busygirl

winter thought.

I want to live where I can have palm trees in my front yard.

Cleveland need not apply.

Just popping in to say hello from Arizona.  I forgot what an awful flight it is here...I guess a year in between each visit makes the mind forget.  In the less-than-twenty-four-hours that I've been here I've eaten too much, gotten lost at the hotel, enjoyed a night of sleep in a KING SIZE bed (not sharing), wasted four hours drinking coffee and chatting with my boss and overhauled part of my presentation for later today.  Busy busy.  I think I'll go enjoy the 67 degree weather for a bit before heading into the conference...67 degrees is cold for here...who knew?  I think it's shorts weather but then again, I am from Ohio...sighhhh...

the great squirrel capades.

Oh yes, it continues.  Remember how I was complaining in December that we were experiencing some interrupted sleep due to these cute, fuzzy adorable little creatures that were throwing the world's biggest rave in our attic?

Yeah well, they're still there.

So in the middle of one of their jam sessions (I swear I heard one of them cooning some MJ) Adam declared that it was time to go to war cause apparently our house isn't big enough for two humans, a dog and a small army of squirrels.

Critter control was immediately summoned to inspect the situation and discovered that the smart little buggers had chewed a hole through a piece of wood and scampered their way inside to the attic.  Well, gee.  I could've told ya that.  It's not like they apparated into there.

Anyway, after this 'surprising' discovery, the critter-whisperers set a few traps up on the roof and left them for a few days with hope that we could catch some dinner.  They came back today to check the traps and inspect the attic again, finding that we had indeed managed to outsmart TWO of the squirrels that inhabited our attic.

And then I cried.  The critter-man came walking up my steps holding the squirrel in it's little cage.  And it looked so helpless...and I'm well aware that by law the squirrel has to go to squirrel heaven a meadow filled with sunshine and rainbows after leaving my house.

Sob.

I'm teary-eyed over a RODENT.  A LOUD rodent.

Pull it together.

Right.  Well, the traps have been reset and we're anxiously awaiting some more catches and perhaps some peace and quiet during the wee hours of the morning.

a year in review.

January - the apartment lost heat for five days.  And the pipes burst and flooded everything.  In conclusion, the house hunting began.

February - we found THE house, the only we loved so so so much!  Received an eviction notice from our landlord because she hated us for complaining when they refused to fix our heat for five days...in JANUARY (hey Crawford Communities, if you're reading this, PLEASE FIRE ROCHELLE FROM OLENTANGY COMMONS!), we put down an offer on the house...and GOT IT!!!  Ellie had a build-a-bear birthday which was loads of fun!

March - signed the papers for the house, said goodbye to dealing with our horrible landlord and moved across town to our new address!  My little sister celebrated her 22nd birthday and my girlfriend-in-law celebrated her later twenties birthday :).  And it was my nephew's first birthday! We painted the kitchen and Ricki discovered that sticking his nose in the paint can is not a good idea.  I pretty much took a blogging sabatical in order to force myself to unpack.

April - Celebrated my 24th birthday with getting in a car accident, then Adam getting in a car accident, then Adam's car dying.  Yup, those were all on the same night.  There were finally signs of spring.  Our friends came down to visit and planted a beer garden in our backyard.  The weeping willow in the front yard was no more.

May - My crockpot suffered a horrific death when a bottle of whiskey fell on it.  Ricki celebrated his 8th birthday with ice cream cake.  My mom got the stove-of-her-dream's for hers.  My baby sister graduated from college and promptly moved all her crap into my house.  We painted her room green and my room blue. 

June - was spent BBQing and enjoying the outdoors.  We love our house in the summertime.  Adam proposed to me on June 6th.  We went on vacation with his family and friends at the Outer Banks (best week ever).  I spent a gazillion hours at work.  Ricki learned that he's not quite as fast as the rabbits are.  Adam tried sushi for the first time ever...I wish I had my camera at that meal.  We found out that there was going to be an addition to the family in December, that Adam and I would have a new niece/nephew!

July - One year till wedding time!  We decided on a date, a venue, a church and most importantly, I picked out my dress!  Many more birthday parties and I worked another gazillion hours.

August - Repainted the kitchen, the yellow was driving me crazy.  Went on vacation with my family at the Jersey Shore.  Went to the Atlantic City Food & Wine festival, Adam fell in love with a wine called The Juggler, Amy fell in love with gambling.  Amy got a job as a middle school history teacher (yay!).  I booked the DJ for the wedding and decided on colors.  Gracie Girl's Bday at the end of August and we joined a local gym in an effort to get wedding-fit for next year.

September - back to school time, I always miss school this time of year.  Amy and I started personal training sessions.  There was lost of complaining and very little movement afterwards.  There were birthdays GALORE to celebrate, too many to list.  I went to Switzerland with my friend Megan to visit our other friends and went to Germany for the real Oktoberfest.  I drank a lot of beer.  And ate pretzels.  The pretzels were delicious. 

October - Adam celebrated his 25th birthday.  GenNext celebrated its 1st birthday (YAYYY).  We stopped doing wedding stuff for a while.  Several trips to Cleveland.

November - Roadtrip to Kalahari water resort with my siblings.  Thanksgiving in Cleveland with Adam's family.  Chris just keeps getting older.  Save the dates were sent.  Bridesmaid dresses were selected.  And wedding stuff put on hold till after the holidays.  We went to the midnight showing of New Moon but I wasn't impressed.  Ricki threw a fit at the vets, wonderful.  Lots of time was spent revamping volunteering schedules.  Lots of time.

December - Super busy month.  Holiday parties and shopping.  Mom came down to visit for a weekend.  Chris and Megan came to visit.  We had a baby shower for Adam's sister.  I struggled at work, it was a long month with too much going on.  Got terribly sick the day before Christmas Eve and barely made it home.  Glad I did though because my new nephew was born on Christmas morning.  The rest of December was spent dodging nerf darts and eating an obscene amount of cookies.

There better be cookies next year too :)

why nature and i are at odds this week.

You may have noticed that I've been complaining of sleep deprivation lately.  Yes, part of it is due to a little pup who refuses to sleep through the night.

But, I can ignore him.  Or at least give in, take him out, then go right back to sleep.  So my inability to sleep more than two hours at time is not really due to him.

In reality, it's due to a recent development in our house.  A new enemy of the night.  Behold:

Cute, huh?  I'd say so.  I am nature lover.  I think little furry animals are cute, provided that they cannot make me part of their meal.  But this little bugger is FAR from cute.  He actually looks more like this:

Still looks cute you say?  You try sleeping through the night when there is a SQUIRREL RAVE being thrown in your attic!! That's right...we have houseguests and they are not quiet.

Apparently before we moved in our house, the seller found a family of squirrels living in the attic.  He took the proper measures to get rid of them and fill in any holes, but he must have missed one because voila!  The return of the squirrels.

Don't let their size fool you, they actually have feet of lead and exercise religiously.  I spend half the night listening to them scambering across the attic floor over my bed and the other half praying that we have a really strong ceiling.

Because if one of them pokes his head through the ceiling, I'm moving. 

twentytwo2go: tools for the handyman.

Next year I have the joy of marrying a guy who is already married...to his tools.  And no, I am not kidding.  We have a whole section of the basement devoted to them, complete with a desk where screwdrivers are laid out by size for each locating.  Oh, and there's every type of power tool you could imagine.  And did I mention that I'm not allowed to touch any of them?

So what do you get the handyman in your life?

1. Flashlight - although not 'techically' a tool, this flashlight comes in handy when repairs require crawling into dark places.  And when the power goes out.  And when Adam accidently turns the power off.  This one has a hands-free piece that stands the light up to shine on your work area.  (And it's the one 'tool' I'm actually allowed to touch!)

2. Ryobi Cordless Drill - you will never go back to using an electric screwdriver again.  And your handyman will get more use out of this than any other tool.  The best part?  The battery is interchangeable with other Ryobi brand tools, so be sure to pick up an extra!

3. Utility Knife - handy for opening all those furniture boxes before assembly.  Home Depot has one for only $2.99 that comes with five extra blades!

4. All-purpose tote - to keep everything organized and easy to carry from room to room.  This one is made of heavy-duty water-resistant fabric and has pockets to keep tools in place during transport.

5. Make picture-hanging a breeze with a TruCal Studsensor!  Take out the guesswork and find the stuf quickly and accurately on the first try with this $4.99 black electronic stud-finder from Home Depot.

6. Ryobi Airgrip Compact Laser Level - We have one of these and it is not only fun to play with but makes any hanging project a breeze.  This small, compact level mounts to the wall for hands free use.  The laser marks a straight line across the wall, even around the corners!

7. Don't forget the stockings!  Pick up those everyday essentials like nails, bolts, washers and various sizes of screws.

disclosure: some of the above links are affiliate links which means i will be receiving a penny or two if you click on them and purchase something.  i'd love ya for it.  seriously.

wahoo, made the top 20!

This makes me feel MUCH better about where I chose to buy my house this past year:

 

We only live a two-minute drive away from the downtown area which is littered with cute shops, cafes and bakeries.  It really is a nice little town area, but the city itself is HUGE.  There's a lot of farmland on the outskirts, a lake, bike trails galore, even three high-schools.

Not that I'm THAT concerned at this stage in my life about the area I live in, since I don't have kids and most certainly don't plan on having them anytime soon (seriously, let's see if we can survive the wedding planning first).  But at least this helps the resale value on our house!

going green, take two.

More photos of the new kitchen/family room!  Please excuse the mess, we're still putting the rooms back together.

What do you think??

going green

Remember this kitchen and family room?

Me too.  It drove me nuts.  When we moved into the new house we were so anxious to paint since the house had a cave-like feel with the grayish-tan walls.  And since everyone and their mother agrees that yellow is the most appropriate color for a kitchen, that's what we went with.

And WOAH was it bold.  Very bold.  Actually, for a few weeks I somewhat liked it.  After living in an apartment with no color, ANY wall color was a welcomed change.  Until about two weeks ago.  When I realized that I wasn't that crazy about it.  I hung red curtains hoping to make everything look rich and bold, but all it ended up doing was making it feel like a 'country kitchen' to me.

So, I whined.  And Adam listened.

We were already at the paint store looking at samples for the living room when he made the decision that we weren't painting the living room.  I was miffed.  I mean come on...was it really killing him to stand in the paint aisle for five minutes?  But I was wrong.

Adam asked me what I wanted the house to look like since I obviously wasn't happy.  Bet you can guess what I said...Pottery Barn!  Oh course, who wouldn't want their house to look like that?

So, he whips out this sample guide that has these soothing neutrals in all different colors, points to the green one and says, this is what we are painting the kitchen.  And then we are going to paint all the other rooms one of these other colors.  Got it?  Good.

So how many people would on a whim, just buy the first color of paint that your significant other picks and goes with it?  Yeah, I must be crazy.  It's all the paint fumes, I swear.

But it looks AMAZING.  I never in a million years would have picked this colors but it's so calming.  I just sat at the table this morning sipping my coffee and feeling relaxed.  No obnoxious yellow in my face.

It's hard to take a picture of it, but here's a glimpse of Adam's color pick - pretty good for a guy ;)

What do you all think?

today will be better.

I almost broke down in the middle of Lowe's because I can never seem to make up my mind.

Adam was painting all day yesterday so the dog couldn't sleep on the couch.  He was devastated.

I dropped Adam's large Dr. Pepper on the floor...soda...everywhere.

Allergies.  I. Can't. Breathe.

The dog rolled in something that can only be described as fecal matter.

I had to give the dog-who-hates-water-with-a-passion...a bath.

The kitchen sink is leaking.  All the way into the basement.  I could cry.

Adam vacuumed after he finished painting.  The dog was not pleased.

I've been blessed with another ear infection.  I thought those stopped when you were an adult.

This morning the dog and I went on a long, long walk.  Cause let's face it - we both needed to regroup.

figures.

I opened the refrigerator door to get out the tortillas to start making my dinner of black bean, corn and salsa burritos and BAM!

Spaghetti sauce...EVERYWHERE.  The jar FLEW across the kitchen.  Seriously, the stove is a good FIVE feet away from the fridge.

Figures.  I had washed the floor yesterday.