Lauren gets engaged!!!

And the trend of my best friends getting engaged - it lives on!!  Katie, then Emily and now....drum roll please...Lauren!!!!!!!!!!  Yep, that's right, David popped the question last Friday and I couldn't have been more excited and happy for both of them! 

Lauren and David are just so wonderful for each other.  We all went to high school together, but David was a year older than us.  Lauren and David didn't ever date in high school or college - it was actually right after college when they both moved back to KC (David went to K-State and Lauren went to CMSU) and they were going to the same gym and decided to go on a date.  I distinctly remember like it was almost yesterday that Lauren called me to tell me she was going on a date with David!  She was like, "is that weird because we have known each other for a long time and now we are going on a date?".  I was like...um NO!  He's such a nice guy and so cute, so for sure worth a try.  I highly doubt her ultimate decision to go out with him was because of anything I had to say, but I can speak for all of our friends in that we are so glad that they did decide to go out on a date because it has been so amazing and fun to be a part of their relationship and see it grow and watch them fall madly in love!!!  I'm SOOOOO happy and excited for them, there are no words that can express that!!

So how did it happen?  Well I got the phone call when I was stuck in traffic on my way to Omaha for the weekend.  Lauren just called and said, "what are you doing?".  I said nothing, and you?!  She said - "well...big news!  David just proposed and I said yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  Um - I was thrilled.  Almost tempted to turn around and drive to Liberty to go give her a hug!!!  However, traffic was at a stand still, so it wasn't an option.

David tricked her and asked her to come meet him and some of his co-workers at this winery in Liberty on a Friday afternoon.  So she left work early because she works literally across the city to meet him there.  She said they were the only 2 there when she arrived and he mentioned that they must just be the first ones there, so maybe they should walk around while they wait.  Well - that walk, turns out it was a pretty freaking important and life changing walk.  Because as they were walking around, David stopped at a gazebo and proposed :) Ah - I just can't stop smiling thinking about how she felt at that moment...well really how they both felt!  It's so exciting and an incredible feeling!!

Here is a picture I stole from her facebook pictures which I'm assuming is at the gazebo he popped the question at!

Another steal/borrow from her facebook page...probably at the winery toasting to their new adventure and future together!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I threw in this picture of them at our wedding.  David and Lauren - Jimmy and I are SO excited to help you celebrate at your wedding!!

  

Ok - so moving onto the ring :)  Lauren and I had quite the adventure ring shopping together and I loved every second of it.  Seriously!  Jimmy picked out my ring himself and surprised me and I only stepped foot in a jewerly store one time with him and it completely stressed me out and I was pretty much in denial that we were ever going to actually get engaged.  So when Lauren asked me if I wanted to go ring shopping with her last summer I was SOOOOOOOO excited.  And we had so much fun!!  Lauren always has gotten a lot of heat from her friends for being super "picky" so I knew this would not be a fast process finding the ring she just loved, but I was in it for the long haul.  And so glad I was because it turned out to be perfect and just what she wanted.

We started off in high class by going ring shopping on the country club Plaza in Kansas City and went to Tivol.  And boy was it fun and fancy!  When we got there after work, they gave us both glasses of wine and brought out all the rings that Lauren liked and had her try them on. They even took my ring and cleaned it for me for free while we were shopping (and no, my ring was not from there).  And then she found it.  The one.  The ring that she loved!!

But of course, being the shoppers we are - we continued looking.  She went a few more places with her mom and looked at more rings.  But kept coming back to "the one". One problem though - it was SOOO expensive.  Like luxury car expensive.  And David, being the accountant he is, gave her and us a pretty strict budget to look within.  I mean, that's good because the last thing you want and need to do is go broke buying a ring!!  And enter Linda, the wonder jeweler.  This is who Jimmy and all his brother's used, as well as Chris for Vanessa's ring. Once we found the exact ring online, I printed off lots of different views of the picture and took it to Linda to get an estimate from her.  Good news --- she said she could make the same ring at a fraction of the cost, which was within David's budget.  Um - amazing!  So here it is.  Well, not the actual one, but a picture of the one I gave Linda.  I don't get to see the real one until later this week when I see Lauren, but she says it's wonderful and looks exactly like it!!  Score!!

How gorgeous is that?  It's so beautiful and perfect for Lauren.  Perfect ring for the most wonderful couple to help them begin a wonderful life together!

Here is Lauren helping me celebrate our wedding a year and a half ago.  I can't wait to help her celebrate hers :)  We are in the thick of planning the events for Katie's wedding too, which has been SO fun!  So many fun things going on right now!!

Don't worry Lauren, I kept the bride pin, so you can wear it too :)

Love you Lauren and David!  And congrats!!

Flag day = my mom's birthday

SO this year, I made it a goal to get my mom's birthday post....on her actual birthday (unlike last year) :)  So here we go.

We didn't end up doing anything "cool" really at all.  Jimmy and I were busy after work getting our Carter family picture taken, but we did stop by after to say HI and chat.  My dad is in the process of tiling my parent's master bathroom - which the progress looks AMAZING!  I am for sure going to post it to the blog....just wish I had before pictures.  

For you birthday, Mom - I wanted to let you know you are awesome and amazing and fantastic.  You are always there for me.  Always.  That's what amazes me about your love.  It's never ending.  You always listen, you always tell me the truth and not just what I want to hear.  You never get mad when I call you...say hi...complain about my day for 15 minutes straight and then say "I have another call, can I call you back?".  I mean what an amazing mom...friend...role model...expert advisor.  :)  I mean, for me, they are all one in the same.  Because you are all those to me and more.

And guess what?   Even with all the mushy stuff aside, she's pretty freaking cool and fun and funny to hang out with.  Like really fun.  Check her out here bowling.  How fun is that??

Oh and check her out at the bars when we visited my sister in Manhattan.  That's pretty fun!!

And she's a fun and amazing wife.  31 years they have been married now.  And they can still laugh together.  Something to strive for, right?!!

And not only does she love us (her daughters, husband and son-in-law), but she sure loves her grand-dogs.  All 4 of them!  And still keeps up with her own dogs, who are so wonderful and we've had since we were kids!!

Mom - there's so much more I could say...and I think you know that!  But please know you - you are amazing, I love you and am so thankful for a cool mom like you!!  Even if I did complain my pre-21 year old life about you sending me to school when I was young.  I thank you for that now because guess what, you do know best!!!

Happy birthday and here's to MANY more wonderful birthdays!!!

Just another day in paradise

Nope - you aren't confused. The title of this post is the same as my blog. The title of this post is the same as the blog link (minus the "1" on the end of the URL).

I'm not confused either. I did that on purpose. Because the last 24 hours fulfilled the name of this blog. And really one of the many reasons blogs existed - to vent.

So here it goes.

Sunday, 9:48PM - I yell at Jimmy and be really really mean because I was frustrated about all the things that I had to do and are going on. It really wasn't his fault at all. He's really the most wonderful person ever. But unfortunately for him, he has to live with me and I apparently can find lots of things he does wrong. Like not clean. Like not do this, that and the other. He takes it like a man and even when I feel bad and apologize he says, "Nope, you are right. I need to help you out more." Ok...so who's lucky here? Remind me of this whenever he tries to convince me he's the lucky one. Nope, it's me.

Monday, 5:13AM - my alarm goes off to work out. I'm happy that the dogs didn't wake up in the middle of the night. Jimmy and I run into each other walking out our bedroom door to let the dogs out. This is his first step in helping out more. However, I use it as an excuse to go back to sleep and not work out.

6:13AM - my legit wake up alarm goes off. I get up to shower and do my getting ready thing. I decide to wear this super cute green dress I borrowed from my sister to work with a black cardigan. When I try it on, I convince myself it's not too low cut.

And then my hair looks bad. Too flat, too dark (dyed it last night).

7:29AM - After getting ready, changing the laundry, putting dinner in the crockpot, eating breakfast and making my lunch - I'm out the door to work.

7:49AM - I am parked and walking out the garage and realize that I am essentially flashing everyone with this boobage. I freak out. I cannot make it through the day feeling this uncomfortable.

9:15AM - Jimmy saves the day after my desperate phone call to him to get a black tank top out of our closet and please bring it to work! And yep, no questions asks he does.

Work day ensues - I seem to mess up 13,000 things and pretty much feel like an idiot all around. I give people wrong answers in emails, I find mistakes that I made....and the list goes on. So yep, all around feeling good, right? :)

3:28PM - I head down to where Jimmy sits for a conference call with a retailer. As soon as I go into the elevator area I realize I forgot my badge. Which doesn't sound bad, but in these buildings, you are stuck...literally. I wasn't getting in anywhere or back to my desk to get my badge. I get down to the level I am going to and stand at the door until someone lets me in.

5:10PM - Conference call is over and I have to go to Jimmy's desk to have him save the day again and take his badge and me up the elevator and let me into my floor.

5:16PM - I'm eating a sandwich and printing off my PowerPoint slides for my grad school class at six when I realize I have no cash for the parking meters. Epic fail. Again - I instant message Jimmy to see if he has money or I can take his car because he has lots of change in it. Again, he agrees and I go to his desk (again) to get the keys. And he gives me the $1.30 of change he has left at his desk for snacks. And smile at him.

5:29PM - Walking out of work I realize I left my slides that I printed off...on the printer. Another epic fail.

5:45PM - Was planning on stopping by my sister-in-law's house to look at my niece's dress and compare the color with my dress I am wearing in our family picture tomorrow..then realize I left the dress at home. Awesome. I text message her and she's nice enough to email me not one, but TWO pictures!!!

7:50PM - Class is over early and I have some time before my 8:40PM spray tan appointment.

9:00PM - back home. And somehow is a bad mood again. Jimmy is downstairs watching TV and I somehow find a way to get mad at him again. WHAT is my problem? Then he cleans the bathroom (is my husband normal?). It actually does make me happier.

9:48PM - 24 hours later, I'm sat down to start typing a blog post and reveal to the world what a crazy wife I am. I was very frustrated....but you know what I tried to keep telling myself? That it can only get better - the week can only get better. Because what I am living is my blog title - I just lived through "just another day in paradise". Which is real life. But it's my life. With my wonderful family and my wonderful friends and my WONDERFUL husband and dogs. And I'm lucky to have woken up today. And I'm lucky to have a roof over my head and a bed to sleep in - especially with so many without due to recent tornado devastation. So yeah, today, not so much the best day of my life. But the small optimist in me that has rubbed off from dating Jimmy for so long and being married 14 months as of last Friday (yep, he sent me a card AND a text message to remind me), that tomorrow will be better and I was lucky to live just another day in my paradise....

Cheers. And I hope you cherish every one of your days in your paradise...

Wing lovers: read below!

Ok, so I love wings. Hot wings, to be more specific. Not sure when it happened or why, but when Jimmy and I dated in college and I would go visit him in Lawrence...we would always cap off my weekend visit with a trip to Jefferson's on Mass Street each Sunday to get the 35-cent wings. Like pretty much every time I visited. Our standard order was: fried pickles for an appetizer, medium wings with blue cheese for me and hot wings with ranch for Jimmy. A few times going there, it became our favorite wing place.

And that was all it took me to fall in love with wings.

Reason #1 I love Jefferson's wings vs. other places: their wings are not super saucy (meaning I don't get the sauce underneath my nails and can still some how see it 6 days later).

Other places we visited just weren't like that, including a standard wing joint, Buffalo Wild Wings....UNTIL NOW.

This is huge news people. Jimmy and I made a random dinner trip to BWW in Overland Park on Tuesday night of this week for the 45-cent traditional wing night. To my surprise and excitement...as we sat down, the hostess was doing her standard "welcome, your waitress will be with you (blah blah)...and did you hear that we now are offering seasonings to put on your wings...kind of like a rub you put on meat ----" and I shot my head up and interupted her right there. I asked for more specification. "You mean, these seasonings are in place of the sauce? (aka the sauce that gets stuck in my fingernails for days...)". She said yes and my waitress would have more information.

So duh, I had to try them. I love the "sauceless option" but with the same medium level of spiciness! And oh my goodness, they were so delicious. I loved every minute of them and have pretty much been dreaming about it ever since. I want more of them. Now!!

After this wonderful experience, I texted my wing girl (haha, get it? supposed to be like wing man...but a wing expert that's a girl...ok maybe not that funny) Emily Mc to see if she had tried them. She hadn't but was going there the next night - AH! I told her she must get them and provide a review. I texted her after to see if she did and silly Emily went with "our" old standard order of Spicy Garlic sauce because she was just so used to it. You can't blame a girl - those are pretty freaking good too. She was bummed about not being able to provide an "official review" (as I told her I wanted from her), but she said her brother-in-law did try them...and she said he loved them too. So there you have it. Wing girl's brother-in-law love the seasoning too. Does that have you sold? If not, no worries - wing girl has promised she will get them next time and provide me with a thorough review :) Thanks wing girl - I can always count on you.

I also had to let me other wing friend know - Katie, a friend from work. Remember when we double dated to Lawrence with her and her boyfriend Max to visit Jefferson's? Well, they are wing lovers too - so when she found out, she was very excited, as they had usually snubbed BWW, but were willing to give it a try now. YES! So double date #2 to enjoy wings is being set up.

Now to you blog folks - I just couldn't let his secret/revelation/excitement go without letting you know. So if you (1) love wings or (1)(a) like BWW and (2) want to try something new and delicious - GO try these! They won't disappoint you. Unless you like wing sauce everywhere in your wing eating experience. If that is the case, go with the standard Spicy Garlic :)

The random post

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been slacking on blogging due to our obsession with FNL (Friday Night Lights). So this post is a completely random in the sense that "I went through my pictures in iPhoto and realized there were pictures I took and things that we did that I never blogged about". So this is the random post. Aka the catch up post. I think I can commit to keeping up on documenting our life after this. But if the Panthers make it to state....I might not be able to keep that promise. Oh my gosh. I'm nuts!

Anyway...

The weekend of my sister's graduation and this post...I mentioned that Jimmy and I slept in a bed with 6 dogs. And I took a few pictures of it, but here's what I'll share (can you see all 6 of them??):

5 wiener dogs (Puddles and Daisy - my parent's dogs and the dogs I grew up with, Lani - my sister and her bf's dog, Milly and Willy - our dogs) and then Toby (German Shepard/Chow mix if I have never mentioned that before).

We got home from graduation and had been gone since like 8AM. My friend's sister came and let the dogs out and fed them, but we still felt bad for leaving them all day. So instead of putting them in their respective kennels...we had a dog party in my parents bed. The wiener dogs slept on the bed and Toby on the floor. It was pretty much the absolute worst night of sleep I have ever attempted to get. But if it made them feel loved, I guess it was worth it :)

Painted cabinets:

While we were there I took a picture of my mom's laundry room cabinets she had been working really hard to paint white. Here is the before and after:

I think they look AWESOME! I am encouraging her to do the whole kitchen and all the trim in the house. Eh - quite the task, right? Well maybe I'll be an all star daughter and offer to help her!! Never know when I might get the inkling to paint ours...

Newest nephew got baptized:

Baby Will got baptized that same weekend as my sister graduated. We missed out on the fun party on Saturday night at my sister in law's house, but got back in town for the ceremony. So fun - I love watching people get baptized. It's so amazing to think how that moment really changes a life!! But anyways, I did get a lot of pictures, but this was the one I liked a lot. Of Jimmy's middle brother Mike and baby Will in the back of the church. They look like twins!

Horrible dog mom:

Somewhere in between there was some incredibly insane weather here in the midwest (KS/MO). If you haven't heard of the tornadoes in Joplin, MO and the complete devastation of that town, you have been living under a rock. It was so terrible to hear all the stories of the people that were there the night the tornado hit and crazy that there were people that I know that were directly impacted. If you have any extra $$ you feel like giving, I will encourage you to give anything to the American Red Cross. There are so many people that lost everything they ever knew, including loved ones. I cannot imagine and continue to pray for them.

We were lucky that there were only a few incidents of tornado sirens in KC, but only a few touch downs in the area and no significant damage. And here we get to the "horrible dog mom" theme. Jimmy left for work earlier than me one day and left Toby outside and I was like "yeah, I can get him inside". Well I spent some of my pre-work routine chasing that dog around the backyard and he refused to come inside! I called Jimmy and asked him if he thought it was ok I left him outside and he said yes, so I went to work. Then I was sitting in my 10-11 meeting and the rain started. Not just rain, but a full blown thunderstorm. All I could think about was poor Toby outside with no shelter and scared!! I left work after my meeting and took my lunch break to go get him. This is what I found when I got home.

Poor baby! I'm pretty sure he ignored me for the next 5 days. Worst dog mom ever! However, I think he learned his lesson........

The Royal's game:

My friend from work is from STL and always organizes an outing to the K when the Royal's play the Cardinals and we were finally able to go this year!! It was so fun - hot, but really fun! They set up an awesome tailgate and we got to meet some fun new people. I usually don't ever stay the whole game because I get bored, but we kept ourselves occupied by moving seats (shade to sun and back) and chatting with friends!

Cute nieces!

It was also this cute girl's birthday and we headed out to Ben's game to wish her happy birthday and see them off before they went to Disney World for the week! And we were twins!! So cute! Happy 4th birthday Kenlie!!

And..it was another one of our niece's birthdays - Katy! She turned 2! Look at how cute she is!

So many fun presents!!!

We had a fun time celebrating her birthday with our family and their friends :)

And finally - to round it out, Jimmy attended his first dance recital :) I couldn't wait to see what he thought! Maren, another niece (all from different brothers!), had her dance recital and we were able to go see her put on a good show! So cute!

She was a star - and check out that little boy!!

In the mean time, Kenlie was so anxious to watch Maren dance...and then fell asleep! How cute is she! She didn't wake up until intermission and then wanted to know when Maren was dancing- oops!

Anyways, there you have it - I think I'm all caught up on life and things I have taken pictures of that I just left in iPhoto. And we all know that's never a good idea.

Hope summer is keeping you busy and everyone is enjoying it so far!!

Instant streaming with free time

From the first week in may until the first week in June - my life completely changed. Pretty much did a 180. Why?

Let's see. I went from having 2 volunteer roles through Pi Phi - one a pretty intense one that I had for the last year in which I oversaw the financials for 15 chapters and another acting as the "treasurer" for the Artisans and Angels event - and going to class once a week on Monday nights for grad school. So on top of everything else, there was a lot going on outside of my regular work. But I took my final right before we went to Mexico, finally got all my financial reporting together for the event and passed over the baton as the financial specialist...and it happened. I had free time.

It was actually pretty crazy. Jimmy was actually making all these comments about wanting to hang out with me. Nuts. I know :) But most of all he just couldn't believe I was willing to sit still and not to 3 things at once. Well one of the things that we decided to do together was pick a TV show to watch together. Because we are pretty much polar opposites when it comes to picking our TV shows, which is why we don't "hang out" at our house at night. Haha. We started to hunt for the perfect season of shows to get hooked on.

And that's when THIS post happened. Yep, that's my friend Vanessa and a post about her trip to Austin and lots of pictures of the Friday Night Lights stuff from the filming there. I had no clue what her title of the post meant "Clear Eyes. Full Hearts. Can't Lose". No clue at all - I just enjoyed the pictures on it. And then I saw that Heather posted something about FNL on facebook. And then I was talking to Vanessa's mom and she was raving about the show. So I came home and proposed to Jimmy that we watch Friday Night Lights. And holy.cow. We are obsessed.

We started with Season 1 and I feel like every night for the last month we have tried to watch at least 1 episode, if not 2 a night. It's addicting!! And it's such a good show!! So glad my friends and everyone else recommended it.

And yes, now I completely understand what everyone's obsession with this show is. I know exactly what "Clear Eyes. Full Hearts. Can't Lose" means and I love that title. And going through Vanessa's FNL tour post again - I love it even more.

So anyways, in all my spare time that is what the Mr. and I have been doing. Fun, huh? Well the funniest part of it is that we watch it through Netflix on demand through our Wii and since that's through the internet and our internet is so horrible (we are cheap) I cannot get on my computer, browse the web, type blog posts...anything on the internet, while watching this show. So that has done 2 things. (1) make me actually watch the show and not do 4 things at once and (2) make me blog less. Bummer.

But this Monday, it was back to school (sing that in the Billy Madison voice, it's way more fun) for me as my summer grad school class started. Which is TWO times a week for TWO and a half hours each night. Blah. But I guess it's worth it because it's only 2 months. I got spoiled in the spring with just one night a week :)

Are there any TV shows on demand/instant streaming that you just LOVE?! I feel like there are so many I hear about every time I talk to someone about this...

Bright blue, sewing and fireworks

Jimmy and I were originally planning on going to Great Bend for the Calcara family come back of Fat Hog to meet Vanessa and Chris who were there for the holiday weekend.  And at the last minute...we decided not to go, which I felt horrible about pretty much all weekend.  But after about 45 minutes straight of me telling Jimmy that, he pretty much threatened that he wasn't going to talk to me the rest of the weekend if I didn't stop.  So I did, continued to get sad when cute facebook pictures were going up, but since I wanted to talk to Jimmy - I manned up to the decision we made and went with the weekend to get as much accomplished that I possibly could in one weekend.  And boy, I did.  We both did.  Here's a little bit about what I did.  

I made a HUGE mess in the guest room.  With that little sewing machine.  I re-taught myself how to sew.  Which was...well interesting, but luckily successful.  On Monday morning, I woke up early because I couldn't sleep, as I was thinking about how exactly I was going to finish my project.

But let me start at the beginning.  Remember this picture for this post??

See the differences?? (It's like nudie photo hunt...but not nude women and not that many differences!)

Well (1) the bench and shelf are no more.  That's not true - really just "relocated and revamped".  More on that later...and...(2) is yep, the BLUE hallway.  I finished painting it this weekend.  Wahoo!  The blue is completely out of my comfort zone.  Like completely.  I live for neutrals, beige, browns, blacks, white.  Just ask my co-workers.  I own hardly any colored clothing.  Which completely translates to our house colors.  So I forced myself to do it.  From the blue pillow colors on our couch and the rug color....I went with it.  And I love the results.

I did it.  Painted it.  Loved it.  Finished.  Eh, not so much.  Then I was like "now what do I do with this blue hallway and huge red beam in my family room?".  So I started the hunt for some fabric that I loved to tie it all together.  And guess what?  I found it, but it was EXPENSIVE.  Like $44/yard expensive.  So I waited (patience is not my other strength) until this weekend for JoAnns 50% off home decor fabrics AND a 15% off total purchase coupon.  So BOOM - about $19/yard makes it still expensive, but more affordable.  So I bit the bullet and bought it.  There was only a little over 3 yards, so I wanted to make the best of that yardage.

To maximize the expensive main print to get the most use, I bought some supplemental fabrics that were cheap, cheap, cheap but gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous and went perfect with the main print.  The red fabric and green fabric with a little checkers on it.  My plans were:

(1) Recover the bench that was in the family room (and just white) and put it in the hallway.
(2) Make some pillows
(3) Make a valance to go in the family room and keep the red panels underneath with the main print
(4) With my other creation, the console table, use it with the baskets I put in there

Honestly, I thought it was going to be a lot easier to jump right back in to sewing.  I had some high hopes.  And honestly, it was a lot harder than I thought.  I started on Sunday morning...and it started off well with measuring and cutting.  But then I couldn't figure out how to reserve on the sewing machine.  Strike one!!  I had to wait until my mom came over to help me figure it out.  Then it was "intermission" while we had a little BBQ with some delicious smoked meat courtesy of Jimmy and Bobby!

So Monday morning, as I mentioned, I woke up bright and early, determined to finish it that day.  I wasn't about ready to miss out on a fun weekend to get nothing accomplished.  And it didn't start off good.  I messed up and had to take out the stitching TWICE because I sewed the wrong sides together STRIKE TWO.  So I got up, went to Starbucks and Einstein Brothers for some caffeine and get Jimmy some breakfast as he was fast asleep.  I brought it home, sat on the patio to enjoy the beautiful KS weather and finished my book.  Then I was at it again.  Got almost done...and then we had to go to my grandmother's for lunch.  Got home and realized I was going to use buttons, but had no idea how to make a button hole and not have the sides fringe.  I watched you tube videos, googled my sewing machine...and I'm sure there is a way, but I went with what I knew after no luck and a grocery store trip and making dinner in between.  I just cut small holes with a carpet cutter.  Sewed the buttons and and DONE.  Couldn't be happier.  At least one of the projects is done:

(1) Recover the bench that was in the family room (and just white) and put it in the hallway

(2) Make some pillows

(3) Make a valance to go in the family room and keep the red panels underneath with the main print

(4) With my other creation, the console table, use it with the baskets I put in there

What do you think?

Tried to get a picture of the buttons, but they are red.  They look fine.  Just don't take a close look.  Oh, and there is the tile that Jimmy as going to put down this weekend - but my dad was very upset because apparently he wants to put it down after his finger "heals" (did I mention he drilled a hole through his finger with a drill bit last week helping my sister with something??) because he has great ideas.  Haha.  He was out of town this weekend and when I told him Jimmy was just going to do it, he got really sad.  So Jimmy took one for the team and didn't tile this weekend.  Hmmm....not sure how that worked out?!

The other projects I worked on?  Using Ana White's amazing blog and built some furniture!  AHHH!!!  It was amazing.  I am already planning my next projects.  More to come on the projects I did this weekend and just how easy and wonderful they were :)  So excited about this!!

OH - and I learned to use a saw and cut some WOOD.  With the safety glasses.  It was awesome!

But in the mean time, I will leave you with this gorgeous picture of Kansas City last night on top of the Liberty Lofts.  So pretty and what a perfect night it was!!!  The weather was gorgeous!  We tried to go to Pat Green, but didn't make it in time.  So sad.

But we did get to see some fireworks!!  And listen to some wonderful music by the KC Symphony honoring those that have gone before us in many different ways, but in particular those that serve our country and died protecting our freedom.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and took some time to relax and rejuvenate :)  Here's to a 4 day work week!!