It's the most wonderful time of the year

ahhh. our tree. Usually I try to con Joe into letting me put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving.. He usually gives in by the first weekend in December, but our trip to St. Thomas this year did not allow us to get the tree until Dec 14th.. a mere 11 days before Christmas. I survived. Here are the pics.

St Thomas Trip

We went to St. Thomas from December 9-13. My friend Valerie, whom I work with, and her fiancee, Ben were getting married there and so graciously invited us to go too!!! After much deliberation about spending such money on a trip, we decided to join their group of 18 people and tag along! What a great decision that was. We stayed at the Wyndham Sugar Bay, in St. Thomas, USVI. We opted for the "all -inclusive" package and that was another great idea; no worrying about how expensive the food and drinks are at each meal.. and they WERE expensive. We would not have had as relaxed as a time if we had to worry about paying for overpriced food and drinks! The upgrade to an ocean view room was well worth the measly $25 bucks a night!

Beautiful weather, beautiful beaches, crystal clear water, white sand, loads of cool animals.. we loved every minute of it! Snorkeling was one of our favorite things to do besides sitting on the beach or eating and drinking! Joe and I were lucky to see an octopus when we were snorkeling.

A group of us took a ferry over to St. John- even more beautiful - and headed to Trunk Bay (apparently rated one of the top beaches in the world). We could see why. Words cant even describe how beautiful it was. The snorkeling there was amazing. We wanted to explore more beaches, but since had to head back. We WILL visit that island again for sure and do some hiking and exploration of the plantations. Just amazing!



Val and Ben's wedding was beautiful as well! It's truly hard for me to put into words why this was such a beautiful wedding. First off- it was 5 days of fun.. it was as if the reception lasted for 5 days instead of just 4 or 5 hours.... The setting was so breathtaking it's hard to describe - and photos hardly do it justice. The bride wore a stunningly simple dress, and Ben in khakis and a white dress shirt... the ambiance was of love and family. So I'm hooked on the beach wedding idea, some where tropical, not the Jersey Shore... sorry..

The ONLY downfall is that you can't have 200 people at your reception, but in the end, the people who come to your tropical wedding are the people that are most important to witness it. Don't get me wrong, thinking back to our wedding--every single person who was invited meant the world to Joe and I and I wish all 130 of our guests could have gone to a tropical location with us!


Photos here.

Just to clarify something..

To clarify, the pictures below of the "patio" were from my father's house in South Jersey.
We already have a lovely brick patio off of our back door at our house. FYI =)

Deck Update

Here is an update on my dad's deck that he is building. It will be stone versus a wood deck floor. Soo exciting how it is shaping up.
He has carried ever stone and ever drop of sand from his truck to the back yard.... god bless em!
Today he decided to have the stone company deliver 2 tons of the paver stones to the backyard, right in the lower left area of the picture. That will at least save him about 100 trips carrying all those stones to the back yard!!

Stay Tuned!!

Thought this day would never come!

My dad builds a DECK!!!
So the long running joke with Lisa's parents was that one day my mom would build a deck and bury my dad under it. not to worry- she has just always wanted a deck out the back of their house.
The problem is, their yard is a very "naturalized" yard... not very condusive to sitting in the yard as the HUGE pine trees surrounding their house tend to be very sappy, dusty and the never ending pine needles...

But my dad has retired and has decide to build a deck to make our house more "marketable". And it gives him something to do with his days, and above all-- he's pretty talented with the stone work. We've got his stone handy work all around their house.

The deck will be made with EP Henry pavers.. here are pictures from the initial digging to build the small wall..

Mini Master Bath remodel

Bathroom mini renovation...
Somehow on our mile long list of "home improvement" project, we wind up with a new master bathroom...

The project was fun and the final product is just wonderful! The bathroom had nothing wrong with it, it was just full of basic, builder grade amenities. We also had the "let's tile" bug for some reason. This project did teach Lisa one thing- tiling stinks!!!!

Here is Joe during our demo day, undoing the plumbing.


And here is everything removed.. vanity, sink top and wall mounted mirror....


We found the tile at a lovely local tile store "Town Tile" run by a very nice guy by the name of Gary. Lisa made the initial discovery of his little store.. She was pleased with his customer service and encouraghed her to take several tiles home to "get a feel for the color etc". Where as we also bought from tile from Lowe's and of course had to pay for the tiles.


Tile picked out, backerboard, grout, mortar, spacers, etc, etc etc... and what feels like a million dollars later.. we were set to tile..

Lisa's parents came for 2 days to help us.. Mario is an expert tiler! He and Joe worked very well together.. here is a picture of the backerboard almost done!











And now the NOT so fun job of measuring, laying, taking up, mortaring, and relaying of the tiles. Did i mention that stuff dries FAST?!



Finally, after thinking that we would NEVER find a vanity that fit, we found the perfect shape and wood tone at Just Cabinets.



We reused the sink top, it was white and in perfect condition. We got new faucets, of course and the same mirror went back up.
Everything back in place and here is the final product. We LOVE IT!!

brief...

Wow… where has the time gone. Last time we entered a blog was October 2007!!!

Well, April Fools Day it is! You thought we were never going to update this, huh?!

It’s Lisa by the way.. I thought I would give this page an little update in my spare time, hah!

So what have we done lately.. more like what have we NOT done! The past several months have been full and busy as always!

The Holiday’s were nice and we enjoyed seeing our family and friends as usual!

January started out with Merc Christmas at April & Keiths! Good times.. Wings Lacross games with Kevin and Heather.. those games are FUN! And the 2^nd row seats do a lot for enjoying the action too.

A quick ski trip up at Joe Turics rounded out the Month.

February… superbowl party at Anje & Phils’ in Hersey that was a good time and a great game! Go Giants!! Our Johnny Hyer’s birthday party was good times as always and lots of great gifts.. and a slight duplication of electronic dictionaries!

Then we headed up to Debbie & Andy’s house for a long President’s Day weekend… They are getting married in May- Can’t wait!!! And the month ended on a fun note when our neighbors hosted a little get together at their house.. it was great to get know the neighbors more.. we live around some NICE & fun people!!

March- I think we stayed home for an ENTIRE weekend in march.. wow! That doesn’t happen often! The I attended Debbie Barne’s baby shower.. she’s due April and they are expecting a baby boy! Can’t wait to meet him! Went on a quick hike at Merrell Creek Reservoir to do some Loon spotting, didn’t see any Loon’s but saw several other species of birds. That is a beautiful place! It was our 2^nd time there! And we’ll go back again!

Palm Sunday dinner was with Joe’s parents and Aunt & Uncle.. very nice! Easter weekend we headed to Twp to be with my parents and had Easter dinner at Aunt Jeri & Uncle Vince’s.. all the cousins were there, except Tracie.. =( But Aunt Jeri’s dinner was the BEST!!!! (as always! She’s a great cook! Vince too!!) After a stuffing dinner we headed back to Quakertown to get ready for the week! Oh and this past weekend I met Tracie inYork, PA for a bead show and she stocked up on new and exiting beads for her jewelry business! Then we went back to her house and strung and designed necklaces for two days.. fun!

And here it is.. April.. I played a really good joke on joe this morning for April Fool’s day. He didn’t think had it in me.. hehhehe..

Thanks for reading ( If you made it this far!)