Your Weekend Update...

Well, another month has almost passed us by. The days are getting longer and hotter, which is a-okay by me. We’ve been blessed with a lot of rain lately, so it looks like we’ll be drought-free this summer. This is especially good news for those of us who will be trying to plant grass!

We had a very nice, errand-filled weekend. On Friday, we met with the construction superintendent for our pre-drywall walk through on the house. He just happens to be from Columbia, Missouri, so it’s reassuring a good Midwesterner is working on the house. He did give us a bit of news—contrary to what the sales people have been saying, our house will not be done early July—he gave us a target date of July 27th. I was peeved about this, because earlier that week, the salesperson said she felt like they could get it done July 8. Either someone’s fibbing or they can’t get their info straight. Even though we’re chomping at the bit to get in the house, this will allow us to save more money for all of the doo-dads that we need. So, it will all work out just fine in the long run.

On Friday, we attended the graduation ceremony for my Leadership Jefferson County program. This was a year-long program for ‘emerging leaders’ in the county. I don’t know if that title fits, but I met a lot of great people and learned quite a bit. The graduation dinner was a fun time and a great meal (free steak rocks!) and I was appointed Social Chair for upcoming class activities. I’m nothing if I’m not a social butterfly.

We woke up early on Saturday and had a successful trip to Weight Watchers. Steve lost 1.4 of his gain from the trip home and I lost 1.8 of mine. Huzzah!

Saturday we checked out a local tree farm to get an idea for the cost of a nice tree. Due to budget constraints, we’re going to hold on flowers, shrubs, trees until next summer. Our front yard will be landscaped for us, but the back will be a big pile of dirt. Our landscaping plans for the back include a deck, a mature tree and grass seed. We want to get a mature shade tree to shade the deck from the scorching afternoon sun. We plan on spending mucho time on the deck and need to be kept nice and cool. Right now, I’m pulling for the Amur Maple, a hearty, mid-size shade tree. I think a Crabapple is in the mix.

We made a trip to the Toyota dealership to test drive a Toyota Tacoma. We have decided, especially after the generous loan of Craig’s Dodge Dakota, that a truck is an important addition to our vehicular life. We test drove the Tacoma and decided it will be the truck we purchase. This purchase won’t happen until next year, after the house and the wedding are done, but it feels good to know what we want. We’ve been slowly test driving all the trucks in the market and feel this is the best. While there, I sat in the new Toyota Avalon, which is super fancy! It now is competing with the Dodge Magnum for my next car purchase. If only they made it in a wagon—it’d be a sure winner.

We also went to American Furniture Warehouse and checked out furniture for our loft. That has been a space we haven’t really budgeted for or designed, so we wanted to get some ideas about what we want to do there. We won’t finish that room until later in 2005, unless we hit a windfall of cash (c’mon Powerball!!!), but it was fun to look at options.

That evening, we headed to Cinema Grill (a place were you watch a movie and eat dinner) with Randy (http://huskerhysteria.blogspot.com) to view “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Let me start this review by saying that Steve, who read the book, liked the movie. Randy and I, who didn’t read the book, thought it was, well, hmm, uh…terrible. It was just a wacky, crazy, odd, confusing movie. I give it two thumbs down. Steve said if you haven’t read the book, you’ll think it’s a stinker. He is right. But, I ate French fries while at the movie, so I was happy. It doesn’t take much to please me---a potato, a vat of burning oil, a side of ranch dressing. I’m a cheap date.

On Sunday, we slept in (8:45!!) and slowly got a start to the day. We read, cleaned house, did laundry and then headed out for the great Pillow Search of 2005. Our pillows have died and were causing a great amount of neck pain lately. After sleeping on Dee and Craig’s Memory Foam mattress, we decided Memory Foam was the way for us. So, we both purchased contoured Memory Foam pillows. I must say, my neck is pain free today and I had a super night’s sleep. Yay! I heart Memory Foam.

We went to Home Depot for a revision of our deck plan. We decided to make the deck a bi-level instead of just one level. That way, we can house the grill and have more space for get-togethers. Afterward, we went to the house and measured some stuff. They are going through early this week and hope to start on drywall by Wednesday. The brick is on-site, so we hope to see them putting up brick by the end of this week. That will make me super excited. I took a brick from the pile to keep. It will be added to my collection of bricks from the Sunken Garden at Truman State. :)

We came home, ate dinner, watched TV and then retired for the evening. A good weekend was had by all.

There aren’t any new pics on the website because nothing really visually exciting has happened to the house—unless truss clips, straps and shims push your buttons. Once the drywall and brick go up, we’ll put up new pics. If you haven’t seen the website yet, check it out--- www.top5ive.com.

We hope all is well with all of our family and friends. Love you!