Sooooo cute!

My talented, amazing, wonderful friend Linda came up on Saturday to help me out with a few things. And she surprised me with this!!!!




Now Zoey has her very own corner to enjoy!
What a lucky little girl! (already)


Yeah - I know, what you're thinking... Zoey will live in room with a blue accent wall?
Isn't that a little boyish?

Not a chance!I LOVE that color - so it's staying.
She'll just have to embrace a variety of colors and not just pink.

Monday continued....

Yeah... so last night after work, exhausted me with gimpy right ankle, decided to clear the sink and fill the dishwasher. As soon as I finished and started the load, I was going to hand wash the rest... but to my surprise when I turned on the kitchen faucet, water (from the base) sprayed everywhere.
Dad, the kitchen faucet expert, raced over on Scarlet Thunder and took a look. The diagnosis: we need a new kitchen faucet. Since the base has split, there was no use salvaging it.

After dinner, Mac and I went to Home Depot and found a really cool (yet affordable) replacement. This one has one of those pull out heads. I love this feature... I'd post before and after pictures... but the project isn't finished yet. The tubes that are supposed to attach to the water are too short. And even with the water off... it leaks.
ARGGGGG!



So Mac will finish up tonight while I'm at the monthly HOA meeting.

I was hoping that today would be better than yesterday. So I packed up a couple of Dr. Peppers to get me through the rest of the work week... when I pulled into to the parking lot, I discovered one of the cans leaked all over my work bag. WHAT A MESS!

I'm still hoping today will get better. Seems like this week has been a huge challenge!
I'm soooo ready for the weekend! (And it's only Tues morning...)

The upside: I am looking forward to seeing Eric, Brynn and the kids today!

Uncle Dana Rocks!

We've been living in the dark (in the kitchen - one of our favorite spots in the house) for the last 2 weeks. We previously purchased a ten pack of those long florescent light bulbs & changed them out with no luck. Out of desperation I called Uncle Dana for some help.

It took him no time to isolate the problem.
The fixture was bad.
So he hopped in his silver truck and quickly returned with the remedy.

I can't even begin to describe my adulation when I flick on the kitchen light - and it actually works! (It's too bad I take for granted the little things that make like convenient and don't appreciate them until I have to go without.)

Oh but there's more!
Another reason Uncle Dana Rocks, is we welcomed the new year at his home with Jan, Al & my folks. They sure know how to host a party! We celebrated with fireworks on the top of the hour as we counted down to midnight. In between we played card games (scum). It was a great way to ring in the new year!

New Year, New Facuets!

One of the things I REALLY wanted for Christmas was new faucets for the bathrooms.
And guess what I got?!


BEFORE

AFTER

Ever since I saw Anna's new faucet, I wanted to upgrade too!

Thanks Anna & Phil & Fam! It's WONDERFUL!
Thanks Dad for coming over and showing us the secrets to installation!
Thanks Mac for doing all the yucky grimy cleaning and manual labor!

I feel spoiled!

Finally Feeling Better!

So what's new?

Well. I haven't had anything to post lately since I've been feeling yucky. I've been hibernating and trying to sleep through the morning sickness, but today is different! I'm feeling a lot better!


But here's a few things we've done recently that are worth mentioning...

Ummm! Cookies made by Mac's masterful hands for a friend party!A pic of them before baking and after

We also purchased new blinds for the back door.
The old ones had seen their day and the strings were frayed.
Mac did an amazing job putting them up!

Next post you'll see our one of a kind Christmas tree.
It would make any Trekkie jealous!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me!

Yeah, I know I've been celebrating all week, and I still have a lot more fun to go this weekend, but this is what we've done so far.

Not only did we celebrate on Sunday with the fam, but I got a cute card from Gramma! (Thanks! I loved it!)

AND yesterday when I came home from work, there was this cute package waiting for me at the door! I got a bunch of fun things from Mom and Dad Backerman! A new sweater I'm wearing today! A check for a shopping trip it (my favorite place) IKEA! A gorgeous handmade handkerchief made my Great Grandma Cahill, and temple recommend holders made my Grandma Knell (and of course cards with sweet messages from Mom and Dad!)

Next, after our apt. with the staff at Planet Fitness (of which we're new members) we got a workout schedule and tools to help us in our efforts to be healthy!

Then off to Bed, Bath and Beyond to pick up a shelf unit and use the rest of our gift cards.

Then, back home so Mac could make me a birthday cake.
He had to call his mom to get the recipe... and wouldn't tell me what it was! Argggg... he only titled it BCP. Yeah, like I'm supposed to know what that is.
All of my guesses were wrong. (Banana Cream Pie, Bavarian Cream Pudding, Butter Cream Popcorn, Best Chocolate Pizza...) Go figure...

Turns out it was BOSTON CREAM PIE!
YUM!Side view of all the yummy layers

I LOVE sprinkles, so Mac generously topped my Birthday Cake with the perfect amount of sprinkles!Meanwhile, I put together our new shelf. It's a perfect addition to our kitchen.
(Now we just have to figure out what should go on the shelves. :)

More Birthday fun to come!

Our newest addition!

Turns out we have a lot of pots and pans that we love and use... and have limited space to store them.

The solution?!

A kitchen ceiling rack!
We love it!
Isn't it way cool?

Painting completed!

I finally have shots of my furlough painting the week away. I think they turned out rather well! This is the kitchen from the back door. (You can see PPaz hanging out by the futon.

Here's my favorite wall. That deep red is amazing! (And goes well with the love seat Phil & Anna gave me!)



Angle from the other end of the house... I love the crisp lines that divide the wall.

Living room - I thought it would be fun to add a different shade to give the room more depth. It's a slight difference and hard to tell from this pic - but if you look hard enough you can see it.

I don't think I ever did a finished pic of the blue accent wall.... so here it is!

ahhh... a job well done feels sooooo good!

Furlough

It's nice to have time off - but disappointing to see all that snow Monday morning.
I have a week jam-packed with things to do around the house, people to see and places to go.
The project taking up most of my time this week is painting the kitchen. I fell in love with the red Anna selected for the downstairs bathroom, so I'm doing an accent wall to match. The other walls are now a light creamy yellow (cassia). I can't wait until I can put the kitchen back together. (The mess is driving me insane. The good news is I only have 1 more layer and a few touch ups before it's finished.

Another highlight is INTERNET! I finally broke down and ordered me some DSL. Now if I can just to bed before 3am.

Today was filled with a visit to see Suzanne's new little baby. Soooo cute!
And I got to play with Ethan and Kile and even spend a little time with both Sammy and Josie!

Lots of other fun stuff going on too... but I don't want to jinx it, so maybe in a future blog I'll have more interesting things to post.

I'll post pics of the new kitchen soon... but the adapter is sooo far away and I don't want to leave my cozy covers. :)

I can't believe how fast the week is flying!