Pages

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Congratulations, Cousin!

This weekend gave us a little sneak peek at what Spring is going to have in store for us. And it was beautiful. Unfortunately I was a little more under the weather than I expected and didn’t get to enjoy it as much as I had hoped. But I did get the chance to see something that really made my heart smile.

My cousin, an 8th grade middle school student, is involved in different Recreations and Parks activities, including youth basketball. This past weekend he, along with several other selected students, received a very special honor, the Will Smith Leadership Award.


Will Smith was the type of person many others looked up to. A star on the athletic front with a personality to match, Will tragically lost his life while attending Becker College in Worcester Massachusetts. A truly devastating event for his friends and family, Recreation and Parks Recreation Division Manager Arthur Shepherd along with Will’s parents created the Will Smith Leadership Award to honor the positive influence he made in the community.

Congratulations to my dear cousin, Myles, for winning one of the Will Smith Leadership Awards this past weekend. Way to go buddy!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Let the projects begin...

It's official, Bubba and I are the new homeowners of a perfect little cottage we've been renting for the past two years that over looks the Potomac River.  We've been trying to purchase the house since November and just went to settlement last Friday.  But let's not dwell on the past or the ridiculous amount of time it took to make it ours.  With all the paperwork signed, Bubba and I are looking forward to our life in OUR new home!  We celebrated with some champagne and pizza that night, and here is the first picture of us in our house as homeowners:


Bubba's favorite part about the house now being ours?  The garage.  Since this house was built in the 1920's it isn't your typical garage that is attached to the house.  It is detached, very roomy, concrete floor, cinder block walls, and even has an old school wood stove in it for heat.  I really think that Bub would spend his every waking hours out there organizing his tools, burning logs and building things.  (I guess this means he found his man cave and now we don't have to put one IN the house, so I'm not complaining).

I am so lucky to be married to a man who is such a handyman.  Growing up on a farm and working in the construction/home building business with his uncle for a few years has really taught him a lot about repairing, restoring and creating from scratch.  Take, for instance, this old cabinet our former landlord had in the garage and let us purchase from her for $50.


I didn't have time to snap a picture of the cabinet before we started this project, but this is close enough.  If you look carefully you can see the green paint on the right side...the entire cabinet was carelessly covered in it and looks like it was made out of random pieces of wood.  Probably not worth the $50 we paid for it, but that's ok.  Bubba took it apart, and reassembled it so it wasn't as flimsy, trimmed about 5 inches off the bottom, sanded it in order to get the clumpy green paint smoothed out and then added a fresh coat (or two or three) of white paint.  He removed the hinges and knobs, spray painted them black along with the top of the shelf, tried his best to remove the paint on the glass doors with some goof off and then put it all back together.  And voila!  We have a "new" TV cabinet for our living room.  And don't worry, I'll be windex-ing and putting all kinds of goodies in the cabinet itself very soon!




Stay tuned for our next big project made completely from scratch:  a kitchen island :)  Here is a little sneak peek: 


Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Bridal Shower Bliss

Oh my, I've done it again...I've neglected my poor little blog again.  It's time to show it some love and put up a few posts.  It's not that I didn't want to blog over the past week, I just didn't have enough hours in the day.  But enough excuses, on to the blogging:

This weekend was my sister-in-law, Ashley's, bridal shower.  We held the afternoon shower at my house and had quite a classy turnout.  The theme was "Breakfast at Tiffany's" with lots of Tiffany blue accessories, a Tiffany box shaped cake and lots and lots bling.  We also requested that all attendees wear a little black dress and old fancy hat channeling the great Miss Audrey Hepburn.  Everyone that participated looked fabulous!



[Bling Rings]

[Some pretty flowers to add a pop of pink!]

Monday, February 7, 2011

Happy Anniversary

Congratulations to my wonderful Grandparents, Boyd and Janet Shoemaker (better known as Pa and Nan) on celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary today!  That is quite the accomplishment, especially today in a world where there is a 50% divorce rate.


Nan and Pa have never faltered, and probably never will.  I know at times they drive each other crazy, one with their incessant cleaning and the other with their political opinions, but they don't let that get in their way.  I can't imagine a Nan without a Pa and vice versa, it's just not possible.  They are a great compliment to each other and it's clear that if they've made it 50 years already, there is nothing that will stand in their way.

They went to dinner with their 2 children and their spouses this weekend, but the real celebration will come this summer when the family is packing up and heading to Europe for a tour of Ireland and Great Britain.  Ironically, both of my parents are turning 50 this year and this trip was open to anyone in our family who wanted to celebrate this wonderful anniversary, and the milestone birthdays of my parents.  And we thought taking Nan to New York City last winter was an adventure...just wait til we get her in London! :)

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Day and Night

Yesterday morning, as I was leaving the house for work I had to stop and run back in the house for my camera.   One of the greatest things about our house is the beautiful view of the sun rising, but what caught my eye was something different.  The sky looked like it was a battle between day and night.  As if the day was trying it's hardest to blast away the dark night sky.  Really I think it was just a rainy night ending and the clouds moving out for a while, but it still made for some pretty cool photos!