Monday, June 30, 2008

Happy Campers


After checking craigslist daily for a used (cheap) pop-up camper - we finally found one yesterday. It was listed for probably an hour before we called and Josh drove to Little Falls to check it out/pick it up. Seems like we got a good deal - no leaks, everything works (oven, ice box, electricity, etc), just needs a few stitches sewn (which shouldn't be an issue for crafty me). This thing is huge - it really can sleep 6-8 people comfortably!. It also came with a spare tire, 2 full propane tanks, new covers on all the cushions, a microwave, and the guy even gave Josh a ball hitch so we could tow it home. All for $500.
Now we just have to go camping :)

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Average Joes

More from the local Tri-Guys - Ryan, Dan, Josh, & Wade - this time it was the Average Joe Triathlon in Perham. The weather held out and made for a great race (although it poured the entire ride home). Congrats to all the guys for their hard work and for Dan getting SECOND PLACE out of probably 150+ participants - he's an animal! Looks like all of the guys improved their times, and they had a great time together :) Just look at Wade & Josh at the finish line!
Special congrats of course to my hubby - I am amazed constantly by your hard work and dedication - I love you more every day!

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Thanks Mom!

Spent the past two days in Brainerd, hanging out in the sun, trying to get a good pic of Anna in the flowers despite her frowns, remembering our Great Great Aunt Evelyn and saying goodbye, then shopping and garage sale-ing.
I always seem to find the best gifts form Fleet Farm, and always from Mom:


The birthday gift included the shepherd's hook, thistle seed bag, bells & holder, hummingbird feeder, finch feeder, suet cakes, and a huge bag of seed :)
Thanks Again Mom :) Just as good as the awesome greenhouse you got me, too :)

Thursday, June 19, 2008

A Dog's Life

The epitome of LAZINESS...
















P.S. I wish I was a dog

I'm a Peach

Birthday flowers from Josh - aren't they perty! And check out the tag & my new last name :)
(oh and I couldn't take a pic without Boscoe the snoop - he really likes how they smell!)

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Happy Birthday Girls!

Gotta say Happy Birthday to my beloved coworkers Stacy & Sharon (and me, too I suppose :). I envy Sharon and her craft/sewing skills & Stacy is my best bud... Here's to another year ladies!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Weekend Warriors

So far it has been a very productive weekend! Friday night we babysat for Angie for a few hours, then Saturday we pretty much didn't rest all day long. The day started with a stop at the carpet remnant store to get samples for our guest room, followed by a late breakfast at the Minnesota Nice cafe. After that we headed home to check out the samples of carpet & vinyl we had picked up next to the wall color - it looked great! We are doing half the room in a liht tan burber(sp?) carpet and half the room in a matching vinyl - carpet under the beds, and vinyl for a sort of play area.

Next we made a stop at Home Depot for supplies for fixing the ceiling in the room (Josh's weight equipment ended up being too tall, causing us to accidentally poke a hole in the ceiling drywall). We decided on white paneling with a wood trim. The next few hours included some pretty hilarious do-it-yourself mischief as Josh is in a cast so I had to try hammering, which ended up not working right so we had to make another trip, this time to Walmart, to pick up screws instead of trim nails as the nails were not staying properly and I was having a heck of a time trying to hammer looking up at the ceiling (weird angle I guess!).
After finishing the ceiling, we went back to the carpet place and gave them our dimensions and put in our order for Monday pickup. Total $ for fixing up the room including the ceiling, trim around the room & ceiling, carpet, & vinyl was approximately $500-550.

Of course, being the ever ambitious couple we are, we also decided to rearrange our living room - hoping to open the room up a bit more and make it look bigger. This ended up being a pretty big task, especially with a huge sectional couch, TWO cable boxes with numerous wires, an entire surround system complete with about 5000 more wires, another couch, a fauxplace (our fake fireplace), a gorgeous rocking chair dad made, plants, lamps, and of course a coffee table. Not sure how we fit all this #$%@... But it ended up great and we found lots of Boscoe's missing toys hiding underneath things (and just as much dust!). All that's left is to move the pictures on the wall to the opposite wall and find something bigger for their old place. It was really nice to finally get everything CLEAN, even though the room is already covered in dog hair again.

Last but not least, Josh picked up a bottle of wine (check out what he picked out Carren!) and some beer to reward our hard work, and we both collapsed on the couch with a movie before going to bed. Great day! Now today, more cleaning in the rest of our house, and possibly a trip downtown to a game shop (for more Wii games!), the book store, and probably the tea/gift shop.
I really think I could write a book with all of the things we accomplished this weekend :)

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Tic Tac Toe


Thanks for the pattern and chalkboard fabric Colleen!!

Lucky Me

Just after winning at the WAM tournament, I also got an email from thenestbaby.com and found out I had won their Father's Day Giveaway! A Synergy Carrier from Baby Bjorn - YAY!
The question asked of readers was - What makes or will make your husband a great dad?
My answer - My husband grew up in a broken home, often living without electricity or running water, constantly moving from place to place. Ever since he has been able, he has been working with kids in similar situations, trying to help them realize that it does not define them and you really can be whoever you want to be. This is definitely what will make him a great dad - he wants to be the role model he never had.

Now all we need is a + sign :)

Saturday, June 7, 2008

The Reel Hookers Rock!

Check out Em's blog for pics with her super camera - but here is the short and sweet stats:
Mom: 3 fish weighed in - Third Place Bass($200); Third Place Perch($100); "Home" raffle package including a lamp, portable gas grill, salt & pepper shakers shaped like fish, and a blender; door prize - towel, tee shirt, hat
Emily - 0 fish weighed in - $165 won in "Split the Pot"; door prize - tee shirt, towel, hat, bag
Stef - 2 fish weighed in - door prize - tee shirt & cookbook
Me - 2 fish weighed in - Second Place Bass($300), door prize - hunting vest and hat

Usually we barely win any of the door prizes :) Great year for the girls - can't wait for next year!

Monday, June 2, 2008

UGHHH

So our washing machine crapped out on us yesterday; thus, our new purchase below:

So far so good, although the washing machine started seriously walking aross the bathroom floor during the spin cycle - troubleshooting says it may not be level or the load was uneven - we'll see how that goes :) Our floor is definitely not level :)

Washer - 3.8 CF and says that it only costs $12 a YEAR to operate based on 8 loads/wk
Dryer - 7.0 CF and hopefully dries in less than 3 hours (yep that is how long our old one took, if not longer...