Office Space

Matt and I just put the finishing touches (for now) on our new and improved den. We wanted to share before and after pictures, but it turns out that after cataloguing every inch of our home over the last 16 months, we never took pictures of the office. That should tell you something about how un-proud we were! I do have a "during" picture (on left) of how the office looked for a few weeks while Matt was finishing the window bench he built and we were waiting for a couple of days of concentrated work.

A quick list of what we did:
-Took down the curtain rods and shelves left by the previous owner
-Patched the walls - lots of holes from the curtain rods, shelves and the cable installation
-Removed the ugly-as-sin ceiling fan and installed a new one
-Spruced up an old lamp (that was bound for the trash) with spray paint and a new shade
-Painted the walls and the bench that Matt made - the color is "Garden Wall" but you could probably call it greige
-Rearranged and installed furniture
-Rehung pictures and diplomas and such

All that's left to do is a cushion for the bench, for which we'll be retaining Mom Muller's expert services to create. :)

House Beautiful-worthy it's not (and neither are my photography skills), but we definitely like the look and feel of the room so much better now - I think I'll be fighting Matt for computer time even more now!

Grandpa and Ginger Come to the Flatlands

Grandpa and Ginger drove to the Midwest to visit us "flatlanders" and we had a great weekend. They got to see John and Carol's new condo and see our house for the first time as well, which we all enjoyed. John cooked a great rib dinner on Friday night and we all stuffed ourselves.
Saturday the rain/oppressive heat almost foiled our plans for a day in the city, but we ended up having a really nice lunch at Gibson's. Matt drove Grandpa in John's new car - two handsome men in a convertible, does it get any better? They definitely looked in place pulling up to the valet stand! And, in addition to a great meal and a ridiculously oversized piece of carrot cake, Carol even spotted Brian Urlacher! I got to see the back of his head and we watched as several other guys came in for a private event. As Matt said, when he looked around and saw these men that were considerably larger than him, he realized they were not human-sized and must be professional athletes. So that gave us all a little thrill.


We had a nice visit in the afternoon, and then Sunday the whole crew, including my parents, Grandma and Midge, all came over for brunch. We got all 10 of us around the table for a great brunch prepared with great aplomb by my chef husband. Such a nice day, but Matt and Ollie needed some rest afterwards (this is one of two naps they took together Sunday afternoon).

Grandpa and Ginger started back for Montana on Monday morning, and then my Mom and Dad left for Hawaii on Tuesday morning! Now Matt and I are spending the rest of the week and weekend doing DIY projects around the house - will post before and after pictures once we have the "after"!

Cats and Tablecloths, a Hilarious Combination

Had to share. After brunch on Sunday (next post), we did some tablecloth cataloguing - we inherited a lot of linens to go with the table we inherited, but needed to figure out how many leaves could go in the table for each tablecloth. I thought this would be a rather boring, if necessary, domestic activity. Little did I know that the cats would think this was the most fun since a roll of ribbon. I should have thought of it, as from a cat's view, this isn't much different than changing a bed, which they love. They jumped up on the table and went nuts for a few minutes until we got back down to business. Nothing better than ornery feline entertainment.

105th Street Block Party (First of Many)

Our block is a party block! We missed the 105th Street Block Party last summer - we'd moved in a couple months earlier but were out of town for the weekend. We were able to make it this year and it was quite the event. They rope off our block and have all sorts of events throughout the day. We ate, we drank, we slid (i.e., the Electric Slide and the Cha-Cha Slide courtesy of the hired DJ), all in the middle of 105th street. Many of our neighbors grew up on the block or very closeby and many more have lived here for 15+ years. So we memorialized our first block party, figuring this picture will be pretty funny when we're at our 20th block party. I also got a shot of Matt sitting solo at the outdoor bar our neighbors haul out for the occasion. It has a Navy Pier umbrella (they tell me there's a long story behind that) and becomes a margarita bar (three blenders) all evening. We're not sure how late it went, as we turned in about 9 - my excuse was that I was up at 5 to go to my first TNT training. . . . more to come on that very soon!!!

One of the highlights for the kids (young and old) on the block was the bubble machine. When talk of the bubble machine started, Matt and I both pictured a small little bubble machine that would create bubbles you could pop (like a larger version of the bubbles we all blew as kids). Boy were we wrong. This was more of the South Padre Island/Cancun/Spring Break variety - the machine takes an entire jug of dishwashing soap to create a huge foam party in the middle of the street. The kids, adults and dogs had a good time and then after the machine stopped, we had bubble tumbleweeds floating through the neighborhood. So cool - we'll definitely have to jump in next year!

Hibiscus Explosion

Sounds like a very pretty disaster, no? We have a ton of buds on our hibiscus plants in the front of the house as the plants have almost doubled in size this year. We've been waiting anxiously for the buds to sprout and they've finally started, spoiling us with plate-sized blooms. Here's one of them!