indness Matters....

a couple days ago I decided to decorate our front porch for fall.  I did this knowing full well that I was taking a big risk and whatever I put out there was pretty much at the mercy of a certain big white beast who likes to chew on things.  He is outside most of the day when we're not home and the front porch is his hang out spot. Sometimes he gets bored.  Call me stupid because he has already chewed on the corners of our front porch swing, so I'm not sure what I was thinking except that I was determined to not let the dog stop me from having a cute porch! haha.  The photo above is proof that what I knew would happen did happen.  :)  I found him chewing on this wooden block that said "Kindness Matters".   Sigh.  Why are we smiling in that picture?!?  We obviously still have some training to do.

I had a few days off this week and was able to spend some much needed time in the craft room making hair clips.  I sell them at an adorable local shop called The Soap Box and the shop owner re-ordered for a third time! Haven't sold any on Etsy yet but that is probably due to my lack of advertising/marketing.  I need to work on that!  I'm really happy with how they turned out.  My parents sell vintage jewelry on ebay and when they buy lots of jewelry and sort through it they'll pass things along to me that don't have a match, are missing pieces, etc.  Basically whatever they can't sell.  A few of my hair accessories in this order are embellished with vintage clip on earrings.  : ) 

My craft room is still a mess.  That's a project for another day.

That's all for tonight! I'm half watching a movie with my husband and he just informed me that this is an important part, so I need to make sure I pay attention! :)

what have we been up to?

We took a little trip to Dubuque for Labor Day.  It was relaxing, the weather was beautiful and we enjoyed the time with my parents, and a little with Ben and Kristi too! :)  We grilled out, sat by the fire in the backyard, made s'mores, and listened to old time radio while playing Quiddler. Ryan won! He was pretty proud of himself. We also went to see a movie...which really wasn't that great, but it's a memory. :) 

who is that cute guy playing the ukelele?  ;)

cutest parents ever.  :)

a very sad attempt at a self portrait with Gilbert.  His most recent nickname is Dirt Bib.  :)

A couple weeks ago I bought a hummingbird feeder.  They are the easiest birds to feed and they are really fun to watch.  Unless you have a fear of birds....then you probably wouldn't enjoy it that much. :)  September is a busy month for hummingbirds because they are migrating and beefing up for their trip!  They've been visiting the feeder on and off all day for the last few weeks. I hung ours from a shepherds hook right outside our dining room window so we could see them easily and it's very convenient for photo ops. :)  Do I sound like a bird nerd?  You can blame where I work for that. :)    About a week after we got the hummingbird feeder my sweet husband text messaged me while I was at work and told me to get another one.  Male hummingbirds are very territorial and they chase all the other hummingbirds away from the feeder.  It gets a bit crazy at times. I didn't think Ryan would really be all that interested in them, but it turns out he was fascinated.  :)  One night while we were eating supper he said "This is the most hummingbirds I've seen in my entire life!"  It was pretty cute. 

Last week I finally caved in and bought some happy yellow mums!  We had this really cool old can in our garage that the previous owners left behind and I just knew I could use it for something! For now it makes a perfect spot for mums and the hummingbird feeder.

getting some snuggles from Gilbert during a mellow moment. :)

I'm hoping to spend a lot of time in this room over the next few days.  it is out of control.  I also need to work on making some hair clips.

 

 

 

 

 

home sweet home

September is here.  How did that happen? Life has been so busy lately, but it looks like the next couple weeks won't be quite as full.  I'm thankful for that because October is going to be CRAZY full of all kinds of stuff. (I need a new word. "crazy" is way too overused in my vocab) Included in the fun happenings of October is our FIRST anniversary! Now THAT is crazy.  We are planning a little weekend getaway and trying to figure out where to go and what to do.  We're thinking of camping for the first night because it would be fun and cheap, and we haven't had a chance to actually use our tent outside yet! I'm dreaming of going back to our honeymoon spot someday, but this year it's just not affordable.

Anyway....back to the point of this blog.  We've been in our house for almost a year and I'm finally feeling settled for the most part with where things are.  I am still trying to decide where to hang a few things, but I've enjoyed decorating, moving things around, doing some diy projects (we still have some in the works) and just making our house a home!  Here's a tour of most of our abode..... :) Come visit us!

our room!

i love our old dressers.  they were grandma Lucy's and Ryan's Aunt Liz painted them for us.

Guest room.  God provided these Ikea dressers and matching bed frame for FREE through a young couple in Des Moines who were moving and looking to get rid of some things.

upstairs master bath

Ryan's office

had to get a picture of the neon guitar

main floor bath

I spend a lot of time in this room.  :)

dining room. our latest painting project was the blue hutch.

living room.

Grandma Lucy's 80th Birthday

A couple Sundays ago we celebrated Ryan's Grandma Lucy's 80th Birthday!  It was a fun time spent with family, and I think the birthday girl enjoyed herself.  :)  Grandma Lucy is one of sweetest, thriftiest, and fittest 80 year olds that I know!  She loves the Lord, and she's a big prayer warrior. 

We enjoyed lunch together at the River House and I made cake balls for dessert! Grandma opened her gifts, we shared some of our favorite memories of her, and we snapped some family photos before we took a boat ride on the Channel Cat (water taxi).  It was the most perfect, summer Sunday afternoon.  Side note: There were 15 of us all together, and can you believe that our waiter did not write down a single order???? We were a little nervous and wondering if the birthday meal was going to be a disaster.  As far as I know there were no mistakes and everyone got what they wanted!  Wow. That guy has a good memory.

cousin Erik's monster burger.

he somehow was able to eat the whole thing.  we told him he had to. 

Grandma's "cake" :)

great grand kids

grand kids

two of her kids!

with her daughter in-law and son

and finally....this photo captures what was by far the funniest moment of the day.  We were all walking to our cars after lunch and Caleb (my BIL) was responsible for carrying Grandma's birthday balloons.  As we were about to get into our jeep, we heard some commotion at the other end of the parking lot and looked up to see the giant bouquet of balloons floating over the parking lot and up, up, up and away into the vast blue sky! Hahaha!  Poor Caleb.  It wasn't his fault.  He was simply holding onto the weight at the bottom of the balloons, thinking it was securely attached.  Once he realized what happened he took a leap into the air to grab them, but they were out of his reach. We told Grandma that the balloons were "set free" in honor of her birthday.  :)


Speaking of Grandmas....I've been missing my Grandma Jeske lately.  She's my only living grandparent.  I wish I lived closer to her so I could spend more time with her.  If we lived closer to each other I'm fairly certain we'd bake together all the time.  I must have inherited my love of baking from her.  She makes the best pies.  I think I also inherited my fear of talking on the phone from her.  ;)  Yes. It's true.  Talking on the phone isn't one of my favorite things.  I don't know why.  Most girls love talking on the phone, don't they?!


Anyway....the other day I wrote my Grandma a letter just to say I was thinking about her and praying for her.  I need to do that more often.  So,  here's my encouragement to you....call your grandma or write her a note just to tell her you love her.  Doesn't matter if she lives in the same town and you see her almost everyday, or if she's miles and miles away.  Just do it.  :)

a bat...a rat...and a gnat?

It was Wednesday night. Caleb and Mel had just left, and Ryan and I were hanging out in the living room together.  I walked down the hallway to get a pen from the other room when I saw something FLY through the kitchen.   I didn't need to investigate the situation to know that it was indeed a BAT. Ugh. I know bats eat bugs, and they aren't out to get me.....but they don't belong in my house! I immediately spun around and ran back into the living room screaming "there's a bat! there's a bat! there's a bat!" at Ryan, who thought I was joking! He soon found out it was no joking matter when the bat came swooping into the living room and right over our heads.  It then flew back down the hallway and into the kitchen.  Ryan grabbed the dog gate for a shield and I followed behind him as we entered the kitchen. I think we thought maybe the bat would still be flying around, but of course it was nowhere to be seen. Awesome.  We searched the whole house and came up with nothing.  All the while I'm walking around in a hunched over position, convinced that the bat is going to come out of nowhere at any moment and dive bomb me.  We tried turning off the lights and opening the front door (apparently that's supposed to work?), hoping to coax the bat out of wherever it was hiding, but the only thing that came out of that was a whole bunch of moths coming in.  Great. Bat food. 

We finally called my father and brother in-law to come help us find the crazy thing. 

This is how Caleb showed up: 

After an extensive search of the house (again) and much talk of how on earth the bat got in the house in the first place, we still couldn't find it. Just when I was preparing to spend the night at my in-laws' house, my FIL suggested that Ryan check his office one more time, and look behind the things sitting on the speaker that hung on the wall.  Sure enough, the bat was there.  It was in a ball with its wings covering its head. I must have scared it with my frantic screaming. 

The guys shut the door of the office and developed a plan.  Thankfully the bat was near the office window, so Ryan opened the window making it as easy as possible for the bat to escape. He then turned off the light in the office and we all went outside to wait for the bat to fly out.  Yeah right. That would be too easy.  Plan B?  Ryan put on gloves, pants and a hoodie and braved the bat himself.  He threw a towel over the bat and picked it up, planning to just toss the bat and towel out the window.  I was waiting on the other side of the office door, when I heard Ryan say "I got it!....oh, wait...no I don't!" I later found out that he thought he had the bat in the towel but quickly realized that he didn't when he heard what he describes as a high pitched electronic sound just inches from his face.  He turned his head and saw the bat sitting there with its mouth open and eyes glowing.  He threw the towel over the bat again and tossed it out the window as fast as he could.  Don't know what happened after that, but I can only assume it flew off somewhere, and I hope it doesn't come back!

The "bat busters" as my dad called them. Ryan is holding a fake C4 bomb that he made. That is what the bat was hiding behind. haha.

You may be wondering about the reference to the rat in the title of this blog post.  While we were looking for the stupid bat we were all kind of laughing about the irony of the situation.  Caleb and Melissa were having their own issue with an uninvited creature in their home and were staying at my in-laws' until the thing was either trapped or killed.  We're assuming it was maybe a rat, but nobody knows.  Whatever it was, it chewed a hole through their wall, and ate dog food.  

As for the gnat in my blog title.....I found out the next day that when my father in-law was trying to fall asleep that night he had a pesky gnat buzzing around his head.  I thought it was funny. And it rhymes with bat and rat. :)

The whole bat fiasco took me back to my Ruth Harbor days.  There were three during my time there.  I won't recount the stories now, but they are all pretty funny. 

back deck beautification

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we finally got our patio table and chair set put together.  July was a scorcher, but August has been absolutely lovely so far, and we've taken advantage of it by eating a few meals on our back deck already.  A couple mornings ago I started my day out there with my bible and a cup of coffee.  It was so peaceful.

Gilbert likes hanging out on the deck with us too. Especially when things like this fall out of the tree. 

I moved it up to the railing to save it from being pawed to death. 

the back deck is also the perfect location for making sun tea!

french toast and bacon for supper one night, and iced coffee in a mason jar.  YUM!

last night we strung lights on the awesome arbor that ryan and my dad made for some added ambiance.  warm light makes everything more inviting, don't you agree?

little lanterns left over from our wedding, and of course I'm putting all my mason jars to use wherever I can!

this pretty little thing was a gift from my mom for my birthday. love it. it's also my favorite color.

the birdbath was also a birthday gift.  I'm not sure if the birds have discovered it yet, but Gilbert has. :)  He thinks it was put there for him to drink out of.

so it's a work in progress, but it's coming together!  I'm hoping to host a little back deck party before the end of the summer.  Our next big project is to work on taming the jungle that is our backyard.  That will be fun. 

Now, I must go do some ironing that I've been putting off.  If I had to pick one of my least favorite household chores, that would be it.