Bathroom almost wrapped up...and home appraisal

Sigh....

The appraisal is over.

Thank you, God.

I got off of work Monday morning and came home to do some

final tidying-up before the 10:00 appraisal.

Roy did a great job getting things cleaned up-but

the floors still needed to be swiffered so I 

spent an hour running around swiffering 

and lighting candles like a mad-woman.

Then the appraiser showed up at 9:40-20 minutes early!

WTH! I needed those 20 minutes!!

I threw my swiffer in a closet and tried to wipe the sweat

off my face before running to answer the door.

Here's my next question...

are all appraisers required to be ex-CIA operatives??

I mean, these people are always stone cold and emotionless.

Our guy was no different, completely impossible to read and

he only spoke about 10 words the entire time he was here.

I don't get it...I dont see why unfriendliness and 

lack of feedback is required to give a home appraisal.

Ugh.

But it's over now..and for that, I am happy.

Now I just sit and wait.

Unfortunately the new guest bath didn't get completely finished

before Monday, but all the tiling was done and I'm hoping

it won't count against us.

I feel like it's pretty obvious that we're going to finish it,

so hopefully it will add some value.

Here's how the bathroom was looking Monday morning..

We obviously still need to paint and

get the plumbing all trimmed out, but I think

it's turned out pretty nice...

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year...

I mean,

Family + great food = a perfect holiday in my book!!

I had to sleep-in because I worked Thanksgiving night, but

Roy woke me up at about 12:30 and helped me make the two

dishes I was responsible for taking to Thanksgiving;

Asparagus Casserolle and Pumpkin Crunch Cake--YUM!

We headed to Thanksgiving with my side of the family first,

My cousin Arlene always puts together such a great dinner.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from

 Thanksgiving with the Jacksons...

Cousin Barry & Larry, Uncle Jeff, Royster and Pops

The Thanksgiving table

Moi

Clay and Kelly

Arlene and Pops

And our annual family photo shoot in which

we always try to get our Christmas card shot...

this one's my fav...

After eating our first huge meal of the day we headed

to Roy's moms to stuff our faces yet again!!

One of Roy's brothers and his wife and kids were there.

Have I mentioned how crazy I am over his sweet nieces & nephews?

Just look at these two!!

So freakin' cute...

We couldn't stay too long because I had to leave

and get dressed for work...

but my takeaway points from Thanksgiving with Roy's

mom are these:

1) The woman has some serious skills in the kitchen and

2) Holidays are like a million times more fun w/ kids around

The last two days have been spent scurrying around finishing

up projects and trying to keep things clean despite

the work going on in our bathroom...

how does work being done in ONE tiny room

somehow lead to an entire house of filth!??

Our appraisal is in 1 day (EEEEKK!!)

so the pressure is on!!

I put up some Christmas decorations last night.

This was my first time decorating for the holidays since living here,

the first 2 years our house was too big of a mess

to even bother trying to decorate,

 but this year things are much more put-together and

we're having Christmas here!!

I was so excited about getting some decorations

that when I got off work Friday morning I joined all

the other crazies and headed out to find the deals!

sleep deprivation + mob mentality = 

serious overspending

eh...Oh well...

I got some great stuff that I hope I

can keep around for years to come.

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was

a day to be thankful for!!

Day 3 guest bath reno...

Here's the bathroom on the end of day 3...

Roy and I had a joint panic attack this morning when

we woke up and decided that the tile looked too grey...

Much pacing, nail biting and a few tears later (from Roy of course..duh)

 we were at the tile store getting some different (GREY-er) floor tiles

to help pull the bathroom together....

hopefully this will solve the case of the bathroom-gone-grey!

The tile guys came over late today-so there wasn't quite as much progress.

BUT....

I'm not too upset about that because today.... 

we bought a newwww.... 

washer and dryer!!

Waah-Hoo!!!

Ask me how long my washer has been broken....

Too freakin long!! Like 3 months or something stupid like that...

Ask me how much I hate going to the laundromat...

Enough to avoid going for weeks at a time...even if I have to wash socks

and underwear in the sink...(sad but true...)

We weren't completely planning on buying a new set so soon,

but thanks to Lowe's (and an amazing deal they're having

for Black Friday), I will no longer be seen at 

our local laundromat: 'The Bubble Room'...

No offense Bubble Room, but you smell wierd, 

your patrons are kind of sketchy,

your seating has mystery stains, and your vending machine is pathetic.

Good Riddens!

I promise never to forsake the luxury that is an

in-home washer and dryer!!

Helloooo new Samsung twinkies!!

Now I'm off to drag the Christmas decorations up from the basement

and to start making my annual 'Asparagus Casserolle' for

tomorrows Thanksgiving celebration!

I'm thanking God for so much this year...

My husband and our marriage.

My family.

My health. 

My best friend.

My home.

My job.

 ....and my new washer and dryer!...hehe

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Bathroom in progress..

Day 2 of tiling went pretty well...

It's always a little nerve wracking when the work finally starts...

We've spent SO much time & money on materials, with nothing but 

a hope and a prayer for how it will all look when it's finished.

I feel like I anxiously watch things come together and 

trying to gauge if it's going to look anything like I'd planned...

And because I usually 'design'
(I'm using the word design loosely here folks)

the projects, I feel an extra weight of responsibility for how it turns out.

So far I'm pleased..

The tile looks more grey than I'd planned, but I still really like it.

I just might end up going with a different wall paint color to help

lighten things up.

Here's the end of day numero dos..

the old green paint isn't meshing too well

with the carrera marble....

but we'll just try to ignore it for now.

While the tilers did their thing upstairs, 

Roy and I kept busy working on other projects around the house.

We have a 'drop ceiling' in our basement.

(barf, gag, vomit....)

Some of the tiles had gotten broken and stained in the

last few years as a result of our remodeling,

and were needing to be completely replaced.

It Sucked. Big Time.

For 1...it was a dusty, dirty, get crap in your eyes kind of job.

At one point, Roy's hair was completely grey..

and I hocked up ceiling tile from the back of my throat...

For 2...it's freaking hard to get the tiles to 'drop' into where they're meant to go.

Even when we precisely measured the old ceiling tiles, 

the new ones somehow managed to be too big or too small.

It made for lots of trial and error...

Fortunately, I feel like Roy and I usually work really well together,

even in frustrating situations (like repairing stupid ceiling tiles)...

but when I'm in doubt, I like to watch that show on

the DIY network called 'Renovation Realities'...

those crazy couples always make me feel pretty darn good

about Roy and I's ability to work as a team!!

And then ....we did this!!

curtains!

They add so much to a room!

Makes me even more excited to eventually hang

some in our master bedroom and dining room.

Appraisal is just 5 days away!!

Lots more work to be done...

It's my blog and I post pictures when I want to!!

That post title makes no sense, but heck if I care right now.
This is going to be a jumbled mess cause I'm feeling too lazy to think of anything
interesting to say and I'm distracted by watching Sister Wives....

True or False...
I had bronchitis last month.
True.

True or False...
I'm getting bronchitis again?
True.

True or False...
My weakened immune system is due to a horrible disease process?
This is yet to be determined...but I'm definitely suspicious...

So, I had intentions of partaking in that 'Friday Phone Dump' business

that people do, but as usual I'm a few days late and alotta dolla's short...

But ya know what?

See if I care, I'm gonna dump pictures all over my blog today-on a MONDAY!

Boo-Yah!!

Me = blogging rebel.
I love my Instagram App... 

Roy & I clothes shopping...fly fishing anyone??

My new hat!! And it doesn't make me look like a giant penis cone-head! Ha!

Friday date night @ the bowling alley!

he was looking quite dapper if I do say so myself...

New doorknobs! Life's little luxuries folks...

Saturday night-- out to dinner with Mom & Pops...

love that smile

My diet has been really on point lately.....

like I said...stellar eating habits here...

                                                 these peppermint brownie cake pops are dee-lish!!

On the road to mom and dad's house for a visit....

Moral of the story is that I've been BUSY lately!

Friday Roy and I had date night!

We went to dinner and then decided to go bowling...

and then THIS happened...

Can't say I didn't warn him...

Saturday mom and dad brought us our new island,

 and I'm loving it!!

I can't wait to get new stools and some decorations for it!

Do you think I should put a rug under it??

I'm still undecided...

We went and did some window shopping and then 

headed to dinner at Macaroni Grill.

I don't think I've ever had a bad meal at this restaurant,

and to top it off, the manager came by and gave us a

a 20% off coupon to apply to our bills!! Sweeeeet!

I'm only working 2 days this week so that I can

spend time with the Royster for his b-day.

Speaking of his birthday....I'm an epic failure of a wife.

I finally just had enough with the whole surprise birthday party idea.

Too many variables and too much money.

Maybe for his 40th?? 

Surely 10 yrs will give me enough time to plan a party...maybe...

So...I think on Thanksgiving (aka his birthday) we'll 

plan on going around to see as much family as possible.

Friday we're going to try and get some of his family together go

bowling.

And Saturday, I made hotel reservations for us on the Plaza.

The lights will be on by then, and I'm hoping maybe we can

go for dinner, drinks and dessert!

It's not the grand affair I had originally planned, but I think it will

be fun and romantic none-the-less...

Today our tile-guys came over,

 and started working on our guest bathroom.

 I'm so pumped to get this project done!!!

Our house is being appraised on the 28th and I'm hoping and

praying that it will be finished before then.

Prep-work is complete!

It should be a great week and I'm looking forward to the

start of the Holidays!

Weekend Wrap-Up and Grammy-love

Gah! 

How is this weekend over already??

Maybe it's cause I worked Friday, but sheesh...

I got up early Saturday after  sleeping napping

for 4 hours and met one of my girlfriends from 

highschool for lunch.

It was really good to catch up.

I'm notorious for sucking-at keeping in touch with people,
so even though I had to sacrifice sleep I'm  

glad I went ahead and met up with her.

___________________________________

After lunch, I headed over to Grammy's where we had

a  little birthday party for her.

She turned 88 on the 11th.

I seriously can't even believe it.

It's so hard and so surreal to see people you love

growing old.  

And such a harsh reminder that we are ALL aging,

time is passing,

and life is whizzing past us.

I've said this for as long as I can remember,

but Grammy is one of the most treasured people in my life.

Watching her age and witnessing her health

deteriorate has been really difficult.

 I'm just really glad that our family did something for her.

The birthday girl.

88 years young!

Kelly

Reading birthday cards.

Uncle Steve.

Mom did her hair and put on her lipstick.

Grammy was one who would NEVER be seen

without her hair fixed, lipstick on and eyelashes curled!

I could learn a few things from her!

My mom made this great poster board with all kinds 

of pictures of Grammy.

I already called dibs on scrapbooking them...

not that anyone else was trying to fight me on it.

Grammy's view from her bed. 

We put her new bird feeder right outside her window.

Wasn't she stunning?

After the party wrapped up, I headed home to get

ready for date night!!

We decided to have dinner at Houlihans and then 

we went to the late showing of Immortals.

My verdict on the movie is still our....

Amazing graphics all while being

extremely graphic...as innnnn

how do you feel about seeing a neck get slit in great detail??

 I can handle more blood and gore than most women,

but this was almost too bloody even for me.

Bottom line...it's no Gladiator...and it's 

definitely no LOTR.

(Thats Lord of The Rings for you cool-kids out there)

Here we are before heading out..

__________________________

So today, we (and by 'we' I mean Roy),

slept through our wake-up alarm for church.

Boo.

We suck.

Thats what happens when you go to the 10pm showing

of a movie.

Anyways....Roy decided to work, so I ran a couple errands 

and then headed to 'Mayberry' to spend the day with my parents.

We went to Fort Scott for lunch and then

my mom took me to this super-cute antique store where she had

seen the greatest piece of furniture for our kitchen...

Good lookin' out mom!!

It's a refurbished cabinet and I'm really hoping

that it looks as good as I think it will in our kitchen.

Roy (shockingly) gave me the go-ahead...

good thing, 

cause I bought it before I was able to talk to him...

he-he

I mean, he didn't answer the phone!

You know how I turn into frantic mess when I find something

I really want to buy!!

Here's a few pictures I snapped for Roy to see..

Please note...I DID NOT purchase

the 'Howdy Pardner' rug photographed above...

saved that gem for mom n dads house.

Such a fun store!

I love all the Christmas decorations

Downtown Ft. Scott.... cute-cute brick streets

Mom and Pops outside of The Iron Star

Now I'm home and looking forward to my 

amazing DVR line-up...

PanAm (one of my new favorites)

Sister Wives (I just can't stop myself..)

Desperate Housewives

and

Once Upon a Time (another new fav)

gotta love the Sunday nights!

G-Night!!