In This Crazy Life...

Most people have to have official blueprints to build a house. The bank requires it for a construction loan. Well my grandfather is giving me my construction loan, so I'm afraid this is as official as my house plans will get. Dad gave me several copies for plumbers, electricians, and what not. I took one copy and drew our furniture placement. If you look closely you can tell the changes dad made after talking to me, his lines aren't as straight as the others. Anyways, here it is. Our new home. I freaking LOVE my dog shower in the laundry room! If your wondering where all the storage space is, well there will be an attic above the garage. I gave up the storage closet in the garage for my dog shower. Once Kev get his metal building/shop built, he will either park over there and I can use the other half of the garage for storage; or he can park in the garage and I can use some of the metal building/shop for storage.

Do you let your dog/cat lay on your bed? I know some people that do not allow animals on any furniture what so ever. Well. We do. I have leather furniture for a reason. Dog hair does not stick to it! As far as the bed. I keep an old sheet over the duvet cover. This makes it easy to wash every couple of days and keeps the duvet from getting ruined. The dogs don't sleep with us. Hatfield usually sleeps on the couch and Lilly in her kennel. Perla does sleep with us though. She usually sleeps in between our feet. Kev will sometimes let Lilly come lay with me for about 30 minutes in the morning. However, on the weekends we allow everybody to get in the bed and cuddle. Hatfield usually hangs out at the bottom of the bed, but Lilly loves to be right in your face.

I can finally reveal my secret. A couple of Fridays ago Kev and I went to talk to the jeweler about making my ring. My grandmother had given me a diamond that could be used as a center stone and his mom gave him her wedding set (his parents are divorced) and another ring with sapphires. So we used six of the sapphires and my grandmother's diamond to make a ring. I think it's so special. His mothers' wedding set had several tiny diamonds that we will use to make my band. We are taking her center stone and three sapphires to make her a pendant. So. On to the proposal. I went to happy hour with a friend yesterday after school. Kev texted about 5:15 asking if I was still at On the Border that he was going to be a little late. (He was really making sure I wasn't home or coming home so he could change and get over to the land.) So I stayed and had another margarita. On my way home, I decided to drive by the land. They were supposed to lay the foundation this week, so I

We're engaged!!!!!! Details to come.

Yesterday, we celebrated our St. Patty's Day low key. We had plans to go to the horse races, but it was cold and rainy so we decided against that idea. We slept in, or should I say laid in bed talking and surfing the The World Wide Web for house ideas. Kev finally got up and made green pancakes. I worked on some lesson plans (Mapped out the rest of the year! Only 10 more weeks.) while he switched out our beds. My terrible 11 year old bed is now at his house and his wonderful hardly ever been slept on bed is here! We watched a very cute movie, Here Comes the Boom and I cooked an Irish dinner.  I came across a recipe for Dublin Coddle while searching for Irish recipes. It requires very minimal ingredients; onion, potato, irish sausage, bacon, pepper, and parsley. I couldn't find Irish sausage so I used these. You layer everything making sure to season each layer with pepper and parsley. Pour bullion flavored boiling water over it and bake it at 300 for several hours. I even

 I spend most of my free time these days staring at the freaking computer looking for ideas for our house. There is a site Houzz . It's my new addiction. If you haven't ever explored it check it out. You can type in anything dealing with houses and get thousands and thousands of pictures to browse through. I look at EVERYTHING and pin the things I like on Pinterest. This makes it so easy to go back and review favorites. I have several boards dedicated to various rooms and the outside of the house. My focus these days is on the exterior. Hopefully in the next two weeks I will have a house pad and be ready to frame the house. I  know that I want a metal roof (not sure what color), cedar columns, stone, and cedar siding/shingles. not sure about color combination, how much siding or how much stone, and the front porch and walkway (the front yard will be pretty steep). I'm on Spring Break this week so I plan on visiting some lumber yards so I get a closer look at certain materia

I'm soooooooo excited about this afternoon!!! I can hardly contain myself. I want to tell so bad but I'm waiting til it's official.

Just some random photos to show how strange my cat is. I've never known a cat to love table scraps. Well. Mine does. Here she is drinking the milk leftover from my cereal. If you set anything she likes on the table she can't wait to jump up there and get a bite. She loves Kev's lap! I think I move around too much and get up too much for her to sit in mine. She only likes my lap when I'm napping. I was trying to fins a sports bra and thought maybe it had fallen behind the drawer (I have to stuff my drawers so full that sometimes that happens.) When I went back later to replace the drawer, I found her snuggled up sleeping. (Excuse the dust. Really?! Who pulls out their drawers and dusts?) Shopping at Petsmart. We used to have a cat condo for her and she loved it. When the ex and I split I he didn't take it so I sold it in a garage sale. I will get her another one, but probably not until we move. I like both of these. i think she would like the taller one be

One if my best friends from way back in jr. high had her baby. She tried and tried for several years and yesterday we welcomed Becklyn Grace into this world. She is absolutely perfect! I've never really been sure if I wanted kids or not. Recently I've been leaning more towards a yes. Now I know it is definitely something I want. Until the time comes, I have the most beautiful little "niece" to hold and love and spoil rotten.

Well I called the water company today because I still haven't heard from them and I sent everything in weeks ago. Well, come to find out they can't find it and I know they had it because a lady called to ask a question about it a week and a half ago. Anyways he said that he could still give me a quote. You need to know that before I bought the property I asked if there was city water readily available. That meant there not 1,000 feet down the road. I was told yes. So when I find out that it's a 1,000 feet down the road and going to cost $28,000, I was speechless. Readily available my ass! Come to find out that is why the person who wanted it before me didn't buy it. I guess they didn't want that happening again, so they told me it was. Anyways... After I calmed down, I called a good friend of mine who just built out past me to ask her about her well. She told me how to get good pressure and to make sure that I put an oxidizer instead of a chlorinator. She likes he

I ran the Little Rock half Marathon Sunday morning. It was a chilly 26 degrees at race time, but nice and sunny. We had to hurry to get this picture before the race. The cycles were getting ready to start, so the pic isn't great but I got it. Kev is such a great sport. He didn't complain at all about standing outside in frigid temperatures. Once the race started he walked back to the car. His only job was to meet me around mile 6 to take any clothes that I had shed and then again at the finish line to take pictures. I bought the professional ones from the St. Jude Half, but good god they cost a small fortune and they don't even send you a picture just the download. Anyways. Once I started moving I started warming up. By mile one I had taken off my ear warmer and by mile 3 I had shed my jacket. My hands and wrists got a little chilly later but not enough to want my jacket. I bought some arm warmers and think they will be perfect for these kind of situations. As you can see,

Just some random pictures from the week. I have been banned from the land this weekend. Dad is digging up stumps and burning. Let's face it, I don't need to be exposed to Poison Ivy fumes.  I have ran errands for him and shopped for appliances today. I saw this at Marshall's and thought it was funny. It so describes my extended family.  A couple of nights a week I ask for a chocolate martini.  They are so yummy and a good way to curb a sweet tooth without a lot of fat. Perla picking the leftover tuna out of my salad. yes, my cat eats table scraps. Chicken is her favorite. Helping Kev at work by standing on the bottom of his ladder. Hatfield enjoying some peanut butter.  I let the dogs take turns licking the leftover peanut butter out of the jar. Another one of Kev's views. This is the Arkansas River.

Let em just say that I LOVE buying running gear! I bought this shirt from CafePress . They have really cute sayings. I bought Kev one that said " I don't do half marathons, I do a half marathon runner. " He wore it for the St. Jude Half. anyways I'm wearing this one for the race sunday. It fit me. I love to run and I love to run the races, but I'm lousy at training. Since the first of December, I have ran maybe 15 times. Most have been short 2-3 miles runs. My long runs have consisted of two five milers, a 7.5 miler, and a 10 miler. My new Under Armour jacke t! I have a black one very similar to this one. I have several capris with pink in them so when i saw this on the website, I just had to have it. It was even on sale! Well... they didn't have it in my size.  I did a google search for it and found it on eBay for the same price as the sale. I love it because it has the thumb holes so you can pull it over your hands and knuckles. It makes a world of diff