Happy Happy Birthday!

January was a big month for birthdays in our family, and today was the most important one....
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TUCKERS!























Thats right, folks, our sweet wittle boy is 3 years old today!



















Don't you roll your eyes at me young man!

To celebrate he got a REAL FOOD dinner, his favorite!
Rice, peas, carrots, and chicken- all mixed up with an egg cracked on top and mixed in. YUM!



















Yeah, NOW I got your attention...



































I think he likes it... Notice the use of a drop cloth... he's a messy eater...

And for dessert... Doggie Ice Cream!


















I believe it was a good day for him...

It was a big week for Tuck for another reason too... He is now FINALLY allowed to sleep outside of his crate! I know, some may think that 3 years is a little long to wait, but when you have a husband who sleeps as lightly as mine does, a hyperactive puppy just doesnt mix.

He's been SO good. He's only woken us up at 3am ONCE, but I think it's because he didnt eat his dinner that night... his choice, not ours...


















Awwwww... Who wouldnt want to wake up to that face in the mornings???

Refurbed

He everyone! It's been a while, so this'll be a long one... I've been busy lately trying to juggle more projects than I probably should, but I thought you'd like to see some of the results.

When we moved into our new house, we went from a one living area household to a two living area house hold. That means that instead of JUST having a living room, we now have a living room AND a den. Now, since we're not in the financial situation to be able to buy all new furniture for every room... we've had to get creative.

First off- Garage sale chic-

I found these two matching chairs at a garage sale a few months back- lovely, eh? and only 10 bucks a pop! Ben said that they reminded him of the chairs in our bishops office at church... but I was not fooled, these could be nice chairs with a little face lift...



































I think that Tucker has gotten the idea that any time I break out the camera it is for him... so, here he is trying to squeeze into the frame...



































Here is the fabric that I picked out. It was fished out of the "designer remnant" pile at my local fabric store and only cost me 12 bucks!


































So, after staining the wood a little darker, and the reupholstering... Voila! Here is the final product!



































Two chairs for about 32 dollars, not to shabby!



































Next up- A couch. I was lucky enough to find a friend at church who was giving away her old couch. A couch that had been in her family for some 40 years and earned the nickname "Ol' Beige"

































I know, right?!?!? WHO would GIVE AWAY this ol' gem???

And just to prove my point about tucker...

































Looking for a spot... and...

































Strike a pose!

Here is the fabric I picked out. On sale- but I needed so much that I ended up costing about 40 bucks.
































One dedicated Saturday, an Artemis Fowl audiobook, and a WHOLE lot of staples later and- here she is!
































Ain't she a beauty! We've since replaced old rollers with wooden legs to match the two chairs and are a little bit taller than the originals... They look pretty snazzy.


And last but not least- Ben's old Armoire-



































I believe this piece is at LEAST 10 years old. It has served him (and us) well, but it was about time for an updating! New hardware and a fresh coat of black paint and you have-

































Ta Da!!!

We can't decide whether to put the doors back on with new hardware or whether to leave it open up top and add in some shelves... any opinions???

and here's a better look at the hardware-

































More pics can be found HERE!

END.

I Love Kristin Wiig

Wow, I'm really going post crazy...

This really cracks me up



I wouldn't want to touch the tooth either.

A Must for all HP Fans...

Raven-Kelly

HP Dress Up


Have fun!

New Kitchen Gadget

So.... I bake wedding cakes and make fancy dinners (sometimes) and watch Food Network ALL the time, but I have one serious culinary flaw... I can NOT boil and egg to save my life.

I know. It's one of the easiest kitchen tasks, but for some reason I just can't let those little eggies sit in the water long enough to get properly cooked. And if I DO try to go against my instinct, I will let them sit there entirely too long and they will majorly over cook.

So... Enter my newest gadget:



























Purchased at William Sonoma for 6 bucks while I was visiting up in Idaho.



























So, the idea is that you put the egg sized and shaped timer directly in the water with the eggs, and the color will change as the timer heats up, letting you know precisely when the eggs are cooked to your desired doneness.

I decided to test it out this last saturday and kinda screwed up royally (see previous blog post for full story...), so I did a second test last night.



















My timer sitting in the water with 3 eggs to test the three settings.



















Here's a pic from Saturday when those eggs were at medium


And the final results?




















Soft, Medium, and Hard cooked eggs. Not bad!

And all Ben could say was, "It smells like farts in here."

S.O.S.

This post is to explain a serious disorder of which I suffer from. It's called Shiny Object Syndrome. To illustrate the devastating effects of this disorder, let me tell you about the last 60 minutes of my life.

The Plan:

Super speed clean so that the house is beautiful and welcoming when Ben gets home from teaching his class at UTA.

The Reality: (timing is approximate)

60 minutes ago- Start cleaning the kitchen. Get distracted when I open the fridge door, see the carton of eggs, and remember the super nifty new kitchen gadget that I got while visiting Idaho (shiny object #1). Start the eggs boiling and go back to cleaning kitchen.

50 minutes ago- As soon as the water starts boiling I notice the new gadget working its magic and think of what a great blog entry that new gadget would make (blog= S.O. #2). Go grab the camera, which happens to be out of battery power. Start the hunt for new batteries (S.O. #3)

45 minutes ago- Camera is ready to go, start snapping pictures of my gadget at work, which reminds me that I have a few other projects going on in the house that need to have "before" pictures taken.

40 minutes ago- Gather these items for their photo shoot and start snapping away (S.O. #4). Tucker decides that he would like to be the subject of these photos, and he is just too darn cute to disagree with. Thus begins a full fledged Tucker photo shoot (S.O. #5)

30 minutes ago- Come back to the kitchen to finish doing dishes and realize that I've forgotten about my new gadget and let it work its magic just a smidge too long, pull my eggs out of the water, start running them under cold water, and wonder if the blog post is now ruined.

20 minutes ago- Doorbell rings- two kids from the neighborhood are fund raising for some summer camp (this does not count as a Shiny object since it didnt really catch my interest, just ate up some time)

15 minutes ago- Decide that I really need to crack down if I'm going to get this house clean, and head back to the kitchen. By this time the eggs are cooled so i decide to peel one to see how badly I screwed up. Turns out, its a little over done, but not too far gone- just as the new gadget had predicted... so the blog post is NOT ruined!

10 minutes ago- If i'm going to clean this kitchen, i'll need something entertaining to watch while i'm doing it. I remember the movie that I've got on the DVR that I was watching last night. (S.O. #6) Cue the movie to the right spot. Turn back to the dishes and realize that, 50 minutes later, there is actually a BIGGER mess in the kitchen than there had been before, realize it is all due to my S.O.S. and realize that THAT could make a really good blog entry...

Brag Post

Just a quick post to brag on my big sis.

I got the opportunity to visit Idaho this last weekend where my sister is a high school band director. They had their District band competition on Saturday and her band ROCKED the Smurf Turf of Bronco Stadium! They swept their 4A division and took 4th place overall- beating all but 3 of the 5A schools.

While it was fun to see her band perform, but even funner to see my big sis as a FOR REAL band director. This was my first time seeing her with her little band-nerd kids, and it was pretty amusing to watch her yell directions into her megaphone and then see the kiddos fall in line.

Congrats to Josie and the Skyview Marching Band!

















You can click here to read a more detailed post from my sis.