Still Alive And… Packing

Posted on by Jordan

Typically I take some time over the weekend to reflect and write up a blog post. This weekend I mostly focused on doors.

At this point we are done with the doors, and done with the massive cleaning project soon to be known as our home.

We did find time over the weekend to help a friend celebrate his birthday, by attending an Iowa Cubs game!

Typically we at least try to get the field in the background… you will just have to take my word for it that we were in fact at the game.

Sad fact about how the Independence Day weekend went for us… the baseball game this weekend was the first professional fireworks show we managed to take in this year. I suppose having a great new house to move into is consolation enough for this year.

So many things have happened… but there is still so much to do, so I will wrap this up and hope to have some great pictures of the moving day and perhaps the finished product soon!

-Jordan

A Wedding, Fireworks, And Demolition

Posted on by Jordan

It has been a while hasn’t it?

What have Heather and I been up to?

Well, we went to her cousin Kiley’s wedding. Perhaps most notable in the fact that it will probably be the last wedding ever to hold it’s reception at Dana College. The news of the college going into bankruptcy came out a few day before the wedding, but somehow arrangements were made to allow the reception to proceed as planned.

Outside of that excitement, it was really nice wedding… I just don’t feel like I know what to say about it. Heather has a big family, and the majority of them came for the wedding. I got to meet a few family members for the first time while I was there! I am beginning to realize that easily my favorite aspect of weddings is the opportunity to interact with the other guests. Everyone has such tight schedules that chances to see some friends or family may only come up at major events like weddings. Not to discount seeing the bride and groom, but if my wedding is anything to go by, so much gets packed into those few hours, it’s all a blur. A warm fuzzy blur, but still a blur.

After the wedding, and after staying up far too late talking to family at the farm in Blair, Heather and I drove to Kearney to see my side of the family. Quite a few of my cousins were there, and they all brought fireworks! To be honest I was a little disappointed that things worked out this year such that Heather and I were unable to attend a professional fireworks show. I am not sure getting to supervise a handful of my younger cousins as they set off an arsenal of patriotic spirit is a full consolation, but it’s something. We have managed a perfect safety record so far, although towards the end of the “show” a lot of effort was put into trying to simultaneously launch two and three things at once. I was sure  that would eventually lead to problems, but we ran out of fireworks before we ran out of luck I guess. 🙂

Moving on to this weekend (still in progress) Heather and I finished work Friday without any special plans for the evening. We had attempted to set something up with a few couples from church, but no concrete plans ever finalized. When we got home, Heather had an e-mail from another couple we know through church, inviting us to come help them demo the house they just bought. Maybe your thinking, “hey, that doesn’t sound like a great way to spend a Friday night” well, maybe you don’t live in an apartment and type on a computer for a living? I am not sure I would want to do that every night, but I truly enjoyed getting to swing a hammer for a few hours! Beyond that factor, it is just nice to feel like we have some friends we can hang out with here in town.

Looking to the future, Heather and I plan to ride our bikes all the way down town this morning to visit the farmers market. It will easily be our longest ride this summer, although not long by most bike enthusiasts standards I suppose. We have discovered that Des Moines seems to have spent a significant amount developing an impressive trail network throughout the metro area, but they have not spent much putting together an online map for said trails. A few low-res .gif files are they best they have to offer, and what they have are years out of date. The adventure may end up being if we can find the trail everyone tells us we should have seen on our last ride.

-Jordan

4th of July!

Posted on by Jordan

I was told in the comments that recaps were required… I guess that means I will start at the top of the month and work my way back to current.

Heather and I went to Kearney to celebrate Independence Day with my family. In talking about the holiday sometime during the lead-up, I discovered that not only is the 4th not really Heather’s favorite holiday, but that she had it in her head that our children would not play with fireworks! I have informed her that there is no point in having kids if I cannot teach them to blow things up.

J_punk

The first day we were in Kearney we mostly just hung out, getting to interact with a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Later in the day my dad, Brother and I went out to buy some fireworks. I am amazed how much money you can spend on fireworks, but at the same time I found some really cool things without feeling too broke :).  Even later in the day Heather and I went for a bike ride, and got to see some of the UNK campus.

Finally, that evening the entire family went down for the big town fireworks show. I don’t think I will ever get tired of seeing the annual fire works shows done like that! It’s just so much fun, the noise, light, smells… just the whole experience!

The next day we lit more fireworks, ultimately concluding with an all-cousin show at dusk.

Heather actually had some fun watching, although I couldn’t really get her to light much in the way of fireworks.

HJ_punk

Sometime between the day-fireworks and the night-fireworks, the family arranged a composite birthday celebration for Heather and cousins who had birthdays close to the 4th. Heather even got to unwrap a few presents!

H_Sprout_Jar

Both the sprouting jar and the bowls in that picture have been enjoyed as much as Heather expected they would be when she opened them.

The next morning, we cleaned up fireworks for quite some time, but managed to have things looking almost civilized by around lunchtime. I realize at some point the cousins also cleaned out several hundred pounds of boxes from the attic, but I can’t seem to place when we did that. Wherever that all fit in… we had a lot of fun, and certainly were not bored all weekend!

-Jordan