House updates-Part One-Inside

Ok, it has been a while since I posted updates on our house progress. That is mostly because there hasn't been much progress (or at least none that was update worthy). Anyway, here are our accumulated updates between January and now.

January--
We had six new replacement windows installed in our sun room. That's the room off of our bedroom. We still have to rip out the walls and ceiling as the room has no insulation. We can then stud out the walls and insulate and drywall. That will hopefully be a May or June project.

Mom and Dad Dunn were here when those windows were replaced, they can attest to how chilly our house is in the winter time. We are working on replacing all the windows (some of the windows are 70+ years old). We are doing it in smaller chunks so that we can pay it off more easily. These are almost paid off, and next up will be the living and dining rooms.

February--
I don't actually think we did anything during the month of February.

March--
We hung our fist picture on the wall. In the kitchen. "Stacked Quilts"-a piece of artwork given to us by Adam's mom.

We purchased an entry way table for the back door. It is a nice catch all clutter table.

We also installed some really nice (Tiffany Style) reading lamps for the bedroom.

April--
We purchased a new refrigerator since ours pretty much died. It has ice and water in the door. Adam is not sure how he ever managed to get by without it.

We found and then treated two large termite colonies in our yard.

Adam began drafting the design of our fence. We are hoping to apply for our zoning and building permits soon. The goal will be to have our fence built by the beginning of June.

I ripped out the ceiling in the guest room. We already had ripped up the carpet, pull off all the wallpaper and demolished the ridiculously small closet. Our entire 2nd floor has little to no insulation. It is hard to keep warm in the winter, and cool in the summer. So now that it is all ripped out Adam just has to stud out the walls, insulate and re-drywall. Hopefully it won't be too much longer before we have an honest to God guest room. It will be exciting.

On a side note, i did find some insulation in the ceiling (a small bit) that some critter had nested in (my guess based on the shredded newspapers amongst the fiberglass) at some point in the mid 60s. Here are some pics of my work.

Expanding the Riggar Pack

A couple of weeks ago I got an email at work from Adam. It was a post from the Philly Animal Welfare Society (one of the city's no kill shelters). It was a picture of a very cute little pitbull in foster care. Her name was Luna and Adam suggested we meet her. We had always planned to adopt a second dog once we got a house with a yard. There was no way we'd have been able to fit two dogs in our little South Philly row house. Ever since we moved into our new house I've been combing the PAWS posts looking for the perfect sibling for Molly. She loves being with other dogs so much that we knew she would be much happier with a little brother or sister.

We contacted Shannon, Luna's foster mom and set up a meeting for Saturday, April 11th. We got up that morning to find it pouring rain. Not to be deterred, we put the seats down in the santa fe (so we wouldn't have wet dog on the back seat) and made sure we packed extra towels to dry the dog off. We also knew that we'd be dropping Adam off at work immediately following the meeting so we packed up all his work stuff in the car too. We had everything, well almost. Neither Adam nor I thought to wear a rain coat or bring an umbrella. So we stood in the rain, getting soaked and chatting with Shannon and Stacy (another foster mom brought in to test us) while Luna and Molly played in the mud. The meeting was a success and we passed all the tests of the foster moms.

Side note--Turns out Shannon owns Lochi who is another pitbull that looks very similar to Molly and is actually one of Molly's playmates from our old dog park in South Philly. Small world.

We set up an overnight visit for the next Saturday and then quickly went to Target to buy Adam some dry clothes so he could go to work.

On Saturday, April 18th, we picked Luna up and brought her home. And she hasn't left. On the very next Wednesday (the same day Molly came home from surgery) we officially adopted Luna.

She is absolutely adorable. She is just over 1 year, so she is still very much a puppy. She LOVES Molly and is continually giving her kisses. She also enjoys emptying the contents of the toy basket every day. She does the cute little head tilt whenever anything in confusing to her. She squeals when she yawns, she eats in her sleep, and she is obsessed with trying to pick up sticks that are ridiculously large and trying to drag them home on our walks. And she has turned Molly into a giddy little girl. The two have a blast together, and when she does something dumb and puppylike, Molly is right there to keep her in line.

I am sure there will be many more posts following the hijinks on Molly and Luna. But I will use this moment to introduce you to Luna "Lander" Riggar, or Luna "Balloona" Riggar. She goes by both.

So many updates so little time . . .

Big things happening at the Riggar house. I suspect I will have to do this in several posts but here goes:

Molly--
I think a while back ago I posted about Molly's love for running and how it sometimes overcomes her ability to make rational decisions. Thus the torn ACL. Well this past Tuesday Molly went away for surgery. I got up early and asked her if she wanted to go for a ride in the car. The answer, as always: "Boy do I!!" When I dropped her off I had to take all of her personal effects with me (so they wouldn't get lost). Molly does NOT like to be without her jewelry. As soon as the collar and chain came off, the tail went in between the legs. Suddenly this wasn't a fun car trip anymore. She kept a very brave face as I walked her to the back, but I could tell she thought we were leaving her. So sad.

Now, Molly has never been away from home unless Adam was also away from home. I very quickly found out that he does not do well without his princess. He misses her very much when she is not around. We cooked up some steak, and he packed up a few pieces just for his special girl when she came home. This is one of the many things that I love about him.

Molly was only away overnight, she was back at home Wednesday afternoon a little groggy, but still home. She has a pretty gnarly incision full of staples (it makes me think of my Aunt Margaret who had the same surgery when she played college basketball).

Over this past weekend she has gone from being bedridden to running and playing. She is already putting weight on her bum leg. She can walk (allbeit with a pretty pronounced limp) with all four legs, but if she wants to run she switches to three. It is kind of funny. She has even gotten back to playing with her little sister Luna (my next update). We're very happy with her progress and proud that she isn't letting a little knee surgery get her down. She goes back to the hospital tomorrow evening for a check up and hopefully she will be given clearance to start walking and playing more and more.

We'll keep you updated on her recovery. But in the meantime I leave you with a photo of her bum leg full of stitches.PS-Adam thinks we should shave her other leg to match this one and then she'll have a butt mohawk.

This could only happen to me . . .

I have been debating whether or not to post this for a few days now, for fear of being mocked, but Adam said I should (probably out of his own amusement). So here goes . . .

This past Wednesday was Molly's 5th birthday. So, of course, we needed to celebrate. Adam and I took her shopping to pick out her own birthday toy, and then we stopped by the grocery store to make a yummy steak dinner (Molly did not get her own steak, but she did get a couple of bites of our steaks) in celebration. We all loaded up in the car and headed out to the Petco and Acme. On our way there I said to Adam that I thought I might like a glass of wine with dinner and could we stop by the packie (side bar: liquor stores in CT are called package stores, packie is short for package store)? Adam obliged.

Now, if you know me, you know that pretty much anytime I leave the house with Adam I bring nothing with me. He always has keys and a wallet and he always drives so I don't need anything. As we pulled into the parking lot at the packie, I realized I did not have my wallet. Adam gave me some cash and said it would be fine. Of course, I thought, surely now that I am in my 30s I can buy a bottle of wine without ID.

HA!

When I got to the register, the guy behind looked at me and said, "ID?" I calmly explained that I had left it at home, but I assured him I was over 21. 31 to be exact, born in '77. He looked at me very skeptically, then another employee walked by. "Waddya think Lou, she says she's 31?" Lou disagreed, unless I had ID no sale. Sigh.

The guy at the register asked if I drove to the store. I replied that my husband was in the car waiting for me. He said, "Well, if your husband is with you, bring him in."

I dejectedly went back out to the car. Adam rolled down the window to find out what went wrong.

"They don't believe that I am 31, and they won't sell me a bottle of wine without my husband present."

I seriously thought he might fall out of the car laughing.

Eventually I coaxed him out of his hysterics and, giggling the whole time, he accompanied me to the register to purchase my bottle of wine. And, of course, the guy behind the counter did NOT check Adam's ID. I was so thoroughly embarrassed.

Red faced I returned home, where I had TWO glasses of wine.