The last 5 months..

So, I told my friend Allison that I have decided to force myself to get into the habit of one day a week (at least), blogging so that I don't get this far behind again! Yikes!!

I'll try to do a brief run-down of events since my birthday

For those of you who don't know..I took my house off the market. After a while of being on, I gave it some thought, and I decided why not stay here, and have fun (try to save money) while I didn't have any responsibilities (ie..kids) so...I'm still on Roosevelt until..who knows when?

Since I'm staying, I decided to redecorate the entire house. My very design-talented friend, Melisa, came over and had awesome ideas of what we needed to do with the place as far as paint/furniture/decor...so all the credit to her! Those pics will come later, since we are still waiting on furniture to be delivered! If you are needing help with suggestions on what to do with your house, or just changing things up a bit..I can give you her contact info. My sister hired her, and is in love with all of the fun ideas Melisa has given her!

First, Cam ripped up the carpet and first layer of hardwood floors, and we had http://www.michaelshardwoodfloors.com/ come and refinish the flooring in the 2 bedrooms/hall, and put down all new oak floors in the living/dining area. We couldn't be more pleased with how they turned out! Here are some pics.

Cam ripping up the first layer of flooring (a filthy job!)

boring tan living room, and ugly floors (had to wear shoes or you would def. get a splinter! take note that under that ladder is a giant ugly vent...

B.E.A UUUUUUUTIFUL! Now..see where that giant ugly vent was..he closed it up, and made a flush-with-the floor wood vent...my favorite part of it all!

our bedroom. the colors are this teal/blue and dark chocolate brown

My hallway is a small space, so that is why this is just of the door, but you can see the smokehouse color Melisa picked out for the hall...love it..looks very nice!

More pics to come once furniture/decor is all done!

• Cameron celebrated his 28th birthday in May! We had a BBQ at Lake Shawnee with friends and family, it was a good time!




• At work, I was taken off of patrol, and sentenced, I mean sent to the courthouse. I should return to patrol in November/December..I can't wait! (Its a seniority based thing) but if I have to say one positive thing about it...I am able to read a lot of good books this summer! Ha!
  
  
• We bought an older fishing/tubing boat from my uncle. We have gotten a lot of use out of 'ol blue this summer! Not to mention a lot of our dinners were caught thanks to Cam and the boat :)




• Cam and I went to Vegas for a few days! Cam's brother, Gabe and Gabe's gf Jamie joined us there. (I would post more of those pics, but there are way too many, and as many of you know, posting pics on blogger isn't exactly a speedy process) if you are my FB friend, you can check them out there!




• Cam, Laura, Laura's friend Jay, Dad, Bren and I all spent a few days up at Dad and Bren's lake house in the Ozarks. It was so nice to relax and be out on the water all day with them! I must point out that Cam was never successful at throwing me or Laura off of the tube! And everyone jumped off of the platfrom on the roof of the dock..thank you alcohol-induced bravery! :) I will post pics of this later, they have yet to be developed (and yes..I said developed, I took a disposable camera on the boat for obvious reasons)


• I have decided to grow my hair out (random fun fact)


• I spent Saturday with Laura and Mom in KC, we went shopping, out to lunch (of course we went to sushi train!) and spent the evening sewing fun, hot pink pillows for Lauras newly decorated bedroom! (again...props to Melisa)


• Saturday morning Kela, Lindsey and I all met up at the Farmers Market! It was so hot, but I got hella produce and I was super excited about it! Kela was a trooper and pushed my GIGANTIC cantaloupes around in her stroller while I carried the corn and tomatoes! Nothing is better than fresh produce!



• Sunday Laura and I went to our Aunt's Pampered Chef party. I ordered a deal that scrapes the corn off of the cob for you (I currently hand cut it off, I'm not a caveman, so I don't prefer to eat my corn directly off of the cob) and I ordered 3 wooden kitchen utensils!

I know I have left out a lot of other things that Cam and I have done, but I think I have covered some of the hi-lights! Here are some things I have to look forward to in the next Month and a half:

• A wedding this Saturday (not mine own...a good friend from work)
  
• Going tubing


• Shopping with Laura....again (hey, this is for a shower, not ourselves!)


• Oceans of Fun


• Our furniture being delivered


• Worlds of fun (we get in free, so why not?!?)


• A baby shower, dinner and movie with my mom and sister


• Missy B's with the ladies


• Cam and I running our first ever 5K!! WOO-HOO!
  

And last but CERTAINLY not least, I wanted to take a second to point out how EXTREMELY PROUD I am of Cameron! He has been working so hard at losing weight/getting healthy. When we first started dating, he was 296lbs, he has lost 56POUNDS!!!!!!!!!! If you have not seen him lately..hes dead sexy! We have both participated in a 12 week weight loss challenge, mine ended a couple of weeks ago, and I took 2nd place, and won $, and Cam's ended today, and he won the most inches lost 33.25 inches, in his group, and also won $! We both have quite a ways to go, so we are starting another challenge on Monday...please check back in with me, and help keep me accountable! Here is what I hope we look like when we've reached our goals! lol...jk, but a girl can dream, right?

BiRtHdAy

I will start this blog out by saying I have the most amazing, thoughtful, selfless boyfriend...ever. For my birthday, he planned a special day, and for the most part, kept it a suprise. For those of you who know Cam, keeping a secret is not easy for him :)

I will fill you in on the birthday festivities, but first, I must tell you about Fwannie. As I had told you before, my 9 year baby girl, had surgery on my birthday. She had "stinotic nares" surgery, it pretty much opened her wittle nosey so she could breath better. More importantly (for anyone within 5 feet of her) she got her teeth cleaned!! They were nasty. Just to give you an idea, they had to remove 4 teeth that were causing crowding, and allowing HAIR to get stuck inbetween them. (insert barfing noise here) Anyways, here she is after surgery, if you look closely, you can see the blue strings/stitches in her nosey..


Ok, onto the fun part. So, Cam had secretly been planning my birthday. Of course, I blew it when I scheduled Fwannie surgery on my birthday, not knowing there was anything planned. So, we had to drop her off the night before. Anyways...for my birthday, Cam got me this necklace that I had been wanting for a while...I LOVE it!


Then, a couple days before my bday he tells me that he had made plans for us. He had gotten us a hotel at Ameristar in KC! So, the day before my b-day we drove up to KC, stopped at Legends on the way to do a tad bit of shopping. Are you sitting down?.... I didnt buy anything! Then we went on to the hotel, Cam had gone to the liquor store and got "supplies" for the night of fun! Then we got ready, went to dinner, and Cam gave me $ to gamble, knowing full good and well that I would NOT spend my own $ gambling :) So, I ventured out a tried something new, and didn't do slots, but I sat and played black jack! It was so much fun!! I even went over and played craps with Cam, and got to throw the dice (even though I don't fully understand what was happening)

Here is Cam making one of the bathroom sinks into a cooler of sorts..Oh, and we made a new drink, its UV blue and the blue Monster drink...it turns green, so we named it the green dragon!


Us before dinner

Ok, so if you know me, you know my hair is super straight, a curling iron is worthless on this mop, b/c it just falls back to straight in an hours time...so before bed I showered b/c I smelled like a smokey casino, and I decided to roll tiny sections of my hair into little buns all over my head, in hopes that when I woke up, it would be curly!! FAIL...I woke up, took out all the bobby pins, and I looked like I stuck my finger in a socket! Yikes!

So, after I got this hair under control, we headed back to Topeka, had lunch, and Cam had gotten me a birthday cake from coldstone, some coffee lovers ice cream, and a card (up until my bday, I had never received a card from Cam) Inside the card was a handwritten note (the best part was that he had gotten into my scrapbooking stuff and used stickers and rinestones on the card) saying that he had made reservations for us on April 7th to go to Row House, a shmancy resturaunt I have been wanting to try, but they are only open Wed-Sat (Cam works all those days) well, he will be in training during the day that week, so he will be off the 7th evening with me!

It was a BEAUTIFUL day out, so we decided to enjoy outside, and go to the lake and drop a pole in and see what we could catch. End result....nada

Isn't he handsome?!! I just wanna kiss his face!

Before we go to the next picture, I must explain that I was CLUMSY on my b-day...not sure why. So, we are on this dock, had a couple of lawn chairs set up, and Cam's bucket to put his fish in (it was empty) so I stand up and am doing God knows what, and I fell, not just tripped, I full on face dove, onto the dock..I've got bruises as proof. In the process, I knocked the bucket into the water. Cam was more concerned about that bucket than me laying there like a dummy! It was sooo funny, you had to be there. Anyway, I made it my goal to get that darn bucket! While I was trying...apparently Cam was taking pics..

I got the **** bucket!!!

ABC

My girl Molly did this, and I thought I'd join in on the fun

A. Area code -785
B. Bed size- king, now I just need a bigger room to put it in so I dont have to crawl on top of Cam to get out of it
C. Chore you hate-cleaning toilets
D. Dog's name-Frannie pronounced Fwannie
E. Essential start the day item-its sick, but my computer addiction gets the best of me
F. Favorite color- pink, but I like a lot of black, that sounds gothic, huh?
G. Gold or silver-SILVER
H. Height- 5'8
I. Instruments you play-LOL, if you know me well you know I have NO rhythm, so instrument playing/reading music is out!
J. Job-Deputy
K. Kids-none
L. Living arrangement- Cam and I live in a house I bought when I was 20
M. Mom's name- Ladonna
N. Nickname: none really, my family calls me Jen, but thats not really a nickname?
O. Overnight hospital stay-I dont know that I've stayed overnight?
P. Pet peeve-wow, I have a ton, the first one that comes to mind is when someones drink is empty, and they keep sucking the straw FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GET A REFILL YOU ARE OBNOXIOUS!
Q. Quote from a movie-I love so many comedies, its hard to pick just one
R. Righty or Lefty-righty, you may as well take my left hand, its useless
S. Siblings- 2 older sisters, Amber the oldest who lives in Denver and is a nurse, and Laura who is the middle, who lives in KC and is an accountant. I have a step brother Adrian, and a step sister Jenni too
T. Time you wakeup-whenever I want usually
U. Underwear-yes please
V. Veggie you dislike-brussel sprouts or lima beans
W. Reasons you are late-procrastination
X. Xrays-arms, fingers, toes, teeth
Y. Yummy food you make-I really like to cook, so I have quite a few things that I love if you ever wanna know
Z. Zoo animals you like-thinking Omaha zoo- anything in an aquarium

Toes, 1st b-day and a parade

I think I forgot to mention in my last couple of blogs that the DD girls got together for breakfast at Panera and then went out for pedicures. Next month we are going to Lindsey's musical RENT!

My best friend Ashley's daughter, Addison turned 1!!

We went to the FREEZING cold St.Patrick's Day parade and hung out with great friends all day!

And to keep those of you who dont know up-to-date, the house has been on the market for 11 days, and has had 5 showings, and 1 offer. The offer wasn't do-able (we would have had to pay $5000, so we will just keep praying that someone else comes along and it works for all of us! But, Im a true believer in stuff being jinxed, so, until something is in writing, and money is on the table, my lips are sealed...when I bought this house I didn't tell anyone until the day we closed, and that seemed to work well for me, so we will see if it works for selling it too!

Sewin Saturday

This morning, I woke up..yea, thats right, I said morning...9am thank you very much! Anyways..Cam and I went and worked out, went and got a bite for lunch, and ran a couple of errands. After I got home, I was feeling crafy, and not really in the mood to get dressed, so I started sewing.

First I started working on a camera strap that Lindsey asked me to make...I hope she likes it, I thought it turned out cute! I love the pattern with the stripes on the underside..

I have been wanting to make a new ironing board cover, and was lovin this fabric...I am too embarassed to show a picture of the previous board cover...just trust me that it desperately needed replaced!

And this growth chart..I didn't make it today, I made it Thursday, but thought I would share anway. When my bf Ashley's first born, Blake turned 1, I made him one, and its been fun to see how much he has grown in 2 years. Well, now that her little Addison is turning 1 this week, I made her one too!

poor fwannie

Frannie (or Fwannie if you are talking to her in baby talk, as I always do) had a normal check up at the vet today. She got all of her shots, got more heart worm meds, etc. The vet looked at her nose, and said that, as most pugs/boxers do, frannie is having a hard time breathing, and in the long run, this could cause an enlarged heart. She said that a procedure, similar to rhinoplasty would need to be done to help this. Also, Frannie's teeth are DISGUSTING! (Almost to the point of embarassment when she looked at them) so March 30th, my baby is going in for rhinoplasty and a good deep teeth cleaning, which will, more than likely, result in teeth being pulled..ugh, I feel so bad for her (and my checking account)

Lots of catching up to do...

So last time we chatted, we just wrapped up our Valentines Day dinner..

A LOT has happened since..isn't it crazy how one day you're bored and the next day you feel like there aren't enough hours in the day?

Here are some things, small and BIG that have been happening in our life!

Actual Valentines Day rolled around, and we went to church. After church we took some goodie bags over to the neices and nephews, and then went out to lunch with Molly and some other friends.

I had a much needed hair appointment! I get so excited to get my hair cut/colored!

We met up with some of Cam's friends, Marty and his gf Jenna (crazy, I know..AND we have the same initals..JML) and Gilbert, for some mexican food. Since Cam and I both had the night off, Cam and I went to Sharkeys (where his brother, Gabe, is a bartender) and had a few drinks


I went and saw Valentines Day with Chelsey, its a cute movie!

I got together with Molly and had a sewing night! It was a lot of fun! You should head over to her page and check out her awesome dress she made!

Molly and I had Chelsey's baby shower! It turned out so cute! Here are a couple of pics from it..

While I was at the shower, Cam was at church for the men's breakfast, where the theme was get 'er done. Cam said his assignment was to check and see if the bathroom sink was leaking..and it wasn't, so I guess he just went for the breakfast, and less of the get 'er done part :) It is such a good feeling being involved with our church!

After the shower was over, a few of us girls went and saw Dear John; TOTAL DISAPPOINTMENT! I read the book, and the movie didn't hold a candle to the book....if you're dying to see it, wait, redbox it instead!

After the movie, Molly and Gerrad had several of us over for dinner. Let me advise you that I am not a fan of BBQ, I like bbq'd burgers and brauts, but nothing slathered in bbq sauce..just not something I love. Well... Gerrad Hall (molly's hub) makes AH-MAZE-ING ribs. Seriously, if there weren't other people there, I probably would have been sucking every last morsel off of those bones! I even woke up the next morning thinking about those ribs...he is definitley gonna have to make those again! Or maybe even teach Cam!

And.. our BIG news..(no, no bambino or ring, don't even try) we had a realtor, Barb Banman come over today to check out the house, and it goes on the market MONDAY!!!!! I have SO MUCH TO DO before then! Its such a crazy feeling! I am nervous, anxious, scared, stressed, etc. Cam and I keep talking that it is in God's hands now, and since he sees the big picture, and we don't, all we can do is leave it up to him, and trust that what happens, is happening for a reason! Lets just hope God remembers my bank account doesn't want to be depleted for this :)

tonight I posted 2 of our computer desks on craigslist and facebook, and within 45 minutes they were both gone! Thats so awesome, I was at Home Depot thinking "wouldn't it be cool if this is how quickly the house goes too?" So tomorrow I will be setting those out on the porch for the new owners!

Ok, well, I need to get started on this list of stuff to accomplish prior to Monday, so Im outta here.

Also, if you would, say a prayer for Cam and I that we are able to sell the house without a hitch, and when the time is right, we are able to find our "forever home" together!