The Vance's

Before & After

>> March 10, 2009

In an attempt to start a huge remodel in our kitchen, we started with appliances. Our fridge was starting to make strange noises in the middle of the night so we decided it was time for an upgrade.
Before:

After:

Believe it or not, we bought the house without a dishwasher. Crazy, I know. The in-laws came up last weekend to help rip out cabinets and get electrical hooked-up. So...March 19th is the big delivery day and if all goes well, by April 1st, we'll have a running dishwasher to match the new fridge!

Besides the appliances needing an upgrade, we decided it was time for my car to do the same. My car was actually a hand-me-down from my parents when I was in college. It's been a great car, but after 2 accidents (both were not my fault!), electrical issues and an unreliable heater, it was getting a little annoying; especially since I drive for most of my job. Car shopping was one of the most exhausting experiences I've ever had. After the inital test drive, counter offers, missing lunch, more counter offers, and meeting with the financial guy it took us over 5 hours just to drive home with the new car. It was well worth the wait, though...we love our new Honda Pilot.
Before:

After:

As one last side note, I just need to vent. I HATE THE SNOW! Don't get me wrong, A nice, pretty snow fall once or twice a year is pretty, but in March? No. It's cold. I don't like being cold. I'm ready for spring. That's all...just had to get that out.

our love day.

>> February 14, 2009

For the last 4 years Matt and I have had a little tradition on Valentines Day. We don't go out to a fancy restaurant, but instead stay home, make a simple dinner, and just enjoy each others company. We decided to celebrate v-day on Fri. the 13th (hmm..didn't think about that until it was too late), so we took Yoshi to doggie day-care to tire him out and came home from work early. We always make homemade pizza and chocolate covered strawberries so we quickly started on the pizza. After dinner, we planned on making the dessert, but at 7pm (and a bottle of wine later) we quickly tired out. After both deciding we were too full for dessert and seeing the dog passed out on his bed, we just shrugged our shoulders, said "I love you" and fell asleep at...7:30pm!!! It was probably the lamest v-day we've had, but felt so good this morning after a long nights sleep. Maybe we're getting old, maybe we're just boring, who knows? But to us...it was perfect!We did make our chocolate covered strawberries today and plan to eat several tonight! Yum!

To celebrate V-day at work, Matt was involved in a sugar cookie throwdown. He went against another woman with all the employees voting on which one was the best. I'm proud to say Matt won 8 to 2! He was pretty cute the night before patiently frosting each cookie with just the right amount of sprinkles!

Defurminating.

Yoshi is growing day by day and with it comes A LOT of hair! We've been reconsidering a long-haired dog the last few weeks. In our attempt to keep the shedding to a minimum we bought a defurminator. It's basically a big (dull) razor blade for dogs and helps get most of his undercoat off. Well...we tried it the other night. To be honest, we were disgusted by how much hair came off. For those of you non-dog owners, this is a ridiculous post. But for us, it was an exciting night here in the Vance household!

Before (he was a little scared to start):

After:

Bowling Night

Last weekend our friends invited us out for a night of bowling. We both haven't been bowling in years (and it definitely showed!). One of our close friends recently broke both of his heels in a construction accident, leaving him in a wheelchair for the next 3 months or so. It was one of his first nights out of the house in a while, so needless to say, a pretty fun time. Matt had the high score for both games (108!!!)

A recap of 2008

>> January 3, 2009

I was thinking back at what a crazy year 2008 was and decided to document it in a month-by-month outline. So...in case you were wondering, here's our life from 2008:

January: Julie started her new job...loves it!

Feburary: We buy a house.

March: We remodel the house.

April: Move into the house (notice a trend here?)

May: Go to Hawaii for the 2nd time in a year.

June: Celebrate Julie's birthday and get a puppy!

July: Celebrate Matt's birthday and our 1st anniversary in Whistler.

August: Start puppy training.

September: Seahawks season starts & Julie goes to her 1st game ever.

October: Matt works like crazy to raise 200,000 pounds of food for the Food Banks.

November: Continue puppy training.

December: Go to Florida for Christmas, miss the 1st white Christmas in Seattle in 10+ years.

Goal for 2009:

1. Finish puppy training!

A non-traditional Christmas Eve

>> December 28, 2008

Because we were in Florida during Christmas, our childhood traditions were thrown out the window. On Christmas eve, Matt & I went to Celebration Station. Florida's version of Chuckie Cheese. We played putt-putt golf, video games and ate some really disgusting pizza.We were planning on going out to dinner before church (since my 93 year old grandpa eats early, our dinners were usually around 3pm), but every restaurant was closed, so we ended up at Chili's eating cheeseburgers before church. Not my idea of a Christmas eve dinner, but oh well. We'll get back to tradition next year.

Christmas day was fun with a breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls, going to see a movie, and having a turkey dinner with my aunt and uncle.

Tradition or not, it ended up being a very memorable Christmas.

Christmas at Disneyworld!

For 3 days of our vacation we drove to Orlando to spend some time at Disneyworld. We went to Epcot one day and Disneyworld the other. It was a little wierd to be wearing shorts and flip-flops with Christmas trees all around, but nice to have some warm weather for awhile.