Moderate Home Makeover: Kacie Edition {part 1}

Another blog already? I know what you're thinking: "She has no life." You would be right in that. Today I spent a good part of the day figuring out new and exciting ways to organize the laundry room and the refrigerator. I need to start work now.

Anyways, I've been meaning to do this for a while now- our "before and after" house pictures. We've done a good bit of work on our little home, and I personally am rather fond of it. You may not be (if there's anyone actually reading), but just... act like you are, okay?

Laundry Room

Big Effort: Painting (duh), shelf removal/replacement

Kitchen

Big Effort: tearing off wallpaper (blah!), painting, sink replacement, countertop replacement, new backsplash (Special thanks to Dad for helping with [okay, mostly doing] the last three.)

(I think the puppy makes a nice addition :P)

Den

Big Effort: Painting (let me again state the obvious), partial wood floor replacement, built-in entertainment center extraction (a much bigger job that it sounds like)

(Cool, I caught myself in the mirror!)

Foyer

Big Effort: Wallpaper removal (a zillion hideous layers hidden underneath!), wall texturing, painting (Special thanks to Dad and Brent for doing the texturing, and both parents for painting while we were on our honeymoon).

Formal Living Room, now known as the Asian Room

Big effort: painting, having a ridiculous amount of nerdy Asian deco stuff

the two fish still alive from the wedding reception...

I plan on posting the other parts of the house later. They're finished too, of course, but I don't have pictures yet. I should go to bed now- tomorrow I have a busy day of doing nothing in particular.

summer sum-up

So the summer started out pretty busy. Ok I don't know how I got a hyperlink on that sentence and now I don't know how to take it off.

In May I graduated with a BM in Music Education and ESL endorsement (and sang The National Anthem and Alma Mater at the ceremony!)...

The next day was Mother's Day, and I apparently did not get the memo to wear green.

Two weeks later, I married the love of my life!

It was (in my opinion... not that I'm biased) a beautiful and unique ceremony, and short and sweet. I hate

those weddings that go on forever. I mean, the girls are just there to see the dress and the kiss, and the guys are just there to eat cake. I'll probably do a wedding post later. By the way, the pictures are by our amazing photographer friend Cathy of Sparks Photography.

We had a dream-honeymoon at a place way classier than us, thanks to my travel-agent Aunt Mary getting us a great deal. The Le Blanc Resort in Cancun.... ah.... awesome week.

We came back and started semi-normal married life, which included my new nephew's t-ball games! T-ball is WAY more entertaining than pro sports.

Michael had a business trip to Chicago for a week, so I went to Conway and got my hair chopped off. I will not go to a hair place here... nobody touches my hair with scissors except my Uncle Wyck at Wyck's Place in Conway.

Michael got back and we left on a family trip to Europe. Wow! What an experience. A very exciting two weeks, to say the least. We stayed in youth hostels and a castle and holiday inns and a baptist seminary and took trains and busses everywhere and walked miles and miles every day. Other than the one time where I thought we were going to get murdered by drunks while looking for a hotel in a sketchy city at 2:00 AM, we had some amazing times.

We came back and I wanted a puppy, and so there was Delta (who I already posted about). She was cute and fuzzy-wuzzy and has more than doubled in size since then. And both of her ears are sticking up now.

Things have been pretty slow since then. I spend most of my time... doing nothing of significance. Being a stay-at-home housewife is not as great as it sounds. I'm very unproductive. Good thing I JUST SECURED A JOB YESTERDAY! I will be teaching voice and working with choir students at a high school here and substitute teaching part-time. I'm ready.

But until then, I shall continue doing what I have done a lot of this summer...

Being nerdy & wearing my awesome new glasses, hanging out with this cute dude ^,

Cooking a lot and making up recipes, watching movies with Delta,

walking the poochie, and, of course, being lazy.

Oh and also I'm constantly trying out new and faster routes home and to places, but usually they end up getting me lost and taking longer.

Okay that's it!

Delta Dawg

I don't like dogs and I swore it would be at least two years before "let" Michael get a puppy. Well, Michael went to Chicago for a week for an exciting accounting conference. I got lonely. Therefore, I decided I needed a puppy. Michael encouraged me to wait until after Europe to make a decision, which just further convinced me because European dogs are so well-behaved! It's awesome. So it had to be a good dog breed and a good dog and make people stay away from me when I go jogging. German Shepherd it was. She's not AKC registered (because I didn't care) but she is full-blood and healthy.

Delta

She's currently growing into her bark, and uses it frequently on fire hydrants, blenders, the vacuum cleaner, her squeaky toys, and noises she may or may not hear outside. Her biggest fears include... bundled up bed sheets.

She loves to be by our feet, especially if we're cooking.

Also loves shoes. She just lays on them and doesn't chew, so it's fine with me.

Anyways, I love her and she's the best puppy ever, even if you think you have the best puppy ever. And yes, I don't really have a life right now, I admit it.

Finally Home

So we had a couple of normal-ish weeks at home, then it was off to Europe with Dad, Mom, Katie, and Daniel. What a trip! I felt like I needed a vacation afterwards to recover.

We started out in Switzerland...

And then we made a short stop in the 3rd smallest country in the world, Liechtenstein. That's pretty much the whole country right there. The monarch lives in the castle on the right.

We then hopped on a train to Salzburg, Austria...

Annnd then on to Vienna...

Prague was next, and actually way prettier than I expected. I think it's because the name makes me think of a frog.

Next was Germany- Leipzig and Wittenburg...

And I just got tired, so I'm going to bed. I'll finish this stuff later.