Hoping for Hardwoods

Well, we decided to start work on what will be the nursery last weekend. The room as right at the top of the stairs. If you haven't seen our house, our second floor is a finished attic space. Our bedroom, which faces the street, has sloped ceilings. But in the back of the house, prior owners bumped out the ceilings to create a bedroom on one side of the hall and a bathroom on the other. It works pretty well, except neither room is connected to the forced air heat, hence the wall unit you see in the photo.

Our first task is to tear out the burber (sp?) carpet. As with most projects we've taken on so far, we discovered that the last person to do it didn't start with a clean slate. So we had two sets of padding staples to remove. Mom and Dad, thanks for making me get good grades so I didn't have to do manual labor to make a living. Instead, I get to do it for free on weekends! :-) Anyway, we think the bump-outs were done in the last 30 years.


Check this out! Looks like we just need to re-finish the original hardwoods! Aah, they just don't build houses like they used to. Can you imagine putting hardwoods in your unfinished attic space these days? JACKPOT!!!


Reality check! If it seems too good to be true, it is. Definitely. The half of the room farthest from the door is just plain ol' 2 x 6's. And by the way, Adios, extra closet space.

After a little price shopping at Home Depot, we went to Lumber Liquidators and came home with some eco-friendly bamboo flooring. We'll paint the room first, then tackle the floor installation.

Thanksgiving was a great day for a horse ride!

Hodge Thanksgiving was at Dennis' Aunt Holly and Uncle Doug's place near Gettysburg, PA. Kylie e-mailed ahead (with Mel's help) to see if she could schedule her first horseride with cousin Danielle's help. Here she is, like a pro already.Shaye took a turn next.
Both did great! What a nice horse they rode!

Christmas is a great day for a plane ride!

Grandpa Hubele took advantage of the clear Oregon day to give rides in "Old Glory" around the Independence - Salem area. All the kids did great. One young Hubele even took the controls for a little while in flight and did a great job keeping us upright (good genes)!

Mikayla Co-Pilots

Dennis and Brenden take up the rear

Grandpa Jim and Noah check out the instruments

Mary and Micah get ready for flight

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

...but the fire is so delightful.



As a result, we have lots of November and December birthdays in our family!



We got to celebrate some milestones this year. Dennis celebrated #30 in December.
Grace celebrated #4 in December.
And Shaye turned ONE YEAR OLD in November!


We loved celebrating everyone's big days with them, and not just for the cake! All were celebrated in style with family and friends.

Now we did it...

We put our blog address in the Christmas letter, which Mom Hubele received today. She immediately went to our blog. She found no updates in 60 days. Whoops. I meant to do this Wednesday night, then Thursday night. So here I am, rocking and rolling, Friday night. Blogging.

We've been somewhat busy, but honestly, we've been spending a lot of quality time on the couch with the dog (Yes, he's allowed on the couch now. Clearly I am a woman without power in this male-dominated household.) and the cat enjoying the Christmas tree.

Is this THE ONE?

The tree... the tree. I've already decided on the man.

So here it is, at home in our living room, decked out with our favorite ornaments. I've never found a topper in a store that I like, so I'm thinking that will be a craft project next week. Visions of Barbie Sugarplums dance in my head.

Mass hysteria

More to come, but this is to remind us to remember to hopefully remind ourselves to add photos of our latest home destruction, we mean construction project. If there aren't photos on here by Friday feel free to harass us.

Mary's writing... Dennis is busy... at work!!!

Hooray! Dennis found a job! I can't tell you what it is, though. No, not because it's with the CIA. Just because I'm never very good at translating anything he does into English, or heck, comprehending it in the first place. We'll have to ask him, maybe after he figures it out himself. It's a 6 month contract position downtown.

We've spent the summer working on the yard some, experimenting with what grows where, figuring out what already grows certain places, and pruning, pruning, pruning. The back yard looks better, but the front yard looks worse, curtesy of our larger four legged family member. We've also taken a few road trips and hikes, Dennis and Stout especially.

These are crazy lilies that came up in the front yard as these UGLY shoots, and they FINALLY bloomed (flowers for maybe a week after 6 months of ugly stalks). They sent a wonderful scent across the yard.

Can't say he and Felix are fast friends, but they tolerate each other most of the time. Stout and this chicken, however, have quite the love affair.

Until next time...