Big Buckeye

Someone sure is spoiled and has the best mom in the world for making him a ginormous buckeye!

The Nutcracker

We went to see The Nutcracker on Saturday.  I'm happy to report that Matt stayed awake through the entire performance.  ;-)

Merry Christmas, Cyrus!

Friends

We're fortunate enough to have some very special friends in our lives.  We're so thankful for their friendship and for all the fun we've had with them over the years.  Plus, we have to keep them close to us...they know too much.  ;-)

Missing My Sink

We're refinishing the kitchen counter tops.  This means that we've been without a sink for 10 days.  10. Long. Days.  You really don't know how much you take something for granted until  it's gone.  It's been quite a challenge being without water in the kitchen, but the end of the finish line is in sight. Hopefully Matt will install the new sink and garbage disposal tomorrow!  If not, I'm putting restaurant gift cards on my Christmas list!!

Sneak preview of the amazing before and after project!

New View

New month, new blog header...and probably a new hair color.

These picture were taken by me looking out from our backyard. Having this view makes doing the dishes SO much easier!

Happy Halloween!

While grocery shopping last week, I found a tiara and didn't hesitate to throw it in my shopping cart.  I've decided to wear it every day to make all household chores more fun.  Maybe this will make scrubbing the toilets glamorous!

We really do have cupboard doors for the kitchen...
hopefully this week!

For the Halloween festivities at work, Matt dressed as Caitlyn Jenner.  He joined other co-workers dressed as the Kardashians.  They like all like looked like fabulous!

Romeo and Juliet...25 years later.  I know that's not how the story is supposed to go, but I'm a sucker for happy endings!  Happy Halloween!!

Happy 24th, Keaton!

It's the strangest thing...Keaton turned 24 today while I remain 29!  ;-)

We just got back from a birthday dinner at a hibachi grill.  Yum!  Keaton enjoyed his birthday presents. Matt enjoyed some wine from the chef.  I enjoyed not cooking tonight.  Happy birthday to our favorite son!!

(And it just wouldn't be a birthday celebration without a birthday video. Enjoy!)

Pumpkin Carving 2015

We took a break from working on the house (and raking leaves) to go camping over the weekend with our friends.  It was a chilly, windy, drizzly day on Saturday...a perfect day to carve pumpkins and roast pumpkin seeds over a fire.  It was nice to wake up to a gorgeous, sunny day on Sunday...a perfect day for a long bike ride to enjoy some beautiful fall colors around Yankee Springs!

The princess pumpkin had to be on a throne.
Sadly, all I had was this ugly bucket.  
Note to self:  get pink bucket for camper!

Matt's pumpkin was awesome when lit, despite the rain.
My pumpkin was pulled out of the first few sprinkles.
Princesses do not get wet!

Our Town

We're beginning to feel more 'at home' in our new house...and in our new town.  For a while, it honestly felt like we were on vacation or visiting someone else's house.  But, the more we get acclimated to the new community and continue to update the house to make it feel like ours, the more it's starting to feel like home. I can't wait to get everything painted and updated so I can start to hang pictures and put out knick knacks and get rid of more boxes!!!

We went downtown one night for Octoberfest.  We enjoyed a drink and the live entertainment...and a spot under the outdoor heater!  I love the pretty bridge with changing lights.

Matt is enthusiastic about supporting the local school district.  He wore the school mascot costume during the neighborhood elementary school's walk-a-thon and helped to make the event a roaring success!

Corn Maze Adventure

Last weekend we took a break from working around the house and visited a corn maze with our friends. It was fun to be kids again and find our way out of the corn.  We were sure to visit the sling-shot gourd area and I was pleasantly surprised that I had pretty good aim and actually could hit the side of a barn!

Luckily, we didn't see any kids from 'Children of the Corn'.

Whew...we made it!

Painting Break

I'm taking a break from painting to actually update the blog a little.  It's been two months since we moved into the new house...and it seems like we've been painting ever since!  We LOVE it here and our only regret is that we didn't move years ago!!  We're working on pretty much every room in the house and hopefully we'll have a few rooms finally finished soon so I can post before and after pictures.  The difference is incredible, but slow.  I keep finding things to tweak or totally change.  My latest change is all the outlets and switches throughout the house...and garage.  Poor Matt's 'to-do' list just keeps getting longer and longer. He finally gets one thing crossed off and then I add two more things to it.  But, the house is already looking (and smelling) great!  I just want everything all shiny, clean, and new.  Oh, and I just want everything done yesterday!

So, we took a break from working on the house and spent a long weekend up in Mackinac a couple of weeks ago.  We were hoping for more gorgeous fall colors, but we were a little early.  Still, it was nice to take a break from painting and spend some time outside enjoying beautiful northern Michigan.  We spent time in the U.P. at Tahquamenon Falls and then donated some money to the casino. We did some shopping and ate a lot of whitefish. We visited Mackinac Island and did a lot of walking. Our lungs were happy to breathe some fresh air and purge any lingering paint fumes from our systems.  Speaking of paint fumes, it's time to go back to painting. Today's project:  painting cabinets in the garage. Have I mentioned how much I hate painting?  I'd rather scrub toilets in a frat house than paint.  Well, maybe not a frat house. But close.  ;-)

   

We're looking fluffy in the pics.  It was pretty windy and
chilly so we wore three layers every day.

The Grand Hotel.
World's largest Colonial-style porch and summer hotel.

Just Because...

It's always really nice to get flowers for no reason at all.  These brightened my day!

Moving Weekend

We should have bought stock in Home Depot and Lowe's.  We've been buying a LOT of boxes lately!  The good news is it was a very productive weekend and we moved two trailer loads (and Durango-full) of stuff to the storage shed and the room at a friend's house.  The bad news is Matt forgot to take a picture of all the stuff we took to the storage shed.  My back can tell you it was a lot though!

We've Started the Move!

We've officially started moving our stuff to a new city!  Whoo hoo!!!  It's only going into a storage locker for now...but at least that's less clutter at our house!

The Move is On!

We've officially begun our big move! We still don't have a closing date set, but we know it's sometime between July 17-31. We're hopeful everything will line up perfectly so we're only homeless for an hour or two between signing over this house and buying the new house. We're lucky to have a friend of Matt's that has a big empty room in his finished basement where we can store things. So, we've been hauling stuff over for the past couple of weeks. Matt rented a storage locker and will begin moving his pinball machines and garage stuff. I've begun packing boxes and we'll be ready to move another vehicle & trailer load over the weekend. I'm hoping that if we take a vehicle & trailer load a few times a week, we'll eventually clear out most of our house...leaving only the furniture and essentials to actually move on moving day. Holy cow...we have a ton of stuff!!!

Sanford (a.k.a. Matt) saves EVERY box from every purchase.
These are the boxes he pulled out of the attic.
He just went through and purged a couple of years ago.

Believe it or not, he's getting much better with his hoarding!