Milou loves sandwiches

Redecorating and Organizing

Since we've been running out of usable floor in our relatively tiny space, we decided to move our storage up on the wall. It took three trips to IKEA (unfortunately I couldn't find any antique wall mounted storage) and eight hours to hang them in the studs and with toggle/butterfly bolts. One is a bright red wall shelf with a cool hinged door but the others are actually kitchen cabinets that I flipped and used for DVD storage. They were definitely a creative score, since they're normally eighty bucks and I got them for less than twenty bucks on clearance. A few modifications and an additional bracket and bam, DVD storage on the wall.

Right now there are storage bins inside the red cabinet and storage bins above it.

The kitchen cabinets are filled with DVDs, double stacked, and freed up tons of space on my shelves. I generally don't like double stacking DVDs since if you can't see them you won't watch them, but I ended up putting seasons of TV shows back there and I think it'll be okay.

Both of them are up there so solid a small adult could sleep or hang on them. They definitely make the walls look a bit "fuller", a nice way of saying cluttered, but I'm happy if they free up space elsewhere.

In the spirit of spring/summer cleaning, we also started tackling the closet and garage. Some lovely Ikea shoe boxes now sit on my shoe shelves stuffed with rarely used clothing. Five of those small bad boys and space bags for sweaters freed up an entire drawer and shelf, making way for my massive sock collection to have its own drawer. We also donated a good couple bags to charity which freed up even more space.

The garage was a bit more complicated since we have tons of boxes filled with stuff, so space bags and those big rubbermaid storage bins came in super handy. I very much enjoyed going through things and found a bunch of my old baby clothes (hello eighties!) and my moms old letter collection, which pretty much exactly matches the nursery letter walls I've been coveting on pinterest. It's not helping to reduce my baby rabies but I am really looking forward to putting them to good use :)

A Job Interview!

While it wasn't for me (yes, still unemployed) it was for E which is awesome in so many different ways.

Around our neighborhood, a big company is developing a new sports network and is wisely looking to poach people from it's rival network. Since E is fabulous at his job, he was one of the people recommended by someone who is jumping ship, and today he had his first in person interview.

Buff-o-saurus

Overall he said it went really well and he feels very well qualified for the job. It would be full time with really incredible benefits, pretty much unheard of in sports, so we have our fingers crossed that he gets an offer. We're hoping to know more in a couple weeks since they want to start soon and let their new employees give two weeks notice.

Thinking major good thoughts for E as this could be the game changer that gives him the opportunity to move up!

Love this Ad

I'm sure everyone has seen this ad, but it's just so cute and clever that I have to share it. With such a feel good premise, it's hard not to smile when you watch it. I offer a major nod to the Coke advertising team, job well done.

Idiling Or Inching Forward?

Somehow it's already the middle of June, which means I've had no job for the last two and a half months. Unemployment is a colossal pain in the butt, but I'm glad it's there since E's work can be really slow and it has definitely helped carry us. To certify, I apply to at least three jobs a week, although really I'm applying for everything I can get my hands on.  No offers yet, but I'm well qualified for everything I apply to so I'm hoping something comes through soon.

In the meantime, I'm looking at some online MPH programs and and E and I are discussing expanding our family in the future. While we would never have a child without the ability to support it, we've been thinking I might have more time to parent a baby if I'm going to school online full time vs working full time. E's schedule is fairly weird and flexible, with a lot of nights and weekends, so he'd probably get to be present great deal as well. There's a lot to consider, mostly financially, since we would otherwise love to be parents, but we're starting to work it out more seriously.

Wouldn't I look even cuter with a sibling?

To possibly prepare for having kids in the next few years, E and I are attempting to get healthier (again). This means losing the copious amount of weight I we have gained since the wedding and exercising like I we used to before I was working full time. We've been hitting up the treadmill and cutting out white stuff like bread, pasta, and sugar, although I'm not going as hard core as I did before the wedding. If I cut them out completely, the weight practically falls off, but comes right back as soon as I smell a piece of bread. I'm hoping for something a little more sustainable this time and while I haven't gone anywhere near a scale yet, I'm pretty sure it's working.

On the same topic, we bought a bottle of prenatals and I've been trying to take them to increase my vitamin levels. The first week was just fine, but during the second week I found them really disagreeing with my stomach. I'm not sure if I didn't eat enough food with them, or if they just have an ingredient that makes me want to hurl, but it's a really good thing I didn't take them while actually pregnant because oh boy would that have been bad. I've been trying the Nature Made brand with DHA ala Costco, but I might be in the market for a new one, maybe from Whole Foods or Trader Joes. I have plenty of time to pick a good one before I really need to take it, but I'd like to make it part of my daily routine sooner rather than later. Any suggestions for a good brand?

Knobs

Tintin started it and Milou finished it off with a few good chews. Looks like I'll be in the market for some cute new knobs! If we were moving I'd probably paint the whole night stand in addition to putting some cute new knobs on. It would look nice in the living room as a little end table stained a dark mahogany, or since it's a little beat up, a coat of paint might look better. New knobs are definitely in order though, and I'm thinking something fun:

             

All knobs are from Anthropologie 

There are so many it's impossible to decide! 

Happy Birthday E!

Happy 27th Birthday to my wonderful husband, E! 

This year, in addition to a good portion of a new wardrobe, E got two birthday dinners and his own personal magic show, put on by his step dad G. G, who used to be a magician and has recently gotten back into magic, put on a show for E's 4th birthday and used to use E as his magician's assistant. However, as a child, there was always one trick that E refused to help with: the guillotine. Since E is now an adult and knows how most of the tricks work, he decided to go ahead and help with the big chop. I had a moment where I was ready to say thanksbutnothanks! Get your head out of there! But miraculously, E survived. G is going to be performing in an official theater next month so we're going to have to go and see him again.

E getting his head chopped off

Once again it seems like the year has flown by, and all of a sudden E is almost thirty and it's almost time to replace his car and our plans for the future are almost happening and all of our almosts are creeping up faster than we could have ever expected! It's exciting and maybe a little bit scary, but hopefully we'll be in a different place together by E's next birthday.

Over the past year, E seems to have grown up overnight. Gone are the blonde locks and smooth face he's had since childhood, now he just "looks" like an adult. It's weird but it feels appropriate, given everything we're hoping to accomplish in the next year.

About this time last year, E at 26 years old

E at 27, all grown up!

 Look out grownupville, here we come!

Anniversary Celebrations

 While sitting at dinner for our anniversary, it occurred to E and I that we couldn't remember what we'd done for most some of our anniversaries.  Even when we could remember the "big" things we'd done, we couldn't remember which anniversaries we were celebrating. It's kind of awful, E even got me by asking what we did for our last anniversary and it took me a couple beats to figure it out....DUH, we got married!

5th Anniversary Promise Rings

So, after consulting facebook, photos, and various online journals, both dead and alive, we have determined the following:

2012 - 1st/10th - Mastros, and for our first wedding anniversary gift to each other, paper tickets to see Green Day's American Idol play.
2011 - 9th - We got Married! Yay!
2010 - 8th - Mastros? Probably?
2009 - 7th - The Smoke House? Maybe?
2008 - 6th - Picnic at the Beach! We had a fire pit and everything :)
2007 - 5th - Dinner at home with promise rings!
2006 - 4th - Apparently we had a big fight? Then probably went to the Smoke House.
2005 - 3rd - The Smoke House for dinner with Evan's family
2004 - 2nd - Evan came over for a bubble bath ;)
2003 - 1st - We went to the movies with friends :) And then had a sleep over, aww

I'm preserving this here because in a few more years who knows what we'll have forgotten. For the life of me I can't remember what we did in 2009, but an old journal post dated two weeks before indicated that we hadn't made plans yet. Whenever we couldn't figure what to do we usually went to the Smoke House so I think that's a safe bet.  It used to be our go to place until it kind of started to suck, and we got tired of driving out to Burbank.

I wonder what we'll do next year? Traditionally the second wedding anniversary is cotton so we'd better start planning now and we might be able to plan something memorable. Also, I would like to go back in time and punch my teenage self in the face. Text speak is quite possibly the most annoying thing on the planet.