What a Weekend

We had a super productive and super fun weekend!

Saturday morning we got up (without an alarm!) and got a few things done around the house.  Then, I got cleaned up and headed out to meet my good friend from Pratt for lunch.  We have been friends since I was like two or three and she was like four or five.  It is always so nice to catch up with her and it seems like we never have enough time.  Oh, did I mention that she just lives in Derby -- it is not like we love many miles away.  Yeah, we need to see each other way more often!!

After I stuffed myself at lunch, I ran a million errands.  I had to return a few things and then make my weekly trip to Target.  Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE going to Target all by myself??  It's a sickness, really.  I just browse and browse and browse.  On this particular trip, I picked up a couple of doormats and an interior rug to put at our front door.  One thing about a new house and learning all of the new "things" that occur in and around the new house, and one of those new things are these nasty, sticky little pods that fall from the trees and stick to EVERYTHING!!  Needless to say, the little pods have been drug all through our house so the doormats are meant to cut down on the pods making their way into our house.  We'll see...

Once I got home (and delivered my sweet husband a cherry limeade) we went to the garden store and to Menard's.  At the garden store, we picked up a nice fern for our front porch and a six-pack of impatients and then we got a few motion-activated lights for the back of our house at Menard's.  After we returned, we planted the fern and the impatients and Brandon worked on the lights.  I also played with Koby in the back yard and wore him out.  Would you look at that tongue?!?!

That evening, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and had dinner on our front porch.  Our house faces the east so it is pretty sunny and hot on our back porch, plus we have an awesome front porch!  We grilled burgers and just enjoyed the evening.  One thing Koby likes is that he is able to hang out with us in front of the house without his cord and so he hung out while we ate dinner.  That was until a couple walked by out house with a GIANT German Shepard that Koby thought he could take.  Ummm...can you say someone is suffering from "little man's" disease!!  We finished the day just hanging out watching TV and I'm pretty sure I fell asleep on the couch...oops!

This morning, we got up early - I had a volunteer event for church and Brandon had a makeup baseball game.  Our church partnered with Numana for a food packaging event.  If you don't know about Numana, I encourage you to take a look at their website.  It is a pretty amazing concept and I was excited that I got to volunteer with my small group gals (and really, my good friends) Ali and Christy.

Here are Ali and Christy hard at work!!  Yes, we all looked pretty awesome in our hair nets and aprons :)

And, here we are at the conclusion of our shift.  And, we were all very thankful that we do not do line work for a living...

Oh yeah!!  I also did not get the memo to wear a KSU shirt for the event.  Can you believe they didn't call me...ha ha!  Just kidding.

After I got home I made a menu and grocery list and waited for Brandon to get home from his game.  After he got home, we prepared to paint the kitchen.  Brandon started to cut in around the doorway and window and I realized I didn't really like the color!  It looked to me like it was the same color as the cabinets, which is why I was not comfortable with it.  So, he stopped painting and was very nice about having to go get a new paint color -- just another shade lighter -- while I went to the grocery store.  The new paint is much lighter and to some may look white, but I know that it is a super duper light shade of gray!  I put away dishes and made dinner while he painted (he did not want my help).  I made bbq beef sandwiches, waffle fries and fruit salad and it was yummy.

After dinner we settled in for the ACM awards and a little dessert :)  Edwards Key Lime pie is so good and they sell it in these little two-slice boxes.  Totally dangerous!!

I'd say this was a pretty "sweet" ending to a pretty awesome weekend!

Won't You Be My Neighbor

Remember when I mentioned how much we love our new neighborhood?  Well, we still love it...like the googly high school type of love!  As quiet as it was through the winter, the warmer temperatures have brought everyone outside and we are realizing just how lucky we are to be surrounded by such friendly people.

We have been blessed with awesome neighbors -- one set is young and the other is a local celebrity (ha!).  We have gotten to know our younger neighbors as we have conversed across the fence and shared our dog toys and our love of K-State and golf (for the boys anyway).  And just this morning I had a text conversation with her about the annoying geese that had kept us both awake the previous night.  Koby invites himself to their house and acts like he owns the place.  We've had them over for dinner and just really feel like they are becoming our friends.

We constantly see other neighbors outside walking their dogs or working in their yards and we are always greeted with a smile and a wave.  Our "celebrity" neighbors made sure to inform us of a break-in that happened on the other side of the lake and told us how we could get on our HOA mailing list to receive those notifications in the future -- so thoughtful!

Another aspect we love about our neighborhood are the kids.  There are so many kids of varying ages and they are all so well behaved.  We have not had anyone in our yard, they don't ride their bikes in our driveway , they all sell Girl Scout cookies and Boy Scout popcorn (even though Brandon turned an adorable Girl Scout away -- he later felt bad and purchased a discount card from the next kid who was SOOO excited because Brandon was the first person to buy one from her), and their parents are usually outside playing with them.  While this might sound pretty cheesy and maybe even a bit unbelievable it is pretty close to Mayberry in real life!  In fact, there is a neighborhood Easter egg hunt this Saturday -- see what I'm talking about?!?!  Unfortunately, dogs are not invited so we will not be participating, but I'm sure it will be fun for all!

Needless to say we are thoroughly enjoying our new neighborhood as it is such a drastic change from the old 'hood.  Can you imagine if Koby would have invited himself over to our old neighbor's house????  Oh my!!!

Monday Monday...

It's raining here today.  The nice gentle kind of rain that isn't violent and doesn't cause you to run your wipers on full blast all the way to work.  I apparently was not ready to get up this morning because when the alarm went off I remember mumbling something like "Oh...it's Monday and we have to get up," and then I heard the rain lightly hitting the windows which caused me to want to stay in bed even more.  Koby must have had a case of the Mondays as well because he didn't crawl in bed with us at all (he usually jumps in about an hour before the alarm goes off).  Needless to say, I'm wishing I was home in my sweat pants cuddled up on the couch.

We had a bit of a crazy weekend!  Between the kitchen re-do and all of the other projects we were trying to accomplish at the same time, a slight stomach bug, KSU losing in the tournament, a birthday party, and spending time with Brooklyn and her parents, we were certainly ready for some down time.  But, it is so nice to have some major projects behind us and we could not have done it all without the help of Brandon's parents.  We are taking the week off from house projects this week to rest up and get rejuvenated and then we'll be back at it to finish up painting our staircase (yes, Craig and Brandon rebuilt the staircase this weekend too) and buttoning up a few other miscellaneous projects and then we are DONE for a while! 

Speaking of the kitchen, it is looking so good!  I actually got chills once the tile went up on the backsplash.  I just LOVE it.  However, we have not put the cabinet doors back on yet because they need to cure a little more (a hard lesson learned!).  Once we have those back on and everything is back in its place I'll post pictures, but here is a sneak peek to hold you over :)

One perk of today being a Monday is that the new season of Dancing with the Stars begins tonight!!  I'm so excited to see Laura Ingalls Wilder (aka Melissa Gilbert) shake her bootie with my favorite dancer, Maks! This show really is one of my favorite shows on TV -- sad but true.



{photo courtesy of usmagazine.com}


I'm also planning to do a lot of cooking and baking this week since I will have a mostly functioning kitchen again.  I bet I have 20 frozen bananas in our freezer just waiting to be transformed into banana bread.  And, if I'm feeling crazy, I might even add chocolate chips! 

Hope your Monday is off to a great start!

House Updates

It is finally time for a much needed house project update!  We got the pics downloaded and organized, so I have no excuse to hold out on this post any longer.  Let's cut to the chase....

Here is our dining room, right before we painted the trim and the walls.  Picture light grayish beige carpet underneath that drop cloth.

And here is the same corner after paint and our new floor!

A broader shot for a better view.

Looking back towards our staircase and kitchen (we are redoing our stair case this coming weekend).

We painted the walls Mega Greige (Sherwin Williams color mixed with Benjamin Moore paint) and our trim is Dover White (Sherwin Williams color mixed with the Benjamin Moore Advance paint).  Our wood floor is a maple engineered wood with hand-scraping.  I believe the stain color is Espresso, but I'm not totally sure.  We (I use this term lightly -- I picked out the floor and Brandon and his dad installed the floor) put this floor in the entryway, dining room, half bathroom, kitchen and eating area.  And....we LOVE it!!  It is exactly what we had in mind and looks awesome with the new trim and base.

Here are a few in-progress shots from the floor installation weekend.

Here is the eating area with the kitchen to the right.

Here is another view of the eating area.

We've also started painting our cabinets.  Thankfully, Brandon has some connections and we were able to get the cabinet doors and drawer faces sprayed (for FREE!!) which has saved us A LOT of time.  

Now, welcome to our messy cabinets... (this is a full disclosure post so please ignore the dishes in the sink and the clutter covering the counters.)

Cabinets before, just for reference.

After we took the doors to be sprayed.  Yep, if you ever want to know what the inside of our cabinets look like, here you go.

{Pssst, those are my yummy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins cooling on the counter.}

And, here is what the cabinets look like as of this afternoon.

{I didn't realize he was taking a pic...this is my "Deer in the headlights" look}

Our goal is go get everything painted by Thursday (we are using Sherwin Williams Anew Gray mixed in Benjamin Moore Advance paint) so Brandon and his dad can redo the countertops and start the backsplash this coming weekend.  Woo hoo!!  

So, there you have it.  A quick glimpse into our home improvements.  I can't wait to show off the finished kitchen :)

Editors Note:  As I finished this post, which took me about 5.35 minutes, I realized that I should really do a more thorough job when blogging about our projects.  This is a monumental time in our lives as we are transforming this awesome house that we love and I want to remember what we did and the funny stories that go along with the projects, because I know there are some pretty funny ones to tell!  So, I promise to do better...for me and for the readers, whoever you may be :)

A Sneak Peek!

Obviously my posting has been sparse lately.  We have been quite busy around our house and were without a computer for a while which has made for less frequent blog time. 

But, as I mentioned things have been progressing on the home update front.  The trim is painted and we finally got some color up on the walls.  Here is a little sneak peek of the living room via pictures from my cell phone!



{excuse the mess....which translates to the mess is DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!!}



Both of these photos were taken at night so the color, which is Sherwin Williams Dovetail mixed up in Benjamin Moore paint, appears a bit dark.  I'm in love with the contrast between the walls and the trim!  Now if only we could find drapes so we do not feel like the nightly neighborhood entertainment...

Next up on the list is to paint the entryway and dining room.  We have extremely tall ceilings in the entryway so we are going to have to get creative when it comes to painting those walls.  We will also be installing our new wood floor next weekend, which will make a huge difference!  I get to finally say goodby the kitchen carpet and hello to the lovely, warm wood floor (and visible dust and crumbs...I know!!)!

We are still planning to paint the kitchen cabinets and get new countertops and a new backsplash but we need to save a little money before we start that project.  However, my father-in-law pointed out that once the new floor is installed next to the cabinets that the cabinet painting will be on the fast track because we are not going to like the way the cabinets look with the floor and he's probably right!

Weekend Wrap-Up + 2 Recipes

We had a busy and eventful weekend and the time flew by, but I suppose that is just how it goes!

• We spent Friday evening hanging out at Mel Hambelton Ford.  Why you ask?  Well, we traded in the Fusion for a "new-to-us" Explorer.  The car buying process is not my favorite past time, but the people at Mel Hambelton made it as pleasant as possible.  And now, we have extra room, a lower car payment, and I'm not driving a car anymore.
• Once we got home we spent the rest of the night cleaning house so we could focus on other projects the rest of the weekend.  I must say, it was a really nice to go to bed on Friday night knowing I didn't have to get up and do chores in the morning!
• We got up leisurely on Saturday morning and headed out to run a few errands.  I left my garage door opener in the old car so we had to go back to the dealership to pick it up.  Then, we went to Kohl's so Brandon could get a new pair of jeans to wear with his birthday cowboy boots.  He got Levi's and not Wranglers so I've decided to call him an "urban cowboy" since he's not sporting the true cowboy jeans :)
• We also hit up every home improvement store on our side of town pricing paint for our walls.  We are looking at the paint and primer in one and locally Lowe's had the best price.  We bought one quart to test out in our bathroom to see if we like it.  We probably won't get to painting the bathroom until later in the week, though.
• Saturday afternoon I made a new cookie recipe and I must say, they lived up to the recipe title!!

 

• On Saturday night we attended our first Wichita Thunder hockey game with a friend and her husband.  She got tickets from her office and invited us to sit with them in a loge box.  None of us had attended a hockey game before so we were all pretty entertained!

• Sunday we got up and went to church, did our grocery shopping and went up to the hospital to see little Brooklyn.  Let me tell you, this little girl is quite the over-achiever!  She was born 11 weeks early and has been in the hospital exactly two weeks and while we were there, they received word that she was ready to move upstairs to the special care unit and out of the NICU!!  She will still be in the hospital for a little while, but she's progressing so well!  I would post a picture, but I haven't asked permission from her parents so you will have to trust me when I say she's a cutie!!
• After our visit at the hospital we headed home and painted a little more trim and dare I say, we are like 95% finished!!  We still have the staircase and the kitchen cabinets to do but those projects require a little more time so we are not going to rush getting those started. 
• For dinner, I made one of my mom's recipes that I had forgotten about until I found it tucked in my recipe binder.  It is a good Sunday evening meal because it does take an hour to bake, but it was so good and Brandon gave it the thumbs up, which is even better:
  
  Steak Mozzarella3/4 c. flour
  3/4 c. shredded cheddar cheese
  Garlic Salt
  Pepper
  Paprika
  1 egg, beaten
  1 1/2 lb.s cube steak (I used round steak cut into pieces and then pounded a little)
  Vegetable Oil
  6 oz. tomato paste
  3 cloves garlic
  2 c. chicken broth
  Salt and pepper to taste
  Mozzarella cheese slices
  
  Combine the first five ingredients in a shallow dish.  Heat oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.  Dip the meat in the egg and then in the flour mixture and brown on both sides in heated skillet.  Cook about 3-4 minutes per side.  Transfer meat to a 9x13 baking dish.  Repeat until all the meat has been browned.
  
  In the same skillet, saute the garlic for about a minute (you can also use onion, but I did not).  Add in the tomato paste, chicken broth, salt and pepper.  Simmer mixture for 5-10 minutes and then pour over the meat.  Top with mozzarella cheese slices.  Cover and bake at 350 degrees for one hour.  Serve over hot egg noodles or with mashed potatoes.
• After dinner we were stuffed and happy, but Brandon continued to change door hardware and hinges so we could put the house back together.  We finally crashed in bed for a little mindless TV watching before we drifted off to sleep. 



House Project #1 - Painting the Trim

The first major project on our to-do list was to paint our trim white.  We have always wanted white trim and since we plan to stay in this house for quite some time we knew we were going to take the plunge and paint all of our trim white.  And we have a lot of trim!  Initially we got quotes to have it done professionally, but we knew we wanted to spend money on other items like flooring and new kitchen counter tops and a backsplash so my ever frugal husband decided we should save the money and paint it ourselves.  Oh boy!!  Thankfully, Brandon's parents offered to come help us which ended up being a huge blessing because like I said, we have a lot of trim!

Brandon and I started priming earlier in the week and got the front part of the house and the mantle ready.

Once his parents arrived, we finished priming and began painting.  I think we worked until midnight on Friday night.  Needless to say, we were all a little weary by that point.

{Brandon's dad working on the trim}

{Please ignore the kitchen!}

{Pam was like the energizer bunny...she just kept painting and painting and painting}

Yes, even Koby was exhausted.  I know he was looking at us thinking "You people are crazy staying up this late."

Things got a little sketchy by Saturday morning as I was plagued with the stomach flu.  I was pretty much in bed or in the bathroom so I wasn't much help the rest of the weekend, but the troops kept marching on without me.

Brandon's dad laid the new tile around both of our fireplaces and I am so thrilled with the way they turned out.  Here are a few pictures of the transformation of the upstairs fireplace:

{Before - with the original tile removed}

{During}

{After - with a couple of coats of paint on the mantle and bookcases}

{Up close - missing the grout on the vertical section}

We can't believe the difference the paint and tile have made in the looks of the room!  We still have to put a couple of coats of paint on the trim in the kitchen, laundry room, and half bath but it is looking so good and we couldn't have done it all without Pam and Craig's help.

Next up on the agenda is picking out wall colors because we can't live with white on white for too long and then we will install our new flooring.  Lots to do!!

Weekend Wrap Up

Our last weekend of 2011 ended up being quite eventful:

• I had the day off on Friday so I picked up the house in the morning and then ran a bunch of errands in the afternoon.  I realized that I really like running errands during the middle of a work day because there are not as many people to deal with, check-out lanes are shorter and it is just a more pleasant experience over all.  
• Friday night we went to Newton for a gender reveal party at Brandon's sister's house.  I had never been to a party like this before but it was pretty fun.  They had sonogram a few weeks ago and they told the tech to write down the gender and put it in an envelope.  Then, his sister took the envelope to a baker and told them to open it and to make the inside of the cake either pink or blue, depending on what the tech had written down and then frost it in white.  Once all of the party guests arrived, they cut open the cake to reveal what whether or not they were having a girl or a boy.  And, this is what they saw:
  
  
  
  
  Needless to say, we'll have a new niece sometime in late March or early April and we definitely know how to be an aunt and uncle to little girls!
• On Saturday, Brandon and his dad decided to mount the TV we got for Christmas.  However, it was not just any TV mounting project.  It required removing mirrors and a built-in book case, cutting out sheet rock, poking holes in the wall and fishing cables in and out, but it turned out perfect!  Here is a little "action shot":
  
  
  

• After a lot of work on Saturday, we headed out to dinner with Brandon's parents.  We tried a new restaurant on our side of town and it was delicious!  After dinner, we headed to a friend's house about 30 minutes away.  We joked that we had not gone "out" for New Years Eve in so long and then the time we do we have to drive 30 minutes!  We had  fun and low key evening playing Farkle and hanging out and we were home by 11:00.  We actually rang in the new year as we were on the verge of falling asleep.  Ha!  This is a sure sign that we are getting old!!
• On Sunday we headed up to my grandpa's house for my dad's family's Christmas celebration.  We ate a big lunch and played a couple of new games - Left Center Right and then a name game that my aunt introduced us to.  All 28 of us were able to play both games and we had a really fun time!  It isn't often we all get together so it is always nice to catch up with my cousins and aunts and uncles.
• Monday, we finally got to sleep in (we have not been able to do much of that during our holiday weekends)!!  Once we got up and around we got busy doing chores around the house.  Brandon finished up mudding the wall and mounting the TV while I cleaned out the fridge.  My sister-in-law's fridge was soooo clean when we were at her house on Friday that I got inspired to give mine a good scrub down.  After I got done with the fridge, I went to lunch with a friend and we did a little house project shopping.  After I got home, Brandon and I took down our Christmas decorations, cleaned up the house, did laundry and he started calking our trim to prepare it to be painted (I can't wait to have this project completed and it has barely started...we've got a LONG way to go!).
• I ended my night with "The Bachelor" and a little blogging while Brandon watched football (it is Bowl season, after all).  It's hard to accept that Christmas is over and we are in our third day of 2012.  I guess we should start getting used to the routine again.

Christmas 2011: Baking

I mentioned yesterday that I had Christmas baking recipes swirling in my head.  I'm planning to make up a few trays to deliver to our new neighbors and a few other friends and since December 1 is Thursday I decided that I should do a little less swirling and a little more list making.  So here I am with a list of recipes that I want to try out this year.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles: I made these for Thanksgiving and got compliments from my 4 and 5 year old nieces so I know they were a hit!

Soft Gingersnap Cookies: A new recipe this year.  I love gingersnaps and figured a soft gingersnap couldn't be terrible :)

Candy Cane Marshmallow Sticks: I'm thinking of setting up a hot cocoa bar when I host my family for Christmas and I think these guys would be a perfect addition to the bar.

Peppermint Bark: One of my favorite Christmas treats.  Speaking of Peppermint Bark, have you tried the Dove variety?  They are delicious!

Oreo Pops: Because they are festive and easy.

Banana Bread - Mini Loaves:  My friend Ali has a great banana bread recipe that I plan to use.  And, I'll probably add chocolate chips. 

Peanut Butter Blossoms: A Christmas staple.

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies: I made these for Valentines Day and liked them so much that I'm making them for Christmas too.  Plus, they are very cute and festive.

Lemon Shortbread Cookies: Another new recipe.  I've developed a strong love for all things lemon and I think these would be a nice Christmas cookie.

Chocolate Crinkles: Because these should appear on every plate of Christmas cookies.

Looking at this list, it would appear that I need to start baking!  The beauty of most of these cookies is that they will freeze well so I can make them ahead of time and pull them out when I'm ready to assemble the plates.

What are you baking this year?  What are some of the Christmas baking staples in your house?

A couple of things.

I have so much to blog about right now and have had a hard time finding time to write it all down but here are a couple of things I want to share for now.  I will be back soon with part two of my trip to Asheville as well, but I need to finish downloading the pics.

• No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you.  The sign really does say SOLD and it really is in our front yard!!  Thanks to much prayer and turning the situation over to God, our house sold last week.  The buyers looked at it at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon and we signed the contract at 6:40 p.m. that same evening.  After more than a week of not having any showings, we were feeling pretty down, but that feeling quickly turned to a feeling of huge relief!  So, now we have a lot of packing and moving in our future, but at least we can be excited about it (as excited as we can be about the process of moving).
• Along with selling our house this week, I also had another huge stress relief that came on Thursday.  My many months of planning came to fruition on Thursday night when President George W. Bush spoke at the Chamber's Annual Meeting.  We had a sold out crowd of 5,000 people who were all very excited to hear the President and from what I hear (I didn't exactly get to listen to the presentation because I was trying to get photos approved for the media) he did a fantastic job!  My family decided to come to the event and they were all very pleased and I heard a lot of positive comments from other people as they were leaving the event.  While it was a lot of work for a lot of people, the event was a huge success! 
• Since my family was in town for the Bush event, I talked them in to spending the weekend with us.  My siblings and their spouses stayed the weekend while my parents took the grand kids home with them for the weekend.  I think everyone had a great weekend and I know my siblings enjoyed a little grown-up time :)  Us girls went to lunch on Friday, got pedicures and shopped at Target for two hours (ha!) while the guys played golf.  Then, we capped off the day with a sushi dinner and a little night out.  Saturday we watched a lot of football and hung out with other family members who live in town.  Today ended a little abruptly when my mom called to say one of the girls had the stomach flu so they all left earlier than planned to get the kids and head home.  We spent the rest of the day cleaning up the house and running errands.  Now, we are sitting in the couch and letting our bodies catch up from a crazy week!