new floors

After coming to the conclusion that we will be stuck in our house for 5 more years (Greg says less than that but I'll believe it when I see it) we decided that it was time to put in some new floors in the kitchen and dining room. Yes, our house is only 5 years old but it has carpet in the dining room. Who builds a house with carpet in the dining room? That's one of the most stupid things I've ever heard of. Meredith has been eating in the kitchen for the last year and it's high time she learned how to eat a a table like a civilized person. Okay, as civilized as a 18 month-old can be. At least we won't have to worry about what she decides to randomly toss on the floor.

After much debate, we decided to do Pergo. Our budget definitely didn't allow for solid wood, I don't really care too much for engineered wood, and the Pergo looks nice and is really sturdy so we decided to go with that. I'm not willing to make a really huge investment into this house and I know the Pergo will look a lot nicer than the floors did before so hopefully that will help our house sell down the road.

These two pictures above are after the carpet in the dining room was ripped out. We haven't gotten to the kitchen floor yet.

The two picture above are what the floor looked like today. We're making progress but I think it's going to take another weekend of work to complete it in the kitchen. It's coming along. Many thanks to Greg for a great job so far!

the great imposter

I was looking through some of the entries from the Regis and Kelly's beautiful baby contest and came across this picture. I almost did a double take. Is this what my child is going to look like in a few months? I will be quite disappointed if this child wins the contest and Meredith is left high and dry.


**Disclaimer** The child pictured above is not my child.


Anyway, on to the rest of the weekend. Meredith's new obsession is Elmo. She wants to watch Elmo ALL.THE.TIME. I bought her a set of Elmo's World DVD's on Ebay and we watched a lot of Elmo this weekend. We know whe wants to watch Elmo when she plants her little butt in her chair and grunts at the TV. All the pictures in this post are taken with my fabulous new lens, BTW.
Here she is assuming her position on the chair.

Did I mention that Tabitha has a new found interest in Elmo too? This picture completely sums up the life of a toddler.

And if you haven't gotten enough Elmo yet, cap it off with Elmo Live.

We did find a little 'off' time to read with Daddy...

And got a little rowdy on the Bounce and Spin Zebra!

I found time during Meredith's nap (she is a marathon napper - averages 2-3 hours) to make a trip to Goodwill because it's been AGES since I've been over there. For $27 I came back with some stuff for me and for Meredith.

I got Meredith some 2T clothes. That's actually a 3T sleeper that I hope fits her next winter.

I got myself some clothes too!

In case you want to know, that's a pair of Ann Taylor Loft Jeans, a pair of (I think they are brand new) Express Editor capris or gauchos or whatever you want to call them (it's always a great day at Goodwill if I can score myself a pair of Editors), and a Banana Repuplic sweater vest.

another amazon purchase

Yes, Jeff Bezos, I have made yet another purchase on Amazon. I've been wanting a new lens for my camera for a long time now so I decided that it was time to upgrade from my kit lens. I am now the proud owner of this lens. It's the Tamron AF28-75mm F/2.8 XR Di LD Aspherical (IF). This lens is huge compared to the kit that I'm used to! I feel like I should be a serious photographer even though I couldn't take a good picture if my life depended on it. I'm hoping this will enhance my mad photo taking skillz...

I am in a picture taking rut right now. It's the middle of winter and it's dark when I go to work and it's dark when I come home and you just can't take good pictures under those conditions. This lens is going to let in more light so hopefully I can take some better indoor shots and I can't wait to see what the bokeh looks like. I am really looking forward to the weekend when I can practice taking some pictues with it, so stay tuned.