On the go!

So we have been really busy lately...nothing super exciting, but we've been spending time working out, cooking at home more, playing with Jefferson, staying busier with work, and hanging out with new (and old) friends.

This past weekend, Billy won a race on Saturday, which was exciting! I don't have any pictures, since our camera battery was dead, but he was on the front page of our local newspaper for his performance :) Then, on Sunday I rode my bike with him during a 20-mile run near the oceanfront, which was fun since it was such a beautiful day!

The weekend before that, we went to Busch Gardens with our friends, Pete and Mollie, and Jefferson came along for the ride as well. We LOVE Busch Gardens but are slightly sad that they don't have Beer School anymore. It was a beautiful day, and there were basically no lines, so we rode every ride in just a couple of hours! Jefferson always enjoys his time in the kennel there as well, since he can watch the other dogs up close (not from his usual "front window of our house" position). We went to Green Leafe Cafe afterwards, which has lots of different beers and yummy pretzel bread. That inspired us to make our own pretzel bread from a Cooking Light soft pretzel recipe this past week, but it didn't turn out quite as good :) Probably because it was a healthier recipe!!

Favorite Ride - Apollo's Chariot

I am so ready for spring! With the exception of a few days here and there, it has been COLD here! I am longing for skirt and sandal-wearing weather and to get some color on my pale body! We're looking forward to seeing some of Billy's extended family and our friends from out of town this weekend for Easter. I have a feeling I may end up doing some cooking for the whole crew, which I always enjoy! We are so thankful for Christ's saving sacrifice for us and are especially reminded of that as we approach Easter weekend where we celebrate Him.

Jefferson is ready for spring too!!

Next week begins our week-long travel craziness, which will include a month's worth of fun time with family, friends, and special activities! We're heading to Atlanta to visit my family for a couple of days, driving to and from Nashville for my college friend's wedding, flying from Atlanta to Boston for the marathon, and flying from Boston back here. So it will be hectic and busy but so much fun. Billy hasn't seen my family since Thanksgiving, so he's excited about that (as am I, since I haven't seen them since January)! We'll see friends from college (and high school for me), hopefully take a couple of brewery tours, celebrate with my soon-to-be-wed friend, and do lots of fun things in Boston, most importantly, watch Billy run the world's oldest annual marathon (and one of the few you can run only if you qualify). I can't wait to visit Boston, since I've heard it's such a great city! Fenway Park here we come :)

Here is a little visual of what our trip is going to look like...

ATL

Nashville

Wedding

Boston

Marathon!!

Fenway Park

Sam Adams Brewery

We don't really have a skyline to return to, but there is a lot of water in our neck of the woods :)

More Easter Bird Nests

So I was looking up a recipe last night on RecipeZaar, and on the main page was a familiar picture...a chow mien noodle bird nest! I guess I wasn't the first one to think of this :)

These look really cute (they use jellybeans instead of robins eggs) and sound extra yummy for those of us who LOVE peanut butter!

Here's the recipe if you're interested - http://www.recipezaar.com/Easter-Nests-with-Jelly-Bean-Eggs-87879


These are a great way to give people a little personalized Easter treat (and are easy and inexpensive to make but look fancy)! Jefferson may even get one of these in his Easter basket this year :)

Shamrock!!

This past weekend, Billy ran in the Shamrock Marathon in VA Beach. I watched him at the start, almost half-way point, and finish and spent the rest of the time in the Hilton lobby trying to stay warm. It was pretty chilly out there, but perfect running weather - 40s with no wind! Billy had been training so hard (averaging probably 10 miles a day with basically no days off for the past month or so, up until his taper this past week), and it definitely paid off! At about 12.5 miles, he was in 13th place, but during the second half of the race, he was able to pass 4 people, coming in 9th overall and destroying his old PR by 18 minutes! (click here for results) Can we say stud???

Here are some pictures from the day:

at around the 12.5 mile mark

about to finish - still going strong!

finish line!

post-race...he doesn't even look tired!

BC & Coach

some of the other runners he trains with (they did the 1/2)

pre-beer tent :)

Next stop Boston!

Birdnests

With Spring on the horizon (I'm hoping!!), I've been in the mood to whip up some spring-y treats...my latest creation in the kitchen is a spinoff of "haystacks", the cute, seasonal, and yummy treats that include chow mien noodles, chocolate, and butterscotch. I took the basic haystack recipe and instead of making bunches that resemble haystacks, I formed the mixture into "birdnests". With some Robins Egg candy, they make a fun gift, party favor, or just a simple dessert.

Quick and easy recipe:

10-12 oz. bag chocolate chips

10-12 oz. bag butterscotch chips

1/2 bag chow mien noodles (this can vary, depending on how much you want them coated in the chocolate and butterscotch)

Heat chocolate and butterscotch (works best on the stove), stirring until melted together. Add chow mien noodles and stir into chocolate/butterscotch mixture, coating noodles evenly. Scoop out noodles onto wax paper and form into "birdnest" shapes. (I found my first couple looked better than the rest, probably because the chocolate/butterscotch mixture was still warm and easily formed.) Cool completely, remove from wax paper, add Robins Eggs, and serve. Yum!!

Jefferson was VERY interested in them too :)

Heading to Chicago!!

This weekend, I'm heading to the great city of Chicago to see a friend whom I haven't seen in almost 2 years for her bachelorette weekend! She was in my wedding just over two years ago, and I'll be in hers in April. Here's a picture of us from my wedding...

The Matron of Honor in her wedding has planned several fun outings for us, so it will be nice to have a weekend in a big city and get to hang out with the other bridesmaids as well! Now I just need to pack warm clothes to handle the super cold weather (highs in the low-30s...and temperature-wise, I belong in Florida :)). Should be fun, and I'll try and post pictures from the trip when I get back.

I'll miss my men this weekend, but girls weekends are always wonderful...especially when they're with people you rarely get to see! Yay for traveling (and coming home too)!!

House #3: Designed to Sell?

Last summer, my father-in-law, husband, and I bought a cute house in bad need of a little TLC, with the hopes of fixing it up and making it someone's new home.

We had a good (and occasionally challenging) time fixing up this house, and it was fun to have a little bigger budget than Billy and I had on the houses we've fixed up and actually lived in. This meant we were able to put in replacement windows, gut the kitchen, and have someone else paint the house (we started painting but quickly turned that over to a few local handymen :)).

Here are some before, during, and after pics of various parts of the house...

Front of house before...looks ok but upon closer inspection, needs a new roof, new exterior doors, and more!

All done!! New doors, windows, roof, and more!!

Rear of House Before

Rear of House During (we were in the process of ripping out the laminate wood floors)

Rear of House After!

Backyard Before

Backyard After

We had the yard fenced in and replaced the old shed. Love the big backyard!! Jefferson loved it too, as he got to go play while we were at the house :)

Living/Dining Room Before

Floors looked ok but had some pretty noticeable imperfections, so we decided to go with carpet to freshen up the room. Also wanted to brighten up the space with a slightly lighter paint color on the walls.

Living/Dining Room During

Painting is almost done! New front door was installed, as the old one had broken glass and wasn't' going to hold up.

Living/Dining Room After

We chose Lowe's Seaside Retreat Light Khaki for the walls to brighten the space, paired with a light brown wall-to-wall carpet.

Kitchen Before

This definitely needed a little updating, plus I felt bad about trying to sell this house when the kitchen had basically no counterspace and very little cabinet space. So, after many meetings with the folks at Lowe's, we settled on a kitchen design to give the buyers a much more workable kitchen!

Kitchen During

Post-gutting!! We did keep the ceramic kitchen floor that was in surprisingly good condition.

Kitchen After

Closeup of wainscotting backsplash

We chose Lowe's Seaside Retreat Dockside Haze to give the kitchen a soothing yet cheery feel, and it complements the white cabinets and Mystic Moonlight laminate countertops very nicely!

Bath Before

Love the black and white tile...not so much the broken pedestal sink and the fact that the previous owner painted over the pink tile (which was, at this point, peeling off in several spots).

Bath During

Attempt to scrape what turned out to be several coats of nasty, probably lead-based paint off the walls.

Bath After

We used Dockside Haze for this room as well, which I love with the black and white tile. Also, replaced the pedestal sink with a new vanity for extra storage and reluctantly had the tiles all painted white (it should hold up well, but we like for things to be done right the first time - which should have been to remove the tiles or keep the previous pink tile without painting over it).

Master Bedroom Before

Dark brown color just made this room seem smaller when it's actually a decent sized room. Plus, the carpet full of unidentified stains had to go!

Master Bedroom During

We chose Lowe's Seaside Retreat Seagull Gray color for all three bedrooms. The lighter color immediately opened the room up and also made the modern, higher quality fan/light fixture stand out more!

Master Bedroom After

Painting is done and carpet installed - looks like a totally new room!! Jefferson's a fan of the new look!

Back Bedroom Before

One word...scary!

Back Bedroom After

Because the door was an unusual size (20" instead of the standard 24" or 32"), we would have had to get a custom door cut for this space. Not worth it in a house we planned to flip, so instead, I used this white curtain panel from Walmart...easy fix for under $20!!


Just for fun...

Window Before (4 out of the 11 windows looked like this, plus the glass in the exterior doors)

So that's it for our third (but most extensive) renovation project. And, with the real estate market taking a turn for the worse soon after our purchase, it turns out this wasn't the best time to buy an investment property (at least one to fix up and sell), so we decided to rent the house out after going several months without any bites. Now we at least have some income on the property and can hopefully find a buyer once the market turns!

Christmas 2008

Even though Christmas has come and gone, we're still celebrating, according to our decorations that continue to grace our halls :) We were going to attempt to take everything down last weekend but decided that it's kind of fun to have everything up for Christmas and we only get to have our decor out once a year, so it's staying for the time being. Guessing that will be until next week, seeing as we have out of town guests coming for the weekend and a dinner guest this evening. So until then, we're enjoying the lasting Christmas feel of our house.

Christmas was nice this year...I missed my family, but it was great to be in our own house at Christmas and very relaxing without the travel. We got to sleep in, have Christmas dinner with just the two of us (fajitas...our own tradition we started a couple of years ago), and enjoy our decorations that we had waited so long to put up. My sweet husband even made me my family's traditional Christmas Eve dinner before church that night!!! Here are some recap pictures...

Jefferson cooperating for his Christmas picture...

Five seconds later :)

Giant beer boot in the Snow Village

Das boot by the tree...filled with Budweiser of course!

Billy and Jefferson enjoying their Christmas presents