2 Muskateers

Friday night we babysat for my college roommate and her husband so they could have a much-needed date night. Her daughter is 10 months younger than Makenzie and they had a ball together. They finally conked out about 10:30 on the couch.

4 years ago today....

....I married the love of my life. Happy Anniversary!

We were married in a small ceremony in my parents' backyard. It threatened rain all day and finally let loose late afternoon.....and the heat, sheesh. But by the time our guests began arriving, the sun came out and a cool breeze came through and it was perfect. I do however, remember wiping a little sweat from Tim's brow with my hanky---maybe that wasn't from the heat though?

4 year Anniversary Dinner

Tonight we celebrated our 4th anniversary a few days early by dining at The Republic. It was as good as I've heard it is and well worth the money. The service was impeccable and the ambience was perfect.

We started with the calamari appetizer (Tim's choice), then we each had a salad. I had the baby beet and goat cheese salad and Tim had the Republic chopped salad. For our entrees, I chose the scallops and Tim chose the fried filet mignon (of course) and we each had a glass of Riesling. We even had dessert. I had the Marie Antoinette and Tim had the keylime cheesecake brulee.

For the first time ever, Makenzie stayed with someone other than my family while we went out (a newlywed couple who Tim has known for years who have no kids yet). They all seemed to have fun and they said Makenzie was very well behaved and even used please and thank you!

As we ate our dinner, we reflected on our lives apart and together. It's definitely been the best 4 years of my life and I wish I'd found my Prince Charming many years ago (rather than the toads I kissed before him)! Happy Anniversary baby--I love you!

Our weekend project

After only 2 years in our house our carpet was already showing alot of wear so we decided to do something else to the floor. We decided to stain the concrete because that was all we could do without going into debt. So Friday night, we moved all of the furniture into the dining room, breakfast nook and kitchen.

Then we pulled up all the carpet.

Then we began the unenviable task of cleaning the concrete--scraping all the paint, spackle and carpet glue that had been left behind. This took until well after midnight (Tim gave up well before that, but my type A personality stuck it out). We got up bright and early the next morning and began again--sweeping, mopping, wetting it down and wet-vacing up the water.

Saturday night after Makenzie went to bed, we donned rubber gloves, old clothes and rubber-soled shoes to apply the etching stain. Tim didn't read the directions (shocker!!) and so we wasted a whole day letting it dry before we stained it when the directions said it needed to be wet! This is what it looked like the next morning after the salts precipitated out.
Then came another day of neutralizing with baking soda, vaccuuming up the water and rinse/repeat over and over again.

Sunday evening we applied the epoxy and let it dry.

You can see right in front of the fireplace the area where someone told me I didn't need to worry about cleaning up the glue anymore--he would scrape it off and it would be fine. But the residue didn't take the stain so it's pretty obvious (at least to me).

We finally were able to move the furniture back in this evening, although it probably would have been best to wait another 24 hours because we scuffed it a little moving things around.

I'm really happy with it overall--I think it goes well with our "old world" decor, but we'll probably end up adding another epoxy coat at some point.

New Life

This is a lily that was planted in our yard in honor of my dad on the first Easter after he passed away. This year it was loaded with probably 10 blooms.

Makenzie's school pictures

Randomness

Makenzie started gymnastics tonight. She took a while to warm up to the girls teaching her class, but the tumbling mats, uneven bars and mini-balance beam were just too tempting to pass up.

She does however have issues with authority and paying attention--wonder where she gets that? It was like she had a magnet that just pulled her from the apparatus her group was supposed to be learning about to whichever one sat across the room looking at her longingly.

Oh, and I'm very depressed cause Danny got sent home from Idol tonight--Kris, you don't deserve it, but we all know Adam will win.

And we're still waiting for our homestudy. The caseworker has been assigned, but they're understaffed so it could be June before it's done.....sigh....patience is not a virtue I possess.