the visitors and a day trip

We've been busy!  Last weekend we welcomed my dear friend Amanda (also a former roommate and best personal attendant ever!) and her fiance, Nate into our home.  It was a fun time, although much too short.  We had a great time getting to know Nate a little better. Amanda and I talked about wedding details and plans while the boys got in a little video gaming time, and of course we made puppy chow, which is tradition whenever we're together.  We also subjected them to some of our favorite stupid you tube videos. :)

On Saturday evening we went to Fireworks, a local paint your own pottery place.  When we looked online to see what time they closed, we discovered that they were actually closing for good the very next day and everything was half off!  Sad that they are closing, but nice for our wallets! Since Amanda and Nate had never done anything like that before we thought it would be a fun experience for them. I hope it was more fun than stressful! They picked out a plate to paint together.  :) It was cute.  Ryan and I painted a whale shaped piggy bank. What we'll do with it, I don't know....but it's going to look awesome!  I pretty much just let Ryan work his magic. He is much more creative and artistic than I am. There is a coffee shop conveniently located in Fireworks, so you better believe we took advantage of that.  We have to wait a couple more weeks to pick up our pottery, but I can't wait to see how they turned out! 

I love watching my husband when he's concentrating very hard on something. :)

Nate & Amanda!

Do you see my dog?  He wanted to be in the group photo too and is actually standing/sitting on the couch behind us, and is about to bite my head.  He is crazy.  

My work schedule was different this week, and my mom and I had the same day off.  It was the perfect opportunity to take a little road trip to Dubuque for a long overdue mother/daughter day.  We had the best time shopping and getting lunch together. Unfortunately, I have no pictures. :(  That night we went to see a movie with dad.  He chose Cowboys and Aliens. :) It was nice to spend some time with my parents. I love them. With work and our different schedules we haven't been able to see each other much lately.  The only bad part was spending the night away from my husband.  That's never fun.  Talking to him on the phone before I went to bed that night reminded me of our dating/engaged days.  Haha. 

Before I left town I got to spend the morning with Kristi!  It's fun living near each other again! We went for a 3 (or was it 4?) mile walk while we talked and enjoyed each others company.  Near the end of our walk we stopped in at One Mean Bean for some iced chai. :)  We spent many hours there while in college (and after) talking about boys and life and being single.  It's one of our favorite places, and we love the owners.

Tonight we got to meet my friend Becky, her husband Jeremy and their two boys for supper as they were in town buying a desk they found on craigs list.  It was a quick catch up, but we're so glad for the time we had with them!  They used to live in the Des Moines area and Becky was a great friend, and encouragement to me when I was house parenting at Ruth Harbor.  We would meet for bible study, prayer and heart to hearts while I was living there.  She is truly a blessing, and she has one adorable little family. 

attempt #6 of a family photo. :) 

Ryan is staying busy with work and music stuff.  This past week was the annual chapel canoe trip, which I didn't get to go on because I was working, but Ryan did, and he had a good time floating down the Maquoketa River.  Also this past week,  Deluxe Republic did an acoustic show at a coffee shop and somehow I got roped into getting up on stage with Ryan and singing the song we wrote together.  Thankfully it was a small crowd. :)  we have a video of this surprise performance.  maybe I'll share it someday.  maybe. 

ok...that's enough for now.  good night!

Ryan plays the ukulele....

Here's a video of Ry playing the ukulele, and Gilbert chewing on an empty orange juice bottle. 

I think he's trying to play the mario bros. theme song in the beginning.  :)

Watch Ryan play!

Ukulele?

hi. this is ryan now. rissbo wants me to do blog stuff, so yeah... i got a ukulele. i been wantin one awhile now. i really like the coconut records song "back to you." at the end there's a little ukulele ditty.

for some reason ukuleles remind me of kirk douglas in 20,000 leagues under the sea with that homemade turtle shell uke thingy he made. beltin it out with that seal in the submarine jail.

 so yeah, when i seent this on amazonz i had to snatch it up. it's mahogany. i think i'm gonna put some better strings on it too.

here it is sitting in a chair.

the end.

we love dessert!

Last night our dessert was inspired by my friend Corrie at http://corrieanne.com/ who shared this link Blueberries & cream ramekins via Tish’s Place on her blog a couple days ago.  The best part was that I didn't feel too guilty eating it! :)  It was simply delicious and didn't take a whole lot of effort.  Like Corrie, I only had plain yogurt, so I added a little bit of vanilla extract and that did the trick!  I also had some strawberries that needed to be eaten, so I mixed them in with the blueberries. YUM.

I was really bummed when I found out that our dessert had to be broiled.  A few months ago I managed to break our broiler due to a flaming garlic bread fiasco. No joke.  That is a story for another day.  But here is a picture to prove how bad it was.   Too bad I didn't have time to take a picture when there were actually flames shooting off of them!

Anyway....back to the problem of having a broken broiler.  My sweet husband saved the day when he said "I think have a blow torch in the basement!"  :) He did. It worked wonderfully. 

My handsome assistant. :)  Pretty sure we put more brown sugar on top than the recipe called for.  That's what happens when you let your husband help. ;) Then again...I didn't really try to stop him.  Oh. man. that caramelized brown sugar sure was tasty. Hmmm....Did I say something about not feeling too guilty? ;)

SO. GOOD. 

In other news, I am so very thankful to have the next 2 days off of work.  It has been quite busy around here these last couple weeks, so I am perfectly content to stay inside tomorrow and get some things done around home. This house needs a good cleanin'!   

I hope you're all having a great week!

Sister Sunday

One day last week I had some time to kill while I was waiting for our jeep to get it's desperately needed new tires put on, so Melissa, Mom Peterson, and I wandered around The Salvation Army.  I have really grown to love thrifting these last few years! Especially now, having a very tight budget....it's amazing what you can find at thrift stores.  

This particular day we stumbled upon 2 chairs that we knew would be going home with us.  At a whopping $4 a chair, it was too good to pass up! I should also mention that these chairs are actually in good shape and seem to be made really well. We immediately began brainstorming what we could do to give them a makeover, even though neither one of us knows the first thing about re-upholstering a chair! 

We declared this past Sunday to be "sister day" so we could work on our chairs.  Of course it happened to also be one of the first truly hot days of the summer.  We did not let the heat keep us from our DIY fun though!  We found a shady spot and spray painted these beauties a nice ivory color.  I love how a little paint can make something look so different!  

beating the heat with The Pioneer Woman's delicious Iced Coffee!

Mel is demonstrating how strong she is.  :)

After some paint!

After the first coat was on we let them dry while we ran to Walmart to get more spray paint, and some food for us and our hungry husbands.  After dinner and a second coat of paint, we treated ourselves to some chocolate dipped ice cream cones from Tastee-Freez because it was National Ice Cream Day, and it just seemed like the right thing to do on such a hot day. :) 

Once the chairs were dry we had to figure out the best way to re-upholster them. Unfortunately there was no easy way to remove the cushions, so we had to get creative.  We considered doing a step by step tutorial but that quickly went out the window when we realized we really didn't know what we were doing, and this was going to be a learn as you go kind of thing. :)  We never even googled "how to re-upholster a chair". I guess we just wanted to figure it out for ourselves.  haha.  It was quite humorous at times.  Covering the second chair was definitely much easier because we had worked out some of the kinks in the first one.  We laughed at the thought of someone watching us who actually knows how to re-upholster.  All that matters is that we had a great time, and we ended up with some fun chairs! While they aren't perfect, we are proud of our work and they look beautiful!

The onlooker. :)  Gilbert was either laying under our feet sleeping, or observing from somewhere near by while we worked. 

No one was harmed during this project.  We practiced staple gun safety.

Finished!  Mel found this fun fabric in the sale bin at JoAnn.

before

after!

here's what we found inside of the chairs.  a driver's prayer card, a Quality Motors business card, and....a peanut!

It was a fun experience, and we would definitely do it again.  Maybe next time we'll find some chairs with removable cushions. :)  ALSO, next weekend we're doing an engagement photo shoot, and you can bet these chairs will be making an appearance! 

you're the only ten i see! :)

Ryan and I took a few days off to travel to Tennessee.  It was our first real road trip together and we loved it!  The drive was made even more enjoyable with conversation, some new music we purchased for our trip, and passing the time by browsing through a baby name book that my sister in-law sent with me.  It was kinda fun tossing name ideas around with Ryan. I AM NOT PREGNANT.  Just so you know. :)

We had a great time with Daniel and Samantha and their hilarious and adorable daughter, Addison. Tennessee is a pretty big part of Ryan's life since that's where he went to school and lived for a few years. It was cool getting to meet some important people from his years there, and spend time with his closest friends.

Here's just a little of what we did while we were there....

we ate lots of delicious food. pretty sure I gained a few pounds. One of my favorites was a quaint little place called Miller's Grocery http://www.millersgrocery.com/index.html  I was surprised to find out that they do have a website! Check it out, and if you ever find yourself anywhere near there....you should probably go. :) fun atmosphere, live music, incredible southern food, and yummy made from scratch desserts!

we attended the wedding of Ryan's friend Dirk.  Ryan and Dirk met while working at Lens Crafters several years ago. The wedding and reception was in downtown Nashville at a place called "a Venue".  It was lovely and unique. We snapped the above photo of the bride and groom through the window.  We were spying on them as they were getting their pictures taken after the ceremony.  :)

After the wedding we drove around a bit and Ryan showed me the campus of Belmont University, where he attended school for 4 years and graduated with a degree in business administration.. 

we hung out with this cutie. she kept us entertained. :)

in case you can't tell....that is indeed a ferret inside of a ball, being pushed in a toy shopping cart. 

this was fun to watch. :)

even Bella the dog enjoyed the slide.  ok...so maybe she didn't really have much choice.

Ryan and Bella had deep conversations.

we squeezed in the backseat of Daniel's jeep, and took a drive with the top down for a spontaneous mini golf outing!

it was Addison's first time

she is the only one of us who actually got a hole in one that night. 

For the 4th of July we went back to downtown Nashville to see their fireworks. I was definitely a good show.  After it was over we sat on a curb and watched the masses of people walk by.  I love people watching.

I loved getting to know Samantha better.  Wish we lived closer!

awww. :) 

people.  people. and more people.

Kyle and Molly met up with us too.  Sadly,  this was the only picture I got with them in it! :(  I was so glad for the chance to meet Molly since she wasn't able to make it to our wedding.  I only wish we'd had more time. 

We are so thankful for some refreshing down time with friends and safe travels there and back.