Saturday, April 26, 2008

THREE CHEERS...


...for some good old-fashioned productivity. Last weekend was awesome - I had given into my sleepiness the weekend before that, but this time I had an agenda and just kept with it.

Last Saturday I was on a mission to clean. After sleeping in and a nice brunch of egg + cheese sandwiches, I cleaned up the kitchen, threw in some loads of laundry, rounded up my cleaning supplies and went at the bathrooms. All three of them. I got down to the teeny bits... vacuumed the floors... rocked and rolled. Dan actually got to take a nap that day.

Last Sunday was the Sunday to top all Sundays. We started out with the normal morning church routine, and then decided to take a trip up to the new IKEA in West Chester. There are no words for this place. It's a crazy experience - and hard to believe that I can go back and shop there again. For some reason, I have this idea that it's a "one time only" place...almost like a home show that comes to town once a year. If you go maybe you'll see what I mean. It was full of inspiration and cool things to see.

We got a few things and they are making me smile...

One thing we got - the big thing - was a dresser (aka: a chest of drawers). Up until now we were using night stands and closet shelves to take care of folded things, and that worked great. This house has thrown a little kink into our system because we can't fit our same shelves into the walk-in closet, and things just didn't seem to have a tidy home. Chest: enter stage left. Dan was really impressed with the quality of the piece. There are eight drawers and I'm glad we spent the money for it - we almost talked ourselves out of it.


After we moved in, I had this fabulous idea of some type of board that I could put grocery lists on, and would also hold our keys as we come in the garage door (see left). I wasn't sure if something like that existed or if I would have to make it. Well, what do you know - IKEA had just what I was looking for. And it's magnetic, so I can stick things on it as well. It's already graced with Dan's artwork, and it looks great with our cabinets. I knew it was meant to be when I saw the little galvanized buckets for holding chalk. Swoon...


NEXT - another decoration we're trying. We have one of these on each side of the fireplace. I guess the technical term here would be "ceramic vases with twigs." So far we're really digging them.

Almost three hours later we were done shopping, headed to dinner at Buca, and then downtown for Dan's surprise date night. He was able to get free tickets to The Aronoff for a production of The Color Purple. We're tempted to check out the movie now, just to see how they differ. It's definitely a touching story. And I was able to mark #32 off my 101 in 1001 list - going to dinner and seeing a play.

This past week was chock full o' stuff.

Monday we had some leftover business with our Consumed small group. We also decided to sign up in the moment for GO Cincinnati. It's a city-wide blanket of love where a whole bunch of people get together to do good things and good work. We're talking hundreds thousands of people. Dan and I haven't been able to do it the past couple years because of our engagement and wedding stuff, but this time is it. We noticed a flyer about our neighborhood yard sale on the same day, so we're a little bummed to miss that. We really wanted to include some of our stuff and check it out, but we'll see what happens.

Wednesday we went to visit my older brother who had surgery last week. He had to have heart surgery out of the blue when a chest x-ray showed an enlarged aorta. The doctors say it was most likely genetic, so now my mom wants everyone to be checked. You just never know about these things - he had no symptoms at all and was very healthy. A week after the surgery he is up and doing well, following orders for recovery.

Thursday was my dad's birthday (and mom's next week), so we celebrated at the Montgomery Inn Boathouse. Delicious and good times.

Friday was the last day of training my replacement. I found out where my new cubical home will be (with a wall of windows), I filed and cleaned up my stuff for the move across the building, and I'm due for a computer loaded with all sorts of Adobe Creative Suite 3 goodies. I know that the days of training my replacement aren't over because she'll have questions during her transition, but I'm glad that the patience-testing, wanna-rip-my-hair-out days are over. Now I know why I taught communication courses and not computer courses. Amen. These were well appreciated this week. Just the smell of the Pina Colada was enough for me...


This weekend is a chance to get this place cleaned up more before we move in more things from the garage. Oy-yoy-yoy. Dan's visiting his family today and I have intentions to get a shower, get some groceries, continue the laundry, daydream as I look out the window, feel the breeze, work on three initial website designs, and jam to the music.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

The earth quaketh...


Life around here lately consists of quite a routine. I've wanted to get into some kind of routine for a while, so this has been a real breakthrough. Yet, I should have been careful what I wished for. Work, making dinner (or buying carry-out), cleaning the kitchen, doing the laundry, and taking three-hour naps seem to be the extent of my habits lately. Yes, I said three-hour naps...as in many hours of my life that I'll never get back. By the time I'm done with these things everyday it's around 8:00p, and I don't have the motivation to do anything creative except for editing my daily photos. Oddly, I don't see unpacking or cleaning other parts of the house in that list either. How much would a cleaning lady be each week? This is not good - so I continue in my quest for routine and balance while rolling along with the punches.

As for the better half, Dan has been rewiring the house with the help of his dad. We'll have extra connections and outlets where we want them since the previous wiring didn't suit all of our needs. He's also been out in the yard taking advantage of the great weather and our new lawn and garden tools.


Last weekend we went on a walk even though it was a little dreary and chilly. I wanted to get photos of the spring blooms before the overnight frosts took them away. They're still around, though. This time we walked to the farther pool in the neighborhood. I saw some sexy man standing among the trees and snapped a few of him - don't tell Dan.


This morning sure jolted our current wake-up habits - literally. About 5:30a Dan jumped up because OUR HOUSE WAS SHAKING and then I was awake. How weird it was to be sitting in bed and shaking, half asleep, with no clue what was happening. Dan was the first to say it was an earthquake. IN OHIO?! That's what I said, but then realized we're in Kentucky - close enough. Earthquake insurance, anyone? There really wasn't any promise of extra sleep after that.

This weekend - I need to get over my hurdle and get some things done. I think anything would be an improvement over napping. To top off the weekend, Dan has a surprise date night planned for Sunday. Oooo-la-la.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Has anyone seen the peanut butter?


Honestly. I've looked everywhere for that darn peanut butter. I've been craving a pb+jelly sandwich for a couple weeks now. I should have bought a new jar at the store as a stand-in until the other comes out of hiding.

The past several days have been unbelievably beautiful. We've had our windows open enjoying the breeze. I know it's too good to be true, and the weather will go cold again. Until then, here are some pictures embracing Spring and our weekend.


1. The tree in our front yard.
2. The previous owners left us some butterfly love by the garage.
3. Front yard tree again - starting to bloom. Anyone know what kind of tree this is?


1. Dan bought a monster hose and nozzle (must be a guy thing - way industrial grade but a good deal from Sam's), and set it up Sunday.
2. We went for a walk to one of the pools and back. Dan played paparazzi.
3. You can see our house from the pool, we're THAT close. Out of the two houses showing their backsides, we're the one on the left. Fun fact - the house to the right of us has NINE kids. I refuse to imagine what that's like.


1. Our fridge has a fun feature that measures water for you. The faucet rotates for extendo-reach pouring too. No more measuring water when I bake - that is like SO 2007.
2. Dan snapped a photo while I was mixing.
3. Cinnamon crumb cakes for breakfast, mmmmmm. These were going to be in the form of muffins until I realized that I threw away the few muffin cups I had when we moved. Something else to stick on the grocery list with the peanut butter.

Tonight was chill night at Panera. We hadn't been there in a long time and Dan thought he could get some work done out of the house. (That was until a group of happy-go-LOUD girls came in for a Mary Kay consulting course.) The man is website central right now, which is good and a blessing, every time he turns around someone else wants website work. He's amazing to take on all this work, but I'm glad he has friends to contract work to so he doesn't get overwhelmed.

Speaking of contract work...someone was hired to take my current "corporate world" position. She starts Thursday and I'll probably be training her for two weeks. Let the fun begin!

How do you like the beefed-up blogroll in my sidebar? It's a part of Blogger in draft that I decided to try tonight. If you have a blogger, just sign into draft.blogger.com instead for your dashboard. They have some fun things to try that will be rolling out to regular bloggers in the future.

I had an IC Mocha at Panera tonight so I'm pretty wired, but this girl needs to get some sleep.
Go rock your hump day.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

A day in the life...


10:30a - After staying up until 4:00a last night working on previously mentioned map cards and printing the majority of them, this was the scene here again this morning. I got up and made french toast for the hubs and I, printed a little in the process, then got back to work.


Finished card - front and back.


2:00p - All packed up and ready to go. I realize the gigantic time lapse here, so let me fill in some details. I didn't have that many more to print this morning, but my black ink was about to kick the bucket. As a result, I was using the "best" print mode so it would print darker - and not show those dang "hello your ink is going to die" lines through the page - but it took longer. Soooo...I finished printing and cutting, and decided it would be fun to go through all 125 of them again and trim them up nice and sharp like.

The new owner of the cards (we'll call her Miss J) came to pick them up soon after they were finished. I love the reactions she has toward things and life. She's very (com)passionate and genuine with people. When I gave her the cards wrapped up in a Rye Designs "happy package," she spent a moment looking at one (with hand over mouth) and almost started crying. She loved every detail and how I was able to incorporate her wants with her fiance's. These are the moments when I'm more than thankful for what I do - the people, the stories, the reactions - the whole happy package.


3:30p (ish) - Dan took a little nap while I unpacked some things. Merry decided to join him in slumber and I couldn't resist taking some pictures of her. When Dan woke up around 5:00, Miss Little Face cuddled with him and licked his arm. She's too funny.




I love her little paws.


5:30p - Dan the grill master makes hamburgers for dinner on his new grill.


After dinner we headed out for some shopping errands and Graeter's ice cream. Mmmm, they can make a coconut chip and pineapple shake that's to die for. Maybe next time I should add a little rum to it.


11:00p - I must have forgotten about all the sugar and calories I had earlier, because I wanted some good old Oreos and milk. Dan had some too.

1:30a - Yikes. Time to hit the sheets because I have an early wakeup call.


I know you've been waiting for them, so here they are..."AFTER" photos of our paint colors so far. They're in the sneak peek album. I moved the corresponding "before" pictures to the end of the album so they are with their partners. Above are the scanned versions of our paint chips...and although the dark brown looks like baby poo on screen, it's a very nice color in person. I'll post more when the tornado zone is cleaned up and I can take pictures of whole rooms without boxes. ;)

Have a fab Sunday...

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Changing seasons...


I love new seasons.  They have a way of bringing changes and new perspectives to jump start things when they seem to get boring - especially Spring.  We've definitely had our fill of changes and perspectives with this new season.  Just when we thought we had things figured out for a little bit...but we're rolling with it and I'm excited about what's to come.  

We moved (obviously) - We anticipated this change.  What we didn't anticipate was the true workload and tight schedule even with more than a month to make the transition. 

We got referrals
- We knew that we wouldn't have much time for clients.  Then we received a few referrals and didn't want to leave them hanging without a call at least...and calls led to other things.  The map card above is somewhat last minute because of time constraints and the fact that our computer stuff was in boxes!  It's in process right now.  If it weren't for that contact, though, we wouldn't have met a great woman who joyfully helped us paint our house.  (Interesting fact: remember the week of the Consumed journey where we had to borrow/trade/barter?  That was one of our trades - map cards for painting.)  Now that the desktop has been unpacked, we can focus some time on the people awaiting our services.

I accepted a new position at work
- Yes, this was the "news" I was mentioning.  Yet, I think almost everyone knows already.  I didn't see this coming at all.  For the last (almost) two years I've worked as a contractor.  No benefits, no vacation, not really the career I wanted, and the list continued.  I was okay with it because I'm on Dan's insurance, the company has been very generous with Christmases and the honeymoon, and I was waiting to see what opportunities would come along.  Then, this opportunity came along - in Marketing - with benefits, vacation, more money, something I have skills for and could really enjoy.  Now I wait until someone is brought in to take my place, and then start the learning curve of a very big change.  The hardest part?  My current department has relied on me and planned more responsibilities for the near future.  I'm so loyal it hurts, but I must move on to make ME happy.  Hopefully it works.   

Any other changes
- I think that's it.             

It's time to say GOODBYE to March, and HELLO to the days of April where Spring is just starting to peek through the Winter.  I wish it would peek a little faster.  "You say goodbye, and I say hello...hello, hello."  Where did March go again?  Oh, that's right, nevermind...

It would also be time to say hello to my new paint colors, but I've had this written for a couple days and was going to wait until I put the pictures together to post it, then ditched that idea because it would be a mile long.  I'm much closer, though.  Half of the photos are sitting open in Photoshop just begging to be resized and posted.

What I'm enjoying right now...

  • Taking it easy getting the house together.  Every box we empty and every area we clean is another step in creating our home.  "Every step you take...every move you make..."  I'm in a song mood today.
  • Last night I figured out what it's like to buy groceries, bring them home, and unload them through the garage door RIGHT INTO MY KITCHEN.
  • My walk-in pantry is stuffed with random things, but I was able to put FOOD in it last night along with a little organization. 
  • The phat cats are doing much better.  They're still scared by every noise, especially when we're not home, but they're reverting back to their attention-hogging selves every day.  They haven't seen the basement yet - not sure if that's a good idea. 
  • Stretching my creative muscles a little after they've been sitting for so long.  I thought sure they were tired of waiting, got up and left.
  • Oreo cookies and milk.
  • The cinnamon crumb cake mix I bought at the store to make muffins. 
Sheri's in town today and she's coming for a visit.  A feast at Cheddar's is required (unless we decide on something else).  Other than that, Thursday evening has GO WITH THE FLOW written all over it.

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