A Day without Water

Sorry for the lack of posting...we have been consumed with this lovely project.

Do you see that box that is to the left of the little tree? That is the lovely water softener that the previous owners put in the house. Not only does it not WORK, but it makes everything uneven when landscaping. So, my plan was to simply take that box out and re-do the flower beds. Yes. Simply.

Here is an up close view. The two pipes on the right side are what we needed to cut to make it one long pipe. We needed to somehow connect the main from the city to the main to the house. Well, this requires turning off all water and make a great attempt at plumbing it ourselves. And by ourselves I mean Justin. I don't have a clue.

Here is Justin working so hard. He worked from 1 pm until 9:45 pm straight!! Three Home Depot trips later, we still were unable to solder the pipes together. After having a romantic dinner of Braum's in the garage (we were covered with dirt and not about to go inside like that!!) and working by spotlight, we finally gave up for the night. Since we had no water, we dropped in on my parents who graciously let us use their shower and water. Luckily, we were able to have a plumber come out today and it is fixed!!! We now have water again - it's amazing how much we take it for granted. But that stupid box is still in the ground. I think it is about 9 feet deep. Good grief. This project might take a little longer than I hoped!

A sprinkle of good times

Justin and I at the Hoover Dam. This is one of my new favorite pictures of us!

The ceiling in the Bellagio.

The best burgers ever!

Paris hotel.

Justin golfing with Tiger Woods.

My new best friend Cameron Diaz.

Justin and I in front of the Venetian.

The Paris hotel - my favorite!

The view outside our window.

Our living room in the Encore. We even had a door bell!!

Back Home!!

We got back yesterday night from Vegas! We had such a great trip – I’m going to have to weed through all my pictures and blog about it later. It was definitely quite an experience and nothing like life here in Oklahoma City. It was wonderful to get away and not have a care in the world for 5 days (minus the stupid rental car fiasco). Anyway, coming back is always bittersweet. I love being home and feeling the sense of belonging, but at the same time, I always feel like I’ve missed so much. At work, I have to catch up from my time off and figure out what was left for me to do and what was done for me. At home it’s mounds and mounds of laundry that was left plus the vacation clothes. It’s way past time to go to the grocery store because we left nothing in the house since we were going to be gone. Not to mention all the blogs I have to catch up on as well. It’s exhausting! :) But nonetheless, I love going on vacation and living a care free life – even if it’s just for a few days.

Countdown: 0 Days

Another Funny

The last few months, I have noticed a faint (and sometimes not so faint) smell in my work area. Since I have a cubicle, the air is open and so who knows where it comes from. Sometimes someones onion or hot dog lunch drifts down and makes me want to puke. Smells are not confined in a big office. Please be courteous with your smells. But lately, we have been having this distinct smell. At first I was mortified because I thought it was my feet. I have a heater and I keep it blowing on my feet to keep me warm. Naturally, I thought my shoes/feet smelled bad and I was wafting it all over my office. Another time I smelled the same thing and I started to smell my armpits. I was getting paranoid about my hygiene!

The last few days though the smell has been pretty strong. I think it smells like old man farts. Or moldy coffee. Either way, it was gross. Yesterday, a co-worker said something to me - that she smelled it and she thought it was the guy across the hall. So, we whispered about it and kept breathing deeply when walking by this other co-worker to see if it was him.

This morning I didn't smell it so I thought whatever had died in the office across the hall had finally been removed. But about 9:30, the smell was noticeable. About this time, more co-workers were becoming vocal about this funk. We called the maintenance guy and of course he couldn't smell anything. About this time, the co-worker whose office stinks walks back in from lunch. He was carrying a bag of air fresheners. Relief washed over me as I realized that he too could smell it and was going to do something about it! After discussing the situation, he thinks it is his heater - that when he turns it on, it smells. (Sure, blame it on the heater - kidding) He plugs in the air freshener and I am in love with the "Fresh Linen" scent.

About an hour later, I'm not so in love and another co-worker from down the hall pops her head around the corner of my cubicle wall and says it perfectly, "Now it smells like air freshener and farts."

New to Fast Food?

Tonight after running some errands, Justin and I went to KFC on Broadway in Edmond to take advantage of their cheapo meals. They had a mashed potato bowl and drink for $2.99!!! Since that is my favorite, I really wanted to go. While we were waiting for our food, a man and his little boy walked in and were debating what to get. We couldn't help but overhear (there were only 4 of us in there) and we think this was his very first trip to a KFC. Or any fast food. Ever.

After talking on his cell phone about the menu to someone for about 10 minutes, he asked the cashier about the hot wings - whether they were spicy or not. He had her go and get one of each type of wing so he could see it. He does this twice. (Seriously, you need to see the food in person instead of on the menu?) Then he points to the bucket of chicken on the menu and askes the price. Hearing that it was $20, the man says, "Twenty dollars!! I could get three buffets for that...that too much." After being dissatisfied with the price of the bucket and hearing hot wings weren't spicy, he decided to get 10 wings. It went something like this (The man has an accent and it's more funny with it - ask Justin to do an impression)

Cook: "Sir we only have 8 boneless wings, and you ordered 10. We can give you 8 boneless and give you 2 regular wings."

Man: "No, I have 10 wings. Okay no wings and bucket of chicken."

(The guy really tried to get a bucket of chicken for the price of 10 wings...does it ever work like that?)

Cashier: "No, he just wanted regular wings not boneless wings."

Man: "Did I make mistake and tell you wrong? Yeah, you give me 10 hot wings, not spicy."

Cook: "Oh, I am sorry. I'll do that right now"

(Cook brings him his wings in a lunch-sized brown paper bag)

Man: "Where is all my chicken? Are they all in there?"

Cook: "Yep, they are in the box."

The man proceeds to take them out and analyze them - touching each piece and holding them up.

Man: "But where is the bucket? Why didn't my wings come in a bucket?"

Cook: "Sir, that's for the larger chicken - you ordered wings."

Man: "I have to feed three people! I can eat all this myself... I take these wings and...one snacker!"

(If any one has ordered a snacker, you must know that it isn't much bigger than a chicken wing.)

After completing his order and satisfied with his 10 piece wings and one snacker, the man leaves. Not 5 seconds later, he comes back in and says again, "I need to feed three people. I need one more snacker!"

I'm not sure if the KFC people misunderstood him and he really did want to order a bucket of chicken, but he finally seemed satisfied with the wings and two snackers. Justin and I were about on the floor, trying not to laugh very loud. Poor guy - I think he just wanted the KFC bucket for his wings.

*After re-reading this in the morning when I wasn't feeling so silly, this story is still funny, but it might be a "had to be there." Oh well, at least Justin and I had a good laugh!!*

I love these girls!

Emily, Erin, Carrie, Katie

Last night I had the joy to go to a wedding shower for a long time friend, Carrie Collins. She is marrying Jeremy Roberts this May! I've known Carrie for a looong time - we both lived in PA, with just two backyards in between us. I remember when she was in 6th grade - I can't believe she is old enough to get married!! I am so happy for her and it was so much fun to spend last night (even though we were in MOORE with a tornado watch - not the best track record for that city) with her and her crazy, awesome family. They are hilarious and I don't think I have laughed that long in such a long time!! I definitely needed that - thank you Collins family!!! I love you!

Frustrated...to say the least!

As many of you know, Justin and I have been trying to get pregnant for awhile now. As a result, we have gone to see a doctor in Missouri that is collegues with my father in law. He said he would be able to give us a complimentary visit and we were able to do that in November. Since that visit, they determined that I have a thyroid issue - it wasn't working very well and a side effect of this was supposedly infertility. I started taking medicine every day. They told me that I was going to have to take this for the rest of my life or else I would have other issues like hypothyroidism. So...when diagnosed with the thyroid issue, I had to go get my levels checked every few weeks. The first time they cut my thyroid medicine in half. I started to feel really poorly and was thinking that I needed to take more medicine. I go to get my levels checked about a week ago and this is what I found out.

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent and guilty.

Nurse Tulip: Your thyroid is too low and we can't supress it [what?? that doesn't make sense] so you need to stop taking your medicine completely [huh??] The doctor has suggested that you go for insemination because your odds for getting pregnant the old fashion way are pretty low. [SERIOUSLY? Isn't that a BIT extreme?]

So, I repeated it back to her to make sure I didn't misunderstand and she said that was exactly right!

Anyway, needless to say, I was pretty upset about this and of course, medical insurance does not cover insemination. Luckily, since my father in law is a collegue of this doctor and knows another nurse in that office pretty well, he went to talk to her a few days later. What blows my mind is what he found out! He was told something completely different! Luckily, he found out that the reason I needed to stop taking the medicine for my thyroid is because it started working again!! And, who knows why Nurse Tulip told me the only way I can get pregnant is through insemination because Nurse Buttercup said that is not true and my chances are just fine. I think this doctor needs to have a serious talk with Nurse Tulip.

So after all of this, my thoughts about Nurse Tulip are not very nice. We are going to get a second opinion here in OKC since this is all confusing and we have been told many different things.

I hope this baby thing is all it's cracked up to be. :)

The Result...

beginning.

Can you tell how excited he is?

End of Friday night. Poor Justin was just worn out.

The result as of Sunday! You can see where the cabinet was, but oh well. We had to redo all trim on the ceiling.

I LOVE the openess of my kitchen now. We even took the time to paint the toekicks of our cabinets that have been a nice shade of brown for over 2 years. And guess how much this project cost us? $7!! I wish all projects were that cheap. Next project - countertops and backsplashes!! I can't wait! :)

Pepperjack without the Pepperjack

Tonight was relaxing. A nice break in the week. After a weary day of...well, everything you can possibly imagine, we both got home and Justin suggested we go out to dinner. This is my all time favorite conversation to have with him because 1) we don't have to cook and 2) we don't have to clean up and 3) the chances of dessert are higher than they would be at home! Whoo hoo for impromtu date night. I think I take after my dad who could eat out at every meal. So we go to Rib Crib on Broadway and the experience was less than great. We had a MIA waitress, Justin ordered a pepperjack chicken sandwich that was served to him without the pepperjack, and everything I got was fried - my body will not be happy about that. Then we went to Target where I had found these great swimsuits online, but apparently, they are only online. I need to find a bathing suit before next weekend when we are OFF TO VEGAS!! I am pumped because I seriously need a vacation. I am really looking forward to going, but knowing me and my hubby...we are huge tightwads and I hope we can have a good time without getting worked up over the amount of money we are going to spend! At least it won't be a surprise...Vegas is a little notorious for being expensive. Anyway, to wrap up a pretty nice evening, I spent the remainder of the time doing one of my favorite activities...reorganizing!! I took Kayla's advice and took everything out of the cabinet that I am wanting to remove and low and behold, everything fit into our other cabinets, they look nice and clean and I even have room to spare!! So, this cabinet thing might become a reality. Now to convince Justin. Hurrah for evenings with no schedule!

Demo or No

I'm depending on you all that have been to my house to help me out with this. We have a lovely cabinet that overhangs over the bar that divides kitchen from dining area. Well, I've recently got a bee in my bonnet and I want to take this one set of cabinets down. I've done the research and the cabinets connecting has it's end piece and it will just take a little bit of painting and trim. We are planning on re-doing our backsplash at some point so that won't be an issue for toooooo long. I think it will REALLY open up our kitchen into the dining room area and this way, whoever is on the other side of our small kitchen, won't have to peer underneath to talk. I'm just worried that losing a cabinet will be no good - but I think I can make it work with a little rearranging and using cabinets in laundry room a little better. Anyway, I need help to convince my husband (or me if it's not a good idea!) Help??

Front side looking into dining room.

Backside of cabinets looking into kitchen.

I need cookies!!

Did I miss all the girl scout cookies??? For some reason, I didn't get hit up at work this year and I don't think Justin did either. Where have all the girl scouts gone? I need to make a trip to Wal-mart to see if they are selling by the door. I am in major need of peanut butter patties!!!