2011 in Review

Since I feel like blogging is the best way to document our family memories, I better get back on the bandwagon.  I just feel like I don't have any time!  The new year is giving me a fresh start, but I also feel like I need to review 2011, so here goes....

January 2011
-We celebrated the new year in Michigan with Jack's family
-Sister turned 29
-Started the photography class at Live Oaks
-Grand Rapids, MI trip for Jack's cousin-Rob's-retirement from the Army

Me, Tara, Deanna, and Rob

At the Retirement dinner

February 2011
-Quiet month
-Continued photography class

March 2011
-Dad and Uncle Steve's birthdays
-During Jack's spring break he constructed a gorgeous pergola and paver patio at the Parker Road house

In progress

Finished pack porch/patio

April 2011
-Finally decided we really wanted to move, started looking for houses and getting ours ready to sell
-Grandma Jackie took Aunt Amy and I to San Francisco.  It was an amazing trip

Us by the Golden Gate Bridge before a tour of Napa and Sonoma Wineries



Postcard Row with the city in the distance

 May 2011
-Traveled to Michigan to visit with Jack's cousin Jeremy
-After finding out that it wasn't smart to sell the Parker Road house, we decided to lease it.  We put an ad on Craig's List and had about 7 families interested in it over 2 days.  We showed it to 5 great families, but decided to rent it to a couple from the Hamilton area.  We couldn't be happier. 
-Looked at only 2 houses and decided on a foreclosure in Miami Township with a Loveland address (Milford Schools).

Before we bought

After we bought and painted the front door, etc.

June 2011
-Continued to get the Parker Road house ready to rent and pack to move.  We closed on June 24th and finished moving by the 30th since the renters moved in July 1. 
-Celebrated Addison's 4th birthday on June 5th at the pool.  She got a new bike!

Addy and her BFF Kylee

July 2011
-Spent a week in Caseville, MI with Jack's side of the family.  It was a bittersweet trip since it was the last time we'd see Jeremy. 

-Jack traveled to Michigan again mid-July to celebrate his cousin Jeremy's life.  He passed after a three-year battle with occular melanoma. 
-Jack started football camp

August 2011
-Jack finishes his Masters in Educational Leadership from Wright State University!  What an accomplishment!
-Back to school for Jack
-Addy loves her new house and neighborhood. 
-Bought a hot tub from a friend and built a deck for it. 
-Jack and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary with a night at Montgomery Inn and champagne.  It was wonderful!
-Continued to make small outdoor improvements to the new house house including 4 yards of mulch and a lot of weeding/clearing out.
-Celebrated Aunt Amy's 30th Birthday and Grandma Jackie's 60th Birthday with a surprise party at our house

September 2011
-Addy started gymnastics and ballet at Dance, Etc.

this was taken with my phone, but you get the idea

-Football season is in full swing; Jack is gone a lot.

October 2011
-Got together with friends a bunch of weekends
-Took my friend's daughters' senior pictures.  They turned out great!
-Went to the Zoo's Hallzooween festival
-Visted Shaw Farms to get pumpkins


-Had my wisdom teeth taken out
-Celebrated Halloween as a cat

Not her whole outfit, but you get the idea

November 2011
-Had gum surgery...horrible!!!
-Decided to look into back surgery again.  Had several MRIs and X-Rays
-Celebrated Jack's 33nd birthday
-Flew to Columbia, MD (Baltimore) to visit Uncle Steve for Thanksgiving with Jack's family

at Steve's apartment with his roommates

December 2011
-Went to the Zoo's Festival of Lights.  This pic was taken from Jack's phone, so it is not the best, but we were having a good time on the train

-Celebrated my 32nd birthday on the 8th
-Went to 2 Christmas parties
-Hosted my neighborhood's ladies night Christmas party on the 7th
-Underwent an AxiaLIF Spinal Fusion on December 16th.  My L5 and S1 Vertebrae were fused together with bone from my hip.  2 screws were installed to help with stability.  The screws alone cost $120,000 so I was very nervous about the insurance process, etc.  I had planned to be off work for 4 weeks (scheduled to go back on January 17), but will probably go back January 10th, part time for a week.  I am doing so much better.  I am very surprised at how quickly I am healing.  I am happy it doesn't hurt to cough or sneeze and I can get out of bed in the morning without screaming.  I am hoping to finally be able to run again and lift weights.
-Celebrated New Year's Eve with Jack's family and our friends Rob and Audrey and their adorable boys.


That is the year in a nutshell....major highlights. We really enjoyed watching Addison grow over the past year.  It is amazing how smart she is.  She has learned to write all of her letters and numbers and is starting to learn sight words.  She knows all of the continents and the oceans.  She is starting to learn the bones of the body and sings a new song everyday.  She loves to help with any chore, including loading the dishwasher, laundry and vacuuming.  She loves her pets and playing with Barbies, dolls and her "office".  I am looking forward to teaching her how to sew during the next year. 

I hope that 2012 is a healthy year for all of us and the rest of our family and friends.  I am looking forward to making more improvements in the house, including the 2 bathrooms upstairs and the kitchen.  Jack of course wants to build a shed and fence.  Addison only has 6 months of preschool left until she is off for the summer with Jack and starts Kindergarten in August.  Time goes by too fast.

Happy 2012!!

Fast Foward 8 months

So I haven't posted for 8 whole months!  Holy moly!  We have been BUSY! 

In a nutshell, we have been wanting to move into a better school district before Addison goes to kindergarten (which will be in the fall of 2012).  Jack has been wanting to get into rental/property management for as long as I can remember and we were about to get the chance to do both.  We decided to rent our house in Goshen and buy one in Miami Township/Milford/Loveland.  Around Memorial Day weekend in May, we put our ranch in Goshen on Craig's List and got an overwhelming response from renters.  We showed it to 5 families/couples and ended up going with a wonderful couple from the Hamilton/Oxford area who were downsizing.  They are awesome!!!!  And I truely mean that.  They invited us over about a month ago to show off what they had done and we were blown away.  She mulched the entire yard (which would be about 5 yards of mulch, edged all the beds/weeded, planted 3 trees, cleaned the grout that I didn't get around to cleaning before we moved and switched out the vanity light in Jack's old bathroom.  Oh, and put in a new front door!!  We pray that they stay for a long time.  We think they will considering the money they have put into the house. 

The new house is located behind Eastgate Lanes in what is technically Loveland, but we are in the Milford School District.  We looked at what seemed like a million houses online, but only actually toured 2 houses.  This was a VERY stressful process considering Jack liked one and I like the other.  We ended up with the house that I liked because we were in a bidding war with other buyers on the other house.  We are happy with the one we chose though.  This one is in a great, mature neighborhood and we have wonderful neighbors.  We would have liked to have more than a 2 car garage, but we are trying to make do.  We had a much garage square footage as we did in the inside of our old house, so you can imagine how much stuff was in our garages.  We have plans for a shed and fence, but those will probably wait until the spring.  The new house does have a 925 square foot basement, so we are really utilizing that space.  Half of it is finished and half is storage and will soon be my hobby room.  The finished part is more entertainment/play room. 

So anyway, here are the pictures and the upgrades that we have done so far:

Front Porch

Front Door (painted, new hardware and wreath)

Fireplace after painting

Fireplace after painting

Fireplace - Before

Jack cut this tree down right after we moved in - looks MUCH better!

Below is the 1/2 bath/power room right off of the kitchen.  It is VERY small, so the pictures were hard to take.  We changed out everything, including new light switches and a GFCI outlet (even got electrocuted since I forgot to turn the breaker off to the GFCI box, duh), took out the 1987 towel bar and toilet paper holder, paint, light, re purposed mirror, granite vanity top with under mount sink, faucet and I painted the vanity. 



So next on the list is Addison's bathroom upstairs.  We got a second piece of granite for her vanity top in a light gray.  I plan to do new ceramic tile in her bathroom and it also needs new trim (actually the whole house does).  She really wants her room painted, so we'll work on that this winter along with her bathroom.  The new house has 4 bedrooms, so one is a guest room and the other one is housing our desk and double vanity that will eventually go in the master bath.  We got a great deal on Craig's List we couldn't pass up, but we are not ready to tackle the master bath just yet.  We have to change the plumbing from single to double and take out the flooring.  We have always wanted to do the radiant heat flooring and then ceramic tile will go over it.  It is a larger room-maybe 10 x 10.  I will also paint that vanity, but haven't decided on a dark or light finish.

The kitchen is also on the list, but that will be a huge undertaking.  We have an appointment on Wednesday for a cabinet refacing estimate.  I am not sure if I am ready to paint all of the cabinets.  I know I want to do white with dark hardware.  We have black appliances only because the stove was brand new when we moved in and didn't want to have to buy a new one.  I ordered a new over the range microwave the other day because Jack found out the current one was make in 1990!  I doesn't work very well!!  We will also do granite and a glass backsplash. 

We have a load-bearing wall between the living room and family room that we are also removing in the near future.  We've gotten some estimates, but Jack will probably do it himself.  There is a large amount of HVAC vents in the wall, so that is what is stopping us from knocking it down today. 

I could go on and on with the list, but I'll save that for another day.  We are having a great time with the new house though!





Last week of photo class

So happy it is almost spring!  I finished my photography class I was taking at Great Oaks.  I made great friends and look forward to taking photo II with them in the summer or next spring!  No more winter weather for taking pictures! haha!  Last week's assignment was landscapes and night photography.  Both are tough, especially with water and wind!  When we went downtown (Newport on the Levy) it was freezing cold and windy so I'm not 100% happy with my photos, but I plan to go to Mt. Adams when the weather gets warmer and do some night shots because they were a lot of fun.

Here are a couple (the sunrise was one of my landscape shots.  I think it was the only sunny day in the whole week!):

Roebling Bridge

I took a couple on the railroad in Loveland too.  I wish this one wasn't blurry.  I was playing with the shutter speed and wasn't prepared, but I still like it.

Then last weekend I did my final project, which was 5 prints framed.  I used these three and then a variety of ones I've already taken (and posted on here). 

Here is Addison's Best Friend, Kylee

The only guy in the class started a Facebook page for the other 10 or 12 of us in the class, which was really cool.  We plan to get together soon and go out and take pictures together or go to the camera swap the last weekend in March.  I bought another lens towards the end of the class-a Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 and it is wonderful!  I'm excited to use it in California in less than 4 weeks now!!

Portraits Week 4

Here are a couple of portraits I turned in for week 4 of my photo class.  Next week's assignment is night shots and landscapes.  Tomorrow night Grandpa Jim is coming over to watch Addison while Jack and I go to dinner and hit up Mt. Adams, Sawyer Point and Newport for some night shots of Cincinnati before the rain comes.  I saw 10 deer this morning on my way to work, so I'm hoping they will be in the same spot tomorrow.  My new 18-270 mm lens will be perfect to get close ups of the deer and still keep my distance!

Can it please be spring?

Addison on her swingset on Sunday when it was 55 degrees!

1960's

Zippy Angel and Addison Jane

Where did January go?

So one of my resolutions was to do a blog post at least once a week.  Well that has obviously not happened!  BUT, I am having the best time in my photography class!!!!  My assignment this past week was to take pictures of the alphabet.  I made my blog header from some of the letters I shot.  None of them could be cropped or photoshopped for the class, but I did photoshop these letters to sepia, but did not crop them. 

Here are two pics I took this week (that is my mom with Addy).