Ahhhhhhh carpet

Finally after 4 weeks of waiting and storing all of our furniture in the garage...WE HAVE NEW CARPET!!!!!! It was installed this morning and I couldn't be more thrilled and relieved.

On Saturday we prepped for the carpet, finishing painting and replacing baseboards from the closet leak, etc. Sunday we set off 8 "bug bombs" in order to get rid of my little carpet beetle friends and I began washing ALL of our clothing and bedding, yes all of it. Currently I have washed, dried and folded 10 full loads. I am estimating about 10-15 more before I am completely done. By the way we had to leave the house with both animals for an entire FOUR hours after the "bombs", driving around with a cat and dog for 4 hours is interesting to say the least ;) Tonight we will start moving the furniture back in, starting with our bedroom of course. I am so happy to finally have our room set up so that I can start decorating.

Somehow this weekend we also managed to have a night out with our good friend Liz... here are some photos of our fabulous new carpet, our 4 hour excursion with the fur babies and our night out in Dallas.

Master Bedroom

Master closet...notice the pretty new wooden rods, yeah we made those ;)

Guest room

Oscar and Bauer sleeping on my lap in the car...I swear the cat is not aware that he is indeed a cat.

Yep, four hours of this

Ridiculous...I'm sure the drive thru people thought we were nuts

The novelty wore of quick ;)

Me and Liz at the Candleroom

Apparently I make this face when I take photos...thanks guys

Hey my arms are short, and there was wine involved

The rock?

Bad week house update

Finally some good news...

The leak ended up being pretty easy to fix. The incredibly smart people who previously owned my house put a fancy new whirlpool bath tub in the guest bathroom and "forgot" to caulk around the fixtures. Meaning that every time someone showers or bathes a small amount of water drips behind the tub and into my master bedroom closet. Awesome. Luckily it was a quick fix and it was even covered on our home warranty! If you don't have a home warranty...I suggest you get one.

My creepy crawly little insect friends are indeed NOT termites. We had two (yes 2) pest companies come out to take a look and both said with all certainty that we do not have termites. The little bugs are most likely carpet beetle larvae, which is just as disgusting as it sounds. Carpet beetles eat carpet (duh) but also pet hair, clothing or any sort of organic fiber. I completely blame the previous owners (shocker) because everything I read about carpet beetles tells me that they live in places that aren't cleaned or vacuumed much and homes that have pets, they had 2 dogs and a cat. From what I can tell they NEVER cleaned or vacuumed, you should see the amount of pet hair we vacuumed and steamed up when we moved in. Still, I am more than trilled that they are not termites as termites are expensive to remove and can do a lot of damage. However, carpet beetles are a pain in my you know what to get rid of. We have to wash or dry clean ALL of our clothes and bedding, including things in drawers and other closets in the house. We also have to remove the old carpet (gladly) and set off bug "bombs" in every room of the house, which means that I have to find somewhere for myself, my husband, our cat and our dog to go for FOUR HOURS this weekend...anyone up for 4 house guests?

All in all this is great news. Way better than how I thought my little closet discovery was going to turn out, and a lot cheaper. Finally we will have our new carpet put in and our furniture returned. Thank god. Unfortunately Lady Gaga has taken over my husbands life for the next 3 days (he works at the arena in Dallas and coordinates concerts etc) so we will have to wait until next week for the carpet. If I have learned anything at all these past few months it's patience, so I will wait, and I'm ok with that ;)

To those of you who read and comment or do so on facebook or via real life: Thank you for all the kind words and support last week. Things were rough and you all cheered me up :) xoxoxox

My new do

Those of you who know me know that I have NEVER had short hair, well not since birth anyway. I mostly keep it long because it is super curly and I never dug the "Felicity, post hair cut" look, Keri Russell has made me deathly afraid of a short haircut. However after growing my hair ridiculously long for my wedding I became fed up with the weight and heat and bulk of my long curly hair...so I decided to cut it. I have been talking about "the cut" since before the wedding but I don't think anyone actually believed I would really go through with it. Well I did :) I waited a few extra months to make sure that I had enough for locks of love, and of course waited until I was able to travel to Houston (I will never again let anyone cut my hair except my good friend and stylist Suleiman). Suli ended up cutting off a 12 inch pony tail for locks of love and then about 2 more inches to style my hair, so for those of you counting that makes FOURTEEN INCHES!!! Ok enough talk...

First a few recent pics of my long long hair:

Now for the haircut pictures:

This is at my parents right before going to the salon...please excuse the no makeup tired look

Waiting for Suleiman...kinda nervous at this point

This is the 12 inch pony tail cut...EEEKKK

Suli working his magic!

Love the back!

My new cut, and my locks of love donation

My mom really wanted to capture Matt's reaction...well done Mom ;)

Later that night, all dressed up b/c we had a wedding to attend.

The final product, makeup and all.

No good very bad WEEK

As if finding a disgusting mess under my carpets wasn't enough drama for one week here is the list of awful things that have followed:

1. Car broken into Sunday night, GPS stolen.
2. Last night found water leak in master bedroom closet, the floor, wall, baseboards carpet, all soaked.
3. Termites found enjoying the soaking wet wood from said water leak.
4. Having to delay the carpet install in order to fix leak and termite infestation first.
5. Speeding ticket received today while rushing home to meet the Termite Inspector.

I know that there are a lot worse things in the world but I still cannot help feeling a little depressed about it all. Don't get me wrong I still love my house and life is pretty darn good overall but I'm allowed to have a pity party every now and again aren't I? I mean we have been putting so much hard work into fixing up our house not to mention money and just when it feels like we are finally making some progress we get a big fat slap in the face (in the form of water and tiny wood eating insects). The stolen GPS and speeding ticket just add to the ridiculousness that is my life right now. I can only manage to laugh at those two right now. I think if I don't laugh I will cry...not that I haven't already done so.


Please say a little prayer for us today if you don't mind. I am really hoping this latest fiasco doesn't end up costing us a fortune.


I will spare you the pictures of our nasty water logged closet with insect residents. Instead I will leave you all with a picture of baby cheeks that is sure to put a smile on any one's face...maybe even mine :)

Just in case

This post is just in case any of you out there consider keeping the carpet that was there when you moved in, even if it "looks pretty good"....


I swear from the surface our beige colored frieze carpet looks perfectly fine, it's even a pretty popular design and neutral so goes with most decor. I considered saving the money and not replacing it, I mean we only have it in the 3 bedrooms anyway and 2 of them are hardly used. Then on a whim we decided (OK Matt decided) to pull up the corner in just one room to have a look...WE WERE HORRIFIED! Dirt, dust, and stains galore, even a cat hairball! So gross! "Just pulling up one corner" turned into rapidly ripping the carpet and pad out of all 3 bedrooms (while gagging) and doing a massive bleach clean of the concrete underneath. Needless to say, the new carpet is being installed on Friday.

Keep in mind when you look at the photos that we STEAM CLEANED all the carpets before we moved in...they were just THAT dirty. ew.

View at your own risk:

Umm yeah...that's a hairball

I swear they NEVER vacuumed

There are just no words...

Who needs to potty train your dog? Just let em go on the floor

The entry way to my bedroom. nice.

Just in case you weren't grossed out enough...

Annnnnd, I just threw up in my mouth a little

Ok the last few are just to further prove my point ;)

AWESOME.

Home Sweet Home

As I'm sure most of you have heard me say by now I am indeed NOT a Texan. I love living in Texas, Houston has been my home for the past 10 years and Dallas will happily be my home for at least the next 10...however a huge chunk of my heart still belongs on the East Coast. I am a Philly girl through and through! I try to make it back at least every other year, but my last visit was way back in July 2007 for my brother's wedding. Matt and I had only been dating for about 6 months and he was coaching swim team that summer so he wasn't able to join me. Ever since, I have been DYING to take Matt to my home town. We finally got the chance to go in June, and as a bonus my whole family met us there!

The first day my big brother picked us up from the airport and we got to enjoy visiting with him and his wife Bryn for the day. The next day they had to work so Matt and I went downtown to see the sights and all the amazing history that Philadelphia has to offer. We took the next day to see some old friends (most importantly my second mom Ms Terry and her husband Joe) and the two smaller towns that I grew up in. The trip down memory lane was just want I needed <3 class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Rogar. Rogar worked with my father during all 18 of his years at Sunoco, and continued to work there for another 20 years after my father came to Texas. 40 years at a company is unheard of these days! I really admire Rogar's commitment, work ethic and loyalty. I also value his friendship to my father and our family. When he attended my wedding in March I couldn't have been more touched that he had made the trip all the way to Texas to be a part of our special day. We defiantly love Uncle Rogar! (yes I know it is normally RogEr but he spells it a little different)


Here are some pictures from our trip:

Matt wore his Cowboys jersey off the plane, just to get a rise out of my brother! hehehe

Independence Hall

The Liberty Bell

Just as I remember it on field trips as a child



Betsy Ross' house



So cool

Original cobblestone....very cool

Cobble stone

We thought it was sooo funny that the fire house put Ben Franklin in a fire hat ;)

This statue is made out of keys

Matt :)

Matt's first authentic Philly soft pretzel

Penn's landing...yes where William Penn actually "landed" on the Delaware River

Benjamin Franklin's grave


The most creepy cemetery ever...graves date back to the 1700's

You can't go to Philly and not visit the Rocky statue!

"Yo Adrian!"

Yes Matt ran up the steps

No I did not run up the steps lol

The beautiful art museum

Awesome view of the city from the art museum

The infamous Geno's

Me eating Geno's cheese steak...part of our Mixon taste test

The infamous Pat's

Matt trying Pat's cheese steak....Geno's won the taste test btw

I love the Italian community in Philly....especially the food!

Matt and the Philadelphia Phanatic!

Me and the Phantic that I loved soooo much as a kid!

The awesome Reading Terminal Market

My favourite bakery ever! Love italian baked goods!

The best cannoli you will EVER have!

Our family is finally complete with the addition of Matt <3

Tim & Bryn...Matt & Katie...Daddy and Mom...Eric and Laura

Bryn said the funniest thing...clearly

My big brother Timmy and my sister in law Bryn

My big sister Lo and my brother in law Eric


The newlyweds <3


Me and my beautiful sister (best sister in the world btw!)


Soooo, funny story...this is Rogar's son and daughter in law, they were an interesting couple, super sweet (and wasted) and wanted to be a part of our family photo, they cracked us up!

Our awesome family...still laughing from the previous photo hehehe

On the way to the airport to head home, after a much needed trip to my favourite store...WAWA!

Matt and I had a fantastic time. He has never been to the east coast so it was a fun culture shock for this southern boy. He loved it so much that we kept questioning how he could be from Texas? He fit right in and I defiantly understand now why we get along so well and how he can put up with some of my crazy "yankee" ways. Ha! My favourite part was being able to show Matt where I grew up, my childhood homes and all the places that I love and hold so dear. I think his favourite part was the food...you just can't get good Italian food in the South, it's kind of like Mexican food in Texas ;)