Living Room - Before and After

There are some rooms and/or walls in our house that I'm not in love with. Mostly because we haven't had the time or funds to purchase a neat piece of art or enlarge scenic pictures from our honeymoon to put on the blank walls or it's something that I just can't put my finger on. On the other hand there are walls and rooms that I love. Let's just say it's all a work in progress.

Our living room was one of our rooms that I wasn't in love with. I wanted to put a picture of the Colosseum that we took in Rome over the fire place, I also wanted to paint the walls. Then there was the furniture. I liked the furniture, but I felt like the furniture was sooooo spread out. Each couch and chair was up against a wall. It wasn't very cozy until a week ago when I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I wanted to see what it would look like to scrunch everything together and I have to say I love how it turned out. I love the room 83% more than I did before this change and I didn't spend 1 dime. I think I even managed to burn 50 calories moving all the furniture.

Before





After

Buddy's Blankies

In the last few weeks, Buddy ONLY sits on blankets on the couch. Some of these pictures were taken on the same day but most are from different days.

Flashback Friday

Today was a long day so I'm kind of winging this Flashback Friday. The day ended well with dinner at Il Fornaio with Rob, my parents and in-laws but I am so drained. I don't know the topic of today's flashback Friday. Let me go take a looksie in my picures...I'm going to choose something that won't take a lot of effort explaining.

Sometime in September 2006 - Coming Home from Our Honeymoon

For our honeymoon, we went on a 12-day Mediterranean Cruise. This was taken on the plane, waiting to fly back to the US. We were sad that our honeymoon was coming to an end.



Then we decided we were kind of glad to get back home to our house, family and friends.





Sigh...I realize this post is kind of lame. I intend to touch more on the honeymoon in future Flashback Fridays. Posts that I hope are more entertaining than this one.

G'night.

Check Out My Gloves!

Remember my new obsession with etsy? If not, here's a quick reminder: http://suburban-chic.blogspot.com/2009/02/dont-bother-me-im-etsy-ing.html

Well, the obsession is spreading! Today my mom surprised me with an etsy purchase inspired from my "Got Weed" post. She got me these lovlies:






Her intent was for me to pull weeds with them but I don't think I can do that. They are too pretty and I will trash them in five minutes. The tag says they are for gardening, cleaning or doing the dishes so I think I'll use them for when I do the dishes. Rob - I know you are laughing right now: "Alyssa - do dishes? Ha!" Whatever. Now that I have these super cute gloves, I'll be doing dishes day and night, mkay?

If you want to get some of your own, you can get them at Julie Meyer's shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5786053

I am really tempted to get me some "Lunch in Style" bags. I pack my lunch every day for work and use random Target bags or whatever else is lying around. Aren't these cute?





Thanks, mom!

Last Weekend in Photos

Sarah relaxing - see her baby bump?



Me doing my happy dance because we are about to play Catchphrase.



Rob being all GQ.



Guitar Hero-ing.



Buddy being all cute.



Good view of the bump.



Buddy making a buddy.



Family



Just the two of us.



Pictures taken by Sarah and Mike - thanks for a great weekend guys!

Flashback Friday

May 14, 2005 - The Day Rob Popped the Question

Rob and I became "girlfriend boyfriend" on September 7, 2001. I had no desire to get married in the near future and I think Rob liked that about me. This all changed about 2-3 years into the relationship. I think it was the 2004 time frame I started sending him pictures of rings just in case he needed some direction. I would drop random hints here and there to let him know I was ready. I'm a planner and this was obviously out of my hands and it drove me nuts. I told Rob I was going to propose to him.

On New Years Eve 2005 (December 31, 2004), I said "Can I say.....I'll be engaged this year?" Rob just rolled his eyes and grunted. I was such a joy to be around.

One day Rob's mom was telling us about Filoli Gardens. Online it says Filoli is a "country estate with 16 acres of formal gardens, surrounded by 620 acres of wilderness area for guided hikes." His mom said it was spectacular and we should check it out some day. Rob asked me if I wanted to go on Saturday May 14 and I said sure.

So that morning before going to Filoli, we went to our favorite breakfast place, The Original Pancake House in Los Altos.



After breakfast, we were on our way to Filoli. I had looked up Filoli online before we left and online it said you cannot get married at Filoli. In the car I said "Sorry, we can't get married at Filoli! I looked it up online."

When we got to Filoli, we decided to go into their mini movie theatre to see a short film about Filoli. There was a girl sitting in front of us on a bench with her underwear hanging out. I elbowed Rob, pointed and smiled. Yup, he was about to propose to one mature lady!

After the video, Rob said he had to go to the restroom. I found out later he was so nervous, he got a tummy ache.

So we walked around for about 5 minutes until we were in a little garden with no one around. Rob said "Too bad we can't get married here, it's really nice. Maybe we can get engaged here." So I sad sarcastically "Okkk.." As in yeah, right. Then he took the ring box out of his pocket and said "Poo, will you marry me?"

Hallelulah!







Our first engaged self portrait:



We asked a couple to take a picture of us:



Then we had to make a few phone calls. Rob had asked my dad for his permission but he was to keep it a secret. I'm not sure if my mom was more happy that we were engaged or more mad that my dad kept his promise to not spill the beans! My parents were driving home from Colorado so I had to tell my mom over the phone. Rob's parents were in on the plan. We phoned some friends then decided to leave the gardens. I still want to go back to Filoli and really see the gardens since we were only there for about 5 minutes.

How did your honey propose?

What is....

almost as bad as passing gas in pilates? Having someone who is six inches from you pass gas in pilates. If I wasn't me, I would think I was the one who dealt it. It sounded like it came from me. Not behind, to the side of me, or front of me. So really, I was probably just as embarassed as she was. Thanks lady.

Oh and if you must know, this was the move we were doing when IT happened:

Got Weed?

Warning: This post is full of so many puns it's not even funny. Get your head out of the gutter, people!

Rob and I were at dinner last night with my in-laws for my mother in law's birthday when somehow I told everyone that I love pulling weeds. I told them I would walk Buddy, see a weed in someone's yard, and REALLY want to pull it but then realized that's kind of strange and embarassing to be walking around with a weed in one hand, and Buddy's leash in another. Kathy, my sister in law, said "you should blog about it!", it meaning my love of weed pulling. I had thought of it before, because it is kind of strange and might make for an interesting post. I mean, if I blogged about other things I loved like "I love cheese" or "I love dessert" or "I love little furry animals" it wouldn't make an interesting post because, well, who doesn't? If you answered "I don't" then please, stop reading my blog. Actually, I take it back.

The first time I pulled weeds was a month or so after we bought our house. We didn't have yard work at the townhouse since HOA paid for it, and my dad did all the dirty work when I was little. So Rob's mom showed me some tips on gardening and I said "I like pulling weeds!" She said "Well, you haven't pulled too many in your life" I guess she meant it will get old at some point. My mother in law is 72 and she still does her yard work. That's a lot of weed pulling!

So anyway, I haven't pulled weeds in a month or so because we've had some rainy weather then I was under the weather for awhile. Yesterday Rob cleaned the pool and came in and said "I pulled a weed for you." I was a little irritated. He KNOWS I like to pull weeds. He said it was behind the retaining wall for the pool and I would have never gone back there. If he only knew the lengths I would go to pull a good weed.

Fast forward to today. I let Buddy out and noticed some weeds in the front of our house. Nothing huge but they were there. I came in, its 5:00 pm by the way, and tell Rob instead of starting the netflix movie, I'm going to pull some weeds for a bit. There were more weeds than normal since like I said I haven't pulled them in awhile but they weren't ginormous or anything. I started walking towards our garage when I noticed the biggest weed. Ever. I had to make a decision: pull or not to pull. It was technically in our neighbor's yard. I went for it!

So I went inside our house and said to Rob "Isn't this the biggest weed you have ever seen!? Look how thick it is!" Warning: the picture below just may be the ugliest picture I have ever taken. The things we do for our blogs...



Click on picture to see how thick it is. Go on. I'll wait.



So Rob said, "the girth is impressive, but you have to see how long mine is."



Wow, that is long!

In the end, we decided I won the "Girth Award". This is a side by side comparison of our weeds.



And Rob's won the "Longest Weed Award". Another side by side comparison.

Life's a Beach

Last weekend, Rob and I went down to his parent's beach house in Aptos because he had to attend a board meeting. The D'Amico family was able to come down for lunch and to spend some time on the beach.

As soon as Lexxa had her bathing suit and shades on, she let us know that she was ready to go to the beach by saying "I'm ready to go to the beach. I'm ready to go to the beach. I'm ready to go to the beach. I'm ready to go to the beach. I'm ready to go to the beach."



So while Rob and Brad went to the store to get stuff for lunch, we made our way down to the beach.







Once the boys came back, we went up to the house to have some lunch. Lexxa was soon ready to go back to the beach. This time she went wanted to go in the ocean.



It didn't take her long to realize the water was collllllld.



Buddy enjoying the salt air.



Rob and I



Jen and I



Thanks for coming down guys!