stranger

"Long time no see!"

I know I said I wasn't going to say it, but I had to :D

We have been doing so pretty fun things since I last wrote. Time just slips away so quickly. I guess I better start writing to catch you all up on what has been keeping me away from blogging :)

February:

Grayson's Bday. We had him the day of his bday and the weekend following. So, we had tons of fun festivities for the big kid! Can't believe he's already 8! I honestly feel like these two years have flown more than ever. I know now what people mean that time goes faster when you have kids.

March:

Brought visitors into our home! We had Courtney and Ben stay with us for a long weekend! We had so much fun and can't wait for them to come back again! Love them both!

We went into DC for the day on Saturday. It was a little chilly, but sunny so that helped a lot!

Sunday was another site seeing day in Annapolis, and then dinner in Baltimore (Which unfortunately wasn't very good)

Was very sad to see them leave, but can't wait to have them back again soon!

That brings us to April! Can't believe it's already the 12th! So far, it's already packed with fun-ness! (That's a new word I suppose)

I started a new job on 4/8! I left Saint Agnes, it was just not healthy for me and seriously I think the source of all my issues! I've been feel so much better now that I've been at this new place!

The position is an Implementation Specialist at a healthcare software company. This was my first week, and it's been so great! As much fun as training can be!

I got a new bike! We picked it up last night. I can't wait to get out on the trails and start riding again! We have basically gone from winter to summer here in MD with the weather. Spring must be a thing of the past!

Grayson has started baseball. His first scrimmage is tomorrow, and opening day is next Saturday! Now that the days are getting warmer, sitting at the field hasn't been so bad!

That's really all I have for us now. My plan is get back to updates, it's just been awhile so I had to jam everything into this one.

How are all of you!?

lego league!

In the fall Grayson was part of a Lego League at school. It was an after school program, in which he participated every Wednesday evening. The league wasn't all fun and games, based on it's misleading title. The kids were tasked with an objective. There were several groups spread out throughout Anne Arundel county. Each group was tasked with the same objective. The objective was to create something that would assist Senior Citizens.

After the 8 or so weeks the club was done with their objective, all the leauges' got together at a expo. Since the Navy Academy was one of the sponsors of the league, they hosted the expo right at the Academy!

A Navy "cadet" was assigned to a few groups and walked around to ask them questions.

Some of the questions were

"What did you build?" A car to fit 6 people so they can carpool and a ramp for the dog to get in. A wheel chair that can drive itself

 "Why do you feel what you built would assist Senior Citizen's best?" The car will help with them driving and the wheel chair so they don't have to move themselves.

At the end, although there wasn't any formal judging, each group received a certificate.

It was very cute and the kids definitely had a great time!

As you can see from the pictures, Grayson was quite excited himself about showing off his group's work!

flashypics update

Morning all!

We are so excited to announce that we're moving right along with FlashyPics. A couple of weeks ago we created the lovely FlashyPics logo, that was really a collaboration between Shane and I! It was fun thinking of some ideas and putting it all together.

And, then, because every business needs some cool marketing stuff. I went and ordered, through Vista Print, a crap load of items! What was quite handy was the fact that I had a Groupon for $70 worth of merchandise. I only spent $17 on the voucher! Great deal if you ask me!

 

 

 

We have business cards, address labels and gift certificates! It may not all be the best, but it's a start and we're pretty excited about it! Here is a close up of the business card

 

That's what has been happening in the world of Flashy Pics. I'm going to try and post some pics that I've been working on editing. I may not have them up for sale on the site, but you can look them over and see if there are any you like and just let us know it you'd like a print of it :)

 



going on this week

"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step"
Martin Luther King, Jr

I had yesterday off, and started writing this post then, hence the MLK quote. I didn't get a chance to finish, so I'm just going to continue working off of it!

We finally get holidays off at the hospital, and yesterday was the first of 8! I met my friend Kelley for coffee in the morning and then cleaned and crocheted the rest of the day away!

I wanted to share with you some new things around the house. We haven't made too many changes. The living room has opened up so much more now that all the Christmas decorations are down! It's nice to have all this "space" back!

Walking around some you will see that we pushed our dining table back against the wall some and added a little end table to our "entrance way" by the door



There is just enough space for this that it doesn't hit the door when it's opened.

 

I actually switched out this place mat at the last minute yesterday. I had already taken the photo and way lazy to retake it. So, this is old news already. Sorry! :D

 

 

Dressed up the bed some with a pretty skirt! I love our mattress - it's a Bob-o-pedic. But, the only downside is the height of the mattress. So, it is really high off the bed frame. So, instead of having the skirt go all the way down to the floor, we have it just covering the box spring and frame.

 

 

Bought this wine rack at Home Goods a couple of weekends ago. It hasn't gone up yet, but it's going to go up over the baker's rack. Can't wait to share pics of that!

 





We picked this up at Walmart last weekend. I don't really have a place for wrapping paper, so I always end up throwing it out. This way, we can keep all sorts of rolls under the bed!

And...I've started my spinach smoothies again. Need to bring that iron back up since I've been so great about taking my multi-vitamin and vitamin c every day :)

Oh, and last but not least...except many of you know this from facebook because I'm just so excited about it, Shane's mom taught me how to crochet. Here is what I have so far with the granny square stitch

That's all the updates for tonight! Shane and I have some projects we're working on in the house. And, I of course have a few others I want to finish. So, stay tuned for the following:

- Gallery Wall in Dining Room
- Vinyl words in Dining Room
- Exciting additions to FlashyPics
- Fireplace mantel
- Table by the door
- Painting the bedroom
- woohoo!

Enjoy your night all! :)

sunday sunday sunday

Happy Bright and Sunny Sunday Morning all!

I am sitting here, having  just finished our FlashyPics logo and anticipating an e-mail back from a fellow photographer who hopefully can give some fantastic insight how he got his roots planted in his photographer world. More posted on that latas!

Until then, we had such a fabulous weekend so far! Friday night was low key and relaxed. We went to Lowe's and picked up some wood so that Shane could fix the bottom drawer in set of 4 we have in the kitchen. It's been broken for sometime and he tried to fix it once with no such luck; the wood was just so damaged. So round two entailed him rebuilding it completely!

Yesterday we went to his parents so he could use his table saw and compressor to build the said drawer. Ahh I can't wait until we have a garage/wood shed where he can do all this at home-sweet-home! Until then, we do get to go to his parents and end up having a marvelous time visiting. He did the building with his dad. Mom and I went to Michael's and picked out yarn. She taught me (for the second time) how to crochet the granny squares. I have it home with me and now and so excited to continue doing it! Just another project!

And, today will involve doing grocery shopping, eating some food I'm sure and then watching the Patriots kick the Raven's [butt] game! If we all take a moment and recall this time last year when we witnessed this match up in the Playoffs. So, I said my peace :)

We didn't invite anyone over for the game. It'll just be Shane, Brady and I - and by Brady I mean the dog ;) We will enjoy the quite of our home after an action packed weekend!

How was your weekend and what do you have planed for the big game!?

christmas and Massachusetts

slackkker! I was supposed to post about my table and some other festive things I did. When instead, I completely became lazy and did nothing!

I did however go up to Massachusetts and enjoy a wonderful Holiday season with my family and friends! Such a great time we had!!

I didn't have our camera the first part of my trip, as I left it with Shane for him to use for Christmas (except I'm not sure that he did...) I will have to go through Jen's to see which ones I want to pilfer! In my defense though, I did take some of them ;)

I arrived at MA on Sunday, 23rd. Half way through on Thursday, Shane and Grayson arrived and we continued our stay until Sunday 30th. I have random pictures throughout the trip. I posted so many to facebook so I don't want to bore you with all of them!

We enjoyed visits with family. I got some precious time with my niece Maddie. It was the first time I met her, and of course walking into Adam's mom's house, he has her in the sink because she had a "diaper explosion!"

Love me some MA and I can't wait to see everyone again soon!

<3

christmas time!

December has just begun and it's already been great! We have had a lot of fun decorating the tree, and doing our Advent calendar! It's certainly been a blessing to have Shane's family close and also to know that mine is just a few miles awhile and will be seeing them all shortly!

The tree that is in our living room was given to me by some good friends (Jen and Craig). Before them it was passed down from Sue (thanks, Sue! :D) It's a nice tree, and certainly fills our needs!

But, I'm sadden to say that it may the last year for this tree. It's not fluffing as it should and many of the needles have fallen off. But, you know, these trees don't last forever!!

 

 

Jen also lent us the tree skirt her grandmother made. She only asked that if I ever intend on getting a new one, that I give it back. Certainly will! :D

We decided to put the tree in front of the slider this year rather than by the kitchen, because it gives more living room space. We need all the space we can get in this room! Especially next weekend when Mom and Dave come to visit! YAY!

This little boy is both excited for them and Santa to come! :D Aren't we all?

I've done some decorating around the apartment, as much as I can without overloading! I try not to do too much to avoid it looking cluttered!

Started with the tree! Definitely love the soft glow of the lights in the dark!

Most of the ornaments are new. They were a must have purchase from IKEA! If you remember, we went there for the kitchen shelves? Well during that trip I fell in love with these ornaments. Thought about them constantly. So, much that I went online to purchase them, but they weren't available for shipping online.

Soooo....you can imagine how excited Shane was to go back and get them with me! :) That's love I tell you!

 

 

 

I filled in the areas surrounding the boxes and stars with some plain red balls, silver bells (which I didn't take a picture of on the tree), hearts that came with the IKEA set, and of course this little guy!

 



LOVE my smooshy boy!!! Can't believe how big he is getting! Get to see him and his beautiful sister in 2 weeks! YIPPEEEEE!

The rest of the decorations I just randomly sprinkled around the living room.

I bought a snowflake table runner for our coffee table. I wanted to keep the decorations as neutral as possible, as to not overload the Christmas theme, but rather play up winter so I can keep them up longer and get the most use out of them!

This bowl is filled with the silver bells I mentioned that are on the tree, and some gold balls. I took the paper shreds from the box the IKEA ornaments came in and used that as filler :)

 

I love the look of this in the glass bowl! 

Couldn't forget to give the bar/bakers rack a little festival appeal! I think the garland is simple enough without over doing it!

 

 

Our DVD rack (which by the way, is completely filled! We need to come up with an additional movie storage solution, quick!) Just a little sparkle and jazz!

 

 

 

Without going too crazy on the pictures, because I know that posts can get very long with those, here are just a few more together to give you the idea :)

 

 

 

I have a beautiful table cloth that I bought from Home Goods last week, and some fun ideas for the dining table. So, stay tuned!!

 

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend! See ya soon! <3