I'm lazy,..

but at least I'm posting something! I think I deserve the 4-day weekend though, or at least that's what I tell myself! Thank you school.

We had parent teacher conferences Thursday after school. Those are always fun. Lemme tell you, some parents share WAY too much information. I don't need to know every detail of your personal life. It's uncomfortable. One situation that made me especially uncomfortable? The ex-wife of my spinning instructor (from the gym) came in and talked to me about her daughter who I have in Sports Literature. Their daughter's really smart, just a real good kid. Well, her Mom talked to me for at least 20 minutes and brought up how horrible the situation was with her "biological father" many times. It's just weird. I mean, I know him and he's a great guy, and he loves his kids, and they seem to have a great relationship. The worst part? She came in with one of their children and the kid had to listen to her Mom talk poorly about her Dad, which I'm sure happens often. It just sucks, for the kids, I mean...really.

In other more uplifting and fun news? A look at a couple projects we're doing? Of course!

This was dinner. How come my pictures of food never look as good as the professionals? Anyway, Bubble up pizza casserole. Easy and really yummy.

New shelves in the kitchen.

The shelves aren't done of course (well, the one with my cookbooks on it is, ain't it cute? E just built the shelf next to the dishwasher today while I was supervising the kiddos in Hermann, and although it's not painted and has no door (yet) I love it! And yes, yes, I know...we still haven't grouted the backsplash. Tomorrow?? We'll see. I love our kitchen.

Some finished projects.

Before...
After...
Things we did to the outside (front): painted the shutters, added flowerbeds (can you say NO landscaping?), took out the dying - and ugly - evergreen bush, got a new, prettier front door.

Before...
After...

What didn't we do in the bathroom? We: plumbed for a 2nd sink, added electrical for a second light above a second mirror that we installed. Replaced the subflooring and added the tile (ew, I'm not a big fan of laying tile, but it is pretty). Painted cabinets and added new cabinet hardware. Replaced the countertop with more tile. Painted the walls. Added pictures I took (and developed) at craft camp :). Um...that's all.

Before (a different view)...
After...
I can't wait until I can show pictures of the kitchen. You'll be floored by the change. Seriously. I am. When I look at old pictures I'm like "What?!"

Oh, and here's a closer look at the amazing flower bed E's mom planted for us. I'm not joking when I say I got home from work one day and she'd planted the whole day while I was gone. She also moved two railroad ties by herself. Two! By herself! Do you know how heavy those are? Amazing.

The flowerbed:
Currently Reading: Just finished Becoming Anna, what next?

No excuses

I could say it's been awhile, and that would be true. I could try and come up with excuses, but my only excuse is that instead of blogging, I've been doing one of the following: reading, playing with my puppies (yes, that's plural), working on our house, or watching recorded episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond like the amazingly awesome person that I am. I keep telling myself to update, and then I put it off. Maybe now that I've done it I won't put it off for so long anymore.

First news: New puppy.

Her name is Sadie, and she's adorable.

We got Sadie about a month ago and we've discovered the following little jewels of information. She licks. A lot. Zoe loves having a playmate. They're both adorable (that was an easy lesson). Taking two dogs for a walk is a bit more of a commitment, and therefore doesn't get done as much. We (well, at least I) love it!

Reading. Wow. I've read so many books over the past few months. Just a few: North and South, Love and War, Heaven and Hell, Beastly, The Chocolate War, The Earth Children series (again!), Olive Kitteridge, Thin Wood Walls, Home of the Braves, Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery, Peak, The Appeal, Luna, Someone Named Eva, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, whatever the name of the book I'm reading right now, and at least 10-15 others which I've forgotten the names of at the moment, so look forward to just a couple reviews comin up. :)

Work on the house. Our bathroom is officially complete. Yay! We now have a dishwasher (which we got for free) installed in our kitchen which has new countertops and backsplash. We should be done painting the kitchen and putting the grout on the backsplash by next weekend, so I'll add some pictures then. We've also got a new flowerbed (pretty!) which E's mom planted for us, and it's awesome. Some advice? Take free plants from people. At least if you're not a greenthumb like me. It's awesome, and if they like it? More power to 'em!

E, Dad, and I competed in the Sedalia Fall duathlon this morning. It was pretty good. Besides the fact that I sucked it up on the bike portion (no surprise since I haven't been biking...at all...). It was pretty cool. Second in my age group, out of what...maybe two?

I wanted another puppy, but instead I decided to blog.

Why Summer's Great!

• I don't have to go to work. Seriously, who doesn't love that?
• The weather is generally awesome. Okay, I admit, last week when the heat index was 109 and you stuck to every surface as soon as you exited an air conditioned building wasn't that great, but come on! This week is pure Heaven. Simple as that.
• I have to ability to get SOOOO much done. Now, actually doing it is another story. :)
• Reading. All the time. Just finished the Harry Potter series for probably the third time. Yay for the movie comin out in a couple weeks!
• Trips. So far this summer I've only gone to Minneapolis, but there are plans in the works for Minnesota again and a trip to Kentucky for E and I :)
• Holidays. The fourth is one of my favorites because most of the family's in town and I always love that. :) Hello sand volleyball tournament!
  

Well, our bathroom is almost done. Don't hold your breath for pictures, cause we won't get the baseboards until this weekend, but I'll DEFINITELY post pictures as soon as it's done. I'm so freakin excited!

I also bought a paint sprayer for repainting the kitchen cabinets. I am NOT going to do them all by hand like I did the bathroom cabinets. Can you say brush strokes? Ugh. Paint and I aren't too friendly these days. I've painted the following in the past month: front door (three times, mind you), trim, bathroom cabinets, bathroom walls, bedroom, living room, hallway, and shutters. And, I still have the kitchen and the two bedrooms to go. I love paint, it changes a room immediately, but it does get a little old after awhile.

Today I finished our first flowerbed. The front of our house previously had no landscaping whatsoever. E and I built a flowerbed underneath the picture window yesterday, and I spent a couple hours (Ouch!) leveling out the soil, which was somewhat clay-ey (I know, not a word) and impossible, but I did get it done. I have a feeling my back won't like me tomorrow, but it looks SO much better out there. Once we actually have flowers growing maybe I'll post a picture of that, too.

The picture for today? Our adorable puppy and my pretty kitty getting better acquainted.

Okay, so Simon's still adjusting. But Zoe loves playing!

Holy Busy Schedule

So I've been bad. At blogging I mean. It's been really crazy busy lately, but only in a good way.

E and I are now homeowners. We are also proud dog owners (her name's Zoe and she's adorable!). I'm also a new(er) car owner. Um...and we've been moving. And if this counts, half my mouth is now numb from my dentist's appointment.

So, needless to say, I haven't had much time to update. That and the fact that we have no internet at our new house. Next Tuesday - one week from today - we'll be online. I have to travel about 30 minutes to use the internet now, but I'm okay with it, cause we have a house!

I'll be posting pictures soon. Of the dog, the house, and hey...maybe the car.

In the meantime I've read a couple great books: Hunger Games by Susanne Collins (I think) was A-mazing! Then I read The Diamond of Darkhold by Jeanne Duprau (the fourth book in the City of Ember series). It was good as well, but not as great as Hunger Games. Both books are for young adults, but I think almost anyone would like to read Collin's book. It's great. Besides that I've been reading Harry Potter books again. I don't think I'll ever get tired of them.

Well, I've gotta go register my car, paint some cabinets and the bathroom, and mow the lawn. I'll be better...I swear, once I have the internet.

All kindsa news.

:)

So E and I are officially under contract.

**me doing a happy dance**

We got a good price. They're fixing the roof. We close by the end of the month. I'm so freaking excited about making this house ours. Living with E. Having a puppy. Funness.

Speaking of puppies. My brother found a puppy. Seriously. He found a puppy wandering through his neighborhood dangerously close to wandering onto a very busy road. He rescued said puppy. Said puppy is adorably cute!! I know, that was repetitive, but come on. She's cute. He's put up notices about finding a lost puppy, but I'm kinda hoping no one claims her, cause I'll take her. Come on, you can't say that's not meant to be, right?

Outside of all that fun news, I've been ridiculously busy lately (hence the lack of posts in oh...about a month). Ouch. Recently, I've:

• Written my first graduate level English term paper. Ew.
• Graded 50+ dual credit essays in 1 day
• Found a house
• Made up finals for all my classes
• Baked a buncha cookies for the Senior BBQ
• Ran everyday. Seriously. What's up with that? I don't know when this exercise everyday thing started, but I kinda like it.

That's enough. :) Only 2 more days of school (with kids), then 2 more days of meetings and such. Then I'm free. I love every moment of my work-free summers. And this summer will be busy. Hopefully I'll accomplish all of the following:

• Fix yard at new house so a puppy can call it home!
• Fix kitchen (read: add dishwasher, get new countertop, get rid of faux brick backsplash, tile floor)
• Go to 3 weddings
• Go to Minneapolis to visit little bro!
• Float trip?
• Go to Kentucky to camp/bike/hike - really looking forward to this. Here's where I'd like to go.
• Buy a car.
• Another Minneapolis (or northward) trip with the fam

And I can't wait.

Currently Reading: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (again!!) by J.K. Rowling