We've Been Busy

My parents arrived on Tuesday and left this morning. We had a great visit and got a ton of projects done at the house! Ryan and I had Friday off so the boys were handy and my mom and I shopped. Thanks, Dad and Mom for all of your help!

My sister Meg was here for a brief visit as well. She got here Tuesday and left Wednesday. It was a fun treat to see her and Baby-Q! He has changed a lot since Christmas and he kept us all entertained with his “dancing” and funny noises.

Our garage is like a whole new place. Ryan and my dad mounted peg board on the wall and built a big shelving unit. They hung all the tools and put everything else on the shelves – our floors have never been so clean! I love it!

They also wired and hung outside lights on our garage. Our street doesn’t have streetlights and is fairly dark and, until now, we’ve just had a little light by our front door. These make a huge difference! Plus, they even set them on a timer so they go on at dusk and off at 11.

We hung some much needed coat hooks by the front door and hung a fun tapestry above the front door. My aunt sent it up from her house in AZ and it adds a nice splash of color to our big bare wall.

My dad also did a few things while we were at work. He built some great shelves in the cubby in the guest bathroom, moved a light switch for us, and attached the headboard to the guest bed.

The boys were so efficient with their projects that we spent all of yesterday relaxing. We went for coffee, walked the old neighborhood and spent much of the afternoon out on the deck in the sun.

We had some great meals with our company. We had delicious steaks at Wildfire and then grilled at home, had roast in the crockpot and tried a new chicken recipe.

We also celebrated my birthday early since my parents brought my gifts. They also delivered some of our Christmas gifts that were too big to bring home with us. My mom even had Ryan’s new softball bag embroidered with BOHLEN. Now, if softball would just hurry up and get here I’d be a happy girl. I can’t wait for my socializing in the bleachers to start back up!

Q-ster

New bathroom shelves

Our CLEAN garage!

Coat hooks

New lights on the garage (you may have to click to enlarge so you can see them). Also note - no more snow!

New tapestry by the front door

Me and Dad

Enjoying the sunny afternoon...

Birthday present - new bag for hauling my lunch and shoes to work

Snazzy new softball bag

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Yep, I'm a blog slacker.

Here's what we've been up to:

- I went to Tomah, WI to spend time with my cousin Beth. We had a great time catching up! We even ate at Mr. Ed's Tee Pee. Tell me you aren't jealous!

- Ryan spent a weekend in Ames with his family. They checked out the new house, hauled stuff up from the basement, went to church, watched a movie, and answered all my phone calls to see what they were up to! Ryan was nice enough to take dozens of pictures/videos of Brenna so I could see all the new things she's up to.

- My cousin Dan came to visit this past weekend. He's in school a couple hours away and was on spring break. We ran some errands he needed to do, ate out, watched a movie and he stayed over.

- We booked our Chicago trip!! Ryan had purchased our tickets to the Twins/Cubs game at Wrigley a few weeks ago and we now have our hotel and flights all lined up! We're staying right downtown and of course Ryan got a great deal!

- A lot of our Ryan's time has been spent thinking about the water in the backyard/garage. He's spent many hours snow-blowing, shoveling, shop-vacing the backyard to eliminate as much snow/water as possible in an attempt to prevent it from coming into the garage. So far, we've had wet steps a few more times but the water is going right where it is supposed to if it does happen to make it into the garage. Our sump pump has been running on the warm days too. It's back to COLD again (3* today!) so no melting until this weekend. Once the ground thaws out we'll be having our backyard regraded. A landscaper will come out and build a swale to keep the water away from the house and running where it should.

- We've spent our Tuesdays and Wednesdays watching American Idol. Do you have a favorite? I think mine would be Danny Gokey.

- I've been reading a lot lately. Water for Elephants - it took a while to get into it but I really enjoyed it. March - a story from the perspective of the dad in Little Women - so fun to read what he was doing when he was missing from the Little Women storyline. One Thousand White Women - a story set in 1875 of a thousand women being traded to the Cheyenne Indians as brides in an attempt to create peace between the whites and the Indians. It's great! And next on my list is Peace Like a River for my bookclub. I'll keep you posted...

- My sister Meg will be here early next week with the Q-baby! I can't wait to see him crawling around. And she claims he has a tooth but we've yet to see proof. It's hard to believe that he'll be 1 in less than two weeks!

- My parents arrive next Tuesday! YAY! We have some projects planned for the house - pictures to come. I'm sure there will be a few trips to Caribou and a meal or two out. We're really excited to see them!

And I'll leave you with a few pictures of Brenna from Ryan's time in Ames. And a couple of Quinton that Meg posted recently. Way too cute!

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Not Much New...

Last week was a quiet week here. I worked late Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday but made it home in time for American Idol! (priorities, right!?)

Friday night we had friends over to grill (in the snow!) and hang out. There were 11 of us and we played a few games and had a great time - it had been a while since we'd seen everyone.

Ryan worked yesterday morning and then spent some time clearing the 6.5" of snow from our driveway. I got a haircut (I have bangs!) and then we had a lazy afternoon followed by some shopping and a movie up in Maple Grove. We saw Defiance. I thought it was really great and very moving. Ryan gave it a "good."

The new 'do...

Today was church, birthday shopping for my sisters and dad, and grocery shopping. Then Ryan made his dad's jambalaya recipe and I baked muffins and made mac-n-cheese in the crockpot. A food-filled afternoon!

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Pictures...

All of my updates seem to be picture related...

We got a gift certificate for a Photofiddle painting from my sister Kelly for our wedding. We finally chose what we wanted and it arrived a couple weeks ago. It's a painting of one of our favorite engagement pictures (as always, click to enlarge).



And here's an updated shot of all the family photos. It's not complete; I think we may hang them up since it's a little crowded on the ledge. And I'm still trying to gather pictures of both my sides of my family.



We got these two frames at HomeGoods a couple weeks ago. We didn't like what was in them so we printed some pictures I took in Rome. We're undecided on where to hang them.



And we finally printed a few wedding pictures. I think they'll go in the hallway to our bedroom.



Our "est. 2008" frame has been sitting out housing a picture of a random couple. We finally remedied that today and added one of us.



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We had a great Valentine's Day! We slept in, ran errands, went to a new gluten-free bakery, checked out Honda Ridgelines and then had a delicious dinner at PF Changs and saw He's Just Not That Into You. A perfect date with my valentine!

Besides all of our picture work today we also organized the extra bedroom downstairs. We moved a shelf/cabinet in and cleared out some extra stuff. I've now got a big desk set up with my sewing machine and the cabinet is full of all my fabric and craft/sewing supplies. Ryan even hooked up the tv and dvd player so I can watch movies while I sew. I'm hoping that having my sewing machine out and ready will motivate me to sew a bit more.

And more news...we have a new "sister". Ryan's parents got a new dog yesterday. You can see her here.

On the travel front, I'm heading to Tomah in a couple weeks to meet my cousin; it's the halfway point between us. We'll stay in a hotel and read, relax and catch up. Speaking of, I need to book that hotel! I can't wait! While I'm gone Ryan may head to Ames to see his family. His parents will be there so he'd get to see everyone.

I think that's it from here.

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The Great Flood of 2009

We've had some warm days lately (at least for MN in February!). Normally this would be cause for celebration and walking around in just a sweatshirt.

But with these warmer temps comes melting and dripping. This does not make for happy days at our house. Don't get me wrong, we're ready for spring (specifically softball if you ask me!) but all this water is wreaking havoc on our house and my poor husband's sanity.

I'm not sure how many of you remember last spring when we had water in the basement of our newly purchased house. It was terrible! Ryan lived here alone and couldn't sleep or eat for a week as the water made its way into our basement. We pulled up the carpet, moved everything out of the family room and kept vigil with the shop vac. We did get someone out to repair the problem (a crack in the garage foundation and water running from the garage under the door and into our basement). The rest of the spring and anytime we had a hard rain our sump pump would go off like crazy. But we lived to tell about it and never had wet carpet again.

Until yesterday...

Don't panic. No water in our basement yet. But the garage steps are filling up again and our backyard has a 4 foot wide lake just taunting us outside the garage. Last night when we got home from work we discovered the water on the steps. The original repair work from last year seems to be holding. But the water is still finding its way in on higher steps and then trickling down to the landing.

When we went to bed the water was at a slow trickle. Ryan never slept. He got up at 2 to check on it and woke me with "the landing is all wet". We were up for an hour shop vac-ing, attaching longer hoses to the sump pump and rigging up some golf tees to direct the water flow. I know...golf tees? I'll explain.

When the man repaired the garage last year, he patched the crack and dug out the entire landing to tie it into the drain tile for the house. When he replaced the cement in the landing he edged the entire thing in ribbed plastic. If we looked down the behind the plastic we could see a deep hole. At 2am we discovered that the water coming onto the steps was flowing down over the plastic and settling in the landing. But if we held the plastic out from the steps the water flowed behind it and down into the drain tile and off to the sump pump. So, the golf tees where used as little shims to hold the plastic out and allow the water to flow behind it. And the landing has been dry ever since. My husband is brilliant and resourceful!

Despite getting back in bed at 3:15 neither of us slept until after 5. I'm at home on flood patrol and Ryan will be back around lunch to meet the cement guy. He is going to stop by and see if there is anything he can do.

That's where we stand. Please pray for peace about the whole situation.

It looks like regrading our yard might be in our near future. We'll keep you posted...

Lake Bohlen

Behind the garage

The steps and landing

The golf tee shims

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An All-Encompassing Update

So, it's been too long. I'm back with pictures and updates.

Not this past weekend but the weekend before was really busy for us. Friday night was a birthday dinner and bowling for our friend Ben. Saturday morning was my ladies bookclub. As I mentioned before we're reading Water for Elephants. (I'm not very far but I like it. Sadly, I'll miss the next meeting). That afternoon we ran errands, went to church and then headed to Buca for our friend Alex's birthday dinner. After dinner we drove up to Ryan's old house for a going away party. Sunday was hanging out, errands and the Super Bowl. Our friends Laura and Bret hosted and there was great food and great company. And, believe it or not, we didn't take a single picture all weekend!

Last week was busy too. We had friends over for dinner on Tuesday, I had dinner with girlfriends Wednesday, Pilates on Thursday and then it was the weekend again!

Lately, we have no idea where the weeks are going. They are flying by!

This past weekend we went to a concert on Friday night. We saw Jeremy Camp and Bebo Norman - both are Christian artists. There were 8 of us who went and then came back to our house for dessert.


Part of the concert crew - Katie, Ben, Dana, Sarah, Steve


Jeremy Camp (we were in the second to last row but still had great seats!)


Jeremy Camp


Bebo Norman

The rest of the weekend was low key - shopping, errands, church, dinner with friends, baking (the most amazing muffins!) and a few little projects around the house. We put up some great shelves in the laundry room and bought the biggest shelving unit I've ever seen for the garage. We may wait for warmer weather to put it together.

Here's the latest addition to our room. We don't have a headboard and have been looking for something to hang above our bed. This is what we came up with...






Continuing on with other random tidbits:

- We booked our flights to San Francisco. We'd love to hear what are the "must-sees"!

- I made granola a couple weeks ago - it was totally delicious! Perfect with plain yogurt for breakfast.



- I'm making progress on the family picture wall. All the pictures we have are framed and resting along the ledge in the basement. I still have to print some big (11x14) pictures for the large frames and get some of my family to mix in. Hopefully I'll have shots of the finished product soon.



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Water for Elephants

Book club met for the first time on Saturday. Our goal was to catch up and choose a book to read for the next meeting. We all came with suggestions but settled on Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I've been told to read it by multiple people so I am excited to get started.

Costco book department here I come! (the library has 94 copies but all are checked out or on reserve and Costco is cheaper than my usual used purchases on Amazon.)

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