Remodeling #1: The Bathroom

Now that I've found the charger to the camera I can take pictures of the house and start to post the end results. The first reveal is the main bathroom, it is TOTALLY different than when we moved in. When we bought the house the bathroom color scheme was white and olive green....bleh. We're talking olive green sinks, toilet, tub, and tile, it was awful. The floor was also carpeted, who carpets a bathroom floor?! We ended gutting the bathroom, except the walls remained intact. New vanity, new toilet, new shower, new tile floor, a coat of paint, and a new light fixture made such an immense difference, and now we love it.

Shower Before

Notice the towel bars inside the shower...hmm...

Shower After

Vanity Before

Vanity After

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Lost and Found

So our guest bedroom hasn't been much of a bedroom at all since we bought our dresser a few weeks ago. The guest room became a catch all for papers to be filed, our old plastic storage drawers, sleeping bags, extra pillows, the extra TV and its cords, all my coursework from college, carpet remnants, you name it- we had it stored there. Since Jerod went back to work today and I still have a week off I thought I'd keep myself busy by organizing the guest room and getting everything put away (which means I worked until I was bored of organizing- that took about an hour). Anyway, I ran a few errands, went for a little walk, came back to start organizing again and pick up the bundle of cords that go to the extra TV. There was a universal remote, a coax cable, an input converter, a converter box for the TV, and A KODAK CAMERA CHARGING CORD!!! After I buy a battery charger on Friday morning and am waiting for it to be delivered via snail mail. I knew this would happen........

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St. Anthony hath forsaken me.... :)

So I am the worst blogger ever- I forget to post, there haven't been many pictures, and I apologize. I have looked in every last dastardly place for our stinking camera charging cord and still cannot find it. So I guess I'll be buying a new one. And we all know what will happen when I buy a new cord, right? I'll find the other damn one.....

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Greenish Thumbs

We have spent this week and little of last week digging river rock out of the landscape of our yard. It was awful! I might exaggerate the work involved on some other projects, but the removal of rock from a garden really stinks. It's heavy, never-ending, and did I mention HEAVY?! Well, we have removed the rock from about a third of our property and finally got to plant this week! It was so exciting, and as luck would have it, everything is on sale since it's nearing the end of the summer season. We got bags of mulch for $1.50 each (which has been fantastic since we've already gone through 10 bags just for the front yard landscape) and were able to get a great deal on hydrangea and peony plants. The house already had hostas growing in a side garden, so we have just been separating and replanting those.

Here's a few snapshots of our work, we're pretty pumped about it all :)

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Now where did I put that?.......

I feel so bad because I can't post pictures of the newest renovations to the house! Somewhere in the move I lost the charger to my camera and have been unable to take pictures since the beginning of July, it really stinks because we've been getting a lot done and I just want to show it off. Oh well, I guess this means I'll either have to scour through the house for the charger or go shopping for one....it may not be such a "horrible" situation after all. :)

Since baseball ended this has pretty much been it for us, working on the house inside and out. Hauling out river rock from the garden, adding to our entertainment center (we have SO much storage now), decorating, etc. So far we have almost all of the rock removed from the front of the house, so I get to plant some flowers and move my hostas finally!! This weekend we have a wedding to attend where we will meet up with all of our friends from college and some other friends that we live near, but life just gets in the way of us seeing each other as much as we'd like to.

On another note, I have a buddy for the rest of the summer. My sister, Amanda, moved out of my parents' place in Sioux City and in with my brother, Tom, in Ames. It's nice because now I have someone to do all the things that Jerod won't do with me: swimming, shopping, movies, I'm loving it. She'll be here until leaving for basic training October 20th, I'm looking forward to spending more time with her until then. Jerod is looking forward to being able to chastise her for any and everything he can until her departure.

Wish me luck and pray to Saint Anthony for me that I find my charger so I can post pics of the house and hopefully the wedding weekend!

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Rally Caps!

I'm not gonna lie, it's been a rough season for the West Marshall Trojans baseball team. Every night they played there was something missing: their hitting and pitching would be on, but they struggled on defense; or their defense was great, hitting was okay, but they couldn't get the ball over the plate. I also noticed that the boys lacked the "spark" and charisma they usually display during games. In the past they had always come up with little antics or inside jokes to help them relax and stay loose during games, but this season the boys just seemed to overthink themselves.

Well I don't know what changed this past week, but someone ate their Wheaties! They lost a close game to Nevada on Thursday night, their last regular season game, but they did not go down without a fight, the game ended 10-9 in the 10th inning. Then, at their first round district game on Saturday, they displayed the same energy and confidence that I witnessed in them at the Nevada game, and it paid off. They played hard, they played well, and they earned a win. Their faces were so bright with smiles and whooping and hollering, it was about time we got our baseball players back. So wish the Trojans luck as they take on AGWSR in their second round game on Tuesday night!

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Transfer, Pennsylvania and South Bend

No we did NOT fall off the face of the earth- it turns out our lives are just taken over by baseball the first half of the summer :) We were able to take a mini-vacation this weekend with my in-laws to Pennsylvania for my brother-in-law, Heath's, wedding. There were 9 of us with our baggage and gifts packed into a 15 passenger van, Jerod's other 4 brothers, ourselves, his parents, and his Grandma Carole. Although it was a long drive and I've never heard 5 grown boys complain like little school girls, including my husband, we had plenty of time to visit and made some memories on that trip that I'm sure we'll never forget. The wedding was beautiful and though I don't have pictures of the actual ceremony I have a couple from the venue where it took place. It was at a Community of Christ summer camp where Alice, Heath's wife, spent much time while growing up. It was a very small, intimate wedding where they dared serve hotwings! Gutsy to serve such a messy food on a day when everyone was so dressed up, haha!

On the way back to Iowa Jerod coerced his dad that it would be a great idea to stop in South Bend, Indiana, home to Notre Dame. It was right off of I-80/94 so we took a small detour Sunday morning and walked around by the football stadium before heading back on the road. There are a few pictures of that short jaunt below. While, in the future, we hope Jerod's brothers get married somewhere closer to Iowa, it was a great family trip, and I had a lot of fun hanging out my in-laws. Overall, good times were had by everyone!

The small lake where Heath and Alice were married next to.

Jerod and I on the bridge leading to the "reception hall", it's right behind us. It was right on the little lake, my favorite part was feeding the fish off the back railing overlooking the lake. I know, I'm such a child :)

Touchdown Jesus. This building is just to the north of the stadium, but if you're inside the stadium in the top tier, you can still see Touchdown Jesus poking over the top row.

Jerod HAD to get a picture with Lou Holtz. He can't stand Notre Dame, he only wanted to stop to see Touchdown Jesus, but was pleasantly surprised because he forgot there is a statue honoring Lou.

Just to show how big the stadium is, in the pciture I took previous to this one Jerod is giving Notre Dame "the bird", I told you he doesn't like them :)

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