Glazed like a donut!!!!

Yup ~ Kansas City is glazed like a smokin' hot Krispy Kreme donut!! We had an ice storm Monday night into Tuesday and I just wish it wasn't so dangerous......because it sure is beautiful!! Just thought I would share some pictures of our winter wonderland!

Now it can all go away in less than 2 weeks so I can catch a flight back to Maryland for Christmas!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Yesterday it was 71 degrees and my first graders were running around in shorts and t-shirts! Today we get this.............

I am reminded how gorgeous the fall really can be, and why this is my favorite season of the year! I'm ready for snow, and hot chocolate, and Christmas lights, and Christmas cookies ~ bring it on!!!

I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Even though we can't be with everyone, we love you much and send huge hugs from Kansas!

All our turkey best,
Charlie and Beth

Parade of Homes

We went out looking at houses today on the KC Parade of Homes. They are mostly Models of new homes being built ~ but WOW!!!! Sometimes it is just fun to go and look at million dollar homes!! Of course, we didn't think far enough in advance to take the camera....but we did have my phone and it takes pretty good pictures!! Here are some pictures of the two homes we looked at in the million dollar range!

From the outside:







We saw some amazing living rooms and kitchens. The architecture was gorgeous!!










One thing I can tell you that we left with......some serious bathroom and closet envy!! Oh My GOSH!!! The bathrooms and closets in these homes were just breathtaking!!! We will have a "shower room" in our next house if we have to rob a bank for it!!

This is the bathroom. Behind the tub is a glass window....that is the shower room. It is open on both sides and is (honestly!!) about the size of our smallest bedroom!! There are no doors, just a step into it. It was all tiled and had at least 3 different shower heads!!! Off to the back/right of the picture you can see the beginning of the closet......I got pictures of that too!!










This closet was in the other home, but it was seriously LARGER than our current master bedroom!!!




And this is the second shower. It isn't the size of a room, and it was only open on one side ~ but it was a very large "nook" and was definately more open than a normal shower stall.







That's all. We had a really good time looking and oooohing and aaaaahing.....but we left and decided that we would never spend that much on a home. There wasn't anything about the house that cost $1.2 million that justified spending that much on it!! But we will most definately have one of those "shower rooms/nooks" and a significantly larger closet the next time around!

Now......I should go check my powerball ticket ~ just in case!

Love to all,
Charlie and Beth

Labor Day Projects!!

Last weekend, we took advantage of sales and did some house project shopping. We have been hoping to replace the faucets in the bathroom sinks since we moved in. The old one were so small you would bang your hands when you tried to wash them!! So off we go to Lowes! We found the exact ones that were in our bathrooms for $25!! No wonder we hated them! We found some new ones that look great with the brushed nickel doorknobs and towel fixtures! Charlie got them both installed over the weekend! Here are some pictures!

Before:



And After:



And our other project! We went to Nebraska Furniture Mart to wander around and kill some time, and wandered out the proud owners of a new dining table. We have been talking about buying a new counter-top height table with MATCHING CHAIRS (I know, crazy concept!!) for a long time now. They were having a Labor Day sale that was almost too good to be true and we snatched it up! We went today to pick it up and Charlie got it all put together!!! It has 6 bar stools with swivel seats. The table has a leaf that folds into the table when we don't need it. We plan to keep it at the smaller size with 4 chairs. The other two are at our countertop, something we have also wanted to do since we moved in. Here are some pictures of the new table!!

Full size seating for 6!


Smaller sized with just 4 chairs.


So that's all for now. More house projects for your viewing pleasure! Maybe one day we will have pictures on the walls!!

Seeing Red Everywhere!!!

Well, when I last posted ~ I expected to be sharing LOTS of info over the next few weeks. As most of you know, it didn't work out that way. Just one short week after my July 4th post ~ our life went to hell in rapid fashion. ;o( And though I'm still not really ready to talk about it - we do want to thank all of you from the bottom of our hearts for your prayers and support. It did, and still does, mean the world.

And now....on to a new post!

On Saturday August 11th, we bought a new car!!!! My poor little old Saturn was dying in a quick way and we knew we had to get rid of it before it started costing us more than it was even worth!! It was a great car! 8 years and 108,000 miles. We picked up our 2007 Honda CR-V on Tuesday, August 14th and I could not be more in love with a car!!!! It is absolutely perfect for me and I can't wait to drive it forever!! I will no longer cry at the thought of driving to school in a few inches of snow. We can even purchase something larger than a 24 pack of soda at the store!! Here are a few quick pictures.........








In another form of red...........I went to my very first Chiefs game two weeks ago! It was a pre-season game vs. the Miami Dolphins and it was a blast!! Charlie's friend and his wife had 2 extra tickets and a parking pass (from her job!!) so we got to go for FREE!!!! Just the cost of food and drinks! I had never seen a game Arrowhead before and it was a great time! KC lost, but it was still a lot of fun. Here are some more pictures............




Jack Ingram sang the National Anthem!!




Let the game begin!!




I like to call this one.....TOUCHDOWN!!!!!








So that's it for now! Bless you if you made it this far and I'm going to work very hard to keep up with the blog! I'm setting a "once a week" goal for myself!!

Love to all,
Charlie and Beth

Happy 4th of July!!

Sorry - I'm a bit of a slacker lately on my blog entries....but I have a lot to share so I promise lots of them over the next few weeks!




Happy 4th of July everyone! This is just one of many pictures that I took while Mom, Dad, and Grandma were in town. It's from a display called "Fields of Freedom". It is basically thousands of flags that are put up all along the streets and in an open field by my church to honor the holiday and the servicemen/women who make our freedom possible! It was gorgeous to see and really causes you to stop and be thankful for what we know as just a normal way of life.

So as you hang out with family, watch some fireworks (maybe!), and BBQ some delicious food ~ pause for a second and remember why we celebrate the 4th and how lucky we are to enjoy such wonderful freedom. Say a prayer for the soldiers both near and far who do what they do every day in the name of our country.

God Bless America! Enjoy the flags from "Fields of Freedom"

Happy!! Happy!!! Happy!!!!

Happy ::::cough cough:::: Birthday Mom!!

Happy 35th Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!!

All our love from many miles away ~ Charlie and Beth

Doorknobs, and Switches, and Plugs ~ OH MY!!

We are officially all moved in to our house and we are hard at work on all those "little things"!! This weekend, we replaced all the doorknobs, and most of the switches and electrical outlets. The doorknobs were really old and gross! We wanted to change the entry locks anyway, so we bought all the same style and changed the doorknobs throughout the house. I even did a bunch of them myself! I felt very important!!

As for the switches and plugs....well, some of them were okay. Some of them were broken - as in physically broken into pieces!! And some of them were painted on - all sorts of interesting colors!! So, as we replaced the necessary ones, we again decided that it would just look better to have everything matching! It's so nice to have an electrically educated hubby who can do this sort of thing for us!! We finished the living room, dining room, both bathrooms, and all three rooms. Still have to do the kitchen and the basement ~ but right now, we can't even FIND the outlets in the basement from all the stacked boxes!!

So that's all the big news for now! Here are some pics of our hard work!

Lots of switches and plugs ~ just waiting to be installed!!



See ~ I am useful!!!



Yeah for my electrical engineer!!



Old and new doorknobs!!



Old and new outlets!!



Old and new switches!!! (and what they look like on the inside!!)




Ok, that's all for now!

Love to everyone!! Charlie and Beth

My Favorite Graduate!!!

HE DID IT!!!!




I know I'm a bit late on this post...but we just finally have internet capabilites back again.

Well, on a beautiful May 20th ~ my amazing hubby graduated from KU with his electrical engineering degree! I'm so proud of him!! It was an amazing day from start to finish.

We are blessed to have made it through the last 5 years together!! We are very excited for him to start his new job tomorrow (!!!!) May 29th!

That's all for now since I have to start attacking some of these boxes!

For the love of paint....

We did it!! We painted the entire interior of our house (well, except for the 2 bathrooms...they were good already!).

Charlie, Kevin, and Robbie painted the entire weekend I was in Maryland and then Charlie, Robbie, and I painted all last weekend. We are so happy with the results and even more excited than ever to move in!! The carpets were cleaned today and they look amazing!! Some gross orange stains are GONE and the pet smell is too! They are still in not-so-stellar shape overall and will need replacing sooner rather than later ~ but the cleaning will hold us out for a little while!

In other news, I figured out how to insert a picture inside of the post - so now you all have to look at my house pictures whether you like it or not!!

Here goes:

The entry area - this was one of the many mustard yellow areas. It is now a color called "Desert Fortress". Here are the before, and after!!




Next, the hallway. Again, it was a mustard yellow and now it is the "Desert Fortress" color. Before and After!




The living room - yup, mustard yellow again! These people loved their mustard!! It is also the tan color. Here is the before and after!




I don't have fantastic kitchen pictures. The flash didn't work the first time so it's a bit yellowish - but the 2nd picture shows the mauve color that we battled! After 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint...our kitchen is now called "Palmetto Green"!!




This is the guest room that we lovingly call "the Easter egg room"!! No more purple, this color is called "Montpelier Wedgewood".




This is the second room that will become our office. It is lovingly called "the speckled room" because of the sponge painting! Now it is called "Summer Rapture Green"!!




And our room. It was a gross, dirty color. I don't even really know how to describe it! But now it's called "Peach Champagne"!!




And finally, the basement. It was the same yucky mustard color on the top and has taken on the "Desert Fortress" color!




So.....if you made it through all of that ~ thanks for sharing our excitement! Be sure that there are many more pictures to come. Right now, we are trying to survive the last week of Charlie's college career and the final weeks of the school year for me! We are most definately looking forward to June, when Charlie will be at his NEW JOB (!!!) and I will be loving decorating our new house!

Love to all ~ Charlie and Beth