Saturday, January 14, 2012

V and Co: catch up or ketchup


 since moving here almost 6 months ago, i feel like life has been moving in fast forward motion. i blog sporadically. weekly mind you...but no set post, and no set hours like i am so fond of doing. i clean like a mad woman only to get aggravated that my house still needs to be organized to have things have places. so i can get back to my "everything has a place and everything in its place" mentality.
we are finding our routine, we are making new traditions, we are finding our groove, we are...moving forward.

life
is
good.

crazy fast but good.
so this is a blog post about not much at all except for a few things of the happenings these last few days, a lot of blah de blahs of daily life. you know like how i used to blog about.
i have so many funny stories to tell you. i just wish i had a hour to write it down and tell you about it. my crazy trip to almost chicago. i can't tell you how often i don't know where i am in this part of the united states. there.are.no.freaking.mountains.or.beaches. to tell you which way you are driving. i can't tell you which direction i am facing at any given moment, and even when i stare at the little compass in my car that says i'm going north i could have sworn i was driving east. what the heck. will this ever make sense? don't know but i almost made it to chicago, *thinking* i was going home from a 30 minute drive from my home, i got on the freeway to come home and well...went the wrong way. 1 hour and 30 minutes later i'm at a rest stop asking jake when i'm suppose to get on the 330? and jake said within seconds of getting on the first freeway. yup...i drove 1 hour and 45 minutes towards chicago. but apparently time also moves super fast because i didn't realize i was on the freeway for that long. the husband's reaction went like "wha..how...whaaaaa?...no...how?....HOW did you not know you were going the wrong way? AND FOR like 90 miles?!" loooong pause...*que in hysterical laughter*..."OH MAN you are NEVER going to live this down."
and yup, sure enough i get asked randomly from family members if i'm going to try to go to chicago today or if i need directions to the bathroom. :/ stupid family.
yup, there's a lot that i could blog about and i think "oh man, i've got to write this down. i can't make up this crap!" and then days fly by and then all the details are fuzzy and i can't remember why it was so darn hysterical that i would use one whole blog post to write about it...but i'll try to make a more concious effort to write them down, not so much for your benefit, but for the fact that we like to read sometimes some of the crazy stuff we do or say or how silly dad is in how he shows mom he loves her. we laugh a lot. again i find myself saying "life.is.good." :)

 so the other day while trying to implement a schedule and going grocery shopping on wednesdays...i came across these freaking adorable plates for $1 at walmart. dude. bought 3. katie had the iron grip on them and was already talking about needing a place setting of 12 in the near future.
when i came home i was looking at them and asked katie if she wanted them in her kitchen as decoration. (since moving here i've not really decorated my house let alone her little kitchen area and all of a sudden i was having major ideas going on for a cute little girl kitchen that included these plates.) so we went downstairs to her kitchen grabbed the hot glue gun, and some ribbon.
 i cut ribbon at 2 1/2" and hot glued the ribbon on. i've done this before to plates and they seem to hold up, and the plates being plastic, if they fell...oh well, get more permanent glue for the job...
 got a level out and:

 there you have it, the start of a cute little kitchen area. i'm now all vamped to try to find other cute things to get it more done. i'm sure i'll share as that evolves. :)


ALSO we have gotten closer to the paint that i DON'T want on my walls.
i've decided there are waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many options. enough to cause a panic attack between "shade 1" or "shade 2" blarg. <--gurgling pirate alert.
 so we have 4 so far on the walls. yes WALLS i have a patchwork in different parts of the areas that are going to be painted.
 and unfortunately...every gray and every blue hue...comes out mauve or purple because of the way our house faces...again don't ask me which direction cause i don't know.
sooooooo...back to the drawing board on that.
i do think i am leaning more towards a cream white. it's safe, it's light, and it will make me happier than the yuck brown everyone adores. (sorry no offense).

and this last week we finally saw snow. i think like 10" fell...but the wind was blowing fierce and we had so many huge drifts in our driveway and sidewalks. when the wind died down to less than fierce and just kind of beastly. i got out there with my (what felt like) little shovel spoon. and proceeded to *try* to shovel.

span forward 2 hours later:
i knew i must of looked bad. but it had to be done, so while the neighbors started to come home and my neighbor got her snowblower out and did her driveway and sidewalk in like 20 minutes flat...she so kindly looked at me and started to snow blow what i had like a hour ago shoveled that was yet again getting drifted on.
im pretty sure it was my froozen boogers running sideways off my face onto my matted hair, that tipped her that i was out there for a little longer than what felt like forever. i was so grateful of her kindness and she got the rest of it done will i kept "spooning" in a little corner only to turn around and need to "spoon" the snow where i had just finished.

i came in the house and shed all obviously-you-are-not-from-iowa-layers, which included taking off my tennis shoes, (yeah i know) and went to the bathroom. when i looked in the mirror i noticed all my mascara had run from being froze-nd onto my eyelids.
i looked like a cross between jeff daniels in the movie Dumb and Dumber with his frozen snot on the motorcycle ride into aspen, and yes, my favorite alter ego i turn into when the hair and makeup don't work: alice cooper.
good times people. good times.

i've asked for a snowblower for our anniversary.

tutorial coming on monday.
have a great rest of the weekend.

39 comments:

rachel griffith said...

the harry dunne/alice cooper comparison made me almost pee my pants.
epic.

{ps - i miss you!!! call me this week.}

Ruthie said...

Your post made my day today!!! Thanks for keeping it real and sharing these moments with us!!

Simona said...

Hello, funny person you are :). On the colour blue hue on the wall, I would say definitely not no2. Maybe it´s just my notebook screen..Thank you for sharing about the daily life.

Esch House Quilts said...

You are too funny! Your trip to Chicago reminds me of the time I dropped someone off at the airport and absentmindedly got on the freeway going east instead of west. About a half an hour later I sort of "woke up" and realized something was wrong. The exits looked familiar, but not what I was expecting :) Slap forehead, turn around and get home an hour or so later than planned - and I have lived in this area most of my life!

V and Co. said...

Oh that # 2 is a def NO. We are leaning towards 3.

Svetlana said...

Oh, thanks for a wonderful story, I laughed and laughed. If you ever go to Chicago again, you can come visit.

Nikki Monet said...

How have I never been to your blog before? I love it!! Great post, lol. New follower here! Stop by and give us a visit some time :)

http://everything-underthemoon.blogspot.com

Mary said...

I just want you to know how much I enjoy reading your blog posts. I can talk a blue streak but I'm not too terribly good (as in really bad) at writing and this is the kind of writing I'd do if I had any clue how. You know how to make me laugh!

Tiphaine said...

I'm all with you...but excuse me, I am still laughing with the image of you with the mascara running down and all.....
About your-nearly-got-to-Chicago-trip, well, reminds me when I got lost nearby one of Paris airport...
Nor for the 2 either...I like the 3 better..
Enjoy your week end

lisa said...

don't worry about the daily life stuff, we do love it, but we understand. And don't be too hard on yourself about decorating. You (from what I gathered) LOVED what you did at the last place, and it's hard to do it all again and be as excited.

Monica said...

You freaking made me laugh with your harry + alice cooper comparison. love it! thank you!

Jessica said...

Oh. My. GOODNESS! I SO wish you were my neighbor! And not just because you had 10" of snow! I can always count on you for a laugh!

Last year or so my SIL came to visit us, but instead of going east on I64 somewhere in IL, she ended up going NORTHEAST on I70, which took her to INDY!!! It was an easy fix, AND she had GPS, but it's one of those things we laugh about when she's not around...lol. It's about 120 miles from Indy to here!!!

dancin' momma said...

We just moved back to Utah after living in Iowa for four years and it took almost those entire four years to get my bearings! And I had no idea what cold was until I moved there. But we LOVED that state!

Rae Ann said...

We lived in North Dakota when I was in high school. We are from Texas and my dad HATED the cold. He bought an ankle length down coat for snow blowing. When he retired from the Air Force, he joked that he was going to tie a snow shovel onto the roof of his car and drive south until someone asked him what it was. He wasn't far off - he settled in south Texas. In 20 years, they only got snow once!

mascanlon said...

Don't know what made me laugh more...the Chicago trip or Harry v Alice....
I had a similar patchwork of paint in greens last year in our bedroom, the light kept turning yellow or muddy depending on time of day. I blew that off and went with beige...boring but true...sigh

Allison said...

I pick color number 3...but I can't really tell...I just like that its light! :)

Tamie said...

You need to get a GPS, program HOME into it and if you head in the wrong direction it will just keep telling you Recalculating, Recalculating, Recalculating and then you will know that you are heading in the wrong direction.

Thimbleanna said...

You are one funny girl V! After almost 30 years, I finally got a snow blower last year. Of course this year, we haven't needed it much, but it's my security blanket. You'll be a new woman (you know, with power tools) if you get one!!!

Simply AJ said...

Love those adorable little plates... they have found the perfect home! Thanks for making me chuckle and smile. You are so right my dear... life is good!

Make It Happen Mama said...

Aw man! Silly midwest freeways, getting you lost :-(

This post made me snort out loud, though :-)

Debbie said...

ah...good times...I was once on my way to Cleveland (before GPS which don't help me at all anyway) and ended up in Pennsylvania. And then there was the two Alexandria Virginia's. Traveling with me will get you everywhere and nowhere all in the same trip lol. Thanks for sharing! Oh, and I'm partial to either 3 or 4.

Larissa@Just Another Day in Paradise said...

Hey friend! I haven't left a comment in forever...but this post totally relates to our life too.

Painting is driving me crazy. We have lived here about 5 months and not much is how we want it either. Sigh. Oh well.

It probably doesn't help I am 7 1/2 months preggers.

Good luck with your paint! Glad you guys are settling into the midwest!!

rissa80(at)gmail(dot)come

The Studes said...

there is a gray hue that I just painted my bedroom from sherwin williams called knitting needle I was afraid it was going to to be on the blue side once i put it up and it actually is a actual gray. =)

good luck with you color choices My husband and I have patches on the walls of different colors for about 2 years before I said screw it and just bought something with out asking him.

Jeanna said...

I never would have thought of just hot gluing some ribbon onto the plate to hang it... Simple and smart!

nomadicmermaid said...

AMEN SISTA!!! I feel like I'm constantly trying to figure out which direction is north! We just moved to the western side of the upper peninsula of Michigan (the part that's closer to Wisconsin and Minnesota than anything else) from coastal Alaska. Land of 4,000 foot mountains that literally drop into the sea to *blah* flat as far as the eye can see. We'll be driving and I'll see billboards for ski lodges and I practically get whiplash looking around for a mountain, that I know must be somewhere... and then it's a 400 foot hill. This is the first time we've lived away from the west coast *insert: because it's the best coast!!!* and the last 5 months have been hard and disorienting, both physically and mentally.

ohiomom said...

Omg! You are too funny :) Thanks for the laugh today. And, I think you might wanna ask for some boots as well as the snowblower, girl. Just a suggestion. A good pair of boots are invaluable in that kind of weather... in case you hadn't figured that out whilst sporting tennis shoes. Enjoy the winter weather :)

Anna said...

i'm laughing here thinking how the neighbors must know you're crazy. :) luckily we've had a mild winter, you'd have wished you needed a snowblower long ago otherwise. heheh

Lindsey said...

You must live somewhere near me - we get stupid lake effect (affect?) snow here that RUINS.MY.LIFE. The winds are terrible, and if I'm not paying attention I'll fling a shovel full of snow to the side of the driveway and it comes right back in my face. Fun!

russandkatie said...

amazing grey by Sherwin Williams...

Evelene S said...

I never thought about how much we Californians use the ocean and mountains to navigate. You are a riot! My husband is from Chicago and he will never leave California because he loves the terrain.

Victoria said...

Reading your blog made my day today! It's been one of "those" kinds of days so it was nice to read your funnier version of that kind of day.

Megan @ Megity's Handmade said...

Bless your heart! I live in UT and it took me way to long to learn north and south. I got east down pretty quick! :)

If you are looking for a good, warm gray, I would suggest Bedford Gray by Martha Stewart. It's the prettiest gray. I love it and so many people ask me the color all of the time. Good luck with all that painting!

Emily said...

As a life long midwesterner (well, I've since been transplanted, to the east coast), I have two words for you... SNOW BOOTS. Ha! Even though you think you don't need them, you do!

Nash said...

First choice is #3, then maybe 4. Let me know what color 3 is cause that is what I want. thanks

Liberty said...

Thanks for the laugh! I live in Cedar Rapids, so I was also shoveling that same wet/heavy snow. You are lucky to have such a kind neighbor, I was not so lucky. I shoveled for an hour and a half that day before I eventually said 'Good enough!' and quit. More snow today, welcome to Iowa and our lovely winter weather.

jwheels7 said...

LOL...welcome to Iowa :-) We've had a pretty easy winter so far!

amylouwhosews said...

oh i love these posts of yours, Alice. I'm sure you looked rockin' hot after shoveling!

Rebeccarama said...

you are so hilarious! thanks for keeping it real

D said...

our bedroom turns everything purple too. My hubby says to try a more green undertone rather than blue and that should keep it from going purple. haha I just painted my living room that brown. I didn't want to go white and our carpet is blue gray so I couldn't go that route. Now I need to get lots of colored accents on the walls to break up all the brown. And pillows...definitely need some colored pillows.

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