First Fruit

Wow! It's been a bit since I've posted anything on my blog. We've had a bit of trouble reconnecting our internet here at the house, but hopefully we have it all set now. Since my last post, we have officially moved into our house. It was slow moving there for a bit. We would move a little each day and then you just have to decide tonight is the night we are sleeping in the house. That meant making the last push cleaning out the refrigerator, cleaning the current house we were in and cleaning the bathroom of the house we were moving into and doing all the last minute things. It was a late night, but we are in!!!

I thought you all would enjoy some before and after pictures. Here is the before and after of the family room and kitchen:


Before and after of the kitchen:


This summer I've decided to try my hand at growing tomatoes. Growing up, we had a garden and it was great to have fresh vegetables. Before I planted a garden, I thought I would try growing tomatoes in buckets to see how they would do. So, I planted my three little plants, watered them, talked to them and behold...fruit.



I planted 2 cherry tomatoes and then one big tomato plant. The cherry tomatoes have been the first to be ripe. I was really excited when the first tomato was ready to be picked. I wanted an extra day just to be sure that it was ripe and ready. The next morning I went out to pick the tomato. I was getting ready for this big celebration. The first fruit. I thought it was a big deal. Well, I went down to the plants and couldn't find the ripe one. What happened?? I immediately thought ADB was playing a joke on me. He thinks I'm a little obsessed with the tomatoes anyway and so he would do this as a joke. So, I ran in to find the culprit. I was a little upset at this point. After accusing him of stealing all the joy out the first tomato by picking it, he simply said he didn't do it. What?? Well then who did?? I went back out to see if it had fallen on the ground or if I just simply missed it. Well, I couldn't find it anywhere. I asked Bailey if he took the tomato, but that wasn't much consolation as dogs don't talk. But Bailey is really a good dog and doesn't even go near the tomatoes so I knew it wasn't him. It may have been a squirrel or chipmunk. I seriously considered putting up cameras to monitor the tomatoes. I mean I don't want it to happen again and I want to catch the culprit. They must pay!! Needless to say, no cameras were put up and I just had to come to grips with the fact that I wasn't going to know who did it. Here is a picture of the first tomato before it was stolen.
I have had other tomatoes ripen and they haven't been stolen. So, it still is mystery what happened to that little guy.

Here are the big tomatoes on the vine. They are coming along quite well.

I'll keep you posted if I figure anything out with the little tomato.

Bailey

On Sunday, we got a dog!! He is a black lab as you can see from the photos. He is somewhere around 7 years old. We got him from a friend of ours who bought Bailey for his brother, but after a series (several series and seven years later) of events he has now come to live with us! Yeah!!

Bailey is a great dog. He is pretty low key and obedient. Not a high maintenance dog at all. We can leave him at home inside and not worry that things are going to be torn to shreds when we come back. He sits and stays. Pretty impressive. Down is a foreign word to him. When you throw the ball, he will sit and stay when you throw it and wait for you to say get it before he moves. We're going on tour soon.

Here's a little story and then we'll get to the pictures. On Monday morning, I thought I would go for a run with Bailey. Kind of see where he is endurance wise. Well, he did great for the first half mile. I thought this is going to be great. A new running partner. Then, he kind of slowed down for the rest of that mile. Mile 2 came and I could tell that Bailey was not going to run anymore, so I thought we will just speed walk for the rest. The next two miles were a little difficult. I was coercing Bailey to keep up. Needless to say, I don't think Bailey will be the new running partner. We need to do some training first...



Not a super great picture. But he is cute!


He always does this cross the leg thing when he lays down. Not sure why, but we think it is funny. He is so black...at night when we let him outside, we can't even see him. We just listen for the jingle of his collar.

Flying across the Mississippi

This post is a little overdue seeing that these pictures are from the end of May. ADB's Aunt, Uncle and cousin came to visit us at the end of May. His cousin has his pilot's license and so they flew down from Ohio in this plane. ADB and I had the opportunity to go up in the plane with him. We went up for a ride when they came to visit in the Adirondacks. It was great to be able to go up again. This time we flew over the Mighty Mississippi.

Here is a picture of ADB and I in the plane. ADB is in the front seat and I'm in the back.

While in the air, we get to wear these fun headsets. Don't worry ADB isn't doing anything to fly the plane. He justs sits in the front seat.

There she is...the Mighty Mississippi. The tugboats are down there pushing some cargo. This is actually in Mississippi. We weren't able to fly over the downtown Memphis area of the Mississippi.

The sunset.
It was a fun trip in the air.

OHIO

This past weekend, we traveled to OHIO to attend ADB's cousin's wedding and to bring back some furniture that his family was giving us. What a trip!! We also got to see a Dayton Dragon baseball game. Not sure what league they are in, but those chosen from the Dragons get to play for the Cincinnati Reds. I don't have the baseball lingo, but I hope you get what I mean. The Dragons lost, but we did get to see a home run and some stolen bases (unfortunately it was the other team that was stealing the bases.)

The wedding was great and as always good to see family. Here is a picture of ADB and I before the wedding. This picture is mainly for my mom who couldn't believe that I bought a dress that was pink. Okay, it isn't all pink, but for those of you that know me...pink has not been in my wardrobe. Lately it has been making some appearances, such as the dress below. I really liked the pink bow.

This is ADB's brother. What a great photo!!

This is the trailer we hauled back to Memphis. Men hard at work securing our valuables. Only to have it undone a few miles down the road to pick up another piece...a 7 foot bookcase. Thanks family for the furniture. Can't wait to get it all tidy and set up in our house.


That was the weekend. Quick with a lot of driving! But saw some pretty countryside in Kentucky.

Pictures of the House

Here are some more pictures of the house.




The front of the house.


The Kitchen and the Family Room/den. This is one of our favorite parts of the house.

Screen porch and back yard area. Screen porch is another bonus for us!


Those are pretty much the highlights!! We haven't moved in yet as we are having the hardwood floors redone and are going to do some painting!


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A Home!

We just closed today on our first home!! Exciting and a blessing! It all started two months ago. I went up to New York to help out with a Mother/Daughter Retreat. When I came back, ADB told me we had an appointment at a house the next morning. He had already looked at it and talked with the owner over the weekend and was pretty much set on buying it, but one little thing...I hadn't seen it yet. So, the next day, I went to see it and loved it. I'm not sure yet if I want to go out of town again...not sure what we may be buying next.

Then was the long two month wait for us to close. Today finally came and we are now the proud owners! After we finished signing our names five hundred times, we went and bought a lawn mower. I don't have a picture but I'm sure I'll put one up soon. ADB loves it! Now what you've been waiting for...the picture of the house.


This picture was taken in early April. I will need to take a new picture with all the flowers and leaves on the trees and the green grass. It makes a difference. I'll also take some pictures of the back yard and maybe one of the inside. I'll post those soon, so stay posted!!

Parents in Memphis

My parents came to visit Memphis last weekend. It was great to have them here! A highlight of the weekend was taking them to the Memphis in May BBQ Cooking Contest. Since Memphis is known for its BBQ, I knew this was the place we needed to be. It was definitely an interesting time. We saw a lot of sights and also were able to eat some BBQ from a booth. You can't taste people's BBQ unless you has a pass to their booth. Well, we had a pass to the Hog Wild booth. My parents were able to taste some authentic Memphis BBQ. Here are some pics:


In front of the sign. The Mighty Mississippi is on the left.


My mom and I in front of a huge BBQ. It kind of looks like a big apple. We had just had a sample of some pork loin. So good, we made our own on the grill the following night.

Some other highlights from their visit:

1. Chipping in the backyard. Yes that is with a sand wedge and you have to try to get it into the bucket. ADB was the only one to get it in the bucket. I came close, but no cigar. We did this a lot.
2. Playing pool.
3. Playing the Wii. (Thanks Rob and Tiff)
4. Eating waffles with my new waffle maker.