Showing posts with label DH. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DH. Show all posts

December 6, 2010

November Recap

I was about to start posting about some Christmas activities when I realized that I haven't posted hardly anything about November. So...

DH had his 29th birthday. We are now the same age for 2.5 months, and then I will leave him for a new decade :(

Someone was just a LITTLE excited about the Key Lime birthday pie!

At the beginning of November, my mother fell and broke her hip along with some other injuries. Thankfully, she is on the mend, although she will not be up to any holiday activities this year. Due to her mishap, I hosted Thanksgiving. This was my first year hosting, and I'm relieved to say that it went better than I expected it too. As my mother is still recuperating, I will be hosting Christmas as well.

BB and I make these adorable little clothespin turkeys for the place settings. I got the idea from the internet, and I cannot remember where :( If you happen to know, please tell me so that I can give proper credit!
Not that the above was that important, but at least I have November covered now :) On to Christmas blogging!

October 17, 2010

My Very Busy Mini Vacation

During the second weekend of October, DH, BB and I went on a vacation with my parents. The trip started out as just a day trip to see the Georgia Aquarium. However, when I went online to buy tickets, I noticed that the Aquarium had ticket packages for multiple venues. My dad offered to pay for our hotel room, so we settled on the Aquarium/Six Flags package. Just because we didn't already have enough planned, we decided to tag on Stone Mountain Park's Lasershow Spectacular as well.
We left Friday afternoon for Atlanta, and ate at The Varsity once again. We went mid-afternoon, and I'm sad to say that the quality of the food wasn't as good as it usually is at lunch time. But it was still The Varsity :)
Saturday morning, we went to the Aquarium. It. Is. AMAZING.

There are the standard wall tanks,

as well as opportunities to see things from above.

Sharks and stingrays were a big hit with BB,

as were the whales.
The only downside of the trip to the Aquarium was that I twisted my knee crawling out of the penguin exhibit. Fortunately, we had viewed most of the exhibits by then so we didn't miss too much.
We ate a late lunch/early dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, thanks to Miss Debbie's post. None of us had been there before, and it was delicious. Everyone loved what they ordered, and we each had to take our cheesecake slices back to the motel for later. We were stuffed!
Saturday night, we drove over to Stone Mountain Park for the lasershow. Admittance to the Park is $10 per carload. The show is shown onto the mountain's bas-relief, with seating either in the field or on the terraces. We opted to pay a bit more and sit on the terrace, which guaranteed us a seat in addition to a drink and popcorn.

The world's largest bas-relief, featuring the images of Lee, Jackson, and Davis.

waiting for the show to begin

Ooo, Aaahhh, Wow...
Sunday morning found us dragging a bit due to the previous day's adventures. We still made it to Six Flags before the gate opened, however. Thanks to ordering the tickets online, we were able to walk right in.
Unfortunately, BB could only be persuaded to ride 2 rides. The rest of the time was spent meandering through shops, and playing on the kid's playground. But at least BB got to "meet" some of his favorite characters:


Just don't tell him these aren't the real characters, okay?

blogging: the new millennium's alternative to slide shows! ;D


October 7, 2010

Fishing

If you take a little boy fishing for the first time, he'll want a chair to sit in as he fishes from the edge of the dock.

At least until he catches his first fish.

Once he gets a good look at the fish,

he'll drag his chair away from the edge and decide he wants to go home.

September 22, 2010

Apple Picking

The highlight of our Blue Ridge trip was apple picking at Mercier Orchards. Ever since BB saw Curious George pick apples, he has wanted to do the same.

The orchard has been in business since 1943. In the picture below, the building with the red roof is the old apple house for the orchard.

For $6, you can pick a small bag of apples, and for $12 a large bag. Since there were 3 of us, we opted for the large bag.

The orchard offers tractor rides every few minutes to and from the orchard, allowing you to take as long as you want to pick. Even better, the staff encourages you to eat apples while you pick!

All of the apples that are currently in season can be picked, so you can create your own mix of apple types.

Each type of apple is marked at the beginning of the row, with several rows available for each type of apple.

Using strategic maneuvering, we were able to fit about 20 apples in our bag. The U-pick isn't exactly a bargain if you're going just for the apples.

But for the memories, you really can't beat the price.

September 11, 2010

A Decade

10 years ago today, DH and I started dating. I had my doubts about our relationship. I thought that DH would break up with me. But he didn't. When I had doubts, he was confident. When I felt unworthy of his love, he reaffirmed me.
If 9-11 hadn't happened, I doubt that DH and I would still celebrate our dating anniversary. Yet celebrating our life together each year on 9-11 has become one small way of showing that the American spirit can't be snuffed out. We will always remember what happened on 9-11. We will always morn the loss of life. But we will never stop supporting, never stop celebrating what we hold dear: God, family, and country.

Christmas formal, 2000
In high school, I never had a date ask me to a dance or prom. So my first formal with a date was with my Beloved.

August 12, 2001
DH had planned on proposing on our one-year anniversary. But he couldn't wait that long. The day after he proposed, I had my mom take some pictures of us. Some of the pictures were dressed up, but others, like this, was in reference to DH's country upbringing.

June 22, 2002
I love this picture. I love that I am smiling as DH leans in to kiss me at our wedding. So many things went wrong with our wedding, but we got the vows right ;)

May 2003
Our first year of marriage found DH working and me finishing my senior year of college. Not exactly the best way to spend your first year of marriage, but we survived. I will forever associate our first year of marriage with hot dogs and Godzilla movies ;p

In our 10 year together, we've moved from our parent's homes to 3 separate dwellings of our own. We've been through weddings and funerals. We've even sported some fabulous looks, such as when DH decided to grow his hair out,

June, 2004

or when we've dressed in costume (as Miss Haversham and Mankind for a masquerade party).
2005

We hoped and prayed for parenthood, and we have embraced the changes that come with that, like sleep-deprivation and mood swings.
2006

We don't have too much time just to ourselves anymore. Most of our "dates" come as a result of a birthday or wedding:
2007

But we are loving this 3 people life.
2008

2009

To the boy who asked me out,
the man who made me his wife,
the husband who made me a mother,
the father who works for our future -
thank you for the best decade of my life to date.
I can't wait for the next 10, 20, 30 and beyond -
with you.




July 12, 2010

Yet Another Project Completed

Thanks to DH!
A previous owner of our house had installed a pond in the backyard. When we walked through the house before we bought it, the pond looked like this:

The pond was mostly empty, except for debris that had fallen in and rainwater that collected there. We didn't do anything to the pond until this Spring, when we cleaned out the pond (ICK!), and pulled up the overgrown plants that surrounded it. For a while, our pond looked like this:

We fiddled and fiddled with the water until we bought a UV filter. I didn't want to spend $80 on such a thing, but it has been worth every penny. Our water went from green and murky to clear enough to see the bottom. I add algaecide every week, and the filter does the rest. DH pulled up the old week barrier and redid the existing rocks, then added more rocks. Now our pond looks like this:

I still want to find a hollow fake rock to cover the outlet, but other than that, it's done. And I love it.

June 22, 2010

My Wedding

  • The church I wanted to get married in wasn't large enough to accommodate DH's family.
  • My friend who sang at the wedding was dumped by her boyfriend on her way to the wedding rehearsal.
  • It started raining just as I arrived at the church, my hair and makeup done already.
  • When I got into the car after having my makeup done, I accidentally shut my veil in the car door, pulling it crooked. No one told me, and I didn't notice until we got the wedding pictures back.
  • I didn't realize that heavier makeup is needed for photos, so my wedding pictures look like I'm not wearing makeup. I didn't want to look THAT natural.
  • I wanted to wear my mom's wedding dress, but alterations weren't permitted.
  • I wanted to get married barefoot, but the cost to hem my dress that much led me to wear heels that killed my feet.
  • The florist disregarded my request for simple spring bouquets of daisies, roses and hydrangeas. Those flowers were present, but there was nothing simple about the arrangements.
  • DH and I wrote our own vows. I spoke loud enough for the audience to hear, while DH spoke so that I could hear. We both disagreed with how the other person spoke.
  • The minister was supposed to read 1 Corinthians 13 as a passage. Instead, he expounded in length about each part of the verse.
  • DH's youngest brother passed out during the closing prayer. The people taping our wedding edited it out.
  • We arranged for a nursery for children during the wedding. The teething twins came into the church anyway.
  • I wanted light finger foods for the reception - relish trays and finger sandwiches. I got fried chicken fingers, Swedish meatballs, and mini hotdogs in barbecue sauce.
  • The baker for my cake used hot pink icing instead of rose pink to trim the cake.
  • Just because someone has a fancy camera doesn't make them a photographer. There are some angles that are more flattering than others, and a good photographer knows this.
Despite all that, I loved my wedding. Because it all came down to this:

Happy 8th Anniversary, DH.

June 19, 2010

For DH

When you became a father, I fell in love with you all over again.
Happy Father's Day

February 22, 2010

My Most Awesome Birthday Present

When we bought our house, we knew that it needed a few aesthetic repairs. Many of the items in the house are beginning to show their age. In the master bathroom, this was evident in the mirror:

the sink:
and the inefficient golden toilet (that matched the sink and also the shower stall):

Our bathroom also still had the original flooring:

(by the way, pay no attention to the date in these pictures. I have no idea how the date got set to that)
Our house was built before the whole concept of "master bath" took place. Which means that while BB's bathroom is a luxurious 7 x 8 feet, our bathroom is a mere 4 x 8 feet. That's including the shower stall, people. Obviously the architect for our house was a man. No woman would design a bathroom with this problem:

Yep. When you opened the door, you couldn't open part of the vanity doors. This didn't seem like a big deal until we had to deal with it everyday. The vanity had to go.

Even BB agreed, after reviewing the design problems.
For Christmas, my parents bought us new sinks for the bathrooms. We originally were going to put the new sink in the old vanity and live with the bathroom a bit longer. However, a series of events worked together to convince us otherwise. Such as me finding this great mirror at Goodwill for a mere $5:

Solid wood frame, mirror in perfect condition. All it needed was a coat of paint for the frame. Even better, the mirror is 24" x 36", the exact dimensions I wanted for the bathroom mirror.
From time to time, I like to go to the Habitat for Humanity resale store to see what they have. Right around Christmas time, I spotted this:

This vanity was originally from Home Depot. When this model was discontinued, the floor model was donated to Habitat. I watched it priced from $300, to $250, to $200. Since the vanity didn't come with a top, no one was interested. The vanity was in perfect shape. After the vanity had sat there for over a month, the manager of the store was eager to part with it. I was able to snag it for $100. We topped it with a Formica countertop from Lowe's in Butterum Granite for a mere $70.

Pretty nice, don't you think? The new vanity is 36" wide, while the old vanity was 48". While the old vanity did have a lot of counter space, it was too close to the toilet, as you can see:

Once the new vanity was in place, we knew we'd have to patch the wall and floor where the old vanity used to be. And the nice new sink and vanity made the old toilet look even worse. So for my birthday, I asked for a toilet. Thankfully, my family is used to requests like this. My parents and my Nana chipped in to pay for half of the new toilet, an American Standard FloWise toilet from Lowe's:
(image taken from the Lowe's website)

DH worked on the bathroom for 2 1/2 weeks, on weekends, President's Day, and evenings. Nearly everything was replaced. Ready for the big reveal?




DH installed paneling on the bottom 2/3 of the wall. The top third of the wall is painted Desert Fortress by Valspar.
DH built this great shelf for our towels. I. Love. This. Shelf.

The hooks on the shelf are from Lowe's. The shelf brackets were originally from Lowe's also, but I found them at Goodwill for $2.02 each - still in their packaging!
For our shower, we are still using the original shower stall. Since the shower stall is the same harvest gold as the old sink and toilet, we opted for a tall curtain to cover the entire wall. After looking at all of my options, I decided to use a flat twin sheet from Target.

The flooring looks like tile, but it is really vinyl. My parents had bought a vinyl remnant from Lowe's to go under their washing machine. They had some extra, and thanks to our small bathroom, the extra was the perfect size. DH placed the vinyl on top of the existing tile. To even up the flooring where the old vanity used to be, DH placed some small tiles under the vinyl.
Remember the door problem? We solved that with these bifold doors:

We bought the doors unfinished from the Habitat store for $5. DH painted them white, and added some 8.5" x 11" mirrors from the Dollar Store. He surrounded each mirror with a frame made out of molding and painted it all white. The knobs are extras from when we replaced the kitchen knobs at our old house. The doors open into the bedroom, giving us some wonderful space. And lest you think I am exceptionally creative, I got the idea for the doors here.
DH did a great job on the bathroom. The bathroom feels so much bigger, thanks to the door problem being solved and the smaller vanity and toilet.
Here's a cost breakdown:
vanity, vanity top, faucet, and sink parts - $296.57 (the sink was a Christmas present)
door, mirrors, trim, hinges - $36.34
mirror above sink, paint for frame - $8.53
toilet, parts - $81 (1/2 the toilet was paid for with birthday money)
paint, brushes - $51.13
light - $21.98
white switchplates, outlet covers, etc. - $22.54
wood boards, molding, paneling - $213.60
threshold - $15.18
calk - $15.96
hooks - $22.43
tiles under vinyl - $5.14
TOTAL: $790.40
I absolutely LOVE this bathroom. I've gone in there many times just to admire. DH did an amazing job. I can't wait until we save up enough money for our next project!