Household Projects

We have a lot in mind for our new house.  Thats right - we officially own the house that we live in!  Nothing in the house needs to be fixed but we are excited to do some upgrades here and there.  So many in fact that I project we'll be done in about three years.  Just in time to move again :-)

 We got a pair of these awesome chairs from Mike's dad.  They belonged to Mike's grandparents.  We plan to repaint them white, make or buy some new cushions, and put them on our front porch.

 We've got one painted so far. Go Mike!!

 This shed took a few weeks to build.  The most time consuming part was building a level platform for it to sit on.  Apparently our entire backyard is at a slant.

 Some hibiscus trees from our neighbor that we need to plant.

 Our new hanging garden.  Mike built the frame :-)  We've got cherry and roma tomatoes and strawberries.

 Our regular garden,  Now we just need some soil.

 Plants to go into the garden.  Another of our neighbors gave us a tomato plant and 2 green pepper plants.  We also bought 2 eggplants and have seeds for carrots, lettuce, spinach, radishes, and asparagus. Whew.

 View of our backyard.  We want to add a little patio at the bottom of the deck and do something about the grass!

Side of the yard.  We're getting our tent ready for our big canoeing trip with the Munshis :-)

Lake Martin

We've found something to do in (well I guess near) Montgomery.  So you all can come visit now :-)

Two weeks ago we went to Lake Martin with some friends.  Its only about an hour's drive from our house and we rented a pontoon boat for 4 hours.  The morning started a bit cloudy but the sun came out about half way through and it was hot!!  It felt really good to cool off in the lake.  The water was just the right temperature.

 Mike found some debris from the recent tornados

 We used it as a flotation device

Nothing like the wind in your hair

(the driver is our friend Charlie)

Scotland for Thanksgiving

Just found this post that I started and then apparently forgot about.  Bonus post!

Last Thanksgiving (Nov 2010) we flew from Germany to Edinburgh and then spent a few days driving around the country.  We even got an extra day in London thanks to some snow and the Edinburgh airport closing.

Edinburgh - steps to the Royal Mile.  A lot of the touristy things to see in Edinburgh are on top of a large hill.  The castle and the Royal Mile are up here.  Castle on a hill - makes sense.

The Royal Mile.  I love Edinburgh with its cobblestone streets, old buildings, and tiny closes (alleys).

Scotland's Parliamentary building.  We actually stopped by here and got to see a session of Parliament.  It was like we were watching CSPAN but in real life.  Kinda cool, Mike really enjoyed it.

Edinburgh's Christmas market began while we were there.  We may have even been there for opening night - there were fireworks!

As we set off into the Scottish countryside we came across many snow covered roads.

Our first stop was Culloden battlefield.  The site where, in 1746 the British defeated the Scottish and the clans were massacred.

Then off to lunch in Inverness.  At a pub of course.  I probably had the fish and chips.

And of course we stopped to see Nessie.

Driving along Loch Ness we got to Urquhart Castle a bit late but still snapped this picture.

The Skarda's at Loch Ness.  Anyone see Nessie in the background?  No?  Neither could I.

I loved the Scottish Highlands.  So desolate and beautiful.

Also loved the Highland Cattle.  So cuddly :-)

We made our way to Stirling where we stopped by the Wallace Monument.  How could you not stop at the monument to the inspiration for Braveheart?

Mike poses with William Wallace's sword.

Our final day in Edinburgh we head to the airport.  There's about an inch of snow on the ground, no big deal.  Apparently that is a big deal because there is only one snowplow in all of Scotland and our flight gets cancelled.  Flashbacks to the April 2011 volcano.  What's with us and getting stuck in the UK/ Ireland?  We end up hooking up with another family from Spang, spend another night in Edinburgh, rent a car, drive 7 hours to London, spend a night there, and finally get a flight out the next morning.  It may sound difficult but it was much easier than the volcano :-)

Roadtripping (for free stuff)

My grandparents sold their house.  And they were nice enough to let me choose some of their furniture that they were getting rid of.  Mike and I thought Memorial Day would be the perfect time to fly up to MD for a week and then rent a truck to bring the furniture back - plus all of the tools and antiques we got from Mike's dad.  We already had the truck, might as well load it up!

We had an early flight out of Atlanta so we drove up the night before.  This was the view from the seafood place where we ate dinner.  We also drove around the city checking out Georgia Tech and some of the cute old neighborhoods.

When we landed in Baltimore my parents picked us up and we drove straight to the beach.  Of course we had to eat some crabs while we were there.  I think Mike demolished at least 3 dozen.

And we went to the beach were we saw Nicholas Cage.  Seriously!  What was he doing in Bethany Beach?

Just a regular guy huh?

After a few days of beaching and golfing we headed back to Frederick where we went to a beer fest with the Heffners.

Luna hangs out at Grandpa Skarda's

After an awesome week with friends and family we started out early on our 16 hour road trip to Alabama. I believe that sign says we're entering Virginia (I was asleep!)

Luna enjoys the trucker life.

I was an awesome truck driver.

Mike was an awesome sleeper.

We finally made it to Georgia!

Only to hit rush hour in Atlanta.  Oops.  But after our truck got booted mistakenly while we were eating dinner (fortunately we solved that quickly) we made it back to Montgomery around 9pm.  Not too shabby!