Spring has Sprung!

I almost hate to admit it......but....I am starting to enjoy this warm weather!!! (except of course for this weird 'storm' this week)

So life has been a blur lately. From Thanksgiving to Christmas, then BAM! It's April, spring time, and we are already counting the days until our next vacation.....or is that just me? As if over a week off at Christmas time isn't enough.

Caleb & I had another great visit with his family in the Sacramento/Roseville area over Christmas. The best part of it was surprising his mom and showing up at her house on Christmas morning when she wasn't expecting us until late that night. The look on her face was well worth getting 2 hours of sleep, waking up at 3am and driving 5 hours. :-) I just wish I had snuck a camera to Jim (Caleb's step dad who was in on the surprise) so he could have snuck a pic of the moment. You'll just have to imagine...

Also....for a while around the end of 2009 there was possibility of Caleb attending an accelerated nursing program in Lompoc. Long story short, he applied and didn't make it in this year. There's always next year! We were able to see more than ever how God's plan is so much bigger than ours. We were feeling impatient, and wanting to push to make it work, even though it was a huge stretch. It just HAD to be right.........right? Thankfully for us, God sees way more than we do. 2 weeks before he would have started the program, we were doing our taxes and got hit with a huge blow. Caleb's employer was not taking out the correct amount of Federal Taxes all of last year. No, we didn't notice. Yes, now we know what to look for. Basically, we owe a lot of money in taxes when we thought we were getting a lot of money back. IF we had gotten our way and Caleb got accepted into the program this year, he would have had to back out of it. NO way financially could we have him hardly working to attend the program, and then pay for the program, and pay our taxes on top. So, in the end we see how cool it is NOT to be in control. (as much as I like to be in control.....) He's working hard and plans on applying next year - we'll see!

March 13 was our 1 year move-in anniversary of buying our house! I can't beleive how much has happened in a year! However, it meant it was time to plant my garden again this year! Something new this year was that I pulled out all of the crazy blackberry bushes ( I didn't get much from them last year, the birds ate them all!) and planted a super pretty flower garden. Right now it's a bit new, only been a few days, but as it all grows and blends together, it will be even more beautiful.

Here are some pictures of the things that make me happy =)

First Rose of the Year


Peek-a-Boo! Yummy Lemons


Beautiful beginnings


So cute!


Tride n' True Geraniums...

Thyme

Basil

Yellow onions, zucchini, and yellow squash

3 Cherry Tomato Plants, 3 Celebrity Tomato Plants, Cucumbers, Basil & Thyme. Soon to come....Dill & Cilantro. Loved having them last year....


One side of my new flower area....the other side is pretty much the same thing :-)

I can't wait to see everything blossom and produce yummy fruit. :-)

Shame on me

I can't beleive it's been since THANKSGIVING that I posted anything! Blog post coming soon......

It's beginning to look at lot like Christmas!

So everyone knows what the day after Thanksgiving is for! No.....not shopping. At least not for me, I'm not that crazy.
It's for decorating for Christmas! We were so excited to decorate for our first Christmas in our home. I remember when we were first buying it how excited Caleb was, he was already thinking about how we could put up lights and where the Christmas tree would go.
Dad & Grandpa came over to help out, but first they put lights on dad's house. They did a great job! Our tree is up and decorated too but I forgot to take a picture of it finished! I'll put it up soon.
And can I just say, I'm so happy it's finally COLD outside! It's about time!


Here's dad helping....

Grandpa too!

And here's Caleb =) Working hard!

Here it is! See our tree through the window? Love it! Next year we will try to figure out how to run the electrical so that we can wrap our palm trees and fence in lights!

And here's a glimpse of the inside. We have more stuff but I didn't get pics of it yet either. I was slacking off. More will come soon! :)

I love my husband - he makes me laugh :)

Slippery floors are the best!! Sorry about it being sideways...

A yummy start to another year

For my birthday, Caleb took me to Ulliveto (a great locally owned Italian restaurant in Old Orcutt). It was a great night out together.....here's a couple pics from it.

You can't quite see us because of the "candle-light" setting I put my camera on....but you can see, the atmosphere was so nice =)

Yum, Pinot Grigio.

A great way to toast in my 25th year.

Birthday Part 1

I work with a great group of people.... =)

Stay Tuned...

For the big reveal......we are so close to being done with our main "phase 1" remodeling projects. The kitchen is DONE (with the exception of minor things like needing new blinds or curtains), and we pained our dining room, (Thanks Jen for your help!!!) and all we have left to do is for Caleb to install the bead-board aka waynes coating on the lower half of the dining room wall.

I don't want to post pictures of it yet since we are so close to a final outcome. So check back next week for (hopefully) finished photos!

On another note.....T-minus 2 days until I am officially a quarter of a century old. Kind of weird, considering I still feel like I'm a dorky high school kid. But, instead, I find that I am an (almost) 25 year old woman who has been married over 4 years, bought and remodeled a house, has a professional job, is tired by 9 and goes to bed by 10 (even on weekends, gasp!), and whos favorite channels include HGTV and Food Network, and who has an overall adult life. Go figure! ;-)

Is it Halloween? Or Valetines Day?

This year my office decided to have everyone (who wanted to participate) dress up for Halloween as a different holiday of the year. Can you guess what I drew? =) Here are some shots of some of my costume.

Pumpkins

Last night we had my parents over for dinner and a little pumpkin carving fun. Here are some of the highlights.


Mom, Dad & Caleb getting started


Mom with her, um, special pumpkin


Caleb, having fun.... =) And making a funny face...


Dad enjoying getting to stick a knife in something to releive his stress of the day...


The end result!!! Though we realized it's a week before Halloween so hopefully the pumpkins don't rot before we can put them back out next Saturday.

=)

We've never handed out candy to kids before as a married couple, no one really trick or treated in the condos we lived in before. We're looking forward to hanging out at home and seeing all the cute kids in our neighborhood!

Flooring & Other Decorations/Updates

So, I'll finally post some pics of the flooring! Keep in mind it's still a work in progress. We are putting up some of our baseboards this weekend, and still have to attach the carpet into the floor. We also have paint to put up in the dining room and our backsplash is coming in 2 weeks for our kitchen. But all that aside, it's so nice to see these things coming together!

Post Carpet/Tile - Pre Flooring

Hallway, part way done

Dining Room/Kitchen, getting there....

Dining Room as of tonight, 10/6. Found a rug to put under out table, but we're saving for it. "Bead Board" painted white is going to go on the bottom half of the walls in this room and the top half will be painted a blue/grey (lighter than the patch on the wall). The built-in hutch will be painted to match our cabinets in the kitchen, white. Can you see the vision? :)

The kitchen as of tonight, 10/6. Still a bit cluttered, and missing the backsplash. We now have the money for it so next week we're going to buy it and then the week after that, install it. Once the backsplash is in, we can put our stainless over the range microwave in and get rid of the old on cluttering up the counter. Can't wait for that!

Over our mantel in our living room. This is still a work in progress, too much stuff up there for me still. (see my mini pumpkins for fall) :-) Any-who, the flowers are a new addition. They're fake. I was trying to introduce a new color to the room. Today I bought a pack of 6, 12x12 mirrored tiles to hang on the wall and I am going to put them with a couple inches apart almost like a grid, on this wall. I think it'll create a good look and a different element to the room. When those go up, I'll edit my accessories a bit to simplify it.

See I take my decorating very seriously! =) It's a stress reliever. I am in control of it so it makes me feel better. There's probably some phycological reason for that, LoL.


This is in my home office. Recently painted and this is my first decorative piece I added. It's my inspiration piece, I love it!

Hallway, more floooring....minus baseboards, etc. You get the idea =)

A good look at our granite/cabinet/flooring combination. It's all coming out exactly as Caleb & I wanted it to, I'm so glad that we both have the same decorating taste!

Stay tuned for more updates =)