HP's Baby Gift

One of my favorite people is my friend and coworker Hilary (or, as I call her, HP). Her hubby is a pilot, and flying kind of "runs in the family," so the theme for the nursery is vintage airplanes; just perfect for  a little boy.

I decided to make her a customized gift. I had to call in the professional help for this one, my Mom.

There's no way I could have done a good job sewing around that. But luckily I knew someone who could.

I give credit where credit is due. I realize this photo is upside down but I am feeling too lazy to do anything about it.

This is the castle that was at the baby shower. It was kind of amazing.

Deni, HP and me. I did not get the memo about wearing a cute dress.

HP texted me this picture and told me that it matches and she loves it. :)

Robert's Wedding

Joseph's older brother Robert got married on Friday.

Why I Don't Watch TV

Friends at work are always talking about some new TV show or movie. Something that requires time and commitment, to sit down and watch.

I don't know how people have time for that.

My Dad wanted to go to Habitat for Humanity again this weekend. He had to work. So Joseph was kind enough to go with me so I wasn't alone.

We had to get up pretty early on Saturday. I was braiding my hair so it would stay out of my way, and Joseph told me I was too pretty to go do construction. He is such a smooth talker. That's how he gets himself out of trouble. Forgot to do the dishes after I reminded him twice? He offers to buy me something.

Here he is measuring a piece of drywall with our team mate, Arnoldo.

This is me, cutting the drywall down to size. My Dad got me my own hardhat, and it made life so much easier. It fit so much better and wasn't squishing my brains. See the holes in the wall behind me? I roto-zipped those suckers. Oh yeah. I'll probably go blind from the drywall dust, but it is totally worth it. I loved seeing the house transform. You could actually see the floor plan, and see the bedrooms, bathrooms, and closets.

The house took the majority of our day, and we were dang tired. We weren't done for the day though. J has a goal he's working on (something to do with webpages - he's building a thesis skin framework. If that means anything to you, because it doesn't to me and he even explained it. My smart nerd boy) so he's been busy on his computer, and I have a CPCU test coming up. Which I am a little freaked out about. I'm usually pretty good with tests, but I took some of the practice tests online, and these people are trying to make you fail. If you have to take the test again, you have to pay them again, so it makes sense to me. It's scheduled for Friday, and J's birthday is Saturday, so here's to hoping I don't fail and we can celebrate on Saturday.

Even with the Habitat for Humanity house and our other projects, we still found time to install a ceiling fan in the office:

We had to pay an electrician to wire our two small bedrooms (one is a guest bedroom and the other is our office). Luckily our master bedroom was wired for a fan, but these two small rooms just have a switch that controls an outlet, which you can plug a lamp into. When we painted the office, we decided it was too dark with just a floor lamp, and it's always hot in the summer anyway. I wasn't going to wire one room and not the other...So last weekend the electrician came out and put some holes in the ceiling.

He seemed like a nice guy. His cell phone started ringing and it was the Mario Brothers song from the Nintendo game. My opinion of him went up a few points when I heard that.

Let there be light! Now J just needs his new computer. Which Apple hasn't announced yet. He has been grumbling about that a bit. And I am in love with this desk. Did you read the blog post where we pulled it through the window (found here)? Which reminds me, here is a tour of the office.

That's my craft stuff and the shelf for the router and whatnot.

That cork board holds all my coupons. I was having a problem with out of sight, out of mind, so this is working brilliantly. The wood organizer (I don't know what else to call it, J and I made that when we were first married) has the printer and my silhouette machine on top. You can see how my ribbon is organized. I had to tape everything because Lilly was destroying it.

J is a piler. Do you see that pile on top of his little cabinet? I can only nag him so much. You should have seen the piles on the desk before I asked him to clean it off. He has drawers on his side too. They were missing handles, but I found them online, and apparently they are antique. I had to pay a total of $30. Which I was not happy about, but J told me to. Where else could I find matching hardware? I tried, and couldn't.

$30 for two handles.

$30 for TWO handles.

$30 FOR TWO HANDLES.

Ridiculous. But my desk looks good.

Here is my little Lilly, staying close. She is a social, needy cat. She also doesn't like to hang out on the floor. She has to be either in the bookshelf, or tucked into the wood organizer that we have (she likes to be near the ribbon).

Is the theme song to the Mario Brothers game stuck in your head yet? Do, do do, do-do-do-do....

Today was more studying for me and project time for J, but we had time to install the last fan in the guest bedroom. It went up pretty quick.

Those rooms are so much brighter now. This photo was taken at night. You can actually see.

We went over to my parent's house for Sunday night dinner, like usual. My Mom helped me with my baby gift for my good friend Hilary (or, as I like to call her, HP). I was nervous about it because it turned out to be harder than I thought. I really appreciate my Mom's help. I'm so glad I have parents who are handy and willing to help.

March Madness

This month has been crazy. To summarize:

My Dad and I helped drywall a Habitat for Humanity house. I learned how to use a roto zip and I was completely covered in drywall. It even got in my belly button.

My Dad can do anything.

I helped my parents tear down and replace rotted siding on their shed.

Then we asked the rest of the family to come out and paint.

(Standing at the top of a ladder, trying to keep my balance while wrestling with a nail and a very large board).

Breezy: I know you have a lot to think about, but keep an eye out for spiders.

(Mom had gone inside and had been gone for awhile).

Breezy: I bet you $5 Mom is on FaceBook.

Dad: I would lose that bet.

Joseph needed a nap after painting the shed. He looked so sweet and so tired. Can't really blame him.

Baby-sat for a coworker. This baby peed on me. We were not friends after that.

My little Lily had her third birthday party. You can see her mother Katelyn (one of my most favorite people) in the background.

Deni (also on the favorite people list) had a birthday. Nicole organized a group of coworkers; we all took the day off and went to a spring training game and then out to dinner. I got her that tiara. Oh yeah.

Went to a flag football game where my nephew is the quarterback and tallest kid (he was even taller than the referee). He has some mad skills. He threw that ball in a perfect spiral all the way down the field, where his teammate caught it. He has a girl on his team who is the best defensive player. I really enjoyed watching that game.

Went on a hike. Where I did not fall down at all.

Played quite a bit of Draw Something. Very addicting. I have 1400 points and counting. (That is a plumber in case you were wondering.)

Helped my sister Jennifer move a couch, a love seat and a chair. Down some stairs, into three different trucks.
Joseph's brother Michael is currently visiting. He got sunburned and asked to wear my floppy beach hat. Joseph put him to work planting trees.

Our first quarter recognition event at work was the Playground Olympics. I love the look on Deni's face.

I freaking love my job.

Changed out my truck handle.

Also went bowling with Joseph's brother, where I slipped, fell, and got quite a nice bruise. I almost took a photo to document it, but it's really not in a photo-appropriate area. We also went to JumpStreet (again with Joseph's brother), one of those places with a bunch of trampolines. I really don't feel like I should be allowed to be a grown-up.

One of the reasons I love Katelyn

Girls' Night Dancing

My friend Charlotte (Lottie) and I have been talking about having a girls' night and going out dancing. We got a group of coworkers together, to include Deni, Nicole, Asmahan, and Renee, and my non-coworker Katelyn.

We went to Whiskey River. It's a country bar. Lottie told us that even though it's a country bar, on Friday nights they play hip hop. We showed our IDs at the door (no cover charge for the ladies!) and came in....to country music.

We gave Lottie The Eye. People were two-stepping. How are a bunch of girls supposed to dance to this? They (everyone except for me and Katelyn) went to the bar to order drinks and contemplate our next move. Plans were made to leave and find somewhere more suitable.

And then we discovered a few things. The bartender was very excited to see us, and gave Lottie and the others some discounted drinks. She let us know that the DJ would play anything a lady requests. The DJ would play a few hip-hop songs that we could dance to in a group, and would switch back and forth between that and the two-step country. We sat down during the country songs, but started to get attention. Men started buying us drinks (Katelyn and I got $4 waters). One waitress told us that there were guys talking about us.

Katelyn was the first to be asked to dance. It was really no surprise. I swear the girl sparkles she's so gorgeous. Men are going to notice that. She tried to turn down the first guy, by explaining that she was HAPPILY married and also, she did not know how to two-step. The man, Bobby as we later came to know him, was persistent. I may have provided some encouragement. "Just go Katelyn! He'll teach you what to do! Just do it! Wooooooooo!"

So we started to dance. Different men came and went. Some left immediately after learning everyone in the group was taken. Others lingered a bit, trying to gauge what sort of "taken" women we were. Nicole put it into words: We weren't there to try and get the men's attention, but we weren't going to be rude to them. It takes balls to approach women, especially a big group like ours. We can talk and be polite, but also make it clear that we have husbands. If they still want to buy a drink after that...sure, why not? Just make sure it's not roofied.

I can totally do the two-step. Bobby liked to do these crazy spins, and once I got the hang of it, I could keep up. There was another guy that grabbed my arm and tried to drag me onto the dance floor, but Nicole had danced with him earlier and had described his inappropriateness to me, so I had to decline loudly and wrestle myself away.

At the end of the night, one guy asked Deni and me to go to his place to continue partying. We said no, we are married. He asked again. Again no, we are still, interestingly enough, married. He wanted to know where our husbands were. I gave him a Look and said, "They're home where we left them, it's a girls' night. No husbands." He said that if he had "a pretty wife like us" that he wouldn't let her go out without him. I didn't tell him that's probably one reason why he doesn't have a wife.

We stayed out until 2:00 in the morning. My feet hurt but it was glorious.

The best part of the experience is Joseph. I told him everything, to include the man who grabbed my butt. He laughed and wasn't jealous at all. I told him he should be a little bit jealous. He looked at me and said, "Why? I'm the one who goes to bed with you at night. I'm the one who gets to spend time with you and talk to you, and who gets to enjoy your pretty face every day."

Next time we go dancing, we will be bringing the husbands. As much as I enjoyed the free drinks and the grumbles about how all "the pretty ones are taken."