So I know it's been months since I've posted...and I'm going to be posting updates on Ben and I VERY soon...but first...I wanted to tell you about a giveaway a girl name Shannon is doing of her super cute stuff! We used to go to church with her at McKnight and I can't wait to purchase some of her items! She's doing a giveaway and it ends tonight at midnight so hurry and enter! Here's the link!
http://shannonsknits.wordpress.com/2011/10/01/the-weekly-thread-my-etsy-versary/#comments
Good luck!
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
New Car!
Well, I guess I'm due for an update since we have something new at our house! We did in fact buy a car this week!
Last week, when Ben's truck had some issues, we started tossing around the idea of looking into a new car. We've known for a while that we were eventually going to be getting something to replace his truck because it's 16 years old, has 170,000 miles on it and we keep having to fix things! Plus, as we get further into the future, we'll want something a little more family friendly with good storage space. We hadn't really planned on getting something so soon, but after that happened with his truck last week, we decided we'd check into insurance and see how much that would go up for the type of SUV we were looking for, and we decided that we'd look around online at dealerships and see if there was anything we'd want to go drive to kind of figure out what we liked.
So last Friday, we went to a dealership right down the road here because we had seen advertised a 2008 Saturn Vue that looked really nice. So we went and test drove it, along with a few other things. Ben loved it! He was like ready to buy it right then! lol, but I had several others that I wanted to test drive first, and plus, it was our first day to look. Saturday we decided to go down to South Bend to go to some dealerships and drive all the different ones we wanted to test out. It was a long, hot day out on the car lots, but we got a lot of good test drives in and were able to narrow our choices down to 3 different ones. After a couple days of thinking about it and deciding, we decided to go back to this dealership here in town and drive the Vue again. I hadn't actually driven it the first time we went, and so I wanted to drive it and see what I thought and I wanted to look at it again to see what I thought about the trunk space...I was kind of hoping for something a little bit bigger. But after driving it and comparing size and prices to others, we decided to make them an offer! So we did, and they met us at a really good deal...so we are now the owners of a 2008 Vue! We never thought we'd buy one so quick into starting to look, but we really liked this one and it was one really good deal!
Here it is!
Last week, when Ben's truck had some issues, we started tossing around the idea of looking into a new car. We've known for a while that we were eventually going to be getting something to replace his truck because it's 16 years old, has 170,000 miles on it and we keep having to fix things! Plus, as we get further into the future, we'll want something a little more family friendly with good storage space. We hadn't really planned on getting something so soon, but after that happened with his truck last week, we decided we'd check into insurance and see how much that would go up for the type of SUV we were looking for, and we decided that we'd look around online at dealerships and see if there was anything we'd want to go drive to kind of figure out what we liked.
So last Friday, we went to a dealership right down the road here because we had seen advertised a 2008 Saturn Vue that looked really nice. So we went and test drove it, along with a few other things. Ben loved it! He was like ready to buy it right then! lol, but I had several others that I wanted to test drive first, and plus, it was our first day to look. Saturday we decided to go down to South Bend to go to some dealerships and drive all the different ones we wanted to test out. It was a long, hot day out on the car lots, but we got a lot of good test drives in and were able to narrow our choices down to 3 different ones. After a couple days of thinking about it and deciding, we decided to go back to this dealership here in town and drive the Vue again. I hadn't actually driven it the first time we went, and so I wanted to drive it and see what I thought and I wanted to look at it again to see what I thought about the trunk space...I was kind of hoping for something a little bit bigger. But after driving it and comparing size and prices to others, we decided to make them an offer! So we did, and they met us at a really good deal...so we are now the owners of a 2008 Vue! We never thought we'd buy one so quick into starting to look, but we really liked this one and it was one really good deal!
Here it is!
Friday, July 29, 2011
far away from home
Last week, I went down to Kentucky for the week...I was gone from Monday morning to Sunday evening. I went to Louisville to spend time with my Grandma. Monday she was discharged from the nursing home, so I picked her up and took her back to her apartment. Right around the time she got sick and went to the hospital, she was in the process of moving to an apartment upstairs from her old one due to some water problems, so when we got back to her apartment, it was full of boxes and things that needed to be put away, hung on the wall, etc. So while I was there to make sure she was doing okay on her own at home and all, I also was able to help her go through boxes and get her apartment organized. We had a really good time visiting and she managed to send a whole carload of things home with me! On Friday, my parents came for the weekend so it was super nice to see them. Saturday, all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins came over and we had a big get together to help hang pictures, move furniture, and everything else I hadn't gotten done during the week. It was so nice to get to see and visit with them, because alot of them I hadn't really seen since our wedding, and even then, I didn't really get to visit with them then. It was really a great visit, and I'm so glad that I got to go.
Of course, being gone for 7 days had its downfalls....I think that that's the longest I've been away from Ben in over 2 years! It was hard being away for so long! I also missed my kitties! Anyways, being gone, allowed Ben plenty of time to work on his thesis (which is finally almost done!), so that was good.
This week, I've just been catching up on things around here. We FINALLY got some prints of our wedding pictures, lol, so I picked those up, along with some frames. We'll get those hung up this weekend. I also have been sewing some. My Grandma gave me her sewing machine she doesn't use anymore and so I've been working on that and seeing if I'll be able to make something! It's been fun! I picked up some cute little patterns from the store the other day in case I get really good at it! haha.
Other than that, we've just been chilling! Ben had some trouble with his truck earlier this week, but that all worked out okay. Last night we got together with some couples that we met at a church we visited a couple weeks ago. Ben got together with them last week, but this was my first time getting together with all of them. The couples are so, so sweet and I'm really looking forward to getting to know them! Between the 2 couples they have 5 kids, with 1 on the way, so it's definitely a busy time, but there's never a dull moment!
Well, I better run. I have some errands to run and tonight Ben and I have a little shopping to do!
Have a great weekend!
Of course, being gone for 7 days had its downfalls....I think that that's the longest I've been away from Ben in over 2 years! It was hard being away for so long! I also missed my kitties! Anyways, being gone, allowed Ben plenty of time to work on his thesis (which is finally almost done!), so that was good.
This week, I've just been catching up on things around here. We FINALLY got some prints of our wedding pictures, lol, so I picked those up, along with some frames. We'll get those hung up this weekend. I also have been sewing some. My Grandma gave me her sewing machine she doesn't use anymore and so I've been working on that and seeing if I'll be able to make something! It's been fun! I picked up some cute little patterns from the store the other day in case I get really good at it! haha.
Other than that, we've just been chilling! Ben had some trouble with his truck earlier this week, but that all worked out okay. Last night we got together with some couples that we met at a church we visited a couple weeks ago. Ben got together with them last week, but this was my first time getting together with all of them. The couples are so, so sweet and I'm really looking forward to getting to know them! Between the 2 couples they have 5 kids, with 1 on the way, so it's definitely a busy time, but there's never a dull moment!
Well, I better run. I have some errands to run and tonight Ben and I have a little shopping to do!
Have a great weekend!
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Appliances!
So I've been supposed to post pictures of our new appliances for a while now, and I kept forgetting...today I finally remembered to take some pictures so I thought I'd share them with you!
We love them all so far!
Hope everyone is having a great weekend!
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Slacker
Well, I guess I'm already slacking and well overdue for an update! So what's been up with us?
We've just been settling in here. We still like our house but seem to be finding something every day that needs work or something. We've also been discovering lots of disgusting bugs...like slugs in the basement and these nasty centipede things with a million legs...like this
.
We had a GREAT 4th of July! On that Saturday Ben's brother Jake and his girlfriend were in Michigan City, IN, about 45 minutes from us, visiting her family so we drove down that morning and had breakfast with them and hung out on the beach with them down there. Then, our friends Sasha and Jonathan came up to visit from St Louis! So we met them here at our house for lunch on Saturday. We went down and had pizza at this super awesome pizza place on the beach and then we walked down to the beach and hung out for a while. That afternoon we relaxed and played alot of Canasta! For dinner that night we cooked indian food and Sasha taught me how to make Samosas! That was fun! On Sunday we went downtown to Antiques on the Bluff, which was pretty much a big garage sale with lots of antiques and few other things. We came back and relaxed that afternoon and went to a nearby town, Baroda, for an awesome fireworks display. Monday we got up and went down to Warren Dunes State Park where there are these huge sand dunes. We only climbed one...one was enough of a work out. Then there's a really nice beach there so we hung out, the guys swam and we had a picnic lunch! They had to head back to St Louis after that and Ben and I came back and took a nap. That night we went to downtown and watched fireworks from the beach..that was pretty cool! The fireworks here are awesome...unlike any I've seen before!
Let's see...what else? Last weekend was our first full weekend here by ourselves, Friday night we had a date night and went to dinner, walked on Tuscornia Beach and out on the pier, had ice cream at this really awesome place here and then rented a movie! It was nice! Sunday we went to a new church here...it was nice and we're really looking forward to finding our church home here!
Earlier this week, we finally invested in a window air conditioning unit...it was just so hot and muggy in this house without air conditioning! Of course, we put it in and yesterday was absolutely gorgeous and 70 degrees and sunny...todays a little warmer but still in the 70s. Oh well, it's supposed to be hot this weekend and next week. Yesterday I walked down towards the beach and spent the afternoon on the bluff overlooking the beach reading a new book. It was awesome! It's so nice being able to walk to the beach anytime I want to! Today the cats and I have been enjoying the nice day out on the porch.
Ben is still loving his job. As for my job situation, I did accept the position I had previously written about that will start full time after Thanksgiving, but I'll be starting part time for 2 days a week in September. I'm so excited about being a nanny for this family...they are so sweet and their son is great, and I'm sure their daughter will be too! I may also be doing some temporary nannying for another great family I interview with. Due to the increase in committment from my previous family, I won't be able to help this other family out for a couple months. They're having trouble finding someone, so I told them I could help out for a few weeks if they needed me to, so I may be starting that in a couple weeks if they don't find anyone first.
Next week I'm going down to Kentucky for a few days. My Grandma was sick a couple weeks ago and has been recovering in nursing home to get her strength back...so I'm going to go down and stay with her for a few days once she goes home. My parents will be going down that next weekend so I'll get to see them a little bit too!
I guess not much else has been going on...oh, the cats are getting along great now. They play together all the time...sometimes so much so that it's annoying! They always seem to think that our bedroom is a playground at 7am! I feel like I'm vacuuming everyday to get up all the little grey furballs all over our rug!
Well thats all for now...hope you all are having a great week!
We've just been settling in here. We still like our house but seem to be finding something every day that needs work or something. We've also been discovering lots of disgusting bugs...like slugs in the basement and these nasty centipede things with a million legs...like this
We had a GREAT 4th of July! On that Saturday Ben's brother Jake and his girlfriend were in Michigan City, IN, about 45 minutes from us, visiting her family so we drove down that morning and had breakfast with them and hung out on the beach with them down there. Then, our friends Sasha and Jonathan came up to visit from St Louis! So we met them here at our house for lunch on Saturday. We went down and had pizza at this super awesome pizza place on the beach and then we walked down to the beach and hung out for a while. That afternoon we relaxed and played alot of Canasta! For dinner that night we cooked indian food and Sasha taught me how to make Samosas! That was fun! On Sunday we went downtown to Antiques on the Bluff, which was pretty much a big garage sale with lots of antiques and few other things. We came back and relaxed that afternoon and went to a nearby town, Baroda, for an awesome fireworks display. Monday we got up and went down to Warren Dunes State Park where there are these huge sand dunes. We only climbed one...one was enough of a work out. Then there's a really nice beach there so we hung out, the guys swam and we had a picnic lunch! They had to head back to St Louis after that and Ben and I came back and took a nap. That night we went to downtown and watched fireworks from the beach..that was pretty cool! The fireworks here are awesome...unlike any I've seen before!
Let's see...what else? Last weekend was our first full weekend here by ourselves, Friday night we had a date night and went to dinner, walked on Tuscornia Beach and out on the pier, had ice cream at this really awesome place here and then rented a movie! It was nice! Sunday we went to a new church here...it was nice and we're really looking forward to finding our church home here!
Earlier this week, we finally invested in a window air conditioning unit...it was just so hot and muggy in this house without air conditioning! Of course, we put it in and yesterday was absolutely gorgeous and 70 degrees and sunny...todays a little warmer but still in the 70s. Oh well, it's supposed to be hot this weekend and next week. Yesterday I walked down towards the beach and spent the afternoon on the bluff overlooking the beach reading a new book. It was awesome! It's so nice being able to walk to the beach anytime I want to! Today the cats and I have been enjoying the nice day out on the porch.
Ben is still loving his job. As for my job situation, I did accept the position I had previously written about that will start full time after Thanksgiving, but I'll be starting part time for 2 days a week in September. I'm so excited about being a nanny for this family...they are so sweet and their son is great, and I'm sure their daughter will be too! I may also be doing some temporary nannying for another great family I interview with. Due to the increase in committment from my previous family, I won't be able to help this other family out for a couple months. They're having trouble finding someone, so I told them I could help out for a few weeks if they needed me to, so I may be starting that in a couple weeks if they don't find anyone first.
Next week I'm going down to Kentucky for a few days. My Grandma was sick a couple weeks ago and has been recovering in nursing home to get her strength back...so I'm going to go down and stay with her for a few days once she goes home. My parents will be going down that next weekend so I'll get to see them a little bit too!
I guess not much else has been going on...oh, the cats are getting along great now. They play together all the time...sometimes so much so that it's annoying! They always seem to think that our bedroom is a playground at 7am! I feel like I'm vacuuming everyday to get up all the little grey furballs all over our rug!
Well thats all for now...hope you all are having a great week!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Interviews
So today I had my first interview for a nanny position!
I was so nervous going into it just because while I've babysat and done some summer nannying before, I've never done like "official" nanny work! But, as soon as I got there and met the mom and dad and their 2 year old son, I immeadiately relaxed! They were so laid back and SO nice! Their son took up to me right away and we spend lots of time playing with Thomas the Tank Engine trains, reading books, making towers and me pushing him around in the grocery cart. I had a blast.
So this position wouldn't actually start until right after Thanksgiving because the mom is currently pregnant with their 2nd child and then she'll be off work for a couple of months, but I'd probably start helping her out before she goes back to work. She's a teacher so I'd have paid time off over Christmas and spring break! And then I'd have the summer off with the exception of helping her out every once in a while!
Now I just have a decision to make, but I'm SO excited about this possibility, I really feel like we'd be a good fit for each other!
Thanks for all the good lucks!
I was so nervous going into it just because while I've babysat and done some summer nannying before, I've never done like "official" nanny work! But, as soon as I got there and met the mom and dad and their 2 year old son, I immeadiately relaxed! They were so laid back and SO nice! Their son took up to me right away and we spend lots of time playing with Thomas the Tank Engine trains, reading books, making towers and me pushing him around in the grocery cart. I had a blast.
So this position wouldn't actually start until right after Thanksgiving because the mom is currently pregnant with their 2nd child and then she'll be off work for a couple of months, but I'd probably start helping her out before she goes back to work. She's a teacher so I'd have paid time off over Christmas and spring break! And then I'd have the summer off with the exception of helping her out every once in a while!
Now I just have a decision to make, but I'm SO excited about this possibility, I really feel like we'd be a good fit for each other!
Thanks for all the good lucks!
Monday, June 27, 2011
Our New House
Our house!
Down the street to the left
Down the street to the right
Flower garden in the front...my dad planted alot of them!
Fully enclosed front porch...we'll be spending alot of time out here!
The cats LOVE all the windows in this house
Looking upstairs from inside the front door
Living room
Dining room
Again..office off to the right
Looking through the dining room to the living room
from the kitchen
Kitchen
No appliances yet!
Still in the kitchen...door to the backyard/garage
Mini hallway from kitchen to bathroom on left and
basement door on right
Downstairs bathroom
Backyard and garage
Someone before us was obviously a Spartans fan!
Back of the house
Office
Again, kinda empty!
Top of the steps
Guest room
(my Grandma made that quilt!)
Guest room
Upstairs bathroom
Charlie :)
Master bedroom
Picture our small group friends gave us....
we miss you guys!!!
Miss Chloe helping me unpack!
Hope you enjoyed them! :)
Getting Settled
So I decided to start this blog so that we can keep all of our friends and family up to date on what's going on with us and how we're liking our new home!
We've been in St Joe for about a week and a half now and we're getting settled nicely. It was SO nice to have both of our parents here for a week and my brother here for a few days. I can't imagine what this moving process would have been like without them, I'm sure I'd still be buried in boxes. Instead, I have about 7 small boxes or so left to unpack that are just kind of random things that I'll have to unpack as we get settled.
Our moving adventure started with us coming back from our 2 week vacation to California on a Saturday night, the movers came on Tuesday and we left on Thursday...it was a crazy week to say the least. On top of all of that, we got another cat in the midst of everything! My mom found her on this website call freecycle and this family was giving her away because they were allergic to her. She's 9 months old and gray and white. My mom went to look at her and she was super sweet and so we decided to get her. My mom and brother went back the next day to get her (we were still in California) and she was super sweet then too...then she got back to my parents house and turned into evil cat! I think probably between the change in people, scenery and the smell of 3 cats and 1 dog in my parents house was too much for her....she was so mean, she'd hiss at you just for walking in the room they kept her in. Finally, the day before we left, she was doing much better around us humans but we still hadn't introduced her into Charlie. So anyways, she was an adventure in itself.
So on moving day, Ben and I and his parents, along with Charlie, drove up and after sitting in traffic several times, we finally made it! We got into our house fine and weren't here for 20 minutes when we discovered that it has no air conditioning! Was not expecting that! I guess neither of us thought to ask our landlord, we just assumed it had it I guess...oops! So we walked down to the beach and had pizza at this amazing pizza place and called it a day.
The next day my parents came up with Chloe (our new cat) and the movers also came that day. They were finished unloading by lunch time so by the time my parents got here that afternoon, Ben's mom and I had already unpacked and setup the living room and kitchen. And Ben and his dad, had already gotten a lawn mower and weed eater and had fixed up the yard. It was a productive day!
Over the next couple of days, we unpacked and enjoyed spending time with our parents and showing them around what little part of town we know and discovering lots of new things for ourselves. It was so nice to have both of our dads with us on Father's Day! That doesn't happen very often.
Ben started his job last Monday. He was nervous but so excited at the same time! He had a great first week and can really tell he's going to like it. The first few days were spent getting administrative things taken care of, but towards the end of the week he was able to start working on some projects and now has a better idea of what all he's going to be doing now.
Our parents left last Thursday and Thursday night we had some friends that were coming through the area stay with us. It worked out perfectly that we were able to see them and let them stay at our place for a few hours before they continued on to their flight from Chicago. Friday night we relaxed and then Saturday we left and headed to the other side of Chicago to this little town just across the Wisconsin border for a wedding of some of our friends. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful wedding. It was great to see some of our friends while we were there! We stayed outside of Chicago with our good friends Sasha and Jonathan and then yesterday we went to Six Flags! It was a blast!
I'm currently waiting for our appliances to be delivered! I'm SO excited to have a normal sized refridgerator again (we've been living out of a dorm sized one)...and we'll also be getting a stove, washer and dryer!
I'm going to make a second post here in a few minutes with pictures of our house.
We've been in St Joe for about a week and a half now and we're getting settled nicely. It was SO nice to have both of our parents here for a week and my brother here for a few days. I can't imagine what this moving process would have been like without them, I'm sure I'd still be buried in boxes. Instead, I have about 7 small boxes or so left to unpack that are just kind of random things that I'll have to unpack as we get settled.
Our moving adventure started with us coming back from our 2 week vacation to California on a Saturday night, the movers came on Tuesday and we left on Thursday...it was a crazy week to say the least. On top of all of that, we got another cat in the midst of everything! My mom found her on this website call freecycle and this family was giving her away because they were allergic to her. She's 9 months old and gray and white. My mom went to look at her and she was super sweet and so we decided to get her. My mom and brother went back the next day to get her (we were still in California) and she was super sweet then too...then she got back to my parents house and turned into evil cat! I think probably between the change in people, scenery and the smell of 3 cats and 1 dog in my parents house was too much for her....she was so mean, she'd hiss at you just for walking in the room they kept her in. Finally, the day before we left, she was doing much better around us humans but we still hadn't introduced her into Charlie. So anyways, she was an adventure in itself.
So on moving day, Ben and I and his parents, along with Charlie, drove up and after sitting in traffic several times, we finally made it! We got into our house fine and weren't here for 20 minutes when we discovered that it has no air conditioning! Was not expecting that! I guess neither of us thought to ask our landlord, we just assumed it had it I guess...oops! So we walked down to the beach and had pizza at this amazing pizza place and called it a day.
The next day my parents came up with Chloe (our new cat) and the movers also came that day. They were finished unloading by lunch time so by the time my parents got here that afternoon, Ben's mom and I had already unpacked and setup the living room and kitchen. And Ben and his dad, had already gotten a lawn mower and weed eater and had fixed up the yard. It was a productive day!
Over the next couple of days, we unpacked and enjoyed spending time with our parents and showing them around what little part of town we know and discovering lots of new things for ourselves. It was so nice to have both of our dads with us on Father's Day! That doesn't happen very often.
Ben started his job last Monday. He was nervous but so excited at the same time! He had a great first week and can really tell he's going to like it. The first few days were spent getting administrative things taken care of, but towards the end of the week he was able to start working on some projects and now has a better idea of what all he's going to be doing now.
Our parents left last Thursday and Thursday night we had some friends that were coming through the area stay with us. It worked out perfectly that we were able to see them and let them stay at our place for a few hours before they continued on to their flight from Chicago. Friday night we relaxed and then Saturday we left and headed to the other side of Chicago to this little town just across the Wisconsin border for a wedding of some of our friends. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful wedding. It was great to see some of our friends while we were there! We stayed outside of Chicago with our good friends Sasha and Jonathan and then yesterday we went to Six Flags! It was a blast!
I'm currently waiting for our appliances to be delivered! I'm SO excited to have a normal sized refridgerator again (we've been living out of a dorm sized one)...and we'll also be getting a stove, washer and dryer!
I'm going to make a second post here in a few minutes with pictures of our house.
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