10 on Tuesday

And it's Thursday...don't hate.
I got a job this week, and took care of a cranky Jax for 4 days. Woot.

Anyway. Now that we are back from Massachusetts, I've kind of turned my focus into cleaning up from being on vaca, but also our home.
So in honor of our little abode, lets do 10 things/projects I want to complete in our house ASAP. Preferably before my sister's bridal shower here in September.

1. Paint/have someone paint the living room. I haven't decided on a color yet, but this flat...builder grade crap has got to go. The ceilings are vaulted in there, so it's likely that ill pay someone to do it because I'm not trying to climb up 10 feet and paint.

2. Hang up gallery wall of family pics and artwork in said living room. I had a small gallery wall at the old house, but this time I can go big, and I can't wait!

3. Make our bedroom super comfortable but also fantastic to look at. I have a head and footboard that someone gave us, but it needs to be sanded and painted. So I'd like to fix that, put up black out curtains, and repair our bedside tables black or charcoal grey. New bedding might be in our future as well. I bought a duvet cover at Ikea, but I'm not 100% on it. I might use that in the gust room instead.

4. Paint the downstairs bathroom and hang up art work, etc. I have a theme, color, and shower curtain in mind...just need to move forward with it.

5. Have something done with this lawn. Good god. There are weeds in the back that are as tall as the deck. Also, I feel bad for our mail lady, because its mega overgrown down by the mailbox and she has to reach through it to  get our mail in.

6. Paint the kitchen, with one wall as a huge chalkboard using chalkboard paint. The other walls will probably end up some shade of turquoise. Hang curtains on sliding glass door.

7. Paint dinning room table and chairs. Table black, chairs red, turquoise and apple green. Likely with chalk paint. I hear that's good stuff. Boom.

8. Fix pavers in the front. It looks like a drunk man laid them. There are 3 different kinds of pavers and they go every which way.

9. Find or build a platform/storage bed for the Guest room. Right now it's just a mattress on the floor, which is fine for Hannah and josh to come over, but not so much for the in laws, or anyone older than 25.

10. Redo the insulation upstairs. Our home inspector guy, Paul, told us that it wasn't the greatest. Barely passes inspection. And it gets so freakin hot up here. W crank the AC at night and have a fan. I'm sure it will be chilly up here in the winter. Which I'm ok with, but it's not good for our checking account when we have to work so hard to keep it comfortable up here. Also, we want babies sometime soon, and they would be sleeping in the room across from ours up here, and babies like comfortable temps.

A vacation from our vacation!

I started a half million posts about Disney. Reviews on hotels, food, parks...what we packed, what to never leave home without, best souvenirs.
Well...they're all still sitting in blog format on blogger. Why?

I needed a vacation from vacation! Disney is wonderful and fun and millions of happy memories...but it's freakin exhausting!

So I've been working on getting all of our vaca laundry done, continuing to turn the house into our "home," playing with my dawgs, playing with the kids, and oh...planning another vacation.
Say what?

Christopher has a meeting in Boston at his main office this week. And we decided to drive up together, he will leave me at his parents in Gloucester, and then he will join me in a few days and we will send the rest of the week on our New England vacation.


While I am really missing work and have been on several interviews lately, trying to find something full time and comfortable for me, this is one advantage of not working right now. This is the third time in less than a year that I've been able to come with him for a work thing :)
Next week, back to the grind though. Full time job search, house cleaning, and hopefully blog updating?!!

Have a great week, and I'll smell ya later. Also if you are a creeper and think my home is empty right now, eff you, I'm way ahead of ya? I write a week behind because of assholes like you!

10 on Tuesday

Going to try and start a weekly count to ten on whatever I'm doing or thinking at the time.
I'm a chornic list maker, so this should be amazing.

Anyway, this week we are vacationing on the north shore of Massachusetts. My mouse is from here and it's pretty sweet, but I've noticed some things that are super different about the area, as compared to the dirty south.

Here we go.

Ten things I've learned about people on the North Shore.

1. People love to take an enormous old home and break it up into apartments. Seriously, huge house, 8 mailboxes on the porch. I've seen this maybe 4 times in my life in oth regions, but here, it's a thing.

2. Air conditioning, optional. Ugh. FMLx 1000. We have been to two resturants where it was easily 100 degrees inside. Also Christopher's childhood room has AC, but the rest of the house does not. When I leave his room and walk into the hallway, my glasses fog up. This shit doesn't fly down south.

3. Politics, like whoa. Maybe this is more prominent here's in this home because his brother and mom are so into them. But it's all on TV, and political signs everywhere. I mean, they do this in the south, but it just seems so extreme here.

4. Mosquitoes have giant teeth or something. You would think southern bugs would be worse, but I'm here to tell you, I've never had a hurtin like these Mass mosquitoes have put in me this week.

5. Restaurants available on every corner: pizza/sub places, Dunkin. Period. Not a lot of Thai or Chinese. A lot fewer chain places.

6. Alphabet and phonics, optional. The ways that words are pronounced baffles me. I know I have a little bit of a drawl, but in general, I pronounce words the way that they are spelled. Example...the town of Peabody. North Shore'ers say Peabiddy, rhymes with PDiddy. Weird.

7. Big dogs. We went it the dog park today and we were the only ones in the "small dog, " section. Seems most people around here have big old furry pups. Also, I have not seen one wiener dog the whole time. Usually I see one walking around at home at least once every few days. Must not be as popular here I don't know why not...they're the best.

8. Totally appropriate to wear beachwear into stores and restaurants. Even when pretty far inland.  To each his own.

9. Giant is called Stop and Shop and I don't like it.

10. Seafood everywhere. Even fast food places and roadside carts have good seafood. At home, you sure as hell don't order seafood from a non-seafood restaurant unless you have a death wish.

Five months and counting.

So...if you aren't local and don't follow me on Facebook...let me be the first to tell you the amazing news that my "baby," sister Hannah is getting married to Joshua!

I couldn't be happier for these two, and I cannot wait to stand next to my sister as she marries the love of her life. She is so beautiful and amazing and happy. And Joshua ain't so bad himself. I just love these two jerks.

So...November 1 is the day! And that's only FIVE months from today! 

While her and my mom are doing the majority of the planning, I still feel like I have a lot to do! I'm throwing her an amazing bridal shower in our new home...and I can't wait!!

Anyway, I took them to BJ's the other day. They wanted to look at some things and price them for the wedding. And I just went along because

A) I'm the maid of honor

B) I'm the one with the BJ's membership.

A bought silverware, Coke in glass bottles!, hand sanitizer for the bathroom area (the fanciest ports potties youve ever seen!) and a case of Red Bull. Next time we will probably get more drinks, cups, plates, and napkins.
The financial aspect of wedding planning is easier if you do it a little at a time over months. 

Here they are looking at stuff. 

Love them :)