Miracles and Clean Rooms!

Friday was my IUI.  Now we just wait and see.  We're staying positive about it though!  But we thought since we are waiting for a baby we should make room for one.  So, we cleaned out the spare bedroom which has mostly been to hold extra crap and wedding stuff (yes, we got married in 2009), it had a brief use as a guest room for a couple days last year, but went right back to being a mess after.  No really, it was a mess.

 Before

After!

Of course, a few things still need to be done before a baby can go in there, but it's come a long way in a few shorts hours!  I mean, you can see the floor, that's gotta be good.  That bear on the futon was given to me by my now husband back when we were in college.  That's perfect for a baby room!

While cleaning out this room, I found a few things!  A $50 gift card to Bed, Bath and Beyond from our shower.  Seriously.  A little tin box with letters from high school.  And a few random photos.

On the left we have my little brother, he was like 4, he's almost 18 now.  And on the right is me, my mom, and dad.  This is the last photo of us together.  Memories!

We're hoping to make some new memories in that spare bedroom, I'm thinking late nights and early mornings with a beautiful baby.  Until then, I think I'll be doing some yoga and reading in that room.  I'm hoping it's prenatal yoga, and "What to Expect When You're Expecting" reading though.  :)

New Curtains!!!

I recently purchased these curtains after eyeing them for months on Urban Outfitters website.  They were on sale, which made it even better!  You would think I ordered a new Macbook Pro or something with how excited I am!  My kitchen (which we totally redid) still has these old blind things from when we moved in 5 years ago because I'm awful at buying window treatments, so these curtains will be a vast improvement.  Plus, my walls are a Tiffany blue, so these should be perfect, right?  We're also going to change the window moulding to white, all the window and door frames are currently a dark brown wood.  Maybe I'll post a photo of my kitchen soon.  I finally finished grouting the back splash a few weeks ago.  It only took me like 2 years to finish, but we won't get into that!

Urban Outfitters

I want to move to Brooklyn

It's not new that I've wanted to move to NYC for years.  As I get older the dream gets less and less likely and the fact that we now own a house we'd need to sell or rent to move doesn't help either.  Last night, my husband mentioned moving to NYC again and of course that got me daydreaming.  I did a search for Brooklyn apartments and came across The Brooklyner and decided I need to live there.  Never mind that the rent is like 3 times the cost of my mortgage.

Rooftop deck

A little tiny, but I think I can deal.

Living room

Bedroom

Bathroom

Um, I could definitely write a book from that desk with that view.

Who needs a gym membership when there's a gym in your building?

Perfect tan, here I come!

Isn't it amazing?  Seriously, I don't think I'd ever move if I lived here.  Now I just need to find a job in NYC where I make about 5 times what I currently make so I can afford it.  A girl can dream.

Bush excavation

We've been living in our house for almost 5 years now and there's been this awful bush in the front yard since we moved in.  It blocks most of the front of the house and I've always been concerned with strangers hiding behind it.  Yes, I know I'm nuts.

See, it's huge.  And really ugly.

It was a total of six different trees grown together, plus those awful tiny shrubs that are kinda sticky.  It took all day for my wonderful husband to dig them out.  One broken shovel and one lost (then found) wedding ring.

But look how much better it looks gone!  Plus, no more chance for scary strangers to jump out from behind it!  The only problem is now we have a dirt pit with a bunch of big rocks thrown in and I'm not sure what to do with it!  I kinda want to put my raised bed there, but we get a lot of foot traffic on our street (I think there's a bus stop nearby) so I'm kind of afraid someone will steal my veggies or just ruin them for the hell of it!  What do you think?

Dear Breville,

Can you please send me a Juice and Blend?  I swear, I'd use it everyday!  Thank you, Melinda.

Is it attached?

This is our current thermostat.

I bought my husband (from our dog and cat) a new programmable thermostat for Christmas.  He has a tendency to turn the heat off when he leaves for work and a few weeks ago it snowed like an inch and people forgot how to drive and it took HOURS to get home.  So, by the time he got home it was close to 10 pm and our dog was shivering in the doorway to our room.  Hence the gift from the dog and cat.  The problem is, we're not sure how to get the thing off the wall!  I did find the manual though, and I just emailed it to him.  Hopefully he can figure it out.  I have faith, he did install a whole kitchen without knowing what he was doing!  I'll keep you posted.

Organizing the kitchen

I ordered this from Walmart yesterday.  I've been looking for one for awhile and the price and reviews were good.  We redid our kitchen a few months ago, but I still need some more storage.  I have my kitchenaid mixer, and a number of other small appliances that I don't necessarily use everyday, but don't want to pack away.  Plus, I have large glass jars that hold things like sugar, flour etc. that I'd like to use the shelf for.  I'm a total nerd, but i can't wait until I get it!

Hello 2011!

Twenty ten was an okay year.  Nothing too amazing happened.  To be honest, the year flew by!  I really don't know where it went.  I got married at the end of 2009 and then all the sudden it was the end of 2010.  There were a few house renovations (a new kitchen built by my wonderful husband), new floors (also courtesy of my husband), a couple trips, my one year wedding anniversary was celebrated and one of my closest friends had her first baby in November.  But, the truth is, there was a lot that was not accomplished in 2010.  But, alas, there's nothing I can do about that now, so instead I'm going to concentrate on making 2011 my best year yet!  Twenty eleven is kind of a big deal because I will be turning 30!  I know, it's kinda crazy.  I can't believe it myself.  I'm sure you see why this year is so important to accomplish a few things.  So, let's get down to it.  I'll guess I'll go with the list.

1.  Eat more vegetables and whole foods.  Cut back on the processed foods.  I tend to get lazy and just eat out for lunch and sometimes even dinner, but I really want to pay more attention to the quality of what I'm eating.
2.  Find the door to my gym again.  I have been really awful about going to the gym for like SIX MONTHS, ugh it hurts just typing that.  I REALLY need to go back.  Bottom line, I start tomorrow.  I have no choice.  The real goal here is to feel good enough about my body to be willing to go to the gym in just a sports bra and pants.  Ha.  So ridiculous, but it would be so awesome!
3.  Keep my house clean.  Usually, I clean on the weekends and by like Tuesday the house is a mess again.  The thing is, there are only TWO OF US, and we live in a relatively small house, you'd think we could keep it clean!  It's so annoying.  I'm not perfect and I can be lazy, but my husband, it's like no one ever taught him to hang up his coat, put his clothes in the laundry, put his dish in the sink let alone the dishwasher.  It's really kind of amazing and not in a good way.  I mean, if we can't even keep a house clean now, what are we going to do when we have kids?!  So, my goal is for the two of us to get it together and keep the house clean.  I might have made a point with him earlier when I mentioned that if we could keep the house clean on a regular basis, we wouldn't have to spend our days off cleaning, I think he may have got it.  We'll see.
4.  Find a career I love.  This is one that is very important to me.  I'm not happy with my current job and I haven't been for quite awhile.  I just don't see the point in spending my days doing something I don't find challenging or useful.  So this it, this is the year I'm going to make that change and follow my heart to something I love to do.
5.  Start an etsy shop.  I like to bake.  I do it a lot and I'm pretty good at it, at least that's what I hear.  So I think it's time to take it to the next level.  And I've seen other people with etsy bakeshops, so why can't I have one?  This is something I hope to have off the ground by the end of January.  What am I waiting for?  Who knows, it could lead to great things!
6.  Update my blog more often.  I think this will come with living my life more fully and having more things to talk about.
7.  Actually get my personal training certification.  I signed up (and paid) for this in July 2009 and I still haven't done it!  I have until July to finish it or I'm out the money I paid.  At this point, it's just a matter of getting it done.  It might be a good side job.  Ha.
8.  Clean out the back bedroom.  Right now it's just a pit holding a futon, ten ton of books and cds, my craft table (that I never use) and wedding remnants (gifts and other stuff) but it's ultimately going to be a nursery (hopefully).  I kinda have it in my head that if I clean out the room a baby will come.  I hope so.  I look forward to having a child to teach how to be a good person.  But, let's not get into that now.
9.  Use my camera more.  I have a pretty nice camera that should be getting a lot more use.  But, suspect it'll be getting more use with the start of my etsy shop and the increased updating of my blog!  
10.  Touch my toes.  I know this is ridiculous, but I can't touch my toes.  I mean, it's not even close.  So, I'd like to change that.
11.  Start a family.  I'm not sure this can be a goal, since it's not really something I can control.  But, the goal definitely is to add a baby to our little family in 2011.  Right now it's just my husband and I along with our dog and cat.  We feel like a baby would fit quite nicely in it.  We might need to get a king sized bed for family day on Sundays, but that's okay!  Until that happens though, I'll be concentrating on the other ten goals.
Here's to a great year!

Stove Cleaning!

Okay, so with the kitchen renovation (more on that later), I'm trying to get the stove clean.  My wonderful husband has yet to grasp wiping off the stove top, so things tend to burn on there.  I've tried Magic Eraser at the suggestion of my friend Erin, Method Surface cleaning spray, these stove top scrubbie things, and that Awesome spray found at the Dollar store (which most of the time is awesome), but nothing has worked yet!  Here are a few pictures.  Please help!

(The stove is white, not yellow)