Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! As I've mentioned before, I've never been much for Halloween, but this year I'll be experiencing another "first" for me due purely to the fact that I own a house.

I get to hand out candy! HEYO!

I'm so excited to have little monsters, ghost, princesses and Twilight characters (come on, you know there are gonna be quite a few) coming up our front porch. Growing up, we lived on a dead-end street and by the time I was in high school and too cool for Trick-or-Treating, all the rest of the neighborhood kids were too. Then in college - well there really were not any kiddies running up and down Welch Avenue asking for candy - and shame on those parents if they were.

So, this is my very first year to get to hand out candy and I've got my super-cheesy plastic pumpkin bowl and pre-packaged candy (I don't want any parents thinking we're trying to poison their children, yes, I watch the news!) sitting right by the front door ready for tonight. We didn't have a chance to carve a pumpkin this year, but some of our sweet friends did one for us and dropped it off on the porch along with some pumpkin seeds that are out-of-this-world.

Mike and I don't have costumes this year either (I keep telling him we could easily dress up as a bride and groom - we have all the stuff. But since I won't ruin my dress to look like the corpse bride and groom, he won't go for it. Probably a good idea.) but I did paint my nails dark gray for the occasion -- all the magazines tell me it's a great way to get the "Halloween look" while still looking chic.

So, I suppose I'll just look normal for tonight (except for my super-chic nails). But hey, baby steps right? This year my first will be handing out candy and next year my first will be dressing up AND handing out candy. I need to spread out those milestones!

What are you doing for Halloween? Have any great costume ideas you want to share? (I'm collecting for next year.)

Fix-it Weekend Part III

Finally! I've had a chance to upload all the photos from both "fix-it weekends" (which really should be renamed, "Laura-you-need-to-recognize-that-we-only-have-time-for-windows-because-these-things-are-a-massive-amount-of-work-and-you're-going-to-make-us-pass-out-if you-want-us-to-do-more-so-stop-asking."

Well, a girl can dream, can't she?

It was a wonderful weekend and it was great to see 3/4 of the Jensen family. Like I mentioned before, we got all the windows in and all that's left is to sand (just a tiny bit) and stain them. I can't wait to get them all finished and paint the living room - then I'll finally feel like the "big" projects in our main floor are finished and I can work on the fun part -- decorating! (I know, I know, painting is decorating, but you know what I mean.) Anyway, here are some photos of all the things that happened those two weekends. 

Getting a nice, decently early start, you can see here the guys have ripped off the trim. 

My Other Life

I work at Risdall McKinney Public Relations, and every once in a while, I have the opportunity to write for their blog. I posted yesterday on the crazy-insane rise of teen texting nowadays and thought I would share it with you all. I've re-posted the entry below, but if you like what you see, head on over to Risdall McKinney's blog and check out more of what my co-workers have to say (they're brilliant). It's mostly all PR focused (obviously), so that might not be your thing, but if you dig around a bit, you'll be able to find a darn cute baby photo of me and even a wedding picture of Mike and I. 

Check it out:

Is texting taking over?

Over the weekend, my family was joking that my 13 year old cousin needed a cell phone plan that was zero minutes a month with unlimited text messaging. A study from Nielsen on behalf of the Wall Street Journal shows that teens are texting more than 3,000 times a month, an average of six texts per every waking hour.

3,000 texts a month? That’s huge! With the average teenager sending more than 100 text messages a day, I’d love to know the recent stats on teen doctor visits for thumb problems.

Fall Decor

I've never been a big fan of Halloween decor or even seasonal decor. I'm obsessed with Christmas decorations, (well, I'm obsessed with Christmas) but for the other big decorating holidays, Easter, Independence Day, Halloween, President's Day, Labor Day, I've never really been into it. But with Halloween around the corner, I've been seeing fall/Halloween decor popping up everywhere. 

And you know what? I kind of like it! Maybe it's because I'm now a homeowner and can imagine a real place for it, or maybe it's because I actually have a steady income now and can afford the stuff that's 75 percent off. Or maybe it's the "wife" in me - it seems to be bringing about "woman instincts" I never knew were in me before. Me to self: "What? You want to learn how to sew and grow an herb garden? You're insane, you just think you do! Have your mom mend your clothes and go to the grocery store."

Yes, that conversation actually happened in my head. 

Anyway. Here are a few of the photos that I'm currently drooling over. It's not in the cards for me to decorate the house this year, but maybe next year? 

Country Living

Love, love, love the gold pumpkins and polka dots!

Money, Movies and Mike

I grew up in a family that never spent money at movies, besides paying for the actual movie. 

Can anyone say dollar theater? For all you non-Ames people out there: Yes, we actually had a movie theater that cost only one dollar. Uno. Une. Unus. Ein. Ena. That's the Spanish, French, Latin, German and Greek for "one" for all my non-English speaking readers out there. (Because I'm sure I have so many.) Hope that was right; I Googled it.

Just so everybody understands: It was ONE. DOLLAR.

Unbelievable.

Wowsa. I've never seen anything like this -- ever. Alexa Mead, a twenty-four year old artist, uses acrylic paints to paint on people, not canvases. She paints live models to be 2-D versions of themselves -- and absolutely blow our minds. Look at these photos below.

Soup Never Tasted So Good...

I used to despise soup. I always felt like it was “sick people food.” You know, you only eat it when you’re sick and it always seemed to be really thin (to help it go down a sore throat) and flavorless (since you can’t taste anything anyway.) Why in the world would anyone want it when they’re not sick? But a few years ago, a whole new world opened up to me: The world of robust, filling, flavorful, hearty soups. And my goodness, I was really missing out. It all started with a homemade chicken noodle soup that was cream based, with big chunks of carrots, celery and chicken. I was only able to eat one bowl of it and I was magically full. What? One bowl of soup and I was full AND satisfied? Whosa. I died on the spot. Then I started breathing again — thank goodness. Once I got my bearings, I set out on a new life mission to find all kinds of these new soups. And you know what? They’re not hard to find, in fact they are EVERYWHERE. My problem is no longer suffering through a soup dinner, nor is it finding these special filling soups soups, no, my problem is figuring out what soup to make next!

The Weekend

I can't move. Well, except for my fingers of course. I'm exhausted and can't stop yawning. It's only 8:15 p.m. and I wasn't even the one to work that hard! My dad, mom, bro and sis-in-law left a lil' while ago, and Mike and I just finished cleaning up the house (though it was only pick up/vacuuming/dusting -- what that darn dust needs is a good mop-fest at a later date).

We had a great time together and I've got some fabulous things to show you all, but it'll have to wait for a later date -- I need to regroup. 

And BONUS: I took pictures this time!  I probably annoyed the heck out of everyone, rushing over to them and yelling, "Freeze!" or "Get together, get together -- this is for the blog!" (As if that makes it completely excusable and the photo opp should even somehow be fun.) Ahh, well, I'll get better at tricking people into taking photos.

Wedding Photos!

I received one of the best little packages in the mail yesterday--my wedding photos! I've been dying to get my hands on these and hang them all over our house. I'm thrilled with the results, they were taken by StudioU Photography, and they are fabulous! I highly recommend anyone getting married within the next 50 years to hire them (I would recommend beyond that, but I hope they get to retire at some point). Heidi and Troy were so fun to work with, made us feel instantly excited and comfortable and the results of our photos are stunning. Here are a few, just to whet your appetite.

I LOVE the sun in this photo!

Fix-it Weekend Part II

The weekend with my parents has come and gone, and, lucky for me it’s turned into a two part weekend. As you saw in my list from this post, I had A LOT I was hoping to accomplish in a very short amount of time (that always seems to be the way with me). Anyway, my dad and Mike worked themselves to the bone, requiring me to give Mike a back-rub every night this week out of guilt, and they got all four windows installed and sealed.

So why are my parents coming back? Well, we need to frame in the inside of the windows. Hopefully we’ll be able to re-purpose almost all of the previous trim and will only have to touch up the stain later. That, and I’ve been begging my dad to install a new dining room light (and teach Mike and I so we can do it ourselves) and he said he’d try to get to it this weekend too. Can you tell he loves me?

Oh, and that tutorial I mentioned for installing and staining windows? Yeah, not gonna happen. Apparently I'm not so good at the “prep” work for blogging and hardly took any photos. Plus, the boys sheltered me from lifting nary a finger to the windows over the weekend, so I would have no a clue how to share a tutorial on that anyway. See? Over ambitious — as always. 

*Update! My brother and sister-in-law, Luke and Becca, are generously coming up too! They called last night and offered to come and help with the windows for a night. Can't wait to catch up with them! This is the duo on a recent trip to Colorado, aren't they cute?!

Fix-it Weekend Part I

(This is actually a post I wrote before I truly started this blog. I was just testing it out to make sure I actually had stuff to say and I got delayed in making time to start it. So, since I wrote it, I figure I’d post it!)

This weekend my parents are coming up for a visit — praise the Lord for a dad who can fix/renovate/create ANYTHING and a mom that loves to spoil me. They’ve been planning this trip for a couple of months now, and I’ve been planning all the projects we’re going to tackle since the day they said they were coming. Here’s a copy of the project list I sent my dad last week, so he could properly “prepare” for the work weekend. Poor guy, I probably completely overwhelmed him. 

·         Install 4 windows

·         Install chimney cap

·         Look at our downstairs air vents to make them more efficient

·         Main bathrooms shower – squeaks REALLY loud when you turn it on

·         Master bathroom shower head leaks

·         Master bathroom door – want to reverse the direction it opens

·         Master bedroom door doesn’t stay shut

·         Office door doesn’t stay open

·         Porch door doesn’t seal properly

·         Lazy Susan – bottom shelf broken

As you can see, I’m not very technical in my descriptions and we seem to have a problem with our doors. Bah. The joys of living in an old house. I’ll let you know how it goes, and hopefully have a tutorial for how to install and stain windows up next week.

Choose Your Attitude

I don’t consider myself an incredibly thoughtful or philosophical person (though at times I like to fake it) but I really do love a good quote. I love it when I come across a sentence or two and it completely stops me in my tracks. I’m sure there are many amazing quotes that I completely miss because I’m too busy trying to multi-task, finishing a book for the sake of finishing it, or just moving too fast in life to really consider what those words I read actually mean. 

Today I want to share with you my all-time favorite quote from Chuck Swindoll:

“I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it.”

GAAAA! Do you just love it? I know, I know, so much truth in those words. I think I spend 75 percent of my life absolutely hating the truth of that quote and the other 25 percent completely embracing and preaching that quote to the masses. 

But it really is true! My mom always says, “Choose your attitude!” I hated it when she said that to me, because usually I was complaining about how I didn’t have anything to wear, I didn’t want to go to some event or I was just plain complaining to complain. But you know what? I’m going to teach that to my kids (Stop hyperventilating right now mom, it’s still a long way off.) someday. I think “choose your attitude,” is a nice, succinct, layman's terms way to say my beloved Swindoll quote in three words. I owe you mom. 

Hello!

So I’ve been thinking about starting a blog for a while now. Not that Mike and I are super interesting, talented or even photogenic (because every good blog has LOTS of photos) but more for the idea of chronicling our lives and being able to easily share with our family and friends that don’t live nearby. That, and I hope it will be an outlet for me because this past summer my life turned completely upside down. (Well, I like to think of it as right-side up.)  Within three months, I landed my first real, big-girl, full-time job at a public relations firm, bought a house and became a wife. In essence, I became a full-fledged adult.

I’m not a great decorator, baker, gardener, crafter or homemaker — and I’m definitely not a mother in any way shape or form — so apparently I am none of those things that make blogs worth following, but I think I’ll write just the same.

Here you’ll find my efforts at becoming better at all of those things above (well, except for the whole mother thing, I’ll leave describing my “efforts” for that off cyberspace). I’ll share with you all my thoughts, ramblings, adventures and misadventures of homeownership, wifedom and general life on this blog.

I heard a good tip once to always write like your talking to your sister. I don’t have a sister, but I did just get two new sister-in-laws last year, so I’ll pretend like I’m talking to them — sorry if you’re weirded out by that. So, here goes nothin’!

Oh, almost forgot – my first photo. Here’s me and the love of my life: