Weekend Shenanigans

I realize for most people, Friday is a day of celebration because the weekend is about to begin. When you're a minister, Sundays are a day of work and not for rest, so our weekend starts Thursday night.

It started off with some problem solving for Mom. Griff found his pumpkin shirt last week and wore it Tuesday to school, and then had a fit when he couldn't also wear it Wednesday and Thursday. I'm afraid this could become a weekly battle, so we headed out early this morning to Walmart to look for new pumpkin shirts. Sadly ours didn't have any, but did at least have several plain orange shirts so we can then have a painting party to solve our pumpkin shirt problems. 

I've got to be honest: I was amazed at how good of a painter he was, both left and right handed! I found stencils for faces online, traced them on freezer paper, then cut out the faces and ironed them down. (placing another sheet of freezer paper wax side up inside of the shirt helps to seal it off so the paint won't bleed.) We now have five pumpkin shirts ready to go for October. Let's hope it's enough!

After a picnic lunch out of our lunch box and a long nap, we were at it again to make Halloween cupcakes.  It's amazing that Griff can actually help with things now... there are some perks to him growing up!  

Griff demonstrating proper safety precautions for sprinkle application and a "less is more" approach. 

He was very proud of his finished product and we all enjoyed his hard work! Funny enough, this morning about 11:30 Cody asked, "What did we used to do on weekends before we had a kid?" I answered, "Sleep in till 10:45, dash to Whataburger before 11 to get breakfast, go home to nap,  go out again to eat dinner, wander the mall then catch a movie. Weren't those the days? Now look at what all we've done and it's only 11:30."  Good thing we love this kid! :) 

Take That Weekend.

Every Friday morning, I wake up so excited for the day. I spend my office hours day dreaming about all of the wonderful things I'm going to be able to accomplish starting at 5 p.m.

Every Friday at 5, I wonder how in the world I ever thought I would be able to accomplish all of my plans. So I end up tossing my plans out the window and laying down for a nap.

This past Friday was no exception to my pattern. I even took a much longer nap that normal. We had leftovers for dinner and settled into the couch for an evening of DVR catch up. After one show though, something came over me and I began to tackle one of the biggest projects that has been hanging over my head on my "before Griffin comes to-do list:"

organizing my craft room.

There are no before pictures because I am too prideful of a person. It was rough though.  As we've been cleaning out other rooms in the house, stuff that we didn't really know where to go just ended up on the floor of my craft room, leaving me unable to even get in there, much less actually use the space.

After six hours on Friday and Saturday morning, I am proud that I finally have a useable space again! {just in time for a few projects before Griffin comes!}  I should have taken pictures with my nice camera before it got dark, but these will have to work. I still plan on having Cody build me a shelf along one wall and getting a few more baskets to better organize some items, but I at least have the majority of the work done.



One of the biggest differences is probably in my fabric storage. I can't remember where I first saw the idea (it was actually before the days of pinterest!) , but I  {or cody} cut cardboard boxes down to the similar size and created my own bolts of fabric. Previously I just had it folded on the shelf, which made it hard to see and took up more space than it should have.  If you have a lot of fabric and need a better way to store it, you should definitely look into making your own bolts!

I even surprised myself by carrying over my productivity to Sunday. We went to church, had lunch with our Sunday school class, grabbed a quick nap, then headed to the theatre to catch an afternoon showing of The Dark Knight Rises. It was almost 7 by the time we made it home and, like usual, I really just wanted to "rest" for the evening. {rest sounds so much better than be lazy!}  I resisted my laziness urge and ended up organizing two hot spots in our bedroom: my nightstand, which was covered with a random hodge podge of books, magazines and stuff, and this basket where my extra makeup piles up.  

Knocking these items off of my to-do list have lifted a huge weight off of my shoulders! The list certainly isn't finished yet, but it's definitely a major step in the right direction. And just to keep it real and show you what life is really like around these parts, today I realized that I was a little past due on vacuuming our carpet when the maxi skirt I was wearing kept picking up stickers off of our carpet!  There's not much I can do but laugh at my own housekeeping skills... and maybe say that vacuuming is now Cody's job!

Extra Sudsy.

oh my.

what a weekend!

Cody left on Thursday evening to go visit his parents and brother. His absence seemed to make me realize that we have roughly 13 weeks until our little man should arrive and a to-do list that is still a mile long. Coupled with the fact that we were out of town last weekend so I did zero cleaning or laundry, I thought it was best that I did something productive around the house while he was gone.

That's how I ended up scrubbing my kitchen sink on a Friday night. Just a tip, maybe it's best to read the Borax box before just dumping it in.

Yeah. The box suggests about 1/2 C max to clean sinks and I now know why. That stuff does not dissolve easily!

Saturday was spent working on a t-shirt blanket for a friend while I received the blessing of a freshly mowed lawn. Some of our friends took pity on this pregnant lady by her lonesome and came over and did lawn work for us. It looks fantastic and I almost cried as I listened to them mow.

Later that day I decided that our showers could use a deep cleaning and I remembered something that I had pinned:

Source: lifecraftsandwhatever.blogspot.com via Lacy on Pinterest

After running to Walmart to get a spray bottle and more vinegar, I decided to give it a try. 2 things:

-  It  smells VERY STRONG! I didn't think it would hurt me since it was really just vinegar stinkin' up the bathroom, but be prepared! I had to leave the room a few times to get a fresh breath of air.

- It will suds up like no one's business! I actually did a 1: 4 ratio of soap to vinegar. I started scrubbing down Cody's shower and just seemed to create more bubbles, so I gave up and decided he could scrub it once he got home and was actually going to shower.  I cleaned mine as I showered as suggested by the blog and wish I would have brought in a pitcher to pour clean water down the walls. The mixture works, but it will take a little work to get rid of all of the soap!

Cody made it home safe last night. We had a nice morning at church, followed by a great afternoon nap for me and finished up with more work around the house. It may take every last minute for us to get our projects done before d- day, but we're going to give it our best shot!

Now I am relaxing in front of Cody's latest invention. My own portable AC unit!

We already had the broken cooler and couldn't really use it for anything. cody put in frozen water jugs, cut a hole in the top of the lid for a fan and it blows ice cold air on me! Looks like this pregnant lady might make it through the heat of summer after all!

{silly boy keeps walking by and placing his hand in front of the hole to feel the cold air and admire his handwork!}

And that was our very busy weekend.  Here's hoping the week is a little more relaxing!

Too Fast.

Sigh, why must the weekend always fly by so quickly?


Cody was gone for work on Friday and most of Saturday. I lived up the single life by finally unpacking from our spring break trip, cleaning house and catching up on mounds and mounds of laundry. I know. Adulthood is so exciting.

We did try and have a Sunday Funday date night to go see The Hunger Games, but apparently the whole city of Abilene had the same idea and the only show that was available tonight was a 9:30 showing. Um, as much as I want to see it, that is way too late for this lady!


So people, let me live vicariously through you. Have you seen the movie yet? Does is live up to all of they hype? Most importantly, does it do the book justice? Please tell me what I missed out on this weekend!

And That's A Wrap.

Welp. That about sums our weekend up pretty well.

I love a weekend that is just productive enough so you feel good about yourself when you go back to work, but not so overly done that you don't feel like you relaxed any over the weekend. I did laundry, grocery shopped {side note: if you go on Sunday evening, Walmart will be out of eggs. It will be a desperate search for the one uncracked case.} cleaned the kitchen, and enjoyed plenty of down time with the hubs. I think I'm ready for another work week. {And the snow day would just be the icing on the cake!}


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On a much more serious note... are y'all watching the Bachelor? :) I deleted it from our DVR a couple of seasons ago and honestly haven't missed it. {I am not being high and mighty people, I am not above it, I just have other show's I'd rather watch} But after Monday night, I saw some pretty funny tweets that intrigued me. Like, it seems as if they really pulled out all of the stops finding the crazies for this season. So today when I saw that it was being replayed, I recorded it and might be jumping back on the Bachelor train.

Do you watch the Bachelor? Who is your favorite lady this season? And do you like her because she's normal, or because she's "special?"


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Stay tuned for posts about organization, pinning and the depths of my closet. I'm hoping you will have some good tips for me! Have a great week!

P-Winning, P-Losing & Weekend Wrap Up.

Here's a weekend recap:

Saturday morning Sarah and I headed out for coffee, then to a craft fair to support friends and finally finished up at Mine By Design {paint your own pottery.} We had a blast last time we went and they gave us a heads up that they would have a Seize the Deal {like Groupon if you're not familiar} soon. We ended up snagging at deal for $15 for $30 of pottery and went this Saturday to create a Christmas piece.

Here's what I painted:

 It looks super dull now, but will be bright and bold after it's fired. I can't wait to pick it up!

After grabbing lunch, I then headed off to go pick up Julia, one of Cody's co-worker's 10 yr old daughter. We were headed out to go shopping for craft supplies. {more to come on this later!} I have to admit, I was a little nervous. I couldn't tell you the last time I was around a girl her age and I was wracking my brain to pre-think of things to talk about.  Apparently I had nothing to worry about. She never stopped talking the whole time and 10 year old girls are now my favorite! In case you care, she doesn't like to shop at Justice anymore because it's childish {their logo has a monkey, come on!} duck tape is all the rage and there are lots of tutorials on youtube, and Hobby Lobby is one of her favorite places to shop.  It was such a blast and I can't wait to hang out with her again!

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Here's some projects I made recently based off of Pin-spirations:



I took an old picture frame {a 10x10}, strung wire across the opening, put cute paper on a canvas that would fit in the hole and created a new place to hang earrings!  I then took the door hanger {a Souther Living item that was actually a gift for Cody from my parents} and hung it next to it to keep necklaces that I wear more often. I love the way this turned out, so it's definitely a win!




My next winning project was an organization station. I took another picture frame {16x20} and laid out different pieces of scrap book paper to cover the opening.  There are spots for our weekly meal plan, important things to remember, and daily/weekly chores to get done.  You can use dry-erase markers to make notes and it will easily wipe off. Here's hoping this brings a little more organization around our house!

And finally, a losing pinterest project:



I tried to make a combination of a metal cookie sheet and the magnet make up holder, but it turned out to be a slight fail. I debated buying the circle magnets, but went with the roll because it was cheaper and you got more. {Obviously I have a lot of makeup.}  The circles are probably stronger and would hold my makeup up, but the stuff I have is just a little weak. It was like mod podging the cute paper on the pan took away the magnet powers. I haven't decided if I will leave it like this or use the pan as a memo board instead. If you saw a this project on pinterest, make sure you buy strong enough magnets!


So that's a sneak peek of what we did this weekend, what did you accomplish?

Crockpot Week - Short Ribs.

Happy weekend yall! How has your Saturday been? Ours has been a nice mixture of relaxation and productivity. Kota woke up us at 8 this morning and despite my efforts to go back to bed, we jumped up and at 'em and laced up our running shoes. I set off for a lovely {ha!} 3 mile run and Cody the stud conquered SEVEN miles. He's planning on running a half marathon in November and is doing unbelievable with the training.

Despite my lack of desire to be running this morning, I had to admit it was so nice to be back outside and enjoying the sun without dying from heat. We're supposed to have high's in the 80's for a few days this week... we cannot be more thankful for a small break from the heat!

 After cleaning up, we ran to the mall to visit a few stores. Dillards was having a fantastic sale and Cody caught dress pants, a  matching vest and a fedora! He is in style heaven. Out little mall may not have the most appealing stores, but we sure do have fun people watching when we go! It is truly amazing what people will wear and do in public!

 We then had a nice long nap, I ran to Walmart to get groceries and then we came home for a nice dinner. Did y'all see the Crockpot Girls on Facebook this week? They became an overnight hit this week. Coupled with Kelly's Korner Blog Crockpotalooza, I figured it was time to put my crockpot to serious use!

So this week at the Neinast household, we're having crockpot week! I made a dish last week that I will post the recipe for soon, but today I made Beef Short Ribs for the first time. I was SUPER nervous about making these. They've actually been in our freezer for a while. I believe my parents gave us them a while back and I've been too scared to try them out! I googled and pinterested, but I couldn't really find a good recipe to use with a crockpot, so I kinda went with a mix of a couple.

Take one onion, sliced in large rings and put these on the bottom of your crock pot. Place your short ribs on top and season to your preference. I used garlic, my mom's season salt and maplewood. I went pretty liberal with the seasoning and feel like I could have gone even heavier. I then poured about a cup or so of honey barbeque sauce over the whole thing and let it cook on low for about 7 hours.

 
 These ended up so much better than I ever dreamed! Cody, of course, thought they were fantastic. I served them with simple mashed potatoes and garlic bread. If I wasn't going simple, I would have added salad too.  I will definitely keep my eyes open for short ribs on sale in the future!

Stay tuned for more great recipes this week!

 

Saturday Catch Up

How's your weekend going so far? We've had a rather productive and enjoyable day. We woke up early to hit a couple of garage sales. One of my coworker's shared the coolest website with me me this week : Yard Sale Treasure Map. Basically, it shows a map of your town and pulls garage sale listings from Craigslist. It will then map out an optimized route for you and show you the best way to hit all of those up! Pretty neat huh?

It did help us to quickly hit a lot of stops. Unfortunately, the main sales we were excited about are actually for next week, the 27th! Who puts a garage sale ad up an entire week early?!?! We were a little miffed at that but still managed to find a few treasures.

{home after an early morning. we did take a nap at 10 am!}

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While we were out shopping, I reminded Cody that it's tax free weekend. He mentioned that Old Navy was having a sale on jeans, so I told him we could stop by it he needed a new pair. He casually replied, "Eh, I'm sure it wouldn't hurt for us to stop by an look around." I quickly corrected him: "You don't just casually go shopping on tax- free weekend. You have to be ready for battle. Decide now if that 8.25% is worth it to you!"

Thankfully we didn't go to Old Navy. I did have to brave Wal-mart for groceries, but stayed away from the clothing and school supplies section. I'm not sure how y'all do your shopping, but I like to make a list and write everything down in by aisle order, so that I'm not wasting my time walking back and forth across the store to pick stuff up. Well, I have no idea what our Walmart is doing right now, but every time I go in there, they've changed the aisles up! It is really wrecking havoc and my list making skills and I'm hoping they settle in soon!

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My mom would be so proud of me.


I spent my afternoon organizing the pantry!


Here's a before:
{sorry it's blurry. and it doesn't do it justice to how messy it was.}



It looks much better now:





Plus I added some things like this to help me keep track of canned goods:



Sigh. It's the little things that make you happy!

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We're relaxing now, trying to stay cool and enjoy a little bit of down time before we head to a swim party tonight. To top it off, we just sold a desk on Craigslist and now have a little fun money! Woo Hoo!


Hope you have a great weekend!

Sigh.

did this week seem long or was it just me?


either way, i'm so glad friday is finally here. here's the plan for this weekend:

work on the garden
paint for this dream {blog post coming soon}
sand kitchen and paint back splash
DEEP clean for company {this is the one that scares me. our house isn't too bad for us, but company is a whole 'nother story!}
celebration dinner {blog post to follow!}

so that's a snapshot of what's to come... what do you have planned for this weekend?

Tired But Happy.

Whew.

I am tired.

We're suffering from post-weekend guests depression around here.

Seriously. I can't even find where Kota has collapsed. He might be crying in the corner.

Cody surprised me and invited my parents to come stay with us ad celebrate my Happy Heart Day!

{I know... aww!}

While he was being super sweet, he may have had some hidden {selfish} motives behind his offer. Because my parents... they are some super great DIYers. They've seen their share of projects and {even better} are willing to help teach us.

We're spent the last three days knee deep in some big projects and I CANNOT wait to share them with you! {However} they're not quite finished yet so it's going to be a little while before I can showcase them on the blog. Let me just say... we made some {AMAZING} changes in our house for around $125. Seriously. You won't believe it!

So for now, we're moping around the house missing our company, bandaging our sore fingers, and dreaming about the finished project!

Hope you had just as great of a weekend!

{psst.... last chance to enter the giveaways! Click over to the blog to get your entries in!}

A New Meal - No Deal

I occasionally stop by our town's media website to see reviews on new restaurants in town. Yesterday I was hoping I would see an announcement for our new yogurt shop, yet instead found rave reviews for a new hamburger place in town, called Heff's Burgers. I mentioned it to Cody and we both thought it would be fun to try out.

Imagine our surprise when we drove by and there was a looooong line going outside the door. We were starving and decided to forgo it and try it again later on {meaning Friday night.} Once again, when we showed up, there was a long line in the restaurant and several people waiting outside. Everything I read about it had rave reviews about how great their burgers were and we kept overhearing everyone in the restaurant talking about how good they tasted.

We got in line at 6:35. I didn't look at the clock, but I imagine we ordered around 6:55 and our hamburgers were delivered to our table by 7:25. Yeah. I cut my workout short tonight because I was shakey from being hungry. {I know, I went to the gym on a Friday night. What up with that?! And even more surprising.. it was really busy! Apparently I'm the only one who has the mentality that you don't work out on Fridays!} That was at 5:50. There's a lot of time between 5:50 and 7:25. Basically what I'm saying is that we were starving. And we all know your judgment of food can be a little off when you're starving.

So imagine our surprise when Heff's Burgers were only so so. Everyone raved about the handmade patties and how they use their own spices, but my burger definitely needed just a touch of salt to give it some pizazz. The fries were pretty good, but again needed just a touch of salt to make them something special. Needless to say, Cody and I were super disappointed that we waited for such a long time when we would have gotten a better burger at Chili's.





Learn from our mistakes. Next time you're starving and ready for a nice meal out, don't trust the long line coming out of the store!

Weekend Recap

Do you want to know the best way to start your weekend off? Being forced to clean your house on Wednesday night for company so you don't have to clean it over the weekend! Seriously. The greatest feeling ever!

We've had a very wonderful day that was just the right touch of relaxation and and productivity. Cody's already back in the swing of spending time working on homework but he was able to take a short break so we could take advantage of the beautiful weather and entertain Dakota.

We decided to try out Abilene's new dog park.

I was a little worried about how Kota would behave at the park. Over the holiday break, he finally learned how to play and interact with my parent's dog, yet he thinks that you have to bark loud and frequently to show how much you're enjoying playing. So you can imagine why I was afraid we were going to be "that family" at the dog park who couldn't get their dog to stop barking.

It was the exact opposite of what I expected. Kota was terrified of most of the dogs, specifically this one:

Yeah. The uber tiny dog that weighs less that 5 lbs.

In his defense, that dog was super hyper and was all over the place. It was really funny to watch Kota run in fear any time the tiny dog would come near.

Kota spent most of his time standing near us observing what was going on.

It was out of control windy and I think eventually he will warm up to the other dogs.

He did reach out a little to others, you know, in true dog fashion:

But hopefully next time, he'll spend more time playing with the other dogs and not doing this every three seconds:

What A Day!

Warning: just recapping about today is going to make me tired again.

Remember a while back when I asked for your opinions about a race?And then I decided to do it? Our Saturday started off bright and early with the HSU Turkey Day 5k. We were up by 7 and out of the house by 7:20. I talked to several people that were also running the race and everyone was very reassuring that there would be all types of runners and running levels there. However, when we checked in today, I was just about ready to walk back to the car and sit there during the race because EVERYONE looked super fit. Seriously, there wasn't one person there who didn't look very fit or like a serious runner. I finally heard that a few people were there just to walk and talked with another girl who said she would be slow, so I felt a little bit of relief that I wouldn't be completely put to shame by my slow speed.

Once it got time for the race to start, I started out at the back of the pack. I mean, who wants to get passed by a bunch of people all at one time? What a bummer that would be! I worked out a schedule last week to do a pattern of 7 minutes of running/two minutes walking to make sure I wouldn't get burned out during the run. My pattern worked well, but the course was a little boring. It was a lot of going down a street and then turning around. About my third time running, I passed the girl I talked to at the beginning of the race. I then made it to my 2 minute walking period and she caught up with me and said she wanted to run with me. I finished walking and told her I was going to start running again, so she started too. I am not at all used to running with someone and it was awkward to try to find a pace for both of us together. I really wish I wouldn't have stuck with her, because it kinda messed with my head to try to run with her. Cody gave and found me with about 1/2 mile left and cheered me on to the end. With about two tenths of a mile left, I could see a girl coming up in my peripheral vision who had been walking behind me most of the race. I have to admit that before I saw her, I didn't really want to push all that hard to the finish, but once I saw her, I definitely WAS NOT going to let her pass me!

I finished under the time goal I was aiming for, running just over a 12 minute mile. The funny thing is that the last 5k I ran {when I had more actively been training for}, I only ran it about 3 minutes faster than I ran this one. It was actually encouraging once I got out on the course because a lot of the "super fit" people I was intimidated by before the race were only about a quarter of a mile in front of me. I know. I got worked up for nothing. Finishing the race was a good feeling and once it's done, people are just congratulating each other for participating. It was a good lesson and reminder to not worry about others and to get out and participate for myself.

So... my shirt. Last week ended up being much busier than I expected and I didn't have time to make one. In my mind, I had a shirt I already owned that would be perfect so I planned on using it. However, when Cody and I were getting our clothes out for the race, we both ended up pulling out the same shirt in different colors. I wasn't sure that I could do the matchy-matchy, so I used a different shirt, which ended up being much better.

Presenting... the race day outfit! {Post race:)}

Here's Cody in the original shirt I planned to wear {mine's pink though}:
The Cleveland Ronald McDonald House Shirt
{you can see that the words on the front make a heart, which is why I wanted to wear it. I think Cody just likes the shirt!}

And here was my back up {and better choice!} shirt:

I just knew it was right.

And this is real life people: Us trying to take a picture and Kota barking in the background!

After the run we quickly came home to shower and then headed to our Sunday School Social. We all met at Love and Care Ministries, which is obviously a ministry here in town. They help provide food and clothing for families in need. Every year Abilene has an event called Mission Thanksgiving, where people can bring food and clothes to donate. Mission Thanksgiving was yesterday and we went today to help unload the items. While we were there, we helped unload 2 semi's full of clothing. It was much harder work than you would expect, and Cody and I both are already sore in our arms and backs from all of the lifting and passing we did. They did say that all of the clothing donations they receive at Mission Thanksgiving will last all year long. It was a neat experience to be able to go help out a ministry. Afterward our class got together for lunch and then Cody and I came home and crashed. It was the best 2 hour nap ever for our exhausted bodies.

As far as the rest of the day went, I got groceries, spent a good deal of time crafting, and was finally able to go and pick up my wedding ring! I am proud to report that Miss Flirty Pants has lost some of her flirt and I think it might have something to do with the shiny ring she now has on her left hand ring finger. Hey, whatever keeps her away from my man! :)

And that was our Saturday! I am tired now and tomorrow will be another full day. Hope you're having a great weekend! Only 2 work days this week! Woo Hoo!!