Feed Me!

Baby Cave

Here is Ally Jae's room!

Man Cave

It seems the Man Cave is complete! I'm sure there will be a few more additions here and there, but here is the Finished For Now Product.

Ally's Room So Far

John finished painting, and the new carpet has been installed. It's all coming together! The black parts of the squares are chalkboard paint!

Is that a Gopher I hear?!?

Every now and then we hear a beeping that sounds like a smoke detector when the battery is low, but it's not consistent and we can't figure out where it's coming from. It has beeped again the past two mornings and today I get the following email from John...

Oh and we still have some stupid detector chirping at home as of this morning. I took about 15 minutes before work trying to figure out which was doing it. I was standing in the kitchen facing the coffee maker and heard the chirp 4-5 times about once every 30 seconds behind me. Presuming it was coming from the hall or my office/the cat’s room, I stood in the hall for about 2 minutes. I didn’t hear a chirp. ~_~

Went on my way and heard it again… sounded like it was coming from by the back door. I then decided it was the carbon detector by the back door. I grabbed a battery and was in the middle of getting on the ladder to replace it, a chirp came from behind me…

That didn’t make sense as I replaced the battery in the one outside our bedroom last night. The one inside our bedroom didn’t make a noise. I just waited again for about 5 minutes, didn’t hear another chirp.

As I was going out the front door… something chirped again.


I swear, we have a gopher in our ceiling.

Green Thumb

For Christmas, my Boss - Elaine, gave me a plant bulb that she assured me even I could grow! Low and behold - it has blossomed! It is a beautiful red Amaryllis. I took some pictures this weekend during the afternoon before the flowers had opened and just a few hours later that night two of the buds had magically opened all the way!

John Rocks

So my friend Angela has a husband named Aaron (also known as ATB). Actually, he is the only husband she has, so I guess I could have just said her husband's name is Aaron. Anyway... on her blog she has started posting a new ATB Rocks blog each week to show him gratitude for the many helpful things he does. I think this is a fabulous idea, and I've decided that John deserves some public appreciation too!


John actually has two projects he has recently completed that both turned out spectacular!







These are the can lights he installed in the Man Room. You actually have to cut holes in the ceiling to do this! Yikes! But he did a marvelous job. He even installed a separate dimmer light switch for them.







The other project was constructing a pool cue rack. He bought wood and trim and paint and ta-da, a masterpiece.







Fine job Dear, You Rock!!!

Random

We finally have a full dining room set! Since this picture was taken, John has assembled the other two chairs as well. So we have a big table, 8 chairs and enough plates and silverware for all to eat off of! YEAH!

Here's a picture of Skinny, Tina, and Moose this afternoon. I think there was a flying bug outside the window that Skinny & Moose were watching, and of course Tina had to come check it out too!

Here are John & Pinky on Halloween. They dressed up as two of the characters from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog John is Captain Hammer and Pinky is Dr. Horrible.

Now Serving One

I have had a heck of a time finding a black dining room table that seats eight. But alas, we actually have one in our house!! I really wanted to see one up close and touch it before I bought it, but no one had them in their showrooms. So we blindly ordered the table and waited a few weeks. Yesterday we picked it up and... it's perfect!!! YEAH!!! We couldn't be happier! It even matches with the chairs (chair for now) we ordered. I ordered one chair to make sure we liked it, and we do, so I have seven more on order now. I love it when a plan comes together!

And we are still loving the new couches as well! After some trials and rearranging, I think we have settled on this layout.

Rock On!!

This weekend we tackled digging a hole for the new pond. This first six inches went quite well. We even saved the grass to replant in other spots.

Then we (John) hit rock, solid rock! We were pretty sure this was going to happen, as we had been warned by the previous owners of the house that they ran into it while trying to plant a tree in the backyard. John picked away at it for a while with a sledge hammer and a railroad tie, and eventually we gave in and rented a jackhammer. (which is what the previous owners had to do also)

Four hours with that and John was spent. And rightfully so, but he did a fabulous job! Just look how handsome & strong he is!

This morning Blake needed John's help to get a large piece of furniture from IKEA to his house, so he agreed to help John dig the rest of the dirt portions out for the shallow parts of the pond around the edges. John was thrilled with the exchange!! After just a couple hours they were done. We still have to put some of the big rock chunks around the edges and figure out what to do with the excess piles of rock, dirt and grass, but the turtles are in their new location and the hard part is done!! The puppies have checked it out and given it their approval.

The Man Room

John's Man Room is coming along nicely. He has big dreams for that room. He has painted the walls a blue color (quite a dark color if you ask me, but my opinion has no bearing on the Man Room!). I'm told eventually the trim will be painted black (oh boy, I can't wait for that either {insert eye roll}). Our black couch from the living room will be going into his room once our new couch arrives. And except for when he was hanging some of his cabinets and ran a screw into an electrical wire and stopped power to half the outlets on that side of the house, I must say he has done quite a good job in getting it all painted and arranged!

Houston, We have a problem

So, last weekend, as I was vacuuming and cleaning, I kept getting hotter and hotter as the day went on. I figured it was just my feverish cleaning skills, but turns out... the air conditioner wasn't working!!! So it got to be about 87 degrees in our house for two and a half days! The home warranty people couldn't get anyone out until Tuesday afternoon. Joy. Once the fix-it guy was here, he just switched out a little capacitor or something, and all is well again. Happy Pets once again (and a happy Husband & Wife).

And then yesterday, I get in the car to go to work, and it barely starts! It seemed the battery was dying. I headed to work anyway, and drove around the parking garage on my lunch break to make sure it would start then and charge it a bit more. On the way home I stopped at Sears to get a new battery, and find out that they don't carry the battery for my car! Just great, now I have to go to the dealership (which is closed already at this point). So this morning I sent John out to finish my quest. He went to the dealership where we bought the car and they didn't have it in stock!! Luckily the GMC dealership just up the road from them had one, so John headed over there.

One of these days we might have a whole weekend where we don't have to fix or replace anything... my guess is that will be around October of 2011!

A Decision Has Been Made

We have been looking for a formal dining room table and chairs and also a new couch. This process has been much harder than I expected. First of all it is hard to find any furniture in all black (found lots with brown wood & black - but that will NOT work for us). We found a few pieces we liked but all were either the wrong size, too expensive, or John & I just couldn't agree on them. But, alas, we have found a couch in colors we like and that we both agree on!! Now we can really focus our efforts on a table!!

Rack `Em Up

We finally have a fully assembled Pool Table!!
YEAH!! It was delivered two weeks ago in pieces and it was supposed to be assembled last Friday. The installer had an "emergency" out of town though and couldn't do it until yesterday. But none the less, it is done now. Pinky came over right after it was done and they played a few games. Sometimes I wonder if they really do have jobs!! =)

New Neighbors

John spotted a family of deer right across the street from us the other day! Two big ones and three babies. We see deer all the time out here, and they aren't eating any of our plants, so we love them!! What a happy little deer family! =)

Home Sweet Home

Here are some pictures of the new house! It's coming together quite nicely.

We also ordered our pool table yesterday! It will go in the front living room (where the zebra carpet is in the picture above). We are still searching for a formal dining room table, we have found a couple that we like though.

We're Still Here

John & I are still alive... just very busy. That's why I haven't been as diligent about posting anything on here in a while. Both of the house closings went just as planned and we are getting settled in to the new house. The kitchen, bathrooms and main living room are fairly well complete, we just haven't hung any pictures yet and both our offices are in a great state of dissarray. The garage is still quite cluttered as well, but everything is coming along nicely (one box at a time). The puppies love the new house and the new big back yard! They just run and play all the time. I'm so proud of them, you never quite know how they will react to new situtations, but they have been the best Babies ever! And the rest of the critters are doing fine as well. We didn't lose ANY fish during the move, which I think is quite impressive. We drained the tanks down to almost empty and loaded them in the back of John's truck to transport them. It was HOT outside too that day. Actually I think we only broke three things during all the moving. The globe of my Garfield gum machine, the glass door to one of the tv stands, and a support board from our headboard came unglued. Nothing that we really needed or that can't be fixed so I'd say that's a success! I must also mention that we did have lots of good help moving. Blake, Carlos and Val were all wonderful and very dedicated to our cause. We have such good friends! Couldn't have done it with out them.

All Grown Up

Probably not too long after I bought this house, some birds starting making a nest on our front porch. It took them close to two years to get the nest built! And during different seasons, different birds would come and claim squatters rights and live there for a while. But last year Mommy & Daddy bird had some babies. Four in fact. And we watched them grow and eventually fly away. They are so amazing to watch! And they must be really good parents, because this year they came back and had four more babies!! Our real estate agent tried to get us to take down the nest before we listed the house, but I had to politely refuse. How could I take down their four year old house that had four babies inside?!?! Not an option. Just yesterday all four babies took flight. They are so cute, I get distracted everytime I walk by the window, I have to peek out and check on them. The babies still come back to rest during the day, and the whole family (Mom, Dad & all four babies) come back and sleep at night. Mom & Dad stay on the ledge next to the nest and the babies squeeze in together. It just amazes me at what good parents these birds are. I'm kind of sad that soon the babies won't need to come back anymore, as they will all go out and make new houses for their own families. Perhaps at least one will fly five miles up the road to our new house!

All Systems Go

After only FIVE days on the market, we got an offer on our house! AND it's a great offer!! We have accepted and now the buyer has seven days to have an inspection done and seal the deal. The buyer is a single female, first time home buyer - same as I was when I purchased this house. I really hope she enjoys the house as much as we have! We are scheduled to close on the new house on June 16th, and on our current house on the 20th. That will give us(John)a bit of time to get everything moved. Hopefully next weekend after the inspection is done, we can bring the puppies back from their Grandma & Grandpa's house (my parents). I miss them bunches!!!

To Market, To Market To Buy a New...

HOUSE!!!

Monday night we put in an offer, and our agent called this morning to say it had been accepted as is!! YEAH! We are very excited. We will be even more excited when our current house sells. We are working like crazy on it this week to put it on the market on Friday. So if you know anyone who is in need of a 3/2 house with a fabulous back deck in Round Rock, let us know!!