Apartment Remodel

Anders and I have been working on remodeling/ fixing up the apartment attached to his grandparents' house on the Wennstrom property since his great aunt died last summer. We started started fixing it up in January (which involved removing and sorting lots of Aunt Evelyn's stuff). Anders' uncle did all of the carpentry work but we did the majority of the of the painting, cleaning, and little stuff. We will live there May and June until his cousin moves in in July (then we'll move in with his parents for the rest of the summer.) Current projects include building a new covered deck in the front at the grandparents' house and painting the barn (from green to gray). I will be working at the nearby YMCA day camp this summer as the arts and crafts leader. Training wraps up this week and will start next Monday. We're also keeping busy with a giant garden!


Main level/ Living room: (photo taken from the loft), re-stained the windows, new paint (Swedish blue), new trim, new moulding, new facade on fireplace, refinished floors



Kitchen: new cabinets, new trim, new crown moulding, took out wall where island is, new counters, new floor


Downstairs hallway: new paint, new trim (wish there was new carpet!) cool spiral staircase huh?


2nd Bedroom in basement: New paint, new trim, new closet doors, (again wish the carpet wasn't green)


Bathroom in basement: new paint, new trim, deep clean


Master bedroom in basement: new paint "Swedish Yellow", new trim

SkyDiving

Skydiving

As most of you know, Michael and I went skydiving on CINCO de MAYO.

Here is a short album of sorts (to appease "doubting" uncle Brian)

This is the main building. The jumpers (staff) would land and then carry their parachutes through the back door and then walk in and start folding their 'chutes. They get $10 to fold the 'chute and $30 to jump out of the plane.


Andrew Moles (Michael's old roomate) and myself after just getting outfitted with our harnesses. We are psyched. And... we played hacky sack to pass the time.

Darren, notice my shirt of choice... "UNLEASH THE BEAST"


Michael and Andrew giving each other a nice sturdy chest bump before the fated jump

Michael and I, trying to look as official as possible.


This was where we all landed. Right next to the main building. We watched the earlier jumpers land only yards away.


This was my wing-man "Frank." Still "hangin' loose" after the jump. In order for an instructor to jump with a person attached (tandem), they must do a minimum of 1,000 solo jumps.


I am not going to try to explain the actual experience on here... talk to me (or Michael) this summer.

ps. We (Brian and I) are going to start a lake-dive tradition where we jump from the rope swing in a full wind-breaker suit with goggles. I was thinking July 4th, during the boat parade. Who's in?

DC Trip

We had a great 4-day 5 night trip to Washington DC. We stayed in Arlington VA just across the river and had easy access to Reagan Airport and the metro via the hotel shuttle. Mt. Vernon, Old Town Alexandria, Capital visit to chambers, National Gallery of art, Museum of American History, Air & Space Museum, Washington, WWII, Vietnam, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Jefferson Monuments, Georgetown, and the Naval history museum.

Great weather and the tail end of the cherry blossoms!

HAWK vs PIGEON

In Washington DC. just after we got off the metro at the George Washington University stop, we sat down to check our map. A large hawk swooped down and pinned a pigeon to the sidewalk. A few minutes later it flew up into a tree carrying the pigeon, and then flew off to enjoy a meal I suppose. That was the extent of any urban violence we witnessed.

Terrific Trip to Tennessee

Joel plays alto sax in his junior recital, accompanied by Michael. He also played one piece on soprano sax. Wonderful music, superbly played.
Caleb Hall, also a junior music major, shared the recital with Joel. The final number featured both of them, along with three other friends, in a jazz combo.
Joel's saxophone professor, Dr. Brenda Moye. She told us how much she likes working with Joel and how she really looks up to him. :)
The next evening, after Michael and Joel were done with classes and rehearsals, we drove to Chattanooga to a disc golf course called "The Sinks". The guys played until after dark, barely able to see the final holes.

Everyone scored a birdie on this hole. Amazing!

The weather was beautiful so Tom, Carol, and Austin drove about a half hour to the Cherokee National Forest and found a hiking trail. Austin's experimenting with his new camera.

Lee University Jazz Ensemble in concert. Michael on piano, Joel on lead tenor.

With professor/mentor/jazz musician extraordinaire Alan Wyatt. He and his wife, who also is on the Lee music faculty, invited all of us for dinner at their home.

Pigeons in Chicago

Since we are talking about wildlife, I thought I'd show off the pigeons that have built/are building a nest on our porch. Scare the daylights out of me each time I step outside... not beautiful pictures, but neither are the birds.

In other news it sounds like Anders and I are going to be spending our summer in Antioch up on the family compound. We've been working over at his grandparents remodeling his late Aunt Evelyn's apartment the past few months. Everything is about done except the kitchen at this point. Our plan is to try to live there, Anders has already started a garden to feed a small army. I have applied to work at a nearby YMCA camp with his sister Lissy, hopefully they will accept me. If not there are always children that need a nanny. More news as we figure it out!

Chickadees in Tennessee

Here are some pictures of the next-door Chickadees in TN!

easter jazz

Joel and I played usually play jazz with some cats (just kidding, no one actually uses that word anymore) on Thursday night. This past Thursday, we were at a faculty member's house where they were hosting a student function. We were going to play at the student union like we usually do, but we decided there would probably be no one there. So we went to where the people were. Here are a couple of photos from our photog friend. If you cant see the photos, you can visit the photographers website: http://shashankji.tumblr.com/archive/2010/4

Swim Season

Darren had a great high school swim season. He focused on the 200 and 500 Freestyle events this year and finished up going to High School Sections where he had a 6th place overall in the 200 and 3rd in the 500 - breaking through the 5:00 minute barrier to swim his personal best 4:58.63 in finals. He missed qualifying for the state meet by just .5 sec.

our boys

Finley's a really happy baby with some wild hair...he's learned to crawl, so that mean's making the house baby proof again. Keegan likes the computer games...even Freeverse solitaire...welcome another lefty!

Michael Land, guest recitalist at JC

Here he is in action. Five of us from Prentice Landing were there to enjoy Michael's recital at Jamestown College last Thursday. He played a challenging program very well, and the audience, including college students and faculty, Grandma's friends, relatives from Kulm, and various other music lovers, was impressed. A favorite moment for some in the crowd was when Michael "pounded" on the piano for the percussive effect indicated by composer Piazolla in his "Tango Suite". Some reported that piano professor Dr. William Wojnar (not able to be present) would have been very concerned for the beloved Steinway.

A reception was provided by Grandma Edie, and Austin and Jeff poured the lemonade and water. Wow, those things they are learning in college!
After his brilliant performance, Michael had a big hug for his hairdresser. She hasn't had much practice doing ponytails on her children's hair, but the "do" seemed to hold up for the occasion.