Weekend Adventures

There is a much neglected room in our house...the office.  The office is located in the smallest of the four bedrooms.  It is a basement room and it was the only room in our house that had the universally despised fake wood panelling that is an indication of an old and outdated house.  Notice that I use the past tense when I describe what we had...

 Justin decided to paint and redecorate the room.  It was his office for the most part, with his decor hanging on the walls and his paperwork in the file cabinet.  After finishing school I felt like I was done with having an office for awhile!  I spent too many hourse sitting at that desk studying!  My file cabinet is in the other basement bedroom with my sewing supplies and books.

 Oooh that room looks like a claustrophobic little hovel!

Check it out!  That is the same room!  I haven't seen it in person yet but it looks like he filled in the grooves in the panelling, added new trim around the base, and did some ceiling improvements!  The panelling is still there under the paint.  This is a cell phone picture so I will add some more pictures when I see it in person.  This is some very impressive work.  Pardon the clutter in the picture...the room is still a work in progress. 

While Justin was working on that project, I spent Saturday and Sunday visiting my aunt and uncle and cousins at their lake home on Pelican Lake.  I woke to thunder storms on Saturday morning which was very dissapointing but I was patient and they dissipated my noon and I headed to the lakes!  After the storm moved out the weather was perfect. 

My timing was also perfect because right after I got there my uncle went to pick up a new pontoon that had a feature that I was unfamiliar with before...Sea Legs.  These are hydraulic lifts that can lift the pontoon out of the water and eliminate the need for a cumbersome boat lift or an anchor if you are stopped in shallow water such as on a sand bar.  It was like a robot boat!

This is not their boat...it is one that I found a picture of on Google images.  Pretty fancy legs, huh?  I almost expect it to start walking!

I wish it wasn't already August.  Summer is way too short!  There are not enough weekends to spend in a swimming suit drinking slushy drinks in a year!  Mmmmm slushy drinks...

Justin's Interests

I know I mention my own hobbies and interests on here alot more than Justin's, so today I am going to share one of his with all of you!  He has taken up reloading over the last few years.  Reloading refers to the reloading of shotgun shells, or should I say hulls, that are used in a hunting or recreational shooting context.  I really don't know what I'm talking about right now, but, according to my internet research,  I know the terms "wad" "primer" and "load" are important vocabulary words to reloaders.  There are different recipes (yes, recipes) of what type of gunpowder and how much to use for different types of hulls that go with different types of guns.  Apparently you can improve your shooting accuracy after some practice with reloading and many hunters feel that they can make better ammunition than they can buy in a store.  I even came across a "recipe" contest where reloaders could submit their favorite recipe! 

Many reloaders feel that they save money bye reloading instead of buying new shells.  However, I believe you have to shoot alot of rounds (a guy on a website said you would have to be like Rambo) to really save alot.  Who cares, though, if it is something enjoyable for the reloader?  If Justin thinks this is a fun activity to share and talk about with his friends and relatives then that's great.  Well, it's great as long as he follows all safety precautions and my house stays free from gun powder related mishaps!  (Don't worry, when it comes to guns he is very safe).

Here is the workbench he built in the basement where he does reloading.  He wired in the outlets and the floursescent light above. 

Another view.  I might have featured this work bench in the past but if I can't remember you probably can't either!

On a related note, when I arrived home from the Y this morning the mail had arrived and I saw that something big was in the box.  I thought, "Oh great, another phone book...who even used one anymore anyway?"  But no...it was a limited fall edition of a Cabela's catalogue that said "Thank you to a very special customer" (Justin has a Cabela's Visa).  It has a hard cover like a text book!  He will get hours of entertainment from this thing.  It's kind of like the old JC Penney Christmas catalogue that was filled with pictures of toys. 

Finally! A Place of Honor!

This dignified and attractive mirror has been in Justin's office where few people see it since we moved here. Before that, it was out of place in our apartment. Now, it finally has a home hanging on the wall of the landing at the bottom of the stairs!




Very nice!

Also, I have been meaning to post this for awhile. This is probably something only women will relate to. This is the cover of the Self magazine that I subscribe to.




I have decided that I have good taste in clothing because I have almost the same outfit and I have worn it to fun occasions several times this summer!

That was taken at the street dance I went to over the 4th of July weekend. (I was posing with some high school friends and I cropped them out because I didn't know if they would like thier pictures on the Internet or not!) I actually have another striped shirt like that in turquoise like the actress on the cover is wearing! Funny. I guess I'm a follower of trends.

Also worth mentioning, on this Friday the 13th, is that it is several people's birthday! Specifically, my uncle Tim and aunt Jenny, my mom's siblings and the two youngest in her family, both share today as a birthday! They are 48 and 46. Even stranger, Jenny's husband also has today as a birthday! So do several of our friends. Happy birthday to all of you!

Ooooh YEAHHHH. . .

Yesterday afternoon, around 5 pm, the doorbell rang. An unexpected doorbell is pretty rare, and if it happens is usually a politician or one of the nieghbors. I ran to the front door and no one was there. Then I ran to the side door, only to find Justin, unable to open the door because his arms were full of antlers and taxidermy types of things that have been hanging in his office because I don't like to look at them. Oooooh yikes. In my delight, I had forgotten that the basement is "his" and the new room will be decorated with these items.

Oh well, whatever. . .he's excited and trying to plan everything so it will be just right. He wanted camoflage pillows and whatnot so right after he got home we went fabric shopping and bought fabric and forms for pillows and also fabric for some curtains. These items are easy to make, so I did it last night. FYI, you just cut a square (or rectangle or whatever shape you have) one inch bigger than the pillows. These were 18x18 so the square was 19x19. The you cut two rectangles for the back. They should be as wide as the front square and half of it's height plus a few inches. So I cut them each 12 inches. Then you sew it front sides together, flip it inside out, and shove the pillow in! (Of course, you have to make a hem for the back rectangles so they won't fray).

There was extra fabric, so I am going to make one more.


Here are the curtains for our little non-conforming window. I am also making these for Justin's office to replace the faded ones that were left here and are probably 30 years old.

On another topic, the impossible has happened. I am tired of eating grilled hamburgers. I love grilled hamburgers and there are so many options for making them unique! Yesterday was really hot, too hot to cook with the oven, so I searched the internet for help and discovered the concept of grilled pizzas. . .you make mini pizzas using pita bread! Add the sauce, cheese and whatever else you want and grill it for about 5 minutes and it's done! I made pizzas with canadian bacon and pineapple for Justin and for my own I added green peppers. Delicious! I took a picture. . .I usually wouldn't post pictures of food because I think they look discusting. I have read the consumer reports about how professional photoraphers paint, shellack and do all sorts of wierd things with food so it looks beautiful in advertisements and I believe it is a necessary sales tactic.

Yeah. . .not the prettiest picture but you get the idea. . .

New Sectional Sofa!

Our new couch was supposed to be delivered between 10 and 12 this morning so I went to the Y and discovered that, for the first time in weeks, the road construction is back in front of our house and the machinery was building a pile of dirt that was expanding toward our driveway. Ughh. Why today? Fortunately, the delivery men seemed like they had tangled with this sort of thing before and pulled right into our neigbor's empty driveway and carried the couch sections across the yard!

I had to close Allan in a room because the delivery men had the door propped open. I had to do this several times yesterday and he seems resentful. Usually, he is laying against the door when I free him, and this time he was hiding under the bed with the dust bunnies, as far from me as he could get! Don't worry, he's over it.

Yay! It looks perfect in the room! Justin picked out that coffee table last night at Target. The top elevates to make a nice computer desk and allows storage inside.

I'm sure he can't wait to add his own decorative touches. After the delivery men left, I brought some of my crap down there and snapped a picture with my phone and sent it to him as a joke. Hahaha I'm so funny.

New Carpet!

The carpet is all done! It looks really nice and feels really nice! I still instinctively want to slip on sandals before I go into the basement but now it is SO not necessary!

This is the main living room area, with the leftover carpet by the wall. The room is so much nicer now, and it doesn't echo!

This is the landing area. It went from a clammy, cold tile area to this! The two guys installing the carpet thought the painted panelling looked really nice. However, it doesn't take much to make panelling look better!

Allan was kind of confused that "his" room was suddenly different. Previously, this room is where his little tent was kept and where he slept at night. He seems to like it though!

This was taken after the padding was installed but before the carpet. Oooh, those tack strips are scary! I'm glad I got a tetanus shot in July!

As soon as Justin got home from work we went to buy a new TV! We bought a TV and stand at Best Buy and I took a picture with my phone when we were loading. . .he thought it was really dumb.

There it is, set up with Justin's old speakers from his entertainment system he's had for awhile. We both agree that they look kind of out of place with this sleek setup so we'll see where they end up. They certainly improve the sound.

Our couch will be delivered tomorrow morning!

After spending all morning and half of the afternoon at home while the contrators worked, I decided to go rollerblading at the middle school track near by. I checked when football practice was starting for the year so I wouldn't end up crashing a practice. It starts tomorrow! Tomorrow's forecast includes a high of 95 degrees with a chance of thunderstorms, which lately has been forecast every day an means nothing more than very high humidity. Sounds like a blast! Have fun running the mile, guys!

New Carpet As I Write This!

I am sitting in the living room, unable to hear the TV over the banging noises coming from the basement. It's OK, though, because there are carpet layers downt here installing tack strips! It's new carpet day! I wish I could provide a photographic play by play but I don't want to creep out the workers. Just what contractors like. . .an unemployed housewife type in gym clothes in their faces with a camera all day! They are first laying the strips, then the padding. After that they will go to the store and pick up the carpet so I will sneak down there and take some pictures when they are gone. Stop back!

We Have a Snow Issue!

I was at my parents' house recently and there is so much snow around there that I can't believe it. We moved to the farm right after I turned 8 and now I am almost 27 and I have never seen snow like that in my life. My mom remembers it being like that in 1997, but I don't. (Probably because I was in 8th grade and not driving and worrying about its removal yet!)

This is a photo of the North side of the farm and a notorious drifting area. Usually my dad ends up clearing it himself because it takes so long for the county to attend to it and it becomes impassable. On the left is a very deep ditch that has a very slanted shoulder. If you stand in it with no snow you can't see over the road. It is filled completely with snow and the snow is higher than the road. The passage is so wide because of the rare appearance of a bulldozer clearing the way for the school bus. I can't wait to see what a mess this will turn into in a few weeks!
The snow situation is getting pretty crazy in Bismarck as well, although it is not as bad as in Eastern ND. Our front yard has snow piled waist high, and our neigbor has a snow pile in front of his house that is about as tall as his house! Our lots are pretty narrow, so there aren't alot of places to put it! The yard looks really bad because the Christmas decorations are still up and the ornaments are looking faded and rejected. The tree is not accessible at the moment, thought, so they will have to stay until the snow melts!
Justin started a new project yesterday. Its a workbench in the basement! He says he needs to reinforce it more and add a shelf above and below. I wonder what he will be working on down there?

New Trim! Better Than Christmas!

Justin installed new baseboard trim in the basement this week. It's all done now! Now all we need carpet.


Around this neigborhood, there are gigantic squirrels. Well, they are giant compared to the ones I saw growing up on the farm and the ones that frequented UND and NDSU! They have huge bushy tails and they look like cats! I tried to capture one on film a few days ago, along with the pretty frosted trees.

Can you see it? It is perched on the side of the tree, directly above the hole in the birdhouse at the bottom of the picture. I know, it's not a very good picture. But its either a picture of a squirrel or another picture of my cat. What? You want to see another picture of Allan? OK, OK, OK. . .

That's a big paw, kitten! And big ears, too!

Just When the Paint Smell Faded. . .

Lucky you! You get a break from my nostalgic Christmas nonsense to actually hear about a project dealing with our house! This weekend, I went to Grand Forks for my brother's college graduation. The ceremony was at 2 on Friday, so Justin didn't go because of work. He stayed in Bismarck and painted in the basement! I am not going to re-post "before" pictures of the family room because it is just a white bare room and I believe there is a picture of it in previous posts. He chose a color called Hemlock and it looks like this:

He picked it out, and I was glad because I picked the upstairs colors and it is alot of pressure! You can see there is some finishing around the floor. The trim was brown before and Justin is going to replace it with white to match the trim around the windows and doors down there. See Allan's little tent area? He loves the look of his new room. He loves it so much that he ended up with a streak of paint on his side this evening! We had to pin him down and wash him off so he wouldn't lick it!

The work extends to the staircase. Below is how it looked before.

We have plans to carpet the family room in the future and also the stairs, so Justin removed the old carpet.

I especially like this undertaking because I have not done any of the work (yet)! No paint on my hands and in my hair! This is a contrast from when we painted upstairs and I was paint-y for weeks! I did make some mediocre tasting and looking spritz cookies today though! I did something!

Light it UP

I sent a big pile of Christmas cards today, so expect an awesome suprise within the next few days!

House projects...house projects...not too much going on in that area. Last week, Justin put some new light fixtures in the basement.

This is one of the old fixtures. I didn't really mind them. I like old, vitage-y things sometimes. But whatev. . .the new ones are fine too. I didn't really care if I were involved with this project at all, but I ended up standing there holding a flashlight while he connected the wires. Oh, it was exhausting, let me tell you!
We were in Eastern ND this weekend for a wedding and a Birthday party in the Lankin/Park River area. I also spent a day at my parents' house in Hatton and enjoyed being around all of the Christmas decor of my youth. . .especially these!


Our stockings! My mom made each of these quilt style stockings beginning with the Mom, Dad, and Maren versions back in the 80's when I was a baby. The style caught on in the family and she has made them for several of our relatives' families. It has been about 12 years since the last baby was born (my cousin Olivia) but the addition of two new husbands called for her to return to the Christmas fabric box and also invent some new appliques (no cutesy animals for Kirk and Justin!) I love that stocking because it holds ALOT. Haha. When I have children I am going to name them something longer than 6 letters. . . she could use a challenge. . .

Goodbye "Root Cellar"

Under our basement staircase is a storage room. It was fulled from the floor to the ceiling with shelves of wood that were perfectly placed to hold jars. That, combined with the big, weedy patch in our back yard, leads me to believe that the previous owners enjoyed canning and preserving vegetables.

My mom used to make pickles at the farm. We had a garden that was placed in a small field in our yard which used to be a pasture. The weeds were unstoppable, but for a few years we managed to grow a good variety of vegetables and even pumpkin patches. Most important were the cucumbers and the dill! Oh, I love the smell of dill. . .it makes my mouth water whenever I smell it. . .

Unfortunately, the shelves, although numerous, were not practical for our storage needs. So last night Justin ripped them all out and replaced them with new shelves!

I never took a picture of the previous shelves before started working, but I got a few in the process and after. This is what is in there: empty boxes for future present giving, things we use occassionally be don't have room for in the kitchen and luggage and air mattresses. Oh, so much crap everywhere! At least it's nice to have it all with us and not strewn about at our parents' houses and in a storage unit.
It was cute to discover behind the shelves some carving in the wall done by the children who used to live here (they are all adults now). Very cute! I almost want to carve my own name down there!

Return to the BASSment

Last Thursday and resuming today, I have been trying to organize and make useful the final bedroom in the basement in time for the arrival of Thanksgiving guests. Justin brought his old childhood bedroom set from home and made me a long countertop with file cabinets. I have been trying to organize my life. What a mess it is!

This a picture of the room at the "It has to get worse before it gets better" stage last week. I will put up new pictures when I get done with this if I think it looks nice enough. How sweet is that counter? It is my "sewing table" and I finally can unpack all of the crap I have so I can find things without digging through piles of plastic totes and the fabric won't be all mashed together.

This looks like just another grocery box, but I had to mention it because this blasted thing has been with us, packed with junk, since we lived in Grand Forks. I finally addressed the problem and the box is going to the recycling bins!

Since I was in undergrad, I had a small NDSU bookstore shopping bag filled with looseleaf paper, new and half used notebooks, and a folder full of school papers. I finally disposed of the bag. I found this certain notebook that always makes me smile! This photograph shows two of about eight pages of song lists I made during one especially boring 100 level Western Civilization class. Among pages of notes about the Epicureans and the Ancient Egyptians I passed the time listing my top songs of each genre, each year off high school and college and for specific moods. Believe it or not, I got an A in the class even with my lack of attention and effort. I tore out the pages and disposed of the rest of the notebook. I also found one of Roommate's business notebooks filled with her writings about Economics and management schemes. Who knows why I ended up with it. Fascinating reading, but I tossed that one as well!

Stand by for more pictures of this room! Also, I look forward to putting up some Christmas decorations in the next few days because my parents and brother are coming for Thanksgiving. It is hard to get in the right state of mind, though, because the weather has been really sunny and well above freezing every day and it still feels like October as opposed to the end of November.

The BASSment

The "Bassment" was a TV show that used to be on when I was in middle school or high school (I can't remember when). I think it was on MTV or BET, but I can't remember and I don't think I ever watched it, but I always think of that name when I go down the stairs to the basement! It's a bumping party place, for sure! Just kidding, it's a big collection of rubbermaid tubs and boxes but we can pretend it's more fun than it really is. . .

Justin put together his office and filled it with his deer hunting mounts and other paraphernalia. I don't have overly feminine taste in decor, but I truly cannot deal with taxidermy. I just can't look at that on a regular basis. It looks OK in a grand, lodge-like room but not in our little 1955 living room. It seems overbearing I think.

Oh, hello Mr. Antelope! How do you like your new room?

This desk was my Christmas present from Justin in 2006. I had no problem surrendering it to him, however, because I hope to never sit at it to study again!

That mirror was a wedding present from my brother. Eventually, Justin wants some Mossy Oak Break Up camo patterned curtains. They will add so much!