Best Husband EVER!

I am pleased to announce that this weekend, I quite possibly had the best husband EVER. Now I want to back this up with a little history. I have recently gotten really into scrapbooking as my hobby, I am currently working on some candids people got of our wedding and am going to start working on our honeymoon soon. I have also been going to our friend MaryJo's for workshops because she recently became a Memory Works consultant. She has workshops once a month and I love them, she is soooo good at scrapbooking and I learn a lot, plus it's fun to be around girls and get out of the routine. I have pretty much been spending every spare moment scrapbooking and now instead of shopping for new jeans I go scrapbooking shopping (which is luckily a lot less expensive than Joe Jeans and True Religion so it's a win-win situation). Well since we moved into the house I have adopted the guest room as my scrapbooking room and have been doing my layouts and stuff on the ground. Which is great because I could spread out but the only problem is is that my dog is like a bull in a china shop. He comes plowing into the room, runs over everything in his path, gives me a kiss, and then runs over everything again on his way out. If he wasn't so cute and sweet it would really bother me. So I mentioned I wanted to get a small desk to Marc last week so that Homer wouldn't run over everything anymore, Marc actually saw the bull in action a couple of weeks ago and was sort of horrified. But luckily for my pages and our pictures Homer is only 20 pounds.

Anyway, we were walking through IKEA and we saw a cute little kitchen cart with a stool that Marc said would be perfect for scrapbooking and would fit in our nook (we have this little loft area at the front of the house upstairs that we call the nook for those of you who haven't seen our house) and that way I could set up in there and Homer wouldn't trample everything. So I was super excited! And shocked because Marc isn't usually offering up furniture for my hobby, I don't think most husbands do and he definitely goes beyond the call of duty by going with me to Michael's and scrapbooking stores. I thought for sure my first mention was just the seed drop and then I would have to work it for a while until I convinced Marc it was a good investment, I had it all planned out. But he proactively brought it up while we were in IKEA. Anyway so we went to collect our furniture at IKEA and they were sold out of the cart we found. I was crushed! He said we could go back next week to get it when they got more in stock but I had already planned out how I was going to set everything up as we were walking through IKEA and was really looking forward to getting settled in my nook while he was at Mr. Bean with Jill. So seeing how crushed I was, he found a place for us to put our cart (we had already picked everything else out) and we went back upstairs to the show room and we put together a table (we picked out the top and legs). He literally was the best husband ever this weekend, he is so supportive. He even put my table together first and got me a folding chair so I didn't have to keep moving the desk chair around. And someday when we had kids the table can also be used for their crafts or their homework, see it is practical! :) But he pretty much made my year by buying me my desk and letting me claim the nook area as my own. Here are some pictures of my nook, I put a bed in there for Homer so he can sleep while I scrapbook (which isn't quite as exciting to him as running through pictures but he deals). It's definitely cozy but it's mine and I love it. Thanks Darling!

My storage area in the nook:

My new desk:

Homer's area:

Long Weekends

Long weekends quite possibly are the best thing ever invited, and if it was up to me I would give the person who invented them a prize. There is nothing like 3 days to make you relax. This long weekend we got out at 1:00 so I actually had 3 1/2 days off and it was pure bliss after a stressful week. Friday night Marc and I met up with a bunch of people that I used to work with at Del Monte and went bowling. It was good times (though my second game was embarassing and I didn't even drink…hmmm maybe that was my problem). We got home around 10:00 and Homer's new bed had come in the mail so we opened it up for him. He fell in instant love with it! He's such an appreciative little dog. :) He sat in it right away, wouldn't get up, and finally when he did get up he came over, kissed me and curled up next to me. Marc thinks he was thanking me for his new bed. Such a sweet young man! Plus his new bed matches our house (it’s the sage green we are decorating in). Here's a picture of Homer in his new bed (he didn't feel like posing tonight):






Saturday we got up and headed to the A's game with our neighbors Shari and Alex. It was a great time, we sat in this restaurant they have and had a great time with good food, some drinks for the boys, and good laughs. Think foul balls and people afraid to lose their beer. After the game we did our own thing for a few hours and then Alex and Shari came over (it was a neighborly double header) and we had pizza, margaritas, and watched Blades of Glory, which frankly I think is hilarious. There are all of these little one liners that are just so randomly funny that if you aren't paying attention you miss. My favorite part is when the skating coach tells Will Ferrell's character to take off his shoes when walking on the berber carpet and Will Ferrell's character says "Why are we walking on baby food?" I guess it is more funny to me being as I used to work for Gerber (a guy I work with who also used to work for Gerber thought it was hilarious too) but those random one liners are classic. Unfortunately the margarita's got to me and I kept falling asleep, Shari brought some rum cake over from Bermuda where she was on business the week before and that helped me out for a few minutes. Mental note: Margaritas + movies = bad!

Sunday we went furniture shopping. We hit up Pottery Barn and IKEA. We got a few things at IKEA for the house and got an idea of what we want from Pottery Barn, we are just in the investigative stage of making sure all of the stains match up. Furniture shopping is fun! Best of all, for the first time in the history of Marc & Allie Furniture shopping there was no bickering! It was lovely! Of course we did have our Nosh Disorder Kit with us, which came in handy especially after 3 hours in IKEA. I was exhausted but that Diet Coke and Lemon Heads really picked me up! We ended up getting a TV stand and kitchen table and a new desk (which I will go into in my next blog) so we spent the evening putting the furniture together, eating leftover pizza, and watching a DVD.

Monday I woke up and went for a 1/2 hour run (it was so hot at 8:30 but I really needed the exercise) and then scrapbooked for a few hours while Marc went and saw Mr. Bean with his sister. Then we went over to our neighbors Amanda and David's house for a bbq with a few other neighbors. It was good times, and we got to meet another couple who live on our block that we had never met, they have a super cute 3 year old daughter with baby number 2 coming in a little over a month.

So in a nutshell 3 day weekends rock the house. We had equal time of rest and activities and got refreshed after a super long week of work. If only every weekend could be a long weekend...

Carmel

So I am super behind on updating this, work has just been so busy that by the time I get home I am not in the mood to sit at that laptop and type up a blog entry. So I will breeze over our trip a few weeks ago to Carmel. It was an ok weekend getaway so not much time is really needed. We went because we got a call from the Hyatt Time Share down there to come and stay at their property for a very reasonable price as long as we sat through a 90 minute presentation. We figured it would be fun because we like Hyatt's so we gave it a try. Well long story short we headed down there Friday after work, I got to see Marc's new office and meet his boss, who was very nice. I can definitely see why Marc wanted to work for him.

Anyway, we got to the Hyatt property, it was freezing as it usually is in the summer by the coast but at least there was no fog. The property was ok, nothing too spectacular, we both decided we liked the Mission Sonoma Inn much better (which is where we got engaged). The exercise room in Carmel was terrible, it was definitely an after thought. Our presentation turned out to be 2 hours instead of 90 minutes and the guy was total cheese not to mention his shirt was unbuttoned so his belly was hanging out the entire time. It is classically only something that would happen to Marc and I and we literally could not look at each other the entire 2 hours because we were afraid we would crack up. The time share is a scam because they charge you for a whole year of HOA dues even though you only use it for a week, in my opinion you should share the HOA dues for that unit with the other 51 people. Essentially 521 people pay $1200 a year for 1 unit. Total scam! We did have an awesome breakfast! After the presentation we tried to go wine tasting but it was insanely expensive and crowded because of the car show going on so we tried to go to downtown Carmel which was also insanely crowded, again because of the car show. We ended up back at the hotel and went with our laptops to the bar that overlooks the Pacific and did work and had a few drinks. We were nerds but the martini's were GOOOOD! Plus it made doing my presentation a little less painful. The views were spectacular and we saw the sunset. So that's Carmel in a nutshell, like I said nothing too exciting to write home about.