Home Sweet Home: Little Updates

We've been working on little updates lately... small changes here and there that make our space feel more functional and/or less cluttered. I'm on an Official Clutter Elimination Mission. J is lovin' it ;)

First, the more functional:

We finally got a real coffee table for our living room, and it was an excellent decision if I do say so myself. We loved using the bench that my great-great-grandfather built, but it has now moved to the foot of our bed where it serves its original purpose. In its place is a gem from good ol' Paula Deen.

Its sheer size and the drawers you see that hold our excess magazines make this space feel much more finished.

But there is so much more to this table.

Wait for it...

Half of it just raises right up to you like a magical table, desk, tray...a tableskray of beautiful usefulness. I pay bills, I check blogs, we eat our new favorite Eggo whole grain waffles, and all while the puppies sit cuddly at our shoulders. Increased function - check.

........

Now for for a much smaller scale and more clutter-focused update:

I had been leaving all of our medicine and vitamins out on the kitchen island so that I would remember them every morning. I didn't want to put them up in the cabinet because I knew my consistency in taking/serving them would be shot, but I was tired of seeing the mess. I look at pills all day at work, so I really don't need to see them when I'm at home. {Not that we take a ton of medicine, but I am a whole-hearted believer in vitamins and supplements. Josh doesn't even know half of what he takes. He's actually very trusting now that I think about it...}

The solution? My trusty go-to, Pottery Barn, and its Black and White Apothecary Canister.

It holds everything we need - even my gummy vitamins :)

I have no idea what any of those words mean except for Pharmacie {mad deducing skills, right?}, but it's a nod both to my profession and to the purpose it so stylishly serves. Oh, and I got it with a gift card, so I am one supplemented, semi-organized, happy camper.

.........

Stay tuned for a kitchen office nook I'm working on - it almost makes me giddy just thinking about it ;)

Post(s)!

I read a long time ago that it's not cool when you acknowledge that it's been a long time since you've posted on your blog, but who am I kidding? Cool has never been my gig. ;) There are no monumental reasons for my absence {other than I have some sort of mental block when it comes to remembering to bring my camera to events I want to document ... maybe my New Year's Resolution?}, so I am going to do a few mini post(s) in this one to make up for lost time. To create some sort of flow, they are in a kind of holiday-themed order. It's a stretch, but I'm going with it.

*Thanks{giving}*
Have you given thanks lately that facebook, blogs, etc didn't exist when you were a teenager? I sure have. Kids these days just post any and everything. {Since when am I old enough to say "kids these days?" Sheesh.} Aside from the fact that it can be dangerous, it is embarassing. Like whoa.

For instance, there would be way too many photos of my I love overalls because they are both comfy and cute phase, among a few other phases I don't care for the world to see, but that's not even the worst of it. I don't know about you, but as a youngster I knew everything about everything. I had my life figured out, and I would have undoubtedly taken the opportunity to help anyone else figure out his or hers as well. Yikes.

.......


*Puppies' Traumatic Christmas*
Or I guess I should say our traumatic Christmas because of our puppies.

We love our dogs. We don't dress them up or have birthday parties for them, but other than that they are 100% part of our family. Well on Christmas Day we lost lady for about 15 or 20 minutes {or 10 years...I'm not sure}, and it was hooorrrrible. We ended up finding her hiding mischieviously in my in-law's laundry room, but not before the following occurred:

-I ran creepily through their neighbors' backyards holding Rose {because no one else could be trusted with her, of course} in a towel to keep her warm and yelling Laaaaady through my freezing tears
-Josh jumped a fence to see if Lady was on the other side, and his sister thought he was stuck
-My sister- and brother-in-law drove the entire neighborhood at 5 mph, and ignited a chorus of the barks of every dog but Lady
-My father-in-law considered driving to some mean people's house to accuse them of stealing our dog....good thing we found her before this one went down. hahaha

And if all that wasn't enough, when we got home and got ready to head to MH, Rosie {who is not quite 4lbs} swallowed enough benadryl for a couple of grown men and we spent another two hours at the emergency vet. That's right, an ER for your pets. I still haven't completely recovered.

Oh, but no rest for the weary. Christmas night at my parents house, literally everyone was there. That means 13 people and 3 dogs under one roof. It also meant that Josh and I shared a room with one of my brothers. Snores galore. I got super confused going back and forth between kicking my husband and yelling across the room at my brother. I kept hearing "it's not me" from both of them. Well it has to be one of you. At one point, my brother actually yelled at me for being such a light sleeper. Oh, no sir. Santa's bringing you Breathe Right next year.

.......


*No {New Year's} peas, please!*
I hate peas of any sort...black eyed {the ones you eat on New Year's Day for good luck...that's the connection}, purple hull, green, snow...doesn't matter. I have never in my life enjoyed one bite. The other day when I had the TV on while I was doing laundry, I saw a small feature on this man who had been diagnosed with lung cancer that his doctors couldn't completely confirm what type or how to treat it. {Confession: It was the Rachael Ray show. I don't like when she says cheesy stuff like EVOO and easy peezy, but she has interesting guests sometimes.} Anyways, turns out the guy didn't have cancer of any sort. He had actually aspirated part of a pea during his dinner one night. It lodged in his lung, germinated, and sprouted. A pea plant. In his lung. Well, that settles it. No peas for me.

.........

See there? I'm all caught up now. That was easy :)

Walk Through

We couldn't decide what we wanted for dinner tonight {much like we can't decide what we want for dinner every night ;)}. We knew we didn't feel like cooking {no surprise there either}, and we didn't really want to drive a long way. Plus, we hadn't walked the dogs yet tonight, and they really behave much better when they get some energy out.

Solution? We walked the dogs...to and through the drive through at the Schlotsky's in our neighborhood. I know it's really random, but it was so fun! At first Josh and I just tried jumping really hard on the pavement in front of the drive through hoping to trigger it, but that was thoroughly unsuccessful and made me kind of sweaty. So Josh just ran inside to let them know we were there.

When he got back to the drive through, the guy came on the microphone just like normal...until he said "nice dogs." Whaaaaat? You have a camera? At Schlotsky's? I had an immediate flash back.

...

When I was in high school, I had a hilarious {and by hilarious I do mean ridiculously funny} friend who had an incredible talent for ordering at drive throughs pretending there was significant static during critical parts of her order.

Yes, I'd like to order a shhhkkkshk with no kshhshk and a small shhhhshkcch.

A back and forth of what?s and shhhks would go on and on with static in varying parts of the order. It was so impressive, and I was in tears every time she did it. Hungry, because we never got our food, but tickled nonetheless.

So when I was in college I decided I would be funny and show my friends this super pastime. We were in Arkadelphia - what else were we gonna do? ;)

I drove up to the ordering station and gave my spiel. I was a little less polished than my predecessor, but it was still pretty convincing. Or so I thought...

I know you're making those noises ma'am. I can see you on the camera.

Oops. Awkward. And hungry yet again.

...

Tonight was much smoother. We ordered without any funny business, they thought our dogs were cute, and we left with food in our hands. :)

Busy.

Busy, busy, busy. You too? Well, burst my bubble.

Just when I'm feeling like I must most certainly be the busiest person in the country, if not the hemisphere, I find someone who is busier. But I really don't want to hear that because I would prefer to be dramatic about how busy I am.

I came home the other day, feeling like I had worked especially super duper hard, and I got about two words into my pity party before J interrupted me with a story of some man he had met that morning who starts his day at 4am with job #1 and moves straight to job#2, ending his day hardly before the next begins. Dang it. I guess I'll make it.

One contributing factor to my survival right now is that our pharmacy never opens earlier than 9am. I cannot tell you what beautiful time occurs between 7:45 and 8:45 in the morning. We're talking a precious 59 minutes that mean I might actually feed my husband, my dogs, and myself before I'm in the car. And if I'm up especially early, I might even get on the treadmill. That we bought. That's in our bedroom.

Yikes! Are you judging me yet? Fair enough if you are.

So far, no clothes have been found hanging on the treadmill. I refuse. I hope I continue to refuse... because I'm already pushing a cliche with exercise equipment in the bedroom where I lay my aerobically challenged body down to sleep. But I needed a stress release that isn't dependent on the weather, and at least for right now we are really using it. I haven't lost an ounce, mind you, but maybe I'm staying more sane than I would if we hadn't made the plunge {and bribed my brother with chocolate chip cookies to come help us put it together :)}

Another release?

{photo: potterybarn.com}

The Pottery Barn holiday decor for this year! Busy schmizzy. I will simply look through the PB Holiday magazine while walking briskly in place and be just fine. And then I can buy remarkably similar items from Target, save some money, and be even better.

Do you like how I just advertised for my employer? I wasn't even trying. If I was trying I would tell you to go to your local Target Pharmacy asap and get your flu shot {no appointment necessary}. But I'm not trying. I'm far too busy being busy ;)