catching up

It's been a while since our last post which must tell you how busy we've been! To catch you up on what we've been doing, here are our latest adventures.

Earlier this month, on literally the coldest night of the year/season, we decided that we needed to add some insulation to our attic. We had about 6 inches TOTAL which was certainly not enough to keep us warm at night, nor was it keeping our heating costs at a reasonable level. So we took our first DIY challenge and got the blow-in insulation from LOWES (Mikey's new favorite store) with the blowing machine and as I loaded, he blew it in. If any of you are fans of the show Dirty Jobs on Discovery Channel, this was definitely one of them!

Amy's Job: This is the blower I stuffed and the insulation going into it. It was positioned outside our front door with the hose going in through an upstairs window. I'm not exaggerating that it was 5 degrees (above zero) when we did this. BRR!

Mikey's Job - prepare the attic - this involved pulling up old beams and getting the plywood out to make room for the new insulation.

The view from our upstairs hallway as all this was being done. Beautiful, huh? There was a lot of sweeping, shop-vac-ing and swiffering when this was all done!

Ahh, the warm blanket that is our finished product!

We have noticed a marked reduction in our heating costs, but it's still a shock to our systems! For years our heat was included in our rent - such is not the case anymore! We're already planning more energy saving upgrades for the near future - windows, more insulation in our crawl space, etc.

In other news, our baby is growing up and has started puppy kindergarten! He takes classes on Saturday morning with mama at PetSmart. He's one of the top in his class, already knowing "sit" and "watch me" and he loves playing with the 5 other puppies in class with him. He's especially smitten with the English Mastif, Hercules, and the puggle in the class. We've seen smiles when he plays with other pups, but hes all business at home, though he loves his toys - squeeky, tug and any kind of bouncy ball. Here's an updated puppy pic taken a few days ago...he's a full 45 pounds and growing every day! His belly is all white so he looks like a big oreo cookie when he rolls over on his belly (which he does all the time - he loves belly rubs!!!)

Sox's mama also went back to school recently too (hence the limited blogging) but it's not quite puppy kindergarten. With classes on Monday and Thursday, I'm creeping closer and closer to the MBA. Classes include Revenue strategies for Non-profits and International Business - the latter is a great prep for my class/trip to Germany in May. Both will be challenging but well worth it in the end.

We're excited about the Super Bowl this weekend with our beloved Patriots and are hosting our first house party! We got new furniture to finish off our family room and I sit breaking in our new loveseat now. so comfy....... :) We're expecting most of Mike's fam and a number of friends, a solid 16 people to cheer us to victory!

Well that's all for now - we hope to bring another championship trophy to town this weekend! We wish all of you a festive football fiesta!

Happy New Year!

Well after a grueling 10 days without cable TV or Internet, we are now wired back in this century! Verizon spent a total of 8 hours here on New Years Eve getting us connected so now we can share the events of the past week.

The Move

December 21 was not what one would call a fun day. We had 16 inches of snow in the city and the day before, we got 6 fresh inches. Let's see...22 inches of snow + a 26 foot U-haul + Brighton parking = well, here's a photo to give you an idea:

This shot was taken from our little balcony - which means that with the U-haul parked where it was, we had to traverse down our U-shaped stairs from the second floor, to the "lobby," then down the outside stairs, THEN down the sidewalk and up into the truck. Mike's sister and her husband, Jud, were troopers helping us to unload the apt. I have learned that Jud is abnormally strong and a wonderful person to help move. Though after this fiasco, Gentle Giant movers seem a better option. We did find some laughs with the term PIVOT! (Friends episode anyone??) but after 6 hours and a relatively full truck, we headed to Holliston.

Unloading

Why is it that unloading is always so much easier? Perhaps because we had had almost an hours rest (again, the roads were not fun; this is normally not that long a drive), perhaps it was because we had new folks at the other end (namely Mike's parents and older brother Bill), perhaps things didn't need to go up 30 sets of stairs. In any case, we were unloaded in a few short hours. The house was already filled with family, which was such a nice sight to see, even through the boxes and mess. Here are a few of my favorite pics from that point in the day:

the u-haul in our driveway

Bill getting a running start for the next load (also a good shot of our double-door entry)

I'll say, that although we spent a whole day packing/loading and unpacking, we STILL had at least a dozen extra trips to/from the apartment for those random items that don't easily find their way into a box...like the random stuff under the kitchen sink (who knew??) On December 29 we took our last load out and said goodbye to the city!

Christmas Eve
Skip back a few days to Christmas Eve - after unpacking and trying to organize the majority of our 4 room apartment into an 8 room house, we hit the road with Sox to Connecticut to spend the evening with Mike's sister Julie and the family. Sox learned very quickly with the many trips in the car (apartment to house and vice versa...) to quickly pass out in the car. Here's a great shot of him in the backseat. The blue rope was leftover from fastening the snowblower so it wouldn't tip over. :)

He looked so adorable all cuddled up in that rope! He had a very exciting Christmas with presents from cousins Mocha and Zeus and visiting a new home. We enjoyed a delicious fried turkey (way to go, Julie!) and fantastic Cosmos-a-la-Hilary. After gifts, we headed back home - it's so different to say that now! We had set up our tree in our formal living room which basically is the only thing in the room besides boxes. The green walls were a nice background for the tree.

Christmas Morning

What a memorable moment to wake up in your new home and open presents and stockings under the tree. We had to take advantage of a pile of boxes and attempt a family portrait:

Not a totally bad shot - but not next year's Christmas card! :)

Because this was my first Christmas away from my immediate family in Indiana, I decided to host the Donahue's for Christmas dinner. What? You think I'm crazy for hosting a holiday dinner just 5 days post U-haul? Nahh...call it motivation! We found dishes, stemware, tablecloths etc from the wedding and shower (sidenote, so exciting to open gifts for a second time!) and set the table up right. Holiday favorites such as Swedish meatballs, St. Lucia buns and rice pudding were on the menu, along with traditional Christmas ham...it was terrific! Our table was decorated with a lovely arrangement of flowers c/o our friends Steph & Rich from South Africa - a most festive and unexpected arrival.

Note these photos also show the plethora of just gorgeous wallpaper that is found throughout the house. We are full of decorating and home improvement projects!

New Year's

We spent a quiet night at home (ahhhh) for New Year's Eve after a delicious dinner of homemade filet mignon, mashed taters and broccoli. The next day we hit Lowe's (our new favorite outing...gosh we're suburban!) for our first major project - insulating the attic! After getting the material, Mike went to shovel the driveway - Sox loved the fresh flakes and had a blast tormenting Dad with his run and explore. Not so good with the "Come" command just yet, which makes for a lot of exploring on our part as well!

More pics of the house after we clean up a bit more. We're down to about a dozen boxes but still haven't found either of the irons yet (where ARE they??) At this point, unpacking is more of a scavenger hunt, but that's the fun of moving I guess. Hope all our readers are enjoying a happy and healthy 2008! May it last all year long....