A Really Gross Story

Okay, before I tell you this really gross story, let me just tell you a little bit so that those of you who have never met me in person and been to my house may understand a little better.

I live in the middle of a field... on a farm... with lots of woods surrounding me.

Okay, with that said...

There are lots of field mice around. Lots. And I leave my garage door cracked at night so Marley (the dog) can sleep in the warmth of the garage, but also have the option to go in the yard to do his business.

Therefore, those field mice that are all around are also always seeking refuge in my nice (otherwise clean) garage.

Because of these little critters, I'm always finding "droppings" in my garage. It thoroughly grosses me out, but what grosses me out even more than the mice droppings are when Marley is locked in the garage and gets an upset stomach. He's a big dog and his piles are... BIG.

So, the garage door remains cracked for him so I don't have to fuss with his "piles".

Now, about a month ago, I got into my car one day ( I have a Honda Pilot, in case anyone wants to know for visualization purposes) and noticed the random McDonald's drink straw on my floor and it had holes in it. I thought... hmmm... I guess it got worn by my shoes from being on the floor.

I let it go and moved on with my life.

THEN I noticed some ketchup packets (McDonald's, again) in my car that had holes in them and all the ketchup was gone from them.

This was a little alarming.

I started wondering if possibly one of these little field mice had made it's way into my car, because that's what it looked like on the packet... mice chew marks.

Well, skip ahead to about two weeks ago.

I was on the way to the post office to mail off like.... 500 books to PBS peeps when I turned a corner and all of a sudden, this horrible, loud rattling sound started right behind the glove box of my car.

I seriously thought my car was about to blow up. I was so scared!

So, after leaving the post office, I went directly to Crumpler's, our local garage. I know the guy who owns it, so I asked him if I could borrow him for a minute. He said sure.. came to my car, listened to the noise.. told me it was the blower motor (the thing that powers the air conditioner/heater). He said something had blown up into it and I could bring my car back the next day for him to take care of it.

Well, I HATE doing car maintenance related activities and I discovered that as long as I kept the air/heat on low, the noise wasn't that loud, so I figured I'd just grin and bear it until I felt like going to get it fixed... which would probably in reality be when my dad finally took it to get fixed for me. ;)

So.... days turned into weeks... and then came last Friday.

Mama had wanted to keep the kids because she hadn't in a while, so I left them and just started wandering around town. Didn't have much to do, so I was trying to think of things to do. I remembered that the battery on my keyless entry remote had recently gone dead and boy is that annoying! So, I headed over to the Honda place to get the battery replaced.

While I was talking to the guy about replacing my battery, I remembered the blower motor.

"OH yeah", I said to the guy, "can you come listen to this noice, something's in the blower motor and I really need to get it taken care of".

So he did. And they had time to fix it for me, so I went to the lobby to read my book while they were taking care of my annoying car issues.

Well, about 30 minutes went by when I got a page to come back to the service desk.

This is what they showed me...

THAT is the blower motor from my car and in that blower motor are the remains of A MOUSE!!!

A MOUSE!!!

Thank God it is the dead of winter and not August. Can you imagine the smell??? I've been driving around with a dead mouse in the thing that blows air into the car! Oh my gosh, it makes me want to vomit.

The people in the service department were looking at me like I was some nasty person!

I was like... no... seriously, I live in the middle of a field. I can't keep the mice away, it's not even possible.

They all had their faces scrunched up looking at me like I smelled.

What the crap!

So, the guy I had been dealing with thought it was hilarious. He told me that there is a shelf that goes around the top of the blower motor, so probably when I turned that corner, the mouse had been sitting on that shelf and promptly fell into the motor.

DIS. GUS. TING.

So, now my car is mouse free.

All I can think of though is what if that mouse had started running around my car while I was driving down the road. I probably would have killed us all and smashed up everything in my wake trying to stop and get out of the car.

Object of the story: I have to get a cat.

Beautiful Sunday Sunset

Tonight when we were about to take our baths and get ready for bed I saw this sunset out the back windows and just couldn't pass it up. I grabbed my camera and this was the view out the backdoor.

Love it.

I am so exhausted tonight. I worked out earlier and I probably shouldn't have. My stomach was all crampy all day, but I'm trying really hard to use the eliptical every other day. That's my goal.. every. other. day.

Not making a big number weight loss goal for myself or anything.

I know I need to lose some weight, but I honestly feel okay about myself right now. I know I'm prettier when I'm skinnier, but I'm so busy, I just can't beat myself up about these baby pounds that really like hanging out on my body. ;)

And I have to tell you guys this. My friend, Tempie, from my book club and from high school.. she told me about this awesome site called Paper Back Swap. They don't just deal in paper back books, though, it's all books, even books on cd and cassette.

This is the coolest site! You list any of your books that you wouldn't mind parting with and you can pick from millions of books from their site. Pretty much everytime someone requests a book of yours, you earn a credit and that credit allows you to order any book you want! It's freakin awesome. You should take a look! ;)

Our BIG Winter Storm!

Our weathermen have been stressing their little heads off about this massive (yeah right) winter storm that hit us last night and today.

For us, it amounted to about 1 1/2" of snow and a lot of sleet. In defense of our weathermen,though, north of us did get between 8-10 inches. I wish we'd gotten that instead of all this ICE!

Earlier in the day, it felt like snow, but now it's basically an ice rink out there. My porch and yard are blankets of ice.

Bless Emma's little heart, though, she was so excited about the snow, so she HAD to go out and see for herself that it was ice and not snow that can actually be played in.

So we got all bundled up and went outside for about ten minutes.

I realized once we were already in the yard that I'd forgotten Noah's gloves inside.

So, he was miserable after about 30 seconds.

The dogs loved it...

Noah didn't. See how red his hands are? He was so fussy. So, I took him in after only a few minutes.


The playset was just a mess of icicles.

Emma loved knocking them off...

Noah was just focused on finding a warm spot.
There's nothing better than a nice hot fireplace after you've been outside playing in the snowy ice. :)

Desk Problem: SOLVED

Okay, so here's the deal...

My mom and I are trading desks.

SHE has a desk that I found for her on ebay a couple of years ago (pretty much the same exact time I bought this too small one) and it's Pottery Barn. Those that know me well know that I am pretty much completely in love with anything from there.

I love the style.

I love the quality.

I love EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING in that store/catalog.

If I were rich, my entire house would be decorated just like their catalogs.

So, my mom doesn't really need this massive, gorgeous desk, so we're going to do a little tradey trade.

:):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

Now, the only problem I'm faced with is the fact that my mom's desk doesn't have a hutch.

I am a post-it note fanatic. I probably should own stock in 3M. My entire hutch and the frame of BOTH my monitors are all constantly covered in sticky notes with "NOTES TO SELF".

So, I went... where else, but Pottery Barn online and I found this cubby organizer that I REALLY like...
My idea was that I could hang it above the desk in lieu of the hutch and use it to sit all my crap on that is now all over the hutch and I could even stick my stickies on it if I can't curb the habit. ;)

The only problem is that it's not white, like the desk. :( And that's not really a huge deal, but my walls up here are the chocolate brown and I'm wondering if it's going to blend with my walls too much, being that it's a brown wood?

Whaddya think?

I would say I could paint it, but if you look carefully, you'll see that below each cubby is a cute silver plate with a number on it and I don't want to have to work around all those little things and I definitely wouldn't want to get paint on the number plates.

I'm wondering if maybe I should paint this one wall that my desk sits against a different color?

I've seen people do that. I'VE never done that.

Decisions, Decisions...

hmmmmmmmmm....

Productivity....I Like It!

This week was so busy and productive.

Granny came home from rehab on Thursday. She's doing well. But she is definitely different.
Where she used to be so sweet and non-confrontational, now she's quite beligerant and she will even totally ignore you at times. She does still have moments of her old self, though, so maybe in time this will get better.

She also tends to put her pants on backward.

Hopefully, she'll be back to her old self before too long.

Yesterday, my dad came first thing in the morning and we measured out my backyard... several times. Before spring, I want the back yard fenced in so the little ones can't escape the yard when I let them out to play. We have lots of woods and a creek that runs right behind our house, so I don't feel comfortable at all letting them out to play by themselves, so a fence is a must.

This is what I REALLY want...


well, it's similar to what I want, but I have a feeling it's probably going to be too expensive to do the whole back yard in this, so we're probably going to do the part that shows from the road in that and then the sides and back of the fencing in this...

It's black chain link.

I had never seen black chain link fence before, until I did portraits for this beautiful family...
And they had their yard fenced in with the white fence in front (the part that shows from the road) and then the sides and back in the black chain link. I really liked it. While I'm not a huge fan of chain link fencing (please... no offense if you have this kind of fencing, I just really like the white picket fence look), however, the black... I like. I still like the white better and because of that, my dad is going to get me quotes on both. That way, if doing it all in white is affordable, I can go that route, but if it's just not, then we'll do the combination fence. And I think it'll be okay. :)

And while my dad and I were doing that, he noticed that our downstairs HVAC unit had HUGE blocks of ice on the outside of it.

This is not a good sign. So, I immediately called our guy who installed all that when we built the house 3 years ago and he came out with his assistant guy and then an electrician had to be called, because some switch blew... and $100 later, we have a working HVAC unit again! And honestly, I felt like I got out pretty cheap being that all three of those guys were out here late on a Saturday afternoon and until sundown and they were here within two hours of me calling. Excellent customer service and worth way more than $100 in my opinion. :)

I love the Saturdays that my dad comes to spend the day with us, because he does more for me in a few hour span of time than I get done otherwise... in weeks. Because he does all my "man work" for me. :)

Like hanging things... hauling off the HUGE mountain of cardboard boxes from CHRISTMAS. Those were driving my mom crazy and she's been wanting to take them off everytime it's not 10 degrees outside, but I kept putting her off, because I didn't want that crap in the back of my car. We live in the middle of a field, which means that mice creap in through the cracked garage door ( I leave it cracked every night so Marley, the dog, can go out to pee if he needs to)... anyway, mice come in and poop their little pellet poop on everything on the ground.

This totally grosses me out and I don't want it in my car! Yuck!

I also realized today that I've read almost as many books this month as I did in all of last year.

I LOVE my book club, if you're not already participating, you should, it is SO MUCH FUN!!!

New Decorating {For Tony}

Since Tony's been gone, I've been partially occupying my brain by doing some sprucing up in the decorating of our house. The day before he left to go back to Iraq, we went over to our friend's The Bullard's for dinner and their house was SO PERFECTLY decorated that I was immediately inspired to get busy! So, I'm now posting what I've done for him to see. I would make him wait and have a house full of surprises for him when he gets home, but let's face it.. that's a long time to wait, so here goes...

This is the kitchen table.

A close-up of the flowers... I love them...

A close-up of the new placemats, napkins, and napkin rings... LOVE the napkin rings. I had to have them when I saw them...

The cool new hanging frame thing on the wall in the kitchen beside the table. The beading on it matches the new napkin rings and the flowers on the table...

This is what's on the kitchen counter. Nothing's new, in fact, we've had these candle sticks since right after we got married, but remarkably, they match the new stuff on my table and that hanging frame above. It did all come from Pier One, though, so maybe that's why they match, even though they were stocked years and years apart?

This is on the kitchen counter now. Nothing's new but the picture in the frame. I love it.

The new arrangements on the mantle...

Okay, these are the built-ins in the living room. Some of the pictures in the frames are new ones, but other than that, everything's the same. Except for one thing. Can you tell, those of you that have been to my house? Do you recognize the new items?

THESE are what is new!!!! These are Willow Tree figurines and I have been wanting to collect them FOREVER!! So, last week, I was at Belk's and they were on sale, so I got these two to start my collection. The mommy with the little girl and the mommy with the baby boy. OMGosh, make me cry. I LOVE them. So, now, I have a new item to add to my want files (a blog will soon be coming detailing my want files). Pier One has a GORGEOUS green, distressed curio cabinet that I WANT to start putting all my little stuff in.

This piece of furniture is also NOT new. I just moved it. It was sitting in the foyer and since our foyer has a VERY high ceiling, it looked lost in there. Completely lost. I had been wanting this bench forever when I finally broke down and got it. And then when I got it into the foyer, I didn't like it there at all, but didn't know where in the world else to put it, so there is sat. Until I had the bright idea to try it in the living room in front of the big window there. PERFECT. So, now, I've ordered a sweet cream colored distressed cabinet for the foyer and it arrived this past week while we were at the beach. I'm planning to pick it up tomorrow and when I have the foyer all decorated, I'll post pictures of that. For now, the foyer is completely empty.

In our bathroom, I had a small flower arrangement in the corner that looked completely lost. We have high ceilings in this house and sometimes I forget about that. So, anyway, this is the new flower arrangement for the master bath and I love it.

This is the arrangement that was in our bathroom. Now it's in the front bath. It looks much more homey in there.


This picture of my sweet boy is also a new addition to our bathroom. Tony, it's hanging on the wall of the door that leads to the bedroom... right above the lightswitch.

This sign, I got at Target and it hangs above the door in the back hallway, leading to the garge. It's to always remind us to do just this each time we leave our house. :)

These are new in the back foyer. I love scrolls and these frame the pantry nicely.

This is my new Pottery Barn bedding that Tony got me for Mother's Day. I'm SO in love with it. It's comfortability factor makes it exceedingly difficult to drag myself out of bed in the morning. Oh, and every night since I put it on the bed, Emma has conveniently fallen asleep in there. Conicidence? I think not!

These are the new flowers that match the bedding perfectly.

This is us. It hangs over my huge jewelry cabinet. Tony's still workin on fillin it up too, he has QUITE a ways to go... ;)

This is our new family portrait (thank you amy!) that now hangs above our bed with the pretty new sconces I found that match the frame wonderfully!

This is just another view so you can see it all together, with the matching curtains...

This gorgeous canvas of Tony and Noah hangs in the hallway that leads to Noah's room. He loves it. We stop there everytime we go to his room and he points to it and says, "DADADADADA!!!". It's very sweet. He gets all excited and claps his hands...

And this is just an old flower arrangement I had wasting away in the pantry closet. It now sits on the dresser in the spare bedroom, along with tons of old pictures. I don't know why I never put new pictures in these frames...

Okay, folks, that's all the new stuff I've done. I'll update as I continue finding cool new treasures! :)