So big!

Puppies grow SO FAST! Here they are at the shelter the first night we met them back in March:

Here's them about a month ago, at my sister's graduation party (Ryan's wearing the same shirt, weird!):

It's ridiculous how much we love these dogs. In our defense, they are as sweet as can be, blissfully happy, playful and lovable. We couldn't have asked for a better pair. Plus they spent the first couple months of their life in a shelter, we have lots of loving to make up for!

That dress makes me look like I'm huge, but I swear I'm not! Next month is our 1st anniversary (what the H*LL happened to this year?!) and I'll be trying o

n my wedding dress (that I still haven't gotten cleaned....it costs like $100, boo) to ensure that it fits. Which it will. But if it doesn't, it won't be pretty.

Anyway, with Ryan being gone as much as he is for work during the school year, these little boogers have turned out to be the best company with fur.

Guess who's lazy? Oscar is.

Ninja getting loved on:

I'll stop being obnoxious about my dogs (at least I stopped with the bouquets, right?). Both of my sisters-in-law are engaged, so I'm sure I'll have lots of wedding stuff to fill you guys in on. I finished my first quilt (I made a second for a friend who's pregnant too) and I have a quilt top finished that needs to be basted and quilted. I need to make a t-shirt quilt for my husband's cousin Mike, so you'll see some of that. Also our one year anniversary is next month, and there are some wedding pictures that....well let's just say they didn't make they cut. You'll see why.

Is it sad that my dog-raising strategy is identical to my child-rearing strategy? Namely, let them run until they have no more nonsense left.

Did you rock the newlywed cliche of getting a dog?

Pinterest

I'm on Pinterest and it's like shopping but for free. If you want to follow me e-mail me!

Busted

You guys, this blog has been broken for like a month or more! I couldn't figure out how to fix it (it looked like Google had removed it for some reason?), and then I checked today and it's BACK!

Not that you've missed much. I'm boring.

But! Our puppies are getting so big, we had a huge group of friends down for a weekend, we're going to the beach on Saturday, and I have quilts to show you. Also I figured out how to make delicious frozen yogurt with Greek yogurt and fruit so in my mind-100% guilt free. Oh and I went to a wedding last week that had Chiavari chairs! And they were everything I thought they'd be. And I've been lifting weights so I'm working on a set of guns.

I've missed you guys!

New Addition(s)

We have been BUSY lately!

A couple weeks ago, Ryan and I doubled our family size--we adopted 2 puppies from a no kill shelter!

The blonde is a girl, and Ryan named her Ninja. She does these flying Ninja lea

ps that suit her name perfectly. That handsome thing you see on the right is Oscar, our little man.

They are beagle/schnauzer mixes, and they are 4 months old. We love them to pieces!

As you can see, they have it very rough.

They have plenty of toys, but of course the most attractive toy is the one the other dog has. Watching them trot around neck in neck with the same toy in their mouths is unbelievably cute.

They put on the most pitiful act with baths. They shiver and carry on, and we feel sorry for them of course.

We are so lucky to have them! They're so sweet and friendly.

As far as potty training goes, I think we're on track. They go out every 4 hours or so (even in the middle of the night, ugh), and we still have a couple accidents that happen when we deviate from that schedule. They know how to sit, and they mostly listen. They have these crazy spurts of energy for a couple hours then they absolutely collapse. They are happy little puppies, and we adore them.

We have officially joined the ranks of the Newlyweds with dogs! It's good practice for parenthood, right?

I just finished reading....

Things I Wish I'd Known Before We Got Married, by Gary Chapman.

Source

Same guy who wrote the Five Love Languages. Most "self-help" books make me feel like crap about my marriage-all I do is pick out the stuff I'm doing wrong. Not helpful. But this book was quite the confidence booster; I picked out lots of stuff that Ryan and I OWN at! Like the chapter on "solving disagreements without arguing." Granted, we're human and we argue, but we aren't hateful to each other about it. We're both totally fine with "apologizing being a sign of strength" and that we "married into each other's families". Domination!

The book honestly wasn't that helpful, but I did get from it a sense that we started our marriage off well, that our foundation is good. So...nothing I didn't know all ready.

Though Ryan still thinks the "love languages" are comical.

Also, the author comes across as kind of an *ss to his wife.

Are you a Gary Chapman fan? Do self-help books send you into a downward spiral of "my marriage is DOOMED!"?

Our House

We bought our house in November, and so far all I've shown you are somewhat scary construction pictures. I've been waiting until the house was clean and it was sunny out, but I settled for no sun and clean house! We are still working on so much, but we've come a long way from the super dirty and neglected house we bought a few months ago.


It's so gray and dreary looking! We've hardly done any yard work, so in 6 months, this should look totally different. The landscaping is so overgrown, we really just tried to get enough done that our house wouldn't look completely terrible all winter long.







We have a nice deep front porch, here's the view:



There's hooks for a porch swing. Oh and that bush, on the lower left? Bushes like that line the front and one side of the house. They're infested with poison ivy. Those'll be fun to work with!


You walk into the living room from the front porch. This room is pretty much done-we scraped the popcorn from the ceilings, painted the ceiling and repaired/painted the walls. I can't wait to get a comfy sectional in here, the room is so big we can fit one easily.


We hung our Christmas cards up on the door frame in between the living room and the kitchen. Hey Emily! Still need to take these down....


Another view of the living room. We spend lots of time on this couch. We got the blinds at Penney's during a day after Thanksgiving sale for a killer price. I cannot believe they fit our weird-sized windows. I wasn't super pumped about them initally-I thought they'd look kind of naked and such, but they are so easy to clean, and I think the molding at the top makes up for no curtains. That's what my sister Alli said and I'm going with it.


When I moved out of the house my sister and I shared, she let me take this console with me. We bought it in a local antique store a couple years ago for $20. I need to decorate this-that cake stand was used at our wedding! This is also where our wedding album lives.


Wedding album! I wanted to be cheap and do a MyPublisher book, but Ryan talked me into this, and I am so glad he did.


I literally sent the poor photographer over 50 edits. She probably hates me.

I love our kitchen. It's so big and bright, and the table in the middle acts as an island when needed. Ryan is painting the cabinets white for me....they are huge pains. Like 2-3 coats of oil based paint with curing times, obnoxious brush clean ups and lots of sanding. He is amazing.

Cabinet close up.




More kitchen. There are 41 doors poor Ryan has to paint. I'm happy to not have doors....saves time.






Our house was built in 1924, and some genius before us added a main floor laundry right off the kitchen. LOVE. I have always had basement laundry, and now I can't go back. This room needs lots of work-we want to tile the floors and add way more shelving. I'd like to store cleaning stuff here as well as kitchen stuff we don't use that often, like some appliances.




The master is right off the kitchen. It's kind of weird placement but I really like it. And its so close to the laundry room that putting clothes away is easy. I really like our bedding. We pretty much just need furniture/accessories in here.






The door to the master bath used to go outside, but another genius added a master bathroom. I hate the blue panes in the door, I really want to switch them out eventually. The transom over the door actually works! I just love old houses.





The genius who added the master bath unfortunately wasn't smart enough to insulate. So this bathroom is super chilly.


When you walk into the bathroom and turn right, you see this.




When you turn left, there's the closet. Very handy for getting ready in the morning, everything is right there.




The office is right off of the living room. It's our current dumping ground. Eventually this will be Ryan's spot-he has some really cool baseball memorabilia that he can showcase here. This room had carpet that we ripped up just to find holes and 3 different finishes on the wood floors. We'll get these floors refinished and add a piece of trim to the baseboards to hide the gap created when we ripped out the carpet. You solve one problem (gross carpet) just to create another one (hole in floor)!


This full bathroom is also right off the living room. We replaced the light fixture (the one you see will also go in the other 2 full bathrooms, we bought 3), the shower head, the towel bar, and we need to replace the toilet. And we ripped out the old oak medicine cabinet and Ryan installed a simple mirror with beveled edges.









The dark wood on these stairs kind of sucks to keep clean. Every speck of dust shows!




This is the future reading nook-Ryan is going to build bookshelves and he bought me this awesome chaise for Christmas!




On Sunday mornings I like to bring my coffee up here and read. It feels like a vacation.


There are 2 bedrooms and a full bath off of the foyer, here's the unfinished one:

And here's the finished one. We had our first house guest this weekend! The hotel is open for business.

That's my little sewing spot, with a new quilt draped all over the place. Eventually my sewing room will be in the unfinished bedroom, but its in here until we get the other space together.


The storage space kicks *ss.





We have a deck that looks out over the fenced in part of the yard....just ready and waiting for a puppy!

Whew. We are so, so fortunate to be able to live in such a great home. I've always wanted an old house, and thanks to my handy husband I have one!

I'll post on decorating ideas later, I have TONS.

So in our first 4 months of marriage, we both got new jobs and bought/renovated a house. We aren't good at taking things slow!

Did you take on lots of stuff right after your wedding?

Milk Glass Out and About

Part of my marketing plan for my job was to increase my medical practice's involvement with community outreach. So, I volunteer at several area senior center's during lunch time-handing out drinks, collecting trays, etc. 2 of the 3 senior centers I volunteer at (by the way, I LOVE grassroots marketing like this...and I LOVE that my bosses let me do it. It is by far the most smart marketing move my practice is making right now, IT WORKS) have milk glass centerpieces, like the ones Ryan and I had at our wedding!

So I just went through and looked for a picture of our centerpieces....and couldn't find but one. Um. Probably because I did lots of this....



One was for Ryan. Really. Who is now saying that he didn't drink it. I could've sworn I got this for him...


I'm sure I could find pictures of our centerpieces via our photographer's CD we have with pictures, but...that's upstairs. But yeah, every time I go to one of those senior centers and see that milk glass, I think about our reception and how much fun we had, and how much fun Ryan and I had picking that milk glass out at thrift stores and garage sales.


Go milk glass!


Do you see reminders or your wedding at odd places?