Adventures of the Newlyweds

Happy New Year!

2012-01-15T03:19:00.000+08:00

Yes, I am still alive. No I haven't posted in a REALLY long time, and I can't say I've made any New Year's Resolutions that say I will blog more in 2012. Personally, I don't think my life is too exciting right now, and I don't have a lot to blog about!

Keith and I did get a new camera over Christmas (a Sony Alpha SLT a35 DLSR), so I am hoping to adventure into (extremely amateur) photography. Right now, we have 5,000 pictures of our dog, Charlotte, who is gigantic now, by the way. Hopefully with the planning of a couple trips and such this year, I'll have some nice photos to share with you.

For right now, I'll leave you with this one:

Happy New Year!

Budget

2011-08-20T06:48:00.000+08:00

School is back in session, and while I absolutely dread when I wake up and see the clock that says 5:30 and I know I only have 30 minutes to sleep, I'm ok with returning to work. My students this year are chock full of attitude, so it'll be interesting.

On another note, Keith and I have put ourselves on a budget. We are really wanting to save up some money for trips and other miscellaneous things, so I'm using Mint.com to help keep track of everything. This website is great, because it lets you synch all of your online bank and bill info and put together different categories for budgeting. So far, we are over budget on a ton of stuff, but we are still trying to figure out how much we actually need per month as opposed to what we are frivolously spending. It has really put into perspective how much things cost and how bills and such can suck money up like no other. Like $75 at PetSmart for dog food, a new collar for an ever-growing puppy, and a harness to help when we take said ever-growing puppy on walks - these things add up!

What a nice, new collar you have, my dear Charlotte!

I'm really hoping we'll get to saving more money so that we can go on vacation next summer and not have to worry too much about being uber-frugal. Hopefully September will go better in terms of staying under budget!

Happy Anniversary!

2011-08-05T02:04:00.000+08:00

I am a couple days late, but I wanted to wish my husband Happy 2nd Anniversary. We've had an awesome two years, and we are looking forward to many more! I am so lucky to have married my best friend, and I don't know what I'd do without him!

My puppy is growing so fast!

2011-07-20T03:15:00.000+08:00

Charlotte is 13 weeks old! Time flies, and she is getting bigger by the minute! She is trying to chew on everything, but I think her and I are getting along better. She doesn't try to attack me quite as much (attack as in jump at me with her mouth open, not in a vicious way, just a puppy way), and she will actually cuddle with me on the couch. She eats like there's no tomorrow, and doesn't even bother to chew her food. We have to feed her in little portions so she doesn't inhale her food to quickly and get the hiccups. She is still adorable, but she is starting to look less baby puppy and more adolescent puppy. The vet says she's doing great, and that he thinks she's going to be a big girl.

6 weeks old

13 weeks old

2011-07-20T03:07:00.000+08:00

Slowly but surely, our living room is looking less empty. We recently purchased a new chest of drawers to go on the wall with the window, and I must say the whole wall looks so much better with the curtains and the new furniture. The picture of the curtains is terrible, but I keep forgetting to take a picture of them when it's darker outside. The vases on the chest of drawers are from Crate and Barrel, the baskets from Bed Bath and Beyond. The chest itself is from Roommakers. The curtains, like I said before, are from Z Gallerie.

Table Rock Lake

2011-07-20T02:51:00.000+08:00

At the end of June, my family and I ventured south to Table Rock Lake, in Missouri. We had an awesome time, and even though it was hot, it was a ton of fun.

We spent most of the time on the lake, but ventured to Silver Dollar City for one day. Being there takes me back to my childhood. The sights and smells have been consistently the same since I can remember, and it is such a comfortable place to be. We always travel down into Marvel Cave, where it is a nice 60 degrees all year round. Yes, in this picture I am wearing a sweater. I brought one to Silver Dollar City, knowing it was 100 degrees out, but also knowing that I would get cold in the cave.

The best part of this vacation was learning to wakeboard. It's my new favorite thing to do. I've been skiing since I was like 8 or 9, and had a bit of trouble two summers ago trying to wakeboard. My dad got a new boat that is more wakeboarder-friendly, and everyone was able to succeed in getting up and staying up. I'm still work on the whole jumping off the wake thing, but I hope to get their eventually!

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-05T00:30:00.003+08:00

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

My first REAL craft project

2011-06-24T07:56:00.001+08:00

I have been wanting to make the wreath that my good friend Ashley, aka The Domestic Wannabe, made a while back. I fell in love with this wreath when I saw it (I don't know if I told you that, Ashley), and after a long, failing search for a door wreath, I decided to try it myself. I didn't start it right away because frankly, Domestifluff, where Ashley got the idea, made it out to seem very intimidating. She said it took her 12-15 hours to make the whole wreath. I was NOT blessed with that kind of patience. But I had time this week so I figured I could do it in parts if it turned out to take me that long.

I ventured off to JoAnn Fabrics to buy some purple felt, made from recycled plastic bottles, an added bonus, and some other necessities (like fabric scissors, because I haven't had a need for them!). I came home and got to work. I took Domestifluff's advice and followed the directions from maya*made on how to cut out felt circles. I used a lid from a Ball canning jar and a white stamp pad to stamp out the circles. I'm pretty sure this advice is why it took me 4 HOURS instead of 12 HOURS! It was totally not as hard as I thought it would be. The worst part by far was cutting out the circles. My wrist was killlllllling me by the time I was done. I didn't count, but there were at least 200 circles total. I stopped for short breaks, but the OCD in me made me keep going until I finished. I couldn't find a ribbon I liked to use to hang the wreath, so I seriously used the handle from a Chipotle bag, and it worked perfectly. I'm not going to go into the step-by-step, as Domestifluff does an excellent job of that, so check her out if you're interested in making one yourself. Here are some horrid iPod photos. The color is terrible; the wreath is a dark purple, I promise.

My ink pad, circle, and felt with my circles traced on it.

When I had this much done, I was inspire to make a Christmas

wreath using red felt and green ribbon. Let's see if I get that into fruition!

The wrist was hurting a bit...

The Finished Product! I love it, and I am proud of myself,

because I've never considered myself very crafty!

P.S. - Ignore my ugly white door. It's patiently waiting to be painted a lovely shade of green to match my new curtains.

Things I'm Loving Right Now

2011-06-22T10:02:00.000+08:00

So I usually devote my posts to what I am doing, not what I'm thinking, so I decided to change it up. For my sake if no one else's. Without further ado, my post "Things I'm Loving Right Now," because I didn't even know if I could get my list to 10.

1. My puppy - Although she attacks and bites EVERYTHING including my toes, fingers, legs, nose, etc, I love her to death. She has taken to sleeping on the air vents to keep her brown fur nice and cool. It's freakin' adorable. Oh and look at her, in a life jacket. Seriously...

2. Natural Foods - I am a huge proponent of eating natural/organic, and while it is more expensive, I try to buy everything natural that I can. I hope someday to raise my children with the same idea that you should stick to healthy, unprocessed foods and stay away from things like Little Debbies which come from who knows where (yes I ate Little Debbies growing up, I don't judge, it's just my choice). This idealistic view does have some drawbacks, like my organic cereal being called "hippie crap" or the other comments I get. But I know that what goes in my body is good for me, and that's what matters. If you aren't sold on the idea of natural foods, watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. While I tried to eat natural before his show, he made it all the more important for me to select foods that don't have a bunch of technical, chemical-sounding names in the ingredients list.

3. My new curtains - I have been looking all over for curtains for my living room. The wall has a large window, and it looks naked. I've literally been looking for curtains since we moved in, to no avail. I picked up a lovely set at Z Gallerie while shopping with my mom and grandma. I haven't gotten them up yet, but I'll post pictures of them actually in my house when they are up.

4. My vegetable garden - Even though I have no idea what to do with my veggies once they are grown, I am stoked to see how they come out.

5. My neighborhood - I love seeing people out and about, kids running around playing, everyone just enjoying the summer. I especially love my little toe-headed neighbor girl, who was deathly afraid of Charlotte but could not help following us up and down the street saying, "Is she going to bite me?"

6. Friends - I've gotten to hang out with my very pregnant friend Emily lately, and I realized I miss her! We've been friends forever but I don't see her as often as I would like. Also, my friend Meaghan is moving to town as I am typing this. I am super duper excited to have her closer! I love my other friends too, but these two get a special shout out.

7. Fruit smoothies - Ok, so I made these and my husband loved them more than me, but it was an easy evening snack. I used pineapple, apple, orange juice, and organic vanilla yogurt. Add a little ice and throw it in the blender. It was yummo, but I think I needed to puree it a little more. I guess I am not a fan of pineapple tidbits in my smoothies, even though pineapple is my favorite fruit.

8. These blueberry muffins - I had to stop making them because they were making me gain weight. They are seriously to DIE for.

9. Summer - Being a teacher, I still get to enjoy summer, and I am loving it.

10. My husband (saving the best for last) - He is seriously the best husband ever. He insists on getting up with Charlotte, sometimes twice during the night, because he knows that I need more sleep than he does to function. I also still miss him terribly when he is gone, and he makes me so happy I don't know what I would do without him.

So there you have it. Ten things I am loving as of right now.

Just to Brighten Your Day...

2011-06-18T02:29:00.004+08:00

Some Charlotte Browne Barkemeyer to make everyone smile!

So she is supposed to pee in this box, not sleep in it...

My Garden is Growing like CRAZY!

2011-06-18T02:23:00.000+08:00

I am excited to say that my garden is doing really well. I have a wonderful husband who waters every night, unless it rains, of course. I was afraid that with the crazy Kansas summers, things would either be too wet or too dry. So far so good. My cucumber plants and my tomato plants are growing like rampant, and I think I will end up transplanting a cucumber plant to my mom's. I will most likely be giving away a lot of cucumbers and tomatoes! I used Miracle Grow Organic plant food to fertilize everything, which I think helped a great deal!

Here are some photos that track the progress of my garden:

We started out pretty naked!

Growing....

Growing A LOT!

And some pretty flowers for the heck of it

I am sure I will have to share the ways I use my produce once it's ready! I will have to get creative!

Introducing Charlotte Browne Barkemeyer

2011-06-09T23:34:00.001+08:00

My husband Keith's birthday is on July 5th, and I have been planning my gift for him for about a year. It was so difficult keeping such a secret from him, because we tell each other everything, but I managed to pull it off! Charlotte Browne Barkemeyer came home on June 1, 2011. I have the video showcasing Keith's reaction, but it's on his iPhone, so I will have to wait to post it. Here's our lovely new family member. She was 6 weeks old when we got her, and she is absolutely adorable!!!

This first photo was taken the day we got her!

One of her favorite sleeping places. She blends in with our glider and

sometimes I don't know she's there!

Another favorite sleeping place: under our side table in the living room.

She's going to be bummed when she's too big to fit in there!

Charlotte is a chocolate Labrador Retriever. We named her Charlotte because I love the name and I thought it kind of sounded like chocolate, which is what she is! Browne became her middle name because she's brown, and because Keith's mom's maiden name is Browne. It just came together nicely.

We've had Charlotte for a little over a week, and she is so much a part of our lives now. People say their dogs are like their children, and I have to agree. Although children usually don't poop and pee on the floor in your house. We are working on potty-training and it's going ok. She knows when we go outside she is supposed to do her business, but she hasn't quite gotten the fact that when she is inside she is only supposed to go in her cedar chips. The breeder trains his puppies to go in cedar chips, kind of like a litter box. It's great when we kennel her when we're gone and at night, because she knows to go in there. Of course sometimes she only puts one leg in a goes half in the box and half on her blanket, but we're getting there!

She eats like mad, and I know she is growing like a weed. I keep telling Keith we need to start weekly measurements, but we haven't gotten around to it yet. I can tell she's already bigger. I just want her to stay a puppy forever!!

I started calling Charlotte T-Rex because she likes to attack my face with her sharp dinosaur teeth. This is a habit we are trying to break. Because I like my face and I don't need it attacked by a baby dinosaur dog.

Right now Charlotte is asleep on the couch. I love when she sleeps because 1) she is so cute when she sleeps and 2) I can actually accomplish things without fear of her doing something like pooping on the air conditioning vent (which was very easy to clean up, so thanks Charlotte).

I apologize for not posting about her sooner, but she hates coming into our office where the computer is. She whines and whines and whines. I finally got my rear in gear, and hopefully I will be more diligent about posting!

Garden Update

2011-05-24T07:28:00.000+08:00

So I was going to post pictures of my garden, but it's going to have to wait because it looks like an electronics store threw up in our office (don't ask me why, because I don't have a clue; ask the boy with the obsession with cords that plug into anything and everything) and I don't know where the memory card reader is. I am excited to say, however, that things in my garden are starting to grow! My tomato plant is getting bigger and my little seeds are sprouting nicely. After some capturing of animals (which I will explain when I have pictures!), and a little fence job, I feel like my veggies are safe.

I've also planted two flower pots and managed to kill of my perennials for the backyard flower beds because I forgot they were in the garage and didn't water them (oops). Things have been super busy, but I am hoping I'll be able to tend to those flower beds next weekend!

I heart my backyard.

2011-05-01T08:46:00.001+08:00

As a homeowner, I had not been able to enjoy the benefits of having a backyard because of the time of year we moved in. We moved into our house in September of last year, and I was so busy with my new teaching job and then the weather turned cold, and I didn't yet realize the glory that is my backyard.

Fast forward to today: gardening day one of my life.

Now I must preface the rest of this post by letting you know that my parents have the greenest thumbs of anyone I've ever known. My dad spends three-fourths of all his weekends outside, and my mom knows so much about flowers, vegetables, soil, etc., that she could write a book. I haven't figured out if I've inherited that green thumb, but I'm excited to find out!

I really wanted to tackle our boring backyard, and of course my mom and dad (and lovely husband) jumped at the opportunity to help. After a few small projects today, I can tell you - I think I'm hooked. I began obsessively weeding our dead, sad looking, flowerless beds today and the only reason I stopped was because Keith made me come in to get ready for church. I am so excited about the prospect of making our yard look great and then being able to sit outside in the evening and relish in all that beauty.

Enough about my love of my backyard; let's get down to what we actually did today. First, we FINALLY put out our patio furniture. This was my birthday present, and it had been sitting in our garage for fear of Kansas spring weather. We decided we needed to put it out, because we'd never get it in the back if we were waiting for storm-less weather. Here's the furniture. The chairs and table are from K-Mart and the umbrella is from JCPenney:

The next project that was completed was the garden box for my vegetable garden. I am trying my hand at organic gardening, so I employed the help of my husband and my dad, who whipped out this garden box in like 30 minutes. They are superhuman. Nothing's planted yet, but I'm anxious to see if I'm any good at growing veggies.

I am going to tackle some flower pot planting tomorrow with my mom, and then after that we have the flowerless beds to deal with that run along the back of our house. They need some serious work.

Blah...

...Blah...

We had one survivor in the back from the previous owner.

And we need to fix this "rabbit hole" under our steps.

We had Roger Rabbit living under there most of the winter.

There's a lot to tackle, but I'm excited!

The Home Improvement Continues

2011-04-28T07:30:00.000+08:00

There is very awkward space on our staircase that has driven me crazy since we moved into our house last September. Here are a couple of pictures of it, and to give you a size idea, it's 57 inches tall, 12 inches deep, and 25.5 inches across:

Fifty-seven inches tall! Finding something to fit in that space that didn't look weird or wasn't completely out of my price range proceeded to be a problem. I searched high and low, and of course, because I was looking, I found nothing. I finally decided that the most logical solution would be to put shelves in the darn thing, which made perfect sense to me.

Keith and I went to Lowe's and picked up an 8 foot long, 1 foot wide piece of wood. We had the guy cut it into two 25.5 inch pieces, and kept the leftovers. Thank goodness we kept the leftovers, because we got the pieces home and one of the 25.5 inch pieces was split on the end from being cut. My dad came to the rescue the next day with some nifty tools that we have yet to purchase. One tool was a saw, which cut us a new piece; another tool was this neat thing that cut out notches in the bottom of the wood so the shelf could sit down on the screws we put in the space to hold up the shelves. I contributed of course by doing what I do best - painting. When I say what I do best, I am really just comparing myself to myself, as I'm really not that great at it. I have no patience for painting, and I want to get it all done in one sitting when I really must paint and wait, paint and wait, paint and wait. It drives me crazy. But after the painting and waiting, this is what we came up with:

Much better if you ask me! Now I can put several smaller pieces on the shelves rather than something large and in charge. I bought the oil lamp thingy (that's the technical term) and the colored picture frame at Pier 1, the clock at Hobby Lobby, and I had the basket and other frame. Our staircase looks 100 times better now, I don't think the picture does it justice!