Goodbye My Lover, Goodbye My Friend

You shall be missed.

Especially by Siena.

May you rule couch heaven with your awesomeness.

Tempting Fate at 28

Tomorrow I turn 28. Like other years when I've been either super excited for or even somewhat dreaded my birthday (or looked for hidden meaning/had an existential crisis), this year is different. I feel very calm with my life and where I am. In fact, I've never felt more sure that I'm doing this dang thing my way, and it's the right way. Shit, have I grown up? Or am I just delusional? OR am I just tempting fate? At 28? (Catchy, eh? Well, it's better than "Oh God, I'm 27.")

This year, I've decided to go with "Tempting Fate at 28" for a number of reasons. First, I feel like for the last 10 months or so, my life has changed dramatically and even though I work really, really hard, it's all totally worth it. FBG is kinda my baby, and Erin is the other parent. Not to mention that I recently landed a new, more rewarding day job where I'm respected, complimented when I do a good job and just generally valued. It rocks.

In addition, Miss Siena has been a joy to have in the house and watch her grow and change. It's really hard to imagine that at this time last year, she was just a fur ball. And while the Nut renovations are by no means complete (failed to meet a lot of these resolutions, whoops, lol), I love our house, and we've made great strides.

I also have the best family and friends possible. From a hot, loving husband to super supportive parents to friends I can't thank the universe enough for, I'm a lucky, lucky gal. Throw Obama in the mix and it's almost too much! [Head exploding with hope and happiness!]

However, I feel like things are only going to get better in 2009. FBG is gonna be bigger and better this year (read: profitable!), Siena might actually stop destroying things and the atrocious daisy wallpaper in the bedroom could get removed. I'm seriously so thankful for every moment and for every person in my life. And at 28, I'm only tempting fate to continue the mad love and grow it.

Since I never did an obligatory New Year's resolution post here, I thought I would do a combo resolutions/new-year-of-life goals to coincide with my birfday. Here goes:

1. You've probably already heard, but I'm vowing to run a 1/2 marathon this year. Running has always been my workout nemesis, and it's going down Saturday, March 28 in Olathe.

2. Eat more local fruits and veggies. The garden will continue and be expanded, as well as Ryan and I's consumption of produce from the KC area. I'm planning to join a CSA and hit up the farmer's market often.

3. Drink less. I love wine, so this one will be challenging. lol.

4. Play more. The computer must be off 30 minutes before bed. No exceptions!

5. Read more novels. I read an ishton on the computer and in the news, but there's nothing better than a good novel. A secondary goal to this is finishing Gone with the Wind. Only 100 more pages to go...

6. Replenish my soul/build creativity. These kind of go hand in hand, but this year I'm gonna love myself up by taking more breaks, doing less, buying less, taking more long baths and watching bad TV when I need to. Life isn't a to-do list. 

So, with that, I embark on 28, renewed, happy and very excited. Bring it fate. Bring it.

(My next post will look at my dream board...how darn near everything I put up there last year happened and what new things I've added to the board for this year. Stay tuned.)

Siena's Shenanigans and Other Events Since I Stopped Finding the Time to Blog

Things at the Nut have been crazy lately. My day job has been going as usual, I started teaching two boot camps (on the Nelson Lawn!) and then there's the "extra" project I've got going on the side. Sheesh. Not to mention having fun with friends, spending quality time with the fam and enjoying/chasing after my very large puppy. This is one summer for the books. Here's an abridged version of what's happened since I last blogged almost three weeks ago. Shame on me...

Siena Update
1) Siena has developed quite the sense of, er, humor. Her latest "game" is taking a prized possession from inside and running outside to chew on it. The fun part comes when Ryan or I go out to get it from her. The chase is cute the first couple of times, and then it gets old--quick. Her most recent treasure was a water spritzer. The same one that we use, I mean used to discipline her. Funny, Siena, really funny.

2) While I was making stir-fry for this post, Siena sneaked up and literally slurped up one of my noodles, Lady and the Tramp style. She sucked a long noodle all the way to her mouth with the tip hitting her nose. I laughed hard at this, which I'm sure is not the best way to teach her to not go after people's food.

3) Siena has a BFF. Her name is Izzy, and she lives next door. I've mentioned her before. Apparently, Siena can't bear the thought of them being outside at the same time without being able to run around/bite/play together. So, my little darling puppina JUMPED THE 4 FOOT FENCE to get to her. Then Ryan and I spent all day adding chicken wire and fence extenders to the chain-link fence to prevent further rendezvous.

4) Siena has also entered destruction mode. This was once a double-knotted, heavy-duty chewing rope (with minty floss!). Now, it's the spaghetti monster:


More moments of zen with Siena:




People and Plant Update
1) This summer has been unusually cool. And it hasn't been that humid. It really doesn't feel like the big Mo, but I'll take it. A few weeks ago, Ryan and I, along with some friends, hit up the annual Shakespeare in the Park festival. This year they put on Othello, and it was fantastic. You can bring your own food and wine in, too, which makes it that much sweeter. As you can see, we had quite the feast.






2) Sadly, I forgot my camera on the 4th, but I guarantee it was filled with Kodak moments. We first hit up my parents for a grill out with a ridiculous amount of meat, and then went over to a friend's for more meat, beer and bocce ball, which Ryan is now obsessed with. I have to admit that it is fun, despite it having the most boring wiki entry ever.

3) Ryan and I have been working our butts off in the yard, and we're finally reaping the rewards. You may remember the garden we planted back on Memorial Day? Well, little garden has grown. Check this out.


Besides making pesto with the loads of basil I've grown, this weekend we even got our first red grape tomato. Here's my moment of zen:

Summer Lovin'/Domestic Bliss

Although we celebrated Memorial Day a few weeks ago, this weekend is the first one that felt like it was really summer. I wore shorts and flip flops all weekend, and I went to a pool party (without even getting burnt!). That's a recipe for summer right there.

This weekend, Ryan and I also did some outdoor upgrades to the Nut, including the planting of five native grasses along the backside of our neighbor's fence. Previously, nothing had grown here except weeds, so this was a major improvement.



Each grass plant is supposed to grow five feet tall. They don't take a lot of water, either, so they're quite eco-friendly (and require little commitment from us, which rocks).




After we were done planting, Ryan moved some of the extra dirt we had to a wheelbarrow. While I was taking pictures, I captured Siena in the wheelbarrow. How she got up there without tipping the whole dirt-filled thing over (the wheelbarrow has a very wobbly tire situation going on), I have no idea.


If fact, she was actually quite content in the wheelbarrow.

Although, I haven't come up with a nickname for Siena's love of gardening, her most recent eccentricities have landed her three new nicknames (in addition to these mentioned earlier this year). There are as follows...

1) Scooter Paws: Siena LOVES sliding around on our wood floors. Ryan and I can stand with our feet hip-distance apart at opposite ends of our living room, and she'll run from person to person, sliding under our legs. I really should try to get video of it sometime...

2) Frito Lay: On certain days, Siena smells just like America's beloved corn chip, Fritos. It can be a day or two after a bath, and she'll smell like this. It's not really a bad smell. It just makes me want to eat chili. It's weird, and I can't explain it.

3) Puppina: One day, I said Siena was acting like a puppy princess, and then this came out of my mouth. Sometimes, for extra fun, I call her Pumpkin Puppina, as she is the color of pumpkin.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

I hope all had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend. I know I did. Ryan and I spent lots of time with friends, family and the backyard. In our attempts to "go green" and save money on produce, Ryan and I spent five-plus hours in the hot, hot sun Sunday, planting our very first vegetable garden. We did some serious manual labor, but we're anticipating our sunburns and extreme soreness will be well worth it in a few months when we have fresh tomatoes, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, green bell peppers and two varieties of basil. BLTs, cucumber salad and pesto abound this summer.

I've been slacking on the blog and photo front lately, so I made sure to document our 16-foot by 4-foot backyard transformation. (Taking photos also gave me a good excuse to take a break. hehe.)

First, Ryan and I started strong, removing the grass from our area. Then our wheelbarrow's tire went flat and Ryan broke the hoe (too many jokes). Here's the state of the "garden" before going to Sutherlands for the third time this weekend:



While there, Ryan and I upgraded our work gloves. They make purple ones!


It reached 90 degrees while we were out there, and Siena figured out that the coolest spot to be, of course, was in the middle of our workspace.


All of this tilling was done with love/cursing and sweat. No machine can do better, although next time I think we'll investigate our rental options...


Finally! We get to plant.


Tomatoes, yum.


And the payoff: leisurely watering the garden.


This weekend, Siena also learned a few things. First, her love of ice cubes continued to blossom. I've learned that if I fill her water dish with ice cubes and water, she'll stick her nose in and bob for them like you would for apples. Here you can see her cheating with her paws.

And, Siena made a buddy! Below is our neighbor's dog Izzy. She's half Whippet and insanely fast. Siena tries her best to keep up for the first five minutes or so of playing. Then she just flops down and wrestles around with her.

I love how dogs look up at you when they're happy.

Here they are patrolling the backyard.


Memorial Day weekend isn't over for me though. I've taken today off to get some things done around the house this morning, and this afternoon the hubby and I are cruising down to Springfield to see my cousin marry his high school sweetheart. I have to give them both a shout out. Drew's my only cousin and, having no siblings ourselves, we've always been more like brother and sister than cousin. So congrats Drewbaby, and welcome to the family Brandi!

God, I love Spring

This weekend was Spring-freakin-tastic. After weeks of rushing to get the house ready for the Nut Warming, Ryan and I took a weekend off to enjoy the fruits of our labor and just be. Aaaahhh. It was great. The weather was gorgeous so we spent plenty of time outside, including walking down to the Brookside Art Festival, jogging at Loose Park (love their rubberized track and hills for training), and sniffing the flowers. Here's a few pics.

First, Ryan and his dad planted these trees last winter. I didn't think they had a shot of survival, but guess who was proved wrong?





Here, we leave the Nut for the art fair. Just like a stereotypical dog, Siena loves the fire hydrants:





And here we are at the art fair. I held the beers. Ryan controlled the beast. (She looks quite poised here, but she was pretty freaked out by the crowd and the kids, so we didn't stay too long.)





Here's the obligatory, hold the camera out, hope for the best and snap shot:





Here, we're walking back from the festival and down the Trolley Trail on Wornall. It looks like Siena is actually talking (not just woof woof) to Ryan, which cracks me up.





I got my chance to walk the dog, too. Thankfully she was pretty exhausted by this point and was walking well. Good lord I'm white.

The obligatory flower close-up. Respect to Missouri's official tree:

And, here's a totally random and unrelated shot that shows how big the big dog is:

Happy Cinco de Mayo! I'm gonna go make fajitas now.

May Day

Gotta love KC in the spring time. We spent two hours last night watching the weather and listening to sirens go off. While we didn’t get hit with anything bad, many KC metro communities did, and it sucks. Not to mention that the hardest hit areas are places where my family lives – up north and in Independence. Talk about freaking a girl out this morning when I turned on the news.

The only good thing about the storms last night (and I’m making light of the situation here for sure) is that they broke Siena of her fear of the basement. She was deathly afraid of the basement. Before, we couldn’t get her to go down there on her own free will, even when we were bribing her with a hot dog (magic word training time). So, yesterday, the sirens go off and Ryan grabs the computer and phone, and I grab the 35-pound dog. The second time we have to go to the basement, little Miss Siena trots down the stairs like it’s no big deal. Seeing as she’s a cold-weather pup, I think she finally saw the benefit of chillin’ in the cool basement. Not to mention, that we didn’t have a lot to do down there, so she ended up getting a lot of undivided attention.

What a start to May. Hopefully this spring isn’t too bad tornado-wise, and this was the worst of it for KC this year. I’m just happy the Nut has a basement!

The Nut Warming

On Saturday, Ryan and welcomed our respective families to the Nut for our belated house warming party. Everyone got along, mingled and generally made merry, drinking sangria and feasting on Waldo Pizza.

Inside the house, people congregated around the food (devouring my black bean brownies and pumpkin muffins without knowing they were low-fat, mwahahaha!), and Ryan and I gave everyone a tour of house, noting what we had changed/renovated. I even created a nifty slide show that we displayed on the TV screen so that people could see before-and-after shots of the Nut and photos of us working on the house.

Here's everyone in the dining room:



Here's Nana and Pa outside. They were both in a jolly mood:


Here's Siena* with my grandma and my future cousin-in-law Brandi. Siena is shaking for pizza. I'm telling you, the dog has delusions of grandeur.


Here Siena realizes that she's not getting a bite of pizza. Sad.


But, don't feel too sorry for her. She got plenty of food from people dropping crumbs and received a ridiculous amount of attention, including endless rounds of fetch that left her tongue hanging out of the side of her mouth. Here's one of those rounds:


The weather was beautiful Saturday, and I took a couple of minutes away from the party to take some pictures of the neighbor's lilac tree (without their permission of course). Our neighbor's yard is seriously a page out of Better Homes and Gardens. It's awesome, but, at times, makes me feel entirely inadequate. On a side note, Ryan* is getting sick of my flower pictures. With this spring being so bloom-alicious, I admit that I've gone a bit overboard. (I've taken like 40 shots of our potted plants in a week.) Despite my apparent obsession, I'm sharing this one. Sorry, babe:




And it just isn't spring without a toes in flip flops in the grass pic. (Plus, I'd just painted my toenails.)

Later in the day, the fam headed out, Ryan and I cleaned like Tasmanian devils, and the friends started arriving for the second round of the house warming. Here is Adam enjoying Ryan's home brew, aptly (and somewhat grossly) titled Ryan's Red Nut. I like to think that Jen's reaction below is in disgust of the beer's name.

Here, Siena participates in/disrupts another rousing game of backyard croquet.

That evening, Ryan and I both went to bed pretty late. I crashed at 12:30 am, and he called it a night at 2 am. After enjoying four glasses of sangria and little sleep, I awoke Sunday morning with a decent headache, but Ryan and I stayed true to our word and walked over to 75th and Wornall for the 7:45 am start of the Trolley Run. Heh. More on that later.

*On the day of the housewarming, two other events were being celebrated: Siena's six-month birthday and Ryan and I's six-month wedding anniversary. Woohoo!

Happy Belated Earth Day

I ended up taking Tuesday afternoon off and enjoying myself a beautiful Earth Day. In celebration, I went to Sutherlands and bought $60 worth of flowers and pots to perdy up our porch. (I had originally intended to put some out back, but after learning #2 in the post below, I thought better of it.) Here are the fruits of my labor:


Earl left this little stand that I believe used to go with a picnic table that was at the house when we first looked at it last June. Instead of it just taking up space in our garage, I decided to make it a plant stand. Quaint, eh?


I love the color combination of the red pot and the purple pansies (I really need to learn more about flowers, I'm guessing that it's a pansy based on the flowers I learned how to make in my cake decorating class.)

The flowers give me a fantastic reason to use this beautiful watering can that Tish's mom got me at my wedding shower:

Here's one of the Gerber daisies (I know that name cause I used them in the wedding!) before watering:

And, after:

Happy belated Earth Day to all! Go sniff a flower!

Renovations at the Nut

This weekend Ryan and I did a ridiculous amount of work on the house. Here's a few shots of the progress:

Living room windows before....



And after!



Bamboo shades up look good, too.



Siena "helps."

No before shot of the other window, but just imagine mini blinds. Upgrade!

And the painting in the office continues...almost done with the first floor!