Redesign Time!

>> Monday, October 25, 2010

Why? Why do the boys in my house leave the toilet seat up? Do they find it humorous that I stumble into the bathroom half awake each morning and nearly fall in? Why does everyone throw their towel on the floor? Why is everyone fighting over the smallest bathroom in the house?

These are the questions that haunt me. Okay, a little dramatic, but my kids have a very nice bathroom that they could have all to themselves. There is plenty of room to shower, get dressed, put on make up, even do a cartwheel. Still everyone in the house loves to pile into our super small 1920's bathroom that is really only fit for one person.

I have decided, I am taking over the back bathroom. It is going to be mine all mine muahahahaha! Kidding, well kind of. I've decided I am going to redesign this bathroom to my liking. Something that flows a little better with our house and my general style.

The floors are black and white, like this...


The walls are painted in "Soothing Green Tea" Which looks less like baby poop in reality.


Right now I have a Waverly black and cream damask curtain up that used to be in Cadence's old bedroom.

This style doesn't really reflect me. I definitely lean towards Anthropologie style. I like new items mixed with old. Comfortable and quirky but most importantly, homey and inviting. I decided I would start by looking at some shower curtains online. Here are a few I am considering.




What do you think? Taking the paint color and my floors into consideration, would it be better to go with a white curtain? Let me know if you have any recommendations. I am all ears!

More later, my creative juices stop flowing when its past my bedtime, and as usual I am blogging past my bedtime. Night!

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Food, Shopping, and More Food!

>> Friday, October 15, 2010

Day two in Flag was much better than day one! Thank goodness!

We started our day off with a cup of joe at Macy's.This is a hopping morning spot, for sure. A line formed almost out the door. Here is Emma enjoying her smoothie.

I thought the coffee was just okay, I was told through the grapevine that they serve better coffee than my coveted Lux...WRONG!
I ordered everyone, besides Emma, a Mocha Latte Royal. It was pretty smooth, but almost weak and lacking flavor. This green chili mushroom quiche however was amazing.
I think I will give it another try next time I am there, but I'll order something different. We spent the day downtown, looking at cute shops and enjoying the great weather.


I really liked Basement Marketplace a lot. They had some really cute clothes and jewelry.I didn't buy anything though. Just window shopping.
After we walked around for a few hours we ventured over to Diablo Burger. This is the place Ken picked to go for his Birthday. We couldn't go the night before because they are closed on Sunday.

Everything about this place reminded me of our friend Adam. From the music, to the decor and of course the food. We want to take a drive up with some friends to go back to this place. Yes, it was that good!
They serve their burgers on an english muffin which I thought would be weird, but it wasn't, it was delish!Their fries are to die for to. They are lightly seasoned with sea salt and rosemary. Yum! Oh and another plus, they have excellent water that they bring to your table in a glass bottle! Oh and the beef is grass fed! They recommend that you order your burger medium rare. I went with medium and I was really happy with it. As you can see. I am all about supporting local establishments and I love that they use all local ingredients! Take a drive, check these places out for yourself, and let me know what you think!

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10/10/10 One strange day....

>> Tuesday, October 12, 2010

10/10/10 turned out to be an interesting day. We decided to drive up to Flagstaff Sunday afternoon to enjoy some cool weather and some family time for Kens Birthday. Things started out well. I booked a room at the Marriott on Priceline and saved 50% on our room ( a little plug for Priceline.com). We had a pleasant drive up, checked into our room and it was fab. I grabbed the laptop to look up some local eats. I found a Pizza place called New Jersey Pizza Co. that had great reviews. We decided we would take a drive up to Snow Bowl to see if the leaves were changing yet then grab a bite. The leaves were just barley starting to change but still it was beautiful!!

We got out and walked around, took a moment for a family photo op.

Then watched the sunset as we walked back to the car...

By the way, these photos were taken by my very talented daughter Cadence.

We were getting really hungry so we headed over to New Jersey Pizza Co. The outside looked like a dive but it had great reviews so we went in. The dining room was really small and we were the only customers.
The waiter was nice, he told us about how they use local ingredients and sometimes they run out of things. Then he told us that there were a few orders ahead of us for delivery and we might have a bit of a wait for our food. I had NO idea what this really meant. We decided on 2 pizzas, A white pizza with canalized onions for the girls and a meaty pizza for the boys. We also ordered some cheesy bread sticks. We sat around and visited, we were the only people in the place. We waited, and waited, and waited for our bread sticks. About 40 minutes later they arrived. The waiter brought them out with some ranch and informed us that they were out of red sauce and that he would go make some and bring it out. Well we all had one bread stick then decided to wait for the red sauce. After about 10 minutes we gave up, and it was good we did because it never came! Okay hold on...things get worse!

A family of four walk into the the restaurant. (This is not the beginning of a joke) I glance over at them, I'd say it's pretty normal to look at someone who is walking into a room when you have been the only one there for an hour. We go about our convo talking about how hungry we are. Emma starts to get a migraine. I am praying for her and trying to comfort her, I glance over at the other family and happen to make eye contact with the Mom, I smile. We go back to talking about how we have been waiting over 1 hour for our pizza. Laughing about possible reviews we might post on Yelp. Out of nowhere the mom from the other family loudly asks, "Is there a problem?!?" I look over at her and ask, "With what, the restaurant?" She says, "With us." I say "No, why?" She says, "You have been starring at us since we walked in!" Then she went on to say," Is it my shirt?" She was wearing a Texas State shirt. Ken said, "Hey we are tired and have been waiting for our food for over 1 hour, there is nothing wrong with you." Awkward!!! So for the rest of the night we were terrified to look anywhere but down at our food. Is this really strange behavior ,or is it just me? After this long wait you'd think the pizza would've been amazing. I will just say I have had better, for sure, I was not overly impressed.
To top things off Emma is feeling worse by the minute. We had plans to go to Wal Mart and get the kids something to swim in because they forgot their suits. Emma insisted that she still wanted to go. So we get in Walmart and are walking around and Emma begins throwing up in a cup she brought in with her. Lovely, people are running in the opposite direction. I'm thinking, Oh well, it is Walmart, home of "interesting" people and dirty diapers found in carts. Whats the big deal? Poor Emma, her night was pretty much ruined.
10/10/10 turned out to be a pretty strange day, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Our next day in Flag was much more promising. More on that later, for now I'm off to catch some zzzz's!




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Dear Ken....

>> Saturday, October 9, 2010

You're 37...that sounds so weird to say! It definitely doesn't seem like that long ago that we were celebrating your 21st birthday at your parents house. I think I gave you a bootleg Henry Rollins VHS from East Side Records and some necklace that I may or may not have made for you. (We were so punk rock haha) Yup, that seems so far, yet so close. This picture was taken around your 21st birthday I think you are wearing the necklace....

I know it is your Birthday, not our anniversary, but I cant help thinking about our time together that has passed and what the future holds. For some reason you turning 37 sounds a lot stranger than me turning 34. Maybe because its so close to 40? When I think of my teenage friend Ken turning 37, it just sounds weird. I'm not trying to make you feel old I promise!

And now....
Here we are, married with three beautiful kids!Busier than ever, still working things out, still figuring out what makes each other tick, still really different yet becoming strangly alike. Older yes, but still "just us".. I actually think you have gotten better with age. Seriously!

I'm proud you're my hubby and I love you very much!

OK now Drum roll............10 things I love about you.

( In no particular order)

10. I love that you have your own hobbies and let me have mine.

9. I love that you are devoted and committed, to whatever you decide to do.Like riding 65 miles on a bike with your friend to support him in his goal.

8. I love that even though you are rough around the edges at times your a super softy. Like when you cry in movies, love that.

7. I love that you never make me feel self conscious about how I look, You always make me feel pretty even when I'm lookin homeless.

6.I love that family is very important to you, and you are a good dad.

5. I love that you give me freedom to fail, but don't point out my failures.

4. I love that you have a man crush on Vince Vaughn, haha, don't know why just think its cute.

3. I love that you are quick to forgive and put the past behind us.

2. I love your triceps, your legs and your hands. They are really nice. :)

1. I love that you always love me even when I'm not lovable.

There are many more things that I love about you but those were the things that my fingers keyed in first....so there you go!

Celebrating you today, all you are and all you will be. I love you, you are the best!

Happy Birthday Ken!



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Could it actually be happening?

>> Sunday, October 3, 2010

Could it actually be happening? Really happening?Am I turning into the budget conscious organized person I always admired but never dreamed I could become? I am definitely not there yet, but I find myself slowly growing in these areas, feeling like it is possible to be laid back and creative as well as organized and frugal. Might I actually be finding some balance in these areas? Or am I in a weird phase. One of my kicks? Maybe I was abducted by an organization alien in the night. Nope. I think God is actually answering my prayers. I have been praying HELP in this area for awhile now.

I'm craving organization in my life....




These photos make me really happy. They make me want to run out and by jars and labels baskets and bins. I am not joking whatsoever. I am really excited over the thought of organizing and cleaning my house and getting rid of a bunch of stuff!

One thing that has been really hard for me is I LOVE a good find. I often pick things up for my etsy store or a friend or myself. This has been bad for both the clutter factor as well as the budget. I don't spend a lot by any means but I think I sometimes spend unnecessarily. So I am working on that.

Which leads me to the next thing I wanted to tell you! Did you know that Fry's grocery store takes all competitors coupons??? Including the Fresh and Easy coupons you get in the mail?

Yesterday I went grocery shopping at Fry's and she let me use a $10 and $5 off coupon from Fresh & Easy!! So good! The friendly clerk also informed me that they except all competitors coupons like Target, Bashes, Walgreen's etc. Okay I think this is great news. Did you guys already know this?? If so why didn't anyone tell me? So I ended up saving $106 on my groceries! Not bad right?

Oh and to top the day off I met my friend for a shopping night cap and I actually scored a pair off $100 boots for $16.99! All because I have big feet. Size 10 and up were an extra 60% off. This was the first time I was excited about having big feet.



Are they too biker-ish? I don't know, but I like them. Oh ya, and I got a purse. It was originally over $200 and I paid $20! Woo Hoo! See? This is why my house fills up with "stuff", I was justified in these purchases because I had birthday gift cards.

Isn't it cute? I'm loving the ruffles!

Hopefully this isn't a phase, but a new way of living. I will fill you in as I work to create a place a rest in our cozy nest.

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