Happy Birthday Melissa

Today we were able to celebrate my sis in law's birthday, with her family and friends. I always love a time to get together and eat, so what better time than a birthday.


This is the usual group of suspects. We always seem to get along great, and have a wonderful time when we are together, so why change a good thing?

Michael was in charge of the grill....the rest of us brought in a side item to go with the burgers and brats that he cooked. There is something about the nicer weather that makes those burgers and brats taste that much better.



The yummy spread that we all put together and thoroughly enjoyed this lovely afternoon.


The birthday girl herself, with her homemade strawberry cake that was oh so yummy. Don't ask what went into the frosting, but let me tell you man it was yum-o!


Of course Katelyn had to help mommy blow out the candles on her cake....she is such a big helper.

We sure do love birthdays around here.....it's always a great time!!

Let the remodel begin....

Ok, now that the house is officially ours, there is a TON of work that we want to do to make it that much nicer. This weekend kicked off the remodel of the new house. There is a slew of things that need to be done, but like anything else, there is a priority list.

First things first, the fence needed to be fixed. There were two sections that were laying flat on the ground.

Now that it's all fixed, we don't have to worry about the girls getting into anything they aren't supposed to. In fact, they pretty much spend most of the time outside while we are working inside.


Priority number two was to get the ivy cut off the bottom of the trees, in hopes that the trees will survive and bloom this year.

Mike started to remove the ivy, and of course, Sidney was there ready and willing to help. I started to help Mike with the ivy, and by the end of the daylight hours, I had taken it over. By the end of the day yesterday, there had been some progress made.

These are the same trees that Mike and I started on. They look so much healthier without all the ivy around their bases.

This is just the start of what will be a very large pile of ivy, once it is cleaned out of our yard.


Ahh the sweet sign of progress. When I started today, all these trees were covered, and now they are ivy free. Well at least around the bottom half they are.


Here I have started to dig up the ivy roots that surround these trees. It's quite the project, and is going to take a few days to get them all dug out.

The last project that was outside was a very simple one. In fact, it only took Mike and Robert a few minutes to get it done.


When we started to look at this house, the mailbox was in the front yard, covered with snow. Mike decided that we needed to put the mailbox back on it's post, since this is now a owned home that is undergoing remodeling.

Upstairs just off the kitchen is what we are calling the sitting room. We will eventually have some chairs to sit and and just hang out.

This is what the sitting room looked like when we bought the house. After today's remodel this is how it looks...

Things look a little different now....the carpet is gone, and we have all the doors resting against the wall. It is serving as a sitting room, at least while we eat our lunch.

Hallway with carpet...


Hallway without carpet....

Pulling up carpet is a group effort, as you can see. Each one of us pitched in, and we got quite a bit done today. Tomorrow brings more projects and hopefully more accomplishments.

Home Owners!!!

Well, we made it through Thursday, without too much of a hitch. So it is official, Mike and I have bought a house. The entire process was pretty smooth, but by the time this last week rolled around, we both were ready to be done with it, and call the house ours. So after we closed on Thursday night, in honor of the home being ours, there was one thing we had to do....celebrate!! This is how we did it....

We changed the locks!! Now I know that all of you are wondering why we would be so wild about this house, but rest assured, we are now ready to hunker down and start the hard work.

One More Day.....

One more day.....that's it. A little over 24 hours. (Truthful it's 28 hours, in case your curious.) Just one more day until our lives change for the better. One more day until our weekends are packed full to the max for a few months. One more day when neither one of us will have a day off, even though we won't be getting paid for the work that is being done. One more day until the waiting for something bad to happen will go away. I know that Mike will be happy in one more day, since he won't have to put out any little fires like he did last night. For that I am so grateful!

This entire process has been so much fun, anxious, and stressful at times. I'm 100% sure that it is all worth it in the end. Just one more day of waiting....I feel like a little kid at Christmas. The more I think about it, the more excited I get.

I'm usually a pretty patient person, but this entire process has taken the patience out of me. I just want it all to be over with. I want to to say it's ours. I want to start the transformation and enjoy the process, and look back and be so proud of what we have done.

Just one more day.....

Home Sweet Home

As most of you know, Mike and I have spent the past month on buying a house. Since it is a foreclosure that we are trying to buy, the process seems to be a little longer than the normal one. Rest assured, good news came down the pipe today...we are closing on this house on March 11th!!(Baring anything stupid happening, that is the date we are shooting for) So it's almost official!

Since all of you have been waiting in suspense on what the new Gressler home may look like, I've decided to post some pictures of our future home...

Lovely, isn't?? This is what we will get to come home everyday and where we will finally get to call our home.

Here is the house from the back. We all were enjoying the time outside, checking out the house while enjoying the sunshine.

The view from across the back yard. Nice and big, and with a fence. That way the girls will have plenty of room to run around, and we don't have to worry about them running a muck in the neighborhood.

Hopefully these pictures will tide you over until after we close. Once we take ownership of the house I will post pictures of the inside, so all of you can see the before, during and after shots of the house. I want our hard work to be appreciated by everyone!!

Oh this is SSSSOOOO exciting!!

Feels like spring

Ok, maybe it didn't feel like spring, but it sure was a nice weekend here in Kentucky. So what better way to spend the weekend, then taking the girls out for some much needed exercise?? There is a park not to far from our house that we take the girls to play ball. Technically all dogs are supposed to be on a leash at this park, but it's not like we're not the only ones who aren't following that.

Ahh, some much needed running!! These two LOVE to run, and would run themselves to death if we let them.

I had to post this picture only because I laugh every time I look at Sidney's ears. I know she is is in mid-stride, but it still makes me chuckle.

Something interesting.....maybe, maybe not. I'm not quite sure yet.

And she's off....

I'll catch you, just wait and see...

Even Briley gets into catching and bringing the ball back at times, usually she just likes to run along side, but sometimes she will go get the ball.

Of course we all know how much Sidney loves her ball. This is a very normal sight to see, and usually she will have the ball with her.

And at times, Briley gets in Sidney's way and this is what happens. We end up with a tangled up mess of dogs, not really paying attention to where they are going.

Days like this make me really want spring to be here. I'm ready for warmer weather, and spending the weekends out and about.

Why I haven't posted....

For those of you who have been wondering why this blog hasn't been updated in awhile, let me reassure you that everyone here is fine. I know that all of you out there have been very very worried about us here, but we all are ok. =)

The fact is that it is winter, and it's been really cold, and there has been alot of snow to deal with here. ( I know not as much as some of you have had to deal with, but here in Kentucky, what we got is alot.) But that is not the mail reason why. So let me explain.

The day after Mike's birthday we stared to look at buying a house. Not surprising how things seem to work in our lives, but we actually found one that we both liked and wanted to buy the first day out. So we have been dealing with that. Everything was going well, until we hit a few snags in trying to get the house inspected, and until this week, we have been dealing with that. As of right now we are waiting to hear from the bank on when the plumbing will be fixed, so we can inspect the house. So you see this, is the first weekend that we haven't been dealing with all that. I'm not going to post any pictures right now, but once we move forward and if we buy this house, there will be plenty of pictures of it, since there is some work to be done.

How exciting is this??