A Before & After and "Someone Please Come Dress Me!"

I love before and after pictures so I just have to post some of my Dad's house. He's been remodeling for a couple months and it looks great, I am so freakin jealous. I want his house. Now.


All of these pictures were taken during parties that we were having at his house so pay no attention to the folding chairs, table cloths, food and people. They are NOT part of the remodel. Starting with the biggest upgrade, the kitchen:


Before:



After:



Additions: New chrome appliances, marble counter top, tiled walls and new lighting.



Dining Room before:



After:


Additions: New light, marble window ledges



The family room Before:



After:


Additions: Marble mantel top, marble window ledges, new couch, and new decor.


The living room before:



After:




Additions: Marble window ledges, lighting, window treatments, my sisters piano, and well, everything else.



The next pics are of his bedroom. I don't have a before picture because well, there was basically nothing in here before. So here are the after pics:



Additions: Um, everything.



Now if I could only finish cleaning out my closet so I can post some before and after pictures of that. Oh, and I need someone to come remodel me too. You should have seen what I wore to work yesterday.

Pink short sleeve v-neck sweater similar to this (except with short sleeves):



With a white tank underneath similar to this (you don't want any cleave showin at work, unless you're up for a promotion in which case no tank is required):



Charcoal pants, these exact ones:



With these black shiny boots:



Nothing matched, it was seriously like a 4 year old dressed me. There was something about the white tank and the black shoes that threw the whole outfit off. I got home from work and blamed Albert, he should know better than to let me out of the house in that.


Go ahead, you can call the fashion police, I'll even dial the phone number for you.


I seriously need someone to dress me in the morning.


I need help.

I Guess I Want To Stay Alive

Okay fine, I'll post a couple scrap book pages that I have created since finishing my digiscrap class. Tara basically threatened my life if I don't and well, I kinda like living so I thought I'd better comply.


Please keep in mind that when I said I was a "Digiscrap Genius", I was only referring to my ability to digiscrap, not my creativity.


The creativity portion of my digiscrap skills is like that sepcial chlid who gets hled bakc in kidneragtren three tmies utnil finlaly his perants tkae him to a dotcor to see if he is dysilxec but, cmoe to fnid out, he's jsut sutipd.


Yeah, that's my creativity skills down to a tee.


(Pay no attention to my girl mullet. My mother was a cruel, cruel person.)

At Least I Never Turned Into The Old Cat Lady. I Could Never Afford That Kind Of Lifestyle Anyway.

Today is the 5th day I've spent as a single woman living alone with her cats (and dog).


When I was 19 I always thought I'd end up being that single 25 year old (Yes, that was really old in my 19 year old mind, remember I live in Utah) with curlers in her hair who spends her days in her pajamas tending to her 25 cats.


Damn, I never thought of all the litter box scooping that would require. That's a ton of cat poop. I can't imagine how much money I'd be spending on litter. I guess I could just teach all the cats to use the toilet, that would solve the litter problem but then I'd have to buy a lot of toilets. I guess it's a good thing I didn't turn into the cat lady. I don't have enough energy for all the poop.


Well this week I had a little taste of that life. Alex has been out of town to visit his grandparents in Colorado. His grandpa is very ill and not doing very well, they thought he might not make it through the week so my husband, his brother and his parents flew out there on Monday.




Luckily Grandpa is doing better now and should be coming home from the hospital today. That is great news! I love Grandpa Leon and Grandma Irma so much. When I met them for the first time it was like I had been their grand daughter my whole life.


I'm so happy Grandpa and his big ears are doing better. Aren't they cute?




I also can't wait to get my husband back. Our trash cans are full because I forgot to take out the trash Monday night, that's his job.


Our mailbox is also full because I keep forgetting to bring in the mail, that's his job.


Dozer, on the other hand, gets pretty excited when Dad goes out of town because that means he gets to sleep in the bed with me. Of course he misses Dad too, I'm sure.


Maybe.


I'll be spending the day tomorrow as a single mom. Yep, I went from being a married woman, to a single chick, to a single mom all in one week. Who knows where my life will be next week.


I get to babysit my nephew Logan, Lindee's son, for the weekend. I'm SO excited, I love playing "house". Dozer and the kitties love when Logan comes over too. Logan knows all the commands and hand gestures to keep Dozer under control. And the kitties just love it when Logan pulls on their tails. Love it.


Lindee told me the other day that Log was playing with a toy truck that looked like a Hummer and he said,


"Look Mom, it's Kelly and Alex!"


That just melts my heart, seriously I could die from a melted heart if I'm not careful. Too bad we sold the hummer, hopefully Logan will forgive us.

I Want To Have SYTYCD's Babies

I'm in love with this dance. It's my favorite so far from this season's So You Think You Can Dance.


This is Kathryn McCormick & Legacy Perez dancing to "2 Steps Away" by Patti LaBelle. Choreographed by Stacey Tookey, it's about a girl who is struggling with fear.


Watch it, you'll fall in love too.




Seriously makes me cry. I miss dancing so much. I love when he jumps and wraps himself around her waste (about 1.06 seconds in).


That dance reminds me of Kayla and Kupono's Addiction dance choreographed by Mia Michaels last season, which in itself was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!

Didn't see that one? Why the hell not?

Enjoy.





Brilliant.


I'm going to hump So You Think You Can Dance one day.

My Name Is Pooba And I Am A Digi-Scrapaholic

A little piece of me died last week, a little piece that appeared 4 weeks ago and has been growing at a rapid pace ever since. This growth was the digital scrap booking class that my mom and I have been taking from Tara and last week was our final class.


Sad!


I met Tara through blogging (isn't blogging great?) and she mentioned she was going to teach a couple digi-scrap classes so of course I jumped at the opportunity and signed up.


The result? Tara and I are now real life friends, and I am a digi-scrapin pro. Digi-scrapin genius is more like it. I am officially addicted. And my mom? Well, let's just say she was the special student of the class, but she made it through.


Barely!


(Me, Tara, & my mom. Absent from this picture: Nana)


You probably know Tara, not only from her TMI blog, but she started the Kidz blog as well. Kidz is a blog dedicated to children with special needs, it's an uplifting sight for everyone to connect and learn from their children.


Not only is she tall, beautiful, smart, and plain awesome, but she also allowed me to join her daughter Chloe's fan club. I could go on and on about how amazing Tara is, but I'll just refer you to her websites to see for yourself. (That and I'm lazy)


Too Much Information
kidz
Scrappity {Doo-Dah!}


Not only did I get to meet Tara, but I got to meet her mother in law Nanna! I have been a fan of Nanna's blog for quite some time now and she never fails to entertain. She is just hilarious, I especially love the comments she leaves on my blog because she is just as sarcastic as me.


At least I'm hoping all those comments were sarcastic, otherwise I really am an idiot. But either way, I still like her.


The digi-scrap classes were held at Nana's house (which is beautiful by the way) so my mom and I got to meet some of the family too. I'm surprised Nana didn't kick us out because when my mom and I get together we are pretty loud and annoying.


Mostly annoying, but I think 99% of that annoyance resonates from my mom. Actually, now that I think of it, I'm a pretty pleasant person and not annoying at all. Okay 100% comes from her. *enter sarcasm*


Thank you Tara for putting up with my mom and her old brain full of dusty spider webs and dead moths. I thought she had cleaned those out but apparently she missed a few webs here and there.


(Love you mom!)


Here are a few highlights from the class...

• Meeting Chloe. Of course.

• Meeting Two Dot, the family's adorable dog with an adorable name.

• Taking 3 wrong turns on the first night of class and arriving 30 fashionable minutes late.

• Busting up after my mom asked me if I preferred "two balls" in front of the class. Good thing we were in like company who's minds totally went there too.

• Learning all of my digi-scrap best friends like “Ctrl Z” and “Page 7” of the class book. They’re the best friends I've ever had. (except for you DeAnna!)

• Arriving to the last class early and being greeted by an adorable kindergartner with "The class just started, you're the first ones here." (Obviously the class just started BECAUSE we were the first ones there.) Oh he made me laugh!

• Getting 2 Cd's full of scrapbookin songs that Tara burned for us all. (How cute is that?)

• Sitting at the craft table and wondering if I had peed myself because every time I stood up there were stains left on the chair. (Which were there before I sat down. I didn't pee. I know because I checked.)


So thanks again Tara, you are an awesome teacher! And Nana, don't be surprised if I show up at your house each week with my laptop (and possibly a grocery bag full of magazines) ready to scrap it up!


I'll be expecting your famous sugar cookies of course.

Picutre. It's French for Picture.

Why didn't anyone tell me that I misspelled the word "picture" under the Enjoying section on my sidebar?


That's like not telling someone they have spinach in their teeth.


I thought we were better friends than that.

What Happened To Real Life?

I wanna be a real adult in a real-life neighborhood with real-life friends.


Like the adults in Desperate Housewives. They have neighborhood parties, they chat with each other while getting their mail, the women gossip over wine in the evenings while their husbands put the kids to bed. They have neighbors who try to kill other neighbors, neighbors with dirty secrets and best of all, every single person in the neighborhood is beautiful. You know what I'm talking about, real adult life!


I want that.


I want to be that party hostess who throws the best Halloween party that everyone looks forward to every year. Just like Bree, I SO want to be Bree.

Not the new Bree that robs her own house so that she can divorce her husband without losing half of her belongings and not the Bree who cheats on her husband with her best friend's ex at a dirty motel.


No, I'm talking about the old alcoholic, anal retentive Bree. Can you imagine what her Halloween parties would be like? Amazing!


Every year when Halloween comes around I get this yearning to dress up. I love Halloween so much I have to refrain myself from kidnapping a child just so I can take him trick or treating. I have a feeling if a 5'10 & 1/2" ghost showed up on someone's porch yelling "trick or treat!" that it would not last 10 seconds before getting punched in the white face.


I just can't take that risk.


And every year I get this craving to host a Halloween party, with extravagant spooky decorations, wine and cocktails, and yes, FINGER FOODS! But then every year I realize that I am missing the main ingredient for a killer Halloween party.




People.


You need people to show up in order for the party to be a success. People who are willing to dress up, people who are willing to let loose, people who don't mind a little spiked cider, people who are willing to put up with my husband.


There are no such people in Utah. Where's the real adult life? Does it even exist?


Are you a real adult in a real-life neighborhood with real-life friends that like to have real adult Halloween parties?


Can I come?

This spooky shit was brought to you by prompt #1 of this weeks writer's workshop.