Laundry Room: It'll All Come Out in the Wash

It has been a crazy summer.  The fact that the weather has not cooperated has not kept us from being super busy.  It feels good to get this updated like I keep thinking about doing!

On top of all the traveling and camping going on, last month an awful thing happened: our washer blew up, flooding the whole laundry room!  Matt had to pull out all the flooring and put fans in the room for about three days to dry up all the water.

It sucked.  But as luck would have it, our neighbors' dryer was dying at the same time.  They went out and bought a new set and we acquired their washer.  SCORE!  

We further turned this little frown upside down by taking this opportunity to do a little remodeling.  This house was purchased out of foreclosure, and was a complete mess when Matt bought it.  He has done amazing things so far, but the laundry room has been low on the list.

  Can you see my hands and forehead?  I'm trying not to get me in the mirrored (YES MIRRORS!!!!), cabinets.  I cannot believe someone thought those mirrors were a good idea.  They thought it was such a great idea they did it in the kitchen too!  I would not believe it myself either if I had not seen it.  

This picture has horrible lighting, but the door is a dingy dirty white and there were once these hideous egg yolk colored mini blinds covering the window.

So we painted the ceiling, the walls, took down the mirrors and painted the cabinets and put in clothes rod.  It is not finished yet and I hate to put up pictures with the room only 80% done, but I just cannot hold in the excitement of this accomplishment any longer.  Plus, I told my brother, (he just so happens to be my first follower!) that I was doing this and I want to show him the progress.

So, here is just a little sneak peak.  I am going on a big camping trip in a week and then to Disneyland (yipee!) with the my family so the reveal will have to wait until the end of next month.  Not to worry though, I'll have other things to talk about until then!

"I Love Dogs"

While this statements is VERY true.  It wasn't made by me.  This morning while getting ready for work I received a text from my sister-in-law that read, "I love dogs."  My deductive reasoning has led me to believe that the Squeaky Text Bandit strikes again! 

Bare with me here:  I know my sister-in-law(SIL) loves dogs and I even know she loves me, but I also know that we do not communicate by text and therefore know that this was not from her.  Therefore, the only explanation to this is that my little silly niece got a-hold of her mother's phone and got me.  Matt too because as soon as I told him, "The Squeaky Text Bandit strikes again!" he says, "I know me too!"  She got us both and i'm not sure how many others, YET.

Now, I know you are probably thinking, squeaky?  Yes, she is VERY squeaky!  She has the highest pitch squeal EVER and laughs non-stop.  I can just see her texting that and laughing while doing it.  I love her, her big sis too.  They are great girls.

So while we are on the subject of dogs, I thought this would be a great time to introduce mine.  This my friends is Rodeo.  As his name might suggest, there is never a dull moment when this fun loving goof ball is around.  He is a girl's best friend. 

Rodeo was born December 7, 2008.  I picked him out when he was two weeks old  It was between him and two other boys, he won my heart: 

Rodeo at two weeks looking like a little mole.

If your first thought was of Garth Brooks' song "Rodeo" then you are on the right track.  That's where I got his name.  I like Garth Brooks so much I almost named him Brooks.  Glad I didn't.  Rodeo fits him so well.  I could bore you with the hundreds of sappy pics I have shamelessly taken of my little pouch, but i'm sure you'll see more of him as time goes on.  I'll just leave you with this last one and if you still don't love dogs like me and my niece (or at least this one), after seeing this pic, then you probably have no soul anyway ;)

Driving down I-5...how could you resist this face?!?!?!

Don't Look Just Leap

This moment is a long time coming, I would say about eh, a year and a half.  I need to give Jordan, (I know right?!), from Blueprint Crafts props for turning me onto the blogging world.  Sure I searched on Google ALL THE TIME, but I guess I never realized what I was looking at when reading people's blogs.  My eyes were opened when I was on facebook one day.  Jordan posted about a project she was working on, and BAM!  it was like a whole new world opened up to me!  Click, after click, after click, I found this place of people who came together and shared their ideas and lives.  She and the other lovely bloggers I found inspired me.  I've been a blog stalker ever since.  Don't get me wrong, I've wanted to join for a while.  What has stopped me is this post right here.  I could never think of what to write or how to start.  Would it be interesting, funny, would I do it right?  I thought about it so much it  was paralyzing.  So here it is.  Take it or leave it.  My first post!  The title of this post describes this experience perfectly:  don't think about it, just do it!  Here goes!!!