Bump in the Night...

Or maybe more appropriately "CRASH, BANG, SMASH, BOOM, BANG, BUMP" in the night. Last night Matt and I were awakened by an amazingly startling sound about 1 am. Matt thought it was a gun, but I had no idea what on earth it could have been. I turned on the lamp next to the bed and we realized that our mirror on top of our dresser had crashed to the ground. We have no idea how this happened, but it scared the bejeebies out of us. We examined the scene, the dresser, the mirror, the wall, and to our complete amazement not a single thing was damaged! I do believe that that dresser might be indestructible (considering last night and what it went through on its way to NC). However, I was unable to sleep the rest of the night because my nerves were so jittery from the jolted awakening, so I took a nap during lunch and will go to bed extremely early tonight. We have yet to put the mirror back where it belongs.

Meeting Lincoln!

I was finally able to meet my newest nephew, Lincoln! I flew out to UT for a day and a half for the baby blessing. He is SO cute. Of course he knew instinctively that he should always smile for me :-) The trip was super short, but we were able to sneak in a quick photo shoot. Here's a couple:





You can see the rest of the photos on my website. Presley loves holding Linc, which is good because she is about to become a big sister in a few weeks. Good luck Tara, I wish I could be there!

Birthday Presents!

With home ownership and adultness comes dreaded "practical" birthday gifts. This year Matt received a lawn mower from my parents (thank you SO much this was definitely something we needed). I knew about the gift before he did and encouraged him not to be disappointed if he didn't get what he "wanted". Matt's not a big yard work guy and the lawn is a big chore, but he had a great attitude about his gift. He knew that this was a purchase we would have to make if it wasn't given to us, so... The gift wasn't a moment too soon either as we were getting odd looks from our neighbors concerning the jungle in our front yard!

Here he is hard at work! Thanks for being a trooper Matt!

Birthday Boys!

March is a big b-day month in our family. All the boys on Matt's side have birthdays in March. And oddly enough they are all on dates with a "3" in it. First is Patrick's om the 13th (see older blog post) Then Tom's on the 30th, then Matt's on the 31st. Both Matt and Patrick turned 29 this year (as will I in a few months, which is really scary). My parents were in town for Matt's birthday so it was fun to celebrate with everyone! Lots of cake and lots of fun!

Demolition and Home Improvements

Hi To all!

When my parents came for a visit, they said they wanted to feel "useful". As if a friendly face in a strange land isn't enough. They insisted on helping out with a few "projects" I had in mind... The projects included buying power tools and making large holes in the walls of my beautiful new home! Crazy!

First, Matt and my dad fixed the dresser in our bedroom that suffered the most damage on its cross country voyage. Sorry no pic, but it looks great! Thanks!

Then, my dad got out the saw to cut a huge hole in the wall!




Yes, yes, it is in a closet, so it's not a big deal, but look how much storage space we've added! For some reason, here in the south they don't believe in storage space?!?!


Yeah! Now I have somewhere to put Christmas decor, luggage and food storage (if I can ever get my self to doing this... I did finally get our 72 hour kits together though...).

That weekend we also drilled holes in the wall of our office to help us hide unsightly modems and wireless internet routers. It's so much better without the clutter (well, maybe I just replaced the clutter?!).

My dad is a trooper, he also hung lights in several of the rooms. Another odd thing about the south; they don't put lighting in any of the rooms! We had hall lights, but no lights in any bedrooms, bonus room, office... So we are not living in darkness anymore!

Anyway, thank you SO much for helping with some of our little home improvements! It was great to have you over for a visit. We hope you can come again soon!

Oh, there is one more home improvement I wanted to share. I hope maybe this can be helpful to some of you out there, as I was SO frustrated by this...




I found these handy little "C" shaped thingys that held up a fab closet rod! This is great because as you can see there was a metal piece every 12 inches or so in the way of sliding your hanging clothes about. I had to screw the brackets to the wire shelves and saw the rod to the right length. I did this all by myself too! I did this when Matt was in Daytona. I was trying keep myself occupied so I wouldn't be lonely. I got these all at Lowe's if you find yourself in need of these closet do-hickeys.

Happy home improving!

Even More Visitors!

Wow, I'm kinda feeling popular right now (not a feeling I have ever really felt). The weekend following Tara's visit, my parents came down on whim to go to one of the truck races. It was fun to go watch Matt's team at the Martinsville race. It was especially nice to see them get a top ten finish (the first top ten for TRG)! The race was fun but it was SO cold. We definitely didn't come properly prepared.



We wore winter jackets, but should have brought piles of blankets. Oh well. It took a while but we thawed in the car while waiting for the boys to wrap it up on the track. Here's a photo of Matt's driver (Donny Lia).




Oh, this was funny, well quite handy actually. There were a group of guys a few row in front of us and they all had their stadium cushion clipped to their back belt loop because their hands were full of the beer that they would be consuming during the race... Check it out:

More Visitors!

Yeah! I'm so lucky, my sister and her daughter just came for a visit! It was SO fun to see them. It had been about 3 months (which in WAY to long to go without seeing little P). The weather was beautiful. Tara and Presley were fortunate to come here and experience spring (because they still have about 5 feet of standing snow on the ground where they live). We went to South Park Mall and did some serious window shopping followed by a picnic in the "garden" with yummy cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory.


The next day we enjoyed lunch at Steak & Shake. We all got crazy huge burgers and chocolate shakes. Presley's Favorite was sucking ketchup of the french fries... Isn't she cute?


Then we all went bowling! Presley had never been, so we thought it would be fun for her. Maybe is was beginners luck or something, but she beat the pants off Tara and me and Matt only beat her by one point! Maybe she has found her calling in life...


I'd never seen a contraption like that, but WOW it made her good!

We had Easter dinner at my in-laws. We had delicious food followed by fabulous desserts, we had cupcakes, cookies and strawberry shortcake! We also had fun helping Presley find Easter Eggs. She would get so excited when we pointed one out to her.


Then, after all the excitement we settled in to watch a bit of TV. Presley, who is very independent and not very "cuddly", snuggled with Matt for over an hour like this!


I was so sad to take them to the airport, and not just because we had to get up at 4:30. I miss you guys!! I can't wait til the next visit, my house is always open!