Cafe de Valentine

so i'm totally addicted. i've watched it seasons past and i have emotionally attached myself to various contestants but never like i have this season and never this early on! i am NOT a fan of this new 36 down to 12 system. i was way to emotional last night and i was quite distraught that i didn't get to watch tuesday night's performances on tuesday night and i didn't get to vote. i can say that if i had had to hand pick three out of that group those would have been my choices. i was thrilled at the top 12 selections. however i can't leave you with only those thoughts of course... *i am thankful that there will still be wild card spots open because i do think that anoop and possibly ricky braddy deserve one of those spots. *i am irritated that this weeks group had quite a few good folks and the preview of next weeks group looks like there are very few that i really enjoy. why couldn't they spread this weeks group out a bit? *i am thankful that tatiana is gon...

since in my last post (over three weeks ago) i mentioned that i've become incredibly lazy and lathargic and rather depressing to be around i thought i would spice up the blog world a bit. for some reason today i feel like i have 50+ things to blog about, so there will be no true topic or form to this post other than the fact that i'm currently motivated to tell you all the things that are spinning in my head at this moment. we have created a list of things we'd like to do around the house. we've started checking decor items off the list as we come across things as well as gathering new items we've wanted (ie: a futon in the spare/guest bedroom rather than a large sectional couch). there are still items on that list, but for now i think we're starting to focus on bigger things/projects. top of my list? 1. pour concrete in the backyard. we want to extend the patio the full length of the house and wrap down the side of the house so that we don't have to treck t...

so i'd love to tell you how busy we've been and how we've been working such long hours and have't had a single moment to stop and blog about out busy lives... but that would all be a lie. the truth is, we've been lazy. we've come home from work by six each evening and we've created something "quick" for dinner and we've sat. sat on the couch until we feel our eyes closing (which has been around nine this week) and then we head to bed. i haven't done a load of wash, i haven't done dusting, organizing, tidying, cleaning, sorting, why my christmas tree is still in the same place it was a month ago because i haven't gone out to the garage to get the boxes to put it away. i've said every day for the last two weeks that i was going to take it down... but i just haven't. part of me wonders if we aren't the laziest people ever. some of me wonders if we aren't clinically depressed. the other part of me knows the problem. it...

i promise that i have some fun posts coming up soon, but for right now i'm feeling a little heavy hearted and figured what better way to vent. the end of december was a bit rough for us valentine's with the economy the way it is and tulare county (my husband's employer) making massive cut backs and mass lay off's r has been on edge each day hoping that he has a job to return to. we got a phone call dec 15th from jill's mom (my friend who's wedding i was in the last sept) saying that her new husband had been hurt at work. he has lost both hands and is currently home trying to recuperate. four days after the initial injury and multiple surgeries they found out jill is pregnant with their first. they are both incredibly excited and while this could be just the motivation and distraction they needed, jill is still a bit overwhelmed being newly pregnant and helping her new husband make a full recovery. last sunday the 28th of dec my grandma judy was taken into the ...

we had a grand time last night in the fellowship and laughter of good friends. the boys did beat us girls (by one question) at battle of the sexes, but what girl knows what RPM stands for and what Greg Norman's nick name is (yes girls, i had no clue who he even was either). none the less... grand time had by all. i'm not one of those girls that gets all sentimental and reflective at the end of a year or with the start of a new year, but i did enjoy looking back a bit over the events of 2008 and wondering how many of those things (ie: graduation, new job for r, buying a house, buying a new truck, etc etc) did i know where going to happen on this day last year? with that question comes the wonderment of what 2009 will bring to our lives. sometimes i wish i knew... and sometimes it's nice to sit back and enjoy each other and wait to see what God has for us when we get there. at the end of the year. i think one word sums it up for us. THANKFUL.

my husband has been hard at work this weekend. he was determined to clean his garage. i had no clue until we were home owners that my husband was particular about his garage, but i guess that's the one space that is all HIS, and he loves it! my cousin, ron, who is a great carpenter came over yesterday in the early morning to help him measure it out, make a list of supplies and get started. i think ryan had great intentions of "helping" with the project... but ron is good. ron set to work and in about 4 hours ryan had a work bench and great shelves. ryan spent all of today putting things where he wanted them and organizing the rest of the garage. hanging things on the walls to get stuff off the floor and making sense of all the little gadgets that go into a garage. he's quite proud of himself and if i do say so myself... it looks great! the start of the project... the finish product! he has storage above, storage inside and storage below. plus pegboard on the back for ...

it's been sometime since i've blogged and it's long over due. the madness of moving, carried over to the madness of unpacking and decorating (my favorite part) which then carried over to christmas shopping/wrapping, which then carried over into 5 christmas gatherings with various sides of the family, which then carried into a recoup period and a "cleaning up of the christmas chaos" and then my husband decided that he wanted a built in work bench in his garage so that was the saturday project along with installing the new kitchen faucet we got for christmas and now it's sunday evening, we're trying to scramble and get ready for church and i realized that i haven't yet posted photos of any of the projects. so after that horribly long run on sentance that contained less info that you wanted to know and more rambling of our crazy last month... here's some photos to make it worth it. this is the entry way with our game hutch. we challange anyone willing...