Meet The Parents

Rob’s parents are on their way to Iowa right now, even as I type this. It’s so fun to have visitors! I’m so excited to see them and for them to see our house and where we live and for them to understand that we’re not crazy for moving so far away. We got the house all cleaned up and the boxes that were all over the house are either in the garage or basement. It’s kind of strange to have the house cleaned up and looking like a home instead of a job site. We’re usually dodging boxes and tool buckets and all kinds of stuff and we don’t have to worry about that anymore. It looks wonderful and I can’t wait to share it with them.

We have been working on some fun activities and places to take them but we don’t want to have an itinerary or try to cram too many things into the visit. We want to make sure we have plenty of time to just enjoy the company. Tonight there is a Music Walk downtown that is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce so we’ll probably check that out. Saturday will be our adventure day- we’re going to check out the Guttenberg German Festival and take a cruise on the Mississippi River to check out the fall leaves. It’ll be a long day with probably 400 miles of driving but it’s beautiful in the northeast part of the state and I think that everyone will enjoy it. Other than that, we’re just going to have fun visiting and showing them around our town.

I Want My Baby Back

I picked up Rob from the airport Friday after I got off work at noon and it’s so great to have him home again. We were only apart for a few days but I hated it! We got some lunch and ran some errands in Des Moines before heading home. There are a ton of things to do to get ready for his parents’ visit this week and though we didn’t do much Friday evening, we were very busy on Saturday and Sunday. We were going to be bold and paint our bedroom some shade of green but we couldn’t agree on one and finally decided to stick with Valspar's Churchill Hotel Vanilla (the color we used in the hall and other three bedrooms) because we like it so much. Our floors and wood trim are a very yellowy color and that makes picking a wall color pretty tricky. The hotel room from our honeymoon in Aruba is providing the inspiration for what our room will look like.



I love the green and orange and the color scheme looks great with the curtains and pillows we already picked up at Ikea. It's just too bad we don't have that same view out our window! I ordered an orange quilt to go across the bottom of the bed and it also comes with two pillow shams. All we need now is a few accessories and it’ll be done. Rob built the bed and we got the mattress on it but we haven’t slept in the master bedroom yet because the paint and the foam mattress are quite a powerful combination in producing strong odors. We’re keeping the windows open to let it air out and probably won’t sleep in there until Thursday though we’re both very anxious to sleep in our new room. It was a very productive weekend but we still need to mow the yard, clean, finish master bedroom, clean out remaining boxes in living room, finish one of two last cabinets in kitchen. . .

The Place is Hot

I just learned on Wikipedia that the origin of the name of Phoenix is Native American for "the place is hot." I don't know how you would translate "Hotter Than The Fires of Hell" in Navajo, but they should have named it that. As I mentioned in the previous post, we weren't exactly looking forward to our trip to Phoenix but we were determined to try and enjoy it. So I'm going to skip over the fact that it was over 90 degrees by 9:00 a.m. and the high every day was 108 and get on to the good stuff. First of all, I was surprised at the size of the airport and the size of the town (both huge!). Well, to call it a town wouldn't really be correct- it's more like one big blob of sprawl running into the next. I did find it to be very pretty with the mountains all around and the desert landscape is beautiful in its own way. (I know I'm not being all that positive but I'm trying!) We were on the 19th floor of our hotel which afforded us a pretty good view of the area.




You can see the baseball stadium in the picture above- it's the only building that has its roof open. We went there and took in a Diamondbacks-Cardinals game on Sunday afternoon. It was a cheap and fun way to spend the afternoon and we had a good time. They had the roof closed for the game though and I have to say it felt a little weird to watch baseball being played indoors. Weird, but nice and cool.





There was a nice shopping/theater/restaurant area nearby that we ate at a few times. It seems they're really doing a lot in Phoenix to spruce up their downtown and it looked great. There was a parking garage across the street from our hotel that Rob had no idea was a parking garage because it was done so well. I wouldn't have thought it was one either except I saw the small sign and the place where the cars enter and exit. It's good to see cities investing so much in their downtowns because a vital city needs that. Anyhow, that was about it. We were going to see The Bourne Ultimatum but we never made it. The hotel had a really nice gym that we both went to a few times. I spent 3 hours at the pool on Monday and my shoulders were a fiery red color that is now beginning to fade. My flight back was uneventful and NOT fun. There was a rather large man in the seat next to me. Well, he was actually partly in my seat too and that was the problem. I was very happy to get back to Iowa and get home. I'll be even happier when Rob gets home. My final verdict on Phoenix is this: Nice place to go if you are trying to get away from your snowed-in house. If that's not the case, stay where you are because it's probably better there.

Getting Good at This

It's off to the airport again- this time to Phoenix for a conference for Rob that his employer is sending him to. I didn't really want to be away from him for a week so I'm going for 4 days. I didn't have enough vacation time to go the entire time but that's okay. Since he'll be in classes and things like that all day, I have big plans for working out at the hotel gym and going swimming and reading. That's it. After all the running around we did last weekend, I'm looking forward to just being in one place for this weekend. It's hotter than hot there and I don't think either of us is too excited about Phoenix, but we're trying to make the best of the trip. We leave tomorrow morning so there won't be any postings for a few days while I'm gone. I hope to convince Rob someday that we need a laptop PC but I haven't yet. One good thing about all the traveling? I am a pro at the USPS website when it comes to requesting them to hold our mail.

There wasn't too much going on this past week since we were just getting back home and then getting ready to take off again. I did make some lemon cookies that were very tasty.



They were pretty easy to make too but the bad news? The recipe only made 16 cookies! I made a note of that on the recipe and I think from now on I will always make at least a double batch. That was pretty much the only cooking I did this week. It didn't make much sense to get groceries when we are only home for 4 days.

Tonight, we went to Des Moines and joined Costco so we could finally buy ourselves a new mattress. We had tried out the Tempur-Pedic beds at a local mattress store but those are crazy expensive. We did a lot of research online since there are many other options for memory foam mattresses these days and decided to purchase this one. We're not ready to set it all up yet but that will happen soon. Rob's parents are visiting in less than two weeks and we sleep in the guest room now so that will be a problem when we actually have guests. We have everything we need now for our master bedroom, we just need to paint the room and put it all together. More painting, I can't wait. Seriously, it is very exciting to have everything now and get that much closer to being settled in our house. That is a great feeling.

Nice To Be Home

Though we had a wonderful time in California, it sure feels good to be home. We had a blast with our family, spending time with them and not really doing too much. Though we had fun with everyone, I think there was one family member that we may have had a little more fun with- our niece, Lucy. She was less than a month old when we moved to Iowa and it was great to see how she's changed. She's such a doll! She's seven months old and she has such a great personality that is starting to come through. And she's sooo good- the only time I heard her cry or fuss was when she woke up from a nap. Even then it was more of a "Hey, come and get me!" than an upset or angry cry.

Lucy with her Uncle Rob, making Aunt Shelby's ovaries hurt.


She's teething and everything seems to go straight into the mouth to be chewed on, even Uncle Rob's hat!


Lucy- just being her cute self.


There wasn't really anything too exciting to report. We spent most of the time hanging out with family and eating all our favorite foods that we can't get in Iowa (ahem, In-N-Out, ahem). We stayed with some friends (Brent and Nanette) in LA and ate at Versailles and played Scattegories which made for a fabulous evening. The most exciting thing was running through O'Hare airport, again, after our plane from LAX was late leaving, again, for our flight to Des Moines. Both this time and last time we went to California we had very short layovers in Chicago made worse by leaving late from LAX. And both times we ended up landing only 20 minutes before the next plane was due to take off in another terminal. We sprinted off our plane and made in time though, once again, our luggage didn't make it. It was delivered to us late that night and everything was there so all's well that ends well.

California, Here We Come

We’re getting ready to go to California to visit friends and family over the Labor Day weekend. I am so excited to see everyone and to go swimming! In Iowa, nobody has pools but most towns have a nice aquatic complex that everyone goes to when it gets warm. The town where we live only recently approved a measure to build a new complex so there really isn’t anywhere convenient for us to go now. Not that we’ve had any time with all the work on the house anyways. It’s supposed to be in the 100-105 degree range while we are there so that will be a big change for us. I think it’s only gotten into the 90s a few times this summer and though it is humid, it is overall a lot cooler and more pleasant. It rains a bunch here, especially last week and then again last night it got pretty nasty. They interrupted regular primetime programming last night on all the major networks and were just doing weather. Here’s a shot of the radar and you can see what was headed for us:



There was a tornado warning in the next county over but we didn’t get one. In fact, it was never all that windy where we are. We did get some crazy thunder and lightning though. I took a video of it on my camera but I can't seem to get it to work on here. It shows up in my preview but not on the actual blog- I'm sure it's user error since it's my first time. I will try to get it figured out and post them. The videos were much better than the pictures but since that's all I've got, here are a couple.





We went up to Minneapolis this weekend to do some final shopping for the kitchen and pick up a few other things for the house. We got bedding for the guest room which only had a naked down comforter until now, some lamps for the living room, light fixture for the kitchen, a table and chairs for the kitchen and curtains and pillows for our master bedroom. It is really exciting to see the house start to come together- the kitchen is nearly done but for hanging 2 cabinet doors (a whole disaster I will save for another post) and the bathroom shower tile is all fixed and the shower is usable again. Yay for that! I'm continuing to enjoy cooking in my new kitchen. I made some banana bread on Sunday and then tried cooking some corn-on-the-cob (yummy) and Italian-style Meatloaf (also yummy). The people at all our restaurants we frequented during the remodel are probably wondering what has happened to us since we haven't been in for a while now. I think I'll just keep cooking though and let them wonder!

I Love the Smell of Food Cooking in My Kitchen

I’ve had to help Rob off and on with the bathroom tiling project this past week but I managed to do some cooking and baking too in my new kitchen. I tried out some new recipes I got online and I wanted to share some of them because they are too good to keep to myself!

Apricot Cream Cheese Thumbprints- I may have a new favorite cookie. These were so good. You make up the dough and then let it chill for an hour which I didn’t realize at first. Luckily, I was making 3 different kinds of cookies that night so I just put the dough in the fridge and moved on to the next batch. They would be great with raspberry preserves too which I will try next time I make them. They were a little time consuming with having to roll the dough into little balls and then smash them with your finger and add the preserves but well worth the time.

Chocolate Chip Cookies- This was a really good recipe for me because I like them kind of thick, not all greasy and thin like they turn out if you use the recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips. Mine had a little bit of a funny flavor but I used pure vanilla instead of vanilla extract since that was all I had. I cut it way back because I figured the pure stuff was way more potent but they still tasted a little off I thought. I will definitely use this recipe again but I’ll make sure I have the vanilla extract before I do.

Chicken Parmesan- We had this for dinner last night and it was yummy. It’s a great meal, especially for during the work week since it was so easy and quick. I don’t have much to say about the recipe besides they won’t fit in the 8-inch square pan. I tried and got 2 of them in and that was it so I switched them to a bigger dish. Oh, and I cooked them on a cookie sheet lined with foil first, when I was just cooking them with the Shake N' Bake.

The Next Project

Last week I noticed some water spots in the ceiling in our basement in a spot that is underneath our bathroom. The hubby did a little investigating and discovered we had some loose tiles in the shower and water was getting into the walls there and dripping down. Monday night Rob began his next project which entailed removing approximately the bottom two rows of tiles which are just above the tub in our one and only shower. I was none too thrilled to discover that he was doing this at the beginning of the work week and I can't say I'm feeling much better about it now. We had to remove and clean nearly all the tiles you see below that are marked with blue tape and then dry out all the soaked wood. That's right- wood. For some reason there is wood behind those tiles instead of backer board. We didn't change it out like we probably should have but we'd like to redo the whole thing at some point in the reasonably near future. We spent this evening re-grouting the entire shower- actually, Rob is still working on it now at 10:30 at night. Getting clean has been quite a challenge this week and I'm so glad it's almost done. We're going to Minneapolis tomorrow night and are staying in a hotel- I don't think I've ever been quite so excited to stay in a hotel. We need to do a few more things at Ikea and then we can come home and totally finish up the kitchen. Here's some photos of the bathroom job:







By the way, I would like to highly recommend the Hyatt Place hotels. We stayed in the one in Minneapolis last time we were there and will probably stay there again. The price was very low and it had the style and services and amenities you would expect from any other Hyatt hotels. They always have the best price on their own website and if you have AAA, you can get it even cheaper. The lady who checked us in was telling us that Hyatt bought out AmeriSuites (I believe it was that chain) and now they are working to convert them all to this "Hyatt Place" line. Anyhow, that is my two cents for travel tips for today!

Hey Good Lookin', Whatcha Got Cookin'?

This is what I've got cooking-


And this is what I cooked it in!







If you need to refresh your memory, you can go here to see what it used to look like. There are also photos of the whole renovation there too. It feels so good to be (mostly) done. Somehow, we ran out of hinges so the cabinet under the sink and the one to the left of the stove don't have their doors on yet. The cabinet to the right of the stove should have 4 drawers but somehow we ended up without the drawer fronts. I think we'll be making another trip to IKEA this weekend to get those items so we can have it finished. We're also having a hard time picking out light fixtures for above the sink and over where the table will go (which is what that empty space in the last picture is for).

Our first dinner was so good! We had Pot Roast in Beer, Oven Roasted Red Potatoes, green beans and jello salad. And now we get to look forward to leftovers- yummy :o) Tonight I think I may try baking something (probably cookies) to see how the convection part of my oven works.

Sooo Close Now

We were able to pick up the backsplash Friday afternoon (technically, I suppose it was delivered) and then got the countertop Saturday morning. I'm not feeling too wordy or descriptive right now because I am pretty tired from all the work we've been doing ever since so I'll just let the pictures below tell our story.

Here's Rob installing the countertop:


As it turned out, one piece of the backsplash was too long. It was the biggest piece and would not fit in our vehicle so we had to come up with some way to get it cut down without a plasma cutter like the metal shop used. We went to Lowes and found the cheapest grinder we could find and here is Rob, grinding it down to make it fit.


Here's a picture of the kitchen where you can see some of the backsplash in and countertops. There is a backsplash on the wall along the right side of the picture but it still has the protective white plastic on it. We just put that up tonight and are waiting for the adhesive to dry before we peel that off.


A better picture of the backsplash with the white plastic still on- you can also see the microwave brace that we got up.


And finally, the one wall we have totally done.


It's all gone pretty well but there have been a few challenges along the way. We just can't wait to be done.