Welcome to this edition of Extreme Moderate Home Makeover!
This week’s episode is all about the upstairs bathroom.
Brought to you by Mike and Home Depot.
Before
After
Filed under: house, Mike | Tagged: home makeover, updated bathroom | 8 Comments »
Home Makeover
Posted on April 25, 2009 by Nancy
Disney On Ice
Posted on February 17, 2009 by Nancy
We took Burke and Maggie to see Disney on Ice yesterday. (Logan got to stay with Aunt Cathy – Thanks Cathy!!)
We didn’t even tell them about it until the night before. (I’m already hearing “Are we going to the baseball game today?” Because they heard me talking about the Spinners game we’ll be heading to in the Spring.)
Since we knew they would have no idea how excited they should be about this, we got them all fired up about going on the train to get there. And they kind of got that they’d be seeing the Cars characters and Tinkerbell and others, but I think they equated it to seeing them on TV – not live and in person.
So off to the train we went.
Daddy and Burke on the Train
Maggie and Mommy on the Train
When we got there, we got in line to see the princess dresses on display. Maggie *loves* Cinderella, so we took her picture in front of the most coveted dress.
Maggie and Cinderella's Dress
And then, much to our pleasure, the real Cinderella showed up!
Cinderella - Way up Ahead
Unfortunately, by the time we got up there, Cinderella had to go. But Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) took over in her place.
The Zoo with Belle
(Maggie was playing shy girl because someone else took our picture.)
We stopped to get some snacks (and a beer for Mike) and headed off to look for our seats. You should have seen the “Oh thank God there’s beer here” looks Mike got from the other dads we passed. LOL
We found our seats and I hear “Is that Maggie?” from the row behind us. Turns out that one of their class mates was there too! I hadn’t met the mom, but I recognized the little girl. Her mom said that she recognized Maggie’s yellow bow. LOL I suppose it is hard to miss. And we did get quite a few compliments on it throughout the day.
Waiting for the show to start (I kind of had my camera at a strange angle on some of these…)
The show started!
Minnie and Mickey
Transfixed
Also Transfixed
Pretzel? What Pretzel?
And then the Cars came out! Oh man – Burke’s favorite part.
Especially when Lightnin’ McQueen came out.
McQueen!
It switched to The Little Mermaid, so Maggie got excited.
The Little Mermaid!
ut oh Ursula!
The Lion King was up next.
And Mike was tickled to see that Rafiki even had the monkey butt going on.
The kids were still transfixed.
I loved how they did the wildebeests. The skaters had one on each arm and one on their head to make it look like there was a pack of them. Pretty cool
Intermission brought playing with their new light-up toys and the Zamboni! As soon as the lights came up, Burke declared that he wanted to see it again. (Like I could rewind and push play LOL) Luckily, there was more coming.
Act 2 brought Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy back as the hosts.
And Burke sitting on Daddy’s lap.
Maggie was happy that it started again.
Tinkerbell was the final act. Burke got a little restless and had to go out and run around for a little bit. But it wasn’t long before they came back.
Burke liked the flying queen.
The grand finale had Tinkerbell flying and Mickey and his gang back out in formal attire.
It was a great show! And the kids loved it. My favorite part? Watching the kids’ faces. (I’m such a mom!)
Filed under: me, Mike, pictures, twins | Tagged: Cars, Disney on Ice, kiddo outing, Lion King, Little Mermaid, Mickey Mouse, Tinkerbell | 11 Comments »
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE!!
Posted on February 5, 2009 by Nancy
Happy Birthday Mike 🙂
What a way to spend the hours leading up to it, huh? At least the family is (somewhat) feeling better now…perhaps we should postpone that huge family dinner until the weekend though…
I’m not going to get into too much here, but I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate and love you. You are a wonderful husband …absolutely perfect for me 🙂 And I know for a fact that the kids all think your the best daddy in the world. (They’d be right too.)
I’m looking forward to spending many, many more birthdays with you!
Love,
Nancy
Filed under: Mike | Tagged: happy birthday | 1 Comment »
Way Back When-esday
Posted on January 28, 2009 by Nancy
Cheryl over at Twinfatuation hosts this one. Go on over to see who else is playing – and join in too!
Today’s WBW is brought to you by photos that Mike’s father took. He converted his slides to digital and sent some discs to Mike. Holy COW – awesome 🙂
I’m not sure what year this is, but Mike looks like he’s just a little older than Logan here.
Mike, His Mom, and His Sister
And this one was obviously taken at a different time; maybe a year or so later than that last one..?
Mike
Filed under: Mike, WBW | Tagged: old photos | 4 Comments »
Even MORE Snow
Posted on January 19, 2009 by Nancy
Okay – so this is getting crazy. Poor Mike shoveled *three* times within the last 24 hours. He estimates about 18 more inches of snow. It’s gotten so bad, that the mound of snow he’s piled up from the driveway has gotten too high, he has to walk each shovel-full around it to throw it on the other side.
Maggie decided this morning that she was going to go out and help daddy shovel – but her shovel is buried somewhere under all that new snow (oops!), so I gave her a serving spoon. She loved it. heh
Burke decided to lounge on the couch instead of going out – I have to assume that he’s not feeling well. (His nose is running non-stop, so it’s probably better that he stayed in anyway.)
I didn’t take any pictures because I’m sick of the snow, and sick of the snow pictures 😉
Filed under: Mike, twins | Tagged: snow | 8 Comments »
WOOOOHOOOO!!!
Posted on December 4, 2008 by Nancy
Mike just found out today that the paper he’s been working on *very* hard for a *very* long time is going to be PUBLISHED!!!!
The publication Molecular Cell is running:
Small molecule inhibitors of HIF-2a translation link its 5′-UTR Iron-Responsive Element (IRE) to oxygen sensing
What’s all that mean? Good stuff is happening in his cancer research. 🙂
I’m so proud of you, Mike!
Filed under: Mike | Tagged: cancer research, molecular cell, published | 11 Comments »
A Big Sea of Greatness
Posted on October 25, 2008 by Nancy
Mike and I went to see one of, in my opinion, the *best* live bands around. Great Big Sea knows how to put on a really, really good show. These guys are so energetic and genuinely happy to be on stage. They get the audience involved – as soon as the show starts, everyone is up on their feet “bouncing their bits” (their words, not mine – but funny 😉 ), singing along, and clapping so much that your hands are ringing by the end of the night. They do two full sets and then two encores. At one point I was looking around the audience (old, young, middle) and realized that almost everyone had the same goofy grin on their face as I did…you can’t help it!
I was introduced to GBS just under 10 years ago. The first album I heard was their live one – Road Rage. I HIGHLY recommend this one – definitely their best one by far…you can feel the energy pouring from the CD.
Their best song though is Sea of No Cares…which actually isn’t on that album.
(The music video – 3:35)
This is the second show Mike and I have been to – and we vowed last night to try to catch them every time they’re in town. Yes. They are THAT good. And while both shows were pretty different, they both ended the same way: singing Old Brown’s Daughter, a Capella. I took video with my phone, but YouTube isn’t cooperating – so perhaps I’ll get it on here at some point.
Filed under: fun, me, Mike | Tagged: concert, Great Big Sea | 4 Comments »
My Husband
Posted on October 12, 2008 by Nancy
I saw this Meme on Southern Blessing’s blog and figured I’d, ah, borrow it. If you decide you’d like to embarrass brag about your husband too, leave me a comment so I can laugh too learn more about your hubby.
1. He’s sitting in front of the TV: what is on the screen? Awesome man that he is, it’s usually what I want to watch…
2. You’re out to eat. What kind of dressing does he get on his salad? Ranch
3. What is one food he doesn’t like? Cooked pineapple – won’t touch my Hawaiian pizzas.
4. You go out to the bar. What does he order? Duh – beer!
5. Where did he go to high school? Longmont, CO
6. What size shoe does he wear? I stay as far away from his shoes as I can…
7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? He used to collect beer steins…
8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? Dagwood
9. What would the Husband eat every day if he could? Ice Cream (we do try to fulfill this dream 😀 )
10. What is his favorite cereal? Honey Bunches of Oats
11. What would he never wear? Sandals
12. What is his favorite sports team? Indians or Browns
13. Who will he vote for? Probably Bob Barr
14. Who is his best friend? Chad
15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn’t do? I’m perfect, of course! 😉 Uhmmm…there’s too much to list.
16. How many states has he lived in? 3 – CO, Ill, and MA
17. What is his heritage? Euro Mutt
18. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind? Bake?? I get an Ice Cream cake 😀
19. Did he play sports in high school? LOTS; ones that I know of: football, baseball, wrestling
20. What could he spend hours doing? Sleeping if he could – we never get enough!
Filed under: Mike | Tagged: meme | 5 Comments »
Perfect Anniversary Date
Posted on September 24, 2008 by Nancy
Last night, Mike and I watched the Red Sox beat the Indians to clinch a spot in the post season at Fenway.
Why is this a great anniversary date? Well – a whole bunch of reasons!! I am a Red Sox fan. Mike is an Indians fan. Have I mentioned that the Sox and Indians played on our wedding day? And that the Indians KILLED the Sox that day? (Which meant that I had to wear a home-made t-shirt the next day to our BBQ…something about the Indians rocking or something…)
Anyway…we try to get Sox/Indians tickets every year. This year, we just happened to pick a KICK BUTT game! 🙂
Tickets
On my way out the door, I told the kids I was going to a baseball game and Burke started to sing “Everybody clap your hands!” CLAP, clap, clap, clap, CLAP, clap, clap, clap, CLAP, clap clap, clap, CLAP. (his favorite part about going to the Lowell Spinners game.) You know the song…it was a super funny McD’s commercial for a while. I can’t not embed it now… 😉
(1 minute long)
I drove to the subway station, met Mike on the platform out by his place of employment, and then we rode in together. When we got there it was, as usual, a mob scene. Go to find our section to sit down, do the typical enter the right section, turn around and look at the rows thing…but can’t see our row. I must have looked a bit confused because one of the attendents came over to help out and said, “Oh – your seats are right here.” She then turned us around and lead us to our seats *5* rows from the field … and wiped the seats down for us. Holy froofie! But OMG! We were 5 rows from the field!! We could See Jacoby Elsbury’s face! Of course, all I brought was my camera phone (duh, Nancy)…so the pictures don’t really do it justice.
Jacoby Elsbury
And we were this close the the bullpens. Unfortunately, we could only see into the Indian’s ‘pen, but we could HEAR the Sox ‘pen. They all do this crazy drum beat thing. And they’re GOOD. It actually sounded like they had a snare drum in there…but they use water bottles and things and just bang on the metal of the bullpen. Not sure who started that, but my guess would be Timlin.
The Bullpens
As with most seats at Fenway, these were on the “special” side. If we sat back a faced forward, this was our view:
View From Our Seats
Ya. My neck still has a crick in it from looking left the whole time. heh
The Indian’s pitcher (Lee) has this incredible record coming into the game (22 – 2), and is pretty much a shoe-in for the Cy Young award. Meaning, he’s a tough guy to win against.
Mike was good enough to smile – even if his team wasn’t winning.
Mike
There was the requisite singing of Sweet Caroline. I have video, but YouTube isn’t cooperating right now, so perhaps I’ll add it later. I also have video of the bullpen cadence and of the final out…again – perhaps later.
And then the celebration!! I can’t believe we were AT this game 🙂 If you look REALLY close, you can see the gathering on the pitching mound.
Celebration on the Mound
And since I’m such a people watcher, I had to take a picture of this Henry Fonda look-a-like (in his On Golden Pond days) who was sitting right behind us.
Henry Fonda?
Mike and I couldn’t resist purchasing a little something on our way out of the park.
Baseball Hats!
(Although, Mike did state that he’d be requesting Indian’s hats for Christmas…)
Filed under: fun, me, Mike | Tagged: baseball, Fenway Park, GO SOX!, Indians | 4 Comments »
I’m.So.Tired.
Posted on September 22, 2008 by Nancy
It’s no secret that Mike snores. The man can snore while sleeping on his stomach. And I’m not even kidding. Burke does this hilarious imitation of him that’s a cross between totally obnoxious and right on (grinning the whole time, of course).
Before Mike and I got together, I was one of these people who took like, 30 minutes to fall to sleep at night. Wind down from the day, review stuff that happened, think about what’s suppose to go on the next day, etc… I’m also one of those people who sleeps with a fan on every night so that I don’t have to hear outside noises – Light sleeper and all that. Mike is one of those people who falls to sleep the second his head hits the pillow (sometimes before), and is snoring 2 seconds after that. And I’m not even kidding. Let me tell you, this makes for incompatible sleeping!
When we first got together, we tried everything…SnoreStop, those little breathe easy/nose strip thingies, aromatherapy. Ya – Mike’s immune. I even had him try to get into one of those sleep study things…but you have to have a doctor’s referral for that, and there’s no real evidence of sleep apnea, so they won’t let him in.
Luckily (?) since we’ve had the kids, I fall dead asleep the moment my head hits the pillow now as well – so most nights are all good. If I’m asleep before he starts snoring, it usually doesn’t wake me up. It’s the nights when one of the kids wakes up for a second or two – which means that I’m awake enough to be bothered by Mike’s snoring – that KILL me. (Like last night…) I poke him to turn on his side. Like that’s going to help. I poke him again after a few minutes to turn on his stomach. Like that’s going to help. I wage this inner war, “Do I poke him again? Do I go sleep on the couch? Do I just lie here and TRY to fall to sleep? Do I ask HIM to go sleep on the couch?” *sigh* None of the options seem very fair. Last night I opted for the just lie here and try to fall to sleep. About an hour and a half later I finally managed to…until Logan woke up an hour after that.
…it’s 10:30 and I’m on my 3rd cup of coffee. My normal intake is 2 cups – tops. Should be an interesting day 😉
Filed under: me, Mike | Tagged: snoring, Stop the insanity! | 6 Comments »
The Zimmer Zoo 