Basement Update

So it's not much...... but it's something!

Please, bring your wine glass and your Mickey Mouse tee shirt and join us on a quick journey of our Joey's latest updates:

First we enter the "workout room" where you can see that the walls have been painted.  The ceiling, however, has not.  A large mirror has also been installed on the wall so we can stare at our bulging muscles while we lift weights...

Here is a pic of the rest of the room, taken facing the mirror you see above.

Stepping into the rest of the man-cave, you can see that everything has been painted, with the exception of the molding around the bottom of the floor and the doors.  Some of the molding has to be replaced, some needs to be cleaned, and all doors need to be painted. 

Last stop: the in-law suite.  it no longer looks like a construction zone with unpainted drywall.  The walls and celing have been painted and we need to aquire some molding for the bottom of the room.  And obviously it goes without saying but we need new light fixtures for every room.  Also should prob put that door back on the hinges...

What's next?? Well we got the carpet estimate last night and it came in really low :) So we are excited about that.  We just need to clean out all the junk, finish painting/cleaning, and get our money together so we can get this thing finished already!!

Wish us luck!

~SG

Memorial Day Weekend 2k12

...And I'm back!

We had a great weekend with my Mom and Dad.  They came to visit us from Pennsylvania along with their dog, Dakota.  For Christmas we gave them tickets to a show at Wolf Trap, to ensure that they would come visit us again ;) ...just kidding. 

Growing up, we drove out to visit my Dad's family in South Dakota/surrounding area almost every summer.  Yep... I said  'Drove'.  We spent alot of time in the car and one of our favorite things to do was to listen to a radio show called "A Prairie Home Companion" on NPR.  It takes place in Minnesota and alot of the jokes are near and dear to my Dad's heart.  When I saw it was coming to Wolf Trap for a live broadcast, I knew it would be a perfect Christmas present!!  Joey had never heard of it, but apparently he is the only one in Virginia who hasn't.  The venue was completely sold out. 

All four of us at the show

Joey was a good sport!

On Sunday we enjoyed a lazy morning with coffee on the back porch, watching the dogs run around the back yard, and watching the Nascar race on TV.  Later in the day, we went down to Old Town Occoquan to show my parents around. 

We enjoyed perusing the shops and reading about the historical sites. We also got the chance to re-enact some of our engagement photos from the blizzard of 2009...

In front of Madigans in 2 feet of snow, 2009

In front of Madigans in 90 degree weather, 2012

Gazebo, 2009

Gazebo, 2012

Town Hall, 2009

Town Hall, 2012

After romping around Occoquan, we headed to Uncle Julios for some excellent Mexican Cuisine.  Mom and Dad (and Dakota) headed out on Monday morning, and Joey and I attended a delicious cookout at our buddy, Peyton's house.  Unfortunately I did not take any pictures because I was concentrating on not melting.  But the food and the company was delicious.

Overall we had a great weekend.  I was sad to see my parents go but we will see them soon- we're going to the beach in less than a month!

As always, we remembered that Memorial Day weekend is not about BBQ, but about true sacrifice.  We are very thankful for those who made it possible for us to enjoy such a wonderful weekend.  <3

~SG

Meet me in Atlantic City!

Ever seen "Boardwalk Empire" on HBO?? If not, check it out, cause it's one of my favorite shows.  It takes place in Atlantic City, NJ in the prohibition days of the 20s and 30s.

Totally not why we went to AC though.  We'd planned this little trip with our friends Ryan and Jess for quite a while.  Convenient excuse- Ryan's birthday is coming up!

Early Saturday morning we packed up the Pins and dropped them off at Grandma's, made a quick stop in Rosslyn to pick up the future Warners, and headed up 95 to Jersey.

Backseat fun!

We made pretty excellent time, with the exception of one really bad accident in Baltimore and alot of Firetrucks on overpass bridges (which my brother suggested were there to welcome home a veteran).   The weather was absolutely beautiful.

Which way do we go??

After parking in the Tropicana garage, we headed down the boardwalk to the Trump Plaza beach bar! But not before a quick photo op with a little set off to the side:

Ahhh!

We relaxed at the beach bar for quite a while.  We even witnessed a hot dog eating contest (woof) and I somehow got eaten alive by mosquitos.  We drank alot of beers and ate delicious appetizers. 

Joey repping the Stone Harbor shirt so he would "fit in". Hahaha

After a small mishap in the parking garage looking for the truck (apparently we were NOT on level 4), we found it, grabbed our bags, and checked into the hotel to get ready for dinner.

Group shot before heading to the bars again before dinner!

Dinner was at Cuba Libre, and Ryan got a Happy Birthday dessert!

After dinner it was back to the Trop for more gambling.  I lost all of my allotment in about 20 minutes playing slots, but Joey was doing a great job on the Craps table.  We didn't end up losing it all, which works great for me!

Love these two lovebirds!

We had a great night, which culminated with me and Joey at Hooters eating wings at 1am after witnessing a girl fight on the boardwalk.  Oh Atlantic City.............

Til next time!!!

~SG

My Parents Should Visit More Often...

I don't know what it is about an impending visit from my parentals, but it gets our rears in gear every time!  I'm not just talking cleaning the house, scrubbing the bathrooms, the usual stuff. I'm talking Joey taking the day off of work to paint the basement.

How freaking sweet is that?! Unfortunately, to repay him for his hours of backbreaking work, I now have to spend my evenings this week pulling down nasty wall paper trim and cleaning the basement bathroom... ugh.  I'd do it with wine-in-hand, however I'm kind of afraid of what might be floating around in the air down there. It's that gross.

Thanks to Joey's sudden motivation, I am beginning to see the light at the end of the long tunnel that has been our basement reno.  After the painting is done, trim cleaned, bathroom finished, we'll get the carpet installed and then we can move on with deciding what the heck to do with the basement.

Current plans for the main room are torn between a pool/air hockey table or a couch/tv.  The workout room is already set, and the back bedroom ("in-law suite") will probably chill for a while empty until we have enough cash to furnish it.

So anyway, YAY my parents are coming to visit this weekend! We have lots of great plans, including a cook out, show at Wolftrap, and some DC sights.  Plus the pins get to visit with their favoritest Auntie Dakota.

Let's hope that the rain doesn't wash away everybody's fun.

I'll be back later this week with a little write up of our Atlantic City trip as well as some progress update pics of the basement!

~SG

Sorry I've been a little behind lately....

Butt I promise I will get back into the swing of things soon!!!

~SG

Things that go Bump in the Night

Or actually more like CRASH.

Weird stuff has happened in our house before, but early this morning I was SURE I was going to be making a phone call to Ghost Hunters.

It was about 4:45am.  I had just woken up because I was hot and my spot in the bed was being taken over by two brown furry babies.  After I shifted them around a bit, I closed my eyes and tried to fall back to sleep quickly cause I had to be up extra early this morning.  I was just drifting off to sleep when suddenly...

CRASH


Joey and I bolted upright in bed. The dogs were barking like crazy. 'What was that?!' 'It sounded like something fell!' 'I'm scared!'


Joey grabbed his gun and went downstairs to check things out (in his Disney boxers).  I sat there in the deafening silence with the Min Pins, waiting to listen to what I was sure was going to be an altercation in my kitchen.

After a few minutes, I picked up my pink camo .22 and cautiously headed down the hallway.

We checked the ENTIRE HOUSE.  We checked all the bedrooms, the kitchen, the garage, the car windows, the basement (I was sure that the mirror we'd hung had fallen off the wall- it didn't), the back porch, the front porch, the side porch, then we re-checked everything- including the cabinets in the kitchen looking for fallen pots and pans.  And we could not find a single thing out of place.  It was 5am and we were standing in our kitchen, weapons drawn, ready for the shootout at the OK Corral.  But we couldn't find the offender.

Joey went back upstairs while I grabbed the dogs a treat and apologized out loud to anyone/thing also living in our house that we might have offended...

We re-checked the entire upstairs.  Joey's hunter ears told him the noise came from the master bathroom, but we checked everything and couldn't find a single item out of place.

By this point, I was convinced this was the ghost of an angry Mother- scorned on Mother's Day a hundred years ago.  We were baffled, tired, and decided to lock ourselves in the bedroom to (try to) catch a little more sleep.  I stopped in the bathroom before getting back to bed, and it was only then that I saw it.

The scene of the crime.

My Intuition razor had lost it's suction to the shower wall.  It had fallen off, shattered into 4 pieces, and made a horribly, echo-y racket the whole way down.

WHAT. A. RELIEF.

Also- really impressed that while dead asleep, Joey determined where in the house the noise came from.

So... around 5:15 we were finally able to settle back into bed.  Thanks to the razor, I was basically awake after that and had to get up and go to work.  Joey got to go back to sleep, but the razor was determined to ruin his day too.  He dropped his necktie in the toilet and misjudged the depth of a rain puddle on his way into work.

This is what happens when your razor goes bump in the night.  Let this be a lesson to all:  do not use the suction cup holder.  It will fail.  And you will suffer.

~SG

A Walk in the Park

Yesterday we decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and headed over to Leesylvania State Park, which is conveniently right down the road from our house.  We brought Doc and Chloe and did a little exploring on the trails by the Potomac River.  

After we walked around for about an hour, it was time to get some water for the dogs and some lunch for the people. Good thing there is a Wawa on the short trip home!  

After hoagie time, I talked to my Mom on the phone and wished her a happy Mothers Day, caught up and got excited for my parents to come visit us again in just a couple weeks!  She also helped us pick out our menu for dinner, because we had invited Joey's Mom, Dad and brother over to celebrate Mothers Day.  

We had bbq chicken, mashed potatoes, baked beans, salad, and apple pie with ice cream on top for dessert.  We were STUFFED.  After dinner we sat out on the back porch and chit chatted while listening to the birds chatter in the jungle behind us.  It was a really nice way to end the weekend and wind things down before going back to work for another long week!

I hope everyone's week is off to a great start.  Here are a few pics I took from our adventures in Leesylvania:

Doc and Joey exploring the trails

Leesylvania is the site of the Lee Family's plantation (as in Robert E Lee) and also the site of several Civil War  battles

Chlo in the 'clo'

The girls

The boys

Looking down the cliff at the water below

Beautiful scenery

~SG

Our House Lately

While I don't have much of an update for you, I figured I'd show a few of the things we've done as of late. 

1. Cleaned up the walk-in closet a little bit.  

It was pretty much a disaster.  Swimming with dirty laundry, clothes all over the place, no rhyme or reason to where they hung.  So I did a little bit of organization, and I busted out those white bins you see on the top shelf.  I realized they would work perfectly up there, but I knew without a labeling system, the closet would remain a mess because I'd have to pull down multiple bins to find what I was looking for.  So I got "creative".  And by that I mean I came up with an idea that would probably have been really well executed and looked totally cute if I had the patience and artistic ability.  But I don't.

So I got some notecards and a silver sharpie, and wrote down what was in each bin ("Bathing Suits", "Tank Tops", "Shorts"), punched a hole, and tied each card to a bin with a pretty hair ribbon that I've been holding onto since probably highschool when I last wore hair ribbons.  (Who am I kidding... I wore them in college too...)

I also made extra cards for my wintertime clothes, and put those in the drawers in the guest rooms with my sweaters and will switch them out when it's time.

I felt proud of this little accomplishment. 

 

2. Hung our housewarming presents from Miss Amanda Love.

She drew those with charcoal.  These are replicas of wedding photos that our really good friend made for us.  They are absolutely gorgeous and they go perfectly with our black and white bedroom.  They are hanging above the bed.  I tried to be artistic about how I took this picture.

Fail.

I also pretty much eyeballed it when I hung them, so they are not exactly centered or even, but you get the idea, right?? Maybe someday Joey will fix this...

3. Hanging Plants!!!

I feel like my Mom and my MIL have both made comments about how perfect our porch is for hanging plants.  So here they are!! We have two on each side.  Someday I will buy pretty planters to hang them in, but for now the planters match the shutters so I'm okay with it.

This weekend, Joey is planning on putting up the two ceiling fans on either side (in place of the ugly light in between the plants).  Add a couple white rocking chairs and BOOM porch=done.

.........And that's all she wrote.

I wasn't kidding. We haven't done much.  I owe you pics of the backyard/back porch/fence still and also a pic of the "gym" which has been painted and mirror hung, so we are slowly making basement progress. (At a snail's pace.)

That's it.

Happy Wednesday!

~SG

Cinco de.... Moving?

No no no we are not moving!! Don't worry!

This is actually my weekend recap, coming a bit late and missing a few details.

I don't really remember what we did Friday, which means we probably didn't do anything.  Dinner, maybe a beer or two, and bed.  We are old.

Saturday morning Joey went to work and I was up and at 'em to take the dogs to the vet.  Nothing is wrong with them- they just needed a booster shot and a manicure.  I also decided to get them micro-chipped, so if they ever get away and don't get hit by a vehicle or mauled by a bear, we can hopefully get them back. 

Also speaking of the dogs (yawn, I know) Joey has made some substantial updates to the back porch to keep them from killing any more sub-porch dwelling rabbits/snakes/etc. I'll have to post pictures of those updates later.

Anyhoo, getting to the point here.  After all of that went down (clean bill of health for the Pins!... well, Chloe needs her teeth brushed but that's it!) Joey came home from work and we headed north to meet up with Jess and Ryan at their new apartment for Cinco de Moving!

We used our huge muscles (ok ok Joey used his huge muscles and I used my flabby arms) to carry items from the moving truck to the elevator and from the elevator to their new place.  We got to meet Jess' entire family, including her Grandmother who was oh so sweet, and enjoyed some "Cinco de Mayo/Moving" treats while we worked.

I brought my camera to capture the fun... but this is the only picture I got.  Pretty much sums up the day, though.

This is obviously pre-moving.  When we were done there was nowhere to stand!

When we got back to Woodbridge, I went to the mini mart and got some mexican beer while Joey grilled some burgers.  We were ready to call it a lame night (AGAIN) when Jason (Joey's brother) came over and we decided to open up our backyard to Jason and his hooligan friends.  Kidding, they are not ALL hooligans ;)

We ended up playing corn hole in our backyard all night while listening to country music and chillin in the lawn chairs we bought for the Nascar race.  I'm definitely looking forward to more of these summer nights at our house.  The trees jungle really makes it secluded and though I thought we were being really loud, I guess you couldn't hear much from the street. So that was pretty cool.  I don't want to make any neighbors mad this early in the game!

Sunday we took our time waking up/cleaning up, I ran some errands and got some Popeye's for lunch, and we had dinner at the in-law's and let the dogs run off their energy from being cooped up in the bathroom the night before while we had guests. 

We had a nice, relaxing weekend and while we didn't do anything crazy, still got to enjoy each others' company and help out some really good friends.

~SG

Let me tell you 'bout my Best Friend

Just your Basic Redneck Event

This past weekend we packed up and headed down to Richmond, VA for the NASCAR races!! It was such a good time.  We met up with Joey's Aunt and Uncle and their friends at a private campground, where we hung out under the awning of an old camper, ate burgers, drank beers, and played horseshoes.  On Saturday when it got cold, we Joey built a fire in an old oil drum and we stood around it like homeless people.  I got to meet up with my friend Ali and her husband, and we participated in a pool to try to win some money.  My Friday night racers did terrible, but Saturday I pulled Jimmie Johnson.. and he ALMOST got 3rd! We also listened to the Caps game via Sirius and cheered/cried from our little tent. 

Joey, rocking the red, and playing horseshoes!

I tried to be artistic

You guys look SO HAPPY TO BE HERE

JUNIOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Green Flag!

Listening to the drivers on headsets.  This makes the race 10x more fun.

Saturday morning Mimosas

Before.............

After the champagne sprayed all over Joey. oops.

Homeless Rednecks

Joey's Fire

GO DINGER!!!!!!!!!!!

Me and Shelby. She's awesome, even if she IS a Tony Stewart fan... ;)

So come on down to the next race in Richmond! Join us in Commonwealth Tower! Grab a headset and a soft pretzel, and we'll see you there!!!

~SG