Long weekend...

At the last minute last week, Jeff booked us at the Mountaineer Casino and Resort in West Virginia for a mini vacation and to celebrate our 8th year anniversary, which officially takes place tomorrow, the 27th. He had some extra time off last week because of the Cavs being done and did some extra golfing. I picked him up in Youngstown after work on Friday where he had golfed at the Youngstown Country Club and then we headed to WV. We did a little gambling Friday night (mostly me watching and Jeff playing video blackjack) and we were even steven. There isn't much around there so we ate at the resort both nights. On Saturday, we had breakfast, checked out the Fiesta outlet and golfed 18 holes at the resort's course, which just so happens to be 10 miles from the casino. It was up in the mountains and had some beautiful views, but was a tough course, in my opinion. I did get one par, but overall, had a pretty bad score. Jeff did better than me... which is what usually happens.

We planned to leave early on Sunday to head back but I woke up in the middle of the night not feeling well, so Jeff packed us up and we left before 6 to head back, a little earlier than we had planned. When we checked out in the lobby, there was an older woman (60-70) who was passed out on some bench. She apparently had a rough night. Overall, it was so nice to get away.

I recuperated yesterday and slept a lot. Jeff did a little shopping and came back with more plants for the house. He has a bit of a plant problem and we are up to 20 plants in the house now, if my calculations are correct. He does a great job taking care of them and making sure they all get watered appropriately. I don't have to do a thing and when we get company, they tend to think its me, but I can't take credit. We now have another one in the living room, a few more in the office and a few in the foyer.

We took a bike ride into Bay Village and Westlake this afternoon and stopped at Crocker Park and decided to catch a movie. (Don't worry, we took our bike helmets off in the theater) We watched Iron Man with Robert Downey, Jr. I don't know the history of the comic book, but I thought it was great movie and at the very end of the credits and I mean the very end, there was a short teaser for the sequel. Should be good!

My girlfriend Amy from high school called me tonight to tell me she just had her baby today! She had another little boy, Gavin Jack. How cute. Today was actually her due date. I don't know how often that actually happens. He was 7 1/2 pounds and was born around lunch time today. Congrats Amy!!

Happy Memorial Day to you all and thank you to all the veterans that have done so much for our country and still do.

Life goes on...

My friend Chemenn is so interested in my life and checks my blog all the time... she is dying for some new information about us so here I go. :) Sometimes my life is boring, but I'll try not to put you to sleep.

As you might be aware, the Cavs lost on Sunday in Game 7 against the Boston Celtics. It was a good series and one that I thought we should have won. LeBron can't do it all on his own down the stretch and just didn't get the help he needed from the rest of the team. I have been impressed with Delonte West over the course of the playoffs. He out-hustles a lot of players and manages to grab a lot of rebounds for being one of the shorter guys on the court. It was fun to watch him play.

Now that the Cavs are done, I have my husband back! If my schedule at work wasn't so busy right now, we would take off for a nice vacation. It will have to wait until August when my summer class is over. We are talking about heading to Seattle, but aren't entirely sure yet where to go. Chemenn said that Nashville is nice that time of year... maybe she's guilting me into visiting her.

I'm really looking forward to the looong weekend ahead. The weather is supposed to be absolutely perfect. We may take a short trip somewhere or just stay home and relax.

I chatted with a few friends that I hadn't talked to in a long time the last few days. It was nice to catch up with Lisa (Happy 30th, Harris) and Julie (whad up G). Julie is heading to the Hamptons this weekend to help do hair and makeup for some major wedding. There is talk that Oprah may be in attendence. I told her to let Oprah know I'm sorry I missed our annual girls weekend. Maybe another time. It was good to talk to the two of them. My friends are scattered all over the place (Toledo, Columbus, Virginia, Michigan, Nashville, Florida) and I don't get to see them nearly as much as I would like to. It's nice to know that even though we don't chat often, we can still pick up where we left off.

Is this good enough Chemenn? I'll try to be a better blogger... or at least a more frequent one. :)

Productive Spring Weekend

We had 3 yards of mulch and 3 yards of top soil delivered on Saturday. We spent all day yesterday building up some new flower beds on the south side of the house that still needed some. We also transplanted a few plants that were taking over. We had a lot of tomato plants last year and we wanted to plant some more fruit, so we bought a few blueberry plants and a peach tree. We spread all the top soil and mulch in about 6 hours. I don't even want to guess how many wheelbarrow trips we made. It all looks really nice and I'm looking forward to some fruit later in the summer! Today we went golfing in the morning in Westlake with Jeff's friends, Keith and Sopha. It was still really nice out and for the first time out, I don't think that I did that bad. After the upcoming few days of cold weather, let's hope that the spring weather returns!

I finished my spring semester classes this past week and am thrilled to have the next month off! I want to get into the habit of making regular meals for us, in between the Cavs playoff games. I am heading to Game 5 of the playoffs on Wednesday and am looking forward to that. Go Cavs!!

Bathroom Project Complete!

Today, we FINISHED the basement bathroom. For the last week, each day our goal was to finish it, but we always had a few small things to do at the end of each day.

Dave came over on Tuesday night and he put up the crown molding. Then we put in the sink and toilet and finished up any other odds and ends.

Yesterday, I caulked the baseboard and crown, etc, then installed the wire shelving to the right of the shower. Today, I used all of our drywall scraps to cover up the exposed walls on the unfinished basement side and Kristie did some paint touch-ups.

It was a great experience and I take off my hat to Dave...who was awesome during the whole project. He knows how to do just about everything and if I would have attempted this project myself, I would probably still be framing it up at this point and would have cut down a small forest for the lumber I would have used! So thanks Dave...you are an awesome worker, teacher, and friend!

Below are some photos of the finished project!

We have a baby name!

Yes, we have a baby name! They have decided to call our new nephew Dominic. He looks just like Mikey when he was born, lots of dark hair and very cute! When Jeff and I were at the hospital on Saturday afternoon, Mikey kept running back to Dominic saying "Hi Baby!" It was really cute. He LOVES his little brother and hates to have him out of his sight. I'm sure it will be a big adjustment for him to no longer be the only little one in the house.

Jeff and Dave are finishing up the bathroom tonight. We should have pics to post soon for that. It looks really good! We had some adventures in choosing paint colors but we are happy with what we decided on. Dave has been great through the everything and has done a terrific job. And Jeff has learned tons from him through the whole process.

I have been working diligently on a project for the System and Design Thinking class. It's torture and I can't wait to be done with it. The semester is almost overwith. I'll have the month of May off and then back to class in June... ugh

So, I am sitting in the kitchen tonight working on this project and I notice something outside moving. It's large and very close to the house. It's those darn deer again! I stood up and they were looking right at me, not scared at all. We had a bit of an issue with them on Saturday night. We saw them out the back and counted 10 deer. The next morning, we were out at the FRONT of the house and I noticed that my tulips were buzzed to the mulch... I wasn't happy about that. Fortunately they weren't out that much, so I'm hoping they still manage to come up. I sprayed some Liquid Fence around all of them and I hope that means no more tulip salad bar for the deer. This may mean war...

Baby Time!

My sister and brother-in-law, Jen and Mike Arnone, welcomed a beautiful baby boy to the family last night at 11:48 p.m. He is 6lbs 14 ounces and a name will be decided upon soon...Dominic and Leonardo were front-runners. Mike was extra happy because yesterday was his birthday too...what a gift!

Kristie and I are planning to go make a visit this afternoon to see our newest nephew!

Adventures in drywalling

Jeff started working on 2nd coat of mud the drywall in the new bathroom last night. We can thank Dave for coat #1 last week. Tonight came sanding and as you can see, was quite messy. Things are moving right along. Dave is coming back on Thursday and they are going to work on the ceiling and we will need to decide on a paint color very soon.