WOW

I had the opportunity to have pictures taken with the lovely & talented Kate Lines. Can I just say... wow! She is amazing. I LOVE my pictures and can't wait to see the rest. We had so much fun with her and I'm so sad she's moving. Granted we don't hang out every day or at all but I love her work and wish I could do more pictures with her. Anyways, here is the link to a sneak peek of our pictures on her blog. We're still kind of awkward... Kate did the best she could. :)

http://katelinesphotographyblog.blogspot.com/

I Love My Job

For those of you who can't deal with talking about body parts or too much information, this is not for you to read. It's a story about what happened to me at work the other day so stop reading now if you don't want to hear it. I just had to share this one. Ok.... the other day at work I was having kind of a rough day. I had this little confused 80 something year old lady. I know she can't help her little Alzheimer's self but it was really hard not to want to punch her in the face at times. At first she was really cute. I asked her what her name was (name has been changed for privacy) and she said, "Mary". So I asked her where she was at and she said, "Mary". I asked her what why she was in the hospital and she said, "Mary". I thought ok, well at least she knows who she is. Later, she turns on me. She kept crawling out of bed and even though I had her restrained in this vest thing, she could still climb to the edge of the bed and she wasn't strong enough to stand by herself. So, as she's trying to climb out of bed I run in her room and put her back in bed. She decides she doesn't like that so she decides to kick at me. I kept dodging her feet but she tried climbing again so I had to grab her feet (gently) and put them back over the side of the bed. She screams bloody murder! You would have thought I was strangling her (the thought did cross my mind). She keeps screaming and is yelling, "Help! Help! She's trying to kill me!". Five of my coworkers come running down the hallway and I'm standing next to the bed with my hands up like "I didn't do it!". So we tried putting her in the wheelchair to wheel her around our unit cuz it had worked earlier that morning. As I'm wheeling her kinda fast, she decides to throw her foot down because she doesn't want to go that way. I felt like I was dealing with a child and I guess I kind of was. She kept screaming in the hallway and I'm trying to wheel her back to her room but she keeps throwing her foot down and that's the last thing I need is her foot to break off while I'm pushing her in the wheelchair. I'm trying everything... I threaten her like a little child that if she doesn't behave she's going to her room, I tried popping a wheelie in the wheelchair, all kinds of stuff. Then she decides I'm again trying to hurt her and screams at me to get away so I did. Another co-worker of mine took over for me and while I was trying to gain composure of myself a call light was going off for another room. So I decide to answer it. I walk into the room and say, "Hi, what can I do for you?" The man in the bed looks at me and says," My scrotal bag is as big as two basketballs." Wow, do you always start off conversations this way? So I say, "Ok...." First of all, who says that to a complete stranger and what am I supposed to say... Oh, that's totally normal? Then he proceeds to tell me this story for 5 minutes about how in 2001 his scrotal bag was also as big as two basketballs and blah blah blah. Point of the story? He needed an ice bag. I have to admit I was shocked at first but then I couldn't stop thinking about it and laughing my head off the rest of the day. Totally made the rest of my day. Sorry if this was too much but I had to share it. I find it hilarious so I'm sorry if no one else does. Just another day on the job. :)

Our House

I've been promising pictures of our house for the longest time so here you go! These are before, during, and after pictures. We still don't have everything finished but we're pretty much settled in. Enjoy!

Our house looks haunted

These next few pictures are of the backyard which still needs TONS of work

This is the view looking out from our back door. The palm tree is gone now though

That door you see in our fence is a gate to a wide open trail behind our house. It's rad.

The last part of our backyard

This is our old dining room before the remodel

Brock by the fireplace. We painted the floor grey because we thought we needed either a painted floor or carpet to get our loan (has to do with stupid FHA rules or something).

The family room

This is a shot of the awesome tile work that was done in our master bathroom. Not only did they not finish the tile job, but they tiled right over the bathtub and up the walls, and even created an extra step in front of the tub. I had a picture somewhere but I can't find it. Quality stuff though.

This is the hall bathroom. It has double sinks which I was excited about. We have pretty much left this alone for now. Yes, it's ugly but we ran out of money and it will do for now. I do have big plans for it though!

This is one of our bedrooms. I think someone was shot and bled to death on the carpet. Brock thinks a dog gave birth in here. Either way, nappy carpet.

The other bedroom

This lovely picture is our kitchen ceiling. I was doing major cleaning so we could get ready for paint and I think the kitchen was one of the worst places. As you can see, there is a line from where I have cleaned and where I have not. I scrubbed and used Clorox so much the paint started coming off.

I think this picture is when we were getting ready to scrape popcorn ceilings

This was our sliding door to the backyard. It had the biggest crown molding I have ever seen all the way around it. However, the people did not consider the light switch on the left hand side getting in the way. So what did they do? They went ahead and did the crown molding but cut some of it out so they could use the light switch. Again, I thought I had a picture but can't find it. We already removed the molding in this picture. Now we have French doors instead but I didn't take a picture cuz they're sooo dirty from the dogs.

This was the room with the nappy carpet

A shot of our master bedroom after carpet is out

This is Brock demolishing the master bathroom

This is our pile of crap that we removed from our house. Our master bedroom has a window that is pretty big so we dumped everything right outside our master bedroom. It sat there for a couple months before Brock finally got rid of it.

This is the process of scraping popcorn ceilings. I took some masks from work so we didn't die from lung disease while trying to fix our house up. It was a LOT of work. My arms were so stinkin' sore and I hardly did any scraping haha. What made it worse was the fact that it was August, we had no AC, and we were spraying water all over our ceilings. It was muggy, hot, and just gross.

Me again

Brock got stuck with the room that had their popcorn ceiling painted which makes it SO much harder to scrape. It took him forever to get that room done.

Just another picture of popcorn ceiling all over the place

More pictures of our mess

It literally looked like it had snowed in our house it was such a mess. Thank goodness we taped everything off.

This is me attempting to use the machine that texturizes the ceilings. It was so heavy!

Us after re-texturizing the ceilings

My sweaty man after scraping ceilings

More snow

So now onto the finished product! This is my pantry. It's big and I need to fill it. Now I can have food storage!

This is my laundry room which is right next to my pantry

My kitchen. We have the lovely 80's cabinets (which I saw in Neverending Story!). We're planning on replacing the cabinets and putting granite countertops in.

Our dining area now. Still needs paint.

Our family room now. Again, still needs paint. We have a really small wall and a really big TV. I decorated as much I could for Christmas. Need more stuff though.

Our family room. Yes, my couches are ugly and outdated but don't judge them until you have sat on them. These couches have been in my life since I can remember and I am emotionally attached to them. I will seriously cry the day they have to go away. Brock keeps trying to get rid of them. I told him if they disappear so will he. :)

My hallway

The hall bathroom. All I did was add the shower curtain but it made quite the difference!

I finally have a guest room! Thanks to my dad, I have an Americana room.

Another shot of my Americana room

Our master bedroom. I don't if anyone else sleeps with separate blankets but we do! I'm trying to find that perfect comforter.

Another shot of our bedroom

Our master bathroom. I LOVE our granite!!

Yes, our shower is granite too... love that too!

Our master closet. Brock and his friend TC built it by hand. It turned out perfect. Sorry it's messy but it's my closet so it's fine right?

Brock's side of the closet

Fat and Happy

So I'm sitting on my recliner flipping through the channels on tv and I come across the AMA awards show. What a great boost for my self-esteem... Carrie Underwood is strutting her stuff onstage showing her rockin' hot body while I sit here in my sweats & baggy t-shirt while my husband is googly eyed & drooling over Carrie Underwood. I think even my dog was drooling over her. Does it make me want to hit the gym? Does it inspire me to take better care of myself so I can stop complaining? Nope... it makes me want to shove another chocolate chip cookie into my mouth. Mmmm..... chocolate.

Puppy Chow Dance

Usually on Sunday we all have dinner at my in-laws and afterwards, my sister in law Calli makes us treats. She decided to make Puppy Chow and things got a little exciting while she was making it. Watch the video and see what I mean. Craziest family I love it!

Late Update

This update is 2 months too late but I just barely got the pictures uploaded to my computer. Meet Maximus J Barainca. He was born August 18, 2009. My sister-in-law Shalene did AWESOME! It was 18 hours of labor (I think) and I have a new found respect for you mom's out there. I've always respected women for giving birth but actually being there for the whole thing was awesome. Now I can see why you're never the same after you give birth... those nurses are brutal. :) Isn't this kid SO cute? I' don't have any recent pictures but you can always check out Shalene's blog for super cute pics. It was pretty scary because when Max came out he was pretty blue. They laid him on Shalene then two seconds later they took him to the little table in the corner of the room and started bagging him (giving him extra oxygen). They didn't have to do CPR thank goodness but it took him a while to start crying. Once he did, we all cried with him. There was such a special spirit in the room and you could tell Shalene was POOPED. Now Max is 2 months old and we had his baby blessing this last Sunday. He is getting cuter and fatter by the day. I love being an aunt! Maybe I'll just be the cool aunt with dogs. Who needs kids right? We have enough kids in the family already. :) Enjoy the pictures! Hopefully I'll get more soon.

This is how Max came out... hand by the face!

He loves Daddy's finger

I can't get enough of this kid!