Dandelions, I Curse YOU

While I was at the baby shower on Sunday, Mat decided to start pulling up dandelions out of our yard because the weather was so nice and he is convinced that we need to pull them all before they turn into the big ball of fluffy seeds. When I got home, I volunteered to help because I am just that nice.

What did I get myself into? Looking at the yard, it doesn't look like there are that many dandelions. When you get down on the ground next to a yellow bloom. there are also a hundred about ready to bloom surrounding the original one you spotted. It's like our entire yard is made of dandelions. Mat had already pulled a million, so I decided to start pulling. After two dandelions, I wanted to burn the entire yard.

So I ask Mat, "Do you know if this is the best way to do this? I mean, what if our neighbors don't pull their dandelions and two weeks from now all their seeds blow into our yard and we have triple the amount of dandelions?"

His response: "But at least we'll have a head start since we already pulled the original dandelions in our yard."

The roof is finished! At least on the house. We have a one car garage that we have enough shingles left over and the guys will tackle that next weekend. I know they are ready for it to be finished! I couldn't believe how much work it is.

It's been a busy weekend! I hit Costco, the grocery store and ran a couple other little errands. It seems like I've been working nonstop. Our Board Meeting was a success and I'll post about that later.

I'm about to head out to a friend's baby shower. My first attempt at using brown bags from the grocery store is below. I thought this is a great way to save money and I thought it might be cute. I think I can sure do cuter, but it was okay for a first try!

I've got dinner in the crockpot and Mat is going to clean my work while I'm at the shower. Tonight I think we'll just sit and relax on the couch. Our favorite thing to do!

So Close...

Mat and his Dad worked all weekend to get the roof finished, but they still have a tiny bit more to go. They are going to be working on a little in the evenings and hopefully it will be finished by the time I get back from my board meeting in Cascade this week. It looks so good! I really wasn't that excited about getting a new roof, but it really does give new life to the house and it is just one of many home improvement projects we'll be working on at this house.

I spent too many hours on Saturday messing with our washing machine. It is so slow to fill when we use our cold water. So I took off the house and tried to clear the screens. Well, I think that made it even worse! So I headed up to Lowe's and got two new hoses for the washing machine just hoping that would help. After messing with it forever, it now works great! So laundry is fun again. I don't know why, but I still haven't stopped enjoying doing laundry. It's not so much that I love it, I just love that we have our own washer and dryer right there in our very own home. I can wash whatever I want, whenever I want. I don't have to worry about the hours of the laundromat or that people might steal my clothes or that maybe I should wear those jeans a couple more times to get the most out of the load I run that costs like $2.50 or something.

We also got to put one very big checkmark on our wedding checklist. Our invitations went out in the mail today! What a wonderful feeling to have those out and en route to everyone. Mat and I are so happy at how they turned out. They look great and were definitely worth spending a ton of our weekend on them. We also met with our florist and got some more details pinned down with our flowers. So we're moving right along on schedule.

I'll try to update while I am in Cascade for my board meeting, but I'm not sure how great internet access will be. I hope it works though because it will be nice to keep up with email instead of having 800 to check when I get back!

Friday Bloggingness

I don't see any reason why I can't make up new words that have to do with the word blog. Everyone says blog now and I bet it is even in the dictionary. At my college job waiting tables, I used to make up words and try to see if other people would start using them. I could usually convince a few people, but that was just because they thought it was funny. Do you think you make any money if you make up a new word? Probably not.

So this weekend Mat and his dad are going to install our new roof! It is so exciting to see our shingles just sitting on top of the house waiting to be installed. I will probably be having panic attacks all weekend that Mat is going to fall off. I thought about going out of town and acting like it wasn't happening. I wouldn't say I am scared of all heights. I'm okay if I'm in a building looking out a window, or there is a really good steady railing on a balcony. But standing freely where I might fall to a tragic death if pushed or a strong wind blows me over, is not my idea of fun. I tried to get on the ladder when Mat was putting up Christmas lights and got to the third step and Mat had to carry me down and get me a paper bag to breathe in. So maybe I am exaggerating a little, but I'm not looking forward to Mat dangling from our roof all weekend. I'm going to take picture tonight of our before roof. I'll get those up sometime this weekend.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! We're going to dinner with my parents tonight and then we'll head over to their house sometime this weekend to put the wedding invitations together! I can't believe it will be two months away on Monday. I guess time really does fly!

MIA

So I am a bad blogger. I went to Kansas City, with every intention of blogging while I was there. I even brought a laptop from work so I could check my email and do a little blogging. Then I get to the hotel and it was 9.99 for access! No way. I figured I would just catch up when I got home. But then, errands and work happened!

So I'll have to catch you up now. I went to a meeting planner retreat and it was pretty fun. I met some great people that I can talk with and come up with great ideas for my association. Kansas City reminded me a lot of Tulsa, but bigger. The downtown area we stayed in was a little sketchy in areas, totally different from Boise. On Saturday it was basically deserted. But I tried to take a few pictures and I'll post those later.

This weekend was beautiful and we broke out the grill Saturday and Sunday night. Saturday night we cooked up some of the finest $1 hot dogs money can buy. Sunday we made like three pounds of chicken for the whole week. We also grilled eggplant, but I think we really went overboard on the salt. Now it is cold again. It only got up to 45 today and it was at least 80 this weekend. Boo. I'm ready for warm!!

Mat purchased shingles today for our new roof. Mat and his dad are going to start on it this weekend, which is just so exciting. So it isn't the most exciting, but we are saving a TON of money on labor and it will just help to increase the value of our house. Plus, we have to fix some places on the roof anyway to keep our homeowner's insurance.

We got our invitations back from the printer! And we found someone to marry us! We're doing pretty good in the wedding planning department.

Not Again!

I woke up to a nice inch or so of snow! UGH. I thought we were past snow. It's April, for crying out loud! At least the ground is warm and melted everything on the streets right away. Our yard was covered in snow, which was sad because it is just so pretty right now. We spent a few hours on Sunday actually in the yard. This was our first real adventure in the yard. Mat mowed the backyard once after we moved in and then the leaves came and we just kind of ignored them, hoping they would go away. Well, they didn't. So we raked and raked and mostly Mat raked and I picked up leaves. Then he even mowed the front and back lawns. I did some weeding in our raspberry and strawberry planter along the side of the house. Anyway, our yard looked so pretty! And now, it is covered in snow.

Oh Geez...

So I was watching the new Bravo TV show called 'Step It Up and Dance' this evening when I heard the worst phrase ever to kick someone off a reality show.

"Your show has been cancelled. It's time for your final dance."

And then they have to dance in a room by themselves. I'm not kidding.

The Hotel Cafe Tour

Mat and I stayed up way past our bedtimes last night. We went to see a concert called the Hotel Cafe Tour, which actually included 6 different artists. We had a lot of fun and got to see some fun new artists. We went to see Ingrid Michaelson, but we also got to see Meiko, Cary Brothers, Jesca Hoop, William Fitzsimmons and Jim Bianco. All new to us, but some of them were really great and we'll add some of their CDs to our collection very soon.

In order to get good seats at this particular concert venue, Mat and I go before the doors open and then sit around for an hour or so. There are always some very colorful people at concerts and this concert did not disappoint. We didn't get home until almost midnight, so it was extra hard to get out of bed this morning.

Hello Saturday!

This morning has been so nice just to get some things done around the house. Mat is at work and hopefully should be back any minute so we can have some lunch together! I did a little cleaning and got most of our grocery list ready for today. We made this huge pasta casserole last week, so luckily we have one recipe we didn't make last week and we can make it tomorrow. So that will save us some money at the store.

We're making burgers tonight for Cory and Christina. I think Mat said he was going to mix bacon in the burgers and some roasted garlic. Sounds good to me! He always makes the best burgers no matter what he does to them! I made some dip for us to much on while the burgers are cooking up - homemade french onion dip! I carmelized some onions and then mixed everything up. It wasn't too hard, so I hope it turns out yummy!

We got the menu set for the wedding last night, so that was a relief. Now, we just have to work on the other million things to do! Hopefully, our invitations will be done next week, which will give us a good week to address them. It's going to be here before we know it! I can't believe how the last year has flown by.

Better get back to my chores! Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Hangin' at the Mall

Mat and I headed to the mall today after work to do some shopping for wedding supplies. We looked for ties for the gents and didn't find "the one". We did find some cute vases to put flowers in that will go on either side of the arch we're using for our ceremony. I'm excited about those! Oh, Pottery Barn, I heart you.

We also went to Zurcher's, the party store. It isn't as much fun as it sounds. BUT we did find some blue napkins people will use while they are eating cake. They were quite the bargain. We were trying to find some little tea lights that are blue, but they didn't have any. We might have to look online for those.

Our big mission this week is to find someone to marry us! I know, I know, we have waited a long time to do this. I could on for hours about all the things we need to check off the list!

I never gave an update on our game night last Saturday! It was so much fun (as expected). We showed up around 8:00 pm and Mat and I headed straight for the food. The shish kabobs weren't ready yet, so we snacked on cheetos and chips and salsa until they were. We had some great shish kabobs right off the grill, yummy salad and more chips and cheetos! And then of course, my delicious dessert and some chocolate chip cookies that were scrumptious also.

We started out with Scene It, Battle of the Sexes. The girls started out very slowly, but steadily we did take over the boys and won! Next up was Taboo. We pulled names out of a hat for this one and unfortunately, I was not on the girl's team who had been training for this moment her whole life. Every single turn she went it was like magic or maybe she created the game and they scored like 8 points. Then there was Mat (on my team) who said, "This measures outsideness." (crickets chirping) or the other girl on our team who just would read the word at the top of the card and get buzzed 5 times on every turn. So then we started Cranium, but never got to finish this one since I got a beer spilled on my jeans and disrupted the whole game. And no, it wasn't me that spilled the beer! Overall, it was a great time and I would like to thank Alana again for a wonderful game night! Her friends were lots of fun and we hope there is another one sometime soon.

Where in the World is Bob Saget?

For those of you who don't know about Mat and I's love for TV, well, it runs deep. We try to limit our TV watching somewhat, but sometimes I just want to keep adding new shows. He's a little more of a channel surfer than me. I simply can't live without my TiVos. And yes, I said TiVos.

TiVo came into my life so many years ago, I simply can't remember. I believe it might have been when Joy and I lived together in Stillwater. That must have been 7 or 8 years ago. I fell in love and can't imagine watching TV without being able to pause or fast forward. My first TiVo (who was never named) died in 2003. It was a slow process and luckily, I had enough brains to order another one before it kicked the bucket. That's when I bought Bob Saget. The TiVo, not the person. Mat and I met shortly after Bob Saget came to live with me. He had trouble adapting to the new technology, but I helped him cope.

When we decided to move in together, I told myself that I was not going to give up precious hard drive space to record NFL Live, Denver Broncos games, Myth Busters and Guiding Light. That's when we purchased Beerwagon. It was officially Mat's TiVo, so he got to pick out the name. (When I say name, I really mean name them. It's on your bills and the actual TiVo. They suggest to name them things like 'Living Room 1' or 'Smith Family TiVo'.) Then we decided to get crazy and we got a wireless internet and made our two TiVos talk! So then we didn't even have to talk to each other, we could simply communicate through TiVo. Or maybe we could just transfer shows back and forth between the living room and the bedroom. Which is cool too.

We have occasional problems when Beerwagon and Bob Saget decide not to speak to each other, but never for this long. Every day I turn on the TiVo to Now Playing and Bob Saget is missing. Maybe he is on Spring Break or maybe Beerwagon really made him mad. I guess now I'm just stuck either walking to the bedroom to watch the Biggest Loser or waiting until Bob Saget decides to show up again. Life is rough.

P.S. For those of you who are planning to suggest that I just call the help desk to figure out the problem, you try calling a help desk where they ask you, "Which TiVo are you having problems with, Bob Saget or Beerwagon?"