37 weeks pregnant... 3 to go!

Well, after 4.5 months of no hair care I now feel human again:) Meaning, I had a haircut today and had my friend colour my hair last week. Hair is highly under-rated in my case. I love change and it's always nice to pay a visit to the salon, and yet vanity just isn't always affordable. Although I have to say, I don't consider myself to be terribly vain (spelling??) but I do like to give people the impression that I'm a person who cares about herself, and that is often a direct reflection of how one presents themself physically... and it simply feels good to know you don't look like a schlep! Anyway, enough about vanity. Here's an update on "the belly" at 37 weeks, and a shot of the new "do".

Concrete, Pony & Bearing Walls

We had an eventful weekend, to say the least... it began on Friday as Kevin and four amazingly gracious friends poured the foundation. All went quite well until they reached the retaining wall on the South side of the house. Apparently the many braces they had on just weren't enough and an entire retaining wall blew out. From what I've heard this is a pouring nightmare. Fortunately there were enough guys helping that they were able to fix the problem, after much ado of course. Next we have a few pictures of Atalie being Atalie. She has really taken to watermelon (but who hasn't???) and her new "ki-ee" (kitty) pajamas, given to her by our friends in Kelowna. Friday evening Tyler (Kendra's brother) came to help for the remainder of the long weekend (yea!!!) and together he and Kev were able to strip the forms and get the pony & bearing walls up, creating the image of an actual house - or at least enough to use your imagination. Tyler busy cuttin stuff:) The above picture shows the 9' basement walls. The main entrance will be just above this height, along the East-side of the house (the left-side on the picture, as you are looking directly at the North wall of the house). Above is Kendra's "studly" brother, working hard. Or hardly working?? Maybe he really is a fake. What do you guys do all day??

New computer!

So we ran into a steal of a deal yesterday. Our friend's brother happened to get a new computer (he's one of those computer wizzes who, when talking about computers, totally surpases the average persons knowledge) and said we could HAVE his "old" one!! Yea!!!!! We have the same old monitor (13in?? - tiny screen anyways) but he gave us his stand and installed a new hard drive and windows xp program. Very exciting:) We just have to coax him back to install a couple programs, clear the viruses on our old hard drive (which we'd also like to install to keep certain documents) and we're on our way to life with technology. What a concept aye? ;) As soon as I figure out how to download pics with the new program I'll put a few new ones up.

Kendra gets down and dirty:)

Yesterday (Friday) Kevin and I ventured out to the lot to do a quick bit of work. We braced (I think that's what we did - I may be changing this post once Kevin reads it and corrects me) the forms to get ready for pouring, which I was actually able to help with! My main duty was to hold the 16ft 2X6's in place while he drilled them in... which may sound easy but to a pregnant woman. It's a good thing it was a "quick" job b/c one more hour and I'da been done for. These are the frames for the basement entry in the back of the house. What may look like an ordinary pole is actually a 45ft utility pole which we have just put in and will be receiving a bill for shortly. It's especially large b/c the wires have to clear the surrounding wires, most of which belong to Telus and for some reason are extremely high. But here's the catch - we don't need it! Apparently the town failed to mention (by phone, in person, even on our permit) that there was a new bylaw passed requiring all new residents to use (and pay for) underground power. !!AAAAAHH!! So here sits the unusually large $700 pole and another $1000+ of labour to install it. And who gets to foot the bill??? Well if nobody takes blame, us. Us. I could scream... but instead, Kevin and I will pay a little visit to our buddy in the town office next week and calmly plead our case. It's a difficult situation to raise a little hell in a small town where "everyone knows your name" and they all join together to help one another out whenever they can. It's a great town but they've had some MAJOR adjustments to make since having a massive growth spurt in realestate this spring and have had to hire a new coordinator to manage it all. There have been more than one case where new residents attempting to build have been misinformed, or uninformed of new rules and regulations. It's a little messy right now and we're one of the unfortunate ones to have to try and sort through it. So that's the story behind the pole.

Sweet sweet sweetness!!!

OK Ma, this post is for you! Do they look anything like yours???

We've got family!!!

On Friday we had some family come to visit us:) Kevin's sister Lisa and her husband Sam, with their 3 kids, Jerah, Andrew & Alisha. We mostly sat on the deck visiting but eventually made our way to a park for the kidlets. Here's some pics of the day: Here we have some pics of Atalie eating her banana the next day. We took off the dress she was wearing so she wouldn't get lasagna all over it... the banana was desert. We think she's part monkey b/c she looks so much like one when she stuffs her little cheeks. A nice cuddle to end the day:) As for a building update, Kevin wasn't able to get too much accomplished this weekend as he only had a helper today (Sunday) and the work they'll likely be accomplishing isn't terribly noticeable at a glance... so I'll be posting more pics next weekend when we pour the walls.