Medieval Times, Medieval Measures

We had a great Christmas, and even though it was quite hectic, it was fun to spend it with so many members of our family. Once the craziness of the holidays settled down, my mom, Tom, and I had a good time taking Sean and Beth to the Medieval Times dinner and theater in Schaumburg IL. Sean had already been dubbed a knight this past summer, so he was all set for his experience. We were quite pleased that Beth was entertained as well (she was mostly excited about the horsies).

We are now looking forward to New Year's Eve, where Tom, Todd, Kris and I will be playing BINGO for something like 8 hours at Potawotomi Bingo and Casino. It starts at 3:30p.m. and goes to about 1:30a.m. and includes approximately 71 games of Bingo. I may never want to play Bingo again, but at least there's a chance (although it may be a small chance) that we may actually walk away a little richer in 2009.

Enjoy the rest of 2008 and I look forward to blogging in 2009!!

Merry Christmas!!

Tom and I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!

Once again it's snowing!! I can't believe how much we've been getting dumped on lately. No worries about a white Christmas!

We bought ourselves an early Christmas present and have gotten a new bedroom furniture set. However, with us it never seems to be as easy as just making the purchase and enjoying it. The first set that we bought we actually ended up returning to Steinhafels. Thank goodness they have a 30 day happiness guarantee. The set itself looked awesome, but once I started moving stuff from my old dressers to the new dressers and I couldn't fit everything in it, I knew it wasn't going to work. It just wasn't functional. So Tom and I went back to Steinhafels and bought a different set. Now I am completely happy, as I have more than enough room and it still looks great. The second set was actually cheaper than the first so we bought some lamps and a plant to help decorate the room. It all worked out in the end.We hope everyone has a very joyous Christmas and a healthy, happy 2009!!!

New Car Pictures

Here they are . . . a couple of pictures of my new car!

2 Cases of Beer

Once again I am surprised how long it has taken me to make a post, so I'll just get right to it.

First, the bathrooms are almost completely done. Thanks go out to my brother-in-law Pete for coming over on Black Friday and helping us knock out some of the finishing work in the bathrooms. The cabinet in the master bathroom has been painted and put back together. Tom and I feel pretty good about the bathrooms, but those that have come to visit us and seen the bathrooms have suggested we also change the counter tops. We'll see about that. I'm just happy to have the bathroom back in working order.

Second, my big news is that I have bought a new car! I sold the Eclipse for $4,750 and 2 cases of beer! Yup, I said beer. What's up with the beer portion of that deal? Well the gentlemen we sold the car to was a pretty tough negotiator, but he also works for Miller. He happened to have a couple of cases in his trunk . . . so it helped seal the deal. My new car is a 2009 Subaru Forester. I have been loving it with the current weather. Being an all-wheel drive vehicle it has handled beautifully in these slick conditions. I don't have a picture of my actual car (haven't gotten around to taking one yet), but you can see the model here.

Slowly But Surely

Even though it's been awhile since our last post, there has been progress made on the bathroom projects. The new vinyl floor has been installed and the cabinets in the main bathroom have been painted white. Once the trim is hung we'll have that bathroom done (unless we decide to replace the counter top), with the master bathroom to finish. In the Master bathroom we still need to paint the cabinets, install the toilet, and hang the trim.

Poop Bathroom Project Update

It was back to work on the master bathroom this past week. The walls have gone from poop brown to "Cumberland Fog". Much calmer and brighter! We also hung the light fixture today. Unfortunately after we put it up we realized that although now that it is centered over the sink, it is not centered with the mirror. The mirror is too big and we'll have to get it cut down a tad. We have definitily ran into more setbacks with this bathroom than the other one. Errrr. The flooring has come in and we should be getting it scheduled to be installed soon.

Ryan was able to spend the night with us on Saturday night and on Sunday morning he helped Uncle Tommy with house projects. Thanks for the help Ryan!!! Have a good week everyone!

Fall Weekend Fun

The master bathroom project was put on hold this weekend, as we spent the weekend with my sister and her family in Iowa. Friday night we went to my brother-in-law's (Tom) football game (he is the local high school football head coach). It was an exciting game and his team won in overtime. This win put them in the playoffs and put Tom in a good mood for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday we went to a pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins, but there wasn't really anything to pick from, so we went pumpkin picking at Wal-Mart instead! We enjoyed a beautiful Autumn view at Pike's Peak Park on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River. I think Sean enjoyed himself even though when we were parking he was insisting that this park was going to be boring.

Sunday we headed out after breakfast to make it back home in time to go to Alissa's 7th birthday party. All in all it was a great weekend. Tonight, it's back to work on the bathroom!

Poop Bathroom Project Begins

For those of you that have visited us in the past, you know we have affectionately named our master bathroom the "poop" bathroom. Not because this is what you do in the bathroom, but because the color of the wall (and it might inspire you to poop). While I was gone for six weeks back a few years ago, my dear husband painted the bathroom a very dark brown. It was never quite the color we were going for, so the time has come for the walls to be painted once again.

Three coats of primer later . . . we now have it ready to be painted once again. This time it will be "Cumberland Fog", or in English, a light blue/gray. I know, I know. We just got rid of blue in the other bathroom, so you may be wondering why we are going with blue in this bathroom. Well, that's because that's what my husband decided and it will be a much subtler shade of blue.

But as in all house projects we of course had another surprise when we removed the light fixture. This time it was the appropriate hole, it's just not centered with the sink. We picked out a light fixture today at BBC Lighting in Milwaukee, and of course for it took look right, Tom will have to move the electric box over and once again do drywall repair. He is getting really good at it!

We finally did pick out a floor. It was none of the options we blogged about earlier. When we went back to Menard's we found a different floor we liked. It will be on the darker side but larger square titles. I was happy because it was actually the cheapest among the ones we looked at, and we are trying to keep these bathroom renovations to minimum cost. I do hope it looks good though!! It should be here in about two weeks.

Kinda of Sorta Finished Bathroom

For now the bathroom is finished! The towel racks are installed and the shower curtain hung. Now we just have to decide if we will paint or replace the vanity, replace the counter, and which floor to go with. But for now, it's operational once again.

Yellow Bathroom

I'm happy to report that progress has been made on the bathroom project. The walls have been painted "Banana Cream" yellow and the light fixture has been hung. Although yellow is Sean's favorite color, we did not choose this color because of him. However, we did ask him which shade of yellow he liked from our paint samples. Surprisingly he didn't like any of them. They weren't yellow enough!

Below are some pictures of some possible floor choices. We are leaning towards the dark, multi-colored smalled square title vinyl (all choices are vinyl). Let us know which one you like!

On the refrigerator problem . . . thanks to Todd for helping us install the new copper line. Works like a champ!

Bathroom Project Begins!

The bathroom project has begun!! After debating if we really wanted to start this project this weekend or not, we decided to go for it. The project slowed down when we removed the existing lighting fixture to find instead of just the electric box, but a 3"x7" gap in the wall. Unfortunately we didn't have any drywall on hand to patch it since the stock we had on had all got destroyed in the flooded basement of June 2008. We were however still able to get the priming done on Saturday night. Today we picked up the supplies we needed to fix the hole and got it patched. Once it's dry we'll be able to paint!

On another note, to make home improvement even more exciting, the water line to the ice maker in the refridgerator has once again developed a pin hole and has leaked water all over the place. You have to go figure if you start a housing project some other thing is sure to break down and cause grief!!

Yellow Hoop Earrings

Yes, I know it's been awhile since we've last posted, but life has been pretty uneventful. This past weekend however, my sister and family were in Milwaukee for my Grandma's 90th birthday party.

Saturday we had an exciting afternoon going to the Elegant Farmer to pick some apples . . .including a giant one for Sean's pre-school homework assignment. I think Sean discovered the fun of climbing trees since he was a regular monkey in just about every tree we came across.


Saturday we also celebrated my sister's 35th birthday (which is upcoming on Wednesday the 24th - Happy Birthday Jen!). Sean went with his Daddy and Uncle Tommy shopping to get her a present. He found her what he thought was the perfect presents!!! A yellow blouse with yellow hoop earrings! When asked what inspired to pick out the presents, he said that yellow was mommy's favorite color. This is particularly funny, as yellow is his favorite color since he was brainwashed by Grandma from birth to believe this. :) I don't believe yellow has ever been Jen's favorite color. Sean also said that if his mommy wore the shirt and earrings together than she would look like a banana!!! I think Jen really enjoyed her presents and is looking forward to looking like a banana!!!

Sunday, we had a wonderful birthday party for my Grandma's 90th. It was quite the turnout with a houseful of people and gorgeous weather to boot!


We haven't done any house projects for quite the long time, but we're planning on going back down that road soon by updating our bathrooms, so check back for our progress over the next few weeks. We always have such great, fun experiences with home remodeling so I'm sure the blog entries could get very entertaining.

Thanks for stopping!

Roar of the Lion

Hey everyone, just thought I would post some pictures from our annual trek to Oak Creek's Lion's Fest. As usual we enjoyed sweet corn, beer, brats, and cheese curds (the first ones we ordered actually tasted like cheese turds). Our fun began by running into the weenies that run around Miller Park and trying to get Vince to take a picture with them. He was right for being scared that this picture would be posted online and would haunt him the rest of his life. The carnies (small hands, smell like cabbage) as usual lured the kids into their impossible meth induced games with their cheap shiney swag made in China. Uncle Tommy was suckered twice into the basketball free throw game which he lost $10 bucks on. Even if his shot was on I don't think that ball could have fit through that mangled rim. Ryan was the human weed wacker with his new light saber that he won. The light began burning out by the end of the night and I'm not sure if it's from everyone he wacked with it or because it was made in China. Alissa won a big pony "Silver" from one of the carnies (I'm sure he's retooling the game so that never happens again). Over all it was a fun evening and even though we like to joke about the carnies we love it when they come to town. Nothing says fun like beer, brats, cheap toys, and unsafe rides. Until next year.

Here's a picture of me with my favorite brother-in-law
(yes Todd, I wrote this on purpose to see if you were paying attention.) :)

Planes, Trains, & Automobiles

Today we left Alaska and made it safely back to Milwaukee. We had a great time and really enjoyed seeing the sights. I think our trip can be summed up with the phrase "planes, trains, and automobiles". We certainly saw a lot of Alaska by all three modes of transportation.

On the way I home I had the opportunity to sit in the "jump seat" behind the pilots on take off. It was an interesting experience to watch them do their job and listen in on their chatter with air traffic control. It certainly makes me appreciate what they do as it seemed like a whole different world and language.

It was a good trip, but we are happy to be back home and return to "summer" for as long as it will last.

Even though the trip is over, stop back and check our blog every now and again. If something exciting happens in our day to day lives we'll be sure to blog about it!

Choo Choo!!

Today was another relaxing day with nothing on the agenda other than to catch the train at 4:45p.m. After all the excitement from earlier in the week, it was a little difficult for me to just sit back and relax. Upon leaving the lodge we headed into the small town of Talkeetna for lunch. I enjoyed a Caribou sandwich. It tasted a whole lot like a regular hamburger.

Nothing too exciting happened on the train ride home other than a moose sighting. You would have thought the train just won the lottery by the way everyone reacted.

Tomorrow we are heading out early to head home. I have finally included a picture of our clown car as well (the picture was taken at 10:00 tonight).

Mountain . . .What Mountain?

Thank goodness we took the flight to Mt McKinley yesterday! Had we not seen it yesterday, I wouldn't have believed that there was a mountain anywhere in the vicinity of our hotel. We had a very grey, dreary day today, as it rained most of the morning. We used our down time to relax and sort through pictures. In the afternoon we took a walk around the property where the most interesting thing that we saw was an unusual mushroom. Exciting, I know.

For dinner we had an excellent meal. I had halibut and Tom had Alaskan King Crab. That was about it for the excitement today. Tomorrow we have the morning at the lodge, and then catch the train back to Anchorage in the afternoon.

Click . . . Click . . . Click

This morning we headed to the Mt. McKinley Princess Lodge via train. The train ride was about 3 hours long and not overly impressive. Shockingly, only two pictures were taken on the ride. Once we arrived to Talkeetna, we decided to take the 1 hour ride to the lodge instead of staying in the small town.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous and sunny. Once at the lodge we sat on the deck and looked at the amazing view of Mt. McKinley. Upon reading our Alaska guide book and viewing our excursion options, we decided to go for it and take a Mt. McKinley flight seeing tour (good thing Tom is a little looser with the wallet than I am, or I would never experience these amazing excursions).

Here is where the title of this blog entry comes into play. Tom was so overwhelmed by the view, that he took over 300 pictures on the flight alone. Thank goodness the morning was slow for picture taking. We'll be spending a lot of time going through the pictures and whittling them down. We're staying two nights at the lodge and not sure yet what we'll be doing tomorrow . . . probably editing photos. :)

Snap, Crackle, Pop

The weather was good today and our boat tour of the Kenai Fjords Peninsula and glaciers was a go! Along the way we saw Bald Eagles, Puffins, a Humpback Whale, and Sea Otters. Perhaps the most exciting thing however, was the Aialik Glacier. The glacier gave us the title of this blog entry. As we maneuvered close to it you could hear what almost sounded like thunder. However, it was the glacier ice breaking free and crashing into the water below. It was pretty amazing and I was able to catch a couple of the bigger break aways on video. Someday when we figure out how to upload to You Tube we'll include a link.

Although the weather was good, the open ocean was somewhat rough. So rough that many of the tourists were using barf bags. I'm happy to report that although Tom looked pretty green, he never had to use the bag! One of the deckhands told us that the swells were 8 to 10 feet and was some of the roughest she seen the tour go out in. We were all happy that we endured the rough water to see the amazing sights at the Aialik Glacier.

This evening we drove back to Anchorage and tomorrow we're off to the train depot to take a train to Talkeetna and spend 2 nights at the Princess Mt. McKinley lodge.