Happy Independence Day!

Acrylic painting by Betty J Roberts

This weekend has been an interesting experience for both Steve and I.  It is our first 4th of July in a new, country neighborhood, and the holiday is celebrated very differently out in the stix. :)

On Saturday we were invited to our neighbor's picnic.  Steve had already met all of our neighbors before, but this was my first time.  Everyone was really nice and comfortable to be around.  We ate some great cookout food and sat around and talked.  There were tons of kids running around, young married couples, older married couples... straight out of a hip version of a Norman Rockwell painting.  You could tell everyone was very much involved in their families and overall community.  It was really nice (and foreign for me) to see!

The fireworks have been going off around our home everynight since Thursday.  These fireworks are NOT just your little dinky bottle rockets and firecrackers.  Oh no, that is not the country way!  These are serious, massive-ass fireworks our neighbors are setting off nightly.  And it is hell on our dogs.  The past two nights we've had to drug them just to get them to calm down.  Poor Camper and Pilot... it's been rough on them.


"No more fireworks, pleeeeeeease!"

  On an extremely happy note, we got our windows in!  These windows are an early wedding gift from Steve's parents.  (Thank you Sue and Charlie!)  Check out the pictures!


Our new windows showed up this past Friday.  I was happy just seeing them in our house like this!



Charlie (Steve's stepdad) came over to help on Saturday.



Picture of window in our living room before.



Picture of living room window after! :)  SO MUCH BETTER!



Window in bathroom as Steve was working on it.



Window in bathroom after!



Living room all finished!



Lovely new window in our kitchen.

  I know buying and putting in windows is no small venture, but I honestly didn't realize how big of an impact new windows in our house was going to be.  It has made ALL the difference in the world!  We have all of our windows open and fresh air is coming in daily.  It has been heaven!  And what's even better is the number of stink bugs coming into our house has decreased significantly.  It is definitely a win-win situation. :)

I hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July!
Peacing out,
Nikki

Visit my new official website at www.grandirstudio.com.