by Heather
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No babies were harmed in the making of this playdate

Ben hung out with his buddy David this week. David is only 2 months younger so they’re pretty much doing the same things and can interact without one trampling the other :) Ben did try to steal David’s toys though. Oh, and laserpointers entertain kitties and babies.

by Heather
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Andy has a job!

Some of you knew Andy’s been unemployed for about a month. He was let go from his previous company because they just didn’t have any work for him to do. He’d actually been bored to tears there and had been looking for a new job anyway (he’d of just rather had something lined up first!) Today he officially accepted an offer from Carestream Health and will be working as a hardware engineering on high end xrays and diagnostic imaging technology. Fun, exciting, brand new stuff! Andy’s mom said something along the lines of “Andy needs an adventure” and she’s right! Hopefully this new job will help him use his brain and expose him to interesting new things.

He starts on August 15. The commute is kind of crummy, 30 minutes highway straight through to the other end of the city. The benefits were great though and salary was exactly what we wanted (hooray for Ben’s college and braces fund). I’m proud of him for all his hard work and looking forward to this next chapter :)

by Heather
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Housework

We’re always working on the house but I thought I’d share a few of our latest mini projects.

Andy sawed off the rotting deck beams on the back of the house. Some year (maybe next?) we’ll rebuild the deck and replace the windows up top with a sliding glass door into the livingroom.

He also put gutters on the roof overhanging the downstairs office.

I stained the mailbox posts and added rocks around the base. Previously cinder blocks had held the posts in the ground (classy, I know). I wish I’d taken a before picture too, but I like the way it turned out.

Andy finished spackle in the bathroom downstairs. He’s done sanding and now we’re ready for primer and paint.

by Heather
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Camera Phone

I’ve got all these random pictures on my cell phone that I pulled to my computer to save. They aren’t the greatest quality, but sometimes the phone is the closest thing available to snap the moment. I thought I’d share a few of my favorites:

Ben in the baby carrier a few months ago. So cute :)

When we were working on the sunporch Andy somehow miscalculated how many tiles we needed. We were short 1/3 of the floor somehow (that’s a math mistake I’d make). We searched and searched all the stores we’d originally gotten the tile from and found it wasn’t being manufactured anymore but there were still a few boxes at a store in Ohio. So I took a pic of our tile and sent it to a friend who has family in Ohio. Her husband’s brother picked up the boxes, passed them to our friend, who gave them to us the next time we got together. Whew, close call! We were actually still short after that debacle but were able to find a similar tile and just put that inconspicuously around the edge of the room. So yes if you stare at our floor long enough you’ll realize some of the tiles don’t match. Shhh, don’t tell anyone :)

hats

Andy models his Sunday hats.

Brothers :)

The little stratus reaches 100,000 miles.

The snapping turtle we saved from getting run over on the state parkway.

I uploaded the rest of the pictures from my phone, you can see them here.

by Heather
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Quilting

I took another quilt class yesterday (because you know, I finished the project from my first class………) Speaking of that class, I realized I never posted the last few blocks I made. I actually pieced them all together with the lattice strips and cut out the batting and backing. I want to try and hand quilt at least one of the blocks and then I’ll probably machine quilt the rest. My mom is teaching me how to hand quilt and gave me a hoop and so far it’s going, slow :)

Yesterday’s class was learning machine applique on tea towels. I’m not sure if I’d keep making tea towels, but I could definitely see myself using the technique on quilts. The class was a good learning experience even though my project turned out kind of pathetic :)

by Heather
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Adventuring

This post is almost a month late (that seems to be a common occurrence) but a few weeks ago we went hiking with our friends on their land in Naples. Andy hunts here every fall with our friend Aaron, but I’d never been there before. A third family joined us and it was a fun day full of hiking, berry picking, repelling down waterfalls, sweating and navigating the woods (easier said than done with a baby on your back).

The whole crew taking a break from hiking and berry picking.

After berry picking we hiked to the top of the mountain to make breakfast at the look out. Isn’t it an awesome view? Andy said it’s even more beautiful in the fall!

Nina the dog wanted some of our breakfast! We made pancakes with the berries we picked, added syrup our friend had tapped from his land, and cooked up some venison sausage he’d made from a deer he’d gotten in the fall. Now that’s living off the land!

Ben actually did really well for being outside all day with no naps. He did take a snooze in the baby carrier for a bit though :)

It hadn’t rained for weeks so what used to be pretty powerful streams were just a trickle.

Andy even repelled down a (waterless) waterfall! There were three of them on the property and some of the group repelled down all of them while my friend Lisa and I meandered down the mountain with the kiddos.

We met up again at the bottom of the three waterfalls.

After spending the day hiking we headed back to our friend’s house which was about a half hour away. They don’t actually live on the 51 acres in Naples, but they do let a logging company in to maintain things and make a little profit. The guys also hunt there and their family uses it as a camping spot. Back at the house we had hamburgers and hot dogs (I was STARVING) and homemade vanilla ice cream that really hit the spot. I had a ton of bruises and scrapes from the adventure, but it was so much fun! You can see the rest of the pics here, enjoy!