What's in a name?

5 Amazing Years

June 19th 2009 was our 5th wedding anniversary. We took Emma to Jim and Sue's about 3pm on Friday for an overnight stay. Our first time away from her overnight. She was pretty excited to see us go and was happily waving bye-bye and saying "later". I also taught her how to say Chudzick, which comes out "Chug-it", but it's really cute! After dropping Emma off Andrew headed home to change out the towing wires in the Santa Fe. Our trailer lights haven't worked in about 3 years, so he finally fixed them. I headed to my favorite grocery store, Woodman's and picked up stuff for Father's Day lunch and some beer. They have the cheapest beer there and an amazing liquor department. We met up at home again just in time for a glass of wine and for Andrew to get cleaned up before dinner. We had reservations at a new to us restaurant, The White Chocolate Grill. The food was pretty good and the conversation was even better! I had the ribs and chicken and Andrew had the steak. The ribs were really good and so was the steak, even I liked it. We finished up our dinner about 10pm, nearly 4 hours after we started it! It was so nice not to have a sitter to hurry home to. On Saturday we both got to sleep in, which was nice. Andrew started working on the deck and I cleaned the house. It was nice for both of us to get stuff done since we didn't have to watch Emma. We got to have a quiet lunch at our favorite hot dog stand, which was super yummy! Emma came home about 4pm from Jim and Sue's.

Here are some pictures of us on our wedding day. We look like babies!

Mr. & Mrs. Chudzick

Us at the reception

At the airport leaving for our Honeymoon

Creating a Deck

We decided to put a deck on the house this year and we are both really excited about it. We're both pretty sick of sitting on the front porch when we want to relax (lack of privacy) and we like having Emma play in the backyard because the driveway is steep. In the end the deck will be 18x20 feet. Like most of our construction projects Andrew is my builder and he's doing a great job! He started the project out a few weeks ago by digging the post holes by hand. He originally wanted to rent a post hole digger but it was already rented and he didn't think a reservation was necessary (boys!). The first two holes were cake, they were in the shade and the dirt was pretty wet. The other 10 holes were another story, but he powered through them like a champ. Our friend Steve has also been helping Andrew build the deck. He's been a great help and I think we kept him entertained while his wife was out of town.

We also purchased some new patio furniture. The deck is considerably bigger than the 4 person rectangle table that we currently have. It will be nice to have somewhere to kick back and relax as well. There was a little shipping problem with the order. They shipped it to us but somehow it was the wrong stuff. So they have to ship it again, not a huge deal but just a hassle.

Andrew is hoping to have the deck completed by Father's Day so I'll have the finished pictures up sometime soon.

Kitchen Rug

I was very worried about finding a rug for under our kitchen table that I liked and went with our house. I didn't want an oriental style rug and I wanted something in our (small) price range as well. Because of these two challenges and lack of time, I have put off looking for a rug.

On Friday Andrew stayed home with Emma while I went to Kohls to get new rugs for in front of our kitchen sink and refrigerator, the old ones were pretty beat up. While at Kohls I found a area rug that I thought would look really nice for under the table. I bought it on a whim along with rugs for the back door, sink, fridge, front door, garage door and new accessories for our half-bath. Andrew loved the rug too, but it was a smidgen too small for the area and the table. I jumped on the internet and found a bigger size at Kohls.com. It was listed for $499 on sale for $250 and I found a coupon code for 20% off and free shipping! The new rug should be here sometime this week and we can't wait!

Having a snack on the new rug...about 3 seconds after we got it home!

New rug, trash can, towel and soap pump

New tissue box cover and towels (dark purple)