Lily Sunday

HAPPY VETERAN'S DAY FROM LILY AND HER FAVORITE MILITARY MAN!!! 

Confessional Friday

I confess that I'm so busy I didn't write this in time and missed the link up. I confess that I will try to prep my "Fridays" ahead of time and do better in the future.

Lily Sunday

FLASHBACK! This oldie, but cutie, is from not long after we acquired Miss Lily. this bone was as big as her head. It was really cute until she ate one end and then proceeded to vomit it all over that nice tan rug. She's precious.

Confessional Friday

Today I'm linking up at A Blonde Ambition

I confess that this is the first time I'm doing this and haven't spent a lot of time thinking about what I would write. Hopefully I'll get better every week :)

I confess that this weekend, I went to the movies to see "Wreck It Ralph" with my hubby. He LOVES animated movies. We saw the preview for this one when we went to see "Brave" a few months ago and he hasn't stopped talking about it since. By the way, it was super cute.

I confess that my attempts at working out and eating better are FAILING miserably. I was doing okay while the hubby was away. No pounds lost, but doing something every other day and eating much less. This has all gone out the window in the past two weeks.

I confess that it looks like my absentee ballot has disappeared and I won't get to vote this year. I'm SUPER bummed.

I confess that I'll do better next week :)

Lily Sunday

Sometimes, she lays perfectly still, all is quiet. And she sleeps. It's awesome.

Welcome Home Hubby :)

HE'S HOME!

It has been a very long 3 months without my husband. This is his second deployment this year, but this one was MUCH harder than the first. We can't put our finger on why, but it just was.

I spent my day IMPATIENTLY waiting for him to land in Baltimore off the military rotator flight and then make the 1.5 drive to the base. I met him there with a big hug and a sigh of relief that he was safely home and where he belonged. My sweet friend Tisha snapped this picture for us right after we were reunited (and it feels soooo good!!). Words cannot express how happy I am to have him home.

We came home and (learning from the experience last time) decided to let Lily see him outside. She pees a lot when Mr L comes home from being away for an extended period of time...this time was no different!

"I've been dreaming of pizza for 3 months" was the first thing he said when we got home, so I ordered from our favorite place while he looked around the new basement and bathroom. He was pretty impressed that I got it done! I also changed a bunch of stuff in the living room  and got hardware (that we purchased in June!) installed in our kitchen.

By 8:10pm, he was passed out on the couch. I made him go upstairs and get into bed. I sat up for a while next to him, reading and playing on my iPad...I don't think I've ever been so happy to watch him sleep.

And yes, I had about 7 inches of hair chopped off this morning. I just had to do it. It feels great.

Sleep tight friends.

Lily Sunday

Two pictures today because I just couldn't choose! My parents came to help finish up the basement/bathroom project and it involved moving our old couch from the basement. It found it's way to the backyard for a bit before going out for the garbage.

Every dog's dream: a couch in the backyard!

Lily went to the groomers on Friday and came home smelling amazing and with this adorable bandana!

BIG THINGS TOMORROW PEOPLE! MR L IS FINALLY COMING HOME!

Bathroom Complete!

It's finally done! A two week project turned into a two month project, but that's just the way it goes. I'm SO HAPPY with the end results. The bathroom is so much better than I imagine. The guest room turned out great too. We still need to paint the walls and hang up pictures and decor, but the room itself is clean and finished.

My parents came back for one more "work" weekend. I promised them no more big projects...they can just come and visit and relax from now on. Friday night we finished up touch-ups in the bathroom and began to lay everything out. Mom and I also made a trip to Sleepy's. They were AWESOME. I ordered a bed on Friday night around 7pm and it was delivered by 11am the next morning, frame and all. They rock.

I can see the floor! It's ready for a new purpose!

The dogs approve of the new bed!

TA DA! It's pretty!

From another angle

Bathroom complete!

 So it was long and pretty frustrating, but I think it was totally worth it. If you come over, you can sleep in the new plush bed. But don't open the closet...where do you think all that junk went? :)

Lily Sunday

Lily prefers to sleep on pillows. These happen to be on our couch, but she doesn't discriminate. She likes our bed pillows and the guest room pillows too.

Lily Sunday

A beautiful day with the windows open and Lily keeping an eye on the neighborhood. This is her new favorite spot in the living room.

Lily Sunday!

She's my favorite.

Bathroom Project Update

Here's where we're at right now...

The company that was contracted to do the work on our bathroom came back out (5 separate times) to fix the drywall, patch around the shower, patch all the holes and tape and mud everything. They even sanded it all down (which is terribly messy and a pain) before wrapping up their job. I probably won't go through Lowe's ever again, but I will call this company directly if I need more work done in my home.

Our blank slate

My mom and I before tackling the rest of the project. Excuse my disaster of a basement please.

More blank slate

Finally painting!

I happen to enjoy painting and was so glad this color came out the perfect shade of gray.

Holding the luan down while it dries. Very excited to tile.

Lining up the tiles. These are vinyl sticky tiles and you place them the same as regular tiles, just without grout. They rock.

You've got to weigh those down too when your basement floor isn't exactly even.

The tiles are laid out and stuck!

Once grouted, you can't even tell they aren't real tile!

So, the room is painted, the floor is down. And Sunday came very quickly so it was time for my parents to go home. Hopefully they will make it back one more time before Mr. L gets home and I'll have a finished bathroom to show him!

Thank God Spiders Can't Fly...

 Via

My day started by sleeping through my alarm. Awesome. So I hurried, got ready and left for work. I actually managed to get there at the right time and sat down at my desk to open my computer. I looked down at my hands when I put them on the keyboard AND THERE WAS A SPIDER ON THE SLEEVE OF MY SWEATER!!!!! I'm not even kidding when I say that I lost my shit...thank god no one was in the testing office. I tore my sweater off (it was a cardigan, I did not get naked at work), threw it on the floor, all the while yelling at the spider ("How dare he be on my arm! How dare he scare the living daylights out of me tat 7:30 in the morning") and then realized I didn't know where it went. So then I had to look around the desk area until I found the thing and smushed it. Needless to say, I started the testing session late...

Where in the world did I pick up a spider. I mean, I know they are all over our house (that and crickets, they are everywhere), but it's not like I was rolling around outside before I came to work. I put the sweater on, grabbed my water from the fridge and got in the car. Then I drove the 12 minutes to work WITHOUT a spider on my arm...I'm pretty sure of that considering I hold my arms in front of me when I drive like everyone else, so I would have seen the sneaky little thing. Then I got out of the car, walked into the building (without rubbing up against any spider-covered walls) and in my office. SO WHERE DID HE COME FROM? Regardless, I now feel itchy and am pretty sure his whole spider family is coming for their revenge...

Yuck.

So how are YOU doing?

Bathroom Project

I started reading blogs about two or three years ago. I can't remember why I started or which blog I read first. Many of the blogs I read now are about home improvement, interior design, and decorating. I LOVE those things, but don't know how to do much at my own home. This is probably why I like seeing other people's homes so much.

I've never done a real renovation project before...until now.

When Mr L and I purchased our current home, we were able to pick out all the specifics: counter tops, cabinets, flooring, etc. It's a three level townhouse, so we have a finished basement on the bottom level. The model home also came with a full bathroom down there. The builders wanted a large amount of money to finish that bathroom...something like $3500. We were already at the top of our budget, so we said "No thank you, we'll finish it ourselves, for much cheaper. It will be our first home project!"

Flash forward over a year later and we finally decided to start planning the room. The builders had "roughed" the room in for us. The plumbing was all there, as well as the drywall and a light fixture. We realized very quickly that the room did not have an exhaust system, shut off valves, or even an electrical outlet. After a trip to Lowe's, we decided to let the professionals handle the tub/shower, exhaust system and electrical issues.

Now flash forward about two more weeks. Mr L gets put on a deployment (that we were not expecting) and now I have to handle the scheduling and finishing of this bathroom.

I thought that by letting a big company like Lowe's handle all the main stuff, it would be a super easy transition to the "fun" stuff (paint, flooring, etc). Unfortunately, my experience with Lowe's was TERRIBLE. The person in charge of scheduling gave me a confirmed date/time for the people to show up and it turns out he just made it up...he never called the contracting company, never told them anything about us, never told them about our room. It took a bunch of last minute calls, lots of stress and some not very nice attitude from me to have the construction begin.

We did not pay for the drywall to be fixed because were were assured that they would be able to do everything without destruction to the drywall that was in place.

The tub/shower after installation.

The ceiling we were assured would be left alone.

More of the ceiling that had already been in one piece.

My parents and I decided to fix the ceiling ourselves.

Just a note - fixing drywall on a ceiling is best left to professionals.

After it was over, I made another not-so-nice call to Lowe's. I COMPLETELY understand that the work they did required them to cut around the tub and pull half the ceiling down. However, this is not what I signed the contract for and it was not the work I agreed to. If they would have explained what the process involved (like I assumed they did when we paid for the work), this would not be a problem. But they did not. We had to leave the bathroom as it was while I wait for the company to schedule a time to fix all the drywall...

The two week project just turned into a nightmare.

Oops :)

So let's just pretend that it hasn't been 11 months since I last posted. I have some pretty good excuses though: I got two jobs (something that I did not have when I started blogging), I spent a lot of time doing OTHER things to keep my mind off the fact that my hubby was on his deployment, I made a bunch of new friends, I visited my family at least once a month, we went on vacation, etc...but none of those really matter. I've thought of blogging all the time. I just didn't sit down and do it. Oh! I also spent the last 11 months reading LOTS of other blogs...tons of them! Annnnnnd I got addicted to Pinterest. So I've neglected this site. Let's see if I can remedy that :)

Mr. L left for his first deployment a few days after I wrote my last entry. It was no fun, but I started working and made new friends in the area. When he returned home 3 months later, I wasn't the only one who was happy to see him:

Below you can see our Christmas/Welcome Home gifts: my ipad and awesome seats for a Steelers game. We had an amazing time and it was a great way to spend Mr. L's first weekend home in a long time!

We spent the next few months just enjoying time in our new home and visiting friends and family. In April, we decided to go on a vacation. The last time we had been anywhere (that wasn't the beach by our house) was our honeymoon two and a half years before. We did some quick research and went with a Sandals Resort in Antigua. It was AMAZING. The resort, the food, the drinks, the people, everything was perfect. The water was so clear that I actually went in (I don't normally do open water).

This was our view during breakfast. I didn't edit this at all, it really looked like this every day.

Since then we've been working on a few projects in our home, spending time with friends and preparing for another deployment. I'm really going to try to stay on top of blogging. No promises, seeing as my last "drought" was a serious one, but I"m going to try!