The Past 2 Weeks--in 43 Pictures!

Since my last post, life has been absolutely non-stop!  I notice that every year around this time, that happens...why is it?!  I'm pretty sure it has something to do with school resuming, thus people settle into a routine and are more willing to schedule things.  The unfortunate part?  Most of it has nothing to do with other people scheduling stuff!  It's all stuff that we get ourselves into!

 

Justin is getting settled into his new job with Union Pacific.  Even though the work can be grueling, he's loving every minute of it PLUS he loves the commute!  Thus far, the highlight of his driving has been varying his driving habits to see how many miles per gallon he can achieve--the record so far is 48 mpg!  Granted, he had to drive 55mph--Interstate included--but if he has the patience to do so, I say go for it!

And while I'm thinking of it (because, isn't it normal to always think of having a drink?!), I was introduced to a super yummy gluten-free beer at our September Dinner Club!  Turns out, it's available at the Abilene liquor store and they carry 6 varieties of gluten-free beer--who would have expected such a thing?!

We've spent the past month or so coordinating a new roof for our bungalow.  Long story short, I always hated the color of the shingles and the mildew streaking--soooooooo, when we saw the first sign of damage and received a notice stating insurance had totaled our roof, I was calling up the roofer! I had no IDEA how much of a pain the process would be.  The insurance adjustor missed a few things that we had to re-address, the mortgage company had to start their monitoring process, shingles had to be picked, gutters ordered, etc.  It was a HUGE pain, but the Project Manager for the roofing company did a most excellent job of communicating everything AND dealing with my hypersensitive fear of picking the wrong shingle color!

Do you see what I mean about the shingle colors and streaking?! And it looked even worse in person! Ick!

But the part that made all the work worth it???  We opted to upgrade our ventilation so that the gawd-awful soffit vent in the dormer can come down.  We first thought we could replace it with the original glass dormer window that had been hidden away in the attic...but, there was no access point for air to enter the attic.  Grrrr!   Now, we're trying to track down a decorative vent louver to go in the dormer.  I'm super disappointed, but at least it will look better than it does right now!

Granted, the roof replacement came with it's share of surprises...

The roof decking is original to the house--and 3/4 of the house had 2 layers of shingles on it...so once the shingles came off, they discovered that various sections of the butted-board decking had broken and required repair.  A section of decking by the dormer was broken...the garage had 3 layers of shingles...the west side of the roof had not 3, but 4, layers of shingles to remove!!!

 

 

The covered back porch had several pieces of decking that had to be totally replaced...

 

 

And nearly half of the garage's decking had to be ripped off and replaced!

 

But once all the repairs were made, the felt paper finally started to go on...even at 12:30am, when the forecast shifted to a chance of rain.  Yes, I kid you not--the roofer was on our house in the middle of the night, covering up our very vulnerable *non-existent* roof!

 

Problems aside, just getting the new shingles on has already made a huge difference!  Check it out!

Next up will be new gutters!  Oh--and we're going the lazy route--we're having gutter screens installed :-)

For the second time in 3 years, we overseeded our lawn a few weeks ago...and naturally, we did it RIGHT BEFORE the roofers came!  Some areas of our yard did okay, considering the drought...

 

 

While other spots required a total overhaul!

In the midst of all the home-improvement projects, I hosted my second clothing swap...this time, we included a few home decor items and children's clothes.  About 30-40 gals attended and it was a huge success!  The next semi-annual swap will be in March or April, so stay tuned for more details...

The following morning and afternoon was spent at my parents'...Justin had a tree-job to do for them (he's the dot of orange in the tree!), so my sis and I got to play with Baby Marcella!

 

 

 

 

She may have been a bit leery of Mitz, but Mitz had her own entertainment--Mom's dog, Libby!  Libby, well, she's a whole other story, but she's an over excited Viszla who think she's the size of Mitz and has to be the center of attention...Libby is a hellion, but I still love her :-)  Even though Mitzi acts like Libby's not around if I'm present!

 

 

Later that night, we came back to the Little Apple and went to see Seth Meyers do some stand-up comedy.  Seth is the head writer for Saturday Night Live and he did not disappoint!!! At one point, I was laughing so hard that I thought I was going to have an asthma attack!

 

 

The next day, I hosted an Open House and we made a quick trip to Topeka...then, I came back and decorated our mantle for Fall!  It's the first-time I've ever decorated the interior of our house for a holiday other than Christmas--and it turned out okay!

 

 

The first of the week was finally here, and I picked up 3 new listings!  One is a Craftsmas bungalow, one a Westside ranch and the other a completely remodeled 110-year old 2-story!

 

 

After TONS of running around so that my listings could come on the market, the weekend was finally here!  And it was a GREAT weekend at that!  Our friends Kyle & Lori came into town and joined us for the dedication of K-State's new Basketball Training Facility.  All the former basketball players were invited back for the occassion, so Justin's "service" to the Men's Team scored us entrance to the event!

 

And while we were in the neighborhood, we decided to take advantage of having Bramlage Colliseum to ourselves!

 

 

I'm pretty sure Justin could have stayed there all night to shoot hoops!  He was back in his element!

 

The next morning, we checked out the KSU/KU football game...for a while, I was wondering if K-State would win! 

Want to know what the second-best part of the game was?  Eric Stonestreet of Modern Family came back for the game!  See him in the black pants and black jacket???  He actually looks a LOT thinner in person!  I almost wonder if he wears a faux belly on-set, or if everybody else is just that incredibly thin?!?!

But the number one best part of the game?  Getting to see all the former Men's basketball players honored on the field!  Justin was down there, even though you couldn't see him on the jumbo-tron!  Once that part was over, we jumped back in the car and headed home to watch the game and eat some steamin' hot chili soup and apple crisp! 

 

 

All-in-all, the past 2 weeks have been an absolute whirlwind!  We still have plenty of stuff on our to-do lists and it doesn't look like it will slow down until after the holidays are long gone...while I would love to live a slower pace at times, at least we're busy doing things that we wouldn't want to miss! 

 

Until next time...