Sugarland and Sailing

This weekend was filled with lots of fun activities! To start everything out, I got to go to the Sugarland/Billy Currington concert on Friday night at the Roanoke Civic Center. One of our friend's husband had bought her the tickets and he didn't want to go, so he invited me to go - and I sure didn't pass up that opportunity! The concert was great! Sugarland sounds as good live as they do on the radio, so that means they're really good. They also really interacted with the audience a lot. They gave everybody a pack of bubbles and a glow stick to use during certain portions of the concert. At one point the two main people from the band got into large inflatable bubbles and rolled out over the crowd. We had floor seats so they came within about 5 feet from us - in the bubble of course! Anyways, here are a few pictures from the concert.

Billy Currington

Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland

Sugarland

On Saturday, Andrew and I went down to Smith Mountain Lake. The highlight of this trip was that Andrew learned how to sail the Laser (sunfish-type boat). My dad took him out the first time, and then Andrew went back out all by himself. I was so proud of how well he did for his first time. After the sailing adventures we enjoyed some yummy shrimp (NOT from the lake!) and then Andrew and I stayed around for some fishing. I caught a few little ones and we saw a few big ones, but they weren't really biting much. Unfortunately we had to call it a night early because we forgot flashlights. Oh well! I guess we'll just have to go back again. Here are a few pictures from our day.

Us at the lake

This is the boat that Andrew learned to sail

Look at him go!

Taking a fishing break

The sunset was so pretty

The boats at twilight

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Kitchen Repairs

It has been a nice, relaxing, and productive first week off of school. I've been trying to find things to do around the house so that I don't get bored and so that I don't spend all day sitting around in my pajamas all day while Lauren has to go to work!

Yesterday afternoon I started a project that I finished this morning. Ever since we moved into our townhouse, the drawers in our kitchen have not worked well. They've seen better days, and would frequently fall off the tracks, mostly because the only wheels holding them on were at the front of the drawer, allowing them to fall off in the back. I decided that I was going to get some new slides and figure out how to fix them.

You can see the old slide sides on the bottom two drawers.

Since the cabinets walls sit in from the drawer openings, I bought the new slides and brackets that are used to attach the slide rail to the back wall of the cabinet. Unfortunately, I failed to realize that while the drawer, and therefore the slides, are 20", the cabinets are about 6 inches deeper. The brackets wouldn't work. It was time for plan B.

My next idea was to get some 1x2s and screw them into the side wall, which would put the slide perfectly flush with the edge of the drawer opening. I was quite please with my ingenious idea, and put the first one all together, put the drawer in, and realized that the drawers were 1/4 inch narrower than the opening, so they wouldn't fit in the rail on both sides. Time for plan C.

I went back to Lowe's and bought some simple wood shims. I cut them so that they would be 1/8th of an inch thick. By gluing the shim to the back of the 1x4 and then screwing through the shim, I was able to put the track where it needed to be. Finally it worked.

New slides screwed into the side walls.

Closer picture of new side rails

All of the drawers fit in well, except one. That one had clearly been rebuilt by someone at some previous time, and they didn't put the face on straight. I took the face off, straightened it out, glued it, re-drilled the pull holes and put two screws in the back, and it was close enough to good as new.

So that's one project finished! Time to find something else to do!

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Salem Red Sox Game & Bike Ride

Last night Andrew and I went to the Salem Red Sox game for "Teacher Appreciation Night." He had gotten a free ticket at school and we managed to bum one off somebody else in line, so we both got in for free! We also didn't know this beforehand, but they had fireworks at the end of the game...very exciting. There was a great crowd there - we had a hard time finding a seat! The Red Sox played well and pulled off a win of 6-0 against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. Here are some pictures from our night out.

After we were all done, Andrew took me out for some ice cream at Brusters. So all in all, it was a great night :)

Today we decided to go for a bike ride on the Roanoke River Greenway (http://www.roanoke.com/multimedia/wb/156008). It was probably just over 10 miles round trip, and it was a very nice, scenic, and easy ride. We really enjoyed it and we're looking forward to going back again soon.

Now we are getting ready to go to a cookout with some friends in our Sunday school class. A busy weekend for sure! Andrew is also officially done with school, so I know he is really excited about that. Work is going well for me, and I also just started going to a new Bible study with some great ladies. We are doing Beth Moore's study called Esther:It's Tough Being a Woman. I've just gotten started, but so far I really like it. Well, I believe that's all for now...gotta jet off to the cookout. I hope everybody enjoys the rest of their weekend!

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A little yard work

Andrew and I just got done doing a little landscaping outside. These plants were here when we first moved in and we weren't even sure what they were at first. They grow to be really tall and they are really pretty. We weren't sure if they would come back this spring, and I would say about half of them did. Today we dug up A LOT of weeds around them and put in the edgers. It looks 10x better back there. Amazing what about $40 and a little hard work can do. Here are some pictures for you to see!



This is looking down from our bedroom window.



And here is a closer view.

We are really happy with how it all turned out! In other news, we recently got our first grill!! There was a nice grill sale going on at Sears over Memorial Day weekend, so we decided to get one. We have used it twice now and Andrew really enjoys using it. And I really like eating the food from it :)



Andrew is almost done with school...graduation is next Friday. He is really looking forward to having a break for a little bit. On the other hand, I will be jealous and must unfortunately go into work everyday still :( Oh well. Well, that's all for now! Off to enjoy the rest of the weekend.

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