Ah yes…it’s that time of year again. Time to decorate the house…trim the tree….wrap presents….and, oh yeah, ride the Christmas train! Choo-choo!
Christmas train comin’ at ya!
A roof over our head…sorta
In 2018 we re-sided the house. As part of that, we added a ledger board to the back of the house – the future home for the deck that would be built in 2019. When we got around to building the deck, I had the idea of building one without a railing. Because the deck was going to be relatively small (essentially 12’x12′), I didn’t want it to feel claustrophobic with a railing. On top of that, because we have such a large expansive back yard, I wanted the deck to feel open – one of the main reasons I went with 10′ wide steps. It took us a while to get actual patio furniture, something we did this year (2022), but even without the furniture, we’ve gotten a lot of use from the deck. The biggest problem however has been the sun.
Continue reading “A roof over our head…sorta”It is the year 2022 – A check-in
Wow, it’s been a while since my last blog entry. A lot has happened since the last one…let’s try to cover some of that.
Overhauling the house flooring
When I purchased this house back in 2016, I knew the flooring was eventually going to have to go. Initial pictures of the house when i found the listing showed that it had a somewhat dark brown stained hardwood flooring. When I toured the house, the current homeowner was trying to update it a bit, and decided to sand the flooring and overhaul it themselves with black stain. Upon taking ownership of the house, I literally had a weekend to seal it – the previous homeowner didn’t even get to that. In the end, its was a black hardwood floor….which would have looked OK if it had been done right, it wasn’t. So because of that, I knew I would eventually change out the flooring, and over the spring and summer of last year, I did just that. Ripped out the old and put down the new. I have a lot of photos of the process, but I’ll include just a few here.
Continue reading “It is the year 2022 – A check-in”That camping life…
I grew up camping with my family, so it’s still something I’m interested in to this day. We started in a tent, but quickly moved to a travel trailer when I was a kid. Throughout my childhood up through my teenage years, we continued camping all over, but mainly in Michigan. The trailers came and went as my parents continued upgrading and ultimately moved to a 5th-wheel. One of our favorite places to go every year was the Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground in Mackinaw City, MI. We would go over Labor Day with my grandparents (on my dad’s side). Even when I was older, and the family camping stopped, I managed to go to this campground with my grandparents the very last time they went. There are a lot of great memories there for sure. The picture below however, is not one of them. This is a picture of teenage me in my apparent self-described “badass” look, sitting outside with my grandparents, eating something while wearing an Outback coat. Cool huh? 😂
Daughter
You’re the joy of my life,
You’re the sparkle in my eye.
When I’m feeling down, mad or upset,
Your laugh, your smile and your hugs brighten my day.
You amaze me with your intelligence, curiosity and wonder,
And your personality is one all it’s own.
Daughter, you’re the greatest gift I could have ever asked for,
I love you with every fiber of my being, with every ounce of my heart.
Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man…
Have you ever seen that movie? It stars Micky Rourke and Don Johnson, the latter of which would have been better off staying in Miami. The movie is ridiculous, but the opening sequence is phenomenal. If you’ve never seen it, give it a watch here:
2021…We made it!
As I’m writing this, we are almost through the first month of 2021, so I’m a bit late to the game here. With that said though…wow, we survived 2020. I have been working to update my portfolio page (https://www.jesseearley.com), but realized it had been quite a while (July of 2020 actually!) since I wrote a blog post, so I wanted to remedy that.
Continue reading “2021…We made it!”Checking in from the Pandemic
Hello! Greetings! It’s been about four months since my last blog entry, and a lot has happened in that time period. At that time, the onset of the pandemic was occurring, and we had just celebrated Riley’s first birthday. So let’s play catch-up…
Continue reading “Checking in from the Pandemic”1-year and counting…
Well, one year has come and gone already. Who knew it would go so fast? When you’re in K-12, it seems like time drags on and life takes forever. The moment you enter the real world, it’s like time speeds up.
On March 27, 2019, Riley Elizabeth-Lynn Earley was born…and now here she is, already one years old and counting!
Finding a Santa
A few weeks before, Thanksgiving we started to get into the holiday spirit by bringing our Christmas tree up from the basement. We didn’t decorate it right away though. With RIley now crawling, we wanted her to grow accustom to it so that she didn’t crawl over to it every moment we set her down on the floor. A week before it was turkey time, we decide to go ahead and decorate the tree, hang the wreath that Meghan made, and get our stockings up. During that time we talked about trying to find a Santa Clause for RIley to meet and take pictures with. A quick Internet search showed that wasn’t going to be cheap!
Continue reading “Finding a Santa”