Time Flew By! The Week in Review

Ok, so it's been a little more than a week since I last updated the blog. Sorry about that! Here's what's been going on ...

Last Sunday, Mark and I traveled to the Indianapolis airport to help welcome home our friends Chris and Sarah Ponsler and their son, Tegegn. They were able to spend a month in Ethiopia with a host family and they are the first family that we personally know to adopt from Ethiopia. Seeing them arrive with their son was very emotional for us ... it gave us hope that we will be in their shoes someday soon. They had so many family and friends waiting at the airport for them and it truly was a time of celebration! If you'd like to read more about their journey you can visit their blog: http://angelsinafrica.blogspot.com/

On Tuesday we finally got the snow that I have been hoping for! I mean really, if it's going to be negative 18 degrees with a wind chill of negative 30 degrees, why not have some snow on the ground to brighten up things? It was sooo cold this past week but we managed pretty well ...

...until Friday evening. We spent most of our evenings last week getting ready for our first Ethiopia night. Mark had been doing a lot of cooking and I was preparing table tents and collecting other information to share. On Friday night, after two days of absolute bitter cold, I went out to the laundry room to use the bathroom. I flushed the toilet and thought, huh, that sounded kind of funny. Then I tried to turn on the faucet at the sink -- no water. Frozen pipes! Luckily, the only pipes that were frozen were to the half bath and the washer. We put both space heaters on the job and within a few hours, we had running water again without too much trouble, thankfully.

On Saturday, we hosted our first 'Little Taste of Ethiopia' night and it was so much FUN! We had seven people attend and really had a good time. Mark's Ethiopian dishes received rave reviews. I wish I would have remembered to take more photos while our guests were here! I was just having too much fun chatting. But here are a few photos of our 'set-up.'

You know, one thing that I haven't blogged about is the fact that Mark's business is moving to a new location ... just a few doors up Main Street from his current studio. It's very exciting because he will have about triple the amount of space AND still be in downtown Lafayette. Lafayette's TV18 did a short story about Ailor Photography on Saturday's newscasts at 6 and 11 p.m. -- very exciting! We loved the free advertising. And, he is being interviewed by the Journal & Courier paper on Wednesday of this week. The new space is awesome! Exposed brick walls, a little kitchenette in the back, a space for Mark's office ... it couldn't be more ideal. You can read more about his move at http://ailorphoto.blogspot.com

Anyway, the space was most recently used as a frame shop and gallery. Prior to that, it was a hair salon. There are three walls with glass block in them. In order to have as much photo space as possible, those three walls need to come down. On Sunday, Mark was working at the new studio by himself when he called me at home and asked me to come and help drop the first wall to the ground. I arrived and he pointed out a piece of sharp metal and told me to be careful before we brought the wall down. Well, about half-way to the ground we realized it was more than the two of us could handle and we just had to let it fall. (The people in the coffee shop next door were probably jolted out of their seats because it hit the ground hard!)

I'm brushing drywall off my shirt when Mark says, "I cut my hand and we need to go to the hospital." WHAT?!?! Sure enough, there was lots of blood. Mark rinsed it out in the sink and I found some napkins in the kitchen and off we went to the ER. They weren't very busy so we were in and out within an hour. Mark received 7 -- SEVEN! -- stitches between his left hand thumb and pointer finger. He has to wear a splint on a it to remind him not to flex that area so that it can heal ... probably for about 2 weeks. I happened to have the camera in my purse because I was going to take photos of the new studio so here you go ...

Yes, this is his 'woo is me' look. He actually watched the doctor numb his hand and do the stitches. Yuck!

And here is the culprit ... the first glass block wall we took down. We're so thankful for Mark's cousin Brad and his help last night in finishing up the removal of this first wall.

A glimpse of the new studio space -- gotta love all that natural sunlight!

And so today it's Monday. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Purdue is closed so I'm off from work. The plan was to work on the new studio space. But guess what? We woke up to a 57 degree house and a furnace that has stopped working! Ugh. So Mark is working at the studio and I am home waiting for the heating people to come over and fix the furnace. My Mom and Dad gave Mark a little space heater for his workshop for Christmas this year and I am so glad for it today! We're on a deadline for the new studio ... Mark's landlord is having new carpet installed next Monday so he has to get the walls out prior to that. Thus, our divide and conquer approach.

So there's the latest from the Ailor household! I'll bet you've been wondering when the 'antics' part of our blog title would kick in, huh? Next winter I'll think twice before wishing for snow AND cold together. And no more trying to take down walls with glass block by ourselves.

Have a great week everyone!