Another finished project

I feel like I need a medal.  Or maybe a gold star.  I have finished another home project.  Part of it has been over a year in the making.  I redid our bedroom!!  That's right!  Two weeks ago, I talked Ryan into buying the comforter and sheets I wanted.  Then we made a stop by Home Depot to get the paint to repaint it!  We got one coat on the wall two weeks ago, and like we tend to do, stopped.  So the bedroom has been in shambles for two weeks now - art on the floor, shelves off the walls, etc.  Today I got a wild hair and finished it up.

I was so happy - I had painted it grey originally with a heavy masculine bedspread.  I posted a picture of it in an earlier post.  Now it's a fun fresh spring green bedspread with a light blue wall color - just gorgeous!  All that is left is window treatments, a few touches for the shelf and dresser, and art to go over the bed that I plan to paint myself.

Isn't it pretty?  And it's finally done.  Who would have thought I would be halfway done, get a puppy, and finish the project 3 days later?  The part I mentioned that was a year in the making was painting the ceiling.  It's not a very interesting color so I won't show it.  Just know I've been staring at a blotchy half-painted ceiling for a year now.  And then imagine it being done - seriously, load off my mind.

Also, our good friend Shannon came over today and brought her sweet baby Jillian.  Alli is majorly into babies right now and she LOVED her!

And finally, for those of you wondering how the boys are getting along:

Lazy lazy snow days

We have had nearly half a foot of snow in the Fayetteville area over the weekend.  My sister has been here since Thursday night and we've been staying up late, playing video games, and eating.  Don't ask me how I'm doing on the weight loss resolution.  I was doing pretty well, but who loses weight during snow days?

By the way, potty training a puppy in 26 degree weather in snow over his head is not cool.

So we've really been having a blast over here.  Right now we are connected to my brother in Little Rock on the Wii playing Mario Kart.  He's killing everyone except Ryan.  I never did get very good at Mario Kart on the Wii.  I used school everyone except my friend Lara on the N64 though.  I can even beat Ryan, and that's saying something.

Ryan and Lindsey got the message below on Super Mario Bros Wii today.  Wow.  That's how you know you have too much time on your hands.

Happy snow days, all!

I need to add another part to the pet series because...

We've added to the family!!  That's right, we're crazy pet people.  Animals once again outnumber people at the Lowe house.  Though we haven't reached our high of 5 at once, we are bursting at the seams over here.

So, without further ado, please meet Landry!  He is a brown and white piebald English bulldog puppy.  He is my parents' dog Emmett's half brother.  We just have really fallen in love with Emmett (especially Alli) and Ryan has always loved English bulldogs.  So we contacted the breeder and she had this little guy available.  Isn't he adorable?  Look forward to more info about him in part 4 of the Lowe Down pet series.

 

New Year's Resolution Check-Up

What an unusual time for yours truly to be posting, no?  That's right, it's 11AM on a Sunday.  I got the inspiration and I decided to run with it.  This time is odd for me because usually, we're at church on Sunday mornings and usually I post late at night.  But since I have been in Columbus, OH since Thursday afternoon, we decided to stay in this morning.  And instead of cleaning, which I was in the middle of when inspiration struck, I am going to blog for a minute.

Three weeks into the New Year, it's finally time for New Year's Resolution Review!  I'm going to try to post my progress on my New Year's resolutions here to assist in motivating me to keep them up.

Here they are, in no specific order:

• Savings - Ryan and I have never really had financial issues, but we've never really gotten ahead with regard to savings and monitoring our spending.  We just always made sure outflow < inflow.  So we are currently working diligently to curb our spending.  We each get $150 in cash at the beginning of the month for general merriment, personal eating out, etc.  I think this is going to help tremendously because we tend to nickel and dime ourselves to death with $10 lunches here and $100 shoes there.  Okay, maybe the  last one is more me than Ryan.  But you get the idea.  We also are on a bit of a budget, and let me tell you, that is NOT fun!
• Fingernails - I am not kind to my fingernails.  I don't bite them, but I definitely pick at them, especially the cuticles.  They just never look very presentable.  So I am making a conscious effort to not pick them and keep them nice.  Painting them helps me to not pick, so I am keeping a fun shade on them.  This means I have to repaint them, file them, trim them, and trim my cuticles at least once a week.  Three weeks in, I can tell you - I've noticed a HUGE difference.  And I am having lots of fun spending my discretionary money on colors like purple and silver!
• Weight Loss - The classic resolution.  I did this last year and lost about 10 lbs.  It was great!  I've put about 7 of that back on, so I'm planning to lose another 10 by sometime in the spring.  Already, I have lost 2!  I'm going to the gym 3x a week and working out with videos at home 2 times a week.  I'm also counting calories using the Lose It! app on my iPhone.  I like it a lot because it helps me really think about what I eat and how much I eat.
• Blog More - I'm going to try to blog 2-3 times per week.  Period.  You let me know how I do on that one.

Okay, I have to get back to house cleaning before Ryan gets back from the grocery store and wonders what I have been up to!

Meet the Pets: The Lola Edition

And now is time for part 1 of a 3 part series here on the Lowe Down.  [Edit - Now a four part series. We gluttons for punishment have added to the farm. See pics of the new member here.]   My entire life, pets have been very important to my family.  They are almost like children around here, so I'm going to introduce you to them one blog at a time.  First up, the pet we've had the longest:  Miss Lola Jo Kitaen Lowe.  That's "Ki-tain", as in Tawny Kitaen, the girl that rolls on the hood of the cars in the Whitesnake video.  I don't have a good reason why, that's just her name.

We adopted Lola as a six week old kitten from the Humane Society of Pulaski County.  At the time, we had 2 outside dogs (Callie and McGwire) and I was jonesing for a pet in the house.  Alli was...maybe 18 months?  I think.  I just asked Ryan and he agreed with me, but he usually agrees with me so that's not really a good confirmation.  We'll roll with it though.  That would mean we got her in early summer 2006, and that sounds about right.

Lola was the tiniest kitten in the cage with the HUGEST ears you've ever seen.  We used to call her Bat Cat.  Take a look:

Isn't she just the cutest?  Not long after we got her, I was home alone and couldn't find her anywhere.  I tore the house up for three hours, made Ryan leave work, got hysterical, and then found her asleep between the pillows on our bed as he walked in the door.  He was not that happy about it.  But she was so tiny!!  Here she is playing with Alli:

The intent with the entire cat acquisition, so I told my wary husband, was to have an inside animal that was "Alli's" for her to love.  But, because people and animals are just naturally drawn to my inner beauty and calm, Lola rejected our original plan for her (as is Lola's nature) and chose me.  I can't say I tried too hard to stop her either.  She follows me everywhere, sits in my lap, and only snuggles with me.  And I like it that way. 

So Lola is now 4 years old and is your very very typical cat.  This is a key point in our pet dynamic, because for those of you who know, we also have another cat who is NOT a typical cat.  But that will be part 2.  Back to Lola Jo - she's snooty, everything is on her terms, she's not very cuddly, and she sleeps a lot.  She's also kind of a chunk-a-lunk (my family calls her Queen Latifah, which is just not nice).  So why do I like her?  Do you even have to ask?  Let's review:

• She's a snob.  
• She's bossy.
• She's low maintenance.  
• She loves me best.

She sleeps on my side of the bed, only after everyone is asleep and still.  She gets up with me and sits with me while I get ready in the morning.  She stops in front of you when you are walking and rolls on her back so you can rub her belly - but don't rub too long or she'll bite.  She HATES Cash.  Like chases him down when he looks at her funny.  One time Cash stepped on Ginger (not a hard thing to do, you'll see that in part 2) and Ginger reacted badly (man, you are really going to enjoy part 2) and meowed loudly and Lola flew across the room and attached herself to Cash's face, spitting and hissing.  Poor Cash was running and shaking his head trying to get her off.  No one steps out of line with Queen Latifah around.

So now you know Lola a little better.  If you're lucky enough to meet her and then are lucky enough to get to pet her (not a given), scratch her chin.  She loves it.  But again, don't scratch too long.