She loves her Macintosh

Aspen celebrated her two year adoptiversary by cuddling... ahem... intimately with Macintosh. Luckily I had my camera handy so I could capture the moment.

2010 resolutions

Last year I had five resolutions and accomplished all but one (paying off the Mr.'s car). It felt good to do that well, so I am going to come up with five more goals for 2010.

1. Continue on my path to being healthier. This includes all the things from last year as well as some new things. Bottom line: I want to eat well and continue exercising.

2. Spend/save money more wisely. This covers a ton of different things, the biggest ones being: increase savings to a dollar amount I have in my head, increase our 401k contributions and don't buy something unless we can afford it.

3. Pay off the Mr.'s car. In addition to saving more, I hope to become consumer debt free by the end of the year. Yes, we'll still have two small student loans and a mortgage, but that's much more manageable.

4. Take a big vacation. And by big I mean flying over an ocean and staying for over a week. With all the good things we've done and we're doing, I want to celebrate!

5. Get knocked up. According to all the plans we've made and all the talking we've done, 2010 is the year for me to get pregnant. Of course we can't plan everything, but it's something I hope for.

I have smaller goals like run a 5K and take more small travel adventures, but I won't bore you with those, now!

No more Niagara

Things came up and we've decided we won't be going to Niagara Falls later this week. I'm bummed because I was really looking forward to the trip... but on the other hand we can save the money we were going to spend on that trip and put it towards something bigger and better.

Hawaii has been thrown out there, and the fact that I blogged about that here is a sign that we've been thinking about it for quite some time. Everything happens for a reason, right? :)

On another note, I am really dreading work tomorrow. I am still not feeling well and 5am is going to come way too early. Somebody has to make the big bucks... wait, that's not me. Why am I going to work again??? Heh.

Pretty efficient Saturday

Most people are out at the mall or exploring things on Saturday afternoons, but not us. We like to spend our days at hardware stores picking up gas connectors, three-way valves and 1/4" poly tubes. Let me take a step back :)

Our stove sucks. Really badly. The oven won't keep a constant temperature, which makes cooking or baking that much more difficult. Then recently the stove burners were having trouble lighting, so we had to use a lighter to get them started. The Mr. and I were getting tired of the problems, so we decided to get a new (to us) stove. We picked it up today and just finished installing it. It's be-a-u-tiful and already works much better than our old one.

Before

After

We also (finally) installed the water line to our refrigerator. When we first bought our house we replaced the fridge because it didn't work. We decided on one that had a water/ice dispenser on the outside even though we didn't have the line, and for almost three years it was an unused feature. NOT ANYMORE! The Mr. finally got it all set up (in under 30 minutes) and it's fantastic. It's only a three step process:

1. Install a new three-way valve (one to the water supply line, one line to the faucet, and one to the refrigerator via a tube).

2. Drill holes through your cabinets, run the tube through the holes and attach the tube to the back of the cabinets. We used a 1/4" poly tube because it was easy to work with and cheap. ($2.50 for 25 feet) You can also use copper if you're feeling rich or adventurous :)

3. Attach the poly tube to the back of the refrigerator at the supplied location.

Then:

TA-DA!

I never thought I'd be so happy to hear ice being made. It's kind of funny to see how scared the pups get whenever the ice drops. Cracks me up!

Recap of our 2009 projects

To say we've done a lot in the past year is an understatement. Last year was a busy one for us and it's so neat to look back and see all that we've done. In an effort not to bore you, I'll pick my favorite five... um... rooms that received an update and recap those changes :) In no particular order:

1. Our master bathroom overhaul. I am not sure there is a surface we haven't touched in this room. For more info on any project, click the following links: flooring, hardware, mirror, vanity, paint, light and shelving.

2. The master bedroom closet upgrade. This started as a way to save money and ended up as an awesome change. I love having everything right there at my fingertips. Check out the following links for more info: the planning, shelving, and finishing touches.

3. The powder room update. I love this room more and more each time I walk in. Totally worth the time and effort! Check out this link for more.

4. Our kitchen! This room has been the most expensive and I think the most transformed. The transformation started last year, but there have been some new updates this year, as well. The riddling rack being a definite favorite :) We also replaced our sink with a new stainless steel one I got for free...

The kitchen really is the heart of the home, and I love our 'heart' now!

5. Last but not least, our built ins. They were hard to plan, but a cheap and relatively easy thing to do. It's so much fun to change out the decor for seasons now! Here's more info on them.

I hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane as much as I did. I think I need a glass of wine- I've earned it!