JamieandJamie+

Introducing...

2009-10-21T15:37:00.003-05:00

Almost a week after Colton made his way into the world, Mommy & Daddy are starting to get into the swing of things with his routine. One thing is for sure, he runs the show now! We sent out an announcement to alot of our friends and families, and I just thought I'd share it here as well. Daddy will try to get somemore pics on here very soon, but only as soon as Colton will allow me to!

For many more pics, you can follow me on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/jamesgeist

Welcome to the World!

2009-10-16T09:27:00.002-05:00

Colton Jamieson Geist -- born Wednesday, October 14th at 10:12 PM. He weighed 8 lbs, 8 ounches, and was 21 inches long. He's a big and happy little boy. I'll update again once we get home from the hospital (which should be today) but he's doing very good, eating pretty well, and keeping his Daddy very busy already!

Just an update

2009-10-10T01:04:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update. The baby countdown has ticked down to 0, and the due date has come and gone. Colton has decided to just hang tight for a couple of days. Doesn't look like he's on the way this weekend, but we'll see. We go in Tuesday night to get induced if he doesn't come on his own, and he should make his arrival on Wednesday, October 14th sometime. We're ready for you buddy!

The Final Countdown

2009-10-03T01:48:00.003-05:00

The counter is ticking down to 5 days, and still no sign of the newest member of our family, Colton Jamieson. Mommy is definitely ready to get a break and stop carrying you around, and both Mommy and Daddy can't wait to see you -- so come on! Not that I blame him. Its quickly turning to fall, getting a little chilly, and he's probably very happy and warm all cuddled up on the inside. Hopefully the next post here is of his first photo! If he doesn't show up on his own, we've already got an appointment for getting induced on October 13th. So he's coming regardless -- get ready world!

Hit Me With Your Best Shot

2009-09-14T11:27:00.003-05:00

Only 23 days left on the countdown! Colton will be here soon, and we can't wait. I thought I'd share some good pictures from our recent Childbirth/NewBorn Development class that we took through the hospital. It was a very fun and informative 5 week class, just a couple of hours on each Monday night. The highlight of course was when they broke out the "empathy belly" for all of the Dads to try on, while the Moms made them do all of the tough things they have to deal with during the day. The results were hilarious and humbling.

Party All The Time

2009-09-02T15:03:00.005-05:00

According to our trusty countdown on the right side -- only 35 days left! Mommy got prepared this past week with her baby shower, which was a great time for everyone. Our baby boy to be got TONS of clothes, some toys, some essentials, and lots of love from friends and family. There are some pictures below, including some of the girls having fun and playing games. Now we get to put it all away!

It's My Party

2009-08-07T14:10:00.003-05:00

Baby's first party is coming up. If you're invited, you likely already got one of these in the flesh, but I thought I would share it with the blogosphere as well as toss it on here for historical reasons. Mommy & the baby can't wait to see all their family and friends, and start our soon to be astronomical collection of baby clothes, toys, and supplies. Since Daddy is writing this, I can't tell you much more, since I have no clue what kind of crazy stuff goes on at these parties. I figure the end result can't be any worse than Mommy's 21st birthday celebration. :)

I Always Feel Like, Somebody's Watching Me

2009-07-27T20:29:00.002-05:00

As I mentioned in my last post, we moved the old TV up front when we got our new couch. And that's because we got a new TV for our back room, as pictured above! We'd had our eyes out for a new TV for a bit, since we knew we wanted to expand our front living room into a bit more functional space. We figured with the baby on the way, and with more people staying and visiting, it couldn't hurt to have a second space for people to relax. The couch from the last post was Mommy's Anniversary Present, and Daddy got a new TV. Or at least that's how he got Mommy to let him buy it, anyway. Pictured below is the old setup.

Take It Easy

2009-07-14T16:59:00.005-05:00

So I recently showed off all of baby's new toys that will welcome him into the world, but now its time to take a look at Mommy and Daddy's new toys that will help THEM welcome him into the world. If you've been a long time blog reader, or ever visited our house, you know what the front living room used to look like. An old Futon that's been passed around way too much, some chair my mom discovered for us on the side of the road, and basically a room with no purpose. The only time we even used it was on Christmas, and that's because it was the only room empty enough to fill with our ridiculous amount of presents. Enter our new Sofa, which we're unofficially calling our Anniversary present. I included a few pics of the new layout which also includes a great Sofa Table that my sister found at a garage sale for 15 bucks! You'll notice the TV above the fireplace, which used to be in our other living room. But thats for another post :)

High Enough

2009-07-10T13:12:00.002-05:00

The next (and we think final) addition in our collection of baby items in the Graco Deco Collection is the awesome High Chair. Another special thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Hickel. I'm not sure what you can say about a high chair. You can raise it up and down to the level of your choice, the tray has a removable top that is dishwasher safe, and it reclines for a nice post-meal nap (I'm Jealous!) It also collapses into a pretty small little space, as evidenced by the picture below. Up next -- some new toys for Mommy & Daddy too!

It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That...

2009-07-08T19:33:00.002-05:00

In what has to be my quickest turnaround on a blog post, we're back with a few more new toys for our impending arrival. Soon to be Grandma & Grandpa Hickel were in town a few weeks ago, and took us to Babies R Us to look at few more items that we've had our eye on. After getting the Playpen/Bassinet & Stroller Set in the Graco Deco Collection, it only seemed right that we now add the Swing & Highchair in the matching pattern. Above is obviously the finished product, below is the "easy assembly", and then finally a picture from the 4th of July (when we had a little family cookout) of Kyson & Miss Jamie practicing strapping our little Monkey into the Swing.

In My Room

2009-07-06T00:31:00.014-05:00

Daddy is such a lazy blogger! I blame the summer, the pool, the Royals, the busy month of June (birthdays and anniversary), beer, etc. I can keep going.

Wow, getting back on the blog got me looking at the countdown. Only 93 days left! I've got a ton of stuff to post on here, so maybe I'll do this marathon style and start pumping out some posts. Last time I posted, I showed the re-painting of our little guy's room, and now, the finished product! Enjoy!

True Colors

2009-06-10T22:22:00.002-05:00

With 119 days left on the Official Countdown until our Baby Boy arrives, we decided it was time this week to get to work on his room. We recently acquired his crib bedding set, and the Baby Blue and Brown really clashed with the indescribable greenish/blueish/bleh that we decided to put on the walls in here back in October for some reason. Here's Daddy starting with a coat of primer (Mommy had to sit this part out) to cover up the teal-lish/navy mishmash. Mommy got in on the fun though afterwards, helping to do trim on the two coats it took to finally get our nice neutral cream color on the walls. Only 2 short days, and we just moved everything back in, and it looks great. More pictures to come!

Oh Boy!

2009-05-27T21:45:00.005-05:00

Chances are if you're reading this, you've already heard the news -- but there's the proof, right there in black and white. We couldn't have missed it if we wanted to, as the minute the doctor put the wand on Jamie's belly, there was our little guy, laying ass-up and showing us all his little goodies for the world to see. We were both VERY happy and so excited to tell everyone. The best part of the news is that our little boy is 100% healthy, growing perfect, and has well-developing organs that are all right on track. Grandma Geist quickly swept us up and took us shopping to get our little man's room under design. Those pics will be coming soon as well -- for now, enjoy the rest of our little boy's 2nd photoshoot:

More Than a Feeling

2009-05-21T23:59:00.002-05:00

Thats the big question that we'll have an answer to in just 5 more days. I know I've been a bad Daddy-To-Be when it comes to upcoming the blog, but we've just been knocking out the weeks till our next big milestone. And here it comes! Tuesday morning we'll know (hopefully) if it'll be a little boy or a little girl, a grand-daughter or grand-son, or a niece or nephew. We know Kyson thinks its a boy and Kaja thinks its a girl -- but what does everyone else think? Any inklings or feelings out there?

Right Here Waiting

2009-04-12T16:07:00.002-05:00

In a bit of a blog lull now as the season attempts to officially change over to Spring on this Easter Sunday. Mommy and Daddy to be will be going to a Royals game on Tuesday night, hoping that the 62 degrees and Sunny forecast holds up. Its about 45 and raining outside right now, so you never know. I thought I'd share the welcoming image of our Doctor's Office. The Center for Women's Health, at Shawnee Mission Medical Center is our place, and Dr. Giedt is our very friendly and helpful doctor. So far we've had nothing but great experiences there. Its only 5-10 minutes from our house, and we've spent no more than 5-10 minutes in the waiting area each time as well. Hopefully everything keeps moving along just as easily. Happy Easter!

Come Together

2009-04-05T14:24:00.003-05:00

Well it didn't take us long to unpack the first box and get things put together. Here is our brand new Graco Stroller/Travel System in the flesh. It was actually pretty easy to snap the few things on that needed to be snapped on. We really love this one because of the ambiguous but awesome design pattern (can be used for a boy or a girl, and then kept around for Round 2) and just because it was the easiest one that we tried out when it came to collapsing it and pulling it back up. Anyway, we're so excited to have this in the baby room to stare at for the next 6 months. We even put the base of the Carrier/Car Seat into Jamie's car, and decided that we really didn't feel like removing it, so its staying there until October too!

Hip To Be Square

2009-04-01T18:53:00.003-05:00

So Monday Jamie and I were over at my sister's house enjoying our day off, playing with the kids, and just visiting when my Mom kept calling and asking her if we had checked our mail yet. She was acting weird, but I didn't think anything of it. Then she calls me and asks me if we've checked our mail yet. I told her we still hadn't even left, and she said to make sure we go home and check it. I figured she sent a card with some Baby Money in it or something like that. Boy was I wrong. We pulled up to two huge boxes sitting on our porch, and I could see the "GRACO" from the driveway. She surprised us with the awesome Stroller/Travel System and Playpen that we'd been eyeing at Babies R Us. In my Mom's regular spy-like gift-giving fashion, we hadn't actually even shown her what we wanted, but she used her resources to figure it out anyway. Thanks Mom!! We love them! We put the Stroller together that night, and I'll get some pics up soon.

C'mon Baby Light My Fire

2009-03-29T11:53:00.003-05:00

Well I was planning on taking some pictures of the awesome new flowers we have springing up in our front yard, but nature intervened and decided to drop 6-8 inches of snow on us here at the beginning of "spring". At least i gave us a chance to cozy up next to the fireplace one more time. And it better just be one more time. Baseball season starts in 2 weeks, and with this Daddy-To-Be heading to the ballpark, I don't want to be wearing a sweater when the Royals beat the Yankees. We have a baby doctor appointment on Tuesday, so I'll be sure to share any news.

Freeze Frame

2009-03-17T15:35:00.002-05:00

We had our first Sonogram this morning -- at 8:40 AM! Earlier than either of us is used to, but I guess we better get used to it since our little baby won't have much of a timeclock when he first arrives. It was a pretty in and out trip -- waiting about 15 minutes, and then spending about 5 minutes with the Nurse to see our little guy. Just over an inch long, but he looks so precious in
his mommy's tummy. We got to hear the racing little heartbeat too, and take some pictures home to share, which I of course promptly scanned and got on the web. The nurse said everything looks great, and we're right on target with the date -- about 10 weeks and 5 days into the pregnancy right now. I love his little arms and legs!

Rattlesnake Shake

2009-03-11T19:30:00.003-05:00

Not much new news to report. Just counting the days till we get to go get our first sonogram. 6 days, for those that are counting. On Tuesday next week we'll get our first look at the baby, and confirm our due date and just how far along everything is. The picture above is the baby's first official toy. We found out on February 9th that we had a special little Valentine's surprise, so we both agreed not to get each other any gifts for Valentine's Day. But I couldn't help but just get a little something. We keep it around the living room just to think of our little guy or girl that is on the way in October.

Ooh Baby, I Love Your Way

2009-03-02T17:15:00.004-06:00

That's right -- we're having a baby! We found out on Monday, February 9th. We were out grocery shopping, and decided to pick up a test, even though according to the Calender we still had no reason to suspect anything. After wandering around the pharmacy section at Hyvee for a moment, we found them, and of course had to pick out the most expensive, pimped-out, digital version. We got home, put the groceries away, and I probably asked Jamie about 5 times if she had to pee yet. She said no every time, but I finally talked her into going in there and giving it a try. It said it would take about 3 minutes for most test results to show, sometimes sooner. I took it from her, held my hand over it so I wouldn't be tempted to check the results. She finished her business, came out in the living room, and we decided to check it even though it'd only been about a minute. And thats what we saw, right there above us! We confirmed it with the doc the next day and hurried to tell everyone our great news!

A New Day

2009-02-11T01:00:00.002-06:00

So after coming to a screeching halt on the House Blog near the end of our renovations, I've decided to re-launch this thing, and maybe mix up the color scheme and give it a face lift. With the house we got so into it that we forgot to document alot of things by picture, and thus updates were hard to justify. Plus, you can only type "today we painted somemore" so many times before redundancy sets it.

This time will have an even bigger process to document, and a longer period of time to do it in as well. jamie-and-jamie.blogspot.com V2.0 launches soon.

Carpet Time!

2008-10-07T12:07:00.003-05:00

So its been a long while between updates, mainly because we've been working very hard to get everything done. Finally we have the big change we've been waiting for, as we got our carpet installed yesterday. To say it makes a difference would be an understatement. Pictures don't really do it justice, but here are a few, complete with new curtains that we put up yesterday as well:

First the Master Bedroom, which has undergone a nice transformation from baby blue walls with cracks and tears in them, to a nice finished room with new brown walls, curtains, carpet, and of course that lamp that seems to sneak its way into every picture.

A quick shot of the walk in closet. Not much to see here, but a nice picture of the carpet.

And into the Family Room, now complete with carpet, vertical blinds, new paint everywhere, and a rug we picked up yesterday (have to keep the new carpet clean.)

And another shot of the Family Room, with our finished windows as well.

Move in Day is Monday, October 20th. 2 weeks, and we can't wait to get a few more little things finished up, and get moved into our new place.

Living Room Before & After

2008-09-22T01:49:00.004-05:00

I've officially given up on my quest to make all of the post titles be song names. Anyway, some more before & afters, this time the living room. Unfortunately we only took 1 before picture from 1 angle, but I think you'll get the idea:

And a few afters:

Its amazing how much the new paint adds to all of the spaces, especially the white that makes it all pop out. We just added some white wood blinds to the window, and have somemore furniture to bring in and arrange to our liking. But that's another room that's done and ready to be lived in. Tomorrow we'll continue working the paint in the few rooms we have left, and get our NEW Washer and Dryer delivered, as well as our NEW Grill. Can't wait, and I'm sure they'll be pictures to come.

After The Rain

2008-09-18T17:02:00.006-05:00

I guess I never realized just how difficult it would be to blog when we're devoting every moment to the house. If we aren't at work, we're at the house, or exhausted and in bed. But its all worth it when you see the progress we've made. After a week full of rainy days, hard work, and more help from the family (thanks Mom, Dad, and Brandon!) we finally have a few true Before & Afters to show. There will be more pictures once we get moved in and have all of our furniture in place, but enjoy for now the before and after of the Dining Room.

Clean floors, new paint on the walls and trim, new outlet covers and air duct covers, and finished off with a new and updated Chandelier. We absolutely LOVE it. It really makes all of the hard work worth it to see the pictures next to each other.

Paint It Black

2008-09-08T01:42:00.005-05:00

Among other colors. Its been almost a full week since my "before" post, and we now have 3 rooms officially FINISHED. No after pictures quite yet, as I have some setup left to do. We've been working all week, getting tons done, and getting more help from our great families. Its nice to have everyone willing to chip in and help us to really make this house into the home that we want to have. Last weekend when we first took possession of the house, everyone chipped in and helped. My mom Cindi, my sister Katina, my brother-in-law Jody, my niece and nephew Kaja & Kyson, Jamie's parents Jim & Karol, Jamie's brother Brandon, and even his new girlfriend Emily. We had a few good pictures captured from the weekend work:

My mom putting in some work up top in the Family Room.

Jody getting his roll on.

Kaja painting, yet staying so photogenic.

Kyson painting his name....

And then getting some work done...

And then being.........Kyson.

Thanks to all of our family members that helped us get a huge head start in the first week.

Good Riddance

2008-09-01T23:49:00.016-05:00

Warning: This post, and many to follow, will be big. Dial-up Beware. And shame on you anyway.

So today is Monday, and I haven't got a chance to blog since Friday when we signed our documents, because we've been busting ass every day since then. Thank god for our families, because we wouldn't even be 1/4 as far along as we are if it wasn't for them, and especially my Mom Cindi who took a break from her busy work life to help us all weekend, even while we were at work on Saturday and Sunday night. Anyway, we'll get to that. Right now, lets take a look at, and say bye-bye to, the OLD house. This will be the one and only time you get to see alot of these, but it'll be fun to do before and afters. So take a tour of the house we bought, and we'll journey together as we transform this bad boy into our home.

I realize we forgot to get a picture of the outside, but its filthy anyway, so we'll get to that. You walk in and see our living room. Not a very good picture, but a quick shot there of the fireplace. You then move through and see the Dining Room, pictured on the bottom.

Next we turn back around through the living room, into the Hallway of Doom. Its a little place, probably a total of 20 square feet, with 5 doorways, and 2 closets. Its awesomely ridiculous. We look into the Spare Bedroom, the only room we aren't painting, and because of that, it quickly became the room for all of our stuff.

From there we peer into what I'm calling the Den. Its gonna have a desk in it, so Den works for now. Door #4 in the Hallway of Doom leads us to the bathroom, pictured here on the bottom. It'll be getting some makeover love as well, although we're undecided exactly what as of now.

Finally we leave the crazy Hallway, and enter the "Long Hallway". We've found alot of confusion distinguishing between the two hallways, so we've got to think of something here. Anyway, you pass through this and check out the kitchen. Do you like Fuscia? Hope not, cause that stuff is history.

As you leave the long hallway, you had into the Family Room. I provided two pictures here. Has a fireplace, no floors (currently), and a sliding glass door that leads to the Patio and big backyard, which are two other things I forgot to take a picture of.

Not a very good picture here of either the master bedroom, and the master bathroom. Its okay, because both will be getting some serious change to them. I also should've snapped a pic of the walk in closet, but forgot in an episode of heat stroke after taking on the next project:

It sort of breaks the tour, as this room is off of the living room, back at the beginning, but I figured I would save the worst for last. The Utility room. It had linoleum tile that I'm guessing was 30 years old, and a decent sized patch in the middle was missing/broken/coming up. I decided it'd be a brilliant idea to scrape the 17 x 10 room and get rid of the tile. I was dying about halfway through AND had to go to the work for the night. Much to my surprise and dismay, I returned from work at Midnight to find the rest of the room completely scraped. I don't know if I've ever mentioned it, but I love my brother-in-law Jody. And I owe him 2 cases of beer now.

So thats the tour for now. Not pictured is the exterior of the front and back of the house, the back-deck, the garage, the driveway, and probably a ton of other stuff. This post was plenty long though. Coming up in the next few days: The power of family and their will to paint. The transformation begins!

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

2008-08-29T13:57:00.002-05:00

So we are home-owners. After a short meeting at the title company offices today, we signed roughly 3,000 pieces of paper, and officially became home-owners. We collect the key later today from the sellers, and finally get to go in and get our hands dirty, so to speak. I can't wait to see the place all emptied out, and finally get all of these ideas out of our minds and onto the walls of our new house. Many more updates to come shortly. It feels SO good to be done with all of the boring, mind-numbing work, meeting, paperwork, phonecalls, etc. Its time to have some fun.

Relax

2008-08-27T01:53:00.003-05:00

So, tomorrow is Wednesday, and the days continue to drop like flies as we move towards the weekend, and finally officially (kind of) closing on our house. Check out the pic above and you'll see our brand new Ottoman. We'd been searching tirelessly around KC for an Ottoman that would work with our furniture. We wanted something with that same Microfiber/Suede look that ours had, and with storage as well. We finally found this one online, and decided to go for it, because both of us were tired of looking at Ottomans. Anyway, a few simple screws on the tops, and it became part of our Living Room. Can't wait to put it into the new place, along with our new (old) Recliner.

Now to that new place. For the last month or so we've been building towards a September 1st closing date (the date originally suggested by our Lender.) I expressed to the Lender and to the Title Company the fact that September 1st is Monday, Labor Day, and everyone assured me it wouldn't be an issue. And wouldn't you know it, it IS an issue! But it appears we've got everything worked out now. We'll go in Friday to officially sign all of the documents, and the loan and settlement won't officially post until the next available day, which would be September 2nd. Luckily we're dealing with some very nice owners, and they have said that they have no issues getting us the keys once everything is a done deal and the documents are signed. Just another bit of stress and frustration to this final week, but we'll make it. We're waiting for official word that everything was great on the Appraisal (according to our Lender: "no news is good news") but the home-owners told us that things went great on Monday night with the Appraiser. Is it bad when we get more updates from the Home-Owners than from our Lender? I guess another one of the crutches of buying For-Sale-By-Owner without a real estate agent. But keeping that potential 3% commission sure is nice :)

The Final Countdown

2008-08-24T14:56:00.002-05:00

Just one more week and we will have our house. Waiting through this month of August really hasn't been that bad. I thank Preseason Football starting to keep me occupied and from thinking about it all the time. We've got one room in our house quickly becoming the "stuff for the house" room, with boxes, bags, and random odds and ends everywhere. But now, just one more week. We shouldn't have any issues, and we'll have our fingers crossed that we won't run into any problems.

Bed of Roses

2008-08-11T12:08:00.006-05:00

So I came upon our first awesome steal of what I hope is many while we're buying things for the new house. I went to meet my Mom and a friend to help them move something that they bought at a Home Decor place. After looking around the place, they asked if I wanted to run over to Bed, Bath, and Beyond with them before I went back home. I'm very glad that I did.

In addition to my Mom buying us an awesome Woodwick Candle, she also spotted something on the clearance rack -- that being the above King size Bedding set. I told her that we didn't really need a new bedding set, since ours was only about 1.5 years old, but I let her go ahead and check the clearance price anyway. Fully expecting to see at least 150 bucks, we were all a little blown away by what we saw:

Yes, that says "Was: 24.99....Now: 12.98". I was a little worried, because it was supposedly a Display model, and was listed "as is". But hell, it was 13 bucks, so even if I got it home and it had a big hole in it, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. My mom's friend Sue actually ended up buying it for me to thank me for coming and helping them with the artwork, so it was really a win/win for me. We all held our breath as we went to the check out, but sure enough, the clerk simply punched in the 12.98 price tag, and we were on our way (after the alarm went off because she forgot to remove the zipper lock on the bag. I was worried we were gonna lose it there.)

So I get it home, unpack it, and it looks perfect, aside from being wrinkly due to being bundled into a plastic wrapper for who knows how long. From the way it was packaged and folded, I really don't even think this was a floor model. Anyway, being the interested and savvy googler that I am, I typed in the full name of the bedding set to try and find out why it was so cheap. The first hit I got was for the Bed, Bath, and Beyond website. It looks like somebody messed up, just a little bit:

Wasting Time

2008-08-08T15:41:00.005-05:00

So, not much to really blog about while we wait (and wait) for September 1st to come. Jamie has a nice excuse, since she's back in Western Kansas this weekend for some bachelorette/bridal shower festivities for her friend Angie, who is getting married in October. I'm still stuck here, thinking about the house, and all the stuff we're gonna do to it once we get in it. I guess the first 1/3 of the month went pretty fast....I guess.

So, here's a little look at our Anniversary gifts that we got each other this year. Our 4 year Anniversary was on June 26th, and I spent some time googling looking for ideas for gifts. I found out that the 4th anniversary traditionally has a gift of Fruit. Well, I was trying to think of something cool with Fruit, and found this great place called Edible Arrangements. They do all kinds of edible fruit bouquets for all occasions.

Unfortunately, Jamie thought of the exact same thing. 4th year. Fruit. Bouquet. The only difference is she is creative, and I'm lazy. I bought a giant fruit bouquet, and she made me a pretty awesome fruit bouquet of my own. She felt kind of bad that hers was so much smaller, but I told her that a) it cost alot less money, and b) had alot more thought into it. Regardless, both of them were awesome, and we had way too much fruit in the house for the next 2 or 3 weeks.

And no, we didn't even come close to eating all of it.

Freeze Frame

2008-08-01T14:59:00.005-05:00

So like I mentioned, I might be stretching for content while we struggle through this last month on our way to September 1st. At least football starts, technically tomorrow with the Colts v Redskins opening preseason at the Hall of Fame game. Thank god for NFL Network and something silly like 55 preseason games.

Anyway, I put these posters together last night. Our awesome summer vacation to the Cabin in Grand Lake ended up taking us through Fort Collins, Colorado where we toured my personal favorite maker of beers -- New Belgium Brewery. As part of the tour you also got to sample 4 beers of your choice, which was cool, tasting some of their products that I'd only previously had in bottles. They had these awesome 12 v 16 posters available in the merchandise area, which I acquired at a discounted rate. I wasn't sure what I was gonna do with them, till Jamie suggested slapping them all into one big poster frame. I one-upped her and went with 2 awesome New Belgium posters, which will soon adorn the walls of the 3rd bedroom/den at our new house.

I Want a New Drug

2008-07-31T21:49:00.003-05:00

Well, a new rug actually. I was browsing craigslist (I'm becoming a major addict since we started into this house buying venture) for random household items, furniture, etc. and I stumbled upon this pretty sweet 4'x6' area rug. It totally fits with alot of the colors we're thinking of for many of the rooms, so I picked it up for a cheap 25 bucks. It isn't that I think its so incredible that I had to make an entry about it, but I really want to test out and get used to posting pictures on here, for when we get into the big stuff come September. Regardless, this rug rules, and I'm digging it.

Two of a Kind....Workin on a Full House

2008-07-30T15:53:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the blog of Jamie and Jamie. I am a chronic failure when it comes to blogging, but I thought this would be a great idea and way to communicate the important things in our lives to people that are smart and educated enough to be able to use the internet. Congratulations if you've made it this far.

So if you know Jamie and I from back in Hays, from College, from Wichita, or from currently in Kansas City, this is a good place to catch up with us, or just stay posted with whats going on in our life. We got married 4 years ago on June 26, 2004, and its been a wonderful 4 years, even if its been a little pedestrian. Its hard to blog about going to work, going out drinking, watching football, and just generally enjoying life. However, we've recently embarked on a new blog-worthy adventure that I thought would be great to detail here as we go through the steps.

We're buying a House! Finally, after years and years of living in apartments, rentals, and bouncing from place to place virtually every year, we're ready to settle down in a space we can call our own, fill with our ideas and concepts, and make into a real home. This of course will also enable to take that next step -- filling it with a family. And before you ask...no, not quite yet. I'll keep you posted.

We had a pretty particular idea of what we were looking for in a place. We wanted to stay right here in this area (near 95th and Metcalf in Overland Park, just block away from both of our jobs), we wanted 3 bedrooms and hopefully 2 baths, and enough room to not only live in now, but to grow a family in as well. Oh, and of course it had to be in our fairly average budget. Well, I don't want to spout to much hyperbole, but we essentially we found what is our perfect house. It fits all of our criteria (and then some) and needs just the right amount of work to let us add our personal touch to the place.

We've gone through most of the difficult steps already. House hunting was fun, and the pre-approval process was a bit tedious, but we made it, and checked another step off of our list this morning when we had a very successful inspection. Virtually the only thing left is the bank's appraisal of the property, and then it should be smooth sailing as we progress to our September 1, 2008 Closing Date.

I plan on supplying this space with TONS of before and after pics, our experiences doing the work we're doing on the place, and a great place to re-visit the memories of creating our first home. Pictures will be coming, likely not until September 1 or shortly after. I pledge to at least attempt to keep up with this thing, and hopefully someone out there gets some joy and information out of it.

Peace out!