Something light for this Tuesday.

A little something from this website titled: Questions For Greater Minds Than Mine
http://pages.prodigy.net/pizzabagel/Questions.htm

-Are the folks at "Jeopardy!" aware that the "tip me over and pour me out" notes of "I'm A Little Teapot" can be found in their show's theme song?

-How did the product Bengay get its name?

I-n most countries, the sport which is known in the U.S.A. as "soccer" is called "football." What do they call the sport which we know as "football?"

-Why do our bodies have kneecaps, but they don't have elbowcaps?

-If the purpose of Playskool Toys was to educate young children, why wasn't its name spelled correctly?


Happy Fat Tuesday.

Moved In

The stuff is all out of the apartment and out of my parents house for that matter and moved into our house. Thanks to the help of our families we were able to get everything moved over on Saturday and got a good chunk of stuff put away and in order. Of course, the bigger chunk is there for me to go through, but we made a lot of headway Saturday and again we appreciate everyone's help, we couldn't have done it all without you. Now that we have a place to entertain, we'll have everyone up and have a cookout this summer. It might take me that long to find my craft/sewing room to get everything organized, so that will probably work out well. I don't think that Jason and I have gotten used to having so much room. Not that it is a bad thing, just different than what we are used to. No complaints. The move went well, we had good weather and everything made it over in one piece and unless someone broke something and didn't tell me, everything made it over in one piece. The only real thing damaged throughout the weekend was my back. I'm struggling right now with it, I think I pinched a nerve. That will teach me to try to be Wonder Woman, I was trying to get a bunch moved over on Friday so Jason wouldn't have to worry about it after he got home from work, I guess I should have let him do it, now I'm paying the consequences. Oh well, could be a lot worse. A big thanks to my brother Adam, who (FINALLY ) got our wedding video finished :) That was a pretty good house warming gift, and we actually watched it Saturday night. Seems like it was just last month that we were married and planning everything, hard to believe it's been over 7 months. On another good note, my car got fixed and it looks brand new. Well for now, hope everyone has a great week!

The moving has began

Jason and I moved a few things over to the house last night. As we were both well aware of, and as most of you are too I have way too much stuff that is for sure. If Jason and I don't get a divorce over this I think we have a good chance of making it. Just kidding, luckily he is a very patient man. Jason heard it is supposed to snow on Saturday which is our big moving day. So cross your fingers that this doesn't happen. Hope everyone has a good Thursday, enjoy this nice weather!

Before/After

Well some of the pictures I put up didn't go in the right order, but I think you get the gist of it. I didn't get to take any really good pictures because the lighting wasn't that great and I was kind of in a hurry last night, I had to get the store and do all that fun stuff. So this will give you a little idea of our place. Once we get everything moved in and stuff I will go through kind of room by room so that way you can see it with our stuff in it and give you a better idea what it really looks like. Tonight it's time to buckle down and get the apartment packed up, there is no more putting it off, it's got to be done, so no better time than tonight. I bet you can all tell how excited I really am about all of this. Ha-ha, the moving into the house yes, the packing of the apartment not so much. I'm back in Toledo now until the end of March for my training and then I will be back in Bowling Green for a couple of months before round 2 of training starts. Some of you guys that haven't seen me in awhile, will be amazed at how much smarter I look after all this training I have been doing, just kidding. Jason and I are planning a vacation for the end of May and it is looking like Florida might be the state of choice this time. Jason has never been there and it has been awhile since I've been there. Plus, going just the two of us will always be a nice adventure to share together. Jason and I celebrate our two years of being together today. I know that our actual anniversary is July 16, but the first time he laid his eyes on me was at MisCue two years ago today. He really didn't want to come, he was killing time all day and putting it off, and look how far we have come. Pretty funny to think that we have come so far in a mere two years, it seems like forever (in a good way) since we have been together. Hope everyone has a good Wednesday.

the soon to be puppy of Jason and Abbey. Tressel...look how cute he is! Can't wait to bring you home buddy! 

Jason and his little buddy Jamison, right now Jason is lecturing him, that if we ever have a daughter to stay away, just stay away! 

Congrats to Jeremy and Alanna Langenderfer on having their first little boy, Jamison! Looking good daddy!  

AFTER 

before 

I didn't get a before of this room, but it had spiderman in it. Now this is the Buckeye room 

AFTER 

before 

AFTER 

before 

AFTER 

before 

Night out with Chad and Missi, we had a lot of fun. Bootleggers! 

Happy Valentines Day to me! My wonderful husband surprised me at work with these! 

Our first Toledo Rockets game, probably the only time you will ever see us in Gold/Blue 

Progress

We are just about done with painting, thank goodness. Just some touch up spots here and there which we are pretty much leaving for Jason's dad because he is better at it than the rest of us. I had the day off yesterday, well the day off from work, but I was over at the house cleaning the showers and toilets, not too much like a day off when you look at it that way huh? Now we can move in though, since the showers are clean and the toilets are scrubbed. Just a little more cleaning to do, but not much and we are pretty much good to go. The plan is to move everything on Saturday, I sure hope it doesn't rain/snow. The bad news is that I haven't packed a scrap from the apartment yet, so that leaves the next 3 days or so to get that done. Most of you who know me, know that I have a lot of stuff, so moving is not the most exciting thing in the world to me, but hey what can you do, and by the way mother, I get it honest. We are also getting a chocolate lab puppy to be named Tressel in the next couple of weeks from my friend Jen, I just saw a picture of him, he is so cute. We are excited about that. We are also planning a vacation for the end of May so once we get settled we hope to decide where we want to go, it is looking like Florida. I hope that everyone is doing well, still waiting to get some after pictures so I can post the before and after shots of the house, bear with me. Oh yeah, and the Aztek is currently at the shop undergoing some repairs. Have a great Tuesday!

These are the days of our lives

Well, we have water so that is a good start to being able to live in the house. The painting is going well and we have a pretty good handle on it right now. Jason's parents are heading up today to do a little more work, and I'll be back over there after work. We are hoping to move in soon, somehow we need to get the paint smell out of there though so we don't pass out from the fumes. Pretty strong smell, guess that is what happens when you paint your whole house. We are moving right along though and things are starting to look pretty good and starting to look like home. We are going to get a puppy probably within the next couple of weeks, we have been looking for awhile to get a dog that is a little older and already house broke, we haven't had too much luck, all of the ones that we have found at shelters and such have been already adopted, so we both really want a puppy and my good friend Jen has some chocolate labs and we are going to get one of them. It will be some work for us trying to house break little (Tressel) we aren't 100% sure on the name but it is looking that way. Jason wanted a black lab and I wanted the chocolate, so we compromised we are getting a chocolate one and he gets to name him. So we are getting excited to get everything in the house done to be able to get the little guy and start getting him used to the house and us. We are getting our tv on Saturday, my car is approved to be fixed so I'm working on getting that taken care of. Just a few things to take care of, of course all at once. Hope that everyone is doing well, hope to hear from all soon! Take care.

Happy Valentine's Day

Jason and I decided to beat the V-Day rush and went out for dinner last night at a place called Rosie's, it is about 5 minutes from our place. Very good, we would recomend it. It is Italian food, reasonably priced and very tasty. Then we just went home and relaxed a little bit which was nice after the long weekend of painting and such. Tonight I'm back to painting though. We hopefully will have our water turned on today, I'm not holding my breath. We were also supposed to get our big screen delivered on Saturday and they couldn't come during the time when they were supposed to and when we would be there, so we rescheduled that for today. Jason gets a message saying it would be delivered sometime between 11 and 1 today, obviously we won't be there, Jason made a point to tell them it had to be after 5:00, just our luck. So we are "supposed" to get it on Saturday so we'll see what happens. My car has been approved to be fixed and hope to have it done this week sometime, and I will get a rental for 4 days on that. So, it has been a little nut-so lately, but we are both doing well, getting eager to get out of the apartment and into the house. Hope everyone is doing well! Have a good Tuesday.

Painting

Jason and I were able to get a lot done this weekend at the house, a big thanks to both our parents for helping us. Dad and Andy brought up way too much stuff that I still had stored at home, that is taking up the vast majority of the garage. I don't think that it can all be mine. Then Friday night, Jason and I got some painting done. Early day Saturday I was back over doing some more painting and Jason headed out with his parents to pick up our washer and dryer in Paulding. My parents headed up and dad replaced the hideous light I absolutely hated, it was a pain in the butt, however much appreicated, mom did the cabinets in the kitchen, again pain the butt, she didn't mind though. Then Jason's parents got there and went to work also, no rest for the wicked. Yesterday, we were back at it again with the help of Jason's parents we got a whole lot done. The family room is close to being done, the kitchen is pretty much finished, our bedroom is almost finished, the buckeye room has the first coat and the dining room has the first coat. So, a good start for us and we will have a lot of time this weekend. So that is the good news....The bad news is that we were not able to go to our concert because once we got about 5 miles over the Michigan line we hit a sheet of ice and saw about 6 cars in the ditch. We would never had made it there on time, and with the road conditions may not have made it period, so we turned around disappointed, but went home and relaxed. So no Keith Urban for me :( Good idea though Jason! Oh yeah, and they shut our water off at the house, so it made things even better trying to clean up paint and stuff with no water. Luckily our apartment is only .2 away so we could make quick potty breaks. That is it for now from the Raikes. Have a great day!

Update

I know I didn't get to post yesterday morning as I usually do on my 10:00 break, and there is a reason behind that. Well, low and behold I am running a little late in the morning anyways because I couldn't get my butt out of bed (thank goodness for flexible hours, this job is perfect for me), anyways, I typically start my car from inside with my car starter, so I finished getting ready, go out to my car and it wasnt' started, didn't think anything of it, just thought I didn't hold the button right or something. So yeah try to start my car and the darn thing won't start. AWESOME! Well, called up my brother and he said it sounded like the battery, got it started and it stayed running, ran it to Wal-Mart and sure enough my brother was right (don't like to give him too much credit, but this time he did know what he was talking about). Well, the guy who put the new battery in said that the old one had been damaged, see pictures from accident below. Goodness, one thing after another. So I kept the stupid old battery to show the insurance guy who was coming to work later in the day to look at my car from the accident and do an estimate. Luckily, we will get the money back from the battery and I made it to work by about 11:00. Could have been worse. Oh yeah, but now my car starter won't work, something isn't hooked up right so it keeps setting off the alarm. Always something, ha-ha. My brother and lil brother are bringing up a load of my stuff from home today including our refrigerator, so that will be nice. Jason and I got quite a bit done last night in the house. I painted where the fridge is going so that will be out of the way, and Jason got the family room walls primed and I was lucky enough to be able to pull the border off the wall. Tonight we are going to get a lot done too. Tomorrow is a work day until we leave to go see Keith Urban at Michigan State. Then Sunday will be another fun-filled work day. We hope to get most of it done with the help of our family this weekend. So things are going well for us, excited to see what the house will look like when it is all painted and filled up with our stuff. Stay tuned for the next Raike Saga. Have a great weekend! Be safe!

Official

Well Jason and I have crossed over the path of being renters to now being homeowners. As you can tell by my brother's comment on the last post, we have entered this new world and all its ups and downs. We are looking forward to it, like Adam said no one to answer to except for Jason (and he's a push-over) Kidding Jason. He did veto my orange, which is alright I opted not to go that way anyways, and he isn't a big fan of the yellow I wanted for the bathrooms, so I'm not sure what I'm doing there. Other than that, my aunt Vic and Grampa came up last night and we took Grampa out for his 77th birthday to my favorite place Texas Roadhouse (Grampa likes it too), then we headed to the house and then off to my first big trip to Menards. Wow, we spent like 2 hours there. I ended up with 9 gallons of paint, a bunch of primer, wallpaper, some other stuff I really don't know what it is used for, and some supplies to get the work done. It will be a lot of work, but it will be so nice to have the place looking like we want it, and being able to do it within the next 3 weeks before we have to move all our stuff over from the apartment. The tv is set to be delivered on Saturday, so my goal is to get the walls done in that room where we may put it. Then, next step would be the bedroom so we can think about moving in. Jason and his dad are going to get our washer and dryer and the fridge on Saturday, so we will almost be like real people with a washer and dryer in our place so we don't have to pay 3-4bucks a load to do laundry woo-hoo! So slow but sure we will get it up and running. I am hoping to take some before shots tonight, let's just say the folks that lived there prior had a funky style. So we were "raikerize it" and have it looking like a cozy nook in no time! Keep checking back for pictures and updates. Hope everyone is doing well!

Today is the Big Day

Tonight at 5:30 Jason and I are set to close on the house. It is a very exciting and frightening day for us, more exciting than anything. I am looking forward to having the process done and over with and to us having our very own house. I have a lot of ideas and a lot of high hopes for the decorating scheme. Jason doesn't care too much which makes it nice for me to have a little free reign. Although, the big screen tv is set to be delivered on Saturday and we are doing an Ohio State room so the rest of get to have fun with. I pretty much a the paint schemes picked out, and as you can imagine very little white, although we are doing colors but nothing too off the wall. Jason said no circus stuff, ha-ha. Once we get everything taken care of we hope to have some people up, since we will be able to fit more than 3 people in the room at once. We are set to be out of the apartment by March 1, and my hope is that the painting will be finished by then and we will be good to go to move everything in. So wish us luck. Hope everyone has a great day!

Well let's just say I didn't have the best start to my Friday morning. On my way to work, some 18 year old girl ran a red light and hit me pretty good. Overall, I am lucky because it could have been a lot worse. I banged my head pretty good on the window, have a pretty good concusion right now, but hey it's just my head. The 2 girls in the other car were fine too, so we are lucky that is wasn't worse than it was. My poor Aztek took the worst of the beating though. We'll get her back to tip top shape in no time. 

Damage to car 

Friends

Well in keeping with the theme of the past few days, I have given credit to Jason and my family for all their love and support, and I don't want my friends to be left out because they are super important to me as well. I am blessed to have quite a few friends and a lot that I consider myself really close to. I know that my friends would be there for me in a drop of a hat. How do I know this? They have been all along. I have only a few friends left that I am tight with from high school and growing up and I am so lucky to have those few, sometimes that is better because you know who will always be there for you. I have made some new friends along the way in college and work. I have known these people fewer years but the friendships that I have established are irrplaceable. I have such a strong support sytem. I am indeed blessed with the people that God has put in my life. I learn a lot from my friends and I hope the same is true with them, that they learn and can count on me. That is huge to me, being a good friend, being reliable and just being there when they need me. I read a sign in a book that said something to the effect of "Be the person who if anyone said something bad about you, no one would believe it." I want to be that person that tries to do the right thing and be the one my friends can count on. I want to be this person because I am lucky that my friends were supportive of me when things weren't going my way, when I was down in the dumps and just plain stressed out. Sometimes a friend being there to just make you laugh can make all the difference in the world. As we grow older, our friendships change. Not for the worse, just change. You don't see them as often and keeping in touch seems to become more difficult. That is one reason I do this blog so my friends/family that I don't talk to all the time are able to know a little bit about what is going on. I've also noticed, the friends that I have the strongest bond with are the ones that I don't necessarily talk to every day. But the funny thing is, we pick up right where we left off the last time we talked. Character-Be true to yourself, your friends, and your Word! Yeah I want to be that kind of friend and that kind of person!

Family

I was thinking the other day about the importance of family. I know imagine that me thinking, I am not that deep of a thinker though don't go that far. Really though, the older I get the more I both respect and rely on my family. I know growing up that I gave my parents a hard time, I believe that was called puberty, but I would like to think that I have grown out of that bratty stage by now, my brothers may beg to differ, but back then I was just looking out for number 1 as they say. Now, I put myself about last and try to put everyone else first. I have my mom to thank for that one. I noticed a big difference when my older brother went off to college and the strong bond that we had formed at that time and then when I went a couple of years later, my little brother and I became a lot closer. I also relied a lot more on my parents and family for love and support. I can't tell you how many times I called my mom just to talk because I was at a school where I knew no one and honestly was a little home sick, but you know what, she was always there for me and has been every since, and whether I realized it or not she was there all along, it just took me that long to realize that. My dad is always there too, he is just the more protector type and mom is more of the advice giver. Even now I talk to my parents about once a day, my Grampa and Aunt about once a week, and my brothers typically at least once a week. I value the relationship that I have with them all, I am lucky to have a family that is so supportive of me. When I was sitting that bench at Urbana, mom,dad,grampa,vic, and my brothers and sis-in-law would be there if they could to watch me get the shaft. I mean that is something really small, but to me that made a huge difference. Anyways, the point of this whole post is to never forget where you came from and remember that even when you think no one else is there, your family will be there no matter what. It's the little things that make the biggest difference in our lives. Jason is learning that I am extremely close with my family and that I enjoy spending time with them, luckily he gets along with everyone so that makes things a whole lot easier. And now that Jason and I are together I have another set of support, his parents and family. I am lucky also that they like me, that could have been ugly if they didn't, but what's not to like, just kidding. His mom is constantly showering me with gifts, he has no sisters so she "finally" gets to buy for a girl! ha-ha. More importantly, they are there for Jason and I when we need advice and support and you can't put enough appreciation on that. Family is there no matter what! Hope you have a great day! :)