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!