Summer Blues

Many times lately, I have told myself, "OH, gotta blog about that!" or "OH, gotta blog about this!" There's a lot going on my life, but when I stop and think about it, it all amounts to so very little. My summer has been boring, people. I know, feel sorry for the teacher who gets to stay home for two months with her darling baby girl. But, I'm telling you, I start school 4 weeks from tomorrow and I can't say I have much to show for this summer vacation...unless you are counting the MASSIVE MESS of a home makeover we have going on right now. No trips. No pools. No getaways. Not really even going out to eat at a restaurant. No frozen alcoholic drinks. No parties with friends. A few highlights, such as Amanda's wedding in Mackinac Island with the girls...and Noelle's baptism...and Noelle's first 4th of July...but other than that....I don't have many warm fuzzies about this summer, though it has been rather...warm...

But back to that home makeover. If you recall, there was a hail storm around the end of May, beginning of June in 2009. Our house was pelted by TONS of hail (I have a video http://ernstbergerfamily.blogspot.com/2009/06/what-hail.html), and as a result, we were awarded an insurance settlement for a new roof (praise the Lord because our roof was the original 25 year old roof), and then we were later awarded a settlement for brand new siding on our house. We got the roof done in October, but it took a while to get around to doing the siding. We finally picked it out and chose a high quality, insulated siding in a NEW color. Yes, no more light blue/gray house. It is a nice beige/warm tan color called Prairie. The siding went up last Friday, and now we are left with the task of repainting ALL of our trim. This doesn't sound like a lot of work until you start and realize that the more you paint, the more you have left to paint. The trim used to be a blue/gray color, and now we are making it an off-white. Luke has been working really hard, and I have been trying to help in between watching Noelle. We try to maximize her nap times as much as possible. We are painting our garage doors a dark brown color, which is a big change from the white they used to be. We have new house numbers, we are painting our mailbox post, AND we got a new atrium patio door because the old one was a piece of crap and let in all kinds of bugs. It also let in WORMS when it rained. Sick! We have made a lot of changes, but it has taken so much work, effort, money, and time. I really want it to be done, and many times I question why we didn't just pay the money for someone else to do it so we could enjoy this time together. But, we didn't, so we have to deal with it. I can't wait until it is done, but unfortunately that will probably be about the time I go back to school.

There are some important days coming up-- like....my 26th birthday on Friday :-) and our 3rd wedding anniversary next Wednesday. Also coming up is the one year anniversary of when I told Luke we were having a baby, which was July 15th of last year. Pretty cool to see what has transpired over the last 12 months.

I will get around to typing up those blog posts I have "saved" in my brain. I am also nearing my 300th post on my blog, which is pretty nuts. I should do something special for that. Or you should send me a card with money in it.

Hope your summer isn't suckin'...

Change!

I really want to redecorate something. I had a lot of fun doing Noelle's room, and now I need to throw my creative energy into something else. I think that I want a new bedding set for our bedroom. I also want to redo our guest bedroom/office. I would like to make it an actual functional room, and it needs a new bedding set as well. It also needs a new paint color. Hmmm. How to make this happen...

What a Waste!

Luke and I are two of the most wasteful humans on this earth, and I believe this to be true. We have been known to buy the same thing multiple times even though we have an unopened or half consumed thingymabob at home. We do this a lot with food.

I went through the fridge after we returned home from the store today only to find a number of expired items that had to be thrown out. Luke is notorious for going on a health food kick and exclaiming, "I will only eat fresh, healthy things!" and then he lets those fresh, healthy things rot. At least I can admit that I would prefer a fresh Big Mac instead. Those have a much longer shelf life.

We started looking at expiration dates and found some salad dressing from MARCH 2008. HOLY COW! That was 2 years ago! Sick! Somehow, that salad dressing actually survived our move from our apartment to our house. Don't worry, the dressing safely found its final resting place in the trash, and I vow never to buy something and let it go to waste again.

Meanwhile, while we are buying two of things we don't really need, we neglected to pay attention to the fact that we are out of trash bags. Fail.

What a Week!

Well, after all the snow we got last Friday, Monday night delivered us even more snow and drifting, which spilled over into Tuesday and Wednesday, thus causing us not to have school SINCE Monday (which was delayed anyway!). As fun as snow days are, they are truly not fun when you have to make them up at the end of the year, which means that originally getting out the week before Memorial Day has been tossed out the window. I believe we are now going until the Thursday after Memorial Day weekend. I am really sad about this because this is time that I would have had with my baby. I think the most frustrating part is you can't control the weather, no matter how much you want to...so I have tried to make the most of the time off.

Tuesday, I cleaned ALL day. I did so much laundry, washed more baby stuff, cleaned the entire kitchen from top to bottom, removed a lot (A LOT LOT LOT LOT) of cobwebs, organized our linen closet, deep cleaned both of our bathrooms (even washed the shower curtain), cleaned the inside of the fridge (which was sick), cleaned under the couch cushions (lots of treasures there), dusted, and got rid of a lot of trash/magazines/junk. It felt great to do this. Call it what you wish-- nesting or not-- I just really love knowing that my house is clean. I know we are going to have a lot of people in and out of our house when the baby comes, so I don't want to be embarrassed by a dirty house!

Wednesday, I was really knocked out from all the hard work the day before, so I didn't do much. I napped for about an hour, showered, ate lunch, and then went to my doctor's appointment.

Thursday, today, we are closed AGAIN. I have a feeling we will be back in school tomorrow on delay, so I am going to grade the mound of papers I have been putting off grading, clean out my car, install the car seat, and then maybe go out and have a little fun shopping with my imaginary money.

We have done a lot of work in the nursery, and I have been trying to post pictures on my blog for like a week, but it hasn't been letting me! I will try again soon!

Snow Day

Well....here it is, my first snow day...it's 6 a.m....and I can't go back to bed. My body's clock is just set to wake up early and stay up, even when I can sleep in. That's ok...I get more out of my days this way.

I've been catching myself daydreaming about the baby non-stop. I can't focus on anything else. I just really to see this baby's face. With the start of the childbirth classes, all I can think about is the day when this baby comes. I look forward to my maternity leave, not to get away from school, but to be home doing a job that is the most important job in the world. I am obsessed with getting prepared for the baby and making sure that everything is organized and ready. It's really difficult to stay on task with the things I really need to do, when I have so much else I want to do. Oh well...it's a good problem to have. In only 10 short weeks, I will meet my son or daughter and all will be well! (and significantly more crazy!)

Luke and I made a resolution to not eat out as much....we need to save some of that money for diapers :-)...and we have made three pretty good meals this week from Rachael Ray. The first was a turkey shepherd's pie. It was really good...had ground turkey, veggies, and mashed potatoes (the real kind) baked on top. The second was a mega meatball pizza, which freaking rocked. I was proud of Luke because he made it while I was at Zumba. It tasted really, really great! The third one we made last night....a chicken soup with orzo pasta. Again, pretty good, and healthy with chicken and veggies.

This entry was pointless...I guess just a tiny update of life around here. Luke is adjusting to his schedule at Peyton Manning Children's Hospital. He worked 6p-4a Monday and Tuesday nights, had Wednesday and Thursday off, then he works 1p-11p tonight. He won't have to work again until Tuesday. I hate the hours, but at least he doesn't have to go in every day. In his off time, he has managed to all but finish the baby bassinet that he has been building for the past several months. He drew the plans and created it himself. It is beautiful and truly something we will cherish with all of our children. Luke is talented in so many ways...from athletics (I mean, he seriously ran a full marathon, and he is great at any sport he plays), to music (been teaching himself guitar for years), to school (the way he can remember the information they teach in med school is beyond me), to wood working (built my blanket chest for Christmas a couple years ago, and then the baby bassinet, as well as various other projects he has done)....he's just a wonderful combination of talents that make for one incredible person! And he's married to me! Woohoo!

Alright, time for breakfast. The baby is waking up and wondering where the food is. If it is snowy where you are, be careful!

Hustle and Bustle

This weekend was wildly productive for our little family on Haddington. I had a lot of overhanging, nagging projects and tasks needing to get done, so I decided to really try and tackle a lot of them this weekend. I would say that I had several successes! I even managed to squeeze in some fun with a dinner at Olive Garden on Friday night with Candace, Alicia, Allison, and Megan and a Christmas Party at Chris & Megan's. We also went to church, ate at Greek's on 116th which tasted just like the Greek's at Ball State, and watched the Colts win their 13th game! :-)

Missions Accomplished...

1. Replace master bathroom faucet & cabinet handles- this has been bothering me since we moved in. It was an ugly faucet with wooden handles. It didn't match anything. Finally its ugly looks matched its functionality because it kept clogging, getting water-spotty, and it malfunctioned enough to make Luke agree with getting a new one. We headed over to Home Depot, picked out a nice "bronze finish" faucet and some matching cabinet handles. After several hours of installation, Luke realized the faucet we purchased was faulty (the cold water had a leak), so he disconnected it all, returned it, got another one, and within an hour it was up and running with no problems. It looks great!

2. Get a new bath mat for our bathroom and trim the door so that said bath mat will fit without getting folded over on itself every time the door opens and closes. When Luke so handily installed the tile in our master bathroom last spring, it caused the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor to get smaller, and absolutely NO bath mat could fit under it. As soon as you opened or closed the door, the bath mat would fold over on itself and cause all kinds of frustration in our house. It was cumbersome and annoying! So, I found a mat that had some kind of gripper so it would stay flat on the floor, and Luke took the door off and trimmed off some of the bottom to make it fit. FINALLY!

3. Get taller trash can. Sounds dumb...and it is. Our kitchen trash can was like a foot tall. That holds about 1 hour's worth of kitchen trash. I found a nice, slim can that is double the height and even has one of those foot pedals that raises the lid without touching it. Our last one didn't even have a lid. Big upgrade, and it has already relieved so much tension in our house. Who knew that $17 would completely change our moods!

4. Pick up other odds and ends to make life easier. I got this nifty sink organizer that fits on the inside of our cabinet under our sink, and it holds the grody scrub brush and dish soap. No more clutter on the sink or stinky scrubber! I also got an over the cabinet towel bar for our kitchen so that we can stop throwing kitchen towels on our counters. I got a lamp for my dresser so that I can put my make up on over my dresser and not over the sink (which will keep our sink from getting gunky and gross). I finally found a solution for my tangled mess of necklaces! ICE CUBE TRAYS! I am using ice cube trays to separate my necklaces, and the ice cube trays are concealed in a nice basket on my dresser. I am very happy with all of these solutions, and it makes a remarkable difference in our home.

5. Wrap Christmas gifts. Every gift I have purchased is wrapped under the tree! I only have a couple more gifts to buy, and then I am done done done! Yay for having some money again (who am I kidding? I have a baby on the way! No more money for the rest of my life!).

6. Finish Christmas cards. I decided to hand make all of our cards this year. This sounded like a great idea when I started this last weekend, but it became pretty tiresome by the end. I finally finished them and am ready to address and mail them this week.

7. Start and finish gifts for my teaching colleagues. We do gifts for those of us who teach in my hallway. I never know what to do, but baked items and sweets are always a good idea. I made some sugar cookies and some other goodies and put them together tonight. The gifts are ready to be delivered tomorrow. One less thing to worry about in this last week before break!

8. Pick up Wii Fit Plus. I just heard about this today, and I had to run out and get it. It was only $20, and it has so many more fun, new games on it! Luke and I rolled laughing doing some of them (rhythm parade is HILARIOUS!). I am excited to play these new games and enjoy my Wii Fit as if it was brand new! Gotta love the Wii! I am hoping to get Wii Sports Resort, too, to complete the Wii upgrades!

I think that is it....though it feels like we did so much more! I can't wait to finish this last week of school and celebrate Christmas with Luke's family next weekend. The Holidays can be stressful and crazy, but it is all a whole bunch of fun and I wouldn't have it any other way!

What a GOOD Day!

Today has been stellar! I woke up early on my fall break (my 1 day off- blah) to catch up on my DVR. Love DVR. I LOVE IT! Ate breakfast, got ready, then went to my doctor appointment. Even though the doctor was 30 minutes behind, I had a great appointment. Hearing the heartbeat never gets old! Today it was in the 150s-160s.

I went to Castleton and did some shopping. :-) I went to my hair appointment only to find out my stylist is pregnant and due one day before me! So weird and fun! We talked the whole time about pregnancy and babies. I can't wait to go back for my next appointment and hear about her progress.

Now I am back at the house and ready to go on a cleaning spree to surprise Luke when he gets home. I also want to plan a great dinner for tonight. I am feeling very domestic-- I should go with this feeling!

Let's talk about all the things I am loving right now.

1. Fruit snacks, gummy bears, gummy fish, gummy dinosaurs, fruit juice...anything fruity. I even like real fruit, too.

2. DVR. If you don't have it, you don't know what you are missing and how it can change your life!

3. Any jewelry with rhinestone bows. In the past week, I have bought a sparkly bow pin for my coat or sweaters, sparkly bow earrings, and a sparkly bow necklace. I am loving bows!

4. Maybelline Lash Stiletto mascara. Try it. You won't regret it!

5. Fall scents at Bath & Body Works.

I hope you have a list of things you are loving, too!

Final Countdown

After a fun and busy weekend, here I sit at the beginning of my FINAL week of summer vacation. WOW! One week from right now, I will be sitting in meetings with my colleagues, getting ready for yet another school year. Deep breath...

For now, I am still on vacation, so I am going to try to think that way. Let me first give a weekend update. Luke left Friday afternoon to head to West Virginia for a friend's bachelor party. I got my haircut and went to Muncie to work in my room and stay with my parents for the night. I got to see Allison's cute little house, and I did not envy them as they were in full moving mode. I do NOT miss that! But it will be worth it when it is all said and done. I didn't have the heart to say that over a year after we moved into our house, we still have some rooms that don't feel "done" and some boxes to unpack that are lurking somewhere in our attic. Outta sight, outta mind.

Saturday afternoon, I headed home. Imagine my shock and dismay when I pulled into our driveway and saw Luke's garage door up. It had been open all day Friday and Friday NIGHT! I was very angry and pretty scared to go into my house for fear of all of our possessions being stolen or even worse, a creepy predator hiding in the bathtub (nah...who I am I kidding? No right-minded criminal would wait in the bathtub...I'm sure Ernie has peed in it since the last time I cleaned it). I harnessed what little amount of bravery I had and went inside. Everything seemed OK, and I did a full house check to make sure nothing fishy was going on. I then texted Luke a threatening message that I probably shouldn't write on this blog. :-)

Saturday evening, I went to Abe & E's for dinner. They made kebobs, potatoes, rice, and salad. I brought dinner rolls and Diet Coke. It was yummy! Sarah and Ryan joined later for a "bonfire" in the rain. At that time, I made the decision to head home. I was a big girl. I needed to stay in my own house...albeit alone. I did, however, talk to my mom and dad the entire way home from Greenfield. My dad coached me into locking the garage doors from the inside, which made me feel safer. I also slept with every light on in the house as well as the TV. I hate, hate, hate staying by myself.

Sunday was my friend Jenna's baby shower! She is due in September with a baby girl named Avigail. A group of our high school friends gathered to celebrate this incredible time in her life. It was a great success, complete with "poopy" diapers (made with melted candy bars) and lots of great food.

By the time the girls left, my fresh-out-of-the-doghouse husband came strolling in. I could hardly be mad at him about the door when I saw his sweet face. He had a great time on the trip, but it made me happy to see how happy he was to be home.

All is well again in the Ernstberger house!

It's getting there!

I have been working on my Summer To-Do List. Slowly but surely...

Cleaning

1. Steam clean carpets and hard floors

2. Wipe down all baseboards and doors (I have done this in the kitchen and living room)

3. Clean windows from inside and outside

4. Dust every surface, including ceiling fans

5. Apply furniture polish/wood conditioner 

6. Clean kitchen cabinets

7. Deep clean both showers/tubs (I did ours; haven't done guest tub yet)

8. Knock down any cobwebs in all corners of all rooms

9. Remove any marks/spots on walls

10. Deep clean fridge/freezer - done

Fixing

1. Touch up chipped paint on walls in each room

2. Touch up white on baseboards, ceilings, and doors

3. Paint exposed wood on back patio door

4. Re-spray house numbers in metal spray paint

5. Touch up black paint on our dresser and bed

Decorating/Organizing

1. Hang green frames in office - done

2. Begin merging office/spare bedroom into office - done

3. Clean out office closet and organize - done

4. Reorganize spare bedroom closet - done

5. Get current with photos with printing/putting in albums

6. Reorganize kitchen cabinets/closets

7. Hang chandelier in spare bedroom

8. Go through books; sell unwanted - done

9. Sell other items not wanted

10. Refinish/paint mini-dresser for spare bedroom - done

Summer To-Do List Update

Well, I only have about a month left of vacation, and I haven't done very much on this list! I need to get my butt in gear!

Cleaning

1. Steam clean carpets and hard floors

2. Wipe down all baseboards and doors

3. Clean windows from inside and outside

4. Dust every surface, including ceiling fans

5. Apply furniture polish/wood conditioner 

6. Clean kitchen cabinets

7. Deep clean both showers/tubs

8. Knock down any cobwebs in all corners of all rooms

9. Remove any marks/spots on walls

10. Deep clean fridge/freezer - done

Fixing

1. Touch up chipped paint on walls in each room

2. Touch up white on baseboards, ceilings, and doors

3. Paint exposed wood on back patio door

4. Re-spray house numbers in metal spray paint

5. Touch up black paint on our dresser and bed

Decorating/Organizing

1. Hang green frames in office

2. Begin merging office/spare bedroom into office

3. Clean out office closet and organize - done

4. Reorganize spare bedroom closet

5. Get current with photos with printing/putting in albums

6. Reorganize kitchen cabinets/closets

7. Hang chandelier in spare bedroom

8. Go through books; sell unwanted

9. Sell other items not wanted

10. Refinish/paint mini-dresser for spare bedroom - done

Only 3 things done out of this whole list?! YIKES!

Summer Cleaning

I know this is nerdy, but I had a lot of big goals this summer to do some cleaning and organizing around the house. I am pretty proud of myself because, thus far, I have only been home for about 4 days total since our vacation, but I have managed to clean the pantry, the "shelves behind the blue curtain" in our kitchen, the fridge and freezer, the cabinets under our bathroom sink and above the toilet, and now the office closet! It feels so good to purge and organize! I am also thrilled because I only had to spend $37 on organizers at Target. I think that is a steal! 

Anyway...if you're a nerd like me and enjoy this type of thing....have a look.

This is the fridge, once we removed all of the food, including the yogurt that was 1 year old yet never opened. See that dark spot on the shelf in the door? Yeah, that is soy sauce that  has been bugging me for a long time! I don't have an after picture of the fridge, but just picture it with fresh food and that sick soy spot removed. Heaven!

These are the contents of the office closet, mainly scrapbooking and card making supplies, on the floor. 

Now, previously mentioned office contents put into containers and organized neatly on the shelves. DONE!

Summer is in Full Swing!

I hate cleaning. I may have sounded really motivated in a previous post to do all kinds of "cleaning" things around the house, but actually, I have changed my mind, and I now despise it. Ok, I will make a correction. I despise cleaning when I have a deadline. My old roommate and dear friend Laura is arriving around 3, along with Allison and Jenn. Laura (Lo, as we nicknamed her in college) and Allison have to rehearse some music for Allison's wedding which is now officially less than 2 weeks away! Ahhh! Jenn and I plan to shop around for some shoes for our bridesmaids dresses while they are gone, and then we are going to reunite for a dinner later on. Anyway, the point of this is that I have to have the house looking top-notch by 3, because Lo has never seen our home! This is a tall order, given that we have vacation laundry to wash and put away, I am knee deep in reorganizing the office closet (almost done though!), the guest bedroom looks like the guest from you-know-where has been living in there for a month (even though it is just our junk), and I have to clean the kitty box...EW (that is Luke's job for a reason)!

Anyway, I am going to talk about the positive aspects of life right now! We had a fabulous weekend, beginning with a Friday night dinner at Jake and Amanda Eichenberger's home. We ate tacos and talked and laughed and shared stories. It was really a fun night. Saturday, we had to hit the road to New Albany to attend Luke's cousin Erika's wedding. It was a beautiful day and wedding. We had a lot of fun at the reception, too. After the reception, we went to see the movie "The Hangover" with Jonathan and Ashley (Luke's cousin and wife). That movie is every fiancee's nightmare,  but it was so funny! I am still laughing about some of the scenes.

Luke getting some daddy practice in by carrying the sleeping Gus.

Liz was a bridesmaid. Look how pretty she is!

The "electric slide" :-)

10/11 Ernstberger children with their mom, Mary Ruth! WOW!

Sunday, we had a pool party at Luke's Aunt Marcia's home. She has a great pool and hot tub, and she generously opens her home each summer to have all 100 Ernstberger adults and kids over. I love spending time with the family!

Luke and I got home late last night and were really not motivated to do anything around the house. I did manage to get some laundry done, but it is the putting away that I really have problems with. I hate putting laundry away!

Well, I suppose I am not being to productive by complaining on this blog about all I have to get done before 3 (which is less then 3 hours away now). I need to just get my butt into gear and get it done. I am sure I will be very relieved when all these jobs are complete.

What the HAIL?

We had a crazy hail storm tonight! The sky was clear and the sun was out, and then it all went black! We heard what sounded like marbles on our roof and windows, but then we realized it was hail! We took some pictures and a video. It was madness!

Yes, it looks like January snow, but this is just the accumulation of hail outside our porch in June!

Hail everywhere!

Summer To-Do List Extravaganza...

I am currently taking a break from putting away loads of clothes that have been sitting on our floor for about 3 weeks....and I definitely have cleaning on the brain...so I thought I would really take advantage of this mentality and get all of my Summer "to-dos" out and in the open.

It is my goal to be productive this summer so as to avoid shopping every 10 seconds and eating cupcakes. I have divided my list into categories, and I plan to just cross a few things off each day until they are all done.

Cleaning

1. Steam clean carpets and hard floors

2. Wipe down all baseboards and doors

3. Clean windows from inside and outside

4. Dust every surface, including ceiling fans

5. Apply furniture polish/wood conditioner 

6. Clean kitchen cabinets

7. Deep clean both showers/tubs

8. Knock down any cobwebs in all corners of all rooms

9. Remove any marks/spots on walls

10. Deep clean fridge/freezer

Fixing

1. Touch up chipped paint on walls in each room

2. Touch up white on baseboards, ceilings, and doors

3. Paint exposed wood on back patio door

4. Re-spray house numbers in metal spray paint

5. Touch up black paint on our dresser and bed

Decorating/Organizing

1. Hang green frames in office

2. Begin merging office/spare bedroom into office

3. Clean out office closet and organize

4. Reorganize spare bedroom closet

5. Get current with photos with printing/putting in albums

6. Reorganize kitchen cabinets/closets

7. Hang chandelier in spare bedroom

8. Go through books; sell unwanted

9. Sell other items not wanted

10. Refinish/paint mini-dresser for spare bedroom

I will refer back to this list and cross things off as they get accomplished! I of course have lots of plans to have fun and relax, too. This is going to be one helluva summer!

Feeling Crafty

With Luke's massive amount of studying, I have had to really dig deep to occupy myself so as not to bother him every 5 minutes. Today, I completed two projects.

My first one was to spray paint a series of old, gross frames from my mom and dad. I am wanting to do a picture frame wall in the office, and instead of buying new frames and spending boat loads of money, I just took the frames off my parents' hands and primed and painted them. I used a pretty moss green color, and then finished them with a clear matte top coat. They turned out really well, and I am excited to decide which pictures will be displayed. I am thinking black and white pictures so they stand out of the green frames.

Before: UGLY

Priming

After: Green!!!

My second project was creating a piece of art for our guest bathroom wall. We have had a blank wall in there since we re-did the room in January. I wanted a modern look, again, without spending a lot of money. While at Michael's today getting more spray paint, I found a set of 16x20 stretched canvases (2) for $5.99! What a steal! I then bought yellow ribbon...one satin and one grosgrain. I also got a pretty green decorative ribbon with white flowers. I wove the two different textures of ribbons together and stapled them to the back of the canvas. I then put the green ribbon around the top just to add some interest and tie in the colors of the bathroom. I am really excited to hang it up and see how it looks!

Cherry Blossoms!

With this beautiful spring weather, our cherry blossom tree is getting more and more pretty pink blossoms! I am very excited to see it in full bloom. Here is a picture we took on Monday, when we saw the first bloom on such a symbolic day.

Also, my sweet friend Jenn brought over a framed cherry blossom print that will look beautiful in our home. It is so nice to be thought of and prayed for!

Ode to Craigslist

Luke and I have had a lot of luck on Craigslist over the past couple of years. We first experienced its glory when we were needing a washer and dryer when we bought our house. We could have spent thousands at Lowe's, but instead we spent $150 for a washer and dryer set that have done wonderfully for us over the past year!

We also bought a $40 queen mattress and box springs off Craigslist for our guest room. Our guests lovingly refer to this mattress as "bedrock" because it is quite hard...but hey, it was $40 and it gets used like 5 times a year.

Luke purchased a mountain bike that retails for hundreds for only $15 (and the seller included a bike rack for a car for free!)

Lastly, we coughed up the dough and bought a treadmill last night. It is straight from a private gym and only 3 years old. We are thrilled to have it and to say goodbye to our monthly gym membership fee. For $550, I would say it was a steal!

Less I forget the mirror from our bathroom that I sold all by myself on Craigslist for a whopping $15. Love it!

Signs of Spring

For a couple weeks now, Luke and I have anxiously awaited the blooming of our bradford pear tree in our front yard. Unfortunately, in the fall, the tree suffered some damage due to a wind/rain storm and a huge section of branches broke off. This was really upsetting to us, and it made us question the livelihood of the tree come Spring. Lucky for us, the tree has survived and looks beautiful! It is the biggest and best on our street, and we were dorks yesterday and took pictures of it. :-)

Additionally, we are waiting on the blooming of our weeping cherry blossom tree in our side yard. Of course this tree has special significance as it represents the child we lost in our miscarriage about 6 months ago. The tree has looked pretty puny throughout the winter and has worried us a lot, but we see signs of budding and we are very excited for it to bloom. The due date is approaching, April 13...and I hope we see blooms by then. 

Luke and I have had quite the wonderful weekend. Friday night we enjoyed some Puccini's, which is a local Italian restaurant with a few locations in the surrounding area. We ate it a few times last year on the northwest side, and we discovered a location right off 116th street so we dined there on Friday. Yummy! Luke then got the awesome idea to rent "The Brave Little Toaster," the 1987 classic tale of discarded electric appliances who go looking for their master. We absolutely loved watching the 22 year old movie and laughed the whole night. 

Saturday we spent a good 20 minutes laying in our driveway in the sun, and I think we both fell asleep! We also did a lot of productive things around the house like laundry and cleaning and putting the trim up in the bathrooms and entryway. YES we are STILL finishing up the tile job! It has taken forever! But I see the end...it is near!

I made some absolutely STELLAR crockpot ribs for dinner and really want to share the recipe with you.

Use anywhere from 2-3.5 lbs of pork back ribs. Do not use spare ribs as they are not as tender and don't do a nice job with this recipe. I made that mistake a few months ago.

Cut off any excess fat you see (I don't like doing this as I don't care for handling bloody animal parts, so I leave the fat on usually...)

Spray a crockpot with nonstick spray and turn it on low. Cut the ribs into 3 sections (about 4-6 inches long.

Mix 1/4 cup of brown sugar with 3 tablespoon of liquid smoke and some garlic (how every much you like, chopped up), as well as salt and pepper to taste. Rub this mix into the ribs and then layer the ribs with sliced onion. Red onion works nicely.

Pour a can of coke, diet coke, Dr. Pepper, pepsi, diet pepsi...any dark cola....into the crockpot with the ribs. 

Cover and cook on low for about 8 hours. The smell in your house will be amazing!

After 8 hours, take the ribs out carefully, probably with tongs or a slotted spoon because they will literally be falling off the bones at this point. Dump out the liquid from the crockpot, then put the ribs back in the crockpot. Dump in BBQ sauce (I like the Jack Daniels brand) in the crockpot over the ribs. Cook for about another hour.

Take the ribs out and ENJOY! They are so amazing. They fall off the bones and would make excellent pork BBQ sandwiches, too. This is Luke's favorite thing I make, and he even compares them to Loon Lake Lodge ribs, which is a high compliment! 

I just wanted to include a couple pictures I found of Edna on my camera. Look how pretty she is!

 

Tile Progress

Luke really worked his butt off over his spring break to tear up 3 different kinds of 20 year old linoleum, take off all the trim work, remove a toilet, lay the tile, grout the tile, break 1 toilet putting it back on, buy a new toilet and correctly install it...and now we are only one tiny bathroom (and all the little detail work) away from having the project done. I thought I would show a progression so we could admire Luke's handiwork. Feel free to "oooh" and "aaaah" as needed.

If at first you don't succeed....

We all have heard this before. "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." It's as if this phrase is truer now than it was when we first heard it, probably when we were 5 and trying to kick our training wheels to the curb. As adults, why is it that we feel so much like failures now, when it was tying our shoes and printing our names that seemed to trip us up so long ago? On paper, we should be deemed quite successful. We have a mortgage. We have two, nice, newish cars. I have a career, and Luke is in med school. These are very successful things! We have friends, family, and health. We are happy. I feel silly, after looking at this list, for feeling like a failure...but today....I failed.

I failed at teaching today. I snapped at some kids, got annoyed with a parent, said immature comments to colleagues (out of frustration and only venting about that annoying parent, but still...I sounded 12, not 24), and left feeling very overwhelmed and MAD! I was so angry that I stopped and binged on candy on the way home (my drug of choice...Cadbury Creme Eggs). Because of that...

I failed at my diet today. I have lost 15 lbs, and now I am letting this frustration with teaching impact my health and good eating habits. This is disappointing to me, but I know I will be back on track. Getting healthy has been a saving Grace for me, and I know I can't fall off the wagon because of something an ignorant parent said.

The end result....even in all my shortcomings today....I know that tomorrow is a new day and I will be just fine. For all the reasons listed above (and then some), Luke and I are succeeding, not failing, in life, and we are very blessed.

In a funnier "failure" moment...Luke broke our toilet trying to put it back on after the new tile was laid. We had to buy a new toilet (money going literally down the "pooper"), but oh well. You kind of HAVE to have a toilet. But, he installed the new one (with some help from my dad), and we chalked it up to inexperience and didn't let it make us feel "crappy" (I can't stop!). Luke has done a great job with the tiling and now we are down to all the pesky details like trim and transition strips and touchups and all that good stuff. I can't wait until the house is put back together for good (or until I start my next project!)