Enjoying March Weather

After a week full of rain, the weekend called for sunshine and we had planned on taking full advantage of it.  We moved out our patio furniture, invited friends over to BBQ, and played dominos outside. 

Instead of doing yard work on Sunday, I decided to relax and finished my book, "The Art of Racing in the Rain" outside and actually got some sun.  Abby and I went for a jog, and then we sat outside to cool off because it was cooler out there than in our house. 

Greg decided to work on his laptop outside, so I brought mine out there as well, and our pets decided they wanted to join us. 

If any window is open in our house, you are likely to find Chase.  He has been an indoor cat his entire life, but loves to look at birds, bat at bugs through the screen, and stalk our neighbors.  Chase tries to sneak out when Abby is let out, and he just rolls around on the concrete.  There has been a couple times where he has decided to run off, and I chase him thinking that I may lose him.  Only my family has experienced me when I thought I have lost Chase, and it wasn't pretty (that time he somehow found a way to get above the drop ceiling in our basement).

Anyway, I bought Chase a toy poodle's harnest when he was a kitten because I told myself that I was going to walk him.  That never happened because when we do put the harnest on him, he doesn't want to walk, as if he got 10 pounds heavier and he can only move by crawling.  So, we put this on him when he wants to sit outside with us because we know he can't get too far before we would catch him.

We grilled again that night and ate dinner outside while watching a show on HGTV on our laptops.  A perfect ending to a great weekend!

Half Bath Planning

Our half bath is our next project around the house.  I have so many ideas on my mind, and I can't wait until the finished product is completed in order to blog about it, so I will tell you what we have planned and what Greg surprised me with this weekend.

Once again we have a picture of what the original owner's decorations looked like.  The decorations were fine.  It was just that huge soffit that I always had issues with.  It makes the room so dark because the can light is the only light in the room, and it shines straight down, and the soffit just seems out of place floating over the sink.  So, I've always told myself that we are going to do some exploratory work and if there is nothing in the soffit, then it's coming down.

After running errands on Saturday, I came home and was surprised with a lovely mess.  I'm serious in saying that it was lovely because Greg had started the demo process.  The only unfortunate part was that we were having people over that night to BBQ, so I had to clean it up right away.  It was quite the discussion that evening among our friends.

Greg was able to finish the demo Sunday evening and did it with a smile on his face.

Now, we are ready for drywall!  We spent Friday evening at Home Depot buying some supplies.  We are going to have to scrape the ceiling because it's a popcorn ceiling, and we would rather scrape it then have a bad patch job by trying to match the rest.  We looked at new fixtures to choose from, and we both like a modern designed fixture, but we didn't like the price tag.  I went to Lowes on Saturday and found that they were even more expensive, so we think we may decide to buy the one that we both liked.

For our decorations...
We bought some pictures at Home Goods that were a great price that we couldn't pass up, so we are going to use these for color and design inspiration.

We have hung these on the side wall of the bathroom, opposite of the towel bar that has some towels that match the colors.  The other two walls are missing something.  Mackie gave me the idea to maybe paint what would appear to be a wallpaper on these walls, and I thought this could really be fun.  I did some research, and I have run into many other very exciting how-to design blogs that I now check pretty frequently.  On one of them, I found a design that I'm going to try and use.  I was going to paste in the design, but now I'm having trouble pulling it up.  Oh NO! 

Until next time...

Fashion Star

Today I wanted to share a proud moment of my sister, Mackie, who is graduating college this year and has been working hard all semester for the upcoming fashion show in April.  In their senior year, the students get to design a collection, and Mackie has chosen her design to be her passion of High Fashion.  Mackie has found her love of print making, and she has dyed all of these silk fabrics by wrapping them around a large wine bottle, applying the dye, and microwaving it for the dye to set in.  She could explain it much better I’m sure.  They have to go through Jury, and then the judges decide which looks will make it in the fashion show.  Jury was held last weekend, and Mackie was able to get all of her dresses in!  I’m so excited for her, and I wish her the best of luck in finding a job she loves.

We’re all looking forward to the fashion show including Greg, as he stayed up late the other night to finish the new show, Fashion Star, all by himself!

St. Pat's 10K Race & Weekend in STL

We traveled to St. Louis this past weekend for Greg and his friends to participate in the St. Patrick's Day 10K Race.  The boys decided to make a weekend of it and rented a hotel room for the evening and had a night out downtown.  Greg finished in 44 minutes, and they were all smiles at the end of the race!

Ryan, Jeremy and Greg - Both of them were in our wedding

We took a half day on Friday and got into town early.  My parents surprised us with a finished basement!  They were always going to finish the basement, but as I know now, projects take longer than expected.  At Christmas, they explained how they were going to lay it out, and just like that, they were smart and hired the help to do the items that they couldn't do themselves or that would take several months to complete.  It looked great, and now Greg and I have a bedroom there to call our own.  That afternoon, Greg went to a shooting range with his friends, Jeremy and Andrew,  went out to dinner, and then Andrew and Greg came back to my parents' house and our friends, Jessica and Evan, stopped by as well.  We played a couple games on Wii Sports, and then called it a night.


Jessica's grandpa passed away last week, and I was able to attend the funeral on Saturday.  Jessica has asked me when she was going to debut on this blog, and unfortunately, this is the first mention of her, but there will be many more in the future, I promise!  Jessica's grandpa was exceptionally welcoming and friendly growing up.  He made me feel like one of his grandchildren, and I just remember him being so funny.  He will be missed!


I should also mention my grandpa, who I was able to see on Saturday before the funeral.  He switched his internet service, and he had asked me how to save his favorites again to the toolbar at the top of the computer.  After a little research, we were able to figure it out.  Greg has always customized his toolbar on his computer, and I thought it was just as easy to type in a website in the browser that I visit frequently rather than saving it to my favorites; however, if my grandpa does it, then I should be able to do it as well.


Sunday we went to Greg's parents house for lunch and had delicious fish and beef tacos and brownies for dessert.  We like to play a game that we call "Guess What's New Around the House", and Greg and I find the new or changed items that they have done since our last visit.  We may no longer be able to play this game when they come to our house since I will be blogging about most of it.  We also were able to look at pictures of all the blankets and quilts that Greg's mom and her mother have made over the years.  I wish I would have counted them all.  All of them very unique and beautiful.  She is very talented.  I have learned how to crochet in the past, but I'm not sure if I will be able to pick it up one day.  I haven't been able to find that niche of mine yet, maybe it will be blogging, I'm not sure.


Enjoy the week and make the most of it!  We are getting rain all week long, but the weekend looks nice, so we may start looking at plants for the lawn.