1 Year

Our wonderful baker doesn't believe in freezing cakes, so she made us a deal... if we gave her professional photographs of our cake from the wedding, she would re-make the top layer of our cake for our anniversary.  It's just a delicious as the first (which we ate when we got back from our honeymoon... never frozen)!

I can't believe it's already been a year.  We're still loving married life and looking forward to many more years and all the adventures those years may bring.

And So It Begins...

John and I bought our house in September of 2010.  We've been living here for 1.5 years now, and we think it's about time to do the things we said we'd change when we were touring the house before we put in an offer.  We waited a while to save some money after that down payment, but now we're very eager to finally make some changes.

I'm planning to do before and after shots as we go... but this "before" shows probably our biggest motivation to get this project going:

No - The floor is Not dirty - that's gouges in the ugly vinyl flooring; No - My flash did not change the hue of the counter top - It's blue; No - You're not imagining that the middle drawer doesn't match the other 2 - It even feels different to the touch

No offense if you like your blue counter tops... I actually have had a couple people come in my house and say that they like them (Thank you for your kindness if you're reading this).  I love bold colors, but in my vision of a kitchen, blue does not belong as the counter top and matching back-splash.

Thus, we are undertaking a project to:

• Replace all the floors in the house (except the master bathroom that we upgraded last year due to some mildew misfortune)
• Paint all the walls (except probably the closets, but it does include removing or texturing over wall paper in 4 places)
• Refinish all cabinets in the kitchen and in both bathrooms
• Replace the kitchen counter tops, which will also require replacing the kitchen sink (so I can't even say "Everything but the Kitchen Sink")
• Change out some light fixtures that look like they're 10 years older than the house
• Update the other decor in most of the house after all the remodeling type work is done

For anyone who is worried about us after reading that list, don't worry too hard; we have guidance and a budget.  We just decided it would be better to do everything in one blast... like ripping off a band-aid.

And so it begins... we went last Friday to visit 2 places to pick up samples and schedule people to come out for estimates.  We have folks coming for estimates on Wednesday, so for now, I'm just waiting and staring at the pretty samples.

The front runners of the samples.

The probable winners for back splash (darker color of big tile on far left, but in the size of the smaller tiles), granite (center - obviously), and floor tiles (right - these would go from the entry way all through the kitchen - most of the rest of the house will just get new carpet)

Here's hoping it's not a month before I have something else to post on this project... I know things take a while when you're trying to schedule workers, but hopefully, we'll start to see some progress soon (probably painting first).

Perks

Recently, my company consolidated all the gifts, rewards, etc. (basically any non-monetary compensation) to this website where you get points.  There's a wide range of things you can get with your points for a very wide range of point values.

10 points = about $1 (shipping is included so it's hard to tell exactly). There are items from 50 to 50,000 points. I had accumulated 1750 points from the company Christmas gift and a gift with my promotion, so I decided to see what was worth getting...

Yes, that is my finger in the picture.  I took this with the camera on my phone and I'm too lazy to crop it out... so sue me... actually please don't because I don't think that actually breaks any real laws and that frivolous lawsuit would be a waste of money.

Now we can grill some meat and John has a nice place to sit while he makes sure not to burn the food I prepared. :)

Personal Craftsmanship

As a wedding present, my parents decided that my Dad would make us something to house all of our DVDs.  (We currently have a little over 300 DVDs that didn't fit anywhere).  My Dad sat down with us and talked it out... what started as a DVD cabinet eventually became a fabulous, custom Entertainment / Storage Center.  Given the design, build, and transportation, it came a bit after the wedding - etiquette rules only say you're supposed to give the gift within a year of the wedding, so it's not actually late in that sense.

Before...

After...

Now all our DVDs can hide away!

It's a beautiful piece of furniture and it fits the room perfectly.  My father, the engineer, added some great features too:

• All the sliders lock - planning ahead for curious little ones.  ;)
• You can only open 2 sliders at a time (1 on each side), so it won't tip over.
• The selves have dividers to keep the DVDs from falling over, but those can be removed.  If physical media is obsolete in 10 years, we can use the sliders to hide other things... like toys... or anything less than a foot wide.

Thanks Mom and Dad!

Puppy Love

Well, maybe they're not "Puppies" anymore, but we sure do Love them!  I was getting pictures off my camera today, and these are two of my favorite recent shots of our dogs.  I don't think I've ever posted about our dogs, so I just had to share.

Nicippe - Our 5-Year-Old Beagle - She loves to squirm around on the floor.

Nestor - He's about 9 Years and is a Dachshund - Blue Heeler mix.  He did this himself; in fact, we've found him this way a few times, so we don't think it's an accident.

Hot Hoops in Hot Springs: 2012 Edition

Every year since 2009, the Sun Belt Conference Basketball Tournament has been in Hot Springs, AK, and we have been at each of them.  John and I have been season ticket holders for North Texas basketball for a while now, and we love getting to cap off the season with a vacation/tournament.

The last 3 years, UNT has made it to the Championship game, which no other school in the Sun Belt can claim, and we've watched a lot of exciting games to get there.  Unfortunately, the team lost in the Championship game this year, but other than that last 10 minutes of basketball, it was a great trip.

We've done most of the touristy stops in Hot Springs over the last four years, but we could still enjoy ourselves.  On day, the guys went to the horse races (something that never quite worked out in our previous trips).  One of the other wives and I took a stroll down Bath-House row (that was a repeat activity) and had a mini-spa-day.  I think the guys like that Kim and I are both there so we can go do "girly" stuff and let them obsess about sports (and the UNT message board).

Here's a few pictures from the trip:

John with a friend prior to the Championship Game

John with a friend prior to the Championship Game (For anyone not obsessed with North Texas Basketball, Johnny Jones is the men's team coach and his nick name when he played at LSU was "Bullet")

This is an image from the semi-final game.  Play "Where's Marleta?" (Click on the picture to make it bigger) - I look like a Goof-Ball, but I was very excited at that moment.

Another shot from the semi-final game: Johnny Jones, looking all snazzy with my husband in the background (I'm there too, but half my head is blocked)

This might have been the last year for the tournament to be in Hot Springs, and at most, I think there's only going to be one more year.  After 4 trips, we still enjoy the city and always love the "HOT HOOPS in HOT SPRIIIINNNGGS"

Managing Milestones

When I graduated from Baylor in December 2007, a lot of people asked me where I wanted to be in 5 years.  I don't think I really had a good answer for that question.  I wasn't sure if I'd like consulting or if it would be a good fit for my skills and personality.

At some point in the early months of my employment at Hitachi Consulting, I did set a goal for myself to reach the Manager level at Hitachi.  I didn't know how long it would take, so I'm not sure if that was really my 5 year plan, but it's probably the closest I got to a 5 year plan at that point in my career... and after a year or two, my motives and focus changed a bit.  In the end, I found myself making decisions based on the ever changing working world... I didn't keep the "Make Manager at Hitachi" as a hard target for myself.

Now, it's a little over 4 years since I started at Hitachi Consulting, and despite the fact that my long-range planning motives have changed, I just achieved that original goal.  It's neat to meet the first career goal I ever set for myself.

Look Out World: Marleta's a Manager!


(PS I'm a little too proud of the title of this post... it's my first triple-meaning blog post title)