Sunday, August 30, 2009

One step closer

A few days ago, I received a call from a stranger. He identified himself by telling me that our realtor had referred him. I became excited! He was someone looking to rent our duplex after we move out. Because we are leaving before the end of our lease, in order to avoid paying a penalty, we have to provide the owners with someone who will take over.

I described our place, down to as many details as he was looking for. He then asked for a website where they could possible look at layouts or pictures. I directed him to the website, at which time he indicated that they had already been to look at these lots and wanted one. They filled out an application, but someone took the place from under them. He was excited that this one was becoming available.

After a few hours to talk it over with his wife, we have new renters!!! Tomorrow, Marc is going to talk with the owner to get the details and give our 30-day notice. We will provide them with the name and information of the folks that will be moving in, in hopes that we can get the ball rolling.

Speaking of getting the ball rolling...countdown is 13 days until closing on our house. Sometime before this weekend, we're planning to measure lots of things in the house...walls, windows, doors, etc. Our plan for this coming weekend is to take a trip to Ft. Worth to go to Ikea for master bedroom furniture and other such odds and ends.

In the meantime, I (as in Marc and I) have been working on a new dining room table. I'm not sure if we're going to keep it once it's finished, but it's going to be gorgeous. Pictures to come just as soon as it's done.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Krystal N Designs

My sister has gone on a quest to sell her beautiful artwork. Check it out!! I've already requested a headboard for our new king bed in our new house and unique art throughout said house...i can't wait! She's selling her stuff at this site on Etsy. What a great idea!

So far, her list includes

Letter art
Canvas art
Tri-canvas art

...And there's more to come!


Sunday, August 16, 2009

Fab weekend

Life goes on...

Marc is still flying, days and nights, alternately. He's also had M-9 qualification (that's a gun...i had to ask :-P), and has been studying and taking tests to gain knowledge of the plane. He's been busy. Tomorrow is the first check ride in this plane, but I know he'll do fine...he always does! Tuesday begins a new kind of training, but still with the same plane.

School has begun. Friday was the first day back for the kids and was hectic, as expected. It's good to see them though, and it's refreshing getting back to doing what I love. Therapy doesn't begin until Monday after next, so I still have some time to gather my thoughts and materials before I begin collecting data and helping the kids with communication at school.

A new challenge Marc and I have had to face lately is our alternating schedules. I leave the house at 7am, while he sleeps in so that he can stay awake during his night flight. Then he leaves for work around 2pm and I get home at 5pm. He flies while i'm getting ready for bed, and arrives home at 2am. Then it starts over. We went three days this week without seeing each other except when he was crawling into bed or I was getting up. Let me tell you how much fun this routine is...it's not. Fortunately, lunch time is free for both of us. I have the option to work while I eat, but would rather spend time with my phantom husband. :)

We went to Lubbock this weekend to pick up a few "your trash/my treasure" items. I am so excited!! We picked up a few end tables with nicks and bumps, but perfect! We also got a wingback chair...YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've been nagging Marc about one for forever. And lastly, we picked up a beautiful (huge) coffee table that's painted the worst cream/yellow and is filthy, but I can remedy those problems! Pictures will come as soon as I make them pretty :)

Hope your weekend was just as wonderful!!


Saturday, August 8, 2009

Interesting Week

Our lives were somewhat hectic this week.

Firstly, Marc...

He is flying now and the instructors are trying to have him fly as much as possible to finish training. (And I don't mean, finish and move on to training in another plane like it has been for 3 other planes. THIS IS IT! Once he's done learning this one, he's done for the duration of our stay here! yay) Well, the planes aren't really cooperating. One is flying overseas to join the war, while one that is there is coming back for an overhaul on maintenance, one is being flown somewhere for upgrades, one a truck drove into and broke the tail of the plane (um...can we say stationary object??!?), and one has parts of it that are broken, but aren't pertinent for flying. So, the squadron has one working plane for all of the students. Needless to say, Marc's flying schedule has been anything but set in stone. And to add insult to injury, he has a check ride (every AF pilot has random flights where they're tested to make sure they're still competent on the plane) scheduled for next week that may or may not happen....we'll see!
He also has something like 4 papers due by Wednesday of next week, and 4 more due just a few days later. So, he'll be busy for a few days.

Secondly, me....

I rolled out of bed at 9am Wednesday morning, not expecting to go back to work until Friday. I actually received a letter saying I needed to be at a meeting on Friday. Fine and dandy. Until...2 minutes after getting out of bed, I received a text from a dear co-worker. And transcript goes as follows...

Friend: "Where are you?"
Me: "At home, should I be at work?!?"
Friend: "Yes, uhoh!"
Me: tried to call her...no answer
Friend: "I'm in a meeting. we received a letter from the director of special ed that today was our first report date"
Me: "should i call in?"
Friend: "i'll call you when we're done here"

30 min later

Me: "i'm on my way"

During those 3o minutes, I was in a panic. I kept thinking "what letter?!?" I really had not received a letter. Long story short...i'm not on the mailing list. And, to make matters worse, Marc didn't answer his cell phone all day and I was without my wallet! The phone was just "in the other room." :/ He flew over night that night, too. So, I didn't see him until after work the next day :(


Whew...the weekend is a blessing!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

New Hair

Ever since my sister chose the bridesmaid dresses for her wedding in June of 2007, I've been trying to get my hair back to it's natural color, light brown. My hair had been red before that, and she chose apple red bridesmaid dresses. Hair red and apple red...clash! Well, I had done well for two years, keeping it natural, when I decided to try out blonde. Marc has been asking ever since i've known him to try blonde. I gave in, and it was outrageous! I liked it alot, especially laying on the beach in Florida and swimming so much. I fit right in to the "blondes have more fun" stereotype. (Ps. they do!) However, with work starting back up on Friday, I didn't want the hassle of trying to figure bi-monthly hair appointments around my work schedule, so I decided to go back to brown.

As promised...

My hair until May 2009



The drastic change...



And my transformation

Monday, August 3, 2009

I Found the Perfect Shade

So maybe, if I'd been looking for months and months, it might be a bigger deal, but it's a big deal to me :) I found the perfect lamp shade for my newly painted lamps.
First, I tried one that was hilariously huge.

Second, this one....

...eh, still too big

Third, this one...


Lastly!!!


Perfect!!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Vanity Tables

We will soon be moving into our new home (if all goes well through closing in Sept.), and the Master Bath only has one sink. We currently have two sinks, so I've been looking at ways to get away from the sink as soon as possible after I'm done. I thought it might help if i had a vanity, but I don't want to fork out the cash for a piece of furniture. The internet is a great place to find alternatives such as this DIY idea! So, in my hunt for a vanity, I went to the local antique place, the same place I found the lamps in a recent post. I found two of these end tables...


Ugly!! It was wood grain on top with white paint on the rest of the end tables. There was some sort of paint over the white, that looked like it was meant to make the tables look antique. However, there were drip marks and areas that the cover didn't get to. It just looked like a quick job.

I couldn't decide what color to paint the tables...white...black...wait and paint it to match the decor. I decided on black. I love black furniture. There are many blogs that I follow that love painting furniture white, sometimes with distressing. While that is gorgeous as well, I love the glamour look of black. So, I began with a tinted primer to cover the white...

(That's a new hair color you see there! More pics of the new hair to come)

Once the primer layer dried, I began painting the high-gloss black onto the tables. It took two coats to cover the primer. Marc even helped...reluctantly. Ignore the piles and piles of junk in our garage. We're looking forward to the new and BIGGER house :)


My mother-in-law is visiting (thank you for taking these pictures!) and went with me to pick out the hardware.


And the final product that I'm so proud of...