Harvie after a bath..

Harvie is usually a very calm, reserved dog.. until he takes a bath. This is about the only time he gets wild.. I think it's his way of drying off. It starts off slow and then you can see him start running as fast as he can around the upstairs. Then the cat can't figure out what he's doing and tries to interject himself in the fun. At the end he just starts running circles around the bedroom, ha!

You can make the video full-screen by clicking the icon in the lower right corner.

They love the carpet!

Pets are Family

Triscuit has been MIA for about a week and a half now. I guess that is the risk we take in letting her outside, but she lives to go out. She hardly ever (until now) even leaves the yard. We checked the local Humane Society and have asked around the neighbors if they've seen her. So far, nothing. 

I hope she comes home, we all miss her.

Ti and Harvie enjoying the new carpet..

New carpet!

In my last post I mentioned that we were also productive house-wise over the weekend.. we finally painted the upstairs! We painted the rooms before moving in, but couldn't decide on a color for the hallway in time. We finally decided on a neutral beige called "frappe".

The reason we needed to hurry up and get that done is because today we're having carpet installed upstairs and on the steps! Again, finally. We really should have done this back in April before we moved in. Back then we couldn't decide if we wanted to carpet it or re-finish the hardwood. We decided on carpet for the sake of comfort and coziness.. not to mention durability for future tenants. 

Last night we had to move everything that was on top of our furniture or on the floor downstairs.. it was quite a process and now our downstairs is a hoarders paradise.

Thanks to my job we have more stuff than the average family.. my office is filled with bins of art supplies and the like. 

Today I am working from the dining room table, it's kind of a nice change of scenery..

Staying positive :)

I'm excited for the carpet! Can't wait to share once it's all done :)

Widespread Panic Concert

Another great weekend here in Akron! On Saturday we went to see Widespread Panic at the beautiful Civic Theatre in Akron. I had gotten the tickets for RJ for his birthday a few weeks ago. Despite what their name may imply, they're actually more of a jam/funk rock band. Most people would definitely classify them as a hippie band and on Saturday the hippies were out in full swing. 

 We first started getting into their music when we went to visit Lindsay and Corey in Breckenridge a few years ago. Lindsay is notorious for introducing me to great music and sending CD's in the mail. One of the many reasons I love her so much. 

If you want a sample of their music, this is one of my favorites here. It has the best chorus:

After all that I've been through

your the only one that matters.

You never left me in the dark

here on my own.

  I can hear the water risin'

let me be your ladder.

  I promise you'll be dry

and never be alone.

Another one of my favorites is this one here. 

People watching at the show was almost as entertaining as the band itself! This band has been around since 1986 and has a really diverse following, age wise. Hippies young and old came out to dance in the aisles, wave around glow-sticks, and let their dreads down. The juxtaposition between the venue and the crowd was absolutely classic. The Civic is an old, historic, "fancy" theater where we've many times to see plays and musicals (thanks to Dad!). Every time I've been there it's been a very refined group and there are countless older-adult volunteers who help you find your seat and make sure people are behaving. I would love to hear what they thought about the crowd that night! 

Here are the most interesting things we saw:

* A guy with dreadlocks so long they literally touched the floor. He had them all bundled up and wrapped in a big cloth and it was sticking out under his coat.. at first I thought he was carrying a guitar on his back, that's how thick they were!

*Another guy who took out his nose piercing and put a glow-stick through the center part of his nose.

* The aisle in front of our row being so full of people dancing that other people could barely walk through the aisle.

*The girl in front of us going nuts with her glow-sticks. She was twirling them and dancing with them.. she actually put on a really good show!

*The hilarious couple next to us. The guy turned to me and said (a little slurred, but you'll have that): "So what are your crazy names anyway?" He was really friendly. Say what you will about hippies, they are really nice people.

 Here is a quick video of the band covering a Talking Heads song. Fried Grease actually played this at Lindsay and Corey's wedding, so hearing it always brings me back to that night. I'm going to delete this after a few days before their people come after me. I love the guy dancing in front of us and Lindsay and Drew will appreciate seeing the clip of the band.

It was a great show but would have been even better if Drew, Lindsay and Corey were there to appreciate it with us.

We actually did some work around the house/yard this weekend too! More on that later this week. 

New chairs, tractor and RIP Stuart

Last Sunday we had such a productive and great day. We went to the Goodwill (my favorite!) to look for kitchen chairs and finally found the perfect ones! $3 each! What a bargain and I love the color.

We wanted some that were relatively small to put in the kitchen on either side of Halley & Shawn's butcher block island.This is one of my favorite areas of the whole house. I love sitting there and flipping through the newspaper (let's be honest, I really mean Better Homes & Gardens) while enjoying a cup of coffee. Our kitchen is small, so it's hard for two people to cook at the same time. We love to cook together, so this allows one of us to chop at the island. Plus it's a good storage spot for our recycle bin. 

It was a gorgeous day (maybe one of our last) so we hung out outside for a little while before running the errands. RJ played frisbee with our little neighbor friends Chloe and Colette.

We also went to  Lowes (I swear they know us by name now) to look at Tractors. We really learned our lesson when it comes to buying used lawn equipment. Unless you can fix them yourself, you're better of just buying new and getting a warranty. We got a new Bronco. It was expensive but it should last a few years and with a yard size, it will save us a lot of time and energy spent on lawn maintenance. Plus it mulches up the leaves so no raking!

RIP Stuart..

Well our little friend sadly did not make it. When we got up the other morning he had died (hopefully peacefully in his sleep..) overnight. He probably got too cold or wasn't eating enough. We figured that as soon as his eyes opened he would die of a heart attack anyway (once he saw who his new parents were).

It was a fun little experiment while it lasted - he changed a lot everyday and had started growing fur! At first I wasn't keen on the idea of a mouse in the house.. but I warmed up to the idea after RJ said mentioned that we could get one of those plastic balls that hamsters run around in. I think the cats and Harvie would really enjoy that.

Maybe we are mouse people after all..

Saturday Garage Sale

We had the most beautiful weather for a garage sale on Saturday! We got rid of a lot of stuff and made $50 for SAYM (South Akron Youth Ministry). At the end of the day, we just started loading boxes into the car to drop off at Goodwill. A last minute hoarder shopper stopped by and wanted all those boxes! We basically unloaded the boxes from our car into hers and she was going to go through them at home. 

It was such a nice day and we loved getting to hang out with the neighbors, especially Chloe and Colette. They are so cute and loved helping out. 

Last Christmas (or maybe the year before), Laura gave us some fun balloon toys in our stockings. After you blow them up and let them go, they fly around and make a squeaking noise. We found them in one of the boxes and the girls loved them!

They thought it was hilarious when the balloons flew around the yard. They would also count down before letting it go each time and shout "blast off!". It was so cute.

I tried to take a video so we'll see if this works.. 

Surprise..

RJ got home from his business trip yesterday and he didn't come home empty handed! He brought me a box of delicious taffy. I had a surprise for him too.. a new hat and sunglasses I picked up for only $1.99!

That wasn't the only surprise he had for me last night.

I had to cover a class for one of the art instructors from 5-6, so didn't home til 6:45 or so. During that time, RJ had been working on his tractor (it's our second mower to give out this year.. I guess our lawn is too hard on them). Apparently when he was down there doing whatever he was doing, a mom-mouse poked her head out of the engine, freaked out, then ran away with an infant mouse in either arm! I wish I had video of this. RJ kept working but started hearing a little squeak.. the poor mom had to leave a baby behind! RJ felt so bad that he took the engine parts out so he could get to the baby mouse. 

When I got home he was sitting on the the couch with a box containing a baby mouse on his lap.

He's calling it Stuart Little.

I couldn't' make this up if I tried.

Look how tiny this little guy is!

Some of you may know that RJ  has a thing for healing hurt animals. He probably should have been a veterinarian. Remember the chipmunk of '05(ish?)?

I suggested we put the box on top of the tractor to see if the mom would come back for Stuart. We left him out there for an hour or so.. the mom never came back. We were worried one of the cats would get to him before his mom did. 

RJ feels guilty for breaking up this mouse family, so he's insisting that we drop milk into his mouth from our finger tip until he is self sufficient (allegedly that will be 3 weeks). Apparently he read a whole article about how to take care of an infant mouse on a website called "The Rat Report". Again, I couldn't make this up if I tried. 

I guess the thing is kind of cute. All I can say is, he's lucky he buttered me up with taffy.

RJ's Birthday Clambake

 On Saturday RJ's parents' hosted the 3rd annual birthday/welcome fall clambake! It's always a blast and Aunt Lynn and (Cousin) Chrissy come out to celebrate which makes it extra special. Every year it we've had the clambake it's rained, so we set up the big boiler in the garage.

The pot is full of shrimp, potatoes, crab legs and of course, clams!

Everyone gets their own bag of clams to dig through.. 

Potatoes and shrimp..

Opening presents..

 

I got these adorable pajamas for Harvie for Halloween. He wanted to show them off..

 Toby wearing Harvie's PJ's..

Cake!

Big thanks to Big Reed and Laura for hosting - it was a great birthday celebration as always :)