Fall Fun

A few weeks ago, we had our first trees in our new yard delivered and installed. It is truly amazing what a difference a little bit of nature has added to our bare lot.

Although our house felt like our home months ago, the addition of our new trees has truly begun to complete the package. We are already enjoying the beautiful fall foilage and the shade that our new Maple trees have to offer.

I just thought I would share a quick picture of the proud tree owners enjoying a bit of nature...in our own front yard :)

Our deck is reaching completion...

This summer, T.J. and his dad have been working hard every weekend on building our family a deck to enjoy. This past weekend, the railings on the main deck were completed, and all that remains is the gate at the top of the steps and the railing for the steps (and a few little finishing touches).

I am so very excited to watch this beautiful deck be built right before my own eyes, and can already imagine our family enjoying it with our little girl next summer! I can picture our landscaping around the deck skirting, and get excited when I think of the garden I will plant. Thank you T.J. and Tom for spending so very much time and energy every weekend to work on our house and for doing it all with amazing attitudes! I am very grateful for having you both in my life! Thanks again!

Do weekends move faster than weekdays?

As I awoke this morning, I came to the realization that weekends must literally make time move faster than a typical weekday. It seems like just yesterday I was here at work preparing for the weekend, and yet somehow the weekend is now gone and it is Monday again! Is anyone else amazed by that concept?

Overall, our weekend was pretty good! We got a bit of a jump start to the weekend when my Dad met T.J. & I for lunch on Friday at the Behle Street Cafe. Thanks Dad! After work, we stopped by the Home Depot for some deck supplies, and then headed home for a wonderful evening of Netflix and Pizza (one of our favorite ways to spend an evening).

Saturday started a little earlier than I would have liked at just before 8:00 AM as we prepared for my wonderful father-in-law to arrive to assist T.J. with more deck building. The progress is moving right along, and the framing of the steps is now complete. In no time, we will be able to relax and use our backyard! While they were working hard outside, I relaxed a bit due to a headache and worked around the house.

I was pleased to bring the hard working boys back some lunch from Burger King. I can't quite describe it, but with this pregnancy, I have literally been craving fried food (I know...not healthy, but it sure is good!) and am always eager to share the extra calories with my loved ones. After lunch, I crawled back into bed trying to fight the headache with the only medicine I am comfortable taking right now...SLEEP.

We prepared for church and our Father's Day evening with my Dad and brother. After church we headed to Don Pablo's for some celebrating of fathers! It was nice to just relax and enjoy family for a while, and of course to see our niece and nephew who we don't get to see too often.

Sunday- again began far earlier than imagined, at 7:45 AM. I have learned that the earlier you wake up, the more hours in the day (I should have figured that out years ago, but I have enjoyed sleep far too much). I wanted to be sure to wake up early with T.J. to give him his Father's day to be gift, and shower him with love. We spent most of the day just relaxing and enjoying each other and the many sports available on cable. We made dinner together and then enjoyed a nice walk around our neighborhood before the storms were scheduled to roll in.

Overall, a pretty great weekend...but again, it does leave you to wonder what makes time fly so much more quickly on the weekend than on a typical weekday?

Our Deck is Underway!

On Memorial Day weekend, my wonderful husband and father-in-law began working on building our new deck! We have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of our deck, since once it is complete, we will be able to begin using our yard more often. In just a few days, an incredible amount of progress was made, and the floorboards were almost complete.

I have to admit that I felt guilty watching them work so hard in the hot weather, but they insisted I was not to help, so who was I to argue?! Although the picture above is a few weeks old, I couldn't help but show off the amazing work that they were doing.

This coming weekend, more progress is to come, and the stairs will be added. So, until then...I just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to Tom & T.J. for working so hard for our family! I really appreciate it!!

Moving Day

After 7 months of preparing for our new home, moving day had finally arrived! On February 26th, the weather forecasters were calling for rain and snow showers, but we were determined to move forward with our moving date. At 7:00 am, T.J. left for our storage unit in Western Hills, while I ventured toward our new home to await our appliance delivery and installation. The appliance delivery people arrived a little after 9:00 only to discover a dented fridge has been delivered. So, I decided to accept the range and wait a few days for a new, undented fridge to arrive. Around 10:00 the movers arrived, and the true work began. Since we hadn't seen the majority of our belongings in such a long time, I found myself getting excited when a mover was carrying a piece of furniture I had forgotten that we had, and therefore forgotten how much I liked! Luckily, the weather held off and we were moved from our storage unit to our new home in a little under 4 hours. We were very blessed to have amazing movers to assist us during the moving process, making what could be a very stressful day, relatively stressless.

I think it is safe to say that the first week in our new home went by in a blur of boxes and chaos. Especially the first few days, which entailed several visits from installers of all sorts (cable, phone, security, garage door openers, etc.) just to name a few. Thankfully, my wonderful in-laws brought dinner and help the day after moving, which was just what we needed! They were able to offer advice and recommendations that we hadn't thought of, not to mention they had a lot of energy that we simply no longer had at that point.

A week ago today, our brother-in-law Jason, graciously offered to help us move the remaining items out of my mom's house (where we have been staying during the building process, thanks Mom!). Although the U-Haul rental was almost 2 hours behind our reservation time, Jason & T.J. were able to move the majority of our stuff onto the driveway while I picked up the U-Haul truck and brought it back. This moving day was quite different than just a few days prior, as the weather was almost 65 degrees, rather than the snow we had experienced on Tuesday. Thank you Jason for all of your help!

And so, for about a week now, we have been completely moved into our new home. And, we have been settled for about four days...but, we are well on our way, and are loving every minute of it!