My First Craigslist Purchase

Since our house has an eat-in kitchen and dining room, I knew I'd be using the eat-in kitchen space for more cooking and storage space. Luckily I found the perfect island on Craigslist for $90. (It was listed at $100, so not too bad for my first "haggling" experience I guess.)

There's enough space for sitting, cooking and storing!

Downsizing

Ever since Charles (my Nikon DSLR) came into my life, we have gone everywhere together. Even Walmart. Because you don't know when the perfect photo opp will appear and you want to be ready with your best gear. Charles compensates for so many of my photography shortcomings, much more so than his predecessor, a Sony point-and-shoot who was never even named.

(And yes, even Walmart has photo opps. One day I saw some crushed color ink cartridges in the parking lot and the colors mixing with the rain/oil puddle was really pretty. But my camera was at home. Le sigh.)

What Charles has in quality though he lacks in portability. His weight pulls on my shoulder. And while I feel more legitimate taking random photos with a professional-looking camera, I also feel like more of a creeper/paparazzi wannabee. (This might have more to do with my general insecurities than anything related to the cameras.) Unnamed Sony is much more lightweight and discreet.

When we were moving, I often left Charles at home and was so relieved to have my purse return to an acceptable weight. So for now, until I change my mind, my unnamed Sony gets to go with my on my daily trips.

My shoulders are so grateful, but my heart misses Charles.

The Benefits of a Clean Desk

There's nothing quite so peaceful as having a clean desk. 

Even if 2 inches away the rest of the desk mess lives, at least my desk is clean. 

P.S. Isn't that a lovely wall color? Sadly it's a small room and the office is so full of desks that I think the color is a little too dark for the situation. I need a lighter color to open up the room. Right? Right. 

Week in Review: 6/25

Catalog Living might be my new favorite blog.

Hello, dream home.

The to-do list of crafty decor projects just got longer.

Elise's photo books inspire me every single time.

Moving in the Right Direction

I'm finally starting to emerge from my moving-induced abandonment of healthy foods and activities. Yesterday morning I finally went for a run jog/walk. Last week I started eating healthy-ish again like the above wrap. I modified it from my beloved Mediterranean Wrap at Jason's Deli: turkey, hummus, lettuce tomato, cucumber, and onions. (No olives. I love them but I'm too cheap to buy them at the grocery.)

Of course, after the run I decided I deserved 3 5 mini Twix. Oops?

My Middle Name is Marie

I got this card in the mail from my sister on Thursday about 24 hours before she arrived for a weekend visit. I had a wonderful time. Laura is disappointed to have wasted part of her Saturday watching Lee and I pick out some deadbolt locks. I'm not sure she'll come back to visit again until Lowe's is no longer a guaranteed part of our weekend.

Week in Review: 6/18

For those of you keeping tally at home, this is my 300th post. Crazy.


Only in the past month or so have I jumped on the Hyperbole and a Half bandwagon and I'm so glad I did.

I love font jokes and hate Comic Sans.

I wouldn't say I hate soccer, but yeah, I don't get it.

I like this idea of hanging bags for my office maybe.

I'm thinking about some stenciling for the house. Maybe the entry hall? Will I hate myself for taking this on?

Could you be my new favorite song? Likely.

(And really YouTube, why can't I embed something at 500 pixels wide anymore? I don't want to redo my blog layout just because of your weirdness.)

Have a happy weekend! I'll be unpacking but at least my little sister will be here to join me and Lee in our labors! And she's better at heavy lifting than I am!

An Apocalyptic Prediction

When I was in college, my dear friend Caitlin and I visited her hometown of San Antonio for spring break. Part of the week-long indoctrination to all things Texas was a Spurs game. To ensure I got the most out of my first NBA experience, Caitlin taught me everything I could possibly want to know about the Spurs, along with other important NBA info, like the Lakers are evil. And since when learning new things it's important to make comparisons to things you already know, I thought of the Spurs as the UK of the NBA. This logically makes the Lakers the Duke of the NBA. (In case you're curious, UofL and Tennessee are more like the Rockets/Mavericks in that they are local annoyances.)

Needless to say I was not happy a few months ago when Duke won the NCAA tournament. I mean, if UK's not going to win, at least not Duke. (Or UofL, Tennessee, UNC, Kansas, Indiana...) That's not too much to ask, right? Right!

So Duke won the college championship and tonight the Lakers could win the NBA finals. I'm not one for apocalyptic predictions because A. They creep me out and B. I just don't buy them (I do buy the Bible's "Not knowing the day or the hour." That seems to be the most likely scenario.). But if the Lakers win tonight, we will live in a world that has Duke and the Lakers as reigning champions. *gag* I figure this is as likely to kick start the end times as any Mayan calendar.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Or at least bring on ten years of plagues and pestilence.

Go Celtics!

Zoey Has a Yard!

Today Zoey's yard is complete! It is now fully fenced in, and the picket fence has been adjusted so she can't wiggle free. (No worries, when she escaped she just ran to the front door!)

Enjoying the Moment

I'm not good at enjoying the moment. Sometimes I contribute it to me just not being an "enjoy the moment" kind of person. Which I've decided is the lamest excuse. 

Something dangerous clicked in my head mid-semester in 7th grade when I was given a progress report for the first time. That was the moment I learned that I could calculate my class average after every test and every homework assignment and potentially control my academic fate, as opposed to simply doing my best like any normal person. That day my neuroses went from being an above-average worrier (Example: I hope my family doesn't die in a freak accident today.) to being an above-average worrier and a control freak. (Example: I hope my family doesn't die in a freak accident today. In the mean time, let's focus all our energy on graduating with a 4.0.)

And while graduating valedictorian from high school was really fun, Biology Honors was not worth crying over. (I hadn't even gotten a bad grade yet, it was just scary. It was the first time I really had to study and the day I realized that I would never understand science as easily as I could understand Jane Austen. I did ace the class though, because that's how being a little crazy can benefit you sometimes.)

As we've been going through the stages of buying a house, I've been trying harder to enjoy it and not get bogged down, by well, scenes like this:

And focus on scenes like my gorgeous flower garden:


(And figuring out how not to kill them.)

As I was unpacking this weekend, I found my high school scrapbooks and photo albums. My favorite thing about these items is that they're filled with pictures of people who I still talk to and keep in touch with and are still some of my best friends. I have forgotten about cell osmosis, but I remember sitting in Amy's kitchen with Sarah and a Velveeta cheese log trying to learn about it. And that moment is what matters in the long run.

Whew

I had every intention of not disappearing last week, but somehow it happened. Between unpacking, a busy week at work, a few social commitments, the Glee finale, and two hours driving around town looking for the right desk organizers, I fell off the face of the earth.

My fingers are crossed that this week will be a bit more chill, organized, and healthy (I've been eating crap and not running since a week before the move. Oops!).

Of course, I do get distracted easily and between the unpacking and the distractions...

Week in Review: 6/4

We've been homeowners for a week now! And I really need to figure out what to do with all these gorgeous flowers in our yard. You can see more on my Flickr. Gardening plans are on hold though until the box situation is under control. In other news...

I do not enjoy science, but I'm excited to learn that scientists have named a pheromone after Mr. Darcy, you know, because of his effect on the ladies. This is probably the coolest thing science has done since the Internet.

Once these boxes are tamed and the wall color situation is approved, the crafty projects are rolling forth. This wonderful dry erase board from paper n stitch might be a good start.

Cute printable cards via How About Orange, including some "Just Moved" cards. I'm thinking we might do a combo "Just Moved/Come to our Cookout" cards in the next few months.

Your Wishcake might have the cutest crafting nook ever.

I might have to staple this reminder to my head until I've finished packing and painting and sorting and organizing.

The nice thing about the Internet and blogging is the realization of how we're all so much alike in some ways. Like how Lee and I have had this exact same conversation.

And oh sweet joys look what YouTube just showed me!!! (And what is up with YouTube videos not wanting to be under 500 pixels?! But anyways...)

Our First Change

So technically this isn't our first change to the house. The first change was the new water heater. Then there was the radon removal pipes and fans, and the new electrical switch for the air conditioner. But this is the first change worth blogging about. (Although we went with a 50 gallon water heater, which is pretty sweet, but doesn't photograph well.)

We had a ceiling fan/light installed in the living room!

Ooh! Ahh!

Not terribly exciting, but it's nice to be able to install overhead lamps where you want them and this was the only room missing one. And fortunately we had an old ceiling fan sitting around and I love me some ceiling fan. (Although we'll probably look into a new one soonish because some sort of something was missing so he couldn't hang it close the ceiling; it has to drop down a bit. Our tall friends and family will have to be careful not to bang their head on the lights, but they'll be spared a beheading by the fan blades.)

Of course the beauty of the ceiling fan is slightly marred by the continued chaos in the living room, and the whole house really. But it's slowly coming together.

Jean Love

Getting to wear jeans to work is one of my favorite things about my job. In fact, I wear jeans pretty much every day, year round. (I know, I need to spice it up some, but change takes time.) We won't go into the math of how many jeans I own, the frequency with which I wear them, and how often I wash them because that is sad math and math is already sad enough without leading to gross personal revelations. But suffice it to say I need all my pairs of jeans, and when my favorite pair is starting to show some wear in all the wrong places, action is required.

And then the good news of 40% off at LOFT arrived...

These might be my favorite pair ever. *sigh* Jean love.

A Million Thanks

As with all things in life, I approached purchasing and moving into a house with a variety of fears and concerns. Closing the Friday before a three-day weekend, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get the TV and Internet hooked up or the water heater fixed before our Saturday move. When mom called me a week before the move date asking who was helping us (other than them) and I replied we hadn't asked anyone yet, we both started to freak out that we wouldn't have any help. I had no idea what we would eat all \weekend because I didn't want to cook and I didn't want to live on frozen pizza and canned soup for more than a day. As of Saturday morning, I knew we wouldn't finish packing everything and Lee and I would have to come back later in the week to finish up.

And as with all things in life, I worried and lived to see my fears come to nothing.

The sellers were wonderful people to spend an hour signing documents with at closing. After disagreeing with someone over how much money you should spend on their house, I thought it might be awkward, but they were delightful.

We managed to get a cable guy, a fence guy, an electrician and a plumber all in the house between the hours of 4 to 6 p.m. on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. (And the fence estimate came back within what we had to spend so that will be going in as soon as he can! Yay!)

Three of our neighbors came over to introduce themselves and one brought brownies. It's like Wisteria Lane without the drama.

In addition to Lee and I, we had 10 friends and family, with 2 pickup trucks and 1 minivan to help us move. (And Friday night Lee's parents came over to help us pre-clean.)

Friday night the in-laws brought over hamburgers, hot dogs, and spaghetti casserole. Saturday my parents brought Owensboro barbecue, baked beans, potato salad and tons of potato chips. Lee and I are still working our way through the leftovers.

What wasn't packed, our ten beautiful, wonderful, kind helpers threw in bags and hauled out for us. Saturday, the only thing left in the apartment was Kevin. With the chaos in the house I couldn't deal with having to move a fish and rinse out his bowl. We brought him home last night.

In other miscellaneous good news of the weekend, we learned that Lowe's gives 10% to military members year-round. Plus a 10% coupon we had, we got 20% off our lawn mover, weed eater and other random house needs. And after months of trying to find nice and affordable jeans, LOFT had 40% off your entire purchase this weekend so problem solved!

I'm exhausted, but it was the best Memorial Day weekend ever. A very special thanks to the many, many people who helped us along the way. :)