My life as I know it

I'm so excited to finally be able to say that we are 100% finished with Baby R's nursery. It's been a long time coming but the beauty of starting these projects early is that then it's not stressful. And I can honestly say, this was a pretty stress-free project. Of course, no project which requires a husband and wife to assemble furniture, hang artwork and paint together is without it's stressful moments, and we did have a few. Broken glass, chipped furniture, etc. But we made it through. So here is how the room all started... A bright yellow guest bedroom, painted in Sherwin William's Daffodil yellow. I selected this color over four years ago when we first bought our house. As soon as it was up on the walls, I knew it was much brighter than I had planned and I wanted to change it. But Pat, who had just spent hours painting the room, wouldn't let me. Four years later when we decided the guest bedroom would become the baby's nursery, I knew the...

It's 10:52 PM and I'm just sitting down for the first time since I got off work at 4:30. I went straight to the grocery store, then to another grocery store, came home, unloaded the groceries and immediately started cooking. We are having a cookout tomorrow night with Pat's friends from out of town. Tonight I made pasta salad, cole slaw, baked spaghetti and a chocolate chip brownie cheesecake. While I was cooking the night away, Pat was busy cleaning our house. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I'm not a great housekeeper. When I do clean, I do a pretty thorough job but I just don't clean nearly as often as I should. I'm soooo lucky to have a husband who helps me! I've never made a cheesecake from scratch before, let alone a cheesecake with a brownie bottom. I will let you know how it turns out and if it's a recipe worth sharing, I will share it! Speaking of recipes, I owe you the wonderful strawberry vinaigrette dressing recipe. ...

We had another great weekend! I was so excited to be home from Dayton and be back with my "pack" as Grady thinks of us. Being away from home is a great reminder of how much you love being there and gives you a new sense of appreciation for the phrase "home sweet home" when you return (especially if you spent three nights in a dorm room). Both Friday and Saturday night were very low key. Dinner and watching a movie at home, just the two (or three) of us. Friday night was Pat's choice so we watched Gladiator. I have been trying to dodge watching this movie for, oh, I don't know, the entire 5 years Pat and I have been together? Finally, when it arrived in the mail from Netflix on Friday and I realized how excited Pat was for us to watch it together, I succumbed. And I have to admit, despite the violent parts (which I tried not to watch), I really did think it was a good movie. On Saturday night, we went to dinner at Max & Erma's and used our anniversary...

It's a beautiful day today. Not nearly as hot as yesterday. The sun is shining and the birds are chirping. I'm sitting out on our deck (oh the joys of laptops and Wi-Fi) and literally, soaking it all in. The trees and flowers are in full bloom and all I see when I look around is bright green. Sometimes he's so quiet I forget he's there, but my loyal companion, Grady, is right here laying beside me. Life has been so busy for us lately that I can't remember the last time I was able to just come outside, sit down and relax and really appreciate all the wonderful things in our life. We have such a big, beautiful backyard. It feels like our own little park. After all the houses we looked at in this area, I know a yard this size isn't common and we are so lucky to have it. We spent yesterday with my Mom and Mark and had a wonderful time. We'll be spending this afternoon with Pat's family and my Dad. We are so lucky to have so many wonderful people in our lives...

I am a very goal oriented person, as some of you may know. In addition to the thrill I get out of planning, making lists and crossing things off, I also enjoy setting goals for myself and trying to obtain them. I've set a few goals recently that I'd like to share with you. Not only because you might find them interesting, but also because by actually writing them out and making them public, I know that I will hold myself more accountable for them. Also, many of the goals will in one way or another shape and impact the things I write about in this blog. Goal #1: Make one new recipe each week Sounds easy, right? In theory, it probably should be. But I make everything more complicated than it needs to be. I don't like to go to the grocery store more than once a week. Maybe you think that's weird or maybe you agree with me but regardless, when I make a trip to the grocery store, I want it to be a well thought-out trip that involves a detailed list of everything...

To all of you Martha Stewarts out there, today I want to salute you. Since I've moved into our house, and have pretty much tripled the square footage I'm responsible for maintaining, I'm realizing how far from being a Betty Homemaker I really am. To be completely honest, I didn't do a great job of keeping my apartment in tip top condition either, when I had a fraction of the space. I had all of the excuses in the world: I didn't have enough storage space, no place to do laundry, no dish washer. The list could go on and on. Well, I've run out of excuses. I have plenty of room to store all of my belongings. I have a laundry room equipped with a washer, dryer, utility sink, and even a separate area for the litter box and other kitty necessities. I now have a dishwasher, double sink, and lots of counter space. So what's my problem? My problem is, when I get home from work I don't feel like doing anything. And if I did do something, what I should be doing is ...

I don't think I've shared with you how very much I love my new home. I stand corrected. Our new home. I have spent the past 6 years living in dorm rooms and apartments. Places you know are only temporary and therefore never really get the feeling of being "home" when you're there (**I recognize that some people live in apartments for a long period of time and do treat them as a home - this just never happened for me). When you live somewhere that you know is only temporary, you never really go that extra mile to dress it up and make it your own. You don't even care for it in the same way that you would if it were yours. In a house that you know is yours, however, you really value it and take extra good care of it (maybe because you know if something goes wrong - it's on you! No landlord or maintenance person to call. And trust me - the honey-do lists don't have nearly the same sense of urgency). Okay, so enough about all of that boring home ownership ...