About Me

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I am a daughter, sister, wife, mom to three cats and one dog (each with their own personalities), working woman, renovator, landlord and friend. I love to laugh, read a good book, enjoy spending time with family and friends and hanging with the Zoo! This blog is keep track of the comings and going our house and this great adventure called life. Enjoy!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Our House

The below is from Feb 2009, an excerpt from a Shutterfly album after we bought the house...  I can hear my excitement as I read these words over a year later. 

Jay and I bought a house - WAHOO!! Signed and closed the deal on my birthday (which I really wouldn't recommend to many due to the stress and craziness)! It's a beautiful brick rancher that has amazing potential and wonderful bones sitting on an acre and a half of land - yep, all ours! Hunter is in heaven and the cats have warmed up to the echo sounds from the hardwood floors. It's a slow work in progress with our main focus on renting the Reston Condo, but it feels like home...even if we do pinch ourselves to make sure it's real!  We have a guest room now so the door is always open...just give a call and come on over!



We were determined to sleep in OUR house the first night we owned it, so we packed up as much as we could in our cars, along with the animals - they have been here since Day 1!  We had no furniture, just some cats toys, my beloved orange chair that has followed me everywhere and blankets galore.  We made a pallet of blankets and created a great memory seeing the cats get low with every echo and Hunter sniff the dickens out of every inch.  We woke up the next morning smiling and with a visitor already...


Yep, we've come to discover we have our very own wildlife sanctuary in our backyard!  Mr. Fox hung around for a while that morning and came back for a few days afterwards, but eventually stopped showing his face when Hunter became King of the Yard.  Since Mr. Fox found solace in the brush, we have daily visit from deer - lately two does and with their fawns - who love to nibble on the fruit trees.  Hunter will just sit and watch them or when he's feeling frisky will try to sneak up and then runs around with all his might thinking he can catch them.



And even the smaller kind of animal that catches a ride from a cat or two...bleh!  It's never a dull moment around here.
And just so I don't leave you with an unpleasant last image, here's a beauty for you...and I can never show just one :)



This house definitely has it's moments where you are in awe of the surroundings and definitely pinch yourself at times to make sure it's yours!  It's perfect.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

All in the details...

Details...shmeatails...  I have a friend who is amazing at the details!  She can pull a room or party together and make it look effortless.  All the while, I'm matchy matchy all the way home.

I'm good with spreadsheet details...with finding an error amongst tens of thousands of lines of data...in making a process run more smoothly or efficiently.  I'm good with the black and white of it.

When it comes to decorating details, I'm a 'less is more' type of gal.  A simple is beautiful girl.  But there's no black and white about it...give me color!

I came to this thought process and keep touching on it because of the wall colors, flooring choices, crown and base molding choices (which are insanely expensive by the way!), furniture updates and fixtures changes that come with our evolving home.  I am easily overwhelmed by having to choose just one.  I think that comes mostly from being a visual, tangible (hahaha Megs) person that has a very hard time picturing it in her head!  My poor husband...so patient with me...

Some quick pics found online that I love...

The arch doorways are fabulous...find I like the more square look versus the rounded.















Love the bead board in this bathroom!










Bead board again...and open cabinet doors - forces tidiness








LOVE ME SOME ORGANIZATION!










For those of you making these types of decisions on a daily basis - fabulous - please come help me...

PS - These are NOT of my house :) I wish!

Monday, September 13, 2010

Starting fresh...

I had a salad for lunch today!  Yahoo, so happy about that...and my work pants that I haven't been able to wear in the last six months are too.  Just have to stick with it now...

Jay and I are starting our second year of marriage (our anniversary was yesterday, Sept 12th - more on that later) in a healthier mode of thinking!  We are focusing more on what we eat on a daily basis.  We aren't the most disciplined people, so this will be hard...I should correct that - I am not the most disciplined person but I don't believe in denying myself because I'll eventually breakdown and devour more than if I took a small sampling. 

Here are a few 'changes' trying to be made...(some more me than him)
  • Eat more eggs = protein, protein, protein!
  • Purchase one item from the Organic aisle at the grocery store each trip with the hope that eventually more items items on our list will be found there
  • Don't over indulge (see above comment)
  • Eat more salad
  • Eat more fruit - bananas are good 'wake-me-up' items and a handful of grapes are a great snack
  • Walk Hunter the Dog every evening (at the very least three times a week)
  • Exercise outside of Hunter's daily walk = a slow progression from sit-ups while watching tv (when I do watch it) to P90X weekly to daily
Here we go...hopefully this blog can help keep me honest.  My work pants definitely will! 

Happy Healthy Monday everyone!

Monday, September 6, 2010

A Space...

I want a space I can look back on in twenty years and see how life progressed...a space where I can share life's happenings with those far away from me...a space to share my thoughts...a space to call my own! 

A little bit about me...
I have a family that loves me regardless of the situation and friends that step up to the plate without my needing to ask.  I have an amazing husband that unfortunately I don't see enough and we are less than one week shy of our one-year wedding anniversary!!  I am a chronic worrier, yet at the same time am always looking for the positive; easily over-using the phrase "that's a plus".  We are crazy people in this economy and own more than one house...a condo, which we rent and act as landlord and a house we bought in Jan '09 (on my birthday) where we have worked HARD these last two years fixing it up and making it our own! 

In this space, you'll find the happenings and changes to our brick rancher (a lot more to go!), our life with three cats and a doggie doo, crafting projects along the way and simply a release for the words in my head. 

Oh and I'm hoping this will help with my overwhelming amount of pictures I need to sort through...it took me WAY too long to find this picture of our house from January '09!