The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

This has been a truly wonderful Christmas for us. It all started with a visit from my dad to Chicago to see our house for the first time. I was so excited to have him, and as a result, spent the 4 days prior cleaning and picking up the house (not that my dad noticed!) There’s just something about having your parents see your house for the first time. Dad loved our house, even though he only saw it after daylight. It’s amazing – he was there about 12 hours and he managed to thoroughly put the panic into Mike and I about finishing the basement. Up until his visit, we felt pretty good about tackling it ourselves – now, not so much.

After dad’s visit to Chicago, we loaded up in the cars and headed to Muncie for the next 10 days. This has been a much needed break from work for both of us! And, we couldn’t wait to see our families. Mike’s sister had flown in from Seattle, his brother from Indianapolis, my sister was home from IU and my dad was up from Florida.

Christmas Eve brought more family together for us, with our extended family joining us for an after-church get-together. Einstein even got into the Christmas spirit (well, his mom and dad made him get into the Christmas spirit – he didn’t choose to get dressed up!)





Christmas Day was a beautiful day with family and friends. And, even though dad managed to scare Mike and I about the basement, he took it upon himself to make sure that we have a good start on the tools we’ll need.



And, because I can’t walk around Chicago without showing my hometown pride, I managed to collect some Colts gear to wear proudly as we head into the post-season!

We’ve had a truly wonderful Christmas and extended holiday with our families. And, we feel so blessed to have come through this year of change and new experiences, and we’re ready for all that 2008 has to bring to us! We hope you have had a very happy holiday season and we wish you all the best for the upcoming year!

Love, Mike, Ash & E!

We Finally Have Pics!

Hello to all! Happy Thankgiving-Eve!

Well, we finally have gotten our stuff together and have some pics of the new house! And, with getting everything unpacked and finding a place for everything, we are also happy to report there are no more furry little unwelcome guests! :) Hope you enjoy some of the below pics from moving in and getting settled!

Moving Day!!!

We're homeowners again!!

Our Family Room

Another Family Room Pic

The Dining Room

The Breakfast Area (Soon to be filled with a new table and chairs!)

Our Kitchen

Unwelcome Guests

Typically, when you move into a new home, you can’t wait to have guests over to see your new digs. It’s an exciting time for new homeowners – whether it’s a first house or your fifth house. I know that even the weekend we were moving in – when everything was in total disarray and complete chaos – I couldn’t wait for Mike’s mom and dad to see our new house. There’s a sense of pride that comes with it.

But welcoming guests into your home isn’t always a good thing. And, that’s what we learned this last weekend. It was discovered late on Friday night that we had at least one small, furry visitor in our warm, cozy new house. We didn’t actually see him, but by the surprise he left behind (in our kitchen cabinets, no less), we knew he was there and was in full force.

Saturday morning came along and with it, a plan to head to Menards to get some food for our little mouse friend. Mike and I were enjoying Saturday morning breakfast on our couch when all of a sudden, our little friend decided to make an unexpected mid-morning romp through our family room! He of course, got scared and ran back into the fireplace and back to his hiding place. We went immediately and “Operation Little Mouse” commenced.

Let’s just say that over the last few days, our little friend (or friends, we weren’t quite sure), were thoroughly enjoying the not-so healthy treat we had left for them and they were letting us know this by the handfuls they were eating and by the continued surprises they left behind. I was getting frustrated and upset that these little creatures were running all over our house, and by last night, I had had it. It was time to unleash the traps.

Now for someone who has never had to catch a mouse before, we went into full attack mode. We bought 3 different kinds of traps and placed new fewer than 7 in different areas of the house last night. And, by this morning, I was doing a little dance that 2 of our little friends had been caught. Mike left for work and all was right with the world. Until 30 minutes later…..

I came downstairs to find Einstein (who to this point couldn’t have cared less that his new territory was being invaded by small furry things that he couldn’t catch). I saw him laying on the family room floor, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small black thing laying about a foot away from E. I did a double-take and E had successfully taken care of another one of our furry friends. He was so proud of his catch that he wouldn’t move. He had finally figured out what could be done with these little things that had taken over his place.

In one way, we’re proud of him. In another, it’s a little gross. But, it’s one of the joys of homeownership – dealing with unexpected guests, whether its your neighbor stopping by to say hi, or a small mouse that decides your new home is just the right place to set up his house. Nevertheless, we’re still in love with our new home. Mouse traps are just going to have to become a part of the norm…..

Moving Day (or weeks)!!

Hello to all!

We're very happy to report that after 3 straight weeks of loading up our cars and moving all of our worldly possessions from our townhouse, we are finally in our new house! At the advice (and wisdom) of my mother, we hired movers this last weekend to take the stuff that we couldn't move without doing serious damage to ourselves, our home or others. :) We are in the house and couldn't be happier! Now, comes the unpacking, organizing and trying to find where the heck everything landed.

We're also happy to report that Einstein is thoroughly enjoying his new digs - the new backyard, the hardwood floors and the stairs. He's even taking a liking to the basement!

Now, we're ready to enjoy the Fall weather and settle in to the new house! We'll keep posting pictures as it all gets put together!

Happy Fall!
Mike, Ash & E!

New Addition!

We received some wonderful news last week from our dear friends Patti and David! Their family welcomed a beautiful baby girl on Monday, October 8! Margaret Carol was born at 1:23pm, weighing in at 6 lbs, 10 oz, and 18" long. We can't wait to meet her!

Mom, dad, big brother Henry and baby Margaret are all at home, and settling in to their new routines!

Home Improvement Lesson #1

We all know how much of a car enthusiast Mike is….and because of this, he does quite a bit of tinkering on all of our cars. With a new house, and a big garage, he made it very clear he wanted to epoxy our new garage floor before we moved in. (For those of you not familiar with epoxy, it’s basically a glue-like paint put onto garage floors to keep oil and other liquids from seeping into the concrete.)

So, last Thursday night rolls around…the garage floor has been prepped (which requires a thorough power washing and drying), and the temperature is just right for the epoxy. We get everything prepped and are ready to start the epoxy process about 7pm. (I should also mention for those of you asking, “Why are they doing this on a weeknight? Why not on the weekend?” More on that to come, but it couldn’t wait because of upcoming cooler weather and an impending weekend trip to Iowa.)

Now I should also mention this is not something that can be done with the garage doors closed….so, both doors are open, it’s 7pm and we have to have lights on in the garage. What happens with this combo? Bugs. Lots of bugs in the garage. And, once the epoxy is getting rolled on to the garage floor, lots of bugs decided to land on the garage floor, not realizing that was where they were going to be for a long time. A really long time.

So, now our garage floor has a really nice epoxy finish, and sort of looks like a bug graveyard. Gross, I know. But it’s one of those lessons in homeownership: Never epoxy a floor at night, with the lights on. :)

What we've been up to.....

Hello to all of our friends and family! Well, it’s been almost 10 months since Mike, Einstein and I picked up from our place on the westside of Indianapolis and transplanted ourselves into the suburbs of Chicago. And, for each of those 10 months, I have wanted to start a blog to keep in touch with everyone, and it seems like now is a good time to do it!

There’s a long story to where we’ve been in the last 10 months, and there’s a short one….and, we know everyone is time-starved, so we’ll try for the short version….

Mike is doing wonderfully at Nalco, and truly enjoying his job. Every so often, he’ll mention to me this is the place for him to be….a lot of you know Mike and know that one of his favorite pastimes is tinkering….well, that’s pretty much what he gets to do – tinker and make discoveries. It’s a perfect fit for him.

As for me, I’ve never taken the easy route to anything, so let’s just say I’ve taken some detours in the past 10 months and have ended up somewhere I am very happy. I started working with a small marketing firm in July, and am really enjoying what I am doing. It’s a little different than Indy, but I’m open to new things.

Einstein has acclimated well to his new surroundings – he has two long flights of stairs in our townhouse that he runs up and down no less than 15 times per day, and the rest of the time, you can find him asleep or wanting to share whatever Mike and I are eating at the moment. There was one goal Mike and I had when we moved to Chicago though – all for the dog – and, that was to get him a big backyard again. Well….

As of last Friday, Mike and I are homeowners once again! We are tossing out living in limbo, and putting down our roots in Illinois. We found a wonderful house in a nice neighborhood in Dekalb, IL. (And, for all of you who are familiar with the Chicagoland area, you’re probably saying, “Dekalb?? Really? Why??”) Well, we stumbled across it and, as it turns out, Dekalb feels comfortable to us. And, we feel very blessed to have found what we feel is our dream house with just about everything we could ever want, and some breathing room from the crowds. We’re really excited about the move and feeling more settled. Here's a pic of our new house to share...and there will be more to follow!


We hope all is well with everyone, and be sure to check back as we update how things are going as we plant our roots in Illinois!

Much love to all!
Mike, Ash & E!