Not A Lot Going On . . . Yet

Well, as you can probably tell from the lack of blog postings, not a lot of exciting things have been happening in 2009. You probably also assumed that without a blog posting on January 1st, that we probably didn't win at Bingo. Your assumptions would be correct. Although we had a good time (most of us anyway. I don't think Bingo was really up Tom's alley), we didn't win anything at the casino on New Year's Eve.

So far in January we've tried to stay warm, and that's about it. Next weekend however, is my nephew Sean's 5th birthday and we look forward to going to Iowa to celebrate it with him. The following weekend, we have our fingers crossed to be one of the lucky few to board a free Uncle Sam flight to Hawaii for a week's vacation. Seats are limited and we won't know for sure if there is room for us until about the day before. If we don't make the flight, I will be searching the internet for a last minute vacation anywhere warm with a beach. We are definitely ready to take a break from this Wisconsin winter.

That's about it for now. I hope to be blogging very soon from the beaches of Hawaii!!!

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.