haphazard musings

Oh...

and because I thought you might be curious...

This is the view from my window.  And here is one of my favorite songs to go with it. 

Happy Friday!

September

A Lucky Break

Whew, what a morning I had. : )

I was really hoping for a snow day.  You know the kind where its just to dangerous to get to work.  My employee handbook says I have the ability to declare one.  But since school wasn't canceled, I didn't think that that made this day "just to dangerous."

So here I am on my lunch break watching the snow come down like crazy. 

So, I thought I would tell you a little story.

I was leaving for work, right around the normal time, and I ran into a little problem.

I got stuck.  In a snow drift.  I didn't think to take pictures, but I was in kinda deep.  Apparently there was a misleadingly large pile of snow at the bottom of our driveway. 

I was going back and forth and back and forth, but only about 5 or 6 inches.  So I called Ryan, and he said he would come home from work and help me get out.

But luckily, it didn't come to that. 

A very nice man and his friend, both of whom live down the street from us, came down in their giant truck.  Its the kind Ryan would love to have!

Anyway, they came over and pushed me backward while I gunned the engine.  After a few minutes they had me out and off to work I went. 

However, just before I left, one of them told me he was going to come over and clear my driveway with his little tractor and scoop. 

So, thanks so much to the guys that live down the street!  You really made my day!

Perhaps some day I can return the favor.  Or at least I can make you some cookies or something.

House Project 2

was an easy one, but it involved several months of debate. 

I am non-committal when it comes to making holes in the walls.  I just don't like it.  Its one of those irrational fears.  There is no reason at all not to put a hole in the wall.

Anyway, finally, after about 6 months of photos in frames, Ryan and I finally cut paper to fit the size of the frames and stuck them to the wall with some tape.

We moved them around about 20 times.

Then decided we needed to move the furniture.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a before picture.  So you will just have the afters.

 

If you aren't familiar with the living room at our house, the couch on the left switched places with the chair.  But the photos on the wall were the accomplishment.

We poked 5 holes and only had to do it once. : )

I love the photos and the arrangement.  It will allow us to add other photos to it later as we go more places.

Here's the up-close.

 

Yep so project number 2 down.  Hmm...we will see what's next.  There is always more to do!

(# 51) House Project 1 of many

continued.  Here are the results of the grouting.  It took a little more work than planned, but don't these home projects always take longer than you think.? (The double punctuation is because I never know how to punctuate sentences that are kind of a question and kind of a statement.  Any suggestions?)

Anyway, we removed the faucet to ease the process of grouting.  However, it proved way, way more difficult than we thought.  So Andy helped us.

Ryan even had to buy a new type of some kind of wrench to put it back on. 

Anyway...we finally got to it.

Thanks to the help of Emily (who is quite the little worker bee, check out her sister's blog), we got it all finished up.

 

There she is wiping off the excess grout.  She was the cleaner-offer and I was the schmearer.  We had a good time honestly.  We sang and played old music on the radio.

That's pretty much what it looks like.  Hard to see how cool it looks in real life.  The pictures are hard to take - reflection, low light.  So it looks really good in person.

Also, those used to be my favorite sheets.  When I was little - not sure what age - I pretty much used them all the time.  Now, sadly they are only being used as rags. 

So, the grand finale.

Before:

 

There it is, our finished kitchen.  Of course, Finley is always in the center of things.  Pretty much all the time, its kind of annoying, but he's too cute to ignore. 

And a close up.

 

So there you go.  Mom, I can keep a clean kitchen.  :)

House Project 1 of

well...no one really knows how many house projects there will be, so we'll just say...of...a lot.

We began to tile our kitchen walls.

The area from the counter top to the bottom of the cabinets. 

This was our first project to take on by ourselves.  So far we've always had help with these little projects.  So thanks to Dad and his tile saw and Doug Stucky and his helpful hints we were able to get started.

Before:

   

That is us before we got too dirty.

 

Ryan was in charge of cutting.  I am not typically allowed to use power tools.  I'm not sure why, but apparently people think I am dangerous.

Cutting the tile was very tedious work.

See how small they are?  They are about 3/4 of an inch wide.  But he did a great job.

This was my job.  I smeared on the adhesive, and then placed the tiles on the wall all lined up and neat.

In fact it was all pretty easy.  We anticipated it being very difficult, but it was easy.  If you need a tutorial, we could give you one.

Except, we aren't too good at measuring.  Because we did all this...

 

and this...

 

and then...we ran out.

 

Seriously.  We needed like 4 more pieces. 

It was 11:00 pm and Home Depot was closed.  It sucks when that happens.  But we finished on Sunday after a little trip to Wichita.

 

The last piece.

You don't get to see the finished product yet.  Because - we aren't done.  Nope grouting remains.

Tomorrow - we grout.

Then you can get final pictures later.

 

Go and

comment on the Pioneer Woman blog. She has a deal going that for every comment she is donating 10 cents to earthquake relief in Haiti. She will give it to the top 3 organization listed.  

So pick your favorite charity and comment away.

On the way home

we drove through Concordia, KS.  I have never been there, but I do love driving through little towns along the roadside.  It was a Saturday afternoon so there were lots of shops and stores that were open. 

We went into this one...

The sign said that had lots of furniture.  Score!  So we checked it out.

I found lots of great stuff, but the prices were pretty high.  And I am possibly the worlds biggest wuss when it comes to offering less or haggling or bartering.  I am just bad at it.  But I wanted these pieces.

The trunk was a little banged, up, but a little TLC and it could have been the perfect addition to my bedroom.  It even has the interior shelf - most of the trunks didn't.  It had a little bit of a stench, but that could be because it was in a musty and stinky room.

 

This dresser was $300!  I felt like that was a little over the top for a smallish dresser with no paint on the top or anything.  So needless to say it is still at the store, but oh how it could have shaped up to be the perfect piece for the guest room.  I had such high hopes. 

Any ideas where I can get something like this around here?

We went to

Seward, NE for New Year's Eve.  We went to visit this couple.

Its Ryan's sister, Kelsey and her hubby, Ronny.  They moved there and we hadn't been to their house yet.

Seward isn't as bad a town as it sounds.  : )  I think it sounds like its been named after a sewer.  But after some exploration, we found out that wasn't true.  I wish I would have taken more pictures of the town, but I am not kidding when I say it was too cold.

The entire 3 days we were there the temperature did not go over 8 degrees, and for the most part it was below zero.  Plus there were 4 foot drifts of snow covering most of the town.  Finley and their dog, Hank, were pretty much loving every moment of the snow.  That and the fact that they had a buddy to chase.  It really made their weekend.

For some reason this is the best picture I got of the snow. 

We went to a great little restaurant for brunch on Saturday.  Its called Cafe on the Square.  Seward has the best little town square though.  Great shops and a neat courthouse. 

 

On New Year's Eve we spent time with their friends and even went to a local establishment in a near by town called Staplehorse or something like that.  We saw many interesting things while there.

A very fake pony tail.

A 7-year old in the establishment celebrating the new year with her entire family including her 5-year old sister.  A little scary - actually a lot scary.

And even scarier still, Ronny singing karaoke! 

Just a few other candid shots.

    

Another year

makes three...

Ha.  Had you going, didn't I?

Well I merely meant to show that as another year passes, the number of years we have been married now totals three. 

(I certainly explained that in the most complicated way, but it seems to be the way my mind tends to work.  So I will leave it, that way you know what I am really like.  Seriously, that's how I think inside my head.  Sometimes its hard to keep up.)

Anyway, its true.

Three years ago today, I married the coolest dude. 

I am not at all sentimental or mushy or even romantic when it comes to real life as you can tell by my previous comment, but this will be my attempt at telling the world (well, the teeny part of the world that reads this) how much I have enjoyed being married to this man.

He gets me - well for the most part.  But he gets way more than I thought he would in three years time, considering my complicated-ness.

He lets me be me - nearly all the time.  Only once in a while do I have to pretend to be "little Susie homemaker" or the "handy (wo)man".  We all know those are not necessarily my strengths.

And he loves me - all the time.  I just know it.  Way deep down.  Its cozy...safe...warm...

That's why we could get married in January, he makes me feel all warm and cozy.

 

So, thats all you get.  Whoa.  That is more sentimentality that I have emoted in a really long time. :)

(PS I love the word emoted.  I think its hysterical.  According to Webster it means to portray an emotion in a theatrical manner - who wouldn't love that?)

So just to share with you so you know what we looked like those three years ago today, here are some of my favorite shots.

  

And here we are today...just about the same, huh?  Well, ok, not really but what can you do?  We're old now.

And the cookie was...

a Mexican Flag!  We had six correct guesses.

And the winner is Jennalee!  Yeah!!!  I will talk to you at church and work it out.