Finn!

Yesterday, we brought home this guy! Sorry about the picture quality..I blame it on the iPhone.

Finnegan

Dream Big

I love my house. Absolutely adore it. Hubs found the house online the day it was listed. The following day, we had a showing, our second of the day. We liked the house we saw first, and were contemplating an offer on that house. Those plans flew out the window the moment I walked through the front door of the house. I stood in the entryway and knew I would live in that house. It already felt like home. It now is home, and I love it.

But, oh, I have dreams for my little house. Big dreams.

Dream #1: Paint. The color of cheap grated Parmesan cheese for a house? No thank you. But, that is what we are dealing with. New paint would be absolutely beautiful. Oh, yes, a big project, but a lovely change. I have yet to even dream of colors, but it will not look like cheese. And that, my friends, I assure you.

Dream #2: This one will be attained much more quickly. Mostly because I'm already halfway there. Woo-hoo! My husband and I have a lot of stuff and it is all hanging out in our office. Daaang. Here's the problem. It's all of our stuff. Oh wait. I haven't even stated the dream. ADD moment. The dream: a beautifully organized office. The plan: bookshelves out. Good and gone...to our bedroom. One bookshelf is already there and it has helped so much! Now, we need to get the other bookshelf over there and go through the rest of our "stuff."

Dream #3: A beautiful bedroom. Another one that we have started. But, we have not gotten far. Paint will work wonders--it always does. What color would you choose for a bedroom, though? Oh, I just don't know. There are also things that we need to move out of our bedroom. Like the box of tax documents? The (empty) ceiling fan box? The remote control car? Yeah, not necessary...

But the biggest dream of them all? Well, there are two. The first? A new kitchen. The second? An addition. We would love to add an office and a 3 season porch. Or we could buy a bigger house with more acreage. These dreams, of course, are years and years away. But a girl can dream, right?

That's what's so great about dreams. I'll dream about the kitchen and the addition for quite some time and that is just fine.

Oh, and my other dream? Chickens. I would love to have chickens!

Patio Clean-Up!

Spring is here! Well, I suppose it is just about summer by now. Goodness, I have been quite the slacker. When did I last post? Feels like a year ago. I have a sort of valid excuse. I've started another class for my masters. Just a bit busy around these parts!

But! I hosted a triathlon themed wedding shower last weekend and it was amazing! The backyard needed a big clean-up and I had just the inspiration. I have to admit that it felt a little bit like the Saturday Burn Day I read about here, only I didn't have a burn going on, nor do I have any children. Still. I felt "cool." That family togetherness to get things done makes me so happy! I fashioned my own "work day" while the hubby was working, and he joined in the fun when he got home.

Our wood pile and garden beds on the patio (wood pile so close to the house--horrible!).

A view from the other side of the patio (with the rickety old fire pit).

The wood pile is half gone!

When the hubs got home, he brought with him an old sod cutter so we could place our garden beds.

Our beautiful garden beds. Rock will never be our first choice to fill the space between the beds. The previous owners must have gotten an amazing deal on rock, though, because it is everywhere!

Enjoying a Sierra Nevada (one of my faves!) while figuring out to do with all of the leftover black dirt...

It was a wonderful, beautiful day! I love my new garden beds (there are four) and I can't wait to plant! I am, though, SUPER jealous of this garden plot. SO envious of her and her family!

Holy Busy, Batman.

Here's the thing.

I am home right now, and have been for about 15 minutes. I need to leave in 25 minutes. This is my life for the entire week, and next. Needless to say, it is a busy time of year. I feel like the husband and I have been go-go-go for at least a month now. In fact, I don't remember the last time I actually went grocery shopping and bought more than just what was needed for that night's dinner. I don't like that.

I did get the chance to run to the fabric store. Let me admit something quickly. I was crabby Saturday afternoon. Since I was home alone, I decided to head to my local fabric store to learn that it will be moving in a few weeks. SALE!

I bought $110 worth of fabric and paid $23. Totally awesome. I have some awesome plans for the fabric: pillows, a skirt for my niece, pants for my nephew. I can't wait to start creating and show you all the awesome things I make! Wait a minute, though. I don't know how to sew very well (I'd call myself a novice!), so we'll see how these projects actually turn out...

My Least Favorite Chore

I really, really, really do not like vacuuming. I've been vacuuming the ceiling. That's right, the ceiling. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it, but today marks the first time the ceiling has been dusted or vacuumed since we moved in.

Gross, I know.

There was a healthy spider web in each corner of the living room and the bathroom, too. It's amazing how quickly these things can pop up out of nowhere!

I know that we have to be more diligent about keeping the house clean, but vacuuming is not enjoyable. One bit.

We have a nice vacuum, and I probably wouldn't mind vacuuming the floors (but my husband likes it, so he can continue with that chore!), but it is so time consuming. It doesn't help that we live in a smaller home. To do a good job in the living room, for example, the coffee table needs to be moved, otherwise, the vacuum cleaner can't maneuver around.

But, man. I was on an amazing cleaning kick this afternoon. Vacuumed the ceilings, around the cupboards and cleaned the entire kitchen. Ugh.

I feel like such a grown up.

Garden Beds!

Finalmente, my husband and I bit the bullet and make our garden beds. When we moved into our home, there was a small wooden box filled with sand. Since the previous owners had a small child or two, we figured it was a sandbox turned stray cat litter box (seriously, gross).

Being that the husband and I don't have kids (and when we do, they will have a much bigger sandbox!), we decided to make it a garden. Last year, it housed our potatoes, onions and sunflowers. The sunflowers and potatoes did fabulously. The onions...not so much.

Our dream, though, was to add three more raised beds to make our garden more fruitful. Our seeds have already been started (the tomatoes aren't looking so hot) and will need to move into the ground sooner, rather than later. With the free time that we had yesterday, we headed to Menard's to pick up some cedar (hooray, it was on sale!).

We made three 4 foot by 4 foot boxes that have 10 inch anchors in each corner. Well. Our original plan was to have them be anchors. We are now discussing the possibility of using them as a fence post to protect our veggies from the rabbits I have seen in the yard. We'll see what happens when we get to putting the garden beds in the ground.

Isn't it pretty!?

Fletcher & Floyd

As mentioned in a previous post or two, my aunt gave my husband and I two bearded dragons. It was a stressful gift to receive, I have to admit. Here's the scoop:

My husband and I were boiling sap from our maple trees to make syrup when I received a phone call. My aunt was on her way into town and had lizards (and all the gear) for us. I had to meet her at my grandparents' house when they arrived to take the stuff home and get everything set up. I left my husband to boil the sap by himself and headed to get these two animals that I knew nothing about.

I brought them home. I set everything up. I put the dragons in their new terrarium and waited. They didn't drink their water. They didn't eat their crickets. They didn't move. Did their flight kill them?

They moved, one ate. They were alive. My husband and I started writing a list of all of the things we would need to purchase to keep these dragons alive. We picked up a book and read it cover to cover. We scoured the web. We learned that they shouldn't necessarily live together. But what could we do? It was late in the evening. We left them together, in the one terrarium, with 15 large crickets.

                     Fletcher                                 Floyd









Ahh, the things we have learned since that first night. Bearded Dragons will nibble at each other's toes (especially if they are both male). Poor Fletch. He received the brunt of the toe-nibbling incident. We learned that, while living together, one will make it so the other doesn't get enough "sun" or enough food. Again, poor Fletch. We learned that in no way should either of those two Bearded Dragons have been eating large crickets (rule of thumb: no food bigger than the space between their eyes).

As you can tell, Fletch kind of had a cruddy beginning to his life. Eventually, we realized that we could no longer house both Fletch and Floyd. Fletcher was not growing (he did shed his red color, though). He was hiding and wasn't enjoying life (or so it seemed). I did my research online and came across the Herpetological Society. We decided to give Floyd a new home so that we could care for Fletch. My heart just broke for the little guy (I know. He's a lizard).

Today, we are headed to the pet store to get him a new basking branch. We are also headed up north to meet our puppy (oh crap, we're going to have a zoo) and buy a few needed items for him...