Finally... Furniture!!

Wednesday, October 14th -

Finally... after weeks of searching we found and had delivered a new living room sofa and love seat! It's a little out of place now but it's a start. Next we'll focus on end tables (arriving soon from Mike's grandfather's estate) and pictures for the walls. Once we have those, we can choose our colors and start painting. I'm super excited to actually be starting the redecorating process =)

Thursday, October 15th -

Today we had dinner with our friends Adam, Jessica, Hannah, Maya, Kim, Phil & Natalie. We had a great time playing with the kids and just hanging out with everyone. Life is so busy it's hard to find time we're all free to get together. Plus, every time we do, the kids are usually twice as big as the last time we saw them!

Maya & Natalie

Hannah & Adam

Kim & Natalie's Arm =)

Maya

Jessica & Hannah

Adam & Hannah, Natalie & Phil, & Kim

Saturday, October 17th -

I've always talked about having a Harry Potter party but I never got around to actually doing it. Finally, this year I told my friends I was having one no matter what! I didn't plan very far in advance but I invited every HP fan I knew to come. A lot of people loved the idea but the day didn't work out well for them. In the end I had about 7 people confirmed. On the day I lost 3 to sickness and 1 to an unexpected event! I had two troopers who stayed despite the low numbers - My mom and friend Melanie =)

Mom and I dressed up and I think we look great. Mom put a lot more time into her costume than I did though. Maybe next year I'll be more prepared. For the actual party the three of us tried to eat what we could but we ended up with a ton of leftovers. We watched two HP movies and then called it a day.

Sunday, October 18th -

After my party I was pretty spent so Mike and I didn't do much this day. In the end I think we looked for some pictures for the living room and then went to our bowling league. We kicked butt in bowling this week. Last time we lost every game and this time we won every game. Mike's average went up quite a bit from all the practice he's been putting in. Mine stayed the same. I will be happy if I average 120 by the end of the league.

Tuesday, October 20th -

Melanie and I have started our Christmas baskets! Usually we're very behind but this year we're trying to get on top of things. We made our first item for the baskets - Applesauce! We're very happy how it turned out and were shocked how easy it was (after all the peeling and slicing... that took forever). We're becoming canning pros. At first we weren't so great but now we've made a few mistakes and learned from them so the canning process is going very smooth for us.

Friday, October 23rd -

Today I relaxed and watched a chick flick (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past) and had a quite night to myself while Mike and his buddies went out to the Firekeepers Casino in Battle Creek. Apparently he had a great time because he didn't get back home until about 3 a.m.! Luckily he broke even gambling so it wasn't a wash financially. I haven't heard too many people coming back as big winners from that particular casino. I think some people won early on but not anymore. Maybe someday we'll win big too =)

Saturday, October 24th -

Once Mike recovered from his night of gambling and drinking, we went to Grand Rapids to look for pictures for the living room. I'm surprised how hard it is to find places what have a lot of choices for living room photos. We didn't want anything special... maybe a nature scene or something colorful yet not too contemporary. We couldn't find anything in GR. After a day of looking at all kinds of places and finding some art gallery paintings considerably out of the budget, we were tired and grumpy. We came home kind of late and I crashed on the couch while Mike played a few hours of Rock Band. We lead such an exciting life...

Sunday, October 25th -

Today Melanie and I planned to make our second basket item: Salsa! Last year we had a pretty good batch so we were optimistic about this year. After hours of peeling, chopping, cooking, canning, etc, we ended up with an even better batch than last year salsa! We think the trick is this year we used lime juice instead of lemon and it really made a huge difference. We also made larger jars this time around. Last year we had really small jars which were more personal size than sharing size.

In between all the cooking, Mike and I stopped by a Persian rug place in town that we made a quick stop at yesterday. The owner runs the place and is a super nice guy. We looked at several rugs yesterday and loved one particular set for our living room. We gave ourselves 24 hours to think about it but today we decided we liked them well enough to buy. I think they compliment the couches well but the walls really need some color now.

We also lucked out because the rug dealer happened to be selling some student art work in his shop. We found two real oil paintings for dirt cheap done by a New York art student. After such horrible luck yesterday, we were thrilled to find something we liked! They're not exactly what I wanted but for the price and the quality, we're very happy with what we got. Now we just need to work on the paint colors!

Fall is here...

Thursday, October 8th

After work I met up with my friend Kim to start a pumpkin project for Halloween. We planned to make pumpkins our of old glass jars we didn't use anymore. Kim got the idea off a friend's blog. We got started but soon ran out of time because we were invited for Margarita night at another friends house. We at least got a start on the project... I'll post pictures later with more before and afters of the pumpkin project.

Me, Kim, Erin and Kristi all met up at Kristi's house for the Margarita night. I was so jealous of Kristi's house because it was nicely decorated and she had furniture in EVERY room. I know we're getting there but I was green with envy =) Anyways, the night was a blast and I'm so disappointed I didn't get any pictures of the fun (kicks self). I will be sure to get pictures next time. We all enjoyed the night so much we agreed to do it again soon. We'll start rotating houses or something.

Friday, October 9th

Today we continued last week dinner and a movie tradition with Melanie and Bruco. In an effort to save money we're cooking in and watching on demand movies or something on DVD. This week we watched a British TV series Melanie brought called "Coupling". It was a mix of "Sex in the City," "Seinfeld" and something else... Anyways, it was really funny and we agreed to we should watch a few more episodes next dinner/movie night.

Saturday October 10th

Today we went furniture shopping... I'll talk more about that in Sunday's entry. It's depressing.

Saturday night we went to visit our friends the Brockman's and their new arrival: Garrett Christopher Brockman. He was born on Friday and both Mom and baby are doing great. Mike and I are beginning to feel out numbered by our friends with children!

Sunday October 11th

Today and yesterday were pretty much the same thing: Furniture shopping. I swear Mike and I are about done with furniture shopping. We've looked at every furniture place within a 50 mile radius and been greatly disappointed. Not that the selections aren't great but more our budget does not meet our taste. We loved things twice our budget. So, in the end I think we finally decided we liked this one set enough from Taslma in Grand Rapids to consider buying it. We're still on a fence a bit but I think it's only because we want to continue having the illusion we'll get what we want for the exact price we want. Short of estate sales, I'm not sure how that will happen.

Otherwise, after a long two days of furniture shopping, we made a quick stop at the Cider Mill to get into the fall spirit. We drank some cider, ate some donuts, walked the apple orchard, picked out a pumpkin and a basket of mums for the front porch. It was really chilly but overall it was a really nice time.

Afterward we headed home for a much needed break. Or at least I did. Mike decided two weeks without mowing was too long so he decided to go out and do yard work. I didn't sit around completely... I decided it was a great time to finish the pumpkin project. I'm very pleased with the results!!

Birthday Celebration, Fall of the Neptune, First Bowling League Game

Tuesday, September 29th - Lois's Birthday

After work we headed off to Grand Rapids to celebrate Lois's birthday. We started off the night playing a few rounds of bowling. Mike and I want to get our practice in before our first league game. We both didn't bowl great - I couldn't break 100 and Mike stuck around the 130, 140s - but it was just practice, right? Once we admitted defeat for the night we all headed to Carabba's for a really nice dinner. Somehow Tia managed to avoid my camera all night... I'm not sure how that happened when I'm sure I saw her getting ready for a photo and then the next thing I knew it was time for me to bowl the moment was gone. I will get her and Steve another time!

Wednesday, September 30th - The Fall of the Neptune

Some of you may remember last December/early January when Mike worked on a project for a new product called Neptune II. It was a major product for our company and many engineers, including Mike, put in 80-90 hours a week at the end to launch the product successfully. Well after all their hard work was done and the product was on the market, they had a celebration dinner for those who worked on the project. They handed out awards and mentioned each team member by name. Anyways, as a token of appreciation, all team members received a miniature model of the Neptune II. Mike loved it and displayed it proudly in our home.

It has been on our book shelf in the living room since that award ceremony. That is until Louis finally found it. I came home today to find the Neptune out of it's glass container and scattered in little pieces all over the living room floor. The main body of the model had teeth marks, the wheels were completely off and the label on the glass globe was licked almost completely off. I looked at Louis with sympathy as told him Daddy was going to kill him.

Luckily I managed to get to Mike before he came home and I made him tell me over and over that he loved Louis and that he would remember that when he got home. He was very upset but I'm proud he did not harm the cat. Unfortunately for the Neptune, it is not repairable.

Saturday, October 3rd - Je parle Francais... un peu.

Today I started a new french class! I always said that I wanted to be fluent in french but its been almost 5 years since I graduated college and I've made no attempt to take a class. I took a leap and joined a group in my Kalamazoo French Language Club called "Toward Fluency". The entire thing is in French so it was a bit of a shocker for me at first but I'm proud to say I understood 90% of what they said. It's amazing how quickly it comes back but equally amazing how much I've forgotten. Wish me luck... this is a 14 week program that meets for two hours each Saturday night. I'm nervous but I think I'll made.


Sunday, October 4th - Our First Bowling League Game!

Yes, today is it - the first day of our bowling league! We were a little nervous about the first day but I think we did well. We even had a fan club (Mom and Dad Smolsky)! It was the first time I bowled with my newly drilled-to-fit-my-hand ball and I did surprisingly well. I don't have the stats with me but I bowled like 120, 113 & 105. I'm not sure what Mike bowled exactly but he had a bad first game where he barely broke 100 and the other two games he picked up and did like in the 130, 140s. The team we played against had a heavy handicap for the skills on the team. We were irritated because they bowled just as well as us or better but we kept starting the game with negative numbers to make up for their handicap. So unfair. We didn't win the round but we did kick their butts on the last game!

Monday, October 5th - Mike's Out


Today Mike had to leave very early for another business trip. Luckily this one is just one night. I'm not really sure what he's doing. I can't keep track (no matter how hard I try) of what he's doing. I swear he's working on like 4 things at once. Anyways, I took the opportunity to get some things done around the house. I worked my tail off and cleaned the garage, the house and did some laundry. I know it doesn't sound like much but trust me, the garage was a mess and the house was equally trashed/dirty. I'm very pleased with the results. My only casualty was when Louis drank oil off the cement floor from the leaking chain saw. Gross. I almost called the vet to find out what I should do but I've given up doing such things now. After he eats wasps, gets into things he shouldn't and just overall is in to everything. I'm taking a stand back role and waiting for him to fall over before I call the vet with yet another dumb Louis move.

Tuesday, October 6th - Laundry...

Laundry is never done. I'm working on the rest of the laundry and some ironing I've avoiding for a long time. Not very exciting. I did manage to get this blog updated though so at least I can feel some sense of accomplishment this week. I have a busy few days too. Wednesday we need to winterize some things before it SNOWS this weekend. Thursday I'm doing some crafts with a friend and going out for Margarita's, then it will be Friday and our hectic weekend plans will start all over again =)