A few more pics of our new place

~ Front of the house ~ ~ Man Coop ~

~ Living Room ~ ~ Master bedroom ~

~ Dining Room ~ ~ Kitchen ~

~ Taryn's room ~

Keep in mind, these were taken mid-move, so everything is a cluster*F*. Some of the quirks of the house:

*The master bedroom is the biggest room of the house! When we moved in it had a lot of paneling in it. Urgh.

*Taryn's room has a half-wall-divider in it right now. The kids that grew up in this house (they are now my mom's age) wanted separate rooms, but that wasn't going to happen, so they got a divider.

*The kitchen has two different kinds of cabinets. Completely different.

*I didn't get any pics of the bathroom, but it probably needs the most work. It had carpet when we moved in. Ewwwwww. That got ripped up FAST.

So, stay tuned for more pics as we get projects done. On our "to-do" list (which is like a mile long):

*Remodel bathroom (ASAP).

*Refinish the wood floors.

*Oh yeah, move the rest of our furniture...

*Kitchen cabinets down the road when we find a good deal.

*New carpet & paint in the master bedroom.

*Take out the partition in Taryn's room.

We have had some busy weekends since we got the house, but this weekend is our last full one, so hopefully we'll start chcking some stuff off our to-do list.

Congratulations Jamie & Garret!

GET A ROOM!

Jamie & Garret got engaged last month! (I know, I haven't been keeping up on my blogging!)

Garret did a great job planning the proposal. They were on vacation in his home state of Maine. The plan was to go to the top of some mountain and watch the sun rise and then he would propose. Unfortunately, they stayed out late drinking the night before, so they were drowsy. Then Jamie got carsick on the way up the mountain. And it was so foggy they couldn't tell when the sun rose! Makes for a great story for the kids someday.

The wedding is set for August 14th, 2010. Jamie is doing a great job planning so far. They already have a church, the reception venue and a dress! I can't wait to be Jamie's maid of honor! (I refuse to be called matron of honor... I don't like that word. Matron.) I have a year to plan my speech, and I'm still working to narrow down the 16 years of Jamie stories I have... I asked Garret if I could use PowerPoint. I'm such a nerd.

I couldn't have picked a better guy for Jamie. Garret is a great guy and he was a math major to top it off. Seriously though, I know they'll be great together! Congrats guys!

And, since Garret has been wanting to see this... Here is Jamie's speech from our wedding.

Controversial Cans

The big story around West Lafayette right now are these controversial Bud Light cans. Budweiser came out with these cans for college towns across the country. The can does not say anything about Purdue, but are merely black and gold cans. (Black & Gold + Bud Light = Awesome!)

Well, some anti-drinking-Nazi at Purdue got all pissy about them and wanted them pulled from the shelves! They claim that these black and gold cans promote underage drinking... Hello, it's a college campus... The underage kids already want to drink!

It is a big joke around campus because it is just so stupid. It is hard to believe that Anheiser Busch actually pulled them out of stores. I'm guessing they just didn't want to start a battle royale. If I were them, I would have told Purdue to kiss my gold and black can! They don't own those colors!

Here is a pic of Lee & I with the badass cans. Those cans... They just made me want to binge drink SO BAD!

Boiler Up!

Football season is here and Taryn finally gets to break out her Boiler gear! The first week, we pulled off a win, but lost a heartbreaker to Oregon last week.

"Boo IU!"

I had forgotten what it was like to live in West Lafayette during football season. It is crazy! There is Breakfast Club at the bars (bars open at 7am and everyone gets drunk dressed in costumes) and tailgating galore. There is traffic. And everyone is decked out in Black & Gold. The other day I was walking to my car after class and I was walking next to the marching band, complete with the World's Biggest Drum! (I texted Fubar.)

It's so good to be home!

Sin Be Gone

Sunday Taryn was baptized. She was baptized in the same church that Lee and I got married in 3 years ago (almost to the day!).

Taryn was a sleepy little Catholic and slept through most of her baptism. She stirred a little when the water got dumped on her, but quickly went back to sleep with water dripping down her head.

Welcome to the Catholic church T-bone!

1-9-9-9 We're the Class of '99!

Labor Day weekend was our 10 year reunion. We started the weekend off at Harry's on Friday night. To use Stacia's terminology, Lee was SEVERELY overserved (roofie, perhaps?). We had a lot of fun, but seriously, I don't remember Harry's being that loud back in the day!

On Saturday, we had a family picnic at Columbian Park. Taryn got to meet a new friend, Archer Fry. Archer's dad, John, and I were classmates since like 4th grade. It is so funny to now see our little kiddies together.

Saturday night was the main event. Taryn ended up getting sick on Saturday. (Her first daycare illness.) So, I was a little preoccupied worrying about my little one! But, we still managed to have a lot of laughs.

It is still hard to believe that it has been 10 years since we walked the halls of West Side... And speaking of, I'll be walking those halls tomorrow when I substitute teach! That'll be a strange feeling!

One year ago...

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Michelle inspired me to look back a year ago and remember the day that I found out I had a bun in the oven.

Technically, it was a year ago today. But, we didn't confirm it until 2 days later.

I was switching doctors because I really didn't like the one I was going to in Merrillville. I started going to a new doc up in Valpo (Clint's hood). They did some preliminary drawing of blood, and that afternoon they called me to say that I had some HcG (pregnancy hormone, not to be confused with THC) in my blood, but that it wasn't high enough to be considered a positive test. Um, WHAT? Basically, they said I MIGHT be pregnant.

Who in the heck gets told that by their doctor??? So, I had to wait two days and go back and get the blood taken again. That Friday, I was on pins and needles waiting for their call. Lee had gone up to Merrillville to go shopping at Costco when I got "the call".

I was rushing around the house like a mad woman. I wanted to tell someone so bad, but obviously I had to wait for Lee to get home. I decided I wanted to get an old t-shirt and write "Bun in the Oven" on it for when he got home. I was digging in my t-shirt drawer when I heard the garage door go up. Crap! I went out in the garage, trying to play it cool. Calmly I just said "What's up daddy?" (Sidenote: No, I do not call Lee daddy on a regular basis.)

At first he didn't really respond, but he took about 3 steps, stopped dead in his tracks and turned around with a huge shocked smile and said "REALLY?"

Of course, after about 2 minutes of celebration, I just had to call my mom. She was just slightly excited (NOT) and possibly set the record for most F-bombs dropped on one phone call. She just kept saying "This is un-f-ing-believable. I'm so f-ing excited. This is f-ing amazing."

Anyway, a little over a week later, they did a SUPER early ultrasound and we got our first glimpse of our little bun.

After seeing this picture, we nicknamed the baby Speck. That remained the name until we decided on the name Taryn.

It's hard to believe that little Speck we saw last September is now the 16 lb four month old sleeping in her crib. It is amazing the difference that one year makes!

What do you do...

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Question: What do you do when your house won't sell?

Answer: Buy another house!

Yes, so Lee and I are now homeowners x2.

May seem like not the smartest plan ever since we're not exactly raking in the dough, but amazingly, the mortgage payment on this house is less than our gas to commute to Lafayette.

I am SO pumped to live in West Lafayette again. Feels like home. Don't make me break into an appalling rendition of "Back Home Again..."
This picture is not a very good one (obviously), but it's all I've got right now since they took the ad off the internet when they accepted our offer. But, don't worry! I'll be taking some pics this weekend. I will call them the "before" pics since we have a lot of work planned for the place.

The house needs some work. The previous owners were super old and had lived there for 50 years! When they bought the house, it cost $7,000. Wow.

Some cool features of the house:
* It has access to the Wabash River. I don't plan to use it, but Lee has manly dreams of canoeing and stuff.
* It is also really close to Fort Ouiatenon. That probably really only means something to those of you that have lived in Tippecanoe County.
* It has a "Man Coop". Basically, there was an old chicken coop on the lot that the previous owner turned into a nice man-cave-shed. We have named it the Man Coop. Lee has big plans for the Man Coop. I have big plans for him living in the Man Coop. Haha.
* The front porch is going to be awesome to sit on! The yard is really cute and fenced in which will be great for Taryn when she can walk (and run) around.
* There are great wood floors under the carpets. Can't wait to rip those things out!
* Did I mention the mortgage payment is less then the cost of our gas to commute?

This weekend is our 10-year reunion, but we're going to try to get some of our stuff down there. At least enough to live for next week AND NOT HAVE TO COMMUTE!

I'm no Einstein

Last Friday I was hanging out with T while Lee was at work. She was starting to seem bored with the same ol' toys, so I decided to put together her Baby Einstein Activity Center. Unfortunately for me... You have to be an Einstein to put that thing together! The directions don't have any words, they just have pictures. The whole endeavor took me about 2 hours. Here were some of my pitfalls:
* I put the seat cover on backwards.
* I put the seat cover on inside out.
* I put one of the support legs in upside down and couldn't get it out. (Lee had to fix this when he got home.)
* I took off 10 itty bitty screws in order to put some batteries in only to realize that wasn't where the batteries went. "Oh, here it is... Just one screw to undo."

At the end of it all, Taryn actually seemed to like it, so I guess it was worth the battle. Although, in the future, I will save this crap for Lee!

Changing Time

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Lee is starting work down in Lafayette tomorrow and I am starting back at school on Monday. Our commute to Lafayette takes an hour. But what REALLY sucks is that we lose an hour due to the time change. So, to get to Lafayette by 7am, we have to leave at 5am. Ouch. And to leave by 5am, we really need to get to bed early, but you feel like a total loser going to bed promptly at 9pm.

So, our family is officially on Eastern time now. I just went through the house and reset all of the clocks an hour ahead. We changed Lee's car and I am going to go change my car. The only clocks that will still be on Demotte time is the tv and our cell phones. Hopefully we don't get confused by those!!