#39: Resurface Fireplace

Woo-hoo!  I'm SO glad this one is done!! 

This may be one of my favorite things we've done to the house so far.   Trevor had always talked about putting a big flat-screen above the fireplace and I always thought that seemed like a lot of money to spend on a TV...especially when we don't even have cable!  Then I started thinking about it more, and realized it will make the layout of our living room so much better to be able to get rid of the armoire we had at the time.  No matter what, I knew I wanted to cover up the brick on the fireplace and bring everything more up-to-date. 

With the baby coming soon and Trevor not being too sure he could design a fireplace surround that we liked, we went ahead and decided to hire most of this project out.  His cousin's husband Matt built the surround and one of his contractors did the tile.  Trevor painted the drywall, the fireplace surround, and the fireplace insert.  Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself...

Here's the "Before" Picture after Trevor knocked down the old "mantle" (more like a piece of wood).  The tape was from him trying to figure out what size of TV we could fit up there after we put up crown molding.

Here it is after Matt built the surround and put up the 2x4's for behind the drywall.  A hole was drilled through these 2x4's and a pipe was run out to the side to the right cabinet so that we could run the TV cables behind the drywall to hide them.

With the drywall up and all the nail holes patched...

Trevor painting the drywall.

All painted!

We didn't want to pay the money to buy a new fireplace insert, but didn't like the gold on the one we had.  We decided to go ahead and try some high-heat spray paint and paint it black.  We figured worst case scenario it wouldn't work and we would have to go ahead and buy a new one.  Here it is before we spray painted it.

After the surround was painted white and the insert painted black...

Trevor's co-worker Michael came over and helped install the new 50" TV...

And finally, the tile was all laid and grouted!

Doesn't it look really good?!?  I think it just totally changed the whole feel of the room.  The only thing we have left to do is put the crown molding up around the room.  (That's why there's some wood ripped off around the top of the cabinets.)

Trevor just came by and asked if I didn't have an even older "before" picture.  We found the realtor CD from when we bought the house and here's what we found!  I just had to do them right next to each other to show what a difference.   Here's all we've done since we moved in:

1. Replaced carpet
2. Tore down beams on ceiling
3. Scraped popcorn ceiling
4. Sprayed on a new textured ceiling
5. Refinished the walls so they don't have a weird texture
6. Painted the walls tan
7. Tiled the floor from the door to the garage to the back door
8. Painted cabinets white
9. Refinished fireplace

What a change, huh?!?!

Weeks 24 to 29

Just a quick post to post more pregnancy progress pictures.  I feel like lately I am getting bigger by the minute!  That's alright though because I know that means my baby boy is growing and healthy!

Does this next shirt look familiar?  Rachel's wearing it in my 17 week (her 29 week picture).  It's sure been nice to have sisters to pass down maternity clothes!

Welcome Andrew Ryan!

My sister Rachel had my little nephew this morning at 10:48!  She was induced around 8:30 and had him that quickly...I'm hoping my labor will be that fast! :)  She even did it without an epidural.  When I talked to her tonight, she asked if I was going to follow suit...I sure don't plan on it!

Anyway, back to Andrew: He was 7 pounds, 12 ounces and 20 1/2 long.  I can't believe I'm going to have to wait until Thanksgiving to see him!  We're all so excited to have a BOY in the family.  Trevor and I are also very excited for these cousins to be so close in age and hopefully good friends!  (That is when they're not fighting over who's better: Nebraska or Oklahoma!)

Ryan sent the first picture and this one over his cell phone.  I think he looks a lot like Caroline.

And I found this picture on Ryan's Facebook.  Mom said that Caroline is very sweet with him and wants to hold and hug him all the time.

Everyone sounds like they are doing really well and we're thanking God for that.   Congratulations Rachel, Ryan, and Caroline!

Babymoon and #71: Visit Truman Library in Independence

Trevor and I knew that we wanted to go somewhere before this baby came and took over our lives, so we decided to go on a little babymoon.  We looked into traveling somewhere, but I had too many requirements:

1. We don't go anywhere more than 100 miles south of us (too hot!).
2. I could only take up to a day off of work (saving up vacation for this baby).
3. I wanted to SLEEP, EAT, and get a MASSAGE.

So after awhile we decided that it might make sense to just stay around Kansas City.  We started reading reviews for the hotels that had spas in them and we actually read really good things about the Argosy Casino.  So we found a good deal on Expedia and booked a room and a prenatal massage for me for 2 weekends ago.  It also served a dual-purpose as our 6th anniversary celebration (our anniversary was this past Saturday!).

So I took off a half day on Friday and we crossed the state line to arrive at the Argosy.

Our room was great!  It had a comfy king size bed and a fancy bathroom complete with a rainfall shower.

On Friday night we headed to a Brazilian Grill called Em Chamas.  (This also counts as #81: Eat at 5 New Local Restaurants.)  Trevor loves these places, but they are normally pretty pricey.  I had purchased a $50 gift certificate for $25 on Spreesy.com ( I love these daily deal websites!) a couple weeks before and it happened to be only a few minutes from the Argosy, so it worked out perfectly.  If you haven't ever been to a Brazilian grill you definitely need to try it out!  They are SO good!

We slept for 12 HOURS on Friday night!  We woke up just in time to make it down to the casino buffet for breakfast prices and got to stay through and eat the lunch food too. :)  I'd always heard casino buffets were good, and this one sure was!  We ended up eating there 3 times that weekend.

On Saturday we decided to do something we've been saying we're going to do for the past 4 years of living in KC and visited the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri.  

To be honest, going into it I didn't know much about Truman's presidency.  He definitely made some very important decisions in America's history.  He became President during WWII after FDR died in April 1945, just 3 months after FDR started his 4th term.  In August of the same year, he made the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan.

He also formed NATO, set up the Truman Doctrine, and put in place the Marshall Plan.  I remembered learning about all of these in history classes, but seeing how it all formed together, brought it more to life.

I had also forgotten that it was Truman who was predicted as losing when he ran for his second term as president and he ended up winning.  Here's the picture of him holding the newspaper that went ahead and printed his defeat.

We had an entertaining time walking around the library following this man in his short white shorts!  :)  He had an opinion about EVERYTHING and he voiced it loudly.  I wish I had a video of what he was saying right here.  While reading about McCarthy and his accusation of those he believed were communists in the government, he was going on very loudly about all the communists in our current government!  He was something else.

I have to admit I was a little surprised to find that many of Truman's agendas were pretty similar to someone we know today.  Do the ones with arrows by them sound familiar?!

Truman's office after his presidency.  They built the library at that location.

And they had a replica of what his oval office looked like...

Truman was buried at his library.

And of course we had to get the obligatory pictures with the Truman statue.

While we were in Independence, we went and found the temple that the Re-Organized Latter Day Saints built there.  They believe that this is the place where Jesus is coming back.  Good to know we'll be nice and close... ;)

We had a great weekend relaxing and now we're busy getting ready to meet this little boy in 3 months!

Weeks 17 to 23

So...I've been pretty behind on this whole blog thing lately.  I'm feeling SO much better and actually haven't thrown up at all for almost 3 weeks now...hallelujah!  I'm still pretty tired though, so sometimes life is just at a standstill.  Anyway, here's my attempt to catch up a little.

Rachel and I were together when I was 17 weeks and she was 29 weeks, so we got our picture together!

After we got our dining table (I need to post about that too!) I lost our photo studio in the empty green room, so we had a change of scenery for the weekly pictures.

And I don't have a 22 week picture since Trevor accidentally  deleted all of the pictures off of our camera before I got them uploaded to the computer.  Oops!  Oh well.

We're Having a...

BOY!!!

I just think he has the cutest little face in this next one...but maybe I'm already a biased mother!A hand and a foot....a little contortionist!His little foot...And the proof that he's a boy!

I honestly felt the whole time that this baby was a boy, but I'm not sure why. I can't say if it was maternal instinct or if I just was right on a 50/50 guess. Even though I thought it was a boy...I was still kind of in shock when the ultrasound tech said "I'm a Boy!" At the last minute, I just still felt like the Duffy's were only able to make girls (even though Rachel is due three months before me with a boy...but maybe that was just a fluke!?!?) :) Trevor was all smiles when he found out though and honestly after watching the baby move around for 5 minutes before we found out, I couldn't have cared less. I think it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life. It's all so much more real now that there is actually a baby in there!

I started to look through Trevor's scrapbook the other day to see what he looked like as a baby boy. Here's a slideshow of him as a little boy that I made. I sure wouldn't mind our baby looking like him...I think he was a little cutie! Our good friend Paul sent us the song in the slideshow called "Anything Like Me" by Brad Paisley after he found out we were having a little boy. If any of you knew Trevor growing up, I think you'll know why Trevor and I are both a little scared we'll have a dare-devil that's full of energy that's anything like Trevor was! :)

We told my family on the phone since we knew we wouldn't be seeing them anytime soon. We waited until this past weekend to tell Trevor's family and my college roommates, Mary Ellen & Gladys, who were visiting. We decided to tell everyone by buying some black helium-filled balloons and filling them up with colored confetti (blue or pink) and having them pop them. We told Justin & Karen and Paul & Emily this way too, but Justin popped the balloon before Trevor and I were even outside so I didn't get it on video. Impatient I guess! :)

Here are the Goertzen's finding out:

They all were telling Allie "sorry" because she wanted a girl cousin so badly. She only has boy cousins right now...oh well! :)

Here are Mary Ellen & Gladys finding out. (Gladys is deathly afraid of balloons...don't ask! So they did theirs with nails on a stick). Gladys was very convinced it was a girl and definitely wanted it to be a girl since all of her friends/family have had boys lately and she wants to buy girl clothes. So that's why she had this reaction. She told me by the end of the weekend, that she was coming around to the idea of a boy though! :)

So all in all we couldn't be more excited! Only a little over 4 months left to wait!

#4: Visit Adam & Elaine in Arkansas

Over Memorial Day weekend we headed down to Little Rock with Trevor's parents to go to visit Adam & Elaine and go to Levi's 1st birthday party.   Adam & Elaine always seem to visit the whole family in Kansas and we don't make it down there enough. 

Levi had such a fun party.  Elaine and her mom made this amazing train cake.  We were all very impressed!

Levi was excited to open all his presents...

...and he was very good at ripping them open!

Elaine said that Levi was really into balls.  So we got him this ball popper.  Elaine apparently had the same idea, so he got two ball poppers.  Levi wasn't sure what to think of it though...I think he didn't like that it kept taking his balls.

The kids then spent time outside playing in the swimming pools and shooting each other with water guns.  After that, Levi got to dig into his cake!

The kids all got to pick which piece of cake they wanted.  (The adults were a little choosey too!)

It was hard to say goodbye to them all...especially to wave goodbye to this little cutie!