I got nothin'

Nothing terribly new & exciting, but I hate to have a whole month pass with no new post.
Maybe this is worse though, a post that's not really a post...

So...we rented a rototiller this weekend & I have a little plot for a garden now. I'm really excited about growing tomatoes this summer. For a few summers in our old house, our neighbor behind us grew tomatoes. He'd leave bags of them on our doorstep. It was the best.

We visited the sheep barns at MSU on Sunday. There are sooo many babies right now. It was mostly wonderful, but we did discover a tiny baby lamb who had died. He and two others were separated from the rest of the sheep in a little pen inside the barn. The two little guys in with him didn't seem to notice, one was laying down with his little head resting on the one who died. It was sad.

We had a really fun night of dinner and beer with friends at Buddies on Saturday night. Mmmm mini cheeseburgers and Oberon.

I identified a new bird in our backyard, a Hermit Thrush. There are two of them who've been hanging out this week. I'd seen a Wood Thrush before, but not this one. So that was pretty cool.

That's all. I guess it was something at least.

Nosy, nosy...

Tonight I attempted to take some pictures for Pat of a helmet he's selling on Ebay.
Here's how well it started out. ;)

St.Patty's in Review

Enough time has passed that we are now fully recovered from the St. Patrick's Day weekend.
Our home and cats have fully recovered from the 48 friends who came to the most heavily attended yet, 3rd Annual O'Lynch St. Patty's Day Bash.
The garage is another story. For now, I rush in & out only when absolutely necessary, holding my breath against the odor coming from the mountain of returnables (many, many Guinness). That'll be the next job. ;)
Jer & I had an absolute blast last Saturday. Thank you to all who came & brought tasty soups, wonderful desserts, and yummy snacks. It was great to see everyone who has been hibernating for the winter, not to mention the sweet new babies, and fun kidlets. Although it doesn't look like it outside today, spring is just around the corner. We'll all be hanging out in each other's backyards soon enough!
I never did get my camera out on Saturday, so the only St. Pat's picture I have to post is one sent to me of Jeremy & Patrick at The Green Door on Monday. Jeremy is in disguise, you can tell by the "finger mustache". By all accounts the Monday party-goers had a great time also. Some of us (meaning me) had to work all day!
Anyhow, just wanted to say thanks. It was great to see everyone having such a good time.

Still a blog

See?

Peach pits

in your drain pipe are bad news.

Facebook

I joined Facebook today. :)

Well that was quick

Jeremy goes back to work tomorrow. Just one day off. It's funny, but we're both a little bit disappointed. We really didn't want it to last long, but laying in bed last night, we made some big plans for stuff that we could get done while he was laid off.

good news bad news

Good news first. Jess & I have planned a trip to visit my friend Julie in Wisconsin in October. We're taking the ferry from Muskegon to Milwaukee. Julie will pick us up there & take us to Madison where she lives with her fiance, John. Our hosts should be thrilled to discover what great fans Jess & I are of beer & cheese. All right Wisconsin! :)
So let's hear it for the bad news...Rah! Okay, so it's not so "rah". Jeremy was laid off today. We expected it to happen if the GM strike lasted very long. It just happened so much faster than I anticipated.
Jess & I bought our tickets this morning, Jeremy was laid off this evening. Maybe not the best timing for a trip, hopefully the strike will be short.
In related news, Jeremy has committed to working on the window re-glazing project during the layoff.
I guess it's all kind of good news, bad news, huh?

OCD

Jeremy bought a new canister vacuum this morning. The excitement that I am feeling about this new vacuum is not normal. I'm sitting here at work, excited for five o'clock so that I can get home & vacuum. Honestly, there is something wrong with me. ;)

Happy Labor Day Weekend

I spent last night having dinner & drinks on the patio at the Harrison Roadhouse with my good friends Ryan & Jess. There were a few times that Jess and I laughed so hard that we snorted. Yes, we snorted in public & more than once. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the three LARGE Newcastle that I drank. ;)
I'm getting picked up this morning at about nine to head to the beach. We're heading to my parent's house on Lake Michigan. Leisa (seven months pregnant/wearing a bikini) and her son Jasper (the soccer star), and our friend Kristen are picking me up & we'll head west. Two other couples are coming, one bringing their daughter & the other their dog.
It should be a really nice day on the beach. The weather is supposed to be wonderful all weekend, upper 70's to low 80's and sunny.
My friends are all coming for the day & leaving me there, so I have the night to myself until my husband drives over after he gets out of work tonight. YAY!
I think my sisters will probably end up on the beach with us at some point too.
Hope everyone has a safe & fun weekend.

Practice

Last night I attended the first soccer practice of my friend's son's team. He is four years old. The team is 4's & 5's. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
I would bet that you can pretty accurately picture four year olds on a soccer team. A few of the kids were 5 & had probably played last year, but again, they're still FIVE! The four year olds however were HYSTERICAL. If you ever have the opportunity to do this, please do. It's just about the funniest damned thing to watch.

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. Work has been busy, but is slowing down & house projects are the one thing we seem to have in abundance. I'll post some pictures of our latest project soon.

Minnesota Pictures

 

 

I've finally downloaded some pictures from our visit with my brother & his family in Edina.

The first is the sunset over Lake Minnetonka on the 4th of July. It was a great night, perfect weather, good tunes, great boat, sleepy kids & we were almost directly under the fireworks.
The second is Jeremy & I in front of my brother's house on our 2 year anniversary. This is just before we were treated to a fabulous Thai dinner in Minneapolis.

In other news, in less than 24 hours I'll be camping with some of my favorite girlfriends for the weekend. I'm so excited! :)

This is not the project I meant to start

Today I decided to wash windows. Our house was built in the 40's, and has the original double hung windows with storm windows on the outside. I knew this would be a pretty big project with having to wash inside & outside, plus to take the storms down & wash them inside & out.
I got the storms down & decided to start with a blast from the hose on the outside of the window to get off the major grime (they were really dirty). The putty that holds the glass in began falling off in huge chunks. I now know why the previous owner didn't wash the windows.
Sooooo, I'll be doing these windows one at a time. I'll now be scraping & reglazing the windows & then washing them. Window number one is scraped & primed with linseed oil, the putty is next. Wish me luck.

Long time no post

The month since my last post has been incredibly busy & supremely wonderful. It's just so great to live in town. There isn't one thing I miss about St. Johns.
In the past month we've packed, weeded out tons of stuff while we packed, moved (with the help of 13 wonderful people & an enormous truck), unpacked, weeded out tons more while we unpacked, had an all-day yard work party with my mom & sister, organized, had two overnight guests already, went to Grand Haven for my niece Hadley's high school graduation, had my 93 year old grandpa here to visit TWICE (YAY), had a few small backyard parties, flew to Minnesota to visit my brother & his family, celebrated our two year anniversary, enjoyed friends stopping by while we work (a welcome reminder to stop working & drink a beer), done what feels like a gazillion small indoor & outdoor home improvement type projects, made 9 or 10 trips to Lowe's, Home Depot, and Menards, and I was even able to have a girl's night with my Lansing girl's group!
Jeremy & I have learned (after nine years) that we can be pretty damned good at doing projects together. Now that it's OUR house, the work just seems so much more worthwhile. We've been pleasantly surprised at how well we're getting along as we put together storage racks, hang blinds, etc.
Soooooo all in all, home ownership is starting out well. There's a ton more to do, but I'm trying to tell my obsessive compulsive self to slow down, we have plenty of time. ;)

Still packing....

and moving in on SATURDAY! YAY!

Closing

Closing is set for Thursday at 10 am. I can't wait to get the keys!

So far so good.

We applied for our mortgage today & we removed the home inspection contingency from our offer. The inspection went really well on Friday. We had already done a pre-approval on our mortgage, so it should go fairly quickly. We're shooting for a mid June closing date.
It feels like this is all happening so fast, it's overwhelming in so many ways. On the other hand, we're so excited to get into the house that it can't happen fast enough!

Home sweet home?

We are well on our way to finally becoming homeowners.
The house inspection is on Friday. As long as there are no major surprises in the inspection, we should close mid June.
The house is in Lansing, just a few blocks from Ryan & Jess, and just a few more blocks more to Nick & Kelli's. We're so excited, nervous & nauseous, but excited!
Oh & hey, any suggestions for what color to paint the shutters? They're a dull gray now.

Speechless

I have been unable to comment on Traci's post from Wednesday. At first it was that I couldn't figure out where to start, and then nothing I wrote seemed to be enough.
I really was speechless.
To simply say that I was touched or to say thank you in a comment seemed inadequate. Instead we've emailed back and forth about it.

Traci's generousity of spirit is amazing. Here, with her permission, is part of her reply to my thank you...

"Somedays, when you wonder why life has thrown you curve balls, you need to reflect back on what you have learned from all those thrown at you.
In seeing what an influence you had on my life, it can also reflect on the influence you have on all your friends and family.
When the guilt of living,the days when Sarah enters your mind, remember what you gave her while she was here. And cherish it. Those are the moments and things in life that we remember."

I told Jess today, "that Traci, she's a thinker".
I am not always a thinker. I mean, I reflect, but I don't really dissect things, I can be more of a guy in that regard. Mostly life is good, and as long as it stays on track, I don't mess with it. Of course doing it my way means that when life throws you a whammy, and you have to stop and examine things, it's that much harder.
I do think that's part of why my cousin Sarah's death hit me so hard. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about my relationships. Sometimes I honestly can't believe how hard this is. I know it's been hard for so many people & certainly harder for some than for me, but I just can't believe how sad I am about losing her, and how much I miss her.
As I've said here before, I do treasure my friendships, and I appreciate all of the support I've been given. There are two things I say a lot, and I'll say them again. Thank you & I love you.

Sunshine!

YAY Sunshine! This morning when I left for work, I could hardly see from all of the bright, happy, sun-shiney sun in my eyes.
Jeremy & I were leaving the house at the same time today. I pulled out of the driveway & then looked back at the house to yell goodbye to him, it was so sunny my eyes were watering. It's hard to adjust after so many gloomy, snowy, dismal days.
It makes me so happy, I could cry.