the second bedroom

This room was pale blue before... not too bad, but it desperately needed repainting. Check out the overabundance of cable.... seriously, I can vacuum the whole upstairs from one outlet, I don't understand why so much cable was necessary. :P


The closet was pale green inside. Ick. My dear little sister got to spend an afternoon on the shelf painting the closet.

After... It's neutral. And full of random things. *grin*

It's our computer room....

Bob playing computer games... there's another very full bookcase on the other side of the desk, and we still need another one badly!

Blessings.

potlucks and picnics

So we were pretty social this weekend...

Friday night we went to potluck at Brett and Laura's new house. They have a lake/ pond in their back yard and a row boat. Or a pontoon boat. It was amusing looking, whatever it is. :P Good times.

The transparent apples were ready at home so Mom and I spent Saturday afternoon and evening making applesauce. Woot. I'm not overly fond of picking apples... especially since no one thinned the tree this year and so there are lots that are dropping and rotting... and I was barefoot. ick. Thinning the fruit trees used to be my job (don't ask me why) so Shelly, you better start picking up the slack!

We went to Champaign for invite-a-guest on Sunday. Hooray for early mornings. :P O wait, I don't do mornings... I maybe fell asleep in the car on the way down. It was good to be in C-U again and see everyone and hang out with BDY and J-nell. The picnic was good, of course. And there was a playground- what more do you need? :) We got to see the girls' new place, which is pretty much a mansion. *grin* Or an ivory palace. Very much fun. So then we went home and it was late and I was super sleepy all day yesterday. But it was worth it.

ooooo, yesterday the new drawer pulls I ordered for our bedroom set came and I put them on!! yay!! I really like them and it makes grandma's furniture look less circa 1950 and more IKEA or something. :D

Blessings.

the bathroom

So the bathroom is small, and it has two doors.... and it had this nasty vanity with fluorescent lights on the sides. The electrical cord on the right went to a power strip that was zip-tied to the wall. um.... yeah.

Just lovely...

I almost painted it "Bullfrog" green, but went with "Crisp Sage" instead. I'm glad I did. And check out the cabinet, and the new outlet my brother wired for us. (We won't mention that he put a hole all the way through the wall in the process. haha)

So much better... oh, and we got rid of that awful storage shelf thing too...

Blessings.

the porch/laundry room

Hooray for Fridays! It's been a long week. :)

So this room is the reason I wanted to live here... it's kind of a three season porch, plus it had room for laundry and a freezer. Much nicer than a dinky apartment. :)

So it's only semi-organized. :)

There is lots of room for plants this winter!!

Blessings.

the kitchen

Yes, that is very nasty pink wallpaper. And the cabinets have scalloped trim. And the tile is brown with teal/aqua and tan. Quite lovely.

You can't tell, but the wall on the right was FULL of holes. Seriously, I spent at least an hour filling them with spackle, and we still ended up having to use wall cover on it.

And every room in the house is cable ready.... and there was about 10 ft of cable at every jack. um.... overkill??

So the paint kind of matches the blue in the tile... it looks brighter than it is in real life. :)

Yay for vintage apron curtains. They make me smile a lot.

And for tin signs!

Blessings.

Friends and Fireworks

I had Friday off for the 4th- hooray for my government job! It was great, I got to sleep in and get lots of stuff done. And I got to sit out in the sun and read.... one thing I don't like about living in town and having a very shaded back yard... I can't lay out. Unless of course I would in the front yard, but that would be super awkward. :) So I have tan lines. *sigh* O well.

Saturday some people came over for supper and games... good times. We skipped fireworks... nobody was very excited about going out in the cold and damp. We were hoping we could be outside... since our selection of games is so limited, but it was still fun. :) Mostly just good to hang out with cool people.

So I maybe insisted on going to watch fireworks on Sunday because I love them and it was super nice out and I was disappointed we didn't get to see them Saturday and it's kind of un-American to not partake! We went to Hopedale because it was close. I liked them. Even though we sat by some people with fluorescent hair (it seriously was still visible after dark) who insisted on smoking the entire time. I don't think I've ever been in front of buildings to watch fireworks, so the loud echoes were a new experience. :) maybe next year I'll get to go to Peoria's....

Blessings.

the living room

Before.... front door and very white walls.

After... front door... I'm still working on curtains. I just got some super cool fabric to make them because the only curtains that I've seen that I liked a lot were at Pottery Barn and therefore waaay too much money. Anyway, I digress.

Hooray for furniture! Direct from Klopfenstein HomeRooms in Ft. Wayne Indiana... it's nice to have connections.

Don't ask Bob about hanging these shelves... it was a pain... and the drywall anchors that came with them were worthless. I like how they look though!

ooo.... look, my orchid is blooming!

Blessings.

welcome...

So I'm sure you've all been dying to see what our duplex is like...
Check out the hanging basket and the festive windsock.

The back patio.

My flower beds- there would be more plants blooming if the stinking rabbits didn't eat them!

Sorry... no picture of the back yard and shed. *grin* You'll just have to come visit.

I have inside before and after pictures I'll post later.... wait for it...

busy...

So this weekend was pretty busy... I helped with Meg's baby shower Saturday morning, and then Bob and I went to his classmate's wedding in the afternoon... I'm almost glad it was too hot to be outside, because it was such a nice day and I was dying that I had to be inside for most of it.

And I've decided that even though AC receptions are long.... they're worse everywhere else. :) The wedding was really nice, and fairly short. We were at the "reception" (the receiving line was at the church; therefore, it was really just an after-the-wedding party) for almost 3 hours and they hadn't even started the dancing yet when we left.

It stormed that night. Which I hate... at least it made it nice and cool outside for the Sunday school picnic on Sunday. They have a swimming pool full of cans of pop and bottles of juice, so amazing. :)

mom, you should stop reading now... so... we have a mouse. Had a mouse. It was making its presence known in my kitchen last week- and ruined our leftover bread from Avanti's. Which was pretty tragic. I'm not afraid of mice, but they're just gross. We had a bunch of traps set all around the kitchen and Bob went down to check them last night- it ate the peanut butter off of them and they were all still set. Bob saw it on the counter and it hid behind some of the over-abundance of tupperware that is keeping food away from the mouse. And he smashed it. And one mouse is dead. And hopefully it's the only one... aren't they supposed to be outside in the summer?? Maybe he just went soft and decided he liked the air conditioning. We were lamenting that we probably dispatched Martin the warrior... haha.

So now it's really nice outside and I'm inside. *sigh* And Bob isn't working this week and I'm jealous. :P

Blessings.

not me wednesday

I did not use the rest of my wedding cake to make a chocolate trifle for the 'Taste of NCAUR' today.

*grin*


Mom froze the entire topper of our cake for us... which is great except it was waaay to much cake and was taking up room in my freezer. So I thawed it out... (don't worry, I put two pieces back in the freezer for our anniversary, although I think it's kind of a dumb tradition- what's the point?? Freezer burnt cake doesn't taste very good, you might as well make fresh cake.) Yeah, the frosting didn't like being frozen so it tasted kind of nasty, but the cake was still good. We haven't really been eating it though, so rather than throw it away, I scraped the frosting off and used it.

My kitchen was a mess last night. I was cooking up a storm and doing what I do best- getting almost every dish and utensil dirty. And we don't have a dishwasher. *sigh* But Bob helped with dishes. He's great like that. :)

Blessings.

girls night

Tuesday night I had some Washington girls over to hang out... my first non-family company. I was fighting the urge to reclean our house and make everything look absolutely perfect... it's a good thing I work 40 hours a week or I probably would have. *grin* hooray for being an AC girl...

So we ate a lot. (You can all thank me for not taking pictures while we were eating!) I made chicken pesto pizza, which turned out to be really good, and they all brought lots of other amazing girl food. *grin*

And then we played Encore for a while... because we can't get together without singing. Hm... I wonder how many other people play that game in 3 part harmony? Heidi and Kate... and Katie.

We walked to Pinky's for dessert... and apparently our very own former pinkette was cut out of this picture. Heather was there too!

Erin and Kate Katie and Amy

Good times. :)

turkey

Well, we survived the weekend. :D haha.... yeah... it wasn't bad at all. Not very much traffic on our street and no one blocked our driveway or parked in our yard. And we couldn't really hear the music at night- just the screams of pre-teen girls, but it would take a lot to block that out (or shut them up *grin*).

Sprout and I walked over on Saturday afternoon to check out the books... I came home with some Agatha Christie books and a Daphne du Maurier book that I haven't read before. Bob and Matt opted to stay in the air conditioning and play games on the computer Bob built the night before. (he's so smart. I'm glad I married a computer geek- he fixed my lappy and it runs 10 times faster now!) I did make them quit the game and come get turkey sandwiches with me. (So mean, I know) We rode the ferris wheel for an exorbitant amount of money. And ate a funnel cake. Good times.

I made 9.5 jars of strawberry jam when we got back. The half jar because I knocked over a full jar before the lid was on tight and I only salvaged half. Sad news. And my counter was super sticky. *sigh* Now I just need to find a place to store them...

Blessings.

trepidation

the turkey festival is this weekend. woot. it's about two blocks from our house. i'm told that tons of people are going to descend on the park... hence my title.

ok, so I'm sure it won't be too bad. :D It's only for a few days... and I have to admit that watching the carnival and the tents go up the last few days has been cool. Hooray for small town festivals. (we'll just ignore the fact that I've shunned the cherry festival my whole life and avoided the Eureka/lilac/Reagan/make-up-your-mind-on-a-name fest as much as possible.) Except for the library book sale. I love book sales. :D

Blessings.

antiques

So this weekend Mom and I introduced Shelly to pleasant hill antique mall. It was great fun... all kinds of things to look at and covet. :) I didn't get much, just some vintage aprons. Shelly came home with a birdcage and a hat, Mom got some books. I tried to convince Shelly to get this really cool mink muff- it was made of real minks, sewed together side by side, with their tails and paws hanging down the back. We took a picture on mom's cell phone, so I'll probably never be able to post it. :)

Jakey came over Sunday night to hang out... after supper. He scorned my offer of making him food in favor of frozen pizza... tsk. I mean, who would pass up chicken curry?? Actually, he said he didn't want to influence Bob's first curry experience or something like that. :) Jakey's not a fan of 'weird' food. For the record, it was really good. At least I thought so, but I like curry a lot.

The turkey festival is this weekend. I'm told I should be really excited about it. *grin*

Blessings.

student loans

So I would recommend avoiding the gov't student loans at all costs....

For two years while I was in school they sent me statements of how much I had borrowed. Every week the same thing. Such a waste of paper.

Then when it was time to start paying it back... no more paper. No instructions on where to send checks to, when payments were due, nothing. So.... I went to the website (which was hard to find) and set up automatic debits online.

It works well.... except that now I have to change banks and my name and address. A few weeks ago I sent them the address change and a copy of my marriage certificate. I went online last night to change bank accounts and my account came up as Jennifer R. Tazewell. Um... um...um.... what!?!?! That's our street name. How in the world do you mess that up?? And I'm pretty sure it was two separate changes; I did the address change online, and then had to mail the name change stuff. Seriously, you'd think they'd at least be checking against soc. sec. records or something!

*sigh* girls, don't get married, it isn't worth the hassle of changing your name. :D




ok. maybe it is. but still.

weekend

So we didn't do much over the weekend. Which was nice... although we didn't get to sleep in at all on Saturday. *sigh* hooray for bankers hours and having to be at the bank way too early in the morning. And then I had... I mean got to go to Tim and Melissa's shower. Yeah, still not a fan of showers, sorry to everyone that is. Although they are better when everyone isn't looking at you. :P

Saturday afternoon Sprout and I went to Menards and checked out the garden department. Which is super dangerous and I maybe left with more plants and things than I was planning on leaving with. :D We spent the rest of the afternoon tearing out the awful mulch and ancient black plastic in my flower beds and planting them. It looks ten times better now... hopefully my plants will survive. And I pulled grass from between the pavers on our patio, so that looks less trashy now too. :D

I really should take pictures of everything and post them... maybe if I remember... and after I get some more pictures hung. :)

Blessings.

tuesdays that feel like mondays

so yesterday I stopped at the DMV after work to get my license changed... and managed to 1.) not get lost in Pekin, 2.) not get mugged (it's a scary place), and 3.) make it back to Tremont without getting lost.

anyway, so I had twice as many forms of ID with me than I needed just in case they decided to really make me prove I'm me... the lady asked for our marriage certificate... I handed her my birth certificate... *sigh* I felt dumb. O well, I have a new license with a new picture and I look less stoned than in the old one. Woot. :P

blessings.

some pictures

Since I don't really have much to blog about... some pictures from California.

The coast

We drove to San Francisco one day and ate seafood. It was raining, this is the Golden Gate bridge in the rain.

Indoor swimming pool at the Hearst Castle that we toured. The yellow tile is filled with real gold. It was a pretty amazing place.

The view from our hotel.

Shelly graduated this weekend and Kendra had her party on Saturday... so we ate a lot of graduation cake... yay. Otherwise, it was a quiet weekend and we got lots done at our duplex. There aren't boxes everywhere anymore! Now if people would just stop sending gifts.... I could be done writing thank you notes!

Blessings.

mail

So I have a slight obsession with the USPS... not sure why, they're just cool. And even though they keep raising the price of stamps, it's still cheaper to send a letter to Alaska than it is to buy anything in our vending machines. And pictures in front of post offices make amazing scrapbooks. (yes, Bob did have to endure funny looks from people in front of three post offices in Cali- which I love.)

Anyway, so T-town is pretty small, right? And there's not very many people that work at the post office and they probably know everyone in town. (The lady I talked to the other day at the P.O. saw our address and said, "oh, you just moved in, didn't you.") So before the wedding we were trying to get water, electric, trash, etc. all set up and we kept waiting for the bills to come in the mail... nothing... no mail. Finally, they delivered about a months worth of mail (with overdue bills- *ahh*) all at once with a little card to fill out since we just moved. Um... um... ok??? Seriously, we used to get mail for all kinds of previous occupants at 709, didn't matter what the name was, the address was all they looked at, all that should matter. So we were getting mail fine... and I was getting packages addressed to me... but Bob was waiting on two things that the online tracking said were delivered. So I went to the post office (which I love) to see what the deal was. Apparently, there's another Koch farther down the mail route where they were delivering all Bob's stuff. um... um... but it's a totally different address!? I'm still really confused about that, since the Eureka Post office has had no issues forwarding all of my mail and they have even been crossing out Wyss and writing in Koch... O well, hopefully it's all straightened out now. :) And I still like post offices.

Kansas was good... Ned's speech (that he wrote in the wee hours Sunday morning before graduation) was great... I need to see if any of my pictures turned out.
Blessings.

randomness

I worked five days this week. *sigh* I'm ready for a vacation... ok, it wasn't that bad... but I really wouldn't mind not waking up at 6 every morning. :)

Grocery shopping takes me forever because I can't find anything in Kroger. I miss Lindy's. And Jerry's. I'm a huge fan of Beechum's though... hooray for small town grocery stores!

I haven't burned anything or shrunk anything yet. (crossing my fingers hard though) Other than ruining half a loaf of bread trying to figure out our new toaster... seriously.... it has a scale from 1 to 9 for toasting, you'd think that 4 or 5 would be nicely browned. Um... yeah... right now it's set on 1, and I can't leave a poptart in even that long. I think we have an over achieving toaster.

We're leaving after work for Kansas City because Ned is graduating this weekend. Yay! I'm excited, I haven't been to KS since that rather expensive trip back in November. Stinkin bored Missouri cops. Anyway. I'm over it now, really.

Blessings.