Shane's World

Entering: Shane's Room

Posts I plan on doing...

I have many things that I plan on sharing here, it's just finding the time to do so.  So I will give you a preview and then hopefully be able to illustrate each with their own post with lots of pictures later.

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  We're most of the way done creating a small gym in our basement
  
  
  

We bought a treadmill, brought back our excercise bike from Utah, and bought a small flat screen TV.  Things left to do before I consider this first step complete? Hang a clock that we have (because right now I'm in some kind of limbo..."how  long have I been excercising?"), and get a rug to cover the concrete in the area (less cold and sterile).

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  I have started the process of creating our second guest room.
  
  
  

I painted the upper 1/3 of the walls with some free paint that I got from a Glidden giveaway.  I still need to put up a trim treatment on the lower 2/3 of the wall and then paint.

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  I have started to focus on getting home decor that I can take with me.
  
  
  

With a Target gift card (thanks uncle Alan!) and my January home discretionary budget I have gotten 6 of the 9 picture frames I need as the first step to complete the plan in my head for covering one of the big empty walls in my living room.  I have also started collecting glass containers that I like from the Salvation Army to create a fun display for the mantle.

*Last note: It was my step-mom, Jann's, BIRTHDAY on the 19th.  See the birthday post here from last year for pictures.

Brielle

This child is angelic and I love her to pieces.  Thank you for letting me indulge my obsession by bombarding you with pictures.

A little busy

I know Carmen hasn't posted much since coming back from vacation, but we really haven't been home much for the past couple of weeks. Now that we finally have a day to get things done, what does she feel the urge to do? Blog? Nope, sorry...she's got the itch for a project.

Even though she was able to participate in some projects while on vacation, she's got the itch to get some things done around our house that have been on her list for a while. Today, she's painting in our empty upstairs bedroom. I'm not quite sure of what it's going to look like, I'll just wait and see.
In other news, we got a treadmill last weekend so I can run at home and work towards my annual mileage goal.

Foggy Frost

The first couple of days in Utah were very foggy.
That combined with some pretty cold temperatures created some pretty neat frosting of the trees in my Mom's backyard.

Christmas

Last year our Christmas was similar to most other days.
Not that we were trying to be ba-humbug or anything, but we had just layed out an enormous amount of our resources on a new house and on the hefty sum that U of M calls two classes worth of tuition.
So, we didn't get each other anything.
We didn't feel short changed (how could we, with such huge blessings like a house and the opportunity for further education?), but we were here in Michigan...with no kids in sight...and so it really felt like a normal day off work.

But this year, this year, it was Christmas.
Kiddos doing countdowns and bouncing off walls, Mom's crazy good cinnamon rolls, family all around.
Warm, happy, magical.


...and I didn't take as many pictures of that day as I should have but I'll give you the unrepresentative sampling that I do have.

card playing with the family - always a highlight
I take pictures at the wrong moments though, everyone looks kind of downcast.
It actually is very lively with some good natured bantering and trash talk, punctuated by my grandpa's startling belly laugh and slapping of the table.




Suffice it to say we had a wonderful day.

Oh Christmas Tree...

*sigh*

Isn't this beautiful?
I love how the paint treatment we did in my Mom's living room (and my loft) reflects the lovely glow from the tree.

We're Back!

17 days, and 3,598.5 miles later, we are home. Pictures (and video if we can figure it out) will be up shortly.