Blood, Sweat and no Tears. Part 1 of 2

Mitch and I are expecting a move sometime in the not so distant future. So we decided it was really time to do some major renovations. One of them that I was looking forward to most was the kitchen. It was the project I knew I wanted to do as soon as possible when we knew we were buying this house. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do it until recent. However, better late than never. Even if that means I get to enjoy it for a shorter amount of time than I would have liked.
The original kitchen was pretty terrible.. It has old cabinets, which is not the problem. The problem was that the owner before us who had 'flipped' the house stained them (and stained them a dark, dark color-especially for such a small kitchen). Herein lies the problem, they did not care about the finished product. It was sloppily done, you could see drips of the stain on the front of the cabinets, and they didn't bother to clean (and sand? that happens, or is supposed to happen, when you stain right?) and so it was super grainy due to the dust build up that was pretty much unmistakable. Lame, right? Oh well, like I said i figured we would redo the kitchen pretty quickly after moving in. On top of the crappily done cabinets, we had a dark blue laminate counter top. Really?
Mitch and I order our cabinets from The Home Depot, and I wanted light cabinet colors. Just to make the kitchen seem bigger than it really is. Then we thought we would go with just a laminiate countertop-due to budget. Turns out for the shape of the corner where our sink is, it was cheaper to go real stone. whaaat? Whatever, I'm not complaining!
We went back and forth between having someone come in and install it for us. Just so it was done and over with, and we wouldn't have to stress about it. But Mitch decided he would do it. The cost wasn't worth it for him.
Part 1- demolition!  Which in reality..is not as much fun as it sounds. Lol. He would tear the cabinets apart. I'd haul them piece by piece to the garage.
Part 2- Cabinets get delivered and take up, basically the entirety of the living room. All in their own cardboard boxes and stacked clear to the ceiling fan.

Part 3- putting up the top cabinets. Also not fun. Mitch made it easier by drilling a piece of wood to act like a little shelf/ledge thing, so the cabinet would sit in the right spot. I, however still have to hold it up against the wall while he got it exactly perfect where it needed to be, and drilled everything into the wall.

Part 4- bottom cabinets. I didn't really help with this, but apparently it was hard according to the frustrating gripes I heard from Mitch. For those of you who don't know floors are apparently not always perfectly level, but the tops of the cabinets have to be so the counter top lays perfectly on top. 
Part 5- So much cardboard. Everywhere cardboard. For those of you who have never hauled huge flattened cardboard boxes. It is really hard to grip those suckers. (at least it was for me, Mitch just makes everything look easy. haha.)
Part 6- Live way too long without a counter top because the new cabinets have to be measured after being installed. but they cant come out to measure for days then can't deliver and install for another week or two. (I can't remember exactly how long, but it was entirely too long to be without a functioning kitchen. No sink, no counter top.)
Lastly, Enjoy a new kitchen.

Hunter is the best helper!

 However, we still need to paint and/or do a full backsplash from the counter top to the bottom of the cabinets.

Hawaii!

This May Mitch and I were lucky enough to be able to go to Hawaii.

It was amazing. 

The flight was long but certainly worth it. 

This tree was the first sight we saw-in the middle of the airport.

 

 

The hotel that we stayed at has a luau show that they do a couple nights a week. Mitch and I went the first night we got there and it pretty cool. It was dinner and a show. Before the dinner or the show started, they had little stations where you could learn one of the ball-twirling dance moves, make a small anklet lei and the like.

They did dances from each of the different island cultures.

Somehow..I was pulled up to dance onstage..I was so awkward and uncomfortable, Lol!

They also had fire dancing. ooohh ahhh

The hotel next to ours does a fireworks show, so we waited on the beach for it to begin.

Fireworks on the beach <3

We had a fabulous view from our balcony, (not that you can tell from this particular photo) and we took advantage of it most days.

 When in Hawaii, do as the Hawaiians do! 

We took a surfing lesson..and totally loved it!

Mitch got completely up on his second try

I got up on my first try! Woot Woot! This isn't the picture from the first try, but I like this one most :P

 Another fun thing we were able to do was Scuba Scooter Rides. Along that same trip, we were able to turtle watch. The turtles were huge and everywhere! 

The awesome scooters! Lol, look at our itty bitty pea heads in those bubbles.

We were able to see lots of fishies and turtles. They attached some fish food right in front of our helmets so those fish came right up to you. Very cool!

Just a few of my favorite pictures. hehe.

Mitch and Jenn 2012 Hawaii

I certainly want to go back to Hawaii someday.

Janurary - May

The last few months have been quite a whirlwind!

One.  Jojo got married! She had a pretty simple wedding that was put together in under 24 hours, talk about quick!

 

Jo before the ceremony. 

Sisters ♥

Just a bonus photo-because I love this one of Janice and Mackenzie :)

Two. My baby sister announced that I'd be becoming an aunt again! She finds out at her next Doctor's appointment the sex of the baby and I can't wait. Janice and I have dibs on planning the baby shower-as we couldn't help at all with the wedding her new in-laws did all the decision making and decorating.

Third. Mitch came home! WootWoot!

Leaving the airport after picking him up.

Hunter gave him a nice big hug. Aww.

Sheba ran around for a while jumping on him...and me. Later he sat on the ground and she would sit in her rightful place...In his lap, ha! Then she'd get up, look at him, then turn back around and sit in his lap. It was pretty goofy.

 All is right with the world, and Mitch easily integrated back into his home life. We are excited to be going to Hawaii for a week just a week and a half after his homecoming! Definitely an exciting getaway. :D

Fourth. I finished my very last class at Pima Community College! Took my final this last weekend, and now it's just a matter of getting that Associates Degree in my hand. I'm super excited to have accomplished getting a degree. Now for the undecided future in school...

Things that make me smile :)

1. Mitch
2. My front yard tree
3. Puppies

This week marks Mitch's homecoming countdown to 7 weeks left! Woot woot!
Sometimes I get butterflies when I think about it♥

Also, in the last couple weeks, the tree we planted in our front yard has been blooming like crazy!
Which I am really excited about because when I told Mitch how bare it was (not a single leaf on a twig) and that I hope it didn't die over the winter, he asked "well, have you been watering it?" .... err, I forgot that it has to be watered :/ the plants in the back in pots have a drip system and I totally forgot that I had to manually take the hose and water the tree and plants in the front yard. Ooops! Luckily it is a 'drought-resistant' tree. Needless to say, I have been better about watering it since then.
Anyway, I came home from work one day and realized, there are flowers blooming! (It didn't bloom at all last year). I was so excited, when I took a closer look, I realized there were tons, maybe hundreds of buds that would be blooming. Words can't explain how excited I was.

 The first bloom I noticed.

This picture is from this morning. I just can't leave and come home without being happy after seeing my tree. I love it! Makes my day, at least twice a day! :P

Puppies, Puppies, Puppies!

Its no surprise that I love puppies. I had the chance this last weekend to puppy sit Mitch's friend, Dave's new Dalmatian puppy, Lucky. It was just for the day, but it was just enough to get me my puppy fix for a while. 

Naturally, Sheba and Hunter liked to gang up on him, chasing him and wresting, but he was pretty scrappy. He loved running in circles around our loveseat, Hunter was pretty smart, he would chase him around a couple times, then would stop, turn around and surprise Lucky.

This first blurry picture is pretty much how the first half of the day went. Them just running around like crazy, non-stop. 

Eventually they pooped themselves out, but Hunter is a jealous, grumpy butt. He would not have Lucky anywhere near his toys, me, or himself. He would whine and growl at Lucky if he was near any of the three. 

 Even this far away, Hunter would be making growling noises.

 Eventually, he let Lucky get closer, but still not without protest.

 Eventually, Hunter let Lucky cuddle like this. Apparently, this was the only way Lucky was allowed to cuddle with Hunter. Lol. Like I said, grumpy-butt.

Sheba was nice the whole time, and let Lucky cuddle anytime. Aww..

 

Valentine's Day

Valentines day is not a very big holiday in our house, but seeing as Mitch has been gone for so long, and we haven't seen each other and wouldn't be for a while. I thought Valentine's this year was especially important for him, for us.
I really wanted to surprise him (for once!), so I kept everything on the down low. The biggie was remembering to pay for the shipping in cash, not with the card. Since he is obsessive over looking over our budget and therefore looks at our transactions all the time.
Anyway, so I asked Rina if she would want to help me decorate some sugar cookies because doing them by myself seemed too lonely. I had seen this cute idea of doing one cookie the sits on top saying "I love you like..." and the rest of the cookies list what I love him like.

 

Then to send them over, I wanted to make sure they got there in one piece. So I found some little boxes and bubble wrap from the dollar store. Which worked fabulously, I think he said only one broke?

Then inside the USPS box, I did the same thing I did with his birthday box. I found some heart wrapping paper in the seasonal dollar section at target (Whoo!), I looked in a few places for wrapping paper and couldn't find any! So I was happy that when I did, it was only a dollar :)

Also in the dollar section they had these little planter pots with soil and seeds, and it was just so perfect and cute that I had to get this.

 

(See what I did there? They're forget-me-nots! :P)

Also in the box was some Andes mints chocolates, these whack a pack self-inflating valentines balloons (They are so awesome! I was so excited, and wished they had them for Birthdays too)..

I also wanted to take a picture with the dogs with each of us holding signs that all together say, "We ♥ You!". Unfortunately, the day I decided to take the pictures, the dogs were being so bad on their leashes, wouldn't listen to me and were just being bad. On top of it all, it was super windy, my hair was flying everywhere, I didn't have a hair tie. So I just took the dogs photos individually, then decided to take my own picture at home, without the wind or the nice green background. Oh well. That's when I decided it would be a better option to do a little scrapbook-y type photo. Instead of doing individual pictures in a frame that had three small photo slots next to each other. This is what I came up with:

Anyway, I can't remember if there was anything else. It's been a while since I've thought of the package. Anyway, it was a fun box to put together, and he was definitely surprised! Makes me feel good that he can brag to the people in his office about stuff like that. 

The finishing touch; just so he would know (if the box got there just a little too early) that it was for Valentine's day.

I hope you all had a great Valentine's day and took full advantage of your sweethearts being home and able to celebrate, even if just a little bit.

Happy Valentine's Day ♥

I'm embarrassed to show you this, but it's a must

A couple weeks ago I saw a pin on Pinterest (If you haven't checked it out yet, you should! its awesome, but addicting) on a miracle carpet stain remover.

For those of you that know, our carpet has a couple of nice big stains. I had just tried to not think or notice them too much, thinking "eventually we'll get a new carpet, so I'll ignore the stains and hope no one notices them (Yeah, right!)". Anyway, so I saw this pin that was super easy, and seemed too good to be true, but I figured I would only really need to buy two things, versus about a million random ingredients to mix together for other "miracle" carpet stain removers.

Excuse the terrible photos, I haven't exactly mastered Mitch's big ol' special professional camera.
Here is the horribly embarrassing part: 

The Before

Yikes! Those were the stains that I put our coffee table over. haha.

 And..

Here is The After!  

 That's right folks, that is the exact same spot on my carpet as the first photo! Amazing, right?!

Here's what you need:

• Water
• Ammonia
• spray bottle
• towel
• a clothes iron

In the spray bottle, do a 50/50 mix of hot water (the hottest your tap will go worked fine for me), and ammonia. I found a jug of it at my local dollar store. (gotta love dollar stores!) 

After making your bottle, get your iron and towel. 

Then pick your stain and spray away. I just about soaked my stains, and then put down the towel and then ironed away right at the spot. Immediately the stains started lifting. I did go over the stains a couple of times, to make sure it was totally gone. 

Here is what my towel looked like after I was all done

 Pretty crazy right?

I thought it was pretty fun too, seeing the stains lift up so quickly and effectively. I had ALMOST wished I had more stains to take out, I loved the immediate gratification. I am so happy that I won't cringe when my coffee table is moved and we have company over, as well as hoping they don't notice the other stains in the living room.

My Bday

This year my birthday was good, I spent it with friends and family. Both Mitch and I felt the same way on our birthdays, being that we missed each other more on those days than we did on Christmas. Weird, right?
Anyway, so that morning I met up with my Bestie Rina, and we went to see Beauty and the Beast in 3D at the theaters. Which was fun! I hadn't seen it in so long, and I had almost forgotten bits and pieces of the movie. Seeing it in better quality than a VHS tape was pretty awesome too.
We had already decided previously that we would get some Greek food for lunch, because I had been craving it for weeks! Mitch and I go pretty frequently when he is home, and I hadn't been since he left, because I didn't want to go alone, plus I hadn't ever gone without him either, I guess it's kind of our thing. Anyway, as I was getting into the car to get from the theater to the Big Fat Greek restaurant, Mitch had called me, so I sat in the car to talk to him, before getting on the road.  So, naturally Rina beat me to the restaurant.

Once I got there we ordered and ate, and I wondered, "did she tell them it was my birthday, since she got here before me?". but then we finished eating, and our waitress said she was going to get the check, and I though, "I guess not, otherwise Rina would have already spilled the beans". She is the worst at keeping secret surprises like that. Then from behind me, I hear Happy Birthday! and the crew coming out with dessert, and singing. They lit the plate on fire, sang and I made a wish and blew out the entire plate, lol.  I went on to tell Rina, that I was surprised that she kept a secret! She goes, "I know! I almost did when the waitress said she was going to 'get the check'". haha, She cracks me up.

Anyhow, this was the baklava that they gave us for dessert, which I had to share with Rina it was so rich, and I was already so full! haha, but the plate underneath, with the chocolate syrup and liquid is what they had on fire.  It was really good, very nutty. I wasn't sure if I would like it, because I thought I had had baklava before, and didn't like it, but I really liked this super nutty baklava. So yummy!

After lunch, I said bye to Rina, and went home. I took the dogs on a shorter walk, they were being not so good that day. Then off to my dad's house, where he grilled some chicken, and invited Janice, Mike, the kids, and Jo. We had more dessert there naturally, a cold stone creamery cake that Janice had ordered and customized. The rest of the evening was spent at Dad's, mostly running around and playing with Kaden, he really is so much fun! I love to talk to him, or at least listen and nod. lol, he has so much to say.

Thank you everyone for the Birthday cards and gifts sent in the mail! I was not expecting so many cards!

Mitch's Birthday!

This year, neither Mitch nor I have a lot we want for our birthdays. But of course, I still had to send him a package. So I went a little birthday crazy!

 I wrapped the entire inside of the package with some awesome birthday wrapping paper, then taped a birthday banner on the flaps so that it opened when he opened the package up!

 I made some mini funfetti (his favorite!) cupcakes and sent it along with some frosting. Also in the package, a card, and 80 birthday candles. (Because he's just that old! :P Just kidding of course)

The outside of the package.  I put down some streamer, then laid packing tape right over it, made it look like birthday packing tape. haha. I thought it looked really cool!

Happy Birthday Mitch!
I love and miss you!
♥

Grandma

My grandma's birthday is coming up this month and I've been thinking about her.
She is truly the sweetest, and most kind lady I know. She is always so grateful for any small gesture of kindness, even just a phone call and she is so excited and grateful.

Growing up I remember asking my mom to go to Grandma's house, with my made up signs, and my grandma always had sweet tea and cookies and treats. Yum!
Anyway, I then was looking through pictures, and came across these.

I have always loved her wedding dress!
I would have loved to have a similar dress to hers, but with having an indoor wedding reception I thought, a short wedding dress probably wouldn't go the best with the venue.
Not to mention, look at Grandpa! :P he looks so cute in his formal blues.

I hope my grandchildren will think I was as pretty as she was on her wedding day. ♥

12 days of Christmas

Mitch really outdid himself this year for Christmas. One day I walked out the door, and there was a little present by the door. On it was a little note saying something along the lines of "On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree...Speaking of pairs, I hope you like these". Inside, a pair of earrings shaped as the Arizona state and a little heart where Tucson would be. So cute.
Day 1: AZ earrings

Day 2: Custom photo mug

Day 3:
A photo frame with a poem in it. That I'll keep to myself ♥



Day 4: Kuwaiti jewelry and scarves/pashminas
            I love this set. Not sure yet where I'll wear it to. It's also missing a piece that matches the earrings but hangs off the forehead.

Day 5: a Jewelry mirror

            Picture is obviously not of mine, but it is the same model, and I love it!  

Day 6: Juicer

    I had been telling Mitch that I wanted a juicer. He said, really? why? and basically said he didn't really want one. I told him. "Fine! Ill just buy it when you're out of the country!" :P No need, he did the research and got the best one :) 

Day 7: A swimsuit, black one piece with sequins along the top. It's cuter than I make it sound. :P

Day 8:A Dirt Devil! I've wanted one for a while for places that I want to vacuum, but can't get my vacuum there, like inside the light bowls. 

Day 9: Another jewelry set from Kuwait. A necklace, bracelet, earrings and ring set, with white and purple stones.

Day 10: a ring that I had seen online

Day 11: a pack of cards with different memories, reasons he loves me, etc. 

Day 12: A gift card to Gadabout spa 

It was so much fun to wake up each day to a new present! 

I have the best husband 

♥