Living and Dining Room

Here's pictures of our lastest project. We repainted the living and dining room in June. It was a pretty easy project for the most part. We had to do some wall patching which was interesting because we have slightly textured walls known as orange peel but we found some KnockDown at Home Depot that gave the same affect. Other than that we just changed out the lighting, and removed the ugly, heavy, very large mirror!!! The only things left are to make some curtains and get a new couch and chair.

Summer Fun Part 2

Yes, I'm terrible I know. It is now September and I am just getting around to getting to part 2 of our summer vacation.
So surprisingly the drive back to Minnesota went extremely well. It was a little tight in the back seat but Belle did great with extra people. Those in the back seat just got a little extra hairier.
So I'm trying to think back to the fun things we did with the girls. After driving up on Tuesday, we just hung out on Wednesday. We might of went out to eat but nothing too exciting. Thursday though, we headed to the cities. First up, the MOA-Mall of America. Boy did we make numerous trips around that place...and boy is it big. And wouldn't you know, I think we each only came out of there with one bag. While there we went and ate at Bubba Gumps, which has a great atmosphere-wasn't incredibly impressed with the food though. It was okay just not awesome :)
Also at the Mall we went to the Underwater Adventures which was pretty cool. I especially enjoyed the new jellyfish exhibit.
After the mall, we went to IKEA, which is a pretty cool store, especially if you are just starting out own your own and looking for some reasonably priced home furnishings and you have a small living place, just thought I'd throw that out there.

From there we watched our lives flash before our eyes as we almost got hit leaving the parking lot. Scared the begeezous out of me, but Tony seemed pretty calm about that.
So, we didn't go to the cities prepared at all on where we were going to stay for the night and we really wanted to go swimming. Wouldn't you know the third hotel we checked had a pool and a king sized bed available. It took us a while to find three hotels but we did get to see some cool neighborhoods in St. Paul.

The swimming experience was enjoyable to say the least and if anyone has seen my darling husband try to tread water you know why. He did manage to beat all of us in our races but I'm still sticking to the theory that he makes us laugh too hard and it's tough to laugh and swim at the same time.

The second day in the cities we weren't really sure what we wanted to do, and it turned out to be a rainy overcast day. We did want to go to St. Paul's Cathedral though. This place was absolutely beautiful. Everywhere you looked, there was something new to see.

From the Cathedral (we also drove past the State Capital building), Tony decided to give a driving tour of the cities. Granted this is list the first time we had been there our selves and he's giving us a tour... with no map referencing. We did drive past the University of Minnesota and we got to see a bunch more areas. After about 20 minutes of driving I start to panic b/c well 1, we don't have a plan, and I NEED a plan, and 2, we are lost. Finally I get out the trusty atlas and get us back in the correct direction(with a little map ready assistance from Tony).

After that we head to the Minnesota Zoo. Which by the way is a great zoo. Tons of animals, which a large majority of them being animals in colder climates..go figure. You won't find an elephant or giraffe at this zoo, but they some really cool exhibits.

After the zoo, we took the scenic route back home. Everyone was pooped.

The next couple of days we just hung out. I'm really having trouble remembering everything we did, but I do know we played many hours of the farming game. One of the days the next week we went to the Freeborn County Fair. The fairs up here are nothing like the Wabaunsee County Fairs....just ask my dad if you don't believe me. Anyway we went to the Love and Theft Concert and had a great time. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the fiddle player....it's okay...Tony knows I love fiddle players.

All in all we had a great time with the girls up here. I hope we can do it every summer:)

I'll talk about Mom and Dad's visit and let Tony tell you about the trapping convention in some later posts.

Summer Fun

At the end of July my first full week of vacation had arrived! I was so excited! Our plan was to go home for a couple of days and then bring our sisters up for some fun in the cities. Once again our drive home was pretty uneventful. But I did see a baby raccoon and I went nuts! I'm not sure how high of decibels my voice reached but I managed to put Belle into a slight frenzy and I definitely got Tony's attention. The little thing was so darn CUTE! I don't think I have ever seen one that small. Of course all Tony could think about was trapping after that but I told him he was not allowed to ever catch one that small. That goes for you too Wayne :) Other than that the only other exciting thing that happened was in Liberty, MO. We had to slam on the breaks for a red light. The car in the lane next to us decided to run it and Tony says, "watch he's going to get pulled over." And sure enough, here comes a police car with its lights flashy and pulls the guy over. Tony didn't think it was that exciting but I sure did, then again I entertain easily.

We got in Thursday night/Friday morning. Friday we headed to Alma for most of the day. That evening we headed to Uncle Mikes house for Lizzie's 10th (can you believe she is 10!) birthday party. There I finally got to meet the adorable Kaden. Oh he is just the precious/happiest little thing. I just wanted to eat him up ;)

Saturday's big event was Joni and Grady's Wedding!!! What a beautiful day and a beautiful couple. We had a great time catching up with everyone. I love our mini reunions! Congrats again to Joni and Grady we are very happy for the both of you!

Sunday we took it easy, just hung out with the fam's and oh of course attended the annual Wabaunsee County Fair and had some tasty pork burgers.

On Monday we headed up to Manhattan to go meet up with a bunch of Tony's past employers and catch up a bit. We also enjoyed lunch at the Bambo Buffet which I miss so very dearly. The Chinese restaurants in Austin have nothing on the Bambo. That afternoon we spent at Joe and Diane's and were I got to have some fun coloring and playing with playdough with Bailey. Not getting to see her more often is probably one of the hardest things about living so far away. She is growing so fast!!

Finally our trip home came to and end on Tuesday. We loaded up the girls and Belle (Picture 5 grown people and a 70lb dog in our tiny car heading for an 8 hour trip. We had no idea how this would work. I'll save the part two of our trip for the next post.

Sand-Volleyball Tournament

A couple of Saturday's ago, Tony and I participated in a fundraiser put on by the Rotaract Club. The fundraiser was a sand volleyball tournament in Rose Creek, a small town about 15min from Austin. Boy was it hot that day. Our team played very well and we ended up getting 3rd. Our final game was very close with the final score being 23-21. At this point we were pretty much exhausted. We didn't eat all day, the sun was blazing hot and so was the sand but all in all we had a great time. The pain from the sunburns to come later. We ended up also winning a couple of door prizes too so that was great!

Below is a picture of us with our team.

Independence Day

The weather was rainy but we were troopers and still went to the parade. Luckily the rain stopped in the afternoon in time to head to bandshell park. The entertainment and fireworks were great as usual....so was the yummy soft pretzel.

Camping at Sakatah State Park

Me and Lisa took a camping trip last weekend to Sakatah State Park. I wanted to go where there were plenty of lakes for fishing. It is about an hour and a half drive north of Austin. Once I got Lisa straightened out on the navigating, we checked in at the campground at about 5 on Friday. We got the tent set up and I went fishing.

I just fished from the boat dock because I didn't feel like unloading my jonboat. I hooked into a northern pike and got it all the way to the bank. I tried to lift the line to get the fish onto the bank but the line broke. The good thing was, the fish was in shallow enough water that it didn't move. I wasn't sure what to do to get it for a picture, so I decided to try and grab it. As soon as my hands got around it, it took off with my lure in its mouth. It was about 2 ft long and I think it weighed 3-4 pounds. It put up a good fight and ended up winning. Later that night I caught a fat bullhead and threw it back.

Saturday morning we woke up at about 5, but it was already light enough to fish. We put the boat on Sakatah Lake and went to a spot that a man at the boat dock recommended the night before. There were a lot of weeds on the lake. There were also Northerns surfacing all around us. We stayed on the water for about 3 hours without a bite. Pretty disappointing.

We went geocaching that afternoon and managed to find a few. We were the only ones on the trails, except for the thousand mosquitoes following us. Lisa's directional difficulties improved a little bit with the GPS in her hands.

Saturday afternoon we went about 15 miles to Madison Lake. It's supposed to be one of the best fishing lakes in Southern Minnesota. It gets down to 60 ft deep, and my anchor wouldn't reach at that depth. We found a quiet cove where other big boats couldn't harass us and tried some more fishing. The trolling motor battery died so it was all rowing at this lake. Lisa rowed for about 1/2 mile and did pretty good. Of course, I managed to snag a whopper bluegill. Lisa caught 2 drum. At least we didn't get skunked. If you notice Lisa's shirt, you can imagine the bad sunburn she got on her back.

Saturday night we relaxed around the campsite. We ate some good hamburgers and a brat. Lisa got a lot of reading in. Sunday morning I woke up early to give Lisa a good campfire breakfast. Luckily, she's not very picky. I just cooked a couple eggs and burnt a little bacon and she was satisfied. We got a warning from the park rangers about our dog being unattended the day before. Sorry about that Rangers. She was pretty understanding when I explained that my small boat with 2 people and a dog wouldn't work very well. We tried to go out fishing again Sunday morning with the dog and us in the boat. Lisa didn't care for Belle making the boat move so much. I was used to it. A storm was coming in and we didn't want to get struck by lightning, so we headed back to the truck after 1/2 an hour.

Overall, I think the trip went good. We had nice weather until late morning of the last day there. We got to spend a lot of time on the water. We couldn't get any fish for eatin, but I was glad to have my fishing partner with me.

Here Little Fishy

We went on our first official fishing trip of the year last Sunday. We just headed over to Fountain Lake in Albert Lea. Planned on getting on the lake with the jon boat but it was much to windy. We didn't have much luck but Tony managed to snag two of these whoppers ;)

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day all! It's been a wonderful weekend for the unofficial kickoff to summer. Tony and I are eager to get camping and to enjoy everything else that summer brings. Many thanks go to the men and women who have served and continue to serve this wonderful country we call home.

I realize it's been some time since we last updated this blog. I also realized I never added the pictures of the newly finished bathroom. We are so glad it's done. It was a long project but well worth it! Just about all this is left is to find a shower curtain that will go with the color scheme. For now, the one we have will do just fine.

We took some time off of renovating, about a month, and now we are back at it again. This item it's the living and dining room. Basically all that involves is fixing a couple of spots in the walls, along with the endless cracks have a plaster walled house brings, painting and finding/making new curtains.

(My husband LOVES to get his picture taken)

Other than that, not much else is new in our lives. Been keeping semi busy with weekend get-togethers with friends, garage sales, and Tony is wrapping up school. Only two more weeks!!! He's got an interview with the State Patrol next week so keep your fingers crossed and him in your prayers!

Hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! Congrats to all the recent graduates, especially, Katie, Brandon, Kelsey and Michael! Katie and Brandon-best of luck in your future endeavors. Kelsey and Michael -welcome to the big kids club; it's kind of over-rated :) Love ya all!

Spring is in the Air

Well I think it is safe to say Spring is here. We have been having abnormally (at least that is what I hear) higher temps. Not sure if that has anything to do with climate change or not...but at least I am enjoying the warm days. I've been able to get out and run most days. All the grass is really greening up and the tulips are finally starting to bloom. I love it. No leaves on most of the trees yet but they are fully budded out and a think any day now we will start to see some green on them too. I can't wait to start to start planting flowers. Oh and the ruhbarb is coming up like crazy. If anyone wants any please help yourselves. I have 8 plants that I don't know what to do with!

Tony and I can't wait until he is finally done with his schooling. We are really getting the urge to go camping and canoeing. Oh and we both got fishing licenses this year so I am super excited to get out to catch some fish!

Here's a nice surprise I found in the front yard yesterday. I always thought it was a pretty bush but I didn't think it would actually bloom.

Birthday

So last Friday was my birthday! Oh and Happy Birthday to my birthday buddie Brenda too! Thanks to everyone for the cards(and the money;)), the well wishes and phone calls. I received a nice surprise at work around 11:00. Tony got me this beautiful flower arrangement.

Later that night we headed to Rochester to go to dinner. Tony was all dressed up when I got off work. He had a whole list of these different restaurants picked out for me to choose from. Some of them didn't allow jeans. That's pretty fancy for us. I told him I wanted seafood and I really did not want to wear my dress pants all day so I choice Red Lobster. It was decisious as ususal. After that we headed to a movie. It'd been forever since we had seen a movie. We saw Date Night on the Mega screen. And it was a mega screen. We were sitting almost too close. The movie was great. I'd highly suggest it if you are in the mood to laugh. It was a wonderful day and weekend. My family and friends helped make it so. I'm so lucky to have great people in my life.

Thank you so much Aunt Carol for the box of goodies and gifts!! Tony especially enjoyed the candy!

Almost done!

Here's an update on the bathroom process. We have a shower!! Woohoo! You have no idea how excited we are about this b/c more tiles in the downstairs bathroom continue to fall! Plumbers came about a month ago and installed at the pipe work. Then we set to tiling the bathroom. This was a fun experience. I really enjoyed it. As long as I could keep them straight. Mostly I liked playing with the thin-set.

The most difficult part was the cut tiles. We rented a saw from a local place in town and had it from Friday afternoon to Saturday morning. Tony worked all day Friday trying to take measurements and getting the tiles cut. We realized later that it would have been much easier to do with two people. This way one could double check that if fit right. On top of that, Tony froze his butt off using the wet saw and by the time I got home from work he was ready to stop for the day.

Since we had a few more tiles to cut we decided to get up early on Saturday and get these done before our 10:30 deadline to have the saw back and only get charged for one day.

So we got up early ready to go. However we had a nice surprise when we went to cut more tiles. It never occured to us that it was really cold outside and we have a saw that requires water to work properly. Needless we found out that the water tubes to the saw were froze! Something we did not plan on. This took some much needed time out of our short schedule. So after a couple of buckets of hot water and a hair dryer or two we got the saw back in proper working order.

The rest of the morning was a busy blur but we made it. Some of the tiles could of been done better but overall I believe we are statisfied with our first tiling experience.

Tony grouted and sealed the whole bathroom. I found out that I wasn't as good at this but I did try grouting on very, very, small part.

All that is left is painting, installing the new vanity and faucet, medicine cabinet, and other finishing touches. I can't wait!

On a side note, I received some good news at work this week. I received a promotion and I will be moving across the street to the corporate office. I look forward to the challenges, excitement, as well as the summer hours it brings ;)

New Truck

This story is actually Tony's story to tell but I've been hearing from people that we need to update the blog so here you go.

A couple of weeks ago Tony rolled his truck on interstate. He was fine. Didn't have a scatch on him, the the good Lord above. The Toyota didn't fare as well. The insurance ended up totalling the truck. So for the past week and a half we have been truck shopping. It was a lot of back and forth. At the moment we don't really need a full sized truck but we would like to have one in the future. After much hunting (the internet was a big help), Tony found a few that he wanted to go test drive. One day before his class in Rochester he test drove a few. Later that night he told me he thought he found his truck. After a quick phone call to the best mechanic in the world, I was like okay, lets go look at it tomorrow night after I get off work. The next day I go home for lunch. Tony's says I think I may have found a better truck. It was a year newer and it had less miles.

So that night was a long night. One truck was in Fairbault (about an hour North) and the other in Rochester(45min east of Austin). So we made a big trip. We got to Fairbault and the truck was up on the lifts. They were fixing something(like I said, Tony could tell this story much better). Anyways we got to Fairbault at about 5:30, expecting the test drive the truck and head to Rochester and test drive the other truck, but we had to get there by 8. We both knew we'd be cutting it close since they were working on this truck(kind of a bad sign huh). I think it was 6:45 by the time we were able to get in the truck. Drive it for a bit and headed to Rochester. Tony was thinking he liked the one in Rochester better, and after seeing that one, I did too. So that's the truck we got.

We had to go back the next night to get it and sign all the paperwork but so far we have enjoyed it. It's definently something we plan to have a very, very long time. Probably the biggest downside of it is it doesn't fit in the garage :( Which means we, or I rather, get to play musical cars in the morning if I want to take the car to work. Oh well, I'm in love with the truck...I've always wanted a big truck although it came a little sooner than we planned.

Really wish we had a sled about now :)

Thought I'd share this picture with you. We are having a large system come through. It's supposed to snow until Wednesday. I think our folks in Kansas are going through the same thing too.

Here's a photo of the snow that has accumulated in our front yard by taking it off the drive way. We are going to start running out of room! They said we are supposed to receive between 7-10 inches when all is said and done.

Hope everyone is well!!

Happy Birthday Dad

Happy Birthday Dad!

Wish I could be there to spend it with you! A girl couldn't ask for a better dad. I look up to you in so many ways. Thanks for aways being there and supporting me!

Hope you didn't have to work today, but I do, so you should feel sorry for me :)

I hope you have a wonderful day!I love you!

Love,
Your Pokey Pocahontas

Bathroom Redo

So by fate we had to start remodeling the bathroom. We were wanting to do this project next but I think we both thought we would wait until around springtime. Well as luck would have it, life had a different idea. Our shower downstairs needs replaced and we were hoping we could do that after we got the upstairs bathroom redone. That way we had at least one operating bathroom at a time. Well, last week Tony was taking a shower and about 6 tiles decided they had had enough and fell. So our alternative. Get the upstairs bathroom ready to go. This is our biggest and most difficult project so far. Lord help us we are going to tile! Really wish my brother-in-law didn't live 8 hours away!

Hopefully we will be able to accomplish this task and at least Adam is only a phone call away if we get into some difficulties. Maybe he'd be able to talk us through it.

So yesterday Tony started taking down wallpaper and the nasty blue plastic wall tiles, as well as the adhesive behind those. I'm thinking we are going to have to buy some adhesive remover because that stuff is as hard as a rock!

Last night we went to Home Depot, spent a few good hours collecting anything and everything(hopefully we got everything) that we will need. Thanks for the gift cards from those that gave them! They we put to wonderful use last night.

So since Tony has his academy all day today, I'm tasked with taking down the rest of the wallpaper, only one layer this time (Thank God for small blessings), and the tiles. Most of today I have been scraping glue from the wallpaper off. What a messy job. I'm taking a break to write this otherwise I think my arm would fall off. I do have to add, there is some sexy pink paint under the wallpaper. Just thankful the bathtub wasn't pink!

Well that's all I have for now. Wish us luck!

Before

Bye, bye medicine cabinet...

Not looking forward to removing the adhesive...yuck!

Snow, snow and more snow.

Just wanted to show you an update of what the house looks like with all the multiple snows we've had. One thing I've learned since moving to Minnesota, the snow doesn't melt in a few days. I think when it comes its here to stay until Spring! We had around 3 big snow falls this year. Two being rather large storms. The other times we've had just a few inches.

Had a take a picture of the bird my our feeder this morning. (Sorry its kind of hard to see)

Merry Christmas...a few weeks late!

Tony and I had a wonderful Christmas despite the terrible weather. We had originally planned to leave Christmas Eve and if we did I don't think we would of made it. We left Austin at 5 Wednesday night. It had been snowing for a couple of hours in Austin, big flakes. I-90 was terrible. I wanted to turned around even before we got to Albert Lea. Once on 35 we were good until we hit Iowa. There we hit the freezing rain.I think it took like 3 and1/2 hours to get to Ames while it normally takes 2. We were going 35 most of the time. Thank God I wasn't of driving. There were people in the ditch all over. But we made it into Alma at 2 in the morning. The whole trip only took around 9 hours which is only an hour and a half more than normal.

Alma got pounded with the white stuff on Christmas Eve. We had some eventful occurrences on the way back from church both times. :)

Christmas day we headed over to Aunt Elaine and Uncle Danny's house. (Which the new remodel looks fabulous by the way). There we enjoyed a wonderful meal, some bingo, and a joke on Duane. Duane, our family wouldn't be the same if we couldn't make fun of you :)

I am truly blessed to have such wonderful people in my life.

Christmas day night, we headed to my mom and dads for gifts because we weren't able to make it in the morning due to the circumstances. Mom and dad spoiled us! Gift cards to Home Depot, Tony has a real gable to hang up his deer so he doesn't have to use the contraption he made, and I got the entire series of Dr. Quinn Medicine woman!!! I was so excited!!! Thanks again mom and dad!!!

The next day we got to see Adam and Bailey and they opened their gifts. Bailey found a lady bug after the presents and that kept her occupied for a good 20 minutes. She is so much fun! After this we headed to Grandma Sally's for another great dinner and some funny conversations.

We didn't get to really hang out with friends while we were back. Darn weather. Oh well, Michael did stop by when he was finally able to get out of his house and it was nice to meet up with him.

While we had to do somethings this Christmas "out of order" we had a wonderful time just being home with our families and we can thank you all enough for all the support, encouragement, and love you have given us. One thing is for sure, many, many memories were made this Christmas.

Tony got some new insulated waders for trapping.