Let's Go Tigers!

My wife is the best. I haven't been to a Tigers game in four years, but lately I have been too busy to pay attention to their schedule. On Wednesday Heidi surprised me with tickets to see them play in Anaheim!

Do not be alarmed - Heidi is wearing the free Angels hat for warmth, not changed loyalties.

Yeah, that's Justin Verlander. I watched him from a couple feet away while he was warming up in the bullpen before the game.

It was back and forth all game; horrible pitching, exciting hitting. The Tigers won 12-10. We had so much fun. I told Heidi that going to the Tigers game helped me to feel like everything was right with the world for a few hours. Let's go Tigers!

More home improvements

I have tried unsuccessfully to reverse the order of these pictures. I know I could figure it out, but I don't have the time right now! Anyway, this past Saturday, Paul and Marcia (family from Temecula), came up to help us redo our bathroom floor. It was a very large project since the previous flooring was laid poorly and curved up the wall. Marcia had a great idea of covering the wall portion with a baseboard, but due to the curve, we could not get it flush against the wall. An extra quarter round, long nails, and some caulking ended up working quite well. We can't believe how different it looks and are so thankful we did it (with Paul and Marcia's help of course!).

Here's the old flooring up the wall with the new flooring against it. What a difference! Thank goodness for Paul's nail gun, saw, and many other tools he brought. This would've been an impossible task without him.
Paul and Noel worked from about 11-7 on the bathroom with only a break for lunch. Marcia and I ran to Home Depot twice, made lunch, gave our input/advice when asked, and looked through magazines together. I definitely think we got the better end of the deal!

We really debated about doing this since it's just an apartment and a temporary place for us to live, but after seeing the finished product, we're so glad we made the investment. It will definitely make our next couple years here a bit nicer. Whoever moves into this apartment after us is in for a real treat!

Visitors!

Mom, Dad, Grandpa, and Grandma came for a visit last week over Mom's spring break. It was Grandma and Grandpa's first time out here, and we had so much fun showing them around the area and letting them see where we live.
We enjoyed a delicious breakfast at Ruby's on the end of the pier at Seal Beach on Saturday morning. We had fantastic weather nearly every day, despite the predictions for clouds and rain. Following breakfast, we drove to Orange to see the Crystal Cathedral.
Following church on Sunday, we headed out for a drive and saw the Cathedral, Disney Hall, Hollywood, the many theaters in Hollywood, Rodeo Drive, UCLA, and more. It was quite the tour led by Noel!
Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa headed to the Santa Barbara area on Monday and Tuesday, where they ate on the pier, visited the courthouse and mission, stayed in Solvang (a Danish town), and had their first LA driving experience.
Noel and I have HATED the flooring in our kitchen from the day we moved into our apartment 2 and 1/2 years ago. Fuller is not the best at replacing things, so we decided to do a few home improvements ourselves. The old flooring was incredibly scratched and stained and no matter how much or how hard we scrubbed, it always looked dirty. New floors will make cleaning more worthwhile!
Wednesday was the last day the family was here, and Dad and Grandpa decided to help us out with our new floor. We are SO thankful for their help! It turned out to be a bigger project than we anticipated (which, we have learned, is the case with ANY home improvement project).
Above is a picture of Dad and Grandpa prepping the floor while Noel was at a church meeting. Mom and Grandma played games, and I worked.

Noel, Grandpa and Dad, laying the first strip of tiles (after a slight cutting mistake).

Noel putting in the final piece. Yippee!

After enjoying a nice dinner of pizza and beer at Manny's, and dessert at 21 Choices, we headed home and showed the fam all about the Wii. We have wanted to get my dad playing the handbells on Wii Music for a long time (since he plays in church). He was a great coach for Grandpa. Grandma was a natural, and mom caught on quite quickly, too!

As you can see, we had LOTS of big laughs over this.
Grandpa was a natural at tennis.

We're so thankful that they took the time to visit us. It's so fun for us to show people where and how we live. Thanks for coming, family!

I am an idiot

I had quite the day yesterday. I needed to pick up a few things from Home Depot and decided to do so while Noel was at a church meeting. After getting what I needed, I noticed that there was a Target just down the street. I also needed a few things from there, and decided it would be easier to run to this Target rather than the one in Pasadena (Home Depot is in a neighboring city about 20 minutes away). After successfully finding my way there, shopping for about 15 minutes (they didn't have what I was looking for), I headed back out to the parking lot. I walked to the area I had parked (right underneath a tree) and started to panic. My car wasn't there! I walked up and down the aisles of the lot, panicking more by the minute, but couldn't find the car. I hit the panic button on the remote, hoping to set off the horn, but no luck. I called Noel and told him that I thought our car was stolen. I was nearly in tears and headed back in the store. So many thoughts were running through my head. I couldn't believe someone would steal my new car. I only had it for a few months due to totaling the old car. I was thinking that I should never drive again. I told the first sales associate I saw that I thought my car was stolen. She led me to the security office and I gave them all the info. I took them to the spot in the parking lot where my car was and we then called the police. Upon giving the cops all the info, they said they were on their way. The security officer from Target said he would go back inside and see what he could find anything on their security cameras. Minutes later, he radioed another security member asking if I knew the license plate number of my car. Luckily I did (though I couldn't even give the cops my cell number...I was so shaken up I couldn't remember it!)! The officer relayed the number to the guy inside and he said, "I've got her car!". I was thinking, "Oh good, they can see who stole it and which way they headed". Instead, he came outside and led me to the actual spot my car was parked. I was just looking in the wrong area of the parking lot and was too far away to utilize the panic button. Needless to say, I was quite embarrassed and felt like a total idiot. In my defense, the Target was situated on a corner, with 2 sides to the parking lot that looked identical....trees and all.
Anyway, it made for a much more eventful trip to Home Depot than I anticipated. I'm very thankful to still have our car and I hope I gave all the people at Target something to laugh about.

Carlsbad

We love the fact that Lindsay's family has a family vacation home in Carlsbad. It's so fun to be able to drive just a couple of hours to visit friends! We had the opportunity to see Luke, Lindsay, and meet Isla just over a week ago. It was such a fun getaway for us and refreshing to spend time with "old" friends.

Isla got quite a kick out of Noel playing the piano. He had her laughing pretty hard. She's so adorable and we're so glad we got to meet her!
Although it was a bit windy and even a bit "chilly", we walked along the beach for awhile one morning.
Thanks for inviting us to Carlsbad, Rumohrs! We really enjoyed seeing you, spending time with you, and meeting Isla. See you in June!

Is this legal?

It's difficult to stay inside all day working when the weather is so beautiful. We had some really beautiful days last week and I got jealous of Noel reading outside on the porch. He said, "Why don't we move our office outside for the afternoon?". So, he brought out the coffee table (which extends upward), his desk chair, and my computer. I can't complain about working from home now! My neighbors may think I'm a bit crazy, but that doesn't bother me one bit. :)

"Garden"

We don't really have any room for a "real" garden at our apartment but we've always wanted to grow some of our own food. Thanks to the creative mind of our neighbor, Ryan, and the book The Urban Homestead we decided to try our hand at our own community "garden". We started a compost in a covered trash pail and collected lots of free pots to plan tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, beans, mint, and more in. Ryan is so great at watering the plants every day and tending to them. We can wait to see what works!