Always Check Your Pockets First

Do you want to see what made my day week?

No, I did not get a new car. 

That, my friends, is the sweet sight of vindication.

Let me rewind a bit.  Anna and the boys were coming over the day before Thanksgiving.  Shortly before they were to arrive, Wayne insisted that we go to the store.  He grabbed my Tahoe keys (I keep my keys for each car on separate keyrings) and we were on our way.

Thanksgiving day we were rushing around the house getting everything together (and forgetting the ham).  As we left I couldn't find my keys.  Since I misplace my keys frequently Wayne told me to look in my purse and we left.

That night I tore the house and my purse apart looking for my keys because I was leaving at 4a to go Black Friday shopping.  I didn't find them.

For a while we just kept Wayne's Tahoe keys separate.  Which worked just fine for me, but every time Wayne drove it he put the keys back on his ring.  If I had to go anywhere I had to wake up (at 4a) to tell him to leave the keys before he left for work.

Three times he has left me with no keys.  I don't leave the house a whole lot and that's fine with me.  But each time I had no keys were days that I actually had somewhere to go.  And that made. me. mad.

I have looked everywhere for those stupid keys.  We finally had extra keys made.  Wayne kept telling me that he had nothing to do with them.  He even went as far as to say that he's sure I will probably find them in my purse if I would just look.  And that made. me. mad.

Tonight Wayne convinced me to go to the store as long as he went with me.  He got in the closet to get a coat he hadn't worn in a while and said "Oh, there they are".

I turned around and he had the keys in his hand.  I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure I said something very gracious like "I told you so, I told you so, I told you so!"

Then he said "when did you wear my coat?".

And that made. me. mad.

You Capture--Shapes

This week's You Capture assignment is shapes.

Considering the shape of my house, I only have 3 photos for you this week and I'm not entirely happy with them but here they are.

The first one is our little round tables against the railing in the loft.  I love the shape of these tables, but they are not very stable and fall over all. the. time. so they are just filling a space right now.

The next one is of the brick around our fireplace.  This is a major area of contention around here.  Wayne likes it, I think it's very 70's.  But they are shapes and I played around with the sepia option on my camera.

This last one is my favorite.  My Mom made this basket, it was then used to hold flowers at both my Grandpa's and my uncle's funerals (in '97 and '99 respectively).  I borrowed  it from my Grama in 2003 to hold cards at our reception.  Shhhh....don't tell her....  Since she thinks the world-wide web is a giant spider web I think I'm safe....  Anyway, I love the shape of this basket.  The bottom is a square but it's more roundish on top and she put a square handle on the opposite corners. 

Head on over to Beth's to check out more shapes.

A Difference a Day Makes

I know I've been M.I.A. around here lately.  I could bore you with everything that has gone on the last week but instead I'll show you a few pictures of what we've been up to.


Yesterday morning our kitchen looked like this.

Last night our kitchen looked like this

Now our kitchen looks like this

And our dining room looks like this

And our spare bedroom looks like this

And I am cooking in this

We are doing more remodeling.  When we moved in the kitchen floor didn't look too bad but once we stripped the wallpaper and put in shiny new appliances that floor looked really bad. 

We recently decided to install granite countertops which means that we have to put in new floors....now. 

So I'll be cooking in the basement kitchen (ugly!).  We were hoping to lay the tile today but we ran out of time (and energy).  Wayne has to go back to work tomorrow, so I'll be attempting to do it by myself with my Dad's supervision on Thursday....Please wish me luck!

You Capture--Kisses

This week's You Capture theme was kisses.  

It took me a while to figure out where to go with this challenge.  I decided to take photos of things you could do that could earn you kisses around here. 

You could wait patiently by the bedroom door for your Daddy to wake up.  Or you could....

do the dishes without me crying begging asking.

hang up the towels after the shower.

be resourceful and get your own water.

order pizza so I don't have to cook

make brownies while he's napping.....brownies with peanut butter chips equals extra kisses for me!

looking this cute couldn't hurt.

If you're too lazy busy for all that...you could try this....

If all that fails, just jump into bed and DEMAND kisses!

I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day! 


Head on over to Beth's to check out more kisses!

Remarkable

I had a completely different post planned for today but that changed when my Grama called to wish me a Happy Valentine's Day.

Yesterday was my cousin Hailey's birthday party.  We weren't able to make it.  Grama was about to let me go when she said that she had to tell me something that happened at the party.  She said that there were only two steps in the whole place, she was almost done with the last one when she started to fall (that's not the remarkable part, quite common actually!).  When she pulled it together there were two people standing there, my Aunt (who drove her), then Hailey walked up and said "Hi Grama Dee!".  She said "Missy it was plain as day, you could hear her clearly, I almost cried".  I almost cried when Grama told me about it.

That probably does not sound too remarkable to most of you, but Hailey just turned 9 and that was the first time Grama had heard her speak like that. 

Hailey is deaf. 

Four years ago she received a cochlear implant.  A few weeks after that we were able to stand in front of her and she would repeat simple sounds like "ba ba ba, ma ma ma".  Hailey is not my child but I was so proud of her at that moment.  She was 5 and it was amazing.   Two years ago she got her second cochlear implant, her speech and interaction with others have flourished.

Hearing a child speak for the first time at 2 or 3 is wonderful and special.  Hearing a child speak for the first time at 9 is remarkable.....

Grama and Hailey

You Capture--Work

This week's You Capture theme is WORK.


This challenge was work for me.  I don't work outsite of the home so figuring out something remotely interesting to photograph was difficult.  I thought about taking a picture of Lola because she is work.  Then I considered cheating and using some of the pics we took while renovating the house but instead I took photos of the work I did today.  Everything except cleaning the litter box....you're welcome.


The first thing I did was sort and start the laundry.  You can also see the ugly 70's linoleum which will be more work as soon as I find tile that I like.

In between loads I brushed all the dogs and clipped their toenails.  I brush Lola twice a week with the Furminator (awesome).  She tolerates it pretty well but she lets me know when she's had enough by gently biting my foot, so I give her a break and start over again. 

I have to admit, I'm just as afraid of clipping their nails as they are.  The last time I did it, I clipped Toby's too short and he started bleeding all over the place.  When he was a puppy, we had to put peanut butter on our are so he could lick it off while we trimmed his nails.  This time I waited until he was sleeping on my lap and I clipped one paw, then waited until he fell asleep again.  I did that until I got them all done.  Lincoln and Lola did okay but this whole process took a few hours.

And because I was feeling completely delirious I thought I'd bathe and blow dry each one of them.  Yes I blow dry them, mostly so they don't get my furniture soaking wet.  Lola just curled up between my legs and let me blow dry her...apparently I let it get too hot because she started whining and ran to the door.

Wayne finally showed me how to change the doorknobs.  So I was able to get rid of this ugly thing.

I learned how to use a power drill and a saw thingie.  I think it was a mini version of a jig saw.  I would have taken a pic of the installation, but hello....saw.in.my.hand.  Thirty minutes and a few colorful words later I was done.  Maybe now we won't lock ourselves out of the bathroom again.  It really sucks when you have to pee and you can't get in the bathroom.  Funny side note--we were outside unloading the truck on the day we moved in when we hear "um...is there a trick to getting out of here?"  I look over and my mom had her head sticking out of the bathroom window...she locked herself in the bathroom.  Hopefully these locks won't be so tricky...And I did it by myself!!

Right before Wayne got home, I finally finished folding the laundry.  If you look closely you'll see our cat Bob trying to get in the closet because he knows that Wayne usually leaves his dresser drawers open and he likes sleeping in them.  He doesn't like it when Wayne shuts him in the closet. 

Moments after I put the laundry away I found this....Seriously!?!  Someone in this house needs to stop wearing clothes or something...

It wasn't all bad though, I did find this in the laundry and other various places...finders keepers...

About $35...

Head on over to I Should Be Folding Laundry to see everyone else's work.

Also, I'm looking to upgrade to a dslr camera.  I'd love any suggestions you all would have for me.  Thanks!

10 on the 10th

I stumbled on this and thought I'd join in this month.  I am a compulsive list-maker so this is right up my alley!


I make lists of things I need to do, things I need to get,calls to make, things I want to blog about...you get the picture....so here goes this months list...


10 Things I wish I knew


1.  How to speak French.  I took four years of French in High School, but all I remember is "Where's the restroom?" and "no fish, please".  Actually, those are two useful phrases for me since I don't like fish and I pee a lot. but not really useful in conversation.


2.  Why Hy-Vee is out of bananas.  About half of the time I go to the grocery store, they have been completely out of bananas.  One time I bought the baby bananas thinking they would be like regular bananas only smaller.  I was wrong!  First, it took about 4 to equal one real banana.  Second, they had a "vein" in the center.  It was like eating a finger...it even looked like a finger.  I ate a few then couldn't handle it and threw the rest of them away.  Seriously, how could a grocery store be out of bananas!


3.  Why I'm suddenly addressing everyone (including the dogs) as "dude".  I've never really used the word "dude", but suddenly I'm using it about 43 times a day.


4.  How to sew.  I've actually had a job where my official title was "seamstress" but I never really had the desire to sew until now.  I have a lot of curtains that need to be altered or shortened and I wish that I could just do it myself.


5.  Where the toilet brush is.  Ok before you get all grossed out, I have more than one and have been cleaning my toilet but I haven't been able to find the stainless steel one since the move....in September.


6.  How to install a doorknob.  We bought new interior doorknobs a couple weeks ago and I've been bugging Wayne to show me how to install them since.  He told me "just unscrew the old one put the new one on and screw it in".  I'm going to give it a shot, he'll have to fix it if I screw it up.....


7.  Why Lola eats everything in sight.  At least 6 times a day I wish that I could just go one day without putting my fingers in her mouth.  I remember the other dogs chewing on things, but Lola eats everything.  The other day I went into the restroom and the entire roll of toilet paper was gone.  I knew it wasn't Wayne because he never would have gotten rid of the old roll.  I found Lola on the stairs, with half of the cardboard roll in her mouth....she had eaten an entire roll of toilet paper and half of the cardboard.


8.  How to cook Kohlrabi.  Or what it is, for that matter...Wayne went to the store with me last week.  I was throwing a fit about not having bananas when he puts something in the cart.  I thought it was cabbage, didn't really pay much attention to it until we got home.  I asked him what it was and what he wanted me to do with it.  He said "I don't know, it's a cancer fighter".  I'm pretty sure it's not fighting cancer on my counter.


9.  That my new microwave beeps annoyingly before we bought it.  When the food is done, it beeps continuously until you take it out....irritating....


10.  Why Wayne listens to everyone else but me.  I'm sure this is just because I'm his wife, but it's pretty upsetting.  Last week Wayne was told by an Orthopedic surgeon that he'd need surgery on his foot.  I told him that this same Dr. performed my shoulder surgery 10 years ago and I hated him.  He obviously didn't even listen to me because a couple days later he came home from work and said that he needed to get a second opinion because this Dr nearly killed Tim's mom.  I told him that I didn't like the Dr and he said "yeah I know, but I couldn't remember why".  Then when I told him, he said "I wish I would have remembered that, that would have been funny to tell everyone else".


If you'd like to join in or see everyone else's lists head on over to Life at 7000 Feet.

Wayne's Day

WARNING:  Picture overload and lots of random, disconnected thoughts ahead. 


In the middle of January, Wayne called me from work.  He was being way too nice so I knew that something was up.  We were planning to go to Des Moines that weekend for BeautiControl, he asked which day the conference was and when I told him it was Saturday he said "that's perfect!"  "The Cowboys are in the playoffs Sunday in Minneapolis, and we'll already be halfway there!"  There was a slight pause and then he said "ya know my birthday is in two weeks, this would be a great birthday gift!"  I gave in and spent the rest of the day finding tickets and a hotel room.  As the week went on, Wayne got more and more excited.  I've wrote a little bit about our weekend here and here.

This is the first thing we saw when we got to our seats.  The only other guy in the row at the time was also a Cowboys fan (and also from Texas!).  I wish I got a picture of him, it was his 60th birthday, his son bought a plane ticket and a ticket for the game for his birthday.  He was so excited to be there, I helped him send a pic to his brother from his phone.  There was an empty seat between he and I until about 30 seconds before kick off.  That's when a 3 feet wide and 9 feet tall guy squeezed between us.  I wish I were kidding, but every time I looked to my right all I saw was this guy's armpit.  On the plus side, he was clean and smelled good, but the view of Gigantor's armpit was not what I had in mind.

This is the only shot I took of the score board because if you saw the game you know that the Cowboys lost choked.

I guess they're strething, but it looks like they're doing some horrific 80's line dance.....complete with old school headphones.

Romo threw a completed pass!  Too bad it was in practice before the game.  Also too bad that it was one of the only completed passes he threw!!

Getting fired up before going back in the locker room before the game.

Wayne wouldn't look at me to take a picture, so I decided to take a picture of his bald spot and post it on the internet.  I'm pretty sure he'll let me take a picture in the future.

There's so many things to say about this pic.  I don't understand why players wear those dark black lines under their eyes....I spend a lot of time and money to get rid of dark circles under my eyes.  I've heard it's to keep the sun out of their eyes...um...hello...we're in a dome!!  Wayne says it keeps the sweat out of their eyes....why does it have to be black....and finally, why does this guy need them?

Right after this first, successful play, Romo created a fumble and turnover instead of taking the sack.  I asked Wayne "what did he just do?"  He said "Romeo showed up today."  When Romo plays badly chokes (about every 3rd game) Wayne calls him Romeo.

They love them some Vikings!

And because we were there for Wayne's birthday, I took a couple pictures of the cheerleaders for him.

I sooo wish it were socially acceptable to take photos of random strangers.  I figured it was okay with this guy  because I didn't get his face and I acted like I was taking a picture of the field :).  There were several people I wish I could take photos of.  There was a big guy in Purple and gold striped overalls complete with purple shoes and gold shoestrings.  Then there was the guy whose face was covered in purple face paint and hair sprayed gold.  But my favorite was the very pregnant lady in metallic purple spandex pants, a gray and purple horizontally striped long sleeved shirt and a jersey on top of all that!

I don't know why, I just liked seeing a Vikings and a Cowboys fan talking to each other.

And just in case you're a Vikings fan, here's a pic of Brett Favre.


I wouldn't call myself a football fan.  In fact, I usually spend most of the game talking non-stop and asking a bunch of questions in the hopes that Wayne will say it's not worth it and just change the channel already (it sometimes works!)  But if I'm going to watch it I need to know what's going on.  It drove me crazy that I couldn't hear the announcer and never knew what was happening! 


So I don't even know the final score, we left with 12 minutes left to go in the game.  I've heard that the Vikings scored two more touchdowns after we left.  I've also heard that Favre was criticized for scoring a touchdown in the last seconds of the game when they were already up by like 300 points (ok, maybe only 30).  My personal opinion on this is that he is paid millions of dollars a year to win football games and that's what he did for cryin' out loud...leave him alone.


It would have been nice if the Cowboys had won, but overall we had a good time and Wayne also got more gifts on his birthday!!

You Capture--Faces

This week's You Capture challenge was FACES.

The day Beth issued the challenge I was going to my cousin's so I took my camera along and got some pretty good shots.

This one is my cousin Vickie. This one took a few tries because she kept asking me why I was tilting the camera and getting so close to her.  I finally just told her to knock it off and I like the way it turned out.

This one is my cousin Chad's step-daughter Eve.  She'll be 10 soon, I can't believe how much she's grown up in the last year or so.

This next one is my friend Heather's daughter, Nicole.  This is probably my favorite shot this week.  She was entertaining us with cheers and I happened to get a great shot of her when she wasn't moving!

This is our puggle Toby, isn't he cute?  It's what you can't see that makes this one so good.....

 

....and this is what you can't see from the above photo....Lola is sitting right on top of Toby.... 

  

It's like she's thinking "why is this chair so lumpy today?" 

 Head on over to Beth's to check out everyone else's faces this week.