The Office Reveal!

By Amy

 

In my defense...I have tried to write this office post twice before and everytime when I was almost to the last picture my computer would stop uploading and I would have to start over.  So this time I didn't chance it.  I only uploaded five pictures and I will do another post with details this weekend. 

So!  I have a office!  My very own room to decorate however I wanted to.  My own little space.  Our basement is really just one big room and our desks were in the corner.  My husband got tired of the kids using his desk as a dumping ground for various things.  So he decided that he needed a office.  With walls.  And a door.  So I just sort of suggested..."Hey!  Can I have one too?"  And being the sweet man that he is...he said yes.  So here is the before picture....

 

 

See the brick wall?  That's where my office starts.  He covered the brick with paneling so all the walls look the same.  Bascially where the weight bench is?  That's where my office is now. 

 The outside isn't finished yet.  And I need to paint and put knobs on the door.

 My desk...I will post more detailed pictures in the next post.  But you get the idea. 

My most favorite part is my picture wall.  And the red chair comes in second.  A fabulous craigslist find for forty bucks!

The other wall has a book shelf stuffed full of odds and ends.  Like I said...I didn't want to take my chances with uploading any more pictures.  I will try to post more tomorrow. 

What Makes a House a Home

by Ang

There are many things I have to blog about (Fantasy Football, our little day trip northwest, cooking, etc.) but today I’m going to talk about home. For some reason, whenever fall approaches, I really start wanting to hunker down and be home (more than usual). I don’t know if it’s the leaves changing, the football, the crock pot cooking a nice soup, or the chill in the air (which we  haven’t seen yet here). Fall is definitely my favorite season and it’s definitely my favorite time to be HOME.

My husband bought our home five years ago. It’s in a good, QUIET neighborhood, which is very important (to me, anyways). We are the ‘young couple’ (in our mid-30’s ha!) in the neighborhood. It’s a quiet community where everyone knows everyone else, and you can be sure that your home is being watched out for. Some people may not like this, but I have peace of mind knowing that if we leave our garage door open, someone will definitely shut it for us. I like that I can think of 6 neighbors on our street that know (and love) our dogs. It makes me feel good that probably 75% of the people in our neighborhood are home all day while we’re out working. I know we’re being watched out for.

But it’s not necessarily the neighborhood or the house itself that makes a house a home. It’s what’s on the inside (that sounds kinda cheesy, huh).
Our house is not perfect.  But no one has a perfect house. There are a couple of areas that need some work (nothing major), and there are times when I wish we had just a TEENY bit more room. But then I remind myself that we really don’t need it, and we’ve managed just fine with the space we have. And I love it. I love making our house a home. Here’s just a few little things that I think are important to have when making a house a home:
1) A pet.

While I was living in Nebraska, I moved a few times. But no matter where I moved, as long as I had Macy and Howie with me, my place felt like home. The very first night I spent in this house (alone) was the day I moved here. I had been driving for 2 days with 2 unhappy cats and a moving van full of stuff and we were all exhausted. I was trying not to stress out about the tons of boxes strewn about the house, my upcoming wedding, and finding a job. I holed up in the bedroom with my two cats and shut the door and we must have slept for 12 hours straight. It was wonderful and they calmed me down a little bit. I firmly believe that every house should have at least 1 pet if possible!

2) Light.

Pretty obvious, but I’m talking about natural light here. Open those curtains! Let the light shine in! Even though our house is a condo and is sandwiched between two other condos, we get amazing light. Skylights work wonders! To me, there is nothing more depressing than a house that is all closed up and has no natural light coming in.

3) Fresh flowers. Unfortunately, this is one that I don’t put into place that often, because I have a cat who shall remain nameless that loves to eat flowers. Ahem. However, we have roses in the back that are still blooming, and my husband snips some every day. I have little bud vases around the house that I can set in places that the cat can’t reach. It’s so nice to have a few fresh flowers in the house every now and then. Even if they are in odd places.
4) Candles. Pretty obvious….I love them for not only the look, but the smell! Again, I have to be careful with these due to the animals, but I love when our house has a few candles lit.

5) Blankets. We have a bucket of blankets in the living room.

Sometimes we have spur of the moment guests over to watch a movie or have a quick dinner, and these blankets get used (by me year round, by everyone else in the fall and winter). It’s so cozy to be on the couch wrapped up in a blanket watching a good movie.
6) Limited ‘stuff’. I think that when a house has too much stuff, it becomes almost suffocating. I don’t think there should be something in every corner, on every wall, stuffed in every nook and cranny. Give your house some room to breathe. This is something that I have to really work on, particularly in our 2nd bedroom which is used as an office. I try not to shop at all, but when I do bring something home, I have the ‘one in, one out’ rule. We always have a Goodwill pile going in the garage.
7) Have at least one thing you love and that’s special to you in every single room. It’s so easy to look at these beautiful rooms in design magazines and think ‘wow, I wish my house looked like that!’. But what makes that space beautiful? Where’s the personal touches? Where’s the family photos?

Where’s your great-great-grandmother’s apron?

Or your childhood stuffed animal?

I’m not saying that every single memento must be displayed, but a house without any personal touches is not a home. A few interesting things that can also be conversation starters are completely necessary.

8) If you have an outdoor space, use it! This is one that I need to work on. We have a small, but nice outdoor space. The other night we sat out there for maybe 30 minutes and it was beautiful! We talked about how we are going to make a real effort to try to be outside more. Even if it’s just for dinner or a glass of wine. It’s a nice place to unwind and relax.

That’s my list. I hope it was a little helpful. I think everyone should love their home!

A & M (and I don't mean Texas)

Because that would be a fatal error to even mention Texas A&M on this blog. These are not my rules people. Its just the consequences of living with three boys who have strong opinions on what football teams to support and which ones to hate with every inch of their lives. Even though A&M isn't as bad as the Longhorns.  The color orange is banned from our house.  Unless it's worn by someone really cute.  Or if it has stripes.  And there isn't a long horn in sight. 

 The A & M I am refering to is my adorable niece A and scrumtious nephew M.  Just take a look.....

 He's so chunky!  And smiley! Just a really good baby all around.  Little Miss A was a flower girl a few weekends ago.  She did really good!  Here she is showing off her very pretty dress....

She didn't wear her crocs down the isle...she wore pink cowgirl boots. Yeehaw!

This was her most of the evening.

Running and dancing and just having a good time. 

She's a good little girl and busy, busy, busy!

I'm a Camper!

by Amy

So my family had been planning a huge camping trip the first week in August for about six months.  I didn't want to go.  I dreaded it.  I stressed about it.  I whined about it.  Just ask my husband.  Poor guy.  But as it turns out....I loved it.  I had so much fun.  It was a lot of work.  But my sweet sister-in-law is so organized that everything went really smooth.  We left on a Wednesday for Denver and stayed the night at my sister-in-laws house. 

 It was so nice seeing this guy again!

 We left on Thursday morning and arrive to the campground.  We rented a private campgroud so we never saw any strangers! It was just the people in our group.  I felt like I had the whole river to myself.  Each day I would stick my chair in it and soak my feet and read.  Bliss.

 Home Sweet Home

 This is our shower tent.  I could not have survived without it.  Seriously..I don't like being dirty.  You put the water in a solar bag and it heats up during the day.  Then before dinner I could take a shower.  I loved it.

 The first tent you see is Keith's brother's tent, then ours and then his sister's.

 This is the camp kitchen.  It's where we all gathered for breakfast and supper.

 Some fabulous meals were cooked in here...we had mexican food one night and french toast one morning!

 Every morning was cold so we gathered around the campfire for warmth.

 We rode in the back of the truck.  Because...your in the mountains and thats what you do. (:

 We went to a waterfall.  The water was freezing but that didn't stop this guy from jumping in!

 Or these weirdos who definitely felt like manly men.

 Cutest campers ever

 Me and my mom in law

 Little girls can be helpful campers too

 Me and the boy

 My silly niece

The boys went four wheeling.  In camp chairs.  Strapped in the bed of a truck.

 Please come back alive!

 They drove to this really cool mill

 And shot some guns...

 Then came back and jumped in the river...

 Campfires at night are the best.

 Me and the other boy

 My fam

 Even though it was a lot of work...I had so much fun.  It was so nice spending time with family and meeting new friends.  I do believe that I will do it again.  Even though after we got home we had to put all this away...

Still completely worth it! 

CHICAGO!

by Ang

Well, we're back.  Our Chicago trip came and went and it was AMAZING!!  Here is a recap:

THURSDAY

We arrived on Thursday and my husband surprised the boys with a limo to take us to our hotel.

It was a fun way to kick off the vacation!  We headed downtown to check into our hotel and liked our view! (that's Trump Tower)

We went to a cute Italian place for dinner called Volare that was close to our hotel.  My youngest nephew ordered ham Alfredo with spinach noodles and he LOVED it!  Even the green noodles.  I was a little surprised.

We decided to walk off our dinner a little bit and headed to Navy Pier.

And found Lake Michigan:

We topped the evening off with swimming at our hotel and then went to bed.  We were zonked!

FRIDAY

Friday we walked (we walked almost everywhere) to a breakfast buffet called Houlihan’s.  The walk was nice….lots of stopping to take pictures along the way.

The breakfast was nice too!  Even though we sat right next to a disturbing floating head sax player.

After breakfast we began our walk to Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower).

The ride up to the Skydeck was pretty cool.  They had a TV in the elevator that told us what floor we were on.  It went really fast too!

We arrived!  

Of course you can't go to Willis Tower and not step out on 'The Ledge':

Ack!  You can barely see the tiny cars.

After Willis Tower, it was more walking, then stopping for refreshments at Starbucks (we went to Starbucks at least once every single day).

We topped off the night with some Chicago style deep-dish pizza.  Yum!  (I didn't get pics of the pizza with my Nikon and I'm too lazy to download it from my iPhone, so use your imagination).

SATURDAY

I think Saturday was our busiest day.  Maybe even a little too busy.  But still good.  We crammed a lot in! We started off walking along the river.

The boys, sporting their new Cubs hats they got the day before:

This picture reminds me of that line in 'The Fugitive' where one of the cops says something like "if they can dye the Chicago River green for St. Patrick's Day, why can't they dye it blue the other 364 days of the year?"  Seriously....it's really green. 

Next, we hopped on a double decker bus to hitch a ride to Millennium Park.  And saw some excellent architecture along the way!

 We arrived at Millennium Park and stopped at 'The Bean':

And then made our way to the Art Institute of Chicago.  It was awesome!  Here's just a handful of the paintings we saw:

Can you guess which one I bought an 8x10 print of? 

This one, of course, entitled:  Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877.

The building itself was a work of art in itself.  It's really pretty.  In fact, we seen two weddings going on there.

After the art museum, we hopped back on the bus to head to Navy Pier for the evening.

Here's what I looked like most of the trip....hair piled on top of my head, kinda sweaty.  I don't think it got above 90 the entire time we were there, but it was super humid.  And I've forgotten how sticky humidity can make a person!

When it got dark, we boarded a speedboat (yes, a speedboat) to take out onto Lake Michigan to watch the fireworks.  It was awesome.

SUNDAY

Sunday we made our way to the subway, because it was the first of two Cubs games we attended.  They were playing the St. Louis Cardinals, and they won!  

We got there early to take pictures and, of course, go to Starbucks.

Rizzo, running to his teammates after hitting the home run that won the game.

My younger nephew got to run the bases after the game too....unfortunately we couldn't get a clear picture of him, but we did get this one of him finishing up:

It was a fantastic day at the ball park!

MONDAY:

We started the day at the Museum of Science and Industry.  The place was HUGE.  We probably didn't even see 1/3 of it.  It was really cool though.

Here's a full-scale model of the Mars rover:

An actual submarine used in WWII:

A tornado and lightening:

We could have spent the entire day there.  There was just so much to see!  But we couldn't, because we had another baseball game to get to!

Our seats for this game were right behind 1st base.

This long-time Cub fan was really getting into the YMCA song:

And the Cubs won again!  Another great day (night, actually) at the ballpark.

And that's it!  We got up early the next morning to head to the airport.  It was SUCH a good trip.  It was so nice to spend time with my nephews and see the city together.  I'm already mentally planning a girl-trip when Little Miss A gets older.  :)  It's so fun to travel with family!