Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Drum Roll Please....

So not only do I have one piece of exciting news to reveal, I have two!!

1st & foremost is that I am officially OFF MY CRUTCHES, and able to put weight on my leg & drive!! What a relief.  I had an appointment today up at Rush in Chicago with my doc & he said I'm good to go!  I had my fingers crossed that I would get the green light from him to be able to start walking & driving, but I didn't want to get my hopes up too much.  But got great news!

2nd piece of news is that Joe & I bought a house in a neighboring town that we are planning to flip & sell in hopes of making a nice little profit to put down on our house that we plan to build.  So we are officially homeowners together!  This is the first home that I have owned.  We have so many plans for it to update it and make it a perfect starter home.  It's a brick bungalow, two bedrooms, two car garage, full basement.  It's got beautiful etched windows & amazing trim throughout.  The bathroom & kitchen will be updated & probably the back porch area.  We got the house for a great deal & we can't wait to start working on it. We will live there for a few months or longer then we will put it on the market & hope to get the ball rolling on the house we plan to build sooner than later!  We are very excited & looking forward to starting this new adventure & we will be able to start sooner since I will be able to walk again!  

Such a wonderful day today!  Lot's of great things happening in our life, now we just need to work on getting that baby Ridley bump :) 




Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Got my ass in a lawn chair, toes in the clay...

Happy Memorial Day! (well a day late at least).  Yesterday was spent cleaning and recovering from our 1st Annual Ridley Memorial Day Campout Extravaganza.  We hosted a camping weekend at our property Saturday, Sunday, & Monday and it was fun & hot!  I busted my ass on one leg to prep for it all afternoon Friday.  I made pasta salad, taco salad, bacon ranch dip, anti pasta skewers, cake balls, & cake batter cookies.  We had such a good time and it was very relaxing.  Pretty proud of myself for being able to rough it in the condition that I'm in, although, a pop-up has king size beds so I don't know if you can really considered it "rough".  I rented a porta-potty which also worked out amazingly.  I am a pretty great party planner (or at least I think I am...) check out some pics from our weekend:














So many great things going on in our lives right now.  We are definitely living the dream being happy & pretty healthy.  Speaking of healthy, I have an appointment tomorrow at Rush in Chicago.  It's been about 7 weeks since I had surgery & a little over 8 weeks since the accident.  They are supposed to take x-rays of my entire leg in hopes that the bones in my foot, ankle, and pelvis bones are healed, also hoping that my knee is progressing along as its supposed to.  

No new news in the baby making business.  Just keeping trying & having fun living the married life.  I'm not sure that it's the best time to get pregnant being that I'm on crutches and can't even support my own body on two legs let alone support a baby in the belly.  

My next post will be more exciting news that we aren't quite ready to reveal yet... hoping to announce it tomorrow!




Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Hello My Name Is: Elena

First off let me just say that at this moment in time I am NOT pregnant, as my blog title my suggest.  I've been considering blogging for awhile now, but never had a real reason to.  I thought I would start when I got engaged, but realized that wedding planning took up entirely too much time.  So now that things have settled, I figured this is the perfect time to start.  

Joe and I have been married for around 8 months.  We are in baby-making mode & also house-building mode.  Right now it's Joe & I and our pug Frank, or as I like to call him, Frankie J, Beezy Weezy, B's and several other ridiculous names that I say in high pitched voices.



We own 1.5 acres very near the Little Vermillion River and are planning to build on it starting next year.  So many things to consider when building a home, starting first with the layout.  After paging through thousands of plans online and in books, we decided we would draw up our own plans.  Now we are in the process of clearing the lot & prepping it to break ground by 2013.  Now that the layout has been settled on & close to being finalized, the fun part of decorating, painting, & interior designing comes in & what an overwhelming experience it has been & will be!  You can view my pinboard of ideas on Pinterest here: Building Our Dream Home.  I can't wait to start picking out furniture, paint colors, appliances, tile, cabinetry, & all the other thousands of details that come along with building. We took our engagement photos at our property where our house was to be built, then we opened a "Matrimoney" account through Financial Plus Credit Union where people could deposit money towards our loan.  We included this picture and when we intended to build, we really didn't need anything for the home since we lived together for 2 years prior to being married, so we asked that people would contribute to our account rather than buy us a gift, it worked out really well.  So not only are we working out building details, we are hopping that a baby Ridley will be on the way soon too.  Ever since I discovered Pinterest several months ago, I've had baby (& building) on the brain even more than normal since there are so many amazingly cute pins out there.  


I should also mention that Joe and I were in a motorcycle accident about about 7 weeks ago.  April Fool's Day to be exact.  We were heading about 2 miles from our house to return a part to an auto parts store which shall not be named.  We were at an intersection when a man heading south ran a red light, we were heading west & ended up t-boning his car.  I was thrown about 15' from the bike/car & ended up with 5 broken bones & had to have surgery at Rush in Chicago on my tibal-plateau in my knee.  I now have 2 screws in my knee holding the bones/PCL tendon in place.  Joe faired better than I did, he ended up with six stitches in his shin, but is still having pain in his neck, shoulder, & wrist.  We are very lucky to say the least.  I am still on crutches and a brace and I'm just dying to get off of them.  It's definitely hard to perform normal day to day tasks, but I did see Eric Church in concert and made it onto the floor, & also was in a wedding this past weekend as a bridesmaid, and was able to make it down the aisle & stand at the ceremony.  Here is a picture of us at the hospital the day of the accident, in good spirits by the end.







 
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