The Joys of Homeownership

This is a picture of our water meter leaking all over. Someone drove onto our lawn and broke our water pipe. It is really really dry out so it makes it easy for the hard ground to crack the pipes. We were notified we would be fined if we did not fix it since the water is leaking into the street and we are on water restriction. If it was not fixed we would be charged $500 a day for breaking the restrictions. So I called a plumber and got it fixed. It was pretty pricey. Oh the joys of homeownership. One positive was that I met a lot of my neighbors while I was outside watching the process! Sorry no pics from when they dug it all up. I am so bad at remembering to take pics!

Crafts

When my mom and sister came down here a few weeks ago my mom brought me some more craft supplies! I really like to be crafty but often it is more expensive than it is worth. So with my new supplies I set out to find something to create!

What I found was a few boring old clocks that we got for our wedding. So I tore apart the clock we had and started to make it pretty. Above was what I ended up with. Sorry about the poor lighting. The clock is actually a bright lime green with light electric blue ink. It is definitely not done but its a good start! The writing says "Cherish the Moment". I still need to paint the outside black, add some numbers or position markers and embellish it a bit more, but I am happy with how it has gone so far!

This is the stamp set I used from Close to My Heart. I got it when I went to CTMH convention in January with my mom and it is by far my favorite set! Thanks mom!!

Here are the stickers I am going to use for my next craft project. I am thinking magnets?? Maybe I will make our other clock into an Italian clock for Nick?? Not sure yet but I know I will try to find something for these soon.

Christmas in August

Christmas Carol train tour came to San Antonio so we had to go check out the fun! If you don't know, Disney has a new movie coming out this November and it is called A Christmas Carol. They made a train filled with exclusive behind the scenes models, scenes and info about the movie and have been taking it across the country. Here are some of the pics from our day!

Jim Carrey as Scrooge.

After the train tour we got to see a first look at the movie in 3-D. It looks like it will be a really great movie!

Here is an example of how they filmed the movie's actors and changed them into a 3-D animation movie.

The outside of the train. We waited about at least an hour outside next to this train so I thought I would get a few pics.

Those poor singers. It was over 100 degrees out..

Jim Carrey as young Scrooge

Some of the period costumes in the train and below are the models they used to visualize the scenes.

Overall it was a fun day. I can't wait to see the entire movie in theaters. My favorite Christmas Carol is still the Muppet's so we will see if Disney can top that this year!

After the train tour we headed over to the Alamodome to see the Dallas Cowboy's training camp. We only saw a little bit of their practice but it was really fun. This H-E-B shopping cart was parked outside the dome and I had to get a picture with it. I really want to drive it! It would have been a perfect day if we hadn't gotten a parking ticket when we went back to the car!

First Project

For our first project in the new house we decided to sand and paint all the shelves. They were a little beat up when we moved in so last Saturday we spent the day fixing them up and now they look all brand new! Sorry no pictures from the actual process but we didn't want our phones or cameras anywhere near the paint or dust so here are some before and after shots. You have to look closely to see just how beat up they were and take my word for it that they look one hundred times better now! We also did shelves from three other closets but they pretty much look just like these so no need for more pictures. Here you go.....

Gameroom closet BEFORE

Pantry Shelves BEFORE

Gameroom Closet AFTER

Pantry Shelves AFTER

One project down, one million projects to go!

New House

So here it is!! These are the pics I took on my phone the day we moved in so sorry for the mess and lack of decorations! I will hopefully take some more soon when everything gets settled and put away.

This is Charlotte. She lives right outside my door. I hate her.... but she might be endangered or something so we have to leave her there for now.

This is a pic of the breakfast nook and the kitchen before we installed the microwave.

This is the game room upstairs. It is now filled with miscellaneous boxes and the computer desk.

The blue bedroom. It has a sky and clouds painted on the ceiling. I actually really like it so it will be staying for a while. It is going to be the guest room for now.

The bright pink room. Yes it needs to be painted. It is really bright and is currently empty so that we can paint as soon as we get a chance!

One view of our master bedroom. The windows look out over the garage. Sorry it doesn't show much but we hadn't even put our bed together yet when I took the pics.

The backyard! I love the string lights that they left!

One of my favorite parts!! The new fridge!!! Now we don't have to keep buying water to drink because it has filtered water and ice.

My second favorite part- the new washer and dryer! Aren't they pretty?!

Another view of the kitchen from the day we moved in.

Here is our formal dinning room and the sitting room filled of boxes. It is actually almost empty now since Nick did a lot of putting away when I was sick this last week.

The half bath downstairs.

The living room before the tv, the keyboard and the coffee table made their appearances.

So there are a few pics of the new house! Look for more when we get everything put away, stuff on the walls and maybe a little more furniture!

Mom and Jenn's Texas Vacation Part 3

Oh Chick-fil-a.... Mom and Jenn miss it since they took them all out of Oregon and Washington. So we went there a bunch of times! Here is a pic of the one in Austin that we ate at after we visited Archiver's.

Nick made us some Raviolli. We had to demonstrate for Mom how well the pasta maker attachment to our kitchenaid worked since she got it for us for Christmas a couple years ago.

Nick had to go back to work so the girls went to San Marcos for some shopping!!

It was hot hot hot outside so we stopped for some flavored lemonaid!

Pottery Barn Outlet is my favorite!! Too bad that chair was still $250

Mom really wanted to go to Archiver's so we drove to Austin for her and hung out at the store for a while.

Did I mention we went to Sea World a ton of times!! Here is a pic from the Shamu Rocks Texas Night Show.

Me and Jenn hanging out1

Steel Eel ride at Sea World. Jenn and Nick ran across the park to get on before they closed the ride. Here they are after reinacting their ride.

Since Nick was working we decided to go visit him for lunch and get a tour of the USAA campus. No pics allowed inside the building so here is the entrance!

Also, on the last day they had here we decided it was time to stuff my elephant. My dad sent me an elephant when I was in rexburg but it wasn't stuffed to save on packing space and there wasn't a Build a Bear there so we finally found one here in San Antonio and took it in! It really was just another excuse to go shopping but here I am with Charlie the elephant.

Mom and Jenn's Texas Vacation Part 2

More pics from the vacation! Here we are at the Alamo. There were a million people there that day so we just took some pics outside, visited the gift shop and skipped the line to get inside.

So we have been waiting for Mom and Jenn to get here to see Harry Potter! Here we are in the theater. If you can tell from the picture I was feeling excellent this day! Actually, I had a fever of about 100.8 but I couldn't miss out on Harry Potter!

Mom and Jenn are so excited to see the movie even though they cheated and went before they got here.

Mom and Jenn couldn't visit us without going to Rudy's. And of course Hermes had to join us. The food was delicious as usual!

They came to visit us at the perfect time. When they arrived we had just moved into our house and had not yet cleaned out our apartment. Here is a pic of Jenn learning to use Nick's blow gun while taking a break from the last minute cleaning of the old apartment. They had tons of fun aiming for letters on the moving boxes.

Waiting for a show to start at Sea World. Yes we went back again and again and again. We had to get good use out of the season passes they got!

And since we went back we had to feed the dolphins again. Feeding them is a total rip off but it is pretty much the only way to get up close so we spent a small fortune on fish to get some cute pics. Jenn says it was totally worth it!

Look how many penguins Jenn found in the gift shop! We hung out in the Penguin building for a while to cool down and Jenn of course had to take some pics to remember her trip!

More vacation pics to come!