Soon to be w/Ed

The End

2009-04-02T05:09:00.000-07:00

Well after a few months of regular and not so regular posting on Soon to be w/Ed, the time has come to say goodbye. I feel like we're at the end of the Mickey Mouse Club television show suddenly where they sing "Now it's time to say goodbye...to all our company...M-I-C...see ya real soon...K-E-Y...why? because we like you...M-O-U-S-E"

I really wanted to go out in a blaze of glory with some smashing last post...but that didn't really turn out so well.

All good things have to come to an end. Don't fret though... they come to an end so better things can begin.

See you real soon...why? because we like you :)
You can find us here from now on...

:)

2009-03-25T06:43:00.001-07:00

Sorry to keep you all waiting...but I have to keep the suspense up just a little longer...we're waiting on a little something to make that first wedding related post a little extra special for you blog readers. Hopefully by next week it will be all ready to go :)

We belong to each other...and have the papers to prove it!

2009-02-17T09:19:00.000-08:00

There is actually a real reason to post! We have done not one…but two…count em two…things that will make March 7th possible. Since the day is getting closer and closer - we're trying to make sure that all of the important things are crossed off the list.

First things first…we applied for our marriage license. After making our way to the probate office (good thing they had signs) we found Angie! It’s amazing how easy these things are to get. It was an incredibly quick process (unlike buying a home) and only left us $35 dollars poorer (unlike buying a home).

Angie got our papers ready for us to sign (after verifying we were who we said we were). We then double checked the spellings of our names (cause he’s marrying Nikole not Nicole, Nichole, or Nickole). Unfortunately Eddie did not sign Edward so we had to start all over. Angie is so patient though, and Eddie resigned with his full name
(which was difficult for him since apparently he has never signed with his middle name spelled out so it ruined the feng-shui of his normal signature). I was next. I learned from Eddie’s mishap, so I made sure to sign my full legal name while my hubby to be smiled alongside me.

Angie then did her part – it was totally so official. And here we are with the proof that Pickens County apparently sees no reason why Eddie and I should not be wed! All in all it was a pretty easy experience and one more thing we can mark off the to do list. The other thing that we got to mark off the list was the mattress!

We actually did do a little comparison shopping, but mattress shopping is way harder than one would think. Are you aware that different stores call the same mattress by different names? They do. Not easy to price compare. Also are you aware of all of the coil counts, materials and overall construction of a mattress? Yeah I wasn’t either – and even though I heard them tell me about it I still don’t get it. Basically I was just looking for something that felt like a fluffy pillow.

Mattress shopping was pretty enjoyable though. After all, we were buying something that involved sleeping and you know we’re sleeping aficionados! Basically we climbed in and out of beds and looked at each other and said “do you like this one….do you like this one better than that last one…do you want to try that other one again…can you feel me move when I roll…I like this one...are you sure…” I mean this was serious people. This was an investment into our future. We’re real grownups now!

We did finally make a decision (I know right- I’m shocked too). Eddie and friendly sales guy loaded up the truck (which was parked in the no parking zone) and we took our mattress to its new home at McNest. I think it will be happy there. It definitely won’t be lonely and unloved. As professional napsters we will spend much time there I’m sure.

PS we ended up with a Serta mattress that claims to be a perfect sleeper. I'm going glass half full viewpoint on life and am totally saying that I believe it. But I will let you know if it really holds true to its word after March 7th.

Hopefully we’ll find it comfortable enough to avoid mattress shopping for atleast ten years :) Not because it wasn't fun going into a store and kicking back and relaxing...but because we don't need to spend our life savings on box springs and coil counts and memory foams. Sleep is important but so is a flat screen tv on every wall of every room. Just kidding Lisa (don't have a panic attack). But by the looks of things...I think it's going to be just perfect.

Terrible Blogger

2009-02-12T06:33:00.000-08:00

I know I know. It’s been a long time.
I won’t try to come up with excuses. I’ll just get right to it.
23 days people. 23 days. How crazy is that? So crazy.
There’s so much to do and so little time. But isn’t that the way it always is.

So much has happened over the past couple of months – and you’ve had zero updates from yours truly. I’ll try to get you up to speed.

Christmas was just fabulous (I was actually not sick finally). We spent much time with our families (here is mine) and I for one hearted sleeping late for multiple days in a row.

My wedding dress is now altered to perfection. I can’t gain one ounce. Not even like a gram. It fits like a glove. A really tight glove that you can’t breathe in…but a glove. Sorry no pictures – since you know who reads the blog we can’t have him seeing it before the big day.

We had our very first wedding shower. So fun. Both sides of my family got together and gave the sweetest, prettiest shower ever.

Wedding showers are a lovely privilege that the bride gets to enjoy where her closest friends and family “shower” her with lovely presents, attention and wishes (and who doesn’t love that). It’s a time to help a young (and I say that because I still am young) bride get started on her new life. I opened presents, and although I registered for the majority of them, I was still surprised and so happy with each one that I opened.

It was slightly overwhelming to begin with when everyone was just staring at me opening everything, but the feeling of being suffocated by much pink tissue paper, ribbons and bows went away after the first couple of presents. Thanks Alicia for sitting next to me so I would feel better :) Ed arrived at the end and loaded up everything and we took it all into McNest, where we unloaded everything into the living room and left (we’ll totally have it all put up by the 7th of March – I think).

I also had a shower at work this week. They had pink gerber daisies set up on tables and it was absolutely adorable. I work with the best people. They are so good to me! I love y’all bunches (shout out: Hi Deanna, Paula, Rhonda, Vicki, Nancy, and Dana!. It was definitely my favorite day of work since I started in Nov 2002 (oh other than that day we got to leave early because it snowed).

Moving right along. We’ve been working on a room! It is almost totally complete. Take a look at this kitchen color. Here's Eddie working hard (cough cough). We went from bleh to crazy yellow to this oh so lovely shade of brown that Michelle custom mixed for us at Lowe's. We heart Michelle. I'm so sad that she is moving :( Michelle you do realize that if we run out of paint you have to come back home.

Back to the kitchen. How exciting is that? The walls and cabinets were repainted (again) and appliances and (some)hardware were installed. Our kitchen is like totally functional. I could actually cook a meal (in theory) there. More on that later.

What’s even more fun is that now that the kitchen is somewhat finished (still need new countertops) we can actually unpack some of our wedding gifts and get them into place and maybe even start using some of them now. Cause really - who has their coffee maker and microwave in the living room? Though I can see the benefits of having them there (warm up your popcorn in the same room you watch the movie), it's just not going to work for us.

Tonight we're hoping to purchase a mattress (who knew a mattress would cost that much). Apparently the bed didn't come with one (how stupid). But since we don't really want to roll out sleeping bags, we're gonna bite the bullet and buy us a nifty plush perfect sleeper. So hopefully I'll have some new pictures to share with you after the weekend.

I'll try to get back into the swing of posting regularly. But really - when you don't comment on what I do write - where is my incentive? :) <--- Blatant hint to write a reply to posts that I take my sweet time to write.

Our McHome to be now belongs to we

2008-12-19T12:48:00.000-08:00

Just in case you can’t tell from the title of the post – we’re now officially homeowners! Well in the sense that we now own something that the bank owns 95% of …literally. We actually just own a very tiny percentage of the home, but in 30 years that baby is all ours!

We ventured to the big city to the attorney’s office to sign away the next couple of decades of our lives. The lawyer went over each paper and told us what we were signing. I had no idea what he was talking about for the most part, but I do know that between the two of us we probably signed 1.5 forests worth of paper (Sorry Laura – I thought of how wasteful all that was). I tried not to think about all of the responsibility that I was actually signing for.

Instead I just tried to think about all the fun decorating. He may have been saying “number, number, APR, mortgage, title, deed” but I was hearing “classic platform bed with glamorous soft linens and a plush headboard.” He said “appraisal fee, closing costs, insurance, something something” but in my head I was thinking “beveled oak veneer table top with solid warm-stained wood legs finished in deep rich mocha.”

The closing was actually pretty anticlimactic, considering it has sort of felt like ours all along. I mean you don’t go in someone else’s house and tear down walls and stuff – except we kind of did. McNest has seemed like a vacation home of sorts, because we pretty much just visit it on weekends, but then again not like a vacation home since I’ve never been on a vacation where I’ve worked harder than trying to get tanning oil onto the middle part of my back that I can’t reach.

We’re homeowners. Though we look (mainly me) and sometimes act (mainly him) like we are seventeen years old (just kidding ed), we’ve done made ourselves into grown ups and entered into the rest of the homeowning world. And we did it without having to sell all four of our kidneys to afford the closing costs!

So yeah – McNest is officially ours. We’re indebted to the bank, but we have a backyard. Since neither of us has become independently wealthy in the last couple of months, we’ll continue to work on McNest with our trusty team of non-professionals and provide you with more updates as they come along.

But for the rest of 2008, we’re gonna relax...what a concept!

Goin to the chapel...

2008-12-17T10:55:00.001-08:00

Update

2008-11-18T12:12:00.000-08:00

It's not that we've been purposely neglecting the blog. It’s just that we haven’t been working really. Well that’s not true – work has been done…so what it comes down to is what we’ve been doing over at McNest is so mind-numbingly boring that not only do we not want to do it (touch up paint with a paint by number brush) – we don’t even want to talk about doing it either. Honestly, when we’re not even fascinated by what we’re doing – we know you won’t be. The blog silence is for your own protection.

I find myself facing a slight motivational crisis everyday when I come home from work. I have found that there are many evenings where there is ample time and opportunity to do some sort of project at McNest. Yet I am only mentally prepared to take a nap and possibly watch an episode or two of John & Kate Plus 8. Therein lies my dilemma…what to do…what to do…

I vow to do better people.

In list form, here’s what I’d like to get done soon (or prior to our union as man and wife… or by the year 2012)
-tile in the kitchen, bathroom and laundry room
-paint kitchen cabinets and walls
-buy appliances (refrigerator, dishwasher, oven)
-buy furniture (couch, recliner, loooove seat, dining room table and chairs, bed)
-win lottery or sweepstakes that would allow me to do all of the above with minimal to no effort

I actually hope to have a real update by the beginning of next week for you all :)

First Impressions

2008-11-07T05:57:00.000-08:00

Why Good Day Readers!

It is with great giddiness and cheer that I make my debut as guest contributor on this sweet page.

For months and from a great distance I have eagerly watched the evolution of McNest - from sticky kitschy wall borders and vomit-inducing colors to its freshly coated and newly floored self. It's been fun to see, but of course I can say that because I have not been charged with a mortgage payment. And while Nikki and Eddie insist that there is still much to do, like the trees in their backyard, their efforts are already bearing fruit. It's going to be a home sweet home indeed.

And so I want to share with you my first impressions of McNest. For those of you who don't know me, I prefer (quite often) to share my worldly observations in the form of haiku.

Beginnings

A work in progress
comes into its own in time -
like they love y'all share.

Home Improvements

Walls come down. Ideas

begin to take shape. Your home -
there's no place like it.

Why I Heart McNest

Home sweet home awaits

visits from me and game nights.

My room is so sweet!

A First Home for All of Us

A place to gather

to eat, to play and to nap.

Our grown-up hangout.

First time was a great time...second time was a BLAST

2008-11-06T09:14:00.000-08:00

From the lack of posts, you can all probably use your brain power to deduce that we have not done a single thing on McNest to warrant any sort of update. Sad – yes. However it has provided us with time to do other things that are equally as noteworthy. And by we – I mean me. One of those things being – a trip straight back to 1989. Kristen & I went to the New Kids on the Block show in Charlotte the other nite. That’s right. I said it. NKOTB. Otherwise known as the five hardest working guys in show business.

Kristen and I fall directly in with the New Kids fan demographic – that being 25-30 year old women who were all around the impressionable age of 10 years old when New Kids struck gold as a boy band. We were accompanied by a few other thousand 20-30 year old females who all wanted to hitch a ride back to a time when neon colors were all the rage, side ponies rocked the hair scene, and sweatshirts came off the shoulders .

I’ll guestimate that approximately 20 guys were in the crowd. Total. And no I’m not kidding. It really shouldn’t surprise anyone that so few males were in attendance – who can blame them though. Manly men probably don’t get any kind of thrill from watching the vintage choreographed smokin’ hot dance moves of five white guys from Boston singing to their girlfriends and wives. The lack of guys did provide an awesome benefit though. Most of the men’s bathrooms were changed to women’s for the nite. Only at a NKOTB show folks…

There were many groups of girls walking around with some trashtastic 80’s gear on…leggings…leg warmers…big tshirts…neon colors…and some even crimped their hair (I remember those days). I rolled my eyes at first and then I contemplated reworking my own outfit to fit in. Peer pressure – gets to ya everytime. I wasn’t the only one. By the end of the show Kristen’s hair was in a side pony and I think I threw out a “rad.” If the New Kids were trying to give us a blast to the past – Mission Accomplished. I was surprised that we weren’t handed a slap bracelet when we entered the arena.

I was trying to figure out what exactly to write about in this post. Do I tell you about the crazy time we had getting there – including getting lost in downtown Charlotte’s one way streets, pulling into a parking lot straight out of Poltergeist, voluntarily getting in a line of cars to go thru a license check, leaving my camera in Kristen’s car, and paying fifteen dollars to park (after spending six to get out of Poltergeist parking lot). Or do I tell you about how the song “Step by Step” changed my life. I decided to just do a stream of consciousness blog of my thoughts about the show.

Though I do remember being a big fan of the group when I was round about the age of 9, I wasn’t what you would call an uber fan. Sure – I had the sleeping bag, trading cards and the lunch box, but I didn’t have the dolls nor did I have ripped out pages of Tiger Beat covering every inch of my bedroom walls. But when I had no trouble at all remembering (and singing outloud) all of the words to Cover Girl after more than 15 years, I realized maybe I was more than just a big fan.

For five guys knockin on 40s door – the New Kids definitely were like some fine wine (from what I hear) – they only got better with time. Though I laughed at the silliness of being there with the dressed up crowd…I was fully committed to enjoying myself for at least a few hours. And I did. Though I may have regressed back to my 9 year old self during some highlights of the show (Tonight, Hanging Tough, You’ve Got the Right Stuff), it was such a fun time. What made the show even better was that the New Kids seemed like they genuinely were having a good time and were sincerely appreciative of the crowd that showed up.

One confusing part of the concert was some sort of video homage to people who have died since the last time New Kids were on tour. Some of their family members were listed but also Tupac, Biggie, Kurt Cobain, Heath Ledger. I guess it was a good idea in theory, but it was a bit of a mood killer if you want me to be honest with you. When you go from a spinning stage to that – it just confuses the crowd. They should have slowed us step by step…. Oh that was good and you know it.

And just like in the late 80’s the New Kids encouraged us to stay positive when they sang “Games.” Joey Mac and a small choir of black folks encouraged us to have high self esteem. Those of us who drove multiple hours to get there and who are closer to celebrating 30 than we’d like to admit really appreciated this attempt to distract us from our current reality of actually being at a New Kids On The Block show. Also just like times past, Jordan decided to sing his solo song with an artificial breeze from a wind machine blowing open his white shirt. Talk about cheese-tastic. But fun.

I am so glad Kristen invited me to go with her. I think only we could truly enjoy this experience together. Sending us straight back to a time when my bangs were teased, my socks were slouched, and life was pretty much only as difficult as my next social studies quiz. Thanks Kristen. So even though it was around 3am in the morning when we got back home…it was all worth it! Like they say in one of our favoritie movies…“That was the most fun”

Me and My Boo at the Zoo

2008-10-10T06:14:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a date day and dates days are my most FAVORITE days. Since it was a day I was looking forward to, I of course woke up not feeling well at all. This tends to happen to me for all important events. Stomach virus two thanksgivings in a row which not only prevented me from having a turkey sandwich but also prevented me from shopping the day after. You know that it was serious if I wasn’t shopping. There’s no joking about that.

Eddie got me a ginger ale and I packed a baggy full of saltine crackers and we decided to give it a go. So we headed off to Cola to the zoo. Yup – the zoo – a place where they keep the animals in captivity so that the public can stare at them from behind a fence. Of course I totally prefer this option over seeing them in the wild – mainly because in the wild there is a higher possibility that the animals can run after you and eat you. I’ll take my chances at the zoo thanks. Another reason to visit the zoo – they have animals from other countries – and since I don’t have a travel budget – nor do I ride airplanes - I’m sort of limited to possibly ever seeing US, Canadian and Mexican animals. I really wanted to see the Koala (originally from Australia) so we probably saved thousands of dollars in air fare and hotels by seeing the fuzzy little thing two hours away from home at Riverbanks instead of going to Sydney.

I bought Eddie a behind the scenes tour last year as part of his Christmas and we decided that since this was the only free weekend we’d have before it expired then why not head on down. I made it through the car trip and once we arrived I still felt kind of crappy, but I forged on. It was sort of hot and the sight of two hundred billion other people all wandering through the gates didn’t help matters much. Eighty degrees, lots of hot sweaty people and lots of hot sweaty animals. Awesome – we maybe should have just stayed home and watched Animal Planet.

We had some time to look around before our tour started so off we went. Now that I look back, I realize that the highlight of the day for most people had to have been at the Riverbanks farm where we not only saw a cow but could pet it too. Some of those kids about lost their minds over the cow. Never mind about the endangered birds or the lion cubs right down the path – the cow was awesome. And we could have seen it at home.

We also went through this really weird enclosure thing where there were flocks of birds just flying around inside. The good folks at the zoo allowed regular joe people to go in and feed them or interact with them. I would have rather pulled my eyelashes out one by one than walk through that enclosure where the possibility of having my eyes pecked out was more real than not real. However, being the awesome fiancée that I am, I gave it a try. But you know what? Those birds didn’t even go on about their birdy business. They just kinda sat there looking bored. Thank goodness we didn’t buy the food to feed them. That is when they would swarm near you. I’m not into that. They were however really really pretty (as seen here). PS – thanks Lisa for the use of your camera for the day.

We were able to get up close and personal with the giraffes – they are so pretty – no wonder Dooney & Bourke wanted to use them to make purse patterns from. Seriously – this picture is not zoomed in at all. He (or she) was just right there all up in my face waiting for me to feed him (or her). I would have liked to have gotten there a little earlier so that we could have actually fed one. Did you know that giraffes can lick their own ears? They can. Regina told me, and as you all know she is an ocean of useless knowledge. She is the reason that I also know that coke was originally green in color.

Our behind the scenes tour was with the elephants. We went to the elephant barn and were able to meet the elephants and their trainers. The elephants are always behind those bars. The trainers never have free interaction with them like at the circus. It’s all about safety folks. I mean they weigh a ton. They did a few tricks for us though. They are so well trained, and we learned loads of interesting facts about them. I don’t remember any now that I’m writing this, but there were some I promise. On our way out we saw a painting that one of the elephants had done. They give them giant paint brushes which they can hold with their trunk, and then they can swirl the paintbrush on the canvas and make some pretty cool art work. Who knew elephants were so creative and artistic?

After the tour in the barn...I got to ride one of the elephants! It was all I ever dreamed it would be. Eddie got to hang out with some monkeys. All in all it was a good time. Our little group of 10 got to do some really neat things in "Employee Only" accessible places. It was definitely nice to not be in a crowd, especially when that crowd is standing really close together in hot weather.

We also got to feed some meerkats. They were cute little things, however don’t let that cuteness fool you. They eat worms…and centipedes…and other gross things. Oh seriously we get to feed them? Awesome. I tried to just take pictures of Eddie feeding them, but I didn’t want to be outshined by the 5 year old in our group so I let our guide put a worm in my hand and I tossed it to the meerkats. Gross :) Last stop of the tour was the animal hospital – or as Eddie and I would say Animal Doctor Movie. It was definitely interesting seeing the charts for the animal patients (whose ailments varied from arthritis and diabetes to hairballs). We also got to see some xrays. The craziest one by far was of a monkey that hasn’t been eating and was acting pretty sick. They brought him in to check him out and what do they find inside….41 pennies…. Isn’t that crazy!

I think it was after the tour that we had a dippin dot break – but I honestly can’t remember an actual timeline of events. I do however remember that the dippin dots were quite tasty. We decided to finish seeing the animals. A lot of animals must have sensed me and Eddie’s presence when we approached – because they would lay down and take a little nap to show that they were kindred spirits with us. We appreciated that. The little koalas slept practically the entire day away while lounging on their eucalyptus branches. Too cute right? I wanted to take one home. The turtles also put on quite a show I must say. Since neither of us paid attention that day in Biology when the teacher went over reproductive skills of turtles, it was the perfect day for us to see a real life demonstration. Parents were ushering their little kids right on past that “exhibit.” I’ll not be posting a picture of that action, but I will post one of Eddie hitching a ride from one of them.

I think our last stop was the bird house. I actually enjoyed the bird house since the birds were behind glass. I hearted seeing the little penguins diving into the water and knowing that one wasn’t going to run after me and attack me below the knees. I also really enjoyed seeing the peacocks. They were so pretty. One of them stared me right in the eye. I didn’t dare look away because I read or heard or maybe made up in my head that if you break eye contact with a mountain lion it will attack you. I’m not sure if the same applies to peacocks, but I didn’t want to take any chances.

I think the last animal we saw was the tiger. It was also one of the first we saw. It was asleep both times. I wanted to see it being all ferocious and GGGGGGGGRRRREAATTTTTTT! But alas, it was chilled out on a ledge in the shade. So instead I had to be all ferocious, and then I had to get Eddie in on the action too (but he won’t let me put his picture on here) :) There is one though…for blackmail purposes … just kiddin love! We had such a fun time. I think I’d like to go back and do a different animal tour next year – like an animal that doesn’t weigh over 900 lbs or something – maybe a penguin!

Sheet Rock My World

2008-10-01T07:33:00.001-07:00

So the sheetrock guy rocked – literally! I told you people earlier that this was the first time we hired someone out to complete a project for us and needless to say – he got that project done way faster than we would have. It was lovely to see progress happen so quickly and at such a steady pace. Things like that don’t usually happen like that here.

I feel that over the course of this sheetrock project I have learned a thing or two or twenty about the topic and I’d like to share my findings with you. The whole sheetrock process pretty much consists of the following…smear mud over tape seams and screws…let it dry…sand it….smear on some more mud…let it dry….sand it….smear on even more mud…you get the picture. It sounds easy and honestly the mud looks like a huge container of cake icing….but there is nothing easy or delightfully tasty about it.

But guess what? Sheetrock guy finished up the bathroom and the den and now I can go to sleep at nite in McNest without worrying if the walls will fall down on top of us while we watch tv or take a shower. Bonus!

Moving on…our progress sometimes seems slow – painfully slow. I did some mental calculations this weekend to determine whether or not we’ll be able to live in McNest by March. I got confused converting project time into days and months, so I pulled out a Magic 8 ball and asked it instead. Of course it gave me a non-committal answer (reply hazy – try again). So I shook it again and got an affirmative answer that I liked better (It is decidedly so). Of course this is the same ball that told me that “yes definitely” a perm was a good idea in Junior High and boy was that ever a bad idea. So I’m not sure how reliable it is.

I’ve been struggling to emit any sort of productivity in regards to McNest (as evidenced by the lack of renovation posts). I got a small surge of energy from my Bagulful this morning(mmm thanks Kraft!) which inspired me to blog and tell you all something to keep you coming back for more, but that’s pretty much all I am good for. I’ll need more than a little carbohydrate high to do something productive house wise. We did meet up Monday evening to do a little painting of the orange persuasion. I feel like I’m the slowest painter on earth – I think it has to do with being a perfectionist. Eddie on the other hand is a speed painter. I’m almost afraid to stand still in front of him because he might slap a coat of Autumn Rust right on me.

Last night we started to put down the flooring in the dining room, and by we I mean Eddie and Cheryl. It may come as a surprise to you, but I’m not exactly qualified to put down a floor. I know right?! Reason 1 – I have no idea how to do that. Though I could google a “how to” article on putting down flooring I just really don’t think it would qualify me to put together a structure that is so complex and that people will actually use. I mean I could google how to perform open heart surgery but would you trust this face to do that? No. Reason 2 being it clearly falls under the realm of construction. Construction is not only hard but it’s dangerous. I’m used to sitting behind a desk all day. Not risking injuries. And construction sometimes involves wearing a hard hat. Oddly enough, that does little for this girl’s looks.

We still have a lot ahead of us, but I feel confident that it’ll all work out eventually. We may or may not be able to complete ALL of the things that we’re hoping to do (so I’ll be vague about future plans as to avoid embarrassment later). But soon I have the feeling that we’ll be joining the ranks of proud home owners worldwide! The Magic 8 ball says “without a doubt” :)

When Do Nothings Do Something

2008-09-25T09:40:00.000-07:00

In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth… From dust He formed man… from the creation man, man in his infinite wisdom began to screw up… When man brought sin into the world man was punished by having to work hard for the rest of his existence… And here we are today suffering the consequences of “free will”… (no charge for the short and sweet theological discussion)

I started working at the young age of 14… I have had various jobs, of which have not always been my favorite, but they have given me little patches of knowledge that I randomly use today… I tried construction the summer after I turned 14… Boo I hated that, I quit that job every morning when Cheryl woke me up…

I learned rather quickly that I’m not very builder friendly, not that I couldn’t lift heavy stuff or drive a nail, but rather that heat and physical labor wasn’t for me… So we moved on to electrical wiring… This lasted perhaps 2 weeks because of how awesomely thrilling it was not… And let’s just say that my boss (AKA Scott) was less than desirable to work with…

I did manage to lay hardwood floors for a year, but even that paycheck lost its luxurious luster after a while… The rest of my time has been spent in and out of restaurants… Needless to say I am a huge winner in life can’t ya tell??? I’m sure that you aren’t interested in a biography of me, so I’ll get to the point…

So here we are all grown up and ready to embark on a new journey… Full of ambition and fairytale beginnings, hopes and dreams of what life has in store, eager to start a family and make a home… I found the greatest gal who accepted my proposal, and loves the house that we decided that we could make our own… We just forgot probably the most important thing… “We are poor”… Oh and neither of us dig the manual labor…

We are those people who like to conserve our limited amounts of energy by taking a nice nap or catching up on a TV series by watching the DVD because we hate commercials… Oh its true people… We have some awesome plans for the house, but no one to fulfill them for us because free labor is so hard to find these days… Therefore we are faced with the worst possible scenario… “Do it ourselves”???? Are you kidding me?

After a long day at “The Office” (awesome show if you haven’t seen it you should give it a try) who wants to deprive themselves of relaxation to do more work… As active members of the “We do nothing club”, we think there should be a petition to the government for the free labor of those people that we pay for all year long who have an “excuse” for not working… (And he steps down from the soap box)

At first it was hard to get used to, but as things are progressing and looking more the way we’d like them to, I must say that the times we spend working on McNest are the best for us… We’ve not only started our life in a sense, but we have also created many memories that we’ll cherish for a life time… Although we may not agree on everything (picking colors and décor), at the end of the day we’ve realized that we make a great team… You never know what might happen through this crazy process, but I kinda look forward to it… We are not sure what the end product will be exactly, but “When do nothings do something” who could tell anyway???

Hubby2b

Waving the We Want Wedding Wand

2008-09-12T11:56:00.000-07:00

So apparently my public desires more posting of what’s going on with me and Ed – but where are you in the comments section public? How am I to know these things unless you tell me directly :)

I guess I’ll fill you all in on what we did the other weekend. We ventured into the world of wedding registries. What is the point of this you ask? Well the point is to imagine how good McNest is going to look one day when we put something in its empty rooms :) It was a little overwhelming, but I guess that is to be expected when you’re pretty much starting from scratch. Eddie and I both live at our parents houses so basically we’re coming to McNest with nothing more than clothes, shoes, and dvds – and when I say nothing more – I really mean far more than the average person should have.

We decided to go to Target first, where we met with an unenthusiastic girl behind the customer service desk who told us in monotone about the rules of registering. Honestly – show some excitement here – I’m getting married! I didn’t really hear the rules, because I was already picturing myself running off down the aisles with the scanner gun zapping bar codes and beaming things to our wedding wish list. I pretty much had one goal – look for something understated and mid range that didn’t put off a vibe of overinflated sense of self worth. I think Eddie’s goal was to look for anything that looked like it could decorate a safari room (just kidding love!). Our tastes and styles are different but I guess that’s all part of what makes us interesting together :)

Since I’m practicing the art of sacrificial love, I let Eddie have the scanner gun. I figured he would understand how it works better than I did anyways (it has buttons just like a remote – so he should totally know what he’s doing). Plus I wasn’t sure how into the whole registry thing he would be, and I thought maybe the scanner gun would remind him of the Nintendo Duck Hunt game and he’d think it was fun like video games.

I think we probably should have done some homework before we ever started. Not knowing the difference between non-stick, stainless, copper and anodized (I had to look up the spelling on that one) pans made it hard to know which ones we would choose. However , knowing each others cooking habits did help out in the end. My cooking habits consist of not cooking, while Eddie’s consist of master culinary chef skills (hands off ladies – he’s all mine). So basically it was all me when it came to picking out a toaster and microwave (yes baby I can make you toast and heat up a Hungry Man meal for you in just a couple of minutes). When it came to actual cookware, that was all him. Eddie also took care of the coffee maker since I hate coffee, but he finds it a necessary part of life.

I didn’t find a cake stand that I like yet (which is essential since I plan on wearing an apron and doing much baking), but I did register for many knives and other food accessories that I vow to figure out how to use and will think of whoever bought me that vegetable peeler each time I use it. Eddie graciously let me scan a few items. Bad idea. I was completely overcome by the combination of power and desire that the scanner gun gave me. I went from being simple and understated to …what a waffle iron ? YES!!! A self service ice cream maker? YES! We must have it! A juicer? -Wouldn’t be caught dead without one! SCAN IT ALL EDDIE SCAN IT ALL! !!

I’m kidding by the way. We didn’t scan the waffle iron, the ice cream maker (sadness) or the juicer. I came down from my registry-high, and we went on our way buying classic registry items such as dish towels, knives, glasses and wall art (pretty see?). Later on I started getting nervous about the registry. Why? Well because this is all some people will ever know about me. They will judge me for eternity based on what sort of blender I chose and what the thread count is on the sheets I picked out. It was almost enough pressure for me to delete the whole list, but I didn’t. Mainly because I didn’t know how.

We thought that the whole registry thing would be a piece of cake and take about an hour. Three hours later when Target closed for the evening, we weren’t even done, and I have no clue what is on the list. I’m not sure if Eddie scanned stuff when I was turned around or not. If there are TV seasons on DVD listed on there – he did it!! If there are items of clothing – my bad!! Just kidding :) We still have to go modify the list (thank goodness you can do it online – I’m computer savvy to say the least), and figure out what should have been on there and maybe what’s not supposed to be. We’re new at this ya know.

It really was fun imagining how things would one day look in McNest and what kinds of food he…I mean we…will make in our new cookware. I can’t wait til our happily ever after :)

You're a Winner Either Way!

2008-09-02T13:06:00.000-07:00

Not a lot of progress on McNest this holiday weekend due to a couple of things…paintballing on Saturday…and laziness on Labor Day (ironic? Yes).
This post isn’t going to have a lot to do with home improvements…sorry fans! I want to talk about paintball instead. Our church youth group voted on this activity as a back to school event, so that’s how it all started. What better than a friendly game of aggression to get the church kids to come together and fellowship with each other.

Now I have never been paintballing before in my entire 28 years, but it sounded like something fun and worth experiencing at least once in my life (kind of like buying a real pair of Manolo Blahniks or getting front row seats to a New Kids on the Block concert). Oh yeah, that and the fact that I didn’t want my 6th and 7th graders making me feeling like a wuss if I didn’t play.

We headed out from the church and arrived at New Gen relatively early for a Saturday morning. Brit and I were the only girl “leaders” who were going to play. Here we are before any of it started. Pretty hair and makeup still intact. Right after this photo was taken we were taken into a little room and some paintball professional guy explained how everything worked. I didn’t really hear anything other than “it will hurt” … “you’ll get your eye shot out” … and “raise your hand when you get hit or want out of the game”… fun!!

I pretty much knew all I needed to know though. Basically the goal of paintball is simple. Shoot everyone else without getting shot :) Then he told us to put on these terrible face masks. Eddie had to help me out with that one. Obviously it was super attractive which caused him to laugh in my face as he adjusted it on my head. Bye bye good hair day.

We headed outside into what I can only describe Saharan Desert high temperatures. Who planned this trip during the hottest time of the year? Oh yeah…us. We split into teams and ran (who am I kidding I walked) out onto the fields. I planned on hiding behind the closest barricade (mainly because it was the closest – but secondly because I thought if I was further away I wouldn’t get hit). My style of paintballing can be described as less precision shooting…more volume shooting. I just fired and fired and fired. Not really aiming at anything, because I couldn’t really see out of the mask anyways.

The first time I was shot…it was a hit to the head. Yes…you read that right. Adam fired away and orange paint splattered right onto the part of my head that wasn’t protected by a terribly ugly mask. I remembered to hold my hand up and I walked off the field. It didn’t hurt at all! I was super psyched about that. The next game started and I assumed my sniper position again. I was trying to aim at a kid that I thought was Craig. I totally got him. I would like to say that it was skill…but since I was merely shooting in his general direction and not expecting to hit anything I’m thinking it was luck. Still – pretty psyched about that good luck.

That feeling lasted approximately 2 seconds when all of the sudden I felt a burning sensation on my right arm. It felt like I had been stung by an entire hive of bees. The pain was excruciating for about five seconds, then it pretty much went away. And the kid wasn’t even Craig – but new kid Caleb. Apparently I shot him twice – once in the neck and once in the side – Welcome to the youth group Caleb!

We played a few more games after that. I got shot a few more times and did some more shooting of my own. By this time my internal body temperature had to have been around 212 degrees…my makeup had melted off my face…and my hair can only be described as tragic. As I sat on a little grassy hill watching the kids load their guns for the last game…I tried to decide if I should go ahead and throw up from heat exhaustion or try to play the last game with the kids. Afterall – I didn’t want to be a wimp at the very end. Totally should have. Once I put that mask back on my face, I felt like I was going to suffocate. Basically I sat behind the barricade and just pulled the trigger over and over and over. I was either going to hit someone or run out of paintballs. I didn’t care at that point.

Game over. A quick trip to McDonalds and then a devotion at the church ended the days youth activities. Eddie and I planned to go to his house and jump in the pool. Good plan – but what actually happened was a three hour nap instead. The next morning I realized that I had been hit a few more times that I had originally thought. My legs were so sore that I briefly considered staying in bed the entire day. But I didn’t. So yeah, I may have a few battle wounds, and my body temperature still hasn’t returned to normal…but I survived. And it was actually pretty fun :) Oh and if you’re still waiting on that after picture – wait on :)

Yes!

2008-08-29T05:23:00.000-07:00

Surely you know the story of our engagement if you have been directed to this site by me or Eddie...but if not...I hope this picture says it all.

99 gallons of mud on the wall...99 gallons of mud...

2008-08-28T05:59:00.000-07:00

Though I’m well known for my ability to create cuteness and crafts (as well as my humbleness), I have decided that some DIY house projects are just not for us. For those that don’t know DIY is the acronym for Do it Yourself. Don’t get me wrong. I do think that Eddie and I should do things for ourselves…you know make huge efforts to create an environment in which every single thing in McNest hasn’t been mass produced in an Asian country or have been completed by experts and professionals that charge us so much money that we have to have our lives mortaged to the bank for an eternity. Case in point - we painted our own room. Here's an after of the Green Room taken last nite (I learned how to use the timer on the camera to get us both in the shot). We definitely want our company to feel that personal touch through out the house. I just don’t want that personal touch to be like painted over duct tape holding the sheetrock up.

I know that a number of people in the world (me included) find it incredibly satisfying to create things for themselves. I agree that it’s absolutely ridiculous to spend money on say…a professional curtain hanger when I feel completely confident to like hang them up on my own. I am pretty sure that if I have any issues hanging blinds or something I can look up a tutorial on YouTube to help me. With Cheryl’s help, Eddie hung the drywall (good job babe!) and decided to start taping, mudding, and sanding. None of these tasks are in my skill set and since my skill set abilities are questionable anyways, I stuck to taking pictures of the progress (I did it for you…dear friends…for you).

So here we are…living on the edge…and daring to do it ourselves! There totally are benefits to it … working to reach the shared goal of creating a place that feels like home… having the same focus…getting outside our comfort zones…being proud of what we can do together…saving a dollar. One little problem though… we’re sometimes not very good at knowing our own limits. And though we don’t want to hire out when we can hire in… I think the time has come to DISE – or Do it Someone Else. While we remain tough and committed to other projects, we have decided to have Someone Else do our drywall and sheetrock stuff. Tonight we meet Someone Else…and hopefully I won’t have to sell a kidney to pay him for his drywall services.

For serious renovators like us…this definitely wasn’t an easy decision. There are two goals that all renovators (and yes I speak for renovators across America) strive for: to do good work and to do that work quickly. I’m thinking we didn’t really come all that close on this project. When you look at the things we want for McNest… namely walls that will stand… and walls that are smooth and ready to be painted and beautiful…(and maybe a swimming pool one day…oh and granite countertops) it’s in everyone’s best interest. Though I do have serious doubts about the whole drywall thing in general. Who knew that the walls of our homes are only slightly more substantial than a hunk of chalk! I feel like I’m going to be tiptoeing around the house as it is in order not to fall into said walls and knock our bedroom down or something.

Honestly…it’s powdered rock people. You can cut it with a box cutter (which I have in a lovely flowery print along with matching hammer, screwdriver, tape measure and other tool thing in a lovely set purchased at Belk – thanks mom!) At any rate, we’ll still steady work on the other tasks in this whole renovating process… there are many other sundry jobs that we will try out 24 different methods for doing and make multiple trips to Lowe’s for each one of these projects, all the while still enjoying that magical feeling of our wallets emptying. We’ll let you know how the meeting with Someone Else goes.

Update

2008-08-27T10:57:00.000-07:00

Have you missed us? Sorry that we’ve been MIA for a little while, but real life called and Eddie had to get back to the singing and I had to get back to… uh…well me and Amanda went back to shopping :) But since we were at Target and we looked at small appliances (which I’m really feeling the need to register for this soft service ice cream maker for the kitchen) it was technically related to McNest – so I’ve still been steady at it.

But yeah back to why you are here. You want a housing update right? So I’ll get to it. I’ve said before that the whole home improvement thing is really a lot of decision making. There are many things I can make…cupcakes…cute flair buttons...scrapbook pages…cute photoshopped pictures of Eddie as a pirate….but when it comes to making one decision after another… I’m not so good at that. I have learned through the course of our improvements, that if you don’t like to make decisions you should really just learn to love the house you have as it is. I want nothing more than to love McNest unconditionally, but with the whole naked walls and bare floors thing going on it ain’t gonna happen. :)

I’ve been anxious to start on something new, so Monday nite – Eddie and I went to Lowe’s to pick out (and decide) on paint colors for the remaining rooms downstairs (kitchen, dining room, bathroom). Shopping together has definitely taught me a few things. I’ve learned that Eddie likes to be inspired and has an idea in his head about what he is looking for and what styles and colors that he wants. I pretty much come to the big paint terminal at Lowe’s and have my magazines marked with exact replicas of rooms I would like to recreate. Our styles are a little different that’s for sure. But it’s all about a balance. Eddie’s been a real pro at picking out paint colors thus far since I manage to get overwhelmed easily while staring at 84 different shades of yellow.

We picked out paint and last nite started painting the one room that didn’t require sheetrocking, sanding, puttying, taping and other jobs that I don’t even know anything about. You know some people buy houses and find money in the walls or high dollar antiques …not us. So far we’ve found black holes and vortexes of doom that suck all of the money out of our bank accounts. You’re only gonna get some before pictures on this one since I am waiting until it all dries for an after. So here we are before. I thought I was good at painting until I started. I mean the bedroom walls turned out pretty good.

However this time, I pretty much had the paint going on everything I didn’t want it to go on. For example, my face…the floor…and oh yeah how could I forget the ceiling! I’ll just go to another wall…oops now I’ve got it on the chair rail… I better go get a paper towel to clean that off…oh now I’ve tracked it into the kitchen…better wipe that up before Eddie sees…oh crap I just leaned against the wall… need to run to the bathroom and get that off my arm…oops stepped into the paint… you get the picture people.

And there’s Eddie…just painting away perfectly all of his walls… how annoying right?! He could at least do something unperfect so that I would feel better about myself. Eventually he did…and it was all good.

I really think I’m going to like the color once it all dries. It will darken up some and be a lovely contrast to its neighboring rooms (which one day hopefully will be finished … Lord willing before I move in).

So I’ll leave you with one more photo and another life’s lesson to take with you. Documenting our journey with this house not only serves to chronicle McNest’s evolution into a home…but it documents our own journey as husband and wife to be. Oh…and I’ve found that the best way to deal with the mounting anxiety over decision making and unfinished ginormous projects is to fantasize about wedding registries and all of the fun things (I mean really…soft serve ice cream in your own house) that are to come.

Lazy Boy (& Girl)

2008-08-11T08:28:00.000-07:00

This weekend we took a little trip into the serious furniture shopping world. Since what we have now consists of a yard sale coffee table and 4 camping chairs, we both agreed that we could use a few more items to spruce up McNest. Being nearlyweds is a funny thing. I’ve found that there are many, many super generous people who want to give us stuff that they no longer want. Believe me we definitely appreciate the generosity! If it’s free it’s for me is a motto we like to use these days. However, I don’t want all of our furniture to be classified as Early American Bargain Basement.

Furniture shopping is a lot of things…but I think I’ve found that it is mostly exciting, entertaining and expensive. You really have to have a goal – our goal was to find pieces that really expressed who we are. So basically we were looking for furniture that screamed “we are nap people.”

A quick trip to a local furniture dealer got us started and then across the street we found our first rude awakening. Apparently we walked right into the Biltmore House Furniture Company. Dark woods, deep leathers, and daunting prices surrounded us. Needless to say – it was a little bit more upscale than what we were going for. The first chair (chair in the singular – as in one chair) we came to costs a little over $1,000 (on sale no less!). There was nothing special about it. It didn’t do any sort of tricks or like come with 3 more that looked just like it. For the first time in my life my materialistic desires were outweighed by my desire to save money.

It’s harder than you might think. We looked at a little bit of everything, but ended up focusing on couches and recliners. Snuggling up in a camping chair just isn’t going to cut it forever. Comfort and relaxation hold a dear place in Eddie’s life (and in mine) so we spent many hours sitting down and relaxing just like we were at home. You really must try it all out before you buy it. We definitely didn’t want to buy the most beautiful couch and recliner set on the showroom floor only to get them back to McNest and on the first recline find that they are not nearly as comfortable as they are pretty.

We tested them for comfort. I developed an ideal squishiness (shout out to Meredith!) to firmness ratio that I was working with during each test. You don’t want hard as a rock, but you don’t want to sink so far down that you need additional help to get up from it either. Eddie tested the lean your head back and zone out capabilities. I tested the napability factor of the couches (since that is where I tend to do my most productive sleeping). I guess if you really get down to it – we’re looking for a couch and recliner that have all of the features of a comfortable bed. I mean we could try to be all different and cool and new age trendy and put beds into the living room for our company to come chill out on, but I’m thinking that’s totally not socially acceptable :)

At any rate, we found many things we liked that came with prices that we didn’t like. I loved the oversized chairs – especially the round ones that swivel – fun times! Not practical in the least – but sometimes I like to throw caution to the wind. Mostly – we do agree on what we want – now we’re just on the hunt for who has it at “our price.”

If all else fails, we can just take a bunch of floor pillows and arrange them into a couch- shape. We’re non-traditional like that yo.

My Good Thing

2008-08-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

So lately I’ve been having a love affair with Martha Stewart Living and Cottage Living magazines. Basically I just flip through the pages and create the perfect rooms in my head, and I dream of buying things that I’ll probably never buy – like a lovely buffet table that cost more than my four years of attending college. Good Thing that is NOT Martha!

I’ll let you in on a little secret. I’m very visual. Pretty much when Eddie asks me what I like – I google “pretty laundry room” or “super fabulous furniture” and send him a photo. I realize this may make it harder in the long run trying to match everything in the picture instead of just giving a general idea of what I like, but it’s how I work. It’s just so hard for me to visualize what our home is actually going to look like when it’s all done getting its not so extreme home makeover.

However, there was a glimpse into McNest’s future that was made last week.

The bedroom used to look like this. I’m gonna just be honest and say – not my favorite. As you can see from the photo, we had no floors...one white wall...one green wall...one wallpaper border (see previous entries for my feelings about that)...and lots of unprettiness! I just knew it would never look like the cozy bedroom hideaway pictured on page 58 in Southern Home Living magazine.

But now…after some paint, some trim work, and some hard working Hansons putting down a floor, here’s what we have. Hello pretty! Progress that I can see – I love it. This is the part of home renovating that I love…yet hate. I now realize how great things really are going to be, but I also have become more aware of how long it’s going to take to finish everything. I want to hire Ty Pennington and his team to come in and just get it all done overnight.

Now though that the room is practically ready for me to move into (I kid I kid) I totally have shopping on the brain. I know you’re thinking when do I not have shopping on the brain, but I’m talking about shopping for home décor people! Bring on the Rooms to Go, Ashley Furniture, World Market, and Pier 1! I’m not interested in heading to JCrew, Banana Republic and American Eagle (though if they were on the way I could just run in real quick and pick up a top or something). I want to take a day off and wander around furniture stores looking for a bed, dresser and nite stands. I want to purchase a pretty rug. I want to find closet organizers. I want pretty accessories!

I want to spend too much money and single handedly revive our flailing economy on my own!

You can thank me later.

Hi...My Name Is

2008-07-31T12:45:00.000-07:00

So due to the astronomical prices of building contractors and professional painters in combination with our willingness to start projects in which we have no expertise in whatsoever, hubby to be and I (along with a crackerjack team of other non-professionals) are doing the majority of our renovating and home improving on our own.

Now seems like an appropriate time to reveal the name of our house, because really…what better time is there than at the beginning of a post revolving around said subject. So after a rather lengthy text conversation (two in all) and after considering countless name suggestions (again…two), one name really seemed to capture us and our soon to be home just perfectly. So from now on we’ll refer to our house as McNest – a tribute to Grey’s Anatomy terminology and a cute name for our cozy retreat (and we know I love cuteness).

Renovating is a rather new experience for me. As time goes by, walls go down, walls go up and so on and so forth – we’re pretty much being offered a fresh start – a blank slate you might say. Know what comes with a blank slate? Lots of options. Don’t get me wrong, I love the opportunity to do just what we want to McNest. However, as many of you know, I sometimes tend to be a tad bit indecisive. This is evidenced by the fact that I have been trying since the day after we were engaged to decide on a paint color for the kitchen. Here we are 47 days later and still no progress made on that front.

Some might also say that I tend to sometimes possibly be a little bit on the melodramatic side. Who me? What? It’s true. When I walk into McNest, my brain goes into overdrive and starts composing to-do lists to cover all of the stuff that needs to be done. It is just simply overwhelming the way my mind works – allowing absolutely no room to focus on anything more than completing the whole renovation at once and if at all possible by the end of the week. Flight of the Bumblebee starts playing in my head and the room starts spinning (not really – but it makes for good effect while writing – me dramatic? Never).

At times like that I have to remember to breathe (luckily I learned how to treat hyperventilating while at my surprise birthday/engagement party so I’m an expert at calming myself down). Then figure out what task I’m going to work on (or Eddie is going to work on), and then be happy when we accomplish something (yes! I totally succeeded in putting the outlet covers back on – I rock!)

So yeah – renovations have proven to be a lot of things – stressful (how’s it gonna get done), frustrating (dumb wallpaper), and difficult (dumb wallpaper). But the renovations have also give us much to laugh about (dumb wallpaper), given us some fun times (painting), and have been pretty rewarding even this early on.

I want McNest to have character, and I’m thinking between the two of us – it’ll have just that ;)

The Dark Side of Gardening

2008-07-28T12:32:00.000-07:00

Now that I am an expert in gardening (the Miracle Gro really does work y’all!), I have been enlightened by many things…things I’d like to share with you faithful three readers.

Oh yes…the beauty and tranquility that the lovely blooms in my front yard have created in my neighborhood have surely moved us right on up to the top tier of our homeowner’s association and right onto the cover of Home & Garden (not really – but it’s my blog and I can say what I want to).

Don’t be fooled though. There is a dark side to a gardener’s world. It’s not all a rosy colored world full of coordinated gloves and gardening shoes. No…there are serious crimes that await … misdemeanors in the making…and the scene of the crime you ask? That would be my front yard.

Apparently someone’s under the assumption that “your daisy is my daisy” as my perfectly beautiful red bloom has been plucked away… leaving just a green stem to stand all alone. Eddie broke the news to me gently…but still it hurt. It was only a day before the crime that I had sent him a cell phone photo of our red daisy saying how happy I was that the Miracle Gro had in fact worked a miracle and we had a pretty flowers to show for it. Did the person who stole my flower not think I would notice? Honestly...there are like only 3 plants that are actually still alive...it would have been impossible for me not notice it was gone!

Um excuse me neighbor people, but my garden (and I use that term loosely) is NOT a collection of free horticultural samples for the taking. I’m not trying to say that my daisies are like part of my possessions (well yes I am)… but I am saying that they should not be stolen.

Part of the joy in planting and (always and forever) watering all of the flowers is knowing what will come…the anticipation of one day showing up and lovely shades of pink, purple, orange, yellow and red have exploded and blossomed overnite. Such a beautiful sight really…and not just for me… they are for the neighbors and drivers-by (hi ice cream truck driver!) also… I want them to enjoy all the beauty too…but someone took away that joy for me and for others.

What was this person thinking when they stole my flower - the daisy that could have brought so many people smiles and warm fuzzies should they walk or drive by our house and glance in its direction? I almost wouldn’t be so bothered by it except it wasn’t like the whole stalk was ripped out on an impulse…this flower crime was clearly premeditated. I wouldn’t be surprised if they brought their own outdoor scissors.

You know…if someone wants a flower…they should really just ask me…
I’m of the kind-hearted set of folk who would be happy to share the beauty of my garden with others. I would run into the house and get my garden scissors and arrange a lovely bouquet of flowers and greenery…all the while chatting about the many intricacies of soil and petals and all sorts of flowery things I’ve learned in the past month.

After this incident though, I’m almost considering putting up a fence or a moat or something … a barrier to protect my plants from those flower traffickers. Florists should really be aware of where their suppliers are getting their goods – possibly out of the yards of unsuspecting gardening novices like myself.

Call it Hoover because Wallpaper Sucks

2008-07-21T09:13:00.000-07:00

(this one is long...prepare yourself)

Who knew that house renovations could take so much out of a person – I’m not only tired … and sore…but I broke three nails in the process and will forever have a deep seated hatred for vinyl-coated wall coverings of any sort.

Fridays prior to house renovations used to consist of date nites…I’d get my nails done…maybe we’d have dinner downtown, go see a movie, have a nite in watching Grey’s…or maybe even go to a concert to hear some of our favorite music…take a swim in the pool…just fun stuff

Want to know what this Friday nite was like? This face should say it all.

Our house has wallpaper in three areas…a border in the bedroom…a floral print in the dining room, and a circa 1980 print in the kitchen. Friday nite’s sole purpose was to rid the walls of the paper so that we could finish our painting (and move me ever closer to the decorating stage that I’m so looking forward to)

Keep in mind that I have no idea about any type of home improvement methods of doing this…however I have seen the television show Home Improvement and I’ve watched Trading Spaces and Flip this House so I thought that whatever we were doing would take about 30 minutes to an hour (that’s how long those jokers on tv take!)… I was thinking we’d rip the junk off in a snap…

Eddie showed up at the house with a spray bottle filled with what I thought would be miracle wall paper remover ...in actuality it was filled with vinegar…which when mixed with warm water…then sprayed on wallpaper… should just make the stuff peel right off ...Nothing is ever as easy as it seems… what I thought would be a quick rip and peel away turned into hours of tedious scraping

I realize that before my house can become beautiful that things may have to get ugly…and ugly it was!

Ugly and tricky. When that first layer of wall paper comes off you’re thinking woohoo yay success…until you notice that layer underneath still stuck to the wall with cement apparently. And when that crap finally does come off the wall it’s like papier mache… it’s wet and gooey and gluey…and gross…and it wants to stick to your fingers…your hands…your hair…your clothes…your floor…the wall that has already been scrapped….the bottom of your feet… everywhere

Not to mention how hard some of it was to get too...ladders to reach high borders...crawling all over counter tops to get under cabinets....Oh and that was the good part…

Some of the paper was so cemented to the wall that it didn’t come off in strips…no…we had to scrap it off in like little half inch pieces (talk about making quick progress)…and bonus…some of those little pieces came off the wall and took a nice big chunk of sheetrock off with them.
So yeah hours (and I do mean hours) after scoring, spraying, scraping, and swearing(kidding) +(alliteration bonus) …the wallpaper and most of the mess underneath it was off the walls...

Since we mangled the sheetrock underneath it in the kitchen… there’ll be some scrubbing of glue…sanding…patching and priming in our future (guess I know what we’re doing Friday nite).

In conclusion…wallpaper sucks.
If I ever go to prison (though highly unlikely…it’s possible – even Martha Stewart went)… the worst possible punishment I can imagine would be stripping wallpaper off the walls…

I’ve found that the best way to take it down…is by never putting it up in the first place.

Gardening 101

2008-07-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

On my quest to become America’s Next Top Model – I mean America’s Best Wife(to be) Ever, I decided to go to Walmart today and purchase MiracleGro. I did this in order to make the exterior portion of our cute little house more picture perfect, since the interior of the house, with walls torn down and bare floors, looks a little less than Pottery Barn at the moment.

Our poor little plants which were oh so lovely on the first day I saw them (see the pretty daisy picture?) have now withered away and look more Homely & Hopeless and less Home & Garden.

I have inherited many things from my mother…and apparently my luck with flora is just one more. Instead of a Green Thumb – I have a Thumb of Death. Flowers that could probably thrive in the driest regions of the Sahara desert or with no sunlight for the majority of the year come into contact with me and promptly keel over. Thanks mom! Why couldn’t I have got your wee tiny waist instead? I have no idea.

Now instead of amazing blooms and perfectly symmetrical alignment (thanks Eddie) of all sorts of flowers and greenery that would cause onlookers to “oooh and aaah”, we have more grass and weeds in one little flower bed than we have flowers! And the other flower bed…bless its little soul… looks like it has suffered from years of neglect. We really have watered them often, even through a voluntary conservation of water that the city placed upon us.

Most shocking of all is this little tidbit that I’m going to share with you. Apparently the surname Thrasher came from a form of the word “thresher” – this according to an expert on genealogy (my grandpa’s first cousin twice removed and then doubled and then divided by three). And according to another expert, Mr. Dictionary (first name Webster), a thresher was some sort of farming expert. Apparently those genes skipped my generation. Thank goodness Eddie didn’t buy us a farm to supply our people with nourishment. I can’t even grow a proper flower much less something edible that will sustain life. My family would starve!

Obviously my grade of A+ in Botany while in college means nothing in real life.

Here’s to hoping MiracleGro will work …well…a miracle :)

The Beginning

2008-07-15T09:12:00.001-07:00

In my efforts to inform tens of thousands of people about the many facets of my intriguing life by creating various blogs (with terribly long run-on sentences) and then leaving them in the dust after a few months ... here is the newest installation… a personal blog entitled Soon to be w/Ed. Get it? Soon to be wed. I’m like a comic genius I swear (Reason #1 that Eddie loves me)…

Just wait until the next blog … the natural wit that I put into that name will leave you speechless…I realize by giving that little bit away…you will all be living in suspense until the unveiling of the next one…and honestly…that’s what I’m going for here

At any rate… here we go… I’ll go ahead now and apologize for any bad grammar, spelling, and for the overuse of ellipses instead of correct punctuation… I really like the three dots…and feel they fit me better than using an actual period to end a sentence…because as we all know…I never “really” stop talking… I just pause for dramatic effect, to take a quick breath and then I keep it rollin…

Oh and I tend to use parentheticals far too much (but I tend to like to explain) < - - -see? Case in point :)

My original plan behind Soon to be w/Ed involved me posting poignant hallmark moments, interesting facts, and hopefully somewhat humorous anecdotes about engaged life…photos of befores and afters of our house project (which has yet to be named but will be soon since it’s imperative to this blog) renovations and the like, and various other thoughts I feel the need to share with you as it relates to my life/our life (I’ve totally got to remember Eddie here too!) prior to the wedding :)

I’m not saying that my original plan will last or even begin …as I am prone to changing my mind frequently…but that’s my plan…my “to do list” you might say

Perhaps I can get hubby-to-be to “guest post” every once in a while…but I’m not promising anything…because he may or may not be able to break himself away from the many tasks that he is currently assigned to … and I’d hate for you to get your hopes up and then crush them… I’m not in that business folks

What I am in the business of…is keeping you informed…all of you tens of twenties of people who will hopefully enjoy this little look into my life soon to be w/Ed :)

Love,
Nikki