Oakley Loves the Holdiays too!

I just love the holidays, it makes me so sad that they are just about over. I always think taking down the Christmas tree is the saddest day of the year. But it was a good Christmas, Oakley thought so too! Here he is showing off his present, he looooves it.

Oakley also loves the snow! Mostly rolling around in it and eating it, but he is just so cute, I don't even care how silly he is.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Belated Halloween Treats!

I know I know, I haven't posted in FOREVER!!! I have been extremely busy with schoolwork (yay for my last year of graduate school!) and have therefore been spending all of my free time being extremely lazy/baking/reading. Well deserved. Anyway, I have been feeling awful all day (I would get sick right before the two busiest weeks of the semester *angry face*) so needless to say I do not feel like doing homework. I figured that if I wasn't doing homework I should still do something to feel productive, so I am posting to my greatly deglected blog. Don't get too excited.

I'm way late, but here is a fun treat I made for Halloween. They were a great hit!

Pure Joy

I am just giddy over what I got today....

A Library Card!!!! I got this one with a cute little fish on it, along with a book I am about to settle in with for the night. Just the thought of this has brought me happiness all day. Goodnight.

AAAHHHHH!

I'm tired. Why? Because I just ran two miles. Yep. I don't care that in the grand scheme of things that isn't really a long distance, it is a big deal to me. Two miles, straight, without stopping, even though I really, really wanted to. It's the longest I've ever run before in my entire life. I pretty much hated every minute of it, but I am nonetheless very proud of myself now (hence the post) and I will definitely be doing it again.

On other news, Chris left last Wednesday for wildland firefighting duty and he was called out to a fire Thursday and Friday so I didn't get to talk to him on our anniversary. He came home last night and I've got to say, the absence thing so far is a good thing. He has been so crazy lovey since he got back. We celebrated our anniversary tonight with a date and saw Inception (good, but confounding). Tomorrow we are planning a hike and then have a birthday party in the evening, then he leaves again on Wednesday :( Missing a picture? Oh ok. Here are a couple pics of the babes doing what they do.

on my husband

Well, today is the anniversary of our first year of marriage, and what am I doing? I'm sitting here at home just relaxing with a sleeping puppy. Chris is out of town on fire duty and I'm expecting to be alone for the next several days. I am sad we won't be spending the day together, but I am looking forward to some down time to read a book and work on some paintings I'm doing. Absence is good, you know what they say about fondess and such.

Anyway, I just wanted to reflect on some of the things I love about him:

1. the way he takes care of me when I'm sick

2. how much he loves our furry babies

3. that he is really good at cleaning

4. I never have to fight him over chocolate

5. he says he not a snuggler, be he totally is

I'll leave it at that.

Happy Anniversary Baby!

the table is done!

As you might know, I hate my kitchen table. It has been hand-me-downed for several years, and no offense to any of the previous owners, but I really loathe it. I am very into interior design, and let's just say, it is not my style. It has killed me that through all of my efforts to make our little apartment lovely, I still have to deal with this knotty pine, country table. I told Chris I would be requiring a new table by the time we buy a house. Chris, ever resourceful and having extra time on his hands, offered to refinish the table in order to squeeze a few more years of use out of it. Well, it took a while and it was a lot of work, but it is finally done!!!

here is the before...not working

in progress

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need to see it again?
before

and after
chair before


and after

Special thanks to my wonderful husband for working so hard on it for me, it is definitely invited to stay with us a bit longer...

Here I Go Again

Let's just say that over the past few years, like many people, I have gained a little weight. Particularly since the wedding I had let myself go, so on January first I began my new exercise and healthier eating regime. I was doing well, going to the gym about five times a week and keeping track of what I ate in a food journal (which I highly recommend - I certainly did not restrict myself from eating things I love, but it kept me accountable for how much I ate). By March I had lost about ten pounds, but then April and May came with tons of homework and stress. Going to the gym totally went out the window and I gained about five pounds back. So I decided to really start it again, June first, with rejuvinated motivation - afterall, it is bikini season.

So here is my news, the reason for this post, something I am very proud of. It may not be a very big deal to most people, but today I ran a mile without stopping. Let's get it straight, I am NOT a runner. I hate running. This is a big milestone for me. Throughout all the years of school when we ran the mile, I never once ran the whole thing without walking at least part of it. I went into the gym, went to the treadmill, set it at a decent pace and told myself I was going to run (let's be more accurate - jog) the whole thing, and I did. Like I said, it doesn't sound like much, but hopefully it will lead to more miles in the future. Here's to getting back in shape!

hello birdy

The other day I ran to Office Max (for pushpins!) and noticed the sign had a little guest. A bird's nest in the 'e'. There was also one in the 'a' but I didn't get a picture of that one. Can you see the little birdy? Adorable!

Skittle Vodka?!

A few weeks ago on a Friday night Chris and I were bored and none of our friends were up for hanging out, so the plan was to get together on Saturday. What should we do in the meantime? Apparently Chris decided we were going to make Skittle Vodka for the following night. We hadn't done it before and thought it might be fun for an evening activity together. Well, it was quite a bit of fun, especially eating the extra skittles!

the stuff
sorting the skittles by color/flavor

filling the bottles (after we emptied them, I insisted we drink the water rather than waste it...that wasn't so fun) with the vodka as evenly as possible. I say we did a remarkably great job.

Then we filled them with the respective skittles, shook them up, and put them in the freezer over night until the skittles had all dissolved and the flavor infused. Then just strain the remaining white stuff and it is ready. They turned out fantastic, I've got to say the boys enjoyed it the most, seeing as how they drank all of the vodka in about two nights. They preferred it in shot form, but Leah and I enjoyed our drinks (the only one we got) mixed with some Sprite.

Day with my mom

Last Saturday I had a wonderful day, just me and my mom. First, I went over and we made strawberry jam! My favorite. I feel sorry for those who only grew up on store-bought jam. It is just not even close to the amount of fabulousness as homemade. My husband is also now hooked on this jam, so it was neccessary to make more for next year.

the stuff
the process

the haul

This is just about enough to get Chris and me through the winter. Next, we went to see The Parade of Homes! One of my absoulte favorite things to do, tour beautiful houses. Hello, dream come true. We go every year and I look forward to it every year as the school year comes to a close. Then we ended with the traditional after-parade-of-homes-ice cream. It is always so warm ice cream in needed. Usually this is in the form of a blizzard, as it was in this case. We were also quite famished, so we also split a chicken strip basket (another one of my favorites). So all in all, a great day filled with things (and people) I love.

Paisley is 1!

This weekend we went to little Paisley's first birthday party! She is our littlest cousin and she is very sweet.
She wasn't quite sure what to do with the cupcake at first.
With a little help, she figured it out. But she decided she doesn't really like chocolate cake because only one or two bites made it in her mouth. It was apparently more fun to smear it all over her face.
Then she was done.

Paisley, we have been told, will be the last of the cousins to be born and therefore....we will be the next to have a baby since we are the oldest cousins/grandchildren however you look at it. Erin (Paisley's mom and Chris's aunt) told me that I will inherit a plethora of baby goods from her, I'm eyeing that portable highchair in a very cute shade of green (perfect for a boy or girl). BUT don't get too excited, this is not an announcement. We will not be having a baby for a few more years. I am excited for that stage of my life, but for now I am going to enjoy this one spending time just the two of us (and, of course, our two furry children). Speaking of which, here is a picture of my babies not bugging eachother (very rare).

a night out and some new friends

So Friday night we had to go see Ironman 2. We went with our bestest friends Leah and Chris (pretty much our only married couple friends) and Josh and Doug. Leah also invited a couple of new friends, Phil and Emily...am I sensing a new pair of married friends?! The answer to that is a firm YES. You never know if you'll have the right kind of chemistry with new people to be able to say you will be fast friends, but I think we all hit it off. We went to The Cheesecake Factory beforehand, here is Phil trying to consume his fish taco without losing all of the contents.

SUCCESS! oh ya, and Ironman 2 was pretty good too.

what made me happiest today

I have been super stresssed out the last couple weeks with the end of school approaching. I have been up until about 4 am everday for the past five days working on my final project. Today I was working at school and came back home for dinner and surprise! My husband cleaned the kitchen and the bathroom! It was such a relief to come home to a clean house. So thank you to my wonderful husband, I am blessed to have someone so thoughtful in my life. Now back to school...

I LOVE TARGET!

So, school is over in three weeks, and in that time I have two projects and a paper do finish. HOLD IT. Let me clarify, I have one project to finish and a project and paper to START! Needless to say, I am a little stressed.

Tonight I did not really have homework to do, so I decided to take the night and relax. My idea of relaxing...going to TARGET! I could peruse around target for hours and not get bored. I went there just to browse, not to buy. BUT then I saw these...

Now at first I thought, eh. But then I put them on, and oh my goodness, so freakin cute. Can't even describe how cute. But I try to be practical; they clearly are limited to the number of outfits they will coordinate with, therefore I would not purchase them. I put them back and walked away. I had gotten a few aisles down and I just couldn't stop thinking about these adorable shoes. PLUS they were on sale, PLUS there was only one pair left in my size, PLUS I loved them. All these things equal me scurrying back and promptly getting the pair of shoes. And I don't regret it. Look how cute!

Oakley's Surgery

Ok, so I'm pretty bad at this blogging regularly thing. I like to attest that it is because I don't have anything to blog about, but that isn't really true since I could blog about not having anything to blog about if I was so inclined. I digress. I do actually have something to blog about. Oakley had to have surgery! Well, not really, it was just a procedure to let out an infected abscess in his foot - but he did have to be put under. Oh ya, and turns out he had double ear infections. Crap. Sorry bud.