M.I.A. for a reason

I've been completely M.I.A. for quite some time because.....
we're pregnant!!!!

I spent a few months being more tired, and sick, than I ever imagined possible.
Now that's gone, YAY, and has been replaced with some other things that are common of pregnancy, back pain and such.

Our little GIRL will be here in late September!!

Will be better at posting, so we can track our nursery progress, etc.

So far, here are some tidbits:
-I truly have not "craved" anything.  I can eat dessert for every meal, but that isn't new, that's just me!
-I am aware that it is going to be a long hot summer, but for some reason, I think someone else reminds me of it everyday.
-Maternity pants....those ones with the elastic that comes up really high and covers your entire belly are SO much more comfortable than the ones with the short band.  Take my word for it.

These are a few of my favorite things...

This Christmas was filled with family, and that was my absolute favorite thing!

Aside from the good quality time that we got to spend visiting and catching up, here are a few of my favorite gifts I received.

1) One of my favorite songs for Christmas goes a little something like this...."IIIIIIIIIIIII want a hippopotamus for Christmas, oooonly a hippopotamus will doooooo", and this year I GOT A HIPPOPOTAMUS!!!  My husband did good this year :)  With a little help from my friend Sarah who ran into this little guy and gave Eric the heads up on where to find him.

2)  I love shoes.  Shoes shoes shoes.  Any season, many styles, I am a sucker for shoes.  My family knows it too.  These are from my mom, mother in law and sister in law.  My feet really love Christmas :)


You can see here 2 pairs of TOMS (most comfortable shoes ever), Sheplers cowboy boots (amazing), nude patent leather heels that I have been needing (Payless), mocassins (American Eagle), and some rand-o brand of fake Uggs (my favorite kind of winter boot, I like to call them Fuggs).

3) I love anything that is embellished.  Big jewelry, anything with a crazy pattern or added bling, you get the point.  Eric and I were strolling through the mall to finish up our shopping on early December and I saw a small kiosk with all these pretty ear warmers and said "hey if anyone needs an idea of something to get me, tell them about these".  He never did end up doing that, but low and behold I opened up a package at my parents house and BADA BING!   Thanks Mom!  P.S., my mom is one of THE BEST gift-givers in the history of the world.  She is also responsible for the pink cowGIRL boots seen above, and those were also a surprise that I knew nothing about!

Baby it's cold outside

Hi everyone!  Long time, no post.  So here goes:
Merry Christmas!
Happy Hanukkah!
Happy New Year!
If you celebrate another type of holidays, fill in the blanks Happy _____ to you and a Merry _____ too!

We spent some time with both of our families, on their respective sides of the state, for our Christmas, with plenty of driving, but THANKFULLY none of the bad weather hit while we were en route.  Some travel days/times needed revisions, but everyone got where they were going safely.

I will be back sometime this weekend to do a re-cap of some awesome gifts from this year, (hint, I got 5 pairs of shoes and a hippopotamus).
 I will also share some snaps of our nephews just having the grandest time in their pjs, running around like the wild little men that they are!

Until then, here are some snippets of our time off and our journeys.

 Here's a not-so-great self portrait of us at my parent's house, the light isn't quite right, but who is that stud?!?!  And where did that chick's bangin necklace come from?!?!?!

Whoa!  How excited is this guy???  Look at his face!  And he doesn't even know what's inside that box yet, he just knows that it is a huge box, aka stage, aka trampoline, aka diving board. 

Hereon the left, you have our street and front porch, the morning after we got home.  Luckily, we had decided to leave a day early to avoid driving in it. 
Right - Our drive back was clear on the ground, but full of snow covered trees.  So pretty!

Closet Re-do #2

We did a closet project in our bedroom a few months ago, so now it was time to move onto the coat closet in our hallway/living room.

As Eric had the door removed to paint it (since we're painting all the trim white in the house), I decided that it looked messy and blah and we should give it a facelift :)


My purses resided in a plastic tub on the floor, with Eric's bowling ball, under our coats (which always had a few falling off the hangers)

As you can see from Eric's face, he was also shocked at the state of our closet....

So here we go:

1 - Remove everything from the closet and assess the situation.  We found a scrape that needed to be patched an realized that the baseboards had been removed and hung up higher so there was something sturdy to screw the bar into.



2 - Unscrew bar, remove boards, spackle.
3 - Sand and paint trim and walls.
4 - Paint new boards and hang.





5 - Attach hooks.
6 - Sort coats and other items, donate unwanted or ill-fitting items, and hang the rest in our new closet :)
7 - Re-attached freshly painted white door.

Sounds simple right??  Really, it wasn't bad.  I thought it was going to be a bada-bing-bada-boom 5 hour project.  I was wrong.  But really it was about 9 hours in all, and $20.

Major improvement right?!?!

THIS guy is PUMPED!

The closet doesn't look perfect, because I still need to part with a few of my coats, but I need to ease into it a few at a time.

Before

After

"Lets do a closet makeover"

So about a week ago, a conversation (via email, while at work) between Eric and I went something like this:

Me: Lets do a closet makeover!

Eric: Didn't we already do that?

Me: Not our bedroom closet, I mean the coat closet in the living room, it'll be easy.

Eric: Ok....

Me: All we have to do is remove the bar, paint, and hang some hooks, a few hours and we're done!  It will be great!

Eric: Oh really?  It will be that easy, huh?

Me: YES!  A 1 day project, since we have to let paint dry.

4 days later....here we are, ALMOST finished.

I will share before and after pics soon.


But we ran into a few small snags -
#1 the previous owner removed the baseboards to attach them 5 feet higher to have something to screw the bar into....
#2 there was a MAJOR hole/dent in the wall...almost the size of a cantalope
#3 the previous paint job was shoddy to say the least

So we are 3/4 of the way done with plans to be 100% finished this evening.  I can't waaaaaaaaaiiiiit!!!!

What sparked this?  Eric has been painting the closet door for about 2 weeks (it has slats and is a little tricky) so the closet has been doorless, forcing me to look at the disorganized mess.  Maybe we'll even weed out a few coats we have no use for and donate them. 

Thankful Friday

I realize Thanksgiving was yesterday, however, I was with family, not anywhere near a computer, so today I'll recap all the things I'm thankful for, afterall, we shouldn't JUST be thankful on Thanksgiving, but everyday.

#1 - My family, including my husband, parents, siblings, in-laws, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, nephews.  Wish we all lived closer, but we all manage to do a pretty great job of staying in touch despite the distance between us.

#2 - Friends that are like family.  I have such great friends, some that I have carried with me throughout high school and college years, into adulthood and now we are sharing the joys of watching families grow and change together.  Other friends came along later, but it seems like they've been around for ages :)

#3 - Technology.  Although it is sometimes sad to look around a group of relatives or friends in the same room and realize that everyone is on their phone, it is those phones that keep us in touch on the days we can't be together.  If it weren't for Skype and ipads, I wouldn't have the pleasure of seeing frequent photos and video of my nephews as they grow up.

#4 - My job.  I am SO thankful that Eric and I both have steady incomes and don't have to wonder how we will make ends meet.  Sure, there are times we have to be careful, but we have the luxury of cable tv, internet, and other non-necessities that many people go without these days. 

#5 - Our home.  No, it isn't big, no, it isn't fancy, but it is ours! (well sort of, technically speaking it belongs to the bank for 28 more years, but its KIND of ours haha).  We are able to be in a place that we call our own, with plenty of space for what our life requires, a cozy place to call home and to be together at the end of everyday.

#6 - Our health.  For those of you that know me, I am not a particularly healthy person all the time, but I am well enough to get out of bed everyday and live a normal life!  My husband apparently has the body and immune system of steel, and is healthy as a horse (are horses even healthy? why do we say that?).

The list could go on and on, but that is the gist.  Basically, I hope everyone has non-material things/people in their life to be thankful for, because THOSE are what really matter.  I spend too much time worrying if my shoes are the right color, where we should go out to dinner on a Friday night, and who will win a football game.  It's good to take a step back and look at the big picture, and be aware of what this life is REALLY about.

Hope you all enjoyed the holiday with someone you love!

The space of nothing

Part of what won us over when looking at this house was all of the beautiful built-in wooden furniture.
My absolute favorite is our china cabinet.  The previous owner did an AMAZING job on this.  Glass shelves, lighting, beautiful finish.

This pic was taken just after we moved in, so we were still filling it up.

See the space in the middle?  Where those bowls are?  It quickly became a space of nothing.  There isn't a light under there, so it was always a little dark, which made it easy to just throw things and not give them another thought.  Kinda like this...

We needed to remedy this situation, so we started with the idea of making it a drink station.  First thing was taking this lovely wooden tray, one of my very first DIY projects...incase you can't tell (maybe I'm being arrogant but I think I've come a long way), and giving it new life with....you guessed it...SPRAY PAINT!

Sweet wine bottle holder from our good friend Scot.

Finished product! Doesn't that tray look SOOO much better?!?!