Silent Sunday

The tour went really well!

Peppers are very productive now-a-days

First yellow pear tomatoes

Happy Sunday :)

running on empty

Well we are all moved into our new place! I suprisingly remembered to take a few before and after photos, so I could remember what the house looked like before we improved it/made it worse :)

So far, since August 19th, we have done these improvements:

• Cleaned the whole house
• Painted Sara's room
• Painted our bedroom
• Painted the living room
• Cleared and re-planted the front garden beds
• Cleared out the back garden area
• Trimmed the front trees
• Trimmed the apple and maple trees in the back
• Cleaned out the gutters on the roof, and used the compost for the front gardens
• Ripped up linoleum in the kitchen and mudroom
• Tiled the kitchen and mudroom
• Got TV and internet installed

Next up for the month of September are:

• Paint the office
• Paint the dining room
• Paint the kitchen
• Paint the mudroom
• Set up the office
• Buy a new water heater
• Set up composter
• Sand down dining room table and re-finish
• Set up dining room

That's not too bad.. right???

There are two kitties that can't WAIT to run around in the basement and the kitchen! Every time I open the dining room doors (where the "construction" is happening) the babes try to squeeze through like crazycats!

I'm finding out that homeownership is a full time job.

I was thinking about all the cool stuff that is going on in my life, and I wanted another way to share, besides Facebook, and talking in a monologue to people for hours. I've started a few blogs before but I always write one entry and then I forget to update.. ever again.

Since this is not topic specific, maybe I will update more?

This has been a very busy year for me, and it's also been one of a lot of fun and loving and learning and doing stuff! Doing-wise, I graduated with my Masters in Social Work, Mike and I got married and we got our own apartment for the first time! I have a pretty great job at Girl Scouts that I like too, which is nice after 500 years of school.

There are a lot of activities that I began to get into this year that I have really enjoyed; canning (with Ashes!) eating local food, having a community garden, learning about seasons and what food grows when. I think these help me to feel more connected to life and like I am becoming more of an "informed consumer", and maybe also less of a consumer!

Jen and Jesse have been great friends to me, especially this year- it has been great to see so much of them and I hope we can continue to see more now that they have moved to A2!

There are also a few big things coming up that I am very excited for; starting my position as a Commissioner for the Human Relations Commission for the City of Ypsilanti, buying our first home right near downtown Ypsi, living with Sara again (and maybe Shana) and being a pet owner!!!

I've also had a chance to reconnected with some people this year that I fell out with a bit during my last year at Eastern. That was a really stressful year for me, and I kind of ignored almost everyone and just tried to plug through and get done. Luckily, Sara, Shana and Ashes still like me. I've really liked being able to get to know Ashley more during our canning adventures, getting together with Sara, and spending almost ALL my time with Shana, although now Shana moved and left me :)

I'm really excited to live with Sara. Sara might not know this, but she is one of my favorite people. I haven't made the time to see her like I want to and like I should. It should be a LITTLE bit easier to see her when she lives in our house! I think it will be nice to have a Sara-friend to come home to and spend time with, and I'm looking forward to getting to know Sara even better. Ultimately, I'm hoping our cats could date.

and the most exciting thing right now- KITTIES!!!!!! We are taking care of two baby kitties; Helo and Athena. One of our friends' friends found them on her doorstep, when they were about a week old! They are sweet little lovies. I was NEVER a cat person- I always had dogs and fish and birds and rats and turtles and birds growing up, haha, but never cats. But our cats are the sweetest little kittens I've ever seen. They're loving and friendly and it's really fun to see them develop personalities and grow up with us! I already have an unhealthy attachment to them, and Marie might have to fight me to get Athena from us when she's old enough.