Home Sweet Home

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of us buying our house. We're still in the process of fixing it up but it definitely feels like home. Who cares if our dining room is still empty. One day it wil have a table in it.

I finally put a curtain on the kitchen window and a few things in the window sill. I've also gotten around to hanging a picture or two.



Oh this table. Neal had this table in the condo and it had a yucky natural pine finish. I had this idea to paint it. Back in September was when I started. I primed it and put 2 coats of the green on the table. All it lacked was just a few touch ups in a few spots. Fast forward to July. The table was still sitting in the garage collecting junk. I don't really know why it took me so long to take the 10 minutes to finish this project, but it finally was completed.

I love this house as much as I did the day we bought it. It just seems to fit us. Here's to 1 year down on the mortgage and 29 more to go!

No Talent Needed

Tonight I went to Pinot's Palette with the VTXW girls. The painting was called Whimsical Fall. I learned that I'm definitely a novice painter. On more than one occasion, the artist came up behind me and said, "may i make a suggestion?" I welcomed her help. I think its interesting how everyone's painting has their own touch to it. Man, my trees sure are skinny!

Here we go again...

This is a road I've been down before. The minute I stop working out and not watching what I'm eating, I blow up like a balloon. Guess its true when they say you gain weight when you first get married. Well, I've let myself get a little too comfortable. Hello Weight Watchers, again. I went to a WW meeting this morning to weigh in and face the music. Yup, I've gained about 20 lbs in the last 5 months. Wowza! My main motivation is to get my weight under control before we start trying to have a baby. So here I go again. Back to counting points. Back to working out like a mad woman. Back to healthy. Maybe it'll be "for real" this time.

Bang Bang

Tonight was my Introduction to Defensive Pistol class. The instructor was great and the class was small with a group of 10 women. It was a 2 hour class and it was perfect for someone like me who has never shot a gun in her life. After the classroom lecture section of the class and we were familiar with our guns, it was time to enter the shooting range. Wow! I think I should have worn my heart rate monitor because I could feel my heart jumping out of my chest after my first round of shots. As you can see, I need some more practice with hitting my target. My shots were kind of all over the place.

We got to shoot 50 rounds and I mastered the art of loading the pistol. I'm really interested in taking more lessons and becoming better at it. I hope to God that I never have to defend myself with a pistol, but I want to be able to if needed.

It All Works Out

Let me start by saying that we actually went out 2 nights in a row this weekend. Tommy drove into town Friday night and we went to Watson's to sit on the patio and hear random live music. Good times and I could still picture everyone on the patio having a good time after our wedding.

Last night, Travis & Jessica invited us to go country dancing. It was fun catching up with them and watching all the people in the bar. It's hard to believe that my friends and I used to hang out in these places several times a week. I definetely had a moment where I thought, "thank God I'm not single anymore." No longer is it fun for me to be around a bunch of drunk people. What's sad is, I know I used to be that annoying person. I guess life has a way of working out like that. We were thrilled when our friends announced that they had to leave at 11:30 to get home to relieve their babysitter. Check please!

This morning we went to church and it felt great to be back there. We haven't been in a while because of traveling and what not. They're offering a newcomer's class in the fall that we're interested in doing.

A bit of randomness. We watched the Harry Potter marathon all day yesterday and it's raining outside right now. God is good!

Canton~4th of July

Last weekend, Mom and I drove to Karen's for the 4th of July weekend. We've been wanting to go to Canton, but we haven't been able to find a good month to go for like the past 2 years. We decided to take our chances and brave the July heat. It wasn't too bad because a lot of it is covered, but we were definetely ready to come home after several hours.

Neal and I aren't really ready to buy a dining room table yet, but this booth caught my eye. It's a guy out of Longview that custom makes these beautiful tables. For the quality you get, they're reasonably priced too. Whenever we're ready, I hope we can go visit this man and have him build our dream dining room table.

Mom and I came home the morning of the 4th. We debated on whether or not to venture out into the crowds to see the fireworks. For the 2nd year in a row, we watched the downtown fireworks on TV from the comfort of our living room. No crowds, no sweating, no mosquitos, and no traffic.

Seattle

We made a trip to Seattle this past weekend to run the Rock N Roll Half Marathon which by the way I had not trained for. It turned out to be a great run and I finished with one of my better times. 2 hours, 39 minutes. The weather turned out to be cooler than I expected so we made a quick trip to a sporting goods store to buy a light jacket.

After finishing the race, we treated ourselves with some local beer along with fish n chips.

We spent several days in Seattle and had good visits with the family. I knew the temperature would be in the 60s but I didn't know that it would feel so chilly all the time. It's really beautiful when its sunny in Seattle but its pretty gloomy most of the time. I need my sunshine, even if it is 100 degrees outside.