The Rews

Visit

2011-02-11T15:53:00.004-05:00

My sister and her kids visited us at the beginning of the week. We had a good time together, and the kids did, too.
Tyler really is a BOY at heart. :)
Avalon LOVED "baby Chloe"!

I think they are best friends, now.
Uncle (Daddy) Dennis makes the best tea!

She is so sweet. :)

My favorite video from Christmas

2011-01-28T21:42:00.001-05:00

Cont...

2011-01-21T15:46:00.002-05:00

Gingerbread House

2011-01-21T15:32:00.000-05:00

So, It has been a REALLY long time since I blogged ANYTHING! Shame on me. I was just thinking today that I need to get back into the swing of things with this. Here goes!

A couple weeks ago, I found a gingerbread house kit at Target for 90% off. It ended up being 99 cents! I thought it would be a fun thing to do, even if it was after Christmas.
Last night, we put it together. It was really fun and Av had a blast (mostly eating the frosting and candy). :) She woke up this morning and saw it sitting on the kitchen counter and got really excited. I told her that we have to wait until daddy gets home to eat any more. She does this thing when she is really excited about eating something...she opens her mouth and makes a noise like "homp homp". It cracks me up. :) O.K., so here are some pictures of our masterpiece!

Christmas Recap

2010-01-04T20:46:00.008-05:00

We had a wonderful Christmas! We went to Michigan to see our families, and were gone for over a week. We first visited Den's side in Northern Michigan, where they had over 2 feet of snow fall the week before we arrived! Avalon opening her very first Christmas gift
Then, it was on to Val's side...

We were also able to meet up with two of our couple-friends from college. It was so fun to see them again!

Mac and Carrie

John and Amy

It was a whirlwind trip, and we both agree that we want to stay home for Christmas next year! :)

What in the world?!

2009-12-10T09:12:00.006-05:00

This is what I caught Av doing this morning!

I keep her toys in that basket. She knocked it over and used it to try to stand up!

I guess once she started crawling, nothing is going to stop her!

When I went in to get her from her morning nap, she was standing in her bed, holding on to the rail!

Eventful Week!

2009-12-06T16:20:00.003-05:00

Avalon has had a very eventful week! She started crawling, AND one of her teeth finally broke through! She is still working on the other front bottom tooth, but is handling it fairly well.
I put a video on facebook of her crawling, but I won't load it on here, because it takes too long to load! I actually caught her crawling for the first time on video. :)
She is getting so big, we can't believe it!! At her 6 month check-up, she was in the 90th percentile for height, and the 75th percentile for weight. Maybe she will be tall like her dad? :)

Baby Food

2009-11-14T21:16:00.003-05:00

This is my first attempt at making homemade baby food. People make it sound so difficult, but basically all you do is cook it and blend it up! Hopefully, I will get more creative as Avalon's tastes expand. :) I found this website that has a lot of good ideas. www.wholesomebabyfood.com

Plain Sweet Potatoes

24 meals (or parts of a meal) for the price of 2 jars of baby food!

Video Games with Daddy

2009-10-30T16:40:00.003-04:00

LONG time!

2009-10-28T10:38:00.003-04:00

I haven't posted anything in a long time...I guess life got really busy after having a baby!
I am FINALLY getting into somewhat of a routine, being a stay-at-home mom, now. It is definitely different, but I am starting to like it. I like having time to keep my house clean, and do some of the things that I LIKE to do, like bake and cook.
Our daughter is now 5 1/2 months. I can't believe how she is growing. I am enjoying seeing all of the things that she can do as she develops. It is nice now that she can play somewhat on her own, and she doesn't cry every time I leave the room. :) She likes to yell and hear herself "talk", and we just laugh. Actually, Den will yell back and they have a "conversation" with each other yelling.
We started her on rice cereal when she was 4 months, but her tummy didn't cooperate so well. Since then, she has been dying to get her mouth on some real food, so I tried the cereal again with her a couple days ago. She LOVES to eat off of a spoon, and hasn't seemed to have any problems this time.
She has been sleeping through the night for about a month now. (Not waking to eat) Sometimes, she will wake in the early morning hours for no obvious reason, and I cover her back up and she usually will go back to sleep within 5 minutes or so. I am really thankful that I can get a full-night's sleep now without too many problems (unless I wake up for no obvious reason, and can't go back to sleep!).
I am so thankful that the Lord has entrusted her to us. When she is fussy, I have to remind myself of that!
I don't know how faithful I will be at keeping up on this blog, so we'll see...

She hasn't quite figured out how to jump in this, but she likes to spin around. :)

5 Weeks Old

2009-06-17T13:41:00.009-04:00

My, how time is flying by!
Avalon had a check up with the pediatrician on Monday. She now weighs 10 lbs. 11 oz. and is 22 inches long.

Her first Sunday at church.

Her first real bath.
Hanging out with daddy.

Such frillyness! :)

Happy girl.
She looks different every day.

Avalon Elizabeth Rew

2009-05-26T20:52:00.004-04:00

Avalon was born on May13, 2009 at 2:50 p.m.
She weighed 9 lbs. 4 oz. and was 20 inches long.

Meeting her for the first time.

It has been a very busy 2 weeks, but I am going to try to be better about posting more and putting more pictures up.

NINE!? Pounds??

2009-05-08T20:15:00.002-04:00

...Thought I would update with the latest news about baby Rew.

My doctor's appointment went well yesterday. I am dialated to "at least" 2 cm, and 90% thinned. THAT is GOOD NEWS! Compared to the week before, that is a lot of change, but I know that it doesn't necessarily mean that I am going to have this baby today. :) The doctor said that my belly is quite large, and that it probably wouldn't be wise to hold on for too much longer. So...I am scheduled to be induced next Wednesday morning, unless the baby comes on its own before then. We are hoping that he/she does come on its own, but we have Wednesday to fall back on just in case. :) I feel a lot better about the possibility of being induced now that I am showing at least a little progress.

The doc. also sent me for an ultrasound today to get measurements and make sure that the baby is in the right position. The tech got all of the pictures and measurements, then explained to us that the weight guess could be off by 2 pounds either way. Then she said, their guess is 9 pounds! I sure hope that the guess is 2 pounds heavy, but my doctor has been saying all along that he thinks the baby will be around 8 pounds. Only time will tell! :)

We should be meeting our baby in less than one week--one way or another!

Maternity Leave

2009-05-06T15:30:00.004-04:00

My doctor's appointment (last Friday) was interesting, to say the least. He checked me and said that I was maybe a fingertip dialated, but other than that, there were no signs of this baby coming anytime soon.

My legs, feet, and hands have been pretty swollen for the past week, and the baby has dropped quite a bit (causing lots of pressure on me). Other than those complaints (which are normal end-of-pregnancy things), I didn't really have anything to tell him.

He said that I was getting quite large and looked very uncomfortable. (I said "thanks a lot"!) He also said that I am probably going to need some "help" to get this baby going. Then he said, "how about we set an appointment for Tuesday or Wednesday next week to have you induced?" I said, "WHAT?, WHY?, NEXT WEEK? but I'm not even past my due date!?" I said, "can't we at least wait until next week to see what happens?" He said, "o.k., but you are not going to work anymore." He told me that I need to be off my feet at home. I did NOT argue with that order!

Monday was my last day of work, and now I am on "maternity leave" while I wait for Babes to arrive. I was a bit concerned that all I would do is sit at home and wonder when (s)he would come, but it is SO nice to have some time to do things around the house, and prop up my swollen feet! I am thanking the Lord for this time!

My next appointment is tomorrow (with the other doctor in the practice), so hopefully I will get HIS opinion on things. I am not due until this Sunday, so maybe I can get him to hold off until next week's appointment and see what happens this week!

I know for some of you reading this, you are probably thinking, "is she crazy? Why wouldn't she want that baby out?" Well, I really would like to be past this point, but I do not want to be induced unless it is REALLY necessary. I have heard so many bad things about being induced when there are no signs of labor to begin with (if you know what I mean). It would be "starting from scratch"!

So, we are praying that Babes would come on his or her own, and hopefully before my doctor insists on inducing.

Here I am at 39 1/2 weeks.

Baby Room

2009-05-06T15:11:00.004-04:00

Here it is! Babes now has a room ready and waiting!

I love the crib set. :)

I ordered a changing pad today to go on the table...

I love these rugs (from IKEA).

I am not much of a decorator, so there isn't anything on the walls (yet). It is hard because of the slanted ceilings; there isn't a whole lot of wall space to decorate!

I haven't found any curtains that I really like, either. There were some at IKEA that kind of go with the rugs, but they were cheaply made...

I figure, as long as he or she has a place to sleep, get changed, and be fed, then we are good to go! :)

(Almost) Finished Dressers

2009-04-21T09:32:00.007-04:00

I mentioned a while ago that our neighbors had given us a really ugly dresser for the baby's room. Well, we painted them, and I am so excited about how they look (so far)! We still need to find some new drawer pulls, or paint the old ones. I'd like to find new pulls, but am having a hard time finding the right thing...

BEFORE:

NOW:BEFORE:
NOW:

I will probably take pictures of the baby's room once it is closer to being done. I have been putting stuff away during the past couple of days, and it is actually starting to look like a place where I would want my baby to live.

The "theme" is ABC's & 123's, with primary colors. It is kind of like a circus. :)

36 Weeks

2009-04-15T10:03:00.005-04:00

Another 4 weeks has passed since I posted a photo of Babes and I. It is obvious from the picture that we have grown (again)!

I am now going to the doctor weekly, and hope to show some progress at tomorrow's appointment. :) Last week, he said that he THOUGHT that I might go earlier than my due date. I told him not to get my hopes up, but he said that the last week of April, or first week of May is his guess. I am a bit sceptical and think it is still just a GUESS, though. :)

Another House Project

2009-04-11T18:42:00.004-04:00

You may remember this post from last fall.

Well, Den has done another "upgrade" on the porch.

The original screens were huge, ripped, and just plain ugly. So, he framed out the openings with new wood, painted them, and then attached new screen material. It is hard to tell from the pictures what was actually done, but he did a GREAT job and it looks so much different than before.

He wanted me to make a note that he is still working on the outside, and the bottom of the porch...Eventually either painting or siding it and covering the concrete blocks at the bottom. :)

Maybe one of these days, it will look look more like a back porch than a barn. :)

Shower

2009-04-03T22:07:00.002-04:00

Last Saturday, our church had a baby shower for us. It was overwhelming how generous everyone was!
My mom was able to come, too! It was SO NICE to have her there.
Here are some pictures of the day.

32 Weeks

2009-03-19T09:31:00.004-04:00

Just another update on our growing baby. :)

I'm not sure how much bigger I can get! My doctor told me that he thinks I will have an 8 pound baby, but I don't know if he was joking or not! Only time will tell...

My two latest symptoms are heartburn, and hotflashes. I guess I am getting a little taste of what middle-aged women go through. :)

Less than 8 weeks to go!

Furniture

2009-03-02T11:14:00.002-05:00

We got a baby crib over the weekend! Now, babes will have a place to sleep after arrival. :) I must say that it was a good deal, too!

After we got home from picking up the crib, our neighbor came over and asked if we wanted a dresser and nightstand (they were on their way to take it to the thrift store). I said, "SURE!" How can we turn down free furniture!? They are definitely UGLY, but nothing that some paint and new drawer pulls can't fix. :) So, now we have a project on our hands, but I think it will be fun. I'll be sure to post pictures of before and after.

The Lord blesses us in mysterious ways, that's for sure!

28 weeks

2009-02-17T21:11:00.004-05:00

As you can tell, babes has grown quite a bit over the past 4 weeks!
I am now at the 28 week mark and I'm still feeling pretty good (other than the back aches). It is so fun to feel the baby move around and I love to see my belly twitching!
I had a routine doctor visit tonight, and he said that everything looks good and is on track. I am so thankful that we found a good doctor. He is very personable and genuinely concerned about me. Den said that he reminds him of Bill Cosby (as Dr. Huxtible--but not as humorous). =)
I am almost embarrassed to post these, but I guess this is what I really look like, so here they are (obviously, the shirt I am wearing is NOT maternity):

Mini-Trip

2009-02-17T20:53:00.006-05:00

This past Sunday evening, we took off and drove about 2 hours away for a "mini-vacation". Because of weekly obligations, we can't really go anywhere on Friday or Saturday nights, so Sunday was the next-best option. Den already had Monday off for President's Day, so I took the day off of work, too.
We stayed at the Bedford Springs Resort in Bedford, PA. It was VERY NICE. =) We relaxed for the evening, and did some sight seeing as we drove back home on Monday. We had a great time, even though it wasn't very lengthy.
(This was probably the last day that I will have off of work before "babes" comes!)

Baby Registry

2009-02-09T16:16:00.003-05:00

O.K., so just call me clueless, but since I have never done this before, I am asking for your help. People have started asking us if we are registered anywhere yet, but we aren't. I guess I have been putting it off because I don't really know what to register for (except for a few big ticket items). We are (obviously) starting from scratch, so we will need anything and everything to take good care of our baby. I am not into "clutter", so I don't want a bunch of stuff that I will never use. :)
If you have any suggestions of things that you wish you would have registered for, or wish you had, leave me a comment. Also, if there is a certain feature in a product that is better than something else, let me know. Thanks!

Known Only to God

2009-02-06T13:19:00.005-05:00

As many of you already know, about 8 months ago, we lost our first child.
Every time I hear of someone losing a baby, it just breaks my heart. I now know what that couple is going through. Some friends of ours recently lost their first child, and all of those thoughts (and many tears) come back to us. It is still so fresh in our mind. We will never forget our first child. Even though we never met our child face-to-face, he or she will always have a special place in our heart. We named him (or her) Zacharias (meaning: "remembered of the Lord"). We have some comfort knowing that Zacharias is in Heaven today, along with all of the other little babies who haven't made it.
Something that greatly helped me through the first couple of weeks after miscarrying is this book. Someone so graciously sent it to us with a beautiful note of encouragement. The book helped us deal with many questions that we had, and with grieving.
We know that the Lord has allowed us to go through this specific situation so that we can somehow help others. It has certainly made me more sympathetic towards other people and whatever situation that they may be going through. It also helps us realize what a MIRACLE a baby is!
I don't usually express myself so personally on our blog, but thought I'd get my thoughts out of me today.

24 Weeks

2009-01-20T20:45:00.003-05:00

Here is an updated photo of myself. I am now 24 weeks along, and I am definitely feeling bigger every day!

Checkup

2009-01-09T10:07:00.004-05:00

I had an appointment with the OB doctor yesterday, and it went very well.
He said that the ultrasound (that I had in December) looked excellent. I asked if they would do another ultrasound before the end of my pregnancy, and he said that they won't unless there is a problem or if they want to check something. So, as of now, we will not know the gender of our baby until he or she is born. We were really hoping to find out the gender, but now, we are focusing more on picking out both a male and female name! I am glad that that is the biggest problem that we have with this pregnancy right now!!! :) We are praising the Lord for a healthy baby so far.
On another note, I am having a hard time dealing with seeing those scales tip every time I get on them. I know I am supposed to gain weight for the sake of the baby's health, but I sure don't want to gain too much, either. I admit, I did a horrible job of eating healthy over Christmas, but I am trying to get back to my normal eating habits now.
I am just over 22 weeks along and my next appointment is now in three weeks, instead of four.

This picture was taken at 20 weeks.

On a Personal Note...

2008-12-16T21:12:00.005-05:00

I know this blog has been mostly about our home repairs, but I'd like to take a slight detour to let you know some woderful news. We are expecting! I'm due May 10, 2009, so that makes me a little over 19 weeks...almost halfway there!

We had our first real ultrasound today. They checked out all of the baby's organs, arms, legs, and tried to check the gender, but he/she wouldn't cooperate. So, right now the baby is just "baby". :) He/She is adorable, if you ask us. :)

Pampered Chef

2008-12-03T09:29:00.006-05:00

I hosted a Pampered Chef party, not because I was itching to get something specific, but because a friend of ours just started on her own as a consultant.
I was so surprised at all of the free stuff that I was able to get, though!
Here is everything I got (except for one other gadget). Take a guess at how much everything cost me!...

Round Pizza Stone

Large Bar Pan Stone

Muffin Cup Stone

Springform Pan

Mini Muffin Pan

Small Batter Bowl

Hold 'N Slice

Can Opener

Adjustable Measuring Spoon

Can Strainer

Cheese Knife

Safe Cutter

Spoon Rest

Small Spoon

Small Batter Scraper

Clip with Measuring Spoons (not pictured)

The retail price of all of these items is right around $230, but I got it all for $25! WHAT A DEAL!

CONCRETE!

2008-11-23T17:23:00.006-05:00

Another project that we have been saving up for is a new sidewalk and steps in the front of our house. Over the past 55 years that the house has been here, the steps had settled and then pushed the sidewalk out away from the steps.
It is funny (to me), because we live on a hill and have quite a few steps up the front...The guys who poured the cement had to carry it up in buckets, because there is no other way to get the truck in there!
Here is the new walkway.
(Unfortunately, I don't have any "before" pictures.)

No more crooked steps!

View from the top:

Back Porch

2008-11-23T17:10:00.007-05:00

A couple weeks ago (before the snow came), Den worked on the back porch. When we bought the house last summer, it had serious issues with the bottom of the porch. It was rotten (literally) and had drainage issues. We finally got around to doing something with it! Den decided that if we took off the bottom part of the porch and seal it in with cement blocks, the water would stay out, and the rotten wood would be gone, so that is what he did. The next step will be to re-side the porch and finish the inside...That might be a while, but at least the root of the problem is fixed for now. :)

Ewww...rotten wood!

Here is Den working on the cement blocks.

Outside of the porch (needs siding).

The (somewhat) finished product--for now.

Answer to Prayer- Thanks Obama!

2008-11-11T11:09:00.003-05:00

Weird title, I know! Let me explain. We have a small dining room table with only four chairs. This makes it difficult when we have more than two people over for a meal!
We are having Den's side of the family here for Thanksgiving, so we started looking for some folding chairs. I looked around online and, on average, 4 chairs were going for about $70...but we didn't want to pay that much.
So, yesterday, Den found a listing on craigslist for "Free office furniture from Obama's Campaign Office Downtown". There were a couple pictures of some misc. chairs and desks, so we thought we would take a look to see what they had. We ended up finding 4 (misc.) folding chairs and two old painted wooden chairs in really good shape. I might paint the wood chairs, but they are just fine how they are now.
Praise the Lord! We are so excited. I wasn't even praying about it yet (but Den was), and the Lord provided what we needed. :)

Snicker!

2008-11-06T20:48:00.006-05:00

I realized that we haven't posted any pictures of Snick (as we fondly call him) since we got him. He has grown SO much over the past couple of months. He isn't a full grown cat that just sits around all the time, though. He has A LOT of energy, and makes us laugh a lot. :) He has brought a lot of joy to our home.
Here are the many "faces" of Snicker:

He loves to sit in our dining room chairs

He also likes to sit in any basket that he can find.

Here he is rustling in the plastic bags. :)

...And the Fat Lady DOES sing!

2008-11-06T20:32:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago, we went to an opera. A couple from our church invited us to go along with them, and we had a great time.

We didn't quite know what to expect, because we have never been to one before, but it was actually pretty neat (other then having to read all of the subtitles). :) The story was Sampson and Delilah.

Here is the only picture we took the whole night.

Slacker

2008-11-04T10:19:00.002-05:00

Yes, I am a slacker with posting! I have a couple things that I want to post, but I always think about them while I'm at work, and then forget when I get home. :)
Den has been working hard on some more projects around the house, and we are having someone pour a new walkway and steps in the front. The guy said that he would come and break up the pieces one day, and then come back later to make the forms and pour the concrete. Well, we went away for a couple hours on Saturday, and when we came home, the concrete was GONE! We were a little dissapointed because we wanted to watch him do it, but at least it is started now. :) He is supposed to come this week and get everything ready for the concrete and then pour it on Saturday. YAY. No more crooked and crumbling steps! Pictures to follow...

New Wall

2008-09-27T21:11:00.008-04:00

Now that the inside of our house is mostly done, we have started working on the outside (which really needs it).

This is a retaining wall that needed HELP when we bought the house last year, but we can only do one thing at a time...
This is what the wall looked like a couple of weeks after we bought the house.

Nice looking, quality workmanship, huh? :)

This is what it looked like after we dug out the hill. Yes, I did help dig.

Den built the wall all by himself, though.

And he did a wonderful job! TA DA!

Now, it is my turn to make it "look pretty" (mulch, flowers, etc.).

I didn't forget...

2008-09-15T16:03:00.003-04:00

I have been trying to upload a post for about 2 weeks now. Every time I try to do it, something messes up with blogger and it gets "stuck" in the loading process...so, I'll keep trying...I have some really cute pictures of our nephew and some other things I was going to post.
Does anyone have any suggestions of a faster way to load a video? I have tried the blogger way and through youtube, but both take FOREVER.

Closet Project

2008-08-21T09:38:00.002-04:00

Since our home is over 50 years old, it lacks closet and storage space. The dining room (originally built to be a bedroom) has a small coat closet in it, so I begged Dennis to build more shelves and make it a "pantry" of sorts. Well, he cut the wood and screwed the holders in place, and I painted it. I think it turned out pretty good! Now I have a place to store all those kitchen (and other misc.) items that won't fit anywhere else.

Feelin' Old

2008-08-19T15:48:00.006-04:00

My 27th birthday was this past Friday.

The older I get, the less "exciting" birthdays are (not that they SHOULD be exciting). As I am nearing that dreaded number 30 (ugggg!), it helps me to remember to cherish each and every day, instead of "hoping for the weekend", or "waiting for tomorrow" to come. Don't get me wrong, I still look forward to things, I just try not to wish my life away.

I spent my birthday with my loving husband. He made me dinner and a cake complete with candles. :)

Yes, I am wearing clothes...it is just hard to see. :)

Here is the dinner that Den made me. Burritos, Mexican Rice, and Guacamole (not pictured). I love Mexican food!

We Have a Nephew!

2008-08-18T13:54:00.005-04:00

Born Saturday, August 16th at 1:58 p.m.
7 lb. 13 oz.
19 in.

Tyler Allen

Congratulations Missy and Jeremy!

New Recipe

2008-08-07T09:19:00.002-04:00

A couple months ago, Den e-mailed me this recipe. I think he was hinting that he wanted to try it. :) Well, we made it together the other night, and it was really good!

We added onions and some crushed red pepper to the sausage, and it was GREAT!

Snicker

2008-08-05T21:28:00.008-04:00

Introducing Snicker--our new kitty!
He is 3 months old and loves to play. :)

He likes to "knead" this pillow.

VBS

2008-07-29T17:57:00.008-04:00

As I mentioned last week, it was our Vacation Bible School. Den was in charge of everything this year. He did a good job organizing and recruiting others to help. I was there to do whatever he needed at a moment's notice. :) I was also in a couple of skits. It was a good week, and as far as we know, one child came to know the Lord!

Here are a few pictures from the week (I didn't take very many).
The theme was "Cross Training - Focus on the Finish". We made it into a race-type theme.

This is what Den looked like most of the week. It helped that the sweatband went with the "theme", because it was really hot. :)

This was a missionary skit.

Rachel had the nursery age children. They were so cute together.

This was a skit. Norman was showing how to do sit ups.

This is Stephanie showing her sit-ups. :) (She was supposed to be the lazy one, if you didn't catch that already.)

Norman was showing his push-ups.

Stephanie showing her "push up". :) (She is holding it.)

The two "offering leaders". The kids had a blast with the penny offering!

Colleen teaching a missionary story.

Mrs. Kistler teaching the Bible lesson.

Vacation

2008-07-29T17:44:00.003-04:00

Sorry, I am a little late in posting this. We went on vacation from July 3-12. We visited Val's family first, and then drove up to see Den's family. We had a great time with everyone and loved being away from work, and the daily grind. Personally, I am ready for ANOTHER vacation! :)

V.B.S.

2008-07-21T15:31:00.002-04:00

This week is our church's Vacation Bible School. Dennis is in charge of it, and ONE of my duties is "secretary". I know it is going to be a busy week (mostly for Den), but me too. We are both carrying our normal work responsibilities and then going to V.B.S. each night. We also have the adult's speaker staying with us all week.
I am sure it is going to be a good week and we pray that many children (and adults) will come and hear about our Lord. I should have some pictures to post at the end of the week. :)

Really Sad News

2008-07-16T09:06:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, Peach was acting strange. I thought maybe he (we found out he is a male) just had a bug or something. Well, as the evening progressed, he got worse. He eventually wouldn't get up and didn't make it to his litterbox a couple of times. He also wouldn't drink anything and threw up what he did eat. Around midnight, Den decided to take him to the vet. They said that they couldn't really do anything for him, and that he probably wouldn't make it unless they did surgery. We ended up having to put him to sleep. We are both very sad about this. Even though we only had him for a couple of days, we fealt like he was our little baby.

Our New Pet

2008-07-13T21:36:00.006-04:00

I never thought that we would get a house pet, but I finally gave in. When we went to visit my parents this past week, we ended up bringing back one of their kittens to live with us. We named her Peach. Dennis LOVES her and I think she is really cute, but I'm still not letting her on my bed, or my other furniture! :)

Gardening!

2008-07-02T13:37:00.005-04:00

Well, here is our first garden...

It is growing pretty good so far.

Except for the rabbits that are eating the green beans to death!
We (Dennis) ended up putting up a fence around the plants that the rabbits seemed to like, so hopefully that will keep them away from our food!

It has been interesting this growing season. We didn't live in our house last summer, so we didn't know what was planted there until we see things popping up here and there. These flowers are in the back yard:

These (I think weeds) are in the side yard:

And these peonies are found all over the place! They WERE really pretty. I just forgot to get a good picture of them before.

And, THIS PLANT was given to us by a very nice man who will remain nameless. :) Thank you! We love it!

Anniversary Celebrations

2008-06-30T14:15:00.003-04:00

We celebrated our 4th anniversary by going out to a nice restaurant on the South Side. It is called the 17th Street Cafe. Click here to see their website. It was a nice little place that Den found all on his own. :) He did a good job! He also had flowers waiting for me as I walked in the door from work.

Here we are heading out the door...

Interesting Clouds

2008-06-30T14:11:00.003-04:00

We spotted this as the sun was setting the other night.

To me, it looks like the continent of Africa...What do you think it looks like?

FOUR YEARS

2008-06-19T10:12:00.008-04:00

Today is our four-year wedding anniversary. Even though we haven't been married that long, we have been through a lot together. This past year has been a trying one, but the Lord has taught us a lot and brought us closer to each other and to Him.

I am thankful that we just "happen"to be in the same accounting class in college and that Dennis just "happen" to need help with his journaling. :) Come to find out, he was more interested in me than he was with getting his homework done!

I never thought I would say this, but I am (sort of) thankful that we spent a year apart (with visits in between). It helps me remember that I would never want to do that again, and I am thankful that we are TOGETHER now!

I thank the Lord for my husband. He is so good to me and I am looking forward to spending the rest of my life with him! :)

Living Here

2008-04-22T20:49:00.003-04:00

Almost on a daily basis, Dennis and I will mention how strange the "lay of the land" is here. We will never understand why anyone would build a house on the side of a hill like they have, but it sure makes for interesting pictures.

Here is a look out our front window.

The yellow house is kind-of across the street, but it is down the hill, so it is much lower than our house. It is a large 2 1/2 story house, but we can see the roof from our house... :)

And here is a zoomed-in view of what is in the distance in the first picture.

Its Been a While...

2008-04-01T13:27:00.002-04:00

We haven't done a whole lot to the house this winter...Therefore, I haven't posted any updates on here. Due to that fact, and the fact that I don't think anyone reads our blog anyway, I didn't have the motivation to blog.
We did accomplish a few smaller things with the house this winter. Dennis was gone for a weekend, so Val (I) decided to grout the tile in the bathroom (by myself). I think I did a pretty good job, and Den thought so, too. Then, another weekend, I went away, so Dennis painted a cubby-hole in the basement. It sure did brighten it up!
Now that spring is approaching, we are thinking about summer projects. We hope to have central air installed, plant a garden, work on a drainage system, have a tree taken down, and hopefully a retaining wall installed.
Maybe I'll keep this blog more up to date, but we'll see. If you actually read it, leave me a comment and I'll evaluate of it is worth it to keep doing it.

Christmas Re-cap

2008-01-13T17:43:00.001-05:00

Dennis' family came to visit us for a few days over Christmas, but we didn't get to see Val's family, so this post is mostly for them to see what we did. Dad, this picture is for you. You said you wanted to see our house lit up...

The Rews arrived on Christmas Eve, right before our Christmas Eve service. It was a little difficult to plan a full meal, so we ate after the service. Dennis made A LOT of appetizers. We both LOVE to try different kinds of foods. :)

A couple days after Christmas, we took everyone to the "strip district" (strip of markets) where there is our favorite Greek, Italian, and seafood stores.

Playing a game together.

Pete and Tommy were fascinated with the laundry chute. :)

Out for pizza.

This picture was taken right before everyone had to leave to go back to Michigan.

Merry Christmas. :)

Before and After

2008-01-05T21:42:00.000-05:00

I realized that we never posted an official "before and after" picture of certain rooms in our house. This post will be the kitchen "before and after".

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Stay tuned for more "before and after" photos.

My Review of Windsor Granite Top Kitchen Cart

2008-01-03T20:03:00.001-05:00

Originally submitted at eKitchenIslands.com

Show your good taste with this beautiful kitchen cart. The Windsor Granite Top Kitchen Cart has a beautiful granite countertop ideal for food prep and kitchen storage.

Nice Little Cart

By The Cook from Pittsburgh, PA on 1/3/2008

Pros: Attractive, Good Worktop, Adequate Storage, Sturdy, Easy To Move, Locks Into Place, Durable

Best Uses: Food Prep, Kitchen, Storage

Describe Yourself: Practical, Stylish, Bargain Hunter

I wanted this cart for extra counter top space and for extra storage for cookbooks. It does the job and it looks nice, too. It did have one problem, though. The screw in the drawer wasn't long enough to hold one side of the drawer pull on the inside of the drawer. We will just have to find a longer screw, I guess.

Baking for Christmas

Tags: Picture of Product

(legalese)

Merry Christmas Eve!

2007-12-24T13:22:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to say Merry Christmas to everyone who reads our blog! We are excited to have our family come to visit. Dennis' parents and siblings will be here with us until Saturday. They are on their way as I type this...I will have pictures to post, I'm sure. :)
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

New Door

2007-12-09T21:13:00.000-05:00

I don't think I posted this yet. Dennis installed a new screen door (with some help from Mr. Treat). This is what it looked like when we first bought the house.

Dennis and Mr. Treat working on the door

Here is the new door!

Working Outdoors

2007-12-09T20:37:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday, we decorated the yard for Christmas. We put light-up candy canes along the walkway and some white lights along the railings. (Nothing spectacular) We had fun doing it, but it sure was COLD! We wanted to get work done outside before it snowed. We ended up getting a couple inches, too. Now it feels like Christmastime! :)

After I took this picture, Dennis put lights in the windows, too.

We also raked the leaves in the back yard. That was a JOB! We only have one large tree in our back yard, but our neighbors have trees all around us, so the leaves that we raked up were mostly theirs. :(

Look at ALL THE LEAVES!

Curtains and Some Decorating

2007-11-08T13:01:00.000-05:00

I have been on a sewing rampage for the past week or so. I hemmed up the dining room curtains and we finally decided on some living room curtains, so I also hemmed those.

I guess it is a good thing that I bought my 1957 sewing machine from a yard sale a couple years ago for $20! I have gotten some good use out of it during the past couple weeks. I am also in the process of making kitchen curtains and a curtain for our front door.

Here are the new curtains in the living room.

Here are the dining room curtains. We bought some decorations for the dining room while on a trip to Lancaster, PA this past year. I'm excited to put them up (after I decide on how to arrange them, of course!) :)

Here is the kitchen. I've hung a couple of my strawberry items in here!

As Good As New

2007-10-29T21:01:00.001-04:00

I was working on putting some cabinet doors back up (about two weeks ago) and found out that I couldn't use new hardware, unless I patched the existing holes in the doors (which I didn't feel like doing!). I couldn't find any hinges that quite matched the old 1950's hardware. They do have a lot of character, so I decided to keep the old stuff and paint them. They turned out pretty good. It is amazing what a little paint can do! I didn't even know they sold shiny metal paint. :) I've learned a lot from going to Lowe's all the time!

BEFORE

AFTER

Yes, we have moved.

2007-10-15T20:30:00.000-04:00

We have been in our new house for two weeks now. We just have not had a chance to upload any pictures. It has been busy ever since we moved.--GO FIGURE!

We only ran in to one snag as we were moving. Our box spring would not fit up our 2nd floor steps! We ended up buying a new bed because of it.

Here are a few pictures of moving and getting settled a bit.

Nasty Pink Carpet and Hardwood Floors

2007-10-06T20:50:00.000-04:00

We were a little nervous of what might be under the nasty pink carpet on the steps, but what could be worse than ugly stained pink carpet, right?! The wood isn't in too bad of shape, so we decided to keep the wood bare for now.

Hallway Before. Hallway After (different view).

Dining Room Before Dining Room After.

Here is the living room before.

Living Room After.

Pictures

2007-09-24T21:07:00.000-04:00

I was able to do a slide show with the pictures that I was unable to post yesterday. Here they are!

MOVING BY THE END OF THE WEEK!!

2007-09-23T22:02:00.000-04:00

We have been very busy lately preparing the house for our move THIS WEEK!
I had a lot of problems trying to load pictures, so I will have to try another time. I will just list some of the things we have accomplished since the last post.
-Dennis installed the bathroom vanity complete with plumbing
-Turned the water back on without any leaks!
-Fixed the gas shut-off valve and lit the water heater ( it was installed two months ago!)
-Painted the master bedroom
-One coat of paint on the stairway walls/ceiling (still one more to go)
-Hardwood floors were refinished with a few "bumps" along the way
-Bought a washer and dryer (the next challenge is getting the right electrical hookups and water hook-ups for those)
-Stove and fridge arrived yesterday and Dennis hooked them both up (with gas/water line)

We have learned a lot over the past two months, and we have a lot left to learn! Most of all, we have learned to be patient...I think.
This week will be VERY busy. We have to move everything to the house over the course of the week, along with finishing some projects that we want to have done before we move in. We also have to clean both places before the end of the week. I (Val) seem to be more concerned that we aren't going to get everything done in time, but I guess we just have to! RIGHT? :)

Painting!

2007-09-15T20:32:00.000-04:00

Most every night last week was spent painting. We did the dining room, hallway, bathroom, spare bedroom on the first floor, and the living room.

Here is the dining room. I guess you have to have some sort of fun while working!

I (Val) asked Dennis to pick out a color for the spare room. This is the color he chose. It actually isn't THAT bad. :) It is hard to tell from these pictures, but it is a "salmony" color.

We painted the hallway a cream color...

Here is the living room before...

...and during (I like to play. :) )...

We came up with a system. Dennis rolled, and I trimmed. It worked quite well.

...and"after" (not the best photo).

There is definitely more to come. We have to be out of our apartment in two weeks, so we have started packing. This week will entail painting the baseboards, closets, and our bedroom, putting the trim on the floor in the kitchen, laying liners in the cupboards, and cleaning up.

We did find a new electrician (since the other one didn't finish what he was supposed to do) and he will be starting on Monday. He has 3 or 4 outlets to put in, and it should only take a couple hours (so we are told). It should be ready for our appliances to be delivered next Saturday. YAY! We will keep you posted.

Hardwood Floors

2007-09-14T23:26:00.000-04:00

Here is a before and "during" view of the hardwood floors in the living room. We are really excited to see what they will look like when they are all done. Hopefully, that will be TOMORROW!! :)

We were hoping that we wouldn't have to get the floors stained. (We just wanted the natural floors with clear coat on top.) But, there were some stains that just wouldn't come out with sanding, so we had to choose a stain. Here is Dennis trying to choose from all of the colors.
(The darker spot in the middle of the floor is what will not come out.)

Here are all the colors we had to choose from.
It is really hard to tell what a whole room is going to look like from a little swatch!

"LABOR" WEEKEND

2007-09-05T21:06:00.000-04:00

And the color is...

RED!
For those of you who I told you would have to wait to see the outcome of the kitchen color, here it is! I know, it is a bit shocking at first, but we LOVE it!

Mom, Dad, Melanie and Jared came for the weekend. We were slave drivers and made them work all day on Saturday and made them go back to the house on Monday morning for more work! (JUST KIDDING) They were so much help, though. We are so thankful that they came. We don't know what we would do without them. Thank you MOM, DAD, MEL, and JARED!

Here is a video of Jared and Dennis (you get the idea). Sorry, we don't have sound on our camera.

Getting MUCH accomplished!

2007-08-29T21:20:00.000-04:00

Monday night was another "church work night" at our house. We are so appreciative of everyone who spent their "leisure time" helping us out.

Nadia and Val painted an upstairs bedroom.

Derek, Dennis, and Nick put up new wood around the garage door.

Josh painted the front door and a few other misc. items.

Jared chopped down a few shrubs and pulled out a whole bunch of bricks from the hill in the back yard.

Colleen, Natalie, Alexis, Steve, and Deb did A LOT of yard work including pulling out ivy and raking twigs.

Mr. Treat and Nick layed luon in the kitchen.

Pastor finished painting the basement. IT LOOKS SO MUCH BETTER!!!

We really appreciate all of the hard work and generosity of time from our church family!

THANK YOU!

Paint Day

2007-08-27T21:03:00.000-04:00

Saturday was supposed to entail a nice trip to Kennywood (a local amusement park) with Val's work, but we decided that we should work on the house instead. After a quick trip to Lowe's to pick up a few things, we started working. Dennis did some yard work, but for the most part, we painted ALL day. We had stripped the kitchen down to the bare plaster, so we had to do two coats of primer in order to "hide" everything. We primed the ceiling white and the walls gray. We found out when we picked the paint color that we need a tinted primer in order to get the desired color for the walls. You will see what color we will paint the kitchen in a future post (unless you already know). :)

We also scraped and primed the front door white.

Here are some pictures from Saturday.

We had a fun day together (doing something we LIKE to do)!

Tonight (Monday), we had many people from church helping us. We will post those pictures later.

Preparing for a BIG day

2007-08-24T22:42:00.000-04:00

During the past couple of days, we decided a few things. #1- it's very difficult living in 2 houses and taking care of both of them. #2- time is flying by, #3- I (Dennis) do not like carpentry, #4- we need to hire people to do more work.

We took the bathroom tile as far as we care to and someone else will come in to do the rest. That will be done this week. We are setting up a time (after Labor Day) to have the hardwood floors refinished. So in the mean time we are going to paint everything downstairs so we don't have to worry about cleaning up on the new floors. We will not really be able to do much for about 4-5 days when they refinish the hardwood floors.

We had an interesting night last night. I was at the house (cell phoneless) and Val was stopping at Home Depot to get the hardware for the cabinets. I was prepping the kitchen for painting and wondering what was taking her so long. Well the Lord worked things out b/c when the guy for the floors showed up he said he called our cell phone and Val wanted me to call. The battery died in the car. Long story short, I was glad to leave behind the prep work and do something I like doing. An hour later she was home and there was a new battery in the car. Ahh the conveniences of the city:)

Tonight (Friday) we patched holes and cleaned. It was a mess in the house...still is. The kitchen has no more yellow on the walls. The paint literally peeled off in big strips with a scraper. Here are a few pictures and we'll get some more on this weekend.

Val will miss the yellow:)

Could they have put any more holes in the wall?!?

1953 Vinyl?

The basement getting a fresh coat of paint...it's much brighter

What a Rainy Night!

2007-08-20T21:51:00.000-04:00

The past week has brought about some changes in the house.
Tonight was very rainy, so we cancelled "work night" for people from church to come. We just don't have enough room for everyone to have something to do in the house! We sure appreciate their help, though.

Val has been making progress on the kitchen cabinets, and has even had some help in doing so. Tiffany and Amanda came over on Saturday morning to pitch in. What a great help they are!
Here is a picture of Val scraping the yellow paint off the walls in the kitchen. It was peeling in areas, so this was a better idea than sanding to make it smooth before painting it!

(Sorry for the blurry pictures. I think that there was something on the lens.)

Here is Mr. Treat helping Dennis with the bathroom floor. They finally got down to the GOOD stuff.

The floor before anything has been done to it.

Here is a picture of the house as we were packing up for the night. Notice the awning is GONE!

And, life does not halt just because we have so much to do these days...The battery in the car was dead.--In the pouring rain!

Work Night Monday

2007-08-14T21:23:00.001-04:00

During the months of July and August, our church has set aside Monday nights as work nights at the church. But, for the next couple Monday nights, Pastor decided to move everyone over to our house to help! Last night was awesome. We had around 10 people there helping with different projects.

Nadia and Mrs. Kistler primed the kitchen cabinet faces-and did a very good job!

Rich, Derek, and Mr. Treat tore out three oversized bushes right in front of the steps.
Tiffany and Amanda worked very hard with whatever we gave them to do. They painted the ceiling upstairs, cleaned window sills, painted cabinets, and picked up trash.
Larry tore up the next layer of subfloor in the bathroom, and the next, and the next...

A little blurry, but you can see the great outfit. :) AND, the primed cabinets behind her.The best part of the whole night--the awning came down!!! We were so glad to get rid of that hidious thing!

Thank you to EVERYONE who helped us last night!

Bathroom and Kitchen Progress

2007-08-12T16:46:00.000-04:00

Nice photo, huh? The bathroom looks really gross right now (along with a lot of the rest of the house). It will be looking much better SOON!

The electrical is really progressing. The electrician installed the can lights in the kitchen along with a ceiling fan. It is much brighter! This picture was taken at 10:30 at night without a camera flash. I LOVE how bright it is!
Dennis and Pastor Kistler tore out the kitchen floor and the countertop to prepare for new ones.

Here are the new porch lights. (I know, you can't really see the lights, but they WORK!) :)

Our 5-hour trip to Lowes on Saturday...It really was 5 hours. We had to take a break in between to get something to eat. We got a vanity for the bathroom, subfloor for the bathroom and kitchen, a laundry tub, etc, etc.

Our New House

2007-08-08T20:55:00.000-04:00

Here is our new-to-us house (not a HOME yet). We closed on July 19th and we won't move in until the end of September (if everything goes as planned).

SOLD!

Here are a few pictures showing what we have accomplished so far. We have a LONG way to go!

This is the kitchen before we did anything to it.

This is the kitchen currently (a different view). We are refinishing the grease-encrusted cabinets-ewwww.

Dennis scraping the cabinet faces. Notice his SWEATY SHIRT?!

Val stripping the cabinet doors. No one said this is a beauty contest!

Dennis pulled out A LOT of ivy. Dennis hates ivy. I think the Lord had ivy in mind when He said that he would curse the ground:)

Dennis doing the wiring in the basement.

We will post more pictures as we progress.