Sweet, Sweet Time

I decided to just do one post about the sweet, sweet time I spent with Michael. Just a brief look into our two weeks together, with some of our favorite pictures of course!

We went to the beach a few times --  we're lucky to live so close! We found lots of shark teeth to take home and even were lucky enough to see dolphins!

We spent four nights amazing Nights in Charleston, SC. If you ever get a chance to visit Charleston, I highly recommend it! We were able to walk pretty much every every where we wanted to from our hotel. There are so many neat historical buildings and parks and museums.

We were upgraded to a ridiculously awesome suite -- it was huge and had its own doorbell, too funny! We were welcomed with champagne and yummy chocolate covered strawberries. The roses on the table were a surprise from Michael the night before, though, I brought them from home. :)

We explored Charleston and went where ever our feet took us -- the aquarium, a couple museums, civil war historical sites, a submarine, an improv comedy show, lots of restaurants, an outdoor market, and many beautiful parks

The day we left, we stuck around the town for a bit and saw the last few sites we missed!

We also made stops on the way home: Mellow Mushroom and a state park!

We were also able to sneak in a day trip to New Bern, a little bit of furniture shopping in Wilmington, and have dinner at one of our favorite places -- The Melting Pot!

These two weeks were extra special for us, it was the last time we'd be together for only a set amount of time. (All our time spent together has always had impending goodbyes. My school breaks always come to an end and Michael leave would only give him so many days home.) We just enjoyed our sweet, sweet time together. And as always, it was hard to say goodbye.

After the Storm

Well, I took I longer break than I intended from blogging, but I'm happy to say that I'm back now. Why the break? To spend some precious and long-awaited time with my love! But let's back up a little.

Last time I posted I was awaiting a hurricane, but not too long after that post I voluntarily evacuated with a couple of my close friends, and their babies, and their boxers, and a cat. So we (Me, Amanda, Lisa, baby Mason,  baby Carter, Brady the dog, Jacks the dog, and Buzzy the cat.) packed up, left town, and drove 4 hours inland to Lisa's parent's home. They graciously took us all in and fed us and pretty much let us take over their home for a few days. I had the quiet car, seeing that my only travel companion was Buzzy. :)

Shortly after the storm hit, I received a quick phone call from Michael saying that his plane would be landing the next day. So I decided to pack up and head home bright and early after getting some rest. The girls packed up my car the night before with what they needed me to take back (traveling with three ladies, two babies, two dogs, and a cat means lots of luggage!) Buzzy accompanied me on the trip home as well:

I wanted to get home as early as I could, but I also needed to follow the city and county curfews, so leaving too much earlier wasn't really an option. The curfews allowed emergency services and city crews to complete the work they need to after the storm. 

Shortly after passing through Wilmington, Michael called me to let me know that he was getting on an airplane in Atlanta and that he would be landing at the Wilmington airport in a little over an hour. This was actually a lot sooner than we originally thought. Michael was supposed to fly into the local airport, but it was closed because of the hurricane. He lucked out and made it on a flight to Wilmington that was departing about 20 minutes after he arrived in Atlanta.

So much to do so little time! I dropped off Buzzy and unloaded my car, and then I headed towards our house. I considered not even stopping at the house, but I decided to stop by very quickly because it is on the way to the airport anyways. Once I was at the house:

1. I noted that my mailbox was missing.
2. Didn't try to find my mailbox.
3. I RAN around the house making sure there wasn't any major damage.
4. I noticed the giant puddle of water in my dining room. 
5. Ignored the puddle.
6. Changed into a dress without even taking my shoes off.
7. Hung up the banner I made Michael in about 10 seconds.
8. It was a little crooked.
9. I didn't have time to care!

I made it to the airport about 30 minutes after Michael landed, I think. Wow! Stressful, crazy, fast morning. But it was so worth it. :)

Will be posting again soon! I'm so behind I'll probably have to skip over a lot of the good stuff, but no worries. I'll eventually make up for it by adding a bunch of pictures to facebook. :)

Crisis Averted.... At the Moment...

I'm laughing right now.... you just need to know that before reading this post. I thought about crying, but hey, when life gives you lemons....

This morning I woke up, did the dishes, and then took a shower. A very cold shower. An uncomfortably-cold and therefore quick shower. This should have concerned me more than it did, but I just figured that I had used all of the hot water doing the dishes. Which is stooooopid. Because I had a hard time getting the water warm, let alone hot, when doing the dishes now that I think about it. Oh goodness.

I left the house and headed to Walmart. I don't shop at there often. I get really lost at Walmart. I spent a lot of time there trying to get everything on my list. Which was longer than usual because Irene is visiting later this week. Jokes, I've got them (as my husband would say).

{The earthquake in Virginia already happened at this point and no, I did not feel it. Although, a couple of my friends did. I thought I would share that little fact for my information hungry readers. An earthquake fits into this post just perfectly. Right?}

Anyways, I returned home and put away my groceries, then proceeded to grab some laundry to throw in the washing machine. I ended up not doing laundry today because when I opened the door leading from the kitchen to the garage I found this:

Water spewing from somewhere under my hot water tank to the other side of the garage. Now, I'm deeply afraid of any sort of septic tank problem, which was the first thing that crossed my mind when I discovered this. I mean, the water is light-ish brown. Hahaha. It doesn't smell at all though. I promise. The water has sand in it from under my house.

Without any hesitation I called my rental office. The call went something like this:

Me:"I think there is something wrong with my hot water tank."
Them: "Okay... now I'm not sure if I can get anyone out today, but..."
Me: "Water is going everywhere!"
Them. "Someone will be there within 20 minutes."

I'm feeling pretty relieved at this point. Help is on their way. So I decided to take my trash can to the curb and I discovered that the foundation in the back of my house, near the kitchen and the garage is saturated with water. This freaked me out.

The maintenance guys arrived shortly after that and were surprisingly quick at figuring out the problem. They didn't really try to explain to me what happened, which was annoying, but they were friendly and worked fast. They are coming back tomorrow to fix the holes they created in order to repair the leak:

They said a pipe broke and then they told me, "That isn't supposed to happen." Wow. Really? You learn something new every day. *sarcasm* Then we agreed that it was good that I was only a renting this home. I mean, at least I don't have to pay for the repairs, right? :)

From what I gather, a pipe leading to my hot water tank cracked and was leaking, probably for a while. Today that pipe decided it couldn't take anymore stress and broke. Which lead to zero water actually to getting to my hot water tank and flooding under the house and in the garage. The water is already drying up though, this heat is good for something!

I'll just sweep the sand up once it it dry. Thank goodness nothing we own has damage.

So, moving on.... let's talk about that Hurricane Irene. She's pretty much headed in the direction of bad news. Let's look at the projected path:

This is changing on a regular basis, though. So... I'm not too worried about it at this point. I'm a bit angry that this storm could potentially affect R&R for Michael and I. Other than that, I just want to be prepared. If the projected path still looks bad for us for the next couple days, don't worry. I have a plan and I won't be staying here. :)

After my trip to Walmart today, I'm ready to live without power or clean running water at my house for a while if I have to. I mean, even though I'll be leaving... its good to be ready for anything! I already had most of the necessities, but to add to my collection, I got:

1. A 3-gallon jug for water. I know... its the minimum recommendation, but at least I'm following recommendations!

2. A new Brita filter, because I plan on just filtering my own tap water because there is nothing wrong with it yet and its cheaper. I didn't feel the need to buy bottled water (not that it was an option once I got to that aisle... I guess their new shipment of it was gone with in 30 minutes of being on the shelf.)

3. Junk food. (There's a lot more than you see here because I got a ton of care package supplies for the guys that I could eat if needed to. And yes I do plan on eating a lot of peanut butter and honey sandwiches.)

4. TP. Hurricane or no hurricane, I was down to my last roll.

5. Candles, to add to my collection.

6. A back-up lighter. A the end of the day, I don't want to have to start recalling the movie "Cast Away" to light my candles.

7. A plastic bowl. I plan on hoarding ice in my freezer. I don't really have many perishables in my refrigerator. It just sounded like a good idea.

8. A new flashlight, with extra batteries!
:)

Wet Paint!

Today Amanda, Lisa, and I painted Lisa's Kitchen! Here is Lisa... ready to jazz up her kitchen walls (She's going to hate that I posted a picture of her with no make-up on... but I think she's still beautiful without it!):

The walls went from bland to brown! Here's a before picture of the walls right before we started painting....

Jacks was a little confused about what was going on:

Amanda fake-teaching us how to paint:

The color she picked looked like milk chocolate! I kind of wanted to dip a strawberry in it! (Although.... that would have been a horrible waste of a strawberry...) 

Here's Amanda putting the first swipe of the new paint up. There's no going back now!

First coat of this wall is finished here... I love the brown with the white trim! (I wish my house had white trim too!)

Unlike Amanda, I was a wimp and only painted places where I could keep two feet on the ground...

Another coat is going up tomorrow and then it will be done. Isn't is just lovely? It makes me want to paint my walls! Lisa is ready to paint the living room walls now too! I think that means she likes how the kitchen turned out. :)

Kudos to Amanda for painting all the trim and hard to get places! She's a painting pro!

I can't wait for the next adventure these ladies come up with! They're awesome and I love them! They make those seemingly unbearable days bearable and the good days great! Tomorrow is our dinner night! We switch off on who does entrees, sides, and dessert. What's on the menu this week? Well here it is:

Chicken and Dumplings (Courtesy of Chef Lisa)

Veggies and Fresh Bread (Courtesy of Chef Kelsey)

Homemade Cheesecake (Courtesy of Chef Amanda)

Hope you all have had a wonderful week!

Sink Baths

Sink baths might be one of the most adorable things ever. Well, when you're baby Mason or baby Carter!

{Even when the lighting is too low and I forget to turn my flash on (aka grainy photos)!}

Especially after a messy dinner...

Then the adorable part of it is kind of matched by the necessary part of it.

And what could be better than going night-night smelling like a brand new baby?

Just a short post before getting my beauty sleep!

A Chippy Little Side Table

Today I ventured to several cute little shops in Wilmington in search of a dresser. On the way back home, I stopped at Uptown Market Antiques. I found one. I found a gem of a dresser. I have to wait a week for it.... one of the owners of the shop offered to drop it off herself because their delivery people don't drive this far away. How sweet is that? This post isn't about the dresser, though.

Uptown Market Antiques was filled with so many treasures! Amazing furniture, beautiful wall decorations.... I spotted an oval mirror with a hobnail milk glass frame that made my heart go pitter pat. It was overpriced. I moved on. My heart kept beating.

I did find this chippy little side table in need of a home. And for $15, I got it!



It is pretty much the epitome of junk salvation.

And I think it is wonderful. I love the chippy paint.

Maybe one day I'll sand it down and repaint it.

It has a lot of character. I want to just enjoy that for a while.

It fits just right next to the bed. Not too wide and narrow enough that Michael can still open his closet door all the way. (That wasn't the case when I had the other side table there.)

Shortly after returning home from my outing it started storming. Lightning. Thunder shaking the house. Downpour. This is why you have to be careful when using the front door while it is raining at my house:

Other than the mini-waterfall, please take note of two things:

1. My crooked mailbox, which is in must worse shape than this picture captures. So much so that the yard guy offered to install a new one for $5 next time he stops by. He was probably worried he was going to completely destroy it with his riding lawn mower.

2. How incredibly thankful I am for taking my trash can to the curb this morning, instead of waiting until until this evening. Trash gets picked up at midnight by Ray's Rural Trash Collection. You have your pick of three or four competitive businesses that collect trash in this town (they all cost the same though...). We had Ray's at our last place. They're small, family owned and operated. I was delighted when I found out I was living in an area they covered again.... mostly because our bill comes with a new religious quote each month. Haha. I'm not kidding, this month it said: "The Lord preserveth all them that love Him."

Okay, I'm done boring you about our trash collection. :)

Feeling Crafty!

Last Thursday I spent the day with my friend Amanda and her sweet baby boy, Mason. (You might remember them from this post.) I think we visited every thrift shop in town! It was an laid back and fun filled day. I'm extremely tempted to go back to a couple of the shops to buy a few items. Before I give in to that hankering, I need to find myself a dresser so I can get the rest of our clothes unpacked!

All that thrifting also inspired me to do something with a couple thrifty items I had at the house already. This shelf, which accompanied me in my road trip from Washington, had been hiding in a closet at my parent's house and was in need of some sprucing up:

So I set up a little painting station on the back patio and painted it white. I did another coat after this picture. I like how it turned out! I'll have to update when I decide where to hang it in the house.

This squirrel was watching me paint. Isn't he cute? :)

Now, on to the second thrifty project.... I did a little upcycling of an old coffee bean burlap sack that I found in Washington while antiquing with Meagan. I only used a small amount of it, and I have a whole different burlap sack in the closet. So, perhaps there will be more burlap crafting in the future.

I decided to make some pennant bunting! So I traced out some flags. I cut out a reference pattern made from an old Wheat Thins box that had retired to the recycling bin. It worked well:

After they were all cut out, I stitched around the borders to minimize the fraying. Burlap sure loves to fray!

Then I ironed and pinned down the tops to create an opening for string or ribbon to thread through. I stitched the tops down and they were ready to decorate!

I can't wait to use this banner!

Isn't it just beautiful? I'm quite pleased with the final product. :)

I used the tiny flags to decorate this wreath I found on sale today. I'm not done with it yet, but if you were interested in where those little flags ended up...

In other news, I finally hired someone to cut the grass! So, I'm no longer the annoying neighbor who doesn't take care of their yard. Yay! :)

Tufted and Teal...

{I recently updated my web browser platform to the most recent version of IE and I like the new layout, however, it is causing me to have issues with the blogger website. It refuses to let me comment on other blogs using my Google account and creating new posts is a tedious task. I have to switch compatibility view on and off to make certain things work and in that process, blogger likes to change up the layout of my work, which I have to go back and fix. So, if my posting is slow and looks funny, now you know why! I think it may be time to switch to Firefox...}

I originally planned on (aka hoped, wished, dreamed of...) getting a lovely new bed frame for our king bed from Layla Grayce and then using the adjustable bed rails we've been using for the spare bedroom. What actually ended up happening was much easier on the budget... :)

In June, I found a beautiful refinished, shabby-chic spindle full-sized bed frame for the spare bedroom for an amazing price at a consignment shop in Wilmington. So, I decided to find a headboard for the king bed instead and I fell in love with this upholstered one here.


It arrived today!!! And good grief the FedEx man left it on my porch without even ringing my doorbell... he basically ran back to his truck! I was majorly struggling to get in through the front door while he turned around in the cul-de-sac down the road and drove by. I mean, I've had my issues with UPS before, but the UPS delivery people in NC have always been so kind to at least offer to carry in heavy packages for me. Come on FedEx! Maybe I'm just spoiled because the mailman occasionally brings my mail to the front door. (I think he's just worried that if puts too much in our pathetic, falling apart mailbox at the end of the driveway that he's going to break it... Our mail box really deserves a post of its own. )

I did, eventually, get it through the front door and proceeded to unwrap it. I loved it so much that, somehow, I mustered up the courage to put it together. I was going to wait and have Michael help me with it, but I didn't want to wait! I then realized that the bed rails were backwards; the parts that you attach a headboard to were at the end of the bed. Until today, I didn't think I was strong enough to move my bed on my own...

I single-handedly turned my king bed completely around... I should have videotaped it for your amusement. I did manage to step back and snap this picture of the madness with my phone. (The lighting in my bedroom is less than ideal... photos never turn out that great. :/)

And then, 12 washers, 8 bolts, and 4 nuts later...

You may have noticed that I remade the bed. I ruffled it up during the bed spining. Also, the headboard looks a little different than the first photograph... no, I'm not asking you compare my photography to a professional photograph.... the first picture is the full bed version, which isn't what I ordered (thankfully!).

Our bedding is a bit plain right now, but the white duvet cover is growing on me. I'm in the process of making some decorative pillows to match the curtains.

That pretty much sums up my afternoon. Well, I also went grocery shopping... I now have one of those tiny little Ben & Jerry's containers of Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream in the freezer. Drool. I haven't had ice cream or chocolate since I moved and it was speaking to me at Food Lion. That can't be a good sign. I think I'm spending too much time alone. Thank goodness I'm thrifting with a friend tomorrow!

sci-fi-space-star-trek-star-wars-spacecraft-adventure

It's only 86 degrees outside right now! Do you think that is cool enough to wear a summer-y sweater? Ha. Who cares? There's always AC to cool me down.


I'm about to go run my Monday errands. Borders and grocery shopping! Michael asked me to get him a new book... he said something sci-fi-space-star-trek-star-wars-spacecraft-adventure. Any suggestions? I'm married to a nerd! A handsome nerd though. :)

~~~~~~
Update!
~~~~~~

I now have food in my fridge, which makes me happy, and allows me to make dinner! I haven't decided what to make yet.... spicy shimp fried rice or turkey swedish meatballs or BLT lettuce wraps???? Decisions, decisions...


The borders trip was successful, I think. I got him options!


Air and Space magazine (a little non-fiction)
The January Dancer (very spacecraft-adventure-esque)
The Moon is A Harsh Mistress (reeks of sci-fi nerdiness, right?)
The Damned Busters (it looked funny?)