Friday, January 29

color pop

I've recently changed my decorating mentality. Since we've moved into the house, we have spent hours running around the city, shopping, browsing magazines, etc. looking for things for our house. We never seemed to buy things because we {I} wasn't sure if it would fit, how it would look, if I'd like it.....

So, I told myself if I see something I like, I'm going to get it, try it out at home, and if we don't like it take it back! And, it's working!! We've added lots of new accessories to our tv stand that look great {and wouldn't have been anything I would typically throw together in my mind}. Here are some recent purchases we bought from Crate and Barrel.



{Glass Birdie - $7.00}

 

 {Lula Vase $9.00}

 

{Yoko Vase $8.00 -- we got blue one}

One of my favorite things about buying stuff I like when I see it.....we have a few extra things that we've stored away. We have them close by for whenever we'd like to switch things up a little bit! I'll be sure to show you the finished tv stand when we get it complete!!

Have a GREAT weekend!!

Thursday, January 28

door/window upgrades

Finally after the major projects were complete in the laundry room, we tackled the door and the window. After we moved in, we decided to switch all of our door knobs to stainless steel. Because they are pricey, we decided to do a few at a time. Now, all the downstairs doors and the laundry room door have a much better look to them! Check out the door before...



First we put the door knob on. But, we still had to do the hinges. You may not think it's that big of a difference, but when you see the silver door knob next to the brass hinges it's night and day!!



Next up on the list was a new blind. The one that was in was 5 in. too short. We are also planning on making all of the blinds in the house uniform. This was blind #1. Before we began...



It was difficult to get the screws into such tight places. After putting in a couple blinds, we came up with a great strategy that has made all the other blinds a breeze.  



It didn't take too long to transform the window. We're so happy that we can actually leave the laundry room open to get more light upstairs. It's nice to be able to open and close the blinds, too!!



Since we're on the topic of blinds, I'll show you what we did to the kitchen window. That window was the only one in the entire house that didn't have any type of covering. I really dislike having open windows at night {people can see in, but it's hard to see out!} Also, since we're in an up-and-coming area there is still some issues with crime {really this could happen anywhere}! We've been told time and time again that if people can see in your windows all the time, that gives them an opportunity to scope out what they want if they were to break in. Anyways, we wanted blinds on the window to give us some privacy and make us feel a little safer!!! Here's the before...



It was extra tough getting this one up. {Compared to the laundry room}
You had to stand on the counter tops and get into that small space.



After a couple minutes, we were finished! And we're now able to still see out the window...



...or close it if we want!



Of course I had to throw in one of our Coop. I think he was wondering what in the world was going on. Isn't he cute??




****If you are thinking of getting new blinds, I would highly recommend the Levolor brand from Lowe's. If you take your measurements into the store, they will cut the blinds for you while you shop. They are also VERY reasonably priced. We compared the look of many blinds and these ones look the most like real wood {we thought}. Also, you may have noticed that our blinds look a little long in these pictures.... you can shorten them to fit your window ...we just haven't gotten around to that!! We liked them so much, last weekend we {really ME...I'm proud of myself} put new blinds in all the windows upstairs. Pictures to come soon!

Wednesday, January 27

finishing the laundry

Okay, I know it's been a long time since I last updated you on the laundry room progress. A couple weekends ago, we finally got the majority of the room complete. {I know it seems like we're taking our sweet time on this, but it's been hard for us to find time on weekends to get work complete!!}

After painting an already small room trying to maneuver around the washer and dryer, Kurt's dad helped us put in our new counter top. 



Although the counter was a huge improvement, we were still lacking any storage in the laundry room. We decided to add two cabinets to provide tons of storage. Cabinets seemed like the best idea because they will keep the counter clear {to fold} AND allow for 'organized' chaos behind closed doors!   

And so we began...

The laundry room is very deep. That was the problem with the shelf that was in there originally. If we attached the cabinets directly to the wall, it would be challenging for me to reach any of the shelves {since I'm a little shorty}! Kurt's dad used some wood that he had to build a frame. First, they attached the frame to the wall.




Then, they attached the two cabinets to the frame. {I'm making this sound so easy! It took them quite awhile and lots of work to get these puppies attached to the frame!}



After screwing the cabinet doors on, the major project of the room was complete! Take a look for yourself...



{I'm sorry these pictures are so bad. The room is so small it's hard to get a good shot of the entire room...}



I couldn't wait to get things put away {aka hidden!} and try to get things more organized. We did buy a few plastic bins from Target, but for the most part we've thrown things in. Hopefully, we'll find some time to organize them a bit more...





I know you probably don't believe me, but I promise to finish the last of the laundry room updates tomorrow!

Tuesday, January 26

Super Colts = Super Bowl!!

Colts are going to the Super Bowl!!!

And...we were there to celebrate the big win :)

Take a look...









Tuesday, January 19

quick recap

I've been very tongue-tied lately. Instead of telling you a lot about our trip, I'll let you see {some} of the pictures. Hope you had a great long weekend!!


Getting ready for dinner...taking a break from dancing!


The whole family {minus Allison} at a new restaurant...beautiful!


Hanging out at dinner :)



She l.o.v.e.d. the Santa at our hotel!



My wonderful family.



Taking a break from eating at our favorite place...Edith's. Yum!



New Year's Eve
Julia and Christopher playing doctor...her foot was hurt.



Resting up after eating a yummy home-cooked New Year's Eve dinner.



Really not wanting to go out to celebrate New Year's -- losers I know.
We were exhausted and tired so we decided to take beers down to the beach and have a low-key night.
What a great way to begin 2010!



Happy 2010!!!
First picture of the year!



Last night -- beautiful sunset from our patio!



Julia with her baby on the last night.

Although our trip seemed extra short this year, we still had a great time. Kurt and I {along with some friends} will be heading back down to Cabo for my spring break. I can't wait to be back!!

Wednesday, January 13

favorite



Love the beautiful views and sharing them with family.

Tuesday, January 12

Cabo {finally}

When thinking back to my many trips to Cabo, I'd have to say this trip was {by far} the most dramatic. I'm sure you're wondering why, but I'm not so sure you'll want to continue on reading....

You want the short version? -- It took us 36 hours {or something} to get there.

You want the loonnngggg version? -- Continue on reading!

Instead of telling the story, I'm going to just give you the {as brief as possible} time line. Okay, so here we go.

November{ish} 2009
Mom calls to get our seat assignments and airline informs her that our flight had been canceled. They {graciously} bumped us onto the Christmas Day flight. We informed them that we could absolutely not leave on Christmas Day. They {finally} added us onto another airline's flight leaving the day after Christmas...like originally planned.  

December 26, 2009

{times are all in Indianapolis time...}

3:15 am - Our alarm goes off to get ready...get out of bed at 3:30! :)
4:15 am - Mom and dad pick us up.
5:30 am - Having difficulty checking in. {Julia's reservation was for some reason with my name....important information for later on...little did we know!}
6:00 am - Kurt and Andy stand in line forever waiting to talk to the gate agent about getting seat assignments...kinda hard to fly with a 3 year old when we're scattered around the plane. {Another flight had been canceled, so those people took forever in line.} They never talked to the lady.
6:30 am - Our flight was scheduled to leave. We continued to sit in the airport... {Maintenance}
7:30 am - Sitting on our plane waiting to leave. {1 hour late}
*Note -- we had an hour layover in Denver to make our flight to Cabo*
7:45 am - They come back on saying there is another maintenance issue with the air conditioning.
8:45 am - We are told we have to switch airplanes....still in Indianapolis!
9:30 am - On our 2nd plane of the day, waiting to get deiced.
9:45 am - FINALLY leave Indy.

10:30 am - Our flight leaves for Cabo...without us :(

11:30 am - I'm looking out the window noticing we continue to turn to the right a lot...
12:00 pm - Pilot announces that we've been circling because of a snow storm and we'll continue to circle until given the okay.
12:45 pm - Land in Denver.

1:00 pm - Find customer service line in airport. Dad begins waiting with the hundreds of other people. Everyone else tries to find a place to eat.
2:00 pm - Done eating lunch at Paradise Cafe. Find dad who has just gotten to the beginning of the line.
3:00 pm - Manager of customer service has looked all over the country trying to find us a way to get to Phoenix. {There were no more flights to Cabo that day. We HAD to get to Phoenix by 9am the next morning to make the flight. All the flights from Denver to Phoenix were overbooked that day. If we didn't get to Phoenix by the morning, we were told that we wouldn't get to Cabo until Tuesday...it was SATURDAY!} She came up with a plan!!!!!! This is what she told us... "There is a flight leaving from here in 30 minutes to Fresno, California. You'll have an hour layover in Fresno and then you'll get on another plane to get to Phoenix. We're going to send your bags to Phoenix tonight. You'll stay the night in Phoenix and catch the first flight out to Cabo."
3:05 pm - In disbelief of how ridiculous this day was. Rushing to our gate to make the next flight.
3:10 pm - Find out that our flight to Fresno is delayed because the plane is late from Aspen. Praying with all our might that it would hurry up so we could make it to Fresno in time....


{While waiting, we had to take our minds off of the stress. Watching the airport people clear off the runways...how exciting!}


{Wearing sunglasses in the airport because it was SO sunny and warm inside. We're making our 'I can't f*ing believe this is happening right now' face!}

5:00 pm - Finally leave Denver praying that they will fly the plane EXTRA quick!
6:45 pm - Land in Fresno. Look around while pulling into the terminal to see NOT ONE plane sitting by a gate.
7:00 pm - Run to our gate to find out that it left.....

7:30 pm - Begin talking to the gate agent about what the hell we are going to do. We just wanted to make it to Phoenix that night. After standing there talking for 1 1/2 hours this is what we found out...

-There was no possible way to get all 7 of us to Phoenix that night.
-The first flight to Phoenix was at 6:30 am the next morning. Here's the kicker....there were only 6 seats on the flight!!!!
-Kurt and I offer to figure out a way to fly that night to Phoenix so that everyone can get on the morning flight.
-Man begins checking to see what we would have to do to get to Phoenix.
-B**** lady on the phone tells us that they would not allow for me to fly with Kurt because Julia and I were together on a reservation. They wouldn't split up our reservation and if they did, Julia would loose all of her seats for the remainder of the trip {including home flights}!
-Kurt offers to fly by himself to Phoenix...which meant he would fly from Fresno to Vegas THEN from Vegas to Phoenix....that NIGHT. {Kurt ended up being in 5 airports and 5 states in ONE DAY!}
-Man gets Kurt's tickets and then works on getting all our tickets for the next morning. THANK GOD we were already on the Phoenix flight in the morning....we just needed to make it there!!!
-Man tells us we need to come back to the airport at 5am the next morning.

9:00 pm - We sit down at the {one} airport restaurant to eat dinner. Kurt continues to complain about his stomach acting up....he can't eat a thing.
9:45 pm - Say goodbye to Kurt in the Fresno airport.


{Julia started crying when Kurt left. We were making our 'sad faces'.}

10:00 pm - Call hotel shuttle.
10:15 pm - Get free 'cosmetics' and hotel rooms. Find our rooms. Can't shut my hotel room door. When I figure out how to shut it, I can't get out...ugh!
10:30 pm - Lights out. Waiting for Kurt to call.

{Going back...} 10:00 pm - Kurt's plane starts to leave for Vegas. He throws up in the plane bathroom and tells the flight attendant that he's not going to be able to stay on the plane. They make him talk to the captain and drive back to the gate. He calms down and decides that he's going to stay on the plane....if he got off, he probably wouldn't have gotten to Cabo till Tuesday...! He pukes the entire flight and they make him wear a mask. {poor guy!}

12:30 am - Kurt calls from the Vegas airport. Says he feels like crap. Looks for a gatorade and waits for his next flight. I remind him of all the things he has to do when he gets to Phoenix and go back to bed.
2:00 am - Kurt calls from Phoenix. He checks in for the morning flight, gets his hotel voucher, and talks to the baggage person about where our bags are. He calls the hotel shuttle.
2:15 am - Hotel shuttle not there. Kurt calls back. They ask him to take a cab because they were having an emergency.
2:30 am - Kurt gets to the hotel and gets reimbursed for the cab fare. He was told about the drunk lady who stumbled through the lobby/hit her head and cause the emergency....
2:45 am - Kurt is still sick and tries to lay down to get some sleep.

8:00 am - Arrive at the Fresno airport. Wait in a VERY long line {when we were told NO ONE would be there!}
8:30 am - Lady tells us that Quinn {sister-in-law} was in fact NOT on this flight and that she is THIRD in line on standby. {Even though they printed off our tickets the night before that we were on this flight}
8:45 am - Start freaking out. I go stand in the security line. We didn't know if everyone would get on the flight...even if we did, we didn't think we'd make it through security in time.
8:50 am - I scan the security line for some saints!
8:55 am - Ask two incredibly nice ladies if my family could cut in line so we could try and get on the flight.
9:10 am -Run to the gate and begin asking people if we can pay for their ticket so they would switch. Some people offered, but they decided not to when they heard they couldn't get out of Fresno until at best the next day.
9:15 am - Told that if we have a ticket we had to get on the plane or they'd give away our tickets. Dad decided to stay so Quinn could go. {They gave Quinn a 'ticket' to get through security but not to get on the flight.}
9:20 am - After ALLLL the drama, they close the door and allow all 7 of us on the plane.
*My dad was able to get on because other people didn't make it through security in time...

9:30 am - Plane leaves Fresno a little late. I'm shaking in my seat because we had only 45 minutes in Phoenix to make the Cabo flight.

11:00 am - Plane lands in Phoenix. We run to our next gate, where Kurt and Patrick were waiting. {Patrick was supposed to come a day later than we were. We ended up being on his flight!}
11:15 am - Having not eaten a bite of anything that day, we buckled our seat belts on the final flight.

1:00 pm - Land in sunny Cabo!!
1:45 pm - Absolutely cannot believe that ALL our bags made it safely to Cabo!
3:00 pm - Get to our hotel and begin the checking in process.
3:30 pm - Begin drinking {!!!}

Can you believe it?!?!?!? It still stresses me out....and kinda puts me in a bad mood...ha!

You would think that after that the vacation was a-okay? Nope, the first day we were there {a whole day late} it absolutely POURED more than you can imagine. Oh well...we took great naps that day! :)

I'll be sure to share some good parts of the trip tomorrow!

Sunday, January 10

resolutions

Typically I don't make New Year's Resolutions, but 2010 is different. Kurt and I have decided to spend more time together...without distractions. During the week it can be challenging for us to find time to spend together. Most days after school I work out and don't get home until after 7. Kurt works many evenings, but his schedule is different each week. The nights that we are both home to spend time with each other, we {a lot of the time} throw together dinners, eat in front of the tv, read our emails, etc. Last week was a great way to start off the year. We spent four nights together...we made dinner and ate at the table together!

Most of the time I blog in the evening. But, I'm not willing to blog on evenings when we're spending time together. I'm going to try and balance everything out, but most likely I'll be posting less than I have been.

Hopefully, I'll be back tomorrow to {finally} share with you our Mexico pictures and later on in the week share our updates we made this weekend. Today was a crazy busy day and we've already made plans for some more things next weekend. Hope you had a great weekend!!

Monday, January 4

new tv

A friend at work gave me some great news today....a bunch of shows are starting back up this week and next!!! I'm a sucker for reality tv. So, tonight instead of sharing some Cabo pictures, I'm going to have to take a night off and watch The Bachelor....loser, I know! :) Anyone have any other shows that start soon that I should watch???

Sunday, January 3

Back...Sorta

I can't believe that my Winter Break ends today...this year break didn't seem long at all!!! Christmas always comes and goes too quickly, and this year was no exception. We were lucky to be able to spend so much time with both our families.



We did have a nice {but crazy & short...story to come later} vacation. Hopefully next year we can both take a little more time off and stay for longer.....



But for now....I'm off to relax in my last couple hours of break. Tomorrow at 5:45 am means back to reality and begins the longest part of the school year.