tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86686895096123928042024-03-05T22:17:19.745-05:00Houdini Lives Herekatieandjoe91909http://www.blogger.com/profile/08587607092151946130noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668689509612392804.post-63643932461453254742012-07-20T10:31:00.002-04:002012-07-20T10:31:20.361-04:00Family Friday: Aunt Katie - my namesake (maybe)Yup, it's time to talk about another of my family members. Really, I just want to show you all one of the COOLEST pictures I found while digging through the old family photos. It's a picture of my great-grand-aunt Katie aka Catherine. Now, I spell my name a bit differently and there are a number of Catherines/Kathryns in my family tree - me, my Mom's sister, my grandmother's sister, my great-grandfather's sister (who I'm featuring today), my great-great grandmother's sister, my great-great-great grandmother, you get the idea - but this Catherine seems like a pretty cool gal. Do I know all that much about her? No, but what I do know and what I've seen and the fact that we share a name, leads me to believe she's cool. I mean, just look at this photo:<br />
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Here she is dressed as Lady Liberty and holding a SWORD! I don't have official confirmation of this, but it appears that she was a member of the <a href="http://www.ladiesaoh.com/whoarewe.html" target="_blank">Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians</a> (LAOH). I just love this photo. It's going to be part of the gallery wall I'm putting together for our living room.</div>
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Aunt Katie (like so many of my ancestors) was born in Pennsylvania to a coal miner and his wife. She was born in 1885 and was one of 8 children. I only know who 7 of those 8 children were. I think Katie may have had an older sister and her name may have been Ann/Anna, but I haven't been able to confirm this yet. I just know that in the 1900 census my great-great grandmother said she gave birth to 8 children and 7 of them were currently alive. If the 1890 census hasn't been lost in a fire, maybe I would know for sure.</div>
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Aunt Katie married a gentleman names John and they moved to Pottsville, PA. Eventually, my great-grand-aunt Agnes (who was legally blind) moved in with them. John died in 1945, but Agnes lived with Katie until she passed away in 1953. That's Katie on the left and Agnes on the right:</div>
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I don't know much else, but I think I would have liked her. We have the same name, she's proud of her Irish heritage, and she loves her family. What more can you ask for?</div>
KThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04708310106101983334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668689509612392804.post-33628020074270732932012-07-06T06:00:00.000-04:002012-07-06T06:00:15.186-04:00Family Friday: My Great-GrandmotherI'd like to get back into Family Friday posts. Today I'd like to talk about my Great-Grandmother, Mary Ann McGlynn. She was born in 1881 in the heart of Anthracite coal country. She was the 4th of 5 children and the 2nd of 3 daughters. Her father was a coal miner and a Civil War Veteran. She and her mother are both members of that long line of strong, Irish women that I know I've mentioned before. Her father died in 1889 and by 1905 she and her family had moved to New York City where she was working as a dressmaker with her younger sister Maggie. This is Mary Ann McGlynn:<br />
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Don't you just love the look of old photos? I have no idea what year this was taken or why it was taken, but I'm glad that it was. I have to wonder if it was taken for my Great-Grandfather and sent to him. They must have known each other and maybe even grown up together. I know in 1900 they were both living in the same area and by 1910 they were married and had had their first daughter. I like to think that the 2 of them wrote letters to each other after she moved to New York and eventually decided to marry so she moved back to Pennsylvania.<br />
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My GGmother had 5 children. She was pregnant with the 5th when her husband died in the fall of 1918. She had to figure out a way to keep her family going and at some point ran a small shop out of the front room of her home. I don't know the name of the shop or everything that was sold there or even how long she ran it, but I remember my grandmother once telling me that sweets and bread were sold there. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, my GGmother became tax collector for the Borough of Coaldale, PA.<br />
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She passed away in 1936 before her youngest had even finished high school. My Mom never got to meet her grandmother which makes me a little sad. Especially since I think so highly of my grandmother and I'm sure there was a lot of my GGmother in her.KThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04708310106101983334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668689509612392804.post-31435708810900259352012-07-04T18:05:00.000-04:002012-07-04T18:05:02.323-04:00No longer the ugliest backyard on the blockOur backyard needed some serious help. It was definitely the ugliest backyard on the block and we live on a block of people who seriously care about their yards and houses. Every house on our block is owned (there are renters sprinkled through our neighborhood) and we have a number of original owners on our block. Now, please don't take my mention of all the houses being owned as a slight against renters. I've been there, I've rented, there's nothing wrong with it. I only bring it up because when we were looking at this house we talked to a neighbor and he made a big deal about it. I understand why now. Our neighbors are pretty great. They care about each other and about where they live.<br />
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Anyways, back to our yard. Formerly known as the ugliest backyard on the block. Note that all of these pictures were taken from our deck. Let's begin with the before...<br />
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I wish we could say that we did all the work ourselves, but we knew it would never happen if we did it ourselves. We're just not yardwork people. So, we got a few estimates and we're really happy with the results...<br />
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There's still work to be done. Our fence needs help. The concrete down around our grill needs a serious powerwashing and probably to be painted to stained or something to seal it and keep schmutz from growing on it. Unfortunately, it's now disgustingly hot outside so that's not going to happen anytime soon. However, it needs to happen before the winter. Let's not think about that right now though. Instead, let's look at this side by side comparison. Enjoy!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicWw25hC24r5n11ziMYDDmJwz3JyZLYECp7abN7e7bSUpPCRA4B8soEZK2xLolM9Viz6rCAqeZpl_T9dy1A1ytwxBuJ_zLo7Tu5RQc5_YEpcoagAa_JdXiMA9KChKufUfyULDY-hQ08zg/s1600/backyardcollage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" sca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicWw25hC24r5n11ziMYDDmJwz3JyZLYECp7abN7e7bSUpPCRA4B8soEZK2xLolM9Viz6rCAqeZpl_T9dy1A1ytwxBuJ_zLo7Tu5RQc5_YEpcoagAa_JdXiMA9KChKufUfyULDY-hQ08zg/s640/backyardcollage.jpg" width="427" /></a></div>KThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04708310106101983334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668689509612392804.post-66310866598940563912012-07-04T16:52:00.001-04:002012-07-04T16:52:19.960-04:00Blogging #FAILWell, so much for my regular blogging schedule. I have been completely failing at that! I really want to get fully involved and be part of "blogland" and be super cool like so of my favorite bloggers and go to fun blog conferences like Haven. I'm just having a hard time finding balance these days. I was really hoping that having it be summer would give me more time to blogand get into a groove with it, but so far that has not worked in my favor. The lack of TV shows (yes, I watch TV and probably too much of it, but I don't care!) worth watching in the summer has given me time to do all kinds of stuff. Unfortunately, blogging seems to have fallen to the wayside (is that how you spell that?).<br />
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What have I do so far this summer you ask? Well, here's a quick recap!<br />
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<li>My friend Jenny (aka Canard) got married. This meant a weekend of fun and shenanigans with Joe and my best friends from college.</li>
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<li>My friend Pam (aka Pammy) is getting married soon. This has meant other weekends of fun and shenanigans with my best friends from college and one more coming up. Can't wait!!</li>
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<li>Everyone in Joe's family has had a birthday.</li>
<li>I've gotten myself back to eating healthy, working out, and counting my points.</li>
<li>I've started a lot of projects around the house. Note that I said started.</li>
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I'll have some project updates soon, I swear!<br />
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<br />KThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04708310106101983334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668689509612392804.post-140265540659752762012-07-04T16:45:00.000-04:002012-07-04T16:45:58.092-04:00Some progressAs we all know, there just aren't enough hours in the day. Luckily, the days are really long right now so I feel like I have more time to get things done and I've been working hard to get some things done around my house. We cleaned like mad a few Saturdays ago because all of my in-laws were going to come over to our house after the annual birthday dinner for the hubs and his mom. We've done a pretty good job of continuing to keep the house clean, but I do see some things creeping back in (I'm looking at you, pile of mail on the dining room table!). We've decided to try to get a big "to do" list and a cleaning schedule of sorts together in an attempt to not have to do another massive cleaning all in one day. Of course, we're yet to sit down to actually put that together yet. I blame that partially on my sudden inspiration to clean the fridge.<br />
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A few weeks ago, after dinner, I set about cleaning our fridge. We've wiped down the shelves here and there and we had to clean it really good a while back when we had a soda explode in there, but I've never cleaned like I did that night. I basically took apart our fridge. Every shelf came out... except the one that has this handy crank adjuster thing. I could NOT figure out how to get that fancy shelf out, but I made sure to clean it really well. I am SO glad I made the decision to clean the fridge. It took me about 2.5 hours. Yeah, that's how gross our fridge had gotten without me realizing it. I am vowing here and now that I will clean the fridge on a more regular basis so I don't have to do what I did that night again. Help me stick to this vow, ok blogland? I'm not a fan of finding sticky globs of who knows what in my fridge.<br />
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I've been working on a few other projects over the last few weeks. I really want to get our guest room done. Or at least as done as it's going to be without painting. That's something I want to do in the future, but I have enough other painting projects lined up for now. I spray painted one of the lamps in there (pictures and details to come). It's this really rich blue now and I painted the frame that was holding the Norman Rockwell Baseball print that I picked up on my yard sale day with my mom the same color. The print will get hung in the basement, but I'm going to use the frame above the bed in the guest room as part of a gallery wall. I also took a small tray that we already had and spruced that up so guests have somewhere to place little items without worrying about then rolling away. Finally, I started going through boxes of stuff that have been in the guest room closet since we moved in. Clearly, I don't need most of these items. I've only gone through 1 box so far, but I would say 75% of the items in there will either be donated or sold at a yardsale, 20% of the items were trash, and 5% were things I'd like to keep. Now, if I can just do that with the other 8 boxes in there and the plastic bins and the drawers of the dresser that's in there. Yeah, that closet is JAM PACKED.<br />
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So, more to come. Hopefully with pictures and such. :0)KThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04708310106101983334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668689509612392804.post-18126253616712710842012-05-20T21:03:00.000-04:002012-05-20T21:03:05.989-04:00Famly not-so-Friday: GG-Uncle Edward<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
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Well, keeping with how things have been going lately, I'm posting this late. Today, I'm going to tell you about my Great-Great-Uncle Edward. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1894, the 7th of 8 children, to a coal miner and his wife. I don't know much about his young life, but I do know that his mom passed away before his 8th birthday. According to census records, he worked in the coal mines just like his father and his brothers. It seems highly likely that he didn't finish school. He may not have gone to high school at all. He was drafted into the Army during World War I.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTjAnnCOcJ3us5-GH8w8-uYRk1BJUqlgl2KrkKLk2h15DT6gHMUx6jMufyxYmT43PhqPZR-qeLPG5Xh5fDYgdc17GbO3nDgivK12wvxTlV8VvXgbKsao6_h1UMlH-GmP7OgS_4wclVncs/s1600/EdwardDuffyWWIStaged.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTjAnnCOcJ3us5-GH8w8-uYRk1BJUqlgl2KrkKLk2h15DT6gHMUx6jMufyxYmT43PhqPZR-qeLPG5Xh5fDYgdc17GbO3nDgivK12wvxTlV8VvXgbKsao6_h1UMlH-GmP7OgS_4wclVncs/s320/EdwardDuffyWWIStaged.jpg" width="201" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMLtFn5-ZRYMeKEpiGWXm8WLYYkoX8gTwD4PRzSfEaWoU48D3ZGOBQhc2LdS-XcouhHSp4mdKLF9d2S9zyjhve0KIFubtCHEOXXqEShAeqWRE8-XopU8hJP829_nGwiN91h103dC-6a3o/s1600/PvtEdwardDuffy1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMLtFn5-ZRYMeKEpiGWXm8WLYYkoX8gTwD4PRzSfEaWoU48D3ZGOBQhc2LdS-XcouhHSp4mdKLF9d2S9zyjhve0KIFubtCHEOXXqEShAeqWRE8-XopU8hJP829_nGwiN91h103dC-6a3o/s320/PvtEdwardDuffy1.jpg" width="201" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbZntt8bt0JKfduSmm5Zpli27tCUH2toCUdqfLrFEIcaS8Bfpdu2gRLhN4ZM1TPjv-le2yKPkDwkfTGjMDf5DrksMCWz4vjMBoNj9k9LTLh0i7-EV7TevAvQD1JixFLgfrecIkVrPl_bY/s1600/PvtEdwardDuffy3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbZntt8bt0JKfduSmm5Zpli27tCUH2toCUdqfLrFEIcaS8Bfpdu2gRLhN4ZM1TPjv-le2yKPkDwkfTGjMDf5DrksMCWz4vjMBoNj9k9LTLh0i7-EV7TevAvQD1JixFLgfrecIkVrPl_bY/s320/PvtEdwardDuffy3.jpg" width="204" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9iWF8tlG67pUjz4Bi1OxH_HHi0_lC8ysYjqloQ60Vcxyf229Kx2ghbzddoUjsVC4qbV8qpUc53lIVSbojtYNJ0NcpGJ1HFrOO5AUdorntUN-KISu0_9D2p0-Kn_t04CuBe-qxwlrsU6Y/s1600/PvtEdwardDuffy2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9iWF8tlG67pUjz4Bi1OxH_HHi0_lC8ysYjqloQ60Vcxyf229Kx2ghbzddoUjsVC4qbV8qpUc53lIVSbojtYNJ0NcpGJ1HFrOO5AUdorntUN-KISu0_9D2p0-Kn_t04CuBe-qxwlrsU6Y/s320/PvtEdwardDuffy2.jpg" width="201" /></a></div>
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I think these are some of the most interesting photos I found in my grandmother's photos. He looks SO young too. I think the last one was taken in France. I know that he was serving in France in 1918 when his brother Bernard (my great-grandfather) passed away. I think that must have been really hard for him. From other things I've seen, he truly loves his family. How do I know that? I guess I don't really, but it's a feeling that I get from 3 other items I have: a postcard, another photo, and a funeral card. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Za5Pjur_I45yCFaJmGd1gMpe3TB3KjON0PdcCPkurTLY_sN34rj6NbP5QISocdqGXa1oo_6Swt1cSppu4x7Z-NOzDILoFt_zzUOubPzxhN3dA99y6ErNKzRIXb7njjSGE6tX5U0p6IA/s1600/EdwardDuffyFuneralCard.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4Za5Pjur_I45yCFaJmGd1gMpe3TB3KjON0PdcCPkurTLY_sN34rj6NbP5QISocdqGXa1oo_6Swt1cSppu4x7Z-NOzDILoFt_zzUOubPzxhN3dA99y6ErNKzRIXb7njjSGE6tX5U0p6IA/s320/EdwardDuffyFuneralCard.tif" width="183" /></a></td></tr>
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The picture is of the extended family. I don't know who everyone in the photo is, but I know that my grandmother and all of her siblings are in the photo. I believe the other children in the photo are the children of Edward's younger brother and that the other adults are some of his siblings. Edward is in the middle holding my grandmother's youngest sister. It looks like this was a fun day and Edward looks so happy to be with his family. The postcard was written to my grandmother while Edward was serving in the militry. Finally, there's the funeral card. I found a few of these among my grandmother's things, but it seemed like she only kept significant ones and she took good care of them. Edward is one of the people I wish I could ask my grandmother about. I think she would have great things to say about him. I don't know much about him, but I know that I'm proud to have him in my family tree.KThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04708310106101983334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668689509612392804.post-71610995294465849172012-05-20T19:57:00.001-04:002012-05-20T19:57:02.426-04:00Projects to tackle this summerA little over a year ago, Joe and I went and picked up paint for a couple of things we wanted to do around the house. Everything in our powder room was the same color and I mean everything. The walls, the toilet, the sink, the baseboards, the inside of the door, the medicine cabinet. EVERYTHING. I decided I wanted to paint the largest wall in there a nice gray and the rest of the walls, the ceiling, baseboards, and the inside of the door would all be white. Oddly enough, once this was done, it brought out a lot more of the colors in the stick down floor tiles the previous owners had put down and I like the floor a lot more now. We also had plans to replace the lighting, the sink, the toilet, and the medicine cabinet to update the space.<br />
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<><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitgw9iF4T_yP-HHfFuBXLu_gfUTeBER5ACMI47NI0YvHvd171oNEIsRL10dihRU6TrT-UiIGDIbPhVffdm7GigZhYwUywfe5LKenr61FqQZ7WOscS6xgVLizfNuU5pQ9TUnEJVMO9-Z5Q/s1600/DSCN1694.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitgw9iF4T_yP-HHfFuBXLu_gfUTeBER5ACMI47NI0YvHvd171oNEIsRL10dihRU6TrT-UiIGDIbPhVffdm7GigZhYwUywfe5LKenr61FqQZ7WOscS6xgVLizfNuU5pQ9TUnEJVMO9-Z5Q/s200/DSCN1694.JPG" width="150" /></a> </><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgflU1NSWpU5-pYOUUMAHfxR41y5-mJ_pjTflWqat-Lm_TS1ykkZED3RoAL2gXTrjjHLYaYyUYWTgsry-ZNGaiyhGW-LrbmIW9upH1T88XVuM3j2HgPvwIohOKiQW6VHi27mSABhKm1qYU/s1600/DSCN1695.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgflU1NSWpU5-pYOUUMAHfxR41y5-mJ_pjTflWqat-Lm_TS1ykkZED3RoAL2gXTrjjHLYaYyUYWTgsry-ZNGaiyhGW-LrbmIW9upH1T88XVuM3j2HgPvwIohOKiQW6VHi27mSABhKm1qYU/s200/DSCN1695.JPG" width="150" /></a> </td></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I had already started repainting when I took these</td></tr>
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Then, as I've mentioned before, our basement flooded (twice) and everything got put on hold. We lived with a good portion of our home looking like an episode of Hoarders until about 2 weeks before Christmas. The end result was a redesigned basement and we love it, but it does mean that a lot of things we planned to do last summer & fall have been on hold for a long time. While the guys were doing the basement, they did replace the toilet in the powder room and in the last few weeks we've picked up a new light, a new fan, and one of those over the toilet cabinets for the powder room so things are moving (slowly) in there. I still have to pick out the sink and we need to schedule our contractors to come, but we're at a really busy time of year and a lot of our weekend time is booked with family stuff and weddings, but the powder room will be done before the end of the summer.</div>
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The guest bathroom upstairs is the same color as the powder room was before I painted. Don't get me wrong, I understand that they went ahead and neutralized some spaces before putting the house on the market, but they could have picked a nicer beige. We picked up a soft, warm yellow for the bathroom and it'll go really nicely with the green rugs & white/green shower curtain that we've already added to the bathroom. Another issue with our guestbath is that the medicine cabinet hangs so far over the sink, it's hard to use so we're going to replace that with a flat mirror and get another over the toilet cabinet for that room. We're also replacing the light & the fan in here.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwzrWi-iXzwhblT6YpYTLQlq4-M0fvzm7S4RUSnHnp9wPB1GhbyRWSfmkUX1AZfUcXr6iaLA1w1oQJ1Bm5tjVT1SA18frAM3XQBwlxjcN-KPyn3XaXz86N4OfYBo_jbZY4nejpxV1q3_g/s1600/DSCN0275.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" kba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwzrWi-iXzwhblT6YpYTLQlq4-M0fvzm7S4RUSnHnp9wPB1GhbyRWSfmkUX1AZfUcXr6iaLA1w1oQJ1Bm5tjVT1SA18frAM3XQBwlxjcN-KPyn3XaXz86N4OfYBo_jbZY4nejpxV1q3_g/s320/DSCN0275.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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The white paint that was used in the powder room was also meant to freshen up the white paint in the stairwell that goes down to the basement. I'm really glad that I didn't get to painting that before we flooded because with all of the stuff we had to move out of the basement, the demo and rebuilding of the basement, and moving things back down to the basement, those walls got pretty dinged up. I'm really hoping that all 3 of these painting projects will be complete by the end of the summer. We're toying with the idea of hiring professionals to tackle our disaster of a backyard and, if we do that, we'll have a lot more time with which to paint (Joe's FAVE thing to do... NOT). </div>
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Another idea that I'm toying with right now is taking the door off the closet in our master bathroom. When the door into our bathroom is open, you can't even tell that we have a closet in there because it's behind the door. The door to the actual closet really limits the space available to get things in and out of the closet. Opening it up and making it more like open shelving would be helpful. It's going to take some work. We'll have to paint in there and I'd like to finish off the shelves so they look more substantial, but I'm willing to put in the time and effort for anything that will help make life easier. I have plenty more ideas floating around in my head, but that's the one I'm th most serious about right now.</div>KThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04708310106101983334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668689509612392804.post-10661884939879702622012-05-13T21:32:00.003-04:002012-05-13T21:32:55.417-04:00Family "Friday" - MomMomWell, I'm falling a little behind this week. I have a Pottery Barn knock-off that I've been working on, but I went to put it together the other night and I realized that it needed a bit more of something so I'll have to talk about that next week. So with Mother's Day being today perhaps I should have blogged about my Mom, but, instead I'm going to talk about one of the people who helped shape my Mom into the person that she is today. That would be her Mom or my MomMom.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO8EAkU8blJuKjrdrRvbjLtXeAeBkt8OSOdYpjKeqRt9uCvJvBhAfYznPUTAWYteb7v4zOhIBP2BxdeuImNuAk1fJ8RuYDQPOokF_KGb383cV58D2GurtK3VkC4D_M_MsS-TNIDcHDsUM/s1600/polkadotmommom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO8EAkU8blJuKjrdrRvbjLtXeAeBkt8OSOdYpjKeqRt9uCvJvBhAfYznPUTAWYteb7v4zOhIBP2BxdeuImNuAk1fJ8RuYDQPOokF_KGb383cV58D2GurtK3VkC4D_M_MsS-TNIDcHDsUM/s320/polkadotmommom.jpg" width="251" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is my favorite picture of my grandmother</td></tr>
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MomMom (or Mary as most people called her) was born September 19, 1911 in Coaldale, Pennsylvania to a coalminer and his wife. She was the 2nd of 5 children and the 2nd daughter. She would have been 100 this past September and, if things had gone a bit differetly, I have no doubt that she would have made it there. You see, my grandmother comes from a long line of strong, Irish-Catholic women. I like to think that some of that was passed to me even though I'm not related by blood (oh yeah, I'm adopted, but that's a story for another time). <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My grandmother & her siblings</td></tr>
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My great-grandfather passed away in 1918 - more on that in the future. My grandmother had just turned 7. Her older sister was 8 and a half, her younger sister was 4 and a half, her brother was 1 and a half, and her youngest sister hadn't even been born yet. Yes, my great-grandmother had 4 children and another one of the way when her husband - the sole breadwinner in the family - passed away. Remember how I mentioned that line of strong women? While her father was sick, it was my grandmother's responsibility to run to the pharmacy to get him medicine because her older sister had had scarlet fever and she wasn't supposed to exert herself too much.<br />
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My MomMom graduated from high school and went to school to become a teacher and a stenographer. She studied at the Pierre School of Business, Columbia University, and Elizabethtown College. She eventually moved to Washington, DC. She worked for the Patent Office and the Bureau of Prisons. In 1944, her older sister Anna's husband Joe passed away and in 1947 her older sister passed away as well. Anna & Joe had 2 children - Mary and Joe - and it was decided that they would have a much better life if they moved to DC to live with their Aunt Mary (my MomMom) than if they stayed in Coaldale. So my grandmother became the guardian for her sister's children.<br />
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At some point in the late 40s my grandmother met my grandfather. My grandfather had been married previously, but didn't marry in the Catholic Church. My grandmother was a very strict Catholic and wrote to the bishop to make sure they could get married in the Catholic Church. If he hadn't said yes, they wouldn't have gotten married and I wouldn't be here. Luckily, they got married in 1950. My Mom came along in 1952 and her sister a couple years later. <br />
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My grandfather passed away in 1974. My grandparents got such a short amount of time together, but they look so happy and in love in every picture I've seen of them. My grandmother suffered a lot of loss in her life, but she was always so warm. She had a stronger sense of family than anyone I've ever met. She baked gingerbread men at Christmas every year. Now, I'm the one that does that. Her house was always clean and orderly. She taught in Catholic school for many years. These are just bits and pieces of her life. They make up a woman that I am so proud to call my grandmother and that I miss so much I can't describe it. There is so much more that I want to know about her and her life. If only I could go back in time and ask her more about her life and the members of her family that I never had the privledge to meet. There's so much more I could tell you all, but I hope this has been enough to give you an idea of who my MomMom was. So, Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there. And the grandmothers, sisters, aunts, and friends who are mother figures. Thank you for all that you do!</div>KThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04708310106101983334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668689509612392804.post-69259279918586295192012-05-07T21:28:00.000-04:002012-05-07T21:28:12.301-04:00Weekend FindsI spent Saturday morning yard saling with my Mom. She's a very saavy yard sale shopper and I often ask her opinion on prices. This past Saturday was this huge, local community yard sale that happens twice a year. Everyone in the area seems to have caught on though because I have never been to so many yard sales in one day. My Mom picked me up at 7 am and we headed directly to the community sale. I didn't have as much luck as my Mom (she scored a brand new Craftsman buffer for my brother for $8 along with numerous other items), but I did get a J Crew shirt for $1 and well as this Norman Rockwell Baseball poster for our basement:<br />
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I like the frame, but I have another plan for it. I think I'm just going to take the poster out of the frame and attach it to the wall with some command strips. I also scored a brand new Restoration Hardware photo snowglobe for $3 - originally $29. From there we hopped in the car and started hitting the neighborhoods in the surrounding area.<br />
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At one sale, I got a good sized mason jar, a glass that matches the set my parents' have at their house, and this pretty blue pitcher for $1 TOTAL:<br />
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I haven't figured out what I'm going to do with it YET, but I loved the color and just couldn't pass it up. At another sale, my Mom and I worked a bargain and got a console table for her friend's sister and this plant stand for $10 total:<br />
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I also got a Craftsman staple gun with a couple boxes of saples for $5 (a bit overpriced, but oh well) a popcorn bowl for Joe for 50 cents, and then I scored another combo deal and got a full length mirror for the guest room and a Nationals pennant for Joe for $1. The frame around the mirror is a little thinner than I would have liked, but I couldn't pass it up for that price. I'm planning to paint the frame as well as a lamp for the guest room a really pretty deep blue color.<br />
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Later than day, Joe and I ran to Lowe's and finally bought a weed wacker/edger and a leaf blower/vacuum. Yup, we're getting real with the yard work. That's a good thing because our backyard needs a ton of work. Or we need to win the lottery so we can hire someone to fix it up. Sunday, we ran more errands and I worked a Home Goods run in somehow. Go me! I got the cutest little wrought iron bird. Here he is on top of the box for the RH snow globe:<br />
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And here he is in his home in our foyer:<br />
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Fittingly, he's sitting on top of a vintage book on bird watching that I got from a barn sale a few months ago. Speaking on the barn sale, I just saw on Facebook that they're having another sale this weekend! I hope I can work my way up there. They're not exactly close by, but I just love digging through all the treasure they've collected. Anyways, all in all, it was a pretty nice weekend. Now, if I could just find a way to have longer weekends, but still make the same amount of money. :0)KThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04708310106101983334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668689509612392804.post-47523757146307537332012-05-06T18:05:00.001-04:002012-05-06T18:05:17.772-04:00Family Friday (a bit late)Well, it was an INSANE week at work so I'm a bit late in my post, but here it is. As I mentioned in my last post, I've gotten really into genealogy in the last year or two. It all started here:<br />
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Yup, those are two 30-gallon platic tubs (currently sitting in Joe's office). These two tubs were filled with photos and papers from my grandmother's house. My MomMom passed away February 20, 1995. For months after that, I spent a lot of time with my Mom going over to my grandmother's house to help clean it out and get it ready for sale. My Mom ended up taking all of the photos and such from the house and they ended up in the basement at my parents' house. And that's where they sat for 15+ years. I offered one time to take them and go through them all and scan them all in as my Christmas present to her, but she didn't seem interested at the time. Somehow, I talked her into it and they came to my house in February 2011.<br />
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I have found some really cool photos in those tubs. I was hoping that I would be further along with the scanning and organizing of these photos than I currently am, but this had to be put on hold for after our basment flooded (twice) last fall. I'm really looking forward to using my Friday blog posts to share some of these photos and tell the stories of my ancestors. I'm also hoping that this will continue to keep me on pace with getting everything together with these photos. I'd like to be able to give my Mom, her sister, and their cousins Mary and Joe (whom my grandmother partially raised - more on that next week) each a box of photos and a DVD with the scans of all of them this Christmas. I'm also planning on giving copies of the DVDs and some of the photos to my cousins and my brother. I think family is really important and so is knowing where you came from and how far your family has come. I hope anyone out there reading this will enjoy reading about my family's journey and be encouraged to look into their family's history.KThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04708310106101983334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668689509612392804.post-10627978173796522792012-05-02T12:55:00.000-04:002012-05-02T12:55:14.400-04:00RevampingConsidering the epic fail that has been this blog so far, you'd think I would just give up. However, I've really gotten into reading blogs in the last few months and it's given me a renewed sense of wanting to blog. One of my new favorite bloggers - Kristen over at <a href="http://www.simplyklassichome.com/" target="_blank">A Simply Klassic Home</a> - recently did a feature series called the Beginner Bloggers Club and I'm looking forward to using the hints and tips I picked up from there to really kick start things.<br />
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First things first, I'm going to try to post at least twice (but hopefully 3 times) a week. I'm planning to do this by having some regular features. I've really become a genealogy nerd in the last year or so. I'm planning to share some of my adventures and feature some of my family members on Fridays. I'm thinking of calling it Family Friday, but I'm not totally sold on the name yet. Another idea would be Project Mondays to show off whatever project(s) I've been working on lately. Finally, I was thinking of just keeping Wednesdays random and posting about whatever floats my boat that day. I'm concerned about doing that because I haven't done so well with the posting whatever I want thing in the past. I'll just have to see how that goes. I guess techcnially today would be the first random Wednesday post though so go me!<br />
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You may also have noticed that I'm playing around with the background and such. Bear with me on that, please, it's definitely a work in progress.KThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04708310106101983334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668689509612392804.post-8881150997158109952011-02-18T16:24:00.002-05:002011-02-18T16:34:59.334-05:00Resolutions RecapOk, so things haven't been going so well with keeping up the resoultions. Part of the problem is that I sit in front of a computer all day so I don't really want to sit in front of one again when I get home. Lousy excuse, I know. So if you'll recall, these are our (my) resolutions for 2011:<br /><br />1. Blog at least once a week.<br />2. Get healthy.<br />3. Practice yoga at home.<br />4. Come up with and use a chore chart.<br />5. Finish the "Year of the House" list.<br /><br />Results:<br /><br />1. So, as previously mentioned, resolution 1 is not going so well. I think I'm going to have to start finding a few minutes to blog at work if I want to keep up with this one.<br /><br />2. This is going well. I've definitely been eating healthier since the year started. Less pizza and Chinese, more cooking at home. I've also started working out a couple of times a week. I'm in the process of getting signed up with a personal trainer and I'm really looking forward to that because I definitely need to get in some strength training. I'm also signing up for the Komen 5K in June.<br /><br />3. I took that "growing your home practice" workshop and so far, I've only done yoga at home once since then. I'm hoping to do it tomorrow morning so as to get in some home practice for this week. I need to increase this. Even if I do 10 minutes a day at home, it would be better than nothing.<br /><br />4. I have neithe come up with nor used a chore chart. This needs to happen though. We've been really busy and this would be a good way to keep ourselves on track with keeping the house clean.<br /><br />5. We're doing decently on the House list. We have painted the office! The only problem is that the previous owners either didn't know about or chose not to use painters tape when they painted so we have to touch up around the ceiling and baseboards. The next project is going to be to organize the basement storage area. There will be new storage shelving involved. There will be some throwing away and donating involved. There will also be some gathering of items for a yard sale involved.<br /><br />All in all, not a total fail, but we're not doing great either.katieandjoe91909http://www.blogger.com/profile/08587607092151946130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668689509612392804.post-41804795416694696192011-01-04T20:56:00.008-05:002011-02-17T21:43:58.394-05:00ChicagoI spent my childhood heading to the northern suburbs of Chicago at least once a year to visit my grandmother and cousins, but in the many, many years of doing this I think we only actually went to do anything in the city of Chicago twice. One time, I was little and we went to some sort of children's museum or something. The other time, I was probably in college and my brother and I went down into the city with one of our cousins so we could see the Shedd Aquarium. So prior to our trip to Chicago to celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary, I couldn't really say that I had ever really seen the city of Chicago. I don't even remember how we decided on the Windy City, but I'm really glad that we did.<br /><br /><br />We flew up on a Saturday morning and headed immediately to our <a href="http://www.hotelpalomar-chicago.com/">hotel</a> to at least drop off our bags. Luckily, our room was ready when we arrived so we were able to drop off our bags and get cleaned up before heading out and about. Our hotel was in an excellent location. We were right by an L station and were within a 15 minute walk to Navy Pier. Since it was a fairly nice (although colder than we had expected) day we decided to walk along Chicago's Riverwalk to get out to Lake Michigan. The walk was really nice, but the closer we got to the Lake the clearer it became that Chicago truly is the Windy City. We got over to Navy Pier and picked up the tickets for the Architecture boat tour we were going to take that afternoon. Then we headed in to Navy Pier for lunch and had our first Chicago food - a Chicago Dog.<br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfC4F_Z_4WjSCaYra60_yQkSmFebdwloC_lfsaLu-yLCZK5JQ6vvnZJqwepWQD2NwoDXrZ8oSzvHnXzfCNn77jr3HVObW65flbe2u2OUYpDcjQA6TJYfOOmEGn_uHsG_2KBfpxPgKI93E/s1600/DSCN1072.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558520732652233266" style="WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfC4F_Z_4WjSCaYra60_yQkSmFebdwloC_lfsaLu-yLCZK5JQ6vvnZJqwepWQD2NwoDXrZ8oSzvHnXzfCNn77jr3HVObW65flbe2u2OUYpDcjQA6TJYfOOmEGn_uHsG_2KBfpxPgKI93E/s320/DSCN1072.JPG" border="0" /></a></div><br /><br />I don't usually eat hot dogs and I don't know who thought that all of these toppings would possibly work together, but they do and this delicious concoction was worth every bite. I would absolutely eat another Chicago Dog. After lunch, we spent a lot of time browsing the shops and pretty much just trying to stay inside. It was really cold along the water that day and we were not really prepared for that. We had fleece jackets, but they were not thick enough for that biting wind. We had the smart idea to get coffees before boarding our boat tour, but that warmth only lasted so long. I was shaking with cold by the time our boat docked again. The boat tour was really cool. It was a great way to see the city and hear about some of its history. I highly recommend it to anyone who visits Chicago. Just make sure you have weather appropriate clothing. That evening we drank wine at the hotel's complimentary wine hour and then went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. We were both fairly disappointed with Chicago's HRC. The food was decent, but the shop was terrible and the rest of the place was a bit lacking.<br /><br /><br /><div align="left">The next morning we spent a little time exploring the area around our hotel before heading to the L station so we could board the train and head to Wrigley Field. Our hotel really was in a great area. We were near great food and shopping and the neighborhood just had a really great feel to it. Joe and I agreed that, if Chicago wasn't so cold for so many months each year, we could totally move there. We arrived at Wrigley fairly early for the game so we walked around outside the ballpark for a while and then we headed in. Joe was so excited to finally be in a historic ballpark. Here's the view from our seats:</div><br /><br /><div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1xWi0b_HdrSdRV30LAi9WieufZ0uC-aCGja13ZAOvQv6MyWApc1n5amE8zUv4VnPjxjHOldoUZmF-_0utrSSuIqIoJvpRs-sxygpj2le1MMoe2T3IS_GCP-arrJIMcHO10QyJUesGbQQ/s1600/DSCN1121.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558523691937233426" style="WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1xWi0b_HdrSdRV30LAi9WieufZ0uC-aCGja13ZAOvQv6MyWApc1n5amE8zUv4VnPjxjHOldoUZmF-_0utrSSuIqIoJvpRs-sxygpj2le1MMoe2T3IS_GCP-arrJIMcHO10QyJUesGbQQ/s320/DSCN1121.JPG" border="0" /></a></div><br /><br />It was SOOOO cold at the game. I had to buy more clothing and I had to drink coffee without creamer just to try to stay warm. It was bad. We didn't even stay for the whole game because we were just too cold. After the game, we headed to a sportsbar in the near our hotel so we could watch the Redskins lose. Again. ::sigh::<br /><br /><br /><div align="left">Monday was a big, long day. We got an early start and headed down to the area of the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum, and Soldier Field. We got down to that area pretty early so we started things off by taking a walk all the way around Soldier Field. I wanted to take as many pictures as possible for my Dad who gew up a Bears fan. The Bears were hosting Monday Night Football that night (against the Packers!) so things were hopping around the stadium. The pro shop was also open so I got to start my Christmas shopping early. After we finished shopping, we headed over to the Field Museum. Living just out of DC for my entire life, it was odd to have to pay to go into a museum. We had a good time strolling through and looking at their dinosaur bones. We had lunch in the museum - they had a Corner Bakery in there - and then we headed over to stand in line to get into the Shedd Aquarium. Yeah, we had to stand in line. They days that are free to go into the main part of the aquarium. No dolphin show or anything cool like that is included, but it's free. We opted to pay so that we could go see the dolphin show and some other things. They have the COOLEST dolphin habitat and show area. It looks like you're in the Pacific Northwest. And they have Pacific White Sided dolphins which are so much prettier than the dolphins you usually see.</div><br /><br /><div align="left">After leaving the aquarium, we took a walk up through Grant Park (wher the Married with Children fountain is located) and Millenium Park. Then we realized we were a lot closer to our hotel than we thought so we just walked back to relax for a while before heading to dinner. We decided to head to Lou Malnati's for deep dish pizza for dinner. Lucky for us, the Bears MNF game was keeping the crowds down. We took the waiter's recommendation as to what we should order and he was OH so right. The pizza was amazing. I don't think we can ever eat at Uno's again because nothing they could offer us will compare to this pizza:</div><br /><br /><p align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibHGeQOqkIMQGcan4V2Lo5oT_DrNrLxePuFdp6ZknJnOAYQOET3krZF3t5FXI-sfyLnSW9TNgUGrX3maz9G_KP1NOx0TCrhp8P6Z9XmuiWtHAzkvXpw4R-RvF_xeq5oRJvzZo25PtPoWk/s1600/DSCN1221.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574851122137795730" style="WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibHGeQOqkIMQGcan4V2Lo5oT_DrNrLxePuFdp6ZknJnOAYQOET3krZF3t5FXI-sfyLnSW9TNgUGrX3maz9G_KP1NOx0TCrhp8P6Z9XmuiWtHAzkvXpw4R-RvF_xeq5oRJvzZo25PtPoWk/s320/DSCN1221.JPG" border="0" /></a></p>After diner, we headed back to the hotel to watch MNF. Chicago is such a great sports town. I swear everyone we saw on Monday was wearing Bears or Cubs gear (occasionally White Sox or Blackhawks too).<br /><p align="left">Tuesday was our final day and we had just a few things to wrap up. We had breakfast at our hotel and then headed to the John Hancock Tower. The views were so amazing! And David Schwimmer did the voiceover for our "guided tour". We got a little touch screen thing with headphones at the top and it walked you through the whole observation deck and pointed out things you might have missed otherwise. Definitely a good time. After that, we walked down the Magnificent Mile and window shopped. Finally, we headed over to Portillo's for Italian Beef Sandwiches. I grew up with Italian Beef Sandwiches from Portillo's being the food to eat when we headed to Illinois and I couldn't wait to share the experience with Joe. It took a while to get our sandwiches, but they were so worth the wait. And they sandwiches were so good, I forgot to take a picture of them until after we had both finished. Oops.</p><p align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjiMuAkaSvAJkIm0mF4sh48ja2WG9Rbdqn9PctJnabNGrde1410G8ZPUXz94cIREK0qKPZSb3dZuet3iF3FXv4pPo6Nx24bc0f5-zEYkqKffD5dGngdEfpqiMJO3FQ8o_H-PD8PhrlSAI/s1600/DSCN1242.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574854059870726866" style="WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjiMuAkaSvAJkIm0mF4sh48ja2WG9Rbdqn9PctJnabNGrde1410G8ZPUXz94cIREK0qKPZSb3dZuet3iF3FXv4pPo6Nx24bc0f5-zEYkqKffD5dGngdEfpqiMJO3FQ8o_H-PD8PhrlSAI/s320/DSCN1242.JPG" border="0" /></a></p>katieandjoe91909http://www.blogger.com/profile/08587607092151946130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668689509612392804.post-41352458533839060262011-01-04T20:07:00.002-05:002011-01-04T20:51:32.340-05:00ResolutionsWow, it's been a while since I've blogged, but since it's a new year I think it's time to start anew and make a conscious effort to blog on a regular basis. So, I'll start with my resolutions for the year.<br /><br />1. Blog at least once a week. <br />-I (we) have been really bad about blogging. The thing is that I don't really feel like we do enough on a regular basis to blog daily, but we could do a blog a week.<br /><br />2. Get healthy. <br />-This is more than just "lose weight" or "exercise". This is all of the above. Lose weight, exercise, change the way I eat and what I eat, take my vitamins, get enough sleep, and so on. I'm going to be 30 this year and I want to make sure that I start the next decade of my life off right.<br /><br />3. Practice yoga at home.<br />-I take a yoga class once a week and I love it, but I think I've only actually done yoga in the house once. I really need to change this (part of the whole getting healthy thing) because yoga is just so good for me in so many ways. I have a couple of yoga DVDs and the WiiFit. I just need to use them. Also, my yoga instructor is offering a workshop in a few weeks all about how home practice and I think I'm going to go and see what she has to say about that.<br /><br />4. Come up with and use a chore chart.<br />-I have a tendency to let certain chores go far as long as I can stand and then I spend a whole day cleaning. I really need to get in the habit (and get Joe in the habit too) of doing things on a regular basis so we don't have to scramble to clean the house if people are coming over and so I don't get so fed up with how things are that I spend the day cleaning like a mad woman.<br /><br />5. Finish the "Year of the House" list.<br />-We're close, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades so there's a lot to be done. I'm looking forward to our house being done.<br /><br />I think that's enough for now. And I think all of these resolutions are things that I can accomplish.katieandjoe91909http://www.blogger.com/profile/08587607092151946130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668689509612392804.post-41889427044475684192010-08-25T19:59:00.004-04:002010-08-25T21:34:10.559-04:00We like to travelOne of the things we like to do (like most people) is travel. Since getting married, we've been to Vegas, LA, Thurmont, Orlando, Williamsburg, and Fenwick Island and we have 3 trips (mostly) planned within the next 14 months.<br /><br />Vegas and LA was our honeymoon and it was an awesome trip. We loved Vegas. Everything we saw was just amazing. You truly don't have to gamble to have a good time there. Of course, we broke the cardinal rule of travel and didn't force ourselves to stay up until a normal hour our first day there. We got to Vegas, cleaned the travel funk off ourselves, got some food, walked around our hotel a bit and then attempted to watch some of the prime time football game. Unfortunately, we barely stayed awake for halftime which meant we were wide awake by 6:00 am. Even the buffet in our hotel (Mirage, btw) wasn't open yet. This unfortunately started us on a bad cycle of getting to bed early and then getting up early. This was nice because we got to see Vegas in the cool and quiet morning and that was great. The streets weren't exploding with people, there weren't illegals trying to hand us cards for escorts, and the streets were actually pretty clean. We did miss out on the crazy Vegas nightlife though. Maybe next time. I'd tell you more, but, you know, what happens in Vegas... :0P On the Thursday of our Sunday to Sunday honeymoon trip, we hopped a flight over to LA and spent the rest of our honeymoon there. Our hotel was in a great location - just a hop, skip, and jump from the Chateau Marmont where Lindsay Lohan and all the other young starlets get their party on. We took a tour of the Warner Brothers Studio which was just awesome. We got to see a lot of locations they used to film Gilmore Girls, we got to hang out in the Central Perk, and so much more. I definitely recommend the WB Studio Tour. Other highlights of our tour included walking the Santa Monica pier and the 3rd Street Promenade, dipping our feet into the frigid Pacific Ocean, seeing the craziness that is Venice Beach, a drive up the PCH, saw the Walk of Fame and Grauman's Chinese Theatre, visited the Griffin Observatory, and had an AMAZING meal at The Palm in West Hollywood where we saw Adam Duritz of The Counting Crows and Emmy Rossum.<br /><br />Just a few weeks after getting home from our honeymoon, we went on Joe's very first camping trip. Every year in Thurmont, MD there's a huge craft festival called ColorFest. The streets are basically closed down and everywhere you look is a tent with crafts, sports memorabilia, fair food, or someones own personal crap. Yes, everyone in the town uses this event to have a yard sale and get rid of some of their own junk. My parents had reserved 3 cabins at Cunningham Falls State Park. Joe isn't really into the whole camping idea so having a cabin with electricity to sleep in definitely worked better than a tent. We spent most of our time hanging out with my little brother Jonathan and his awesome girlfriend Jessica. We walked the town checking out the trinkets, took a drive down to Frederick to tour the Flying Dog Brewery, walked around the Catoctin Furnace, and hiked to Cunningham Falls. All in all, it was a good trip. The weather was good, the company was great, and it was nice to do something different.<br /><br />In December 2009, we took a weekend trip to Orlando to visit our friend Casey. Casey was one of my bridesmaids and, at the time, she had an awesome job at one of the amusement parks down in Orlando. She now works for the other amusement park in Orlando. We had a great time (despite the fact that is POURED for our first day and a half there) and Disney at Christmas is just beautiful. Our least planned of our upcoming trips is back to Florida. We're be going to St. Augustine for my cousins Stacey's wedding (I'm a bridesmaid), down to Ormond Beach to visit Joe's grandparents, and then we'll head back to Orlando to see Casey again, visit Universal Studios (HARRY POTTER WORLD!!!!!), and maybe see Disney at Halloween which I've heard is also really cool.<br /><br />In June of 2010, we took a trip to Williamsburg, VA. This was our second trip to Williamsburg together and we were pretty excited. We LOVE Busch Gardens. The park is impeccably clean and the rides are fantastic. We're roller coaster buffs and the coasters at BG are top notch. Other highlights of this trip included lots of outlet shopping, a day at Colonial Williamsburg, and a tour of the Williamsburg Winery. We got a number of great deals at the outlets (they had Coach AND Lucy!), Colonial Williamsburg was much more interesting than I remember it being, and the winery was awesome. Williamsburg Winery is now our new, fun local (ish) wine.<br /><br />Our most recent trip was to Fenwick Island, DE where my Aunt & Uncle have a beach house. It was a very short trip (not even 48 hours) and it was also the hottest weekend of the year, but it was really nice to get away for a couple of days, catch up with family, and eat some crabs.<br /><br />To continue our preview of upcoming trips, I'll tell you that we're planning to spend a weekend in Philly and a long weekend in Chicago. Joe's best friend Kevin and his wife Erin live there so we're going to visit. As our plans currently stand, highlights of the trip will include cheesesteaks at 9th and Passyunk and ice cream at The Franklin Fountain as well as time hanging out and catching up with our favorite Eagles fans. :0) Our trip to Chicago is for our 1 year wedding anniversary. We have tickets for a Cubs game and we're planning to eat at a Chicago dog, an Italian beef sandwich at Portillo's, and some deep dish pizza. Other than that, it's mostly up in the air. Stay tuned for trip recaps.katieandjoe91909http://www.blogger.com/profile/08587607092151946130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668689509612392804.post-58455697168839186672010-07-18T17:15:00.009-04:002010-07-18T18:00:52.336-04:00Master Bathroom<div><div><div>So #1 on our list for "The Year of the House" is our Master Bathroom. (1. Update Master Bathroom - new paint, flooring, fixtures, sink, vanity, mirror, medicine cabinet, lighting, vent colvers, toilet, and ceiling fan.) We actually did this back in February, but since our list started this blog off, we should probably post about everything related to that list.<br /><br /><div>When we bought the house, the master bathroom was just awful. Stick down linoleum tiles that didn't line up properly, green rag-painted walls, a sink that looks like it belongs in a gas station bathroom, green vents in both the ceiling and floor, really ugly towel racks, and clearance rack medicine cabinets and lighting.<br /></div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495360926862839346" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4w7oBPwuXrRmEKxT2ENdvkkzOWxpAGX3d8FxQ9MxTHrc7_oWW4vCQJYIvYC6n7zbx9Em9uX8_sKJpEPArVJ9Wkpkv29v5ZUJqeR25WyVczP6zRzkeksKCMpITPc1fXWJ65139ZrcZUDo/s320/DSCN0835.JPG" border="0" /></div><div><br />The only thing in this bathroom that we really liked was the faucet. We actually kept that. The shower was also fine. We replaced the showerhead and showercurtain, but that was it. Here are some more pictures of what the bathroom used to look like:<br /></div><div> </div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2FNO8qrFtdYWTwoZknFWdNaT2Ms2tRlPDoDtwfc0InhPaC5cRWfD1P0xZ6ndu3kHwky-XpLSkrdv1Cel4W0vqtVw0LCQqSqVOqI8hqANMXXs_2c0djUPtoOPXGX9GeDN0LODoQqFVun8/s1600/DSCN0839.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495365508114722338" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2FNO8qrFtdYWTwoZknFWdNaT2Ms2tRlPDoDtwfc0InhPaC5cRWfD1P0xZ6ndu3kHwky-XpLSkrdv1Cel4W0vqtVw0LCQqSqVOqI8hqANMXXs_2c0djUPtoOPXGX9GeDN0LODoQqFVun8/s320/DSCN0839.JPG" border="0" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkL2frABwKe6s4UKBbHYIKbpXHV66lnIow-swvjpuyFZ-eEVwXjA3vrolTCTZEHaQwiazXatt012QBfKU-jwIVT8ObF-RpCYLc8ezgN8_Ag7B5ENM37swfRjpnd3ZIDTlvZfm1jeAC40I/s1600/DSCN0838.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495365107094860370" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkL2frABwKe6s4UKBbHYIKbpXHV66lnIow-swvjpuyFZ-eEVwXjA3vrolTCTZEHaQwiazXatt012QBfKU-jwIVT8ObF-RpCYLc8ezgN8_Ag7B5ENM37swfRjpnd3ZIDTlvZfm1jeAC40I/s320/DSCN0838.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><div></div><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><br /><br />We took care of most of the demolition and all of the painting ourselves to save some money and hired contractors that we've used before and whose bathroom work came highly recommended and over the course of 3 days, our bathroom became this:</div><div><br /></div><p align="left"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495368491438549138" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNljtEHjExaQNbJkawisdZI8a7-wLvy0yAbfB22ACWuva2t8-VxfyS9sTG7BwihB89gFwDLkuzvJhe_PRadXzbkP-eWNccNRkreXsZHgeyebJ01iQYisssaY5RNi6YNDHVoW7smH3VnFg/s320/DSCN0890.JPG" border="0" /></p><div><br /></div><div></div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495368474989552530" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMD6M1GTwDsxQTiPIv3L1UeOXLpbGjBn3qzBv6HWSomQAhuvNWix_hSOXYwVLHzeFJtgT-yRDCGfR0K4YcmpvW-a2CvClIamm9UOJaeBYkcVBEsaJuYZUObwPsF520cspufCBwj8q9pys/s320/DSCN0888.JPG" border="0" /><br />We love our bathroom and we know we've added a good amount of value to our house simply by doing this somewhat minor renovation. There's much more to come over the course of the year and this blog though, so stay tuned.</div></div></div></div>katieandjoe91909http://www.blogger.com/profile/08587607092151946130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8668689509612392804.post-53991766198211642762010-07-14T20:07:00.008-04:002010-07-14T20:48:15.266-04:00The Year of the HouseWelcome to "Houdini Lives Here"...<br /><br /><br />A little bit about us - we're Katie & Joe and we're newlyweds who live in suburban Maryland. Both of us have lived in Maryland our entire lives, we went to Catholic school for 1st-12th grades, we both went to college in the Baltimore area, and we both have jobs related to the federal government. A match made in heaven, right? We thought so which is why we got married September 19, 2009. A few months before getting married, we bought a house. And a few months after getting married, we adopted a cat named Houdini. He's pretty awesome so when we decided to start a blog, we knew he would be talked about a lot and so would our house so we decided on the name "Houdini Lives Here".<br /><br /><br />We closed on our house almost a year ago and it was pretty much move-in ready. Sure, there were things we wanted to change about it, but the only thing that was so offensive we had to change it before we moved in was the wallpaper in the master bedroom. You can see why below.<br /><br /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493921025395939650" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8nNkrFwYT7eapuiE9IcJLSQJaK8YYHvgb1Wj9QA0jKHtQYR94X-TxvUCf1CzGwKef5qv3AjVxJkIqWdbltlFxlDkpMFot6i2ORPjxYKmQLsnhrwy1mZiDv9f7m_13_Wg5kmsE4RbmjU4/s320/DSCN0276.JPG" border="0" /><br /><br />So, over the course of 2 weekends, we removed wallpaper, cleaned the walls, spackled, sanded, primed, and painted the bedroom. Many thanks to Jake, Liz, Justin, Bernadette, and Katie's parents and brother Jonathan who helped us out those 2 weekends. We should really take some pictures of what it looks like now. We'll do that and post a side by side compairison sometime soon.<br /><br /><br />So after we got settled in and got Houdini settled in, we decided to come up with a list of the things we want to do to our house and we decided that 2010 was going to be "The Year of the House" so that we could enjoy as many of the changes we wanted to make for as long as possible. A lot of what we'll blog about will probably revolve around this list so here it is:<br /><br /><br />1. Update Master Bathroom - new paint, flooring, fixtures, sink, vanity, mirror, medicine cabinet, lighting, vent colvers, toilet, and ceiling fan.<br /><br /><br />2. New windows and sliding door.<br /><br /><br />3. Update Office (3rd bedroom) - new paint and carpeting, organize closet, put artwork up on walls.<br /><br /><br />4. Finish Master Bedroom - new blinds and maybe some valances, put up pictures and/or artwork.<br /><br /><br />5. Finish off Main Floor - valances for kitchen & possibly porch door, put together DVD shelf for living room, find a side table for living room, put artwork/pictures up in living room, dining room, kitchen, powder room, replace TP holder in power room, get new towels, rugs, soap dispenser, etc. for powder room, replace brass light domes, fix living room couch.<br /><br /><br />6. New appliances - dishwasher, dryer, range hood, washer (?), back-up power source for sump pump.<br /><br /><br />7. Finish off Guest Bedroom - go through boxes in closet and get it organized (totally Katie's job since all of those boxes came from her apartment or her parents' house), put up curtains and put some things up on the walls.<br /><br /><br />8. Basement storage - organize crawl space & storage area, get some additional shelving.<br /><br /><br />9. Update basement - new carpeting, paint paneling, put stuff up on walls, get new blinds or curtains, big TV & stand, possibly surround sound, get CD on shelf, organize Katie's office/craft area, electric fireplace (?)<br /><br /><br />10. Outside - new pots for front porch, power wash concrete in front and back, get a lawnmower, fix up planter areas.<br /><br /><br />Yeah, we know, "The Year of the House" might end up taking more than 1 year. So we'll be posting blogs & pictures of what we've already done in between blogs about what we're doing, blogs about Houdini, and blogs about life in general. We hope you enjoy!katieandjoe91909http://www.blogger.com/profile/08587607092151946130noreply@blogger.com2