Happy Birthday! Here's a Door.

Let me explain.

Brian asked for help hanging a new storm door for his birthday.  (The one we previously had didn't even shut all the way.)  However, I know nothing about hanging a storm door, or any door for that matter, so I wasn't going to be much help with that, but Gangsta Tom has 'Storm Door Hanging' as one of his specialties.  (One of his many specialties, I should add.)  And today, Gangsta Tom and Brian hung his birthday present - his new storm door.

And, if I do say, it's the best storm door (and storm door installation) you have ever seen!

So, Brian, Happy Birthday, again!  Here's your new door:

Stick Figures

Ladies and Gentlemen, I forgot to bring my camera this weekend.  Therefore, I have documented our weekend by a three part series of hand drawn stick figures.  (Tom, I wasn't kidding when I mentioned that we may have to do this...)

Please enjoy 'Our Weekend in Stick Figures':

Hot Dog!

Mary and Tom joined Brian and me for a post 35th birthday lunch at Dirty Frank's Hot Dog Palace.  (You recall this place, don't you?!  It has quickly become a fav!) 

Ahhhh, the treeeeeee!

We then headed to Trapper John's for a canoe trip!  It may appear that we are obsessed with hot dogs and canoeing, and maybe we are, but we had a blast!  By the way, if you're wondering why Brian is sitting so low in the canoe, it's because he actually was sitting at the bottom of the canoe at one point!  When we ran smack dab into the middle of this tree, the shear force of our collision scooted him off of his seat right into the bottom of the canoe!  (I would just like to state for the record that the person in the back of the boat is supposed to steer, and I was sitting in the front...)  It was so hilarious and kept us all laughing for quite a while.  We left soaked to the bone, but all in good fun, of course!

Splish splash!

Last, but certainly not least, we joined our family for our first 'Sunday Family Dinner' at Kevin and Brooke's house. There was ball throwing, fishing, jumping off the dock (by Jack), swimming (again, by Jack), shish-ka-bobs, apple pie, and wonderful company!

It was a lovely summer weekend!

Stick Image #1 Disclaimer:  Tom doesn't normally look so "gangsta", but for some reason I have drawn him multiple times and every time he's got quite the swagger.  (Especially in our 'Hot Dog' picture.)

Stick Image #2 Disclaimer:  I am no arteest, and my lack of drawing stick figure skills is not meant to offend anyone in any way.  This is really not what you look like...

Stick Image #3 Disclaimer:  To all of our blog readers, I can assure you that I did pass 5th grade art class.  I can assure you that I passed 10th grade art class.  I can also assure you that I won't be heading into 'art' anything with my next career change...

Birthday Bonanza

Presents, presents, and more presents!  We celebrated Brian's 35th birthday yesterday with 35 'birthday surprises'!  Is it just me, or are guys just really difficult to buy for?!  After racking my brain...since Brian's 34th birthday...I still didn't have very many ideas on what I could get Brian.  Sure I could pick out some clothes, sure I could pick out some shoes, but I've done that before.  I wanted to do something else, something originial.

On Sunday night, it hit me, on Monday I worked out the details, and on Tuesday and Wednesday I spent the rest of my time racking my brain again on 35 gifts.  (At one point I considered just doing this next year, being that I was cutting it relatively close on time and all and thinking of 35 'birthday things', without spending $500, is not the easiest thing you've ever done, but I remembered that if I did wait until next year, I'd have to think of 36.  And any year that I didn't do this, I'd just be adding on.  If I could barely get 35 notes done, I wasn't going to tempt 36 or more!  This was definitely the year to do this, and I'm so happy I did!)  I created 35 individual cards for his 35th birthday (get it?!) - each with a little note on the back.  The notes ranged from birthday gifts, birthday coupons, birthday jokes, there was even a birthday wish protection plan, but they were all for him!  I then attached numbers to the gifts that I had purchased so that when he did read a card that directed him to open a gift, he would have the right one to open!

I had a ton of fun coming up with the little notes and once my creative juices are flowing it's hard for me to get them to stop!  I know Brian enjoyed his birthday gift(s) as much as I enjoyed making them.  Now, I've got to start thinking about what the heck I'm going to do for his 36th birthday...!

Happy Birthday, Brian!  ♥

Love Always,
Your Wife for Life

Dog Days of Summer

By the calendar, summer arrived 21 days ago.  By my acute summer senses, summer arrived this weekend!

While we were out and about in our backyard, probably throwing the ball to Jack or moving the sprinker to water another 'new grass' area, we heard a couple of cicadas in the trees surrounding our backyard!  I don't know about you, but to me the sound of cicadas just screams summertime, and it was none to early because for the first time this summer we've got a heat index of 100 degrees today!  (Actually, that may be a slight fib.  While we were away in Europe, we were told that there was an extreme heat wave that raised temperatures for a few days here, but since we didn't experience it and the 'summer' days since we've been back have been simply lovely, this is our first time experiencing 100 degree temperatures this summer!)  But we are not complaining!

I absolutely love the sound of cicadas.  If you could bottle that sound up with a few fireflys, a light pinkish blue sky and a little bit of heat, you'd have a little dose of summer year round!  And when I hear them during the day, I can't help but daydream about a glass of cold ice tea, a chair, and a shady porch to sit on!

In addition to the summer serenading cicadas, we also noticed that we have a wonderful Rose of Sharon blooming behind our shed.  Our yard continues to surprise us!

I think we can all agree that summer is officially here!  Welcome, Summer!  Welcome!

(Can you picture a sun smiling with sunglasses on right now!?  I can!)

Bouncy Balls

Jack found this bouncy ball in our basement right before we started our quarantining. How can you not play with such a cute puppy?!

Watch Me!

(Playing on the Steps Disclaimer: Allowing our puppy to play on the steps may suggest that we are not responsible parents. We can assure you that we took all the necessary precautions to promote safety and safe step playing and, since we've figured out that Jack uses our house as his personal jungle gym anyway, we figured why not give him a little step challenge! We are careful and responsible, and no animals were harmed in the making of this video.)

Attack of the Greenish-Black Mold...

BEWARE! 

OOooooohhhhh!  (That's a ghost sound...)

Duh dum...   Duh Dum...  Duh DUM. DUH DUM. DUH DUM DUH DUM... (That's the Jaw's theme song...)

It's slimy!  It's gooey!  It's gross!  It's absolutely, positively putrid!  AND, it's in our basement.

It's mold... Ahhhhh!

When Brian and I bought our house we were amazed at how clean and tidy the basement was.  After all, you'd figure after 75 years of being a basement you'd be a bit rusty, dirty, perhaps have a few cobwebs in your corners too, but not this basement.  It was spick and span...until we moved in...

Despite smelling a bit musty and damp (we figured that's what old basements smell like...), we were pretty content with our basement.  Sure it could use a little work, sure we could probably utilize the space a bit better (it ended up as the store-all for everything we either a.) didn't unpack, or b.) didn't know where to put), but for the most part, our basement is ... a basement.  Neither of us were overly concerned about the smell or the disorganization until we noticed that we were being taken over by a really, REALLY  disgusting mold.  (So gross that I won't even show you pictures close up.)

We're not quite sure how or where it started, or if it was there before we moved in, but it had to be taken care of, so we spent this weekend quarantining our basement items that were salvagable, getting rid of all the items that weren't, and sanitizing everything.  I'm talking face masks, gloves, scrubbing on hands and knees from floor to ceiling and everything in between sanitizing.  I'm not going to lie, it was not the funnest thing we've ever done but it had to be done, and so, we did it.  (But not without burning a few nose hairs off in the process thanks to the 1:4 bleach to water solution that we mixed.)  Plus, it was a good excuse to actually go through all the junk that we just threw down there when we moved in November!

We are now living amongst our clean basement items and are in the middle of determining our next plan of action to destroy the mold and prevent the growth of any new mold.

Stay tuned for the Attack of the Greenish-Black Mold Part II - When Humans Attack...

...Coming soon!

Red, White, and BOOM!

What is that, you ask?  Only the largest, brightest, loudest, most spectacular fireworks display in the midwest, of course!  And, yes, Brian and I braved the crowds and the heat and made our way to downtown Columbus, OH making this our third year in a row!  (For the record, the crowds weren't that bad, parking was easy, and the temperature was perfect!)  When we arrived downtown, we moseyed around for a bit, people watched, and scoped out a few areas where we could sit until we ended up in an area with our new pal, Bobby.

Bobby, you see, staked out a huge area on Tuesday, June 28 for his family and friends.  Once Friday, July 1 rolled around, he still had a ton of open lawn space available for passersby.  And, being that Bobby is a very friendly and generous fella, when we asked him if we could sit in a small spot on 'his' lawn, he willingly obliged and even offered us some hot dogs and beer out of his own personal stash!  Ahh, life in the midwest.  When you're here, you're family!

We enjoyed Red, White, and Boom this year much like years past - in the center of all the action, but unlike years past, we were showered with bits of firework dust as the wind blew the ash in the air, and nine minutes before the start of the show we saw the international space station go across the sky, smack dab in the middle of our viewing area.  It was all incredible!

We've decided that while we've not really planned on attending Red, White, and Boom for the past three years, that we will have to start making it an annual tradition!  And now that we know we've got a spot saved with Bobby and crew, we will most definitely be planning to attend!

Real Life Legos

Yes, we are very happy with our decision to leave this one to the professionals...

...And happy that the professionals like us enough to leave us a smiley face on our dusty basement window!

Handyman Tenderfoot

When we moved into our new house, we learned that a long time ago there used to be a koi pond in the concrete outlined area (now filled with dirt and mulch) in the back of our yard.  The koi pond was then transformed into a vegetable and herb garden, and it is now a mulch bed (with hopes to be a veggie garden...next year...)

We also learned that some of our concrete window wells were falling apart, and we thought better to get those babies replaced before our plant beds collapsed into the windows of our basement.  We had the front window well repaired (there was only a little damage), but the rear window well needed to be completely replaced.  (We are right in the middle of replacing that one!)

We decided to leave digging the 5' deep hole to the professionals!

But, in the process of having the front window well repaired, Brian learned how to do some concrete repair work, and decided that rather then paying someone to fix our 'future' veggie garden, he would do it himself!  I am so proud of my 'learning to be handy' husband!  You will be proud of him too!

Before.  It is evident where the repair is needed, right?!

Look at that near perfect framing!!

And perfect mixing!

Jack plays the 'Project Manager' roll.

And sits patiently waiting for the next layer!

Now, we sit and wait for it to dry!

And there you have it - a perfect repair!


I am extremely impressed!  And I can honestly say that if handyman-ness were anything like the boyscouts, Brian just advanced from Handyman Scout to the first rank - Handyman Tenderfoot!

I love you, Handyman Husband!

Operation 60th Anniversary Cake Topper

About a week and a half ago, Brian's Grandma asked me to create a cake topper for their 60th anniversary.  I have never in my life created a cake topper, mind you, but I'm always up for a challenge and I love to get creative, so I thought, 'what the hey, of course I'll do it!'.  I was given free reign with any ideas that I came up with.  The only thing I was told was that the colors were purple and white.  As I started brainstorming, I came up with a few ideas and ultimately decided that while I didn't have anything really set in stone, and I wasn't quite sure how all of these ideas would blend together, I would just get started and figure it out along the way.  And figured it out is what we did!  (Yes, Brian helped!)

I started by gathering a few supplies: styrofoam, a plastic top, moss, and sticks from our very own yard.

Moss 'n sticks.

Then, I covered the styrofoam that I glued to the plastic top with the few different types of moss that I bought.  (I wasn't sure if you could just stick styrofoam on top of icing, so I decided to play it safe!)


Moss covered styrofoam.


Then, I added two white paper flowers and started glueing together some of the sticks that I found and cut:

White paper flowers 'n sticks.

After I let the styrofoam, plastic top, moss, flowers, 'n sticks dry for a few hours, I took a card that I had made previously and started working on the subjects of the cake topper.

One of my fav cards!

Finally, I added a banner (compliments to Brian for coming up with the 'flag' idea.  Originally it was a cut out '6o', but the banner really adds so much, and was much easier to cut out!)

Voilà!


Last, but certainly not least, we added said topper to the cake the day of the celebration:



And it fit wonderfully!


I was extremely pleased with how it turned out and had a lot of fun making it.  Plus, it seemed Brian's grandparents were happy with it as well!

The cake topper with the honorees.



Operation 60th Anniversary Cake Topper was definitely a success!



Happy wonderful 60th Anniversary, Morris & Marilyn!