Little Pick Me Ups

Hi friends!  I've seem to come across a bit of a writer's block so I thought I'd share with you some things that have popped up around our apartment lately. 

First, let me give you a little backstory.  When Baron and I moved to Alabama, I brought no furniture with me! I only had a few pieces of furniture that I owned and my best friend bought them off of me for her little sister when I moved. I was happy to oblige because the thought of moving it all to Baron's apartment in Gainesville for two weeks, then moving it all to Alabama made me a little queasy.  I was all about downsizing when we made the move.

Baron, on the other hand, had lots of furniture! It's a long story about how he acquired all these pieces, but boring.  Let's just say he was blessed with matching college apartment-esque furniture all free of charge.  We agreed to not buy any new furniture until we get into our new house. 

I am not a decorator.  I wish that I had that touch that could make house, or apartment rather, feel like a home.  I'm not entirely sure what I'll do when we actually get into a house and I'm faced with the decisions of how to decorate.  Guess I'll worry about that later ;)  I do however, like to shop!  I've picked up a few things recently, and repurposed other things to try to spruce up our little humble abode.

Ahhhh, my honey's old comforter used on the bed in our guest/office/storage room.  It was boring and dark and sad looking.  I watched an episode of Dear Genevieve (HGTV is my new BFF) and she broke down how to spruce up a bed by just adding a throw and a decorative pillow.  I never would have thought of that and that bed would have sat dark and dreary all covered up in geometric patterns with no break had it not been for Genevieve. I've been window shopping for bedsets because when we move into our new house we're gonna need something to cover up the plants when it freezes!

I picked up these couch pillows just yesterday and haven't decided yet if I like them or not.  The coloring is a bit more muted in real life and there's a bit of green in the pillows that matches the dark green couch.  I'm leaving the tags on for a few more days to decide it I actually like them!  I've been looking for pillows since we moved here and because I can't make a decision about anything to save my life, the couch has remained naked since June.



This is my most favorite thing that I've purchased in a long time!  It a wax burner that I picked up at Walmart for 15 big ones.  True story!  The wax cubes that you use with it are only two dollars a pop and they are wonderfully fragrant!  I don't have one of the more expensive brand wax warmers, but I've heard that this bad boy totally levels the playing field!  Go here and check out all the cute little designs they have! Baron says that they all remind him of urns but at least they smell good! 

This cute little wooden tulip set I've had for years and just brought it out of hiding.  I bought it at a little street market in London.  One of my best friend's and I traveled to London and Paris for about two weeks all by ourselves back in 2008.  It was the trip of a lifetime and we had so much fun!  Quite the adventure, but those are stories for a different day!  There were tulips everywhere that spring and I was so happy to find a set to buy and bring home on the plane with me!

Tulips in Hyde Park

Ashley and I with Tower Bridge pictured in the background



Ice Cream while sitting underneath the Eiffel Tower...check it off the Bucket List!
Photo by my friend Ashley :)



That's all folks!  I hoped you liked the mini-tour of randomness today.  Thank goodness I've got my Emergency Kit all put together because we're expecting some nasty storms later this afternoon.  Hubs, if you're reading this, come home before it gets scary!!

I hope you all have a blessed Wednesday!

Making an Emergency Kit

Welcome back friends!  Today I want to share with you how I put together an Emergency Preparedness Kit for our family.  I've been putting off assembling it because I was overwhelmed with how to make a decision about what should and shouldn't go into it.  I finally realized that something was better than nothing when it comes to an emergency so I should just jump right in!

I visited the FEMA website to get some ideas for our kit, then I headed to the store and dove right in!

First things first, water!  The FEMA website says that you need one gallon of water, per person, per day.  There's no way of knowing how many days you're emergency will last so just grab a bunch of water from your local grocery store and hope for the best.

I picked up four gallons of water to keep with our emergency kit.  We always have lots of bottled water, sodas, and sports drinks at our house so most likely we'll be able to use those too.  Did you know that water has an expiration date?!

Hmmm. My plan is to replace everything when the canned food expires.  So we may just end up having to drink expired water, I think we'll live.

Max is here with a friendly Public Service Announcement:

Speaking of pets, don't forget to pack some food for them!  Our dogs normally eat dry dog food, but it was easier to store and keep canned dog food.  I grabbed a few cans of their dog food and also picked up a bowl for them to use at the Dollar Store!  I was able to buy a lot of our supplies at the Dollar Store, which is nice because I didn't want to spend a lot of money on things I was hoping to never use!

I realize that three cans of dog food is not the equivalent to the seven days of food that FEMA recommends, but again, I'm just packing the bare minimum in our emergency kit.  In the case of a loss of power for a week at a time, we have other food that the dogs can eat.  The canned dog food would only be if we had to grab our emergency kit and leave our home to evacuate for some reason.

Okay, now that we've gotten the dogs taken care of, let's talk about human food.  Things like ravioli, fruit, and vegetables are easy things that don't need to be cooked in order to be scarfed down enjoyed in case of emergency.  I bought about ten cans of various items to have in our kit.

Along with all the canned food, you're going to want to have a can opener and utensils on hand, unless you want to do it cave man style and try to bust open cans of ravioli with a rock...no fun!  I found my can opener at the Dollar Store and threw in a couple plastic cutlery sets that we've collected along the way.  Things like garbage bags and wet wipes may come in handy too! 

The FEMA website suggests having a whistle to alert rescuers in a case where you are buried under a pile of ruble.  I couldn't find a real whistle but thought that this one (which sounds like a duck) would work just fine.  Let's just hope we never have to open up our emergency kit because I can just see my husband's face when we pull this out.  Ha!

Last but not least, you want to have plenty of candles and flashlights on hand!  These went into the kit last, so they would be easy to grab in the dark if necessary. 

I bought quite a few candles and flashlights (not all pictured) because I don't think you can ever have too much light in a case where you've lost power.  Make sure to have extra batteries and lighters on hand too.  If you choose regular matches you should put them in a Ziploc baggy to make sure they stay dry. 

I have a few more things to get for our kit, like a weather radio, a couple pairs of cheap rubber flip flops, and a first aid kit. You may also want to throw a bottle of this in your kit:

Kidding.  Kind of.  You may need a bottle of something for entertainment or to work as a disinfectant too! Ha!

So I piled everything into an old Rubbermaid bin that I had and made sure to put the flashlights on top!  I shoved the whole kit in the back of our closet where hopefully it will remain, untouched, until I need to replace the food because it's all expired.

You should also put copies of important paperwork into your kit.  Things like birth certificates, marriage certificates, social security cards, etc.  We have all of these important documents in a fire/water/kid proof safe that sits right next to our emergency kit in the closet.

I hope that this helps you and your family to at least think about getting prepared for an emergency.  It is overwhelming to think of all of the things that could go into an emergency kit.  But the fact of the matter is, you'll be better off if you even have the bare minimum put away in case of an emergency than if you let the task overwhelm you and never get around to it. 

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

April 27th 2011

Hi friends! I hope you all had a wonderful, relaxing weekend!  Baron had to work on a project for work all weekend so I busied myself preparing for tornado season here in Alabama and made an emergency kit for our family.  Tomorrow I will share with you what exactly went into our emergency kit, but today I would like to share why it is so important to us to be prepared for anything.

When Baron accepted his job here in north Alabama I had never been here!  After my last night of work in Jacksonville, Baron and I left the very next morning to make a road trip to Alabama for me to see where our future life was taking us and to find an apartment for us to live in. 

We nailed down our apartment choice early in the trip and were planning on having a relaxing, touristy day on our last day in Alabama before driving home.  That was on April 27, 2011.  You may or may not know what else happened on that day in northern Alabama.



{via}

April 27th was the deadliest tornado outbreak in decades.  Although the city we were in wasn't hit as hard as many neighboring cities, there were dozens of tornadoes that touched down and totally tore neighborhoods apart. 

Baron and I had heard from countless people on our trip that the tornado sirens went off all the time and it was nothing to worry about.  If there was actually a tornado, it was a really small one that would go through the farm lands and not do much damage at all.  The night before the tornado outbreak we actually had dinner with old friends of Baron's and they said not to worry about the sirens at all, the weathermen here freaked out about everything and they went off all the time.

On April 27th I woke up at about 4 am and heard tornado sirens.  I chuckled to myself and tried to go back to sleep.  I tossed and turned but never could fall asleep; the sirens, wind, and thunder were just too loud.  I posted this on facebook, not knowing yet what was in store for us that day...

"Woke up at 4:30AM to the loudest thunder I've ever heard & tornado sirens. Ack! Welcome to Alabama!"

Later that morning Baron and I decided we were going to just drive and try to find our way around our new city.  It was cloudy and drizzling outside, but nothing too bad.  The weathermen were just saying to stay tuned and be ready for storms later that day.  I was actually driving when we started noticing that the clouds were getting darker and darker.  We were about to run out of gas, so we decided to fill up before heading somewhere close to our hotel to grab something for lunch.  As soon as we finished filling up, the clouds really started rolling in, the thunder claps were deafening, and the wind and rain were getting intense.  As I was hurrying back towards our hotel it got really bad!  I was so scared and wanted to stop the car and let Baron drive.  I'll never forget as we turned a corner and could barely make out a street sign that was bent in half and blowing sideways because the rain was falling so hard and fast, Baron said, "We don't have time for that!"  I knew it was serious then and put the pedal to the metal!  By then we both realized that it was really serious and there may by a tornado seriously on top of us!  Baron yelled, "Turn left! I think there's a Kroger in there!" 

Keep in mind that we could not see a thing, I could barely make out the roads but I barreled into the Kroger parking lot (thank goodness!!) and for some reason I was trying to actually park the car and Baron said, "It doesn't matter, put the car in park, let's GO!" 

We ran into Kroger as fast as we could with just my purse and a towel we happened to have in the car.  When we made it inside it was like a scene from a movie.  The place was deserted.  The lights were flickering and someone was yelling over the intercom "Code Adam!"  (which is usually a missing child, so I'm thinking they were just panicking).  Then we saw the manager and he yelled to us, "Get to the back, QUICK!"

Baron and I were soaked and we ran as fast as we could through the aisles into the back warehouse of the store where there were employees who grabbed us and hurried us in.  There were about 200 other people in the back seeking shelter.  I started crying as soon as we found a crate of dog food to sit on, I literally thought this was the end of us.  I tried to text our parents and tell them that we were okay for now and we had found shelter but our cell phones weren't working. 

I will always remember how calm and professional the employees were.  They were hugging people, passing out water, and making sure that the elderly had places to sit down.  After what seemed like hours, the manager made an announcement that there should be a break in the storms if we wanted to try to get home.

Baron and I went straight to our hotel room and watched the news all afternoon.  Luckily, we were able to communicate with our parents via facebook and let them know we were okay.  I posted this at some point that afternoon...

"Survived our first string of northern Alabama tornadoes, in the back warehouse of a Kroger, with about 200 other people, soaking wet, thankful for a generator & very nice manager passing out water, crackers, & hugs. Storms expected all day. Looks like we'll be spending our last day in the hotel lobby :) Good thing I love this boy!"

At about 6 o'clock that evening the weathermen started saying to seek shelter, these weren't normal Alabama tornadoes, and that things were about to be really serious.  We headed down to the lobby to ride it out, and spent about an hour in the bathrooms with some other people before just making a spot in the lobby.  We lost power and sat in the dark for hours. 

Photo taken from the lobby of our hotel sometime that afternoon before the weather got worse

Baron and I in the hotel lobby after losing power.  We wanted to show our parents that we were still smiling :)

We thought about trying to leave that night after all the storms had passed and just getting somewhere where they had power and we could get something to eat.  We went upstairs to our room and packed up all of our belongings in the dark with just the light from our cellphones.  Baron decided (thank goodness!) that it would be best to wait until morning when we could actually see the roads.  I whined more than I should have, admittedly.  I was terrified, tired, shaken, and hungry.  We charged our phones in the car for a little while before heading upstairs to go to bed.

The next morning we woke up bright and early to make the drive home.  It was terrifying to see what had transpired the night before in broad daylight.  I am so thankful for our safety.  We had an uneventful drive home and were so happy to be back in Florida! 

Our new city would be left without power for a week.  People were left to clean up with  no gas, electricity, stores, or restaurants that were open. We learned that it was important to have at least a minimum supply of emergency supplies in case of that ever happening again. A priority in building our new house was that it had to have a storm shelter of some kind!  We decided to have our master closet made into a storm shelter and are so happy with that decision. I think it'll make this storm season a little easier for us.

Come back tomorrow and I'll break down the ingredients to our Emergency Kit!

Have a happy Monday! :)


Our Wedding Cake

I never have done any Wedding Recap posts because this blog never existed until after our wedding day.  I thought it would be fun to join a link up today though, and show y'all pictures of our cake.  Thanks to Britt at The Magnolia Pair for hosting this, she's a new Alabamamian too! :)

Photo by Julie Johnson

Baron and I got married in a small town with not a whole lot of options for our wedding cake.  For some reason I was totally against getting our cake from Publix (a chain grocery store for you out of towners).  My Dad made quite a statement when he said, "Brekke, you've gotten every other important cake from Publix, your birthday's, graduations, funerals, births, everything!! Why would you go somewhere else for your wedding day?"  Good point Pops, especially considering there weren't a whole lot of options.  Well I conceded and agreed that we'd get our cake from Publix and it would be Funfetti.  Because what other options are there for flavors, really??

Unfortunately Publix said "NO" which nearly broke my heart but we went with the old favorite, vanilla cake with butter cream frosting.  It was kind of neat that the same woman who has baked all the cakes for my family got to make and decorate my wedding cake, that same woman used to give me cookies when I was just three years old riding along in my Mom's buggy.

I have a hard time making decisions so needless to say I went with the easy option of plopping some flowers on top of the cake for our topper.  Both sets of our parents still had their serving knives and we were very happy to be able to use them on our wedding day too!

Photo by Julie Johnson

I wish I had a better shot to show you the cake stand that we made.  Yes, made.  I couldn't make a decision about a cake stand that I liked (surprise, surprise!) so I thought if I couldn't find something I'd just pick up a plain white one at Target as a last ditch effort.  Well I shouldn't have made it a last minute thing because we had a simple math problem.  The following numbers aren't accurate but the story works the same: The bottom tier of the cake was 150 inches, the biggest cake plate I could find was 100 inches. Hmmm, do you see the dilemma?  Well thank the lord for my redneck family and their ability to rig up anything with duct tape, plywood, and Home Depot.  My Mom called me about a week before our wedding with the solution...


Photo {via}

Y'all.  What is round, white, decorative, and big??  A ceiling fan cover plate, duh!  We bought one of these bad boys and dropped it off at Publix to set the cake on it...genius! (Sidenote: The first time I typed genius I actually wrote "genious", oh the irony!!)  You can see it in both pictures but the tiny little balls matched up very well so it's kind of hard to make out.

So will we eat the top tier on our first anniversary?  Heck no!  I love the sentiment of it but the thought of trying to haul a frozen cake with us on our 680 mile road trip when we moved to Alabama, along with a bunch of our belongings, a nervous dog, two cars, AND a goldfish was enough to make me want to drive off a bridge.  So we decided to save a bottle of our Walmart  delicious champagne and two pieces of our signature candies to enjoy on our first anniversary.

I give you our signature candies:

Photo by Julie Johnson

That's right folks, we gave out Nerds and Airheads.  My husband is an admitted nerd and I'm well.....let's just say it fits!!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Happy Wednesday to ya!  I hope you are having a wonderful week so far.  Don't forget it's humpday, we're over halfway to the weekend!

Linking up with Jamie at This Kind of Love, to all share what's making us smile today!

- I'm loving that we're about to have two visits from family in the next two weeks. Hurray!  Baron's Dad is coming up early next week on a stop to another trip he's going on.  I'm trying to think of something delicious to whip up and impress my father-in-law.  Fred, any ideas?! ;)   Then in about two weeks my parents are flying up to spend the weekend with us.  I'm so excited to show them our new house.  Well, the pile of dirt where our house will one day be!  Trying to think of exciting things to do and show them while they're visiting.  Do any of you locals have any good ideas?

- I'm loving that I lost three pounds this week at my weigh-in!  Say whaaaaa?!  So I'm not entirely sure why that happened because I didn't really do anything different than normal, but I guess if you are persistent sometimes you may be in for a little happy surprise!

- I'm loving all the weird dreams I've been having lately.  Last night I dreamt that I was asleep and woke up (are you following?) to find my husband at our dining room table furiously flipping through magazines.  I walked up and saw that they were all home decorating magazines, think Better Homes and Gardens, Country Living, etc.  I asked him what he was doing and he said, "Brekke, what's wrong with you! We've got to start thinking about decorating our house! I've got a few idea boards for you..." and then he pulled up several posters of all of his ideas that he ripped out of the magazines. Haha, I don't think he could care any less about the decor for our new house, but tonight I'm gonna ask him if he's seen my copy of Better Homes and Gardens to see if his ears perk up, ha!

- I'm loving that it's almost Friday, which means that it'll be two weeks since we went to the design center for our house, which means supposedly construction will be started!  They said two weeks, which I took as at least a month because nothing has gone according to schedule lately.  Baron and I placed bets on when our closing date for our house would be.  I said June 28th and Baron's guess was "right around the time we need it to be done", never one for a commitment, that boy!  We need it to be done at the beginning of June because our lease for our apartment runs until June 13th.  I just can't see them starting construction, finishing the build, doing our walk throughs, fixing anything found in the walk throughs, scheduling closing, getting all of our necessary paperwork for closing, and actually closing before the first of June, but we shall see.

I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday! xoxo

He's Home :)

Good Monday morning to ya!  I'd love to tell you all about the exciting things that I did this weekend, but I got nothin'!  Baron was gone on a business trip to Gainesville, Florida for a few days and got back around lunchtime yesterday.  I was so happy to have a small snippet of the weekend left to enjoy with him.

Baron was asked to go on a recruiting trip for his company to Gainesville and he was happy to go back to his old stomping grounds for a few days.  Baron hasn't been back to Florida since we moved in June of last year, so I was excited for him.  After he was finished with the business part, he was able to drive to his parents' house about an hour away and spend the rest of the weekend with them.  I'll admit, I was a little sad about him being in Florida without me! But I have been back to Florida twice, just last month and in September, and no, he didn't complain at all. 

I did find time in my busy weekend (ha!) to paint my nails a cute little pink and grey combo:



When Baron got home on Sunday we went and grabbed some lunch at Subway, one of the easiest places to eat on Weight Watchers.  Then decided to go check out a place in our town that we had heard about but never seen before.

This is a 17,000 square foot mansion that was built in 1886 and now is occupied by two women that are supposedly very serious about their safety and neighborhood watch program!  We've heard stories of people driving by to take photos and being sprayed with a water hose and screamed at.  Also, lots of accounts of the resident blinding people who drive by with a huge flood light from inside her window. This mansion does not belong in the neighborhood that it's in.  It's surrounded by really old, tiny houses so it sticks out like a sore thumb!  It kind of reminds me of the Scooby Doo mansion.

We drove by fairly quickly and I managed to snap just one picture before I started squealing and telling Baron to drive away.  I just knew she was going to pop out of the bushes and start throwing rocks at our car.  We're thinking this is going to be a new place that we take our visitors :)

We got some good snuggle time in after driving past that old mansion and watched several episodes of Campus PD. It's just like Cops, but you feel a little less sorry for the miserable people they feature on the show because most likely they're just drunk college kids trying to figure things out for themselves.  Campus PD is our guilty pleasure show that we aren't proud of watching!  After a few episodes of Campus PD and a short cat nap I whipped up a delicious dinner if I do say so myself.  And I do say so.



SkinnyTaste- Chicken & Broccoli Noodle Casserole



Click the link above and make this soon! You won't be sorry!  It was 6 points for a serving, which was pretty big.  I used skim milk instead of 1% and No-Yolk noodles and it turned out great.  It must sound like the blogger behind SkinnyTaste is paying me, but I assure you, she is just that good!

I hope you all have a blessed week!

Has anyone seen my 20lbs?

I seem to have lost it!  And I have no intention of finding it again.  I have maintained my weight loss for about 2 months now.  And let me clarify my use of the word "maintained".  More like I gain two pounds, I lose to pounds, and repeat.  It's not necessarily intentional, but it's certainly better than the scale consistently moving up.  I am now in an acceptable, healthy weight range for my height, but I'd prefer to lose a few more pounds in order to feel even better.

This is screenshot of the weight tracker on my phone,  of course some of the important numbers have been cropped.  A lady never tells, and you get the idea anyway.  Look at that quick progress at the beginning of my journey...then it kind of becomes a bumpy road towards the end.  It has taken me a very long time, but the good news is that it's been totally do-able and I rarely feel like I'm missing out. 

I'd like to share some of the things that have helped me:

- My husband- Bless his heart, he's been eating all the creations I'm making and is a constant cheerleader, support system, and shoulder to lean on.  He's a perfect mix of drill sergeant and person who lets me cheat occasionally. 

- Skinny Taste Blog- Seriously y'all, this gal's blog has been a huge part of my journey.  I make about three of her recipes each week and haven't had any that have been a flop.  I talk about some of my favorites in this post.  Sometimes diets and weight loss plans can get boring because I feel like I have to eat a meat and a vegetable, separately, with no sauce.  But that's not true! Check out the SkinnyTaste blog and get some inspiration!

- LaCroix Sparkling Water- I don't like plain water.  There, I said it.  I'm really trying and I have noticed that I feel better when I'm drinking more, but I just don't like it.  I discovered these flavored seltzer waters at Kroger when they were on sale.  I've had the coconut, lemon, and grapefruit flavors and loved them all.  I drink 1-2 of these per day.  Throw in a bottle of water or two and and a Diet Cherry Coke and I've almost had all my liquids for the day!

- Going to Weight Watcher Meetings- I am a person who just can't do this on my own.  Do I have all the tools and knowledge? Yes!  I just need that extra accountability of stripping down to my bottom layer and removing my shoes & belt just like at airport security checks.  The topics discussed at meetings are never too deep and people can participate as much or as little as they like. 

- Cheat Day-  I am a firm believer in cheat day.  It may not work for some people but it does for me.  I usually do my weigh in on Tuesday morning, and after my weigh in I take the rest of the day off.  I don't track anything and usually I even put my food journal out of sight.  I eat whatever I want and usually Baron and I go out for dinner and dessert.  It's a day to feel normal, I suppose.  This works for me because I can make better choices during the week knowing that on Tuesday I can have whatever I want.  This is all mental for me and I have to figure out how to trick myself :)

Here are the best I can do for before and after pictures:

Like I said before, I have a few more pounds I'd like to lose and I know I'm capable of it.  I know things might slow down even more, but I'm okay with that, I just want to make sure the scale's moving in the right direction, however slowly that may be.

"It's Ok" Thursday

Hello friends!  Writer's block = Link up time!  Today I'm linking up with Neely to just say, "It's ok!!"

- It's okay that I've already had 2 cups of coffee today and it's only 9:00!

- It's okay to be totally off "housewife duties" whenever Baron goes out of town.  My bed is not made, the dishes are not done, nothing is actually cooked, the dog's toys aren't cleaned up.

- It's okay to have a mad-dash of a clean up happen about an hour before my hubby gets home from his work trips.

- It's okay that my weight loss success has a lot to do with whether or not we've been watching The Biggest Loser, ha!

- It's okay that we picked out all of the lighting for our house this weekend and I really shouldn't have been given that authority.  I hope we did okay!  One of the fixtures we chose:

- It's okay that our dog, Max is the craziest dog at his obedience class and everyone always acts shocked when he performs well.  Rude!  He's a quick learner and can show up most of the dogs in his class, it just takes him a few minutes to calm down.



Hi friends!!



- It's okay to be ridiculously excited about even the slightest amount of forward progress on our house.  The other day I drove by our lot and noticed something new!  At least they're anticipating the need to hang up some permits soon!



Yay! An empty permit box, haha!



- It's okay to scour the internet to find a recipe for this "Strawberry Jello Salad" that we had recently at a cute little restaurant near our house. Yum!

Happy Birthday Macey!

Happy Monday y'all!  Another week is upon us and Valentine's Day is tomorrow!  Tomorrow is another very special day in our family.  Macey turns 4 years old!  Both our pups were born on minor holidays (Max was born on Cinco de Mayo!) which we think is kinda neat.  There respective holidays match their demeanor perfectly.  Macey is a calm, loving, sweetheart of a dog that most everyone loves when they meet her.  Max, on the other hand, is a non stop "fiesta" and brings the party/chaos wherever he goes.

Macey likes to remind Baron that she was here first.  Like when she's sitting next to me on the couch and Baron wants to sit down I can practically hear her saying, "Move along, bud! It was just me and Mommy before you ever came along."  I'm thankful, though, that Baron loves Macey as much as I do :)

Just wanted to share some of my favorite pictures of Macey, if you don't like cute Boston Terriers, you should probably stop reading now ;)



May 21, 2008- The day I brought Macey home @ 11 weeks old (I got married exactly three years later on this day!)



Such a little diva :)



Macey's 1st Birthday, my best friend and I had a party for both our 'girls' who were born 2 weeks apart

Doesn't everybody have a party for their pups?! Ha!

My mother in law did a fabulous photo shoot with Macey for Christmas one year- My all time favorite photo of her :)



Macey on our trip to FL in September, I think she was happy to be back in the Sunshine State!

 Some people just aren't dog people so they'd never understand how much joy a sweet puppy can bring to your life.  Although the vet bills, late night walks, additional dirt in the house, and waking up early to go outside hasn't always been fun...I wouldn't trade her for the world.  For a while, it was just Macey and me.  She got me through so hard times and has been around for the best ones too.  I just love my sweet girl.  Happy 4th Birthday, Macey!

Can I get a "Thank God, Hallelujah?!"

Love that song! Anyway....

This morning Baron and I went to the design center for our new house and picked out everything.  I won't bore you to death with all the little details but y'all, we had to choose grout colors for four different places in our house: bathroom tile, grout between the outdoor brick, fireplace tile grout, and for the kitchen back splash.  And there were about twenty five different "neutral" colors of grout to choose from.  Ack!

Baron and I had a pretty good idea of what we wanted in the big picture but I guess we forgot to think about the little details like what color grout we wanted and which of the twenty choices of doors we would like in our bedroom :)

Some other things we decided on:
Brick Color- They had our first choice available!
Front Door- A very dark brown
Outside Trim/Window- Beige
Shingles- Very dark grey/ almost black
Indoor Trim- White
Hardwoods- The wood is oak in a color called "Pecan" (pics below)
Hardware- Brushed Stainless Steel

There were countless other decisions to be made, but these were the big ones!  We picked a carpet that we like and has a variety of colors in it to be neutral and hide stains! Hey, I'm realistic.  And we successfully picked paint colors that we both agreed on. Yay!



Our cabinets (with our granite and backsplash selections)



These colors are all a bit warmer in person

Our hardwoods with a better shot of our granite and really dark portrayal of the cabinets

And did you notice the little heart on my thumb?

Happy Valentine's Day! <3