Under Construction

Life has been busy lately. And I was doing so well with the blogging... Our house, well our kitchen, has been under some major renovations. After living in the house for 2 years now, and the recent addition to our family this tax season was nothing to fear... we FINALLY got a tax return! Thank you Brynn Marie :) Mr. H and I have been talking, since the day we moved in, about redoing the kitchen. The counters and back splash were so outdated and have been there since the house was built in 1997. After meeting with our tax accountant and finding out that for the first time since we've been married we would be receiving money instead of owing!!!! We both jumped for joy! We knew exactly what we were going to do with the money....

Hello granite, new back splash and cabinets...

Here is the before. This was taken by the previous owners. (Not our decorations.)

See the oldschool white and hunter green accents on the backsplash? No thank you...

Here in lies my absence... 

The kitchen is in shambles. Between a baby, both working parents on opposite schedules this project may be the death of me. But so worth it. The granite was the first step. An old friend of ours installed the granite. It was quite overwhelming walking through the warehouse with slabs and slabs of granite. But we both knew what we were looking for. 

Hello Gold Venician granite. Mr. H picked out the subway tile and I LOVE it!

In order to save a few $ I may have volunteered my sweet, handyman husband to remove, install and perfect the art of backsplash underneath the instruction of my dad. He may have cursed my name a few times... but he now is a tile cutting master! And it looks amazing. All that is left is the grout. Working off a vampire's schedule is no easy task.

Last but certainly not least. We decided to redo our cabinets. The hideous white washed cabinets disappear in the neutral colors of the kitchen and definitely did not compliment our beautiful counters.We looked at a few options; sanding and staining, sanding and repainting.... then landed on a kit from Lowe's. The Rustoleum Counter Restoration Kit. 

 

For everything the kit comes with the price is AMAZING! And the results are even better. The process though; awful. 

AWFUL!!!!!!

 

1) De glossing: Which includes scrubbing the cabinets until your hands bleed. 

2) Wait for cabinets to dry. (1 hour)

3) 1st coat of bond coat/paint 

4) Wait for bond coat to dry (1+ hour) 

5) 2nd bond coat 

6) Wait for bond coat to dry (1+ hour) 

7) Decorative glaze: This adds detail to the cabinets allowing the grain to show through. 

8) Wait for the glaze to dry (8 hours.... what the what?!?)

9) Seal the cabinets

10) Wait for the sealant to dry (12 hours) GOOD GRIEF!

Where am I in the process? Well it depends which side of the kitchen you're asking about... I am anywhere between step 1 and step 9. But don't get me wrong. It looks AMAZING! I can't wait until it is finished. There is an end in sight. I am working a little bit at a time between snuggling and kissing Miss B's sweet cheeks. Most of my worktime is from 9pm-2am. Crazy I know. Not on school nights of course. Iced coffee has been my constant companion.

I can't wait to show you the end product! Okay, back to the grind.

Feeling the Love

 One thing I LOOOOOOOOOVE about our home is our mantle. I also love the challenge of finding things around the house to decorate it for each holiday... well maybe with a few purchases here and there. Here is our mantel Feeling the Love for February.  

I had bought the berry twigs last season at Kirklands and already had the urn. A Goodwill find a few years ago. I made the LOVE sign last year with letters from Hobby Lobby, paint and some hot glue.

 Ugh this garland... I thought it was going to be the death of me. Last year I sat down with some magazines, some paper, doilies, cucpcake liners, scrapbook flowers and this tutorial from TaterTots and Jello. I gave 3 hours of my time to this decor. It was totally worth it in the end... but I definitely didn't think so at the time. But I love that I can use it again and again.

I adore this free printable I found on Pinterest. It found a home in a frame I had from the wedding + some white spray paint. I made this pom ball (another doozie) using another tutorial via The Idea Room Blog on Pinterest. Those crepe paper flowers left some hot glue burns on the digits. Streamers are thin.... Tom gave me a Nothing Bundt Cake wrapped on this cute stand and now it has another purpose. 

This birdie is my favorite thing about the mantel. (Uhm.... please excuse me while I go dust the mantel GROSS.) I bought this bird from Kirlands. Love that place! After seeing this card on Pinterest I decided to recreate my own. I love how it turned out. I may also LOVE green olives.

The Hruskocys are definitely feeling the love this year... We adore our newest Valentine who is already 12 weeks old and will be turning 3 Months the day after Valentine's Day! 

Bittersweet

This Father's Day we are celebrating a healthy pregnancy, a growing baby and the many happy days we have had so far this go round. But June 17th last year was a day of great sadness as we said goodbye to our baby boy much, much too soon. It is hard to believe that one entire year has passed since we got to meet our son, and tried to grasp each second we held him before he went home to heaven.

The past 365 days have been some of the hardest of my life and the most trying days in our marriage. While there have been many tears, questions asking "why?" and wrestling with the acceptance of God's plan it is undeniable that God has been with us every step of the way. Our God is so rich in mercy and has never left our side. Grieving is messy... it is not smooth. There is not one day where I have felt the same as the day before. There are lows, lots of lows, days where I feel almost guilty for enjoying myself but I have a peace in knowing that I can't hide any of these feelings from God. He knows it all, if I can't find the words to pray He knows and He is faithful.

He has put so many people in our paths that have had a specific purpose in our healing. Whether they have acted as a friend to listen, a home group to pray for us, a church body to worship with and in some intentional situations or people's circumstances we have been able to see a glimpse of God's indescribable power. And although I long to hold that sweet baby I know that His intentions were clear, to draw me closer to Him. The past year has been hard, it has made me a member of a club I would wish on no one. But being in the "club" you experience a love so powerful, grace so rich in mercy that I have felt lucky to have the opportunity to feel that connection. What a completely different place we are in than June 17th last year.

Each day still brings a mix of emotions, but today I feel blessed. Singing praises in church and longing for the day with no more tears, where Tom and I will reunite with our boy. What a sweet, sweet day that will be.

Worshiping God does not require that we understand or approve of what God has allowed into our lives; it simply requires a heart that desires to trust God and a will that is bent toward obedience to God regardless of our feelings.     One Year Book of Hope; Nancy Guthrie

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In Memory of Baby H. 

June 17th, 2011

 

After losing Baby H. our families had talked about doing something to remember our son. There was talk about it then as the grieving began it didn't resurface for a bit. My mom and I talked about how a tree would be nice to plant in our yard, since we had just bought our first home. I have always loved Magnolia trees. There blooms are beautiful. So about 2 months ago my mom and dad surprised us with a small Magnolia seedling. Before the Texas heat was turned on full blast Tom and my dad planted that beauty in the ground. 

I wanted there to be purpose behind the location of our tree, somewhere we would see it often. A daily celebration and remembrance. We decided to plant it on our side yard, outside our kitchen window where we look out multiple times a day. It now makes doing the dishes a bit more enjoyable, thinking about our sweet boy. 

 Just a baby tree here...

I had never researched our looked into Magnolia trees, I just recognized their beauty and had seen them flourish here in Texas, which meant they could survive the summers. After she was planted in the yard I googled the symbolism of a Magnolia tree... 

 Well of course we think of Julia Roberts in the movie Steel Magnolias which then stated; a "steel magnolia" is a popular phrase denoting the strength a Southern woman possesses. This past year has made me realize and truly believe that I am strong, and God's strength lives in me. I never felt like I was strong before. A Magnolia tree's energies help to strengthen and activate the heart, it is the center of idealism, love and healing. A Magnolia reminds us to be true to our ideals and our heart, no matter the pressure upon us. 

I love everything about this. Those words are a perfect testimony to our past year. 

So as we look back on the trying times, this tree, our Baby H reminds us that God is God. 

Reason #2 I am stoked to move: (Sorry I missed 2 days till moving)

Location, Location, Location

When we decided we were going to start saving to buy a house there was some debate on where to look. We knew we were going to be in this house for a while, so this was a big decision for us to make together. We liked living in the midcities area because it was in the middle for both of our jobs. Yes, the traffic sometimes stinks but it was meeting in the middle for both of us. We started conversing trying to decide between the midcities or moving back to our hometown. My family and all of the hub's family lives within 10 miles of each other. So we decided we wanted to be close to family. Very soon after, we found out that we were expecting we knew we needed to stay close.

I am so happy that our child will be growing up and seeing their extended family. It is so special to me. So our new home is 3 miles away from my family's abode! I am so excited to be close again!

Reason #1 I am so excited to move:

Tomorrow is moving day!!!

While I am working the movers will be coming! I feel like the time was going by so fast trying to pack, but this week has gone by slower than ever with the last packing I needed to do. But tomorrow we will get to unlock our new home! :)

On the Hunt

3 Days until the Big Move: #3 Reason I Can't Wait to Move

Hunting for a Kitchen Table

The move into our house has sent me on a hunt for a kitchen table. Our current table matches our china hutch and will be used in the formal dining room which leaves us without a table for the breakfast area.

I had a monster of a TV line up for tonight but the weather had other plans.. in the form of tornadoes, rain and golf ball sized hail. The Biggest Loser, Glee and The Voice was replaced by our meteorologist David Frinfrock and his goofy self. So instead of crying during the BL season finale, I was on the hunt for kitchen table ideas. Here is some of the inspiration I found...

Love these 2 farm table beauties.

The Nester. I love her...

Obviously I am drawn to the white tables.

This is similar to the table the current owners have in the breakfast area. Love the pedestal base! I could use a little black furniture in my life.

I cannot wait to find the perfect table to occupy our new home. I sense a Canton trip in the near future. :)

I am going to count yesterdays accomplishment of tackling the mountain of my husband's closet as two spots on the moving count down. I cannot believe that moving day is quickly approaching... the packing has continued and we are getting down to the silly do dads that are a pain to pack. No matter which box you put those pesky pieces in there is no method to packing the random stuff.

So here we go...

4 Days Until Moving Day: Reason #4 Moving Day will be the Best Day EVER!

The Backyard

One of the amazing parts of our new home is the backyard. Now compared to the monster of a yard we have right now it is a definite downgrade size wise but an upgrade when it comes to shaded space. There are a lot of trees covering the backyard which will provide shade and hours of exploring nature with our little nugget. I cannot wait to show our child everything that I love about nature. The previous owners have a cute little picnic table under the shade of the tree with an adorable swing hanging from the branch. LOVE IT! I think I may just recreate this little oasis. I cannot wait. Only 4 more days baby.

I'm off to convince my sweet stubborn husband that movers are the way to go... because this preggo lady will be useless on moving day :)

T Minus 5 Days

6 Days until Moving Day: Reason #6 I'm Ecstatic to Move

The Ultimate Purge

When I married Tom I also married his clothes. He has an award winning collection of T-shirts. Now I admit I have some sentimental attachments to some odd things but when I was doing multiple loads of laundry during the week I quickly downsized my T-shirt pile. Now I now with the husband's line of work he wears a uniform, but in his spare time he is wearing T-shirts for Crossfit and going out so the laundry basket is full of Ts but with his stack he could fill 3 baskets.

After a week of begging, the hubs must have woke up on the RIGHT side of the bed because he walked out of the bedroom saying, "What can I do to help?" Well right this way sir... we went straight to the closet. I don't think he knew what I had in mind. He sat there and I did the rest. By the end two huge stacks of clothes are on their way to be donated and the boy looked like a battered puppy. Poor guy...

It's going to be so nice to move into our new home with ALOT less clothes. Hallelujah! :)

8 Days Until Moving: Reason #8 I'm Stoked to Move

Construction Sucks!

The above picture is only a portion of the construction that has haunted my drive to and from work. Highway 121 has been under construction since the day we moved into our home. I sometimes did enjoy my drive with my starbucks in hand before taking on my Kinderbabies. But the days when the highway was shut down completely forcing me on a round a bout detour I hated life. Moving back to our hometown we won't need to pass through this construction on a daily basis. The last day I drive this drive will be the 3rd happiest day of my life.

Reason #7 I'm Stoked to Move: 7 Days until Moving Day

We are HOMEOWNERS (for real) Oh yeah baby! We closed on our house yesterday afternoon and we have the keys in our possession! :) I swear I signed my name 1,000 times yesterday and may have signed my life away. That was one of the most stressful processes, and from my fatigue today I had been stressed to the max. I feel like a huge weight has lifted off my shoulders. We gave the current owners a leaseback until this Friday so the waiting continues. Until then... I have been staring at the key all weekend and I will be cuddling with it tonight!

I can't believe it is all happening.

9 Days Until Moving Day: Reason #9 Why moving will be the best day ever...

The Commute

I was a few minutes early on my way to work this morning so I drove past our new home. I was hoping to see a SOLD sign plastered across the realtor sign but no such luck. I decided to time my new commute from the new place to school. It's a WHOPPING 5 MINUTES! :) What a sweet, sweet sound! I have been driving through construction zones, and detours galore so far this school year so a few left turns will be nothing.

My sweet husband's commute will be a bit different. I am so thankful that he was willing to sacrifice his 10 minute drive for almost 40 miles one way. We decided if we were going to buy a house we wanted to be close to family. Then when we found out we were expecting it only confirmed out decision to move close to family.

So nine more days of driving the drive. I may miss my "me" time each morning but the extra 45 minutes I will be able to enjoy my bed sounds so much sweeter! :)

Baby H News: We got to hear Baby H's sweet heartbeat this afternoon. No sonogram... no gender news but we will know for sure in 4 weeks at our next appointment. What is crazy is that in 4 weeks, school will be over and we will be in the new house. How wonderful :)

The doctor was doing her thing and she was pressing on my stomach checking the baby and her exact words were, "Whoa that's a big baby. More like 16 weeks along..then again look at the daddy!" Remember I'm only 14 weeks. Good grief... big baby... delivery... ouch! Thanks husband. I can't wait until our next appointment.

10 Days Until Move In: Reason #10 I'm stoked to move

The WALK IN Closet

Me and the mister have been sharing a miniature closet in our current love nest. So I feel like anything bigger by merely inches would be a huge upgrade. Our closet is no walk in but only opens with accordion doors and me and the hubs worked out a system but we are pumped for our new closet.

When we toured our new home I felt like Carrie Bradshaw walking into her new apartment closet. Heavenly....

Maybe it's not as big, and I definitely won't have the shoes like she did. But I will be in heaven when each piece of clothing will have a place of its own.

On a complete opposite note... we have our 14 week check up appointment tomorrow! We will get to hear and see out sweet Baby H. The husband is determined to find out if it is a boy or girl! He is not above begging... We are so blessed! :)

Hallelujah and Pass the Spoon

I got the best email tonight on our my home from Crossfit tonight! We are FULLY APPROVED for our loan to purchase our first home! This was such a huge weight lifted off our shoulders. We have spent the past few weeks sending document after document to our lender. I mean everything you can think of. I really wouldn't have been surprised if they asked for a pee sample from the both of us.. TMI? But no more. We are literally just "twiddling our thumbs" until Friday, our closing day as our realtor told us. And I can think of nothing I would rather be doing.

I stopped at the store on the way home and then rushed home and impatiently waited for my husband to come home so I could tell him the news. I looked like Kali's twin waiting by the glass door, wagging my tail in anticipation. I barely waited for him to walk in the door before jumping up and down sharing our news!

Let the celebration begin...

Yes we celebrate big in our home... coconut milk ice cream out of a plastic gladware with plastic spoons. (My mom and I got overzealous and packed away the entire kitchen so we are left eating off paper plates with plastic utensils).

This is what Pure Joy looks like. (Well and weeks of stress, packing and pregnancy at 8 pm) It was the perfect way to celebrate! :)

I dislike the above picture for two reasons: 1. You can see the abscence of my widows peak where my hair never grew back after a freak accident in 5th grade. (We can save that story for another day) and 2. You can see our hideous cabinets of our current residence. Which leads me to my next reason...

11 Days until we Move: Reason 11 Why I am Stoked to Move

The Kitchen

If you look closely you are able to see kitchen cabinets in our current rental house. These babies were my nemesis upon our move in. Our landlord did a quick once over cleaning for our debut and obviously neglected the cabinets and the previous tenants must have fried everything because I was left with off white cabinets from the 70s Brady House covered in a yellow grease/ grime. My sister was a saint those first two nights painting cabinet door after door with new white paint. Don't worry she left me to do the dirty scrubbing and I treated her to a chick flick teeny bopper marathon. Even after their extreme maker the kitchen was never what I wanted it to be. So I am very excited to move into a home with this gorgeous heart.

Welcome to our new kitchen...
Sure the kitchen may need some TLC and a few modern updates but the abscence of grease stains and Brady-licious cabinets fire me up! Carol Brady eat your heart out. 11 more days; so close but still so far.

Let the Countdown Begin

If everything goes smooth and according to plan we will be moving into the new and improved Love Nest in 12 days! And we are closing this Friday... geez louise! I have been busy this weekend packing up box upon box. It makes it seem real though.

Pregnancy hormones and packing make for an interesting combination. I feel like I am on a roller coaster of emotion. I am trying not to stress so in order to distract myself I have been staring at pictures of our new home. Here is a special kind of countdown expressing how excited I am about moving.

12 Days: 12 Reasons I am stoked to move....

Reason #12: Split Sinks in the Master Bathroom

I do love my husband, but the living here in the current home we share a small bathroom with only one sink and share the cabinets. I am not an anal clean freak by any means but I have an organization to my madness. So the thought of having my own vanity, sink, cabinets and drawers makes my heart pitter patter!

You can barely see my sink in the picture above, but her is the Hubs on the opposite wall :)

I am so excited!!! 5 days until closing... 12 more days to pack! Let the countdown begin.

A Blessing in Disguise

Here is a picture of the room that will be Baby H's nursery in our new home. When I walked into this room during our viewing, that is when I KNEW we had to have this house. I mean... How perfect could this be!??! I love it!
We found out that this room has a blessing in disguise. If you look closely you can see that they installed white wainscoting on the bottom half of the room. Before the current owners applied the wood they covered the walls in bible verses as a blessing for the room and their baby girl.
I just got the chills again, like the first time I heard this.

I love that our Baby H will be sleeping in this room and will have this blessing over him or her. This is something that makes our new home so special to us.

I heard from our lender today and she said everything is going well with our financing, so we are just in the waiting period now. Its so hard to be patient... Be patient, be patient, don't be in such a hurry! :)

P.S. I mean how perfect would that room be for a little baby girl?!?!? :) Just kidding. (Not really)

Moving on Up... Moving on Up

That's right folks...we are moving on to bigger and better things and becoming First Time Homeowners. There are some big changes happening in our little family and we could not be more excited. Me and Mr H started decided to start looking for houses before we found out we were expecting. And when we found out about the little bean it only confirmed that we wanted to find a home of our own. We both agreed that we did not want to raise a baby in a rental house.

The search began. We saw alot of houses, most of the houses showed us what we didn't want. Then we found this beauty, only a day old on the market. We were the first to see her, love her and we knew we needed to make an offer before anyone one else stole her away. After a few negotiations we are proud to say that we are...

UNDER CONTRACT!

We are praying that everything goes smooth from here on out with the financing. If so, we will own our first home and be moving on May 27th. Holy moly that is soon! Almost one month away... let the packing begin!

Next blog on the agenda- Pregnant, Packing & Hormones! Stay tuned...

The Thrill of the Hunt

Tomorrow we will start looking for our very first home. I am so very excited! We have been looking through many listings and may be a little overwhelmed but we are ready to jump right in. We are meeting with our realtor and going to look at a few homes!!!!! I feel so anxious. It's like the first day of school. What do I wear?!? I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight.

Hopefully we don't look this distraught...

I told you... there are BIG things in store for our little family! 2011 is off to a great start! :)

Reason # 103,287 why living in a house is better than living in an apartment....

You can vaccuum at 11:15 at night.

In an apartment vaccuuming at these wee hours of the night would get you cranky neighbors and a warning note on the door from management. But now I only get the dirty looks from this lady.

"What the heck are you doing lady...."

Kali was totally unamused. She did not appreciate being woken up as much as my apartment neighbors did. Never mind the fact that I have a husband who sleeps the day away and 11:15pm is prime cleaning time when the hubby heads to work.

My only hesitation in telling you this... well now you know the excitement of my crazy Saturday night. Vaccuuming at 11:15pm. Hey, there was coconut ice cream and a chick flick too! :)

Happy Saturday!

Snowmageddon 2011

Texas is known for its crazy weather but 2011 has brought two snow storms to the south. The weather man was calling it "Snowmageddon." Hearing this channeled the middle school boy crazy girl in me, and all I wanted to do was watch Armageddon with my box of tissues in hand. Tear jerker... right? This movie made me fall for Ben Affleck. Hello there.... The crazy weather started and I was startled by sleet hitting my window at 3 am. The next morning I woke up to find a winter wonderland and there was no way I was making it out of our culd-e-sac ice rink. We did not have school for 4 days due to the ice. This was plenty of time to play with Kali is the snow. She really didn't know what to think.

Since I moved to Texas as a wee Kindergartner the most we ever missed from school was 2 days and we thought that was lucky. I felt like a kid again anxiously watching the news for the school cancelations each morning. I may have shrieked a little bit when Lewisville ISD rolled across the screen. But only because I got to snuggle a little longer and work and be productive around our Love Nest.

I finally organized the craft/scrapbooking/whiteroom. Leaving me with a little sanctuary to escape to when the husband goes to work. With all of my time off I did break out some scrapbooking supplies to make a few home made Valentines gifts.

We went back to school the next Monday and Tuesday but Wednesday brought another ice storm. By the afternoon the snow had melted and the roads were clear but the extra day at home was wonderful. I think all the snow and ice are behind us now. For the past 3 days the temperatures are up in the mid 70s. Like I said... Crazy Texas Weather! That doesn't mean we aren't enjoying the sunshine.

Last Day of Winter Break

Twas the night before the first day of the "new" school year.
A husband and wife woke up to a power outage, definitely a worst fear.

To make the best of the situtation, "Let's get some Starbucks!" she said.
Still tucked in bed nice and cozy visions of coffee and pastries danced in Mr. H's head.


Coffee cake, blueberry scone & 2 coffees to go= The Best Breakfast in bed.
With a caffeine jump start we were ready for the day ahead.

The power came back on just in time.
We went to cash in our winning lotto ticket, bought a few more but didn't win a dime.


We didn't let the news get us down to low.
We were off to the Movie Tavern for lunch and a show.

A mid day matinee of The Fighter with Marky Mark as the star.
I'm glad we got a close seat so I didn't have to admire those mighty muscles from afar.

Off to Home Depot we went to top off our date.
Quality time with my husband, the grocery shopping and laundry could wait.



Pleading to the husband on this cold winter night.
Reluctantly he built us a fire, it wasn't worth the fight.


Searching to make sure no critters crawled down from inside,
We are now snuggled so warm sitting next to the fireside.



I can think of no better place I would rather be,
Than spending my last night of Christmas Break with my tiny family of 3.




Happy 2011 Y'all!

I know, I know... I say it every time. I am going to be better about updating the blog. And time and time again I fail. This holiday season has been kicking my tail. Our week of Kindergarten has been so exciting but also quite exhausting. Between Polar Express PJ Day on Wednesday, a full day of training and preparing for a class Holiday Party tomorrow I am just pooped!

But I am back from the trenches folks and I have some VERY EXCITING NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
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Did you think we were pregnant?!? Haha. Sorry it's past my bedtime, lame joke.

But this news is just as exciting for me. If our December wasn't so warm, hell might have frozen over tonight. I have been sorting through my clothes lately and purging, we may be planning a winter garage sale at Club Asbury. Let me preface this story by telling you how attached my sweet husband is to every piece of clothing he owns. Each time I think, "Hmmm... he has not worn this in a while, maybe he wouldn't even miss it" he changes my mind by looking for that specific item. He may just be the clothes rain man. He could probably tell you every item in the closet, and let me tell you, that's alot!

So I have been strategically planning when I was going to talk to him about getting rid of some of his clothes. It has to be the perfect, exactly right moment for these kinds of talks. I am telling you he is attached. Well tonight while putting away some laundry preparing for tomorrow's girls night I decided to ignore my previous plans to slide it in and call an intervention.

Our first round of purging was a success in my book. I felt like I was on a episode of Hoarders discussing each item. I kid, I kid. There was actually very little resistance on his part, although he did say it took a lot out of him. A little dramatic if you ask me.
It made a bit more room in our closet and the closet is patiently awaiting the cleanse of Christmas Break 2010! That's right folks, I've got big plans for the break. Productive plans... the only thing that stands between me and those 15days of freedom is one morning of cleaning our classroom and our class' Holiday Party. I think I can, I think I can.

It's been WAY too long...

Praise the Lord... moving is over. I won't bore you with our hectic moving plan during the second week of school. Instead a picture to sum up our lives in the past few weeks.

We are back and in turbo speed... Along with an upgrade from a 2 bedroom house to a 3 bedroom house we have upgraded our cable internet package which includes Turbo Internet. I don't really know what difference that makes in my internet browsing, as long as I can stalk facebook furiously and read all of my blogs I am a happy girl. But as for my man friend, his dream has come true as turbo means extra fast video games on Xbox Live. Two more bonuses came along with this upgrade included FREE DVR...be still my heart. Now I won't have to beg my husband to watch my trashy TV shows. And our upgrade also included a landline with free calls to Canada. Mrs Hameister Reis, I will speaking with you soon.

We are loving our new house! There is so much room we have been able to spread out everything and we are not tripping over each other or Kali. Kali loves having the backyard to run around in and the patio for sunning. She will sit out there all by herself.

You can see a bit of our patio. That is the little fountain/pond and the awesome tire swing in the background. And yes, you know we have swung on it more than once or twice. The tree is really tall so with the boy pushing me I got pretty high. Brought me back to my childhood... along with the dizzy nauseous feeling afterwards as well.

I have found that a new home brings A LOT of new friends. Most have been bad in our case. We supposedly have a nosey neighbor across the street so we have been making a conscious effort to keep the blinds closed. It's not those new friends I'm worried about its the new friends with more than two legs and are creepy and crawly. Yes on moving day we met our first house guests. A swarm of angry hornet hanging out on our front porch to welcome us to the neighborhood. Since then we have sprayed three more nests. They are definitely overstaying their welcome and given me a nervous twitch whenever I see something flying by.

My man friend will be spraying our house on his day off tomorrow to protect us from the ants and few baby roaches that seem to be lurking in our love nest. The one crawling guest that I don't mind hanging around is a cute little gecko on our kitchen window.

He hangs out near our light to catch all the bugs. He has been there every night, so I don't think he's going anywhere. So I think we shall name him Lenny. Lenny the lizard. And as long as he stays on the outside of the window he can stay.

Yes our little nest definitely needs some work. I have named this project "Lots of Love." But I have lots of love to give our new house. Lots of love to give but not so much time. Between the first few weeks of school, crossfit and my hubby's crazy schedule we are still working on unpacking the last few boxes. It's coming together slowly but surely but I do love it. The few improvements that we have made is only making it more of a home to us. So the hours of repainting the cabinets, baseboards, doors and bead board have all been worth it. I love having a place to call our home. Hopefully in the next week I will have some more pictures to share of our little love nest. But if you have waited this long for a new blog post :) I'll keep you in suspense a little longer. Until then I have some laundry to do, some boxes to unpack and scrubbing to do.