Tripitty Doo Da Trippity Yay Summer 2011

I didn't realize I still had a blog...

I'm not sure if anyone reads this, but it's cute for pictures. We took a few trips this summer. Nothing major, which we now regret, but we still had a blast.

So we literally drove to Indiana for.....

You guessed it!

Chick-fil-a!!! Hooray!

David came with us on our venture. We ended up eating a full meal at Chick-fil-a, then went to a bar so the boys could smoke and drink a beer in the same establishment.

On the drive home, we decided to take a side trip to Notre Dame. However, it was late and dark, so none of the picutures turned out.

Yes, Matt and David, together, at church...behaving.

We took a day/night/morning trip up to Petoskey. We stopped at a cute little park and let the dog play in the river and we took a family picture, too bad it looks like we are trying to strangle the dog.

Everyone in Petoskey was rude. We left as soon as we got there. I did catch the sunset from the car window though.

We actually thought we would find a hotel when we got to Petoskey or Traverse City or anywhere. Turns out, all hotels, motels, and even the gross places were all filled. We ended up going to the Odowa casino and played for a bit, then tried to sleep in the car. When that plan failed, we ended up driving home, seeing the sunrise, and going to sleep in our own bed.

This is the way we treat our brand new vehicles. We had to come up with a contraption so the dog wouldn't trample his way to the front seats and so he wouldn't tear the leather in the back seats. Oh boy.

Yes, that is a grocery net and zip ties. Hudson had plenty of room and I'd throw a cookie-treat back there every once in while.

Trips...To Be Continued

Happy Spring!

Happy Spring 2010!

We have been busy lately. I don't think I've written since Christmas.
So, what's new? Well, let's see...
We finally got our new couch delivered! When the delivery truck pulled up, I was so excited. At last, all four pieces are in the living room. I was trying to arrange the pieces how it was on display at the store. Come to find out, I should have measured a little bit better. The couch doesn't fit. We went back to Art Van. We thought about returning the pieces that are too big and replacing them with one piece that fits. After some math and more measuring, we decided to keep all the pieces and order a fifth piece. We are moving two pieces to the basement and three pieces that fit, will be upstairs.
The weather has been so nice lately. We've had all the doors and windows open. The cats and dog love looking out the window and gazing at the birds and the passing by dogs.
We took Hudson to the Fruitridge Pheasant Farm, where Matt has a membership. We took him just to run. We didn't bring the guns. It was so fun watching him do what he does best, hunt! He looked so cute out there. He did stir up a couple of birds.
More exciting news, we have a seasonal spot for our camper this year! We are so thrilled! We went up north a couple weeks ago to check it out, and this was the spot for us. We are on Bass Lake near Pentwater. We have a corner lot, lots of room to put our camper, a deck, our boat, firepit, and hopefully our gazebo will fit too! We are so close to Lake Michigan. It's about a 5 minute walk to a public beach for Lake Michigan. There is also a stream from Bass Lake direct to Lake Michigan. It sounds like we have all of our weekends booked for the summer. If you are looking for us, May 1st to October 1st, we will most likely be up north! Anyone is welcome to come up and camp with us. However, we only have room in our camper for two to sleep. We do have a 10 person tent that will fit on our lot, there are many other campsites available for weekend campers, OR there is a nice hotel 2 miles away :)
We spent Easter with Matt's parents and grandparents. We went to Charley's Crab for a brunch. It was so good!! I'm not a fan of seafood, but I did try some food that swims!
Matt is now working on 1st shift. He's still working crazy hours. Waking up at 3 am!!!! He comes home around 6 or 6:30pm. Hopefully, things will be slowing down a little bit.

Maybe I can attempt to keep the posts closer together!
Until next time...

Hudson lounging in the backyard...through a screen window



Fat Buster


Our new couch!



Clean basement for dog to play


Hudson sleepy cute by fireplace


Hunting with Dad



Hudson working


Hudson still working


Our campsite, modified with captions

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

What a Christmas this was! We stayed busy the whole time.

I had to work part of the day on Thursday, but I made the most of my time. I got all the laundry done and made the house "Christmas clean". Matt worked on house projects most of Thursday. I went to Aunt Rosie's in the evening for dinner and some laughs. We had a good crowd. Came home around nine, Matt and I snuggled in for the night and watched a movie. Friday morning we got up waaaay too early. We hurried in our pjs and went to the in-laws for Christmas morning and Christmas breakfast. We made monkey bread and an egg casserole. Then we got to dive into our presents! I was so excited when I opened my gift...drum roll...A new kitchenaid stand mixer! Hooray! I am so thrilled to make and bake new things. Matt's grandparents got me a cover for it and a pasta attachment. My brain has been turning as to what my first project will be. We came home around noon time, to get cleaned up and loaf around the house. We went back to the in-laws for dinner and games. Great dinner and a nice game of hide-and-go-seek in the dark. I always win. I have the best hiding spots.

Went home late.
Finally, we got to sleep in on Saturday. We did some running around, the stores we went to were empty. Everyone must have still been sleeping :) Then we got started on the real work. Matt replaced our red brick fireplace with real stones. It looks amazing. I attempted to paint some doors and some trim. That got old real fast. I ended up helping Matt with what I could. We were so excited when it was done, we decided to hang the TV so we could watch a movie. Finally at 12:30am we started watching our movie. We put our camp chairs in the living room and relaxed. Sunday we went to Jenny and Seth's house for another Christmas lunch. Mom and Craig were there to celebrate the day! Kole loved all of his presents and we had a great time! We came home and walked the dog, then invited Tony and Sarah and Dave and Linnae over for a movie. So we got out MORE camp chairs and Tony did have to sit on the floor, but we had a good time. Finally, Christmas is over. Enjoy the pictures!

Fun at Aunt Rosie's

My precious new mixer

The fireplace, cement covering the red brick

The fireplace and TV...Not quite finished yet

Jenny, Craig, and Mom opening gifts

Let Us Feast!

Happy Thanksgiving! What a good day.

We ate like kings.

I made a homemade dinner for the two of us.

I made salad, rolls, brown rice, green bean casserole, bleu cheese crusted rib-eye steaks, drunken crab legs and homemade pumpkin pie for the dessert!

Here I am with the pie!

We went last night to see Fantastic Mr. Fox. Super cute movie. We thought it would be fun to look at all the people waiting in line for sales. We drove around until 1 am! It was great!

We had a ton of fun and and a great Thanksgiving!

We got some good Black Friday deals today.

Well, here it goes. An attempt at a blog.

Here it goes!

So, where do I start? Hmmm.

I want to update everyone on pictures and whatever else is going on with us!

Matt and I like to go fishing, camping, and house remodeling.

We have a dog and two cats. We are attempting to make the family a little larger, if there's a will, there's a way. :)

We are in the process of a major remodel on the main level to the house. It has been a huge undertaking so far. We have demolished our bathroom, painted the bedroom and living room. We are looking forward to CARPET this winter. Planning for a new fireplace and furniture.

Matt works second shift for Gentex, we only have time together on the weekends, which mainly is us remodeling the house. We are planning to lay low for Thanksgiving this year. I am making a dinner for us. Matt wants steak and crab legs, since it's just us, we can do what we want! We want to be selfish this year. We hardly get time together, so we want to make the holidays special with each other.

Our progress for our new main level is slow, but we are getting through!

Here are some pictures.

This is the living room. We painted it yellow when we moved in, now we are covering up the yellow with the color on the top left.

This is the main bedroom, painted. The color in here was awful. It was a pinkish, maroon, horrible reddish color. Ugh. Much better.

This is the extra bedroom. We painted this green a few years ago. It's a nice soothing color, so we are leaving it the same. We will put different carpet down.

Our fireplace, in progress. There was a terrible red tile down in front of the fireplace and an awful brass enclosure. GONE

Our bathroom in the process of getting a sub-floor. I guess in the 1950's no one heard of sub-floors and insulation on outer walls. What a job this has turned into.

When Matt brought the sink outside for trash, he thought it would be funny to be "those" people who have various items in their front yards. The sink is actually stuck in the grass, it also left a big hole in the ground where the pipe was. :)

PS that is the house next door for sale, not ours.

We have a lot more of work to do. There will be more posts to follow relating to our wonderful remodel!