We have not spent a single weekend in November at home, and we aren't goint to, it's a busy month! This last weekend we went to camp, and I have never been to camp! Now don't feel sorry for me or anything, I had a horse and I was at horse shows contstantly as a kid, and the only camp I was interested in was horse camp, which is very expensive, and you can't bring your own horse so...I've never been to camp!
But this weekend, Bryce and I took 5 of the kiddos from our church to Camp Lutherhaven for a fun Pirate themed weekend in the woods. Camp is beautiful, the food is good, and the songs are still stuck in my head. We were so lucky to have really great kids with us and it was really fun to get to know them better and spend a relaxing weekend in the woods.
When we got home on Sunday afternoon Bryce headed straight to the hardware store, of course. Now, take a look at the picture of our house to the right, see all those beautiful roof lines, now can't you just imagine Christmas lights hanging on all those different levels!? Well I can! And that was one of the first things I told Bryce when we moved in. So on Sunday afternoon he went to the hardware store and bought all those cool little Christmas light hooks and after telling me to take a nap (he knows what makes me happy!!!) he went outside and started installing the hooks.
Last year was our first Christmas together, and Bryce told me he hated putting up Christmas lights, but one day while I was gone he put them up all over our little du-plex, I love Christmas lights so much! They add all this beautiful light to the long evenings and dark mornings. So he happily spent hours installing all those little hooks on our new house while standing on the roof or the tall ladder. And last night he spend a good hour researching LED lights vs. regular lights, how many you can plug in, how much energy they each take, and how many feet for what price. He is very thorough. And tonight while I work late he is going to go to the store and buy Christmas lights! YAY!!!
The lights won't be installed for a few more weeks, but when they are, I will have pictures for you!!!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Pants Optional!
Tomorrow is garbage day. We usually remember tomorrow morning to put the garbage out, which always works out fine because the garbage truck comes after we leave for work, and we are always up early to walk the dogs.
November is the last month that the city picks up the "Green Bin" you know, that special yard waste bin. So at 9:30 this evening we remember the pile of leaves in the back yard that need to go in the bin. Bryce and I head outside and he rakes and puts the leaves in the bin while I hold a flashlight. As I'm standing there freezing aiming the flashlight mostly at Bryce (Thisbe loves the flashlight and I was very entertained flashing it all of the yard for her to chase), I start to think about what our neighbors would think. Our mostly retired neighbors who either do their yard work during their retired days off or hire a service to do it for them. Here we are the young, dumb neighbors raking in the dark with a flashlight!
And then Bryce yells, "I'm not even wearing pants!"
November is the last month that the city picks up the "Green Bin" you know, that special yard waste bin. So at 9:30 this evening we remember the pile of leaves in the back yard that need to go in the bin. Bryce and I head outside and he rakes and puts the leaves in the bin while I hold a flashlight. As I'm standing there freezing aiming the flashlight mostly at Bryce (Thisbe loves the flashlight and I was very entertained flashing it all of the yard for her to chase), I start to think about what our neighbors would think. Our mostly retired neighbors who either do their yard work during their retired days off or hire a service to do it for them. Here we are the young, dumb neighbors raking in the dark with a flashlight!
And then Bryce yells, "I'm not even wearing pants!"
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Winter Plans
I got to visit my Dad's side of the family this weekend. I saw several of my cousins, my Aunt and Uncle and of course Grandma! It was a fun weekend (although I did have to work through part of it), but it was great to visit with everyone. We talked a lot about our house, apparently it is one of my main topics of conversation. Everyone tells me how impressed they are with how much we have accomplished in 8.5 months, and usually I am too!
My cousin Josh asked me "so what projects are you working on now?" Well, right this second, we are not in the middle of any house projects (hence the lack of posts). But I did share with him our "winter" list of projects:
1. Finish guest room in basement: Painting, Carpet, new light fixtures, hang up some pictures!
2. Organize Blue Room: (aka dog room) so that we can move the second guest bed into this room.
3. Do the Baby Room!: Put up wanescoating, paint walls (again), closet organizer (please husband!!!), paint bookshelf, re-finish crib, figure out how to put crib together, fix drawers in crib.
And if we have time we will change the hallway closet into a pantry. Bryce plans to knock a hole in the wall in the kitchen into the hall closet and then sheet rock and retexture the hallway part, since we don't really need two hall closets and would rather have a pantry.
I know this sounds like a LOT of projects for one house, okay it really didn't sound like all that many until I listed them out just now, whoa I have high expectations (especially if you note that half of these projects I can't do...hmmmm). But there is still so much that we want to do! Sometimes it is hard to remember and appreciate all the hard work we have already done and I just want to jump into the next thing...
new carpet, new flooring in kitchen, hallway, stairs, re-paint kitchen cabinets, new railings on stairs, new fence, fix or new sprinkler system, repaint outside of house, get a new door in the bathroom! Oh my list could go on and on...
My cousin Josh asked me "so what projects are you working on now?" Well, right this second, we are not in the middle of any house projects (hence the lack of posts). But I did share with him our "winter" list of projects:
1. Finish guest room in basement: Painting, Carpet, new light fixtures, hang up some pictures!
2. Organize Blue Room: (aka dog room) so that we can move the second guest bed into this room.
3. Do the Baby Room!: Put up wanescoating, paint walls (again), closet organizer (please husband!!!), paint bookshelf, re-finish crib, figure out how to put crib together, fix drawers in crib.
And if we have time we will change the hallway closet into a pantry. Bryce plans to knock a hole in the wall in the kitchen into the hall closet and then sheet rock and retexture the hallway part, since we don't really need two hall closets and would rather have a pantry.
I know this sounds like a LOT of projects for one house, okay it really didn't sound like all that many until I listed them out just now, whoa I have high expectations (especially if you note that half of these projects I can't do...hmmmm). But there is still so much that we want to do! Sometimes it is hard to remember and appreciate all the hard work we have already done and I just want to jump into the next thing...
new carpet, new flooring in kitchen, hallway, stairs, re-paint kitchen cabinets, new railings on stairs, new fence, fix or new sprinkler system, repaint outside of house, get a new door in the bathroom! Oh my list could go on and on...
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Recent Craigslist Find
Back when we bought our house Bryce aunt and uncle gave their old dining room table, which was great since we were using a poker table my Grandpa has built and some school like chairs that I got at goodwill in college. The table is solid oak with several leaves so it gets nice and big for lots of family. The chairs were also oak, with not so beautiful 80's material on the seat and back. I originally had great plans to reupholster the chairs, until we discovered that the way they are built is not very sturdy and several of them were close to breaking down.
So I spent the summer searching yard sales and craigslist, but even used chairs are terribly expensive! Bryce came across these pretty oak chairs a few weeks ago and was finally able to pick them up on Saturday:
The set of 4 chairs was only $60, which is a great deal! A plain old ladder back chair new is $60, and these are much prettier than that! There are only 4, and our 80's set had 8, but we figure if a lot of family and friends are over we can supplement with folding chairs, which are much easier to store than the bulky 80's chairs which have been taking up a good portion of our guest bedroom downstairs. So here's to many yummy dinners with our beautiful hand-me-down table and craigslist chairs!
So I spent the summer searching yard sales and craigslist, but even used chairs are terribly expensive! Bryce came across these pretty oak chairs a few weeks ago and was finally able to pick them up on Saturday:
The set of 4 chairs was only $60, which is a great deal! A plain old ladder back chair new is $60, and these are much prettier than that! There are only 4, and our 80's set had 8, but we figure if a lot of family and friends are over we can supplement with folding chairs, which are much easier to store than the bulky 80's chairs which have been taking up a good portion of our guest bedroom downstairs. So here's to many yummy dinners with our beautiful hand-me-down table and craigslist chairs!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The Anniversary Door
On October 18th we celebrated our 1st anniversary! We spent the day at church and grocery shopping, terribly exciting I know. Our trip to California at the beginning of October was really our anniversary trip. We had decided not to buy each other anything because again, we just spent a bunch on our trip, but instead we decided to think of something that we wanted that we would buy for our anniversary.
We tried to think of something fun for our house, but many of the things were too expensive or things we were going to buy anyway and I really wanted the thing we bought to be meaningful somehow. Finally, we decided on a new front door. I like the idea of remembering our wedding and our first anniversary every time we walk in our house. The previous door was ugly and we wanted to replace it, but it definitely was not necessary, so we purchased this door on our anniversary, it took a while to paint it and install it, but here it is!
And the inside:
We feel like it has totally changed the look of the front of our house, our pretty red door stands out and has a window to let light in! It makes the house look cheerful and happy, rather than sad because it had an ugly brown door with dents and a peep-hole.
And every time we walk in and out we will remember the love that lives in our house.
We tried to think of something fun for our house, but many of the things were too expensive or things we were going to buy anyway and I really wanted the thing we bought to be meaningful somehow. Finally, we decided on a new front door. I like the idea of remembering our wedding and our first anniversary every time we walk in our house. The previous door was ugly and we wanted to replace it, but it definitely was not necessary, so we purchased this door on our anniversary, it took a while to paint it and install it, but here it is!
And the inside:
We feel like it has totally changed the look of the front of our house, our pretty red door stands out and has a window to let light in! It makes the house look cheerful and happy, rather than sad because it had an ugly brown door with dents and a peep-hole.And every time we walk in and out we will remember the love that lives in our house.
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