Michael & Liz are Bloggable

To say that Liz's Dad is handy around the house, is an understatement. More accurately, if given the time and the tools, he could probably build a house by himself. He and Liz's Mom were in town this week and he put his skills to use on our house / car.

One of the first things he did was replace Liz's brakes and rotors in her car. I would have loved to have seen him do it, but I had to work earlier in the week and we only had so much time later on in the week.

Then Thursday, we spent most of the day wiring our 2nd and 3rd bedrooms to install ceiling fans. This was very interesting to see because working with electricity is something I am terrified of. Voltage and watts and amps oh my. But we got it done, and then on Friday we installed the ceiling fans.

Both rooms have 3 switches on the wall. The left is for an outlet on the other side of the room, the middle is for the fan, and the right is for the light in the fan. Pretty awesome.

And then, because we hated our fan downstairs, we got a new fan for the sweet room to match the coffee table and entertainment center we bought this Summer.


But what takes the cake is what they brought us as a gift for the baby's room. A changing table!! Check out the wood work. It's pretty freakin' awesome. I hope someday I can make something that looks this good!!


The front knobs are little elephants. You can also see the color of our baby's room. It's a light turquoise color we picked out before we knew the sex of the baby. The changing table is one shade darker to match. The excellent paint job was done by Liz's Mom.


Look at the details on the side!


Liz and her mom bought little brown baskets for the slots in the front.


The puppies are too cute (and so good with the "stay" command). They have no idea what's coming though. We are just waiting for Gryffin to lay next to Liz's belly and get kicked by the baby inside. Should be hilarious.

In September we canceled our instant streaming from Netflix, so our movie watching has slowed down a little bit. But here are the movies we've watched over the past 3 months. I highlighted in red a movie below, that is hands down one of the most inspiring documentaries I've ever seen. If you have netflix and enjoy running, you need to see this movie.

August:

• Country Strong (2010) - 3 stars - I don't recall actually enjoying this enough to give it 3 stars. The acting was well done, but it was a depressing plot. 
• How Do You Know (2010) - 5 stars - Paul Rudd is amazing. I seriously loved the ending to this movie. This was a totally predictable love story, but it was definitely feel good. If you enjoy romantic comedies, you gotta see this one.
• Just Go With It (2011) - 5 stars - Adam Sandler in a 5 star movie? Yeah totally. Just like the one above, this ending was awesome. Jennifer Aniston plays a little bit outside her comfort zone as a dorky secretary type person, and did a great job as the love interest. 
• Tron: Legacy (2010) - 3 stars - This movie was actually really confusing to me. It didn't help that I was working while watching it because Liz fully understood it. The graphics are crazy good though.
• True Grit (2010) - 2 stars - It deserves every bit of the accolades it received from the acting performances. That part was phenomenal. I would have given this movie 3 stars mainly because of it's mediocre and relatively boring plot, but I took 1 star off for 1 very disappointing part. Ask me on the side what it was if you care to know, so I don't ruin things for other people.
• The Green Hornet (2011) - 3 stars - This is not what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be a lot more Ironman-like, and a lot less like the movie "Kick-Ass".
• Black Swan (2010) - 3 stars - This got 3 stars for the acting. Natalie Portman did awesome. What I did not expect was how freakin' CREEPY this movie would be. It was borderline scary part of the time too. If you don't like being somewhat creeped out, pass this one up!
• The Tourist (2010) - 4 stars - This was a surprisingly awesome movie, although I shouldn't have been surprised seeing as it has Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. We very much enjoyed it. Johnny Depp playing a completely normal dude was weird though. 

September:

• Parenthood: Season 2 (2010) - 5 stars - We have a new favorite TV series. There is seriously nothing I dislike about this show. It's phenomenal. 
• Letters to Juliet (2010) - 2 stars - I can't honestly say that I paid much attention to this movie. It was also super forgettable with zero A list celebrities. Don't watch it unless it happens to be on.
• Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) - 3 stars - What's not to like about Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan? OK, maybe the plot, but other than that... 

October: 

• Your Highness (2011) - 1 star - I really thought this would be hilarious. Instead it was raunchy and boring. I can't believe James Franco and Natalie Portman actually read this script and thought it was a good idea.
• Paul (2010) - 2 stars - The most impressive part of this movie was the graphics and integration of an alien into human life. It seriously looked believable. Nothing else in this movie was that great though.
• Something Borrowed (2011) - 3 stars - This movie was somewhat frustrating. Kate Hudson played the most annoying character ever, and John Krasinski's awesome character basically got crapped on the entire movie.
• Body of Lies (2008) - 2 stars - I tried, I really did, but this movie is so incredibly boring. This is actually my second try at watching it, and I could not stay interested for 2 hours either time. Leonardo DeCaprio did a great job of acting, but even he couldn't save this one.
• Cedar Rapids (2011) - 4 stars - Ed Helms rocks the house. This movie did not get national exposure, but I really enjoyed it. I can't really explain why, other than Ed Helms being his normal funny self.
• MacGruber (2010) - 3 stars - I was surprised with this one. It started out being absolutely hilarious, but then as it went on, the jokes somehow disappeared. I think if they had maintained the humor from start to finish, this might have gotten 4 or 5 stars. Although be aware what you are getting with this movie, it is a SNL spoof after all.
• Thor (2011) - 3 stars - The plot was so far-fetched and ridiculous, that it was hard to enjoy this one. Although it had enough of the good sci-fi stuff to get up to 3 stars. 
• Megamind (2010) - 2 stars - I had high hopes for this movie. And recently a lot of animated movies like "Despicable Me" or "How To Train Your Dragon" are really entertaining for adults, but this one was completely a miss.
• Inside Job (2010) - 3 stars - This was a documentary about the banking crisis. Lets just say that if this was all true, then anyone with a brain in the banking industry would have seen this crisis coming.
• Robin Hood (2010) - 4 stars - You need to pay very close attention to this movie because if you miss one part, then you may get lost by the plot. We first saw this movie at an outdoor movie theatre, and I must have gone to the bathroom because it was confusing to follow. The second time around was much better, and this movie freakin' rocked. I love Russell Crowe. 
• Running the Sahara (2007) - 5 stars - This movie may need it's own blog post. I would say that without a doubt, this movie was probably the most inspiring thing I have ever watched. You ever asked yourself what is the hardest thing you could do? What will push you past your limits? These guys asked that question, and then answered it. Absolutely amazing! I wish I had half their will and guts.
• How To Train Your Dragon (2010) - 4 stars - This movie was made for kids, but it absolutely is adult-worthy. Very funny and entertaining. I highly recommend it.

When we first found out that Liz was pregnant back in July, we started playing this game. We're due in March? That's forever from now, we have tons of time. But do we really?

The game is pretty simple. Randomly we would say "The next time" and then finish the sentence with something that will occur after we have our baby.  It's an easy way for us to realize we really do not have a lot of time. The baby is coming, and it's right around the corner. I wish I would have written all of them down, because some of them were HILARIOUS. But I'll write out what I can remember, most of the non-funny ones.

• The next time the Summer Olympics are on. 
• The next time the Winter Olympics are on, we'll have a 2 year old! (holy crap)
• The next time there is a World Cup, we'll have a 2 year old. 
• The next time there is a Spring finale of Biggest Loser. 
• The next time there is a presidential election.
• If Obama has a second term, the next time we elect a new president, we'll have a 5 year old. Now THAT is weird.
• The next time I have a birthday.
• The next time we have a day off for Memorial or Labor Day. 
• The next time we fly on a plane, now that is weird. 
• The next time we are able to go to Movies in the Park nights at the Art Museum. 

You get the idea. All these events and activities we have lived with over the last 5 years, are now going to be drastically changed. But so far life hasn't changed at all, except Liz's belly is a little bigger than it used to be. This is just our way of making it real.

Also my sister sent us a onesie in the mail today, that did a pretty good job of making it real.

Well we had our big ultrasound yesterday and had the sonographer write down the baby's sex so we could open it at dinner. We thought that might be tough because we weren't sure how obvious it would be. Good thing most everything looks like patchy blobs to us because we couldn't tell. She had us look away when she was specifically looking for it.

This entire time we've been thinking it was a girl just because of what our doctor said at the 12 week appointment. He certainly misled us, that's for sure. Boy or girl, we would be thrilled just as long as the baby is healthy, and it sounds like all is well.

It was actually difficult for the sonographer though, because he was kicking and moving around like crazy. At one point on the screen, we could literally see him kick is his legs straight out and then curl up, over and over again. The sonographer was laughing because she was having a hard time getting pictures of the important stuff (organs) with all the movement. Sounds like we're going to have our hands full!!

We got a bunch of pictures from the ultrasound, but I thought I'd share our 2 favorites:

Everything in the pictures are a little bumpy, but that's just the inexact science that is taking pictures during the ultrasound. The one above is our favorite.

The picture below is one we had a hardy laugh about. Liz said "Oh my gosh, it looks so frail, I need to eat more!"


But believe me, she's eating enough. He's progressing just fine. Today marks week 18!

4 years ago after we bought the house, the main sewer line going from the house to the street got clogged up. We had a plumber come out and unclog the drain and the plumber said that he thought there were some roots in the drain, but there wasn't that much. He said, he wouldn't worry about it.

Then, this Spring, we had the same thing happen. Drain clogged up, we got a plumber to clear the drain but this time he said it is a pretty strong root. His suggestion was for me to dig down and fix it myself. I put a stake in the ground where I thought the clog was, and said "I'll get to it".

This week I got to it, although not in the way I wanted. I was forced to. On Wednesday Liz was running the washer upstairs and all of a sudden, when it started draining, our toilet downstairs started gurgling and then the water started to rise. ACK! It's only been 6 months!!

A plumber came out again and said the root was so strong that when the drill bit used to clear the clog went through, he couldn't pull it back out. They unhooked the drill at the other end, and then just pulled the wire back through.

So today was the day. It was time to dig down and find out what's going on. To prepare, I called the 811 number to get our utilities marked, so I didn't hit an electrical wire or gas pipe or anything. And this morning I started digging.

I was smart enough to document the work with pictures, check it out.

So you can see where the line goes. It's from the little spout at my feet all the way to the white pipe coming out of the ground near the trash cans. If you look close, halfway along, there is a white dot where the plumber thought the pipe was on Wednesday. Turns out he was completely wrong and the spot was where I put the stake back in the Spring. Oh well, cost me about a half hour of digging.




We've struck GOLD! There's the pipe. Nowhere near where I originally started digging.


The problem is instantly evident. Should there be a massive hole with a big root sticking into the pipe?? The root is to the far right of the crack. You can't see it in this shot, but it's there. In fact the root had wrapped itself around the pipe, and was starting to tear a crack in the bottom of the pipe. Give it a little more time and we may not have had a pipe anymore.

I has a tired.

Can there be anymore roots? What an awesome source of water this tree has had!!


You can see the cracking that has already started around the bottom of the pipe on the right.

Now this is the point at which my easy little task took a turn for the worse. Little did I know that when building the house, the builders ran the water line directly beneath the sewer pipe. So when I started to saw the sewer line out, I accidentally hit the water line.

Saying that I panicked would be an understatement. Luckily my neighbor across the street was outside and he ran over and turned off our water line at the street. I didn't even know how to do that, but water was spewing every where and I couldn't hardly think. I actually didn't take a lot of pictures at this point, because lets face it, documenting this moment wasn't a big concern of mine.

I immediately called a plumber to get someone who knows what they are doing. I spent the next 30 minutes cleaning out water from the hole and continuing to dig to get a better look at both pipes. The plumber arrives and says to continue cutting out the sewer line and he'll fix the water line. Good deal.

So... back to pictures. We finally get the sewer pipe out:




Ah! Relief, the water line is fixed, but for a pretty little $155 penny. Back to the sewer line... It took a while to find the parts, I had to go to 3 different stores to find the correct pipe and couplers.


I probably cut the new pipe unnecessarily close to the length needed, but that way there is very little lip on the inside for stuff to get stuck.


This is exactly how the plumber suggested I do it. He even got the part out of his truck to show me. Very nice of him.


This is the second largest pile of dirt we've ever had in our drive way.


This last picture might be more for my benefit than anyone elses. If we ever have to dig the pipe up again, I know where it is.

So now we are running laundry, I showered, we finally flushed our toilets, and are now enjoying the amenities we are use to. I'm leaving the pipe exposed until tomorrow to make sure we don't have any leaks. If all is well until tomorrow, I'll cover it up and try to forget this day. But for now, I am going to sit here and enjoy the sound of our washing machine. Go water go!

For years I have been singing this song every October. People (friends) would ask me "I've never heard that, where is it from?" and include a jab in there somehow. I would respond with a meager "from my childhood somehow, I can't remember, but it's awesome." Well it is awesome and it's songs like this that make me love October/Halloween.

Well here is it's awesomeness, in all of it's glory:



(You can fast forward 1 minute to hear the words, if you get bored by the spooky sounds)

You're welcome, your life has been changed forever.

H-A-Double L-O-Double U-Double E-N spells Halloween. I love it.

I thought I took more pictures than this. But here are all the good pictures from our Blue Ridge Relay Race. I need to do a better job of spreading the camera around because all the pictures are of not-me.