a month of projects

After one month in our new house we've...

...put up shelves, a workbench, and peg board and put down an epoxy floor in the garage

(before)

(after)

...painted a family room

...installed a new ceiling fan in the family room

(before)

 

 (after)

...replaced the kitchen faucet

(before)

(after)

 ...painted a master bedroom

...installed a new ceiling fan in the master bedroom

(before...still need an after picture)

 

...replaced 2 light fixtures in the upstairs hallway

(before...still need an after picture)

...cleaned the dishwasher

(by the way, I will now swear by this stuff! the dishwasher was pretty bad and had a bunch of buildup from hard water. it's sooooo much better now after just running this stuff through!)

...changed the thermostat to a programmable one

(before)

(after)

 

...had a fence put in the backyard

I myself only had part in a few of these, but my wonderful husband had a part in every single one.  We also had some help from Chris' parents - thanks guys!  It's been a productive month for us since we've had the house and we're really enjoying it with these projects done.  Maggie's loving her backyard (but she never wants to come back in after we let her out - because she's sniffing so much)!  I think we'll be done with house projects at least for a little while now.

Nothing like making a house your own!

(We actually haven't done anything for several weeks now, but I just didn't get around to getting this posted until now! And we're going on having the house for 2 months now.)

can't wait...

...until this guy gets home on Wednesday.

a week and a half is just too long for me not to see my husband.

but i am thankful that we've been able to email and talk at least a little.

and i think he did have a good time in prague this weekend. and i can't wait to see the pictures he took :)

(no, we did not get another dog. the lab with the green collar is our friend's dog, Chester, who came over to visit one night.)

first beer...

I mentioned this on facebook about a month ago but I hadn't had a chance to post about it here...

October 12th was the last day that we were spending in Lafayette.  That day the movers came to pack all of our stuff up in boxes.  It had been a long day with the packing, me having to get some work done that day, and Chris dealing with some "moving stuff".  So we were looking forward to enjoying a nice dinner together.  We had planned to go to South Street Smokehouse since I had never been there (and I wanted to go before we left).  Well, we got there and they were closed unexpectedly due to a power outage!  I was pretty disappointed.  So we decided on Chumley's (another local place) instead.

Chumley's has some pretty good pub food and they have an absolutely huge selection of beer.  Chris really needed a drink after the day we had, so he ordered his first.  Soon enough we got our yummy food and Chris decided he wanted a second drink.  After having a taste of one he picked off the menu, he decided he didn't want that one.  So he asked our waitress for her opinion and if they had any seasonal/pumpkin beers.  She suggested Screaming Pumpkin Spiced Ale and Chris said that sounded good.

When she brought it out, I took a taste of it (like I had started doing with Chris' beers recently) and I loved it!!!  Mind you, when I normally tastes Chris' beer, I usually just give a shrug and think that's it's ok (and maybe I could acquire a taste for something like that).  So I was excited when I loved it from the first drink!  It was wonderful and I think I said "it's like fall in a bottle" :) And I think I liked it so much because it didn't have the typical beer taste.

I ended up drinking a few ounces of it (thanks honey!) and it was so good.  When it gets to this time of year, I can't get enough of smelling and tasting all things pumpkin and fall, so somehow I'm not surprised I fell in love with this beer.  Too bad it's made by Michigan Brewing and they don't distribute (so I can't buy it in the store).  Maybe I'll just have to go back to Chumley's next year to enjoy a full bottle :)

I think Chris was almost more excited than me because I secretly think he wants me to become a beer drinker. It was an absolutely fun time together at Chumley's and much needed for us after a stressful day. It will definitely be memorable for us and a cool reminder of our last day in Lafayette.

a new friend...

We've started going to our old life group here in Peoria and we're really enjoying it.  There are quite a few couples that are new to the group since we left.  We're having fun getting to know them.  There is one couple who actually made national news (kind of) yesterday, so I wanted to give them a shout-out! 

Mandi's nephew has leukemia and she decided to start selling prints of his monster drawings on Etsy to help her brother's family with the financial burden that's come with their child having this illness.  Well, the response to her Etsy site was unbelievable!  You'll have to check out this story on the Today Show website - they did a story on them because they had sold over 2500 drawings when Mandi was hoping to sell 60!  The drawings are pretty cute...go here to look at their Etsy site...it looks like they're nearing 4,000 prints now!

It's amazing how God can show his goodness even when we're going through what we think is the worst situation.