Tuesday, May 20, 2008

making me happy today...

although it was pretty rough staying up late last night grouting, and getting up super early to acid treat the tile before swimming..

IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT TO BE DONE WITH THE KITCHEN TILE.

Seriously. This changes everything.

We are rock stars.

Pictures soon!

Friday, May 16, 2008

Class of 2001 Representing!

Check out the adorable little ones my dear highschool friends have managed to create. I feel lucky if I comb my hair in the morning. I am terribly impressed, and wanted to show off.

Baby Roman. I was a bridesmaid at his parent's wedding years ago and I know he was eagerly anticipated and from the looks of it, he was worth the wait. What a handsome fella! Seems to be quite content to hang out with his grandma.

Skyler's mom and I met in second grade. It seems like yesterday! Now she has a baby. Craziness. She used to have the best birthday parties, they always involved elaborate crafts, like puff-painting shirts and painting picture frames. I bet this fella will be just as wonderful as his parents.

Just wanted to share, you can never have enough cute baby pictures!

Thursday, May 15, 2008


Last picture today, I swear. Last night my bridesmaid dress for Emily's wedding arrived. Cute! I think it will be excellent for all my planned singing and dancing.

Good find Emily, can't beat the price!!

And April's custom dyed dress should be arriving any day. Always the bridesmaid..

hehe, just kiddin'

House Updates 3

Outside of the kitchen things have been happening as well. We spent a lot of the previous weekend attacking the yard with a borrowed weedwacker and pushmower, and then this last weekend we were gifted this lawnmower from our tri-professor friend. So much easier than the push. I mowed the whole yard Saturday and it looked great. Almost ready for the fence!!
And we are making surprisingly good progress with a ridiculous situation involving some dead trees and the home owners association across the street, looks like they are going to take care of removing the rest of them. Yay!
Our mystery fruit tree continues to do great. Any guesses? I am thinking apricot? Can't wait to find out!

We went antiquing on Sunday and found this awesome china cabinet. The sweet ladies gave us a great deal, it fit in the Subaru (seriously, this car is awesome), and it is ours. It isn't going to live there, just a temporary home. I can't wait to hang up my tea cups!

Yesterday morning, we headed out before work to pick up this gem of a buffet from perhaps the nicest craigslist transaction I have ever had. Super sweet lady was SO excited to know her beloved buffet was going to a new couple starting their first home. It was super cheesy and I was loving it! This will live in the guest room, and act as a media cabinet and storage for the guest bed linens. I love that we are getting nice pieces that each have a story and are each a great deal. Seriously, we are probably breaking some record for completely redoing and refurnishing a house for the least amount of money. We are awesome at this.

House Updates 2

After we were completely happy with the priming and drywall, it was time to paint. There is a silly story about this color we chose, but I swear Trent picked it (although I didn't complain). We had a tipsy evening Monday painting the kitchen. I think it looks great!


After we painted the room green, and the laundry closet a light light yellow/white, Trent was ready to tile. We've had the tile for months, it was thrilling to finally start. I was celebrating with a lab mate who successfully defended, and we had dinner with friends on Tuesday, so not too much got done, but he was excited to start.

We got a lot more done last night however. Trent went mt. biking (in our backyard!!) with a group but still had lots of energy to get the tiling going. We worked out a nice system and got about 1/3rd of the room completed. It is nice letting parts dry so we won't work ourselves into a corner.
Looks lovely!! This is without grout or anything! I am so excited. Even more exciting, on Sunday we went to Lowe's (where else) and spotted a stacked washer/dryer in the scratch and dent section (where else do we look?). It had taken a tumble, but had been checked out and guaranteed to work. But no price. Not until Monday. I frantically called all Monday morning and finally found out it was over HALF off! For brand new, energy efficient awesomeness. Trent dashed out after work, and wanted to just put it on hold, since he was in the Subaru, but it was first come first gets... so he managed to fit it in the Subi! That car is amazing. But it wasn't until last night, with a mt.biking friend that we were able to finally get it out of the car and into the house.
So awesome, I love it! Here's what it looks like as of this morning. Still more tiling to do, need to put up the new molding and get the washer/dryer in the closet. Then the cabinets and other appliances can come in after we grout.. and we will almost have a kitchen. I can't believe it. I have gotten pretty darn good with the microwave in the living room.
So progress is being made, just wanted to share. We are having a great time, and it has definitely been a learning experience and a good test of our relationship. Lots more to do, but it is nice to see things starting to take shape!

House Update 1

We are back into full time house fixing action. Here is some proof of progress. We had the insulation inspected so finally were able to finish that last wall. Trent managed to get it up and nearly done before he left last Thursday for the last crew race in New Jersey. I did the last bit of spackling and sanding before priming the whole room on Saturday.

Here is the finished laundry closet, image is not rotated right, sorry. Trent built that!

I think this might be my favorite picture so far. No worries Mom and Dad, we TOTALLY know what we are doing while messing around with dangerous electrical wiring. We have the book!!

But now we have totally functional electrical outlets in the kitchen. And no trips to the ER, promise!

Long Day Last Saturday

Some pictures from last weekend. We left Chapel Hill around 5pm Friday and drove to White Lake, for Trent's half Ironman, same one he did last year. Trent tried to sleep most of the way, I tried to re-pay him for driving most of the way to Boston and back. Easy trip out there, crashed at the same cabin UNC had last year, although it wasn't as crowded as last year. To bed early.

Trent was up before dawn, eating and prepping. I woke up and wandered around taking pictures of a time of day I rarely see. Such a pretty place.

Trent was nervous about this race. All the work/crew/class/volunteering/house fixing had not left much time for training. But he had a great attitude going in and is super talented, so I wasn't worried. Such a happy camper, for 6am.

He got all psyched up and raring to go, and had a great race. Some issues with losing all the food he had in his jersey during the swim-bike transition, but he powered through both the swim and the bike with no problem. His average was hardly slower than last years when he trained like crazy! I ran the last 7 miles of the half marathon with him, cheering and coaching and providing lots of energy gu. Such a good girlfriend.

He was pretty darn exhausted when it was all over. 5 hours, 50 minutes, just a bit slower than last year, but he actually placed higher. He ate lots of the food, cooled his legs in the lake, and took a quick nap before we decided to head home (and our car was finally able to leave the crowded lot). He slept most of the way home, but luckily decided to call his fellow crew coach when we were about 30 minutes out to verify that the end of year crew banquet started at 7. Nope, it started at 6. And it was currently 5:30. Quickest and most drastic change ever, from stinky spandex to fancy clothes in 10 minutes, and we were off!

Trent and his fellow coach Adam, roasting all their first year rowers. They came up with cute "most likely to..'s" for everyone. Everyone was amazed that Trent was awake and walking around, but he was surprisingly fine.

His rowers said very sweet things about him and gave him presents, including a new chalk ball for climbing, cycling socks, a REI gift certificate and a gift certificate for a local restaurant. They really know him! It is lovely to see the person you love be appreciated for all the hard work he does, I had a great time.

These are all the coaches and the three senior rowers who are graduating. I've said it before, but I am always blown away by how close knit crew teams are, they really bond out there, and there are some of the sweetest guys. It was a fun evening, capped of by taking the seniors for beer at a local bar before Trent finally crashed and slept for nearly all of Sunday. Just thought I would share some pictures!