Wednesday

Hello out there,

Sorry I haven't posted. I've been all messed up with my time lately. Between Michael's wierd shifts and my own, well, blahs, I haven't had much to say.

We've made good progress on the front of the house planting and the steps (the steps have been all Michael, of course). It's really coming together. If it would just stop raining I'd be able to finish my planting and get the last of the mulch down. It's supposed to start clearing so I think I'll be able to get that done this weekend.

I feel like we're getting stuff done with the house. You know, that stuff that didn't need to be done the second we moved in but you want to get done before the holidays. We've got the chimney sweep and electrician coming in the next week or so and the steps are almost done so I'll be glad to cross this stuff of this list.

I really hope that Michael's shifts will straighten out. I think it's been really hard to adjust to this one, so hopefully it's almost over and we can get back to normal. It's been kinda lonely while we've had this schedule since I catch him only for a few minutes before I leave for work and he's been sleeping when I get home and I feel like I hardly get to see him before he's off to work. I guess this will pass once the next gig comes up, but for now it sucks. That's life I guess.

Sorry for the "poor me"...

On a lighter note, my FLYing has been going pretty well. The house is company ready, almost. Those damn dishes just kill me. It's bad since one of the first steps is to keep your sink shiny, but that just hasn't happened. The rest has been going awesomely (is that a word?) over the past several months, but those dishes, I tell ya, they get me every time. This month is about getting your paper clutter under control. I've been "dream decorating" (ie: not actually buying anything) our office that houses all of our paper clutter. I think I have a good plan in place for the office as a whole and that will help keep the paper demons in their place. Now I just need to figure out what furniture to get to make it a proper working office rather than the mish mash of non-functioning furniture that it is now. I think we'll tackle that (the furniture that is) this winter after the holidays. In the mean time, I need to get boogieing that paper monster.

Well, I guess that's all for now. I better head off for my before bed routine and get those dishes tackled.

Have a great night everybody!

New Furniture, Good Recipes and FLYing!

Michael and I headed out to IKEA this past Saturday to find some things to furnish his "Man Room". We had great luck! We got a leather sofa, a chair and footstool, a set of nesting tables and a pair of lamps. Oh, we got a rug too! We decided to embrace the 1970's of the basement room for now and played it up with orange and green in the chair and other accents. I think it came our really cool. It has a hip retro-ness to it. Michael is a bit nervous that I like it too much and that he might lose his man room. LOL. He has deemed that my services as decorator are now complete and he will take it from here. I expect that there will be some Guinness posters and maybe one of those neon beer signs hanging down there in the near future. I think that will be really cool but I'm not saying anything since this is "his" room. =)

Sunday I went up to my parents house to see Dad and have a little birthday cake with them. It was a nice visit. Among other things, we were talking about the "K" family weekend down the Cape this summer and all the fun activities we can do. Michael and I, my parents and my brother and SIL and their 3 kids will be going. It should be a nice time and a nice way to end my "staycation" since I'll be off the week leading up to the family weekend.

I made the Garlic Chicken Farfalle I mentioned in my previous post. I did a half recipe of it though I made the full amount of chicken. It is soo good, but I found it a bit heavy on a hot June evening. We used the left over chicken for sandwiches. That Mesquite Lime marinade is awesome. I cooked the chicken in the crockpot Saturday and then we had the pasta dish for dinner on Sunday. If I was up earlier on Saturday and not rolling out of bed at the crack of noon, the chicken would have been ready at a more dinner like hour and we could have had the whole meal that night. Oh, well. Everyone needs one of those mornings once and a while. The end result was that we have a lovely Sunday dinner and yummy left overs for lunch on Monday. =)

Tonight's dinner will be Italian Pork Chops in the crockpot. I put them in this morning. It couldn't be easier. Place 2-4 pork chops in the crock, pour in about a bottle of Italian dressing (depending on how many chops) and cook on high 6-8 hours. I put mine on low for 10-12 since I'm at work all day. We'll have baked beans with pineapple with the chops.

I must say that I am doing well with my FLYing these past couple of weeks. I made myself a new control journal over the weekend to adapt my routines to the new house and my schedule with work and Michael's. I got my Home Blessing finished on Monday evening when I got home. Last night was a free night so I just picked up here and there to eliminate any brewing hot spots. I forgot to put the trash out last night though so I'm kinda peeved with myself. I don't think Michael would have caught it in time this morning because I think the trash man was early this morning as I saw him heading in the direction of our street on my way to the train and Michael was still sleeping. As least we have an extra empty barrel still so we should be OK until next week. Today is paperwork day so I'll be paying our bills and doing some filing. We're also in Zone 4 - the master bedroom this week. Today's mission is to dust the tops of the windows and door jambs. That sounds like something I can handle in a jiffy. =) I love easy missions!

That's all for now. I hope you all have a great rest of your Wednesday!

I remembered my camera cable!

Hi folks,

I actually remembered my camera cable today so I have some pics for you.

Here's the living room with its new toss pillow covers:

This is my little reading nook. I have my fuzzy blanket there with the Kodak frame flashing family and friends' pictures. I've been reading my Daily Guideposts there lately when I get home from work. It's been a nice way to chill after a day in the office.

The next pic is of the sofa. I've had the leopard pillows forever. I actually brought them from my bedroom at home when Michael and I moved in together. Anyhow, I think the blue pillows and the striped pillow look really nice with our light blue walls and the leopard makes it a little funky.

As I mentioned, I also set up my snow globes in the dining room. Check them out:

I'm sorry that the picture is a bit dark, but when I put the overhead light on I was casting a shadow so I went with this one. On the left side are my fancier glass globes and the right side has my kitchy plastic ones. Right in the middle is a sand globe that my bff gave me. It's really neat. I'm so happy to have them displayed again. It's been almost two years since they all been out together. I have about ten Christmas ones too, but those are packed away.

I'll be back later. I've got to do some work right now.

TGIF

Well, I made it through another week. I'm so glad it's Friday. I get to leave work early today so I can pick up Mum and Dad at the airport so that's making today even better. I just feel bad that Mum and Dad will be coming home from sunny Florida to 9 degree weather and a snow storm tonight that will go into the mid day tomorrow. Well, their flight should be OK since they'll be arriving here at 3:00pm.

I'm feeling a better today. I went out to lunch with L yesterday and then met up for a beer after work with her too. We had fun and she always makes me laugh (though sometimes I don't think she means to ;) ). Anyway, thanks L for cheering me up. I had a good chat with my bff, T, last night too so that helped a lot too. T, you're the best, as always. ((Hugs))

I'm going to go see the acupuncturist tomorrow so hopefully she'll be able to help me/us. At the very least, I'm sure she'll be able to help with the stress of it all.

We went to see those houses the other night. I really like one of them but the location was a bit iffy. The other one that was such a "deal" was a dud. It had tons of room and a good layout, but the nearby new commuter rail and it's associated construction cracked the foundation and it would be waaaayyy too expensive to fix so we had to let that one go. Oh, well, a few others have popped up so at least the market is opening up.

Oh, I put the new pillow covers on the living room toss pillows last night. They look really good. I'll have to take a pic and show you. I also did some MacGyvering and created a console for our dining room to display family photos on. We had these two bar stools that the previous tenants left behind so I pushed them together and then laid the two leaves for the kitchen table on top (since we never use them) and voila! A console. It looks pretty cool. I got a new tablecloth to drape over it so I need to do that over the weekend. I've been using one I had temporarily to get the idea and think this new one will look better. I also got a neat acrylic lamp at Target to put on it. It looks really nice since the frames are all silver color. I post a pic of that too once I change over the tablecloths.

On my trip to Target, I also picked up a Shark steam mop. I know, things are really exciting at our house these days. LOL. Anyway, I've heard a lot of good reviews about it and thought it would be worth at try since Michael's work boots tend to track the gunk o'the day into the kitchen and the fact that we have an off white floor so it really tends to show a mess. Michael swept up the kitchen the other night so depending on when I get back from picking Mum and Dad up, I'll be a steam mopping queen this afternoon. OMG, I'm so lame.

S wants to play beer pong tonight. I just love having neighbors like this. :) It should be fun and luckily we'll only have to go next door.

Well, I gotta get some work done before I leave today so I'd better get to it. TTYL!

My Kitchen

Good Morning!

So, I pulled out some new placemats that my mum got for me and set them out on our kitchen table last night. They go nicely with the French Country-ish feel I have in my kitchen. I think they make my table look really cute. Here are some pics:

Here's a close up of the placemat - it reminds me of some place that might be on the French Riviera:

Well, we ended up staying in last night for my hubby's birthday. He was too pooped from work so we've postponed dinner until Friday night. I don't mind - that way we can extend the

celebration!

So do you have all of your candy for the little goblins tonight? I've got mine all ready. I hope we get to see some cute costumes! Last year we had so many little cuties at our door, I hope it's a repeat this year!

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