Picture Time

Well, before I get to the picture summary of our weekend, I just have to say... I PASSED MY ORAL EXAM! And I can now graduate with my Master's Degree in Early Childhood Education May 15, 2010. I was extremely nervous beforehand, and it didn't help that my sinus' started to act up the day before. What a weight off my shoulders!

Anyways, this weekend we got our tax refund money. We had the intention of saving it all, but Alan we quickly decided that it was, indeed, time for a new grill. This amazing monstrosity is called The Big Green Egg. Now, my dad has had one for a while, and I was always amazed at the delicious-ness of the meals that it produced, so naturally, I knew we would get one someday. I just didn't realize that "someday" would be Saturday. We moseyed over to The Woodlands to pick it up, and as luck would have it, we were able to take it home that day! Alan then set about building a table for the BGE (or Big Green Egg). We also got a new light fixture for the breakfast nook area, which was my splurge with our refund money. The following pictures are what we were up to with the building of the table for the BGE and my beautiful new light (and partially decorated buffet).

Alan, hard at work

Disassembled BGE

The table is taking shape!

Base is in...

Complete, now just need to cut a hole

I love a man with power tools ;)

It's finished!!

Big Green Egg

Right after breaking it in on yummy steaks and grilled zuchinni!

Beautiful Tiffany-inspired lamp

2/3 of the way decorated... The bottom shelf needs a holder for the cross, but they are engagement/wedding pics on the left and some sentimental cookbooks on the right with our champagne glasses and cake topper. The middle shelf has some Limoges plates with a beautiful plaque from my secret sister (at work). Now just need to figure out what to do with the top shelf. :) Any suggestions would be welcome!

Well, time to get back to paying attention to my class chat... It's the last one! Yay!!!

Tomorrow

Well, tomorrow is the day I've been dreading looking forward to for the past two years. And, on top of that, I've decided that it is time to get a sinus infection... Yuck. What a great way to go into something that is a deciding factor in my graduation in May. Please say a prayer for me tomorrow at 2,  that I feel great and ace my orals. Oh yea... on top of all this, I have to wear a suit, of which my only suit probably doesn't fit. Hopefully I can figure something out without having to go to the store or break the bank...

Before and After... Dining Room (and what's new!)

Long time, no blog. I've had a ton going on these past few weeks and no pictures to post, so hence my hiatus. Last week was spring break and I had a blast! I saw my best friend and her ADORABLE daughter, watched my favorite nephew, and went to the zoo with another one of my friends and her two kiddos (who I used to babysit for once a week or so). Not to mention, I got to sleep in some days and all the cleaning I did. I also painted the hallway where 3 of our bedrooms are on. White is not the best idea for painting, in my humble opinion. I felt like the hallway looked like a hospital. So, needless to say, we wasted $30 on a gallon of paint and then had to go buy another color. I love the new color, but we're still not finished. It's two shades lighter than our living room, so it ties in perfectly! This weekend we're going to finish and then put up some decorations, then it'll be picture time! :)

On another note, I think that Alan and I have found a church home! We have only attended once, but I felt right at home. It's about 30 miles from the house, but it only took us between 25-30 minutes to get there. I love that it is a straight shot on the highway! It took us about that long to go to our old church in College Station. Suffice to say, we will be going back! It doesn't help at all that I already know a couple of people that attend. My college roommate, her husband, and her daughter (the one that I got to visit with over spring break) attend and one of Alan's good friends attends, as well. I was just thinking... these two friends were our matron of honor and best man at the wedding. How crazy is that? Anyways... enough boring words... on to the pictures!

So on to the before and after pictures. The dining room still isn't 100% done. We have to do a few paint touch-ups, but I figured you can't really tell in the pictures. Let me know what you think!

Before... Looking in from foyer

Before... Same spot, different angle

After... Looking in from foyer

After... Looking in from kitchen

I was so excited on Monday when I got the call that our buffet was ready for delivery. I scheduled it to be delivered Thursday, and it got here this morning around 10. I must admit that I love it even more in person! Now it's time to accessorize the buffet! It looks great with our cabinets and I can't wait to be able to get the table and chairs to match!

Straight shot... I can't WAIT to change the light fixture. 

It's way too modern and 'heavy' looking for my tastes.

Looking from the side... So pretty!

In other news, I started the Couch to 5K training program on Tuesday. I did two walks/jogs of 3 miles on Tuesday. Wednesday it was pretty gross outside, so I just rested my sore legs, and today I've done one 4 mile walk/jog and will hopefully do another 4 miles or so once the hubs gets home. It's only been 2 days, but I actually find myself enjoying walking and jogging outside! I can't wait to see how my endurance changes (not to mention that I hope my weight changes) over the next 9 weeks.

Houdini

It's official... We have Houdini in our house. Yesterday when I discovered King at our front door, I assumed the husband forgot to make sure that King was in the bathroom. Lo and behold, I was mistaken. I had to run some errands this afternoon to get some Cadbury Eggs plastic storage for the house and bandanna-like ribbon for Rodeo Day. I locked put the dogs up in our bathroom assuming that they would both still be there when I got home (remember, I THOUGHT Alan "forgot" to put King up). Well, I get home and am peeking through our glass to determine where the dog was and, much to my surprise, he comes running to the door as I'm unlocking it. Hmm... What to do now... Do I put them back in the kennel? Do I get a bigger baby gate... Decisions, decisions, decisions...

Closer by the day

Well, not much has been going on lately. We're getting closer to posting a before and after picture of the dining room. We've painted the room, put the chair rail up, and painted the chair rail, now I just need to finish some touch ups and the dining room will be complete... That is, until we can afford to replace the flooring and baseboards. How I would love to do that right now, though. Once we painted, the baseboards started looking kinda yellow, and now that we have the super white chair rail up, it's even more yellow.

On to some more exciting news... I've finally turned in my petition for my course change only 2 months later than I should've... Now I've set up the date for my orals. March 30 at 2 pm. The day I long for, but am not looking forward to. Those that know me best know that I HATE talking in front of people, especially professors. Put in me in front of 25 kindergarteners and I'll do just fine, but it's something about "old people." Not that any of my committee members are old, it's just that they're people I look up to. Oh shoot... I just hate talking in front of anyone, forget that they're professors. Haha.

On another note, King mysteriously got out of our bathroom sometime today. You see, instead of keeping them in kennels while we're gone, our dogs go in our bathroom with a babygate in front of the door. They are both good jumpers, so it was only a matter of time before they discovered they can jump out. Gracie, bless her poor dumb heart just isn't smart enough to realize she can do it, too. Unless Alan just somehow managed to miss out on the fact that King wasn't in the bathroom. It's not like he gets distracted ever... We shall see what happens on Friday, though.

Speaking of Friday, we're off to Abilene this weekend. Yay for more traveling. We haven't seen Alan's parents since Christmas, so it will be nice to visit with them, even if it is a short weekend. And then it's the infamous SPRING BREAK! Oh how I need a break. I love, love, love teaching, but I'm ready to sleep in and do nothing all day for a while. My goals are to finish unpacking, finally, paint some more, and clean the whole house. Only 3 more weeks until my family is coming down for Easter and my brother's 21st birthday. Gotta be spotless.

Pizza's on it's way. Should be here shortly. I'm gonna go pop open a can of Dr. Pepper and wait. =) Have a wonderful Wednesday!

A whole lot of nothing...

is what I've been doing lately. Don't have too much to say... just some bullets of the last week.


-The trip to Texarkana was good! We really enjoyed seeing the family while we were down, despite how quick the trip went.


-I got to watch my nephew all day Tuesday! He wasn't feeling to good (but you couldn't tell that from the way we played), so I got the privilege of hanging out with him. I love living in the same city as family! While he was there, I got a lot accomplished (for me, that is...)


-I'm hosting a catalog party for Pampered Chef. I'm honestly not exactly sure what all goes into this "catalog party" and I wasn't planning on doing it, but it just fell into my lap... Now just gotta hope some people want to buy some... haha.


-We're hoping to finish the dining room chair rail, finish the buffet, patch the holes from all the clocks that the previous owner hung ALL over the walls, and figure out how to put a queen size mattress in a full bed frame (it can be done, my parents have done it to 2 of their beds) this weekend. Not to mention attend my only favorite nephew's first birthday party.


-Our house is even more packed now than it was last week. My parents sent me home with about 10 boxes of stuff from middle/high school, things including notes that I got from high school friends, pictures, books, and who knows what else. Now I've got 4 weeks to sort through the boxes, trashing some things and storing the others. Gotta have the pink room, office, and guest room 100% clean by the time my parents come down for Easter weekend.


-I'm super ready for the weekend! It's been a crazy week, and the weekend isn't looking much less crazy.


I hope I haven't bored y'all too much. No news back from the interview yet, but hopefully within the next week or two I'll know something.