Slightly Angry

I am slightly angry at the library today. I know when I first got my library card I was super excited. A FREE way to do one of the things I enjoy most, reading. "Why didn't I get a library card sooner?" I asked myself. I was so dumb to spend all that money on books I could have gotten for free!

So for the past few weeks I have been reading up a storm. . .now I have a confession. I am a marathon reader. If I enjoy it, I can sit down with a book for 6-8 hours straight with only quick snack and potty breaks. Time flies! Well, my eye doctor says that's a big "no no" for me with my recent eye problems. Apparently when I concentrate I don't blink much, which is bad for my eyes, and also with as strong a prescription as I have (I'm SUPER blind) it also can cause eye strain, bla, bla, etc, etc. (Side Note: Why is everything I love bad for me? Video games hurt my hands, reading hurts my eyes, dessert hurts my cholesterol. . .life can be cruel.)

Anyway, I'm trying to break the marathon reading habit. This past week I've been limiting myself to only one or two chapters every night of my latest acquisition from the library, The Lovely Bones. Now, this stretches out the book significantly. Especially if I skip a day or two reading because of other life things going on. The book was due back last Thursday so I went back to the library to renew it because I didn't finish it. . .this is the angry part. Since the book is so popular they wouldn't let me renew it because other people had holds on it. BOO! So I could either keep it (and pay a quarter for every day I kept it) or return it and get back on the list. Now, I could have finished the book in a day easy! IF I went back to my old habits. . . but I was a good girl and returned the book and put myself back on the hold list. The librarian said I was number 127 on the list. I wonder how long it will take to to get back?

I'm starting to wonder if maybe the library isn't conducive to the restrictions my eye doctor has placed on me. Either that or I can't read any popular books. . . but where is the fun in that? Anybody know any good non popular books so I can take my sweet time reading them?

Just curious

I have a friend who blogs write a post like this a while back and I was also curious. . .does anybody read this besides my fellow bloggers and my mother? Hm.

Originally I started this blog because I wanted to keep our far away family up to date on our daily goings on, but nobody has ever left me a comment so I'm left to wonder if they read this. I think that even if nobody read this I would keep writing. It's fun to look back at the past entries and pictures. The more mundane posts are my favorite because those are the memories I probably would forget first. So readers out there. . .are you out there? Leave a comment if you are. :)

Jared and I watched Julie and Julia tonight. A very cute movie. I made Betty Crocker Ultimate Fudge Brownies (coughmixcough) for dessert. . . I thought the irony was funny. I don't think I will ever be an amazing cook, but I do try sometimes. Just not tonight! Hehe.

Jared has made a request that I write a comment about Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. We watched that last night and the couldn't get enough of Steve the talking monkey. It got pretty consistent laugh out louds from both of us. Definitely worth checking out.

Procrastination

Why is it when I tell myself I'm going to clean the house up I end up on the computer? Usually the routine goes: clean 20 minutes, computer 15 minutes, clean 20 minutes, etc. Well I told Jared I would pick up around the house today, and here I am on my computer break. In my defense I did get a lot of stuff done today, I just put cleaning off till last.

A few things have been going on the past week, the first being we finally got our end tables! We were thinking they were going to be significantly darker than our other furniture, but they actually match really well.
I love the drawers and shelf underneath, it's going to be great to store stuff. We also went out and bought a new entertainment cabinet for the t.v., the bad news is it won't be in stock for 6 weeks. When we go pick that up it will eliminate the last piece of fiber board blond "wood" furniture in the room. I'm so excited. And I know I've said it before, but all that waiting, hard work, and saving is SOOOOO worth it now!!! I love our beautiful home.

Remember how I said "Looking just for fun" is a dangerous phrase? Well when we went and bought the entertainment cabinet we looked at bedroom sets "just for fun" and I found one that I love! Don't freak out, we didn't buy it. We are done with furniture for a while, but I know what I want to start saving for!
I love the drawers under the bed. Most of the beds with drawers underneath we looked at were ridiculously expensive, but this set was pretty reasonably priced. The cost of the bed, 6 drawer dresser and mirror was equal to the cost of just the bed in other sets we liked.

When we were shopping we kept running into another young couple in the store, apparently we have the same taste in furniture. I over heard them talking to the sales lady when they decided to buy this set. When the sales lady walked away I went over to them and I found out this was the first time they had ever been furniture shopping. I shared all my new knowledge about bargaining with furniture people (NEVER PAY THE ASKING PRICE). Usually you can at least get free shipping and 100 dollars knocked off the price. I also told them that the "Big Sale" that was going on at the store happened every weekend. The stuff isn't really "50% off" it's just a ploy to get you into the store. 50% off is just the normal price, so I didn't want them to feel pressured to buy this weekend without shopping around. Well the sales lady over heard me talking to them when she came back and I think she was really pissed. Her curt reply to me was, "Can I page somebody for you?!" Jared said that was a nice way of saying "screw off." Ha, oh well, I wish somebody would have told me all that stuff the first time we bought.

Valentines Day

What is your favorite Valentines memory? I'm not sure if I have one in particular. When I was little my mom would always do fun things for Valentine's day. I would come down from my room for our family dinner and she would tie balloons to the backs of our chairs and there would be a little gift sitting on our dinner plate. Just these little things made it so fun and special for me as a child. I love the fact that even now that we have our own house she still does a little something for me. I came home from work this week and found some Valentines Day window cling decorations and a card sitting on the piano bench. It made my day. Mom will always be my Valentine.

Another Valentines day that sticks out in my head was my first one with Jared. I had never had a boyfriend over Valentines day, so that in itself was exciting for me. It was also the first time I got a nice piece of jewelry from a boy. The memory is slightly fuzzy for me (This will be our 9th year celebrating Valentines day together), but I want to say he did one of those cheesy romantic moves where he put the jewelry into the chocolate box he gave me. I love that Jared is a hopeless romantic, I eat it all up.

I hope everybody has a great Valentines weekend! I'm looking forward to spending time with some of the people I love most.

Birthdays!

February is a busy birthday month for our friends/family. February 2nd is my mom's b-day, the 4th is Pat's, the 15th is Elise's, and the 28th is Bobby's.

Friday and Saturday nights were spent celebrating Pat and my mom's b-day at our house. Nothing too crazy, just dinner, cake and games. Jared and I spent almost all Saturday cleaning house. After I saw how gross the tile grout behind our bathroom door looked in the picture I took for the "Mysterious Wall" post, we did an extra thorough cleaning. It's really amazing house dust and dirt piles up. We are only two people, you'd think the house would stay clean for a long time!

Having the extended cleaning session on Monday made me start itching for spring cleaning. I love cold weather, but while I was cleaning I couldn't help but wish I could open all the windows in the house for some fresh air. I think I'm starting to get cabin fever. I miss listening to the wind in the trees in the back yard and the trickling of water in the moat. Our first ridiculously high gas bill might also have something to do with my wishing for warmer weather too.

We also got a phone call this weekend that our coffee and end tables are ready to be delivered. They will be arriving next Saturday, cross your fingers that the finish of the wood coordinates with our table and hutch.

The Mysterious Wall

I really don't have anything to blog about right now (I will by the end of the weekend, 2 birthday parties and the Last Airbender trailer!), but since all my blog buddies have been so good at updating lately I didn't want to leave them with nothing new of mine to read. . . so here is my story about our mysterious bathroom wall.

About 2 weeks after moving into the house I noticed that the small space of wall between the tile from the shower and door frame was starting to pucker. This got me quite upset in the beginning because I immediately thought we had a leak in the plumbing in the wall. So being the curious person that I am, when I noticed the area I went up to it and poked it. (I'm very scientific) It didn't seem soggy or wet, the paint was just starting to bubble up.

After an inspection from my Dad (what would I do with out you Daddy? :) He suggested that we just peel/sand down the "bubbled" area and see if it gets any bigger/worse. Well we've been in the house four months now and it still looks exactly the same.


So any suggestions as to why the wall looks like that? You'd think if it was running down the wall there would be damage along the entire wall. . .but no, only that one spot, the rest of the wall is fine. Ah, the joys of home owner ship. This is the wall in our private master bath, so nobody sees it but us. I suppose we could just sand it down some more and repaint this bathroom too. Yet another project.

p.s. Please excuse the nastiness of the tile grout, apparently when we cleaned the tile last we didn't get behind the door by the shower. . .ew. I'm going to go clean now.

p.p.s. Wondering about the cat arm? She surprised me when I snapped the picture. . ha.

Piano Bench

Two weeks ago was a big shopping weekend for Jared and I. We found a print that we both liked (shocker) to put above the couch in the family room. Unfortunately since it was so large, 27 x 39 inches, we had to pay to have it custom framed (or put it in a cheap plastic poster frame. . .not really an option, we are trying to get away from dorm room decor). We also finally got around to reupholstering the piano bench.

I was a little torn about what to do with the bench at first. After all it's pretty much just a flat board. I've seen people on Trading Spaces put batting and fabric on a wood board a bunch of times for a padded bench, it didn't look too hard. All you need is fabric and a staple gun right? Well, in the end I wasn't so sure and I didn't want to ruin the bench and then have to buy a whole new one. Jared and I unscrewed the lid from the bench and took it to a professional reupholstering shop in Orland. It ended up being about 60 bucks (fabric included) which I thought was a little expensive, but not ridiculous. Actually, I'm going to be honest with you here, I have no idea if that's a good deal or not. Turns out there aren't that many reupholstering shops in the area and I didn't want to drag the bench lid around for quotes. So if you think we got ripped off, please leave a comment. :D

Two weeks go by and I drive back to pick up the lid. I wanted to have it all put back together on the bench by the time Jared got home from work to surprise him. The lid was screwed to the bench in 3 places, 2 hinges and a stop bar to keep the lid from opening more than 90 degrees. I put the lid on the bench and the stop bar is on the opposite side of the lid from where it originally was and the hinges are too close together and wouldn't line up. Oh. . .I was pretty ticked. Mainly because we paid good money so it wouldn't get messed up, and two because I didn't want to make 2 extra trips out to Orland to drop and pick it up again.

Long story short my mother was nice enough to come to the house on a Thursday when the shop came to pick up the lid and the bench (the only day they would do it), and it was ready 2 days later. . . but we had to go pick it up.

Apparently the new hole in the bench for the stop bar had to be on the opposite side because they couldn't screw it back into the old one after it was reupholstered. They said the hole was too big. I guess they thought that was ok to put it on the opposite side? They never called to ask. They also never explained why the hinges got messed up, I guess because they are dumb. Who knows. When they took the bench back to fix it I told them I didn't want any holes showing, and as few new holes screwed into the bench as possible. In the end they came through, and the upholstering job is great. What a pain though! Here is the finished product.