It's here!

Last winter, G. Bob and G. Jayne told Tony and I that they would like us to have their piano in our home. We were very honored and thankful for their wonderful gift, but we just hadn't found the time or the manpower to get the piano from PI to Stewartville. Wednesday night, Dave (family friend), Alan, Matt, Will and Tony, with guidance from G. Jayne, got the piano back to our house. The kitties didn't quite know how to deal with this new fixture in the house. But Tony sure does...

I get serenaded all the time now!!

BBQ Fun

Last Friday, Tony and I hosted a little family BBQ to celebrate Will and Amanda's engagement. At Amanda's mom's engagement party, the maid of honor gave a very sweet and fun gift. She had several different bottles of wine with tags on them. One was Engagement Wine. There was a sweet little note to go with it. They broke it out at the party, but I snapped a picture first.

FINALLY!

My dad posted this on Facebook a few weeks ago. It made me realize that I've been wanting and asking for trim around the door that Tony installed last September.

Well, last week, he finally did it! It doesn't match any of the woodwork in our house, but he said the options were very limited. At least it's finally finished!

Nesting?

Now that I've entered my second trimester, I've been wanting to do something for the baby before I start student teaching. Laur and Jill gave us a bookshelf to use in the baby room, and I suddenly NEEDED to paint it. I had so many other things on my to-do list, but Kaylee and I decided this was a high priority. After all, the baby is coming in less than 7 months!

This was the first coat after a primer. It darkened up a bit, and matches the decals I bought for the baby room walls. I'm so excited! My sister-in-law to-be said that lime green stimulates intelligence. I think I made an excellent choice in color!

Maya and more...

Yesterday, Tony and I ventured to St. Peter to visit our adorable niece Maya and her parents, Brian and Kate. We had an excellent dinner and stay at the cabin. This morning we enjoyed our playtime with Maya and visits and Brian and Kate. Unfortunately, we took our camera all the way there, but we didn't take a single picture! But I still felt our trip was blog worthy :)

On our way home, we stopped in Owatonna to visit Tony's great aunt and uncle, Ken and Doris. A quick little stop turned into a three hour visit! While Tony and I were perusing Doris' art (which she insisted we take several), she was putting together quite a spread on the table. We came up to a variety of cheeses, at least 10 different types of crackers, a plate with at least 8 different cookies, ice cream, nuts, chocolates and any type of soda we wanted! For giving them an hour notice of our visit, they sure were prepared! It was great to visit with them! We were able to share our news of our baby, and they were elated. Ken clapped his hands and yelled "Wunderbar!" (wonderful, in German). They requested to be on the call list for when the little peanut arrives.

It was a nice little trip, but I sure am exhausted now!

Down to 11

Monday, my cousin Michelle starts her last first day of school. She is a senior! She asked me to take her senior pictures for her, and today was the day! Overall I took 283 pictures! WHAT? We traveled all over the countryside: Bear Cave Park, Lake Florence Park, random barn on side of road, Plummer House and downtown Rochester. I burned Chelle a CD, and she narrowed it down to 11 photos.

What ones would you vote for?

1.   Serious face in the field. (Note the outfit--her best friend Alli's clothes--Alli was killed in an accident almost a year ago)

2. Cute smile in the field

3. She's a true farm girl. Those boots aren't just stylish!

4. Bridge and dimple!

5. Showing her true colors!

6. Cutie.

7. I like this one. 

8. Laying around the Plummer House

9. Downtown smiles.

10. Still a little girl.

11. Stat girl!

Burrito Kitty

Connor spent the day with us today, and played with Sol for the majority of his time with us. He wrapped Sol up and started calling her the Burrito Kitty. Then he spoke in some sort of accent. It was quite a silly time!

Bright Ideas

I asked Tony to buy some light bulbs for our entry-way lighting fixture the other day, and he suggested going to Menard's and buying a whole new fixture. Our fixtures are original to the house-1961. I was in agreement. We also knew that we would be purchasing new fixtures for our 2 spare bedrooms-1 now being called "Baby Kanute's Room". Since Tony had today off, he set to work installing our new fixtures.

When Tony took off the old fixture, he discovered a very crude craftsmanship from the previous owners or builder of the home. There was a large chunk of drywall missing. It looked like someone took a hammer and started pounding until there was enough room for the wires to come through. Tony took a trip to Ace Hardware (thank you so much for coming back to town!), and within a half hour he was working away. This was an all day project with 4 coats of mud to cover up the patch. Tony's never worked with mud before, but he sure knows how now!

Here he is removing one of the fixtures in the spare room. It is at least 24in diameter! Yikes. Luna and Sol were helping him.

Old entry-way fixture.

New one!

Old spare/Baby Kanute's fixture

New one! (they're matching, and are very similar to the ones in our bedroom)

The BATtle

Here's my knight in shining armor! This morning I was chatting with my dad on the phone while Connor and Tony slept. I happened to look up, and there was a bat hanging from the ceiling!!!!! I hung up on my dad, ran upstairs, and promptly woke Tony us. He said I needed to leave because I was freaking out too much. Connor and I went and got breakfast and ate at my mom's house. Connor still doesn't understand why I'd be so freaked out, they eat bugs after all he says.

I received a call from Tony a few minutes after being at my parent's house saying "Game, Set and Match". He used my extra tennis racquet and showed that bat who's boss. Guess it's time to seal off our upstairs fire place that we never use!

The rest of the trip.

Hannah took us to one of her favorite restaurants in Waterloo (basically connected to Cedar Falls). We enjoyed a very nice lunch. It was one of those micro breweries, so Gramps and Mom enjoyed a Hawkeye Golden Wheat. It smelled delicious! I'd recommend this place if you're ever in the area.

On our way to Cedar Falls, we saw signs for The Little Brown Church in the Vale. Mom made a decision that we must stop so she can see this famous landmark. It was a very nice stop indeed! Beautiful little church.

Megan signed her name in any guest book she could find! 

They had sheet music out for the hymn that spoke of The Little Brown Church. So of course Mom sang and played as Meg checked things out.

They had a beautiful walking garden in the back where I found this carved statue of Jesus and a little lamb. 

This is The Littlest Brown Church in the Vale. Adorable. 

and this is the Little Little Brown Church in the Vale. 

Touring UNI

Hannah took us over to campus to take a walking tour of UNI. It is a very big campus! It's the 3rd largest university in Iowa. I had no idea. With Iowa and Minnesota not having reciprocity, I never investigated schools in Iowa. On our walking tour, we ran across a beautiful indoor botanical garden. We spent at least an hour wandering around in there. It's open to the public every week day!

There is a beautiful pond with a waterfall.

A sign by these plants said, "Sensitive Please Touch". So we did! Right when we would touch them, they were curl up. Very neat.

Interesting plant. 

These were taller than me. 

Here is Columbo. He lives in the gardens with his friend...

Chiquita...

Megan loved Chiquita!

and so did Gramps

The tropical room had such interesting plants!

Grandpa felt most comfortable in the desert room. He spends his winters in Arizona, so he knew of a few varieties without looking.

I thought these were peas! Interesting..

A wig for a cactus??

The only on campus pictures I took were in the gardens. Next time I visit Han, I'll be getting a picture of her with the UNI sign. Afterthought...

Getting old...

The eldest "Iowa girl" jumped ship and moved into her very first apartment. When the girls were little, Mary Beth would drive them up to River Falls to check out my places of living and we'd have a great time exploring the River Falls area. My mom, grandpa, Megan and I did just that with Hannah yesterday. We road tripped it down to Cedar Falls to check out her new apartment and UNI (University of Northern Iowa). Her apartment is so adorable! She is living with three other girls from Stacyville/St. Ansgar, and they have done such a cute job decorating already.

Here's one side of her bedroom. She has a black and pink theme. Very cute.

Hannah's sisters were bummer she was moving out, but Hannah thinks this is the only reason why. She took all of her movies with her! 

How adorable is the cute sign on her door? I love it. 

The put tulle on top of the cupboards in the kitchen and have matching colored place mats at the bar island area. 

Coffee table. Again, adorable. 

They luckily got the farthest east apartment building, so this is what you see from her patio. This makes the transition from only living in the country to moving into town so much easier! 

Cousins hanging out in the kitchen.