Hmmmm...

I haven't really had a lot to say lately. Life has been busy, to say the least. Lots of working and traveling for work and trying to make it to the gym (not as successfully as I'd hope). I did drag my butt out of bed this morning to go to the gym, even though I didn't go to sleep until pretty late, so that's good. Excuse me while I pat myself on the back. But for real, I want/need to lose 5-10 lbs and it's just not going anywhere. I've even cut back (a lot) on the beverages of an alcoholic nature to try to jump start this process, but no such luck so far. My basic rule for "dieting" is that I don't... I try to eat very healthy during the week (and very rarely drink, even when I'm at an event with alcohol) and then I can eat what I want on the weekends. That doesn't mean I binge, but if we go out to eat, I generally order what I want with only little regard for calories or fat content. So, yeah. I may have to hop on the WW train or be completely anal and follow my former trainer's meal plan (only former because we don't live near that gym any more). Working out more consistently will help too. I'm thinking about joining a Cross Fit gym in my neighborhood. We'll see!

So, other than that, life is just chugging along. I/we are trying to figure out our trips for the year. I want to do a girls trip to NYC with my mom and sister, I need to get out to Cali to visit one of my best friends, I want to go to Vegas for Miss USA, we are going to the Kentucky Derby in May with friends (so excited to buy that outfit!), and we need to plan our big vacation! Busy! We're also continuing to do work around the house, slowly but surely. I do wish we had a garage, but I love our house, and I can't wait until we remodel our kitchen and bathrooms. We're not attempting that until Matt is back home, which really can't come soon enough. I admit, I do enjoy living "alone" most of the time, but I got married because I actually wanted to live with a boy, and that boy is my husband. We only lived together full time for 4 months before he was shipped down to the booming metropolis of Tifton. I know he can't wait to be home, too! (We're hoping that happens in June or July... I'd like to note that we originally said he would not be there more than a year and it was one year as of last week).

Lastly, on a completely random note, we FINALLY watched The Hangover this weekend. Um, yeah, I was expecting it to be the funniest movie I'd ever seen. I was not impressed. It had its moments, but it was no Dumb and Dumber or Old School or even Wedding Crashers. Tigers love pepper... they hate cinnamon.

Give Away

One of my favorite design blogs is Chic Coles. Those ladies have a good eye. They recently opened up an online store called Shop Chic Coles and they are doing a give away for the Seda France Mini Pagoda Toile candle. Go check out their store and comment under the fragrance you'd like for your chance to win! I love lavendar, so that's the one I picked. It's such a relaxing scent. Go enter their give away and check out all the fun things in their store!

I can't even comprehend what a trillion is...

This is depressing.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107204575038733246595218.html?mod=yahoo_free#project%3DBUDGET1001%26articleTabs%3Darticle

We have to figure this out. It will never happen, but I wish the politicians would drop the special interest BS and just get their heads out of their butts and work together for what is in the best interest of our country. And, I won't even go into how I think our tax system is screwed up, but let me just say that I support fair tax! Tax people on what they spend, not what they earn.

Step By Step

As I was driving to work this morning, I flipped to the XM 90s on 9 station and behold the glorious sound emitting from my speakers, it was vintage New Kids on the Block. I'm currently on a three month free subscription, but that sealed the deal that I will be paying for the service going forward. Congrats XM. Well played, sir, well played.

Rainy Sunday

It rained all weekend in A-town, so yesterday I decided to go through some of the bins my mom made me take home now that we have plenty of storage. They were full of everything from elementary school to college mementos. Wow. I found old diaries (HILARIOUS to read), the shoe boxes I kept with boyfriend stuff (notes, cards, movie stubs, etc.), scrapbooks, yearbooks, and LOTS and LOTS of pictures. I swear, I saved every single school picture anyone ever gave me. I even had some from elementary school. I love reading the notes on the back of them. Matt got me/us a photo printer/scanner for Christmas, and I LOVE IT. I hadn't used it until yesterday, but it is sooooooo easy and pretty fast too. I could scan up to five 3x5" pictures at once, which was awesome.

Clockwise L-R: 2nd grade, 1st grade, Kindergarten, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 7th grade spring pic

Daddy and me near Highlands, NC circa summer 1982

me, Gram & Great Gram (all have Elizabeth as part of our names... as well as my aunt and cousin)

Azalea Algebrats 4th Grade Gifted Math Team (yes, I was/am a dork... not the last time I competed in an academic competition... haha)

Opening of the Bayside Bridge in 1993 (Dad was the superintendent)

not sure why this is so small... middle school cheerleading nationals in Atlanta

Jamaica (wish I still had that bod... sigh) - mom, cousins and brother

Varsity Cheer - 10th grade

Homecoming Court 1999 (I wasn't on court but I was our HS pageant queen)

Baccalaureate with 3 of my bests

It was so funny to go through all that... and I have plenty left to explore. Anyone else enjoy that or was high school a time you wouldn't mind forgetting? Don't get me wrong, there are certainly points I would like to forget, but I look back at the young loves, stupid fights, quest to be Valedictorian (unsuccessful) and laugh now at how trivial some of it seems.

Confession

I have a confession. I worked at Limited Too in high school. But, that's not my confession. They sold underwear, and I purchased a lot of them... they were very comfortable. But, that's still not my confession. Hi, I'm Kristin, and I still own (and wear) those undies. Eek! That's right. Not only at age (almost) 28 do I have little girls underwear, but they are over 10 years old, have holes in them and I still wear them to bed. They also have decorations like camo trim with a little chick that says "One Tough Chick" and red trim with a coyboy hat on the front. What can I say, they are comfy! Victoria's Secret doesn't have a thing on my Limited Too unmentionables. :)

Shiny and New

That's how the dining room feels, and it isn't even close to done yet. We still need art and new furniture. The color isn't even that much of a departure from the old color, but it is absolutely amazing how much it lightens and brightens up the room. Before, our dining room felt dingy and dirty to me, and now it feels, well, shiny and new... like a virgin freshly painted dining room. It almost (and I emphasize almost) makes me like my old dining room set I bought out of the classifieds in college. Almost.

Before

After, oh glorious after!

We're looking into getting a round pedestal table such as the one below from Ballard Designs. The small buffet would be moved to the left of the window closest to where it is now, and I'd like to get a taller piece for the other side of that window. I'd also like to put up two large shelves above the buffet for decorative plates or something like that. Ooooh, ooooh and I really want a capiz chandelier to brighten it up, since I think we're going to stick with black furniture in here.

I also almost finished the half bath this weekend. The main stuff has been done for quite some time, but I finally finished most of the decor. I still want something for the wall to the right, and I have two small canvases that I've been meaning to paint, so I might see what I can whip up. Mind you, I am no artist... at all... I mean, truly... no artistic talent outside of doodling.

I apparently do not have a before picture on my work computer (yes, I blog at work... when else would I do it!?) ;) but it was bad. It was the same putrid yellowish, peachy horrible color as the rest of the house but to add insult to injury, it had terrible fixtures and a gold light fixture that looked like it was going to fall off the wall. So, we replaced the ugliness as noted in my previous post and painted. We will likely re-tile at some point in the future, as well. I also didn't do the best job edging around the ceiling (thankfully we have 9 foot ceilings on our first floor and most people aren't in the bathroom to look straight up), so I told Matt he should install some crown molding. I'm not sure I've ever seen a powder bath with crown molding. It's my solution to all wall to ceiling oopsies.

And, during a random outing to Ballard's outlet (which is in my neighborhood, lucky me!), I found this mirror that I've been coveting FOREVER! It was on sale for $149.99 plus another 15% off! I DIE! I think it was $350 full price. Plus, I was going to buy a very boring floor mirror from Ikea for $100, so I'll gladly pay a few bucks more for something much more interesting. This beauty will reside in our sitting room off the master. Speaking of master, that's next... paint, switches/outlets, new fan and light fixture. If you have any good bluish grey paint colors, let me know. I do much better using something somebody else has already tried than picking my own.

And, one last picture, because what the hey. This is the gorgeous amaryllis our amazing realtor, Mary Stuart got us for Christmas. It is unbelievable!

Oh geez, and because this post isn't long enough already, I almost forgot! The stairs look SO MUCH BETTER. Not close to perfect, but as close as they're going to get, and I really don't think anyone will even notice now (shoot, they probably didn't before until I pointed out what a bad job I did Scotch Painters Tape did). The Minwax stain marker was a lifesaver. Oh, and I don't hate Scotch anymore. Apparently, I was using the cheapest tape they make, but if you buy their most expensive stuff, it works great. Matt used it in the dining room. Go figure.

I laugh.

I was just looking back on some of my old house posts, and I laugh at the number of times I promised pictures and never delivered. I'm pretty sure 0% of the three of you who read my blog care, but I just found it funny. I might deliver after this weekend, but I absolutely make no promises this time. Our last "bigger" project was the half bath, which we painted and added a new faucet, mirror, TP holder, towel ring and light fixture. Last weekend, we finally hung the shelf above the toilet and got a white cabinet for the odd empty space. We don't really have anything that needs storage in there (maybe some extra TP and reading material and matches... haha), but I needed something to fill that space. My goal this weekend is to hang some pictures and finally truly finish it. We are also tackling the stair "repair" (remember that?) and painting the dining room. And by we, I mean I'm doing the stairs, and Matt is painting the dining room. He actually demanded I pick a color so he could have something to do on the weekends since it's been cold and he doesn't have yard work... dormant grass and trees that have already shed all of their leaves = cabin fever. And, I'm not doing the test 1,000,000 colors again, so I'm going to go with the color Centsational Girl used in her office (Valspar's Seafoam Storm), and pray it's not too dark since our dining room doesn't get as much light. Just another crazy weekend in the crazy lives of Matt and Kristin!

By the way, I've decided that MLK Day is my favorite holiday, because it's the only time I get off work and don't have anything to do (it seems every other holiday from work is busy with parties or travel or something). I'm heading down to the suburbs to hang with my BFF on her birthday and just do whatever. No agenda. I love it.

Haiti Earthquake Relief

I'm sure many of you have probably already made a donation to assist with the relief efforts in Haiti. If you have not and are able, please consider http://www.foodforthepoor.org/. Some folks I work with suggested this organization, as they have ongoing relief and ministry efforts in Haiti. In 2008, only 2.3% of their funds were used for administrative and fundraising purposes, so you know most of your money is being put to work on the ground.

All must give as they are able, according to the blessings given to them by the Lord your God.
-Deuteronomy 16:17

Winter Wonderland

Well, we ended up getting about 1/2" to 1" of snow on Thursday night. I kept peeking outside watching it pile up until it finally looked like this, and I went outside to grab some pictures.






That little bit of snow was enough that my office closed on Friday (well, it was actually the ice that was caused by the storm), but of course, I still had to go in because I had too much to do. But, before I did, I snapped these pictures.



There's still a pretty decent amount of snow on the ground and some fun ice patches on our neighborhood streets. I kind of like the cold, but I was freezing when we ventured out on Friday night and was wishing I was on a tropical beach!