Day one of Chelan week 2008

First stop, Starbucks! Well the guys went golfing (no camera went along for the ride) the ladies made the treck a Seattlite makes regularly and got our coffee!

A perfect donut for a princess, pink and chocolate! of course she just ate the frostingAnd since we had the toddler and the weather is unseasonably warm we took our caffeine to the park and enjoyed some sliding, swinging and laughing!

We had a set lunch date with the Garguile clan and no place but Noah's Ark would do. The choices are so tough because everything is so darn yummy...With our tummies stuffed to the brim we arrived back at the Jensen residence and enjoyed the view from the deck and some 'pool time' before retiring back up to the deck for wine and chattingDon't forget your sunglasses Kiwi, it's sunny out there :)Hailee learning how to get 'kisses' from eclair. Please note my mother's facial expression in the background...hahahahaIt's not a party without some karaoke, ok my hubby doesn't even need a microphone to start singing but since Hailee had a pink one on hand, why not get the crowd involved??Tired after a long day of doing....well not much....we were off to bed

A clean wedding dress

My cleaned and preserved dress arrived back from wedclean.net last night (actually we had to go to UPS and get it at 830 since I wasn't home to sign for it). Since it was so late I didn't pull it out and check it over but I did examine the bodice which looks to be in perfect condition. The box is humongous but I'm hoping it will fit under the bed since it's dark and dry down there. I just have to say that EVERY time I see this dress I just love it more. It is exactly what I wanted! Just seeing it in the box reminded me of our wedding day and how wonderfully lucky I am to have such an amazing hubby! Here is the boxed up silk, beads, and veil

Completion!

Just in case anyone way wondering...were they going to show us the back...here it is! There are some peaks back here that require the extention ladder as well as climbing on the roof for the chimney...but it's done now (thank god! If I never need to use that tall ladder again it'll be too soon!) The lovely Japanese maple in our back yard did make it quite complicated to determine ladder placement, and this was only worsened by the new dove family that decided to nest in said tree. I am determined to help these 2 birdies have babies this year since Kiwi caused a dropped egg last year, must be the midwife in me :)

Now the final reveal, first the original nasty hunter green that almost cost us this house (I refused to even look at it since it was so U-G-L-Y on the outside but eventually caved because of the internet pictures of the new kitchen)

BEFORE

After


What do you think?? GREAT improvement huh. Now we're trying to figure out what color to spray the screen door so there is more of a pop around the entry way but that will certainly wait until after Chelan.

But we did already buy this climbing plant to help add some color and flowers to the entry way. Hopefully it lives in the full sun out front.

I can't forget Dominic's sandwich that he made himself for lunch today, he was so proud :)

And he took this shot of Eclair soaking up the Central CA sun while I was slaving away on the HOT roof. Hope everyone had a great 4th! I didn't show fireworks because we didn't do any...we respected Arnolds wishes to help prevent fires in this tinderbox.

CVS deals

My wonderful $6 shopping trip at CVS and Walgreens
Our gorgeous first born....she's so darn beautiful

Nearing completion!

Happy 4th of July! We've been quite productive here in Modesto as you probably guessed by the previous post :) Dominic chose to work this morning so he could have another day off later in the year so I got outside early again and put up the first coat of REAL paint on the trim. I started in the front this time (started in the back yesterday to practice technique on the lesser seen areas) and got much of the easily reachable trim done before he got home around noon. Yes, I put in 4 full hours of painting on the ladder BEFORE he got home. Then we broke for a delish lunch fitting for the fourth on July...Brats and an array of yummy salads (potato, coldslaw, fresh tomato mozzarella and basil, and can't forget the broccoli. Even Eclair had a brat! That A&W is AMAZING! My hunny bought it for me as a surprise because he knows how much I just love my floats.
Then we prepped for another few hours of work...apparently this is how I look when giving precise directions on the best way to get the small cracks covered. And please disregard my butt hanging out of that ladder shot.
Here are some afters....in this first shot you might notice that the white extending up from the garage doesn't look 'done' and that's because it's not. We're planning to paint it the house color to deemphasize its appearance and we'll probably repeat on the widow on the other side of the house as well.
I'm not too sure what to do about the screen now. It's just ugly, but sort of a necessity in California with all the bugs and crazys out there.

House painting progress

Here is the progress with JUST the primer. Dominic had to work today and until noon tomorrow so I thought I could get the lower priming done on my own....I didn't want to get up on the new 15ft ladder without someone at the house in case anything goes awry. can you see how far the regular 8ft reached? Much more than half way. Please notice my lovely sunburn party gift :) I'll be back at it tomorrow with the actual paint...please hope that it only takes one coat because I REALLY want to be done before we leave for Washington

A new month at CVS and upcoming projects

I'll ask you the same thing I ask Dominic after I get back from CVS....how much did I pay for all this????? and you guess (Dominic has started low balling me now so he'd pick something ridiculous like 28 cents) the real answer is $5! that includes 8-20oz dasani flavored waters, 2 packages pantiliners, 2 packages tampons, vaseline, 2 antiperspirants, 1 travel lotion, and 5 packages facial cleansing clothes!!!!

Here is the other deal of the weekend....all these were $15....but the retail is about $50! and I love these razors so that's even better!

Now I promise that not every blog from here on out will be about my wonderful deals but I just get so excited to get the things we'd use anyway for so cheap.

This weekend we're going to be painting the exterior trim a bright white, which should be an enormous improvement over the hunter green we have now. We even bought a taller ladder so I can reach the high parts....wish us luck as this is one of only 3 more big projects we MUST do to get this house in tip top shape.....and finally, my amazing hubby and our first born!