First, there was Thanksgiving. There was waaaaay too much food for just the two of us, but we happen to really like leftovers so it worked out well. I made cookies this year while the turkey was in the oven and the bread was rising and I was supposed to be completing crossword puzzles and watching movies and relaxing. It made for a little extra time in the kitchen, but also a fantastic cooking snack. I like the cookies tradition. I think I'll keep it :) (PS, they were pumpkin butterscotch cookies. Appropriately festive, I think.)
On the Friday after Thanksgiving, Rob flew with one of his students who is planning on leasing a helicopter from the school. They were gone all day, flying to fun little Arizona cities farther north. He has a few more of these flights; I think it makes for a nice break from the ordinary. I went shopping (of course), found a few good deals on Christmas gifts and a tv stand I thought would match the coffee table we built just perfectly. (More on that in a second.) We went back to the cabin in Show Low for the weekend and it was much colder there this time than last. Fireplaces and campfires were fantastic necessities and I learned how to play darts. Also, it snowed on our drive back to Phoenix. It made me miss the snow a bit.
Now, about the tv stand. It was actually the wrong color stain. It still needs to be returned, but we did manage to find a much nicer stand from an oak furniture store out here at a decent price. It matches perfectly! Yesterday, we had friends over for dinner and they helped Rob run the tv wires through the wall, so now our family room is complete and the tv/stand looks awesome! Here are a few pictures...
Over our Thanksgiving break, we also painted the office. I think we're both fairly tired of painting. We still need to paint the master bathroom, but are taking a little time off to fix up the outdoors a bit. That tour I promised when the bathroom was painted is still to come, no worries. Here are a few pictures of the office...(Check out the rotor blade!)
Yesterday, we spent a good amount of time working in the yard. There is a serious lot of work to be done out there, especially in the backyard. We started with the tree in the front yard that was in desperate need of trimming. It was overhanging the neighbor's yard by a good bit and just way too big in general. We worked for the better part of the day trimming the tree, bundling the branches and chopping some of the thicker branches into firewood. (We want to get a fire pit for the backyard at some point.) It was exhausting and I am so sore today!
First off, here are a few pictures of the house when we first walked through it with our realtor, back in January.
We have since dug out the giant bush in front of the window and attacked the giant, overgrown tree. Here is a picture Rob took of the house after our work was finished yesterday...
It actually looks like there is more to the house than just the garage :)
These are the bundles of branches waiting to be thrown away. Unfortunately, we can only put our trash can out for the garbage-no additional bags like you can at home after yardwork. This means we'll have to put each bundle out individually. Pain in the neck.
This is all the firewood (some chopped, some not yet) that we got out of tree. Also, notice the burned out weeds functioning as "grass", the super overgrown bush and general ugliness of our backyard. Let's just call this the before picture :)
We still need to find some time to decorate the house for Christmas, bake crazy amounts of cookies and finish shopping :) I like that the next few weeks will be busy...it means time to come home will come that much sooner! Rob and I both come in on a red-eye on Wednesday the 22nd and arrive early in the morning the 23rd. We can't wait to catch up and spend some time with everyone at home! See you all (or hopefully most of you) in just a few weeks! Love, Sarah and Rob
1 comments:
Such enthusiasm and energy should be spread around! Good jobs done, a real sense of accomplishment, I'm sure. Looking forward to seeing you both and catching your "disease". Love to you both.
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