Lake Erie or The Erie Ocean?

We decided to go to the beach again today. We have already been once this week, but since the girls got boogie boards a couple of weeks ago; they have been dying to catch some waves. As we drove down Presque isle; Lexi was convinced that this was going to be another calm day at the beach because the trees weren't blowing and the bay was calm. Oh, was she wrong.

The waves were about 6-8 feet tall and knocked me over several times. Liv would get churned under the water on the big waves, but she would always bounce back up and ask for more. Lex was a maniac and was diving under the waves when they came in. The life guards at Lake Erie are kind of Nazi's and they will only let you swim about 50 yards out, but it was still a lot of fun.

By the way...we are trying to show everyone what great things there are to do out here...because we want some visitors!!!

Toothless in Erie!!!

This is my first attempt to create a post, so, although I have harrassed everyone about the frequency and content of their posts; it does NOT give you the right to give me any negative feedback on mine. That being said, here goes!!!

Beautiful Liv has been walking around the house for the last week with two loose teeth that have been hanging on by threads. She has had to eat with the side of her mouth, and therefore, at times she gets more on her face than in her mouth. She lost both teeth in a 3 day span! Many of you will remember her long time email was toothlessinfarmington...well the toothless part still holds; she is just in another city now!

NATE, START BLOGGING!!!!!

This is a test of the emergency broadcast association...your loving wife can't keep up on the blog...so get on it!

But really I just wanted to say that Nate has been catering to me all week and hasn't had time between helping me and job hunting to get anything else done. I love you honey!

I know I am not taking phone calls and you can all yell at me but I am feeling slightly swamped and disorganized...things will get better right?

Love you all and miss you terribly.

Hoops

Our long awaited basketball hoop finally arrived. For those of you who don't know the situation, I will now fill you in.

When we came and looked at the home and made an offer there was a basketball hoop cemented in on the side of the driveway. The 30 days between offering and closing on the home we talked about all the things we loved about the house with the girls, obviously the hoop was a big one. Upon our arrival for the final walk through, an hour before closing, we immediately realized the basketball hoop was a no show. The jerk seriously dug it up out of the cement!

We get to the attorney's office to close and start trying to negotiate some sort of compensation. Long story short the sellers are a real piece of work and were not going to compromise anything. We were left with two options; 1) walk away and see if the sellers would reconsider negotiating later, or 2) take the $250 the sellers realtor offered to pitch in for a new hoop and call it good. Having nowhere to go with all our possesions in a rental truck and not willing to play a game of chicken, we took option 2.

Needless to say we purchased a basketball hoop and had it installed. Now that it is here we are glad we bought our own and had it installed because the prior hoop wasn't as nice and the previous owner installed it himself.

Lexi will be trying out for the basketball team in 2 1/2 weeks so Coach Barnes has his work cut out for him. Cross your fingers and your toes for Lex!

The Final Countdown

So, I had this great idea that we should get one more project done before I started school.

Most of the molding in the house was still in a natural wood color when we bought it. We painted all of it white but still had the ugly, one panel, wood, 1970's doors throughout. We had been planning to change them out with new white doors, we decided we should just get it done, so off to home depot we went. We bought the new doors, got them home and painted. Then came the hanging of the doors, once again we really underestimated the scope of this project. I really don't have anything nice to say about hanging doors and Nate definitely took one for the team. By 7:30 in the evening with only two of the six doors hung we decided to break out the gin. The rest went on like clockwork!
Today I had registration for school and they held an orientation for friends and family as well. I am starting to feel a little anxious and nervous. The orientation was really nice, they gave us an overview and tour of the school. It was fun to have Nate see where I would be and what I would be doing.

My white coat ceremony will be this coming January 10th I believe, and graduation is June 3, 2012! I start school Monday so let's hope I can make it.

Bye, bye bush

I know the bush might look OK from the picture but believe me it was an eyesore, totally infested with these stupid little flying bugs. I think they were some sort of weevil or pure evil! The before picture. During the transition...oh yes there were power tools involved! The bush on the right is a lilac bush and apparently the bugs do not like it.

And viola...after! We put in a hibiscus below the window, let's hope I don't kill it, and a bird feeder (to try to lure the cute cardinals into staying in our yard). So far the birds are not taking the bait and I'm sure once they start coming it won't be the pretty cardinals, blue jays or finches but the dumb old robins or even better the stupid ravens!



This was a lovely view from my kitchen window I was able to catch...savor it because these two can be quite feisty!

Rain Delay

We had a massive rainstorm today. Literally the rain pours down in sheets, I have never in my life seen storms like these. From what we hear from neighbors this has been a wet summer compared to the normal, but that the storms are typically big like this when they come. We sat on the front porch for nearly two hours watching. I tried to capture some of the lightening strikes and thunder on camera but failed miserably. Every time I picked a spot to video the lightening would strike in another area, oh well!

I was going to be blogging the work we did in the yard yesterday, we tore out a bug eaten over grown bush, I failed to take the after picture when we got done. So of course it has been raining all day today and now I will have to get one tomorrow. Sorry!

So instead we finished decorating above our fireplace mantel. Jef was the only one to give me his opinion (the rest of you are worthless!) we liked the idea of a flat screen T.V. but since we bought a big one for the family room we had to restrain ourselves...and we kind of wanted to get away from just having a T.V. on all the time, in every room.

So we just went with a simple orchid, mirror and a picture I took of one of the Lake Erie beaches.

I will get a picture up tomorrow of the yard come Hell or high water.

Pretty in Pink

Baby got new jammies...and isn't she lovely.
I mean this thing is cozy.



I may also have ordered her some winter weather necessities??? Nate thought it was a bit to soon and a little excessive but I love being prepared! Who wouldn't love to be swaddled in fleece?

Happy Birthday Mom!

Canada...eh!

We decided it was time to cross the border to Marineland and Niagara Falls.




Marineland was a really nice park with several shows staring various sea animals. They also had a deer park and black bear exhibit as well as some pretty fun rides.


The girls fed and pet the beluga whales. I didn't get a picture of the bears but they were so stinking cute. They were enclosed in a big grassy area with a pond in front that several were swimming in and you could feed them. The bears would just sit and wait for you to throw them food, one of the bears only wanted to catch it in his mouth, if you missed he was to lazy to move and pick it up. It was really entertaining, Liv just giggled and giggled about it.






We spent the majority of our day at the theme park, which Nate and I now kind of regret. When we got to Niagara Falls we wished we would have had more time to do some of the excursions there. The views were breathtaking and the pictures don't do the area justice. The street that ran the length of the falls was so green and lush with flowers and shrubs, we picked a restaurant that overlooked the horseshoe falls, it was so relaxing. We could have sat there all night if we didn't have a little baby to get home to.

Luv Sac Baby

Well I am glad we moved across the country so we could buy and ship a Utah product! Liv is thrilled and so is the Baby. They have been sleeping on it since its arrival 3 days ago, wondering why we spent so much money on a new loft bed...the novelty will wear of sooner or later I imagine.

The Compromise

Well the kids really wanted a trampoline but Nate and I were not to keen on the idea. Not only are they kind of an eyesore but with all our trees in the backyard we don't really have a clear overhead spot for one, at least that is what we have been telling them.
























We have held them at bay with a rope swing. Nate braved the height and fastened all the fancy knots and we have all been swinging fools. Liv is out there nearly all day wanting to swing...the down side is that she wants someone to push her!

If you build it...they will come?

Well we finally got around to tackling the front yard.

This is a picture of the front yard before we bought the house, not bad but in need of some color.

We dug up the grass around the front porch to make room for a flower bed, baby was extremely busy and helpful.

We got some white rockers from Cracker Barrel and put them together...nothing like the nightmare of the IKEA furniture.

Spent more then what we budgeted on shrubs and flowers and turned our boring porch into a little slice of heaven. I saw this Hibiscus topiary at Home depot and had to have it...Nate caved when I gave him the pleading and begging puppy dog eyes.

Nate and I are proud parents of a weeping blue atlas and a contorted filbert, or as we lovingly refer to them, the blue weeper and naughty harry. We love the other shrubs and flowers but admit that we do have favorites. The style here is very natural, no curbing, thank God.

After sweating our butts off for two days (80 - 85 degrees) digging and planting, I went in to clean up and came out to take the pictures and the clouds had rolled in. We were pretty excited to get to enjoy our first rain storm so soon. It is just so refreshing to sit out there and watch the weather and smell the rain with a glass of wine, some cheese and chocolate. Seriously, I don't think life gets better than that!

We are seriously waiting for more visitors, I have two weeks til school starts so HURRY!

Hey Utah get your trashy bird out of our state!

Well the good news is...if we have a cricket infestation we to shall be saved.

First Visitors

We had our first visitors this weekend, Mom and Rick. Here are some of the highlights...





played at the beach...










rode bikes along the bay...













...some drinks and great conversations

roasted smores...

...pigged out just a little...

...and snuggled! We miss you already and wish you were back. (We promise to splurge on the real fireworks next time...and possibly the carp farm!)