2 Months.....No Post!!

Wow it's been a while since I've blogged so to bring you up to speed on us since October......November was full of deer hunting with the outcome of 1 Doe. In December we celebrated Cameron's 1st B-day and the birth of a new nephew. We are leaving for Florida in a few days to meet him and we are super excited. This month we also reserved everything for our trip to Yellowstone. We were planning on going this year but with the economy we thought it would be smart to wait. Now we feel comfortable enough with everything that we are going next July. We will both be so glad to finally go, I feel like we've been planning this for 2 years now. We will be hiking mountains every day so I think next month I should start doing that thing they call "incline training" so I don't get my butt kicked.
It usually takes me a while to get in the Christmas spirit but with all the snow we've had lately it's here and I'm excited to see my little nephew open gifts on X-mas morning. After today we have 12 days off from work and I need all of them. Matt must be excited too because he felt the need to shout "Honey we're on vacation" when I was still asleep this morning.

So what's in store for the Sondgeroths in 2010......
I love love love to travel but I think next year has a lot of traveling in store for me for work and I hope to take Matt with me. Since my promotion at work this year I have been learning a lot of computer/IT things which I love and they are sending me to Baltimore, St. Louis, and Arizona next year to learn more. I can't go to Arizona and not see the Grand Canyon.
Also my bestest friend is having a baby so Seattle is on the list and then quick trips to California and New Orleans may also be in the works! Whew!

Fall in Brown County

Last fall we went to Brown County, Indiana for the first time and we loved it so much we wanted to go back this year. This time we went to Yellowwood State Forest and hiked about 8 miles. It was perfect hiking weather yesterday. I liked this location so much more than Brown County State Park. It's not as populated with hikers and it seemed more like we were hiking in the woods than a man-made trail. This hiking spot probably ranks #2 for me.
Eventhough we were pretty beat after hiking we still managed to walk through little Nashville and have lunch. I love southern Indiana in the fall.

Update

So I haven't blogged about the Biggest Loser at all. We are coming up on week 4 and it's going pretty good. We are both losing weight just at a slower pace than last time which was expected. Something that we did not do last time is allow any slip ups and this time we have because this is about a lifestyle change and in reality we will never give up ice cream for example so we just do the moderation thing. It's still working though. I was in the lead for the first couple of weeks and then Lana snuck up and took over. I've gotta watch out for her because I am determined to win this time.



Last weekend we went to Terre Haute to celebrate my brother's 18th B-day. We had a surprise party for him and he had no idea.( My family was actually able to keep a secret for a few weeks !!) We got to spend a lot of time with Cameron who is changing so fast. We babysat him Sunday morning for a while so he kept me and Uncle Matt very busy. He is very close to crawling but right now he just goes in circles on the floor. It's very funny to watch, he's not quite strong enough to get up on his knees. His new thing is jumping. His legs are very strong so he jumps pretty high off the ground while you are holding him.


Here is a sideways video of him jumping.

So this picture you will only understand and think is funny if you are a fan of "The Office". This week there was a wedding on the show that everyone has been waiting to happen since the show started. Kelly came up with the idea to have our own Office wedding party and dress up in wedding clothes. So here I am sporting a Bridesmaid dress. (So Kel we are looking forward to seeing pictures from your wedding party too since we couldn't make it to yours.)

This weekend we went to Turkey Run to do some hiking and enjoy the fall changes. These are the only pictures I could take before the camera died on me. Oops.

Sand Dunes and Pearl Jam

This weekend we went to Indiana Dunes to do some hiking. The weather was perfect and the sand dunes kicked our butts. Of course we started with the most rugged trail that had several tall dunes that you have to hike up but the views of Lake Michigan at the top were worth it. (I need to figure out a way to rig up a sand dune in our workout room or the backyard if I didn't mind the stares from the neighbors)
The water was freezing but due to the current they wouldn't let us swim anyway. So when we walked the beach I kept telling myself we were in Florida.

Sunday we drove to Chicago from the dunes to see.....you guessed it....Pearl Jam in concert. We both love going to Chicago. This time we stayed in Greektown since we did downtown last time. Our hotel room had a balcony and we had a pretty good view of about half of downtown. I loved our hotel room, it was a nice upgrade from the hotel the night before.

The concert was awesome and we had great seats thanks to Matt's seniority in the fan club. It was a great weekend and if we wouldn't mind giving up money, a backyard, and peace and quiet, we could move there so it looks like that's out.

In the weeks to come we are going to start another Biggest Loser competition so be prepared for me to express many frustrations and a little bit of progress on the blog. Although we have kept off most of the weight from the last one we need motivation to keep going from there. Wish me luck since Matt has been doing a lot of strength training I think I can beat him this time.

Paradise in my backyard

This evening I went on a quick trip to the beach........in my head. I was relaxing in our lounge chair out back and trying to get a little bit of sun when I started to feel like I was in paradise. The wind blowing through the willow trees could have passed as palms trees. The sun was hot and our pond was bright blue(granted our neighbor just treated it but oh well). If I squinted my eyes to only see the water in our pond I could pass that off for at least a lake. It was wonderful to not have to go that far for paradise. The only thing missing was white sand and a fruity drink with an umbrella! Hey if you don't have your dreams, than you have nothing right? Even Cody was enjoying the relaxation.

Summer Storms

So believe it or not every once in a while I like to take a break away from being a Forensic Photographer and capture life. We had a storm front coming over our house tonight and it truley looked like the heavens above so I had to capture it. Eventhough I hate storms they are amazing to watch. I hope these photos make you feel as peaceful as they made me.

Nashville Vaca

We just returned from our mini-vacation to Nashville, Tennessee and I would love to go back. We went there for a concert and did all the touristy Honky Tonk things. The weather was very hot and humid averaging about 96. The first day we stopped at this park that has a re-creation of the Parthenon in Greece. I have no idea why they built this in Nashville but it was really neat to see. Unfortunately these are the only pics we took while on our trip. We saw Eddie Vedder in concert and it was great. It was a very small theater and we were in the 8th row so you felt like he was singing directly to you. Nashville is known for their nightlife and they have several blocks of a variety of bars, most of them being country. We spent both of our evenings in the bars. I loved that you could go into 1 of probably 50 bars at any given time and hear live music at any time of the day. I would love to go back just for that. We were also able to tour the country music hall of fame and check out Opryland. It was a great vacation. I found a pic online of the main drag downtown.

Front Porch Refresh

I have been wanting a screen door for the front for a very long time. I am a windows wide open, fresh breeze in the house kind of girl. We finally bought a very nice storm door with the help of my friend Jennifer.(Thanks again Jennifer for the anniversary gift card!) There were some other things I wanted to do to the entry but we were going to put them off and just install the storm door. Well during the process we realized that our old lock would hit the new handle on the storm door so we decided to go ahead and replace the lock on the front door. It was old and lose anyway but man those things are expensive. Then we decided to go ahead and do everything we wanted to do originally so quickly the prices started adding up. I painted the door a darker red and painted the trim. Everything looks so much better and I love having my front door open now. Of course we ran into problems along the way and it ended up being a two day project but it just wouldn't be a Sondgeroth remodel if we didn't have problems. I don't really have before pics but you can see the front door in our Landscape Remodel post.



Last weekend we were in Terre Haute helping my aunt move and then my brother move so I got some cute pics of Cameron. He is a very strong and happy little boy.

Landscape Complete

We have completed our landscape project and it practically looks like a new house. The mulch makes all of our plants stand out now and I'm so glad we did it. We also decided to carry the edging and mulch into the back and that's what the last pic is of. I think we will have to take a little break from projects for a while.

Before


After

Garage Re-model

So I know.....long time.....no post. I feel like we haven't been up to too much lately but with the weather warming up I'm sure we will be doing more. This weekend it felt like we were outside from sun-up to sun-down. Matt has been working on a project for a long time in the garage. He calls it "finishing" the garage eventhough it looked finished to me. According to him there was a crappy job done on the drywall tape when it was built so he ripped all that down and re-did it. He also added an outlet to a wall that had none and we did some major re-organization. Our garage does not always look as clean as the pics show, all of our stuff was in the driveway and we are considering getting a shed sooner than later. I helped him paint the walls and ceiling this weekend. It took several coats of paint and seriously took all day Friday and Saturday. We are both content not painting for a very long time. It looks great and like a brand new garage.

Before


After


So you would think that we would just have a lazy Sunday but we have already dug into our next major project....literally. We are updating our landscaping. Our house had a lot of really great existing landscaping when we bought it but a lot of the edging was worn and the mulch is pretty much non-existent. So those are the two things we are working on now. Today we have ripped up everything old, made a trip to Menards, and started laying down new landscape fabric. Considering how much area we have to cover we have made a big dent and will probably be finished next weekend. I will post pics then.

Guest Bath Re-model

So our first re-model attempt is complete and it was a success. We are so glad that we picked a small room to tackle first. We did everything ourselves and it was a major learning experience. There were a lot of issues that came up and of course we went over budget but it is a new and bright bathroom so it was worth it. The cabinets and fixtures were outdated, the floor was ugly, and the toilet was small and ran all the time. We replaced everything except the cabinets. I wanted to attempt to save the cabinets so I painted them and put hardware on them and I think they turned out ok. We layed down a tile floor, well I should say Matt because that was his major project and it looks great! New toilet, new light fixture, new sink and faucet, and we painted. The flash on my camera changes the color of everything but the room is painted a light yellow. I have to say the pictures don't do the room justice but I guess you will just have to come over and see it.......and by the way we are for hire if anyone wants to re-model :) The first pic is the before.
(Does anyone know if I can use my swiffer wet jet on tile????)