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Olympic Blog Recap

I’m not actually going to comment on the Olympics, but this is rather a comment on all things going on since the last time I blogged. It’s a big event.

These past few weeks have been filled with sore backs from crappy beds, tons of work for my job, lots of school work for my Masters, napping because of crappy sleep in a crappy bed the night before, and dogs peeing on the floor.

The good thing? Things are a’changin’. Luckily work is at its peak, so it will calm down soon enough. A new bed was delivered, so sleep is betterish (I’m in desperate need of a chiropractor visit to put me back in shape). I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the Masters degree, and the dog has a crate now! I think the best part so far, besides the bed, is the dog crate. We got a nice big one for Lennon, so she has a lot of room to spin around in circles until she decides to finally lay down. She seems to like it so far. We’re trying to associate the cage with fun stuff, and Lily is wanting to be crated now, too. She’s always sneaking in there–it’s kind of cute.

Other than that, I’m enjoying the relaxation time. So for no other reason at all than to post pictures, here are some pictures. They don’t have anything to do with anything.

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Entertainment Organization

Before

I’m pretty bad about letting my shelves start to look like this. I try to be organized, but then this happens. I thought it might inspire me to buy some fun boxes, to dust, and to rearrange a little. I felt like there was so much dark stuff on these shelves, so I got some bright blue to spruce it up a bit.

I’m pretty happy with the “after.” This is our faux entertainment center. We had a media unit thing, but it was so hideously ugly, that I thought a nice bookshelf from Target would do the trick. It matches the furniture, and if we ever decide to move the shelf, it can be used in any room of the house. It’s also used to display that wedding stuff that you have no idea what to do with. What do you think?

After
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Space Bags

Sarah’s previous post convinced me to try Space Bags. You know, those things from the infomercials where you put all your crap in a bag and then suck the air out, and viola! Squished crap in a bag! We have a bunch of sheet sets, towels, and comforters from my bridal showers, and trying to store them is impossible. My linen closet is about 12 inches deep, or so it seems, and it always looks a mess.
So I tried the L, XL, and Gigungo-sized Space Bags, and they seriously helped my space issue. The linens/pillows that I put inside the bag are now taking up 1/3 of the space that they were before. I didn’t think about it at the time, but we bought the Space Cubes, not the flat bags. Next time I will buy the bags, because the cubes make these really weird shapes that don’t stack well on top of each other. I went and reread Sarah’s blog and saw that she mentioned this, but at the time I didn’t make a mental note.
B++ to Space Bags for more space.
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Picture Frame Makeover

I’ve been looking for picture frames for the hallway leading upstairs. Last night at Target, I found these cute frames for $3.24 each. I’ve been looking at them for a while, but I didn’t want to pay $12.99 for a frame.

They didn’t have any wall hangers on the back, but luckily I had a kit of frame hooks that I bought for a mirror a few weeks ago. It took me a while to get the little nails into the cardboard without hammering my thumb, but I got it eventually :).

I had some leftover scrapbook paper, Martha Stewart glitter (which comes in every shade under the sun), and some double-sided tape in fancy shapes. I don’t really have many pictures, so I thought these might be good placeholders until I get some pictures developed.
Tada!

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Making Friends

Lennon decided it was time to make better friends with the next door neighbor-dog, Truman. What did she do to get to know him better? Eat a whole in the fence, so she could stick her head into his yard.

Notice the beard and feet.
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The Only Snow of 2010

For some reason unknown to me, it actually snowed in southeastern Virginia. This never happens. Occasionally, we get some flurries, and the lame city closes down because of the threat of wintry weather. Our area has about 2 snow plows and a bag of salt–living by the beach, we don’t normally get anything other than cold rain in the winter, so this makes sense.
The meteorologists had been talking about this “huge” snowstorm that would definitely hit our area by Friday/Saturday of last weekend. Normally, this involves telling the viewing area about a possibility of snow, closing down the schools, and then nothing happens. Totally not cool, considering there are no snow days built into the public school calendars down here, which means make-up days.
But like I said, somehow it actually snowed about 8″ in our area. Some places got a foot, some got 4 inches. Not a blizzard by any means, but people down here sure act like the world is ending–except when it comes to driving. You would be amazed at the number of people who want to drive when roads are icy. We ended up getting about 2 inches of very dense ice covering all of the secondary roads and neighborhood streets, which is why schools are closed today. It is very dangerous in some spots, but you wouldn’t be able to tell this when you see people driving 45mph on black ice, even roads where the ice is clearly present. Maybe this is my northern cynicism, but c’mon, people. Really?
Anywho, Peter and I laid around all weekend and relaxed, since everything was closed. Our dogs were super excited to have us around the house. Lennon absolutely adores anything Peter does, and she was very content to have him pet her all day.
We tried to take the dogs for a little snow walk, and Lennon was so excited, she couldn’t stay still long enough for me to take a good picture. I continuously took about 20 pictures of her, and this was the unblurriest one I could get. She really likes to hold the leash when you mention the world, “walk,” to her. And the noises she makes. You would think she won the lottery. Or whatever dogs would win if they played such things?
Here are some pictures of our snow dogs. Lily obviously loves the snow. By the end of the day, you can see that Lily is exhausted, as she collapsed on Peter’s leg with her tongue hanging out. 🙂 Silly pup.
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Continued

I found some pictures of Peter’s living room BEFORE I moved in, and I will try to clean up the house and post some after pictures. This is the living room at Christmastime 2007ish. You can see the brown wood everywhere-yuck! There is SO much wood everywhere in these houses. The master bedroom is the worst.
Before
After

You can see that we bought and installed a new white backdoor, painted the fireplace wood, and got some new curtains and pretty faux wood blinds. It’s funny that I only take pictures of the house at Christmastime. I saw this really cute garland at Pier 1 with colorful ornaments on it, but it was $40. I decided to make it “from scratch” and ended up spending about $20 for the same thing. Not bad. And it was a fun craft one night!

I guess with my masters degree and working, it’s been hard to keep the house as nice as I’ve wanted lately. After all of the readings and homework, I just want to relax and do nothing! 🙂 You can relate, right?

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Home Improvement Blog!

So everyone is posting all of the great changes they are making to their homes. I feel like I’m out of the loop! I wish I thought of blogging about the little changes we’ve made, so we would have some comparison photos and things. I found a couple pictures from when we bought to the house and then some good “now” pictures. What do you think?

Before
After
Before
After
Here’s a cute runner I made for the “telephone table” in the corner. The fabric was on super sale at Joann’s Fabric, so I was able to make 2 pillows, cover the circular ottoman, and this runner. Now everything matches, which is nice. I also got a light aqua blue faux suede fabric for the other pillows. The best thing about those is the fact that they are Scotchgarded, so I don’t mind if company uses them as plate holders for their laps.
I will continue to take some pictures of our new windows and downstairs pantry closet, which is awesome now. I just have to clean the house first, so the rooms are presentable :).
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Things that Make my Life Easier

I decided to dedicate this entry to things that make my life easier. Sarah gave me this idea when I saw her post on Space Bags. Now everytime I go to Walmart, I’m looking for Space Bags! My linen closet is ridiculously tiny, and we have tons of comforters and towels from our wedding showers.
Recently my neighbor, April, ranted and raved about the 3-in-1 laundry sheets that will clean, soften, and anti-cling your clothes for you. I don’t really use fabric softener, and I seldom use my anti-cling things (because I never remember), but when I was looking for funny gifts for Peter for Christmas, this made the list. *I know that the previous sentence was a run-on sentence.* I am in love with how deliciously good-smelling my clothes are when I use these sheets! I could smell my clothes all day long. They even make the house smell wonderful when you take the clothes out of the dryer. And the nice part is, you don’t get any liquid detergent anywhere! I tend to make messes easily when pouring things, and I always end up with detergent on my hands. Ugh, I hate sticky detergent hands. So, thank you, Purex 3-in-1 laundry sheets!
Another thing that is a must in this house is a tub of Lysol Cleaning Wipes. I have a tub of these in every bathroom and under the kitchen sink. They are awesome for quickly cleaning up areas before guests come over–what a quick way to clean your toilet seat, boys!
My other love has been my Spray N’ Wash. I know, I know. I’m like the last person on earth to figure this out, but this stuff is just genius. In addition to pouring things all over myself, I tend to get my sleeves dirty, especially near my wrists. I am always pulling my sleeves over my hands to keep the warm, which, in turn, makes my sleeves black with dirt. (If you’ve ever seen My So-Called Life, you’d know what I was talking about with the sleeve thing.)
These products, somehow, allow me to give others the illusion that I am a grown-up with un-spotted clothes and a nice clean bathroom. Thank you!
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Warning: Nerd Post

I recently got a new cell phone. I’ve never had the fancy plan before with internet access, but when we switched from AT&T to Verizon, cute phones were hard to find. I saw this really cute phone, called the HTC Droid Eris, and Peter said if I ordered that one, it would come free with his Motorola Droid. I like free, but I felt conflicted, but I like to be as low maintenance as possible. A fancy phone plan to me = high maintenance. I dunno why. I guess I just don’t feel like it’s necessary. I’ve had fun with the whole emailing and using Google Talk to chat with friends, but a part of me still feels bad about a higher priced plan. So far, I really like the Eris. I even put a cute pink, silicone cover on it, because I drop phones a lot (not a big pink fan, but it was the best color I could find).

The nerdy part of me is waiting for the Eris to get the update to Android 2.0, so I can have some better features. For instance, maybe it’s just me, but I find it hard to actually make phone calls on it at times. It’s a little funny saying how much I like my phone and then saying, “The phone part of it kind of sucks though.” The whole touch screen part of it is tough for me for some reason. I constantly dial the wrong person and hang up on people by accident. I am hoping the 2.0 update will help me with my dialing problem. C-

It has a great speakerphone, which is what I use while I am driving, so I don’t die. A+ I also really like the Google Voice option, so I can call people with my Google Voice number from my cell phone. I use my GV# for work, so people can get a hold of me when I am at home or driving to train volunteers–and I don’t have to give away my real cell phone number. A+

Now I’m just looking for games I can download to my Eris, so I can keep myself busy while I wait in the doctor’s office. Any ideas?