Rob’s Dream Comes to Life

The very first time we were shown the house we now live in by our real estate agent, Rob had a dream.  It was truly a man’s dream.  It has occupied his thoughts as he has fallen to sleep at night for the last three months.  Yesterday, that dream was finally realized. 

From the moment we drove away from this house for the first time,before we had even considered actually buying it, Rob had already begun planning what his entertainment center would look like.  Over the past few weeks we have been adding speakers, laying speaker wire in the attic and crawl space, cutting holes in walls for new outlets, creating new Ethernet jacks, and been to the hardware store countless times. 

Yesterday we put a huge hole in the wall that looked something like this…

Yes, that is Rob inside the garage, cutting and I am inside my living room taking a picture.  I must say, I was a little nervous for what the end result would be.

For Christmas, Rob’s brother-in-law Chris, built us a cabinet for the now giant hole that we had cut into our living room wall.  Rob and I were both relieved when the cabinet fit perfectly into the hole we had cut.

Rob and I are both really excited with the end result. 

Now all of our entertainment gadgets and toys fit stylishly inside of our wall, with absolutely no wires to be seen.

 

It’s a pretty impressive set up for our little house.  I must say, I’m glad I married a dreamer.

As, I’m prone to say, “Good Job Rob!”

Happy New Year!

 

Per my mother’s family tradition, I made Rob eat his share of blackeye peas today. Tradition in the south (my mom grew up in Oklahoma) says that eating blackeye peas brings luck and prosperity in the new year.  I’ve eaten them every January 1st for as long as I can remember.  I even had them when I was on my mission in Northern Brazil.  My mom was kind enough to send them with my Christmas presents. Rob, who hates all vegetables, and thinks these taste like dirt, even at a spoonful to humor me. 

I looked it up online and found out that the tradition of eating Blackeye Peas dates back to 500 AD.  That’s a pretty good tradition and not one I plan on breaking in any of my future years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-eyed_pea

Happy New Year to everyone.  Rob and I wish you all a “lucky” year and hopefully a happy one!

White Christmas

Rob and I spent Christmas with his family in Great Falls, MT.  We had a wonderful time with his parents and his sister and her family.  We enjoyed games, chatting, and of course lots of food provided by him mom.  We also had the opportunity to go snowmobiling with a family friend, Ben, and Rob’s cousin, Colton. 

On Saturday morning we suited up in our snow gear and headed to the hills.  It was –5 deg when we got to the top, but the sun was shining and the snow was perfect.  Here are a few pictures from our adventures. 

Getting ready to go.

Rob was in heaven from the moment we took off.  More toys to add to his wish list.

Colton shows his excitement.

Beautiful views from the top.

There were tons of trails that led to various open fields were we could play around on the snowmobiles. 

Rob, Colton and Ben

Cindi playing in the powder.

Colton and Ben checking out the trail maps.  I still have no idea how they knew where we were and going and how to get back to the truck, but they were great guides and got us around without any problems.

Rob and I decided that it’s time to sell the Jet Skis and purchase some snowmobiles. 

Our Bathroom

We finally finished our bathroom.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

THE RED COUCH!

We finally went and picked up our new red couch.  What do you think?

Mounted TV

Rob and I finally mounted the TV on our Red Wall.  In order to prepare we painted the wall red and we put in crown molding to frame the TV.  The biggest project of all was mounting Rob’s center channel in the fireplace mantel.  We took apart the existing mantel, and Rob craftily used his chainsaw to cut the all of the wood so his center channel would sit perfectly in the middle. This was our end result.

The project is not done yet.  This is our halfway point.  Eventually there will be no wires hanging down.  They will all go through the attic and the crawl space to a recessed cabinet that holds the receiver, cable box, DVD player, etc.  Stay tuned. 

The Snowmobiles First Ride

So, Rob and I decided that we would take the free snowmobile for a test run on the snow. We loaded it up on the trailer, got dressed in our snow clothes and took off toward the mountains. We towed it with my Toyota Corolla and we got a lot of looks and laughs from bigger trucks on our way up the hill. We especially looked funny as we pulled into the snowmobile parking lot and we were the only 4 cylinder in sight.

We ran into a little trouble getting it started. When Rob went to pull the pull starter, it came undone and wound all the way back up into the snowmobile. Rob borrowed some socket wrenches and tried to fix it and get it put back together again.

Eventually he got it running and off he went on the snowmobiles first ride one the snow!

I waited for him to come back. To stay warm, I sat in the car and played games on my phone. About 20 minutes later here came Rob, being towed by another snowmobiler.

The end result…

To Rob's credit, we got it home and after a little work on the snowmobile, he got it running again. It wasn't blown up after all. We still own a free snowmobile, and we will take it out again for another test run. Hopefully the next one will be a little more fun and a little less work.