Here are some photos of recent house work. We've got the hardware on the cabinets, freshly painted stairway and the much-needed rehupolstered chairs! These chairs have been in the family much too long without a facelift, so I decided it was time. They look (and feel) so much more clean and crisp! I've found that I've had lots of "extra" time on my hands with Ryan in Houston. He commented to me before he left that he should go away more often as it seems to motivate me to work on our projects!

Construction Update

The work continues...this past weekend we focused on getting some of the door trim replaced because the people who lived here before us had apparently never heard of a level. Everything is off by just the slightest bit, but it's enough to drive you crazy! Ryan worked very hard on his projects and I'm so thankful that he's handy!

Fall Decorating

This past Tuesday, Ryan and I took the day off to spend some quality time together before he leaves for Houston. We ended up working on the house most of the day, but did make it out to Tim's Pumpkin Patch to pick up some pumpkins, corn stalks and mums to decorate the outside of the house with! It was lots of fun. Even Phoebe went and had a great time! I'm hoping that the decorations will distract people from focusing on the paint job that our house desperately requires!

Habitat for Humanity

Each year, The Hartford allows their employees to take a free day for volunteer work. This year, I participated in the Habitat for Humanity build here in Syracuse. There are so many new HFH homes going up in the "bad" sections of the city and it seems to be a real success. I was very happy to participate and hopefully my hard work will have made a difference in someone's life. My only gripe...next year I'm volunteering in the summer so it's not 50 and rainy and muddy!! I suppose, however, it isn't fair of me to complain since I had a nice hot shower and warm home to return to at the end of the day! I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to do a build with this great Christian organization.

Fun Times

Tonight we have the great pleasure of having our first overnight guests...Kalli and Luke!! We had these big plans to do late night mini-golf, but today's forecast was looking grim. It poured most of the day, but around 7:30pm we noticed that the rain had stopped and the chill was leaving the air. We took advantage of the opportunity and hit the putt-putt course!! We had a great time! The game started out serious and then around the 8th hole or so, we turned it into a crazy game and just goofed off!!

Kalli and Luke are here!!

We are so excited that Kalli and Luke are here visiting this week!! We spent the evening hanging out at Grammy & Poppy's playing with the puppy, shooting hoops and just enjoying the beautiful weather! We're really looking forward to the kids coming to spend the night Friday and so thankful that Jason and Lynee sent the kids up to spend some time with us!