Guess What!

We got a little doggie!!! Forrest and I have been looking for a Yorkie to adopt for the past couple of month now. However, we really wanted to adopt and give a sweet dog a new home but the little dogs either go really fast or never come into the shelters to begin with. So today, Forrest and I went to PetSmart to just "look" at the pet supplies. We saw that they were having adoptions but at first we only saw the cats. After going to the back, we found that they had about four dogs to be adopted. And in the first crate was an adorable little boy Yorkie! His papers said that he was about 6 years old but that he could be younger. He was so calm and gentle that we decided to fill out an application. They interviewed us on the spot since it was the end of their adoption time and decided that we could take him! The people at 4 Paws Sake said that 4 other people had filled out applications earlier today but they would not let them adopt him for various reasons. I guess he was meant to be ours because they let us take him. We named this sweet little boy Dudley, in honor of the address of our first home together. Here are a few pictures of our little boy.

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

Forrest has been so sweet this week. Not that he's not normally sweet, but he has gone above and beyond to make me feel special and adored. He knows that my love language is gifts and has been surprising me with small little things throughout this past week. It has mostly been food, but those who also know me know that I never turn down food, especially something sweet! On Monday, Forrest surprised me with homemade cookies from the Cookie Lady who has a shop here in town. They were some of the best cookies I've ever had! On Tuesday, I received a candy apple from The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. I have always wanted to try one of their candy apples, and now that I have I can say that I'm definitely a fan! Forrest took a break on Wednesday so we could finish the cookies and on Thursday we went to one of our favorite bakeries in Perrysburg, called The Baker's Kitchen, to pick out yummy treats. Finally, when I got home from a meeting last night there was a beautiful bouquet of flowers waiting on the kitchen table. This morning Forrest took me to brunch and this evening he cooked a wonderful surf & turf meal of fillet mignon and lobster tails. The second course is still cooking so I will update on that later. Forrest also surprised me with chocolates from my new favorite chocolate shop right around the corner from our house. It's called Cheron and I requested that from here on out, all chocolates purchased should be from this store. It is absolutely wonderful. We love dark chocolate and they have tons here...as well as lots of milk chocolate if that's your favorite. And to make things even better, they make all of their products at their main store about 10 miles away. 

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Happenings Around the House

Over the past couple of weeks, Forrest and I have been finishing up some projects around the house. Usually, the only time we have to work on these projects is on the weekends, so they're taking a little longer than we expected. First, we've been repainting our kitchen cabinets. We've been working on them for about a month and I think we just might finish them today! Below are some more pictures of our progress. More to come of our finished product.

Everything from our cabinets had to go somewhere....and the dining room table won the vote. The weird plastic on the windows in the back is there because we were getting new windows and wanted to keep dirt and paint chips out of the house. However, never listen to a sales man because they are NOT the contractor and the contractor decided they would remove the widows from inside the house, not outside. So our plastic was useless. Oh well, you live and learn, right? :)

Our cabinets before we sanded and repainted...gross right?

Last week as I was shoveling the snow, I thought I would take some pictures to let everyone South of here, know how much snow we really have just hanging around. Although, it's supposed to warm up today and actually get into the 50's later this week!!! 

Finally, the last pictures are of our living room after I decided to move the furniture around (sound like anyone you know mom?) and hang some pictures. I think our next project will be refinishing the downstairs hardwood floors. More to come on the progress of that task. But I will say I am slightly dreading the mess a sander makes!

Where In The World Are The Secosky's?

I can't believe it's been a month an a half since I've last blogged! It doesn't feel like much has happened since the beginning of December, but as I think back, I guess we have been pretty busy. Let's see....

• Ally stopped by on her way home from the ranch for a few days
• I finished my fist semester of grad school
• We spent Christmas at Massanutten Ski Resort in Virginia with our families
• The guys came over from Cleveland to spend New Year's with us
• Alyse weathered the cold to visit for a week
• I began my second semester of grad school 
• and started my new graduate assistant job on campus with the PLA
• We both survived the ABSOLUTE coldest weather we've ever experienced
• I'm in the process of applying for my dietetic internship
• We purchased  27 new windows for our house...they're coming next week!
• As we speak, Forrest is sanding our cabinets so they can be repainted and spiffed up!

So...maybe we have been slightly busy. Here are a couple of pictures from the past few weeks. Enjoy!

Our little tree and presents

The mamma's

The view of the slopes from our porch. They blew snow for over 48 hours!

The sunset from our porch

Lots of stockings....Santa even made it down the chimney

My dinning room..including the new light fixture Forrest installed

Forrest removing the old porch light and getting ready to install a new one

Forrest wrapped up before heading out in the -30 degree weather

Painting our cabinets 

Newly painted cabinets, minus the doors

Cabinets before a fresh coat of paint...gross!

More pictures to come of the finished cabinets.

I Should Really............

blog more. But until the 30 pages of research papers, group project, presentation, and exam are over, it won't be happening. Only 2 more weeks to go and how I will get it all done, I have no clue! Until then, pray that I don't go crazy. Here is a picture of my current appearance. Maybe there will be some blogging of the wonderful silver lining of Ally's visit to Ohio...only 2 more days! 

Our First Snow

This past weekend we had a few flurries and then on Tuesday morning we woke up to about 2 or 3 inches of accumulation. Right now it is 27 degrees outside and it's only November. I can't imagine what January and February will feel like!

This weekend's flurries

It didn't stick this weekend but they were some of the biggest flakes I've ever seen!

Very early Tuesday morning

A Late Halloween Post & Some Chaotic House Pictures

Sorry this is so late but I wanted to post some pictures of Forrest and me carving our pumpkin. We bought this pumpkin at church in Cleveland about a week before we left for the Bahamas. We then packed it in my car along with a knife so that we could carve it on Halloween. Here's how it turned out:

Also, here are a few pictures of our house in progress. The first thing we did when we got our keys was start cleaning the walls. We got a powder called Trisodium phosphate (TSP) that you mix with water and roll on the wall. We wiped EVERYTHING down with this stuff. And I mean everything. Then we caulked all of the cracks and around every window and molding. After that we cut and taped all windows and put paper on the floors upstairs to protect them from paint. We also covered the kitchen cabinets and doors. Next came the paint sprayer. We rented one from Sherwin Williams and sprayed primer on the entire house, ceiling, walls, doors, and windows. Basically anything that didn't have paper or carpet over it. We did the primer on a Saturday night and because it smelt so bad we had to get a hotel room! Don't let the Killz bucket fool you. It's not low odor! The next day we returned to Sherwin Williams and bought our wall paint, a low VOC, environmentally friendly, NO ODOR paint! It was wonderful. We then sprayed all of the walls upstairs and downstairs, except the kitchen, bathroom and 3rd bedroom. I'll paint those another color later. The Sunday night before the movers came we ripped up the carpet downstairs and pulled lots of carpet tack. Since then, we've been finishing all of the trim and touching up the walls. There is still a lot to do but I will post the first pictures now and later I will post ones of a more finished product.