The Never Ending Paint Project Part II

Yes, it's true! I finally decided on the color to paint the front of my island. As some of you know, I've been debating this color for quite some time now. The island was originally painted taupe like the rest of the kitchen. However, when we were done painting the walls, our counters are now a taupe/gray color instead of the gray color they were when the kitchen was pink. So, I decided to paint the front of my island an accent color. I started with a slate gray, then a yellow, then a lime green, then a sea foam green that did not look the same on the sample as it did when I was finished, and finally an olive green. I really love the olive green. It is a similar tone as the taupe and it just blends really well with the rest of the kitchen. We still have not replaced the microwave but it's not on the top of my list for things to get done.

Joseph's parents gave us their old kitchen table so we finally have a nice table! It's a great table and it saved us $1,000!

In case you do not remember my kitchen when it was pink, here's a reminder:

And here it is now!

The taupe really made the color of our oak cabinets calm down. They no longer look orange.

My phone didn't do a great job at capturing the actual color of the island. This makes it look a little more blue/green than it really is.

My friend Karina gave us this great vinyl stick on for our wedding. I want to get one more for over our pantry that will say.. "Pantry". You can get one like this for yourself at http://www.stickywords.net/ . They have a lot of great ideas on this site! So definitely check it out if you are interested in the vinyl words.

I bought this from IKEA. It is hanging on the wall to the right, so you can't see it in the picture of the entire kitchen. I really like it. The pictures came in a pack of 5 and then I just bought the frame to put the 3 I liked in. The whole thing cost about $20. Not too bad.

Joseph and I bought this vase at a Young Women's Camp Fundraiser at church. A woman in our ward made it! The flowers were in the center pieces at our wedding. Erin and Scott put all of the flowers in our fridge so when we got home from the honeymoon I hung them upside down in our closet. They dried really nicely!

The cookie jar was a wedding present from our last bishop's wife. It's really cute.

My mom gave us this picture. It's a picture of gourds and they match the kitchen. This picture will hang to the right of the french doors.

Now all I need to do is finish getting some more decorations and the kitchen will be done! I'm currently in class right now, but once this one is over, I'm going to take a few weeks off to hopefully finish painting the rest of my house... or at least the final room down stairs. We also finished painting our downstairs bathroom. It's a little... bright. But I'm not changing it. I'll post pictures of that soon.

I really love my kitchen!

The Zoo

Joseph and I had not been on a big date for a while, so we decided to go to the Phoenix Zoo. It was actually a lot of fun! Joseph really loves animals. Before we went to the zoo, I had to get some blood drawn for some more tests that my pain management doctor ordered. Then we grabbed some breakfast at Jack n' the Box and went out to the Zoo. I had no clue the zoo was that big! We walked around for about 3 and a half hours so we were pretty tired by the end. It was one of the hottest days we've had all year. It's getting up in the 90's now so 115 is not too far away.... There are a lot of great animals at the zoo. I took some pictures with my phone. I'm pretty impressed they came out this well. Enjoy :)

Towards the end of our day, we saw this little chipmunk/squirrel thing eating some popcorn. Joseph tried feeding it, but he would only take the food if Joseph dropped it on the ground.

Oh yeah. I'm cool :)


This peacock was really funny! He was talking the whole time we were there. Then he flew over Joseph's head. Maybe he just didn't like Joseph??

Back Tracking

Here are some pictures of Sammy and Calamity. Our neighbor Keith, helped up put a doggie door in for Sammy. He's a contractor and Joseph's a computer guy... so you can decide who would have done the better job :)

Having Calamity here was really good while we were trying to train Sammy. We originally started teaching Sammy how to come in and out. Calamity picked it up from watching him. The next day, Sammy forgot what to do so Calamity helped him out.

We put the dog crate up to the doggie door one day while we were cleaning the house. They both climbed into the crate together. Sammy started freaking out and chewing on the blanket. It was kind of funny.

Funny or Gross Story... You Decide

So last weekend we were asked to dog sit for our friend's chocolate lab, Calamity (her name fits part of the experience). She is a really sweet dog. She and Sammy had a ton of fun together. They were always tired when they came in at night because they played so hard during the day.

Well, the first night we had her, we figured she isn't kenneled at home when she goes to bed, so it should be ok if we leave her out. WRONG! She pooped (and I mean nasty runny poop) upstairs in our loft. It covered one side of the room. Needless to say we had to get the carpet cleaned. It wasn't that big of a deal though.

So, they came to pick up Calamity on Tuesday after work. She and Sammy are best friends by this point. Well, the mom brought her 2 year old granddaughter with her. We were sitting at the table talking about the weekend and all of a sudden the little girl was in the other room and crying. She was crying because she peed her pants and it went all over our carpet! At this point I just had to laugh. It was an accident. I think the mom was more embarrassed than we were upset. We cleaned it up pretty good and let it be. They brought us cookies the next day.

Overall, we were glad to have Calamity stay with her... even both of the messes. :)

Young Womens Fund Raiser

Last Saturday, Joseph and I went to the Young Women's Girls Camp Auction. It was a lot of fun,. We even met 2 other couples who we will be hanging out with soon. People in our ward were asked to donate goods and services that others would bid on. All of the proceeds went to pay for Girls Camp. Joseph donated his time to fix someone's computer. His was the first item on the bidding list, so his service only raised $10. He was pretty sad about that, but I think the only reason it went for so cheap is because it was the first item and people weren't warmed up yet.

We ended up bidding on two things. One was a really pretty green glass vase that a sister in our ward made. I love it! And the second thing, which Joseph said we should bid on, was DANCE LESSONS! I was so shocked! If you know my husband, you know he does not like to dance. We bid on them, and won 2, 1/2 hour dance lessons from a sister in our ward. She teaches ballroom dance classes at her home. I'm really excited to go. I think Joseph is too :)

Valentine's Day Weekend

Joseph and I had a fantastic Valentine's Day weekend!

Well, first before the weekend started, I went to a TMJ specialist, and he was able to diagnosis me with arthritis in my jaw. He said that is what's causing all of my TMJ pain. Fortunately, there is a treatment! He gave me 12 shots on the right side of my face/neck/scalp. One of those shots put a liquid in my jaw which acted as a cushion for my jaw joint. This made the right side feel so much better! It was amazing! I went back this week, but instead of giving me the shots for my left side, he gave me my night time splint. This is basically a huge hard plastic night guard that snaps onto my upper teeth. This splint will help move my jaw into where it is supposed to fit. For now it is somewhat painful, but I know it's going to help and make it so this pain is manageable :)

On Saturday (the day before Valentine's Day), Joseph and I went to the Renaissance Festival. It was so much fun! We got there around 10:30am and left around 4:30 pm. There was tons of stuff to do and see, lots of fun shows, and amazing food! We saw this one act called Barely Balanced. They were really talented and funny. Here are some pictures:




They also had a petting zoo with some fun animals. The cow was my favorite.






On Sunday we went to church like always and taught our Sunday School class. I made Joseph chicken pillows for dinner and he gave me these really pretty red roses. Kacey and Chris were given 2 nights free at the Wild Horse Pass Hotel, but they weren't able to go, so we went in their place. It was nice to be away from home for a night and feel like we were on vacation.

On Monday our good friend's Brenda and Orson had their little girl, Brooklynn, so we went to visit them in the hospital. She was only 5 pounds 10 oz but full term! She is so small and beautiful!

Overall, we had such a great weekend together. Hope you all had great Valentine's Day weekends as well!

Christmas and New Year's

Before we get too far into 2010, I figured I should probably write about Christmas and New Year's. We had a wonderful Christmas and a not so good New Year's. But either way, we were together so that makes everything better. :)

First of all, let me just say I am a spoiled girl and my husband treats me VERY well. Joseph started asking me what I wanted for Christmas way back in November. He said he was too nervous to buy something for me without my approval. He knows that I will like it even if it's not what I really wanted. But at the same time, I didn't want to tell him what I wanted because I wanted to be surprised. So, my friend Brenda had the idea that I should send him an email with screen shots of different things that I wanted. I made sure to put the Love's Embrace necklace in there. I also made sure to put the advertisement for it on his desk and to mention it every time it was on tv... and tell him that's what I wanted whenever he asked. I was pretty sure he got the hint :)

I was really excited about the gifts I found for him. I gave him a telescope, an astronomy book to show where the stars are, the Simpson's Scene It game, some shirts, ties and candy. I was really happy that he liked all of his gifts :)

Joseph gave me a Christis statue and wind chime. Now don't get me wrong, I love my gifts! He did a really good job at picking these gifts out... he even did it without my help! I am just so spoiled that I was a little sad I didn't get the necklace. I even thought to myself "maybe we can use the gift cards from our parents to get it". Then I thought "no! I can't buy myself the love's embrace necklace! Someone has to give that too you."

So after all of the gifts were opened, Joseph asked "Did you get everything you wanted?" I said "Yes, Thank you baby." He said "No, I can see it on your face. What else did you want?" I said "Nothing". He said "what about this?" And then he pulled the necklace out of the basket in the tv unit. What a sweet husband I have! I love my necklace, and my statue and my wind chimes. We hung the wind chime up on our back porch. It sounds beautiful in the wind. And for now we have the statue in our bedroom because there is so much dirt that comes in from the outside since we don't have grass in the backyard yet.

I really do have the best husband in the world!

On Christmas day we went over Brenda and Orson's house. That was a lot of fun being with them.

New Year's Eve was not as fun. We decided to get Sammy neutered that day because we would have a 3 day weekend to be with him. If I had known how much pain he was going to be in, I don't know if I could have done it. Everyone told me that their dogs were just groggy and knocked out, but Sammy cried all night long. He had a difficult time walking, sitting, and laying down. It was really tough to see him like that. Luckily when we were able to give him more pain medicine, that helped him out a lot. He was so drugged up that he would fall asleep sitting up. It was funny and sad at the same time. After 2 weeks, he is doing fine. You would never even know he had surgery.

Now that it is the new year, Joseph has started working in his new position at work. He seems to like it a lot more and doesn't get as frustrated working with the staff members as he did working with students.

Other than that, things are going really well. Hope you are all doing great too!