New Couch!

Things sure do happen fast around here....

Last week I started thinking to myself about getting a new couch. Our old couch is very comfy, but we just don't use it any more. Now that we moved, we watch tv and lounge in Matt's office/tv room on the new comfy double recliner couch. Our old leather couch holds the occasional guest and more often our laundry that is waiting to be folded. It's not really made for the slip cover I insist on using, so I'm constantly fighting trying to keep it on and looking right. A feather could fall on it and it would wrinkle...very annoying. I didn't see the point in suffering any longer.

Here is a pic of the old couch...

On the way home from the camping trip we stopped by a local furniture outlet (I was very anxious). It turned out that there were 5 big furniture stores just right across the street from eachother. We made a quick trip into each of them, but I was very disappointed with what I found.... everything is dark wood and dark leather, either tuscany or western. What about us cottage/shabby chic folks?? We went to the Stacy Furniture outlet, Ashley furniture, The Roomstore, Rooms to Go, AND the DUMP! There was only one that I remotely liked, but it didn't match our other couch.

I started the internet search this week. I even looked into ordering one that matched our other couch, but Hickory Hill went out of business 6 months ago... very depressing! Finally, I ran across Haverty's online. I figured they were the only ones in the area left to try. Sure enough, on their website I found just what I wanted!! It gets even better........ I listed our old couch on craigslist in the morning and within an hour I already had a call and it was picked it up by 7:00 pm! We decided to run to Haverty's to look around....we get there at 7:45 and when we walked in, a man greeted us by saying they close in 15 minutes.. he went on to tell us it was the last night for a storewide 15% coupon. I ran right over to "my" couch and we both loved it! Matt probably wouldn't use the word "love" but he did like it. ;) We saved $120 with the coupon and got $125 for our old couch, so we were very happy!

Here is my new red check gingham couch!! I do not like the pink paisley pillows... I will be using my Laura Ashley pilllows that Derek and Beth gave us for a wedding gift. They will make this couch look even better! Right now you will have to look at the pic of the old couch and imagine those pillows on the couch below... We should have the new couch by this weekend.

Throne Camping Trip '09

On our way to Fairfield for our camping trip, we had to detour through Arlington to stop by the fire station, so we got to see the Cowboy's stadium.... VERY impressive if you haven't been out there. Here we are inside the camper. Matt's parents got a new one this past year. It's very nice! Owen is chillin with his Uncle Matt.

Here is Owen and his grandma and grandpa.. getting ready for a hike!

Andy and Owen on the hike.

After our hike we walked down to the lake for some fishing....like 10 mins of fishing... then the guys got bored.

Owen loved swimming, or well crawling, in the lake...

He was a quick one!

Owen loved the sand and seaweed!

Play Date for Isaac and Annie

Here is a picture of Isaac and Annie. Amy watched Isaac one day while his mommy and daddy worked. He looks so cute in his new outfit from his Grand-Memere!

Patriot's Day

Grampy had his picture in the paper for the Patriot's Day ceremony in Fitchburg. It's a New England holiday to remember and honor the original American patriots and also those currently serving their country. My grandfather, "Grampy", is on the far right.

Frogs, Frogs, Frogs!

On Saturday night, Andrew spent the night with my parents. For Sunday lunch we went out to eat and he got a balloon...not just any balloon, a GREEN one! He was soooo excited! He accidentally let it go at my parents house.. we thought it was a goner since they have 20 foot ceilings, but Pepere and the broom came to the rescue! I love my nephew... he's super cute!!

Frogs, frogs and MORE frogs!! and hopefully NO more! As much as I love these little guys (sorry, Courtney, but I do like frogs) I do not like them in my pond mating! We started out with one swimming around occasionally and enjoyed it, but now she has called all her friends. Their time there has now ended. Saturday night they kept us up croaking all night long...then Sunday morning before church, I found 5 in the pond... two couples mating. So I scooped them out into a bucket and after church my parents, Andrew and I went to Chisholm Park for the releasing. They had already laid hundreds of tiny eggs in the bucket.

This morning, I went out to feed the fish and dogs and I found two MORE frogs mating in the pond (this makes 7). Unfortunately, they had already laid their eggs all over our pond. With a stick and a scoop I gathered what I could.. I'm sure there are a few survivors floating around, but I got the worst of them. For those of you that don't know, hundreds of frog eggs become hundreds of tadpoles that become LOTS of frogs that will keep coming back to your pond to mate... this is why it is NOT a good thing. On my way to work I took these two frogs to Chisholm too. You can see some eggs in the pic... they look like this -----> ............................. And they actually connect like that in VERY long strings.

Here is they are released back into the wild. =) Ribbit

Today is the animal blog..... (okay, I've always been a fan of "...." now all I think of are frog eggs!) here is a cute pic of my "drama queen" sleeping... I can hear her now, "Will someone pleeeeeeeease turn off the sun! I'm trying to sleep here!!"

Puppy dogs!!! Here's my beautiful Maddie! Don't believe those eyes...she can be a stinker!

They love their bones! All we need are two bones and two stuffed dogs and they are happy. They won't play with anything else.

Here they are... Mav's legs look extra short in this picture. We had an electrician come a few days ago to hang our outdoor fan. After a while, he finally asked Matt what kind of dog he was... no one can figure it out... Maverick is what happens when a bassett hound mixes with a shepherd. He sure is cute! I'm going to start telling everyone he's some fancy new breed! ;)

New website

check out the new brace center website I've been working on... www.bracecenter.com

What a busy month!

Happy birthday to me and mom! Yes, I know I'm a few weeks behind posting our bday party pics, but the week following our birthdays, we both got terribly ill! After a week in bed, a trip to carenow, antibiotics, and an extra couple weeks of a wheezy cough, I finally got over it. Then for the past couple weeks I have been playing catch-up at work, home, and we also had a Throne family garage sale in Stephenville one week.. and then a Pelletier family garage sale in Irving the next weekend. Crazy times!

Here are some pics from our birthday party... Andrew and Isaac had fun playing in all the tissue with their Derek and Matt...
Things sure get messy with kids around!

Matt has finally warmed up to Isaac. They enjoyed playing together at the garage sale.

Kaitlin and Isaac...They are like twins...

They love playing together...they are always fascinated with the toy the other one is playing with.

Here are all the exciting birthday presents! Thanks to everyone for all my wonderful presents! I love them all!

The pretty table and Tres leches cake (mmmmmmmmmmm!). Mom did a good job (as always) preparing for our bday meal. Unfortunately, she always has to help throw her own party! Love you, mom!

Grand-Memere and Isaac...she bought him a swimsuit and hat. Here he is modeling his hat.

He loves his new hat!

Please excuse the terrible sun-glare shining in.... here is Isaac and his Grand-Memere and Paw Paw. Thanks Memere and Paw Paw for coming to our party. We love you very much!

Here is Isaac and his Memere modeling her b-day iron bench.

Peek-a-boo!

Here is a pic I found from several weeks ago... Isaac came to visit us at the brace center.. and no he wasn't shipped to us.. he was just playing in the box =)

This past month was our last few Stars games for the season. Unfortunately, we did not make the playoffs this year.. it's bittersweet... I'm sad we can't go to more games, but it save us lots of money from playoff tickets!! Overall, it was an exciting season.. even though we had lots of games surrounded by crazy fans! We will have to start buying lottery tickets so we can have a suite or platinum seats!

This is one of my favorite places to be........

MARTY, MARTY, MARTY!!!! my favorite!!!

The past few weeks we have been working and planning on some new house projects. We are still loving our new house! Here is a picture of Nala looking out the window. She's so cute.

On Easter weekend we decided to tear out our closet and start over! Last week I had this vision of what we could do. We had lots of hanging rods, but we couldn't utilize them well and I just felt so crowded! So we decided to rip out the shelves (which wasn't much) and the rods and also painted. Then we bought some closet cabinets from Lowe's. We added a high rod for off-season clothes, so now on either side of the closet, we have two long rods. We both can reach the upper clothes, but for a short person, they might have to have a step stool. It's much roomier now. I iron in my closet so it helps that it's not so crowded.

Inside the cabinets we have room to stuff pants, more clothes, purses, etc. It's nice!

It's hard to tell a whole lot from the pics, so everyone will have to come see it soon! We LOVE our new closet and can't stop going in there!!

Our next project on the list is to redecorate our guest bath. I painted and decorated it just like our last house, but I just don't like it here. So, I'm going to re-paint and go a whole new theme! I can't wait! Maybe this weekend between my two baby showers I will get a chance to work on it! Check back for pics!