Vacation to North Carolina and 4th of July!

Tim and I both took some vacation time at the end of June and decided on a road trip to North Carolina. I know with gas prices this might seem a little crazy, but we got great gas mileage and the trip was a ton of fun. We left right after work on Friday afternoon and traveled until 2 am when we finally made it to the coast of North Carolina. We were meeting Chris and Sonya there so we could spend time at the beach on Saturday. I will admit that Tim did the majority of the driving on the way down there as I had a terrible time staying awake. No worries though I made sure to make up for it by driving my share the rest of the trip!

Our day at the beach on Saturday was eventful and relaxing. We all swam in the ocean a bit and laid out to soak up some rays. At one point there was some commotion and we realized that someone had been fishing and caught a shark! It happened to be a rather large shark (at least 2 ½ feet!) and kind of looked like a hammerhead. The man could not get the hook out of its mouth so Tim, of course saved the day. He ran and got some pliers out of the car and was able to remove the hook.

After we left the beach we drove back to Fayetteville and got to check out Chris & Sonya’s new apartment- Sonya of course had it decorated very cute. Once back we relaxed and played cornhole and just hung out. Of course we had to take frequent time-outs to apply aloe vera, as Tim, Chris, and I were all VERY sunburned…ouch!

On Monday, we left to head north and stop at the Schreiner’s in Advance, NC. We stayed until Tuesday and during our stay we got to visit the Childress Vineyards and Winery (including a wine tasting), play a lot of Nintendo Wii, eat some good food, and play a couple great games of Horse Thief. Not to brag, but yours truly did happen to win one of the games. :)

Overall we had a great trip and were able to relax and hang out the rest of the 4th of July week and weekend.

Tim playing the Wii (he was a pro!)

Tim playing "clean-up" games with the Schreiner kids

Pictures of the House!

Ok, so I know I have been MIA on the blogging for about 2 months, but I do have a few excuses, but they are just that, so I will not discuss here :) So, I'm going to move on and put a few posts up and I promise to try and keep more up to date throughout the rest of summer.

First I will post some pictures of the house. Since the last post we have been painting and working on the living room as well as some outdoor work on the flower beds and yard. We had a terrible time picking out paint. It took us quite a few weeks to agree on the paint colors and a lot of color swatches painted on the walls. Once we finally decided on the colors, we wound up changing our minds the morning we were going to paint over the primer in the living room. (I know, we could probably use a lesson in decisiveness :) ).

The other aspect of the living room is the TV. We purchased a 42” flat screen in November and since moving in to our house it has been sitting on the coffee table in front of the fireplace. After much thought and planning, Tim finally decided to make his own TV mount rather than purchasing one. He did a great job, and I’m happy to say that the TV looks awesome on the wall.

In addition to the pictures of the house, I went exploring around the lake in our neighborhood and took some great pictures. It’s really pretty beautiful and amazing that we living in Columbus but have such a beautiful area sculpted out.

I hope you enjoy the pictures and once again, sorry for the delay!

Hanging out with Michaela

Last weekend Tim and I stopped by Andy and Lori’s house so we could visit with Lori and Michaela (Tim’s God-daughter). When we got there I got to see Michaela’s new trick right away, which is that she has learned how to frown, and boy is she good at it! However, I found a few tricks to get her to smile, including playing with her baby-doll, or trying to feel her new teeth that are coming in. If you notice also, she really only frowns as she is sticking out her tongue :) Uncle Tim always has a great time playing with Michaela, usually crawling around with her getting into all kinds of toys, but for some reason he got very sleepy right after we got there. So of course he used Michaela’s doll as a pillow. However he did manage to play with her and she still had fun even when he was snoozing a bit. I had a great time catching up with Lori and getting to see the little one, she’s getting so big!

Alumni Dance

On April 5th Tim and I went to the New Riegel Alumni Dance and had a great time. It was at the American Legion and there was a pretty good turnout. There was also a band, the Fredericks Brothers from Carey, who played some really good music. There were quite a few of our friends from high school that we got to catch up with. Just thought I would post a few pictures. Next big event is the 5-year class reunion that I am helping to plan here in July! I can’t believe it’s been that long!

Updates: Skiing at Snowshoe & Trips to New Riegel

Ok, I am finally posting an update of everything that has been going on for the last few weeks. Things have finally slowed down at work, so I have had more time to spend with family and friends.


At the top of the mountain At the bottom - now snow!

The weekend of March 14th Aaron and I went skiing in Snowshoe, WV. We met Chris & Sonya and the Mack’s there as well. We only stayed one evening, but had a great time skiing and hanging out with everyone. It was pretty warm that weekend, so when we started skiing early Saturday afternoon it was very slushy and we had to avoid the occasional puddle. However, when we took a break in between day and night skiing it began to snow heavily. When we went back out an hour or so later the skiing was great with the new powder! That night we just hung out at the hotel and relaxed. Not to knock Snowshoe, but there are a few technology setbacks up “on the mountain”. First there is no cell phone reception within at least a 30 mile radius. Also, the hotel that we stayed in did not have computers to keep track of the reservations (just paper print-outs) and did not have any information on the ski rentals and lift tickets. We all had a good laugh about some these issues, but still had a great time overall.















The last two weekends I have been spending some time at home in New Riegel. The weekend of March 22 for Easter and the weekend of March 29 for Eric’s dinner show choir performance.

The girls (Brit & Alicia) came down to Columbus Friday evening and tried on and ordered their bridesmaids dresses for the wedding. Afterwards we went and got appetizers and dessert at the Melting Pot – a fondue restaurant – which was absolutely delicious.

The next day it was home for Easter. It was great seeing family for Easter and my family was finally all together since Chris and Sonya were home. We had a great dinner the Saturday evening before Easter and it seemed like everything was back to normal again (as normal as our family gets J). Tim and I were busy of course trying to get to all of our family gatherings, but the holidays are always a good time.

Last weekend I was home again to see Eric’s Show Choir performance. They were great, and it included Eric’s rendition of “Who’s on First”. My dad recorded the performance so I recommend for anyone that has not seen him do this, should definitely check out the video-it was great! The next day Tim and I had our follow-up meeting with the Priest to go over our marriage compatibility test that we took way back in December. So we placed bets on how well we did before we went in. I guessed 50%, as the Father Randy had said before most people average around 50%. Tim guessed 70%. So we went in and Fr. Randy was impressed that we got such a great score back. We averaged about 80% which was apparently one of the best scores he has ever seen. So as you can see wedding plans are going well. I will have another post sometime soon with wedding updates. As for the request for more house pictures they will be coming hopefully soon. We plan on painting soon and working on the landscaping, so as soon as some updates are done I will be posting more J

How To Post Comments

I took this from Sonya and Chris' blog, but I thought it might be helpful!

I know that some of you have tried posting comments on the blog unsuccessfully. Here are some notes that may help.First you click on the word "comments" on the bottom of the post you would like to reply to. This will take you to a screen where you can type your message (and read messages that others have posted). It will then ask you to type the letters shown in the box (some type of security thing) and then you can set up a Blogger account (pretty easy) or simply sign in as anonymous.You can also preview your comments before you post your message. This will show you how it will look and you can check out spelling.

Snowstorm 2008

We have been working on the house in Columbus ever since we closed in January and we are finally getting to a point where the rooms are coming together. Last weekend we worked on refinishing the wood floors in the bedroom and the dining room. Andy, Lori and Michaela came down to visit and the boys worked hard and got ALOT done. So after a week of letting the new floors dry, we wanted to get all the furniture moved in this weekend and get the house put together. So of course, we had 12 inches of snow this weekend! But, Tim came down to the house early on Friday afternoon so that we could get a lot done on the house, and to beat all the snow.

So, with all of the snow, we got to work and put all the furniture in the rooms. Tim also worked on the bathroom and put the new floor in. While we were waiting on the glue to dry in the bathroom, we shoveled all the snow out of the driveway and then after we had spent about 5 hours without a toilet (due to finishing the bathroom floor). Which means, we decided to brave the snow to head to Meijer's for some groceries and a trip to the bathroom :)

We finally got everything put back together including the toilet, so the house is coming together and is really starting to feel like home. See all the before and after pictures below!

Bedroom Before

Bedroom After

Bathroom Before

Bathroom After

Dining Room Before

Dining Room After