slacker!

Jen needs to blog. She's a slacker.

[from her husband, who does not have a blog, so that he doesn't have to feel bad about not updating it]

More Recording

Okay! 3 posts in one day! I finally have the time and space to blog a little...so I'm playing catch-up.

We have started recording again with Eric Lovre. We are working on a full-length album. Most probably to be released on cd sometime next Spring / Summer. Recording is going so much better this time around. In our first 4 hour session we recorded basic tracks (drums, guitar, bass) for FIVE songs. (Compared to taking 3 or 4 months to get basic tracks on our first 3 songs last year).

Our friend Jeremy Rice is playing drums for the album. We are super excited about what he has added to these songs.

Alex and I went in yesterday and laid down 2 flute tracks, a violin track, and a bowed-guitar track, and tried a few takes on some vocal tracks. We are having a GREAT time recording and are hoping to finish up recording the album tracks by December.
So...here are a few pictures from the first session!

Jeremy set up in Eric's tiny studio

Alex and Eric engineering

Alex and Jeremy recorded "Spinning" in one take. This is the song where they start slow...and speed up until they are playing as fast as humanly possible. See their hands? No? Then they are doing it correctly.

Alex--passed out after a long hard day of recording.

Halloween

Alex as Robert Smith from The Cure
Jen as the Gothic Cure fan that Alex-as-Robert-Smith knocked up

We ended up spending Halloween with friends Vince and Christy (Vince is behind the camera, Christy is back/center), Shalese (front center), and their friends. We ate food, handed out candy to trick-or-treaters, and watched the Garfield Halloween special. (candy, candy, Candy, CANDY!)

Remodeling

We're still working on the apartment. We have new kitchen/bathroom floors, we are finishing the last of the painting today, and the carpet will be in Monday. Yeay! After a few days for the toxic carpet fumes to dissipate, we can move back in!

A little worn out
Alex painting the baby's room (=

Yup. The toilet is in the shower. It's a time saver, really.

"The brown wall" in our new bedroom/office/music room

The beginning...this is how the apartment looked the first few days after the flood. The getting-rid-of-the-mold process required these ET-ish plastic sheets quarantining the room.

Boy, Oh Boy!

Yep! He is definitely a baby boy! I considered posting the "gender" photo...but it is a bit graphic.
I'm not yet sure how I feel about exploiting my child on the Internet...

So, here he is! I've finally started feeling him move. The first moment where I was certain it was him (and not just gas!) was on Tuesday. Then Wednesday, the day of the ultrasound, I felt him move lots (= Probably I'm just now figuring out what it feels like.

It was so fun to watch him wiggle and squiggle around on the ultrasound. At one point he scrunched up and bonked me with his rear-end...and I could totally feel it!

He was very sweet, a little camera shy (didn't want to show us his face), and had all of the important parts (4-chambered heart, arms, legs, brain, spinal cord, kidneys, stomach, etc., etc.).

I, on the other hand, am not camera shy. I will comply and post some preggo Jen pictures as soon as life makes it a little easier to post (like having a computer set back up in my house).

The measurements were on par with what we were already certain is the right dates. So, baby boy Carmichael should be joining us sometime mid-April. Yeay!

A Discussion

One of the perks about living upstairs with the neighbors for a while is getting to spend more time with David. David is 4 going on 40. Yesterday he came and told me, "Jen, I need to discuss with you in the office". It was so funny I had to find out what it was about...

"The office" in this home refers to the big room in the basement that used to be the office for Brian upstairs, and is being converted into our new master bedroom / rock & roll room in preparation for our bedroom becoming the baby's room.

So, in the office we begin our discussion:

David (with arms folded high on his chest and a spitting image of his dad): "Okay. I just feel that there are too many things in here. I just feel we should get rid of most of these things, and make this the baby's room." (David has been using "I feel" a lot recently.)

Jen: "Why do you feel that way?"

David: "Well, I might want to come down here and just get something for baby Jonathan" (his new baby brother). "I just feel that we need to move all of these things. Well, we can leave just 3 things...the couch, the computer table, and the trash can. Then I can sit on the couch, and put things in the trash can!"

It was SO funny. He was pacing, gesturing, and using all of his logic and feelings to convince me to leave the room (mostly) empty. 

David has really enjoyed playing in the big empty rooms downstairs while they are in the process of being renovated. I think he sees visions of building huge Thomas the Train tracks that can be left out all of the time. 

You know, after living for 3 weeks or so with all of our stuff packed in the garage, I am beginning to wonder if we really even need all that stuff! (=

Stretchy Pants

I bought my first ever maternity pants yesterday. Wow! I didn't realize how squished this growing belly was until I felt the sweet release of maternity jeans. 

Ahhhhh. Now I can breathe!