Spring has arrived!

Differences between Travis and Misty:

Travis is very excited on opening day of: football, basketball, baseball, or any other "ball".

Misty is very excited on opening day of: Christmas shopping season and Kastle Kreme!

Today was Misty's day! Kastle Kreme opened today! Kastle Kreme is a neighborhood ice cream shop not far from our house. We often walk down during the spring/summer months and get some ice cream after dinner. Today was one of those days!

The sun was out, the weather was warm and we got our first dose of a flavor burst ice cream cone!

Flavor Burst is a vanilla cone with flavor intertwined into the ice cream in a pretty pattern. I must recommend the raspberry flavor burst. YUM!

In the picture below you will find us "posing" for the camera with our first ice cream of the spring season and if you look carefully you'll see our greedy dog just waiting for the prime opportunity to jump up and retrieve my last few bites of the cone.

Sorry about the blurriness...Travis' camera battery was dead, and I was too impatient to wait for it to charge so we used my broken camera instead. The cone was just too good! :)

Catch up time

Ok, so I have been negligent in my blogging, and I have started to hear about it! Geesh! So I have lots to update people on but instead of my usual long windiness, I'll try to be brief, but keep in mind that there is a lot to get caught up on.

Chicago 08

Travis got Bulls tickets for his birthday so Travis, myself, his mom and dad all went for a weekend to the windy city. We took the train up, stayed on Michigan Avenue, and had lots of fun! We went to Navy Pier, shopped, went to the Bulls/Lakers game and had Brunch at the Grand Lux Cafe...YUM!

National Board Certification

Travis and I are both trying to become national board certified teachers. It's quite an ordeal. And because we are both so good at procrastination, we did just that with this process. Not smart! However, we did mail off our "entries" (like really long college papers) and now just need to wait until November/December to see if we passed. If we pass we get to have a Illinois Master Teaching Certificate. The only way to obtain this is through being Nationally Board Certified, this will make it so we don't have to update our teaching certificate for 10 years! However, if we don't pass, we have to fix the entries they didn't like and re submit next year. Keep your fingers crossed that we pass this year. This was not an enjoyable experience and I, no we, don't want to do this again.

Kitchen

WOW! What a difference a month makes! The kitchen has really started to take shape. We now have all the cabinets, both upper and lower, in place and holding our "stuff". We have painted a 2nd coat of paint and painted the ceiling. There is a new ceiling fan and light installed, we have under cabinet lights in place, and a new sink/faucet. We have ordered our counter top and are waiting for it to be delivered and then all we have left is the floor, crown molding and window/door trim! I think we are starting to see the light at the end of the process! A GIGANTIC thanks to Travis' dad. We wouldn't have gotten this far with out his countless hours of free labor!

Spring Break

This week has been our spring break from school! It has been heavenly! We both really needed some time away. We have had dinner with friends and family. Travis has worked tirelessly in the kitchen, and I have gotten some much needed spring cleaning done (although there's much more to do)! We have enjoyed some nice weather and have been able to open the windows some and air the place out. It has been truly enjoyable for both of us! Unfortunately, our time off is quickly coming to an end....the good news? We only have 37 school days left of school! WAH HOO!

For Easter, we are going to spend the day with Travis' mom and dad in Rock Island. We are having brunch at Johnny's Italian Steak House and then who knows what else the day will bring. We are hoping to get together with my side of the family maybe this evening or next weekend to celebrate the holiday.

Buddy

Buddy is doing great and enjoying the spring weather as well. He has had a spring hair cut and getting around nicely. No news is good news with the Budster!

I will try to update more frequently now that the National Board stuff is done. We hope you each have a lovely holiday and enjoy your time with family!

Ahhhhhh.....very nice!

Tonight I filled up our new cupboards and emptied part of the office/office closet and dining room. Ahhhhh....what a great feeling!

One Side Down...

The guys have finished for this weekend. We are ready to wipe out the new cabinets and finally make our dining room a dining room again by putting things back into cabinets.

They look wonderful! We are so thankful for all of Ben's help and Travis' patience throughout this endeavor!

Progress

The guys have made really good progress today! They have 4 cabinets done and are working on #5. They are waiting for Kay to bring down a special tool they need before they can finish but it looks like everything might be finished on the top half of the kitchen tomorrow afternoon. Hallelujah!

Ready to Install

Last night we began to prime and paint the kitchen. Look at the difference!

No Paint; Primer; Paint

No Paint; Paint

No Paint ; Primer; Paint


Primed; Painted

The best part of the painting was getting rid of that yucko cream/yellow/nicotine stained walls/ceilings! I loved the crisp, white look of the primer. I was ready to say just leave it with that...no not really...but I did love the clean white look! The green paint went on a little darker than I had thought, but I think it will be great once we get the light hickory cabinets in today! We do need another coat of green paint. We were falling asleep waiting for it to dry last night at 11:30. We'll do another coat soon.

This morning Travis' dad, Ben, came down to help in the kitchen. The guys went to Lowe's and picked up the cabinets to bring them home. Just as they were unloading the last cabinet from the van to the house the storm front came blowing in and it began to rain. I think that's the 2nd lucky thing that has happened today! 1st, they still had all the cabinets. 2nd, they got them in without rain. Now if they can put some up with out getting hurt we'll really be lucky! :)

Cabinets in the hallway, and dining room of our house.

We are finally READY TO INSTALL!

The best part for all people involved is I have to work from 10-5 today so I won't be underfoot bothering them with random questions and "concerns"

:)

Special Olympic Polar Plunge

Today was the special Olympic Polar Plunge. My mom is quite involved with Special Olympics and is always trying to get us to help out. Normally we are more than willing to help out and enjoy doing so. However, this event we have learned to stay away from. A few years ago Travis raised money and did the plunge.
The year Travis did the plunge was much different from this year. His year it was balmy, almost warm. I wore a long sleeve tee shirt with no coat and had a nice time. Today it was 20 degrees and windy. Who in their right mind would do this you ask? No one! Only foolish, crazy people. Enter my brother Justin.
Justin and one of his friends signed up to help. Then the fools didn't even wear a shirt in the water. They acted like it was the middle of June. They seemed to have a good time (after they warmed up) and even said they might do it again next year. Just so you know, Travis also said he "might" do it again after he got out of the water. He has yet to do it again, and I don't blame him in the least!

Here the divers, in full scuba gear, are chipping away ice in order to make a spot for the plungers.

Here is Justin going into the water. You can see his head in the right hand corner.

Here he is coming out of the water. A much different expression on his face. If you notice the picture above, he was a few steps behind the guy in the white tee shirt...in this picture he's many steps in front of the guy. I guess the water wasn't that balmy after all.

Special Olympics had 200 crazy people from the Galesburg area signed up to "plunge" today and raised a LOT of money to help out their athletes. I think the cold water was worth it. (as long as I don't have to participate! )

This is from the year Traivs did the plunge. He was just getting out of the water.

Round 2

Buddy 2: Us 0

Yesterday I stepped it up a notch, instead of just the 2 chairs, I put a brand new gallon of paint on each chair to weight it down. I'll be dog gonned if he wasn't waiting by the front door AGAIN!

Today, I got smarter still! (with the help of Travis and Kay) I put the gate on the inside of the kitchen door, used a chair and a gallon of paint! Let's see him get out of THAT!

Houdini

Buddy is our resident Houdini. I have often wrote about how he climbs tables, or gets into cupboards or gets things off the counter but today was an all time high.

Buddy has been going to the bathroom in the house while we've been at school. Travis has finally had enough and said Buddy needed to be put in the kitchen with a baby gate up while we are at school.

This morning before school I gave Buddy fresh food and water and moved his pillow bed into the kitchen. I then put the baby gate up. He has been known to push the gate over so I secured the area with two chairs on each side so he wouldn't "escape". I made sure all the remaining cabinets in the kitchen were closed tightly so he wouldn't get any food and quickly left the house to a crying "puppy".

When we returned from school today I had Travis go inside first. I didn't want to see the mess or the sad puppy dog eyes that would greet us. When Travis opened the door there was Buddy, not in the kitchen, but laying in front of the door to greet us just like he always does at 3:30ish.

Here's the crime scene.

The view from inside the kitchen looking out. Apparently the view in which our dog did not appreciate.

This is where the baby gate still stands. This is all of 6 inches in which our little Houdini escaped from. Buddy has been putting on the pounds so it's crazy that he actually fit through here. However, where there's a will......there's Buddy.

This is Buddy lapping up the water in which he was deprived all day by his little escape plan. Perhaps he didn't think his plan all the way through now did he?

We, the detectives are left with the following questions?

• How long did it take for him to escape?
• How many times did he have to push at the gate to get through?
• Did he get caught up on anything?
• How will he try to escape tomorrow?

No Smoking Please!

So I've told most people I know that the couple who owned this house before us were GROSS! They must have been a 2 pack a day each, never opened a window to air it out, smoking couple. When we moved into the house it reeked of cigarette smoke. We tore up the carpet, painted all the ceilings, walls, and redid all the woodwork in an attempt to rid ourselves of that horrible smokey smell.


Over time in the bathroom and above the stove where steam is often touching the walls/ceiling the nicotine will seep through. In the bathroom we have painted twice, used Kilz once and it still seeps through. YUCK! However, in the kitchen knowing we would someday re-do it we never painted or primed.

Tonight, Travis and I were working in the kitchen trying to wipe all the ceiling/walls down in order to prime them tomorrow. I had just started wiping the ceiling. In a housekeeping confession, I don't usually wash the ceilings of our house. I'm hoping that's not to uncommon and most of you don't wash your ceilings either, but anyway, I digress. So I'm wiping the ceilings, I've made literally 5 up and back passes, so 10 strokes over a small area and this is what my rag looked like.

Keep in mind that we've lived in this house for 4 years and neither one of us smoke, nor do we allow people to smoke in our home.

Do you need more of a reason not to smoke?

YUCK!