One Year Down

Well today was our 1st Anniversary! For our anniversary we went to the Cubs vs. Reds in Cincinatti yesterday with Mia and Tim. It was fun even though the Cubs already clenched the National League Central Division on Friday so neither team played their starters to save them from getting injured.

Today we woke slept in and walked with Nevada to have brunch at Taste, a small cafe about a mile from our house. Then we went to Walmart to get some items (I know its an exciting day), then we came home and swapped presents. Since the 1st anniversary is supposed to be paper gifts, I got Natalie a single flower and a subscription to Better Homes & Gardens. Natalie was going to get me a tree but got a cactus instead because she was afraid I wouldn't take care of an indoor tree and it would die. We just didn't want to deal with that symbolyzm so hopefully I won't kill the cactus.

Then we watched the Colts kick Denvers butts and Natalie made Chicken Taco Bake (an old favorite my mom used to make us kids) and had the bottle of wine that Kelly & Jon got us. Then we ate our cake we saved from the wedding last year. It was really good but there was so much we decided to cut it up and take it to our neighbors. They were appreciative but we also made sure they didn't know it was a year old even though it was very good and moist even after a year.

Here are some photos from yesterday at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinatti.

Photo Booth Mirrors

Tonight we hung out at our house and just messed around with the Photo Booth program on our Macbook computer. Tim, Eric, Abby, Wayne and Mom Troyer came over so here are some funny shots that we came up with. These pictures are made up multiple peoples arms, legs, etc.

Bowling Fun

Tonight we went out to eat at Naked Tchopstix and had crab rangoon, sushi, undo and sake-bombs with Tim & Mia, Eric & Abby, Wayne and Janelle. It was nice to get out and have some fun. Then we left and went bowling for a couple games.



Natalie:


Matt:


Mia:


Tim:


Eric:


Abby:


Wayne:


Matt:


Janelle:

Very Sad Day

I can honestly say yesterday was the worst days since we have been married and possibly one of the worst days of my life. Our dog, Foxie, passed away at our house last night. We have been in and out of the vet for the last two weeks because she has been having seizures and strange, unexplainable pains. After tests, a spinal tap and more test, they finally thought yesterday she had epilesy since she had 5 seizures throughout the night on Tuesday. We left her at the vet all day yesterday and when I went to pick her up she had another seizure with all the doctors and nurses around. They kept her for another couple hours and started her on the anti-seizure medicine for us. They told us she would be out of it all night but that she would start to get better. After sleeping a couple hours at home she whined a bit and then stopped breathing and her heart stopped. We took her to the emergency vet but it was too late.

After talking with our regular vet today he can only assume that she had a brain tumor and it just took over her body in the last two weeks. It has been a very rough night and day for us. I got Foxie 5 years ago when she was just a few months old. She just turned 5 on September 2nd and has been such a good dog. We feel like we were robbed of so many years with her since she was still so young. Foxie was very intellegent, stubborn, kind of aggressive, but also was so loving. She loved to sleep in our bed, cuddle with Natalie when she was sick, play fetch with anyone and act like Natalie and I didn't exist when we would take her to mom & dad's (Troyer) house in LaOtto because she loved being with them.

Here is a glimpse of Foxie time with us.

Greekfest 2007

Tonight we walked to Greekfest which is about 1/5 a mile from our house. They had tons of food, drinks, live music and lot of people there to enjoy it with. Matt had a gyro & calamari. Natalie shared baklava, greek fries, spinach pie, cheese pie and honey puffs with Janelle. It was excellent food accompanied with Keo, a greek beer. Here is a snapshot of our evening.





The girls of Greekfest:


The boys:


Matt & Nat:


Matt & Andrea:


Tim & Janelle: (They aren't a couple, can't you tell??)


Matt & KEO:

Home Remodel

This is Matt's first post but don't get used to it. I may not get around to too many of these.

This is a little glance into our lives over the last 6 months. We bought the house in April. Gutted it and put it back together and moved in about 6 weeks! We couldn't have done it without all of our family and friends. Thanks to: Phil & Kathy, Lee & Teresa, Eric, Alex, Wayne, Josh, Tim & Mia, Jeremy & Brooke, Matt & Janelle. How blessed are we to have such great family and friends!

We found the house when I was driving around one day looking a list of potential real estate deals in the area we were looking at (42nd & Broadway). I got out to grab the flyer and the homeowner came out so I asked if I could walk through. The house was a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom & office, 1900 Sq. Ft. 2 story on a basement. It had more stuff packed in every room than Mom & Dad's Troyer's garage when we I looked at it but I saw past the junk and knew there was TONS of potential.

I called Nat and we setup a time to walk it together. We looked at it 1 more time with both of our dads before we put an offer in. We came in significantly below asking price, and she took our first offer!

We closed in like 2 weeks and left the 3 hour closing and immediately went to the house and started demolition, followed by working every night and weekend. It was SO much work but so rewarding. We turned it into a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath & office. We decided to turn one bedroom into a bathroom and close off the once only upstairs bath to give us a master bath.

Here is a brief summary of before and after pictures:

Living Room before:


Living Room after:


Office before:


Office after:


Dining Room before:


Dining Room after:


Kitchen before:




Kitchen after:




Master bath before:


Master bath after:


That is just a small look into our home. I will upload more of the outside which we are working on now. We have the inside 99% done with the exception of the basement. This weekend I am working on a new fence for the backyard for our 2 little monsters so they can run.



Happy Blogging!