October Recap

Seriously, is it almost November? Whoa - apparently I've missed a whole month! Not sue if I've just been blog lazy, consumed with puppy love, without internet at home, travelling, busy on house projects...or probably a mix of all those. But here's what we've been up to...

Alpha Chi Centennial Event in Iowa City - Sept 30 / Oct 1

Gable came home from hunting camp on Oct 2

Maya Jo McElliott was born on October 14!!!

Matt & I went to the Iowa vs Northwestern game on Oct 15

Plus we've done some work around the house and hosted a Halloween Party. But both deserve separate posts so more coming on those soon!  :)

Blackberry Wine

Sounds delicious, right? Well, actually it looks delicious! It's the color that we picked out to paint the front door. As you can see here I was definitely leaning towards the purple family. Turquoise, blue, or green all would have been fun too and they really would have popped, but we (Matt) didn't want the door to completely stand out and be obnoxious. I think Blackberry Wine was a great choice for us - enough interest to make the door feel more like home but not enough crazy to scare off the neighbors (or Matt).

So here's our before....

And now the after...

It's not perfect but it's way better and looks much more like us! Now time to create an autumn wreath!

Sleep-away camp

On Sunday Sept 4th at 8am Matt, Gable and I drove 2 hours east to Countryside Gundogs near Center Point, IA. A half hour after arrival, Matt and I headed back to Huxley... without Gable. He's been gone for 3 weeks now. But hopefully he'll be coming home next week if he continues to learn at his current pace. The trainer says he's doing really well and that he'll be a great hunting dog for Matt. The trainer will work on basic obedience (sit, stay, kennel, come) but the main focus is on introducing Gable to birds, shotguns, and handling in the field. Here are a couple pics the trainer sent of Gable showing off his natural instinct.

Even though I know he's having fun and learning a lot, it's hard not to miss him. And it was hard not to be sad when we left him. I think my experience leaving him at the trainer was probably a preview to what it will be like someday taking our child to their first day of kindergarten - a mix of anticipation, excitement and fear. Gable knew something wasn't right and whined (cried) as we walked about from the outdoor kennel that would become his bunk for the month. As I listened to Gable cry as I walked away, it took a lot of control not to burst into tears, insist this was all a mistake and bring him back home with us. He's so young, he'll be scared (and cold), he'll think we're not coming back for him, he won't remember us when we finally do get to pick him up, he might not get along with the trainer or the other dogs... I was kinda a mess. You know when you're trying really hard not to cry, but you can't help the tears and your face gets all blotchy? That was totally me. I threw on my sunglasses and then stayed quiet while Matt finished talking with the trainer because I knew I wouldn't be able to trust my voice not to crack.

It's been weird at home without Gable but we've been trying to take advantage of the opportunity - vacation, projects around the house, not worrying about schedules or time away from the house, allowing ourselves time to relax together. But I am sooo excited to see our puppy soon!

Miss you, goofy Gable!  

Lake Winnie

Matt and I, along with Matt and Renee (and their dog Ziggy), headed up to Lake Winnibigoshish in the Chippewa National Forest in northern Minnesota. We stayed in a cabin at Little Winnie Resort and the goal of our vacation was fishing. Yep. I've now been on my first official fishing trip. And I survived the trip without touching any worms or leeches and only held one fish!

This is the only fish we caught without teeth which is why I held it.

Matt was a champ about having to do practically everything for me out on the lake. But I'm pretty proud that I was able to help out back at our cabin with creating our bonfires. 

Made it all by myself!

The reason why we headed to the Lake Winnibigoshish / Little Winnibigoshish / Cut Foot Sioux Lake area was because the area is known for it's great fishing. The boys made sure to check with lots of locals for the fishing report when we got up there so that they would know the spots where the fish were biting. When we went out we didn't "slam" fish, but we caught plenty to eat and bring home. 

We caught them...

and they cooked 'em!

True story. Renee and I caught more fish (and bigger ones too) than the Matt's. This is solely because the boys had to get our rods ready for us and then when we caught one, they'd have to reel their own pole in to help us with the fish. But they were good sports about it - I think they liked seeing us catch fish. See look how excited Matt is to hold the first fish I caught. :) 

Pretty sure this is a northern pike

While the fishing was (kinda) fun, I really just loved being out on a lake. Matt & Renee have a fishing boat which they brought up with them and Matt and I rented ours. I kinda flipped out a little when I saw the boat we rented the first day - the bottom was filled with dirty, fishy water and I was totally grossed out. Matt scooped out the disgusting water so that I would actually get into the boat. When we went over to Cut Foot Sioux we rented a different boat (due to convenience) and that one was sooo nice in comparison.

 

But regardless of the boat or the lake that we were on, there were some beautiful views.

Overall, I it was a successful vacation and fishing trip. And I have no doubt that we'll probably do it again. :)

Front Door Appeal

While I did just add some fun hawkeye bling to the house, the curb appeal of our house is kinda lacking. Maybe that's not a fair statement, the previous owners put a lot of time and effort into the landscaping in our front yard. And that landscaping looked great... and still does look nice (not as good as when they did it, but we haven't completely ruined it). But the reason why I think our house could improve on curb appeal is because of the shape and color of our house. So what makes the house weird?

• Split level with the upper floor hanging out over the bottom floor
• Door is tucked into the corner between the garage and the stairway and isn't symmetrical
• Our siding is metal
• The colors are brown and cream
• Front door is oak with gold trim around the glass design

Our house in the winter (after putting in the offer, before getting the keys)

The only thing I feel that I can change is the door. I'd love to buy a new door. I grew up always having a screen door plus the entry door. I like how that allows for a cross breeze through the house and being able to keep the front door open with the screen door closed, makes me feel like our house is more open and welcoming. Matt, on the other hand, grew up with a single front door and I haven't been able to convince him that we should get a screen door. 

So the next best thing to a new door, is a newly painted door. But what color? Right now, I'm leaning towards purple. It's not too bright to completely stand out but it would still be fun and unique. Or blue. My parents new house has a blue door and I love it (they hate it - no screen door). Yellow would look gross with  our house colors. Red might look ok but since we're so close to ISU I don't want to go with red. Here are a few purple doors I've "pinned" recently. 

traditional entry design

And some blue ones...

So, now I just need to convince Matt that painting the door is a good idea. :) 

My adventure with a circular saw

When we moved into our house 15 months ago, this is what our mailbox looked like...

Not really my style but cute. The reason the previous owner painted it was because it used to have an ISU wrapper around it. So this is MUCH better than an ISU themed mailbox. They actually gave the wrapper to the neighbors and I think it pulled off some of the paint when they took it off so she created this to fix it. So for the last 15 months here's the full view of mailboxes in front of our house...

A couple months after we moved in, Matt went to a home improvement store and bought this new mailbox. It's just a plain black replacement.

This box sat unopened in our garage for a year. I know, ridiculous. We bought it towards the end of the summer, then Matt got busy with work in the fall and then the snow came along. By the spring, I think Matt had completely forgotten this was still in the garage. Last month, after a long walk with Gable, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Gable was in his kennel napping and I thought it wouldn't take long to replace the mailbox. 

I didn't have any problems taking off the flower garden mailbox but the board I found underneath was a mess. 

 Yikes! Luckily Matt had some extra wood in the garage from a little building project of his own in his work truck. The only thing standing between me and my new mailbox was a circular saw. I needed to cut down the plywood so it would fit inside the mailbox. Then I could screw the plywood onto the stand and then screw the 

mailbox onto plywood. I was super nervous using the circular saw by myself but I'd used one before, it had just been awhile. I don't have any pictures of me using the saw because Matt was at work and there was no way I could stage that picture and feel safe about it. My first attempt was a little off... huge bummer. My wood was a half inch too long. My next cut was super tricky but I got it trimmed down with all my extremities in tact. yay! 

I added the tigerhawk decal after I got mailbox mounted. Doesn't it look fantastic! Way better than the ISU one next to it. Plus it's pretty fun to know that I replaced it myself... and got to use a circular saw. 

With Hawkeye football kicking off yesterday, I added a few other Hawkeye details earlier last week too. 

 I bought this at the craft fair at Huxley's PrairieFest last weekend. I carried this heavy cement piece home 7 blocks, with Gable also on a leash. I was pretty sure, he'd see something intriguing and take off, jerking the leash outta my hand and causing me to drop this. But luckily he didn't and we made it home in one piece.  Here's a close up..

And I also put out our GIANT flag that I bought last fall.  

Let the IOWA / ISU rivalry week begin!