Backsplash Started!!

I had to work all day Saturday, but Terry was wonderful with his time while I was away and decided to put up the backsplash in the kitchen.

We talked about our design dilemma a while back, and finally decided on which style we liked most. The sheets of tile had been sitting in the garage for a few months now, but we just haven't aliquoted the time to it. We are both SO happy with the results!


The Before Shots:

A few of the During Shots:

How it sits currently (notice Terry's installation of the undercabinet lighting....more to come on that in a few posts from now).  We Love It!!  We still have to cut tile to fit in around the outlets and receptacles and around the window ledge, and then grout or course, but this is easily 75% done!

What do you think??

Jefferson City, Missouri

While mom was out visiting, I took the Monday after Christmas off from work to do a day trip over to the Capital of Missouri. She loves touring the Capital Buildings and the Governor's Mansions (I think she's up to 17 states that she's toured so far), so we figured we may as well go knock one more off the list. Seeing as Jefferson City is in the middle of nowhere in Missouri (literally....there were no signs for Jefferson City until 30 miles away from it), I had very low expectations. Turns out, I was happily surprised. As we were driving in, it was just an enormous structure off in the distance.

New Years Eve and Midwest Tornadoes

(FYI...this was supposed to publish Jan 3rd but I set it to post 2010 instead of 2011...still getting used to it actually being 2011.....Apologies on the New Years post being 5 days after the fact)

Hope everyone had a safe and eventful New Years.  My New Years Eve was spent chopping up the Christmas Tree to small bits in the morning and burning it all piece by piece in the grill in the backyard.  While I was burning, I kept hearing sirens going off, but it was just clicking in my head that it was a fire siren.  When the siren got so loud that it seemed like the fire station was next door to our house, it finally dawned on me:  TORNADO SIREN! 
I know all of you on the East Coast (not sure about West Coast) have no idea what I'm talking about, but they have special sirens that are sounded when the weather conditions have potential for tornado activity.  Instead of the up and down like a typical fire siren, it's just a long steady solid siren that becomes horrifically loud as your area is apparently in more and more danger.  I turned on the TV, and this was the first thing that popped up (mind you, our house is in Belleville if you can see that on the map....and the purple is tornado activity).

 

Mind you at this point, it was still completely fine outside.  Then within about 10 minutes, it was a sheet across the sky of gray/black and it went from no rain to torrential downpour.  The house lost power, so I was furiously texting Terry to give me updates because he was at work.  The pictures dont do it nearly any justice, and when it was at it's worst I was not taking pictures because I was away from the windows. 

Where 30 minutes previous I was finishing burning the Christmas Tree....now it was all underwater.

There were 10 recorded Tornadoes in the St. Louis Metro Area, and West St Louis was damaged the worst.  There apparently was one development where 24 homes were completely leveled, and through South County there was excessive damages because of winds....lots of roofs blown off and cars flipped over.

Anywho, so that was in the afternoon, so by the evening, we were still set to have a lovely evening to ring in 2011.  We decided to stay in and make a nice meal rather than go out and deal with the crowds, which turned out to be a perfect night.  The menu was Rack of Lamb with a Mustard Cream Sauce, Scalloped Potatoes, and Green Beans with Bacon and Tomatoes.

Terry frenching the lamb bones

Sarah came and joined us for the evening

Beautiful meal

Sarah brought Grappas, which she said was a celebratory dessert.  Grappa is an italian fruity flavored liquor that you sip with frozen grapes (never knew before that if you froze grapes and ate them, they taste like sorbet...so delicious!) and bits of chocolates.  It was a delicious after-dinner small dessert. 

Happy 2011!!

Interesting: What's your State good at?

Found this while wandering around online and thought it was interesting enough to share :-)  Who knew Delaware?!?!



http://1bog.org/blog/whats-your-state-good-at/

January: Meet Allison

I've realized that while I talk occasionally about friends and family, most of you don't have any clue who anyone else is.  Whether it be my family living in Delaware to Terry's in California, or any of our small group of close friends we've collected over the years, no one really knows the other.  Resolution (not to be confused with New Years Resolution because we know I do not believe in that): you get to meet someone new at the beginning of every new month who is very near and dear to my heart. And seeing as I ramble on and on throughout the rest of the month, I thought I'd take a break today and let them do the talking (well...the writing but you catch the drift)....although I may sneak in a few clarifications throughout.  ;-)

Stats
Met: Fall 2002

Places we've been together: JMU, Delaware, Charlottesville, Virginia; Baltimore, Maryland; St. Augustine, Florida; Dominican Republic; DC; New York City; Austin, Texas; St Louis

Best thing about Allison: She's a genuinely caring person to her core, and severely loyal

Worst thing about her: She lives so far away
Now, I'd love for you to get to know my best friend, Allison  ____________________________________________________________________________

The two of us met during our freshman year at JMU when we both joined our co-ed a cappella group, Low Key. She was the girl from Delaware that everyone swore was from the south because of her friendly demeanor, outgoing personality, and the twang she had in her voice when she sang. We hit it off instantly and spent a pivotal four years laughing (a lot of laughing), crying, and growing together. We lived together our junior and senior year, which was probably one of the best (in having your best friend next door) and worst (it takes a lot of commitment to live with someone and still like them, ha) decisions we made in college.

Very first picture of us....we look so young!!

The two of us were quickly coined “Mo” and “Ron” (she is Mo, I am Ron,) after it was discovered that we had occasional (frequent) bouts of idiocy when we were together. The nicknames stuck and are still used today. Mo and Ron were also part of a larger group of friends called the 4Ms that included the two of us along with two other friends from Low Key, David and Drew. The 4Ms was created after a crazy night that involved rescuing a girl from her suicide mission-quite literally-and hanging out at the ER for hours. From that night on, I had a close-knit family for the rest of my college career.

3 of the 4 M's

I could write a novel about the good (99% good) and trying (sometimes I'm a handful, I can admit that) moments together, but it would take entirely too much time and effort. I’ll provide a couple of moments that were worthy of sharing though. When Lindsey’s stepmother was diagnosed with cancer, she decided that we needed something in our home to channel positive energy and happy thoughts. The solution? The happy cup! We went and bought a huge wine glass-the ones that hold enough wine to hospitalize a drinker. Lucky for us, its purpose was not for drinking, although it did involve lifting spirits. We put a pad of post-its beside the glass and voila! When guests stopped by or a roommate had a particularly funny moment, they wrote it down and tossed it in the cup.  The cup was overflowing after our first semester, let alone two years later. When one of us was having a bad day, and especially when the bad news started coming in about her stepmother, the Happy Cup was our lifesaver. Lindsey has all the post-its compiled in an album now so that we can revisit those memories whenever we need/want to (I still look through them from time to time, makes me reminisce).

Another classic moment worth sharing actually involves the biggest fight that I can remember between us. Our junior year I began dating a guy that we’ll call DB (no, those aren’t his initials). Lindsey was protective of me and let it be known to all parties involved. One evening after a fun day of grilling out and playing yard games, Lindsey pulled DB aside to have a chat. Some (Most) of that conversation is not appropriate to relay here, but the parts of it that are go something like this: “I want you to know that Allison is my very best friend and if you do anything to hurt her-anything, I will kill you. I will find you, I will cut off your (censored) and you will regret ever messing with her.” (Still won't apologize for that....foreshadowing...) I noticed that DB left abruptly and so I started asking what happened. Another roommate said he left after Lindsey had scared him off, so I went to find out what happened. Long story short: Fury unleashed. I thought she ruined my relationship with the hottest guy on campus (still makes me laugh you thought he was so hot). Turns out, DB wasn’t the best guy and I ended things with him a few weeks later after learning that we had different definitions of “cheating.” Apparently Lindsey is not only loyal, but also a very good judge of character. (Don't worry folks, I didn't follow through on my death or dismemberment threat....but he should still sleep with one eye open :-)  )

After college we parted ways; I returned to my hometown of Charlottesville, VA, and she went off to Maryland for work and graduate school and to meet the love of her life. Lindsey is still the person I laugh, cry, and grow with, just not always in person. I still live in Charlottesville and so does my boyfriend, Shane. We’ve been dating for almost three years and I am happy to report that he hasn’t had any threatening conversations with Lindsey. During the week I work in the marketing department for a company in town as an event planner. I work a lot and travel on business often, which is exhausting but has allowed me to see some really incredible places around the world. It also gives me frequent flyer miles so that I can visit friends like Lindsey in St. Louis (woohoo). Or go on the trip we’re planning to wine country in Northern California next fall… Whatever the destination, I know when I see her, it will be like seeing my sister (We're seeing each other in 11 days in DC!!). We’ll have a great time-and probably act like morons.

Thanks for putting up with my brief (but long winded) stint as a blogger. I hope it wasn’t too difficult!

Love,
Ron (Allison)