Our First Home Project

"Anything worth doing is worth is worth doing well." Heather's mom, Christine, used to say that to Heather whenever she was going to take on a project (like cleaning her room, which is definitely a project, believe me). Heather used those same words on me yesterday, and in the end, she was right (no surprises there).



You see, one of the first things we've wanted to do in our new house is repaint the master room closet. There were markings and crayon and all sorts of stuff covering the walls. I just wanted to cover up the markings and caulk a few of the cracks, but Heather wanted to do the whole closet; walls, shelving and all. Painting the whole kitten caboodle turned what I initially estimated as a one to two hour project into a four and a half hour project. Part of the reason it took so long also was the fact that we started off using the wrong paint (the cover said "pure white" but in reality it was a deep purplish gray; not even close). It was also the first time we've done caulking and painting on our own. So it was a bit of a learning experience for us to say the least. Speaking of which, we want to give special thanks to our friend, Adam, who showed us the ropes and got us started off on the right foot.
So we've got one project checked off the list. Only about 10 million more to go!

Cinco de Mayo

I came home one night from work to Heather dressed up like this. She said she was trying to woo me and spice up our marriage. I told her she shopped at the wrong store for that and the next day I got her a gift certificate to Victoria's Secret.



Actually, Heather put this costume on for a Young Women's Cinco de Mayo activity. She taught the girls some dancing while they ate our award-winning Southern Casserole. The activity was a big hit, she said.

The Woodruff Family Famous Rolo Chocolate Cake Cookies

By popular demand, here is the recipe for some of the best cookies on earth. I can't take credit for this; my sister-in-law Jamie gave us this recipe. Thanks, again, Jamie!

Rolo Chocolate Cake Cookies

Ingredients:
1 box of chocolate cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup of oil
4 packages of Rolos
3-4 bars of Hershey chocolate

Instructions:
Mix the cake mix, eggs, and oil until the cake powder is all moist. After unwrapping Rolos, take a small lump of cake mix and wrap all around the Rolo until well covered. Place on cookie sheet. Bake on 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Add a section of Hershey's bar on top of each cookies. Place back in over for 30 seconds. Spread melted chocolate and let cool.

Homeowners!!!

It happened! We took another big step toward adulthood... we bought a house! And we love it. Although, after having bought a home, moved in, and started the settling in process, I have grown exponentially in my admiration for anyone who moves into a new home, especially if they have kids. Try as I did to prepare beforehand, this helped Heather and I to understand why people feel stressed when moving into a new homes. It took all of three minutes after moving in to come up with a huge list of projects we wanted to do. The frustrating part, however, lies in the realization that this list of home projects never ends, no matter how many of them you can check off the list.
So slowly but surely, Heather and I are coming to grip with the realities of home ownership. And even though it was stressful at first, we love our new home. If you are ever near DC, please come and visit because we would love to show it off.

10k in Richmond, Easter in Connecticut

After a long absence, Heather and I felt that a couple of new blog entries were long overdue. Sorry to those of our blog fans who are feeling neglected. My advice to you: if you’re addicted to our blog, then you are in serious need of help.

: )

Despite our lack of blogging, there have been plenty of blog-worthy things over the past few months. So I’ll try to catch up on all of them.

First, we repeated the Richmond 10k this year. It was the 10^th anniversary, and I heard that there were over 60,000 people running this year. The route goes down one of the main streets of Richmond and bends back on itself after three miles. So the finish and start of the race are not that far apart. When I was finishing the race, there was still a very steady stream of runners just starting. So yes, there were a lot of runners this year. And just like last time, we had a great time.

The best part of the Richmond 10k, though, is that we get to spend the weekend with Alyson and Nate (which is the reason we run the race in the first place). They have the cutest kids, as you will see in the following pictures.

The second big trip we made recently was to Connecticut to spend Easter with my other sister, Sarena, and her family. It has been years, and I mean since high school, since I decorated eggs and had an egg hunt on Easter. It’s been that long for Heather, too. So we were excited to do all that with Makenzie, Trevor, Jared, Karinn, Sarena and Adam. When Sarena said that they had 6 dozen eggs, my initial thought was that 72 eggs is a bit much. But we got through decorating them all in no time flat. I wished there were more. And then the egg hunt the next day was great. That Easter Bunny sure knows how to find good hiding spaces.

Heather and I felt really fortunate that we were able to get up there in time to be a part of one of Trevor’s Cub Scout activities. Heather got to run some science experiments and I got to run the water rockets. We had a blast. Adam and Sarena did a fantastic job with this activity. We also got to see Trevor play lacrosse in a scrimmage. He is quite the aggressive player. Makenzie showed us her fan dance that she is performing with her group for a talent show at school. He did a great job. Jared and I had some intense nerf wars downstairs. He’s a tough opponent; he got me about twice as much as I got him. And little Karinny and I had a great time climbing trees and playing on the trampoline. In fact, she and I came up with a new little trick. If you’re ever up in CT when we are too, then we’ll show you!

I wish we had pics of our Easter trip. As soon as Sarena sends some to us, we’ll post them.