Only ONE more sleep!

Only 1 more sleep 'til these two cute kids return "home"!!!  Tamara to Mom and Dad's house in Illinois and Bryan to Atlanta!  Can't wait to hear all about Tamara's Spanish-speaking adventures in Arizona and Bryan's opera adventures in Italy!

SUPER SO WAY EXCITED just about sums it up!!!!

Sad News and a De Ja Vu Date

My favorite fish, my Little Runt Baby (as he was affectionately named), has gone to fishy heaven.  :o(  He was the runt of his litter and we are surprised he survived as long as he did.  I miss him and catch myself still trying to find him when I go look at the tank...  I'm hoping one of the fish gets pregnant so I can enjoy another Little Runt Baby.  :o)

On to happier things!

First, a little bit of history.  On our first official date back in January of 2010, Dave took me to see Avatar in 3D.  I didn't realize seeing a real-live-action-packed 3D movie was not a great idea for a person so prone to motion sickness.  Let's just say, I spent quite a good bit of time in the bathroom re-living my pasta dinner and texting my cousin:  "I'm on a date, getting sick in the bathroom, don't want to make him leave the movie because we've been trying to see this together for weeks, what do I do?!"

I ended up finally well enough to go back up and sit by Dave for the remainder of the movie, but I had to keep my eyes closed because watching only made me feel super sick again.  I think I even fell asleep off and on.

Meanwhile, because we were wearing 3D glasses, Dave had no idea what was going on.  lol  Not until we were heading to the car after the movie and he asked if I wanted to go hang out at his place for awhile; I quickly told him, "Please just take me home.  I'll try not to throw up in your car!"

Pretty memorable 1st date.  And he even asked me out again!  :o)  NOT to a 3D movie, though. :o)

So, Dave and I dubbed this past Thursday night as our date night for the week.  We went to Olive Garden so Dave could get the Parmesan Crusted Bistecca steak he'd been craving.  :o)  Then, we wanted to use the movie theater gift card my brother gave us for Christmas.  Luckily, the movie theater where the gift card was good is in the mall right next to the Olive Garden.

The only movies that we hadn't already seen and were even remotely interested in seeing happened to only be in 3D Thursday evening:  Ice Age 3, Brave, and the Katy Perry movie.  I have seen "Up" and "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", both animated-type movies, in 3D without issues.  So I figured going to see "Ice Age 3" and "Brave" would be fine.  It's just the Katy Perry movie I was worried about.

As we were finishing dinner, we looked at movie times and realized we just missed getting into "Brave."  We had about 35 minutes before the Katy Perry movie started and another hour and 35 minutes until "Ice Age 3" began.  I was afraid I would fall asleep during the movie if we waited until after 8 to see Ice Age, so Katy Perry won the vote.

To prevent any issues, I took a couple of Dramamine and we saw the show.  (It was interesting and I like most of her music, but we were both glad it was free :o)  Dave is a lover of movie theater popcorn, so even though we'd just eaten dinner, Dave just had to have some popcorn.  lol  He munched on it while I used the bathroom before the movie began.  When I got back to my seat, Dave said, "I'm glad you're back.  I look pretty gay sitting here by myself waiting for the Katy Perry movie."  lol  Sorry sweetheart!

Anyway, half-way through the movie,  I look over at Dave and he doesn't look so great.  I asked if he was ok and he said, "No.  I think I ate too much.  I don't feel so great."  Wonderful!  We managed to nearly re-create our first date, only this time I felt fine.  lol  Italian food, 3D movie, one of us sick.  I don't think Dave and I were meant to see 3D movies together.  lol

Here's a pic of our "cool" Katy Perry 3D glasses, though. 

Maybe one day we'll get it right!

Unexpected Upgrade #2

Long story, but here's the simplified version:

Rich guy at Dave's work upgraded his TV to one over 60 inches.  Rich guy now has a working, well-taken-care-of 42-inch flat-panel TV he needed to get rid of by this weekend.  Traded Dave one of the X-boxes he re-built for the TV.

What?!?! 

That's right!  Dave is excited to be getting rid of our super heavy 36-inch TV and putting a nicer one in it's place for next to nothing.



 (Please excuse the fingerprints lol  If Dave knew I put this up he'd be embarrassed...)

It has ambient lighting on the side/back of it that changes colors depending the predominant color on the screen at the time.  Shines on the wall behind the TV and takes away some of the brightness if you're trying to watch it in a dark or dimly-lit room.  Pretty interesting.

Anyway, I have a happy husband!  I must admit, the picture is pretty sharp.  I think I like it  :o)

Oh yeah!  So, our home teacher came over tonight and Dave asked him if he wouldn't mind helping him take the TV into the garage so he could leave it there until he sells it via Craiglist.  Our home teacher ended up going home with the TV  :o)  Glad we could give it away to someone so soon!  Pay it forward!  (Dave actually got the TV for free as well a few years ago.  Wonder how many more homes it will end up at for free :o)

Success again!

Dave used his new grill for the 2nd time tonight.  This time, he grilled pork chops.  They were so, so, so way yummy!!!

I told him he's hired!  He said, however, he's not going to be the full-time chef of the house, just occasionally.  I tried!  ;o)

Unexpected Upgrade #1

The faucet on the kitchen sink has been leaking for quite awhile.  It's not been a huge leak, but getting progressively worse.  Dave decided to bite the bullet and get a new one instead of waiting until it REALLY leaked big-time and we were stuck in more of an emergency situation.

So, we went to Home Depot where I got to pick one that I wanted.  I originally pick one of the cheapest of the type that we were looking at.  Dave, of course, picked the most expensive.  You know, the kind you can just touch it and it turns on.  Way over our budget!  We compromised and met more in the middle.  :o)  It also helped that a Home Depot employee gave us an amazing deal if we purchased right then.  So, we did!

Here is my new "toy"!  I love it!

One of the things I love most is that that the handle doesn't have to be turned like our old one.  If my hands are gross with raw meat or whatever, I can use the back of my hand or wrist to turn on the water.  Yay!!

Plus, since our sink is so shallow, I wanted a faucet that was higher up so washing larger-sized dishes would be easier and make less of a water mess.  So way awesome!

If you push the black button on the bottom part of the faucet (not the base, but the part where water comes out) it turns the water stream to a spray and you can pull it down closer to the sink.  Kinda hard to explain, but it's a cool feature.  :o)

Anyway, I am grateful we were able to get the leaky faucet fixed and not totally break the bank!

Next kitchen upgrade:  deeper sink :o)

Where's the Pot o' Gold?

Here's a beautiful rainbow we saw a few days ago.  :o)  We don't see them often so I thought I'd snap a quick pic!

Happy Independence Day!!!

Today was a wonderful holiday for Dave & I!  First of all, we got a day off of work.  :o)  Second, we had a day to focus on how wonderful it is to be American citizens.  Third, we spent ALL day together:  slept in, ate a yummy homemade breakfast, went and saw Madagascar 3 and enjoyed Dave's favorite (movie theater popcorn), etc.

Fourth, Dave braved the heat and tried out his new grill and made some absolutely delicious hot dogs!  Yum!!!

the sweet potato fries were quite yummy as well  :o)

It's been a fun, relaxing 4th of July!

Transformation of OUR House :o)

Ever since we moved into our home last year, Dave and I have wanted to replace the carpet in the 2 non-master bedrooms and paint a few of the rooms and the hallway.  For one thing, there were scribbles and marks on almost every wall.  More importantly, we wanted to choose colors that we actually liked to grace the walls of our home.

We have been extremely good at postponing all of this for months and months.  However, we finally had enough money saved up and I also gave us an official deadline:  the beginning of August when Tamara comes to visit.  :o)

In December, I posted about my parents helping us de-wallpaper our kitchen and paint it a beautiful blue that I love A LOT!  This post is about painting the 2 side bedrooms, the master bedroom, and the main hallway.  After we painted, we had new carpet installed in all the bedrooms.

It was so way a lot of work, but was so way worth it!

We painted one of the bedrooms white on top with the kitchen blue on the bottom.  We painted the closet blue.  :o)  Oh, it used to be a light yellow and light green color.

I'm going to get some frames and paint them blue to match.  Hanging on the white part should tie in the blue nicely.

This is kinda the color of the hallway and master bedroom:

It's more of a dark khaki color, instead of pinkish...  (I'd like a new camera ;o)  The hallway was a horrible green/yellow color.  Dave and I are both glad it's gone!  I was really nervous when we opened the paint can and saw all this pink!  Nnnnoooooooooooooo!!!!!!!

Dave fixed it :o)

Dave chose "Love in a Mist" (that really is the name of the paint color, according to the paint chip) to paint the other bedroom/office wall.  It's a light blue/grayish color.  Quite different from the tan that was there before.

The following picture explains why it's a super good idea to paint the walls BEFORE installing new carpet.  :o)  Ooops!

All the carpets were a pecan-type color before.  Now, they are a flecked brown color.  Flecked meaning there are lighter colors "flecked" throughout.  Yeah.  That's hard to explain.  Anyway, we liked the darker color, but we loved the flecked look because it brightened it up considerably and ties in the browns, tans, and grays.

The carpet is super soft and plush; fun to walk on!  Another really cool feature:  the carpet can be cleaned with a bleach/water mixture if needed and carpet won't be ruined or stained by the bleach.  How cool is that?!  Won't make me as upset when Dave tracks grease in from the garage.  :o)  Plus, there is a smell-block thing that will hopefully help the carpets not absorb overwhelming odors that may result from future wear and tear and kids and husbands and smelly dinners, etc.

You're welcome to come visit anytime and see our handiwork with your own eyes and stay in our freshly-painted guest rooms  :o)

It was hard work (and A LOT of money....), but the rewards are worth it!  We are grateful it's done and have loved admiring the new look of our home.

Dave's New Man-Toy!

For our 2nd Anniversary, my parents gave us a good chunk of money to put towards a grill.  (I guess they're grateful we've survived this long together.  ;o)  lol 

Dave spent a couple of weeks researching grills and finally found the one he just HAD to have.

The Weber Performer with Touch-N-Go Ignition.

Oooooohhh!!!  Aaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!

Another plus: the nice-sized table surface to set food, utensils, marinade, etc. on.

This grill is cool because it looks manly. Very important. It's also pretty sweet because it's charcol so the flavor is going to be amazing. However, it's not going to take as long to heat up because it uses gas to start the coals. How cool is that?!

Here's the ash collector for easy clean-up :o)

After setting it up and moving it out onto the deck yesterday, Dave told me the last thing he had to do was put on the hubcaps.  Hubcaps for a grill?!?  What the!??!  Anyway, it does look pretty spiffy with the hubcap things.  There's even a faint picture of a grill in the middle of them.  How manly is that?!  lol

Another cool feature:  a thermometer in the top of the lid.

Not complete without a cover :o)



There you have it!  Dave is a very happy man!  Now we just need a COOL, not-rainy summer afternoon so we can enjoy a nice, grilled steak, or pork chop, or hamburger, or hot dog!

Thanks, Mom & Dad!!!