Do you Black Friday?

Did you wake up at midnight to get Lego Rock Band at Old Navy? Or beat down the doors at Best Buy for the newest Game System? I have to be honest and say for the first year ever, I was actually really tempted to. We sat down last night and went through all the flyers just for some ideas for some people and there really were some great ideas but....midnight came and my bed just seemed more comfortable. Some year I want to do it though. I want to experience the thrill of the hunt and hopefully the thrill of the money saved.

Men have their first day of Buck Season...women have Black Friday.

Men go out and claim their spot with a tree stand, they track deer to see where the best area is.
Women collect flyers and lay out their game plan on where the best deal is and lay out their plan to make sure they're efficient as possible.

Men clean their guns and make sure they have enough bullets.
Women call their credit card companies to make sure they have enough credit.

Men get up bright and early before the sun rises so they can get into position.
Women barely wait for the sun to go down so they can get in line.

Men see their first buck,line it up and wait for it to come closer, and then fire! and it's the only sound in the woods.
Women see their first sale.....then run full speed, pocketbook waving behind them, knocking over innocent bystanders on their way and grab their prize victoriously...possibly from someone else's hands and it's far from the only sound.

Oh, I love the holidays!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow is one of my all-time favorite holidays!! Why? Because I love that all that's required are hugs and maybe a covered dish. I love how my grandma's house smells filled with turkey. I love how people will sit at the table much longer to hang out and catch up. I love that turkey is good all year round but for some reason, it tastes much better on Thanksgiving. DH and I normally run around like mad people on holidays and honestly don't usually have a good time. We have alot of family and try to go around to as many places as possible which means we really don't get much time to relax. But this year...all the planets are alined and it looks like we're getting a nice calm holiday. Lunch at Dh's grandmothers and dinner at my grandmother's. BRING ON THE STUFFING!!!

What is your favorite thanksgiving food? Mine is my grandmother's yellow gravy..yellow? Yes, yellow. My grandmother makes THE BEST turkey gravy. It has the liver in it and it is soo good and it's yellow. When I was little, I thought only the good gravy was yellow...I found out later in life that this was because her mother in law always made yellow food coloring to make the meal a little prettier. They added yellow food coloring to make it a little more yellow. Only my family would artificially color their thanksgiving food, hehe! Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Thank you Teachers!

Yesterday I went to Special Persons day at my nieces and nephews school. I was very honored to be a part of this for them. I made the trip down with DH's mom since she was also a special person. We got to see a great little presentation they did and we got to go to their classrooms for a bit and see what they've been up to and watch them learn a lesson. I have a nephew in kindergarten, a niece in second grade, and a niece in fourth grade.

We went to kindergarten first. Kindergarten teachers, I salute you and you now have my utmost respect. And Mrs. Snare(was that my kindergarten teacher???? ) , I'm so sorry for any pain or annoyance I caused you because boy do you have a rough job. These teachers are the ones who teach us the basics that we don't even have to think about as adults...like the weather, the time, the date, our body parts and they do it all while trying to keep the attention of kids that don't have a longer attention spans than gnats...but she was doing it. I watched her in awe and thought how lucky my nephew was to have someone who cared so much about his future as she did. Yes, of course, that's her job but you could tell she took it personal (or she knew she was being watched by all of the visitors which I don't think is the case because my nephews parents rave about her). My nephew will always remember her and what a cool thing!! My little nephew was in charge of the weather yesterday so he got up and told everyone what the weather was doing outside (we were informed it was cloudy but that "well, it could rain later" but he wasn't sure) and then stuck up the little cloudy symbol on their daily board. Yes, of course, I was there snapping pics..(don't worry, I didn't have the flash on).

Then we moved onto second grade. My niece was already in full crazy mode. This niece is our wild child. Their class was reading stories showing off their new reading skills. Another amazing thing. Every day we read, we don't even remember that one day this wasn't such an easy task for us. But we had great teachers who were patient and worked with us and our parents to teach us how to read! My niece loves her teacher who really was great and informed me that she had heard all about me. It was so great to see how much these teachers inspired their kids. I got to see a couple of her projects that she had done and she had a special presentation that she wrote about me and her Nana that made Nana cry and Aunt Heidi well up.

Then we moved on to fourth grade to see my oldest niece. Mags is my mini me! Her class was doing interviews with their special people to learn what they liked and what their dreams were when they was their age and how they've changed. So, I had to admit to her that I was once a big fan of New Kids on the Block which the teacher agreed that she was once a fan also. And I also was asked to give her advice in life. I had several but I thought of the best piece of advice I could give her at her age. My advice on boys and being a teenager will come later. I told her to follow her dreams not matter how many people say she won't be able to do it or how hard it may be. Cheesy advice yes but I don't think enough people follow that advice. Then we got to watch them have a math lesson and then left her to complete her math test.

I was so honored to be a part of Special Persons day but more I was so happy I got to see what my nieces and nephew are up to when they go to school. Now when they talk about their teachers (which they do..alot), I'll have faces to go with the names.

So, if you're a teacher, you have my utmost respect and thank you for what you do. Thank you for being so inspiring to your students and loving what you do. Thank you for teaching our kids to read and write and to love learning. Thank you for being so important to your kids that they love coming in to see you and learning with you. Thank you.

Bathroom Redo

FINALLY! It's all done! As of tonight, after DH swore and cursed out the drills and the walls, it's all done! There's a closet off to the side that I have plans for so I didn't include any pictures of that yet!

DH and I registered for white towels when we got married. We hated our bathroom in our townhouse and knew we wouldn't be there long and figured white matches anything. I am so glad we picked white now.

Before: The people who owned our house before us had a thing for borders, they're E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E! And they don't even have to match the paint in that room. And I'm not a big fan of the sea foam green color that's going on. And I hated the toilet paper holder, It's just a little wood thing. So, first thing's first, Lil Sis and I took a trip to Home Depot for one of their interior paint workshops. If you're ever unsure about a project, check out Home Depot and see if they have any workshops because the lady who did our workshop was such great help and offered me advice that I would NEVER have thought of!

I came home that day with a couple paint samples to see if I'd like it. I hear horror stories of borders and it really wasn't bad. I had heard that the wallpaper remover you buy in stores isn't really necessary if you have a spray bottle and fabric softener. Mix equal parts hot water and fabric softener and guess what, works perfect...although I did learn to peel off the vinyl part of the wallpaper first because it's what's underneath that's a little tougher. But spray and wait a couple minutes and go at it with a metal spatula! My next piece of advice....splurge and buy the tape to tape off. You may think you have a steady hand but you're already spending the money on good paint, you owe it to yourself to really take your time and do it right...unless you have the steadiness and precision of a surgeon..if so, please ignore such advice.A couple valuable things I learned from this project.

1. Talk to the staff where you're getting your paint. Ask questions, that's what they're there for. They'll help you figure out how much paint you need because if you buy a can of paint and realize you didn't get enough, it's going to be near impossible to get EXACTLY the same shade.

1. Do NOT wear a nice jersey while painting...this will surely cause an argument between you and DH...for me, DH didn't know I wore the jersey until he saw the pics...whoops. PS: it really wasn't an argument, it was a arched eye brow.

2. Do NOT wear your wedding rings while painting...I didn't do this and thank God because my hands were covered in grey and white paint.

3. TAKE YOUR TIME! like the earlier advice. YOu spent good money on paint, you owe it to yourself for it to look great!

4. Buy a bunch of those little sponge painters you can grab at any craft store for like 39 cents. They are awesome for little touchups and that straight edge is perfect!

5. Don't rely on your samples for touchups. Because of part of rule 1, the colors may not match perfectly.

6. Have fun with it!

After:

Our colors were riverrock up top in Behr Paint and Primer and brushed denim in Behr Paint and Primer and then just white for the trim. I'm posting this from another computer but when I get home I'll post the finishes and all that.

New switch plate covers in brushed nickel from Home DepotReplaced that ugly wood contraption with this holder from Home Depot Pegasus CollectionAdded a towel ring from Home Depot for hand towels.

And behind my toilet on the blank wall, I hung a framed picture that I got off a street vendor in New York City, a white pillar candle from when DH proposed to me on a nickel pillar holder and a ledge shelf from Home Depot.

Some changes

Hi! Yes, it's been awhile since I actually posted anything of value on here. I've been busy and distracted and quite honestly mostly lazy. So, I'll start at the most distracting part.

DH and I have decided to go back on birth control. So, it'll be awhile before there's any baby news. My body is STILL not back to normal and honestly, thinking about it every month is exhausting and I need a break so no more temping, charting, worrying, pregnancy tests or anything. My OB thinks my hormones just need reset so a few months of hormones should be just the trick. So, we're back on birth control and hopefully back to a little sanity.

My blog is going to be getting redone...I'm not happy with the layout or the theme so if you come on here and it's a complete disaster, it's under construction, hehe!

Oh my house...making your house yours is not a weekend activity. It's taken me what feels like forever just to finish my freaking bathroom and that's not done yet! But hopefully by tonight, the painting will be done...hopefully.. Also, I'm cursing the man who created my bathroom, there was so many ackward nooks and crannys..grrr!!!!

Am I going private? I really thought about this, had it all ready to go private...but I changed my mind...I'm an open book. If someone really wants to use something they read on here about me against me, go ahead but remember that what goes around eventually will come back around. Plus coming up, I'll mainly be posting about my house anyways.

Lastly the laziness...alot has gone on though and I have SOOOO many pics and evevnts to post about and just haven't gotten around to getting them all up..maybe I'll work on that tonight! If you read my food blog, I have a ton of recipes that are all set to post as soon as I throw pics in them!

PS: today is not heading in a good directions...I put leave in conditioner in my hair this morning and now i feel like my hair is so freaking oily..grrr...as I was putting on my make up, I discovered I had grey paint on my forearm that I missed in the shower...grr...as I continued putting on my make up, I got foundation in my hair?!?!??! Oh, I so should have crawled back into bed... How's your day going so far?

The countdown to the countdown

of Christmas?!??! Are you kidding me? Am I the only one that thinks Christmas is being a little rushed this year?
I turned on the TV the other night and ABC Family is doing the Countdown to the 25 days of Christmas...really? Is this necessary...isn't the countdown to Christmas quite sufficient?
And then I go into the mall to pick up my new curtains for my dining room (wait till you see them) and there's Christmas music playing everywhere and it looks like Jack Frost and all of Santa's elves threw up tinsel and ornaments everywhere! I will admit that I did buy christmas ball ornaments for a craft project I'm doing...I know I'm supporting the enemy.
Whatever happened to looking forward to Thanksgiving or is Thanksgiving just more of an annoying layover until Christmas...we need Thanksgiving so we can have Black Friday... I'm all for Christmas, don't get me wrong. I can not wait to decorate my house this year ( I have so much more wall space and "so much more room for activities"...name that movie! ) but I didn't know I had to tear down my Halloween decorations and immediately throw up the garland and wreaths! So, here's my question today,...be honest...have you bought anything Christmas related yet? Gifts don't count, I'll all for people being ahead of their Christmas shopping and not rushing around at the last second like me...the more people ahead of their gift shopping, the fewer people in front of me at Best Buy, Macy's, and any toy store. So...have you?

I bought Christmas Balls...oh, and I ordered Christmas Wreaths..does that count?

DIY to do list! First Up!

We've lived in the house for about a month now and it's time to get busy! There are still boxes in rooms and it's driving me absolutely crazy!!!! I'm not a crazy neat person but I also can't stand piles of stuff just sitting around! DH's office/computer room is one such room. It has the computer unpacked and the DVD's put away and the rest of it is filled with boxes...UGH!

However a more pressing and annoying issue is the bathroom. The bathroom is half painted...you read that right half painted. One weekend, I got busy and taped it all off and painted the upper half and now it looks awful because the two colors do not compliment each other in any way shape or form so it's time to get moving on some things. So, here we go and I promise to show befores and afters...because well, that's my favorite things to ready in blogs!

First up!
Bathroom!

• Tape off bottom half
• Paint bottom part
• Paint interior of bathroom closet
• Paint Trim
• Install Toilet Roll Holder and Towel Ring
• Hang Pictures and Shelves
• Install Lighting in Bathroom Closet
• Refinish Lighting Fixtures