Yes, I'm still alive!!!

Yikes, I guess I've been away from the old blog for a couple of weeks now. I guess we've been so busy with life that I just haven't had a chance to talk about it. Hmm, let me think.......Oh, I almost had a major catastrophe. I dropped my camera into the dog's water bowl. It was submerged all the way. It was on at the time it fell in and as I grabbed it out, it sort of flickered and flashed and then died. I was so mad and worried that it was ruined. I took out the battery and memory card and shook it real hard and then dried it off with the blow dryer. At one point, I put back the battery and it flashed like twice and then shut off again. The whole time, the lens was out from being turned on and I couldn't get it to close. After fooling with it for a while, I just set it on the desk upright and let it sit overnight. I really didn't want to have to spend another couple hundred dollars on a new one. The next morning, I put in the battery and it turned on! It asked to reset the time and day, so I hit the OK button and it died again. It did that twice. Later that day, Tony turned it on and it worked! Like it really worked - took a picture and saved it and could view the memory card and when I got home from work, it was totally fine! I was so relieved!

Then it was the 4th of July weekend. We h ad two calling hours services to go to that weekend, which was no good. Friday, we went over to a friend's house for a while. It was fun to hang out there and the kids had fun. We left around 10:00 and when we pulled in our driveway, I realized I had left my purse on their deck outside. How Annoying!!!! I didn't want it to be left out there all night, so we called them, but couldn't get a hold of them. I had no choice but to drive back over there (20 minutes each way) to get it. What a pain!!

Saturday, the 4th, we went to a party over at another friends house. That was fun too. It turned out to be a nice day - not too hot and no rain, kinda perfect for a party. There are a ton of kids now between everyone. It's so funny that they have multiplied like they have! Here's a picture of the group of most of the kids.

Then we watched as they put off a few fireworks. Hannah wasn't afraid this year. She still doesn't like the loud noise, but at least we were able to watch them outside without a freak out session. Here's the way she watched them:

Then that Sunday was hot and sunny, so I got out Hannah's pool and we hung out in the yard most of the afternoon. I got sunburned again...I think that'll be about the last time I sit out in the hot sun without using any sunscreen. I have a feeling my skin has had enough!

My mom's been in Italy for a couple of weeks now. She actually gets home late tonight. I'm anxious to hear about the trip and see her pictures. From the few check-in's she's made, it sounds like she and my aunt are having a great trip!

I got Hannah's flower girl dress. It's a little too big, so I'll have to get it altered a little. The good news is that she seems to like it pretty well - and it does spin!!!! I'm also going to look for some fabric to make (or have made) a colored sash and bow to match the bridesmaids dresses - if I can get a color swatch and then actually find fabric to match. My dilemma now is where the heck to find her ivory shoes! I've looked online a little and I"m not so thrilled about spending $60 for a pair of she's that she'll most likely never wear again! I'm definitely going to have to keep looking around.

I really can't remember much of what happened last week - I guess nothing that noteworthy. I had my NAWIC meeting on Thursday. I really like going to those. I hope to get more involved this year. I've already been asked to help co-chair the holiday social, so that will get me involved for sure and keep me sort of busy.

And then last weekend was really busy. Tony went down to Columbus for the weekend for Bo's bachelor party. I dropped him off on 71 Friday night where Randy picked him up. Hannah and I stopped for ice cream and then went home. Saturday, we went to gymnastics and then back home for lunch and naps. Then we went grocery shopping and to dinner at her favorite place - Applebee's. Not sure why she loves going there so much? Then Sunday, wen drove down to my dad's. We picked Tony back up there by the highway and then went to this tractor show down by my dad's. The weather was great for the day! (I used sunscreen!!!) Hannah had a blast! There was this tractor-train that pulled a whole bunch of cars made out of 55-gallon drums. She loved riding that!

Then she participated in the kidde tractor pulls. She was one of the only 3 year olds. I think she only went about 7-1/2 feet or so, but she tried really hard. Her legs weren't quite long enough to push the pedals, especially with the weight of the sled behind it. She also went for a horse & wagon ride and rode around with Grandpa on the Gator.

It was a good afternoon. We headed home and had pizza for dinner.

Oh, and one more thing I need to brag about. My 3-1/2 year old (at the end of this month) can now count to 100!! It's crazy! Just about a month ago, she finally got to 30 and now she counts to 100 - all the way and doesn't miss a number! It's amazing, she's so stinkin' smart! The first few times we did it, I had to give her all the 10's (40-50-60-70-80 & 90), but then yesterday in the car, she did it all by herself! The only number I had to help with was 80 because she said 100 after 79 (in a hurry to finish I guess) It's so cool!! She can write all of her letters, which she's been able to do since last fall. She's finally mastered riding her two wheel bike (with training wheels of course) and she can hop on one foot - both legs. The left leg took a lot of practice. She's so amazing!!!

I guess that's about it for now. I may have something else blogworthy to post soon, so maybe I won't be gone for so long next time.

Non-Stop Weekend

We've been on the go since Thursday. Seriously, have hardly had time to sit!

Thursday was my first book club meeting. It was kind of a flop! There were only 3 of us that actually met for dinner. I'm not sure what happened to everyone else, but none of us have read the book. Laura, my neighbor, had already made the decision that the same book would carry into July since no one (well maybe one person) had actually finished it. So anyway, book club didn't really discuss the book and was really just a dinner out. It was nice though to meet the one new girl. I'm anxious to meet the others. Maybe July will be a better turnout.

After dinner, I ran over to Home Depot to look at paint colors for the bedroom. I grabbed a whole bunch of colors that I thought might be possible choices. I had forgotten to take the pillow sham, so I was only going off of memory. On the way back home, I saw a really awesome rainbow. So cool in fact that I actually had to pull over to take a picture. I couldn't get the whole thing in view of the camera. It was really pretty - and then it was gone!

Friday, was work and then we headed out to my mom's after work. Hannah had spent the night and day over there, so we went to pick her up. We went to dinner and then hung out for a little while and then came back home. Hannah loves to feed the ducks - there's so many!! Hannah counted 29 (since that's as high as she can go and then goes back to 22), but there are really like 35 or more!

Saturday, we went to gymnastics in the morning. Here's Hannah doing a scale on the beam.

We came right home and showered and changed and then headed out to Jerry & Shelly's for Reese's first birthday party. I can't believe she's a year old already! She's so cute! She ate her entire smash cake - it was funny!

Hannah also thinks it's so cool that Santa comes to Maci & Reese's house! She wasn't afraid of him this time, but stared in awe for about 5 minutes when he got there!

We hung out over at their place all afternoon and evening. Their dog Yoda ate the entire leftover cake off the counter. I walked in from outside and saw plates and saran wrap all over the floor and looked around for evidence. Take a look at where I found the evidence:

We went to their Home Days festival around 8:00. There was a KISS tribute band playing that Tony wanted to see. He also wanted to take Hannah. She thought it was too loud at first and didn't like it, so I took her on a few rides and then we went back to watch the show for a little bit.

Check out the band in the background!! I'm pretty sure she won't be going to any concerts any time soon - she HATES loud noises!

Then Sunday, I got up and made breakfast and did laundry and cleaned the house while Tony cut the grass. We had to get ready to go next door for Allison's 3rd birthday party. It turned out to be a really nice day, so the kids were able to play outside. That was fun too.

Hannah hit the wall by around 5:30 so we went home. I still had to go grocery shopping, so I did that real fast and then we played outside when I got home. Hannah rode her new scooter and played golf in the yard.

Check out this form!! Pretty impressive if you ask me and she can really hit the ball too!

Then that was it....I crashed just before 10! What a weekend!!! Thank goodness it's a 4-day week!

Mid-June Update

OK, so I've been a bit of a blog slacker the past week and a half. Busy again. Busy tearing off the smallest, itty-bitty pieces of wallpaper border in our bedroom that you can imagine. Let me tell you, that's getting annoying!!! I think the glue company that stuck that stuff up there gets a prize! I've got about 2/3 done, so still a way to go. We did pick the bedding - at least I think we did. The stuff I ordered first, I really liked the colors - alot! However, the feel of the comforter was not so good. It's scratchy and has a weird texture that I just don't think would rank #1 in the comfort category, so we have gone with option #2 which was from JCPenney. It's super-dooper soft and comfortable, but it's color scheme is not that different from what we currently have. That sort of bummed me out, so if we keep this depends on what I can do with the colors as far as paint goes. It's a light blue, ivory, bronzy-gray and chocolate brown. I do like it, it just didn't seem like a big enough change. But maybe when it's all done, it'll be good.....we'll see. That project is moving slowly due to the super-glued border I need to remove and then I need to head to Home Depot to look at paint.

I've also been searching for Hannah's flower girl dress. I've been looking for things for Courtney to choose from online. We've narrowed it to two. Their both really cute, so I'm not sure which one to pick. Since none of my blog readers will be at the wedding except for my mom & my sister, I hope Courtney doesn't mind if I post the links here and ask for everyone's opinion as to which dress to choose..... Dress #1 and Dress #2 . Both options will be an ivory dress with an ivory ribbon/sash. Any suggestions???

Last weekend was really busy. Saturday, we had gymnastics and then Hananh and I went to visit Erin at her mom's. Hannah got to play with Emma & Mackenzie which is always fun! It was good to see Erin, her mom and her sister too.

Tony golfed that afternoon and was super excited to get his best score yet of 86! Way to go Tony!!! Then we went to dinner and took Hannah to play miniature golf. I guess Tony thought he was on a roll and had to keep going, the only problem was he didn't do best on every hole. In fact, I had one hole in one and Hannah had TWO hole in ones - in a row!!!! It was SO exciting!!!! Didn't think to take my camera though, so sorry, no pictures.

Then Sunday was Father's day. We woke Tony up to give him his gifts. Hannah made him a picture hanger at daycare and we got him much needed new underwear!!! and an outdoor fire pit!

Mid-morning, my dad & Julia came over and we spent the day at the zoo. It was fun. They hadn't been there in a really long time and Hannah enjoys going too. She didn't however enjoy the dinosaurs. She was excited to go, but screamed bloody murder about 1/2 way through. We sort of egged it on and commented on their big teeth and claws and she squeezed me as tightly as possible and burried her head in my shoulder and screamed until I walked away!!! It was actually pretty funny - she's such a GIRL!!!

Here's a pic after we were done and by the smile on her face, you can't tell her heart had pounded out of her chest just a few minutes earlier.

We spent like 5 hours there, so we were all pretty ready to go. We grabbed a bite to eat and then just hung out the rest of the evening. I think I snuck in a tiny nap as Hannah watched a movie.

This week is going super fast. Tony is golfing right now. Tomorrow, I have my first book club meeting. The funny part is, no one read the book!!! Well, I think one person did. I'm not a reader in the first place, but I tried to read this one and just can't get into it. I'll keep trying as we're keeping the same book for July. It's really just an excuse for the girls to get out, so we'll serve that purpose. Then we've got a busy weekend coming up too - Reese's first birthday Saturday and Allison's 3rd birthday party Sunday!

A bedroom remodel

So I decided that this year, we will re-do our bedroom. It seems that since we've been in this house, we tend to re-do about one room a year. Last year was the downstairs basement (remember that "simple project"?). The year before it was our family room. And the year before that it was both of our spare bedrooms - well one was Hannah's nursery. Oh, wait, now that I count back the years, I guess we missed a room in 2006 because we had to have done the spare rooms in 2005 BEFORE Hannah got here! OK, I guess we didn't do a room that year. But the first room we had done was our living room and it kind of needs a freshening up already, so it's high time to do our room since it's never been done!

Here's what we're starting with:

(I'm glad I remembered to take before pictures, because I usually remember 3/4 of the way through demolition!)

Our room isn't that big, which sort of stinks, but it's what we've got. We bought our bedroom suit when we first moved in and I still really like it. It's gained a few scratches over the last 5-1/2 years, but nothing terrible. The one crappy thing is that our dresser has a mirror and the mirror covers one of our two windows, so we don't get much natural light in the room. And there really aren't any other alternative ways to arrange the furniture that we have, so I guess we're stuck with that.

This is the view from our hallway outside the room

We plan to hang a new white door and get rid of the '80's brown door.

This is from the doorway into the room.

I'm not sure yet what I'll do with the windows. I'm sure I'll replace the cheap plastic mini-blinds, but I'm not sure with what just yet.

This is our bed & night stands

Are you noticing the "nothing is on the walls" theme? Yeah, that sort of seems to run rampid through most of the house. I guess I'm not good at accessorizing that way. I'm trying to improve.

This is the view from our bed to the front of the room and the amoire

Love the rubbermaid tub that's been sitting there for about 3 years....guess it's time to get rid of it since I don't wear the clothes that are in it.

And this is our hideous closet.

Until last winter, we did actually have doors on this closet, but they became a huge problem, so we opted for the hilbilly look and ripped them down. This is a HUGE reason for choosing this room this year...it's becoming unsightly! I plan to re-organize the whole thing and add doors once again!

We also have navy blue carpet in there that has to go as well as we will replace all of the woodwork with more up-to-date trim.

I decided that I don't want to knock this out in like a weekend or even a week or two like I normally do, but rather spread it out over the summer so it doesn't seem so labor intensive and also not so costly all at once. I decided that I'd pick bedding first so that I can have some colors to work with. I ordered some online last night from an online place called Linen Bargains. I like the picture and what you get in the set and the price was great, so I'm axious to see what comes to find out if it was really a deal or not. I should have it early next week. Here's the picture of the bedding:

The colors are supposed to be sage, chocolate, ivory and beige...I sure hope that's what we get because I like the color scheme.

If this is a keeper, we'll probably paint a light sage green, but that's not totally decided yet.

I guess my first task at hand to get this project going is to tear off the border that currently is pasted at the top of the walls. Then I suppose I'll have to get the ceiling painted and start priming and painting the walls. I will want to do the closet reorganiziation project in there some place as well. We'll pick out carpet, window treatments and paint the new woodwork and door. Oh, what fun this summer will be!!!! But it will be worth it to have a nice space to turn into every night!!

Past couple of days stuff

Last week was very busy. We seemed to be on the go almost non-stop. I've been having such muscle tension that I decided to go get a massage Saturday morning. It was good and did relieve some of the tightness, but unfortunately, by Sunday evening, it was all back. Although, I have to say, I haven't gotten the tension headache back yet, so it must not be as bad as it was before the massage. That was pretty much the excitement of Saturday. The rest of the day was just running errands, out to lunch and out to dinner.

Sunday I cleaned the house. Then I started preparing and cooking the meal I had planned for my mom's birthday. We had my mom, Randy and my Grandma over. I made quite the feast. I picked all new recipies that I've never made before (except my salad). I went to Foodnetwork.com and just randomly picked some stuff. I love the site because they have a lot of reviews of the recipies so you know if people liked it or not and also what they may have done differently to the recipie.

Anyway, I spent pretty much all afternoon cooking. It was a lot of work, but well worth it. The meal was great.

I made a salad that we enjoy with spring mix greens, red peppers, feta cheese, gold raisens and sunflower seeds tossed in a home-made balsamic vinegar dressing....very good!

Then the main course was Red Wine Marinated Flank Steak Filled with Prosciutto, Fontina and Basil. This was a Bobby Flay meal and very good! Tony grilled it perfectly. We all thought it was great, but I may subsitute the basil for spinach or something next time. The basil got to be a little much and there were so many flavors that we could do without the basil.

For sides, I made Neely's Zucchini Gratin which was very tasty. Wouldn't change a thing about the recipe. And Warm Potato-Tomato Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette. Everyone liked these pretty well, but I think the splash of red wine vinegar to the cooked potatoes made them too vinegary. Other than that, these were good too.

Then for desert, I opted not to make a cake since more than half would either go to waste or MY WAIST, neither of which would be good!!! So I made Strawberries-and-Cream Parfaits. These made a nice light summery dessert, but I had hoped the filling was more of a custard, but it turned out to be pretty much tapioca pudding.

So the meal was a success and everyone seemed to like everything real well, which was good when you made a meal full of things you've never tried before! Thank goodness the feedback on the website seemed true!

Mom opened her gifts with Hannah's help.

And then we hung out on the deck for a little while before they left. I pretty much collapsed on the couch around 9:00! What a day!

Nothing note-worthy about yesterday. A little funny that Hannah told Tony was in reference to brushing her teeth: "I don't use a lot of water. I'm saving the Earth"! Thank God for her!!!

Tonight after dinner, we played outside. It turned out to be such a nice day. Hannah and I drew on the driveway. Here's my picture of her:

Then she skinned her knee playing ball with daddy, so we had to use the new Boo-Boo Buddy she got. She loved it and it seemed to really help her boo boo feel better.

Then just one of us girls!

Have I ever mentioned how much I just love that kid?!!? Man, she's cool!