so much to do...

so little time. Don't we all feel like this sometimes?!? There just isn't enough time during the week to have some downtime after work and then get much done around the house that needs to get done after the gym and dinner. We still have so much to do at our house remodel-wise and it is hard to be motivated sometimes, since we can sit in the living room and it feels nice and done. But, alas, we have much to do and I am gettting really ready to get it DONE and get everything unpacked and organized. It isn't going to be long before I will hit a wall and all the boxes will put my type A personality over the edge. So, I better get busy before that happens... ready for a long weekend... AND an Aggie football game- thanks for the tickets Becky!

long lost...

Karen... i miss you, my friend... we have been playing phone tag for so long and I just decided to leave you a message here, until we speak again! :) Remember these lovely moments in the 'burb on the move down from Dallas last February?!? Fun times... We definitely need to get together very soon- I got spoiled with you flying into Dallas so much for work!

miss you friend :(

baby gifts...

I got an embroidery machine last November and I love that adding a few letters totally transforms baby gifts (and other things)

this is a little outfit I got and just added the name. I was so excited when I opened it and saw the striped pants... so CUTE! I though it was all the pink circles- i love surprises like that!
i love making the personalized burp cloths as well. This was the first baby girl that friends have had since we bought the machine. All I have been able to do was boy gifts... I have some pics somewhere that I need to post of those.
I really love this ribbon I found with the fun outline font. Congrats on your baby Max and Virginia- something should arrive in the mail for you shortly... surprise!

anniversary dinner...

We went to a fairly new steakhouse, Eccel Steakhouse, in town for dinner on Friday to celebrate our anniversary. Our first impression was how warm it was in the restaurant, but for those of you who know us, any kind of heat at all is magnified in its effect on us. I guess the restaurant heats up too much during to day to be really cooled off by a 6:30 reservation. The food was really good and we especially enjoyed the smoked gounda mac and cheese with crabmeat. The mac and cheese leftovers really good for breakfast too, I might add :) After dinner we went over to our nextdoor neighbors to watch the opening ceremonies of the olympics. It was nice to spend some time with them. We have really missed that since moving from Dallas and leaving our couple friends. We are really ready to get plugged in at church.

happy 4th anniversary...

I can't believe we have already been married 4 years. Time has completely flown by, and I couldn't be happier to share the rest of my life with you! I am looking forward to celebrating once you get back from Panama City. ILU and can't wait to see what the future holds!

sun in seaside...

we spent an afternoon in Seaside, such a lovely beach town. We all went and it was pretty hot so most of the group were ready to go back pretty quickly.

Don, Monie, Ray and I stayed to explore while the hot and bothered peeps went back home.

Don and Monie just outside of Bud & Alleys, a great beachview bar with a fab ocean breeze. We had a little snack of peel and eat shrimp coctail, sweet potato fries, rum punch and iced tea.
below is a picture of the neighborhood school in Seaside, SO cute!
next is a picture of rooftops in the arts district.

they all have cool rooftop spots to see the ocean.
store sign in town... everything is so bright and colorful
a taco bar, we definitely have to go back next time we are in Florida and have more time to go in all the neat spots.
on the way home we got a little lost looking for the right highway for a quicker route home. We were actually really glad we did because we would not have seen the amazing house below. The picture doesn't do it justice- it is really neat- looks like a ship... sort of...

sandcastles...

We had quite the snd castle artists in Monie, Ray and Dad. They did sand castles 3 days. I don't have pictures of the first one, so I will post some later.

This was the second castle... each of them took a side to create a diverse castle that drew everyone on the beach to look at it...

Below is Ray's side...

next is dad's side- he did castle ones because the little boy nextdoor really liked the first one he did the day before that was very "lord of the rings"
and finally we have Monie's side, very artistic, she had the sea shell and stair skills down.
this is a picture of the whole castle so you can see how the three fit together... sort of...
finally, below we have the one that Monie just did the final day. It had a shell and was very organic looking with lots of large tunnels. Later that night there were about 10-15 sand crabs that had made homes inside and on top of this castle.

miramar beach, florida...

we had a wonderful week in Miramar Beach, Florida. It was so nice to go back to where Allison and Andrew got married 2 years ago, and to be able to just have fun, not prepare for a wedding. fun we definitely had... I am waiting to get more pics from my sisters from our actual vaca spot. The pic below is taken from one of the balcony/ porches of the house we stayed in. It is a picture of our beach that we played on all week. I got REALLY sunburned the first day on the front of my legs ... REALLY sunburned... It kind of cramped the first part of my fun, unfortunately, but I still spent some good times at the beach. Now, I am peeling and itching like CRAZY. But, really what is a beach vacation without someone getting sunburned, right?

Below is a picture of some entertainment provided pretty much daily by four guys in matching speedos and hats. Our beach setup was just behind them. They liked to go "frolic" by the water up and down the beach. Pretty bold, and humorous...

in 5 days...

we will be in Miramar Beach, Florida. I am so excited to be doing alot of this (Ray loves building sandcastles)...

and definitely a lot of this... with a book-

We are going back to stay at the beach house where Allison and Andrew got married two summers ago. Mom and Dad, Ray and I, Allison and Andrew, Rebecca and Tucker and Don and Monie are going to stay at the house and enjoy the sand and sun for a week! It was a blast when Allison got married and it will be even better without having to prepare for a wedding. Can't wait!

hb Kareb...

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Marmelade Roll,
Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday Karen Olivia!
I hope that you have a fabulous day and a fun weekend of celebrations!
Love you friend!

Oh Tilly...

We are keeping Tilly, my parent's Yorkie while they are in Colorado for a few weeks. She has been quite the challenge trying to escape under the fence. First, she went over to meet the neighbor dogs. They have installed a new electric fence just inside their fenceline to keep their dogs in, so she was sure in for a suprise! Later that day, she escaped out the other side of the fence and went towards the alley. There are tons of sticka-burr plants along the fence and in the alley behind the fence. When we found her she seriously had about 500 sticka-burrs in her hair. She looked like a lion with her hair matted and sticking up everywhere because of the stickers.

yep... unbelievable!

So, she got a little haircut, and we are definitely NOT professionals so it looks pretty terrible.

allison and andrew's puppy...

Our christening of the new kitchen was for my baby sister Allison's belated birthday party on June 22. She and Andrew, d and Monie, and mom and dad came over for grilling out and Wii fun. Allison and Andrew also brought their newest addition, Sadie, a weim puppy. She is adorable! I took quite a few pictures trying to get a good one of her and Frannie without too much success, but here goes anyways.

Sadie loved Frannie's huge toys, pretty much as big as she is!

and she attacked my dad on the floor with her needle sharp teeth...

Frannie's mini-me-

Frannie was pretty good and patient with her, except every now and then she got a bit annoyed-

So Cute! Can't wait for more visits to come and Fran will be so happy when she is a full grown playmate!

hb...

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Ray
Happy Birthday to you!

I am sad that you had to go to Dallas for meetings on your birthday, but i guess celebrations can wait... I love you!

finally...

Here are the long-awaited pics of the kitchen/living room remodel- befores and afters...

Up first we have the shot from the far corner of the living room towards the walls in the kitchen we removed...
next we have the shot of the old kitchen standing just inside the walls we removed.
the after is a little further away since we didn't have the wall constriction...
now we have the view from the edge of the old kitchen towards the dining room

no before shots of these last few...
here is our stove, venthood and glass tile
(love that resident tile man Ray, he is quite the profethional...)

the window seat- we love it- so far frandog doesn't think it is her new bed...

we hope to keep it that way
the living room, the curtains are not hung, but we have panels the same green fabric as the window seat cover and valances in the kitchen. Very extited to get those up and get rid of the mini blinds...

in there...

yippee! We finally are sleeping in our house, as of last Saturday night. I think both my parents' dog and Frannie are going through withdrawal... we are having my youngest sister's birthday party at our house, using our new kitchen Saturday night! So, I will post photos of the par-tay, their new puppy Sadie and our mostly finished kitchen very soon! happy friday!

almost time...

Well, we are almost there! Appliances were delivered yesterday... Saturday was spent unpacking boxes in the kitchen, which was really fun for me. I should be able to finish unpacking boxes this week and we are planning on moving the last of our stuff that we have been using at my parent's house on Saturday and sleeping in our own bed again! We might not quite have the range hooked up by then because Ray needs to do the glass tile behind it before we slide it in place. We will have a microwave. By mid-week next week we should have all the appliances hooked up- We are planning on having my sister's birthday dinner at our house on the 21st, so that is our goal to have the kitchen fully functioning, which should be no problem. SO HAPPY!!! :)

the outside...

Here are some pictures of the outside of our house, it looks different now as this was before the fence was installed.

meet the neighbors...

We put up this wood privacy fence before we moved here and unfortunately there is light showing under the fence, which apparently is no good for diggity dog neighbors. Their poor owners have tried and tried to patch holes, but to no avail- you can see one of the concrete block "patches" in the picture below. Frannie really enjoys them coming over to play, but it won't be so fun once we are moved in and having people over for bar-b-ques...

So, this is Allie. For some reason she was being shy and just sticking her nose under the fence to bark at us while we sanded the cabinets.

This is Asher, he would come back and forth all day long and he and Frannie just had a grand old time.

and I must say, wouldn't you want to come over and play in a yard with trees like these? we love it! Such a dramatic improvement over our Dallas McCree house- Fran is definitely becoming more of outside dog now that she can actually get into a full run.

progress...

Huge Progress this week- countertops were installed yesterday! i love love love them! here are a few pics of the new counters and some progress pics. We are SO CLOSE! The color on the cabinets is Sherwin Williams Origami White. I am so blessed to have a wonderful color expert friend. I think the color is a perfect match for our wall colors and countertops. Thanks Monie!

Far right- opening for range this is where we are gong to put the glass tile as well... Then to the left is the window seat and bank of drawers- perfect phone spot. Basically right where the bank of drawers is next to the window seat is where the wall at the edge of the kitchen used to be. under the white painted plastic flooring is our wood flooring. The entire house was wood flooring except for the kitchen so when we took out the walls we had the wood floors carried into the kitchen and all of the floors refinished. Can't wait to see them again!

finished countertops (kind of covered up) and cabinets
The hole in the cabinets is for our microwave and you can also see the spot for the fridge on the far left. The counter runs along where there used to be a wall (left). We took down both walls that divided the kitchen from the living room and added the column at the corner of the cabinets pictured here. These tall cabinets are actually large pull out pantry and spice drawers and there is a bookshelf at the end (by the column) for cookbooks.

finished counters- on the right is the spot for the fridge (you can also see the opening in the cabinets for the dishwasher) and on the left is the spot for the oven- gotta scrape that window!

window seat on the right with a bank of drawers. We are pretty sure that Frandog is going to think this is her new bed... again... the window needs to be scraped- all the plastic straight ahead is protection for our couches, fridge and armoire.

cabinets post paint... window got painted also :) I wish I would have taken pics of the demo'd kitchen- we took EVERYTHING OUT! It was gutted completely for about 1.5 months while we waited for the cabinet maker- apparently this is a very busy time, of course-

Hard to get good work around here...

sanding, sanding, sanding... what a process!