Hello Grass, I've missed you

I never realized how awesome it is to have grass in your yard until I moved to the desert. The majority of yards in Albuquerque only have rocks in the front yard. Our backyard had been neglected for a while before we moved into the house and we have been working on cleaning it up. Originally we had planned on doing everything ourselves, but decided to hire someone to put in the sprinkler system and xeriscape the yard, and we are sure glad we did. Apparently our lot is extra rocky at one point the owner along with 2 workers were out in the yard with two ditch witches and pick axes to get the rocks out. We have a small area of grass and xeriscaped the rest of the yard. We need to touch up paint on the fence, since there were some areas where the dirt was piled up higher, before they did some grading. We also have a drip system that goes to our "L" flowerbed and around the yard to the trees. In the spring we will add a few more shrubs and maybe even a small raised bed. It's nice to be done with all the major work.

This was a few days after moving in to the house August 2010

 Spring 2012 clean up

This was the yard a few weeks prior to getting the sprinklers

 Side of the house. Half of the large rocks were dug out when the sprinklers were going in

 View from the gate in to the yard

 Yay for GRASS

 Another view

 View from the corner near the willow tree, looking toward the house

 Riley is not a fan of walking on the rocks

 Dogs laying in the rocks, when the grass is only a few feet away.

New door and a new job!

Over labor day weekend Brice's parents came out to Albuquerque. Brice and his dad worked on taking down the wall remaining wall of the sunroom addition that was poorly built by the previous owners. We still have to tape and mud the drywall, paint the interior and exterior, and poor a small concrete step. We are getting to the point with our projects that the end is in sight!!!! Inside we just have new counters and paint in the master bath and a new vanity and paint in the hallway. Outside we have still been slowly making progress cleaning up, leveling, and are almost ready for sprinklers and sod!


Now that I've talked to my manager and let the people I work with know. I can make the official announcement. I'm leaving the thermal experimental fluids group and moving to the organic materials group. I'm pretty excited the new job! It will officially start at the end of the month.

 

Small Projects

Last weekend Lindsey painted the kitchen and dining area. The color isn't much different than what was there. It's still a cream color, with a little gray brown. Lindsey didn't want to go much darker, since we have the dark floors and cabinets. We still have one dark red accent wall in the dining area. We plan on going to see if the light that Lindsey likes is in stock and then the kitchen will be done...well mostly. We would like to reconfigure the shelves in the pantries, but we have other projects we want to finish first.

We are wanting to finish off our master bathroom. We have been debating about getting new cabinets build that are taller or just getting new counter tops, sinks, and faucets installed. Then all we need is a little paint and a light to finish it off, since we already replaced the large single mirror with two framed mirrors For the hallway bath we are looking at buying a pre-fab 60 inch vanity with double sinks. So we'll have a little plumbing work, since there is only a single sink now. 

Here is a picture of our very mess linen closet

 30 minutes later, thanks to some canvas baskets I got at TJ Maxx

 

 Summer Wreath Lindsey made. It's another one of her Pintrest projects. She sponge painted the H and attached the floors to the grapevine. Now the neighbor girls want to make a pink and purple one.

  

Ugly mailbox! I'm not sure why we have this mailbox, this neighborhood has always has the community mailboxes. I know from one of the neighbors that the lesbians that used to live in the house had another house in the neighborhood that they rented. I'm  guessing they put the mailbox up for their tenants to drop off their rent check. I wanted to take it down, but then we'd have holes in the stucco.

 

So I had some extra spray paint from when I painted an old pot. It's Rustoleum hammered spray paint. It looks a lot better than the white and brass. 

Sunset and clouds looking out the front of our house

 Riley and Bailey running interference on Brice's computer games

 Bailey in a clothes basket bed...Jack is jealous since he was the one the bed was made for

 Can't believe this little guy is almost 9 years old

 We had a busy Friday. We didn't have to work today, so we took both dogs to the vet in the morning for their shots and annual check up. Rusty is doing great, especially considering he is almost 9. He has a couple of warts checked on, but they weren't concerned. Bailey was doing well too, but the vet said she was a little fluffy, and doesn't want her to gain anymore weight. She gets two walks a day and a lot of the time she doesn't even eat all her food. She still has a tucked tummy, I think a few less treats and she'll be good. Jack had an appointment this afternoon for a follow up. It's been a little more than 4 months since his surgery. He's doing well and hasn't had any issues. He doesn't have to go back until November when he's due for shots.

Haven't posted in a while

Well I haven't posted in a while, so I figured I'd update the blog. We had a nice "moneymoon" in the Dominican Republic...pictures in the link for those that haven't seen them on facebook https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1000529079724.2292972.18304404&type=3&l=ff0e54de19 I still need to get my underwater camera developed but every time I remember to grab it when I run errands, the place I go their photo machine is down. Our snorkeling excursion that included swimming with sea lions was our favorite part of the trip.


Last weekend we had a post wedding BBQ with some of our Albuquerque friends. We cooked lots of pulled pork and smoked a couple of chickens. Lindsey also made sopapilla cheesecake, peach crumble cake, and a big batch of homemade ice cream. Our friends and neighbors brought lots of yummy side dishes.

Now that the wedding is over we are planning on trying to get most of our renovation projects finished. Inside there are just a few smaller projects that should be able to be completed in a couple of weekends. We are hoping to pick out bathroom counter tops and sinks, so then all we have left is painting in the bathrooms. Lindsey got paint for the kitchen and has a light picked out so the kitchen is almost 100% done. Our largest project remaining is the backyard. We want to install a sprinkler system and grass in part of the yard and xeriscape the rest so we don't have a huge water bill. We are going to get a couple estimate to see how much it will cost if we hire someone to do it.

Oops, Lindsey screwed up :-)
 

Presented By www.shelbytavernphotography.com

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Presented By www.shelbytavernphotography.com

The wedding photographer, Shelby, posted the online gallery for the wedding pictures. I should have a disk of the images soon. Once I get the disk I will upload the pictures to Mpix and share the album with everyone. If there are pictures you want just let me know what picture(s) and the sizes and I will get them ordered and sent to you.

Preparing for a big day

We have been anticipating a very big day that is quickly approaching. It's the green waste pick up day! In Albuquerque we have a trash can that is provided by the city that we roll out to the curb once a week and everything must fit inside it with the lid closed. If it wasn't for the yard work it wouldn't be a big deal, because we typically make on bag of household trash and on bag of recycling a week. In Oklahoma they would pick up twice a week and pick up anything you put next to the can too. They only do green waste pick up days twice a year. Last year we didn't know about it, so we would work really hard one day, then spend a couple weeks getting rid of everything. We have been spending a couple house each weekend doing the projects that will generate the most trash.

Here is a view of one of the corners of the yard just after we moved in...very over grown.

Here is the current view. We still have lots of work to do. Hopefully we will be ready for sprinklers and some grass this fall or next spring, for part of the yard. I'm planning on getting some drought tolerant plans to put in the L-shaped flowerbed, but would like to have a drip system there The tree isn't as thin as it looks, the leaves are just starting to come out.

Outside our living room window the peach tree is looking good. Last year we didn't get a single peach, because the winter was too hard, but I'm hopeful this year with all the buds on it.

Our next door neighbor girls have started hanging out with us a lot. They "help" us walk the dogs most days. This weekend we played soccer, frisbee, and blew bubbles with them. A couple weeks ago I told the girls that we couldn't play on the weekend because I had to go to Amarillo to try on my wedding dress. Ever since then they have been obsessed with wanting to see my dress. I brought my camera out to show them my dress and showed them pictures of what our cakes looked like too. This weekend they were jumping on their trampoline and talking to us while we worked in the yard and asked If we were married yet. Now they always want to get their pictures taken when they come over, since they saw my camera. Here's a picture of the girls hanging out on the dog canopy in the back yard loving on the dogs...and everyone is smiling and looking at the camera.

Lizzie loving on Bailey

Secret Wedding

Apparently we have been secretive about wedding plans, and haven't told many people when it is. It's June 2 at 7pm in Amarillo.

Here's a link with info about hotels we recommend that are close to the church as well as shopping and restaurants.


http://lindseybrice.ourwedding.com/


Other than wedding stuff and not so awesome retreat we haven't been up to much. Still trying to make progress cleaning up the back yard and doing small projects around the house. I think after a little paint, new counter tops and hardware in the bathrooms, and a few light fixtures and the inside of the house should be done....at least for a while.

Kitchen Backsplash Project

This past weekend Brice and I decided to install a tile backsplash in the kitchen. I couldn't decide what tile to use, so I ended up posting lots of pictures of the samples on facebook to get some feedback from my friends. We ended up settling on a 1x1 glass mosaic tile with different shades of brown and a hint of a reddish tone. I liked the way the reddish tone was picked up by the cherry colored cabinets.

We got started on Saturday morning with fairly high spirits. Frustration working with the tiles quickly set in. I had suggested cutting the mats down, but Brice didn't approve initially until his dad recommended it :-) When we had to cut the tiles frustration hit an all time high for the day, we were ready to be finished and cutting these tiny tiles was a huge pain. We had glass nippers that broke immediately, an angle grinder (which we were too afriad to cut our fingers off with it), and a tile saw (which we were also afraid of cutting off our fingers). By this point the dogs were feeling pretty neglected, so while I ran to Home Depot to buy another pair of glass nippers and a couple other things Brice gave the puppies some attention. One the way home a cute tiny puppy ran out in front of my car and it was almost dark. I stopped and she came right up to me. I looked around and no one was looking for her. So I took her home with me. I brought her in and the stuff I bought then headed back out to try and find her owner. Bailey thought that she was a new toy to play with. After about 35 minutes of so, I was able to locate her home and headed back to finish tiling. After a little more frustration and another trip to home depot we had cutting the tiles down. The solution: a large sacrificial tile and really strong double stick tape. Then Brice was able to cut the tiles on the tile saw.

Sunday it was time to grout. I didn't think about how much grout we were going to have with these tiles, so grouting took longer than expected too. I suggested that after I got a portion done, that Brice should follow behind me cleaning up the grout on the tiles. He didn't think it was necessary, because he was certain he would catch me. Some how I ended up being the one who was cleaning the side of the kitchen that was done first. It was hard to get the grout off, and Brice was sitting on the other side of the kitchen breezing through his section giving me a hard time about still being in the same spot. He then admitted that I was right and that he should have followed behind me cleaning up the grout.

Surprisingly we didn't get too annoyed with each other during the project. We were just ready to have it finished. We are happy with how it turned out, but I don't know if I will be working with glass mosaic tiles again anytime soon.

Tile...you can also see that our blinds are way too long (12 slats to be exact) which we finally fixed this weekend too

Right side of the kitchen

Looking into the kitchen

Left side of the kitchen

Christmas

We has a good Christmas in Amarillo with the family. We were surprised with snow on Christmas day. We also got to meet up with some good friends, Jason and Rachel, and finally got to meet Kennedy.

Bailey with Grandma sledding on Christmas

I had a little accident on the sled and ended up in a ditch. Brice and I didn't bring proper snow gear, because it wasn't originally in forecast, but we found some awesome stuff to wear

Tractor sledding/tubing.

Everyone enjoying one of Bailey's presents

I didn't take any pictures when we met up with Jason, Rachel, and Kennedy. We got Kennedy the singing dog in the video below, Rusty was not a fan of her toy :-)

Almost Christmas

We've (read Lindsey) have been getting ready for Christmas. Lindsey insisted on putting out some Christmas lights, so she wrapped the tree. If we are still in this house next year I have plans of lining the roof :-)

The decorated tree, without any presents.

For some crazy idea I felt the need to make candies and give to the neighbors and people I work with. After dipping a pound of pretzels, a double batch of oreo truffles, peanut butter balls and 8 dozen cookies, I was ready to pull my hair out

Oreo truffles and peanut butter balls

This was the winning self portrait for the Christmas card. My new camera has a setting where I can set a timer for it to take pictures as well as having it take multiple images too. We had to try a couple times and always had it set to take ten pictures, but we were able to get a couple of good pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's been a while since I've posted anything. This year we ended up staying in Albuquerque for Thanksgiving. Finnis and Penni came out and Finnis helped us rebuild the terrible sunroom addition on our house. When we bought the house it was covered with honeysuckle and we didn't know how poorly it was build. We still have to some work to do, but it is much better now. We had a non-tradtional dinner. We smoked a pork shoulder all day, and I also made a green bean casserole, party potatoes, corn casserole, and sopapilla cheesecake. The neighbor kids brought over a pumpkin pie, so I'll make one this week with the ingredients that I bought.

This is sort of a 'before' picture. We had actually already torn down quite a bit of the honeysuckle at this point
Behind all the honeysuckle. The wall wasn't sealed very well and they did a terrible job insulating it. Also, the smaller windows on the right side of the picture didn't even go through the wall, they were covered with dry wall

New window. Brice and his dad sealing up the joints. Siding is up now and we need to prime and paint as well as texture the dry wall on the interior wall

Worst Idea ever

This was quite possibly my worst idea I've had. I had seen these wreathes around and saw how to make them, so I thought I'd give it a try. Before I even started tying the fabric on the wreath form I was regretting my decision. It takes forever to cut all the little strips of fabric. Each strip is about 2 inches wide and 8 inches long...and it seems like a cut a million pieces. I only tied the fabric on the inner two wires of the form, because I was getting impatient, It still looks nice and full, If I had done all four rows I'd still be cutting fabric. Now that it is finished it looks good, but I doubt I will be making another one of these anytime soon.

Added the word Boo in the middle. I think I may eventually paint them green and figure out a better way to attach them

Final ProductMy Bow needs a lot of help, but I ran out of patience.