Happy Times at Lake Erie

Well after a few attempts at planning an outing to see the "frozen waves" at the lake we finally made it out there, we tried to contemplate the outing last Sunday but it was cold and snowing and no one felt particularly adventurous, so after church and choir and before all of Joe's extra meetings we plugged in some family time to ignore the house and everything else that occupies our life and we took full advantage of the 63* weather and took a drive out to Presque Isle.

We were not disappointed, though much of it has already melted we still got to see some pretty great stuff!

I have said it before, but Spencer was made for the beach, he adores everything about it and the short time we had there was not nearly enough, he protested all the way back to the car, saying in his special way, "legg-go" (let go) any time we tried to pick him up to hurry the process along. Granted none of us wanted to leave, it was so gorgeous and let it be known that when there is a day of beautiful weather here in Erie a good portion of the city is hanging out at Presque Isle!

Bella was thrilled to wear flip flops again- a sign of spring hooray!!

It was fun to just listen, there are very different sounds at the beach when there is ice involved.

The ice was melting but it was fantastic to see the crystal formation of it and when you crumbled it and dropped it the sound reminded me of the beautiful delicate tinkle of some lovely fine obsidian needle chimes that I heard a long time ago at an art show, I think in Park City Utah. It was just so fun to experience this new wonderful thing together.

There were a lot of great textures there, from the rocks and water to the ice and snow banks. The snow formed over the shallow area of the beach and mixed with sand to make these pebbled surfaces.

It was fun for the boys to play in the sand and the snow at the same time, kind of like all of my families journeys up to go snow sledding in the mountains every 4th of July, warm enough to be comfortable playing but to still have the perks of the snow.

What a great family outing, we will certainly be making this a tradition, though we will have to do it earlier before it all melts and we certainly need to have more time to spend there to really enjoy it. I am ready to go back there today!

House Update

Yes we have 2 working toilets now- the half bath has walls painted,flooring and a toilet!! Who could ask for more? Well..... we will talk about that later! This is a major milestone for us, it doesn't matter that we don't have the door on yet or a sink in place anywhere but in the kitchen, but we have success in having an emergency toilet for those moments when someone is taking too long in the main bathroom, which seems to happen quite regularly with a family of 7- who knew?!

You know it is funny but we were putting in flooring last March. 

MERCY me, it has been a long journey!

We are ridiculous at bargain hunting and we come across some real gems from time to time, for example the lighting which we got for about $13 for both, I still have to find a solution for the light over the sink, cause I don't care too much for the color of the glass shade- a project for another day! The flooring was another good find at 50% off because someone ordered it and didn't need it. We actually always ask for a bigger discount and our friends at Lowes have really come through for us usually an additional 10% on all the clearance stuff; of course we have spent a fortune there, basically every paycheck since the dawn of time.

We knew we wouldn't be able to find a perfect match for the hardwood that was already here so we found this Brazilian Cherry that had some complementary tones and I think it works out pretty well. That is the problem with re-models on a shoe string budget, you just have to make do with what you can find. Every day is an act of creation, trying to find a solution for a difficult spot. We got the bookshelf built and inserted in place on Saturday after Joe took the big 3 to a stake function in Jamestown. We are ready to have this done so we can just live and enjoy all the extra outings!

Here is a look into the half bath, but you can see that I have a stove in place and a sink and a dishwasher and as of Saturday we also have a refrigerator in place as well. It will be really fun once my cupboards are filled with dishes and food instead of tools and paint! One thing at a time- today I am grateful for the things we have accomplished.

Take a little glance at the edge of the flooring, yep don't you know it, we came up about 6 pieces short and we only had about 15" of waste. Lucky us, now the search to find enough to make it work or buy a whole box at full price, blah!

So the adventure continues and we have many a projects ahead of us, but there is great hope for furniture in the living room and a table in the kitchen; what a prospect! Too bad we can't just snap our fingers and have the perfect furniture to go with our small space, we will just make do with our hodge podge of furnishings until some miracle takes place and our couches dissolve into the Greenwich collection from Pottery Barn and I have a beautiful custom kitchen table and benches; one can always hope right??