I am Back!

Hello folks! It feels like centuries ago since my last post but it has been hectic around here with John starting back at work, finishing up the living room makeover, me and the flu, etc etc. I have a boring list of excuses!

Today, I finally feel a lot better, so I thought I would do a few things. :)

I painted door trim and took fanciful pictures of stuff... I can't help it.

And, Whitney and I finally finished her french memo board! John and I felt bad that she had to wait because none of our hardware stores in town had a 2' x 2' piece of ply wood in stock, so we picked her up one at Lowes last night and voila!!! Instant happy girl!!! :)

And here's Foozie and Mr Peapers with their cat-nipped toys. If you don't know what catnip is and what it does to cats, it's like crack! It makes them crazy. John and I enjoy getting them all doped up and watching them go all nuts running around the house.

Laters gators!

Take a Peek!

This [year] summer, we haven't done as much updating on our house as we did last year with my craft room. But still, we got something done. :) I have been waiting for this since the first day John and I stepped foot on this house. We both knew the minute we looked at it that the shag carpet needed to go... It was old, ugly and nasty! 

Just to give you an idea, [I cannot stand to look at this picture, but I will show you anyway] Here is a picture from fall 2009: 

Take note: Since I took this photo, we have had family over for dinners, had a new year's party, 

have had friends and their families over for other things, I have had sleep overs here with church youth. I really can't complain. My house is awesome as is. But you know some of these things needed to go!

Here's one of those gatherings we had last year. I remember there was a huge discussion about whether we should keep the paneling or not... but everybody agreed to get rid of the carpet! ;) The guy who stuck his foot out? We call him the Sermonator and he hates the flash. 

I know what you're thinking. Trust us, we were thinking the same thing, "Yuck!" John and I would joke to each other about it... One day he said, "Hey Vanessa, the 70's called and they want their shag carpet and paneling back!" However, the one thing we love about this house is the fact that IT IS OURS and we can do what we want with it. Buying a house I believe is the best investment decision a married couple will ever make. Many times have John and I almost resorted into renting, but our Aunt Betty would always talk us out of it, she always tells us, "You can't cash in on those rent receipts, honey! So be patient." And boy, is she right!!! 

I still have to decorate the walls, re-vamp the fireplace cover thingy [or whatever that thing is called] I don't like that brass finish on it, the ceiling needs to go, and I need to pick up a few knick knacks. But here's what it looks like now.

Don't judge, that oscillating fan is my best friend. I didn't know getting old came with being hot all the time even with the air at 72 degrees and the ceiling fan on! ; ) That ottoman by the blue chair is something from Aunt Betty. Her and her boyfriend  from years ago chopped off legs from an old library table and made a coffee table and this ottoman out of the parts. It used to have a shag carpet top, I recovered it yesterday.

Here's the other side. The photo is crooked I know. I am old and I can't see very good in the dark through my view finder, it sucks! 

Notice the green end table? That is not gonna be staying there. I painted that to use in my craft room. It just happened to be sitting there when I took the picture. I love that thing!!! And I have stuff to put on the walls, I just need to decide HOW I want them on there... That always takes me the longest. We decided to keep the paneling for now and painted over it and we will decide the next step when we get sick of it. That's how we roll around here... We live with stuff until we are so sick of them we can't stand them then we find a way to get rid of them. :) If you have noticed, the ceiling doesn't look as bad now that the walls are lighter than when it was just that scary wood color. But we are still getting rid of it. Period. 

I will show off my photo wall art when it's done or when I make up my mind, which might not be soon, but trust that it will happen. :) These small crafty projects and decorating shouldn't take long... Except that clean up and helping John transition into the new work environment is kind of priority right now. Yes, I am the cheerleader behind this very happy, handy man. 

Have a beautiful Tuesday!!! 

Centralia Balloon Fest

Hey guys! It is balloon fest weekend here in my side of the world. :) John and I are crewing, well really John is part of the chase crew of the balloon that our church has sponsored this year, HUMPTY DUMPTY. I am part of the crew but all I do is take pics! I haven't gotten good shots of our balloon yet, but I have gotten a good shot of the others during the balloon glow last night. 

Balloon Glow 8/19/2011 at the Centralia Foundation Park.

this is Humpty Dumpty

this is one of the new ones [well, to us] we haven't seen this one before. I think they call it, Sea Creature.

there's John in the red shirt with Will and Ryan, two of the young members of the chase crew. And that's Charli holding the fan. Notice balloons are getting inflated in the background!!! 

Hope it stays nice all weekend so I can take more great pics and eat more greasy food and lemon shake-ups! I sure loved that giant tenderloin Sara and I had last night! : ) John just left to judge the annual balloon fest idol with Rod, a very good friend of ours and the pastor of worship at our church. I think they have 37 kids participating this year. 

Have a great weekend all!!!

You are Not the Boss of Us... The Pets Are!

If there is anything that is entirely true that I will write in this blog, it is this: THE PETS ARE THE BOSS OF US. 

Their Christmas photo from 2 years ago, less Voodoo. He doesn't like sharing the spotlight.

John had one cat when we first got married. Then when I moved here, we got our dog, Iddy, the very spoiled dog. Six months after I moved, John and I started feeding this ugly neighborhood cat and we named her Chee-Chee. We wanted to keep her, but she was too much to contain. So we let her out to mingle and she got pregnant. Then out came Foozie, who looks just like Chee-Chee and Mr. Peapers who looks just like our neighbor's cat, who we called BABY DADDY because he was. There were two others but we only kept the one without a tail [Mr Peapers] and the ugly one [Foozie]. They are all inside cats. So they know nothing about how life is beyond the glass storm doors. Except for Voodoo, none of them even likes it when I take them out into the back porch. They are snooty like that, guess they think they are too sexy for the concrete floors. They prefer hard wood.

Since we moved them in with us, they have been the boss of everything. And they all love to lay on John's pillow and his side of the bed. They make the laundry basket their hiding place. Leave your chair for a second, and guess who takes over?

them taking over John's chair when we first moved in in our paneling-infested house. This has been remedied though. The paneling, is what I mean. The pets doing this, NEVER! lol

I lay my stuff out on my desk so I can organize them and guess who I found laying on everything?

And Foozie, she is hard to take a picture of because she is the snootiest ugliest cat ever existed. I think she has issues and she doesn't meow like a regular cat. She sounds like a baby coo-ing. 

They eat better than we do. Everything these cats eat have either fancy or fun on the label, while the stuff we eat either have trans fat or a ton of preservatives on the label! In the morning, they will wake me up so I can feed them. And every day when John gets home from work, they all have to be pet equally or they will get mad. They show it too. How about hair ball in your shoes in the morning? 

an Instagram photo of Foozie. These moments are rare!!!

You can never touch them or disturb them because John always says, "Do not disrupt the integrity of catties." Another thing I found, as much as I would love to have one of those kitchen faucets that you just tap to turn it on, I can't have that because Voodoo loves water. He can play with it all day, every day. He will have a jolly good time tapping that faucet and John may have to get a second job to pay that steep water bill. And he runs my blogging life too!!! Him and Iddy actually.

So yeah that's the break down of things. They are the boss. And we, well we are just the people they live with. LOL 

Have a great weekend everyone!

My Cup Runneth Over

Hello everyone! I thought I would pop in and a drop a happy note before I go on with the rest of my day. I am once again alone on this very beautiful Tuesday because my really awesome husband has percussion rehearsal. But that's not what we are talking about today. I am getting ready to tell you HOW AWESOME MY HUSBAND IS. A word of caution though, I will be using the word 'awesome' and every word synonymous to the same... because that's just the way he is. He is all kinds of awesome in my eyes.

Every time I gripe or whine about something or someone, he is always the first one to say I am nuts or I am being whiny or something to that effect. He isn't one of those that will take my side just because he is my Husband, he is supposed to play Superman. Many times [mostly, when I am being really selfish] I have gotten mad at him for being this way, but more than many times have I also thanked God because he is this way! This John quality has kept me grounded.

When he knows I am right about something, and he feels like I should fight for what I believe in, he doesn't fight my battles for me. He doesn't go all over town telling people how bad I have been treated, or how awesome I am and my thoughts. He stands right behind me, lets me deal with the situation the way I feel I should, and stands close enough to where if I fall, he can catch me and tell me, "Let's go. People are stupid."

My friends are his friends, but he has his own friends... I love my husband and I love spending time with him and I sure enjoy that we have mutual friends, but I also love that he has other friends to talk to that are outside that big friendly bubble. He has his own music crowd. I have my own crafting circle. Even with our mutual friends, there are moments when we all hang out as couples, sometimes, all the boys go together, and the girls do their own thing... This has given us a good balance. And I thank God because he isn't one of those dudes that will limit my friending capabilities because he just wants me to be friends with the people he is familiar with.

He is jealous. He gets really jealous [gives me the look of death kind of jealous] when I say the awesome truth that YADI is a Hottie. I love that about him. If my husband wouldn't keep check of himself and making sure that he is contributing to our marriage as much as I am, I don't know if John and I would've made it during our first year together. Our first year of being married, we have spent living in two different countries, half a world apart. Trust me, if John isn't the jealous type that he is, I may have already ran off with someone else. This John quality always reminds me that he is the way he is because he cannot imagine life without me so I better not screw up this beautiful thing that's going on here. :)

By jealous, I don't mean like the lock-me-in-the-closet-because-he-doesn't-want-any-other-man-than- himself-to-see-me kind of jealous. If it were so, you would've already seen me at the Lifetime Movie Network movie called, "MY WIFE IN THE CLOSET" and I would've been already a millionaire and have my own reality show. But no, I am still clipping coupons to save money and John still has his genitals intact. : ) 

I admire his patience and his ability to look at things differently even if it goes against what he hears, thinks and sees. In other words, he has an appreciation for people and things. My husband is an intelligent man. He has this genius in him that sees beyond the clutter and I mean this literally and non-literally. We bought our house not because we loved it, but because soon as John first stepped into this house, he already saw what it's going to be like [after he has done to it what he likes]. We got out house from a foreclosure, so there was no telling what was done to it prior to us finding out about it. But he saw through all the paneling, the old nasty carpet and the totally crappy kitchen.

Take a look at my craft room!!! It is a result of this great trait...

BEFORE:

Our whole house used to look like this

AFTER:

Our whole house is getting close to looking like this. Give him a few months, and I will show you some more pics.

Now, do you believe me? What [UN-awesome] husband will put his expensive music equipment down in the basement just so I could have a room to store my $15 stamps? He spent hours and hours learning tricks for home makeovers and learning how to use tools to make the job easy. Yes, people I married a person who is all kinds of awesome. 

He is a great friend. Not only to me, but to all his other friends. I have not seen anyone who will lose sleep thinking about a broken-hearted friend... He is one of those people that will try and try and try to make things look better, make funny faces and sometimes will just sit there and cry with you so you feel better. I think he is sooo kind and really generous with his time, people abuse it sometimes. It aggravates me that he just lets people walk all over him sometimes... but like him, I do not get in the middle of anything [as long as I know that he is handling it and he could still take the beating.]

The list of awesomeness goes on and on and on. I don't know if I can say this enough, but John is a heaven-sent. I tell ya, I know I am one lucky duck!!! Not every wife out there can say [the things I just mentioned] about their husbands. 

My cup runneth over.

What Makes You Smile?

Do you know what makes you smile? This week, I found what makes me smile and what makes John smile. I didn't set out on a mission looking for the answers this week, it dawned on me as we were living, and doing the usual. 

All week, I have been obsessing over wanting to buy cherries because it is one of those fruits that I don't really like to eat but I enjoy looking at them. They are so pretty. :) So I looked for an excuse to buy them... JOHN! He loves cherry everything. So i brought a 3 lb bag from the produce market, made hand cherry pies with them and took a million photos with the rest. And that's how I found what makes me smile, and in the process I found what makes my husband smile. John is easy, everything I bake makes  him smile, makes him happy.

I found that color makes me smile, and the fact that when light hits a subject, it makes it even more pleasurable to the eyes. I have about 300 photos in RAW in my computer right now that needs to be looked at and sorted. Photographs make me smile, taking photos makes me the happiest. And I believe, every time John sees me out in my secret photographing room, and I catch him either laughing or smiling, I know he is happy... and he probably finds it really funny that I am so short I have to stand on a table just to be able to look into my viewfinder to take photos of food. : )

There's a few other things that makes John smile. I will share that soon as I am able to take photos of him doing the things he loves. 

So... What makes you smile?