Erin and I went to Chicago for the fourth of July. We go there on Wednesday and stayed through Saturday. Sounds like a lot longer than it felt. A bunch of Erin’s cousins came in from around the country and we all gathered at her sister Sarah and her husband Jon’s house in Lombard, IL.

My camera is on the fritz again so I only have a handful of photos. Most of these were on July 3rd while sitting around in the front yard and then a few on the 4th. I will be posting a few pics from my cell phone from the Architectural Tour we took as well in a separate post. See the notes in the popup for any pertinent information.

I am trying to get a photo I took earlier this year published in JPG magazine. I submitted the photo to their “On Stage” theme. All it takes is a few (or a couple hundred) votes to get it in there so run along and if you like it vote for it!

I just cant get enough of this guys humor. He does analogies of everyday things and they are just hilarious. Here is the latest one that I think some of you can relate to in one way or another.

“Bringing your baby to a wedding is like being a designated driver:
The odds of actually enjoying yourself are so low that you’re better off just staying home.”
- Link to original

The site is www.blankislikeblank.com

It has been a been a long few weeks of clearing stuff out of the nursery, pulling carpet, patching walls, painting, buying furniture, hauling stuff to storage, carpeting, picking up furniture, assembling a crib, and arranging it all in a tiny little room. Here are some pics of the progress. Starting with the room as we started (minus the carpet) moving through the steps above… then a few of the furniture separately.

Almost forgot to mention… the cute crib stuff (sheet… not pictured, skirt and quilt) were all gifts from Erin’s kindergarten class at the end of the year.

Here are a few things that have “happen” to us lately… Saturday night I photograph a wonderful reception up in Cleveland. It was really hot and I was well soaked through with sweat so I put all the windows down and opened the sunroof. It was quite pleasant I enjoyed the breeze and I was pretty much dry by the time I got home. I went in the house and got settled in. When I woke up entirely too late on Sunday I laid in bed enjoying the rain falling on the roof and hitting the windows. What I didnt realize is that I had left the sunroof open on the Pilot. Eeek. There was lots of water in there. So we rented a Rug Doctor and sucked as much up as possible. Put the dehumidifier in there and have been letting it run for hours on end.

Also I have been painting in what is to be our baby’s nursery. We got the paint matched to a quilt that we liked the color of. Did the research on which paint is scrubable and everything. Bought the paint from Home Depot and painted the walls. Two coats. Erin comes in and says is this the right finish? Sure enough they mixed the right color in the wrong finish paint :S

Then today after all of that, Erin called me at work today to let me know that there was a water stain and some mold on the ceiling of the master bathroom!!! So I finished what I was doing at work and headed home to check it out. Sure enough there was a leak in the roof that had made its way through the bathroom ceiling. So I got up in the attic to find the problem and it seemed to be coming from around a sewer vent that goes up and out the roof. So I got some roofing caulk and got up on the roof to see if I could seal up around the vent.

Did I mention that Sunday was Erin’s birthday and I lost track of the days and totally forgot to tell her happy birthday? Ugh. Anyway there will be pics of the nursery progress to come but I thought you might like to see me on the roof! Keep in mind I am only as handy as I am cheap so this is not a think you will see me doing for fun.