Independence and Kayaking

Happy Independence Day everyone! Greetings from southern California, where it has been hot, true to form for July. That hasn't stopped us from continuing our tile project, where we are inching along, and doing a lot of other fun activities. We both had Friday off, which was a nice break. The Fridays off are becoming more and more familiar to Nick, as he now has three furlough Fridays each month. It would be nice if there was not a 20 percent pay cut that came with that. Regardless, this weekend, we took some time out to have fun.
Friday we headed down to La Jolla for some kayaking. This was our first tandem kayak experience, which, I am happy to report, did not end up in any major fights. We had a really good time exploring the cliffs and caves in La Jolla and enjoyed the surf a bit more than we had in our past kayaking experience.





Saturday we ran some errands for our upcoming trip and caught a matinee of "The Hangover." We both thought it was absolutely hilarious. It's hard to imagine a funnier film will come out this year. We then headed down to Nick's work, which happens to have a prime seat for the fireworks that they shoot off at the top of Mt. Rubidoux. The show was great and we enjoyed having a lot of space to ourselves within the gates of his office and surrounding wildlife education area. Sierra was not quite as excited about the show, but made it through all the less.
We are getting quite excited about our trip to Zion, Bryce, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton national parks. We leave on Friday and will be gone for 10 days. We will be tenting and doing a lot of hiking. Sierra will be at the Ruff House Pet Resort while we're gone. You can check to see if she's behaving herself on their web cam (http://www.ruffhousepetresort.com/outdoor-play-yard.html). Nap time is from 12-2, so you won't be able to see her between those times. For Nick and myself, we will be virtually unplugged and I am actually looking forward to it.
Hope everyone had a great fourth of July and is enjoying the second part of summer. More blogging after our trip!

What we've been up to....

is a good question. It seems like most of June has flown by, but we have kept ourselves busy. For the most part, we have been continuing the tile project...now almost completing the kitchen. We have a fair amount of grouting to do as well as tiling behind the appliances. Then we will have the laundry room, entry way and half bath to finish. An end is in sight...



We also have been enjoying our contribution to aide the struggling California economy, which is a 42 inch plasma television. We have been long overdue for a new set and we went all out for this one. It is a far cry back from our 20 inch that I bought from my Hy-Vee money when working in Ankeny the summer before PT school. We're not sure what we are going to do with the old set, but we will figure something out. We still like Nick's 13 inch from college in our bedroom, so that will stay put.

In other activities, I cleaned out our backyard flower beds as they were pretty hideous. I probably won't be planting much of anything in there, as it will be getting way too hot for anything to survive. I may plant a few succulents and a few other drought resistant ground cover plants. The yard still needs a lot of work on our hill and it the front yard. More hot weekends ahead too!
Nick had some fun over the weekend with some PVC pipe. He built Sierra a stand for her food and water dish in order to help decrease the amount of food, water and slobber on the floor. We are ever so conscious of this since we installed the new floor. She's still a pretty messy eater, but this helps at least a little.

That's all for now...vacation is so close!

Memorial Day

It's hard to believe that a year ago this weekend, we were just beginning the joys of new home ownership and were slaving away all weekend trying to "fix" that awful interior paint job. We actually have come quite far, considering every wall of the place has been painted, except the laundry room, which is a neutral cream. We also have installed beautiful new carpet on the second level as well as started to tile our first floor. We now officially have the living room finished, awaiting sealant for the grout. Nick has taken Tuesday and Wednesday to do some more work, not sure if that will be in the form of more tiling or starting the sealing and baseboards in the living room.


Friday, I took off from work at noon and we made our way up to Fresno just for a break from the "same." The traffic was a mess, per usual in LA, but once we got to Fresno, we enjoyed a very relaxing and slow paced weekend. We spent some time in the pool, although the temperatures were so nice (that is, not grossly hot) we did not spend the whole time in the pool. Sierra had quite an experience with the pool. She went from curious to scared to petrified, to okay to falling in and being petrified again. We both have scratches all over our arms from her hanging on for dear life. She paddled fine, but I think she was just worried about where to get out. It was very cute when we both were in the pool and she was outside; she would be very concerned and be running around the perimeter of the pool whinning. She also had a great time exploring the Peterson's back yard and being a spoiled grandpuppy for the weekend.
The best part of long weekends are the short weeks. I am already excited. I can now officially begin my countdown to our big vacation of the summer, which starts on July 10 (46 days and counting). We are planning a camping and hiking trip for Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks in Utah and Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks in Wyoming. Sierra will be going to the Ruff House while we are away.
I hope everyone had a great and safe long weekend!

Beginning of May

Sorry about the lack of posting. The two exciting things in our life is that we're continuing to move ahead with the tile project (grouting stage in the living room-no new pictures yet) and we celebrated Nick's birthday. We took Sierra to "Dog Beach" on Nick's birthday, which was really fun. It may be one of the coolest places in California. The dogs were going nuts and Sierra loved it. I am sure we will be taking many trips back to "Dog Beach."

A long awaited update...

Sorry about the lack of blogging, but we have been busy doing other things...mostly improvements to our house.
Easter weekend was the start of our marathon of house projects, since we both had Good Friday off. I took the time to repaint our half bath downstairs, as it really needed to be painted. At one point, we were planning to redo the whole thing, but decided against it-at least at this point in time, thus it desperately needed a new coat of paint.
We then picked up our massive order of tile from Lowe's and put in the garage after a few trips to get it home. We started ripping up our old flooring and much to our dismay found an adhesive on our cement slab. We both knew it had to come off, and we bought some tools to do it. Neither one of us realized what a challenge that would be and a huge road block. That first we weekend, we only got the adhesive scraped from half of the living room.
Last weekend, Nick started laying the tile on the clean part of the cement slab. He had to divide it into sections so we could have a place to walk and sit while the tile was setting. We have come up with some interesting arrangements!
This past week, we have taking sections of the adhesive off in the living room so we could finish tiling this weekend. I think the hope is to get all of the whole tiles down and probably start cutting the custom ones. I'd be surprised if we started grouting this weekend, but as that's an easier job, that can wait.
Needless to say, as happy as we are to get the tile down and the old floor gone, we will not be in any sort of hurry to move onto the kitchen. I cringe just thinking about it. It is going to look very nice when it's all finished.
Everything else is about the same. Work, go home, relax and repeat. Next weekend is Nick's birthday and we plan to take some time off from our house projects to take Sierra to the beach. It should be a fun time!

Recharging the batteries

Sorry about the lack of new posts lately, but I have been pretty busy.
Last weekend, I traveled to Minnesota for Lisa's wedding. I had a wonderful time and Lisa made a beautiful bride. I enjoyed seeing so many friends and family, but I had very little sleep while there. This, coupled with an airline journey, equaled me getting a cold this week. Yesterday (Saturday) I slept on and off the whole day and today I feel a bit more human. This week is a four day one, as the clinic is closing for Good Friday. Since this is not a paid holiday, I am making up the hours in the other four days we are open. It should be a long week, but it will be nice to have Friday off. We have no plans for the Easter weekend at this time. We have ordered our tile from Lowe's and are awaiting its arrival to start our much anticipated project. I am also planning on painting the downstairs half bath before we tile in there to make every wall in the house have a fresh coat of paint. The whole project will be a lot of work, but will be nice when it's finished!

March Blahs

March has been a fairly uneventful month for us here. My time has mostly been spent relaxing and working on a quilt panel for a friend (see photos below). I just sent it off today, which was nice (Congrats Brandi and Steve!). We also have been paying off some debt with a portion of our tax return as well choosing a tile for the downstairs (we finally have a winner!). That project will be starting within a few weeks, whenever the tile comes in. Work has continued to be busy, but the pressure has decreased as two of our aides FINALLY passed their license exam for physical therapy assistants. That, and another therapist will be starting in a couple of weeks has really helped things at work. This week is only one of three days, which is exciting, as I am leaving Thursday for cold MN (of course, the cold comes when I am going to be there) for Lisa's wedding. I am really excited to see everyone and have some fun celebrating. That's all for now! I can't believe we are already looking at April! Time sure does fly!