Bathroom project - phase I

We love our house, but it needs SO much work. It was built in 1991 and we are convinced that zero work has been done to it since - and the builders also used the cheapest materials they could find! We would love to fix up every room, but time & money constraints keep us fantasizing most of the time.

Adam decided that he wanted to give our hall bathroom a much-needed face lift over the holiday weekend. The bathroom is honestly hideous, and is my least-favorite room - I never go in there. We decided to paint those tired white walls a pretty shade of blue, as well as paint the boring wood trim a creamy white. We also pulled up the awful linoleum floor and will replace it with vinyl tile. We just didn't have the time/money to put down ceramic tile, which is in our long-term plan for that room. We also bought new hardware for the cabinets & new towel racks to replace those flimsy wooden ones from the 90's. Unfortunately the black toilet/tub/sink combo has to stay for now, but hopefully the finished product will look a LOT better than it did before! Here are some pictures that show our progress! More to come...

PS - I love my hubby for stepping up & doing most (ok, all) of the work. Even though I had the best of intentions of helping as much as I could, the paint fumes made me gag, and I've spent most of the weekend hiding from them.

Before: Wooden trim & shutters, and you can glimpse the wooden towel racks...ew.

Sorry, I can't figure out how to rotate this pic - but it shows the gross linoleum floor and the cheap closet doors (removed)

The floor is gone, yay!!!

White trim & painted walls!

I love the color. Someday we'll get rid of those cabinets!

The vinyl tile that will eventually go down (you can't see it that well, sorry)

Last but not least...our little guy helping out - note the white muzzle and paint on his whiskers! (Sorry, I just couldn't resist :)

The Secret's Out!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Adam & I have a lot to be thankful for this year, we have an amazing (and fun!) marriage, wonderful families, and have known for about a month that we're expecting our first baby in July of 2008!

We just can't keep the secret any longer! :)

I'll be entering into my 10th week in a few days, and we saw the baby's heartbeat the day before Thanksgiving. It was an amazing experience to see that little flicker on the ultrasound screen. The ultrasound tech said that everything looked "textbook" and the heartbeat was 176 bpm! We are praying that everything continues to go well.

For those of you who are closest to us, you know that the original plan was to wait 2 years before starting a family. However, we were prepared and ready if it happened earlier...and it did! Our families are ecstatic, and my mother in particular is so happy that she is finally going to be a grandmother.

I'll try to keep this blog updated as the pregnancy progresses...right now there isn't much to tell other than the fact that I am feeling terrible pretty much 24 hours a day. I have less than a month before I'm through the first trimester, so I am praying that the sickness goes away SOON!

Love to you all! -Michelle & Adam

2nd Annual Halloween Bash at the Alford Estate

For the 2nd year in a row, Mandy coerced us into having a Halloween party. After our crazy summer, I was reluctant at first but if any of you know Mandy...you know she can be very persuasive! Because my dear cousin Kelli's 23rd birthday is coming up next week, we combined the themes and made it a Halloween-Birthday Party.

The party topped last year's event because people actually dressed up - Adam & I were the Spartan Cheerleaders from SNL (very appropriate since he's so tall and I'm so short), Mandy was Slash from Guns'n'Roses, and Carolyn was Mandy's counterpart as Axle Rose. Kelli made a nice attempt by dressing up as a Colts' fan, albeit a very girly one.

I think everyone had a good time and Adam was an Attention Whore as usual. Some of his antics included stuffing pumpkins down his red cheerleader pants (and when that didn't work, trying balloons), doing the "Andy Dance" several times (much to my chagrin), and what party would be complete without his signature move of pulling his pants up to his neck? I should have thought about that before purchasing those very, very thin red pants. He loved the attention, and I just rolled my eyes like I always do!

Now we have a ton of beer left over and a huge mess to clean up! I'm sure we'll do it again next year though...

Here are some funny pics from the evening:

Summer Recap

Ah, the lazy days of summer are gone...wait, lazy? Not quite! In actuality, this summer really flew by. While it was the best summer of my life, it's bittersweet because it feels like everything happened so quickly that I barely caught my breath or had time to take it all in. I'll do a quick recap of what has happened over the past few months to bring this blog up to speed:

As you all probably know, Adam & I got married on July 7, 2007! After a year of planning, stressing, and wishing the big day would hurry up and arrive, we finally - and I mean FINALLY! - made it official on an absolutely beautiful day. Everything was beautiful and perfect, I would not have changed a thing (except for maybe the cheesy DJ...but even that gives us something to laugh about now). I am so grateful for my new husband and am excited to be starting this life with him as his wife. I can't wait to see what the future has in store for us!


After the wedding - which went by wayyy too fast after putting all that time & money into the planning - we hopped on a plane and headed off to Antigua! This was Adam's first plane trip ever, and I was really worried that he was going to have some sort of meltdown. However, he did just great and actually enjoyed the experience. To his delight, we arrived in Antigua in one piece and ready to relax! The Sandals resort was nice, but we both agreed that our favorite part of the honeymoon was actually leaving our resort and venturing off to the nearby city of St. John, which is also the capital of Antigua. It was so much fun to walk around, snap pictures, eat and shop. The city is very quaint with lots of interesting history, and Adam found a ton of great photo opps. The rest of the week we hung around the resort and took full advantage of the sun, surf, and all-inclusive food & drink (read: Adam took advantage of the food, Michelle took advantage of the drink!). We also caught up on some much-needed sleep; we slept a full 12 hours our first night there! After six days, unfortunately we had to hop back on a plane and say goodbye - and then it was back to reality.



As if we hadn't spend enough time & money on the wedding and honeymoon, Adam & I decided to take a short trip down South in August to visit my great-uncle in Charleston, SC. Before hitting SC, we spent a few days in Savannah, GA - we always said we wanted to visit, and it is only about an hour away from Charleston. We stayed at a beautiful B&B right in the historic district - the Eliza Thompson House. Staying at a B&B was a first for both of us, so we weren't quite sure what to expect. We loved it! Our room was amazing, and we had breakfast every morning in the adorable courtyard between the main house and the carriage house. They also had cocktails & dessert every evening in that same courtyard. Despite the crappy weather (rainy and chilly), we really enjoyed Savannah and want to return one day when we can actually enjoy being outside a bit more. An added bonus was that everywhere you turned, there were dogs - being walked by their owners, at a dog park, etc. You know I am sold on a town that is clearly dog-friendly! After spending our time in Savannah, we took the quick 1-hour jaunt up to Charleston to visit my great-uncle and his family - we had a great time with them, as always.


This past summer was definitely a whirlwind, and I'm looking forward to a hopefully-tamer Fall. However, with the AHA Heart Walk quickly approaching, I know that my event is right around the corner and things are about to get crazy! At least we'll have some time to relax around the holidays - Adam & I both have a whole week off between Christmas & New Year's!

Starting a blog!

While the MySpace thing is fun, Adam & I would love to have a better way to keep in touch with friends & family to keep everyone up to date on what's going on in our lives! I will attempt to keep this as up to date as possible, with (of course) lots of pictures. I'll try to keep the doggie pictures to a minimum...but no promises.