Drapery Saga Ended

Here are a pictures of the drapes we finally decided on. I love them! They make a world of difference.


Edited to add - The walls are a light sage green, which is what the original owner had. The walls looked great with the original owner's decor, but they aren't really growing on me now that we've been in the house for 5 months. I am not particularly crazy about them, although Jason likes them. In his words, he likes 'earthy tones'. I'm not really 'happy' with them, but they will work until I can one day convince Jason to allow me, well, actually, it will be when I can convince him to repaint them. They probably won't get to repainted until we re-do the kitchen, which won't be for awhile.

My attempt at something Martha Stewart-ish

Let me preface this by saying, I am not a crafty person at all. In fact as I was doing this, Tristen says, 'How often do you do this crafty type of stuff?' I said, 'Um, how often do you SEE me doing this type of crafty stuff?' He replied, 'Not very often.' Point made. LOL!

Anyways, here is my work of art that took me a total of probably 30 minutes to do.

Our uneventful weekend...

Well, my last uneventful weekend for awhile is coming to a close. I just woke up from a 2 hour nap, and I probably won't be getting another one of those for at least a month! We didn't do much this weekend. We prepared for Ike on Friday night. We moved all of our patio furniture, grill and other outdoor stuff into the garage. I had mentally decided I wasn't getting out of the house on Saturday b/c of Ike. Yeah, big.fat.mistake. Ike was absolutely nothing but a measly rain storm for us. I don't even think we got more than 1/2" of rain. We do have friends in Houston who rode out the storm. If power isn't restored by Tuesday in my good friend Kori's neighborhood, she is going to come see me here in Dallas. Her parents' house just has some missing shingles, downed fence and trees, but no MAJOR damage. Our thoughts go out to all those who experienced the full strength verison Ike and who are now picking up the pieces from the jerk.

Today, we did the normal routine. Got up, went and ate breakfast, grocery store and then shopped for the house. We now have outdoor landscape lighting which looks great! I failed to get any pictures of my handyman, aka Jason, installing the lighting. He amazes me every day with his skills. We bought a new rug and runner for the living room, and a new lamp for the office.

Our next 3 weekends are pretty hectic. Next weekend Colby has a baseball tournament and it is Jason's birthday. The following weekend is the JDRF walk, Colby's team building activities for baseball, and a big family party at our house (right now...we are expecting 30 people...holy crap!). We are celebrating my mom turning 60, my youngest brother is graduating from the Dallas Fire Academy, and Jason's birthday. The weekend after that, Colby has another baseball tournament and we have a joint bachelor/bachelorette party to go to.

Another cute gift idea....

This time, I bought a gift for me, but I'm sure I will be buying more in the near future as the holidays approach. The girl who did my flowers for my wedding has started something else besides her floral business. She has started Artsy Fartsy Designs. I picked up my 'H' last night. I purchased the 24" size which is not shown on her website, but is available. I love it! I haven't found the perfect place for it yet, but in due time, I will.

Cute Gift Idea

I stumbled upon these pens - Sugar Pie Pens - on a website I frequent. They were too cute and so I ordered one for a girlfriend, as a gift. I should've bought me one as everyone steals my pens from my desk and perhpas this one would be a little bit harder to walk away with, but I didn't. Below is a crappy picture of it in the box....getting ready to be mailed out. If you go to their website, they have lots of pictures of their pens. I showed it to Jason and he was like, 'WTH is that?' Such a guy! LOL!



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My 2 helpers in the kitchen....

The boys are always asking if they can help me cook dinner. My answer is usually, "No." Colby asked if he could help and I told him yes, and of course Tristen wanted to help too. We were cooking spaghetti, so it was relatively easy and not too complicated for them to help. They enjoyed helping cook and they even 'thanked' themselves for a good meal. (They always say,'Thanks Meena and Dad, dinner was good.' So, tonight they made sure they thanked themselves.')

Colby acting like a goof ball and Tristen actually cooking.

It is hard for this child to look normal in a picture. We always have to make funny faces.

Colby, stirring the noodles. (Yes, he was corrected...he should've been holding the pan.)

Tristen decided to become the photographer.

See what I mean about the silly faces.

Random pictures...

Well, we think we figured out the office curtains. The pillows were just some pillows I had in our room, not being used. I will replace them with something else. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know!! I think eventually we will replace the bench with a trunk or chest. This will work for now.

Bookcase in the office. I love the letter words!

My fall decorations are slowly coming out.

The Bug

Well, here is 'The Bug's' big debut. I'm sure most of you will say WTH is that when you see the pictures of this thing. I said a few more choice words than, 'WTH is that?' when Jason took me to go see this thing. He told me to have faith in him, which I do, but looking at this thing made me think twice. He bought it for $900. He has had it up at his work for about month. Finally, his work told him to MOVE it, so it ended up in our garage this past Tuesday. I was sad to lose my garage parking space to 'The Bug', but in due time, I'll have it back. (I better have it back by the time the weather gets cold.) So, without further adue (however you spell that...), let me introduce you to 'The Bug'.

The motor is taken out so he can rebuild it.

It is a 1964 Volkswagen Beetle that has 88,000 original miles on it. It was last driven in 1984. It doesn't run, and it doesn't even have KEYS!!!!!!! This is Jason's new toy/project. He has a handful of friends that have old bugs that have been restored. Many of you who read this probably are thinking what a piece of junk that is! (Same thoughts I had.) Jason's plans are to restore it, but leave the original paint. Apparently, that is the 'cool' thing to do nowadays. I disagree, but what do I know about cars! I guess I will leave it up to the professionals. I have no clue how long this project will take, but I will be sure to post pictures of the progress. 

We joked around with the boys telling them that they were both going to have cars like this when they are 16. They both looked scared. I'm sure that by the time Jason is done with it, they will rethink the crazy looks they both gave us. 

(please excuse the pictures of the unfinished garage walls. that is on our 'house project' list.)

This week's happenings...

We've had a relatively calm week this week, so I don't really have anything too exciting to blog about.

• Monday - Holiday - see weekend wrapup post.
• Tuesday - Tristen was home from school sick. He had a stomach bug, so I got an extended weekend. :)
• Wednesday - Colby's first practice on his new Select Baseball Team.
• Thursday - Jason was off all day Thursday so he spent the day taking apart his new toy - 1964 VW Beetle - that he is starting to restore. I will post pictures in a separate post.
• Friday - boys will go to their mom's house until Sunday afternoon.

Tristen starts his private Trumpet lessons on Tuesday. He is pretty excited about them. Luckily, we were one of the first people to sign up so he gets to do his lessons from 7:45am-8:15am on Tuesdays, which is perfect because I drop him off at school at 7:45. The first bell doesn't ring until 8:35, so it works out great!

I'm still on the search for drapes for our breakfast nook/kitchen. I know EXACTLY what I want and found some that I absolutely love, but of course they have to be uber expensive - $400 - and I'm just not going to pay that! We are having our first 'house party' with our families on the 27th of this month and for whatever reason (me being a perfectionist) I wanted everything perfect, hung, painted, etc. Honestly, it really doesn't matter as it is our family that is coming over. We'll see how successful I am in completing all of these little tasks I want done before the 27th.

**Update on the solar lights**- yeah, they didn't work. Jason packed them back up and I took them back to Lowes. We are still on the search for some solar lights or other landscape lighting.

Weekend Wrapup

My 28th birthday was on Friday. Jason had been bugging me about what I wanted to do for my birthday. Every time he asked I said that I didn't care and could careless about doing anything. I'm just not into my birthday like I use to be. Anyways, I took the day off on Friday and Jason ended up with his 3-day (technically 4-day counting Labor Day) weekend, so we've had a nice long weekend together (the boys went to their mom's). I went and got my hair 'did' on Friday. It is super cute and LOVE it. I cut about 3 1/2 inches off and added some dark color for the fall. I went and did some birthday shopping for some clothes. I found a few things and had planned on going back today, but we somehow ended up at Lowe's and Home Depot instead of the mall! LOL!

My new hairdo!

Saturday evening we went to dinner with a bunch of our friends. We had planned on going bowling after dinner, but we never made it there. I had a great time just hanging out with our friends on the patio at Life's a Beach.

Sunday, we just hung around the house. Made a trip to Lowe's for some solar lights for the flower beds out front. We'll see how well they work tonight. I'm not keeping my hopes up. **If anyone who reads this can reccommend their solar lights or outdoor landscape lighting, please let me know!!!!** Sunday afternoon we went house hunting with my brother and sister-in-law. It was fun looking at houses, but glad we are done with that whole process.

Today, we've made 4 trips to Lowes/Home Depot. Luckily, we are less than a mile from both stores. We first went to go look for a part for part of the sink in the boys' bathroom. We ended up with a part we thought would work and then we bought some curtain rods for the office. I've had these curtains for probably 2 months now, and we are just now getting around to hanging them. They are finally up. I like them, but don't LOVE them. I liked them better before they were hung. I think it is the way they look when they are pulled back. Eh, whatever. They will work until I find something I love.

Office Curtains

Close up

After Jason hung the curtains, he started on the bathroom sink. Yeah, wrong part. Went back to Lowe's and they didn't have the part. Went across the street to Home Depot, and found what we were TOLD would work. Yeah, that didn't work. Went BACK to Home Depot, and just purchased a whole faucet set (an inexpensive one ($29) until we redo the bathroom). WOOHOO...we are home free. WRONG....Jason realized he needed some silicone sealant and some faucet hoses. So, I went BACK to HD. I'm beat by this point. I'm finally back at home and vowed that I am not returning to HD or Lowes for at least a week. I think I just heard him finish up!

Jason....not really thrilled about me taking pictures.

Woohoo! We are back in working order.Bye, bye old faucet.

Tigger

Hi! My name is Tigger and I am the family dog. I never got around to posting my story about running away recently, so I will do it now. About 2 weeks ago, Mom didn't shut the gate all the way after she had come into the backyard from the front yard. (The gate latches with a spring handled latch; I guess that is what they are called.) I hung out in the backyard for awhile, even though I had realized after Mom and Colby went inside that the gate wasn't completely shut. Well, after the 'rents went to bed, I decided I'd sneak out. Yeah, I don't remember exactly where I went, but I knew that my parents were worried about me. I noticed that they had posted signs all over the neighborhood about me being lost. After about 38 hours, I was pretty hungry and thirsty, so I made my way back home to find that they had left the gates open for me. Mom was so excited and happy I was back. Mom lectured me and told me to never do that again. She told me she cried off and on during those 38 hours and was worried sick. Dad, well, he was kinda mad at me since I knew better than to run away. Dad got over being mad at me really quickly. Anyways....here is a picture of my playing my turtle. Mom and Dad fill it up with water (even though technically it is a sandbox) so I can cool off when it is SOOO hot outside. I've learned my lesson and probably won't ever run away again!