whatever works wednesday

by trying to do one thing,

it turned into another.

and without us meaning to,

we have hurt feelings.

while trying to avoid

misunderstandings

and conflict,

we have created

misunderstandings

and conflict.

the importance of the situations was not stressed.

and so a decision was made under the impression

that it was 'no big deal'

a decision,

that ended up being a big deal.

and while we try to figure this one out

through lots of talking,

our only regret is not starting this out,

with lots of talking.

but in the end,

we're going to figure out how this works.

like them or fight them,

but you can't ignore them.

family.

christmas threads

i never revealed my amazing christmas presents.

over the last month,

if i wore something i got for christmas i tried to snap a quick photo so i could share.

so here it goes:

lily white sweater - nordstrom's

black skinny jeans - target

navy cardigan - gap

brown dress and flannel scarf - forever 21

brown boots - payless

olive green skinny pants and diamond cowl neck poncho - forever 21

boots - payless (which i mentioned back in november)

and also my sparkly sweater from new year's.

and an assortment of new nail polishes.

so basically i scored big time.

craft to the max

over the weekend we finally had another craft circle.

we hadn't had one since i made these back in april.

the girls were gathered and this time everyone picked their own craft instead of us all doing the same one.  which is good, because i never did the chosen craft anyway.

linds and i decided to take advantage of the free time together to finish up all our crafts for jana's upcoming baby shower.

it doesn't look like a lot,

but somehow cutting M A X out of paper and gluing it on to burlap squares and then trimming it with ribbon, took lindsay and i awhile.  but it was worth it, because i think it's going to be adorable once it's all hung up.  i'm also in love with our little iron-on onesies and the alphabet picture for his room.

i'm super excited for saturday so we can finally put all of this together and celebrate a new little guy in our lives.

breadsticks

made famous by glee

and my post on sunday.

a friend of mine asked for my recipe,

so i thought i'd share it with everyone:

1 1/2 C flour

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. sugar

1/4 tsp. salt (or garlic salt)

2/3 C buttermilk

1/4 C butter (1/2 stick)

preheat oven to 450. sift dry ingredients together.  add buttermilk and stir until blended. roll out onto a flour surface in an 8 inch square.  cut into 1 inch strips.  melt butter into an 8 inch baking pan. roll each strip of dough into butter, turn to coat all sides.  place in pan. sprinkle with salt, garlic salt or parmesan cheese. 

bake at 450 for 20 to 25 minutes.

serves 4.

very simple and so good.

a strand of gray

ronzo and i were getting ready for bed over the weekend,

when he did the worst possible thing.

he found a gray hair

on ME.

ronnie has been going gray since he was 22.

it's joke for us that he will be completely gray by 40,

while his much younger, hotter wife still rocks her 20's.

you can see how this has completely shifted my world.

and thus began my five stages of greif.

of course, at first i was in denial.

i simply explained that he was wrong.

no way, that is blonde.

but when i examined closer, i could see that he was right.

that little piece of shit strand was shining in the light.

it was awful.

that made me angry.

hello?!

where has my youth gone?

i'm too young for this!

and then came the bargaining - which for me looked a lot like blaming.

stupid UMKC, i knew that job was killing me.

i gained 10 lbs AND went gray.

fucking great.

and then came the black hole of old age and everything awful.

depression.

let's go into hiding until i can get a hair appointment.

no one needs to see me like this.

and now you're probably waiting for my acceptance.

...how this happens to everyone and i should embrace my new found

age?

widsome?

knowledge?

but keep waiting, because that ain't happening.

this hair had a shelf life.

it's gone.

forever plucked from my head

with the hope that it will understand that it's not welcome back for at least another 12 years.

until then, we shall never speak of this again.

starting...

now.

rethinking - refinancing

ronnie and i are refinancing our house. 

when we bought it four years ago we locked in a rate of 5.875%. 

if you look at the rates now, they are in the low 4's, 

and this could definitely make our monthly payment lower. 

score.  plus, i have an 'in' at the bank so a lot of the normal fees are waved. 

we like that.

ronnie and i went back and forth this year about whether or not to sell.

i decided that since we didn't know what or where my new job would be, we should wait.

now that we know, i think that it would be stupid to move.

ronnie agrees.

i live 2 seconds from work. 

i get to come home everyday for lunch.

i don't want to lose that.

plus, half my argument for taking this job was the gas money we would save.

(ps - i've only gotten gas once in january.)

if we started looking at locations out in the country,

i would go back to have a commute in the morning. 

so even though our dream is to live in the country.

it will have to wait. 

probably another 5 years. 

i don't know what i'll do now that the updates to our house are almost complete.

maybe i should start looking into new hobbies...

  

let's call this finished

last week i took a little break to finish our bar in the basement.

i didn't want to bore you with the details but it was a lot of painting.

then putting on the counter top.

cutting in the sink.

blah blah blah.

so i'm happy to finally be able to show this:

a long way from here.

      

it took much longer than i expected, but ronzo is a perfectionist and i wouldn't expect anything less. 

next step? buy a mini fridge and fill those shelves.