We're Halfway There!!!

Yay! We now have 7 of our windows installed -- YIPPEE!!! We did one in the office today! Yes, the paint on the trim PEELED off when Jeff took the trim off!

Windows, Windows, Windows

We have successfully installed 6 out of 14 windows in our house! We now have new windows in the bathroom, kitchen, and dining room as well as one in our bedroom! The other one in the bedroom needs some work done to the window sill (it's a bit rotten). Several of the remaining windows have rotten trim on the outside, so we went to Lowe's yesterday and bought wood to replace that -- now we just have to prime it, cut it, and install it! :) Here's some pictures of our windows installed (they look BETTER in person!) I'll post outside view pictures of the bedroom when we get the trim replaced!

Here's the dining room before:













Here's the dining room after:














A view from outside:














New bedroom window:

Doggie Surprises

So I had a "Traumatizing" event happen tonight -- here's some back story:

This weekend -- I think it was Friday night or Saturday -- we were sitting watching tv and all of a sudden our electricity went off and we heard a loud sound -- we didn't think anything of it, but figured a squirrel had gone to squirrel heaven via the power lines!

Fast forward to tonight -- Cooper was outside, then wanted in -- Jeff let him in and he kept barking at us -- so I put him back out -- he barked again so I let him in -- when I did I saw something very "Traumatizing" -- A DEAD squirrel was sitting on our deck! So, Jeff checked Cooper for scratches (there were none), and then he went out with a grocery sack and gloves to clean up the dead squirrel -- he checked out the squirrel and thinks it'd been dead for a while!

Well, we're now piecing everything together -- the other day when the electricity went out, it was a squirrel in the wrong place at the wrong time -- he then fell to the ground in the corner of our backyard or somewhere near there -- Cooper, went out and played tonight and found the squirrel and brought it to the porch for "Show & Tell" and then was barking for maybe a couple of reasons: 1) he was mad that the squirrel wasn't playing and he wanted to "wake him up" so he could chase the squirrel 2) he wanted us to come see his "treasure!"

R.I.P. Little Squirrel

First Day of School

Here's some pictures from before school started! :) This is a recylced welcome sign from when mom and Katherine taught 1st grade!















My room before the kids arrived for "Back to School Night"














Here's the roses I received today from Mom! 

Colorado Pics #5

Cooper and Cole! If you look carefully, it looks like Coop is sticking out his tongue! 

Colorado Pics #4

Aunt Noelle, Cole, and Uncle Jon hanging out in the creek behind our campsite! It was a BIT cold!















Mariah (Sally's sister) floating on George's belly boat down the creek behind our campsites! The water was a bit shallow, but I think she still had fun!








Cole singing Happy Birthday to Mariah in his "demon voice"

















Cole singing to Mariah!

Colorado Pics #3

We took a hike up to where there used to be a water fall -- they have apparently turned off the water to that aquaduct. Anyway, on our way up there we came across this moose -- it was probalby about 10 feet from us...we didn't think it looked very healthy -- it NEVER got up or moved...we decided it was either giving birth or really sick!


This is Jon, Jeff, Cooper, Noelle, & Mariah sitting at the top of the Waterfall that once was!















Cole hitching a ride from Uncle Jeff on our way back from the waterfall!

Colorado Vacation Pics #2

Jeff & Noelle with all 8 of our fish! We caught our limit!




















Isn't this a cool picture of the clouds! They almost look like you're looking at a reflection in water, but you're not -- that's how they looked in the sky!















Noelle playing in the Belly Boat! It was REALLY windy that day, so I had to work REALLY hard! Jeff wouldn't let me get too far out on the lake since I didn't have a life jacket on AND it was SO windy!















Cooper laying on the blanket Patty made him on the beach while Jeff & I fished! We had to make him a tent since it was SO hot out -- we thought he'd like some shade!

Colorado Camping Trip

We went to Colorado the first week of August with Jeff's family! Here's some pics!

Cole and Unlce Jeff building the 'Smores fire!















Cole NOT wanting to touch Gramma's fish!



















Noelle in the waders OUT in the lake PRETENDING to fish! I was TOO afraid to really fish while out there -- I was afraid I'd fall down, then the waders would fill with water (and possibly fish) and then I'd drown!!

















Sara actually DID fish out in the lake in the waders -- this was her as she came back out of the water!

We just moved stuff around in our kitchen. Here's the new location of our baker's rack.



















Here's our dishwasher, refrigerator, and baker's rack.















Here's the new location of our trash cans.

Baker's Rack

Here's our somewhat CLEAN Baker's Rack! 

Go Royals!!

We went to the Royals game last night with Mike, Gina, Matt, & Shelly. It was a lot of fun! The Royals beat Toronto 13-3. We decided that we have a good choice of games to go to -- the two games we've been to this year we've won doughnuts! :) We're up to 48 doughnuts now! :)

New Kitchen Curtains

Here is a picture of our new curtains in our kitchen! 

Done....for the weekend!

We got our 2 windows in the kitchen and the window in the bathroom installed this weekend, and even had time to catch the Royals/Brewers game! We got free hats and the Royals won! Now all we have to do is finish painting the ceiling in the bathroom, touch up the woodwork, install new shower walls, and clean up, and then the bathroom is finished...no more projects in there :)

Pictures of the two kitchen windows:















Bathroom window:

Didn't your parents teach you NOT to sit in window sills??

1 down....13 more to go!

We took the plunge and decided to start replacing the windows in our house. We started in the kitchen. It was a 2 hour project to get the first one done. Hopefully we know what we're doing now and can do it quicker on the next one. We got the window installed just in time -- right before it started to rain. Here's a picture of a new window and an old window in the kitchen. Can you tell which one is new and which one is old???

From the inside:
















From the outside:

It's Updated!

Well, all our pictures are posted...enjoy our vacation story! We have about 180 pictures from our vacation...so some of you are going to have to look at all our prints when we get them developed!

Pictures of the "Cousins"

Cooper wants a cracker! Isn't he cute?















Cooper being the "Guard Dog"















Delia sititng pretty in the yard!















Isaac waiting at the fence!

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Well, we got up and left Rapid City at about 6am. We thought about driving through the Badlands as well as visiting the Corn Palace; however, we were tired of driving/riding in the car, so we just kept going. We thought we'd take a picture of the Iowa sign --- seeing as neither of us had ever been there -- HAHA! Anyway, after a long day of driving we arrived in Maryville at about 5:30pm/6:00pm.

Friday, June 9, 2006

We got up at about 5:30 this morning and were on the road by 6:30am. Today was a longer day of driving. We drove through the rest of Montana, part of Wyoming, and finally arrived at Rapid City, SD. We debated going to Mount Rushmore, but decided it was another 30-40 minutes over to it, and we were worn out of driving/riding. So, we set up camp, went and got some supper at TGI Fridays, and then came back just in time for the rains to come. Jeff claims that it is “freezing” here, but it actually just feels nice. As I'm sitting here updating my blog, I looked out the window, and I saw a pretty rainbow, so I decided to go take a picture of it, and it ended up being a double rainbow. I can't get a good picture of the entire thing, but I got parts of it :) Look carefully for the double rainbow!