| Date |
Description |
| 1/5/2009 |
Hm. Either the camera or our computer ate our pictures. Sorry. I hate that we don't have them. I think we only had pictures from this weekend. It was our first visit to the McWane Center, Brian cooks in his new (to him) dutch oven and Samantha's new dress from MamaLinda. Oh well. |
| 1/3/2009 |
What a treat for us today! We went to the McWane Science Center and had lunch at Newk's afterwards. I'll post pictures soon. When we first walked in, there were lots of big kids, so we weren't quite sure how Samantha would do. However, we quickly found the toddler area, and she had a blast. She got to practice climbing stairs, went down a slide, played in some water, went aboard a space ship. Then, as she was getting hungry we took a short break for a snack then quickly strolled through the remainder of the museum. We saw a water exhibit with lots of fish and aquatic life, a train exhibit (Jackson would have been in heaven), dinosaurs and fossils, and lots of hands-on science experiment stuff. I think Samantha will enjoy it for many years.
We are ready to get back to normal life after our extended Christmas vacation. I think Samantha really enjoyed seeing all of her family. She seemed happy at each new place we visited and didn't seem to mind that she was constantly surrounded by new people. She isn't used to all her new toys just yet. She seems to be uninterested in most of them. If we play with one new toy, she is slowly getting used to it. I guess too many new things just throw her off balance. Life is full of change, little girl! :) |
| 1/2/2009 |
Happy New Year! I just wanted to write a quick note that so far Samantha is STILL well! We hope to post some pictures soon. |
| 12/22/2008 |
I was just thinking that we hadn't posted any news in a while. Thanks for updating us, Brian. I must say, however, that the TiVo might have been on its last leg, but if our power didn't keep going out, maybe it would've lasted longer. Does anyone else's power go out all the time? Ugh - I don't like Alabama Power. End rant.
Merry Christmas! I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with our family this year. Hopefully, we'll get to see everyone at some point. I'm not looking forward to being gone for a week, but we should have a good trip and have some time to recover at home too.
In other news, dare I say something? I think Samantha is finally better. I know it's just in time to be exposed to a whole new set of germs at Christmas. But, for now, we're enjoying our happy Sam again.
And lastly, Happy Birthday Patrick!! |
| 12/21/2008 |
Today we Mauters must say goodbye to an old friend. Our Series 2 TiVo passed from this life around 9:30AM this morning.
Actually, I think the hard drive crashed. I can get a new one pre-loaded with the TiVo software, or I can get a much bigger drive and a $20 install kit for about $90.
OR, I can get a TiVo HD. The good thing about going this way is I'm future-proof and now-proof. It will receive the HD signal but can output in 480i for our dinosaur 27" TV. Later when we get our 108" LCD TV, we can switch the output to 1080i. Since we already have TiVo service, I can get the Product Lifetime Service for $100 less than you suckers. So that's $180 for the box and $300 for the service. What a deal!
Oh Internet! What should I do? |
| 12/4/2008 |
Today is my honey's birthday. He says he now has an excuse to be crochety since he's now old. Did he need an excuse? :-) We're having a man's man's meal tonight: steak and potatoes. And strawberry cake. Happy Birthday Brian! |
| 12/2/2008 |
Yesterday, I took Samantha to the doctor's office to get her flu booster shot. At her age, she needs to receive 2 flu shots to make sure the vaccine will work. While I was there, I asked if the doctor could look in her ears to make sure that the infection had gone away. Monday was Day 10 of the antibiotics.
The right ear was infected last time, and it still is. The left ear now has an infection too. I don't think the infection ever went away, so this round of antibiotics was not effective (keep in mind it was not penicillin-based). However, this counts as ear infection #4 - and 3 in 6 weeks. The doctor prescribed one more antibiotic. If she doesn't get better this time, we'll have to go see an ENT and start having the tube discussion. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
In other news, she began walking in earnest tonight. I know we've said that for weeks now, but this time, it's for real. At least it seems so. She had been taking those 5-6 steps in between us for weeks. Tonight, she would venture off course and even began walking laps in her bedroom. It was very cool. She gets very frustrated when she falls and has to get back up on her own, but I think she'll have that mastered soon enough. Big day. |
| 11/24/2008 |
I know Samantha is feeling better after only 3 days of antibiotic. She seems to be back to her old crackin up self. :) |
| 11/22/2008 |
So, Samantha has been sick since the end of September. She's had a runny nose and a cough that has not gone away. This led to an ear infection shortly before her birthday, which of course, may have led to the allergic reaction on her birthday from the penicillin. But, the runny nose and cough never went away.
This past week, she's had a rash that mysteriously appears and disappears on all parts of her body randomly. It's strange. She's been sleeping A LOT and is pretty irritable when she's awake. Brian finally decided enough was enough and decided to take her to the doctor. She has another ear infection and something called Fifth's Disease. Fifth's disease is a viral infection that caused the mottled rash. The doctor immediately recognized it and said that it was going around. We just have to let it take its course and it will eventually go away. We got a non-penicillin antibiotic for her ear. Brian made the theory that she gets an ear infection anytime a new tooth comes in (#7 is on its way and I think some back molars are coming in too). I've heard a friend of mine say that her son got an ear infection anytime a tooth came through, so I think his theory is certainly possible. Maybe one of these days, she'll begin to feel better. You can tell that she just doesn't feel well.
In other news, we hope to see you all soon. If not, have a Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Belated Birthday, Lauren! |
| 11/19/2008 |
I think we can officially say that Samantha is walking now. It's still not much, but it's on her own, so I think it counts.
She has lately taken a great interest in hide and seek. She especially loves to play around the ottoman. She can crawl behind it, through the tunnel (between the couch and the ottoman), surf around it and play hide and seek. It's a great place to play. |
| 11/17/2008 |
I'm not sure if this qualifies, but Samantha took about 3-4 steps in between Brian and me on Friday night. They were forced, but they were on her own. Today, at Ms. Paula's house, she took 3 on her own (again, forced). But, I think we are getting much closer. |
| 11/14/2008 |
This post is a bit of a hyperlink fest. Apologies.
We went to Gatlinburg last weekend. It was beautiful! You can see a view from the deck here. Alex (flickr and blog) did a great job picking out the cabin and the weekend. We were glad to be a part of it. We went on a few short hikes, but mostly hung around the house and played with the kiddos. We can't wait to go again in a few years when hiking with children will get easier.
In looking back through past trips, we've been on Grotto Falls each trip. I think we can check that hike off the list now. |
| 11/3/2008 |
I have a few news items to report. Samantha has become a bit of a climber lately. She is very interested in climbing up anything that will sustain her - people, furniture, the bath tub, her walker, for example.
I have also seen evidence today that she is chewing on her crib. I knew the day would come, and frankly, I'm surprised that it took so long. I don't know how long it's been going on, but our gently worn crib is hanging in there nicely.
And lastly, she is imitating our sounds amazingly these days. She has learned to say "mmmmm" when she picks up a toy cow and "aaaaaa" when she picks up a toy sheep. Also, she makes a kiss sound "mmm smack" if you give her a kiss.
Samantha had her 12 month doctor's visit and a photo session last week. There should be some photos for your viewing pleasure in Samantha's library. She had a good doctor's visit - including 4 shots. She has to go back in a month to get her flu booster shot. :( She was 20 lbs, 2 oz (which means we can turn the car seat around - barely - yay!) and 29.5" long. |
| 10/24/2008 |
Sam is doing much better. We can't find any more spots on her. I think the worst day was Monday. She scratched a lot that night but after that she has recovered nicely.
We're not convinced it was Penicillin. |
| 10/19/2008 |
What a weekend! MamaLinda kept Samantha all day on Friday while I had a seminar. What a birthday treat! I know Samantha had a great time and I hope MamaLinda wasn't too worn out.
It was good to see everyone at Samantha's birthday party. Little did we know that we were in for a bumpy few hours afterwards. Samantha has been on an antibiotic because she had a bad ear infection. After 4 days of not getting better (high fever continued), we switched from amoxicillin to augmentin. After 5 days of that (Saturday afternoon) little bumps started appearing on her legs and started to spread rapidly. By Sunday morning, she was covered! We packed up hurridly from Huntsville and drove straight to Samantha's pediatrician. They determined that it was a penicillin allergy! So, no more easy antibiotics. Her ear infection is gone and now she's taking claritin for the allergic reaction. |
| 10/10/2008 |
I can't believe Samantha is a week away from being 1. ONE! Where did the last year go? So much has happened during this time that you just get lost in all the changes.
So, what's going on these days? Samantha is sick again. Her babysitter's family got sick a few weeks ago and it spread into our house. I was going to try to let her get over it on her own, but today is 2 weeks. She had a 101 degree fever earlier this morning, so we're going to the doctor this afternoon. Maybe she'll be feeling better this weekend. Brian went to the doctor today too. He too can't seem to get over this bug.
I finished my piano painting yesterday. I'll post a picture soon. I like it. Brian says that the piano is dusty. You'll see. I might go back and fix it, but I haven't decided yet. |
| 10/2/2008 |
Samantha has been standing by herself for increasingly long periods of time (maybe up to 10 seconds now). However, yesterday she did something unusual. She was sitting in a squat position and stood up all by herself! She can walk very well with her walker, or assisted. I think she could walk, but just doesn't know she can, or doesn't think she can. I know it won't be long. |
| 9/18/2008 |
Here is a list of Samantha's favorite songs:
4. Dirty Laundry - Don Henley (great head bobble worthy of Chris Kattan)
3. Phil Collins - bleh phew ack
2. The Sweet Escape - Gwen Steffani
1. Living on a Prayer - Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi is still the top song. She does the knee bounce, shoulder shake (which she had to learn from MamaLinda), and the Chris Kattan head bobble.
She has also enjoyed the cooler weather recently. We drive with the windows open, or the roof open, and she laughs A LOT when the wind goes through her hair. |
| 9/9/2008 |
So, it happened yesterday. I briefly felt like a mom. Let me tell you what happened.
Samantha woke up quite a bit early from her nap. I peeked in on her as she was waking, in that talk-to-yourself stage. She continued to stay lying down, with her paci and her bear blanket. But, she got louder and louder. She never did turn her aquarium on, which has become a great self-soother. And she never did stand up in her crib and wait to be picked up. So, I waited and waited because I wanted her to go back to sleep.
When I did finally go in, she stood up to me and wanted to be picked up. I did, and she put her head on my shoulder. Those who know Samantha, know that she is not very cuddly. She is not one to sit in your lap, want to be held, or certainly not rest her head on your shoulder. Hm, I thought, ok, I'll hold you. She acted like she didn't want me to put her down, so I sat down in the rocking chair. She sat in my lap, tummy to tummy with her head on my chest. We rocked. She never fell asleep, but she stayed still and quiet for 30 minutes in my lap.
I don't know what was wrong with her, or why she wanted to be held. But, it doesn't matter because that's what moms do. They comfort. |
| 9/2/2008 |
Yesterday, I found out that Brian's large intestine is named Jeffrey. :) He makes me laugh. |
| 8/28/2008 |
I am always amazed by Samantha. This week, she learned to wave. It's so nice to see her waving to you. She will do it if you say "Hi Samantha!" or "Bye Samantha" or when you pick her up from Ms. Paula's house (she doesn't have to see you wave first even). She even waves to Daddy as he comes home from work. It's very cool.
She has also learned to clap on command. You can say "Clap Samantha" and she will clap.
And lastly, I think she has learned her first word - "uh oh." I don't think she learned it from us, although I guess it's possible. Yesterday, she was sitting in her high chair and dropped her sippy cup (not that she's learned to use it yet...) and she said what sounded like "uh oh." It still needs some work, but the inflection and intent was difinitely there. |
| 8/21/2008 |
So who has been watching the Olympics? I've been an addict since the Opening Ceremonies and have gotten nothing else done. I've checked my email twice. I'm sorry to those of you who have emailed me. I'll get back into the swing of things soon.
Samantha started with a nanny a few weeks ago and loves it. She comes home every day in a great mood. Every day. Great. It's nice.
She has discovered her "w"s. She says "ow" over and over. Sometimes, it even sounds like a wolf. She's crawling all over the place and loves to crawl into your lap. |
| 8/6/2008 |
Samantha is crawling! She started yesterday. Also, when I went in to get her up from her nap, she was standing up in her crib! Whoa - that was quick. |
| 8/2/2008 |
Samantha had her 9 month check up this week. It's a little late, but she's doing well. She weighs 17 lbs 12 oz, which is in the 25th percentile. She's always been about average, so the doctor said increased activity tends to lessen weight gain. I'm going to start supplementing with formula just in case though. Actually, I've been doing that for a while, so now I'm going to do it more often.
She has really started scooting these days. She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks and bounces, but has yet to really start crawling. She can get to where she wants to go though, it's just a little slow. |
| 7/26/2008 |
I like SPAM. It's great with eggs on camping trips. However, I hate spam. For the last year or so, we've been targetted by someone with comment spam on our website. Originally it was links to very disturbing websites, but I stopped that with some nifty regular expressions. Then came the Viagra and Cialis ads. More regexs. Lately, it's been more amiable it seems. They've been about prayers and novenas or stuff like "this is a really nice site". It's just junk that I can't easily filter out with a regex. I'm sure it has been the same jerk all along. If I denied him the ability to post ads, he's still going to punish me with junk. What a loser. Anyway, most of the bad comments were being sent to old pictures that are really popular. I'm convinced my beach picture has so many hits purely because of the loser spammer. As I sit here, I see requests for that picture hitting the logs. I have decided to shut off comments to pictures that are older than 30 days. If the spammer decides to try something else, then I have a few more options. I'm really trying to avoid making folks log in because it would be a big hassle just to leave a silly comment. I'd like to invite the loser to a camping trip so he could find out what good spam is. |
| 7/9/2008 |
I finally figured out how to string together pictures to make a video without having to buy QuickTime Pro. ImageMagick to the rescue. The command I used was something like convert -resize 480x720 -rotate -90 -delay 25 *.JPG walking.mpg. Anyway, here's my first attempt at time lapse photography. I present to you Janie Walking in Philly. |
| 6/26/2008 |
Hm. A lot has happened during the last month. Samantha has really started moving. She's not crawling, but rolling everywhere and "swimming" on her tummy. She's also talking a lot. She can consistently say "dada" and "baba." She occassionally says "mama" and "nana." She is beginning to love reading, and even helps turn the pages.
We took a trip to the beach with the Betbezes and then spent some time with the Mauters in Florence for Lauren's wedding. We had a great time at both, but are so glad to be back home. |
| 5/26/2008 |
We have a tooth!! You can feel it, and see it slightly (when you pry her mouth open). And guess what? After Samantha takes a nap, her hair is in all directions! That means she's getting hair! |
| 5/21/2008 |
Samantha is now 7 months old and sitting up well. She does get tired after about 15 minutes of it and is ready for a break. She still doesn't have any teeth, but I feel like we're so close! I think she has finally gotten over her sickness. It lasted for about 6 weeks, but I think she's feeling mostly better now. Brian got sick too, and finally agreed to go to the doctor after about 4 weeks. He had bronchitis and is feeling better now too. |
| 5/5/2008 |
Happy Cinco de Mayo! I feel like I should make this my blog since everybody else is doing it. :) By the way, Lettie, I am now a Nester fan. I just wish I had the courage to start putting holes in my walls like she does (and not worry about patching them) and have an eye for cute fabric. I just don't have that.
Anyway, let's see what's been going on the past few weeks. Samantha is sick *AGAIN*. She's a true Daycare Kid. That means, you guessed it, Brian is sick AGAIN. Which means, I'll be sick soon. We go back to the doctor this week to check up on her ear, but I have a feeling he's going to tell us that she has another ear infection in the other ear. This time, she's been pulling it. Mom said, "Maybe she has just found her ears." I don't think so. She's been on antibiotics, but I don't guess that matters.
For those of you that know my nephew, Jackson, you might remember his open mouth kisses. Samantha has started kissing just like that! It's open mouth, tongue, wet and slobbery, but oh so sweet. |
| 4/17/2008 |
Samantha is 6 months old today! Wow. She has moved over to the "big" kids side of the infant room at the daycare because she's one of the oldest! It's so hard to believe that she's already that old. So, she had her 6 month check up yesterday. She still has a cold/cough, so the doctor was concerned about her ears. She does have a slight ear infection, so she's on antibiotic now. Maybe she'll be feeling better soon. And for the first time, she actually ran a fever today after her shots. Her teeth (or lack thereof) have really been bothering her lately, so maybe we'll start seeing something. Oh yeah - she's 16 lbs (55 percentile), and 26 1/2" (75 percentile). |
| 4/4/2008 |
The central vacuum system is done! Yay! Brian did a great job installing it and we're very excited. |
| 3/13/2008 |
Samantha had her 4 month check up last week. It's a little late, but she's still doing great! We have permission to start feeding her rice cereal, but we haven't tried it yet. When we get a free weekend, we'll give it a try. She weighed 14 lbs 3.5 oz, and was 25" long. She's about average for weight and a little longer than normal. She doesn't get the tall genes from Brian or me, so we'll see if she keeps it up. |
| 1/11/2008 |
Samantha's baptism is on January 27, 2008. It will be after the 11 am mass at Prince of Peace. All are welcome! Let us know if you're coming! |
| 12/5/2007 |
Samantha had her next check up yesterday. She's growing and doing very well. She now weighs 10 lbs 8.5 oz! That's in the 70th percentile. She's also longer (22" at 50th percentile) and her head is still small (14" at 25th percentile). She had her first round of vaccines, so she wasn't feeling well for the rest of the day. But she did feel well enough to help her daddy have a happy birthday! |
| 11/1/2007 |
Samantha had her first check up today, and she is doing very well. She has gained a lot of weight, so the doctor is pleased. She's up to 7 lbs, 6 oz! At two weeks, she's supposed to be back up to her birth weight, so she must be a healthy eater! |
| 10/17/2007 |
Samantha Kate is here! She arrived at 1:44PM on October 17, 2007. She weighed 6 pounds and 14 ounces and is 19 5/8 inches long. She's a beautiful little girl and we are so happy to have her. Please stop by to visit. We should be home by Friday, but until then you can find us in Room 211 at Brookwood. |
| 10/16/2007 |
Janie just had her latest appointment today. Her blood pressure was a bit high, but everything else is fine. They decided to go ahead and induce anyway, so hopefully by this time tomorrow, we'll be happy to introduce Samantha Kate. |
| 10/9/2007 |
Well, we're still waiting. The doctor said that I'm basically in the same place as last week except now at 0 station. |
| 10/2/2007 |
Six weeks? HA! Samantha has something different in mind. A couple hours ago, the doctor told Janie she was 90% effaced, -1 station and 3cm dilated. Sam should be here soon! Stay tuned. |
| 9/18/2007 |
Six weeks from today until the due date! We are working on the nursery, as seen in the recent pictures, but we still don't feel ready yet. In fact, we're both pretty overwhelmed at all the things (work and home) we need to do before the baby arrives. |
| 5/21/2007 |
We just found out--we're having a girl! She is in the 70th percentile for size and the doc says that's great. |
| 5/3/2007 |
Wow, we've been keeping a secret for a long time. We are pregnant! We're so excited. Have a look to see how we're doing! |
| 2/7/2007 |
After church on Sunday, we were trying to figure out something to do before going over to Dan and Candice's to watch the Super Bowl. On a whim, we decided to paint our bedroom. We headed over to Home Depot, bought two gallons of Ralph Lauren Burlap-colored paint and began painting. Here's how we're doing. Last night Brian finished up all of the rolling. Janie just needs to finish cutting out around the trim and we're done! |
| 1/9/2007 |
Wow! Florida beat the pants off of Ohio State. Go Gators! Thanks Brit and Kristen for letting me watch the trouncing in glorious HD. Heh |
| 10/5/2006 |
Michael and Jackie are getting married this Saturday! Congratulations you two! |
| 6/18/2006 |
We haven't been home much lately, so we should have a lot of pictures for you to look at. Currently, we are adding pictures from our trip to Vegas and will be adding pictures from the Betbeze beach trip soon. Take a look throughout the site for your Mauter fix. |
| 5/24/2006 |
A friend of mine just sent me a link to a live webcam of Bryant-Denny Stadium construction in the North endzone. Once there, refresh the picture to watch the crane move. Enjoy! |
| 5/10/2006 |
We got our rotted window replaced. We'll have pictures of the new window up soon. Brian has missed a lot of work (maybe he hasn't been missing it, to quote from a great movie) to be home for the installers, painters, and security people to continually come by. Old news, but we also finally bought a dining room set in March. We're loving it! Brian recently modded the china cabinet so that it has a touch-sensitive hinge that Janie can use to turn the lights on and off. |
| 2/6/2006 |
Alex has pictures up of Jackson on his webpage. Click the Jackson link at the top between the yellow lines. In related news, Lettie and Alex asked us to be Jackson's Godparents! We're pumped. |
| 1/28/2006 |
As of 7:38AM, January 27, 2006, Janie and I have a new nephew! Alex and Lettie have now welcomed Jackson Alexander Burns to their family. He weighed 7lbs, 11oz and is perfect! |
| 7/9/2004 |
Sorry mauter.com was down last weekend. I know our viewership was really hurt. :) Anyway, we now have wireless Internet access in our home. As a result, the mauter.com server had to be reconfigured. Since it was an old version of RedHat that was no longer supported, I reformatted the thing and installed Fedora Core 2. Not everything is 100% functional yet. For instance, the bandwidth graphs and web usage logs are not correct yet. Complaints? Send them to /dev/null. :) |
| 6/4/2004 |
We haven't added a lot to the website recently because we've been out of town. Well, now you can see where we've been. We went to Gulf Shores, AL, Columbia, SC and Savannah, GA during the month of May. We're keeping the road hot. Since the SC trip was business, we don't have any pictures to show you, but there are a couple from the beach and the riverwalk. There are also a couple of new pictures randomly in some libraries. Enjoy! |
| 3/27/2004 |
I, Brian, am now finally a music artist. You can hear my first song ever right here on mauter.com. It's not a very long song. It's only two measures. Okay okay, it's boring. I went through the steps in the tutorial to make this. So I'm using Roland's samples too. Props to them. Anyway, more to come. Hopefully the next stuff will be longer than two measures. |
| 3/11/2004 |
Howdy. Between a new keyboard, new bedroom furniture, tons of weeds in the yard and us installing some gently used shelving in the garage, we've been busy. Did you know we're listed as "More Resources for Painting-Interior Paint Colors"? We are. Just scroll down to almost the end of the page. Also, apparently Brian is a member of the "Dysfunctional Tendencies" volleyball team in the USA Volleyball Association's Garden Empire Region. Weird huh? |
| 1/20/2004 |
We haven't had an update in quite a while. We're still here. I've got a few more plans for enhancements to the website. Expect them soon. I want to make picture navigation easier and I hope to allow everyone to rate our pictures much like www.hotornot.com. Hopefully it won't be nearly as tacky. Anyway the big news for today is that you can check out our bandwidth usage within the last day. Open Source software rocks. |
| 12/16/2003 |
Two new features are available on the website. As you can see on the left of the homepage, there's a new list that shows links to the last five pictures added to the website. This should help our board of directors keep up with what's new on the site. Also, mauter.com is proud to announce a new type of feature to the site. Users may upload pictures to our photo album! The editors want a first look at anything uploaded and pictures can only be 1MB or smaller in filesize, but your pictures will show up in a new section called uploads. Let's see what you all do with this. Alex, pictures of certain body parts will never be allowed. Don't ask. :) |
| 11/15/2003 |
We took a vacation to Gatlinburg during the weekend before Veteran's Day. We had lots of fun hiking, climbing and relaxing. Brian got some desperately needed tips about how to play pool and Janie made lots of waffles. Pictures from our vacation are available in the photo album. |
| 11/2/2003 |
The search engine I was evaluating worked for a while. I noticed that when I tried to reindex the website, the index was broken. Although it was probably a pilot error, I removed it from the website. I'm working on a new project at home to build my own search engine with the help of some sweet projects at Apache Jakarta: Lucene, HttpClient and CyberNeko HTML Parser. For all of you programmers who balk at Java, I have one thing to say to you: you're missing out. |
| 10/27/2003 |
Apparently, mauter.com has a board of directors. They like the site overall, but some significant changes will be happening around here soon. The programmers had to put an emergency fix in ASAP to handle the replay attack with the comments posting function. It's now fixed. We hope to add a feature story section where one of us will blab on about something for more than just a news blurb. We're currently thinking about topics like "Bedroom 3 Networking Closet Implementation Plan", "Just Install Your Own Blinds" and "Meet the Board of Directors". None of them are set in stone, but it's just things we're considering. That's all for now. |
| 9/5/2003 |
Well, I added a search engine to the website. I don't know how much use it will get on mauter.com, but I've been thinking about putting a new search engine on the website I have at work. This is sort of an evaluation. But hey, it's free! I'm using the excellent Java Search Engine. It's really fast and pretty darn accurate. Let me know if you like it. |
| 8/14/2003 |
We're very happy to be moved in. If you can read this, DSL is already working again too. Now we can finally get back to our email. |
| 8/1/2003 |
It's about time for another update, right? The
house is mostly complete. We had
our walk-through on July 31st, and that was where we told them what they still needed
to complete. Sod and landscaping really add a finishing touch! We close
on August 5th, so I guess that means we should start packing? Everyone in our neighborhood
is really great. We're all super excited to be moving in. After work everyday,
there's a big block party when everyone comes to look at his house. Brian and Janie
are ready to move in and enjoy being homeowners! Janie will just be glad that there is
some color on the walls instead of "apartment cream." |
| 6/30/2003 |
It seems we're posting these news blurbs monthly. Weird. We're not trying,
I promise. Anyway, we have a slightly new look to the site with hopefully an easier way to access
the main pages. Also because we're already using
Java Servlet Filters, we added a
compression filter
that will hopefully send pages to you faster. (Think of how zipping a file before you send it to a friend
is faster because it's smaller. This is the same principle.) |
| 5/31/2003 |
After some computer problems, we seem to have recovered a bit.
Sorry it's taken so long to update our site! The brick and sheetrock are complete at
our house. The builder has
unofficially moved our closing date to early August. We're hoping to be moved by the
end of August. We have picked all of our interior colors (paint, tile, countertop, etc.)
and lighting fixtures. The next big thing at the house should be the cabinets
and paint. Molly is growing rapidly.
She's learned to sleep through the night on top of Janie's face! |
| 5/1/2003 |
Construction on our
house has started, and it's moving very quickly! It's much quicker than Janie
or Brian expected. As of today, we have most exterior and interior walls in place,
and expect to have a roof in the next few days. It's practically a full time job
trying to keep up to speed with the progress (then updating all the pictures)!
We've met several of our neighbors and everyone is very nice and excited about all the progress.
Next week, we visit with the decorator! More decisions! |
| 4/15/2003 |
Well, we have signed on most of the dotted lines for our house! Our closing
date is set for October 2, but that's not 100% set in stone. We've started picking colors,
with brick and mortar being the first pick. The brick looks similar to another
house in the neighborhood. We have our new address, but because we won't use it for
another six months, we'll save it for later. We'll keep you posted! |
| 4/3/2003 |
We have finally named our kitten. Molly is
doing very well, and she's lots of fun to have around. Next, we bought a lot to start building a
house! The new subdivision is Caldwell Crossings on
Caldwell Mill Road. It's just over the Cahaba River in beautiful Shelby County. |
| 3/2/2003 |
Lot's of stuff has been going on lately! First off, we haven't yet bought a lot so we
can build a house. Because we have gotten an extraordinary amount of rain so far this year,
the builders are behind schedule. We are patiently waiting. Along with a slightly new look
for the site, we've busied ourselves making new friends and getting a new
kitten. We don't have a name for her yet! We don't even have
a couple of names that we like that we're trying to decide on. Poor little kitty. She doesn't have a name. |
| 1/1/2003 |
Janie and I have been looking into buying a house in the near future. It's SO stressful!
Hopefully we'll be out of the apartment by midsummer. I hate moving in the summer, but if
it means I'm out of the apartment, I'm all for it. We're most fond of the houses being
built at Caldwell Crossings by Gibson & Anderson.
Check out their site to see all kinds of pictures of the neighborhood. If we moved out
there, we'd be in the second phase.
The plan that we're most interested in is the Dartmouth because of the side facing garage
and overall floorplan. |
