Turning 30

I turn 30 in 15 days. Is it weird that I'm not depressed at all? I was talking to a friend about it this morning and realized I'm kind of looking forward to it. I'm excited that I've made it to 30 (almost) with no regrets. I have had a busy decade of 20's and have more than enough memories and experiences to feel good about the last 10 years. I've been so incredibly blessed. How can I possibly complain when I leave my 20's knowing that I've grown every day, discovering more about who I am, I've travelled, I've been educated, I have had more than one job that I've loved, I've been blessed with a house and all of my temporal needs, I've had a lot of fun, I've formed life long and eternal relationships, and I've married the love of my life.

I imagine my 30's will not resemble my 20's in any way because I'm now embarking on a completely new and exciting stage of life. Plus, I now have someone to share all of my experiences with. How great is that? I hope to look forward to expanding my eternal family and creating an amazing home for my future children, developing talents and exploring new things, becoming a better wife and better person, developing my current and future career options, and being able to use all of those things to contribute more fully and more relevantly to those around me. So no, I'm not in any way sad to conclude this phase of my life because the one ahead is so exciting.

Homeowner Pains!

Where did the days go when you could call your landlord to fix anything wrong with your house/apartment? I think those days went to the same place that my mortgage payment goes every month. Last night, I was lying in bed waiting for Brandon to finish getting ready for bed so we could go to sleep when I heard a loud expletive come from the hallway. I got up to see what was wrong and this is what I found (see picture). Apparently our hallway ceiling had a blister! We climbed up into the attic right above the blister and found a pool of water about an inch deep. It had rained last night, so we though our roof was leaking at first, but the ceiling and insulation above the puddle was dry, so we can now only assume that a pipe broke. It was pretty late by the time we got bowls and towels set up in the hallway and the attic shop vacced out, so we didn't ever identify the source of the water. I guess that's what we have to look forward to tonight. What fun!

Update

I can't believe it's been so long since I've updated. I guess life seems too boring to write about, but I am busy all the time, so there must be something going on. Let's see...

I've been having BAD tailbone problems the past couple months. For no reason at all, my tailbone started hurting and has continuously got worse. It hurst the most when I am sitting and when I am rising from a seated position. I have been to 3 doctors, one chiropractor, had X-rays and an MRI taken, and a Steroid shot. Nothing has helped at all. I really don't know what to do next. I am super frustrated and have run out of doctors to go to. If anyone has any suggestions, they will be welcome. I'm considering accupuncture next.

I painted the kitchen (for the 3rd time in a year and a half). When we refinished the cabinets, the mocha brown paint was too dark. I painted it a pale green. I think it looks pretty good. Hopefully it will stay this color for a while, but I can't make any promises!

Brandon has two knees with a torn miniscus. He is at the surgeon's office scheduling his surgery as we speak. He probably should have had this surgery done months ago, but better late than never right?

Work is going well for both of us. Luckily after making it through a lay off and several very slow months at work, things seem to be picking up. I was so blessed to find this job. I've made great friends and enjoy coming to work every day. It is challenging enough to keep me interested, but not enough to be stressed out all the time. My only complaint is that I have to drive to Phoenix every day, but hey...I can't have everything right?

Brandon still loves his job working in the IT department at Banner Desert Hospital. He's doing really well and everyone seems to love him. He received two separate regonition letters in the past few weeks. I'm so proud of him and how hard he works!

Some sad news in our family is that in the last couple months we had to put two of our family members down. Brandon had two sweet, sweet labs when we got married. One (Ink) was already pretty sick and we knew her end was coming soon. What was unexpected was within a month after putting Ink down, Buck went from old, but perfectly healthy and strong to very sick and lethargic in about a month. We think he lost about 30 pounds in one month. He stopped eating and would hardly move. I guess he stopped wanting to live after Ink was gone. It was so sad. They were both very old and lived long, good lives, but we were still very sorry to see them go. Now we are just down to two dogs!

So that's the update! I told you our lives were not that interesting lately. I'll try harder to entertain.

Makeover Pictures - Part 2

Kitchen:



This is what it looked like before I bought it:








First, we put in a tile backsplash:













Then we added moulding and re-stained the cabinets:







Now we just have to make cabinet doors! This is the project that never ends!!!!

Makeover pictures - Part 1

Kitchen Island
Before:

After:

Where did all my hair go?

Summer hair!

I had to cut all of my hair off because it was just fried from an unfortunate experiment with chemical straightening. I will probably grow it out again, but it's fun having a change. I guess it wasn't change enough because I got it in my head that I wanted pink streaks in it too, so I bought some temporary hair color. I love it and am thinking of getting more colors and having fun with unnaturally colored streaks all summer. What do you think?

You know what happens...

when you are doing 12 house projects at once? You don't have time to blog!

Update on projects

Okay, so we are in the midst of a poor man's kitchen remodel.

Our first project was to build a kitchen island. We went to a used building supply store and bought an old and very used cabinet base unit. I took the doors off and sanded it down to bare wood. Then we took off the base of the cabinet and added 4 legs. We also added a back to the cabinet and moulding to the bottom and to finish the corners. Then we stained it a dark walnut brown. The kitchen island is basically done except for tiling the top of it.

Last night, we put up the tile on the backsplash. Tonight I will finish tiling around the window and then grout tomorrow. What I did was cut 13x13 inch ceramic tile into 2 inch strips of various lengths and made a kind of mosaic with no particular pattern. It was a lot of work, but I think it will look good and I learned how to use a tile saw! This weekend I will take down the cupboard doors and start to sand down all of the cabinet boxes, then add crown moulding to the tops. Then I will stain them the same dark walnut stain as the kitchen island. Next week, I took a couple days off of work to build new cabinet doors (and stain them). I bought beautiful cabinet handles for a smokin deal on ebay. By the time we're done, it should look like a new kitchen. I will post pictures when it's all done- hopefully by the first week in May. Wish us luck!

Things I do that drive my husband crazy...

Lately, I've been invading the garage a lot to work on a couple of house projects like building a kitchen island and cutting and painting beams to update my kitchen lighting a little. My sweet husband is pretending that it's okay with him and that he likes spending time with me, but I can tell I'm driving him insane. So to honor his patience with me, I thought I would write out a list of things I know drive him crazy, yet he rarely ever comments on. I love you babe!

1. I use all his tools and never put them back where they go. I usually try to clean up my sawdust, tools, etc., but never do it the way he would.

2. I invade his garage space with my projects, then boss him around telling him how he can be of assistance to me.

3. I leave all of my grooming products all over the bathroom counter constantly. Seriously, you can barely see the countertop.

4. I jack his side of the bed all the time and leave my stuff on his night stand. Sometimes I take a shower then lay on his pillow and get it wet right before we go to bed. I don't do this on purpose, but sometimes I do it nonetheless.

5. If I do lay on my side of the bed to read or do whatever before he comes to bed, usually CJ (our smallest dog) lays on his side and leaves behind special dog hair on his pillow.

6. Everytime he makes a bowl of popcorn, I usually eat it all before he gets a chance to.

7. I leave my shoes everywhere and I mean EVERYWHERE! I don't know why, but I just kick them off wherever and whenever I feel like it.

8. I lose things all the time and then ask him where I put them (mostly my keys and cell phone). Usually this is how it goes "Babe, have you seen my _________? Oh, nevermind, here it is." That happens at least once a day.

9. I do not have the same sense of home security that he does. Sometimes I leave doors unlocked and have even left the garage door open when I left for work once or twice.

10. I ask a lot of questions about everything. He calls it nosy.

11. Every time we go through a drive-thru, it takes me FOREVER to decide what I want, even if we've been there 100 times. Also, I always have special requests and hardly ever order straight from a menu without substitutions or changes.

I'm sure there are a hundred more that I don't even know drive him crazy, but I wanted to publicly thank him for loving me anyway! I bet he didn't know what he was getting into when we got married.