Don't Judge Me

I've been planning to work on our front yard for weeks now. It definitely looks hillbilly trashy - like we need a few mismatched tires and an RV that doesn't work in the driveway. The front porch is the worst. Mostly because it would take the least amount of time to correct and yet it has looked like this since the weekend we moved in.


This is the sink that used to be in the master bathroom. It's super tiny. We replaced it with one slightly larger and it made a world of difference in that room. Josh flattened the wood on this and moved it so it does actually look a little better in the yard now.

These are my flower beds. The weeds are totally taking over. But I am excited to have them (the beds not the weeds).

Mixed in with that jumble of weeds there are actually some nice plants in there! When we first looked at the house, it was early in the spring and it didn't look like there was anything in them. This hosta is my favorite.

I'm not sure what this one is, but it looks like it might get some blossoms at some point.

My goal for this year is to get everything weeded out and cleaned up, maybe put down some landscaping paper and mulch. Then in the spring I hope to add some plants and flowers. I've never done this sort of thing before so if anyone has some suggestions let me know!

Check it out

Look at those teeth!

This seems like it could be one of those blackmail pictures later on in life. :)

Boo!

My camera batteries have died, and there are no more in the house (or if there are they are packed away somewhere). Sad day! I was going to take pictures today.

I have some new posts percolating. But no time to write, so for now I leave you with a link. :) Coming from a large family, I loved this post on Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions. Can't tell you how many times I've heard questions like that. Head on over there since there's nothing good to read here. lol

Bouncing here and there and everywhere

Remember the Gummi Bears? It's one of the few cartoons that Josh and I both watched and loved as kids. In fact, we have a few episodes on dvd.

And the one with the hat and spectacles? His name is Zummi. I have no idea how they spelled it, but it rhymes with gummi. Whenever we were still in the apartment and watching the cartoon one weekend, Josh decided that he wanted to have a dog named Zummi. So for a couple years now that has been the plan. And now that we have a house where pets are allowed, it didn't take long to put that plan in action. :)

Zummi has already grown in the weeks he's been with us.


He is a very well-behaved puppy, but still a puppy. He likes to jump and play and chew on things and run in the house when he is supposed to stay in the backyard.


He decided the string on my pants was a toy that I brought for him. :)

And wow! Those eyes are really photogenic.

This little chew toy is the one that fell out of our tree the other night and scared me to death with the racket! But thankfully nothing was damaged (I mean other than the tree lol).

I have to be honest

So I spent some time making fun of this catalog. And the crazy stuff they sell. But as I was leafing through (and mocking), I have to admit there were a few things I would consider buying. So, I figure it's only fair to show the other side.

I could totally see this making a cool backsplash between the stove and my imaginary above-the-range microwave. If I actually had one, I would probably buy them.


This would come in handy for our new house. I might see if they're available in stores.


This seems a little pricey to me, but great way to free up some drawer space.

Okay, I definitely spend too much time in the car because this looks useful.


This is wonderfully insane. I actually do give Josh his haircuts and I would buy this in a heartbeat if I thought I could actually get him to wear it. Correction, if I thought he would actually let me take a picture of him wearing it. I mean, look how happy that guy is.

Torn over Trash

I have been reading a blog called My Dear Trash. The site is written by two women who shop thrift stores and sell items on ebay and craigslist for income. My sister and mom introduced me to it because they have been starting their own ebay stores.

I find myself torn. I think it sounds like a lot of fun and would love to start a fund for our potential Florida vacation next year. And at the same time I find myself struggling to keep up with things as it is. I'm thinking about setting a goal of posting 10 items a week and see how things go for a couple of weeks. There aren't a lot of inexpensive thrift stores around here (that I've found) and yard sale season is almost over, so it would be a good test run for a couple of weeks. Then maybe come next spring I'll have enough experience to either dive in or run away. lol

I've always loved the idea of re-finishing or re-purposing items to sell, but it can be time consuming. I'm trying to be pretty creative about doing this when decorating our new home. I'd love to do larger items like furniture, but those are more of a risk since there's a higher up front cost. Maybe one day.

Swimming

Josh's parents have an above ground pool at their place, so the last time we were there during the weekend we decided to introduce Sophia. And you know I can't let a first go by without getting some pictures.


At first, she wasn't too sure what to think about the water. I think it was colder than what she's used to, but once she had been in there for a bit she decided it was fun after all. :)



We had a blast. Hopefully we'll get another chance to swim before the weather gets colder.

We were supposed to meet some friends at a public pool today and swim, but poor Sophi is running a fever. I'm pretty sure it's from teething, but I'm keeping an eye on her. She is definitely not feeling herself. But she's been getting lots of naps and cuddles. So hopefully we'll get a rain check for next week (you know minus the rain.) :)

Or current resident, part 2

Apparently, bathroom humor sells.


For only $14.98, you can have your own farting piggy butt bank. "Add more loot, hear more toot." I have to say, I don't really care to hear farting noises, but if I did I don't think I should have to pay money for it. Isn't that something that's around for free? Or at least comes free with the purchase of beans?


I kind of want to buy this one. It would make an awesome white elephant gift. Especially to someone who is pregnant. It could remind them that it's time to go to the bathroom again ... and again ... and again.
By far the worst of the worst.

I don't know who came up with this one, but I'd really like to know why they thought it was a good idea to drink brown liquid out of a toilet bowl.

Or current resident, Part 1

We received this catalog in the mail at the new house. One of those junk mail things that was sent to the current resident. I started flipping through it and was so amused that I thought I should share a few faves.
For those of you who think it is just too difficult to crack an egg by hand ...

Okay, so let's just be honest - I'm a little curious to see how this works, but as for practicality why would you want to wash a gadget like that every time you need to crack an egg?

And while we're on cooking gadgets, here's a gem.

I really wish they would have showed someone wearing these, because they have to be super stylish. And if you didn't know you can pop an onion in the freezer for about 15 mins and then the scent won't make your eyes burn. Or just use swim goggles if you're that desperate.

Okay - this one just looks creepy. That can't be healthy.


Speaking of creepy ...

In case you missed it that is 207 pages of the "secret and mysterious world of cats" including "extraordinary mental and psychic skills .... even clairvoyance and mind control!" And it looks as if that cat on the cover is trying to practice a little bit of mind control on you right now. Buy this book! We will reveal all our secrets and then take over your mind and soon we will possess all the tuna in the worrrld! Mwahaahaa. Don't look him in the eyes.

And at the end of a long day, you can always relax using these...

One at at time please

This is my friend Jenn. Her son Mason was born almost exactly a month after Sophi. Unfortunately she has now come down with mono. So yesterday Mason spent the afternoon at our house so that she could get some rest. (I'm not even going to get into the morning we spent waiting for new tires.)


Sophi is at a great age where she is so entertained and excited by other kids. When we got home and I pulled Mason out of the carseat, Sophi started immediately kicking her legs, laughing, and reaching for him. It was adorable. Mason thought she was pretty fun too.


I was an interesting day. Thankfully, Sophi did not get jealous. There was one low point where I looked over at Sophi playing on the floor and realized that she had overflowed her diaper. Did I mention she was playing on the floor? On our new carpet? With poop all the way down her leg? And she was wearing shorts? And Mason was ready for his bottle and not happy about waiting for me to clean her up? Yeah, we could have done without that one. But on the plus side that had to have been a personal best for Sophi. lol

It was fun getting to see them interact together. I have once again come to the conclusion that I cannot imagine having twins though. :) It wasn't too difficult taking care of the two of them, but I certainly did not get anything else done. And he went home at the end of the day.

After we dropped Mason back off at home, we went over to our friends house for dinner. It was nice to relax and not have to cook. We also played a great game of spades. Guys vs. girls. The guys were way in the lead at the beginning, but we crept up on them like a ninja. We got within 20 points of their score, but didn't actually get to finish the game. I think it could have lasted another hour, but Sophi had woken up and needed to get home for bed. So we called it a draw (which if you ask me means we would have won if there had been time). Great end to a busy day.

Dinner and a movie

Thanks to Meemaw, Josh and I got to go on a date!  We went to see the movie The Scorcerer's Apprentice.  It was good.  We then got dinner at California Pizza. Kitchen. It was also good.  I would go again, but I think next time I would order something different.  With the exception of dessert.  We don't usually order dessert, but this was sort of a re-do of our anniversary date.  So, special occasion and all ...  we got this -

Chocolate Soufflé Cake

A Belgian chocolate soufflé cake, served warm with CPK's triple-thick hot fudge on vanilla bean sauce. Also available à la Haagen-Dazs.

Wow.  It was so good.  I would go again just to order that.  And maybe not have to share it.  :)  Forget dinner.  So now Josh wants me to learn how to make a chocolate souffle if anyone has a good recipe.  

Almost as exciting as getting to go on a date was that Sophi did great while we were gone!  We were away from 2-8 and she didn't freak out.  It is so nice to think that we can leave without her having a break down while we're gone.  She has also started sleeping better during the night.  Hopefully, now that things are more settled down that will continue.  

Meet Zummi

Josh has been talking about owning a dog since we got married. We love the fact that the house has a fenced in backyard. And from the time we started talking about buying the house, usually the conversation would include the phrase "We could get a dog." (And you can probably guess it wasn't coming from me.)

I'm not much of a pet person in general, but I suppose a dog, a well-trained dog, would be at the top of my list. It would have been fish, but we tried that - they were surprisingly hard to keep alive.

So over the holiday weekend, we visited a animal shelter that had some puppies that had been found. Mostly mutt, but we were told probably mixtures of lab, german shepherd, and beagle. Of course, once we saw the puppies, we couldn't leave without agreeing to bring one home.

Meet Zummi.
He is between 7 and 8 weeks old. Obviously a puppy is not well-trained ... yet. But he has been better than I would have expected. Mostly he stays outside during the day and sleeps in a crate inside at night. He has only had one accident in the house and is already doing better with commands like come and stay.

Sophi loves Zummi.

I'm actually quite surprised at how excited and tickled she gets when he is around. Her grandparents on both sides all have dogs so she has seen them before. She usually just stares. But with Zummi she gets excited and wants to pet him. It is adorable.

And he is pretty patient with it.


So, hopefully, they will be good friends. :)

201

Just noticed that I have 200 posts now. Yippee!

Some thoughts buzzing around lately:

You know it is time to trim the baby's nails when you have to check for blood after she scratches you. Yikes! Thankfully, I finally remembered where the clippers are.

I'm gonna be an aunt (again)! My baby sister is having a baby. And now I have a better understanding of when Whitney would tell me she was so glad I was pregnant and she was not. Hearing Lindsey talk about indigestion brings back memories and makes me want to throw in an evil laugh. lol

DVR is awesome. But on a rainy day like today, it is possibly too convenient.

I love having a washer and dryer! Two weeks without has made me very grateful. Strangely, I missed my dryer more than I missed my stove. But with the exception of the ice maker, all appliances are now up and running.

It is a good thing Josh is not in the military. By the time I got everything unpacked and settled in it would be time to move again. Because I'm beginning to think it might take a couple of years. Although come to think of it a year and a half is the longest we have gone in our marriage without a change of address.

I wonder if it is as much fun to dress little boys as it is little girls? Probly not - they don't get hair bows.

My nose is itchy!

When the Bachelorette laughs it kind of sounds like she is crying.

Here are a couple of pictures of the new house. (Including all the moving mess.)

Living room after the new carpet was installed:


Kitchen:

































Sophia's room: