On Hiatus...

I'm doing the Facebook thing for awhile...email me...

8 Books/2,610 Pages Read

I read this book in about a day...very quick read, which is nice every now and again. I love historical books like this and was not disappointed in this one. But now I'm very curious to see the movie...

The reason I haven't blogged in 6 weeks...

Our first dog...Zeke

So sweet...

His first night home...he slept most of the evening...

Checking each other out...

Zeke just wants to play...Noelle, not so much

What a face!

When we brought Zeke home, he was smaller than Noelle...but now the tables have turned...

7 Books/2,377 Pages

I started this before we left for Denver, thinking I could finish it fairly quickly. I could NOT get into this book. The main character was likeable enough but the style of writing just wasn't my thing.

I had seen this book around for awhile but didn't actually buy it until I found it at a used bookstore for $3. I still paid too much...

Denver Trip...

Tom and I love going to Denver...and try to do so several times a year. It's close enough for a long weekend, but far enough away for Tom to get a much-needed break from clients and work.

The best part is the weather. Tom loves cold...and especially snow. We were so excited when it snowed the first day we were there. It didn't stick around long...but it was beautiful while it lasted!

This couch was big enough for both of us to watch tv comfortably...although, I spent alot of time reading. I read three books on this trip...unfortunately, I bought six more! I'm never going to get caught up on my To Be Read list...

Out of all of the hotels we've stayed at, this one had the biggest tv...bigger than our tv at home!

Although I like the idea of floating nightstands, this room seriously lacked storage. But if you were only staying for a day or two, it would be perfect...

It was nice having a divider between the "bedroom" and the sitting area...but still making the room feel bigger and more open...

And, as usual, Tom spent WAY too much time working at this desk...

6 Books/2,053 Pages

This was a typical Chick Lit book...wasn't horrible, but nothing terribly special either.

Basically, it's about a woman who is in or invited to 17 weddings in a six-month period. The irony, of course, is that she doesn't particularly believe in marriage. The main character is likeable enough but because there are so many weddings, it was hard to keep track of all of the brides' (and grooms') names.

The worst part was the ending though. It just left me wanting something more...or at least something different...

The Big Move

A few weekends ago we moved Tom's office. This is the second move since we've been married. We started on the third floor, then first floor...and now we're on the fourth!

It's a much better layout for the guys and seemingly more space. I'm sad that we don't have a glass-front space that I can decorate at Christmas, but I know the guys will be much happier without all of the traffic that came through on the first floor. A small sacrifice...

Chris' Office

All of the office supplies fit in Chris' Office perfectly!

The Mini-Kitchen

I'm still working on this shelf...I rearranged it several times but still not completely happy with it...

The Wall of Fame...Tom hung the pictures a little high, but hopefully we'll be able to fill up the space with future awards...

Tom's Desk

Tom's office is SO much bigger than his last one...he's really enjoying it so far...

Tom finally has enough to wall space to hang up all of his pictures, degrees, bulletin boards, etc...

Tom's Office Entrance...Mark got him the bear claw when he was working in Alaska. The first two "fingers" broke off and Tom wanted to break off the last two as well. His way of saying, "Don't mess with the Boss", I guess...
I bought orange frames (to match the DIS logo, of course) for everybody's business card to hang on the wall next to their office. I'm really happy with how they turned out...and John was impressed with my ability to find orange frames...

Mark's Office

John's Office...it will never be this clean again!

The "Brain" Room

Conference "Room"

Sitting Area...or where I sit and read while waiting for Tom to quit working...

5 Books/1,713 Pages

I bought this book after Jen Lancaster (one of my favorite writers) recommended it on her blog. It's a book I would have NEVER picked on my own, which is why I love to hear what other people are reading (hint, hint).

This book wasn't too different from the Chick Lit genre I usually read, except for the fact that it took place in Saudia Arabia. Learning about this culture was so fascinating. It's not something I would ever want to experience first-hand, but I loved reading about it!

Who Says Romance is Dead...?

Last weekend, we started a huge outside project. We worked all day Saturday and Sunday and still didn't get done. So we spent a few more hours this morning on it. And while we were working outside, we found a great handyman to do a few small projects inside.

Not your typical Valentine's Day...but as long as I got to spend it with My Tom, I was a happy girl!

We had a little drywall damage leftover from the tile project Dad did in September...it didn't take long to fix that...

The back door...new paint, no hardware...

The entrance door to Tom's home office...our signature red...

Tom bought new hardware for all of the newly-painted doors...and it looks fantastic! It's all in the details...

BEFORE...

The road in our neighborhood isn't quite wide enough for two cars to pass, and this tree was even more in the way...it had to go!

Ready to rock...

We didn't realize how dense the undergrowth was until he was right there in it...

My job was to let Tom know when a car was coming...but it's hard getting the attention of someone using a chainsaw with earphones on! But we made it work...

The tree didn't look so big until we started dragging all of the fallen branches into our yard...

Technically, the tree may or may not have belonged to the neighbor (pictured above) but he moved out months ago and has been trying to sell his house, so we figured we were doing him a favor...

It made me nervous when he was cutting branches with the chainsaw above his head, but he did a great job!

We didn't touch any of this, but it's on our To Do List...

We didn't have anywhere else to put the bigger branches, so we dragged it to the backyard...if we lived in Ohio, we would have had a killer bonfire that night...

We filled up two of these last weekend...but only one today!

After bagging 22 bags of leaves last weekend, we bagged 15 today...and there's still MORE!

A nice little wood pile for the fire pit...

We still have another small tree or two to cut down and a little more cleaning to do, but I think we'll wait until Dad's out here next month and put him to work...

But Holy Cow! What a difference...

After Tom went to sleep last night, I wrapped his presents and put them on his nightstand so he would see them first thing this morning...

To my surprise, this was on my nightstand when I woke up on Valentine's Day. I really wasn't expecting anything...

When I got this yesterday! Do I have a great husband or what???

4 Books/1,432 Pages

I saw this book months ago and thought it looked interesting, but just recently bought it at Costco. When I saw that a sequel was already out, I thought that was a good sign for the first book. Maybe because I LOVED the last book, but this one was kinda blah for me. It was alright, but nothing special.

But I must be getting soft in my old age...I teared up at the end of this one too. NOTHING like the last book...but tears were shed! After the ending of this first book, I'm very curious to see how they continue the story...but I'm in no rush to buy the next book...

Mom's Redemption

After posting pictures of the finished laundry room and the to-be-done craft room, Mom emailed me pictures of the FINISHED craft room. I'm shocked that she did this without me...and a little hurt (just kidding, Mom!). She's really been putting her label-maker to work...

BEFORE...

AFTER...Impressive!