Running...again

I've been inspired.

I get the Runner's magazine every month and love reading it and pretending I'm all hard-core like the runners they talk about. I know I'm not, but I like to be.

So I am back into my good running patterns. Thanks to a visit from my sister, we're up and jogging before work. It's a good day.

I am even seriously considering the marathon in Sacramento...perhaps.

Pool Man

This is the kind of stuff Mark is into these days.
We've had several big jobs with plumbing, mastic, and electrical panneling. Mark is learning a lot! We appreciate Dave and his efforts in coming out to teach us so much! What a giant learning curve this business has been. But things are going great. Being your own boss is such a different life then what Disney was providing.

Cook Book Craze

I made a goal at the beginning of the year to cook every recipe out of a cookbook. I've struggled finding the perfect book to do this out of mostly because all the books I had weren't exactly what I was looking for.

Then came this. With the suggestion of my Brother-In-Law; we purchased the Flat Belly Diet Cookbook to try some of their ideas. And what do you know - it is amazing. We've made about a dozen different random recipes (even some that didn't have pictures) and we LOVE them. I couldn't choose a favorite but I just love the Mango Smoothie Surprise and the Pork-Pineapple Tacos.

D'lish. Pretty sure we will be fixin' out of this book for a while.

Favorites

I love the laugh of my little nephews. I love these summer evenings with my husband at home. I love my little car Edna. I love living close to my mom. I love living close to Winco. I love that my friends want to visit me. I love that my new friends have the last name of Wright. I love my new calling. I love my husbands new calling. I love planning vacations we might be taking this fall. I love road trips. I love talking on the phone to distant friends. I love babies. I love family reunions. I love playing the Amazing Race at family reunions. I love fine tip pens. I love ice cream. I still love grocery shopping. I love trying new recipes. I love my husband. I love being his wife. I love reading "self help" books with great ideas to organize your life. I love the Food Network and HGTV. I love unpacking my boxes that have been in storage for months to find goodies I've lost inside. I love fancy cameras with effortlessly splendid photography. I love the word Splendid.

Look at my Baseboards!

Who knew that baseboards were such a project. I can not say I have ever really paid attention to baseboards in my life. Well, now I will. After having our floors installed, the next step was to do our baseboards. To save us some money, we opted to install them ourselves. Now it is just another on going project that may take us the rest of the year to complete. Although my mom was a trooper and cut almost the entire house, and they are all nailed in, I still have to go around and putty the tops and nail holes as well as touch up with paint.

They do look nice though, don't you think?

Newer Home

As promised, here is a very overdue update of our home. We finally had our new floors laid about 3 weeks ago and what a beautiful change it has been You remember when the room looked like this?

And when we had to pull up the old floor. That was a treat! I threw my back out on this chore just before the Morrell reunion; therefore I will always have a special disliking towards peel and stick tiles. No matter how often HGTV tries to sell me on them.Well ladies and gentlemen, our home now looks something like this. (Pardon the random bits and pieces. This picture was taken while the project was still in process.
We just love them. The only thing I need to learn now is how to care for dark laminate floors. They show everything! Don't get me wrong, I still LOVE my choice and wouldn't go with anything different, I just need to figure out what product I can use to clean it; keep it shiny; and yet doesn't require a ton of money. Any bloggers out there know of anything?

Love!

I just love acrylic nails. I love how they make me feel more put together. I love how thin and pretty my fingers feel. I HATE how they ruin my real nails underneath and it'll take me years to get strong natural nails again. But in the mean time, I LOVE my new fingernails.

Thanks honey for the extra cash that made this indulgence possible.

I use to be a blogger

It is true. I use to be a really good blogger. And several times these past weeks I have thought about needing to blog about this or that. But alas, with no Internet in our house until yesterday and a busy life in between nothing has been documented. Here are a few random things that have been going on with more pictures to follow. (This way I keep you hooked...)

--I hate to admit it but there is a Baskin Robbins shop just down the road from my office building. A perfect walk during lunch ends me right at their doorstep which isn't entirely bad in my opinion. One particular day last week I stopped in just after a rather large group of summer camp kids; all now sitting outside the door with their one scoops of ice cream. I proceed to go inside and order 2 scoops of heaven on a cone and leave to saunter around the square with my treasure. As I leave the building, one small group of little ones stare with amazement and exclaim to the adult standing near "She has TWO". to which the adult responded, "she's an adult so she can have two." Yes, I love that part of growing up. I now can have 2 scoops of ice cream if I want.

--Mark has had another tragic phone episode. This time it has mysteriously disappeared. Not sure where it went to but somewhere between the movie theater and home it has vanished. Now we are sharing my phone between the 2 of us until we decide what step we want to take next. Ug!

--Biggest news: WE HAVE CARPET! We moved into our new house 2 weeks ago and have been slowly getting stuff actually inside the house. I use to be really good at moving in a day or two but I still have a ton of boxes in my garage. Reminds me when my friend Lauren moved and she talked about boxes in her garage. For whatever reason, I just leave them there. It is easier then going through them and finding homes for everything. The master bathroom is still a wreck, we are mostly furniture-less, and the kitchen cupboards under the sink have a rancid smell that I can't get rid of. But its home and we love it.

--The hill behind our house appears to be a genuine wildlife preserve. We've seen coyotes, rabbits, a myriad of birds, and field mice galore. A perfect compliment to our dinner time.

--America's Next Top Model was holding auditions in our city. While going to the movie theater the other day, the swarm of young laides with packets and high heels were causing quite the stir. I jokingly said to Mark my assumption that Tyra Banks was there and although she herself was not their, casting agents for the CW were! Fantastic!

--Work is going well. I continue to work on the staffing for the BP Oil Spill response. They have put me on point in the Health and Safety department which I really like doing. The Pool Service company continues to do well. We've added several more customers and Mark just keeps on keeping on. He has become quite the fix it man which will come in handy when we go to redo our bathroom.

Life continues to move forward with good things. I will try to update with photos soon. I know I've been terrible-here's to doing better.