TGIF!!!

Despite the literal Earth-shaking from the construction outside- I am in SUCH a good mood today and things are cool 'round the homestead. The kidlets are off on Fridays, so we're home. Actually- if it were up to me, we'd be OUT right now, but since there's a huge 3 foot (DEEP)hole in front of my driveway, I don't think I'm going anywhere anytime soon (sigh). There's new construction going on across the street and they're now working on paving our little dirt road and into the new subdivision being built. It's a pain to contend with (especially when you're in a hurry to get somewhere) but in the end, it's worth it! No more people whizzing by kicking up dust as I try to wash my car! YAY!!!! My car is SUPPOSED to be white but with the dirt road and all this construction- it's futile to keep it washed and spiffy- so it's a very dingy tan-ish white lately. Dirty cars (inside and out) are a pet-peeve of mine- but I'm hangin' in there.

I just officially joined up at our local gym yesterday. I had been going using a trial guest membership to see if I liked it, and I really,really liked it. Nice to add that to my weekly routine and look forward to the group classes. I like the machines, the free weights and other amenities but I really wanted some fun classes to get me excited and sorta accountable in my exercise efforts. So far, so good. And I've lost a nice little chunk of weight in three weeks, so that's a nice jumpstart too. Still have a ways to go to get where I want to be, but progress is progress!

I'm going to see the new MARIE ANTOINETTE flick with my mom this weekend and I'm VERY excited about it! I haven't been able to spend much time with my mom lately due to my crazy schedule and I just miss her. I'm so proud of her and her attitude right now. She's amazing and I love her so much... So ANYwho...we're going to see that together and I hope it doesn't disappoint. I heard somewhere that the previews with the 80s tuneage is misleading as it's not in the movie soundtrack at all... that's kind of a bummer- it ranked high on the intrigue factor for me but I'm still excited to see it.

I've been brainstorming and doing some serious PURGING around our house lately. I think I am wanting a cleaner, more modern aesthetic overall. Not pure IKEA styling but more that route. Comfy but easy to clean and keep up, but still stylish too. A little West Elm meets IKEA meets Pottery Barn. A tweek of vintage thrown in. Cozy color scheme but a little funky too. Chocolate, moss/celery green, a touch of reds/oranges..maybe a spot of light blue... those colors are my faves consistently when I look through ideas in mags, catalogs, etc.
I went to Target to try and score some Bamboo style shades for my living room windows and realized I'd missed out. They're gone already. Must have been a seasonal thing?? I want these on the inside of the windows- not the outside. Anyone know where else I could look for them and not pay a fortune like I would if I ordered from Smith+Noble??

Robert has been working on converting our hot tub so that it runs on electric vs. gas. Last year the gas bill KILLED us and since the only thing running on gas is the fireplace and the hot tub- we decided to shut it off. We got an electric radiator for the living room and just stopped using the hot tub (something was wrong with the gas heater on it anyway I think) and our bill dropped tremendously. So now we're getting the hot tub up and running again with John's (step-dad-in-law) help. Robert is VERY excited to have it running again. It was the clencher in deciding on this place when we were looking for somewhere to rent, in his opinion. lol. I like it but could go without with no complaints. We're going to fix up the spa room (it's off of our bedroom) a little bit, get some curtains in there for privacy and a light, storage for towels,etc. The hot tub itself is this funky rust red/orange color with ugly "tile" around the edge. Then the owner painted all the concrete and wood around the room rust too- to match. So it'll be a challenge to make it look pretty or have that serene spa feeling! lol.

Enough babbling...
Just wanted to "gab" a bit and update the blog since my last vent session!lol.
Happy Weekend All!
~S