Happy Mother's Day!

I know it was yesterday but I didn't get a chance to post. We had a delightful day. Dean cooked  & our parents & my brother, sis-in-law & Logan came over for lunch. Lydia brought a cake that was amazeballs! Chocolate, cream cheese, DELISH!

Logan enjoyed it! I made a lemon ice box pie. This has to be the easiest thing I've ever made. 2 egg yolks, 1 can of sweetened condensed milk, 1/2 cup of lemon juice & a pie crust. It's good too!
Sorry, but there are still no pics of the kitchen. We said we were taking the weekend off & we did. We did buy the correct size screws & new bar stools. That's the extent of what we did. HA!

I think the birds are taunting me. After the discovery last week of the nest Dean tells me that he thinks there's another nest on the bakers rack. I went outside & found this.

It was hiding behind the Home Depot bag I stuck there. The birds are working fast. It's not like we don't have trees in the area either. Behind our yard is a whole bunch of trees. Plenty of room for nesting. I swear, they're taunting me.

On a sad note, last night when I was taking my contacts out I discovered not one but two grey hairs. How can this be? My hair has high lights, low lights & the leftovers from previous hi & low lights. How is it that I managed to spot them? I even thought maybe they were highlights. My mom suggested paint. Sadly, no. I had Dean get out of bed & come look. It was no mistake. Wiry, grey hair. Sigh.

Toodles!

TGIF

Seriously, I couldn't be happier for Friday. I need to do nothing or as close to nothing as I can get away with. I want to read & watch reality TV! LSU has baseball games all weekend but we're also supposed to have a weekend of rain so who knows how that will work out.

The other day Kerri tagged me in a post & I'm supposed to tell you 5 random things about myself. Here goes:

• I love ketchup. I really, really love it. Now that I'm eating healthier I don't eat it as much. I've been known to dip  (I always dip & don't pour it on stuff) my green beans in it. I don't eat it with things that a lot of people eat it with like eggs.
• I really like rap music. Snoop, Tupac, Dr. Dre, etc. 
• I've always wanted to be a Debutante. Don't ask, I have no idea. 
• I could eat french fries at every meal & never get tired of them. EVER.  They must have LOTS of salt & A LOT of ketchup.
• I LOVE Friends. I cried when it was over. Yes, I know it's just a TV show. I was at a Counting Crows concert back in the day when Courtney Cox was dating the lead singer, Adam Durwitz & she was there. I made my friends boyfriend go with me & he got her autograph on my ticket stub. HAHA!

Pretty random huh?

Have a great weekend!

Toodles!

For the birds

In more ways than one. I do not have pictures of the kitchen project because technically it's not finished. The painting is DONE! Well, if you don't count touching up the walls. There are a couple of spots that were messed up when the granite was installed  & that whole taping to paint isn't an exact science either.

Then there are the screws. Really? Screw drama? YEP! For whatever reason all of the knobs & pulls I ordered have these ridiculously short screws. They don't work. Off to Lowe's Dean went & bought about a gazillion screws. Well, apparently, the drawers needed longer screws than the cabinets. Really? Who would've thought? Well, maybe a lot of people but not us. So another trip to Lowe's is in our future. Seriously, we really need to buy stock. This project is never ending & it's for the birds.

Speaking of Lowe's & screws, we bought this little gem awhile back for $5.

It's a screwdriver & a ratchet. I didn't know what a ratchet was until today & WOW what a concept! How did I not know about this?? The end unscrews & it has all of these neat little attachments.

There are all different sizes of flat head & phillips bits. This may be the best $5.00 we've ever spent. Well, aside from the $20 furniture dolly. That thing is amazing! Anyway, pics to come later.

I've mentioned here before about my disdain for birds. Maybe I'm weird but they freak me out a little. It may have something to do with pushing their babies out of the nest. Who does that?? Also, the fact that they do their business all over my stuff. Anyway, I was outside watering plants this evening & I discovered this on the bakers rack on my patio.

This was behind the container I keep our sunscreen in. I don't know what the attraction with our house is.

Dean was cutting grass & due to the disarray of the kitchen & the fact that we basically have no food in the house to make anything closely resembling a meal I went to McDonald's for him. I had oatmeal. As I was driving down the street I saw this.

Do you see the little lizard head hanging over my window? He was hanging on for dear life.

He rode on my car all the way to McDonald's & back. It's about a 2 mile trip each way. I'm guessing this was the equivalent of Mission Space for lizards. I tried to drive a little slower. I didn't want to be responsible for sending him flying to his death.

Toodles!

Weigh In Wednesday

Apparently, painting burns calories. I haven't been to Yoglates since Thursday because painting cabinets has consumed my life when I'm not at work BUT I lost another 1.2 lbs. this week!!! This was totally unexpected. I ate cake, party squares & ooey gooey bars! Not to mention Vodka punch, which OMG, was soooooo good!!! It will definitely be something I have around the house this summer when out by the pool. Anyway, I've stopped trying to figure it out & I'll just enjoy the loss.

I've ran twice this week. Monday was a 32.5 minute run. I didn't set out to do that half minute, it just kinda happened. This morning I did 35 minutes.

Kitchen update - I left work a little early yesterday to go paint. On my way home I stopped for a treat.

A Caramel Light Frap! It's light but I did get those delightful caramel drizzles on top. No whip though! That stuff is a ton of calories. My plan was to get one on my way home Monday but it was storming & windy. I got soaked getting to my car & SB by work doesn't have a drive thru. I sucked it up & went home.

Back to the kitchen. The only thing left to do today is put the second coat of paint on 6 doors & there are a couple of touch ups to be done. I'm so thankful we're almost done because I'm tired. Not to mention the kitchen & dining room are a mess. Dean got a lot of stuff back in the cabinets Sunday while I was at the shower but the dining room table still looks like this.

Did I mention that I plan to do NOTHING this weekend???

Toodles!

Painting

We're still not finished. BUT we're really close. Friday afternoon a couple of the guys in the office read my mind & were making a Starbuck's run. From 3-5 through May 13th they're having "Frappuccino Happy Hour". All Fraps are half off. I  mentioned the other day that I was going to give iced coffee a try. What better time than half off?

I got the Caramel Frappuccino. I really, really liked it! It was good that I had the extra caffeine because I had plenty of work to do when I got home!

All I can say is thank God for Dean!! If he wouldn't have helped I would be looking at another entire weekend of painting. Friday we got started with the emptying of cabinets, de-glosser, sanding & Kilz.

This is one section of the cabinets with the Kilz & waiting for paint. The table is covered with a vinyl tablecloth & all the stuff that belongs in the drawers. The kitchen was a MESS!!! I also made the mistake of not buying odorless Kilz. It wasn't awful but I did have a headache off & on all weekend.

After a coat of paint. It's hard to see the color. Yes, that is a shower rod that you see peaking out from under the door. Dean is very inventive with the things he finds in his shed. Those buckets are empty Windfresh laundry detergent buckets. It worked great.

We had quite the set up! There were several times I wanted to get a bottle of wine out of my little fridge but I refrained!! Honestly, I don't mind painting. I find it therapeutic. I just don't like the prep work or the clean up. So, when we get home from work today we'll get back to work. There's not much left. Now that I think about it, I think I'll stop at Starbuck's Happy Hour for a caffeine fix to get me through!

Needless to say there will be no Yoglates today. I did run this morning though. I was supposed to run once over the weekend but that didn't happen. I needed all my time to paint.

Dean's cousin is getting married next month so me & my mom went to his fiance's bridal shower yesterday afternoon. That cut into painting time too. It was very nice & the food was delicious! I just realized I didn't take any pics. The cake was from Winn Dixie & it was SOOOOO GOOD!! It tasted just like wedding cake & that's my fave! There were party squares & ooey gooey bars too. I love those! Needless to say I had a headache from all the sugar by the time we left.

Hopefully, I'll have before & after pics soon!

Toodles!

Happy Friday!!

Yay for Friday! I, for one, am ready to start the weekend. Even though it will entail lots of painting & not much else. As with everything I do, I'm ready to be finished before I really get started. This morning I was at Lowe's bright & early at 6:45 buying paint. I didn't feel like fighting traffic after work. Being at Lowe's at that time of morning is not something I ever thought I'd be doing. I feel like I've been saying that a lot! There was a time in my life when there wasn't one free minute in my mornings. I slept until the last possible second. Not anymore. Am I getting old?

I just got back from lunch & my friend Wendy told me that MCA from the Beastie Boys died. So sad. I just wrote about how much I love Brass Monkey. He was only 47 & had been diagnosed with cancer a few years ago. Cancer sucks!

I also stopped at Starbucks on my way to work this morning. I had a cup of coffee at home but I wanted iced green tea to bring to work. While I was waiting on my order I saw this.

Y'all, I LOVE iced green tea & I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Tazo brand. I have my good friend Wendy to thank for this. She's the one that introduced me to it. I was so excited when I saw that it came in K cups & seeing real tea bags of it made my day. It's the little things right?? I drink a lot of ice tea & I've been wanting to buy tea bags so I could make a pitcher of it instead of doing a K cup & putting in in the fridge for later. I never think about it until later & then I either have to drink it hot, watered down after pouring hot tea over ice or doing without. I like it hot but as hot as it already is I think we'll be in for a long summer & this stuff is very refreshing when it's cold. I love the spearmint flavor. I know it's not for everyone though. My mom thinks it's the most awful stuff she's ever tasted. It was $5.00 for 6 tea bags. I'll be making some as soon as I get home.

Speaking of coffee, I discovered flavored creamers awhile back but there's a problem. They're dairy & have to be refrigerated & used within either 7 or 14 days from opening. I don't remember which but I know that there's no way I can do that being the only coffee drinker in the house. Some mornings I don't drink coffee at all. Well, I found these the other day by accident.

These are the cutest things ever! It's little individual creamers & they're non dairy so no refrigeration is necessary. Only 30 calories & it's cheap too. Like $2.50 or something. Does everyone know about these?? I really like the caramel & last week I bought this one.

I've never been sure if I like hazelnut but I decided to bite the bullet & try it. Guess what?? LOVE!!! There's a lot of love in this post today. All this talk of Starbucks has me wanting a latte or mocha or something.

Have a great weekend!

Toodles!

Weigh In Wednesday

I lost 1.4 lbs. this week! WHOOPPEEE!!! I'm sure this is a short lived celebration because about 20 mins. ago I had this.

That's a piece of turtle cheesecake. My boss took us to Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro for lunch. He was out of town for Administrative Professionals Day. I'm sure this was something like 5000 calories but it was so worth it! I have a bit of a headache which generally only happens when I eat cake with almond flavoring. I use to think I was allergic to butter cream icing because every time I ate it I got a headache but then I discovered it's only when the cake has almond flavoring. Anywho, I have a headache but that's ok too. The cheesecake was that good.

My workouts so far this week have been completing C25K Sunday, Yoglates Monday & Tuesday & a 31 minute run this morning. For those of you not living in my part of the world, summer is here. When I walked out the door this morning at 5:00 a.m. it was 70 degrees & ridiculous humidity. It was soooooo hot! The last couple of days at Yoglates it's been 91. It's going to be a long summer.

Yesterday, I finally pulled the trigger & ordered cabinet knobs & pulls. Who knew it was so hard to make a decision. Now, if I had an endless supply of money it would've been easier, a little. First off there are too many choices & too many places to buy all of these choices. The internet is a great thing but you know it was easier to make decisions when you only had a couple of stores to choose from. I'd found some that I really liked a couple of weeks ago only to find out that the knobs were sold out & wouldn't be back in stock until June. I was going to wait. Well, every time I looked at them I wasn't quite sure if they were what I wanted. Not to mention they were like $5.00 a knob & when you need 45 that adds up. Finally, I found some on Overstock that I could buy in packs of 10 & they were cheaper & I really liked them. I ordered them before I could change my mind.

I also decided on a paint color for the cabinets. I had a bunch of paint sample card thingys & Dean got more Sunday. We'd narrowed it down to 2 & then I made the final decision. Then I started looking again. Then I got confused. Then Dean & I chose again. He doesn't care but I always need a second opinion. Of course I never know if he's giving me an honest opinion or just telling me what I want to hear. We kept coming back to the same 2 colors so that's a good thing. I finally decided on Valspar's Churchill Hotel Ecru. I threw all the sample cards away because I don't want to be tempted to look at them again. Sooo, if anyone needs me this weekend, I'll be painting.....

Toodles!