Zzzz...

I don't know about yall but I need more of this after this past weekend!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I'll be back tomorrow hopefully refreshed! xoxo

I am thankful for...

1. My AMAZING husband, Don't know what I would do without him!

2. My family. They shaped me to be the person I am today.

3. My close friends whom I cherish dearly

4. The roof over my head

5. Those protecting us overseas

6. My neighbors whom have become more like family

7. Adrienne & Brixie

8. My job

9. Our health

10. All of you! Blogging has given me the joy of meeting new friends and I love sharing our journey with you and being apart of yours as well!

Here are a few pictures of the things I am thankful for:

Now it is your turn! What are you thankful for? Link your post to mine below. I can't wait to hear all of yours. May you all have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving! xoxo

One Step At A Time

Good morning ladies!!! Are you ready for the Thanksgiving weekend? I know I am. I have a lot to be thankful for this year and I will be sharing my list with you tomorrow. It's a long list! I would love to see your lists as well so I might have something to link yours to mine, well see.

This one is at the top of my list!

I love my husband!

Today I finally loaded pictures!!! I love taking them but loading them onto the computer is something I dread. It seems to take forever (yes my computer is ancient...I'm working on that) and I just have no patience. But I had to show you what my sweet husband has been up to lately!

You know how I told you we were putting in hard wood floors because a certain dog decided to help along with the process of ripping up the carpet?! Well Chris and Ryan finished the front room! And it only took a little over half a day! I am so pleased with the results and I can't wait for the beginning of the year so we can do the rest of the house! I will say it is taking some getting used to since it echoes. But that will be fixed once my curtains are put up and we add a rug to the room.

The actual process was not that hard. After we had filled in the holes in the concrete left behind from the carpet and cleaned the area up the boys laid down the red padding and started to make their measurements for cutting the wood. Once they did that and got a "non-pattern" rhythm going it was smooth sailing from there. I was shocked when they were halfway done at 10am.

They were starting to get their groove

It was like a puzzle just clicking the boards into place

Almost done
I love the dark wood color! Just waiting on putting in the final touch to the base boards
All done!

What do you think?

I can't wait for the guys to do the rest of the house! Having pets and carpet just don't mix very well. I will be happy to see it go! The boys did a great job and we really saved a lot of money doing it ourselves. If you are interested on how to do it just email me and we will be happy to share how we did it. Next time I will do a step-by-step video tutorial for anyone who is interested!

Since the floors are finally done in there and I am getting my sewing machine this week (thank you Grandpa!) I will finally be able to really concentrate on getting that room done. I have so many ideas that I want to do for that room. It is going to be the perfect girl talk retreat with lots of hidden storage for when kids enter the picture. I love a good transitional room! More to come...one step at a time!

And just because...

Suzanne, Michele (my sister) and I after a long night of drinking and singing at the top of our lungs! Gotta love it!

I'll be back tomorrow with my Things I am Thankful For list! Start getting yours ready!

xoxo

Is it too early?

When do you decorate for Christmas? Every year I fight the urge to start my Christmas decorating before Thanksgiving. And yet every year I still do it before the turkey is even out of the oven. But it seems to me that this year I am not the only one! Lot's of people (not just retail stores but actual people) have already started putting up their trees, lights and winter decor. Are you one of them? If not when do you do it? I am still debating.

Seriously Hollywood?!

Can you not just keep it together?! What is about celebrities divorcing like its the "New Next Great Thing." It feels like celebrity marriages are dropping like flies?! And now you can add this one to the list:

Tony Parker & Eva Longoria

I can honestly say that I didn't see this one coming in a million years. I really thought they were going to last. I was just waiting for baby news. But today Eva officially filed for divorce. Rumor has it that Tony let his eyes wonder in other directions. Such a shame. Let's remember them in happy times before this gets ugly.

Their wedding day 7.7.07 (wasn't this supposed to be a lucky day?)

Any typical married couple...
Loving being newlyweds...

Marriage isn't easy! It takes a lot of work. Let's hope this doesn't become the new fad. I prefer happy news!

We shopped till we dropped!

Good morning!!!! It has been one crazy week! I am absolutely exhausted so please excuse the absence. This will be short and sweet cause I have a lot of work to do but I couldn't neglect the blog.

This past weekend was amazing! Ashley and I skipped work on Friday for a day of shopping. We drank mimosa's, walked down every single aisle and shopped till we dropped (literally). I was sooooo sore by the time we left the Nutcracker Market that I could barely feel my legs. But it was well worth it!

Double fisting the mimosa's and ready for the shopping to begin!

... and Ashley was a girl on a mission that day!

We had an absolute blast!

Oh and we finished the hardwood floors on Saturday! I am leaving that for another post though. I will say it is not as hard as we thought and I can't wait to do the rest of the house! Count on a post soon about all our DIY projects lately. We have had a lot of them!!!

Chris didn't sell his painting at the art show Saturday night...but we did have a fun filled night full of laughter, lots of drinking and singing at the top of our lungs! He already has ideas for his next piece of work. He is definitely not discouraged and ready to paint again! I have a few ideas up my sleeve as well so maybe next year I will submit a piece!

Like I said this was going to be short and sweet! Work is kicking my butt lately!!! Yesterday I pulled a 12 hour work day! Hope you are all having a great week. Next week will be a short one...WOOHOO!!! xoxo

Bad Dog!

Anyone else watch the 44th CMA Awards show last night? I was actually very impressed and well entertained throughout the show. I mean it helps when you really love the hosts! Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood did an awesome job! Now Carrie's fashion throughout the night was a bit questionable but I will let that slide cause she is just too darn cute no matter what she wears.

Brad & Carrie

And boy did these two take away the awards last night! I must say I would love to be invited to their wedding. You know it is going to be an amazingly fun with their personalities! They are soooo in love!

Miranda Lambert & Blake Shelton

In other news, you know yesterday when I said that we have a big house project to complete this weekend, well here it is:

Yes, above you can see the work of a VERY in trouble 1 year old pup and her hard work. About 2 weeks ago Brixie decided that she really didn't like the carpet in the front room. And since her mommy dreamed of ONE DAY (certainly not any time soon) replacing the floor in there she decided that she wanted to help her mommy in completing a little demo way ahead of schedule. When we got home to see the work above I about flipped!!! Not only did she rip the carpet but she pulled it up to the middle of the room. REALLY?!!!!

There were no chances of a quick fix so we sat down to discuss all of our options. After getting quotes and what seemed like a million samples we decided to go through with getting hardwood floors. But to save on money we are deciding to install it ourselves. You know I love a good DIY project but this one is going to take a lot of patience. Since I lack any sort of patience what-so-ever (THANK YOU DAD) I have decided to leave this project to the guys (Chris, Ryan and Phil). I will just act as Project Manager.

So first we had to clear the room of Brixie's left over demolition and removed all the carpet, padding and nails. We vacuumed up all the dust and remains and scrapped off all glue to make the concrete floor flat and smooth. Chris filled in any holes with puddy and now the guys are ready to install.

All cleared and now it echoes throughout the house

My hard working man!
Not a fun project at all...

So now it is all set and ready to go. We ordered the floors last week and they were supposed to have arrived yesterday. Unfortunately though, they seem to have lost the freight with our purchase aboard. I am dealing with the company right now and hopefully we will have our package sometime today or first thing tomorrow morning. Wish us luck! If all goes well we will be doing the remainder of the house at the beginning of the year.

Although I am not thrilled with how all of it came about I will say I am really, really, really excited to get my hardwood floors and get rid of all the carpet in our house. So thank you Brixie...but don't do it again!!!!!

Oh the joys of having a house and a young pup. Xoxo

Poker Face

Saturday was a huge success! Thank you Bud and Amy for opening up your house to us! Chris had a great time, got third place, smoked cigars, had a blast with all of his friends and drank his favorite drinks! What more could a guy ask for! So glad that everyone was able to make it! I thought that I had been pretty good about taking pictures but after looking back at them I didn't do such a great job! And Chris and I didn't get any pictures together! We are so bad about that! So here is a recap of the night in the pictures that I did take:

If anyone went home hungry it was their own fault!

I made sure there was plenty to grub on!
I spent many hours in the kitchen the night before

I even got Subway

Lauren & I before the gambling began!

the yummy Tiramisu Bowl (it was devoured)

And it was so pretty we set up a table outside

The tables were very intense! Such a serious game!

Notice all the guys with their heads turned towards the tv checking on the football scores...men

Chris Iconos and the guys taking a break

So glad Chris' brother was able to make it!

And then we got down to the final table...

And Chris' Dad won it all! So glad that everyone came and had a great time! It made for an awesome birthday! Now what to do for his 30th in two years?!

This week we have alot going on! We have the Cirque du Soleil tomorrow night, Nutcracker on Friday, some very big home projects on Friday and Saturday (which I will be blogging about very soon) and Chris' art show on Saturday night! So busy, busy times with lots of pictures to take!

Happy hump day! Anyone going to watch the CMA Awards Show tonight?

Christmas Shopping

This past weekend was a HUGE success! Chris loved his "surprise" poker party and everyone had a wonderful time!!! Chris has already said he wants to do it again for a future birthday, lol! I am great about taking pictures but awful about loading them onto the computer so you are going to have to wait one more day for a recap of the whole event. Sorry ladies!

So has anyone started their Christmas shopping yet? I have done a little here and there but still have a few items that I need to add to the shopping cart. Hopefully I can knock a few out this Friday at the Nutcracker Market.

If you haven't started yet or still have alot to do I have the perfect solution!!! As many of you may already know, Scentsy warmers is one of my favorite gifts to give! There are tons of great warmers to choose from, scents that smell delicious, last forever and its non-toxic! And for those of you that are mommies you don't have to worry about the wax hurting your little ones as it only gets hot enough to melt the wax but not burn by the touch. It's perfect for all ages and a great gift that will last all year round!

Look how cute this Gingerbread warmer is!

The November Warmer of the Month: Prancer!
And for those of you with loved ones that have survived breast cancer or trying to fight it this would be the perfect gift and ALL of the proceeds go to The National Breast Cancer Foundation!

Just visit my website and start your Christmas shopping now! If you have ANY questions please feel free to email here drlenz08@yahoo.com and I will be happy to answer them!

I will be back tomorrow with the Poker Party recap full with pictures! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! xoxo