The new adventures of Browgli and Mad the Monderllama

Discussion in 'BOARDANIA' started by mowgli, Oct 12, 2008.

  1. mowgli New Member

    Hey all,


    A quick timeline of Things That Happened Recently

    July 17th - Brad and I buy our first house.

    July 30th - Brad is told that "sometime this year, he's very likely to be sent on another deployment"

    August 2nd - I find out that I'm pregnant

    September 1st - after a mad rush to organize, pack and finish things like painting and putting down new floors, we finally and officially move into the new home

    September 2nd - Brad leaves for pre-deployment training. He's told he'll be sent overseas on January 2nd. They promised to let him have 9 days home around Christmas/New Years.

    If anyone wants to contact Brad at this point, e-mail or snail mail would be the best bet. If you have his gmail address, he can read it on his cell phone. Otherwise, e-mail or PM me, and I'll hook you up.

    Two words about me: I'm equal parts bummed, angry, hopeful and busy with everyday things. I'm not doing nearly as much as I should to make the house more inviting (pregnancy is a good excuse - most evenings, I'm tired and nauseated, since my "morning sickness" apparently operates on European schedule), but at least right now it's liveable, with the floors floored, the sump pump pumping, and the bedroom walls repainted from puke-green and eye shattering pink to more agreeable blues and turquoises. Our friends have mobilized right away, offering to help with anything from lugging the groceries to letting me stay over their houses should I become bed-ridden for whatever reason (the girl who proposed this has a house so big, I could stay there for months before she and her husband even noticed my presence) Our neighbors are very sweet and supportive. And my parents already told me that they'll fly over from Arizona "as soon as needed". And stay here for as long as it takes to teach me which end to wipe, and which end to feed, and so on!

    That was more than two words :p

    Okay, time for this proto-mama to get some sleep... Thanks for reading!
  2. spiky Bar Wench

    Mowgles congrats and commiss. Thats a lot in a small amount of time... You do realise that parentsd coming aver at a moments notice means never leaving until the child graduates, don't you?

    As to home decoration, I'm at a loss. Stick up photos. Lots of photos.
  3. redneck New Member

    Spiky's first comment was pretty much the same as I was going to say. Except I would have spelled "parentsd coming aver" differently. ;) Maybe it's just Australian spelling. Who knows.

    Best of luck to the both of you, and Brad too.
  4. Gypsy New Member

    Wow Mowgli, congratulations, hugs, and some advice for easy home decorating:

    Rasterbate your photos!

    The Sect of Homokaasu - The Rasterbator

    You can take any photo, pixellate it, and print it out on many many pieces of paper and have giant pictures on the walls. Cheap, easy, and effective.

    I have a giant picture of my head covering one door....and plan on almost wallpapering my apartment with photos of friends....hope it helps!
  5. TamyraMcG Active Member

    Well congratulations on the baby, first thing, it is an exciting time that you think will never end but it does, sooner then you'll believe looking back. I would wish Brad could be there for more of it, but keeping some kind of journal and sharing each day somehow might help. It seems more possible then ever to keep in touch, but I know it just isn't the same, I just hope things work out and Brad can be home when you need him most.
    One decorating trick I've heard of is to find some fabric that has colors you like, including a couple of the colors in the room already, maybe make curtains or pillows out of it and use that as a guide to accessory colors, and really, less is often more, eventually you'll get more then enough stuff. I like to use candles to provide some color, they aren't too expensive and if you get scented candles you can have a two for one effect.
  6. Maljonic Administrator

    Good luck with everything. :)
  7. Hsing Moderator

    Well, that's a lot of :) and :sad: in a small amount of time.
    On the :) I already congratulated. I was a bit shocked to read of the deployment notice, at this of all times. Any idea how longhe'll be gone, and where exactly he'll be going?

    I'm available for pregnancy discussions, baby discussions and decoration discussions, seeing your morning sickness is working a European schedule already, maybe it's a trend and the baby will too...
  8. Joculator The 'Old' Fool

    Congratulations on the house and baby front, although the deployment is a bit of a bummer. No suggestions on the decorating side although in three or four years you'll appreciate something plain that's easy to wipe clean; especially when little hands find crayons.
  9. mazekin Member

    Exactly what Joc and the others said...

    Although on the whole paint front, I'd change that to 'wipeable the moment they are aware enough to fling food. And get a decent apron/smock that's washable...trust me. And don't wear white when feeding them whatever gloop is on the menu.:smile:
  10. jaccairn New Member

    Congratulatons on the new house and baby front. Get a list of things you want to do and practice saying yes when people offer help!
  11. Marcia Executive Onion

    Congrats on the baby, Inna.
  12. Roman_K New Member

    Congratulations, Inna. As for Brad, I'll wait until he has something resembling a stable connection - or until he learns from trained professionals such as myself, and begins to use his mobile phone as something resembling a PDA. Ebuddy has a rather nice Java app for mobile phones these days, not just Gmail.
  13. Katcal I Aten't French !

    What is there left to say? Oh well, to hell with originality: congrats on the little critter, Mowgli, and well, like Hsing, I would have thought that if anything would be a good excuse for not deploying someone having an expectant lady at home would be one but hey, what can you do? Good luck to both of you!
  14. Orrdos God

    Hah, I misread that.

    I thought it said "rasterbale". Oh, how foolish I feel now. Egg on my face indeed!

    Hope everything goes well for you though! I feel that in my old age my attitude to babies is mellowing. I suppose it comes from people I know actually being pregnant, and popping them out. Makes them seem more real, rather than annoying things you see in shops, and on planes and things.

    Still, I do not want one anytime soon. I hope ella, reading over my shoulder making sure I don't type anything she doesn't approve of, takes note!

    :)
  15. Bradthewonderllama New Member

    Hey all, I do have a small connection... however limited. Nate, I'm back in your area of famtabulous Mississippi, and I'm prepping to redeploy to Iraq. Thanks for all of your well wishes, I'm very excited about our first child. I hope to drop you all another line soon. Take care.

    -Brad
  16. Lyia New Member

    Hey, congrats. If you look online for lollipops for expecting moms hopefully you'll find these wonderful lollipops made to taste good and soothe nausea. I will ask my friend the brand name tomorrow.
    I do have one good tip for you, although you won't really need it for at lest 18 months, go to a small news paper press and ask if they sell half rolls. Most news paper presses, even European presses, change their paper rolls at the end of the day. Even if the roll is less than half way though they still change it for a new roll so that they won't have to waste time changing it during printing. Many presses will sell their half rolls really cheap. So not only are you getting allot of drawing paper cheap, also you can use the huge roll to cover a portion of a wall and teach your child he/she can draw on the wall as long as they keep their crayons on their special paper. It does work, I know of two families who do this and have had no murals painted on their walls.
  17. mowgli New Member

    Thanks, y'all :) - I'll post periodic updates, and yes, I appreciate any and all advice (especially when things get um... interesting). In the meantime, decorating has been hampered by the fact that our walls are actually made of brick this time (as opposed to spit and styrofoam in our old apartment), and thumbtacks just don't do the job anymore.
    In order to hang anything up, I have to learn to hammer in nails - and for some reason this mental image scares the hell out of friends and family. The response I tend to get is "No, no, NOOOO - you put that hammer down, figure out exactly where you want the pictures, and CALL ME - I'll come over and put the nails in. DON'T TOUCH THAT HAMMER!"

    (I mean, how badly can I screw this up, aside from accidentally driving the nail through an electric wire, and/or losing a couple of fingertips in the process?)

    Oh, and there's no danger of parents staying here "until after the baby graduates college". These are after all the same folks who moved halfway across the country to get away from their kids, and are now just beginning to rediscover the joys of child-free living. Plus, after three years in Arizona, they think that 25 degrees C is too cold!

    P.S. "Rasterbate"... Great, my brain is residing in the same gutter as Orrdos. Move over, Orrdos' brain!
  18. jaccairn New Member

    There's also water pipes, and, unless they're rather soft bricks, I suspect you'll need a drill, raw plugs and screws or you'll end up with a lot of bent nails.
  19. Joculator The 'Old' Fool

    Don't worry, four really big lumps (about 16 ounces) of Blu-Tack® can keep a wide-screen TV on the wall. :D
    Just don't quote me on that!


  20. mowgli New Member

    ::gulp::
  21. redneck New Member

    And you could also damage the brick or knock it out completely. Especially after you've bent the twentieth nail on the first hanging attempt and get very frustrated. You leave the little claw-hammer lying on the coffee table, go to the shop and get the two pound shop hammer and decide to try and drive the nail in with one big wallop.

    Also, be sure to use a masonry nail. It is designed to go through brick and mortar without damaging it. Pre-drilling the holes is usually a good thing, but I would recommend using wall anchors.

    Here are a few examples I dug up:

    Concrete screws
    Nail Anchor*
    Drywall Anchor (this is mainly used on drywall, but some can be used in masonry)
    And last but not least, make sure you have a masonry bit in the drill or the person that loaned you the bit may be pretty miffed when you return a worn out bit. (a masonry bit has a tip made out of carbide. pretty much any carbide tipped bit will work)

    Tune in again tomorrow when we will learn how to make our very own birdbaths. You've been watching Redneck's Home Improvements.

    *this is my recommended option. It allows you to have a more flush mounted wall hanging. The nail can be left slightly out of the bracket to hang stuff or used to mount the hook to the wall. Sorry I got a little lengthy, especially as someone in your family has already told you this or is going to do it themselves anyway. If you do need any more assistance, don't hesitate to ask. I love giving advice, but no one wants to hear it from me. :( *sniffles*
  22. spiky Bar Wench

    I say Duck tape cos its like the force: "It has a dark side and a light side and it holds the universe together".

    With that kind of credibility you can't go wrong.
  23. Gypsy New Member


    :awesome:
  24. Bradthewonderllama New Member

    The nails would go into plaster... not brick.
  25. mowgli New Member

    Does that mean I can just use a hammer and nails then, and not have to go and buy half of Home Depot? :tongue:
  26. Joculator The 'Old' Fool

    Cheap shelving ideas as seen in Ikea, well my computer shack really. Get eight breeze blocks (cinder blocks) and four planks of wood. Stack two blocks at the required width and then the wood in alternate layers. A quick and easy four shelf unit, not a nail in sight and you can use thumb tacks to attach posters and pictures to the front of the shelves to hide the contents.

    Retro 60's at its best. :D
  27. randywine Member

    Congrats (belatedly) Mowgli and Brad...

    Joc - That's a fabulous idea re: blue tack and wide screen tvs - somehow Mrs R. wasn't too impressed with it though, of course the woman has no sense of adventure...:D

    R
  28. mowgli New Member

    Thanks :)

    ::Shudders quietly at the speculation of what Joculator is hiding under all those tacked-on posters and pictures::
  29. mazekin Member

    ::Shudders quietly at the speculation of exactly how the rest of Joculator's house is furnished::....:D
  30. Joculator The 'Old' Fool

    I am deeply hurt by your assumptions that my house is anything but normal. :sad:

    It just needs a little bit of a tidy up :D

    [IMG]

    You should see my office!
  31. Gypsy New Member

    By the power of Greyskull!

    Are you saving up your papers to make a tree?

    :)
  32. Katcal I Aten't French !

    Joc, you do know they have reality shows for that kind of thing, right ? And therapy too, probably :D
  33. mowgli New Member

    ::speechless::


    ..our basement doesn't even come CLOSE!
  34. mazekin Member

    Oh. Dear. God. It reminds me of my brothers room at my parents house...except he may have more electronic equipment...and possibly a dead body beneath the rubble - we haven't worked up the courage to check...
  35. Joculator The 'Old' Fool

    Okay, I'll confess. I'm only joking, the photo is not mine. :shock:
    Don't believe me? If you look closely at the top newspaper you will see an advert for Dilllards (a fairly well known chain in the US) selling Lancon cosmetics. Sorry to tell you, but that mess is pure Amercian.

    I was sent the photo by a friend after making similar comments about his workshop.
    Besides, those of you that visit us at home or stare at me through a video link know fine well, my office is much tidier and full of musical instruments.

    Now, can Mowgli and Brad have their thread back? :D
  36. Ba Lord of the Pies

    From one serviceman to another, good luck.

    From a deity to his follower, remember the wise teachings of Ba. And don't die. It would be tasteless.
  37. Gypsy New Member

    OK...someone sent me some blu-tac....now who wants to send me a widescreen TV?
  38. Joculator The 'Old' Fool

    If you print this out on 150x100cm paper you should find four small lumps of Blu-Tac® will hold it to the wall.
    [IMG]

    :D
  39. Katcal I Aten't French !

    I thought they grew on trees in Japan. Surely there was a documentary about the Sony Bravia harvest, wasn't there? Or am I thinking of spaghetti? :lol:
  40. randywine Member

    Katcal for a TV I think you want a Bush not a tree.

    Har har har etc...

    R.
  41. Joculator The 'Old' Fool

    I'm not sure if they are popular at the moment. Especially in the US. :D
  42. Lyia New Member

    I wouldn't say that I know for a fact my brother loves bush.....Oh wait your refering to the Pres and not.......oops my bad.
  43. spiky Bar Wench

    That's what Brazil is for. Getting rid of Bush.
  44. mowgli New Member

    Jan 20th... Worldwide getting-rid-of-Bush party! :lol:

    (the visuals are already starting to short-circuit my brain!)
  45. TamyraMcG Active Member

    Well I might miss that bush, but probably not GW. Just think if we'd have thought of this a few years ago? We might have saved the world a whole lot of trouble.

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