Swans a Swimming

Since the bathroom picture on the last post didn't quite capture the beautiful elegance of our shower screen swans, I thought I'd post a better one for your enjoyment:

And can't you just picture this happening the next time Eric takes a bath...

And for those of you playing 'Where's Harper', here's a larger photo:

Before and During

My life pretty much revolves around our new house these days. (I'm sure this is a big surprise to most of you.) My schedule usually goes like this:

1. wake up

2. stumble around the house looking for an outfit because I have no clue where anything is

3. go to work

4. do some boring work stuff

5. drive home and try to remember where we live (I ended up at our old apartment by accident last week)

6. eat some junky fast food because cooking would require me to spend valuable time not working on the house

7. work on the house

8. have Eric pry me away from whatever I'm working on (I get in the zone, okay?)

9. shower after first checking the bath tub for scary bugs

10. go to bed

Things are coming along, albeit slowly. Eric and I have taken to saying at least twice a night: "Everything always takes longer than you think it's going to." But slowly, the house is coming together and seeing the results of all our hard work is heartening. I'm no where near putting pictures of these results online, however, but here are a few befores and durings for you to feast on. (And a special thanks to Biggie and Mom for driving up a couple weeks ago to help out!)

Our living room - notice the lace curtains. This room has been painted and is pretty close to being complete.

The Dining Room - more lace curtains.

The kitchen - oh boy, what can I say? This will be replaced at some point, but for now, we've spiced up the cabinets a bit and bleached EVERYTHING.

The Bathroom - I'm not sure if you can tell from this photo, but there are swans on that glass. Yup. Swans.

Our Bedroom - This room was sanded by Biggie and then painted bright blue. We haven't managed to get to the green room or the purple room yet, but it's sort of nice to be able to refer to the rooms this way, so we might just leave them for a bit.

Mom glossing our kitchen cabinets.

Eric and Biggie working on the bedroom

Me painting the horrible kitchen cabinets.

Eric - he's a taping machine.

Can you spot Harper in this one? He's doing what he does best - looking mopey and lying around.

Turning 27

A belated thank you to everyone who made a fuss over me on my birthday a few weeks ago. The last few weeks have been consumed by the house and the moving, but I wanted to back up a bit and make sure I let you all know how grateful I am for the presents and well wishes. I think it's wonderful that we all get one day a year to spoil the ones we love, and you all did a great job for me!

P.S. Pictures and updates of the progress on the new house coming soon.

Isn't that a fabulous scarf? (Thanks Mom & Dad)

Harper doing a little jig for me.

The obligatory birthday photo. (Didn't Eric do a great job at picking out this blouse?)

The grounds at our dinner destination in Wisconsin.

Me and my amazing (and handsome) husband in a gorgeous valley in Wisconsin, where we had dinner. You couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day!

No Rain, No Rainbow

I have much to cover since my last post, but not enough energy at the moment to do it justice, so instead I will post a video that I found extremely satisfying. I finally get what Sarah Palin's trying to say! (see my confusion here).

Stay tuned for updates on the new house and how Harper is convinced that the air intake grate is going to eat him...

Service with a Smile

With all the recent Michael Jackson coverage and trying to navigate the paperwork nightmare of buying a house, I almost forgot that I have a birthday coming up. It wasn't until I received an email from my mom that I realized that, oh, right, it's next week. Thanks mom for the reminder!

So along with this birthday comes the renewing of my driver's license. And I realized this funny fact: This (Minnesota) is the first state I've ever lived in long enough for my driver's license to actually expire. So today I made the trip down to the DMV to ceremoniously recognize the commitment I've made to the great state of Minnesota. And it was delightful.

Though you might think I'm being a bit sarcastic, I'm actually quite serious. The place was filled with a myriad of cultures and colors and ages and basically contained a perfect representation of the United States. And since people watching is one of my favorite activities, it was quite a thrill. I eavesdropped on the Brazilians sitting ahead of me and laughed at the mixed race couple's exuberant children. When I was finally called to the window, I was greeted by the most delightful Middle Eastern woman. She acted incredulous when I answered that I was in fact over 21 years old, so I wouldn't be needing a special driver's license. That in fact, I'm turning 27! And she went on and on about how wonderful and cute my drivers license photo was. I could have hugged her.

So a special thank you to the Minneapolis DMV for turning my annoyed-at-having-to-renew-my-drivers-license frown into a smile in just under an hour. The pleasure was all mine.