8 years ago....

Here we are... 8 years married.

11 Years together...

3 dogs (one in heaven)
1 cat
and 1 Sprited Child whom we adore.

Life has always been on fast forward for us and now with busy work schedules and buying a house it's more so than ever..

But our love?

It's always been perfect and all encompassing.

Thank you for being you, Lee.

Thank you for our life.

Here is our story:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five

Have a great day!

House Design

Since I get a pretty clean slate at the new house, I am mixing some existing furniture with new to create a bit of an eclectic look.

I took my hand at some photoshop storyboards - but I'm pretty bad at it.

Living Room:

The sofa I found at Gallery Furniture on Westheimer and it's the exact clean look I was going for. Lee has a brown leather chair and ottoman so I wanted to lighten things up and thrown in an upholstered chair (Ballarddesigns.com) with our existing dark wood console (similar to the one shown). Add a charcoal rug to anchor the space and it's fresh and clean.

Den:

Kid-friendly slipcovered sofa from World Market with a cute chair (Target!!) and a white console from Nadeau in Rice Village. This room is almost all windows and will be Logan's toy area.

Master Bedroom:

We are putting our bed and nightstands (you can see them on the Our Home section of the blog) in the guest room, but keeping our dresser - which is dark wood. I am ordering an upholstered headboard and pairing it with charcoal bedding, emerald accents, and a bench at the end of the bed rather than footboard. Our bed will face 3 full height windows looking out onto the pool so I wanted to bring some of that beach feel into our new oasis. (We have our OWN BATHROOM people!)

Guest Bed:

Best friends navy and orange will brighten up the dark bed and nightstands along with a white console to give guests a little storage and place to store luggage.

That's it for now. I can't wait to move in 3 weeks and take photos to see how close my vision came to reality. I have a list as long as my arm of things to do (appliances, pool fence, utilities, etc) and I can see why we aren't the type of people to move very often!

Major Impressions

I've always been an avid book nerd. I think this started with my Dad and his love of books, especially Stephen King. Of all the Stephen King books I have read, this one I still remember:

I heard he wrote this as a fairy tale for his daughter. I have read it at least 3 times.

Over the last few weeks I have felt this need to read a book I remember way back from grade school. All I could remember was it was about Nazi Germany and a girl with a best friend with a Star of David necklace. I googled and found it and read it in only a few nights.

Of all the books I was assigned to read in school, there is one that I fondly think back upon and I am about to read it again:

I can't tell you enough how much this book enveloped me, much like the classic Bridge to Terabithia did to others. Read it. With tissues.

Otherwise I am always looking for a good book to read. I am stumped on any of the new ones out there that I need to be looking into. Ideas?

Catching Up

Forgive my long break. Things around here got so overwhelmingly hectic that I didn't want to sit and write about the same ole gripe and complaint. Here are some updates!

House: we got the house we wanted! We close on the 18th of this month and we move on the 3rd and 4th. I'm beyond excited and already digging deep into design ideas for every room. I will have a true guest room with a king size bed and I really want to make it comfortable. I'm going to try my hand at some photoshop and polyvore-style my ideas soon!

The new casa! Front door will soon be red, because I can't have it any other way.

Logan: Logan is a parrot! This is bad when we are in the car and I have road rage, but it's also quite fun and entertaining. He's currently on antibiotics for strep, which was not fun at all for a couple of nights. His fever got as high as 104 but he never missed a beat. He was happy and running around the whole time! This exhausted momma? Not so much.

Hi, I look like I'm 4.

Lee: Lee just finished up a huge year at work and it looks like we will be off to Hawaii again in July. I'm pretty glad it's not May since we will already have moved that month - I'd like to spend a weekend or two just lounging in the yard by the pool!

Me: I'm - ok. Work has me on a roller-coaster. One day I am ready to walk out, and the next I am happy. Part of me keeps wondering if I need a change. Teaching has always appealed to me. I've been at this firm 5.5 years and it could be a bump in the road so I am trying not to make any knee-jerk decisions.

Easter was fun. I have zero photos of Logan in his outfit, but he died eggs for the first time with his Gramma!

All in all, things are good.


...And the recycle bin is full of beer and wine bottles.

Oh a House Hunting we will go...

Congrats! Our house sold in 3 hours!

Seriously. Woah.

Now we have this frantic mission to find OUR dream home and it's really tough. I mean, with houses selling in 3 hours, you can imagine how hard it is to find something right?

It's also hard when you limit yourself to one neighborhood that's only this big:

Every house in that little square is already under contract except for 2. They both need fixing up and Lee and I had decided we weren't into that this time. With a toddler and full time jobs, construction isn't the best idea.

However... knowing me and what I do all day for a living... I am slightly intrigued.

I get heavy discounts so renovating wouldn't be quite so expensive if you choose the right materials and find good labor.

Today we are going to look at 4 houses. 2 in this little square and 2 in another area we like - just not as much.

I did wish this would all move quickly.

I should have been more specific on the rate of speed....

For Sale...

After a few years of thinking about it and a few weekends of cleaning and packing....

Our home is for sale.

Our Listing

And I am a little freaked out.

Technology

I am a total tech geek. I always want the newest, fastest, coolest gadget and I want it the minute it comes out.

When something comes out that makes my life a little easier, I jump all over it.

Recently, that product is the release of the Google Chrome app for iPhone and iPad.

See, if you use Google Chrome on your PC/MAC, you can sync your contacts through Chrome and see them on your iPad/iPhone.

Firefox has a similar feature but the work around for it on your i-devices is lacking. The chrome app is seamless.

Pictures make this easier to understand:
When you download it, you can click on the 3-line icon to sync. Note: Sign in on chrome on the computer first. 

 As you see, there are a few folders and even the little widgets that are installed on Chrome at my PC.
I don't believe the widgets work, but it sure synced EVERYTHING!

My favorite thing about the sync is that I can sit and read blogs on my iPad in the mornings (as being swamped at work has caused a lack of reading lately) and all my bookmarked blogs are right there, and it opens a tab when you click on the icon.

(Note, there are more blogs than that but I have to scroll up. Don't get your feelings hurt if you didn't spot your blog.)

Are there any new technology goodies that are making your busy life easier?