A sad day for Burlington's downtown...

One of Burlington's churches caught fire this morning. It was a beautiful red stone church and is sure to change the face of Burlington's downtown, which is known for it's many steeples.
Here are a few pictures we took this morning:


The firefighters ares still working on it, and probably will be fore awhile. It looked like the steeple might collapse at any time, so I'm sure it'll be blocked off for awhile. You can read more about it here: The Hawk Eye







Testing out my green thumb...

We took full advantage of the spring weather this weekend, and worked on getting our yard into shape. We don't really have any money in our budget to actually buy stuff for our yard, so we've mostly been using what we have, and what plants we can get from other people.
Our yard wasn't horrible to begin with, it has really nice thick grass..but we have a few areas that are patchy, unlevel, or just messy looking from all of the demolition we've done and the nutshells the squirrels leave behind.
Here is a shot from last May:
Since then we have cleaned off the sidewalk, planted some hostas and peonies, and made a small patio out of the bricks from our chimney. We plan on expanding the patio eventually, it's only big enough for our grill right now, but it's a start.

Our yard also had a lot of stones and cement blocks sitting around, and since I didn't know what else to do with them, we decided to push them all together and make a little herb garden.

Next on the agenda, rescreening and clearing off the back porch. Fun Fun!
Needless to say, all of this outdoor work has taken a toll on my housework, and I think I'll be stuck inside for the next couple of days. yuck.

PhotoHunt 54: Steps

It's been a few weeks since I've posted a Photo Hunt picture because of being at class all weekend for a little while, so I thought it was time I joined the game again!
This is of Jayden (of course!) at his favorite spot at Nana's house earlier this spring. He loves playing with the little rocks that line this pathway and it's always the first place he goes to when we get there.

Time to relax...

Don't let my lack of posting lead you to believe that it's been quiet around here...quite the opposite actually. Here's a brief update:
  • Jayden has been sick with something, we aren't sure what. He was out at Joe and Barb's yesterday morning and Barb called to say that Jayden just wasn't himself. He's had a temperature, and he's been very sleepy and irritable. All I gotta say is, thank God for Pee-Wee. We wouldn't have been able to get through the last couple of days with out him. We put him to bed in his big boy bed tonight, mostly because he crawled into that bed, laid his head down on the pillow, and pulled the sheet up over his head. He fell asleep fine, we're just hoping he makes it through the night alright.
  • I took my real estate exam yesterday, and I passed! I'll start shadowing at Remax while I wait for my background check to go through (which takes 9 weeks now!). I'm very excited, and can't wait to start my new career!
This weekend is the first weekend we've had in ages where we don't have a huge deadline to meet on the house, and I don't have my class or any studying to do. Woohoo!! I think we'll be working on the yard mostly, I've started turning over some ground for gardens and digging out some ground for a brick patio.
That's our little update for now, hopefully I'll be able to add more this weekend sometime. We shall see.

Whew!

It seems like I'm getting worse and worse about updating this blog...but we've been so busy working our butts off lately. Our big deadline for ourselves was Easter, and I gotta say we did pretty good. The counter tops are installed, the dishwasher works, and we've actually got a working sink. The only thing that doesn't work in our kitchen is the stove top...which is fine. I can deal with that. To finally be able to use real dishes is good enough for me now. Of course, as usual, it wouldn't have been possible without the help of many great people. :)

Here is the kitchen, as of today:
Besides the stove top, we've still got to get the hardware on the cabinets, woodwork to put up, and doors to refinish. We aren't going to rush into everything, Josh and I both agreed on taking the week off to relax a bit.
We did have Easter here, with both Josh's family and my family. I wanted all (two) of Jayden's cousins to be here so we could have an Easter Egg Hunt and do fun kids stuff. The Easter egg hunt went much better than I thought it would, I thought Ethan would be the only one to go after any of the eggs, but Taylor really went for them too! Jayden just kept wandering off. :)

Getting ready for the hunt! (Nice front porch, huh?)

"Hey dad, I think there's an egg over there"
"Hey son, I think there's an egg right here"


Ethan and Heather

Taylor

Jayden, in his Easter duds. Thanks again for the shirt and tie Aunt Meep Meep and Aunt Memee!
This is what happens when you try to get a smile by asking to see Jayden's mouth. Mmm...chocolaty.

One of the many things Jayden received for Easter was Pee-Wee's Playhouse Volume #2. We already had Volume #1, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, and Pee-Wee's Christmas Special. "I had a thing for Pee-Wee growing up, and I recieved the DVDs for Christmas a couple of years ago. I thought it was time to introduce Pee-Wee to Jayden. Jayden wasn't all that interested in watching TV, he would sit for maybe five minutes at a time. Well, now he's a Pee-Wee addict. We have to have the show on all day. If we turn it off, we get a pitiful, overly dramatic Jayden crying up at the DVD player "Peeeeeweeeeee! Peeeeeweeeee" with real tears in his eyes. If you start singing the theme song, he'll join right in. If he's having a tantrum, and you just mention "Pee-Wee" he cheers right up and starts saying "Pee-Wee!" with his hands excitedly up to his mouth, while running into the living room. He's even starting to get the Tequila dance down. I just thought I'd share a bit of whats going on in our house right now. It's all Pee-Wee, all the time. And the sad part? I love it. I really do. I finally have an excuse to watch my Pee-Wee DVDs.


Countertops and Spring weather!

Sorry I haven't updated much lately, we've just been very busy. I've been taking a Realtor class on the weekends, and we've been trying to get the kitchen up and running before Easter gets here.
An update on the job situation, I was offered the job at my interview last week. It's with Remax, and I'm definitely planning on taking the job. So, if anyone in the Burlington area will be interested in buying or selling a house in a few months, give me a call! I still have to finish my class (one more weekend!), take the test, and get my licence. So I should be up and running within the next 2-3 months.
As far as the house goes, we've still been running into problems with our kitchen people. The employees there are fine, but the owner has been very difficult. I tried to schedule and appointment to have our counter tops installed, and they told us maybe this Friday. Instead, my mom suggested getting our installation money refunded and having my Uncle Perry do the installation. This was a great idea, and Perry finished the counter tops last night! We've even got the sink and stovetop in, not working, but they look nice! Not only do we definitely have them installed before Easter, but I think we have them installed better, because Perry did it. Plus, I didn't have to have the kitchen guy in my house again. Sorry. Bitter. I'll post pictures after Easter, we want to show it off to the family first. They look really really good. :)
We did finally have our first oven cooked meal in the house over the weekend, thank to Perry coming up and hooking it up on Sunday.
As far as Jayden goes, he has been LOVING the warm weather. Of course, it's cold again. Every morning he grabs his shoes and goes "Walk? Walk?" I feel so bad because the kid wants to be outside so much, but the weather just isn't permitting right now. We've also been trying to get o the park as much as possible.
We met with Taylor and Grandma on Taylor's Birthday. Both of the kids loved the slides and had a great time enjoying a beautiful day.