Oh Baby!

This is going to be the year of the Baby Showers- mine NOT included. A bunch of my friends are pregnant and although kids are nice and dandy, Chad and I aren't there yet. I feel enough pressure from my soon approaching 30th and the general feeling of Getting Older. This doesn't stop the people from asking when we will be popping out any kiddos though. I think it encourages them ... including my Grandmother.


Gerorgiana, Georgie, Memere, Meme, The Meems. She is a 95 year young woman who is the matriarch of my Mother's side of the family. Meme is probably one of the nicest people you will ever meet. She even has a nice way of telling people where to shove it. "That's a nice."

Being a wise old woman with no filter, she asked me recently when I called her to say hello, "Are you calling to tell me your pregnant?" I replied, "No Meme, I'm not pregnant. Chad and I aren't ready to have kids yet." The spit fire says in French Canadian accent, "Well, why not? What are you waiting for? You aren't getting any younger. You know, I was 26 when I got married and that was old in those days. When are you going to give me some great-grand kids? I want more great-grand children."

Thank you Meme for putting it all in perspective. I'm surprised she didn't tell me "That's a nice".

Turning 30 Kicking and Screaming

I've never had a problem with getting older but the next big mile marker is coming up in less than 6 months and I am not a happy camper. I think I will just start the tradition of celebrating my annual 29th birthday instead.

I don't need any more reminders that I will no longer be "in my 20's". I'm thankful I still have my youthful looks with no wrinkles but my body aches sometimes, I'm much slower at getting out of bed in the morning, I don't handle hangovers like I use to and ... I found something that looked like an age spot on my foot. I got that bitch removed.

The Huge Monstrosity

This room has been a work in progress ever since we moved in. We originally didn't have any furniture for this room but it slowly became the catch-all room while we tried to figure out what to buy. Then came "the compromise." Chad wanted a pool table and I wanted a dining room table.

He won.

This room is our formal living/ dining combination room. The tray ceiling divides the areas. This has created and issue for the placement of the pool table. We couldn't put in under the light because it would be off center so to the other side it went and stayed until we could figure out how to make this room work.


We changed out the dining room light for a fan/light and bought a new sofa to replace the futon. This would be our "living area" of the living/ dining room combo.


We then replaced the carpet with Bamboo Flooring and installed lighting over the pool table. I've given up trying to make it look like a huge dining room table.

And now I'm stuck again. This room is missing something. What that something is is my design dilemma. Damn that pool table. Grrr.

You Can Call Me Mrs. Fix-It

I've been on a Home Improvement kick lately. Our laundry room featured yuck-o flat builder paint. It had to go.

I had a little mishap with some paint. I got a gallon mixed at Lowe's thinking it was the color of the baseboards but it wasn't. In hopes of not throwing close to $20 down the drain, I used it to paint the laundry room. Although it doesn't look that different in pictures, it is SO much better looking in person. This paint is a semi-gloss as compared to a flat paint so it is wipe-able and doesn't soak up the water that splashes from our laundry tub.

The Mr. says I have found my calling in case Real Estate doesn't work out.

Vultures, Buzzards the Demise of the Gator

New Year's 2010 we discovered a new friend living in the pond in our backyard ... Gary (or Gail) the Gator.

We grew accustom to looking out our window to see if he/she would pop it's head out of the water and often talked about the daily events of our little friend and wondered where it went when we didn't see it. We began to like our Gator buddy but just like that it was gone.

I discovered it belly up in the water 3 houses down from ours on Friday. There were about 20 vultures having a dinner party that featured our little Gary (or Gail). I ran inside to get the Hubby.

Me: You have to come see this.
Him: What are all those buzzards doing?
Me: Having a vulture dinner party.
Him: Buzzards
Me: Vultures
Him: Buzzards
Me: I'll google it.

And so I did. For the most part, the words are interchangeable. I was surprised to find that there are so many types of scavenging birds. I did locate the ones we had that were feasting on our friend ... the Black Vulture. What I found most interesting about them was how the fed.

"Vulture stomach acid is exceptionally corrosive, allowing them to safely digest putrid carcasses infected with Botulinum toxin, hog cholera, and anthrax bacteria that would be lethal to other scavengers. This also enables them to use their reeking, corrosive vomit as a defensive projectile when threatened. Vultures urinate straight down their legs; the uric acid kills bacteria accumulated from walking through carcasses, and also acts as evaporative cooling."

Projectile acid vomit?! That is freaking awesome!

Regular Carpet is Such a Thing of The Past

Now with the wood floor project out of the way, we can enjoy our humble abode ... wait, what's this stain on the carpet? And that's how it began.

The el-cheapo builder carpet in our family room and master bedroom had seen better days so we added "new carpet" to our home project 2011 list. I hit up all the carpet stores in search of the perfect replacement. I came across Mohawk's Smart Strand Carpet at Creative Floors and they had me sold when they told me about the Rhino Challenge. This carpeting was a-okay after Ricko the Rhino lived on it for two weeks. Durable, yes. Stain resistant, yes. Eco friendly, yes. That's a winner in my book. Plus, compared to the other carpets out there, this was the most bang for our buck.




After installation we had our little Rhinos test it too. They appear to love it as much as we do.

Let There Be Light!

I'm on a roll in the home improvement department. The wood floors are finished, the baseboards and shoe molds are caulked and painted but, before the monstrosity (the pool table) went back up, I hired a electrician to add some much needed lighting above the monstrosity. Insert "ooooh" and "ahhhhs" here.