Quakes and Dogs and Tulips, Oh My!!

First things first. No, we did not feel the first earthquake that hit Southern Illinois (we slept through our first earthquake!), but I felt what was the 2nd earthquake or an aftershock last Friday morning (Keith was on a mower, so he didn't feel a thing). The only way I felt that one was because I was staring at my monitor and it started shaking back and forth - woo, did it make me dizzy!

Since last Wednesday, we have been dogsitting Meg & April, Amberley & Reed's two dogs. Oh what fun they are... We have had a few issues with poop & urine from someone - well, I think all of the critters in the house. Just not enough toilets for all of us, I guess.

Our anniversary was last Wednesday. We played minigolf, and ate out and then got some custard ice cream - yummy! Look at these beautiful flowers from my mom & dad. They are tulips - they remembered what flowers we had at our wedding!



There are lots of tulips and flowers blooming around here, including the dogwood trees. They are so pretty! We mowed our lawn for the first time today, and I will say that even as crappy as it looks, I think it looks better than when we moved in!! Today it was so nice we drove the motorcycle to Hannibal to wander down their down town. I forgot how much reaction we get from people! It is kind of fun to see their smile get even bigger when Keith honks his A-UUU-ga horn!

We're getting closer!

So, we are getting closer to possibly kinda finishing the kitchen. We're starting to work on the smaller details, like putting the plates on the electrical outlets, cleaning up some trim, cutting some quarter round for around the trim, etc. Today I primed the built-in cabinet in the kitchen. I won't let you have any peeks at it until I'm done. It will be a beautiful surprise!! :-) But we do have a couple things to show you! We finally found some stools for our island. Perhaps now we can eat there instead of our couch... (our "dining table" is currently holding Keith's computer - and if it was in the kitchen, it would just be in the way for painting, etc... Aren't the stools cute? What's even better was the price - they were Clearanced @ Shopko for $18 a piece. Yeay!! They're pretty comfy too - lots of room for a big butt.

Also, we got this light up in the corner of the room. We're not quite sure why there was a light there to begin with, but we found one to put here instead of just covering it up.

Work's starting to speed up for Keith, though the past couple days have not been good for growing grass - it snowed both yesterday and today, but not enough to stick. It's supposed to be in the 70s by the end of this week, though! Prince sponsored Karaoke at another Country Club (yes, there are three in town...) and we went to that. Had a fun time, and Keith sang a couple songs. He managed to not embarass himself too bad so I can still face my coworkers on Monday morning. It was also nice to hang out with my coworkers, my boss & the spouses - especially since my boss was out all week. He had a heart attack last weekend - he is only 48, & plays raquetball three times a week, so it was quite a surprise!!

Anyway, I need to take a shower. I got a lot of paint in my hair so it looks like I'm an old lady. :-)

We've got internet!

Keith & I finally got internet this weekend. It's still very slow, but it is better than nothing. We've spent the past day or so updating our computers because we were so behind on everything!!

Well, I said I would have pictures up by Monday - hee hee. I didn't say WHICH Monday! I just haven't had time while I was at work, and a couple days I forgot the USB cable to hook my camera up to the computer. But here are pictures of the bathroom. We've still got to paint the ceiling and put up the molding around the top. We'll get that done after we're done with the kitchen. By the way - check out my caulking job! I have found a new talent!

We're still working on the kitchen. We got sick of painting (after 4 coats + 2 coats of primer) and finally went to another brand of paint. We are finishing that up this afternoon. Jesse, I think you've got us converted to Benjamin Moore paint. It's quite spendy (though I flirted with the guy at the paint store enough to give us a 10% discount on paint since we've got a lot of rooms left) but it's SOOOO worth it. Hopefully soon we'll get the trim done and I will have finished pictures!!!

Here's some pictures from JT's first birthday. What a cutie (though slightly messy in these pictures!)

Weather has been quite rainy down here, but no flooding, but this weekend was nice. Everybody's yard seems to be perking up - ours is, well, quite weedy and bumpy. We'll have to work on that some year, but I imagine it will be a couple before the yard looks halfway decent. We decided to start taking down the apple trees in our yard. They are in a weird spot and were never trimmed properly so they are diseased. They didn't give us any apples last year, so we don't know what kind they are. But after one cut, our chainsaw decided to poop out. Oops. I guess we've got a project for next weekend. :-)

Critters are doing OK. Ruthie is excited the weather is nice so she can play out side more. We've been watching the birds at our bird feeder. Just today we saw robins, pigeons, blackbirds, grackels, red-headed finches, chickadees and who knows what else. I need to get a bird book so I can figure out what they are... Hopefully the goldfinches will be here soon. Randy is also watching them out our windows. And speaking of Randy, someone feels bad that the doll house I used as a kid isn't being used any more. Or maybe he likes the color pink. ??