just in case

in case you didn't know, this is the address to my new blog. :) happy reading!

sick of blogger

I am sure any of you that pay attention are sick of me talking about switching to blogger or switching everything to wordpress and blah blah blah.

Well, I am thinking I am going to stick with my two separate blogs.  But, they are both going to be on wordpress now.  I am working on getting all this info from here onto my wordpress blog.  I'll update you all on that later.

Ikea

I am hoping that next weekend we will have time to go to Ikea.  I desperately want/need this book case:

This will go in our dining room/office.  And we will hopefully then be able to get ride of the awful bookcases we have now.

I also am thinking I want this for my coffee table:

The bookcase is only $99.00 and the coffee table is only $19.99.  I might look for a new duvet cover as well. And maybe even a new console/entertainment center/table to go under our TV.  What we have now is just way too bulky.  And I think I am leaning towards the two pieces above in white  I am sick of having such a dark house.  And I think with the bookcase being such a big piece and because my house is so small, it won't look so closed in if it's white.

mad woman

This weekend we had a going away party for my brother.

I think my way of dealing with him leaving is by keeping myself busy.

I have gone through half of my house so far and organized every drawer, table, basket, etc.  I was non stop since Saturday morning.


I still have to finish our closest, which will be a pain.  And the closet in that closet...even more of a pain.
I also need to finish the kitchen.  And once we get a new book case from Ikea, I will go through our books.
I also painted some furniture this weekend, I will post about that at a later date as that is not a complete project yet. And I need to repaint our two side tables in the living room.

I have big plans for our house the next few weeks.

I don't have any before pictures(except this first one, an in the process picture), but here are some afters:

I think I may have turned into a crazy person.

cleaning house

Back in the winter I told myself that once spring hit, I was cleaning out our house.  Well, I never really was able to get rid of anything... I tend to hold on to stuff, like furniture, because I hope that one day we will have a bigger house and I will need it.

Well, no more.

I am sick of clutter.

I think I need to just go from one room to another.  Maybe start in the living room because you see that first.

I need some changes to be done in the house.

Clean/clutter free house = happy mind and heart.

night sky

The picture is kind of blurry, but check out the color of that sky!

new curtains, finally!

When we first moved into our little house by the sea we had these as our form of privacy in the main room:

Ugly, I know.  They were too short.  And I didn't buy enough panels.  But hey, curtains are expensive!  And we just needed something to cover that huge window!

Well, I received a $50.00 gift card to Target for my birthday and I decided it was time for new curtains.

Target had tons to choose from.  I wanted white from the beginning.  But every pair of white ones were either too expensive or not the right length.  Then I found a set of two panels of white drapes for $24.99 each. SCORE.  However, right NEXT to those drapes I found the same set, but in grey.

Oh grey. You are so wonderful.

I stood there for probably 10 minutes trying to decide which color to choose.  The more I thought about it, the more I leaned towards the grey ones.  My cats fur would have destroyed the white ones in a day, anyway.

***EDIT*** Here is a better picture:

Now, mind you, this picture was taken last night at 9:30.  So, everything looks dark and junky. (maybe if i feel like it ill take a better picture this afternoon) But, I promise you.  These are far superior to the previous "things" that were hanging before.  I worried they would be too dark, but this morning they looked quite lovely.  I had thought of trying a pattern, but nothing really hit me at Target as a "gotta have".  I am more of a plain jane sorta girl anyway.

sweet dreaming

I really want to go back here.

Our vacation wasn't long enough.

cutting back

Jeb and I are cutting back.

On what we eat that is.

We are going to start eating better and start exercising on a regular basis (hopefully).

This is going to be hard.

We want to try and stop eating so many "man made" and processed foods. And not so much pasta either.

Cutting back on pasta? My stomach is weeping!

"But, we love pasta. Pasta is oh so yummy and oh so dear to us. Pasta-Roni got us through some very hungry days back in high school. Pasta got us through all those nights when you didn't feel like cooking very much. Pasta. You cannot give up PASTA!"

Don't worry tummy, I am not giving you up completely. Just cutting back...

A few weeks ago Jeb put in a pull up bar in our back yard.

I am thinking/hoping that between that and running I/we can get back into the shape we want to be.

However, I have yet to run this week.  I did do some squats yesterday.  And I haven't eaten ALL that bad this week.

Baby steps.  Baby steps.

Wish us luck.

is three blogs too much?

I currently have three blogs. This one.

My blog about my life with my silly pets.

And then a private blog that only I can access.

I have thought about combining this one and my pet blog. But every time I get ready to type a post non-pet related, it just doesn't seem right.

My original goal/hope was to blog in one spot about my crazy pets and every day life.

Hm. What to do. What to do.

Vibram 5 fingers

In the spring Jeb and I purchased our very first pair of Vibram 5 Finger shoes. We Started using them to run and exercise in and we both have noticed a difference in our performance. We also have less aches and pains after working out!

On our trip last week we pretty much wore them all day every day. I even have a sweet tan line from them. They were awesome to hike with. Going down any slopes felt much better when wearing my 5fingers versus my Salomon hiking shoes. My feet felt as if they were one with the earth. Only down side? Any grass gets caught between your toes. :)

I am thinking that when fall hits I will need to purchase a pair that cover the tops of my feet. I don't want my feetsies to be frozen when I run. :)

camping trip

Our camping trip this year was a lot of fun. We did so many things. From fishing to hiking to riding ATV's. We had a blast. One thing we really enjoyed was going out on the canoe.

birthday schmirthday

Birthdays.

I used to enjoy birthdays.

Well, I guess I still do.

But, this year was not one of my better birthdays.

Major downers about this weekend/my birthday:

• I lost my wedding band (at least it was a simple band with no diamonds!)
• Our really nice tent got run over by an atv.
• We went out to dinner last night to celebrate and ended up waiting for over an hour at a japanese steakhouse for our cook to come out!
• This week is my brother pre-deployment leave :(

But, I guess this birthday wasn't horrible.

I was lucky enough to be surrounded by many loved ones. And for once in a long time, my whole family was together.

That probably outweighs all those downers.

back to the grind

As I was putting things away from our camping trip this weekend, I realized that I have neglected my home lately. Not in a cleanliness sort of way, but in a creative and decorative sort of way. As long as I have time this weekend, I may take on some painting of furniture projects that I wanted to accomplish months ago. Starting with a little hutch/cabinet in my kitchen. It is currently white...and I think that I want it to stay white. But it is in desperate need of a fresh coat of paint and possibly some stylish hardware.

Next on the list is a really ugly brown bookshelf I took from my work when they were going to throw it away.

Key words "throw away"...

...meaning it is pretty junky.

But, I think some wood putty, some sanding, a couple coats of primer and a lot of semi-gloss white paint might just do the trick.

I need some lighter things in my life.

Maybe some lighter furniture will help.

Anyway, today was my first day back to work in 11 days.

It wasn't as bad as I though it would be.

home sweet home

Home never felt so good. Jeb and I headed back from New York last night at 9:30 p.m. Why so late? Jeb was just ready to be home I guess. He drove the whole way. And we didn't hit any traffic. Took us 8 1/2 hours.

As soon as I get some pictures uploaded, I will post them.

two more days

I cant wait to be here in TWO DAYS!

new

I am getting ready to go through something I thought I would never have to go through again.

My brother Jake is getting ready to leave for Afghanistan in about a month.

I have started a new blog. But, it is not public. I need to write my way through this. But I am not ready to show the world. Not just yet at least.

We leave this Saturday for our annual camping trip.

I cannot wait.

It's been a while

I know it has been a while since I have posted here. I don't really have much to write about, and when I do, it usually involves my animals, so I post on my other blog. I have been getting a little bit of traffic there, which is good. I feel as though I have some more content and what not on there, so I can start pointing people there more now.

In other news, I have been pretty darn busy every weekend with either stuff around the house, or wedding planning with Brittany. We are getting down to the wire now! Less than 2 months! I am so very excited. Major things I still need to do to prepare (here I am talking like it's my wedding. hehe):

1. plan and host shower
2. get dress for rehearsal
3. purchase shower and wedding gifts
4. figure out bachlorette party!
5. complete tanning process

Woot!

I lied

We have not gotten back into the groove of running. GO AWAY COLD WEATHER!!!! Dang wind will make it feel almost 10 degrees colder outside in the morning. So lame!

getting back into the groove

I think that Brittany and I are finally starting to get back into the groove of running. We ran 5 miles on Sunday, and ran 4 miles the previous Sunday. We are going to run tomorrow morning also (weather permitting). I am ready for this cold to be over with! It is messing up our running! We gotta get back into shape for Brittany's wedding the end of May. Our goal is to run 3 times a week. I probably should start doing some exercises at home as well. Gotta have toned arms by May too.

finally coming together

My new blog is finally starting to come together. I am excited to have something to write about. And I feel pretty professional with my .com and I even have a host and everything! I have to thank Alicia for helping me out with getting started. Not sure if I could have done it without her help!

So, everyone (if anyone even reads this!) please check out the new blog. Leave comments. Give me any suggestions. Anything!

new beginnings

I have been working on a new blog. However, I am worried I may have messed up! I went ahead and purchased a domain from wordpress because I thought it would be simple enough to have everything the same (blog is on wordpress too). But I can't even do simple things! I have added Google AdSense to this blog, but cannot figure out how to add it to my wordpress blog. Everything just seems to be way over my head. Maybe Jeb will look at it with me sometime. Or maybe TCC offers a class on blogging?? HA!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is a silly holiday. Shouldn't you show your love for someone all year round? I guess when I was a teenager and didn't have boyfriends while my friends did it was a big deal. Everyone wants to feel loved! But seeing since Jeb and I have been together for 7 years and married for 5, all I really care about is celebrating our marriage on our anniversary. But, I guess you could say Jeb and I kind of celebrated the holiday. Friday we ate at Otani with Tommy and Marie. And Sunday we bought ourselves some new jackets. Soooo, all in all, good weekend.

dreaming of warmth

I love snow. I really do. But I think we have had enough of it here in Virginia Beach. And I am sick of the cold. I am ready for warm weather. I am ready for spring and for summer. Bring on the HEAT!

etsy

I rarely look on Esty.com because I usually see tons of things I want but cannot buy. Well, lack of work and the need to find a gift for someone has led me back...


[Can be viewed here.]

Bluebirds. Another obsession.

two loves.

crossfit

Yesterday Brittany and I did a crossfit "class" with Jeb. We ran up to the park by our house, which is only about 1/2 a mile...then we got started on our workout.

We then proceeded to do the following:
25 full squats
25 reverse pull ups (i guess thats what they are called)
25 burpees
short sprint
repeat

Of course I could barely do the work out. Of course my arms felt like dead weight when we were done. Of course I could barely walk back.

And let me tell you. I knew it was going to be hard...but I had NO IDEA it was going to be as hard as it really was. And I had NO IDEA how sore I would be today. Holy Hell.

I get more sore every minute.

too long

It has been too long since my last post. My posts have been lacking lately too. I guess my life is just not that interesting.

Anyway...Brittany and I have started running again. woo! go us! We may have Jeb teach us crossfit soon, which would be fun. Maybe. I have desperately wanted to try out crossfit, but I am scared too! It is such an intense work out. However, when I look at people who do it on a regular basis, I am way jealous of their results. And I have to be super fit by May. I have to look good, being Brittany's matron of honor and all.

yikes

I have a new obsession...






owls.

And I desperately want one tattooed on me.

back to school?

Soooo.....I am thinking it might be time for me to go back. HOLY CRAP! I am undecided however if I just want to get a certificate in something...like office work or health care billing or something or if I want to get an associates. An associates would probably be better and I could continue school further if I wanted to....BUT a certificate would be cheaper...and I may just take classes to do what I want. Or maybe I should look into that Art Institute they just put in at Town Center? I just don't know. I probably should start with meeting with a counselor.

new years

Okay. Maybe if I write them down, I will actually go through with everything.

New Years Resolutions!

1. Get back into the groove of running (despite this horrible cold)
2. Eat better
3. SAVE SAVE SAVE $$$ (after I get some new jeans maybe? hehe)
4. Be more POSITIVE (especially at work)
5. Be more patient
6. Be more social and spend more time with friends/family

I think I can handle those 6 things.

I am excited for this new year!

back to work

Back to work today. And I am sick. I feel like crap! At least Christmas and New Years was good.