Sharing…

    There are two main reasons I have not been posting recently:

    1. Facebook has not been pulling my blog posts onto my wall. It is supposed to automatically pull my RSS feed after a new post, but it isn’t. After searching around, I found that this feature is no longer available. Sigh. I now need to manually import each post.

    2. Jesse and I have been working on how we manage photos. We have one camera and two laptops. Jesse thought he could import the photos on his computer and share them over to mine. So far, it has not been working that easily…but we are getting closer.

    Here are some of the things I have not been sharing this fall.

    My mom and I went to a wedding together and had a great weekend hanging out.
    We got to hang out with our college friends including babies Tyler and Ellie!
    One of our small group couples had a baby, and we finally got to meet Cassie Faith.
    Jesse and I finally got to visit Taylors Falls, MN to enjoy the fall color...
    ...and enjoy ice cream together!
    We visited our first apple orchard of the season with our college friends Ryan and Erin and their daughter Shara.
    We visited Sever's Corn Maze for the first time with Ross and Megan.
    And visited our second apple orchard with Cody and Aubrie!

     

      Faithful Readers…

      Can you tell that I am a teacher? September and October have put me back into the Work Trenches. I am enjoying my job and my class, but my blogging has suffered. My goal was always to post every 3-4 days, and it has been weeks. Thanks for your faithfulness…inspiration is just around the corner.

        We bought a house…

        The Sutherlands 2007

        …our own!

        Today we signed the documents to pay off our previous mortgage and refinance our home. For the longest time, we were unable to refinance due to the drop in the value of our house. We bought in the early summer of 2007. The housing market began to decline soon after we purchased our home and continues to deteriorate.

        With a record low in interest rates, we were able to refinance from 6% to 3.75%. In thirty years we will have saved thousands of dollars. In the short-term, God continues to provide for our family by lowering our monthly mortgage payment.

        We actually enjoyed the process much more the second time. With much more knowledge and life experience, we were able to make wiser financial decisions. I still don’t understand everything about buying a house…but I am much better at signing my name on the dotted line.

        Our first of many Home Depot runs in 2007!

         

          Someday…

          …I will be a millionaire.

          My husband is an entrepreneur. He has ideas…lots of ideas. Since we have been married he has created images for iStock, redesigned his personal website, finished numerous freelance projects (some paid, some unpaid), dabbled in photography, and created a resource for web designers related to Content Management Systems.

          His newest venture involves board games. We both grew up in game-playing families. In college our group of friends would get together and play games. Since college, my brother and his wife (Alaina) have developed a passion for playing all kinds of unique and interesting games.

          This year Jesse, my brother, and one of Jesse’s co-workers co-founded Boxed Up Fun. Boxed Up Fun is a website dedicated to introducing people to new games using videos. Check it out and write a game review at www.boxedupfun.com.

          I don’t know if this is Jesse’s million dollar idea (though I know someday he will have one), but at least it keeps him out of trouble!

            This Time of Year…

            This is such a hard time of year for me. I love going back to work, but it is such an adjustment to go back to a schedule and routine.

            You might say, “Andrea, school doesn’t start for two weeks!” Let me tell you, school starts the instant I started making name tags, desk tags, locker tags, class lists…and having school dreams!

            You might say, “But you don’t have to be at school until next week…” The truth is I have already been at school most of the last two weeks.

            And…tonight, for the first time this summer, I took a nap and then drove to the grocery store instead of riding my bike…because I was so tired. Sad!

              Summer Day #1

              Last week I finished my fifth year of teaching second grade. WOW! Where does the time go?

              Those of you who know me well know that I probably started my “Summer To Do List” a couple of months ago. By last week, I knew exactly what I would do today on my first day of summer.

              I woke up and began picking up the house including putting in a load of laundry. After eating a quick breakfast, I headed outside to finish weeding our landscaping rocks. I watered all of my plants and decided to break for lunch. After lunch, I headed back outside to begin work on my perennial garden. I am ripping out all of the ground cover and have an extensive plan for new plants and a better design.

              I am taking a quick break before planning our meals for the week and heading to the grocery store. It is amazing how much one person can accomplish when you don’t have to go to work!

              Don’t worry…every day of my summer will not be this productive, but for today, I am excited to get a few things checked off my list.

                New Ideas…

                I received two new purchases this weekend to help me be more “green”.

                One thing I have been interested in is making my own compost. Each spring when I need dirt for my gardening projects, we have had to buy compost from Home Depot. Every time I have looked, though, compost bins have been very expensive. Last month, I saw a small ad in our Eagan newsletter about rain barrels and compost bins for a reduced price. After buying it and paying for it, I picked it up over the weekend.

                The Earth Machine

                Two years ago for my birthday, Jesse bought me a new bike. Until that point, I had still been riding my childhood bike, and I was having trouble keeping up. Last summer I tried to ride my bike to more places (the library, out to dinner, etc.). I wanted to run more errands with my bike but had no way to carry any of my purchases home. My friend Jody is an avid garage saler. This spring I asked her to be on the lookout for a bargain bike trailer…and she found one. My goal this summer is to bike to all of my errands within 5 miles of our home…and carry my things home in my Burley.

                My new grocery cart!

                  One Year!

                  I have been blogging for one year. I have written 67 posts (an average of one post every five days). Jesse and I have traveled to South Carolina, Mexico, Chicago, Mankato, Neenah, and Up North. We have remodeled our kitchen and our guest room.

                  You have been following the Sutherland Road for one year. You have read about our successes and failures. You have learned about our family and friends. You have followed on many of our adventures.

                  I wonder where the Sutherland Road will take us in the next year…join me as we continue the journey…

                    Ridiculous…

                    Lately, I have been visiting the grocery store on an almost daily basis. It is silly, but the closest Cub Foods is less than a mile away, so it is easy to stop by on my way home from work, on my way to work, or other times as well.

                    Spring is such a busy time. My brain is full with grading, entertaining, and house work. In the month of April we hosted my mom and brother, Bible study, our friends the Quams, our friends Jon and Heather, a birthday tea, our friends Carl, Kristi, and Tyler, and Jesse’s grandpa and grandma Jones. Every time a new event came up, I needed to go back to the grocery store!

                    Tonight Jesse and I took my second trip of the day together…on our bikes. We were able to return a mistake I made, pick up the things I forgot, and get some exercise as well. My new goal is to get a Burley Bike Trailer in order to be able to carry all of my groceries home. If I have to bike on all of my trips to the grocery store, maybe I will visit less often!

                      Beep Beep

                      Last week I awoke in the middle of the night to an annoying beep. I listened quietly and silence filled the air. I promptly forgot it and fell back to sleep.

                      The next night the annoying beep woke Jesse and I. Jesse replies, “We need to change the batteries in the smoke detector,” and we fell back to sleep.

                      The next day neither of us buys batteries…and the beeping becomes more frequent. We finally buy new batteries only to find that the beeping continues. It is now happening every two hours throughout the entire night. In the middle of the night, Jesse pulls the smoke detector off of the ceiling…and the beeping continues. It has now been many days without a good night’s sleep.

                      In replacing the batteries, we found that our smoke detectors were installed in 1991. We decided to replace them completely. In the process we determine that we need a carbon monoxide detector downstairs and wait to exchange and reinstall that smoke detector until the next evening…the beeping continues. It has now been almost a week of being awakened by the crazy beep in the middle of the night. We have all new batteries AND all new smoke detectors.

                      We are exasperated. Early in the process, I pulled out our carbon monoxide detector manual because I was concerned that we possibly had carbon monoxide in the house. The manual explains that a red light will blink with carbon monoxide and when the batteries need changed…only the green light was blinking. Without any other course of action, we finally changed the batteries in the carbon monoxide detector. The manual lied; the beeping stopped, and silence reigned in my home.