Nesting

I know it might be a little early for this, but I think I've already started to "nest." I'm seeing signs of it everywhere. It all began with my desperate need to clean the basement.

I think when I'm done with it, we'll be able to eat off the floor. I'm serious.

Now I have plans of pretty much rearranging our entire house. Chris isn't privy to most of these plans yet. I thought I would break it to him in small chunks so not to completely overwhelm him. I figured there wouldn't be a need to have him run screaming from the house anytime soon. Not just yet anyway.

Thankfully, he's being really supportive of my need to reorganize. I just have this feeling that if we don't do it now, it won't be happening anytime soon. 

I'll keep you updated on the progess :) Also, I was suprised to see a yellow bearded iris along with the others on the side of the garage. These were all transplants from the yard. The former owners of the house had a few surprises here and there for us.

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Pooped

I don't know what it is about this week, but I'm beginning to feel like this guy:

If only I had a comfy decorative blanket to lay out at work. I'm going to blame it on the rain. It's days like this I could really stay in my pajamas and read a good book.

I am looking forward to working more on the basement this weekend though! Forecast looks sunny too, so I might not need that comfy blanket by then.

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Progress

This past weekend wasn't just garage sales and fun with family, I also took a trip into the basement and got to work. I really should have taken before pictures, but here is my progress so far. This is my side of the basement,  which I'm going to make kind of a cottage look once it's all finished. The island and microwave are going into Chris's "Man Cave" along with my mini fridge from school. He's pretty excited about that. So behind the chair there is quite a bit of room I'm going to make the play area for our little guy. 

I want to paint the walls and get some carpet down in this room. I think it's going to be nice and cozy with the fire place.

Spud has already claimed his spot on the couch. Of course the saw and the ladder won't be staying there too long. And eventually, I'd like to move the entertainment center down here. Our living room really is the size of a postage stamp, so this space down here is going to be glorious.

Now we're getting into the Man Cave. This whole pile is going into the garbage today, we're going to have more garbage than everyone on our road combined today!

So all those boxes are going, the old water heater is going this week and all the scrap on the floor. We still have a long way to go to make this basement liveable, but it's getting there! I washed down all the paneling over the weekend and vacuumed up a storm. Slowly but surely it's all coming together. 

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Family Fun

The best part about long weekends is fact you get a chance to spend time with family. It seems like everyone drops what they're doing in their busy lives and they come together for a nice afternoon of doing nothing but enjoying each others company.

This weekend Chris and I spent time with my family and his family and even squeeked in a few garage sales, it was wonderful.

I think the highlight for me was seeing my little nephew Nathan, who just seems to grow everytime we visit with him.

Right now he's working on getting his legs a movin', and he's doing a great job! Look at that concentration on his face.

Chris was giving him a few pointers.

And the next thing you know, he was running up the hill to the house with Uncle Chris and Gramma Jo.

Afterwards we treated ourselves to a popsickle and everything was great :) I love weekends like this.

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Time for a new project

See this beauty of a basement? Ahh, the orange shag, the wood paneling, it just takes you back doesn't it? I feel like we could film an episode of That 70's  Show down here.

This is our last bit of the house to tackle. Right away when we bought the house, we were on a roll. We ripped off paneling, ripped up the smelly carpet and were really cleaning the basement up. Then life got in the way. We became more and more busy and we spent less time in the basement.

Now, with the summer heat ahead of us, we're determined to make this portion of the house liveable. We still have yet to get air conditioning, so until we do, the basement is going to be our sanctuary. 

So this weekend my plans include cleaning up our mess of a basement to get ready for some drywall that will be installed where we ripped up the old paneling. I really wanted to paint the rest of the paneling this summer, but it looks like we'll have to wait for that until next year now. I'm really excited to get down there and decorate. This long weekend will be perfect for some basement renovations.

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Soaking up the Sun

This Spring has been unusually cool, even for Michigan! So when the temps finally peaked into the 80s, I took advantage of a slow Wednesday at work and spent the rest of my day yesterday out in the sun.

It was the next best thing to winning a million dollars. I just wanted to skip around the yard and take in all the sights and smells. I let Spud out and he chased the birds off and we said hello to his little buddy Patrick, a cairn terrier next door with more energy than him, if you can believe it. 

He even helped me weed the front flower beds, which really meant me saying "drop that!" a lot. 

And even though I have the world's worst dirt over on the side of the garage, it was nice to see my irises really coming out. And to the left is some lavender that has really spread since I thought I accidentely killed it off last year. 

The time outside was really just what I needed.

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It's alive!

Last year, my first spring in my little yellow house, I had no idea what I wanted to put in the flower beds. My house was pretty much a blank slate from the previous owners and it made this new homebuyer completely dumbfounded when it came to gardening.

There was one thing I knew I wanted in my yard though, a flowering crabapple tree. One of those pretty little decorative trees that flowers in the springtime. I worked really hard and worked up a flowerbed in the front yard and planted my very own crabapple tree in it. Sadly, that tree only lasted a few weeks, maybe a month. I'll never know exactly what I did wrong. Did I over water? Did I over fertilize? Can you over fertilize a tree? 

This year, I'm giving it another go. So far, so good. The flowers have bloomed on the tree and that's already farther than I got last year!

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Take me out to the ballgame...

There's something about seeing your husband all dressed up in a baseball uniform that really makes your day. 

Chris helps coach a high school baseball team and at first I had to giggle when I saw him leave the house. He had his little knee socks and pants rolled up. I just thought the whole thing was "cute."

That was until I got to watch a game yesterday and just being out in the nice spring weather, watching his kids play, I got right into the game. 

I found myself cheering on his guys and I understood why he loves to coach and is so dedicated to the players. Unfortunately, they lost, but it was still a fun night.

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