almost home stretch.

The weekend is finally here! I am now in the pre-home stretch of school - 14 more school days! I like to think the real home stretch is after Memorial Day when there are 9 days left, because that is still kind of a lot :)

When I got home from work the other day, Chili performed a miracle escape because Josh swears he had our enclosure for her rigged to perfection. She was a little mischievous, but again, nothing too awful thank goodness.

Just can't stay mad at that face.

Also, side note, because we thought it was hilarious. Josh ordered a small $1 pack of earplugs for work because they are apparently supposed to wear them on the sites he has to visit. Well, the earplugs came in the most sensible packaging:

The picture keeps getting skewed, but the little blue and yellow things on top are the earplugs. All that plastic wrap was on top of them and they came in this huge box. Makes sense.

This morning we woke up early to take Chili to the vet for her second round of puppy shots. We drive almost 30 minutes to our old vet because we like them so much and they have really good prices. We waited FOREVER (I am talking almost 2 hours) to be seen. They don't take appointments on Saturdays. Luckily, vet waiting rooms are very entertaining and Chili got tons of attention. She also was so well behaved! She took the shots like a champ and the doctor said everything looked great; so thankful for a healthy little girl!

She was exhausted when we got home because, after the vet where she had hours of entertainment, we went to Lowes and got a new grill! Josh is out right now back to Lowes and then to buy us some food to grill out tonight. I will take some pictures of it - they were having a sale and we got a great price! I was pretty lazy today, I always wish the weekend was longer because I feel like I need a day to relax and de-stress from the long week. I hung out with Chili on the couch for a majority of the day. The rest of the night, we plan on drinking, sanding (this cabinet project is never ending), maybe painting, and grilling out.

While we were at the vet, we began to notice that pets really DO resemble their owners. It became comical as people came in and out of the waiting room because of the truth behind it. I think Chili and I definitely look alike ;)

Happy Saturday!

today I got a....

free iPad!

The state funded a project to get every teacher an iPad for the classroom. I knew they were coming, but had no idea it would be today! Too bad Josh just bought me one for Christmas. It is still nice to now have one for the classroom though! I was not about to let my kiddies play with my personal one - Josh worked too hard to get it for me. My children are already obsessed with it. I am also hoping it will help steer them towards good behavior for the last 3 weeks of school ;)

Chili was a little escape artist today. We have tried a million ways to keep her contained during the day, as I hate the thought of leaving her crated for the many hours we are away at work. We finally cleaned out a downstairs room for her because she made a hole under the door in the carpet in an upstairs room she was in. We also tried a play pen with baby gates in the beginning, but she has mastered climbing them (con of the intelligence of the labradoodle breed!) Josh constructed a tall barricade in front of the door way, but she was out and about when I got home. She managed to somehow move one of the baby gates to the side. There wasn't too much damage, thankfully. I am sure she had a much better time ripping up toys with Pepper. 

Sorry Chili girl, we're going to have to revamp the barricade tonight.

Both pups have been playing since I got home, and now are passed out. It is nice to finally have peace and quiet after 8 hours with 23 Kindergartners and coming home to 2 rambunctious doggies.

We decided to take on the task of re-doing our kitchen cabinets this past weekend. Our kitchen walls are green, which I love, and when we first painted the nasty cabinets, we chose a dark purple. I think I had seen a picture of green walls and black cabinets online that I really liked, but it did not translate well to our kitchen. I tried to get used to it, let it grow on me, and then essentially ignore it, but I finally could not take the fact that I hated how dark our kitchen felt. Josh was excited because he got to buy lots of new power tools and I was excited to finally begin work towards a kitchen I can love (lighting, new dishwasher, and new countertops are on the wish list).

Josh wants to do a post on the ins and outs of re-doing the cabinets, which are still in the works, but I thought I'd share some sneak previews because I love how our kitchen has already lightened up some!

primer and purple paint coming off.

I sanded this part by myself!

We decided to do them in white. Josh was a little hesitant at first, but he is loving the light wood and is beginning to come around to the idea that they will look good white. He has been sanding every night when he gets home from work. I think we can finish them by the weekend's end (fingers crossed). I am so excited to have a "new" kitchen!

If only Josh and my sister hadn't had one too many beers and painted our refrigerator purple....

But that's a story for a different post :)

I am waiting for Josh to get home and then I need to run. We have a 5k on May 31st!

I am excited to share our final product in the kitchen. I feel like I have been living in a construction zone all week. 2 days til the weekend!

one unfinished project at a time.

I have decided to start writing about my days again for the zillionth time in my life it seems. I have switched from my old blog at wordpress (http://beersandpaintbrushes.wordpress.com/) and this blog is now born with the same name. It will be to track our home progress, just as beers and paint brushes began to. I am hoping it is something I will be excited to stick to. So much has happened since I posted almost half a year ago. I want to cover some projects we have worked on (Josh already is claiming a post about the kitchen cabinets to himself) but it is a lot to tackle in one post! I plan to do before and afters of some of our projects in different posts. For today, and my first post on this (hopefully) final blog I will have, I will recap the major stuff:

We got carpet! (and have a functioning bedroom complete with a bed and real curtains)

We got iPads!

We got a TON of snow!

We ran our first race in the Charlotte Race Series we signed up for AND won the costume contest.

One of my best friends got married.

I cut off all my hair (10+ inches) and donated it.

We bought a lawnmower.

I used a lawnmower for the first time ever.

aaaand......

We adopted a puppy :)

This is our new baby girl, Chili. 

She is becoming not so little! And I love her to death.

17 (school) days til summer vacation! Cannot wait! I'll get to spend every day with this girl and this house.