Summer Projects

Since I don't work during the summer (I know, lucky me!), I definitely have some summer projects that I'm working on.  Now, I'm not killing myself to get things done, and I spread the work out over several days, but I have kept busy.  These are some of the projects I've worked on:

-put shelf liner in the kitchen drawers

-decorated the guest room

-cleaned the fans

-sorted clothes to donate to Goodwill

-ironed all of the clothes that I've been ignoring

-found and eye doctor AND went to the eye doctor

-cleaned the baseboards

-made a wreath with our last name

One of the projects that I'm proudest of is cleaning (and I mean deep cleaning) the blinds.  I know that they haven't been cleaned since Jonathan has lived here and after our honeymoon last year I had to go back to work when we got home.  Anyway, I've tried to vacuum, dust, wipe, and ignore all of the dust, but they are sparkling now!

I went through trial and error to find the best way to go about this.  I tried taking them down and just putting them in the bathtub in soapy water.  That didn't work because the little pieces fell out.  So, I had to take the pieces out and wipe them individually with Clorox wipes.

Well, that took forever and a day, so I decided to just put on my bathing suit, hold the blinds up, and turn on the shower.  Then I took the blinds out to the front yard and put them on some old sheets (thanks, Grandma!) to dry.  Since we have hardwood floors I put towels down to walk on from the shower to the front yard.  I also vacuumed the window frames and sills, which made everything look so much better.

Jonathan's Beard

Most of you know that Jonathan and I disagree over what his beard should look like.  I'm fine with him having facial hair, but this was a bit extreme.  Jonathan grew out his beard from Christmas until Memorial Day.  If you look over the last few posts, you can see the beard grow.  These pictures are from the day he shaved.  As if these aren't enough to scare you, he left the beard on his chin as long as it was before he shaved, and went to work like that.

Update on Us

This is what we look like now...we're both growing our hair out.  Jonathan hasn't shaved since before Christmas, but is (hopefully) planning to do so soon. He thinks it's awesome, as do all of his coworkers and our friends.

This Is Love

How do I know that Jonathan loves me? 

Every time I get the closet light stuck, he gets up there and fixes it.  And sometimes it is frustrating for him.

Easter 2012

After we left Charleston, we came home and got ready for Easter.  Basically, we went to the store and bought eggs and an egg kit.  One of us (me) was more excited than the other one (Jonathan) was.  Since this was our first Easter without family around, we invited our friends over for lunch.  I made a (pretty delicious) pot roast and everyone else contributed sides.  We had a great lunch, but I was pretty busy hosting and didn't take any pictures.

Spring Break

Over my Spring Break, Jonathan took a couple of days off, and we went to Charleston.  We did a lot of fun stuff, but I didn't take as many pictures as I normally do.

 Just for all of you who were wondering...Dave IS alive!  Jonathan, Jackie, and I met him for lunch.

We were able to snag a swing at Water Front Park.  I got a pedicure a few days before we left, so I wanted to show it off.  

On our last day in Charleston, we went to a cool restaurant and Jonathan had an enormous burger.

New Project

We have been working (for the last 2 years) on restoring this park bench.  We started in the summer of 2010, but it was too hot and I had to abandon the project (I don't handle the heat well, you know).  Now that we can both work on this, we have been trying to do a little bit each weekend.  These are some pictures of the progress we've made.

As you can see, the legs were very dirty when we started.  We think that the bench just sat in the yard and got disgusting while the other people lived here.

We started cleaning the legs with wire brushes, then decided to break out the big guns.  By big guns, I mean the drill with a brush on it. 

This is what the legs looked like when we finished cleaning them.  We primed and painted the legs, but I didn't take pictures.

We started cutting the boards for the back and the seat.