new homeowners

WOW! Do you remember this? Well today Alexa and I officially have become first time homeowners!! It has been a crazy journey from financing to insurance, taxes, utilities and the whole buying process. We are really grateful to all the people that have been with us along the way and have helped to provide guidance and encouragement in this process.

The only bad part now is that we haven't even been through the house since Spring Break. We trusted Alexa's parents to do our final walk-through last night and are getting really excited to finally go back and see the house completely empty; a clean slate for us to do whatever we want. We are really excited to show some before and after pictures once we finish school and get everything moved in, painted and set-up.

So in case you were wondering, our new address will be:

813 1st Avenue
Vinton, IA 52349

pranks

So they got me. A couple weeks ago Alexa's roommate Courtney was walking down their hallway and I jumped out and scared her to the point of her falling backwards in fear. Well this started a "war" where she was deciding to shoot at me and I was willing to sit back and let it happen.

You may remember the picture at the bottom of this post. Well Courtney set out for what she told me was a series of seven pranks, but to my dismay I came back to my room on Monday morning and this is what I walked in to:


Now if this was prank number two I knew I was in over my head for the last five. After acting like I was super mad at her for a couple days (which she hated) I finally talked to her about it and congratulated her for a job well done. It turns out they switched up their plan on prank #2 and decided to go with the mother load and finish me off in one big prank (well I hope that's the story). Well I have to give it to them, they got me good! Oh and a big thanks to Dane, my roommate who let them in our room to do this.

One down...

So I realized today that I haven't officially posted a blog for over a month. Alexa has been stealing all the air time so I thought it was about time to update you on what's going on. This has been a crazy month and it's only about to get crazier! I finished my senior design project yesterday and presented with my group on it.

For our project we were to design a bike chariot for a partially disabled patient for the Harmony House rehab center in Waterloo. This bike was to be connected to a regular bike but the patient ("Bud") was to be allowed to pedal to help out the other rider. It was a long process full of some unnecessary paperwork along with some blood, sweat and tears getting the final product out of the lab. It was a great time working with my group and the best part of all is that I finally got dressed up in a suit to present to our customers as you can see below!


So the bike design has a single tube that runs back and the seat can slide back and forth in order to adjust to different height riders. It also has a pull-pin that allows you to rotate the seat in both directions to allow for easier removal of patients. We gave it an all-new drive system and a new seat from a recumbent bike manufacturer. The other group worked on the hitch and braking system, but that wasn't finished by our presentation today.


Hopefully the bike will be completely done by the end of the semester as long as the other group finishes up some of the work they have to complete so that Bud can ride a leg of RAGBRAI this summer. So if you happen to be checking out RAGBRAI this summer and you see someone riding on this sweet bike you'll know where it came from and all the work that went into making it safe and operable for our customer. So this is the end of class number one of my final semester here at ISU.

Here are a few pictures of our final design.

SOFTBALL CHAMPS

Well it's that time of year again at ISU, softball intramural time. This was my first time playing a competitive intramural at ISU. I usually stick with the milers club where all I have to do is log the miles I run/walk. Not to challenging. But this on the other hand was a hole new ballpark for me (no pun intended).
Anyways, my beloved roommate Courtney and Payton's roommate Dane decided to put together a co-ed "slowpitch" softball team. Well all was well, until Courtney thought it would be a good idea if I played on the team. Well you see, I don't play softball, I havne't in years... so I told her that they didn't want me on the team, that it wasn't my thing.
It turns out they talked me into it and I got Payton to play thinking he could make up for my mistakes. So over the past few weeks the team has played a few games and won both. I on the other hand had to work so I was unable to attend the first two games. But they made it to the championship and I guess I had the privilege of playing.
So I got all suited up (not really) and headed to the field. Courtney let me borrow a glove and I can tell you I only threw the ball a couple of times and then I was done. My shoulder just couldn't take it. I know, I know baby right, well it was all okay because I talked them out of making me play on the field. Even though it was slowpitch that ball was flying pretty fast. So I chickened out, but I did have to bat.
So the team was doing really well, we were up by quite a few runs. So I guess I didn't feel too bad if I struck out, and thats just what I did. It was my turn up to bat, there were already 2 outs and I swung twice and missed both times. The picture proves the swing.


And the miss as you can see the ball still sitting over the plate.. Whoops...

But my excuse is that no one told me the rules. I guess ISU rules are you start with 1 strike and 1 ball. So really I swung twice and got out. I just didn't think it was fair. I guess you should find out the rules before you try and play.

Anyways, the game when on, we kept winning. Payton slid for what I thought was no apparent reason. He had a few errors but that is to be expected with Payton, right! Then it was our turn to bat again, and of course I had to bat one last time. This time Andy (Payton's roommate) told me not to swing at anything, just stand there. (I mean what is he thinking I have a bad swing?) Anyways, that's what I did, I just stood there and I managed to get on base. Amazing how that works.

It turns out I ended up trying to run home and got out. I blame that one on Andy and Payton, since Andy told me to run and Payton didn't hit a good ball to get me home. But I ended my part of the game with that. The team ended up winning! Our team is now intramural champions of the A league. Thats right A league. We are top notch....

Here are a few pictures from the game. And of course of the winning team.

It's a Boy....

Payton and I are proud to announce the arrival of our first baby boy, Kip!

As the story begins, Payton's roommate Andy a few months ago got me started looking on petfinder.com for a dog. You may also remember the previous post about this subject. Anyways, so I looked every once in a while and of course always found a dog I liked. So every time I would get all excited thinking that I had found the one and then I would call just to hear that the dog already got adopted. So I would wait a few weeks and then look again.
Well one day Payton told me "you know, the dog you are going to get is the one that is still there when you call." Well it just so happens that very same day I found a dog I liked and called, not thinking he would be there and guess what?!? HE WAS THERE!
So I e-mailed my mom and dad and told them how much I loved this dog (even though I had only saw pictures) and convinced that they would only have to take care of it for a couple of weeks and then it would be all our responsiblity. They said they would take care of it and so I got the okay to get the absolutely adorable dog.
So this past Friday, Payton and I drove 2 and 1/5 hours from Ames, Iowa to Fairmont Minnesota to meet Kip and potentially take him home. Well we got there and of course we both instantly fell in love with him.


I mean how couldn't you take that face home. We officially adopted our very first puppy. Then we drove 3 hours back to Vinton to take him to my parents house. We got to spend the weekend with him, to begin potty training him and teaching him other rules of the house. He only had a few accidents (to be expected as he had never been inside a house before) and he made a new friend Moses (our family dog). He is officially attached to Moses and does everything he does good or not. I mean he is the biggest copy cat. I keep hoping that Moses will teach him a few good tricks, but we will see how that goes. Anyways, here are a few more pictures of our new pup.


We have had much debate over what kind of dog it is...
The pound told us he was some kind of lab mixture...
Our neighbor who is a vet told us that maybe he had a little coonhound and pointer in him...
Many have said he has a beagle face...

No matter what he is adorable and I love him. Although I am going with the coonhound because of the unportionally large ears and the little bit of spittle he gets going after he eats or drinks. I think we may have a little drooler on our hands.
The pound also told us he was going to be about 60-70 lbs... Good size right.
Well if you look at the size of his paws and compare them to our 87 pound dog Moses, they are the exact same size. And as our neighbor vet told us, she believed he would be larger than our 87 pound dog. Maybe 80-90 lbs or larger. Right now at four months he is 42 pounds. So I could see him making it to the high 80's. But I guess size doesn't matter to me, I will love him no matter how big he gets.

So now he is at home, hopefully being good for my parents. I'm hoping he figures out this potty training thing before I take full responsibility for him. We will see...

Alive...

Well some of you may be wondering what happened to us..
Yes we are still alive but buried deeply, deeply in school work!! We have only 2 weeks left of class and then finals so we are trying to get everything wrapped up. And yes Payton is working very hard to get his diploma. So I really haven't seen him much since Sunday. I think when he is in his room I am on campus and when he is on campus I am in my room so that's about how our week has gone.
Anyways, we will be back soon, I promise.
Here is a picture to show you the mess I am in...

I'm sure Payton is going to be embarrassed when he sees this because he is a very organized person and when I'm doing school, sometimes I'm just not. So sorry Payton.

Here is my planner above and my to do list below. AHHHHHHHHH!!!

And by the way happy belated Easter. I hope everyone had a great time celebrating the resurrection of our King, Jesus. We sure did!

O and here was a surprise that we got when we went to get in the car to head home on Friday...

Hmm I wonder who that was (cough, cough Courtney)
I think maybe you deserved it Payton!

Anyways, that's all I got for you right now, we've been pretty boring lately, but I promise we will be back soon!!