anywhere!)And last year...all Lane did was lay perched where we set him.But this year he is a little more mobile, which is a good thing, I guess.

White pumpkins and pumpkin ale...

Pumpkin-Planter Projects...

The finished Product

Matt text me earlier that day and said how about a date on the patio with some pumpkin ale...sweatpants required! Trust me, when I heard sweatpants, nothing more needed to be said. A date it was and a great night indeed!

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You know...when

You know you've wiped your baby's nose one too many times in the last two weeks when...

a napkin, to him, is the coolest thing since sliced bread and he crawls around wiping everything in sight. Including (but not limited to):

the floor

Harley's nose

the stove

his toys

matt's supplies

AAAND himself

You know you've been to Home Depot one too many times in a weekend when...

the employees start recognizing you and your baby at TWO different Home Depot stores!

You know you've had experience talking your husband into doing a project (or two) ;-) when:

he starts a backsplash at 1 pm on a Sunday afternoon with little or no negotiating! ('After' pictures to follow when it's all finished!)

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone

Well Grandma Loret took off bright and early this morning and along with her... she took the sunny weather, summer heat and Lane's charmingness! (I don't even think that is a word!) Haha...kidding about the last one...but seriously I swear (although I usually don't) that the child senses when it's Monday and raining because all he wants to do is sleep and he will whine until I put him in his crib regardless if he just woke up!

Anyway I have lots of pictures from the events of our weekend. I will probably break them up into a few different posts. But I will start with the first day. Lane and I picked Loretta up at the airport and headed downtown for some lunch and catching up. When we got home, Lane was ready for a nap and I ran some errands while Loretta stayed with him....it was heaven. I got so much done in no time at all and was able to focus on the tasks at hand and not the entertainment of the little guy as we stroll the aisles wondering how much longer I have! Here's a really cute picture of Grandma and her boys (well half of her boys, anyway!)

Cute...right?!?!

Let's see...where was I?! So Thursday evening when Matt got home, we cooked some steaks on the grill, baked potatoes in the oven and green beans and had a wonderful meal (and drinks of course!) on the patio. Loretta had us up until almost 1:00! As soon as she knew Matt was off work the next day she said well shoot, let's have another! (That's your girl, Ed!) So we were up late, but had good talks, good laughs and fun times catching up.

Friday started off rainy and stormy. We hung around the house in the morning and Lane napped for hours through the storms that passed. Around lunchtime we headed out to grab something and when we were done, the clouds were starting to part and the sun was peaking through so we went to Lowe's for 'Operation Plant Angela's Garden.' Well not really garden, but pots and such for a greener backyard! It needed it:



And just for fun

A very cute 'before' picture of my handsome husband to sneak in there!

So after Lowe's we came home and relaxed a bit before our big night out....more to come on that later! And so far you are caught up on the first half of her trip. Good times already!

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Let it snow!

An appropriate title for tonight's post....we are under a winter weather advisory and could get 1-3 inches of snow. I think IL is starting to rub off on us and I'm not sure I am liking it! 5 counties across the Upstate and in the mountains have already closed their schools for tomorrow. No wonder why the grocery store was so busy....everyone was out buying milk, bread, and eggs. I was thankful Lane had one pair of fleece pj's cause I figured he would need them tonight and they appropriately have snowmen on them.

Here's Lane and Matt (who shaved his beard, YAY!) just before bed.


And here's a peak at what Matt has been doing in the garage.
Flannel work shirt-check!
Tool belt-check! (he wears that thing even when he is hanging stuff...or changing a light bulb! Ha! Ha!)
Safety glasses-check!
It's soon to be a changing table/dresser. It's part of the projects we are working on for Lane's room. Can't wait to show you the rest!


I'll let you know how the weather turns out.

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