Shopping at Mom and Dad's

Like I said in my last post, we are renting an apartment near our new office.  So I have to find things to fill this apartment.  I am pretty lucky, between recently getting married and my husband and I each having our own houses before we met, I pretty much have two of everything.  Two sets of silverware, drinking glasses, kitchen tools, pots and pans.  My husband thinks I am a pack rat, but it is times like these that it comes in handy that I have hung on to some stuff.

I come from a family of pack rats, or at least one, my mom.  Whenever we are moving or needing to get rid of something it usually ends up in my parent's basement.  My parent's basement is packed from floor to ceiling with all sorts of things.

Need a costume for Halloween?  Their basement has wigs, clothes, costumes, etc.

Need extra Christmas decorations?  I got two trees, lights, and tableware out of there.

Need an extra golf club?  I am pretty sure you can find a whole set down there if you look.

Need a cooler?  They have every shape and size.

Need sidewalk chalk to entertain your nieces during Christmas?  Yes, my mom dug out some sidewalk chalk that had to be a decade old.  Sadly, I remembered she had some.

So when I called my mom this week and asked if they had an extra set of dishes we could use in the new apartment, she went down to the basement, and sure enough they have a set.  In the process, she tried to get me to take a bread maker and coffee maker they don't make the coffee pods for anymore.

I know I am going to get in BIG trouble for writing this post.  I am the biggest offender of storing my stuff in my parent's basement.  But what are parents for, if not to store my odds and ends from college?  My dad has instituted a new rule: If it leaves the basement, it can not come back to the basement.  This was enacted after I took most of my stuff when I bought my own house, only to return it to my parent's basement after my husband and I started traveling around the country.

Mom and Dad, I promise not to bring anything back to your basement from now on.  Wink, wink!

Catch Up

Sorry it has been so long since my last post.  Life has been busy (when is it not?).  I thought I would do a little re-cap on what we have been up too.

Our business opened a new office in downtown Wichita.  That has been more work then I thought it would be. Buying office furniture, insurance, supplies, etc.  You don't even realize what you are forgetting until you say "Where is the. . .?"  And I have not even begun to decorate the office.  It is still bare walls for us.

Speaking of decorating, I still need to decorate my home.  I have some lovely ladies that said they would help me.  I need them soon!  I never thought I would say this, but I am tired of shopping. Gasp! Crazy I know.  I think I am really just tired of making decisions, so I rather just go with bare walls then make another decision.  I think I could still go clothes shopping all day, every day.

In addition to the un-decorated office and home, we now also have a completely empty apartment near our office.  Yay! No more hotel rooms.  After over nine months, we will finally be checking out of the hotel in Pratt.  We leased an apartment last weekend.  Here is the cool part, it is in a 100 year old high school that they renovated into apartments.  But it still looks like a high school in the hallways.  It's a little trippy to think you are sleeping at a high school.  Add the apartment to the list of things I need to decorate and buy furniture for.  I think we will be going with a minimalist design for this one (can you tell I am getting lazy?).

Other then my spare time (haha, what's that?) as a decorator, life has been going pretty well.  We are now up to 40 contractors that work with us, and we keep taking on new clients.  The business is growing faster then we ever expected.

Now I just need a vacation that includes a fruity cocktail on the beach.

Fire Safety

We had a lot of "big wigs" from the client we do work for in our offices this week.  One of them is the Safety Manager, and I think he got bored.  He decided to check all of the office's fire extinguishers (which is probably a good thing).  The best part is that he decided that everyone in our building need to have fire extinguisher training yesterday afternoon.

So we all met downstairs, and he went through all the parts of the fire extinguisher,and what all the numbers and letters on the side of it mean (I will never remember that).  And then we learned a fun little acronym.

P - Pull pin
A - Aim
S - Squeeze trigger
S - Sweep

Don't you all feel safer for knowing this?  I know I do.  Then the Safety Manager announced that each floor needed to appoint a Fire Warden for the floor.  The first thing that popped into my head was. . . Does the Fire Warden get a hat?  I was trying so hard not to laugh through most of the meeting, so I just looked down at my shoes.

Our building is tiny, and there are three exits all within a very short distance of each other (I can stand on one spot and see all three exits).  But now we have to make exit maps and post them around the office.  He also suggested that when we have people visit our office, the first thing we should do with them is point out the exit strategy maps.  "Hi, welcome to our office, here is how you will exit if we catch fire in the next hour."  I don't think this will happen.

Plan your exit now!

Incentive

I have a lack of motivation.

With out a carrot dangling in front of me or the fear of a deadline, I have a hard time making myself do pretty much anything that I have deemed, no fun.

So I have decided I need a "carrot" to get me motivated to be healthier.  I thought doing the Challenge with Laura would help me, but lost motivation with that too.  (P.S. I still owe Laura her prize, sorry).  So I am giving myself a new challenge, a new goal.

I really want a new colorful pair of skinny jeans for the Spring (actually I want 2 pairs, one in a color and one in white).  Aren't they cute?

My goal/motivation/challenge is I can buy the new jeans when I get back down to 150 lbs.  I think this is a manageable goal, but I am still going to have to work at it.  This will also insure that I do not look like an over stuffed colorful sausage in the skinny jeans.  So when you see me ordering the french fries, or skipping out on my work out, remind me of the jeans I really want.

Turns out great minds think a like.  I was thinking about this goal over the weekend, and when I set down to my computer this morning, who has the same goal?  Laura.  This time lets make our husbands a little prouder.

The Good and Bad of Pinterest

By now I think everyone knows of Pinterest, or as my husband refers to it, "that picture website your always on."  I will admit, it is a good way to give my mind a break every now and then.  I would say I mainly "pin" food and drink ideas on there.  Lets be honest, I am never going to get around to making any of the crafts I have seen on there.  But I have already used some of the recipes.  I have learned a few things already, some are good, some are bad (nothing with only three ingredients is going to taste that great), and some are just weird.

Here are a few recipes from Pinterest that I will not be trying any time soon.

I don't care how much you love chocolate, this just looks gross.  Who eats chocolate pancakes for breakfast?  And you wonder why America is getting fatter, don't eat chocolate pancakes with chocolate syrup on top.

What is with all of the rainbow deserts?

There's Rainbow Cake.

Rainbow Cake with Rainbow Frosting.

Rainbow Pancakes

Rainbow Cheesecake

Rainbow Cookies

Rainbow Cupcakes

Really, does all our food need to be rainbow colored?  Who is making a 6 layer cake?  I have never in my life made a layer cake.  Is all that food coloring really safe to eat, or good for you?

Okay, I'm done with my rant.  I will go back to loving Pinterest for what it is.  

Forced Diet

I am dying!

Ok, maybe I'm not dying, but I am sure I will utter those words again this afternoon.

The hubby and I are getting life insurance, and today we have to do our insurance health physical.  Which means we have to fast for 8 hours prior to taking the test.  And being the smart people that we are, we scheduled our for 4 pm today.  So we had breakfast, and then nothing else but water until our test.

I can tell you now that we are both not going to be pleasant to be around come 4pm.  I don't do well with out food.  And there better be something yummy planned for dinner, because I am going to be starving.

The good news, maybe a day without food will help my waist line a little.  Who am I kidding, when I stuff my face for dinner I am sure the day will be a wash.  I may though shrink my stomach.  We had a discussion about this in our office the other day.  If you shrink your stomach you eat less later on.  It may be an old wives tale, but I believe in it.

Well, wish me luck that I don't go postal on someone this afternoon from a lack of food (or pass out, that is probably more likely).

Sad Laura

What could possibly make my friend Laura have such a look of despair and sadness?

Was Ryan Reynolds involved in a horrible, disfiguring accident?

Nope, he's fine.

Did K-State loose another basketball game on Saturday?

Nope, they beat Baylor!

Did we run out of wine, beer, beer-ritas, etc.?

Nope, the drinks were flowing all weekend long.

So what was it that could make Laura so sad?

One Word

Karaoke

That's right, we ended up at a karaoke bar on Saturday night.  None of our group actually participated in the singing, but boy did we laugh at those that did.

There was the man that sang show tunes, complete with jazz hands.

There was the man that sang a tribute to Whitney Houston, it was very off key/pitch/just bad.

There was the little old man, Larry, that sang old love songs.

There was the woman that thought she was going to be discovered singing karaoke.  She was also wearing an interesting shirt, we called her "Parachute Shirt."

There was the man in a Canadian Tuxedo (jeans, jean jacket, jean shirt).  He didn't sing, but his outfit was awesome.

I am fully aware, and prepared for the fact that posting this picture of Laura on the internet, will result in pay back in some form or another on her blog.  

Love ya' Laura!