We're Lame I know

I feel like all of our blog posts are the same....we are remodeling such and such and we squeezed in a hike somewhere. Sorry for the repetition but that's our life these days, simple, unvarying, but pleasant.

So on that note, here's the house update:

After a year of remodeling, we finally contracted a project out--the carpet. We still tore out the old carpet and installed the padding and tack board ourselves, but we actually paid someone to come do some work for us. It was FABULOUS! I loved going to work in the morning and coming back to a completed project that I contribued nothing to!!! Our entire upstairs is now carpeted, which brings me to the next picture which is the beginning of the nursery (one of the rooms upstairs). As you can tell it needed a little TLC. Sorry no "after" pictures yet, we still need to figure out whether to add blue or pink before we can finish it all up. I had our ultrasound scheduled for next week but I postponed it because Erich is off on another fire detail. This one is in an inital attack assignment down in New Mexico with a 20 man smokejumper crew.

With no Erich around I took the liberty of sluffing off remodeling work this weeked. Instead of slaving away on the house I enjoyed Saturday biking with some good friends along the Lewiston River. It was a very fun little adventure and the day of sun and relaxation was much appreciated! I should have taken pictures because the trees were blooming and it was gorgeous.

(Erich's sheetrocking what used to be lovely wood paneling)

I've been trying to avoid the camera like the plague but because people keep asking me, here's a prego pic.

One snowy b-day

You might be wondering why I am posting a blurry picture of Erich, but it was snowing so hard that I couldn't get a clear picture. Erich hasn't had too many snowy birthdays so this is a picture of him and Libby celebrating his b-day in the snow! The weather here is crazy, it snowed for weeks straight then we had 3 sunshiny days that were 70 degrees and bam, back to snow again today...like 4 inches and still snowing kind of snow!
This is a hike Erich and I went on to get out of the house and to celebrate the sunshine. It's beautiful, steep country right off the Clearwater river (about 2o minutes from our house). We started from the base of the mountains you can see in the background so as you can tell it was a a pretty big, fun hike.
This is a picture from one of the viewpoints we stopped at so I could rest.

The Week of Surgeries

This was a much anticipated week for Erich....he finally got LASIK surgery!!! For those of you who don't know Erich is (or was) quite blind without glasses or contacts, which are quite inconvenient when you work as a firefighter. So he finally got the eyes fixed. We went down to Boise for the surgery and it was quite a fascinating process. The actual laser surgery took less than 40 seconds per eye. Erich was a little discomfortable the day of the surgery, but he could see pretty clear the morning after. The doctor says he has a blurry 20/15 vision (which is better than 20/20). It will take 30 days for his vision to completely correct itself, but so far it's been amazing! It's definitely very exciting.

Libby felt left out of the excitement so she jumped off the embankment and got a gnarly cut on her leg. We took her to the after hours vet, where they had a Pet ambulance. We thought it was pretty funny so we took a picture, but no, Libby didn't get to ride in it (Can't imagine how much that would have cost). The next few pictures are of Libby the gimp. We spared you pics of the actual wound since we already traumatized you with Erich's stomach. It's been pretty sad, hopefully she'll heal up quick cause we miss our little hiking buddy.

So we are back in G-ville now, but it was sure fun spending last week in Boise. We got to catch up with good friends and squeeze in some shopping. And I had fun looking at baby stuff :)

The sunny days of Boise were a much appreciated break from the snowy, gloom of G-ville. It was storming when we left and returned to G-ville but it was t-shirts and sun for a few days there in Boise. I just love having such a considerate boss who let me work from Boise last week so I could go down with Erich. It makes Erich's traveling a lot easier when I get to go with him!

The Week of Surgeries

We're Back!!!

Sorry we have been such slackers it has been one crazy month for us. Right after I got back from the murder trial Erich got the opportunity to go to Arizona to burn and saw for four weeks. He just got back on Saturday and we got right to work on the house. So here are the pictures of the upstairs bathroom we finally finished! Wohoo, I am so excited!

(This is a before shot with the sink and toilet taken out, so beautiful huh)

(Our bathroom was so tiny we couldn't even fit in a vanity, so we decided to use the closet in the next room to expand out our bathroom. Unfortunately this little remodeling project required plumbing work for Erich which as you can tell from the picture is not his favorite job)

(Once a closet, this is now home to our vanity. We are still shopping around for a mirror some wall decorations and a new light bulb!)

(It's hard to tell the layout of the bathroom from the pictures. You walk in the door and to the left you have the old closet which is now the vanity section and which is partially closed off with a wall, then to the right you have the bath and toilet area)

(Libby feeling so entertained while we're upstairs working)

Surprise!!!

WARNING! This posting may contain graphic content not suitable to weak stomachs. View at your own risk.

It took almost 5 years in the making.....

Lots of dedication and hard work, but it finally paid off....

Erich got Kara pregnant!

DISCLAIMER: Pictures were not actually of Kara's stomach but of mine. Got ya!!

.....but Kara really is pregnant, just more modest than I.

Lots of Different Things

(one of the many snowmounds in Wallace...notice the roof in the background)

(This is a really neat antique store in Wallace that had a bunch of amazing mounts among other intriguing items...made us excited for the hunting season. You would love this place Di!)

(Cross-country skiing near Wallace)

(Quite the rack....this is what Erich is dreaming of for the 2008 Buck season!

Well I am back from Wallace! The murder trial was supposed to last 3-4 weeks but wrapped up in two, thank goodness. So I got home just in time for Valentines day. The jury found the defendant GUILTY and so it is back to prison for him. Although it was hard to be away from home I learned so much at the trial. It was such a neat (though not particularly enjoyable) experience to be part of a murder case the first year out of law school. It was nice of course that I didn't have to be one of the lawyers presenting. Researching the law is much easier than cross-examining a bunch of death row witnesses. Anyhow the case was rather time consuming so it feels good to have it wrapped up. As I mentioned the trial was in Wallace, Idaho (by Coeur D' Lane). Luckily Erich had training in Coeur d' Lane the first week of the trial and so I would drive back and forth every day so I could spend my evenings with him. Then we spent the weekend in Wallace which was quite the Winter wonderland. There was definitely at least four feet of snow everywhere in Wallace. The one snow mound in the picture was in the parking lot of our hotel...Libby loved us throwing her toy up there. She's sure one snow loving pup. Anyhow it was nice to not be working on the house day in day out. We went snowshoeing and ran right into a moose and then we went on a rather exhausing cross-country skiing excursion. Anyhow that's our little update. Sorry we've been MIA the past weeks.