How Much Could Happen in Six Months?

It’s almost June. We're almost six months into the year.
How did that happen? This year has been absolutely flying by!
I’m convinced that time starts to pass faster and faster every year.

This feels like an oversimplification of what our lives have been like over the past few months, but here's the highlights:

HOME IMPROVEMENTS

Before

After an hour or two of demolition!

The "almost" finished bathroom. We had a delay with the plumbing on our vanity. Now we have to do a few minor adjustments and install all the finishing touches!

Before: April 2011

After: The roses looked decent after some pruning and
mulching, but our cold winter did them in, which gave us the
perfect excuse to start from scratch!

Can't wait to see everything grow in!

Still three more sections in the backyard to overhaul.. Ugh!

FAMILY & FRIENDS

Apparently I have been having a too much fun because I failed at documenting all of our visitors! Alex's parents and his brother Adam came down to visit for a weekend and then shortly after my college roommates also came down for a weekend to visit! I also got to visit with my friend Karleya in Columbus and we spent Easter in Cleveland with my parents. At the end of April my parents and my Grandma Peterson also came down for a weekend. My Grandma was last at our house in April 2011 right before we had closed on the house, so it was exciting to show her the inside this time! I also can't believe we have been in our house for three years already... 

    

Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill

Dinner at Windy Corner Market

GRADUATIONS

So far May has been the month of graduations! 

Eileen's graduation from Point Park University
Pittsburgh, PA - May 3, 2014

Eileen blowing us a kiss!

Eileen and her Dad at the post graduation celebratory dinner!

Alex's graduation from University of Kentucky!
May 10, 2014

Alex Janesz, MBA!

I surprised Alex with a pinata at our family cookout!
Here's the end result after he had a go at it! 
There's a video to go with this...

Happy Mother's Day! My parents and Alex's parents and siblings met up for brunch the next day. 

As Alex was wrapping up his classes, I started some classes of my own! A couple months ago we switched churches and I started the RCIA program to join in full communion with the Catholic Church. Our new church has already been such a blessing in our lives and we are both really looking forward to getting involved together. One of the best parts is that the church is about a three minute walk! We've already met quite a few people that live in our neighborhood. 

This weekend we will be in Cincinnati for Memorial Day for the Annual Harshman picnic (Alex's mom's side of the family). The rest of the summer brings wedding and lots of traveling! And if all goes according to plan, a property to flip! Stay tuned for more on that journey later.

The End of 2013 --> Beginning of 2014!

Here's a recap of our recent holiday adventures {mostly in pictures!}

Because we usually spend quite a bit of our time away from our house during Christmas since we've been in Lexington, we've been keeping our decorations pretty simple! A pre-lit four foot tree does the trick along with some stockings on the mantle and a few other small decorations {and of course seasonal candles everywhere}!

A couple weekends before the Christmas holiday we drove up to Cincinnati for a little holiday dinner party hosted by my friend Amy and her husband John. As college roommates for quite a few years we have an unbelievable amount of group pictures together, but you can never have too many! Here's most of the girls: 

Erin, Maria, Lauren & Amy

The next weekend it was time to head up to Cleveland to kick off the family festivities. We had the big Janesz clan Christmas party, church at St. Bernadette's, volunteered for the Labre project at St. Ignatius, dinner with the family, movie night with the cousins, some Christmas shopping and cooking, movie night in, the siblings playing computer games and of course, some time in front of the fireplace! 

On Christmas Eve we went to St. Stanislaus for mass which equates to a breathtaking candlelit sanctuary populated with evergreen trees and poinsettias. We also enjoyed Father Eric's Christmas message and his ever present hospitality. 

After a lovely and relaxing visit to Cleveland, Alex and I drove to Toledo to see my Grandma Wagoner. Our visit happened to coincide with my cousin Bob and his wife Lynn's visit with their son Joseph. I was so happy to see them, meet baby Joseph and spend some time with my Grandma!

Later that afternoon we drove down to Cincinnati to my parent's house for Christmas. I think Zeus had the most presents this year! On the Friday after Christmas we visited my Grandma Peterson in Lebanon, OH. My parents and Alex and I went to the Golden Lamb, a historic hotel in Lebanon, for a little afternoon snack. We ended up heading to Newport on the Levee later that evening where we had a little fun and took in the Cincinnati skyline. 

 

While we were spending some quality time with my parents, Alex's family was driving to Cincinnati from Cleveland to their Grandpa Harshman's house. We spent some time with Alex's mom's side of the family on Saturday and then both sides of the family got together for our traditional night at the Cock and Bull Pub. 

After being away for over a week Alex and I drove the hour and a half home. I went straight to the doctor because I had woken up with no voice that morning. I had been feeling sick off and on during our trip and it turned out that I had some type of virus so of course I just had to wait it out! After a couple days at work we enjoyed having New Years Day as a day of recuperation. For NYE we celebrated on our couch. After all of the traveling and my illness, neither of us had much energy to do much more. 

I love when Alex and I on the same pages. After a couple more days at work we headed back up to Cincinnati. Friday night we saw my friends again, but this time to celebrate Amy's birthday! We saw a show at the Ensemble theater, caught dinner at Atavola in OTR and finished up with the OSU game. 

The next day Alex and I spent some time with my parents and then we met up with Alex's college roommate Rob, his wife Tricia and their little boy, Jack. We had a quiet dinner in and a little catch up time which was refreshing as always. 

Before heading home we went to church at Anderson Hills United Methodist, which is the church I grew up in. It's always nice to be back there and it's a good change of pace from our church. Then it was time to reset for another week!! Ready, let's repeat this year all over again! Actually, Alex will be graduating from his MBA program in May this year and we don't have quite so many weddings or road trips.