Running thru life... Clemson is a Star!!

A couple months ago I was thrumbing thru our photo album online
and came accross some fall pictures of Clemson. 
These were some artist shots my hubby took while playing around with his camera. 

I decided to send them into Nova Dog because I was bored and playing around on the computer on a rainy day.    

So I went to check this months addition to check the events and low and behold...
there is Clemson Puppy.

http://issuu.com/2hounds/docs/fall_2011?mode=window&backgroundColor=%23222222

Page 13!

Yes, I am proud!!!

Running thru life... Frustration done

I have been counting down to October  9-10 for almost 1 year now.  

Why you may ask?

TAX FREE WEEK ON ENERGY STAR APPLIANCES!!!

A year ago on this exact same weekend we purchased our dishwasher!

Which we love- it is so quiet and get our dishes so clean!!!
We went with an LG because my husband felt very strongly against Samsung for personal reasons and LG had good ratings.  My hubby normally had very little opinion about things I chose so since he had one- we went with it.
We have been totally happy with our dishwasher. 

That being said I have been waiting a year for this weekend because I have been frustrated with another household appliance that must go.... our fridge.

I even marked it on our calendar.

It is obvious that the people who lived in our house prior to us bought the cheapest fridge out there because it broke down right before the home inspection.
It did not even have an ice maker- thankfully my husband installed one!

However, the fridge doors can not even open all the way!

 Making it impossible to open the beer bin all the way.

Very stressfull I know.
No able to easily get to the beer-
What a crisis!

That being said I had my eyes set on the Stainless Steel LG Refridgerator.

Joe only request was that it have a water despendor and crushed ice. 
Again we went with LG because the reviews were good. 

Because of the way out kitchen is designed we need the french doors so you can actually open them all the way. 
Also my hubby and I were worried about how the stainless would match so we decided to go with the same brand as our dishwasher.  We actually know of people who had this problem. 

We walked in to Best Buy and were out 30 minutes later with our fridge ordered.

Not only did we not have to pay taxes,

but the fridge was on a major sale,

free delivery and installation,

18 months no interest. 

Sold..

I arrived Friday Morning.
The men moved our old one downstairs as I will be selling it on Craigslist and moved our new one it.

 I LOVE IT!!!
It matches our dishwash perfectly.
=0)
Our kitchen is now officially complete!

Running thru life.... Updating the Master....

With the long three day week for Joe and four day weekend for me I decided this would be a good weekend to work on our Master bathroom small remodel. 
You will remember it use to look like this.  

 We decided to have this done in phases.

In reflection- this was the perfect way to do this.

Wednesday night.

We cleaned everything out of the bathroom and took the large mirror down.

Total time- 20 minutes

We moved the mirror into the garage for now as we  are still trying to figure out how to get rid of it.
Any ideas??

Friday Day:

Our contractor came and installed the two lights that we picked out.

 I love the lights I picked!!!

Saturday:  Contractor came back to cover the holes, and place a coat of primer on. 

Saturday Afternoon after Apple Picking

Joe painted the wall

Total of 30 minutes of time

Sunday

Mirrors placed

This did involved another trip to Lowes because one of the mirrors we originally purchased had a small crack that you could not see until we completely unwrapped it.  

Total time:  1 1/2 hrs (this was with the Lowe's run included)

I am in love with it. 
I would like to find a taller flower arrangement to go in the middle
or find something to go on the wall in between the frames.  

I was contemplating adding another wall scone like one that I have over the tub and the toilet like pictures below.

But we will see.  

 Total time on this project for us was only 2-3 hours.

Thanks to having the help of a contractor.  

I love the look of the new bathroom. 

I am now officially done with projects for quite some time . 

Any ideas on what to put in the middle?

Running thru life... New Motivation for Running

I am always looking for ways to keep me entertained while I am running.

Listening to my ipod, watching movies, etc.

Many of you will be fasciated to know that Joe and I do not have cable tv....

Yeap believe it!

There are many reason for this but the number one is.... we don't watch it!

So that being said I have been searching online for shows to watch while I am running.

My hubby connected my really old computer up to the downstairs TV where my treadmill so basically anything online can now be viewed on my tv. 

So here are some of my current favorites

My Old Favorites:

Greys Anatomy

I truely love this show-  and yes you can run and cry at the same time!

Castle

My husband and I actually watched this overseas when we were on our honeymoon and became hooked! 

The theme is novel writer helping detective solve murders while fall in love with her!

LOVE IT!

Rachel Zoe Project

I heart Rachel Zoe in so many ways! I DIE!

 I wish I had her money so I could dress like she does. 

Not to mention I love her husband's take on things. 

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

Yes Yes I know..  go ahead and judge.

I love watching the Real Housewives because I love studying the characters- yes I am a psychology minor. 

It is my quilty pleasure and since my hubby HATES it- it is good running watching!

My New Favorites:

Revenge

This show is new and I am hooked after 3 epidsodes. 

 The plot is this girl Amanda is taking revenge on anyone who harmed her father. 

Each week she takes out a person- but it is done in clever fashion- you are only shown how she does it at the very end.  LOVE IT!!!

Pan Am

I am still giving this one a whirl. 

It was recommended to my by a friend who stated she became hooked so I thought I would try it out. 

 I have watched two episodes so far so we will see. 

Top Chef

To be honest I am ready for Top Chef Dessert to be over because that means it is Top Chef Time. 

I heart Top Chef Time. 

Let me tell you nothing is more motivating than running while watching them cook delicious food!!

Flipping Out

Yes I do love Jeff Lewis.  

He is crazy but he knows how to decorate and build,

plus I always love the drama that the show has to offer!

What are you favorites? 

Running thru life.... Dealing with Decals... Try again

Earlier this month I blogged about placing up a decal.  

I purchased the decal from a vendor on Etsy that had wonderful reviews.

In fact she had close to 1,000 good reviews with only 1 bad one.

So I decided that was a good thing.

I custom ordered the decal, and put it up two weeks later.

I loved it!!!

 

Then two days after I put it up-

I walked in the bathroom to find the decal falling off.

Seriously....

I attempted to put it up again....

No good. 

So I emailed the vendor with pictures.  

Two minutes later I had an email back from the vendor appologizing with the full refund being placed back into my account on PayPal. 

Talk about good customer service!

While I am totally bummed that the decal did not work, it is good to know that I am only out a little time on this and no money.  

Back to the drawling board for the guest bathroom.

Any ideas?

Running thru Life.... Apple Pies

After apple picking our house has been taken over with apples.  

I actually got to use my new basket I painted!!!

That being said Joe and I decided to put together some apple pies.  

We pulled up Martha Stewart's recipe on my Ipad and headed to Wegmans to pick up a couple things.  

Then we went to work on creating our pies.

Luckily, Joe's mother had given us  an apple peeler/corer!

Made our process so much more efficient!!!

 We ended up making 4 pies.

3 we froze for the holidays. 

My thought was it would be nice to bring a pie over to certain people's house for the holidays.

1 we cooked!

Happy Apple Pie Time!!

Running thru life...Apple Picking

This weekend Joe and I went with our friends (dogs in tow) on an Apple Picking Adventure.

I have wanted to go apple picking for sometime but with Joe always studying during the fall it never happens.  This weekend Joe had a three day weekend which meant he could finish his homework and still have time to go do stuff.  

So I set out with a mission to find a place that met some certain criteria for apple picking

1) Relatively close-  some places are 3 + hours away.  I wanted it with 1 hr of our house.

2) Dog Friendly- Clemson and Gobi must come with us

3) Apples-  I know this seems silly but some places are already sold out of all their apples.

4) Pumpkins-  Why not kill two birds with one stone.

After a couple emails between myself and our friends- we decided on:

Hartland Orchards

3064 Hartland Lane
Markham, Virginia 22643

It is located about 45 minutes away from our house.  Literally 1 mile off of exit 18 on Route 66.

It is dog friendly with multiple types of apples, and a pumpkin patch- SOLD!

Of note- they only accept cash and checks.  

So we headed out with dogs in tow Saturday afternoon.  

After about 45 minutes in the car we were there. 

Then for the next two hours we picked apples, let the dogs run, and picked out pumpkins. 

It was definitely an experience.  
It was very very crowded- probably because the weather was beautiful!

We ended up picking Fuji, Yellow Delicious, and Granny Smith apples.  

It was a team effort.  

The boys picked while the girls were in charge of quality control and the dogs.  

We headed home with each a big bag of apples and pumpkins.  

It is an outing that is family friendly and also economically.  

Between the two couples we spent a total of 25$ on apples.  

Both us and the dogs had a blast.

I can attest to this by the fact that Clemson let us sleep till 9 am on Sunday Morning.