Furniture Stories

This weekend we do have some interesting furniture stories and pictures to share with everyone. We did not have much luck shopping for nursery furniture over the last several months so we have instead turned to good old Craigslist. Joella and I have similar taste, so we have not been argueing, just endlessly searching. Well we finally found something that we liked on Craigslist and now it is sitting in our front room (thanks again for helping me move it Jim!) waiting for progress on the nursery. There is not much space in the front room and the crib is not put together yet, so don't expect much from the pictures.

The dresser has a changing table skirt on top and the armoire is barely visible on the right. The crib is made of the same wood and has sides that have a sleigh type pattern. Joella and I will put together the crib in the nursery once it is ready so don't expect completed pictures for a little while. This wood also somewhat matches her Nana's rocking chair so that will all look really nice once we get new pads for it.

The other furniture story involves Nana's old cedar chest. I snuck it out of the house over a month ago when Joella went on her first robot trip and Joella didn't catch it missing until early last week. I told Joella that I found someone to fix the lock (it accidentally got locked once many years ago and they had to break the wood in order to get it back open) and that they would be done in a couple of weeks. Well...I did have them fix the lock (they glued the wood back together and put a decorative button in the lockhole), but I also had them patch all of the veneer chips and completely refinish the chest...

The woodworking store really did an excellent job and the cedar chest turned out better than I could have expected. And don't worry everyone, all of Nana's creations are safely stored away and they will shortly be placed back into the cedar chest until reunion time! Remember to also keep praying that Joella has a good doctor's visit in June so she can still travel to the reunion.

As far as the end of the story goes, Joella was very pleasantly suprised and never expected a thing. It is always fun when I can sneak one by her.

Another Update

We don't want to sound boring, but everything is going well for us and all of the exciting stuff is happening to people around us. Joella and the baby continue to be doing well and Joella can really feel the little one moving around now. Maybe in a few weeks the baby will be moving around enough so I can feel some kicks. You might wonder why I (Mark) do most of the writing on the blog, well mainly it is because Joella is busy writing on MySpace and Facebook. Joella does read the blog and edits my mistakes, but most of the time she lets me do the writing. Now for all of the news around us (in picture form)...

Meet Abigail Swearingin...our good friends Adam and Angela had a baby girl last Friday. I got to see her on Friday evening and Joella got to visit her on Sunday after she returned from the robot nationals in Atlanta. By the way, the Lee's Summit North highschool team did great going 5-2 during the first couple of days even though they did not get selected for the playoffs.

Next, meet the big one year old girl, Ms. Annaliese Hubbard. She is definitely a sweetheart and we got to go to her birthday party on Sunday before visiting Abigail.

Annaliese sure is proud daddy's little girl...

Finally, here is our neighbors' new dog, Ralph. We affectionately call him Ralphy-Ralph and boy does he get Mollie and Lucy worked up. When Mollie gets to visit him, she of course immediately pins him to the ground and he just jumps back up and wants more. So, Zeke has a little brother to push around and now we have two boys on one side of the fence against two girls on this side.

Crazy Weather Continues

We had hail storms a couple of days ago followed by sleet and snow flurries today so the weather has definitely been crazy. Hopefully the freeze tomorrow night doesn't hurt all of the flowers and trees because everything is just about ready to start blooming. So far only the magnolia trees have started to fully bloom. The forecasters are calling for 80 degrees later in the week so hopefully this weekend will be the end of winter weather.

Hockey season is also officially over so that also signifies the end of winter. We won the championship last week so it was a fun and successful season. The guys on the team are great and we have quite a bunch of characters who keep it all entertaining.

We also managed to complete registering at Babies R Us today, so now there are no more excuses and we need to get going on the nursery. We really need to clean out the old computer desk and all of the bookshelves. Anyone need a giant corner computer desk and lots of old civil and mechanical engineering textbooks?

Picture of the Sommerhauser Cutie!

The ultrasound went well this week and the doctor says that Joella continues to be doing very good...so without any further delay, here is a picture of the cutie!

Springtime

It is nice to finally see the grass green up and various trees starting to bud. We have been trying to plant more perennials every year in order to cut down on future maintenance, but we are lucky if 2/3 of them survive the whole year. We have also been trying to keep the Lowes receipts for our perennials so this year we will take them up on the 1 year guarantee. I will have to add some more pictures of the front and back yards once I finish the various projects, but Joella just laughs because she says that once I'm done I will just change my mind and add some new projects. This year I will have to get the outside project done soon because there is still plenty of indoor work coming up.

We are all doing well and we have several big doctors visits over the next couple of weeks. Once again, I will remind everyone that we are not finding whether we are having a boy or a girl, but we really appreciated everyone's prayers and good wishes.

For your entertainment, below is a video clip from the First Robotics Regional in Minnesota a couple of weeks ago. The Lee's Summit North team is the Broncobots - #1987 with black bumpers that launches the ball. The organizers archived video clips from the entire competition on their website so if you want to see more just Google Minnesota First Robotics Regional.

Oh yeah, and I made sure that I added the video clip where they were singing "Cotton Eye Joe" just for Matt and Mia...makes you feel like you're sitting right there at a Blues game.

Robot Competition News

Although the Lee's Summit North Highschool robot team lost in the first round of the playoffs last weekend in Minnesota, they succeeded in winning the Engineering Inspiration award which automaticly qualified them for the national competition in Atlanta two weeks from today. Joella is excited to be going with them on another trip, but this time she will fly and instead of taking the bus. Wish them luck as they compete against the best robots from across the country. NASA will be broadcasting the competition on the web so you are welcome to watch from the comfort of your own home like I will be doing.