my girls

A couple weekends ago I met up with my college roommates for a wonderful weekend in Bayfield. We get together each fall. No matter where it is we meet, we always manage to have a great time. Lezlie invited us to stay at her brother-in-law's lake cottage. It was so gorgeous...4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a beautiful view of the lake, complete with spectacular sunrise each morning. We went to Madeline Island for lunch, enjoyed the scenery and met some interesting locals. Back in Bayfield, somehow we talked right through the dinner hour...well Lez napped a little too (she doesn't do well when we feed her vodka before noon).

We stayed up late, talked non-stop and Sunday morning enjoyed our books in the cozy living room. I love these girls so much. Love that we can pick right up where we left off the last time without hesitation. Love that we can practically predict each other's behavior and typically finish each other's sentences. Love that they are so easy to be around. I am so blessed to have these beautiful, sweet, funny, caring, humble, thoughtful, crazy, charismatic women in my life. Thanks for a lovely weekend girls. One that was so good for my spirit and my soul. I love you all and can't wait for the next one!

big picture

I have so many pictures still in my camera...end of summer, back to school, birthdays, girls weekend...but here I am again posting another picture from my phone of our house. This project consumes our lives right now. Hopefully soon I'll be able to get back to my camera and add variety to my posts. For now, if you even care anymore, here's the big picture of the remodel. This is what you see when you drive in our driveway. The parts that are in blue, along with the entire back side are still unfinished. Slowly but surely it's coming together. We are so thankful for all our friends who have given up time with their families to help us out. They are more ready for this project to be done than we are, I'm sure. Thanks for sticking with us guys! This couldn't have happened without all of you! (The hilarious part is I'm certain not one of them reads any blog, ever. I just keep feeding them in hopes they will come back.)

remodel update

How do you feel about red siding? I wasn't sure how I felt, but that's what Joe picked. I know, so weird that I'm letting my husband make this kind of choice. After all, isn't color a "girl thing"? He's been very involved in the exterior design of the house. I think he's doing pretty good so far. What do you think?

my baby is 7 (updated)

For the record, I did not forget my daughter's birthday. Unfortunately, I had to be out of town for work that day, which absolutely killed me! She's seven now. I cannot believe it myself. I barely remember that chubby little baby. She's so grown up, but she'll always be my baby.

Dear Ava,

From the moment your dad said, "it's a girl!" and I said, "SHUT UP!" I knew we were really lucky to have you. Life has been so much more fun with you in it. You are an incredibly special little girl that I would be utterly lost without.

Ava...funny, fun, dramatic, quirky, weird, lovable, girly, helpful, outgoing, spirited, sweet, ruthless, relentless, crazy, cute, curly, cuddly... These are just a few of the adjectives I can easily use to describe you. I love being your mom.

Love,
Mom


Update:
I finally got around to getting Ava's birthday pictures off my camera. I completely forgot to mention the highlight of her party. She wanted the spanking machine...15+ people, grandparents included, lined the hallway so Ava could scoot through. HILARIOUS. No picture, but trust me it was very funny. I love that crazy kid. And I love this picture. She's so happy and a little embarrassed with everyone singing to her.

going batty

If you care, I am terrified of bats. Last night, I was laying in bed reading with just my little reading light on, when I hear a "flopping", "flutter", distinct wing movement kind of sound. Throw my book down, shine my miniature light all over while waking up Joe, "WHAT WAS THAT FLOPPING NOISE?!" He thinks I've gone crazy, there's no flopping noise, he rolls over. Back to my book. I see a shadow zoom over my head. OMG, it's a bat!!! (see first sentence, terrified of bats) My screaming gets Joe's attention. He's irritated that I'm keeping him awake at 11:00, and there certainly is not a bat in our house. "Probably a moth." There's nothing worse than being terrified and having the person your with doubt you or not take your terror seriously. I know all too well how a bat sounds and looks - Towers, 10th floor...bring back any memories my UWEC friends?! It swoops over again. He saw it this time. I have made confirmation. It's a bat. Scream, Scream, Scream. Throw covers over my head and try not to cry. Meanwhile, my husband ponders, "how did a bat get in here...?" Hello, we don't care how it got in. GET IT OUT.

If you've been to our house, you know that our bedroom is a loft that is open to the living room and kitchen below. I'm sure the bat was having great fun flying from our room all the way across the house and back. The damn thing landed at the top of our rock chimney (I think it's around 16' high). I really could have cared less where it landed, or what had to be done to get it out. Joe knew there was no sleep in his future until it was out. I scurried to the bathroom and closed the doors while Joe hauled in a huge ladder to remove it. Then I paced for while and went back to bed with the covers as close to over my head as I could manage, because I was sure there were more.

This is part of the joy of remodeling. Opening your well sealed house up for all unwanted little critters to sneak in. I just know mice are next. Lord help me.

run a 10k, check

Actually, it was 6.6 miles but "run a 6.6 mile run" wasn't as catchy as "run a 10k". Anyway....I had so much fun running Bangin' in the Brush, a 6.6 mile trail run at the Korkki Nordic ski trail. I love skiing at the Korkki. It is by far my favorite place to ski. Being out there without snow was fun. A completely different perspective. I had no trail running experience to speak of and had never run further than 3 miles in my life, so this was challenging for me. The trail was wet and MUDDY, hilly and treacherous. It was a gorgeous day though. I managed through the mud, only tripped twice and came out in one piece. The winners got homemade cookies! They also gave away a ton of raffle prizes from fresh baked bread and homemade honey to new cross country skis! Plus they give you beer at the end...bonus!

Once again my cousin-in-law, Jen, joined me. We agreed this run was one to do again. Maybe I am a runner after all...

still remodeling

Yesterday was a big day on the addition project, we broke through. OK, Joe & Bud broke through, but you knew what I meant. They took out the windows of the existing house to re-purpose them in the addition. I'm not sure why I thought we'd have a lovely view of the addition from the house during this entire project. In my mind everything would be perfectly contained until the momentous day when the other side was done. Um, no. Of course not. That would leave gaping holes in two other places in the addition - duh. So out came the windows and now we look directly into blue styrofoam. Kind of cave-like really. The good news is that when it was all opened up, it was so nice! Our architect really focused on making this not seem like an addition, and he did good! It has a great open flow and feel (after you hurdle the existing wall that is).

Here's the view from dining room to the soon to be new kitchen.


Joe has spent a heap of time concentrating on curb appeal. From the roof lines, shingles, siding and even door styles and color. I can't wait for the siding to really see how it all ties together.


Here we are in the backyard. I think it's so funny how whenever I hold up my camera my kids stop and pose until they hear the click. Keep movin' Ava, just taking a picture of the house. Look, I had to take 2 pictures because I couldn't get back far enough with the 50mm. You get the general idea.



So far, I love this project. Don't get me wrong, it's been a ton of work, mainly for Joe. I know my time is coming with painting and staining, and maybe I won't love it so much then. It's so much different from when we built the house though. I think we actually learned from some of our mistakes the first time around.