Bathroom Makeover

A few months ago, the State Health Benefits Dept (where I get my health, etc benefits through) sent out a memo to all state employees informing us that the first 5000 people to fill out an online health survey on January 10 would receive a $50 gift card and also be eligible for more prizes to be given out over the year (ie: a Wii, spa vacation, years worth of groceries, year-long gym membership-- GOOD prizes!!). That was enough for me-- Jan 10 was a Saturday and I decided that I'd ensure I was one of the first 5000 by just staying up til midnight on Friday and filling out the survey at the stroke of 12:01am! I told my co-workers about this-- they laughed, saying that since they didn't specify where the gift card would be for, it would probably be something lame. I am of the persuasion that a free $50 gift card for anywhere is better than no $50 gift card, and so I did exactly as I planned. The survey took about 15 minutes and, as an added bonus, informed me that health-risk wise, I was doing quite well! Anyway, that was that and time went on. A few weeks ago I got an envelope in the mail. Inside was my "reward certificate" and a pamplet that instructed me that I would need to choose where I wanted my gift card from...and here's a list of about a million stores, restaurants, online retailers, hotels, airlines, etc., for you to choose from!!! It was the most amazing thing ever. I spent days just debating where to get my beautiful $50 card from. After much hemming and hawing I decided on T.J. Maxx-- depending on my mood, I could blow my money on clothes, shoes, or home decorating...and there was very little chance I would spend it on something practical, like groceries or other boring things like that.

So this weekend I decided to take care of something that had been bothering me for quite awhile-- the guest bathroom. It was decorated with leftover remnants of past decorating schemes, it didn't coordinate with the rest of my house, and I didn't like it! It was therefore the perfect candidate for receiving the bounty of my $50 gift card. And may I report that after only maybe an hour in T.J. Maxx I emerged with everything I needed to make my bathroom an altogether different place-- and got $5 cash back from my card!! An hour of work later (how incredibly annoying is it to change shower curtains??? Ugh!) and I have a lovely little room that actually coordinates with the rest of my house! Yippee!! Guests, you are welcome to use the restroom next time you're over. :) I present you with: Before and After shots.

Before: View from the hallway-- as much as I love the Bulldogs, they are no longer the inspiration for my decorating. The rest of my house is shades of brown with touches of green and blue. Black and red? Not so much.

After: Now the shower curtain is green (not quite as light as it looks in the picture) and the rug is brown. Much more "me"!

Before: Red towels, a random poster that didn't match.

After: Green/tan/brown/white striped towels, paintings Matt and I painted awhile back that I've had nowhere to hang!

Before: Boring!!!

After: Exciting! More striped towels, plus this random $2 faux-snakeskin placemat that I thought would make a nice wall decoration.

So there you have my amazing $45 (free) bathroom makeover. Oh you doubting co-workers, I laugh in your faces!!

(another new post below!)

Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)

Our weekend started off in the best way possible: a phone call from a friend with an invitation to dinner. Is there truly anything better than someone else offering to cook, asking only for your presence at the dinner table? I think that there is not. So Matt, Lola, and I trucked over (or Civic-ed over, as it were) to The Gurleys for a night of poppyseed chicken and dominoes. As I told the cashier at Target (when I bought the dominoes)...there's nothing quite like playing dominoes for fun to convince you that you're ready for retirement. I mean, seriously. It's impossible to feel young and hip when you're busting out the dominoes on a Friday night. But anyway, I digress. To accompany our rockin' game of dominoes, Jonathon and Mollyanne located an all 90s music channel on TV (you know, those stations that play music...how high tech). So it was great fun hearing all these songs from middle and high school. Lots of them I recognized, many I did not...but by far the WORST song with the BEST title was "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)," by Crystal Waters. Horribly annoying song....but great title for a blog post, no? Anyway, while the grown-ups played dominoes our children rekindled their friendship by sharing water, playing outside, and sniffing lots of butts (let's just be honest). Lola and Scarlett are super cute because they look like a mother and daughter...both black lab mixes with purple collars. Scarlett is definitely the motherly figure, though, being the larger of the two and much more cautious than that silly puppy Lola. She warmed up to Lola, though, and they had a good time.

Here's my "artistic" shot of my dominoes/Jonathon plotting our demise.

Mollyanne is also quite a serious player. Nothing short of her A-game will do!

So anyway, we had a good time Friday night. We can't be that old and boring because we did play dominoes until well after 11pm-- who do you know at the retirement home that can stay awake THAT late?! Saturday morning we slept in, then embarked upon the Great Bathroom Makeover of 2009-- more details and photos to come on that in a future post. It warmed up somewhat during the afternoon so we took Lola to the I-fields dogpark (our favorite). She played SO hard that she's been asleep pretty much ever since then (we're going on 24 hours here)! Although it just occured to me that everyone else in the world might not like picture of my dog as much as I do...I'm posting them anyway. You can always scroll past them and not admire every single teeny cute detail, I'll never know the difference!

This is how every interaction with other dogs begins: with Lola proving that she is THE most submissive dog on the planet!

Mom and Dad look on proudly as their daughter plays like a champ.

And just FYI...if you think I'm lame now, with my daily updates and photo shoots of my DOG... you have no idea what you're in for when I am with (human) child. You will discover new depths of lamesness you never thought possible. And I'm not even saying once the child gets here. This is going to start the minute I see a positive sign on the pregnancy test. Prepare yourself for an information and picture overload. :) You can consider yourself warned!!

marriage questionnaire

So some of these "marriage questionnaires" have been floating around Facebook...hey, it's my blog, I can post whatever I want!! And I'll admit it-- ever since my OpenDiary days (high school thru early college) I have really loved filling out surveys about myself. Call me vain if you want...

(Right before the garter toss at our wedding: 6/30/07)

♥ What are your middle names? David & Renee (haha, what if that's what we went by?)
♥ How long have you been together? 3 years and 6 days
♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating? about 6 months
♥ Who asked who out? Matt asked me out. In the Cingular parking lot. :)
♥ How old are each of you? me- 26; Matt- 25
♥ Whose siblings do you see the most? his. 2/3 of them live in Athens.
♥ Do you have any children together? not yet. only furry children.
♥ What about pets? ah yes. Lola the Lab is ours. I believe Aidan the Cat is "mine". (Matt is still consistently unsure whether Aidan is a "him" or a "her"so he clearly feels no ownership towards him.)
♥ Which situation was/is the hardest on you as a couple? (was) Matt's trip to Europe
♥ Did you go to the same school? college, yes. UGA.
♥ Are you from the same home town? Nope
♥ Who is the most intelligent? Hmmm...intelligence is hard to measure, so we'll go with college GPAs and that would make me the smarty pants of the relationship!!
♥ Who is the most sensitive? Probably me.
♥Where do you eat out most as a couple? We loooove eating out. Probably Brett's, Doc Cheys, and Little Caesars (don't hate!)
♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? The Caribbean (on a cruise)
♥ Who has the craziest exes? Matt, by default. I don't have any exes. But to his credit, I don't really think any of his are crazy.
♥ Who has the worst temper? Neither of us has a temper. We're the passive-aggressive type.
♥ Who does the cooking? Both. We share breakfast duties, Matt fixes our lunches, and I usually head up dinner while Matt assists.
♥ Who is more social? We're about the same.
♥ Who is the neat-freak? most definitely ME.
♥ Who is the more stubborn? Hmmm...maybe Matt. It's close though.
♥ Who hogs the bed? We share the middle. If Lola's in the bed, though, she DEFINITELY hogs it.
♥ Who wakes up earlier? We wake up at the same time.
♥ Where was your first date? Don't remember. We mostly just hung out at each other's houses.
♥ Who has the bigger family? Immediate family- Matt (he has 1 more sibling than me). Extended family- me
♥ Do you get flowers often? a few times a year, maybe.
♥ How do you spend the holidays? Thanksgiving and Christmas alternate between our 2 families. Easter is usually with my family. Most other holidays (Mother's and Father's Day, etc.) go to his family, since they live right here in town.
♥ Who is more jealous? I don't think either of us is the jealous type.
♥ How long did it take to get serious? We were pretty serious from the get-go.
♥ Who eats more? Eek. We'll say Matt, for the sake of my self-esteem!
♥ Who does the laundry? Usually me, but Matt often helps fold.
♥ Who’s better with the computer? Me.
♥ Who drives when you are together? Always, always, always Matt. I hate driving.

So there you have it. I really wanted to "blog" but couldn't think of anything to talk about...so this was a fun and easy cop out!!

l.o.v.e.

My sister and I have a very special talent we developed after years of repeated Parent Trap viewings (Lindsay Lohan version, not Hayley Mills version, sadly). We do a fantastic version of Nat King Cole's "L-O-V-E"...you know, "L...is for the way you look at me...O...is for the only one I see..." Anyway, we enjoy busting it out at any appropriate (or inappropriate) occasion. It's awesome. And that is what the title of this blog reminded me of. But this was a weekend of love, so it's appropriate.

I've never been a huge Valentine's day celebrant. I'm not in the anti-V-day crowd...I guess I'm just a moderate. Granted, 90% or so of my Valentine's days I've had no Valentine (I didn't actually calculate that, just a ballpark guesstimate)...but I do enjoy pink and red and candy and flowers as much as the next girl, so it wasn't ever a holiday that I found insulting or anything. I am a big fan of all kinds of love, not just the Hollywood romance type. And my life hasn't been short on love. So anyway.

Matt and I like to celebrate love all the time, not just on Hallmark-endorsed days. But in the spirit of consumerism, we did partake in a few traditional Valentine'sey things. We ate at my favorite pasta place, Mirko, on Friday night. It's a locally owned restaurant and they make their pasta fresh...it's divine. Just FYI...both crowds and prices are much better the day before Valentine's! On Saturday morning Matt had to work so I kept myself entertained by watching Gilmore Girls and doing some light housework. I've been sick all week, so no need to overexert myself with excessive cleaning, right?? Right. :) Matt & I'd decided not to do V-day presents, but I did say that flowers would be completely acceptable if the mood struck him. Anyway, when he came home from work, what was he carrying??












Oh yes that IS an Edible Arrangement!! I was so excited!! In case you're not in the know, Edible Arrangements are beautiful "flower" arrangements made entirely out of FRUIT!!! They're amazing! I have been lusting over their brochures and webpage for the last few months...my dear sweet husband took note of this and delivered me a beautiful, completely healthy (save a few chocolate covered strawberries) Valentine's bouquet. I was so happy. Anyway, it's definitely the tastiest bouquet I've ever received! So that was my fun Valentine's treat. Later that afternoon we went to the movies (cheap seats) with friends. We went with the goal of seeing Marley & Me, but it was all sold out so we ended up seeing Seven Pounds, which I really enjoyed. We finished off the night by making some homemade enchiladas and watching The Office from Thursday night.

Today has been a wonderful day full of friends and family. After church we went to some friends' house where they made delicious homemade pizza for us and some other friends. We had a great time hanging out and chatting about top-secret topics. The girls spent some time trying to justify to the boys the greatness of reading/stalking random peoples' blogs. I'm not sure we got any converts. We all went to the boys' basketball game at 3:00. After a losing season (we won only 2 games out of...not sure...10? 12?) today was the first game of the tournament and we were the second-to-last seed. But guess what...we WON! So that means we have another game Tuesday night. I really enjoy basketball season because it gives Matt a chance for some manly competition and lets me hang out with the other ladies and babies in the bleachers. Post-game, we rushed back home, showered, and met Matt's family for dinner. Today is Matt's younger brother's birthday, so it was cause for celebration. We had a good time hanging out, then hit Kroger before coming back home to tend to our neglected daughter Lola. She forgave us for leaving her alone all day since we came home bearing gifts of bones from Kroger.

Anyway...it's been a good weekend. I'm feeling much better, although my cough isn't completely gone. Matt gets tomorrow off (lucky bankers), but I will be stuck in Professional Learning at school all day. That's a fancy term for "boring meetings". It's a time I like to dedicate to brushing up on my doodling and practicing writing/deciding on my future childrens' names. All the important things.