Best. Ever.

This week I have found the best time-wasting websites EVER! (aside from Pinterest that is).

They are:

Polyvore

where you can do stuff like this:

Put together outfits! Online! I heart clothes and design!

and the Color Selector from Valspar at Lowes.

I've been making outfits and painting houses all week.

With the color selector you can virtually paint rooms (haven't tried this yet) or choose a type of house and paint the exterior! (have tried this--so fun!)

Our house is an old Victorian, so I chose one of their three pictures and went nuts.

I absolutely love these, but I'm not sure if My Honeypie would go for any of them:

Some more mellow ideas:

Outrageous:

Now, I know I previously said that we already chose the paint colors we want for our house...but I may have changed my mind :)

Winter Makes Me...

I don't know. I don't love Winter. I love things about Winter; like hot chocolate, Christmas, New Years, lights, glitter, and candy canes.

By the way, I've been eating candy canes wrong my entire life! I used to suck on the end and make it into a pointy tip (to fight people with) and then I would break it off and eat it.

WRONG!

So wrong.

How to Eat a Candy Cane:

Just bite the thing and crunch it to death in your mouth.

The end.

Much more satisfying than making it into a pointy sword where you will inadvertently slice your tongue.

Anyway...House Update! Things will probably be a little bit slow between here and February-ish, what with preparing for baby/having baby/fighting bitter cold/funds/school/whatever else gets in the way. Which means I may or may not be posting on this very much. Who knows!

Consider yourself notified.

But! This will give us time to clean, I guess? I hate cleaning. On the upside-all of the nails are finally hammered in or pulled out in all of the rooms except for the ceilings. Yay! We finished off the rest of the wire My Honeypie got for *free* and I finished foaming the windows.

Yessssssssss.

Also, I am feeling especially grateful to everyone who has helped thus far, or those who even have had the thought of helping. I don't think we can say, "thank you", enough.

So thank you, to all of you!

You da best.

Update!

I don't have any pictures...ugh. I love pictures! but here is what's up:

My Honeypie started the electrical. YAY! He has the second living room completely wired and is just a circuit shy of being done with the kitchen. We also bought all of the can lights we will need for our house. (Yay, Home Depot!) I cannot even explain how happy this makes me! Exclamation points for everyone!!! It's just how I feel inside right now.

My Honeypie has started finding me pregnant-friendly tasks to do, such as fill in window gaps with foam. Which I actually really enjoy. Weird! If you don't know what I'm talking about this is pretty much what it looks like:

Ta-da! I believe I have seven windows left to do. Then I'll get to do some more window caulking, but on the inside of the house.

It's so amazing the difference new windows make. They really sound proof our house. I can't wait to hear what it sounds like when we actually have insulation and sheet rock.

Our goal is to be able to move into our home in April 2012--Happy Anniversary gift to us!

And Then I Touched It.

Sometimes I wish our house was finished, just so we could live in it you know? But it's not! However, we did get all of the windows in, storm windows taken off, and the new windows caulked--which I even learned to do. I also assisted in taking off some of the storm windows...and successfully broke one of the huge ones. Glass. Everywhere. Yay, me!

Here is what our house looks like without all the nasty storm windows:

Our house on a prettier day!

Yay! Every time we drive by it I say hello and smile because it just looks so much better!

Sunday came around last week and My Honeypie was all like, "What do you want to do?" and normally we take turns picking/arguing about whose turn it is to pick. Except for this day I said, "Let's go take a walk at our house!" So we did. and found this:

Rwaaaar! It's a cow skull.

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is this week! Hooray! In preparation of such, I wish to share a poem:

Prayer of Gratitude

Please help me to remember:
Things are better than they seem,
For while I may be lacking faith,
I’m very blessed indeed.

At times I forget
How fortunate I am,
That I have all the little things
Other people lack.

Ears that can hear,
Eyes that can see,
A body that moves,
A voice that can sing.

A home full of love,
A heart full of peace,
A soul that is free to
Love as it’s pleased.

A big, wide, beautiful world
Where we can run and play.
An ever transforming masterpiece
As the seasons change.

And today I’d like to thank You
For everything You’ve done.
For giving us the greatest gift;
For giving us Your Son.

I wish to share my love
For your generosity,
So I’ll be thankful every day
For all the little things.

Now. Little things I'm thankful for
*not necessarily in order of importance*
for every day of November:

1. My Honeypie and BBFE (best friend for eternity).


2. My baby (still in the making).


3. My families.


4. My job.


5. My Honeypie's job.


6. Food.


7. Cooking skills.


8. The gospel


9. Missouri. OMGOSH YES I JUST SAID THAT.


10. Smiles.


11. Hugs. On occasion. You know how it is.


12. This apple that I'm eating right now.


13. Talents.


14. Freedom.


15. People who fight for our freedom.


16. Kind words.


17. Thoughtfulness.


18. Oh, freak, how about having a place to live?


19. Our house.


20. Temples.


21. The atonement.


22. The milky way! Yes, the candy bar too.


23. Guns. Yeah, I'm thankful for those.


24. Technology.


25. Animals. Because they are nice to look at. and because they taste good. (TURKEY!)


26. Modern day revelation.


27. Good mental health.


28. Common sense.


29. Seasons. and seasoning.


30. My bed. Duh.

What are you thankful for?

Piano Preview!

I cannot help myself. Remember how I got this piano for free? Well, I stripped and sanded it (repeat like, 5 times) and then I painted it blue. I love it! But it also means you can see all of the little imperfections in my stripping/sanding job. So I decided to add some little details. It's going to take awhile to be finished and I just can't wait to share so...here we are.

Roses! Did you know that the rose is the national flower of the United States? Who knew?!

Yes, I am hand painting them. I couldn't find a stencil that I liked or one that was big enough and I didn't feel like trying to make five different ones. Basically, I just printed some roses off the inter web and traced them onto the piano. It's working out thus far. Those four roses only took me a good two and a half hours...yeah. It's going to be awhile...but I am so excited!

I Found It!

I took this picture with y phone on our trip to Utah. Looking through my photos on my phone the other day I remember why I took it--Where the Sidewalk Ends.

Most favorite poem by Shel Silverstein:

The Unicorn
from the book "Where the Sidewalk Ends" (1974)

A long time ago, when the earth was green
and there was more kinds of animals than you've ever seen,
and they run around free while the world was bein' born,
and the lovliest of all was the Unicorn.

There was green alligators and long-neck geese.
There was humpy bumpy camels and chimpanzees.
There was catsandratsandelephants, but sure as you're born
the lovliest of all was the Unicorn.

But the Lord seen some sinnin', and it caused him pain.
He says, "Stand back, I'm gonna make it rain."
He says, "Hey Brother Noah, I'll tell ya whatcha do.
Go and build me a floatin' zoo.

And you take two alligators and a couple of geese,
two humpy bumpy camels and two chimpanzees.
Take two catsandratsandelephants, but sure as you're born,
Noah, don't you forget my Unicorn."

Now Noah was there, he answered the callin'
and he finished up the ark just as the rain was fallin'.
He marched in the animals two by two,
and he called out as they went through,

"Hey Lord, I got your two alligators and your couple of geese,
your humpy bumpy camels and your chimpanzees.
Got your catsandratsandelephants - but Lord, I'm so forlorn
'cause I just don't see no Unicorn."

Ol' Noah looked out through the drivin' rain
but the Unicorns were hidin', playin' silly games.
They were kickin' and splashin' in the misty morn,
oh them silly Unicorn.

The the goat started goatin', and the snake started snakin',
the elephant started elephantin', and the boat started shaking'.
The mouse started squeakin', and the lion started roarin',
and everyone's abourd but the Unicorn.

I mean the green alligators and the long-neck geese,
the humpy bumpy camels and the chimpanzees.
Noah cried, "Close the door 'cause the rain is pourin' -
and we just can't wait for them Unicorn."

Then the ark started movin', and it drifted with the tide,
and the Unicorns looked up from the rock and cried.
And the water come up and sort of floated them away -
that's why you've never seen a Unicorn to this day.

You'll see a lot of alligators and a whole mess of geese.
You'll see humpy bumpy camels and lots of chimpanzees.
You'll see catsandratsandelephants, but sure as you're born
you're never gonna see no Unicorn. 

So sad! :)

Love and Prophecy Pancakes

...yes. About that. Yesterday My Honeypie and I made pan-ke-kes (pancakes) for breakfast. I was so excited because I thought they tasted *so g00d*. So when we were at my sister's house for dinner with my family I told them excitedly, "guesswhatweateforbreakfast?!LEMONPOPPYSEEDPANCAKES!!"

My mom looked at me like this >< and basically thought I said, "Love and prophecy pancakes" Hence the name was born: Love and Prophecy Pancakes=lemon poppy seed pancakes. (I hope I got the story mostly right. I know I was there for the whole thing, but I can't remember stuff sometimes. I blame it on BBC eating my brain fat.)

One day I found this recipe for whole wheat pancakes and I was like, "Whole wheat...gross." I printed it off anyway just in case I felt like being super healthy or something. So far I haven't. Anyway, I used that recipe as a guide to make Love and Prophecy pancakes.

Here is what I ended up with:

2 cups all-purpose flour

4 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 cups milk

2 large eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

2 tbs of lemon juice

1 1/2 tsp poppy seed

Mix everything up in the order above. Then add water if you want to reach desired thin-ness. I think I ended up adding a third cup of water. I didn't measure that though...sorry!Then cook them like you cook normal pancakes.

We ate them with strawberries, whipped cream, and strawberry syrup. So good!

To the Window!

Dear Dad,

If you want to help with the windows, then you'd better get home fast! Apparently they are really easy to do. Actually, either way I think the big windows will still be around :)

Love,

Alisha

After My Honeypie finished the drainage last night, he installed our first new window! Actually, our first three new windows!

We so need to paint.

I didn't get a picture of the third window. Twas too dark! but we replaced the window to the right of the door.

I wasn't around for the demo when Window World came, so I asked My Honeypie to show me all the cool ish our window does:

After the demonstration My Honeypie went to install a couple more.

No, he did not pee on himself. He just got water all over himself from the spout outside.

That's pretty much it, but I am so in love with them!

Yay for Window World! and my hardcore Honeypie.

WINDOWS!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Can you feel my excitement?!

We got our windows yesterday!

This is how My Honeypie feels about that:

[caption id="attachment_649" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="a-DORABLE."][/caption]

and apparently, this is how I felt about it:

[caption id="attachment_651" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="shrug? I think not! and yes, that is my pregnant belly. Say hello to BaybayCae :)"][/caption]

 Here they are; 26 new, beautiful, double-pane, double-hung windows!

During our free quote the salesman actually stood on the window pane and lightly bounced on it...and it didn't break! So cool.

I'm obviously still so excited. This is going to weatherproof our house that much more! and make it look that much better. Yay!

[caption id="attachment_650" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Here he goes carrying the biggest window by himself."][/caption]

If any of you are looking to get windows, I highly recommend Window World (Home of the Original $189 Replacement Window!). The above window cost the same as all of the other windows. How rad is that? It's so huge!

[caption id="attachment_648" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Sorry for the darkness, I left my real camera at home. Yay for the iPhone!"][/caption]

We have two of the so huge windows in our house. What's even more great about the new windows is they open more than the original ones!

[caption id="attachment_647" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="This is how far the original ones open."][/caption]

I can't wait until they are installed! It was $2,000 dollars less to install them "ourselves"--I'll just be watching mostly :)

In the midst of waiting for our windows My Honeypie has been working on the drainage for our plumbing. We got a lot of help from his brother, Mark, which is so appreciated! I have pictures, just not today.

Holla!

Picky and Picnik

So turns out our windows won't be done until this Wednesday...We will be picking them up on Thursday! We hope :)

On a different note, I forced my little sisters to do a photo shoot with me. I can take decent pictures of "stuff", but I need much more practice with people. The pictures are all edited differently because I'm playing around with this photo editing site called Picnik.  It's pretty much a super simple, way cheaper version of Photoshop. I really like it because when it comes to Photoshop I'm completely challenged. Plus, it's free! *or you can pay to upgrade. whatev.

[caption id="attachment_633" align="aligncenter" width="236" caption="Sneak attack picture!"][/caption]

I know that these are far from perfect (like the above picture--totally a weed in the middle of her face!)...but practice makes perfect, right?

Anyway, you can also do sweet stuff like this on Picnik too:

I tried doing that on Photoshop and it was a total bust. I love these little art thingys! I find quotes that I really like that have already been made into these little subway art pieces, but they aren't exactly what I want...like this:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="275" caption="Super cute, but not what I'm looking for you know?"][/caption]

But now I can make it exactly how I want! Like so:

[caption id="attachment_638" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="This is totally going on the wall in our entry way once our house is done."][/caption]

Family Values sign by Betty Crocker Wannabe

and I'm all like, "Cute!" but it doesn't have everything I want. I told you, I'm picky. With Picnik I made this:

It's just how my picky self wants it! Yay for Picnik!