My weekend is gone, and I'm ready for its return.

Last week was absolute torture. And I mean it. 

You would think that only working 4 days instead of the usual 5 would make for a faster, easier week.. but no. Those 4 endless days seemed to drag on and on. I never thought I'd see Friday at 5 o'clock... but of course once it did roll around... time FLEW! It could have a lot to do with how busy Hank & I were this past weekend, because I am pretty sure we didn't stop the whole 2 days. Almost every weekend is nothing but complete fun... filled with me spending 99.9% of my time awake glued to Hank's side. But this weekend seemed like I got to spend EVEN more time with him.

A few evenings this past week, Hank dug a trench for our water line to go in. (see my previous daredevil post) So Saturday was our big day for us to buy all of our pipe, connecters, etc to install the actual water line.. in which neither Hank nor I had any experience in doing. Thankfully my sweet daddy came out to help us connect all of the pipe together,.. which ended up being super easy once we had all of the correct pieces. We had to run around 200 foot of pipe from the water meter to the side of our house.. and had it all done in about 15 minutes! I was impressed! I'm not sure exactly how much money we saved by doing it ourselves... but we saved money nonetheless. 

Later that night we met up with the Helton's at Keg & Barrel for some good food & about 4 hours of catching up. It was MUCH needed. Adriane is one of my dearest, best friends and I definitely don't get to see her enough! Her husband, Michael, is also one of the sweetest people you will ever meet in your entire life and they are nothing short of perfect for each other. Nice people just go together well! haha!

Sunday morning.. Ginny & I had decided that we needed to have a long run since it had been so long since we had really gotten our butts out there and ran. We had planned on doing 11 miles.. but after about 8 we were feeling the effects of our slackerness kicking in. We were able to finish a little over 9 miles before calling it quits limping back to our starting point. This week it is ON! I will run at least 25 miles.. come hell or high water. It just has to be done. I feel so much better after running... and I don't need to go as long as I did without getting out there! Especially since the weather is cooler now.. I need to be taking advantage of these cooler mornings! {slaps hand}

The rest of my wonderful Sunday was spent with my most favorite person in the world, Hank. Its really nice to have some one who is always there for you. Someone whom you have a million inside jokes with, who knows when something is wrong without you having to tell them, who asks how your day was and really cares about what your answer will be. Someone who only wants the best for you, and does things for you that they don't really want to do at all... but they do anyways... just to make you happy. And so on & so on... this list could very well go on all day. I'm completely grateful, blessed, lucky to have him in my life. After being together for 9 years and married for 5 1/2, I love him more everyday. Cheesy as it sounds, its true. The best part about my weekend is definitely him. 

”We need a witness to our lives.  There's a billion people on the planet, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything.  The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things, all of it, all of the time, every day.  You're saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it.  Your life will not go unwitnessed because I will be your witness'." -Susan Sarandon, Shall We Dance

Mi casa, Su casa

I've been a slacker about posting pictures of the house. This week they worked on our electrical and inside plumbing... so I haven't taken any pictures of that... its quite boring, but necessary nonetheless. ENJOY!!!

Shingles, yay! I didn't get to add a big picture with all of them on!

Dining room!

Living room area with dining in background! Just getting window pics!

Window over my soon to be claw foot tub! (my most favorite)

Windows in our master bedroom

Front door is in! They stained it this week.. but I don't have a pic yet, sorry!

Brick started YESTERDAY!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay so not a ton of brick is up.. but you can get the idea. lol.

Also.... we've picked out some light fixtures!!! So I thought I'd share for those of you who have asked!

this one for the foyer

perfect for our kitchen

not completely decided,... but i think this one for the dining room

chandelier over my tub in the master :)

 

 

I kinda like this one for the dining room too.. and maybe changing the globes to clear ones. I dunno.

My husband is a dare devil

My dear sweet husband, Hank, definitely knows how to run some heavy equipment. I've seen him run machinery of all types several times and he has always operated the machines with great ease... without any brush with deaths that I have witnessed. I've never really been worried about him running any tractors or such, but last night I got a little apprehensive while watching him dig our water line to our new house. After 2 evenings of him digging the 4 foot deep, 2 foot wide and about 150 foot long trench he finished. But at one little area there was a spot that wasn't as deep as the rest. So of course Hank felt like he needed to finish getting the dirt out even though I told him that we could finish up the small area with "shuffles" [yes I said shuffles.. while meaning to say shovels. and I think from now on my brain will automatically send me the word shuffles to say instead of the right word, and people will think I'm crazy.] Anyways. He wouldn't hear of it. He was going to get the last bit of dirt out.. "Why use shovels when I have a big shovel right here?" Okay fine. Go for it. Little did I know that he was going to be putting on a dare devil stunt and scaring the crap out of me. I wish I had a video of him crossing the trench he dug with his excavator machine. Almost tipping into the hole, which he wouldn't have fallen completely in with the machine, but still could have hurt him by throwing him off. After not one, but two attempts of crossing the trench and the excavator jerking about as if its a mechanical bull... he was unable to get the last bit of dirt out. I'm just thankful we were able to finish up the project without any trips to the emergency room. This definitely shows me that Hank is even more competent running this kind of machinery than I thought. But that doesn't make it any less scary. I will gladly "shuffle" out the remaining dirt with a smile on my face as long as I don't have to watch him take any more chancy risks of being thrown down, off, under or wherever he would have landed!

Ohhh and did you see the sun setting in those pictures behind Hank? I told you September was amazingly beautiful!

TTT - Thursday Style

Triple Tangent Tuesday's are usually done on Tuesday.. but this week is an exception. Just for this week only.. I've decided to change it to Triple Tangent Thursday! Sounds good, huh? I believe so! So lets see what we have in store for today. 

Three random facts about me and my life this week:

1. I remember, as a kid, going with my mother and older sister to a muscadine farm and picking muscadines. Of course we would eat them as we went... and I remember how much I enjoyed them. I haven't eaten a muscadine in at least 7 or 8 years.. until this week. I found a small container of them at Wal-mart and swiped them off the shelf as fast as I could! They are absolutely wonderful! I'm so glad I was able to find them.. they definitely brought back old memories. And I am definitely planning on buying a few more containers before its over with. If you haven't ever tried them.. then you should! You don't know what you are missing!

2. Of course when building a house.. you run a risk of getting a nail in your tire. I do believe I have done JUST that. On my way to work yesterday.. my car felt like I was going to wobble off of the road. I have had my fair share of flat tires.. so I knew immediately what the problem was. When I parked at work.. I got out to check my tires. And yep, I was right. My back right rim was nearly sitting on the ground. So I had a fun little time on my lunch break airing up my tire so that I was able to actually HAVE a lunch break. Thank goodness Hank bought me a (car) battery operated tire inflator. It pretty much saved me yesterday. It takes a little bit of time to air up a tire that is COMPLETELY flat.. so I had a few minutes to kill... in which I decided to document with my camera.

 

3. As I have said before... Fall is my most FAVORITE time of the year. This morning.. I was reminded of something else that makes fall even more special. The stores begin selling candy for Halloween. Which means I am able to find TWO... not one... but TWO of my favorite candies! Candy Corn and what I call "Milk Maids"... oh joy! I went into Walgreens this morning and let out a little squeal when I saw all the different bags & mixes of candy corn. Yummm, yummm.

the baby perception

My previous blog "Thirty before the BIG Thirty" was a list of thirty things that I would like to do before reaching the age of thirty. When writing the list.. about 25 things immediately popped up in my head that HAD to go on the list. Four or five of the rest.. I kinda had to think about. 

One of the things that ORIGINALLY made my list was "to have a child".. when I wrote [typed] this as my number 8... I didn't like the way that it looked... or how I had written it. After staring at those 4 words a while.. I deleted the line.. and went on with my list... planning to come back to that "activity" in a later number. If you read the original list.. you may have noticed it didn't make the cut. I went about with activity after activity never naming *child bearing* as one of my to-do's. A few people mentioned this... [I wont say any names] and I immediately remembered the line that I HAD actually written but deleted from my list. Forgetting to add it back later on.

Yes.. I do want a child. 

I wouldn't say that baby fever has kicked in by NO means. But I do know in my heart, Lord willing, that I would like to ONE day be a mother. [even though that phrase does sound quite weird coming from me] I'm not sure when that day will be.. but I think it would be such a joy. Several of my close friends have children.. and they are nothing short of a blessing. I've often wondered if I'd be a good mother or not.. but I guess there is only one way to find out. 

Until then. We wait. hahha! :)

Thirty before the BIG Thirty!

I've seen several bloggers make this list of thirty things they want to do before they are thirty. So I'm going to go ahead and jump on that band wagon. Not because I think its a good thing to blog about,.. but I'm actually quite interested to see what will show up on my list and what all I will actually get done before the big 3-0!

1. Run a sub 24 minute 5k

2. Travel outside of the country [Greece, Italy, France] - done

3. Go on a cruise (which would also help cross out #2) - done 

4. Build a house (working on that)- done

5. Take a spin class

6. Run a half marathon - done

7. Finish a marathon

8. Volunteer.. doesn't matter for what. Just something that needs me

9. Finish the scrapbook that I started about 8 years ago

10. Visit the Grand Canyon

11. Step foot onto California soil

12. Walk/drive through a Redwood Tree

13. Reach my goal weight

14. Visit Yellowstone National Park

15. Add another schnauzer to our family

16. Win big at the Casino

17. Become an aunt

18. Ride a train

19. Help a stranger

20. Bring a little Shaw into the world

21. Take a road trip out West (could also include #10, 11, & 12)

22. Learn to sew

23. Buy an expensive camera 

24. Buy ONE really expensive pair of jeans

25. Be a part of a flash mob

 26. Have a signature "dish" that I'm known for

27. Learn to be more patient

28. Learn to "can"

29. Sing Karaoke,.. solo

30. Learn to not let the idea of turning 30 bother me

Also, I guess you should know that I will be 30 on February 26th, 2015. So I have 3 years and 6 months to get this all done! Wish me luck! :)

[revised 9.5.11]

September makes me smile

According to Sheryl Crow, "a change will do you good." And for the most part, I agree with her. Not ALL change is good, but I think in the grand scheme of things that change is definitely necessary. One thing that I get excited about every year {for as many years as I can remember} is when the air starts to become cooler. First just in the mornings and then cooler days all together. I absolutely love it. It's my most favorite time of year. Oh Fall... I confess my love.

Now I realize that it isn't really fall, yet. But its coming. In fact we only have about 3 weeks until its official start. This year it falls {no pun intended} on Friday, September 23rd. The countdown has begun. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that with the official arrival of this new season brings with it beautiful sunsets and 70 degree weather.

 

Hands down September has the best sunsets, by far. I think God chose September to display these beautiful reflections of the sun, because he knew the weather would be more tolerable for us to sit outside and actually enjoy them. I can't speak for everyone, but each time I see beautiful sights such as above, I can't help but smile. It's like God is reminding us that there is still beauty in this world. We just have to take the time to stop and notice it.