House Project: Painting our bedroom

We have a lot of projects we want to do here in the Sholl house and one of them is painting our bedroom. We've actually had the paint for about a year and a half now. We got it when we got our pressure washer (Marshik's, we've got our eye on you ;) ) back when Home Depot was having a good deal. Well we finally got around to painting! Cory really loves cutting-in, so if you ever need help, let him know ;) And I'm pretty handy with a roller! Here are a few shots of our progress so far.

Cory's Birthday

Cory doesn't seem to like to blog anymore so I will write about his birthday. It also gives me a chance to show off what a great wife I am ;) His bday was last Friday and he turned 27! I got him this beautiful tool chest that he wanted with some DVDs tucked inside (Transformers on bluray, and That 70s Show season 5). Please also note the beautiful handmade bow and card.

I also made him this delicious beef jerky

and this even more delicious chocolate cake with peanut butter icing!

We went to happy hour at Boondoggles on Friday and then downtown to see our friend's friend's band. It was a fun night!! I hope you had a great birthday baby :)

PS - I don't know what that stupid grey line down the middle of our blog is. If you know how to get rid of it, please tell us!

MUDD-E

Last weekend, me, Alicia, Nujoud, Lisa, and Melissa took a road trip to Fort Worth to get muddy! We did the Mud Run, a 10 k run with military style obstacles throughout. It was super fun, we overcame some fears of heights (me mostly), and we got really muddy! And best of all, everyone loved our t-shirts that had our team name, MUDD-E. Melissa was injured so she came along anyways and was our official photographer! Here's a link to the awesome pictures she took:
http://picasaweb.google.com/meliwallace/MudRun2008#
And here's a shot of us enjoying our Mudslides, post-race!

Next time, Melissa will be running, and I've already recruited Jaime too, and possibly even some husbands!

St. Lucia

Cory and I went on our honeymoon in beautiful St. Lucia! I can't believe it's been over a month since we've been back. I finally got our pictures off our cameras and taught myself how to imbed a slideshow (I think)! We had a wonderful time doing lots of eating, drinking, and relaxing, and we even caught the second half of the Penn State game that weekend! St. Lucia was beautiful, and the Sandals resort was great; when can we go on another honeymoon?
The picures are out of order because they came off of three cameras, but you'll get the idea! Enjoy!

Mr. and Mrs. Sholl!

We haven't posted in so long - after Hurricane Ike, we got busy wrapping things up at work and getting ready to leave for PA! Cory and I spent the week prior to the wedding at our respective homes with our families. I really enjoyed my time with my family and my bridesmaids, relaxing and getting all the last minute things ready. I know Cory had fun, too, wakeboarding in the freezing Susquehanna river and hanging out with his family.

The wedding was perfect; everything we imagined it would be! Friday, October 3rd was a beautiful, crisp day - the exact kind of Pennsylvania fall day I had hoped for. I was nervous all day and finally calmed down about an hour before the ceremony while I was getting dressed with the girls. But right before my dad and I walked down the aisle my heart started pounding! Once I saw Cory though, all those butterflies went away. He looked so handsome, and I felt beautiful. The reception was awesome and it was so great to see all the people we love, and know that they were there for us. We danced and drank the night away and it all went entirely too fast, but I keep replaying everything in my head and it was just the perfect day.

Here's a link to a blogshow that our photographer put together. Hopefully we'll get the rest of our pictures soon!

http://www.kmphotographystudio.com/SHOLLBLOGSHOW/

And now we're officially the Sholls, and I'm so happy to be able to call Cory my husband!

Coming soon... pictures from our fabulous honeymoon in St. Lucia!

Ike Aftermath

Last night we heard a rumor that our neighborhood got power back, and our friends the Marshik's were generous enough to drive by again and confirm this for us this morning. So we got some fresh food at Walmart, gassed up the truck, and headed out of San Antonio. So long La Quinta, you served us well, and if we ever have to evacuate again, we'll be back for your free happy hour!
We made it home in about 4 hours which is pretty normal for that drive. We started seeing damage as far out as Katy and it got worse as we got closer to home. We pulled into our neighborhood and people had piles of branches and fence at their curbs. Some of our neighbors even had soggy rolled up carpet because they had roof damage. Our whole time away, this whole thing seemed surreal to me, and seeing this, it finally sunk in for me that Ike hit Houston, the place where we live.
We finally got to see our house, and as our friends told us, it's fine. We don't even see a single shingle missing. I think we lucked out that we have a 1-story house and we're surrounded by 2-story homes on all three sides. Our front trees had some limbs missing and our already-crappy fence took a beating. We'll probably need to replace a lot of it. The biggest damage was to the large tree in our back yard, two huge limbs fell off which took about half of the tree with it. They're currently leaning on part of our fence and tomorrow we'll work on chopping it down and getting it out to the curb.
Here are some pictures. First, the ones I promised of our house all boarded up, pre-Ike. As you can see it is dark out, as it took us until about 10 pm last Wednesday to get this done.

As soon as we got home today, Cory un-boarded the house while I unpacked the truck. Then I cleaned out the fridge and freezer; threw out everything since we were without power for a few days. We took our patio furniture back outside and Cory repaired part of the fence that the neighbors hadn't gotten to yet so at least Cosmo can roam free in the back yard. Here are some pics of the damage.

So we're relaxing now, and excited to sleep in our own bed. As of now, we don't have work until at least Thursday, but I wouldn't be surprised if we were off the rest of the week. Overall I feel like we dodged a bullet. Yeah we need to fix some fence and we had to throw away a bunch of food from the fridge and freezer. But a lot of people have no home to return to, and no money to fix the damage to their homes. So I feel lucky that this is all we have to do, and that we are able to take care of it. Most of our friends homes have minmal to no damage as well, and I'm really greatful for them too.

Thanks to all our friends and family for checking in on us and keeping us in your thoughts! Hearing from you helped us get through those anxious waiting-hours. We can't wait to see you all in a few short weeks!

Ike Sucks

Hurricane Ike is barrelling down on Texas. Wednesday night we boarded up our house (pictures coming soon) and packed up some stuff, including my wedding gown in a giant rubbermaid container. We left early Thursday morning and caravaned to San Antonio with the Marshiks and the Wilkes. Alicia and Brent made it shortly after. We're all staying at a La Quinta. It's pretty nice, we got a government rate of $89, they have free happy hour each evening, and it's pet friendly. Between the 4 families we have 4 dogs, 2 rabbits and a bird!
Last night we used our evacuee status to our advantage and scored 3 free giant bottles of wine at the Macaroni Grill. So we've actually been having a pretty fun time here, and I'm glad we're all together. But we can't help watching the weather channel, waiting to see what will happen to our homes! A bunch of us are actually in me and Cory's hotel room now watching as the eye of the hurricane makes landfall. Keep us in your thoughts!
More updates soon...