What's New?

The purpose of this post is really just to update family from Florida with whats new around our house recently. Hopefully this will give everyone a little peek as to what we have been working on and accomplishing inside and outside the house!

Enjoy!

This is one of my favorite new things, an antique map of the county we live in. I was inspired by a co-workers decor at her house and decided to order my own map off of EBay. It was pretty cheap, so that was nice too! We got the frame at Garden Ridge and I matted it myself with some "antique looking" scrapbook paper that I had laying around! Isn't it pretty?

This is our new little hose area. Previously this area was overgrown with sweet peas and when we used the hose a mess was created...water dripped and while it watered the plant, it also created a lot of mud. This solution was easy and pretty affordable too. I like how clean the area looks now! We have planted grass seed around the blocks too...if you look closely you can see the grass peeking through the dirt. Side note: Mom my said that I was a mini-Randy (my Dad) because she and my brother would never think about doing something like this or much less get excited about it, but my Dad would. I guess I take after him!

The above shelves were a Christmas gift from my Dad and we finally have them hung! He built them for us, but didn't paint them because I wasn't sure what color I wanted or stain...so we did that. The only reason it took us so long to get them painted and up was because of winter...you can't spray paint in the winter. Anyways, I really like the shelves and hope to get some more picture frames to add soon. I also painted all the frames to match. I'm not sure which photo I like better...they were taken on different settings and at different times of the day. Funny how different they look!

And last but not least, our new living room ceiling fan! We had a fan in this room, but it was old and did not have a light on it, which we wanted/needed. We went to Lowe's to purchase a light kit and ended up with a beautiful new fan for only a little bit more money...gotta love sales! After borrowing a ladder from our neighbor since our ceilings are 10ft, and a couple of hours-it was up and so pretty! We both love it!

Well, that's a small handful of the new things around our household! Hope everyone has a great Thursday!

Memorial Day Weekend 2012

Is it really already Wednesday? Hallelujah about that!

We had a fun Memorial Day weekend this year! Our Friday night consisted of dinner at my favorite place (Chipotle) and frozen yogurt from Spoonz for desert. Perfect in my opinion! We also spent a couple of hours shopping around Lowe's...nothing says homeowners like getting excited about shopping at Lowe's! We picked up a new ceiling fan, some more plants, rocks for another landscaping project and a hummingbird feeder. It was a fun night!

Saturday morning we started getting ready for a summer cook-out that evening. I had made a large batch of cupcakes and decorate them quite patriotic to match the occasion! We took some cupcakes over to our new neighbors to officially welcome them to the neighborhood and I felt good about it, I think they loved them! I'm looking forward to getting to know our new neighbors more and becoming friends!

We had Stephen's family over for dinner in the evening and it was delicious! Thankfully the temperature dropped enough for us to enjoy being outside for dinner-it had been HOT during the day!

Above: Louie was so good while we had people at the house. He would just follow me or Stephen around as usual and lay just about anywhere. I'm so glad he is good when we have people around. Such a good pup!

Sunday went a little off schedule. By a little, I mean a lot. You see, during Sunday School I was sick. I felt to hot and just had to get home as soon as possible. Thank goodness I made it out to the car in time because throwing up all over the inside of the church was NOT on my to-do list! We ended up spending the day taking Sunday afternoon naps, sipping on Sprite trying to keep my blood sugar up, and watching movies: The Devil Wears Prada and Eagle Eye. I had heard of other people having a stomach bug recently and I was praying that's what had gotten me! That must have been the case because on Monday morning I woke up hungry and feeling good. I was SO glad it was only a 12 hour bug!

This was Sunday before church and before getting sick:

Monday looked a lot better than Sunday! We blew up the pool and I planned on spending much of my time there soaking up the sun and reading. Let me tell you...it was nice! Monday was another really hot day for Northern IN and our vet had told us not to let Louie outside for longer than necessary. Well, poor pup does not like being left inside while we are outside so we had to come up with something! We would put him in the pool for a quick swim occasionally to keep him wet and cool. I don't know that he loved it, but he didn't seem to mind it at all. Stephen and I both thought it was so cute to watch him swim around, too! After his swims he would run a couple laps around the pool and then crash on his beach towel. Precious!

We spent several hours out by the pool on Monday and it was lovely. I even got a little sun, which was good because I needed some color! :)

All in all it was a great weekend, minus the 12 hour stomach bug-but I'll take it!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Happy Monday!! :)

Well, we had another great weekend! We were quite busy, but that always seems to be the case. Thankfully we had lovely weather, which was nice since we worked outside a lot! I even got some color on my face and shoulders-win!

Friday:

1. We had a yummy dinner post grocery shopping at Wasabi, a little whole in the wall Japanese Steakhouse. Whole in the wall places are either really good...or really bad (that's been my experience). Lucky for us, this one is good!

2. Enjoyed my fresh Essie Mani!

3. Nothing makes your realize you are a homeowner and adult like shopping for grass seed AND then getting excited about it. Apparently we are one of those couples!

4. Louie getting ready for bed Friday night. He sleeps in the oddest positions!

 

Saturday:

1. We worked outside, digging up, replanting and planting lots of flowers including these marigolds!

2. Sweet Louie! He enjoyed being outside with us and the ice cubes we put in his water!

3. Planting, Planting, Planting...

4. I spy Louie, can you find him? Hint: he was seeking shade!

5. Stephen worked on this retaining wall ring around our flag pole on Friday, we planted some flowers there on Saturday. It looks SO much better!

6. Our patio plants are doing nicely, including our tomatoes!

7. The before shot of the back flower bed...

8. And the after shot! A great improvement, yes?

9. Front flower bed after planting more marigolds. I love it!

10. Cleaned up from yard work and a little sun kissed...date night!

11. & 12. Dinner at Casa Italian Restaurant=delicious!!!!

13. Fro-Yo after a Target shopping spree? Yes, Please! Perfect way to end a date night!

14. Me :)

Sunday:

1. Before Church. Top: The Webster Miami for Target, Jeans: Old Navy, Shoes: Nude Pumps Target :)

2. Headed to church...

3. Louie was not happy we were headed to church!

4. Our flag is up on our flag pole! Woo!

5. Ending the weekend at Emma's softball game taking tons of pictures and then stuffing our bellies with Mexican. Perfect!

How was your weekend?

Mid-Week Randoms

Happy Thursday, Y'all!

 

Let's just recap my week thus far, shall we?

 

• It's been a busy week! I actually worked yesterday from 6:45am until after 5:30pm...that's a long day at a desk people!
• Thank goodness I got some new nail polish thanks to my BFF, Brooke and was able to relax last night by painting my nails this beautiful color. LOVE it!
• On Tuesday we went to our niece's softball game and had a great time! We took Louie with us thinking it would be fine because we took him to the ballpark several times last year. Well, they have changed the rules and added "No Pets" to the sign :( He stayed with us and was on my lap the entire game, but it looks like that will be his last softball game! Sad face! He had a good time:

• I got a new phone through work this week too and I am loving the IPhone 4s. Siri is my friend!
• Along with the phone I have several new apps, including Instagram! Follow me here @ylimedonaldson!



My First Instagram Photo: Peonies from our yard!

• I'm on the hunt for the best IPhone apps, so fill me in our your favorites!
• Louie has been so funny this week, his personality is hilarious! Tell me, what did we laugh at before we had a dog? He lights up our life!

• Louie gets so excited when we come home, we love it! He will jump and jump and then run, its so cute!
• All the flowers we planted last weekend? Well, most are doing great but our double inpatients are not. Looks like we will be doing some more planting and rearranging this weekend. It's okay though, I like it!
• In other Louie news: I just talked to the vet and we have a new plan for his heart worm treatments. It just breaks my heart that we are dealing with this still...it has almost been a year since we started treating him, and the end still seems far off. Now we will be giving him Doxycycline (you know, anti-malaria meds/) and heart worm preventative meds (HeartGuard). Apparently this could potentially weaken the already adult worms so they can respond to other treatments and prevent/kill baby worms before they can grow into damaging adult worms.

• Louie will stay at the vet next week one day to be observed, just to make sure he doesn't have any reactions. So please lift him up in prayer! And me too...my nerves are already kicking it!
• We booked flights to Florida this week! We will be on a little vacation over the 4th and I am getting excited! I am also getting nervous because we will be leaving Louie.
• While we are on said vacation, a friend from church will be staying at our house with Louie. This way, at least he will be in his normal environment. I really hope he adjusts well while we are gone. Does anyone have any tips or advice for making this happen?
• I thought about ordering Louie a Thunder-Shirt for while we are gone, hoping it might help keep him calm and relaxed. Does anyone have any experience with these? Here is some info about it.
• I'm SO excited to watch Grey's Anatomy tonight...but I am sad about who I am 90% sure is going to be killed off!