Monday

black friday

I went against my better judgment and ventured out on Black Friday. However I waited until 10pm to make sure all the crazy women were back home and asleep. At terrgit I picked up these cute matching stockings for us. Last year we had 2 random ones and I liked the way these look so much better.

I also picked up a few other decorations and some sweaters for only $8!

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Sunday

The decision.

After what seems like months of debate (but might have really been one entire month) I finally decided which digital SLR to purchase. It has shipped and is on its way to its new home. As it would be fairly difficult to take a photo of the camera itself, click here if you want more info.

While I will probably take ton of the pictures of the dog because he's my most accessible subject, I'm looking forward to take lots of other cool photos. Right now, I have a nice collection of flower shots hanging in my cube from our honeymoon in Key West. Since we are returning to KW in March, I want to take more photos to add to that collection and maybe hang some at home too. I love original art in our house, and try to decorate with our own works, even if it's just painting stripes on some canvas to coordinate the room.

Saturday

great success

Highlights from my celebratory MBA graduation/housewarming party:
  • So glad all my local aunts and uncles could come see the new house, along with the majority of my cousins. We decided not to drive back and forth on Thanksgiving so it was nice to see them around the holidays.
  • the pigs in a blanket were a huge hit.
  • my husband makes some mean baked potato soup.
  • it was a beautiful day outside.
  • i love the Wii, but will probably never buy one because I wouldn't use it on a daily basis.

Friday

You bet.

My sister and her husband often compete to lose weight. They set a deadline and say whoever loses the most weight by X date, gets whatever prize they bet on. Usually it's a present of some sort, like an item of clothing or digital camera for example. They usually both end up losing weight, but I've never heard the outcome of who actually "wins."

This morning I proposed this idea to the hubs. What if we competed from now until Christmas day to lose weight. He said no, because he would beat me and I would feel bad about myself. I don't think I agree with that statement, but he is so competitive that he probably would win. He also does not work in an office setting where everyone brings in treats daily like I do. I can usually do fairly well at work because I bring my lunch and therefore control my food. BUT when people bring in stuff, I feel like I should at least try it. I've heard talk of one lady bringing in pumpkin scones and that sounds amazing already. Do you know how horrible a scone is for you? It's not good. For example, an orange scone is 10 points. Compare that to a plain bagel, which is 6.

So, we have not decided whether or not to embark on this friendly competition, but I sort of hope we do. The hubs motivates me like no one else, and if he does it with me it would be even more awesome.

Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving

This year, I'm thankful for many things. I'm glad we have friends we both love to hang out with. I'm thankful that my marriage is strong and we are both happy to be loving each other. I'm SO glad I'm finished with my masters degree. While I'm not extremely pleased with my recent weight-loss stalemate, I'm glad that the hubs and I are both healthy (financially and physically) and able to do everything we want right now.

I hope your thanksgiving was a day full of over-eating as well.

Wednesday

First ornament

This was the first ornament I hung on our tree this year. It was a wedding gift and I think it is so cute on the tree.

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Tuesday

Anniversary flowers still look beautiful!

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Germ talk

Last night I was reading a similar article, but close to this article in my SELF magazine about germs. Working at a hospital with tons of germs floating around, I'm already someone overzealous with the germ-x, but now it will probably be worse. The article talks about how this woman took samples from all the random places she touches in a day, and some microbiologist tested them for her (side note: my dad was a microbiologist). What were the findings? Basically, you people need to start washing your hands after you take a poop. The amount of feces she found everywhere is just alarming. Seriously, I'm considering yelling at people in the bathroom.

You know how when you are in the stall, and you can hear what's going on in the rest of the bathroom? You hear when people leave without washing their hands. I have such a big mouth that I might just yell out "HEY YOU! Can you wash your hands so no one has to touch your poop-germs? Thanks!!!"

Monday

someone is scared of the tree...

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What we did...

Here's what we accomplished this weekend (bold = done):
  • change bathroom light fixtures, paint if needed where old fixture was - we took it down, but then realized the new fixture was too heavy to replace the old one because there's no stud to attach it to... this is consider WIP (work in progress)
  • pull up old kitchen floor, lay new kitchen floor and grout - this one is waiting till after the party. We want to make sure it's done right, and not rushed. Goal: Festivus.
  • change hallway light fixture
  • finish staining the fence (ran out of time... hopefully it will get done this week.)
  • new bed is being delivered on Saturday (YAY! KING SIZE!!) so put that together
  • situate queen bed in guest room
  • have fun at trivia tonight
  • see New Moon (hubs is not participating in this activity.)
  • clean like crazy - another WIP.

Sunday

Pumpkin Souffle

Not that I would ever replace pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, I did try an alternative last night. I have been wanting pumpkin pie for a week or so, but I didn't want to make a pie. My photo of the Ted Drewes cup for lunch was a pumpkin concrete, but we all know how horrible those things are for our waistlines. So last night I made a WW recipe for pumpkin souffle. It said the level of difficulty was "difficult" so I was a little nervous. Then I got home from the store and realized I only read milk instead of evaporated milk in the ingredients. So I substituted half and half instead. I had to beat eggs into stiff peaks (a first) and cook the pumpkin before baking the entire thing in a 2.5 quart dish.

I thought it turned out pretty well. It's not nearly as sweet as pumpkin pie, but it's only 2 points per serving (compared to 8 for a regular piece of pie), so I think that's worth it to tide me over until turkey day.

Saturday

new bed!

Poor little dog can't jump up anymore now that the bed is pillow-top. So we have to put a stool near the bed for him to hop up with.

Friday

my cute snowman

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Honey-do list

Things we need to accomplish before next weekend at the house:
  • change bathroom light fixtures, paint if needed where old fixture was
  • pull up old kitchen floor, lay new kitchen floor and grout
  • change hallway light fixture
  • finish staining the fence
  • new bed is being delivered on Saturday (YAY! KING SIZE!!) so put that together
  • situate queen bed in guest room
  • have fun at trivia tonight
  • see New Moon (hubs is not participating in this activity.)
  • clean like crazy

Thursday

36 days

Only 36 days until Christmas!! I'm super excited for Christmas this year. Due to the hubs being allergic to cats, we are going to host "the six of us" Christmas, which includes my mom and dad, my sister and her husband, and the two of us. Growing up, we called it "just the four of us" but now that the sis and I are both married, it's The Six of Us.

So Christmas day, everyone will come over to our house. I'm not sure what we'll cook, because traditionally my mom made eggs benedict for Christmas breakfast, but I don't think we'll be eating breakfast. Maybe brunch though, so I suppose it's a possibility.

I'm also excited to decorate the new house. We bought a fake tree two years ago on clearance for $20 right after the holidays and have never been able to use it. We've hauled that huge, heavy thing from the old house to storage to the new house and I want to see it put up!

Wednesday

Lunch.

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Tuesday

The clock.

Lately I cannot stop thinking about babies. I think about all the logistics of being pregnant, buying clothes, getting fat, giving birth and telling work I'm going to using FMLA. I think about stupid stuff like changing diapers and how I want to puree all the baby food myself instead of buying it from gerber. I think about how it's going to drastically change our lives and put a damper on our social life. I think about how old I will be when the kid is XX years old. I think about how I will have to buy one of those strollers that you can run with so I don't stay fat. I think about how easy it was for the hubs and me to gain weight, and how the obesity epidemic is taking over America's youth. I do not want my child to go through the struggles that I did as a fat middle schooler/high schooler. The good news is hubs did not gain weight until college, and I lost it in college, so the kid has a 50/50 chance of being average at some point. Neither the hubs nor I was ever or probably will ever be "thin" so they are just out of luck on that one unless the kid gets my mom's genes. I think a lot about the unknown of having a husband who was adopted. I have no clue what his parents look like or his grandparents or what is normal for his family to look like. I think I look a lot like my dad's side of the family (but not my dad), and not really so much my mom's.

I know my parents will be thrilled to read all this blabbering, but I also know that we (the hubs and I) are just not quite there yet.

(by the way, I've been asked twice in the last month if we were actively trying to have a baby yet. The answer is no, and that's noneya bidness.)

Monday

Cut off.

My sweet tooth is officially cut off until Turkey Day when I eat some of hubs' grandma's sweet potato puffs (stuffed with marshmallows) and some pie. I gained 2lbs this week while on vacation. While that is to be expected, I still don't like it.

So all those Thin Mints, Tagalongs and Do-Si-Dos will just have to hang out in the pantry until then.

Sunday

Christmas time.

It's officially Christmas season for me. I know it's not Thanksgiving yet, but I love Christmas music and I ordered our Christmas cards today. I've started shopping too and have a pile of presents (even though there are only a handful of presents there right now) ready to be wrapped. For my own Christmas present, I'm planning on buying a new camera on black Friday, so I've been researching cameras for weeks now. I think I've finally made a decision, but I'll keep you waiting until I purchase :)

While we were on our trip I bought an ornament with Niagara Falls on it. I think I want to start collecting ornaments to put on our tree. That way, every year we can reminisce about all the places we've been together. I'll have to pick up an extra from Key West since I didn't get one the first time we were there. My parents have a tradition of getting a fridge magnet from everywhere they go, but our fridge is already full of magnets, so I don't think I want to continue that tradition.

Saturday

A strange day.

Today brought back a lot of high school memories. I went to the craft fair at my alma mater with my mom. Not only did I shop at these craft fairs in HS, they benefit the band so I also helped work them during my four years there. So it was weird to be in that building again, seeing places and faces I used to see but haven't thought about it years.

Then I ran into someone from my old church. This girl was probably 2-5 while I was in high school and she sat on my lap during the service every Sunday. I can't remember how that started, but her parents were very involved in the church so maybe they asked me to watch her one time and it stuck? I don't really know, but we became good buds. I saw her today, at age 19. She's a freshman in college studying veterinary science. It was so strange to talk to her as a young adult, but probably just as strange for her. She asked me how old I was when we were buds and she said she thought I was an adult then.

Friday

Somewhere in Ohio

still in the car...

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My favorite road trip snack.

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Thursday

the falls lit up

nighttime view

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view from the street

a virtual postcard

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both falls

view from our room

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Wednesday

After a museum...

The Great Lakes Brewing co was closed for the day (found out after we paid to park) so we found another bar called Flannerys. And no I'm not drinking beer. It's cider.

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Cleveland view from our room

That white building sticking up with the glass in front is the rock and roll hall of fame. We are headed there today.

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Tuesday

A lesson.

Working in health care PR, I get to receive calls from the media from time to time asking about a patient's condition. Due to HIPAA rules, we, the hospital, cannot give out anything other than the following conditions:

Critical = you could go at any time.
Serious = you are very sick, but likely to make it
Satisfactory = you are out of the woods, but still in the hospital
Fair/Good = you are much better, probably fair or good.

So when the media covers stories such as the Fort Hood shooting, and says stuff like:

At a thoroughly surprising evening press conference, Lt. Gen. Robert Cone at Fort Hood told media gathered that the shooter in today's attack, Malik Nidal Hasan, is not dead but in stable condition at the hospital.

Stable is not a correct term.


Monday

The Laundry Room Process

When we moved into the house, this is what the laundry room looked like:




Just incase you didn't notice the green on green linoleum and counter, here's a close-up (with my foot...)

So I pulled off the baseboards and started peeling up the sheet of tile.



This is what the subfloor looked like.
We started in the middle and worked our wait out, standing on each tile as we went. We bought enough tiles to cover the 10x6 laundry room (60 sq ft x $.88/tile = $53) plus a few extra in case we messed up.

Notice the spacers holding the tiles apart for the grout. We found it was much easier to cut the tile with scissors or the table saw, than using the suggested utility knife.

General oversees hub's helper putting in the last few tiles.
The next day, we pulled up all the spacers and used pre-mixed grout ($11) to give it the ceramic-look.

It was so easy to do the grout, it only took us about an hour and it comes up easily with water.

And this is the finished product. Not bad for about $65. Now the kitchen will be a much bigger challenge, with an eat-in/bay window area, there are a lot more angles to cut.

Sunday

step 4. enjoy

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step 3. grout

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Saturday

Step 2. lay pretty tile.

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Green Stuff

My new favorite site to buy stuff from is brightandbold.com. I already love my envirosax, and use them every time I go to the grocery store, but I only had one and most of the time I buy more than one bag's worth of stuff. Therefore, I needed another.

So I ordered myself a bag and also got the bonus back of green stuff. I got a set of green paper towels (basically large flat sponges), a fresh produce saver disc (sits in the fridge and keeps stuff fresh longer), a notebook (that I won't use and will probably give away), a snack taxi (to replace ziploc bags, I will use this!) and some cotton bags (not sure what I'm supposed to do with these...).

So if you need some green stuff, you should check them out! (and no, they did not ask me to write this. I did it all by myself)

Friday

Some Kitchen Thoughts

I am the opposite of a morning person, so naturally I start pulling up the old tile at 8pm on a week night. Even though the hubs and I have tackled several DIY projects at our old house, putting new tile in the kitchen floor is going to be a bigger deal than I originally imagined. This mostly due to the fact that the current vinyl tile was one of those large sheets of tile, rolled out while the house was being built. Then they added molding (not a huge deal), door frames (annoying, but do-able) and cabinets (might be a deal-breaker). Also, the current vinyl tile was rolled straight from the laundry room entrance from the garage into the kitchen. Cool for the dudes building our house, except they put the carpet that goes from the living room hallway into our bedroom right on top of that vinyl tile. So, I can't peel it up without ripping the carpet too...

So the hubs and I have a major few decisions to make on this massive DIY project. Stay tuned.

Thursday

Step 1. remove ugly tile.

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The Kitchen

The hubs and I are slowly but surely taking steps to improve the aesthetics of our kitchen. I absolutely hate the green-on-green look. I hated the wallpaper so much that I peeled it all off in one night. We've picked out new floors and counters, and are half-way through replacing the white appliances with black/stainless. Our new stainless fridge will be arriving thanksgiving, so the only white one left will be the dishwasher.

Our goal is to replace the hunter green floor with a nice gray colored "luxury vinyl" peel and stick tile prior to my upcoming graduation party. At least 2 of the three hideous things will be removed before a bunch of people come over to hang out. We actually bought the supplies back in July, but then football season took over the precise, muscled-half of our team. I'm not about to tackle a DIY project without that, so we've waited. Now that football is over, we are about to get back on track.

Wednesday

EEEK!!

How many of you have started thinking about what to give for Christmas presents? I know I have. I have pretty much stopped buying for all of my girl friends except for a few. I think this was a mutually beneficial decision since most of us have hubs and families to buy for. In our case, we have little nieces and nephews who we like to spoil, so that means less money in the pot for adults. Plus the hubs and I like to buy one large gift to each other. Last year we bought a treadmill. This year we are buying a king-size bed and bedroom furniture for our room. We are still living out of the dresser that I had as a child, and the frame is from when I graduated college. Our nightstand was a table I earned when my grandma's house was divvy-ed up. It's time.

I picked out the mattresses this week, but we have yet to make a final decision on the much larger purchase - furniture.

Tuesday

Someday little buddy.

Eventually, I will have my very own English bulldog. Just not today.

Mostly because he costs $1800 and I'd rather have a king-size bed.

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Anniversary trip

The hubs and I are planning an impromptu anniversary trip next week. We've been debating over where to go, when to go, if to go for about a month now. It all depended on what the high school football team decided to do in the playoffs. Sadly, they lost in the first round (but yay for football being over!). We decided we need to cross the border into Canada since neither of us have ever done it.

A rough itinerary:
Day 1 - leave work early, drive to Cleveland, Ohio
Day 2 - visit rock and roll hall of fame, Old Crow Medicine concert
Day 3 - drive to Niagara Falls, do touristy things like put on a poncho.
Day 4 - drive to Indianapolis, IN
Day 5 - drive to Evansville, IN, see minor league hockey game.
Day 6 - home.

Monday

Nudity!

this is on a painting at work.

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Sunday

To Dallas!

I'm not sure if you all heard, but last week Southwest Airlines had a huge sale. Because my BFF from middle school moved to Dallas, I decided to book a flight to go visit her. Another of our friends will hopefully be traveling with me, but to my knowledge, she missed out on the sale. I got my round trip ticket for about $150. I think it could have been less, but absolutely refuse to fly anything but non-stop. If you've met me, you know patience and I don't really get along, so I don't like to sit around airports or on runways waiting to change planes. So for my sanity along with anyone I might travel with, it's best to fly non-stop.

So I'll be visiting her in January. By then, she should be all settled in her new house and have some fun things for me to see in a city I've never visited before. At some point, the hubs and I will have to go back during baseball season to cross the Dallas stadium off our list.

(as a side note, she has decided to start a blog. She's just getting going, but you can check it out here.)