July Goals - How'd I Do?

Most of July was a pretty good success! Except for the whole planning 3 meals a week thing...

Fun:

Read 2 books - COMPLETE {I read 4!}
Swim at my parent's house at least twice - COMPLETE!
Enjoy 4th of July holiday/festivities - COMPLETE
Travel for trip #1 of 2 - COMPLETE {Colorado Springs, CO!} here & here

DIY/Crafting:
Pick out fabric for kitchen and living room curtains - COMPLETE

Home:
Reveal our kitchen makeover! - COMPLETE!!!!
Try not to kill the 2 living plants in my garden - ummm... FAIL. whoops.

Cooking:
Plan at least 3 scheduled meals each week - FAIL
One new recipe - COMPLETE {monster cookies}

Wellness:
Continue working out on Tu./Th. - somewhat FAIL

Now on to August goals!

Breakfast View

The view from my chair on the patio after breakfast this morning!

Amazing.

Such a beautiful place.

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Checkin' In

Guess what? I'm in Colorado!!

I just arrived at the resort that we're staying at for my company's sales meeting and we have a couple hours to relax before our welcome dinner tonight.

I'm going to try to post on here throughout the week, and once I'm home I'll actually post some DECENT pictures instead of phone shots! :)

Until then...

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Friday Thoughts

Thought #1:

I realized that I forgot to tell you what we ended up naming our fish!

Our flame scallop's name is Hurley (like from Lost) and the two clownfish are Pico and Guac.

We were at Taco Mamacita a few weeks ago and there was some dish we looked at that had pico de gallo and guacamole and inspiration struck us - Pico and Guac! :) You can't tell in this picture, but Pico is quite a bit smaller than Guac and that's how we can tell them apart.

There's also a starfish that likes to make occasional appearances - but only at night - so we call her Hollywood (I say it's a her, Jason says it's a he), and a snail *minus the shell* that we call V. I will be sure to take a better picture soon so you can see what all is going on in there.

Thought #2:

I am super pumped about reading these books!

I went on a little bit of a book raid on Amazon last week in preparation for a few trips that are coming up. I would MUCH rather bring 4 books too many than to be caught on an airplane for more than 5 minutes without a book!

*I got Driftwood Lane, the newest Denise Hunter book and I could quite possibly finish that by this weekend... whoooooooops.

*Then I got the next 3 books in the series that began with The President's Daughter. It was kind of a slow read, but interesting (16 yr. old girl who's mom is running for President and how she deals with it) - I've heard that there's more action in the next books than in the first one, so I'm looking forward to reading them.

*And finally, I got Time of My Life but I honestly don't remember where I found out about this one. I think it was either through GoodReads or from someone's blog. If I remember, I'll let you know. Anyway - it looks really cute too. A lot of easy, fun reads that will be great while I travel.

...Unfortunately I've become such a book worm lately that I'm afraid I won't have enough reading material! I'm already debating on getting 2-3 more books JUST IN CASE!

Thought #3:

Have a wonderful weekend!

The House of My Brother - Part 3

Well, we've made it to the final installment of The House of My Brother!! (part 1 & part 2)

For some reason comments aren't working, so if you want to leave some house-love for my big bro, send me an email with your comment to sarahklawhorn at gmail dot com)

Now it's time for my favorite room in the house - the office. In the picture below, Sam had already moved some furniture in, but it didn't really have a lived-in/homey vibe.

With a little crimson paint (my whole fam bleeds crimson but we still love them) and some collectibles,  the space is now a unique reflection of my brother.

I just LOVE this room! :)

 I'm super jealous that in less than 2 months, his house is practically done (minus the kitchen and other small spaces) and we've had ours over a year and we've got at least another year to go before the upstairs is "complete" - then we have a basement! Ahhh! :)

If you have a minute, don't forget to shoot me and email and let me know what you think of his space!

The House of My Brother - Part 2

...And we're back! With part 2 of "The House of My Brother"! Yesterday we took a look at my big brother's living room and dining room areas, and today it's on to the bathroom remodels.

This is the best. The previous owner started working on a small hall bathroom, but didn't get very far (obviously).

So Sam put in new floors and got the space ready to be transformed.

To THIS!! Amazing. Sam - please come re-do our bathrooms! Pretty please!

(Don't you love the firetruck? That's probably my favorite part.)

And on to the main bathroom. Before...

During...

After! I love the darker brown walls with the beadboard - I think the colors are really balanced. And you can't tell from the before pictures, but the lighting and medicine cabinet are a great update!

Stay tuned tomorrow for the final installment of The House of My Brother!

The House of My Brother - Part 1

This week I will be featuring a house owned by my favorite older brother, Sam. :)

He purchased his home on April 9th and with the repairs and updates it needed, it took him about a month and 1/2 to get it to where it is now.

This was the living room when he bought the house...

After painting (I love this color with the white trim and wood floors!)...

...And now with furniture!

Another angle of the living room.

The living room connects to the dining room area for a really nice large space.

Here's what the DR looked like when he moved in...

And now!

You probably can't tell unless you click on each picture, but the light fixture from before was pretty crazy... it had glass panels that hung over the lights. Kinda neat, but definitely not Sam's style. Now the lighting is updated and flows with the rest of the "vibe". :)

Tune in tomorrow for the 2 bathroom updates... you're not gonna wanna miss it!

Uhh... So I Messed Up My Blog

Whoops.

Well, consider the Ooey Gooey Daily News under construction for the next few days until I can figure out what in the world I did...

My Vote for TN's Next Governor: Zach Wamp

Early voting for Governor here in Tennessee begins today, and I just wanted to quickly tell you who I am voting for and encourage you (if you're from TN) to vote for him too!

Zach Wamp

20/20 Vision for an Even Better Tennessee
*New job creation
*Better schools
*A healthier Tennessee
*Safer streets and communities
*Limited, low-tax state government

Visit his website to learn even more about this candidate.

Every vote counts, so make sure to early vote or vote starting August 5th for the primaries.

WE BACK ZACH!

Hooked on Solitaire

Quick confession of my newest obsession...

Solitaire.

On my phone.

All the time.

Like ALL the time.

Lunch break?

Waiting for water to boil?

Hubby watching something I'm not interested in? :)

Dog taking 25 minutes to pee outside?

Why not play a little solitaire.

Admitting I have a problem is the first step...

Wedding Gifts Poll

If someone asked you what your top 3 most used wedding gifts are, what would you say?

What about the BEST wedding gift? Would it be one of your top 3 most used?

For me, I would say that our top 3 most used gifts are:

1. our pots and pans set (Cuisinart Chef's Classic Cookware Set) {group gift from my work}

2. our silverware (Oneida Icarus Flatware Set) {from Aunt Holly & Uncle Steve}

3. our TV :) {bought with all the wonderful monetary gifts we were given}

And our BEST wedding gift... I'd have to say the Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer because it is so stinkin' awesome! (I made these amazing cookies in it just last week!)

I did not think we would get one of these, but we ended up getting two! (Of course we took one back and used the cash back from BB&B to put towards the TV - much to Jason's delight... haha!)

What are your top 3 most used wedding gifts and the BEST wedding gift?

What's Left of the Garden

Even though I only have 2 living plants right now - they're HUGE!

1 squash plant (no actual squash yet)

1 zucchini plant (no actual zucchini yet)

And for good measure, a picture of Snookie getting caught on top of the new pantry.

Oh my, what are we going to do with you?

MPM: July Week 2

Here's our dinner plan for this week!

Monday: Chicken Quesadillas with black beans, zucchini, and brown rice
Tuesday: Baked Spaghetti
Wednesday: Baked Pork Chops (we didn't end up having pork last week)

Thursday: Grilled Chicken Salad

Friday/Saturday: leftovers/out to eat

We are trying be more conscious of what we eat and making sure we have more well-rounded meals. Jason has been doing the P90x workout for about a month, so we decided to look into the nutrition side to see if we could change some of our habits to better align with their plan. For Jason that means eating breakfast at home and for me... it means saying goodbye to my "no-benefit-giving" Pop Tarts that I typically spend time with every morning.

Our fridge stocked with tons of fruit & veggies.

We got tons of fruit and veggies at the store yesterday and today is our first day of really tracking what we eat. I will let you know how it works for us! :)

The Somewhat Almost Kinda Finished Kitchen!!

Rather than wait until we are completely done, I gave up my thoughts of "perfection" and just couldn't wait any longer to show you!

We still need new lighting (note the wagon wheels still in place...), a backsplash (right now it's showing the original wood paneling... yuck!), curtains and floors (at some point) - but all in all, it feels so done to us.

Alright - here you go!!!

Added cabinets and our NEW STOVE!!

An armoire from Jason's grandparents that was Granddaddy Lawhorn's grandmother's! It's now serving as our pantry. :)

::Sigh:: The beautiful granite, new faucet, and deeeeep sink.

Well, what do you think?