Storm Chaser

Ok, maybe not a storm chaser, but a storm watcher. I took these pictures a couple of months ago. I thought the clouds look pretty cool and it was amazing the watch the storm roll in and roll right out.

Welcome Fall!

I was excited to decorate the front door and stoop for fall. I started with a couple of mums and pumpkins, but it just wasn't enough. This past Saturday, Shawn's mom and I found a really cool wreath at Michael's. I thought that a lot of the wreaths were over-priced, so I was going to buy all the materials and make one myself. Bad idea, don't do it. Jane and I estimated the price of a homemade wreath and it would have been more than $50! I bought one for $35 and it's much prettier than one I would have made. To add to the decorations, I bought a few more pumpkins and a bale of hay. Finally, I carved a pumpkin WITH NO PATTERN may I add, and it didn't turn out half bad. Take a look.

It kinda looks tacky in the last picture because you can see the candle, but from the road, it looks pretty good. We got a lot of compliments on it tonight during trick-or-treating.

Hellloooooo Again!

It's been forever, huh? Busy is not even the word. Shawn got back home at the end of September and ever since then we've been on the go. Here are some things that we're working on:

• Finishing the basement (pictures to come)
• Painting the family room/kitchen
• Training Cole to run with me
• SCUBA Diving lessons

This week was exciting though. On Monday, October 26th, Cole and Shawn celebrated their birthdays! Shawn turned 27 and Cole turned 1. I bought Cole a small dog cake and I made Shawn a dark chocolate fudge cake. Here are some pictures from Cole's birthday and some other random pictures I found on my camera:

Another Cole Video

Fun in the Sun

Saturday was pretty hot outside so after I finished staning the fence for the day, I let Cole out for some fun. I really wanted to take him to the lake and practice swimming, but I still don't have a really long lead. I thought the sprinkler would be second best. Cole loved it! He definitely tired himself out.

Alright already

Shawn's bugging me to blog about the fence and the bathroom. I started a couple of projects within the last couple of weeks, and my thought was to work really really hard and finish both of them sooner rather than later. That way I could blog about "before" and then "after". Well...that's not really happening and these projects are taking me longer than I originally thought. I am the only one working on them while I work two jobs, keep Cole entertained, and squeeze in a social life. So anyway, here's what I have so far.

Our Bathroom

Let me just say that I want to change just about everything in our bathroom, but that would cost thousands of dollars and it's just beyond my expertise. What I could do is slap a new paint color on the walls, change the hardware (okay, I didn't do that, Shawn's dad did), and add a few decorations. In the future, I would like to remove the large and useless tub, make the shower stall bigger and tile it, add a linen closet, change the toilet to a white one (it's an off-white color), and put in dual vanities. I know, it's a lot. Oh, and change the linoleum to tile.

Here's what I did:

I took Megan's advice and got samples even though I was dead-set on a color. From top to bottom the colors are: Vintage Map, Tahiti Blue, and Azalea Leaf. Azalea leaf was obnoxiously bright, and I wasn't really feeling the Tahiti Blue. I chose Vintage Map which was the color I had my heart set on from the beginning.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

(I'm not entirely happy with the light fixture, I may return that one and get a new one, we'll see)

Before:

After:

The blinds still have to be installed and I'm going to looked for fabric to make a valance for the window.

I also painted the closets and organized them.

Shawn's:

Mine:

The much-anticipated fence (or as I like to call it, Shawn's revenge):

This is the worst project, EVER. Not only was a huge project to install the fence in the first place, but now HE wants it stained. Ok, I'm kinda kidding because I want it stained too, but he skips town ever so conveniently when we decide we want to stain it and it has to be soon. I'm kidding about that too. The fence will look awesome once it's all stained.

Here's one side of it, not stained:

Here's the other side, stained:

And here's a corner to compare:

Okay, so that's an update of my projects. Once the fence is done, I could stain the deck, but that's not as pressing as the fence since the wood for the deck is treated. I would also like to paint the laundry room, but we'll see about that, I'm pooped!

Treadmill 6000xiGT Cobra

Ok, that's really not the name of our new treadmill, I just added a whole bunch of letters and stuff. The new treadmill arrived a few weeks ago, but it's so freaking heavy that I needed help. Mark and my mom came over tonight to not only help me with the treadmill but drop off our new (well, new to us) queen mattress and boxspring! I'm pretty excited about the treadmill because it'll save me time from going to the gym and Cole will be able to use it without slipping off the back (the belt is 60" long). Check out Cole breaking in the treadmill.