February Update

For those of you who don't know, my father passed away on January 20 of this year after a nearly 6 year battle with cancer. Because of that, I've been occupied with a variety of things which didn't involve updating my blog. However, I now have a moment to include a quick update, so here goes...

While I was in Jackson, Charlotte had a big snow storm that prevented Lauren from leaving the house for a day. Having only had around one snow day per year since we moved to Charlotte, I figured that the snow was over for the year. Boy, was I wrong. Friday night/Saturday morning, we received 4 inches of snow. It happened early enough that Lauren and I were actually able to take a walk around the neighborhood and enjoy how beautiful all the trees around us looked without having to go out late.

Unfortunately for us, we had picked this weekend to rent a stump grinder and do yard work. Fortunately, it warmed up enough throughout the day that it wasn't too unpleasant and we were able to get rid of 16 stumps, most of which had been cut down by us shortly after buying the house. I must admit that I always have an inordinate amount of fun when we rent or purchase power equipment, and this was no exception. The only snag was that the Sunbelt people weren't exactly up to par for a variety of reasons, and we'll never rent from them again. The machine did work, though, and here are some pictures of me using it.

We also were able to bag up the rest of the leaves in our yard. We're trying to figure out whether to till the yard and then seed, get a few loads of topsoil and then seed, or just get someone else to do it altogether. We're hoping we can get our yard in decent condition this year.

Aside from that, everything is going as well as can be expected. My company was incredibly generous about the amount of time they gave me to stay at home with my family after my dad died, and I am so grateful to be working with such amazing people. Lauren's work is going well. They're hiring for a few positions, and Lauren just got a new boss after her previous boss decided not to return from maternity leave, so there are quite a few changes. Connor is Connor, not much to report there.

Hopefully it won't be as long between posts going forward, but we'll see.

Long Awaited Update

I have been terrible about updating the blog over the last several months. Most of that has to do with a lack of home repair and improvement, but we've actually been pretty busy in general with work, etc. The following picture is from one of the few weekends where we actually had some down time and were able to enjoy some nice weather in uptown (downtown) Charlotte. We ate outside at a place called Stool Pigeons.

We also went with the youth group to a corn maze outside of town. When you entered the maze, you were given a sheet with questions based on a theme that you and your group chose (movies, history, etc.) and the answers to those questions told you which way to go when you got to certain points in the maze. It was pretty fun, but some of the answers were a little off. And it was cold. Thus, the hat.The only real work we've done to the house aside from regular upkeep and maintenance was getting new windows. Lauren met someone while getting her hair cut who owned a window manufacturing company and sold them to us for much cheaper than they would normally be. We used their recommended installers and their price was much cheaper than usual as well. They make the house look a LOT nicer and are much more energy efficient. We went to Pensacola because Lauren's friend Christa got married in November. I was able to go over to Biloxi to see my sister and her kids. I got to hang out a lot with my nephew Chris, pictured below.

This last picture was just funny. Lauren's mom gave Connor a toy for Christmas, and as he does with all of his toys, he tore it up. It took him roughly an hour to remove the ears, legs and most of the stuffing from the little stuffed dog. This is why we can't have nice things.

Happy New Year to everyone!