New refrigerator

So we bought a new refrigerator for the lake house off craigslist.com for an outstanding price.  Now we can more our refrigerator that is currently at the lake house to the farm where it belongs!  Yeah!!

Rain vs. Snow

So I decided today - that I definitely like rain better than snow.  It has been raining for about 24 hours straight and I'm okay with that... because if that had all been snow, I think I'd be snowed in.  However the weather people (who you never know if you can believe), say that it's going to change to snow soon and that we could get 6 to 10 inches!  SERIOUSLY!  It's only November.  I just keep telling myself, I like the rain and I promise to not complain about the rain if it only stays as rain!  If it switches to snow, I'm definitely going to complain!

Thanksgiving #2

After we packed up from Unionville, it was off to Greenwood, Indiana - where Ryan grew up.  A nice Friday drive with very little traffic - and it only took us 6 1/2 hours - not too bad!  We were greated by Mom & Dad Delaney, Ian, Jen, Evan and Ian - who were all helping get ready for our engagement party / meet Colin party.  Mom Delaney had done an amazing job making all kinds of yummy food and getting the house ready for the party - she's one talented lady!  And Dad Delaney helped too!  :-)  We even were successful with a family picture!

Lots of Ryan's friends and family friends came over, about 25 or so.  They were all so nice and welcoming.  Made me feel like part of the gang.  We ate and drank and mingled until about 1:00 am. 

Zach, Ian, Mia, BJ, Brian, Doug

Delaney Family/Neighborhood Friends



Ryan, Brad, Craig



Then Saturday, we had a lazy morning and enjoyed a great breakfast casserole and watched Michigan finally beat Ohio State.  Then it was off for my tour of Greenwood with Ryan, Ian and Jen.  First stop, a new wine bar and then off to the famous Oaken Barrel - great times and lots of laughs.  Then a drive around the neighborhood.  And back home to hang out with Mom and Dad Delaney.

Sunday, we ate breakfast and loaded up for our trip home.  A quick stop in Coldwater for lunch and some shopping at Maurice's!  Does my man rock or what?!  Then in the home stretch on M-12 and finally home to unpack and rest up... back to the grind.

Thanksgiving #1

First stop of Thanksgiving... Unionville!  We hit the trail Wednesday afternoon and made it there by like 4:00 in the afternoon, but only after a quick stop in Frankenmuth at St. Julian for some wine tasting!  So fun and tasty!  And we picked up a few bottles for the party in Greenwood at the Delaney's. 

In Unionville, first stop - Julie and Jason's for dinner and fun!  We lucked out because Jules and Jason offered to fry up some perch for everyone - YUMMY!  And I quick made my pumpkin pies for dinner the next day and then we kicked back and had a few drinks.  The boys in the garage and Jules and I in the house - watching Modern family and checking out some deals online.  Then off to some of their friends to hang out for a bit and then back to J & J's for one more... but then let's just say there was a small incident with the propane heater and a trip to the ER, but all is well.  And lots of memories and I'm sure some day a few laughs - just not yet. 

The next day - a very sleepy one, was off to Mom's for Thanksgiving lunch and Black Friday prep!  And discovered that there is really no reason to go out because all the sales (or at least the ones I wanted) were online... and I stocked up at Younkers, Bath and Body, and a few others!  A great lunch and lots of yummy snacks and football and naps and family fun - a successfull day!

Dad and Ryan napping

Now we are Indy Bound for our engagement party - thanks to Mom & Dad Delaney - and a great weekend with the Delaney clan!

Happy Thanksgiving!

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

Fall Clean up times 2

So... quite possibly the worst thing about having two houses is the yard work and I think that fall clean up is the absolute worst - especially when at one house there is 7 acres! Really?  7 acres of leaves and one big fall mess!  So we divided to conquer.  Ryan took the lake house and I started at the farm.  Ryan tackled the leaves and gutters and many trips up and down the steps he finally finshed it.

I started with the mowing and mowing the leaves into piles.  Then I had to do the manual work and raked the leaves around Joey's kennel - about a foot of leaves on each side of the fence - so not fun.... but this wasn't even the worst of it.  Then Ryan came back home and we proceeded to rake the piles of leaves onto the tarp and lug the tarp to the burn pit. And of course the burn pit is in the back 40 - not the way back 40 or the way way back 40... but the back 40.  So we definitely got our workout in.  After a trip there, we worked our way to the front for the piles I had made there and to rake all the leaves out of the front landscaping.  I had been so excited the last few weeks because I thought all the leaves blew away - I was way wrong and have realized the leaves don't just blow away, they blow into things and make an even bigger mess.  I'm so done with leaves!

Piles around the kennel (wish I had a total before picture)

Burning the first tarp of leaves

But of course, I couldn't just rake the leaves - we had to jump in them a couple times.  And had to play with Joey in the leaves too! 

Having a little fun with Joey and the leaves and the rake... hilarious!

Oh, and Joey got a good brushing!  He is losing his summer and coat and it is EVERYWHERE in the house!  I couldn't take it anymore so I brushed a grocery bag full of hair off him!

After the fall cleanup, it was back inside for more laundry, vacuuming, dishes, cleaning, making dinner, making egg salad for Ryan for lunch, and making a casserole for Tuesday night!  Phew!  And now chilling on the couch and enjoying our tater tot casserole.

Baseboard is up

The weight room is finished - for real this time!  The boardbase went up - thanks to Ryan's mad skills!  Think it looks pretty sweet myself!

Master Bedroom Complete

Our second painting project is complete - the master bedroom.  We also replaced the "lovely" gold sconces and got new bedding.  During the project, we discoved that the current owners had taken some shortcuts in painting - yeah there was purple paint (the original color of the room) and some serious jerry-rigged wiring for the sconces.  But my master electrician and me the self-proclaimed master painter fixed everything and it is now up to Delaney standards.

The before... dull and plain - so not us!

And the after.... fresh and new!

We also kept the room under budget!!
Wall sconces - Hampton Bay Rock Creek Iron Oxide from Home Depot
Comforter - Home 8 piece Bed Set Embroidered from Target
Paint - Smoky Pitch  from Lowe's (same as the weight room, but looks totally different in our room)

 Hmm... what project to do next??!

Visitors and Dresses

Love having visitors... and we had some great ones - Ian, Jen, Evan and Colin.  They came up Friday night and stayed through Sunday morning.  Saturday we had a great day - the girls went dress shopping and the boys stayed home with the kids and the smoker (we were having brisket for dinner).  And it was a very successful day!!

I am so happy to post that I got my dress and absolutely love it and can't wait to wear it!!!  And since I can't post a picture of it - a drawing from Karle will have to do until the big day!  And I think once you see the actual dress - you will realize how great of a job she did for being only 6.  She actually drew a picture of every dress that I came out in.

While Jen, Mary, Karle and I were dress shopping, the boys were at home - doing boy things.  Have a few beers, smoking meat, and hanging with the kiddies!  All successful - the brisket they made was so awesome!  Great job Ryan!!  And we ended Saturday night with some Euchre playing - and I am very happy to announce that Jen and I defeated the Delaney brothers... look out boys there will be much more of that to come!

We also attempted to do a Delaney picture - and despite some unwilling subjects, we actually got something that might work.  Gotta love pictures with kids in them!

Sunday was another great day as we started the master bedroom project, dropped my car off at the dealership to get a recall fix and had an amazing lunch at Zingerman's in AA.  

Cleaning Machine

Love having guests come over because that means there is a reason to clean!  The Delaney Clan of Ian and Jen will be arriving tonight and that means, family fun and lots of baby time!!  But it also meant we had to power through cleaning - vacuuming, kitchen, bathrooms, laundry, etc.  But with the help of Ryan, we powered through it and got it done in a couple of hours!

Sometime I wonder why we got such a big house - LOL!

PS - the first snow fell last night!  So not ready for that.

Redecorating 101

So since painting the workout room - I've been plotting out our redecoration plans to make our new house, our new house (not just some house we bought).  We hung pictures up Sunday night - Ryan is definitely the master hanger - all pictures were straight and equally distanced about - I love my engineer!!  :-)

Here is the before picture of our room the day after we moved in. We have since hung curtains and bought a new nightstand - all furniture courtesy of Ikea.

Master bedroom before

Today I bought a new comforter for our bedroom and we are going to check out new wall sconces tonight for our bedroom which has 8 in it (really who puts 8 in a bedroom - hopefully once they are updated from the horrible gold, I will like them better because they are definitely not my favorite thing).  On a funny note, I realized that I have been spelling them scones all week to Ryan, which are probably must tastier!  Then paint will get picked out soon!

Look out house!  It's game on!

Workout Room Facelift

Room as of Friday

We finished our first painting project in the new house this weekend!  Woo Hoo!!  We started prep work on Tuesday with filling in holes and skim coating the textured paint the previous owners left us.  The train room is officially gone (that's what it was before and I'm still looking for pictures of the true before.  Then Wednesday we sanded and skim coating a few spots another time. 

Finally by the weekend we were ready to actually start painting the room but not before taping and then priming.  Ryan took care of the prep work while I taught at the gym Saturday morning.  Then a quick stop to pick up the paint Smoky Pitch and Metropolis. 

Ryan cutting in

Prep work - althought definitely necessary is not nearly as much fun as actually painting. 

We painting 2 walls Metropolis (aka gray) and then 1 wall Smoky Pitch (aka gun metal - according to Ryan).








And of course I had to have some fun with the painting - maybe a few too many fumes!

All in all the finished product is pretty awesome!!  I am already planning what room to paint next - I'm pretty sure it will be the master!

Our masterpiece

Christmas Shopping Already

Crazy to say this... but yes I have already started my Christmas shopping and have several things already bought and 1 person already done!  I just couldn't pass up these great deals.

And if you know me - this is really crazy because normally I don't believe in anything Christmas until after Thanksgiving, but I'm in the mood now.  Only bad thing is that people will probably end up with twice as many gifts cuz I will either have forgotten I bought something for someone or will find something even better - good thing I'm keeping an Excel sheet!! 

Bring on the Christmas spirit!!

Weight Room Project

So we started our first project of November last night... cleaning up the weightroom.  I need to find a before picture because when we moved in, there was plywood and track all over the room.  It was basically a mini train town with artwork on the walls that went with it. You can kind of see the lines from where the track was and then the green on the walls is the trees and the white is the clouds.  Real nice!

But all this meant more work for us.. Ryan took down all the track shortly after we moved in and now it's my turn... painting the room. But first we needed to prep the walls (aka Ryan said we need to do - I would have probably just painted over everything -haha).  But I jumped in and helped.  First we scraped the walls, and then we started patching holes and skim coating over some of the really textured paint.  So step 1 is done!

Thursday, we will start sanding this down and then touching up any holes that need it.  Then hopefully this weekend, I can start painting - one wall is going to be navy blue and the others will be a light gray.

Stay tuned for this one... much more to come!