Home for Three Years

Three years ago today I signed the contract for our current home. I'd been wanting to move into the neighborhood adjacent to my parents for a few reasons, mainly that it was just a few miles from my office. This house had been on the market for at least 9 months, and I think I was turned off by the realtor photos. I looked at a house across the street, and I realized this house had the same floor plan, which I loved. I asked the agent to show me this house, and I knew it was the one right away. I think many buyers were turned off because the freeway is right behind my back fence. It didn't bother me too much, and the price was quite a bargain at the time. I snapped it up, and decided planting some trees and bushes would be my first priority.

This was the chesssy entertainment center I had at my first house, and some fabulous garage sale leather couches. The main house was totally white, while each bedroom was an interesting montage of color choices.

Despite the cliche angel wallpaper, I ended up buying some new furniture when I moved in and decided the bedroom should be pink! Don't worry- shortly after we married, I gave into my husbands demands to less girly bedroom.

I've been on a blue & brown kick for a few years now, and now we will have our master bedroom, guest bath and my office all in happy, mellow shades of blues & browns.

And the sad, sad state of affairs in my backyard right after I moved in. One of my first projects was to get some super-duper fast growing bushes planted. You can even see one of my favorite trees, before it was violently chopped down, in the above photo. Though our old grill served us well, I'm so glad to have a new one & new patio furniture.

My guest bathroom sat totally unadorned, even sans shower curtain, for the first 6 months. Mom gave me the aquarium themed decor for Christmas in 2005, and we kept it until we got some new decor from our wedding registry near the end of 2006.

This is the formal dining room today, and it looks pretty much like it did when I moved in 3 years ago. I had intended to paint it eventually, but I think we will wait until we decide what to do with the front living room. The breakfast room was recently adorned with art from South America & my mom's super cool glass paintings.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY:

My pink & green, once a baby's room, office is officially gone after this past weekend~ more updates to come.

Zoe & the Sprinkler

Zoe & water have a love-hate relationship. She *LOVES* the pool, but really doesn't care to get wet. She goes out of her way to avoid wet grass, rain and sprinklers. Usually if I have the sprinkler on in the back yard, she won't even go outside!
But a few weeks ago (you can tell by her hair patch still missing), we had Ruby and were working in the garden. She couldn't stand for Ruby to be around us without her, so she came out to play while we were watering the garden.
Then she discovered the could eat the water coming out of the sprinkler.
Silly, silly, silly dog!
Ever week I continue to be amused by something new she does.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Pretty pretty princess and the pink office are on their last days.

Brides Gone Wild

I went up to Austin last weekend to meet up with some photography friends. A few of the girls grabbed their old wedding dresses, and the rest of us grabbed our cameras. We had so much fun and were so silly! I don't take many people pictures or portrait type of work, so this was all new for me. I mostly learned that I have no desire to ever do this for anything but pure fun.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: A Saturday with no plans!

1 Year with My Camera

It may sound silly, but I think getting a *real* camera (DSLR) changed my life. I've always been a picture nut, but it suddenly dawned on me that I could get a better camera than a point and shot (even though I do love mine). I borrowed one of the work cameras and signed up for a Saturday afternoon class. The rest is history, all documented with the 13,465 photos I've taken in the last year.

This is the first photo I ever took with my Nikon D80, 1 year ago today. Still probably one of the things most photographed by my camera.

My initial motivation for getting the camera was our trip to Colorado. This was my 1,000th photo- on the side of the hill in Breckenridge. I quickly learned the joys of Lightroom while processing my photos, but I'm still pretty clueless with photoshop.

My 5,000th photo just happened to be my favorite subject at her favorite place. I started out with my all-purpose 18-200 lens, which it's great for almost any occasion. For Christmas, I received 2 fabulous lenses. I've been having a ball lately using the macro on our garden.

My 9,999th photo with my camera, and I was very glad to be back in the United States after our (mis)adventure in Canada.

This technically would have been my 10,000th photo, but the counter rolls over and we were back to 1. It was of my favorite abandoned building in Detroit.

I'm so excited to keep playing with it, keep learning, keep documenting my daily life.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I've got a super-awesome photo session coming up after-hours at the museum in 2 weeks.

101 Update

We've been very busy on our 101 List in 1001 Days since my last update in January. We are officially 500 days into our first 1001 days of marital bliss. We have until November 9, 2009 to finish our list.

DONE

**New since the last update
6- Go to a NY Yankees Game (June 2007)
**7- The biggie this year as our trip to Brazil & Argentina for our anniversary (February 2008)
**12- Decorate H's office
14- H to start a 401(K)
16- Start a journal ( blogging )
20- Subscribe to a magazine (Newsweek)
**21- Visit the dentist (H finally went in March)
26- Clean the carpet
31- Fondue with friends
34- Read a fiction novel (You can see that I've done that several times over)
40- Take a photography class (June 2007)
**46- We went to the New Orleans Jazz Fest (April 2008)
47- Run everyday for a month (did this, but might do it again)
**50- Write and publish a technical paper (presented it in Detroit)
**51- Get Professional Engineering License (studied & I passed!)
54- Go to a small town fair & rodeo
57- Subscribe to a travel magazine
62- Visit Alabama (Trip for Thanksgiving 2007)
**72- New grill for the house
76- See Dave Matthews Band in Concert
68- Redecorate our bedroom
71- Give blood
87- Go on a picnic (several times)
97- Ice Skating (did this with his cousins, but might go again)

IN PROGRESS

1- Run a marathon together (H has started training!)
10- We started our garden! (April 2008)
11- Start a music library (I've collected CD's from most of our concerts)
41- Cook 1 new meal a week (I've done a few & did another last night)
45- Camp at 3 New Parks (we did McKinney Falls, so 2 more to go)
48- Visit grandparents every week (I've been better, but not great about this)
63- Read a book together
72- Pay off debt
84- Rent 10 classic movies (we've rented quite a few, but I have some more on my classics list)
90- Review monthly budget (we've been ok on tracking this, but will continue to do better)
94- Try new ethnic restaurants (a few down, a few more to go)
101- Go to the driving range together (we've been a few times)

COMING SOON

7- Trip to Big Bend National Park (I've just about talked H into going in December)
36- Volunteer for politics (hopefully this fall)
37- Take Zoe to the beach (on our calendar for June)
44- Get SCUBA certification
65- Go to an art exhibit (an awesome Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit is in town)
67- Have a girls weekend (I'm trying to plan a Labor Day weekend party in Colorado with Stephanie)
83- Go to a Houston Dynamo Game (on our calendar for July)
100- Visit the Messina Hof Winery (we're booked for the Harvest Festival in July)

IF WE'RE LUCKY LIST

22- Install a sprinkler system
27- Go fishing with my dad
30- Plant some flowerbeds
88- Couples Massage

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: My grandparents are finally together again at a nursing home, and they are both doing fairly well.

Tree Hugger

Another one from the old photo albums. This is in front of our house I grew up in, and I was about 2. This was "my" red bud tree and I loved it for many, many years. You can still see the patch of dirt near the mailbox where I planted by tree over 25 years ago.

I loved working with mom and Gram in the flowerbeds on the rosebushes. What a great mom- she gave me her glove (that goes up to my elbow!).

What can I say? I'm still a clutz....

On our trip to Lake Tahoe, I laughed at H for being a tree hugger. This was the biggest tree he'd ever seen.

I even hugged my little bushes when I first planted them almost 3 years ago. I needed them to grow fast and big!

That loving must have been good, because look how big it is now! I just need the smaller bushes and the ones we planted last year to grow this big too.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Dad and Brenda are off on their first kid-free vacation in a long time.

Super Sky Stuff

Last Thursday, we had some super storms blow through town, and they made for beautiful sunsets and interesting cloud formations.

In the summer, we frequently get the afternoon thunderstorms. Last Friday, we had lots of thunder and lightening, but sadly very little actual rain for the grass.

And on Wednesday, the afternoon storms delayed my flight home from Dallas. However, we were treated to a very nice sky rainbow for our troubles.

This picture is from about a month ago when I was flying to south Texas, and I thought the coastline was beautiful.

I was actually quite surprised by how boggy and swampy the coastline looks here.

Another fun thing in the sky is the new personal entertainment system that Continental is upgrading all their planes with. It's a touch screen with lots of movie, music and information choices to keep me occupied on our flight home from Florida a few weeks ago.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I ordered a new tripod and ballhead yesterday!

Zoe at 35mm

Haven't done any portrait stuff of Zoe lately. We'll call this session selective focus and bokeh....

And I love her new dog bed, which I anticipate decorating the office to match the colors (one day...far far away)

Maybe if I move to my pink chair, she'll stop taking pictures since she's already got enough photos of me there....


NOPE! I can't get enough of her cute little snaggle-tooth lip.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Lots of pictures from this weekend to edit and share!