More House Projects- The Deck

Over my spring break, the deck was my big project. My dad helped me with is because for some reason I thought I was superman and could paint the whole deck by myself in 2 days. Needless to say that's not possible. It was a huge job! We worked really hard and got it done in 3 days. We were very pleased with the way it turned out.

Before pictures.

The finished product. Thanks to some awesome gift cards we got from Jason's family, we were able to do this project and get an umbrella for the table.

Indiana Trueblood

Projects Projects Projects! Starting last week and continuing into my school's spring break we have been doing some serious house projects. Our first project was the front yard. Last year we worked so hard on moving in and getting the inside of our house feeling like home, we didn't work much on the outside. When we bought the house the yard looked like Fern Gully. Needless to say we had our work cut out for us. However, THIS was not what we were expecting... The house has had 2 previous owners. The original owner had a fish pond in the front yard with spotlights and rocks and such. The second set of owners did not want to fish pond. So...instead of taking it out, they threw a tarp over it, threw dirt on it, and planted some very ugly bushes. Jason and I got to go on an archaeological dig, before we could even think about planing anything.

We found... 2 pocket knives 2 PVC pipes filled with all of the chords that were hooked up to the pond, they were buried under our sidewalk and through the entire flowerbed. 2 clay plant pots 1 Stone frog 1 bird bath the pump to the fish pond 2 flood lights with extension chords a brass frog and lily pad statue...and a partridge in a pear tree:)

A small portion of our findings.

We had to pull out the bushes with our neighbor's truck.

Easter Eggs

At first the guys weren't super excited about decorating eggs. BUT....don't let them fool you, they loved it!

My dad was quite sure that he created the greatest Easter egg ever made. Look at him admiring his work!

Easter Weekend

Easter Sunday Church

Jason decided to help me with some of my Easter baking. We made hot crossed buns and also some Easter chocolates and chocolate covered pretzels. Needless to say Jason only lasted about 10 minutes. He was very upset that the bread dough was sticking to his hands...well that and the caps game was on, so he was preoccupied.

Making chocolates!

Every year on the day before Easter we go to our friend's cabin in the woods. Debbie Shifflett and her 2 sisters Bonnie and Diane own a cabin that has been in their family for a long time. We have a tradition every year of getting together to dye eggs, hang out, play games, and have a fabulous meal. This year there were 2 wonderful additions to our large group. Debbie's daughter Cam and her husband Mike just had twins, Kendall and Carly Norton! We were so excited for them. Debbie's other daughter Shelley just got engaged and is planning a wedding as well. They have a lot going on in their family! We had a great time, the weather was awesome and the company was fabulous.

Carly Norton Kendall Norton

Dad, Jason, and John eating oysters on the deck.

Jason and Shelley

Everyone around the fire.

View of the cabin and the mountain.

Capitals Game

My dad has never been to a Capitals hockey game. Jason has been telling my dad for some time now that the Captials are the REAL sports team in DC. So we went to watch the Capitals play the Senators. Even though they lost...in the last 5 seconds of overtime we still had a great time. We had an awesome spot watching warm-ups so I got some good pictures of the players.

My dad and I on the metro in our Caps gear.

Jose Theodore

Niklas Backstrom, my favorite player.

Alexander OV the Great

The Poconos

This past weekend we went to Pennsylvania to visit Grandma and Grandpa Freudenberg. We had such an awesome time. Sherry, Nicole, Sami, and Danielle came down to visit us for the day. It was so great to see everyone. We got a huge game of Quelf going, which everyone loved. We played and laughed for hours.

This is Jason completing a quelf task...He was a man with no lips who had an accident at a glue factory, his knees were glues together and his elbows were glued to his body. He had to tell the story by singing a song about it.

Jason and Grandma F had to act like angry gnomes who burnt a batch of cookies for most of the game.

The lovely view.

Our Birthdays

For our birthdays this year we went to our favorite restaurant in Madison called the Bavarian Chef. It is an awesome German restaurant. We had such a wonderful time.

Jason was awesome, he cooked a fantastic dinner and also got the stuff to make Godiva Chocolate martinis. He also sent me beautiful flowers on my birthday. Interestingly enough they were delivered to my room while I was teaching 3rd grade. That opened up a whole fabulous can or worms:) I got so many questions and comments. "Mrs. Trueblood has a boyfriend...ooohhhh!" It took me 15 minutes to calm them down. I explained that they were from my husband and they asked "who's your husband?" I told them, "Mr. Trueblood." I had one kid say, "Wow, can you believe that Mrs. Trueblood is married to Mr. Trueblood...that's crazy!!!"

Thanks to Wesley, Jason got to have a lovely evening on his birthday drinking a glass of wine in his snuggie...how precious!!!