Wednesday, June 30, 2010

4 Months Later...

After reviewing some of my posts, I realized that I haven't blogged much about our house. It's been almost 4 months since we closed on our little love shack--but due to the sparse furniture, it still looks like we just moved in! The spare bedroom aka "The J-Money Shrine" is completely done with the exception of hanging Justin's GIANT poster from his Senior season playing at K-State. Considering we have plaster walls, I'm kinda scared to hang it...I know that with the right "equipment" it won't fall but I just don't have a good feeling about the whole thing! The bathroom is pretty much done. It's been repainted, the mallard duck border was replaced with a custom stripe border (I like to call it that since I had to cut rolls of wallpaper into a border!) and I found a super awesome retro-inspired clock to keep me on time in the mornings...I would LOVE to find some really neat black vintage figurines to put inside the nook of the built-in cabinets...but I'm really particular about my accessories. I may have to set aside an "eBay Day" and scour the world for just the right item. Our bedroom...well, it has curtains hung!!! There is nothing else on the walls...and it'll probably be that way for a while. At some point, we want to replace our old tube TV with a flat-screen that has a built-in DVD player...there's this random square hole in the wall that was framed out with crown moulding and an electrical outlet--perfect place for the tv! Eventually we'll get some wall art hung but all we really do is sleep in there so I'm not too concerned about what's on the wall... So far, the dining room has been my favorite project!!! I wanted a dining set that had an old, antique feeling without being too antique--if that makes sense--but could be modernized as well. Thank you, Craigslist, for hooking me up with a Thomasville set that is at least 60 years old, is made of either cherry or mahogany and is in perfect condition...all for $100. That's right!!!! I've had several people say they bet it's worth at least $1,000 but I absolutely love it and wouldn't trade it for anything. A few weeks later, I found a cherry china cabinet on none other than Craigslist for $65 ...Then I found a more contemporary area rug that's the perfect compliment on Overstock.com for $150. Let me tell you, I was on lucky streak! We have yet to replace the black-and-gold 1980s style ceiling fan with a pendant fixture, but we'll get there :-) Then there's the living room...it seems so large and spacious. Probably b/c we don't have any furniture in there! We hung the TV above the fireplace so all the components are in a huge tv stand on the floor...eventually we'll get the wires professionally concealed and I have a crazy idea for component storage. But I'm not spilling the beans until we know if it's even possible! We finally ordered our couch this week...we are getting a custom piece so it won't be here until sometime in September. However, I was able to bring home the arm chair & matching ottoman. Justin's been out of town for work and thinks we'll pick it up tomorrow so he'll be super surprised to see it when he gets home tonight :-) Finally, we have the kitchen...and it was pretty much good-to-go from the very beginning! Other than replacing the stove that died and replacing it with one that matched the other appliances, I made some curtains out of tea towels and fabric from JoAnn's. With my 40% off coupons, the cost was pretty much nothing! This past weekend, I did some landscaping in one of our flowerbeds. I pretty much bought all the So Sweet hostas that Hort Services had so I will go buy more for the other flowerbed after they have a chance to restock. I still want to paint the floor of our front porch...I have just the right color in mind--but have I even gone to the paint store to see if I can get exterior paint in that color???? By the end of the week, we should have our fence plans finalized and it will be going up by the start of August...things are slowly coming together but it all takes TIME, ENERGY AND MONEY!

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Summer Thus Far

I was flipping through the calendar at work the other day and realized that July is just around the corner...where has my summer gone?! School's been out for about a month now and before I know it, it'll be time to go back. Honestly, I feel like I haven't accomplished/done anything but after looking at my planner it's been fairly busy! Since I haven't been blogging lately (that's a good sign that I've actually been doing stuff), here's a run-down of our summer thus far...
--Memorial Day Weekend: Justin wanted to go fishing...I can't stand getting near fish so I decided to lay out while we were at the lake. 2 hours later we called it a day--I got home and realized that I was burnt to a crisp! I was still peeling 3 weeks later...
--First Weekend of June: Went to my Immunology appointment at Creighton Medical Center in Omaha...did some testing and the Immunologist told me I was a mystery. That would make him the 4th specialist to tell me that this year!! However, he referred me to the Ear-Nose-Throat specialist here in Manhattan for what I thought was some off-the-wall possibilities. But on the upside, I was able to spend time with my awesome former roommate Jill and see our bud Joe Joe while we were up there. Getting to see Jill & Joe Joe makes me miss them even more!!
--Second Weekend of June: Girls' weekend in Jacksonville Beach, Florida! My K-State friends Erin, Julie, Angie & Sarah all met up for a long weekend to celebrate Sarah's recent marriage and my upcoming marriage. We stayed at an awesome beach house and had a great time laying at the beach, exploring the local night scene and just catching up!
--June 17: Justin's 27th Birthday and a celebration BBQ the following evening...the day started off super windy but come evening, there was no breeze to be found. For sitting around in our own pools of sweat, I think everyone managed to enjoy themselves
--Third Weekend of June: Father's Day weekend at the farm. Mom & Dad lost power earlier that morning due to a huge storm that moved through the area but my sister, Justin and I, my Granddad Hooley, his wife Pat, her 2 grandchildren plus my Uncle Jack and his wife Jamie all made it to the farm for a super yummy BBQ. But then we all got "stormed" in overnight while periodically losing power, experiencing tornado warnings and hail in the neighborhood! We weren't planning on a slumber party, but it was fun to spend the extra time with everyone.
In the middle of my Florida Trip and Father's Day, I went to my ENT specialist and he put me on some meds for "Silent GERD" which is properly known as laryngopharyngeal reflux. Can anyone pronounce that first word because I certainly can't! The doctor told me I was overall a very unique case but thought we should go this route...At first I thought it was quite the shot in the dark but after doing some reading on it, my symptoms are dead-on and it makes total sense. I started the meds right away and I'm already feeling 10x better! Maybe the crazy Immunologist knew what he was talking about after all!
The rest of my summer has pretty much been spent working at CASA and trying to finalize some of our wedding plans.
I'm quickly realizing that planning a wedding for 75 guests is more difficult than I expected! Regardless of having 30 or 300 guests, there's the church, the organist, the rehearsal dinner, the reception site, the caterer, the cake lady, the florist, the music, the wedding party, marriage counseling and all the little things in between to coordinate. Don't get me wrong--some of the stuff is super fun...such as figuring out the invitation designs and getting fitted for my dress :-) But the multiple appointments with each vendor to finalize things, not so much fun!
One month ago, I thought my summer would consist of going to CASA in the morning, laying out in the afternoon and going to the gym in the evening...I MAY have been a bit delusional when I came up with that plan.