Pinterest=Crack

My name is Lisa, and I am addicted to Pinterest.

 

Don't plan an intervention, I don't want any help :-)

If you haven't checked it out, it is amazing. So many ideas, inspiration, and beauty in one place. I love it.

Here is a recap of my Sunday:

Sophie: What are you doing?

Me: Pinning on Pinterest.

Sophie: What's that?

Me: The site I got the "sock bun curls" idea from

Sophie's sock bun curls

Sophie: Ooooh what's that?

Me: Melted crayon art.

Sophie: Can we make one?

Me: I guess.

Celeste: What are those?

Me: Mountain Dew cupcakes.

Celeste: Can we make them?

Me: I guess.

I guess it's not so bad. We had a pretty fun Sunday thanks to Pinterest. And now Sophie and Celeste are addicted too!

20 Reunion/Trip to NE/Epic blogger-scrapper FAIL EDIT

Tony and I had a whirlwind mini-vacation to NE for my 20 year high school reunion. It was a lot of fun, and we fit a ton into a few days. My biggest upset though, is I did not get many pictures with my HS friends. I forgot my camera and am so bummed!

We flew into Omaha and were able to meet my dad and brother for lunch on Friday:

Here I am with Todd with his new Prius. It had been 8 and a half YEARS since I had seen him! I know, I suck!

Then it was on to Lincoln where I met some friends from junior high/HS for dinner. Here is a picture of us in 8th grade:

Robyn, Melissa, Melanie, Me, Christie, Kristi

Melissa, Laura, Robyn (Melissa and Robyn are in the 8th grade picture above)

The first 4 of us in the picture made it to dinner, and did any of us get a picture? NOPE!

Friday night we went to the reunion social where I caught up with a ton of people. It was so neat to see everyone and catch up. (No Pictures-booo)

Saturday morning was a tour of my High School, to see how much a 25 million dollar remodel can change a place. It was really weird to be in those halls again. Our tour was given by a class mate of mine, who has taught math there for 14 years now:

Senior hall

The "planters" which are now enclosed trophy cases.

Me in front of the new front entrance.

After the tour we met Tony's niece, Sarina, and her husband and son, for lunch.

Saturday night was the big reunion event at the Rococo Theater. There was live music, dinner, then a hypnotist. I had never seen one before and it was soooo good. He was hilarious and it totally worked. He had my classmates and their spouses doing some funny stuff.

One shot of me and Tony from that night

Professional shot of me and Tony

Me and the gals before fishbowls! Erika, Laura, Dawn, Me

After the official reunion we went to Duffy's bar for a fishbowl, bomb pop flavored.

 Pictured from bottom left: Laura, Melissa, Laura, Me, Robin, Dawn.

Laura and Laura!

Sunday was all about Tony's family.

Tony, his mom, and her clones! Aunt Mary, Tony's mom, Tony, Aunt Carmen, Aunt Alice.

Tony and nephew Tino, lots of family resemblance there!

Nephew Miko, Tony, Nephew Joey (who we last saw at age 13, 15 years ago!)

Tony and his sister Sandy.

Me, Tino, Tony, Family friend Evelyn.

But the best part of my trip, the part that almost did not happen, was meeting up with my LLL lady friends, Monday morning before our flight:

Amber, Susan, Me.

I have known these ladies almost as long as my HS friends. I met them when Michael was a baby, 20 years ago. It was so nice to catch up, and I agree with Susan, that we picked up just like no time had passed. I really miss these gals, they are amazingly wonderful people and were a huge part of my life before moving to AZ.

My "Bug" is 20!!!!!

Michael was born at 10:03 pm, July 12, 1991 and at that moment my life was forever changed.

20 Years ago today, I became a mother.

I learned so much with him{I guess our firsts are always our guinea pigs, we learned by trial and error}. I learned how to take care of a baby, what unconditional love truly is, and what that word "bonding" you read in parenting magazines really feels like {I have always thought that word too small and insignificant for a feeling so huge your heart could burst!}. I developed true self esteem as a mother by watching my baby grow from me and me alone through nursing him. I was irreplaceable, the center of his whole world, and he was the center of mine. My life took a whole new path due to him, and I was forever changed.

newborn Michael

Michael- 1 month old

Today, Michael is growing into an amazing man. 20 years old, and no longer a teenager, no longer a child. He has a great work ethic, is sensitive, SO funny {he has a nearly photographic memory of movie/TV show lines, and breaks them out at the perfect times}, has a great smile {just not in front of a camera, dang it!}. He is still very shy and introverted, but is coming out of that in many ways. He even ran our business while Tony was gone for nearly two weeks, at 19 and running the crews, managing the projects, getting supplies and dealing face to face with the customers. And did I mention he is really smart? He has really excelled in his design classes (AutoCad). He even did a project, start to finish, by taking measurements at the job site, designing the item in AutoCad, and then using the drawing to fabricate the item {with his side-kick, Dennis} and installing it for the customer. I am so proud of the wonderful man he is becoming!

Michael on his 20th birthday, heading off to work in his "new" truck.

Oh, and why did I title this post My "bug"? Well, I have called Michael that since he was a tiny baby {along with peanut, monkey, and many others that did not stick}. Even at over 6 feet tall, and over 300 pounds, he is still my baby, still my Bug.

Celeste and Sophie's Room

We've been working super hard on Celeste and Sophie's room for a couple of months now. I don't have any before pictures, but the goal was to get rid of their 2 beds, and get them a queen to share, get rid of Celeste's old dresser, and paint. Well, that turned into revamping the entire room, as one thing led to another {and another, and another...}. The room is almost done, all that is left is the crown molding, new door and knob, hanging all the cute frames, shelves, mirrors, etc that we bought, and getting a few more storage solutions {under bed bins maybe?}. Without further ado, here is a tour of their room:

The view walking in their door

turning left, the bed and Celeste's dresser...Sophie's dresser is the same and lives in the closet.

turning farther to the left, their closet with curtains, no doors

as you walk in, this wall is on your right {opposite wall as the bed}

and this wall is directly forward, the headboard, nightstand and desk are here (and on the white board on the desk is a chore schedule the girls devised to keep their new room looking great....we will see how long that lasts!)

Here are a couple of close ups:

hand made pillows

my happy girls

Their message to me reads "We love our new room" from Celeste, and "thank you Mommy" from Sophie.

Here is where we got all our cute stuff:

Blinds, Paint (Behr "Hidden Meadow" (green) and "Sea Life" (blue): Home Depot

Bed: Craig's list (new in box from a model home staging company)

Bedding, colorful cube cubbies/bins: Target

Lamps: Kirkland Home

Dresser, desk, nightstand, cube unit, closet curtains, curtain rods: Ikea

Flooring: Floor and Decor {Elliot and Priest}

Closet Banner, window curtains, lampshades, throw pillows: Hand made by me, all fabrics from Scrapbooks, Etc {of course!}

Sneak Peek

We've been busy....more to come!

19 Years and Counting

Tony and I just celebrated our 19th anniversary.

"That's not possible {you say} you guys look too young"....hehehe.

Seriously though, I can hardly believe it myself sometimes, but yes it was June 15, 1992, and yes, that was 19 YEARS AGO!

I thought I would share some photos of that day, but I think I will wait till next year, for our 20th. You'll just have to wait to see the big hair and mullets of the 90s!

Since it was a Wednesday, and we both worked, we did a relatively low key outing for dinner to celebrate. It might sound strange, but we went to a buffet at a casino. I went there with some friends to celebrate a birthday, and it was fabulous. The best I have ever been to and the whole time I thought "I need to take Tony here". It was perfect. They have such a variety of "boy food":

Prime rib, Caesar salad, chicken Parmesan, shrimp, etc.

And "girl food":

Caprese salad, artichoke heart salad, fresh marinated veggies, pasta salad, etc.

It has truly the fanciest foods I have ever seen on a buffet, including things we did not try, like 3 different salmons, grilled eel, and some fancy french cheeses that probably smell and taste like feet.

And the deserts were to die for....we tried 5: chocolate filled crepe (that they made right there, to order), raspberry cheesecake, carrot cake (so good, really dense/moist, and lots of spice), banana creme pie, and this fruit tart:

I really need to learn the art of food photography, as these pictures do not do the foods justice!

And did we have anyone take a picture of us? Nope, I'm such a bad photo/scrapbooker to not make sure that happened. But you all know what we look like anyway....

Movin' On Up

For those of you who have heard me talk about it, you know one of the hardest days of the past year was when Tony's (now ex-)partner came to our door and said "I'm here to pick up the truck". That was the start of a very stressful (and exciting) time for us.

Well, fast forward 6 months, and I can say we had one of the BEST days in the past year, when I turned to my husband and said "no one can ever say 'I'm here to pick up the truck' again". And that is because our business just purchased our first service truck!

We found a great deal that we could not pass up, and drove to CA this past Thursday to pick it up. We paid cash, so not even a bank can come and get her, she's all ours!

And paired with the service trailer we purchased a few months ago, Tony is well equipped to handle quite a bit of work, so bring it on!