Home Sweet Home

Since Mike and I have been married, 7 years I've always made the place we've stayed Homie, however its never been Home. Someone else owns it, takes care of the headaches, mows the grass...

This is my Home. Finally My Home Sweet Home. For those of you not able to drive across the country... here's a small glimpse of our nesting spot. I love all of it, even the ugly stuff for now because it's mine and I can change it without calling someone first!

I love this huge living room. It fits a ton of people. 51 guests came to Beau's birthday - no problem! My goals in here are to copy Melodee, get 2 identical leather couches instead of a sectional. We have priced and starting saving for our entertainment "wall" from Best Buy. Ginormous tv here we come!

Bro in Shannon will be mentioned several times throughout this tour. He is making a cedar fireplace mantel when his brother finishes a project. This fireplace was a selling point for me when buying the home. Hooray for wood burning fireplaces, they almost are impossible to find anymore. Cozy...

Beau's Room! There is lots of sports memorabilia from Grandpa Wilmoth - his name sake in this room.

This is the guest room/your room if you get to come see me.

Big wonderful kitchen that's mostly busy cooking for the boys.

Our room is the least finished/decorated. I'm kind of waiting for Beau to graduate from the crib into this bed before we purchase something to finish our room... however I'm getting antsy and found a gorgeous bed in pottery barn.





This is the basement/man cave. As you can see, we have a lot of work to do. I like to think of it as a canvas... well Shannon's coming to the rescue again down here. Maybe we'll be able to post some "after" shots after this winter!

A big switch-a-roo

The end of this summer has brought many changes to the Crews Quarters.

First off, Mike and I both have different jobs - we're employed by the same organizations, Hartville R-2 and MSU, however everything we are doing is different. For the past 5 years Mike has successfully taught JH History. The kiddos love his male presence in a predominately female elementary/JH school. As many of you know, Mike didn't go to school to teach History, his background is PE/Health. His wishes came true this year. He'll still be teaching JH for 1/2 the day, but Health/Exploritory Class this time. The other half of his day will be in ISD (in school detention) and weigh lifting. Actually he's pumped about working with at-risk kids, and probably looking forward to a work out during work as well! He was tenured as of this new school year, and continues to coach basketball and track. We're predicting an exciting JH season. These girls are fun to watch play. Go lady eagles!

My job has also changed from Dept of Ag administrative support to VESTA Missouri coordinator. VESTA is an online grape and wine education program. I have worked as admin support for this grant the last two years. I'm honored to be selected as the coordinator for the state of MO. But along with that honor comes, much much more responsibility. Currently there are 8 partnering states within the mid-west, each state has a coordinator. I welcome the challenge, but I'm also overwhelmed. The gist of the deal is I am advising students, coordinating workshops/field site practicums/events. Attending wine industry events, conferences and meetings within the state, all while still attending to current duties within the Ag dept. It will be an adjustment to a new balancing act.

Third and the most exciting is - adjusting to Beau walking!! Good lands that baby is quick. He is at the point where he prefers to walk over crawling. However, in the evening his little legs are tired and he gets exasperated with himself for stumbling and falling over and over. He takes these big sighs umps and pants. So funny. I can see determination and problem solving skills already developing, he is a genius after all... So since he is walking, we tend to loose him from time to time. He'll be in another room, shut the door and then yell for rescue support. A favorite spot to find him is in the floor of the shower in our bathroom - I try to keep the house clean, but it thoroughly disgusts me to have him playing in the water. YuckO. Here are a few more favorite places...

Beau is a big helper. The other night we were snapping green beans in the living room. Big Helper Beau caught on quickly and handed me beans one at a time and said, "her-da-go" (here you go). Then he started bringing blocks over and putting them in the snap bowl a few at a time. We video-ed the action, the cutest thing Ever.

awesome weekend.

Awesome. We had an awesome weekend. Friday evening we hauled out of the woods and headed south to Mountain Home. Mountain Home is a new favorite place of mine. Not only does my favorite sisterinlaw live there, but its just so nice. What's even nicer is the fact that Grandma Judy and Grandpa Bob drove back and forth across the great state of Arkansas just to play with Beau at aunt Melodee's house so us Kids could go float the river. We floated from Blair back down to Dawt Mill. If you have the opportunity to do this, Go. It was the best float I've ever taken around here. The river was rolling, we went through some hairy shoots, however there was no screaming or yelling in the Crews canoe. Neither one of us dumped! It was raining at the beginning, but then stopped which made the most beautiful fog on the water. Then the sun came out. Perfect. AND me and CJ didn't get sunburnt. Hooray! I don't have pictures of the river.

Beau had some great fun too! Grandma may have had more, hard to tell... This baby loves his Grandma, bubble-blowing aunt Melodee and Bubbles!!!

We also discovered three generations of the VERY same curls. Mike was thrilled.

Sunday we came home, took one look at the garden, and hoped to goodness that Beau would lay down for a few hours. Nope. He was happy to be home and playing toys. So we hauled out the "sunshade" Dad and Betsy gave us as a mid-summer Christmas present (Dad probably lost it for a while) and hoped it would work. Did it ever?!! I am so impressed with this thing.

It's so much more than a sunshade, its a perfect tuck-a-pack-n-play-under-it Tent!! He stayed happy for a long time in there. We were able to get a lot done in weed control. Last night it was the beans, tonight we're tackling the tomatoes and corn.